"That light, it felt like - like the Inheritor does in the mornings..." Seelah feels a desire to - laugh, or cry, or pray, or maybe take off her armor so she can hug someone and then do all of those at the same time.

She settles for hugging herself, and praying.

"Lariel! That was the angel's name on the plaque! The ancestors had it right... but what just happened? The sword never did anything before. Besides, uh, slightly zap any of us who tried to take it, and stay stuck in the stone." It's not stuck in the stone anymore.

"It...showed me his last moments. He was killed by...something that looked like Deskari, but it wasn't quite right..."

"And now you wield his sword?" Wenduag has no idea how to react to someone who apparently gained great power and promptly started crying.

"Yeah. It...promised to help me help people, sort of. I just...wish I hadn't been too late to help him." 

"It sounds like he died near a century ago," Anevia says gently. "We grieve all the dead of the past, and we move on, to rescue the future."

That sounds like a quote, but not one she's familiar with. Another god's scripture?

"When I said I wanted to show Chief Sull a sign, I didn't even hope for something so, well, literal. This is incredible! Will you come with us and show it to the tribe?"

"Sure." 

To Anevia: "I know, I know, just--you don't usually see someone's last moments like that. I'm not gonna let it impair me, just."

Anevia meant it as comfort or encouragement, not admonishment. A misstep. Maybe it's because she's still tiptoeing around Terendelev's death; she saw Lavinia Wex disappear with her body - and she's sure Lucette saw it too - but Lavinia can't herself teleport (as far as Anevia knows), and they were standing right below Deskari, and so - she can't be sure what actually happened, or imply she's reassuring Lucette about that. Whether they landed somewhere safe, and Terendelev is already back in the city and only slightly impaired at killing demons, or something much worse than that.

She can't imagine how it feels, to fear for both her parents and at the same time to find room in her heart to grieve for a stranger a century dead. Lucette is the kind of natively good person that Anevia, with all her baggage, struggles to approximate in her best moments. (And who's being maudlin now?)

"I know you won't," she smiles a little. "An angel's sword suits you. Let's go, then."

She smiles back and then turns to follow the Neathers. 

Wenduag is annoyed that Lann got his sign. She's doubly annoyed that outsiders just took over the neathers' most sacred relic, and that she wasn't deemed worthy to wield it, not even... before. She's silent and gloomy all the way back to the neather camp.

"Spirits have great power to help or harm," Camellia remarks. "Even a remnant of one is something to cherish, to nourish and take for a guiding star. In Sarkoris-that-Was, when that angel yet walked the land, shamans learned to talk to the spirits and ask for their help. The tradition is all but forgotten now, lost to the Wound like so much else." She sounds regretful for the loss - and hungry to redeem it.

"Is that what you do?"

"Yes! Or, I try... I had a tutor as a child, but she's long gone. But I learned enough to cast first-circle divine spells, without any gods." She smiles, and pats her amulet.

There are so many cool and amazing things out there in the world! And many of them are right here in her temporary party! Seelah doesn't feel happy, given the givens, but she does feel inspired.

After some walking and swording a few more suicidal giant centipedes and spiders, they reach a little underground lake, with a half-natural bridge of stepping-stones bridged with planks leading to an island. It's dotted with lit torches, which can't illuminate it at this distance but at least provide a sense of scale: a few dozen buildings (shacks? tents? lean-tos?) and probably fewer than a hundred people.

Lann bows. "Welcome to Neathholm! It can't quite compete with the wonders of Kenabres, but at least it's demon-free, or it was an hour ago."

Looking at the frankly miserable hovels - these people don't seem to have any building materials, let alone laundry wizards - Camellia thinks she'd rather have Kenabres with demons! Hopefully they can get back there quickly, because she does not want to spend a night in this place.

The people stop their work to stare at the visitors.

No two of them are alike. There are bits of animals and vermin and occasional plants, replacing or growing out of bodies in random-seeming locations. Most don't seem functional, or beneficial, or occasionally healthy. Everything is a crazy mix of parts that somehow end up working together (or sometimes at cross-purposes). Maybe it's just that unexpected assymetry looks ugly.

It's clear now why Lann said surfacers call these people 'mongrels'. No-one would think Lann and Wenduag belonged to the same race, until they saw the sheer variation on display and realised the only rule was that nothing ever repeated ittself.

Lann leads them up to the hill's summit, where a man sits. He has a rat-like face, with prominent front teeth, and one of his eyes is milky white; his hair is sparse and white, indicating old age - or at least it would if he was human.

"Chief Sull! The earthquake was caused by a demon attack on Kenabres. It opened a hole into the tunnels, and these uplanders fell down" - he introduces them. "And we found Lariel's sword! Lucette has it, and it glows now! She said it gave her a vision of Lariel! This is a sign for us, to finally return to the surface to help defend against the demons!"

"Uplandersh... The end timesh are upon ush, indeed. But we musht make the right choishe, and not be hashty. Demonsh attacked Kenabresh before today. We will have only one chanshe, to go back and to do it right."

He looks at Lucette. "Show me the shword, uplander. Show me the shign from Heaven. We have held it in trusht, alwaysh. For ush, it did not glow."

Lucette bows and holds out the sword. 

"Hello, Chief Sull. I'm Lucette Wex." 

And then the sword lights up. 

The Light of Heaven is so, so sorry about not shining for the Neathers before!! It wasn't smart, until Lucette picked it up, and it couldn't see anything, and - it thought it sensed a demonic tinge to them, and was terrified to respond in case it fell into enemy hands.

But now with Lucette's help it can see better, and it trusts her completely (because it's really not equipped to judge anything and will delegate all that to her), and so it will tell everyone in the cavern - in feelings, not in words, because the Light doesn't natively think in words anymore -

I'm sorry I didn't answer you. I wasn't there for you. But I / we are here now, and you don't have to fear the dark anymore.

A wave of golden light washes out and over the island. It doesn't care about barriers of earth and wood and flesh, because the important part isn't what your eyes see; the important part speaks to the heart.

Shiiiine.

Sull stares transfixed at the glowing sword.

"Sho Heaven did not abandon ush, after all... The light came back... Back, back from the dead, to shave ush and our children." He's crying openly now.