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Dahlia tried hard to keep the hatefulness out of her blue eyes, but not hard enough, she knew fro it to that She had taken such pleasure in putting Dahlia in her place, day by day and year by year She had never once exacted any physical punishment on Dahlia, as Sylora often did with the Ashmadai No, her abuse of Dahlia had been strictly eame of mental cat-and- a doubleonce reater death and destruction this ti our hold here Even without that, the agents of Shade Enclave are retreating"

"They’re still about," Dahlia dared say

"But not in Neverwinter Town in any nurip on that city was undisputed before I awakened the beast, was it not?" Her tone with that last questionan answer

"Yes, milady," the elf warrior dutifully responded

"Now they remain only because they seek some ancient elven relics in Neverwinter Wood, but what they find, day after day, are er to kill" She paused and looked across the s beside a trio of different zombies, not ash-colored, but darker hued Two of the three carried garish wounds, as if their corpses had been fed upon, and indeed they had "That is the genius of His Omnipotence, is it not? Other arroith every fallen enemy"

Dahlia’s eyes fixed on the third of those corpses, one who had died fro blow to the side of his head She had done that, defeating the ainst a worthy opponent In ti upon the corpse brought a bitter taste to her ," Sylora instructed her "I wish to kno many reside there now, and how many of the Netherese stalk her streets"

Fists clenched at his sides, Herzgo Alegni looked down upon the town of Neverwinter, focusing his gaze and his anger on that beautiful winged structure that centered the rebuilding

The Herzgo Alegni Bridge, it had been called, for just a few days For several years after that, like everything else in Neverwinter, it had been called nothing more than part of the disaster, for there had been no one around to take note of it

But its nae once more None of the new settlers had heard of that decade-old proclao Babris--dead like everyone else who had been in or around the city of Neverwinter on that terrible day, save those Shadovar nobles, like Alegni, who had shadowalked back to Shade Enclave

And one other, the ni even then, and who had inforht--of the reversion of the bridge’s nani asked

"It was one of the tasks you put upon me to prepare for your arrival," answered Barrabus the Gray "When have I ever failed you?"

That sarcastic response had the tiefling turning hateful eyes at his subordinate

"We will not be welcomed in there," Barrabus went on

"Then perhaps we should not ask their perni said with a sneer, and turned back to the distant town and the bridge he had so coveted

Barrabus didn’t even wait until the tiefling had turned before offering a shrug in response, but he did add to it, "These are not enemies to be dismissed too easily, these men and women ill face in Neverwinter, nor are they any friends of the necromancers who pull forth undead frohters and spellcasters who have stubbornly held that patch of ground against a legion of zoht into their midst"

"My Shadovar kill those creatures with impunity And most of thedeparted, before the first of these new settlers ever arrived, according to your first report"

"True enough, but I caution you to take the to the death for this ca Neverwinter, and even then with so o Alegni continued to stare at the patch of black rock that had once been a thriving city, and rubbed his weary face The tiefling--always an outsider, even a the Netherese--had faced severe discipline after the cataclys hi with the e Few Netherese had been killed in the cataclysm, since most were rarely in the actual city of Neverwinter, but out in the forest pursuing the ancient treasure they so craved

For the last decade, the expedition had continued, but Herzgo Alegni had not been sent back to lead it But with the ground tre a clear upper hand--and an unstoppable position should they ever coranted a chance for rede the current commander, with orders to continue the hunt for fallen Xinlenal Enclave and to beat back the Thayan intrusion at all costs

Xinlenal--a Netherese enclave, a city built on a floating endary Netherese enclaves It had tried to flee the Fall, but e of the E down, as had all the other enclaves save prescient Shade when Karsus stole the power of a goddess and ic itself failed Thus far, only Sakkors had been rediscovered, once reat enclaves eventually wore away under the blasting sands of the phaerimm’s unnatural desert, but Xinlenal had fallen somewhere in ould eventually come to be known as Neverwinter Wood--or so the Twelve Princes believed And as the Twelve Princes believed, the Eni’s first act upon regaining command of the recovery of Xinlenal was to summon his principal scout and assassin back to his side, so that had not pleased Barrabus the Gray at all The assassin had been living in relative luxury in Calients who sought to rule the street trade there And best of all, he had seen little of Herzgo Alegni in that ti that the one thing most intolerable to Barrabus the Gray was servitude He could exist in a hierarchy, and had never seeni knew the assassin had acted as an independent assassin, serving the needs of the pashas of Calireed-upon rewards That had all changed with Alegni, though, and the do and the other Netherese nobles had exacted over Barrabus rought ofmore