After the survivors emerged from the dungeon, the two arcanist members of the Sahalid went to work on sealing the entrance to the dungeon. Mirgia stayed to watch the process while Karal, Kimi and Ankh went to report to Captain Arios about what they encountered down there. The rest of them took care of the fallen and the wounded. With some help from the priests that stayed after burying Quint and Danil they managed to at least get the wounded Fezel to be in a stable condition. What Mirgia really wanted to see was how the magic that these arcanists used looked but despite his expectations it did not resemble the foul cultist magic they had been dealing with. It seemed that whatever Ankh was doing, he hadn’t spread this magic to everyone around him. The process instead involved a complicated mix of writing different spells onto a piece of paper before sticking it onto the dungeon. Once the entirety of the entrance was covered, the papers started to emit a bright light and threads of magic started to move from one of the papers to the other until an entire web of multicolored lights covered the entrance. It flashed brightly once and then dimmed until a thick layer of some material covered the entrance completely. “Only one who knows this magic can open the door now,” one of the two arcanists said to Mirgia. Mirgia nodded approvingly. Sealing off a dangerous place like this seemed like a good idea to him. Something that they all could agree on, he supposed. He turned around to find Ankh walking in his direction. Kimi was floating behind him. “Mirgia, would it be alright to speak in private?” Ankh asked.
Mirgia looked at Kimi who nodded.
“I suppose so, did you have a place in mind?”
He followed Ankh a little ways outside of the camp, leaving Kimi behind in the camp to go and talk with some of the others that came out of the dungeon with them. Eventually they reached a quiet spot where they could speak. Ankh looked at him over and seemed to hesitate for a few moments before he started talking.
“Listen, I recognize we got off on the wrong foot. I suppose I could have been kinder towards you.”
Mirgia narrowed his eyes. What is he playing at?
“As I’ve told you already, I am working together with the emperor of Severanti to discover more about the magic used in the time that the flying city of Kanarth was still dominating the sky. There are many strange rumors about the magic that they had, some of which includes the ritual magic we saw in the dungeon. I believe that specific magic was to be used to summon more of those insectoid creatures.” He looked to see if Mirgia was still listening before continuing. “These dungeons have been appearing at a more rapid rate than before and this change has been worrisome. If we get to the point where more of them appear at once, it will become difficult to figure out which ones are dangerous for regular adventurers to tackle. To deal with this problem, there’s someone’s help that I need.”
Mirgia sighed. “What are you playing at?”
“I need to speak with Karnisal the wanderer.”
Mirgia chuckled. “And what do you need me for then?”
“You know who I am, don’t you, Mirgia?”
“Well, I had a hunch about your identity, but yeah, I’ve heard stories. Karnisal taught me when I was only a boy to never get involved with a person called Sorda’thun the wanderer.”
The sorcerer grinned. “Good advice.” He stood up and let his glamor fade, revealing the visage he had taken on when they were in the dungeon. His eyes turned into black voids as if there was a magical nothingness there while around his head appeared several floating gemstones that seemed to look at Mirgia. “Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Sorda’Thun the wanderer, I am one of only two survivors of the war between Venoria and Kanarth. Your guardian, Karnisal, is the other.” He narrowed his eyes at Mirgia. “But you knew that already, right?”

