The Vigil’s Keeper
Reflections of Vanya Elentari of The Midnight Order
The false inquisitor’s shadow had barely faded when Alphinaud turned our path toward the Stone Vigil. Lord Drillemont received us without hesitation this time—no guarded looks, no half-questions—only a debt of gratitude he seemed almost embarrassed to voice. He confirmed what we’d suspected: the Enterprise had been seized after the Calamity and locked away within the Vigil… but that was years ago, and the ruin now lay in the claws of dragons.
Even knowing we might find only a shattered hull, we could not turn back. Drillemont sent word ahead to grant us entry.
I had worn only robes these many days in Coerthas, hiding the weight of my steel along with the weight in my heart. But the Vigil was different. You don’t walk into a dragon’s den in linen. I pulled my armor from Lomelindi’s packs and felt the familiar pull of the plates on my shoulders. It was heavier than I remembered, but also grounding—like finding my feet again after too long adrift.
Haurchefant saw me and smiled as if this was how he had always imagined me, though he said nothing. The wind bit as we approached the gates, but the fire within kept me warm.
Inside, the Vigil was all ruin and frostbitten stone. Dravanian spawn lurked in every shadow—scaled heretics, winged beasts, and worse. Steel sang, magic burned, and step by step we forced our way through. In the highest chamber, the Enterprise waited… and beside it, an enormous dragon slumbered, its breath curling in the frigid air.
Cid and Alphinaud would board the ship. My task was to watch the beast. Simple enough—until Lahabrea appeared, his words as cold as the wind outside. He named my victories, mocked my odds, and with a flicker of black flame, woke the dragon.
Isgebind’s roar shook the very stones. Frost swept the floor in great arcs, forcing me to move or die where I stood. My magic flared against his ice, each strike a prayer that the others would be ready to fly before I fell. When the moment came, my blade struck true, and the great beast collapsed, the floor trembling beneath its fall.
The Enterprise was damaged but whole enough to bear us from that frozen tomb. Cid’s hands moved over her controls with a familiarity he couldn’t quite name, and soon we were aloft, leaving the Vigil’s spires behind.
Alphinaud called it a victory. I should have felt the same. But I couldn’t shake Lahabrea’s voice from my thoughts, or the feeling that our true trial still waited on the wind ahead.
