"I see. Let us waste no more time then, you were looking for something?" He asks Lann. 

"The remaining relics of our ancestors are stored in this hall. Among them is a holy sword, left by one of the angels who fought together with humans in the First Crusade. If we bring it to Chief Sull, I hope to convince him that the time has come to rally the tribes to go help the crusaders on the surface - and rescue those kids on the way! But now we can't find it because the earthquake brought down half the room."

"It's a fool's errand. None of us can use the sword. It's not an ordinary weapon - it's made from heavenly flame and burns any of us who touches it." Also, it's stuck into a stone.

"I'll wrap it in something! The point isn't to use it as a sword, it's to rally the tribes!"

He'll help them look, and figure the rest out later.

Trying to rally multiple tribes of unknown race and allegiance to travel a dangerous maze to join the fighting in the city probably isn't the quickest or the surest way for them personally to make it back up, but if it works out, these underground crusaders could turn out to be a big help! 

Unfortunately, Anevia can't help them search.

Seelah is very excited about finding an angel's relic sword and will enthusiastically turn over every stone in the room if that's what it takes!

Whether due to luck or skill, Miquella and Malenia are the first to find it, a gleam of warm light revealed under a pile of broken stone that whispers and beckons to take it up.

Miquella will be the one to take it.

The wound on his chest reopens and weeps blood, even as his mind is assaulted by the thoughts and sensations of another - or are they memories of someone else who visited this cave before?

The vision does not feel hostile to her, and yet it is full of hostility.

"Treachery! They trapped me and stabbed me in the back! The people I descended from Heaven to protect, my sworn allies!"

There they are, the traitors - somewhere in the gloom, just beyond the angel's failing sight - what are they waiting for, he is not so weakened that he will die unaided -

Next to him/him, a quiet moan. A girl with golden braids who refused to side with the traitors, who stood by him and paid for it with her own life. They both refused to run for the sake of the other.

If I use the last of my strength to heal her, they may kill her anyway. If I use it to fight them, she will die of her wounds. What should I do? What should I do? 

The vision conveys an agony of indecision - a pain greater than any wound, felt when you do not know the road to take -

Heal. It is, after all, what he dedicate his life to. It's not really a choice at this point.

"Flee," he begs the girl. "You cannot save me, so save yourself." But he is so weakened he cannot tell whether she lives or dies.

Memories assault him. A priestess in colorful robes observing the stars. The girl he saved, a young paladin, taking her first vows as she holds the Inheritor's sword. A great angel, his face obscured by a helmet, addressing a crowd, and his voice rings out into the distance: "only if you are willing, and only if you are ready. There will be no turning back..."

Then, in the vision, the shadows in the corner grow darker. A buzzing sound fills the cavern, and Miquella's wound burns with pain - he is not sure if the pain is also in the vision - their head pounds and their heart clenches with unnatural fear -

And a monstrous figure emerges from out of the shadow.

It looks like Deskari. Perhaps the demon lord has grown over the years since, perhaps he shrunk to fit the cavern; or perhaps a demon lord of evil and chaos, parts of whose very body are made of swarming locusts, does not care about such petty mortal concerns as a constant shape.

Its voice changes from one moment to the next, from the roar of Deskari defying Iomeadae to the whisper of a slinking shadow, as if behind it there is nothing real and at the same time there could be everything and anything at all.

"The foolish angel struggling on the rocks, like a fly with its wings torn off... Where is your goddess now, angel? Where is her self-assured herald? How is it that you are dying here alone, fallen so far from Heaven?

Lariel's thoughts become easy and calm, for he knows who is in front of him. 

The vision does not convey that he knows it to be Deskari, or something else. Angels' thoughts are not like those of mortals. He simply knows it to be the Enemy.

And faced with the Enemy, he is calm and at ease, for there are no more choices left to make.

His sword flames to life as he slices at the shadow-monster, and for a brief moment it recoils from Heaven's light.

The next moment, a swipe of the monstrous scythe leaves him lying on the rocks. Dying, in truth.

"You will kill me, monster," Lariel says calmly. "This I know. But one day, someone will come here and raise up my sword."

With his dying strength, he plunges the sword into the stone, and the vision fades. The last thing Miquella hears, as Lariel's strength leaves him is - "they will come and..."

Punish traitors? Protect the innocent? Vanquish Deskari? There is no telling what the angel had hoped for with his last breath.

The latter part of the vision resonates less with Miquella's soul - for him, there aren't Enemies, never would he utterly forsake anyone. But he picks up Lariel's sword, raising it high, and proclaims:
"Angel Lariel, you may be gone, but you shall not be forgotten. I promise this as Miquella, the Unalloyed."

It feels like the right thing to do.

It is light in the shape of a sword. It will be a sword if he wants it to, smiting his foes, but it can also be light: a source of revelation.

It shines brightly for him now, dazzling everyone for a moment, but it is more than a light for the eyes. It speaks to your heart, promising aid, hope, allies. It calls you to join the eternal and unfailing cause of Heaven, and it makes you stronger and braver if you choose to respond to the call, because it tells you will never be alone.

The mysterious wound on Miquella's chest closes again, almost as if it opened only in the vision.

He keeps it a light, and keeps the sword shape, because it feels like an important symbol to people around him.

"I had... some sort of a vision. Lariel, saving a girl, somewhere in similar caves, before being attacked by... Deskari, but smaller somehow."

Everyone rushes over to him.

"That was it! The light of Heaven! Lariel... That's the name of the angel who fought with our ancestors - it was on the pedestal."

"Chief Sull will have to admit the time has come to rally the tribes, now. Will you come with us and show him the sword's light?"

"Is rallying the tribes neccesary? Getting a large group to fight in a coordinated way will be hard, and if we can't, it's worse than going with a small group."

"Taking the tribes through is madness. Lann's madness," Wenduag hisses.

"No-one in the tribes can make it through the maze. I'm the only survivor of the last group who tried. We were young and foolish, and the darkness claimed us one by one until only I was left."

"Taking everyone there is madness. The young and old and infirm, some will die and all will be a burden on the rest. And if we do make it through, what then? What use a crowd of people barely able to fend for themselves on the surface! We would need protection from the demons, not provide it!"

"If the tribes stay here, with enough hunters to guard and feed them, a few strong hunters can be spared to help the surfacers. With your help, maybe we can make it through the maze." Malenia does look very impressive, just by having those incredible ?things? for limbs, but looks can be deceptive.

"I wish I could take a small party to rescue the kids! It would mean not waiting for all the tribes to gather, and not waiting for Chief Sull to make up his mind to even start that. But the Chief has forbidden us from taking others into the Maze, because it's too dangerous, and the light of Heaven's sword is the best way I could think of to move him."

"I am the best guide to the Maze. I'll guide a party of fighters through. But I will not be a party to taking the old and infirm there to be massacred!"

"We can go with you, and rescue the children? Then there wouldn't be a need to risk the rest of your tribe."

"We still need permission from Chief Sull to go ourselves."

"You only need his permission because you think so," Wenduag mocks. "Does he stand over your shoulder when you hunt alone, telling you to take a risky shot?" 

"The village isn't far out of the way to the Maze. You can stay there if Sull tells you to. I will guide the strangers through the maze, if they think they are strong enough."