You know, I've always wondered about why Gestahl's portrait in Owzer's house would suddenly give out information to the Returners. Thank you for attempting to tackle that plot hole.

Your writing is good, and you use decent spelling and grammar (always a refreshing change!) Hengist seemed like a believable character; original characters are hard to pull off well, but he served his function without being a Gary Stu/Marty Stan, and his fears about getting killed by Gestahl were realistic.

Some parts were a bit confusing to follow (it took me a couple of readthroughs to realize that Gestahl died halfway through the fic; I'm *really* dense), and you still leave a few unanswered questions about the portrait (don't mind me, I nitpick a lot in reviews), but the originality of this fic makes up for it. Good job!