Students of Life & Death #35

The Students of Life and Death dived out of the way of the falling rot within the lighthouse in Heron's Harbor, Dreya having used some sort of shadow creature attached to her to cause the avalanche of rot.

After surviving the attack, Brynn used her bear form to pin Dreya to the ground and interrogate her

• According to Dreya, she and Lyla had been working to encourage people to leave the Kindred Isle and reclaim their rightful place in the wide world, but Lyla had gone too far and was planting rot that was destroying people's lives. Lyla getting the Voice was a blessing, as it stopped her from doing terrible things.

• She also had known about the relic in the lighthouse and wanted to stop anyone from getting it and healing her sister.

One of the members of the previous Relic Hunter party came to after being healed by Ridley, and she confronted Gwenna, calling her by her former assassin name, Mercy.

• She claimed Gwenna had killed her mother, Kadoni, on a contract long ago, and that's what spurred her to start hunting relics: to find one to kill Gwenna.

• Gwenna offered want consolation she could, but she was firm that the only path forward was for Gwenna to return to Trine and learn all about Kadoni, starting with the docks where she worked as a shipwright. Once Gwenna learned about Kadoni's life, she was to return to the woman in Heron's Harbor.

The group went to the nest of Tal'Tal Aah, the giant heron, and found the relic, Amberblood Heart, they'd come for, as well as three eggs, one of which was corrupted with the rot.

• The group allowed the egg to hatch with a little help from Otho, and Roach, their old shapeshifting friend, emerged from it.

  • Roach claimed he'd gone through an exciting and cosmic transition -- he had flown as a Barrow Hawk at Sinner's Peak, and his eyes were opened to the truth of reality in their world.

  • Roach claimed all gods were a lie, and they were not the truth of the world. He also spoke of a person, place, or concept called "Negri," which he claimed was what compelled Barrow Hawks, who were creatures of Negri and not a part of the natural world.

  • He was excited to see his old friends again, and took on a new life perspective, wishing to be an "Emissary" for the truth he'd discovered, that only Barrow Hawks had previously seen. He also claimed Barrow Hawks would continually be reborn into the world, and that his rebirth was because he'd wanted to change the world.

The group, along with Roach and Dreya, took the relic back to Lyla, who was instantly cured of the Voice, but when the group confronted her about Dreya's accusations, they found Dreya missing.

Lyla denied everything, and the group believed her. They broke into Dreya's home to find it empty save for a lot of rot, and maps of Torn's Rest, where the words were scribbled, "Final resting place of Bane."