WHEN KORELIA MADE it past her secret passage way in the bathroom, Sephron was standing in her bedroom, a worried expression on her face as she waited.

"Sephron?" Korelia questioned, going to her sink to wipe off the grime from the battle with the ghouls.

"Korelia!" Sephron shouted, rushing into the bathroom to talk with her boss. "It's the council! Your father is going berserk!"

Korelia took off the rest of her clothing to change, but gave Sephron a worried look, waiting for her to continue with the conversation.

"He's talking about some magical nonsense that will obviously put the kingdom in danger if he was to go through with it! The council is trying to come up with ideas to stop him and on top of that, he's asking for a man hunt for Vox Machina after Captain Jarett came back and told him they 'escaped'."

Sephron looked at Korelia before shrugging her shoulders and watching as she gathered her things.

"You're going to leave," Spehron said. "Aren't you?"

"You know exactly why my father is acting the way he is. I have to find a way to stop the influence Sylas Briarwood has on him." Korelia answered.

"You're lucky your father is too busy trying to start a war to notice if you go missing." A voice said from Korelia's bedroom.

"Mum." Korelia said with a sad expression.

"All I can ask if that you be careful. There is a lot more behind the Briarwoods just having magic." Empress Salda stated.

"You're not gonna stop me?" Korelia asked with astonishment. Empress Salda only sighed, looking down.

"Your grandfather isn't here to stop you from doing anything. Honestly, if he was I know you would've been treated poorly." She looked at her daughter, giving a small smile. "I worry about you and I always will. But I know there comes a time when children need to move on with their lives and find a place in the world. If this is the way to prevent you from being treated like a menace than so be it."

"Save your father, Korelia. For the kingdom."

Korelia took in a breath trying hard not to cry. Sephron on the other hand was sniffling, tears dripping down to the floor.

"I'm going to save everyone."

VOX MACHINA WAS making their way towards the gates of Emon, when Korelia found them. She flew closer to the wagon and flew alongside them until someone noticed her.

"Keeper." Vax spoke from behind the wagon, causing her to smile. She flew into the back, casually getting off and moving to sit next to Vax opposite Keyleth and Scanlan. Looking around she noticed Pike wasn't around causing her to frown.

"Where's Pike?" She heard Grog sniffle, eyes frowning at the big man.

"She lost her way with the everlight." Keyleth answered. "So she went to temple to see if she could find out what the problem is."

Korelia nodded, glancing at Grog one last time before taking a sigh. A tweet resounded from the side of Keyleth, the woman smiling and moving to her knees to get a better look at Opium who was perched on the side of the cart.

"Any luck translating?" Keyleth asked, looking down at Scanlan before returning to her sitting .

"Oh yeah, totally." Scanlan spoke. "Some. Okay, yeah, most of it's impossible."

"But I mean look at this. This is some messed up shit. All I can make out is one word from Delilah's craptastic scribble. Something called a Zippertwat."

"Ziggurat."

Keyleth and Scanlan both gasped and flinched from a new voice on the other side of them. The blue and white haired man from earlier moved to sit on the other side of Scanlan, glancing over at the book in his hands.

"If you got zippertwat. I would assume it's talking about a Ziggurat." Opium said, trying to read over some of the book.

"Oh, thank god. Cause what I was thinking. Whoa."

"I vaguely remember that! They spent hours teaching me stuff like this for me Aramente." Keyleth answered. "Ziggurats were ancient structures used for contacting gods."

"Huh?" Scanlan asked confused.

"Wish, I could help more but I fell asleep a lot in ancient abyssal class." Keyleth spoke softly.

"No, you are right Keyleth. Though I do wonder what the Briarwood's could possibly want with a Ziggeraut." Opium said. "I don't believe it's anything good though is Delilah messes with necromancy magic."

"Hm, then we're hopelessly fuck." Scanlan claimed.

"We definately are." Keyleth responded, sliding down the wagon's bed.

Korelia spent some of her curiosity looking through the bag the group had bought from Gilmore's. Nothing seemed of importance except for a small vial of water.

"Holy water?" Korelia questioned, sloshing the liquid around and looking over at Vax who was speaking to Grog.

"As far as we know, the one thing that can hurt a vampire is holy water." Vax told her.

"Yes, I was told that too."

"When have you ever had a run in with a vampire?" Vax chuckle.

"I never have. It was just something that turned up in a collection of books." Korelia laughed.

The wagon rumbled a bit as they passed over a bridge, the road now following down a forest. It had been a good while by the time they reached the forest, but seeing as no one had had any rest since the day before the ride was getting tiresome.

With the clouds creating a dark atmosphere, Korelia's skin prickled with bumps, her psyche on edge. She crawled her way over to the front of the cart, looking out to the front between Vex and Percy.

She pulled her eyebrows together, making quick work of searching around the area.

"Percy, you need a break." Keyleth told the human, coming up next to Korelia.

"Absolutely not. We need to keep moving." Percy retorted. "The Briarwood's are probably in Whitestone by now."

While the girls went back to themselves, Korelia on the hand stood in her spot and moved in panic.

"Percy, stop." Korelia spoke with urgency, crawling over the open space.

"I'm not that tired." The human told the girl with annoyance.

"No, stop the fucking cart." Vex spoke, becoming on edge as well when she saw something moving in the woods. "Something's tracking us."

Percy looked at the two girl before pulling on the reins, the horses coming to a halt as the group waited with bated breaths. Something snapped in the treeline, Scanlan rising to his feet at the noise.

"Uh, what was that?"

Korelia stood up at the drivers section to scan the area, staff clenched in her hands.

"Oh, poor little puppers." Keyleth cooed, jumping down from the wagon. "Are you hurt little guy?"

The creature growled as blood seeped from it's mouth and leaked onto the floor in a puddle. Opium let out a loud screech as a warning, when he noticed what the animal was. This leads to Keyleth screaming and falling over after seeing the ghoulish dog.

"What the fuck are those!?" Grog asked, readying his grip on his axe.

"A gift from Lady Briarwood." More growling was heard in front of them, causing Percy, Vex and Korelia to turn back around.

The dog opened his mouth, the jaw splitting into three pieces before it's tongue shot out and towards the wagon. Korelia grunted and it shoved her out the way, her legs tripping over Percy's. The human let go of the reins quickly and moved to wrap his hands around Korelia's thighs to keep her from falling off the cart completely. Her body dangled over the edge, but she was able to turn herself around thanks to Percy grabbing onto her.

"Scanlan!"

Word Count: 1288