Safiya puts down the essence, frowning. "I don't think - never mind, you're in charge."

Accordingly, she follows behind Ciaveth, staff in hand.

"Thank you," she says, because she did just ask a Red Wizard of Thay to turn down a bright magical shiny, and then the Red Wizard did, so. A thank you is, in fact, in order.

She considers saying sorry to the worse-than-dead spirit wolf, but she doesn't think the wolf can hear her. And it might erode the fragile veneer of mission oriented ruthless pragmatism to reveal the sheer aaaaaa underneath, which doesn't seem like it'd help anyone at all.

Up! Can they actually just leave, please, or is there going to be something else that wants to try and get in their way?

Well, they make it up a little ways, but then there's this earthen barrier in their way.

"This... wasn't here when I came down," Safiya says. "Well, obviously it wasn't, or I wouldn't have been able to come down. It seems the spirits of the barrow have turned the earth itself against us."

She raises her eyebrows. She looks at the earthen barrier.

"Really. Really. Okay. Fine." Ciaveth clears her throat and raises her voice. "O, ancient and wise spirits," she says, sarcasm practically dripping from her words. "While I respect your intended purpose and your audacity, how do you really think this will end. Do you want to keep me, the person who just ate a spirit on accident, captive. Here. In this place. Of spirits. Is that really what you think you should be doing with your wisdom and your power. Do you think this will end well for you."

The last part comes as a bit of a snarl, and something hungry rises just below the surface, but it does not, quite, escape.

The wall crumbles before her.

Safiya raises an eyebrow. "Unconventional - I was going to suggest making an offering at that altar over there - but it does seem to have worked. Let's move on."

"Thank you," she says, to Safiya, and also to the spirits. She pats the nearby wall. "Good spirits."

They are moving on! Wow that was very dumb of the spirits to try to do, note to self! Not all spirits are very smart!

(She can probably eat the ones that are as dumb as these without even very much guilt!)

They don't actually encounter any more spirits for a while; perhaps the news has percolated through the spirit community that messing with this lady is bad news. They see tree roots coming down through the ceiling, implying that they're close to the surface.

"It shouldn't be much farther," Safiya says encouragingly. "How are you faring?"

What's this? Someone asking about her welfare? And trying to be encouraging and supportive? ... This might be the first time this has happened in months. Uh. She doesn't... quite know what to do with the question, actually. It gives her pause. When was the last time someone asked if she was okay? ... It was probably Shandra, that sounds very much like something Shandra would do. Gods, she misses Shandra.

"Uh," she says, a little preoccupied by long-stale grief and the sheer inexperience with the question. Her first instinct is to throw up a casual, 'Fine, eager to see daylight,' her second is to say something biting and snarky, but it'd be wrong to just toss it aside like it's nothing. It'd be like squashing a butterfly, or ripping apart a delicate flower. This is rare and precious and should be nurtured. Just, she doesn't quite know how.

"... I've been better. But also worse, so... About normal for my lately, really?" Wow, that was sad, yikes, too honest, too honest. "Fine if I keep focused," she assures, which makes it a bit better. Then: "Thanks for asking."

Maybe she should have just gone with the quick and clever option of wanting to see daylight, that was painfully awkward and kind of sad. Why did she not want to squash the proverbial butterfly? Being sick of being treated like a soulless hero-shaped husk whose only purpose is to forcibly drag everyone around her to kill the big evil thing that's threatening a nation, whether the nation likes it or not? Wanting to acknowledge that she has feelings and they matter? Wanting, like, at least one actual friend, instead of just a gaggle of powerful people you grudgingly tolerate because it's not like powerful adventurers grow on trees? Eugh, nevermind, this is very sad.

Safiya pauses, though she keeps walking. "I'll try not to break your focus, then," she says after a moment. Then, amused, "If this is your normal... do you often find yourself waking up in strange lands with unexplained injuries? I'm sure you get that question all the time."

