Deep within the heart of Polyargos, Yudhishthira sighed. An agreement had been wrought, and though it fell to his fancy whether he enforced it or not, he could not help but think back to the rime-wrought madman and how his endless gloating would've gone if the tables had turned.

The call chimed out from the volcanic isle, and the Conclave answered. So too did much of Sapience, keen to witness the gathering of such a cabal. With little ado, the mystics set to work, unbinding their former comrade from his hundred-year prison.

Maklak's freedom came in a flash, unceremoniously deposited before the gawking masses of Sapience. The mad wizard promptly spotted the visage of one of his most hated foes in the crowd, and turning his gelid mastery to shatter the Lady of the Crossing, Tesha al Ashtad, in twain.

Satisfied, he gazed out at the bloodrains beyond, marvelling at the sanguine seas. And in the terrible haste of abject madness, his plan came to be. Blood, a powerful ritual tool, was in no short supply. Empowered by the twining of oceanic essence such a ritual bounty, the insane wizard found himself with the means to rouse a presence he could barely sense, slumbering deep below the Sea of Terror.

Slipping into the seas upon a bridge of reddened ice, the fell wizard brought forth a tremendous, island-sized spire iceberg into being, hurling it into the cursed oceans with a thundering crash. A terrifying tidal wave rose in kind, sweeping over the Aalen to end the lives of all living things within its midst, breaking upon the spine of the Vashnars.

Confused for only a moment, Maklak had little time to ponder before the Sorceress of the Seas woke from her ritual torpor, rising in frenzied pursuit of the mad wizard. With her, the other conduits spurned into life, the weight of the Vigil's invocation fading at last.

Meanwhile, the ice wizard fled the pursuing Sorceress, plunging into the depths of Yggdrasil's sundered flame. He traced the path he had walked a hundred years ago atop the boughs of the World Tree, returning to the Elemental Embassy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary:
Freed from his hundred-year prison as per the agreements of the Reckoning, the Conclave released Maklak, the mad ice wizard. Taking advantages of the blood rains to fuel his magics, Maklak attempted to fulfill a bargain made with Sllshya to flood the realm, unknowingly waking the Sorceress of the Seas and the rest of the elemental conduits with her.

Penned by My hand on the 12th of Ero, in the year 758 AF.