I recalled not how I had arrived, yet I now stood before the iron portcullis, my trembling hands easily raising it. Olek stood again at my side, seemingly unaffected by his recent death, and with hammer brandished eagerly, he lead the way, pausing before the door of fog and glancing back toward me.

"How does he stand again by my side?" I asked, slurring badly in my exhaustion.

In your delirium you summoned him again. Remember, Ashen One, he is no more a member of this realm than those you called through glyphs. 

 I nodded, shambling to Olek's side and laying a weary palm upon the rippling curtain, feeling its solidity and resting a moment upon it. The Cinder within my breast had quieted again, my blood cold as the mist against which I leaned. Darkness flared, and I stiffened, my veins aflame with an inferno that sliced through me like blades of frost. I collapsed, passing through the curtain as I did, and without concern, Olek bounded in after me.

Before us loomed a titanic hound, its body twice so long as I stood, and perhaps four times so broad. Its flesh was wrought of fire, and its eyes twin pools of hate locked within its obsidian skull. Flame rolled out beneath its paws as it advanced, growling in excitement as much as challenge.