The morning at the Salt House began with the smell of fresh bread drifting from the kitchen, where Masha, Gredi, and Kehopu clattered away in cheerful domesticity. Magnus rose before dawn as he always did, driving out the nightmares with punishing calisthenics and a long run through the streets of Opal with Naisha at his side. Savinia Loresong had wandered in sometime the previous night and now moved through the household bearing a great tureen of soup for breakfast, while Lotwil Veriatus managed the front gate, where a growing queue of petitioners waited with trade disputes and property grievances for the newly appointed Exalted Regent. Rekha Mar’Khabazza, for his part, was found luxuriating in a hot bath – a privilege made possible by the Duergar waterworks – attended by the ever put-upon Lotwil Veriatus.
Over breakfast, the party took stock of their situation across the three Jewell Cities. The Duergar survivors from the lost city of Thulmur had swelled the population of Opal’s Duergar enclave, and the tension between the old surface-dwelling Duergar and the newcomers was quietly simmering. The group discussed the oldest of the Jewell Cities, Garnet, which sat sheltered on the leeward side of the Mulpara Mountains and was governed not by a council but by a single powerful governor who held all authority unto himself. The party agreed that a state visit to Garnet was inevitable if they were to bring it into their growing trade scheme, though for now it would have to wait.
Ravenna set out that morning for the Duergar castle, where construction was already underway – new walls rising, additional dwellings being carved from fused stone to accommodate the influx of Duergar from Thulmur. She was met in the parade grounds by War Chief Thokkarn, whose full carved helm concealed whatever expression he wore as she laid out her proposal. She asked him to accompany her to Beryl to meet with the town’s governor, Davian Vaclav, and to negotiate a new arrangement that would put Duergar hands to work in the struggling mines of the north. Thokkarn agreed without hesitation, selecting Earthforger Krombeck and one other Duergar to accompany them, and the four of them vanished from Opal in a shimmer of arcane light.
They arrived at the gates of Davian Vaclav’s fortress-keep in Beryl, where the wind howled down from the barrier peaks and the distant thunder of falling granite filled the air like a constant drumbeat. Vaclav himself looked far more settled than the last time Ravenna had seen him – well-fed, confident, and clearly pleased to see her, greeting her with an embrace before turning a curious eye toward the three armored Duergar standing in his doorway.
Ravenna made the introductions and recounted the discovery of Thulmur and the rescue of its long-isolated inhabitants, framing the proposal as a mutual benefit: Duergar labor and expertise in exchange for a home and a purpose. Thokkarn, his expression hidden behind his helm, spoke in his formal archaic cadence and declared that those who wished to relocate would do so, but that they would build their own dwelling in a manner suited to their kind.
The negotiations proceeded through the afternoon, with Vaclav’s enthusiasm carrying much of the warmth in the room while Thokkarn’s words remained measured and deliberate. By the time the winter curtains were drawn and the Duergar removed their helmets to share a meal in the dimness, the broad shape of an agreement had taken form. Of the roughly one hundred and fifty Duergar now in Opal, approximately forty would relocate to Beryl – a mix of surface-dwellers and newcomers from Thulmur – with Thokkarn and Krombeck leading the new enclave. Vaclav provided a good lunch, made a pass at Ravenna on general principle, and reported that Beryl was managing well enough, though it remained desperately understaffed and the mines were still operating well below their potential.
Back in Opal, as the Duergar prepared to depart, Earthcaller Franzahl drew Ravenna quietly aside in the inner bailey. He told her, in the careful and formal speech of his people, that she had done a great thing – that she had allowed the Duergar to save face, prevented strife between the factions, and that Thokkarn, though he would never say it himself, was grateful. Ravenna deflected the praise, saying simply that she had acted for the Duergar and not for herself. Franzahl nodded, said he must go, and walked away in the manner of his people, leaving her standing alone in the courtyard. Earthforger Krombeck was appointed to lead the expedition, and the forty Duergar chose to travel through the earth rather than by arcane means, wanting to learn the geography of the land between the Jewell Cities. They would surface to eat and sleep, and by the fourth day they expected to emerge in Beryl.
