The witch's scream possessed a keening, yearning quality that nearly made Anusha pull back. But she persevered. She held her wavering sword so it transfixed the creature from the sea, willing it real and as sharp as a razor for this moment. She plunged the blade deeper, concentrating on its keen solidity.

The witch's final, sorrowful plea for her sisters' aid trilled out into the fog. Then the hag collapsed and lay without movement or breath. In death she had the guise of a sleeping grandmother, placid and hardly a threat to anyone. Blood trickled from her wound, red as any human's.

The only response the sea hag's entreaty elicited was the appearance of a swarm of darting bats, which rotated and swirled across the Green Siren from stem to stern. Even as the mist around the ship began to break up, the investigating bats twirled back out over the sea, toward the tower island.

"The Green Siren weathered the fog," reported Japheth, his breath still coming in gasps between his sentences in the fight's aftermath. "I knew I saw three hags! The one that didn't attack us tried to scuttle the ship."

"What? What about my ship?"

The warlock continued, "Your crew beat the hag." His eyes remained closed as his servitor bats relayed the image of the wrinkled form crumpled along the ship's railing, and something dark and large stroking away from the ship toward open water. "A… sea troll? Nyrotha drove some sort of sea monster back into the water. Good thing you left him aboard."

"An accident," mused Captain Thoster. "The lout was so drunk on grog I couldn't wake him."

Japheth's winged servants swarmed through the open balcony window and into his bottomless cloak.

Seren, her voice ragged from too many spells, commented, "Nice shawl you got there, Japheth."

He simply nodded. The woman didn't need to know his cloak's provenance.

Seren stood near Thoster. Not far away, Nogah leaned against a wall, and the two surviving crew members watched the entrance. The unmoving forms of defeated kuo-toa littered the floor and choked the stairs beyond. Among them lay the charred and still smoldering sea witches who were finally downed with Seren's last impressive spell volley.

"We persevered," said Nogah in her gurgling way.

Seren whirled, pointed an accusing finger. "Because of you, we've gained the enmity of a great kraken! We did not agree to your ludicrous scheme, but already it sends servitors to eliminate us. I say we kill you now, and show this Gethshemeth we're not its foes." The woman looked to the pirate captain for support.

Thoster put a hand on the war wizard's shoulder, "Seren, mayhap we'll do exactly that, but let's talk a bit first, eh?" Japheth noticed that, despite the man's solicitous air, the hand not on Seren's shoulder rested on the pommel of his venomous sword.

Seren huffed, visibly battling her desire to launch a particularly nasty attack on the whip from her armamentarium of spells. Finally, she spat, "So talk."

Captain Thoster nodded and said, "First, I want to know what sub-breed of kuo-toa we just faced? I've never seen their like before now."

The whip gave a slow nod, her eyes large compared to those of the many dead creatures lying around them. She said, "Gethshemeth's doing, using the Dreamheart. It has corrupted their forms. It is a potential I sensed in the Dreamheart, but not one I ever called upon."

The captain frowned, seemed about to ask something else, then thought better of it. Instead he grinned and said, "Consider, all of you. This unprovoked attack is a message. Gethshemeth revealed its hand, so to speak. The great kraken's afraid! It tried to scare us off, make us let fear drive us the direction Seren suggests we take. It hopes well run with sails at full mast from Nogah. Well, here's how I see it: the great beast must think we have some chance of succeeding to go to such trouble!"

"Rubbish," replied Seren. "You're seriously suggesting we engage something so powerful, so prescient, that it knew when and where to attack us even before we agreed to oppose it?"

Nogah intruded, "Gethshemeth knew we gathered against it, likely through its study of the Dreamheart. But Thoster is correct. The great kraken knows I held the stone far longer than itself. It knows I have the greater mastery of its power. The closer I draw to it, the more influence I can exert over it and Gethshemeth too. Get me close enough, soon enough, and I can snatch it back! I've prepared for nothing else these last several months."

"If you're so proficient with this rock, how'd the kraken steal it from you in the first place?" Seren countered.

"It caught me by surprise. The possibility that something might attempt to take the artifact from me had not entered my calculations. But, as I explained, I've been making preparations. Next time I'm close enough, Gethshemeth will rue the moment it stole my birthright!" Greenish spittle flecked the kuo-toa's wide lips.

"Mmmm, yes," mused Thoster, his zeal of a moment earlier fading somewhat. He looked at Japheth. "What do you think?"

Japheth thought it possible Nogah was slightly insane. But he suspected insanity was a common condition among kuo-toa, something they had learned to deal with. The warlock answered, "Both of you are correct. Gethshemeth rightly worries about anything that would oppose it. But how much does it need to worry, really? Its abilities can't be discounted; a great kraken could easily destroy us."

"Right!" said Seren.

"However, despite its already considerable power," continued Japheth, "Nogah explained the relic Gethshemeth stole could amplify its strength, magnify it so much it could threaten more than the denizens of the Sea of Fallen Stars. I would not like that to happen, if I could stop it."

Thoster smiled. The warlock knew the man didn't care a whit about the safety of creatures below, on, or beyond the sea, but he was satisfied with the direction Japheth leaned. For his own part, Japheth was nonplussed as he vocalized his concern for others. Must be some remnant of the traveler's dust talking.

On the other hand, if the Dreamheart was as powerful a relic as Nogah claimed, it really wouldn't do for a kraken to have it. Or, come to think of it, a mad kuo-toa whip. Then again, Lord Marhana wasn't really a good choice of caretaker, either. No good choices were possible when it came to evil artifacts.

Seren realized Thoster, Nogah, and even Japheth were on the same page. She reiterated loudly, "I refuse to be part of this. I will not-"

"Then do not!" exploded Thoster. "We three will continue. Go your own way. We'll find another to round out our number. But you are marked, Seren. The great kraken knows you now. If we fail, Gethshemeth will eventually find you, alone and without friends, and take its vengeance."

The war wizard sputtered her face red as she searched for a retort.

Thoster didn't give her a chance to respond; he regarded Nogah and asked in a voice returned to placidity, "So where is Gethshemeth?"

Nogah shook her staff, perhaps connoting anticipation. She licked her lips with a sinuous tongue, and declared, "Thoster, you spoke more truth than you know. You said the great kraken gave us a message with this attack. I agree. It revealed to us that it fears it can be beaten. More than that, it also told us where to begin seeking it."

"Did it?"

"The kuo-toa it used to attack us-they are not from Olleth, as I first thought. They bear the tribal markings of the only other kuo-toa colony in the Sea of Fallen Stars."

"Ah, clever of you to notice." The captain nodded. "Where is this colony?"

"These kuo-toa bear the markings of those who went to dwell in Taunissik."

The captain raised his eyebrows and waved his hand for Nogah to explain further.