Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Derek Hudson and you're listening to Icebound.

Previously on Icebound. I don't have a thing prepared, so we can all slap. No, no, no, no, it's fine. We were at a dinner. We were at a dinner. You all attended the dinner. You were invited there by Elder Rosemary Nightbloom, the leader of the Trive of the Shadow Vale Cabal. And Nimrodel. And Nimbr Odell. Our friend. Your friend. He's not a super.

That's right.

That's exactly correct.

I regret it for saying.

I know you do.

And you've received invitations to a wedding.

The pretense was the wedding rehearsal, the night before a dinner where the families could coalesce and talk, meet one another.

And you had an enjoyable dinner, but the focus and topic of the conversation was your presence,

specifically, Scrim's presence, for they had a suspicion, they had a notion, they had an idea

that perhaps those that they worshipped,

these mouths of the gods, these guardians, as they called them, of the elves, were the same as

Graveyard Jack, the beast that hunts and haunts scrimms every waking moment.

And it was revealed during that conspiratorial dinner that the, that they would be happy to trade,

that they would be happy to exchange the services of Graveyard Jack, a way of strengthening

their tribe, of bolstering their magic, a tradition, something passed down for generations.

If that were facilitated, that they would be willing to teach you a way to break the bond,

the magical bond that you all forged on your oath-swearing day, your naming day,

the day that you became a tribe under the Princes of Powers wing, under her power, under her watch,

you would be able to break that bond and no longer be lending some of your strengths to her,

but instead, invisibly, quietly, surreptitiously, be free from that

magic, that binding, that trick. The four of you pendatively agreed and went your merry way

...