That evening, the troupe turned their attention to the larger and more dangerous matter that had been quietly percolating beneath all their civic business: the quest for the Chaos Spark. Ravenna laid out the stakes plainly – Az remained imprisoned while holding the Death Spark, and without it souls could not return to the world. The birth rate across Signoria had been falling for years, and the ongoing civil war between Emperor Utuhesh and the rebel forces was accelerating the death toll at a catastrophic rate. The next step was to return to Thulmur, climb as high as possible into the Upheaval itself, and seek out the white gate that was said to open when something mundane was done in the face of profound chaos. Rekha listened to all of this and then, with characteristic pragmatism, observed that he could not see how any of it was going to be monetized.
The party began recruiting for the expedition with quiet efficiency. Huntresses Kima and Lokni volunteered immediately – both were wealthy from their previous work with the group, and Lokni had developed a taste for spelunking and close-quarters knife work that made her especially suited for the ruins of Thulmur. Corporal Furlbrow and Sentinel Selarin signed on as heavy fighters, with Furlbrow making sure to pack a ten-foot pole. From the Duergar, Earthmender Wilda – who had been learning the ways of the land alongside Ravenna – and Earthbinder Raiga, the architect of Opal’s waterworks, both agreed to come, drawn by the prospect of seeing their ancestral city once more. With Savinia Loresong already confirmed, the expedition roster had grown to eleven.
Before leaving, Rekha drafted a formal letter on fine stationery with gold ink and an embossed seal, appointing Justiciar Mariel Trueheart as the temporary steward of the Regency in his absence. He chose her precisely because she was not in his camp – she was a rule-follower who would hold the regency with scrupulous care and would not attempt to undermine his authority while he was gone. She accepted. Rekha made it explicitly clear in the letter that she was not permitted to sit in his chair.
The three of them – Rekha, Ravenna, and Magnus – walked west across Opal, passing beneath the waterworks, to call on Iliana Valric, the Wine Witch. They found her and her partner on the front porch sharing a charcuterie board and a private joke, and were welcomed with a bottle of extraordinary aged wine, its label long since eaten away by slugs, its contents a deep and peppery red. Rekha described the recent encounter with the Bone Lord and the Razik operations in Opal, and Iliana suggested that the Razik’s growing interest in the city was no coincidence – the return of the God of Knowledge was a threat to everything they were working toward. She confirmed she had seen Razik coming and going from the Temple of Eternal Sunshine but said she did not enter the place herself, out of respect for the Ilodon. She agreed to keep watch while the party was away.
When the conversation turned to the Upheaval, Iliana set down her wine glass and looked to the horizon. She described it as a place of roiling primordial energy, where wild magic bent reality and even one’s sense of self could be distorted or lost. She spoke of Akin Kaliberda, the previous holder of the Chaos Spark, who had vanished into the void some seventy-five centuries ago and was presumed dead, the Spark’s fate unknown. Her parting counsel was simple and sobering: above all else, a strong sense of self would be necessary to survive what lay ahead.
Back at the Salt House, Magnus returned from one of his long evening runs to find Arlaina Darkmoon waiting in his room with a samovar and hot tea. She asked directly whether the party was preparing to travel somewhere connected to the Knowledge Spark and Ravenna, and Magnus confirmed it without elaboration. He told her plainly that his comrades did not trust her, but that if she could convince Ravenna, she was welcome to come. What followed between them was intense, passionate and unconventional, rooted in a shared and complicated past, and when it was over Magnus offered her something she had never received before – gentle aftercare, and chocolate ice cream. The simple kindness visibly shook her, because no one had ever treated her with such tenderness.
September 13, 7762
the following day, Arlaina found Ravenna alone and sat down across from her without preamble. She acknowledged that her attack had been born of anger and frustration, and now understands that the Knowledge Spark had never been meant for her, and that the time she had spent in Opal – under the care of the barkeep Halloran, and in the company of Magnus and the others – had shown her how deeply wrong she had been. Ravenna acknowledged the hardship of Arlaina’s years in Calithil and granted her clemency to join the expedition. Arlaina offered her skills in return: scouting, healing lore, the ability to conjure provisions for the group daily, and the hard-won survival instincts of someone who had lived alone in a hostile place for years. She gave Ravenna a deep, formal bow of respect and then quietly disappeared. The expedition roster was now eleven strong, with four archmages among their number, and the ruins of Thulmur – and whatever lay above them in the churning heart of the Upheaval – were waiting.
