Words cannot express how we feel about the loss of Pelmarco. The Red Exemplars remember him with a bloody ritual cut on their forearms. For the rest of us, all we have are memories. He was one of the bravest men any of us ever met. There was no challenge he would refuse, regardless of the consequences. Zhethou said the Lunari favored him. By her command, he became a Red Exemplar, and by her command, he died. She used her powers to shape a small, gleaming monument in the ruins of the garden, and carved his name into the stone. People will remember his sacrifice here for years to come.
Although Zhethou did not display much emotion, I cannot imagine her sorrows at the loss of her sister and the other Lunari. More Lunari died within the past year than in the entire history of our world. She explained to us what happened. Methou and Fethashel shed their light, the intensity of which blocked the cave and instantly burned everything in the vicinity that Zhethou could not shield. While the enemy may reopen the entrance to the cave one day, they cannot send out an army until then.
Tora’Sor is happy to see us once again. Although the enemy kept her chained in solitude for the first year or so of her captivity, they eventually eased their restrictions on her activities. She and Purishi’Kan spent much time attempting to figure out the final ingredient of the recipe she took with her, but they had no luck. She was surprised when we told her what it was, and what the recipe would have actually accomplished. She also told us about the cave. It is more massive than any cave she knows of, and she never saw more than a small portion. Inside are many slaves of the Dark Lunari, offspring of unfortunate victims captured and taken hostage throughout the centuries. Perverse and dark, yet strong in numbers, theirs is a silent empire, a sleeping threat to our unsuspecting world. No one can know if or when they will emerge for conquest, but considering the current state of this entrance, it will be a long time before they can dig their way back out.