Mirgia lay on his bedroll, staring up at the stars in the sky. The reason that Ankh wanted to talk to him was because of his connection to Karnisal. It was common knowledge in Milinia that Karnisal wished for Mirgia to take over the role of Milinia’s leader when they retired. Even the council seemed to be relatively positive about the idea. Mirgia himself had never wanted much to do with the job, but since Karnisal was the one who took care of him when he was an orphan, he did feel like he owed the old leader of the village a lot. Not enough to give away his entire life, but still enough to feel bad about wanting to find a way out. And now Ankh wanted him to set up a meeting between Karnisal and himself, something that Karnisal would not be happy about. The truth was, Sorda’Thun the wanderer was indeed a name that Mirgia had heard when he was younger. The person who was now going under the name Ankh was an ancient sorcerer who was once a member of the Kanarth royal guard. The flying city kingdom of Kanarth dominated the continent in its time. Long before the humans came to this continent, and when the entirety was still considered to be a wilderness, the people that called the continent of Palaria home were fractured. Small villages, cities and settlements dotted the landscape and trade and contact with others was relatively limited. It was in this world that the sorcerers of Kanarth figured out how to make an entire city fly. Not only that, but their study of magic had advanced to such a point that they could dominate the sky and the people they came across. An era of dominance arrived for them and for the span of fourteen years they ruled much of the continent, flying across the sky. Villages would be destroyed if they didn’t listen to the demands of the emperor of Kanarth. Kanarth ended up falling due to a grave miscalculation. In the south of the continent – only a few days north of what is now considered to be the Ravadier Peninsula – was a kingdom called Venoria. The people of Venoria were serpentfolk, part snake, part humanoid. Their ancestry granted them access to poison magic which they managed to develop into all sorts of things, but most impressively was their ability to make their targets hallucinate. Their leader was always a witch woman accompanied by two familiars. The twin snakes of Venoria. The southern snake was able to charm most people by holding eye contact with them while the northern snake could kill a man with a single bite in less than a minute. The emperor of Kanarth wanted the snakes for himself. A party set out to steal them, torching the capital of Venoria in the process. The party returned victorious and the twin snakes now belonged to the emperor. With Venoria in flames, there were very few left who could still oppose the emperor and their domination of Palaria was all but settled.

Except things never go as smoothly as you would like, and the entire infiltration party has been compromised. Using their hallucinogens, several of the elite mages of Venoria had infiltrated the flying city alongside the kidnappers, without them ever realizing that they brought them along. From there the downfall of Kanarth started slowly. Water wells were poisoned, town officials were found hanged or decapitated in their homes and blood flowed through the streets. And throughout it all, not a single one of the infiltrators was caught or spotted. The situation drove the emperor mad. Eventually, two of the infiltrators managed to make their way to the emperor’s chambers. With the help of the twin snakes they managed to charm the emperor into a state where he couldn’t move, and then cut off his head. With the emperor dead, the city lost its direction and the chaos turned into all out violence on the streets. Karnisal never told Mirgia what happened next, or at least not any details of what went down, but the result was the destruction of Kanarth with only two of its sorcerers surviving. With no home to return to, the two each took on the moniker of the wanderer. 

Mirgia woke up when the sun peered over the horizon. While thinking over what Ankh had said, he must have fallen asleep. He knew that Karnisal would be unhappy about talking with Ankh, but he also knew that the sorcerer had a point. The return of artifacts from Kanarth was a dangerous sign. He just didn’t know what the sorcerer was planning. Assuming that the magic from Kanarth would be returning, wouldn’t he want to work with the emperor of Severanti to reclaim it and start his own flying kingdom? What benefit would it have for him to talk to Karnisal who very clearly had different ideas about what to do? The only thing Mirgia could think of was that it would be so dangerous for everyone involved that Ankh had no other choice. He let out a deep sigh before getting out of bed. It was quiet in the camp, almost everyone was still asleep with only the few that were standing guard already up. Mirgia took this time to walk out of the camp and have a look at the nearby desert. The red sand looked even more eerie after all the bloodshed of the past couple of days. To his surprise, he was soon joined by Teddy.
“You’re up early,” the smallfolk remarked.
“I got a lot on my mind,” Mirgia replied.
“Anything you want to share?”
“Well, there’s a lot I don’t want to talk about, to be honest, but I’m currently in the middle of deciding if it’s worth breaking bread with old enemies in the face of a bigger danger.”
“That’s a tough one. How bad of enemies are we talking? Like, did he punch your grandma in her face or did he look at you funny once?”
Mirgia laughed. “A little bit worse than either of those options.”
“I don’t know, punching a grandma is pretty high up on the list of things you shouldn’t be doing.”
“Sure, but it’s a very long list.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” He sat down in the sand next to Mirgia. Mirgia sat down as well, so as not to tower over the smallfolk farmer. “I think he’s right. I think I should at least let the two hear each other out.”
“So what’s the plan then?” Teddy asked.
Mirgia looked at him. “What do you say, want to come to Milinia with me?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”