Then her hands clutch her chest and she hisses in horror at the.... the.... whatever the fuck just happened, and the moment for the predator to pounce upon its prey is gone.

The second wolf turns and runs away.

"Are you alright?" Safiya asks. "That wasn't a spell... how did you do that?"

"I-I don't. I don't know," she murmurs, appalled. "I was just, I was starving, but it wasn't mine. Or. Maybe it was? I don't... I don't know."

She gingerly touches her chest, looking for the.... the something that the thing that was and was not her came out of. All she finds is flesh. Healed flesh, not the ragged wound that had been haphazardly stitched together and then dumped with a healing potion as a patch job. There's barely even a scar; it's not any more notable than the pale silvery scar that had marred her skin before she'd had forced heart surgery.

"It... healed me...?" Ciaveth whispers, hoarsely.

"Yes... you look more hale, as well. And whatever the effect was, it destroyed that spirit utterly..."

She picks up a glowing bit of matter from where the spirit stood. "Spirit essence. This... could come in handy later. Are you fit to continue, Ciaveth?"

"I. I. ... Yes, yes, we should. Get out of here now, regardless of anything else."

Mostly because she feels very much like a starving person who is trapped in the middle of a rather literal buffet, except the buffet is made out of people and aaaa.

Right, right, she'll. She'll just hold herself together. She can do that. She can keep herself from falling to pieces until she's out of this fucking place filled with delicious spirit morsels that taste very good and leave handy chunks of spirit essence that would be great for enchanting.

"Leave the spirit essence," she orders, in a no-nonsense tone of voice that hints that this is a woman who's pretty used to giving commands and having them followed, "we're taking nothing from this place, because they are going to be angry enough with us." Accordingly, she puts the book down. Not where it had been left, but close enough, and she is not going back down to the prison.

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."