Micolash lay at our feet, his birdcage helm dented and battered, his body sundered by a thousand blows from Or'do's furious fist. I had chased him, pursued the insane man into Or'do's reach, where the life was torn from Micolash's veins, and sprayed across the stones. His madness was at an end, and now, only a few of the Dark's soldiers lay between our blades, and Mergo's Wet Nurse. Yet I felt as if I could no longer move these haggard bones across the flagstones, as if one step would shatter me like glass.

"Please, these are mere slaves of Darkness, I can handle them." Or'do looked upon me with radiant, plaintive eyes.

"I trust you." I fell to my knees, then to my back,  staring at the arched ceiling. "But all the same, call to me before you dare challenge the Nurse."

"As you wish." He bowed at the waist, then hurried out of the room; perhaps fearing that I might reconsider my surrender. Watching him leave, I had a terrible feeling that I would never see him again.