“This specific instance is new. And usually my injuries are perfectly explained, but.” There’s another awkward pause. “General... shape of the circumstances? Yeah, this is. Familiar. If I tried to save a cat from a tree, the cat would end up lost, the tree burned down, and the old woman looking for her cat would be traveling with me now, and I’d be solving her copious emotional problems for her because apparently that’s my job. Uh. No offense. You seem fine?”

"I'll try to keep that impression intact," she says with a slightly awkward laugh.

Then, suddenly, her face contorts in pain. "Stop it! Leave me alone- not here, not now-"

Damn it, she just had to say it. You're supposed to know better than this, Ciaveth, what is wrong with you!!

"Safiya? What's wrong, are you all right?"

After a moment, it passes, and Safiya composes herself. "I- It's nothing, I think I... I should avoid spirit-infested barrows in the future. The chatter of the dead isn't meant for mortal ears. Speaking of which, the Rashemi say a god dwells in this place... an angry bear god who rules the barrow. Rashemi tales are colorful, but they're always true in part. Let's be on our guard."

Yeah, bullshit that was nothing. If that was nothing then Ciaveth is actually fine and does not have some weird soul eating monster inside her, and also she's the queen of Neverwinter and Luskan both. She's very talented, that way.

But, sure, if Safiya would like to not deal with it now, Ciaveth strongly empathizes and will assist and pretend that this was, indeed, nothing. She will accept the subject change.

"Great. Thanks for the warning." Hello, boss battle, how are you today.

When they reach the exit, it's a large chamber containing a raised dais upon which rest the bones of a truly massive dire bear. It also contains... a bear, appropriately sized for the bones and garishly colored in shades of red and blue.

"What stirs the air and smells so foul? Go back and die in the silence and the dark. I am tired and ill of temper."

“You and me both, pal,” grumbles Ciaveth. “But if you’ll excuse us, we’d really rather go live above in the sunlight, thanks. Go back to sleep and we can all stop bothering each other.”

"I'll not sleep while you yet live," the bear god rumbles. "I know what you are, little one. I smell the hunger that wakes inside you."

"I don't care what you smell," Safiya says angrily. "I won't let you have her."

"What do you care, Thayan? I know your kind - you love yourselves above all else."

"You don't know me, animal. But I know you. I know that your present form, for all its... color... is only a shadow of your true self. And I've shaped and bound far greater things than you."

"And I smell a wild storm in you, Thayan. Does your ally know the secrets you hide? Grief and confusion beyond measure... and something more..."

He shakes his head roughly. "Enough words! By the oath I swore, neither of you will leave my den!"

He charges at Ciaveth.

“It is very dumb to try to keep me in a den of spirits!” complains Ciaveth, but okay, it’s fighting time, then.

Step one: Curse of Impending Blades, on the big rainbow bear. Step two: draw the big rainbow bear away from the squishy wizard to give her space for casting. Step three: stab.

It's a solid plan, and Safiya seems to appreciate it. She expresses her appreciation by extending two fingers and casting a twinned Disintegrate. The green rays strike the bear unerringly.

He roars in agony and dissipates, leaving not even the dust of a successful disintegration behind.

"Oh, Disintegrate, my truest friend," Safiya says happily. "I don't think we managed to kill the bear god for good, but he'll be re-forming for a while yet. Let's get out of this place and see the sunlight again."

Wizards are such bullshit and it’s so unfair that she hasn’t been able to focus on studying wizardry exclusively. Instead she keeps needing to stab things. Because they’re trying to kill her. Sigh. At least she got to stab the bear before he got not-quite-dusted by the real wizard in the den.

“Yes, let’s. And prepare for when he inevitably comes after me, because I bet he’s going to.” Because of course he is. Maybe he’ll bring an army, that’ll be exciting.

"Regrettably, yes, I think that's quite likely."

They step outside, and Safiya casts Greater Teleport, and they're standing about half a mile from the gates of a modest city - not Neverwinter-sized, but not West Harbor either. "Just ahead of us stand the gates of Mulsantir. You've been eviscerated, paralyzed, assaulted by spirits, and insulted by a very large bear... how are you feeling?"