Vepice's mouth hung open as the two of them emerged from the dungeon into the pale light of the eclipse. The fog, once heavy and suffocating, had thinned into tendrils that snaked around the barren rocks. Dozens, no, hundreds, of the warped beasts that had hunted them on their way in stood at the periphery.
They didn't lunge. They didn't even growl.
Instead, they lowered their grotesque heads, some of them so malformed that their skulls scraped against the rocks. Their multi-jointed limbs bent awkwardly, insect-like, in a gesture that could only be interpreted as reverence.
Vepice stiffened beside him, one hand instinctively going to the enchanted knives at her waist. Her eyes darted from one twisted creature to another.
"They're… bowing?" she whispered. Her voice was barely audible over the faint groaning of the wind. Then her gaze shot to Kai's head. Her pupils shrank.
"The crown! It's gone!"
