There wasn’t an immediate response, but that didn’t concern Kre too much. He knew that Bel was considering her words with the usual care she put into explaining things. He just wasn’t prepared for her next words to be such an emotion-filled apology, “I am so terribly sorry that I let that creature take you from us. I put all of my power into hiding us from the others that I didn’t notice that he managed to trap the doorway.”
Kre’s hands twitched, wishing that he could see Bel so he could at least offer a gesture of comfort. “It’s okay,” he offered, feeling silly simply saying it aloud to the empty air. “No harm, no foul. He actually wasn’t terrible. Just… lost, maybe is the best word. He told me about his family and about how the darkness came for them. He showed me what the city looked like back in its heyday using his illusions.” He paused there, unsure if he should mention the box he was told to deliver or if he should try to explain about meeting the priest’s son.
“I am glad that you are unharmed and none the worse for the experience. I still feel badly though that he took you out from under my wing. Were we not already committed, with the shadows eager to hunt us, we would have searched for you.
“As it was, we could do nothing but return to the surface. A trek that took nearly a day and a half in and of itself, but we emerged mostly intact. Though it pains me that we lost you, I do have to admit that shielding two is far easier than shielding three.”
Kre nodded, “And you say that was a few weeks ago? It’s felt as if it’s only been a couple days at most, though I suppose I could have been unconscious in the forest for longer… but then I wasn’t as hungry when I awoke as I should have been if I were asleep for weeks.”
“Time moves very strangely in the different realms,” Bel explained. Even now, only mere fractions of a second have passed for your new companions while you and I have talked.”
“Magic certainly has an odd way of making sense until it doesn’t,” Kre admitted, accepting the idea of different realms and clocks as easily as if he were hearing the nightly menu at the tavern. “So I’ve been unreachable to you for weeks, but now you know where I am, right? You can come find me?”
“No,” Bel said a little too quickly for Kre’s liking, “There are other matters I need to attend to, but when I heard the tyrfang’s call, I knew that must at least check in on you. For now, you’ll be best served sticking close with these adventurers for safety until we can meet again.”
“Speaking of that,” Kre said with a grimace, “apparently this crew is on the hunt for a dragon. I don’t suppose that you’re their unlucky prey?”
Bel chuckled, “No, I don’t believe so. But I shall note that and exert caution when around them. They have powers, it seems, but nothing I have not dealt with in the past.”