- well, she feels stronger.

"That did something."

"Okay." He touches her again. "Wrathful mantle, Aid, Heroic Fortune."

"....instant armor, deadly juggernaut, channel vigor, mighty strength, divine power. 

Mass inflict light wounds."

Fifteen people in the vicinity fall over dead. 

Other people scream.

She stands and brandishes her bamboo stick and checks whether there's anything coming to attack him.

The guards hesitate. At least the Osirian ones do. 

"Mass inflict light wounds, mass inflict light wounds, mass inflict light wounds. Mass inflict moderate wounds, mass inflict moderate wounds, mass inflict moderate wounds. Mass inflict serious wounds. Mass inflict serious wounds."

Nearest person still standing can get stabbed.

Whole lotta screaming people in this room, and then a whole lot of dead ones, and then most of the remaining people charge them. The remaining elves are mostly cowering under the tables and praying.

She stabs one guard, stabs another, and runs for the other end of the dining hall, where the hallway to the next room is.

That sounds good. He is hacking at people more than twice as hard as normal, right now, which means that hits that feel like they ought to land satisfyingly instead slice right through them and hits that feel like they ought to glance off instead cave in chests, and he's also hitting twice as quickly as normal and somehow that makes it worse -

- what's in the next room -

The next room is the room where Nelaros dies. He always dies here, always just as she enters the room. The guard captain stabs him through the gut and he falls.

     "Oh, did you not like her after all?" he asks. "Plenty more whores where she came from."

"Earth Storm."

He strikes his weapon against the ground. A crack ripples across the floor from where it hit to where the guard captain stands. The ground splits open beneath him and he's struck by lightning. A lot of lightning. The air smells like burning flesh.

She steps around the remains of the guard captain. She doesn't stop to do anything for Nelaros's body. 

There are two more guards in the next hall; she stabs them. The door to the dungeons is down a corridor towards the end. It's locked. She kicks it in.

"Fazil! Mahdi! Draconis! Anybody down here?"

They're there, in a cell like the one they're all in back in the waking world.

Door's too stable for her to knock open.

"I don't think I can force this one - can you - "

He tries it. This leaves him-shaped dents in the door but doesn't open it.

"I could...cause an earthquake? Hit it with an orb of the void? I could send us all to the Astral Plane? Make a pocket dimension? I - don't seem to have a lockpicking spell or anything - oh! Animate Object!"

The door jerks off its hinges and bows to him.

"Go fight my enemies."

It trundles off.

Mahdi and Fazil kneel. "Oh, stop that. We're fighting our way out."

Draconis gives Aria a high-five that manages to express absolutely no actual celebratory spirit. "Do you know where the demon is?"

"No. I have a wild guess. Do you guys need anything?"

Fazil shakes his head. 

"Okay."

And she leads them up. There are a couple more hallways with a couple more guards. The hallways melt before they lead them to Vaughan's room, this time, and instead lead them to something else. A room with a stone floor and animals in cages. The water in their bowls glows faintly blue. 

There's an altar with symbols cut into it. She can't read but she can tell it's not her language. There's a corpse on the altar, cut open in several places so it'll offer as much blood as possible.

"Blood magic?"

"Looks like. But I've never seen this place."

There's a window. He looks outside. There are buildings, tending black and red, a few very tall distinctive ones. 

" - I think it's Minrathous."

Yes, says a voice, emanating from nowhere in particular. How many mages do you suppose live in the great city of Minrathous? How many souls to suck dry of their power?

She looks around for something to kill.

There is nothing obvious to kill.

"I dunno, a lot?"

A lot, agrees the voice. 

"You have a point or something?"

An offer. For ages I have existed here, gathering my forces, building my strength. Your presence here has allowed me to open new doors to the world beyond the veil. I have removed the magister who summoned me to hold you, and have added his power to my own. You are no longer necessary. I offer you the chance to awaken and go free.

" - well, I see what's in it for us. What's in it for you?"

Deflection of suspicion. If everyone in the house is killed, it will be obvious what destroyed the magister. If the house has been blown apart by strange foreign mages, suspicion will fall on other parties. Minrathous will be unaware of the danger it faces, and I will be able to continue my activities freely.

"Your activities being murder and the creation of abominations?"