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Apparently, they had an unknown ally in this venture.

Word arrived from the captured Raul Blackburn via his reaper, Arumoro. Someone had infiltrated Vanderberk’s ranks--and not only that, they’d managed to disguise themself as none other than Thaddeus Croll, the Killer of Krohin, who had been a problem for the Rainlords ever since the first team of them arrived here in Vantalay.

Quite the turn of events, to say the least. And naturally, Zeff and the others had not been keen to trust this new stroke of luck. Sure, maybe they were due for it after enduring so much misfortune in recent months, but still. This seemed far too good to be true.

And if they were talking about luck as a resource, then surely they’d already used up too much when Raul Blackburn stumbled upon the location of their captured brethren in the first place.

Interestingly, however, Zeff’s own reaper, Axiolis, was noticeably quicker to trust this new development than the rest of them.

‘You will no doubt think I am talking nonsense,’ the reaper had told him in private, ‘but this has always been the way of our people, even back in the days of the Armans, before the great invasion from the East. Tribulation comes calling, and it threatens to destroy us utterly. But then, whether through our own unbending resolve, divine providence, or some combination thereof, the tide begins to shift. Quite literally, on some occasions, heh.’

And while Zeff certainly still had his doubts, the reaper was at least partly proven right when word then arrived for Melchor Blackburn.

‘Grip the torch with both hands.’

That one sentence from the Croll imposter had shifted things rather dramatically.

They were words that belonged to Bernardino Blackburn, a turn of phrase that the man had been particularly fond of, apparently. Zeff had never known the man personally, but Axiolis did--as did, of course, Melchor and his reaper, Orric.

That connection to Bernardino was no minor thing.

And it sparked considerable intrigue in their minds, too. In the entire world, there could not have been many people left alive--servant or reaper--who had known the man well enough to not only learn that phrase from him but also to understand its significance to the Rainlords as a whole.

The imposter then promised to reveal his identity to him once the battle was done, but by Zeff’s estimation, Melchor already seemed to know who it was--or have a very good guess, at least.