The battle west of Tharendur was an attack on Eira, Kaelion, Xarion, Marcellus, and Kazehiro as they traveled toward the source. Azarion and the mages sent to intercept them were defeated. Eliona arrived during the fighting and negotiated an agreement: Eira's group would try to close the source, and she and Azarion would help kill Raphael.
Background
Raphael expected the Order to approach the source and sent Azarion's group to cut them off. Eira and her companions left Tharran and followed the road west toward the Plains of Eternity. Eira detected about thirty approaching signatures, and they prepared to fight.
Eliona was following Azarion with Alice, Alistair's female disguise. After crossing the source into another world, Alistair wanted the Order's help to close the breach and intended to turn them against Raphael. Eliona thought Eira might have the temporal skill they needed, but believed she would refuse to cooperate willingly.
The Fighting
Eira took on Azarion while the others spread out. His blasts of air and divine magic tore through the ground and surrounding forest. Hrzai cast alongside Eira, and the Malverand heart restored her wounds as she fought. Eira killed supporting mages and repeatedly shattered Azarion's defenses, but he also regenerated. The abundant Essence in the plains sustained their prolonged struggle, although their reserves and bodies still had limits.
Kaelion initially faced Ravira, whose prismatic rays pierced his shields and whose liquid glass barriers redirected his attacks. Xarion took over against Ravira and Soria, while Kaelion fought two divine mages who repeatedly healed each other's wounds. Xarion used gravity and golden lightning against the two origin mages and called down a meteor. Its impact devastated the battlefield and sent Marcellus and Kazehiro fleeing south toward Solvarria.
Eliona and Alice reached Eira and Azarion as the meteor's debris wave approached. They shielded both combatants, interrupting the duel. Azarion had exhausted his god core and no longer wielded its shard's power. Eira tore off his arms in retaliation for his attack on Splin, then sealed the wounds without restoring the limbs. He subsequently regenerated them.
The Agreement
Eliona asked Eira's group to close the source. Azarion said he had wanted to capture Eira for questioning, and Kaelion agreed to hear them out. Eira recounted her part in shaping Valrindor and giving Belanor temporal magic. Eliona began to question whether she and the other guardians owed their existence to that history and whether opposing the Order was justified.
The survivors gathered as Alice retrieved the wounded Severin. Myrelia blamed Kaelion for killing Myrdon and attacked him, but Eira knocked her unconscious.
Eira required Eliona and Azarion to turn against Raphael in exchange for help. They agreed to the proposed peace and removal of their shards, while retaining their Malverand hearts. Raphael had told them that the Order created the source; they had assumed its members would oppose closing it. Eira and her companions had their own reasons to shut it.
The groups traveled together to Zarephon in skyships. Eliona publicly presented Eira's party as prisoners to keep the agreement concealed from Rahmavir's forces. Severin carried Myrelia with the remaining survivors, while Ravira and Soria were still missing. Marcellus and Kazehiro joined the allied forces in Solvarria. Eira, Kaelion, and Xarion prepared to descend to the source.