Mergel Wants a Real Savior

Ash and Elmyra left Biresh's platform with the kind of answer that only made the question worse.

The missing blue Wingkin was alive. He was safe. He did not want rescue.

Then Mergel of the Blue Candle found them on the way out.

He came quietly, because secrecy mattered more than pride. Mergel did not ask for art, theater, or another pretty lie. Ash offered paintings and illusion-shaped distractions, but Mergel cut through the performance. The Emrites already had a performer. That was the problem.

Biresh could eat lightning, belch it back out, and let people kneel. Those tricks were enough to dazzle a settlement that wanted proof. They were not enough to save anyone.

Mergel wanted real Wingkin sent to the enclave. He wanted an actual savior, or at least someone close enough to the old promise that the Emrites could stop mistaking convenience for divinity.

But he could not be seen asking outsiders for help.

The Emrites were the only Emrys-following goblins he knew. If the settlement turned on him, he would lose not only shelter, but the last fragile community that made his faith feel possible.

So the party left with a second version of the rescue.

Valbrandt Wingkin had been found.

Mergel still needed saving.