Etherstorm Wastes: the three-faction war
The arm and the fruit
Warlic urges Galanoth to consider balance as well as strength. He cannot recreate the lost arm, but he could find a replacement. The DragonSlayer jokes about taking a dragon's arm or trying something mechanical, then returns to the resolve that has sustained him: he will fight with what he has until another arm becomes his.
Elsewhere, the Hero wonders what a quiet life without bloodshed might have been like. Omom offers fruit, and the Hero thanks her while urging her to stay away from the coming battle. Ang'st will want her safe, and so does the Hero. Her help has mattered, but war is no place for an innocent creature.
An offer from X'dir
X'dir interrupts that moment with an offer from Desoloth. His master values the Hero's strength and wisdom despite the frailties of being human. Wealth and power over Lore can be theirs if they bend the knee. Desoloth would rather use that strength than extinguish it, X'dir says; the answer leads the story into three different allegiances.
A Hero remaining loyal to Good refuses to betray the people who depend on them. A Hero aligned with Evil likewise refuses to betray their cause and Empress Gravelyn. Both send X'dir away with a warning for his master. The Evil route also reveals a private intention the priests do not hear: once the Hero is close enough, Desoloth's life will be theirs.
The Heart of the Dragon
In either refusal route, the Hero reports X'dir's approach to the allies and takes it as a sign that Desoloth fears them. Warlic warns against underestimating an enemy drunk on elemental power, while Hs'Sakar encourages confidence without carelessness. The Hero proposes subduing Desoloth and imprisoning him. Ll'rillor names the Cor Draconis, the Heart of the Dragon, and Ang'st believes it can contain and redeem a fallen dragon.
The Wise Ones will arrange the imprisonment once the Hero wins. Time is short: Warlic senses Chaos exploiting Etherstorm's disorder and tainting its creatures. Hs'Sakar fears Desoloth may be using them too, and warns that he has opened a gate to the DragonPlane. The fighting has reached the Primes' own home, and defeat would cost more than dragon lives.
The promise of supremacy
The Desoloth route accepts the temptation instead. X'dir promises that no human will stand above the Hero, who privately considers turning on Desoloth after dealing with the Primes. When X'dir warns that Omom will tell the others, the Hero lets her go: their former allies will learn of the betrayal soon enough. X'dir orders the Primes killed so their power can be freed for his master, then sends the Hero toward the open DragonPlane gate.
Even this Hero notices a threat outside the bargain. An abnormal Firebird raises the suspicion that Chaos has reached Etherstorm. The Hero doubts Desoloth would willingly submit to Drakath, but puts further investigation behind the immediate Prime conflict. Their own ambitions require stability, and they intend to return to fighting Chaos afterward.
A working arm
X'dir tries the DragonSlayer next. He offers Galanoth wealth, power and the chance to become unstoppable by attacking the Primes for Desoloth. There is another inducement: a new and supposedly improved arm. Galanoth answers by attacking the traitor, whose confident salesmanship gives way to pleas for his master's help.
The rejected offer still leaves something useful behind. Galanoth recovers the arm and passes it to Omom, asking whether she has seen her master and the other priests. He needs to speak with them. There is no reason to waste a working arm, he reasons; with Warlic's help, it might yet serve him.
The creatures caught in the war
On the Good front, Hs'Sakar acknowledges that he was wrong to doubt the Hero. King Alteon has asked him to watch over this champion of Good. The war tasks seek to redeem the tainted Thunderbirds or capture them for study toward a cure. Desoloth's disruption has let Chaos take hold, yet the effort to save the creatures leaves hope for Etherstorm's land and children.
On the Evil front, Gravelyn has asked Dr'Rader to guard a valuable ally. His tasks confront the same taint with a harsher possibility: kill Thunderbirds judged too far gone before Chaos spreads, or study them to learn whether they can still be saved. The priest admits that ordering those deaths requires a hardness he could not bring to the killing himself. Above all, he wants to keep the corruption from passing from creatures to dragons.
