Deathly energy had stripped away the breath of nature. In the sunless Halls of Atonement, even a glimpse of sunlight was too much to hope for.
It was noon, but thick fog veiled the sky, and a torrential rain suddenly fell.
The mountain road ahead had collapsed, leaving it piled with fallen rocks. A dark carriage stood by the roadside.
The lively fairy leaned against the window, looked at the boulders sunk in the mud, pulled a miserable face, and ducked back inside.
"It looks like we'll have to wait here a while, madam," Moonberry said glumly.
She had finally gotten a chance to visit somewhere new in the Shadowlands, only to run into rotten luck less than an hour into the journey. What a nuisance.
The stunning noblewoman in a blue gown waved a hand gently. Her eyes half-closed, she reclined against the bench without answering.
The young woman in a green dress, on the other hand, looked anxious, as though she had something urgent to do.
"I'll go move those boulders out of the way," Miss Thalara said.
The maid Moonberry fluttered over to her. "Madam said that once we enter Revendreth, we must follow its rules. We can't use any power other than anima."
Thalara suppressed the faint green glow in her eyes and settled back into her seat.
Amid the hiss of rain, a sudden commotion rose behind the carriage.
"Hurry up, you dredgers! The Chancellor's convoy will be here any moment. If this road isn't cleared, I'll exile every last one of you to the Sanguine Depths!" A Venthyr dressed as a noble urged on the short, goblin-like dredgers summoned from a nearby village, ordering them to clear the road.
At the mention of the Sanguine Depths, the dredgers worked as though possessed. In groups