"What did you think happened when I came here? Not everyone can be lucky enough to be chosen by an angel's sword and be able to defeat any enemy. They made me go through the same ritual they were planning for those kids, it's just I was strong willed enough to stay sane."

"Why didn't you fight back! We're the descendants of crusaders, it's our duty to fight evil, not go work for it. If you didn't think you could do it yourself, you should have gotten help."

"And accomplish what? Get all the neathers killed for nothing? At least this way kids going missing was a rarity, not what happened to everyone!"

"Lann--did Wenduag actually help the cultists, or just let them think she would and then came back with overwhelming force? It would have been better if she had explained everything sooner, because then maybe the kids wouldn't have gone into the shield maze at all, but--Wenduag, it sounds like you were worried warning people would have gone badly? Either way, I'm really glad you're alive and able to help us."

"She's been covering up what's really in the shield maze for years! Lying to everyone to help hide the demons, and she didn't even tell us when we arrived here to deal with it," Lann protests.

He feels that really ought to be enough.

Wenduag shows some relief at Brenda's words.

"Yes. And now she's dead, and will never try to command me again."

A vicious smirk shows on her face as she looks down at the corpse, but she doesn't respond to Lann.

To Lann: "It's pretty reasonable of you to be unhappy about being deceived but I don't know what would have happened if she'd told you years ago. Wenduag, can you explain more about why you didn't tell anyone? . . . More importantly, is there anything else you haven't been saying that we should know, and if so what would make it seem like a good idea to tell us?"

"I didn't tell anyone because there's nothing anyone could have done. The best case scenario was the same thing that happened this way, the worst case was everyone got killed because some people wanted to be heroes. As for other secrets, I'm pretty sure there's not another set of Neather tribes. The maddened people Lann didn't recognize were from our set, just years and years back; whatever he does with his ritual makes us live longer, just at the cost of our sanity if we aren't strong enough."

"When I came to Golarion I didn't tell my family on Earth that I was leaving, because I was worried they'd try to stop me. I just left them a note and snuck out. I don't regret that, but if I go back someday and they're angry at me, and decide not to trust me in the future, I won't blame them. And I'm never going to get to know  for sure what would have happened if I'd trusted them."

That seems to boil down mostly to 'you didn't do anything wrong but Lann might not trust you,' which is perfectly fine by her.

Now that the immediate concerns are dealt with, Anevia is going to head down the stairs to help out the priest and untie the kids. No need to leave them there any longer than they have to.

"So, back to Neatholm or whichever city the kids are from? We'll need to go back through here to get to the surface but possibly that should be tomorrow." Please no more emergencies for a little bit, universe?

"I'd like to get back to the surface today, since I'm pretty sure Beth is worried sick and there are doubtless a dozen fires to help put out, but you're not under any obligation yourself. I can handle reporting the cultist den we found here for a full sweep later, and even though we've dealt with the worst problems in the maze it's not amazingly safe for kids, so some people should be escorting them back. Does anyone else have a strong preference for which group they go with?"

"As bad as the city undoubtedly is, it's certainly a more attractive offer than sticking around underground."

"I'll stick with Brenda. There's not that much I could contribute up there without any smites or lay on hands, and it's always helpful to have more than one person who can fight close up to protect people."

Lann and Wenduag echo her agreement, probably rather unsurprisingly.

Brenda smiles gratefully at Seelah and the Neathers. Clearly she should have asked for a version of Just A Little Longer that covers long chains of tangentially related projects.

"Anevia, Camellia, it was great working with you and I'd be happy to do it again sometime. Wenduag, what's the best plan for getting them to the surface and the rest of us back home without anyone having to go somewhere in a dangerously small group? I don't want to just assume you're fine navigating around a bunch of pissed-off cultists alone."

"We shouldn't need assistance. Our cultist friends that I interrogated didn't know the way out, since they're apparently brought in blindfolded, but it can't be a very long journey because they have to transport down enough food to feed everyone, and demons can't carry much supplies with them on teleports even if you could get them to. Between that and where they were when they were inducted into the cult, there are only a couple of places this can let out to the old tunnels, and those things aren't actually very complicated to navigate -  you don't actually get a warren like this unless you're trying for it, much less one where which direction to go in is ambiguous both coming and going. My guess is that in under half an hour we'll let out somewhere in the inner city, though that bit's a tad less precise."

"Ah, excellent. Didn't mean to impugn your skills, I just have no idea what's a normal amount of " don't say dungeon it's not a dungeon "tunnel system. I'll see you around!"

"You as well! And take care."

The trip back to neatholm is faster than the journey up; even with the extra issue of having to guard the kids and make sure to keep them out of sight of any cultists, not having to go searching down side hallways or do combat more than makes up for it. When they get out, the boat is rather more cramped with two extra people in it, but there's still enough room for everyone in one go, and when they disembark at Neatholm they are at first greeted with shocked disbelief and then cheers. Plans are thrown around for some a celebration, and not even the short notice is enough to dissuade anyone.

That's very reasonable and also amazingly sweet of them.

Brenda would rather get stabbed by a vrolikai's energy-draining knife again than go to a party full of 99% strangers, even with the Friends In Places powers taking the edge off the fear.

She wondered, when she picked the Friends In Places powers, whether having the option to avoid offending people would simply demonstrate that she was the sort of person who preferred to do the sort of things that give offense.

If they want her at the party she will go to the party.

They would be incredibly flattered to have her at the party but they don't really have a solid model of "things expected from storybook heroes from the surface with the sword of an angel," so she's free to do what she wants and have it considered not particularly more remarkable than anything else about her. It might be a little inconvenient to get food if she avoids the party entirely but there are absolutely possible solutions like asking someone to bring her something.

She goes to the party and eats some exotic alien planet cave fish in the happy certainty that she can't get poisoned and makes small talk and hates being seen as a hero and also kind of enjoys been seen as a hero and hates that she enjoys it. And after like half an hour of this she says it's been lovely but she's worn out from all the fighting and wants to make an early start tomorrow and is there a convenient place to pitch her tent where she won't be in anyone's way.

Then they'll be very excited about her and completely unaware of any internal struggles she has about this. If she only waits half an hour she'll miss the evening channel but presumably she doesn't need it so that's not a big deal. As for her tent, Neatholm is the largest neather village but still not objectively very populated; there are plenty of places to pitch a tent that vary primarily on how much distance she wants to get from the party and/or the center of town.

In that case she will go set up somewhere relatively far out where it's dark and quiet. (Pitching her tent for the first time in the mostly-dark is super easy because of her amazing headband which is the best.)

And then she can finally pull Alpina out of her pocket and start writing.

Hi Alpina! Sorry I didn't write sooner; it has been an absolutely crazy day! I'm okay now, though.