Chapter 12: Shadows of the Past

Seth leaves his companions in Naed's Hold and heads west to Northcliff Tower after suffering from nightmares about his past.

On the way to Northcliff he is attacked by Beonoc the Quick, a member of the Endieran Eight. Seth manages to defeat the assassin after being warned by a snake. During the battle Seth was aided by swirling black tendrils which tangled Beonoc. The knight did not have any time to ponder the snake or the tendrils, as Beonoc had coated his blades in a strong poison. The knight soon lost consciousness.

He wakes a few days later in Northcliff Tower, thanks to the healing knowledge of Vaesil Isilviere and his daughter Blaese.

During his talk with Vaesil, Seth discovers that Vaesil does not know why the Shadow Company's halfling spies have vanished, or where they have gone. The only clue was mention of a plague afflicting the halflings.

In the basement of Northcliff, Vaesil had imprisoned a strange creature similar to what the heroes had first seen in Abbadiel. The man-sized creature is grey and hairless, and Vaesil explains that it is a khayal. The khayal claims to know Seth, stating that they fought together in the Shadow World. He instructs Seth to visit someone known as the Collector.

Meanwhile, in another corner of Cerilia, the loremaster Bolodenka finds a passage in an old tome which he had been searching for. The passage describes the city of Valasteya, and its destruction at the hand of the mighty demon known as Bloodsoak. In the battle the tsar of Valasteya hacked Bloodsoak's horn from his head. The tsar's companion Cerigwyn stole away with the horn, travelling back to her home in the west. The passage ends stating that without his horn, Bloodsoak could not remain in this world, and vanished shortly after the battle.