Power through dragon deaths
Serving Desoloth changes the purpose of the fighting. X'dir's tasks demand the deaths of elemental dragons the Hero once defended. He says his master is linked to Etherstorm's creatures by blood and breath, and that every elemental dragon death increases his power. These sacrifices strike at the Primes while deliberately strengthening their enemy.
X'dir offers rewards, glory and slaughter, while warning that Desoloth does not tolerate traitors. He anticipates being judged weak for serving a greater master, then argues that he and the Hero both act for their own gain. He does not trust the new recruit, even if Desoloth finds them useful. This allegiance turns the Hero against the dragons and priests whose cause they previously served.
The price paid by Omom
The Good and Evil routes bring the Hero to the final confrontation among allies. Hs'Sakar says the Primes can support the battle, linked to their priests' strength. In the Good route, the Hero speaks of cleansing Desoloth and restoring balance. In the Evil route, they explicitly name his death as the only way to protect the Empress, despite the priests' disapproval. Warlic reminds them that Etherstorm and Lore depend on the outcome.
In both of those routes, X'dir brings Omom's body to the Hero. He says she launched herself at Desoloth as they landed, then turns her death into a taunt: does the Hero always let friends die for them? He warns Hs'Sakar that the priest might be next. The little companion whom the Hero had tried to keep safe has followed them into the war after all.
Betrayal answered with betrayal
A Hero who followed Desoloth instead faces the allies' anger. Hs'Sakar promises reckoning, Galanoth cannot understand the betrayal, and Warlic asks for a reason. The Hero admits wanting the promised rewards. X'dir credits the many dragon deaths with strengthening his master, but Desoloth demands one more service: kill Galanoth. Here the Hero refuses. Bonds forged beside the DragonSlayer and Warlic outweigh this bargain, and Air magic sends those two allies away.
Desoloth reveals what the promised supremacy means: when all are in graves, all will be equal. He turns on the Hero, and Omom takes the force of an attack meant for them before Desoloth strikes again. The Hero denounces the liar. Hs'Sakar observes that Hero and dragon have betrayed each other, with Omom paying the price of that discovery. Her sacrifice belongs to this route; it is the alternative to X'dir bringing her body in the Good and Evil versions.
The choice taken from the Wise Ones
The battle ends with Desoloth dead and the Hero facing the gathered priests and Primes. Before they can speak, the Hero defends the killing. The Wise Ones had hoped to imprison and redeem him in the Cor Draconis; the Hero believed that a free Desoloth would kill them all, while an imprisoned one would spend centuries growing stronger and more furious.
Hs'Sakar challenges more than the victory's cost. The Hero has decided the dragons' problem for them and taken away their choices, assuming only they knew what was best. The Hero accepts that charge, insisting that protecting Lore justified the deed. Hs'Sakar then asks whether they regret taking this dragon's life—or any dragon's life.
Regret and restitution
A regretful answer earns a measure of hope. Hs'Sakar invites the Hero back to the realms to work toward restitution for all the deaths since Desoloth rose. The Air Priest nevertheless asks that the Hero be stripped of the magic they were given, judging them unworthy of its blessing. The Primes will remain to seal Desoloth's remains within the Cor Draconis, where his spirit might someday be reborn cleansed.
An unrepentant answer brings banishment instead. Hs'Sakar tells the Hero to leave Etherstorm and never return. The priests will spare them out of respect for earlier aid, but will not answer for the Primes or their children. This answer also brings the order to remove the Hero's Air magic. The Primes will still seal the remains, preserving their hope of redemption in defiance of the Hero's prediction.
A grave claimed by Chaos
The closing scene turns to Xing and Xang admiring the shining grave. They speak of another appointment, somewhere—or somewhen—they are already late for, then leave as someone approaches. Drakath arrives and finds enough of Desoloth remaining for his own purpose. An unexpected source of disorder in Etherstorm can now become a vehicle for him in a more literal sense.
Drakath considers imprisonment a waste of Desoloth's power and a living Desoloth an annoyance. Remains chained by his power and animated by Chaos suit him far better: a mount for the destiny he pursues. He commands Desolich to rise. The creature's private thought denies the master's easy confidence: it still regards itself as a Prime, and will serve in silence only for now.