Ayn Tayan the records named it. Just another small rise in the hill country of
Southern Osteth. What was it that gave so mean a place a spot in memory? A
single hill among many. A hill of pines. A hill of bones.

Aesa felt a
chill as she walked slowly to the summit, stepping over bones bleached by
uncounted ages in the sun. Overhead bright Alb'arel and bloody Rez'arel passed
slowly through a field of pale stars. There was a power in this place. The power
of years, the power of something beyond understanding. Even in the peacefulness
of night there was unrest and uneasiness. Yet Aesa lingered, though she was not
sure why. There was something about this place. Something that compelled her.
And so she walked, slowly ringing the hill. Gazing at nothing. Gazing at
everything. Alone in her thoughts. The night was still.

A bolt of
lightning seared across her vision and for a moment night became day. With it
came rain in a torrent, washing over her surprised face. Above the sky was gone
and in its place, an inky darkness. Whirling, she stared down the hill and
beheld a nightmare.

In her time on Dereth she had encountered many of
the shadow spawn. She had battled the foul panumbris and the vile umbris. Many
she had freed from the darkness that held them in its grasp, releasing them to
oblivion. But this. Never before this. As far as she could see below, the land
was covered in the writhing darkness of the shadows with their pale red eyes
glinting evilly in the blackness.

A cry from upon the hill caused her to
turn again. Above her on the heights stood another army. Though she had never
seen them arrayed before, she knew them. The undying legions of Dericost.

"What is happening to me?" Aesa whispered, the words washed away in the
torrent of wind and rain. "This is not now. This is yesterday."

But the
fell shapes on the slopes above her paid her no heed. Nor the dark shadows that
advanced below.

Had her fervent wish been granted in this sickening
fashion? Had her tie to the accursed lifestone been shattered? When she died
tonight, for surely there was no escape, would she see the scintillating
lifestone or would she face the beyond? The beyond she had longed for since the
fall of her family.

A chill coursed down her spine. Facing this death.
This true death for the first time since she had stepped foot upon this accursed
land. Did she truly feel this longing that she had long proclaimed? But in the
end did it matter? Death beyond dying or death to die again she would face it.
She would face it as she always had. The only way she knew how.

Grabbing
her spear, the burning head of it hissing and smoking in the downpour, she
turned towards the approaching darkness. And she screamed. As her voice tore
across the night she charged into the embracing blackness.

The shadow
army moved and writhed about her. Magical energy coursed through the air,
burning her, searing her. But she did not notice as she danced among them. Dimly
she was aware of the Dericost forces raging around her. Yet she did not care.
Alike they burned before her, foul shadow, dark undead.

Distantly Aesa
was aware of others moving in the melee nearby. Afar she saw the charge of
tortured Leikotha with blazing Ashbane in her hand. And then, a darkness fell
upon her heart and she knew the presence of the Servant himself. Yet even before
the Slayer of Hope her heart did not quail. Death was nigh and she would face
it. Not even he would take that from her. Not even he could tear whatever lay
beyond from her grasp.

So she danced. Dancing upon that thin line that
exists between life and death. Dancing among the darkness. Dancing beyond
courage. Dancing beyond fear. The world shrunk to the tip of her spear. And yet
she could not dance forever. The lingering coldness of their touch, the blazing
fire of their magical blasts. Soon it took all of her will to hold to her feet.
She felt herself failing. She felt herself falling.

"Is this the end?"
she whispered. Tears poured down her face, blending with the raindrops and the
world was silent.

The first thing she was aware of was her breath. It
misted in the coolness of the night air and brushed warmly against her face. The
second were the tears that fell down her cheeks to fall to the ground where she
knelt.
Slowly, gingerly she raised her head, her body tense and exhausted
from the effort. Above the stars twinkled in the blanket of night. Alb'arel and
Rez'arel looked down cheerily from their courses overhead.

A dream. And
yet Aesa knew it to be true and was troubled by it. What did it mean that the
foul forces of the Dericost had fought and died against the dread of the shadow
horror? What did it say about them? What did it say about her who needed them to
do so?

And what of her? Was she as ready as she had thought to embrace
the beyond she had lost? Perhaps there was something else she had missed.
Perhaps there was something else she had to do.

Lost in thought, Aesa
let her legs steer her slowly away from the hill of pines, a lonely hill
surrounded by many, to the nearby town of Baishi that lay nestled warmly and
comfortably in the valleys.