Breathing heavily and shaking, I drew my knife and pried the Soulstone out of Diablo's forehead. His body crumbled away, leaving the small body of Prince Albrecht. As I held the bloody Soulstone in my hand, I caught a glimpse of the future that we would have if we continued our plan. I would become a corrupted Rogue, using my Sister's Graveyard to form an army of desecrated souls. The warrior and the sorcerer would become mere shadows of their former selves; Prince Aidan, the Warrior, would initially somewhat contain Diablo as a Dark Wanderer until he arrived in Hell. The Sorcerer, Brennan, would become a protector of an arcane sanctuary after he murdered the great mage Horazon. I clutched the Soulstone tightly and felt the tears roll down my face.
"Raven? What's wrong, what did you see?" asked Brennan.
I quickly explained what would happen to us if Aidan smashed the stone in his skull like we'd been planning. Saying he was angry was an understatement. Brennan erupted with Chain Lightning and Aidan and I had to get out of the way before we were electrocuted. I cast a town portal as Brennan picked up Albrecht's body and we passed through. We tumbled out, graceless as ever, and all three of us bellowed "CAIN!" as we stalked towards him.
Prince Aidan leaped at him, grabbing his collar and hissing "You had better know of a place that we can destroy this Soulstone. My brother, father, mother and those I considered uncles such as Lachdanan are dead because of your silence! Blood Raven has lost her Sisters to your stupidity. I can't even begin to count the times I saw her cry because a staked or headless body was one of her Sister's. Brennan has lost clan-mates because you withheld lifesaving information Cain, what say you?" "They would have died anyway." He croaked. "MORE THAN WOULD HAVE IF YOU HADN'T WITHHELD IT!" Aidan pushed him away in disgust.
After giving Albrecht's body to Pepin, we walked to our house by the river that the villagers had given us. When Aidan opened the door, I cast my trap detection skill and found nothing, as usual.
"Clear." I murmured.
Only then, once I pronounced it clear, did we ever enter any building, dungeon, hallway or other place where traps could be set. We filed in to the one-room structure in habit, Brennan first, Aidan second, and me last. Collapsing gratefully to the floor, I pulled out my knife and arrows and began cleaning and sharpening them. About an hour of complete silence passed and then we heard a thunk on the door. Prince Aidan opened the door a little and poked his head out, axe at the ready.
"Check the door Raven, there's a knife and scroll stuck to it." He called to me.
I cast the spell and called back "Clear." I stood up and jogged toward him, helping him by watching for anything or anyone that came too close. He finally worked the knife loose, picked up the scroll and we went back inside. I swiftly took the knife from Aidan's hand and began cleaning it for something to do. Brennan took the scroll and read the first paragraph aloud:
The Hellforge is a forge that has been shrouded in mystery even before the angel Izual forged the ill-fated blade Azurewrath upon it. Many weapons have been forged upon it; some demonic, some angelic. There have been at least three instances in history where Soulstones were destroyed upon it. The Hellforge Hammer is the only item in existence that can destroy one. To destroy a Soulstone on the Hellforge, place it in the hollow and hit it three times.
"Where is this Hellforge, or does it say?" asked Aidan. Brennan scanned the short scroll, looking for the information.
"The River of Flame. In Hell." He answered.
"How do we transport the Soulstone?" I questioned.
"It says to use some sort of stasis charm, like Modus Stasi or Holy water rags or wrapped in religious text."
"Modus Stasi can wipe out four people of Brennan's skill and power like it's nothing, and holy water rags are hard to find anywhere outside of Kurast. Even in Kurast they're hard to find." Aidan said, shaking his head.
"What is a Religious text that we can use, with out one of us becoming a priest first?" Brennan mused.
"Zakarum is priests only, nobody outside the Rathma clans has access to their writings, the barbaric tribes is oral only. What else is there?" Aidan muttered "Amazon is also passed down orally, and the druid clans writings are freely given but not this far south. Zann Esu has no known deities." Brennan contributed.
"Aranochites write their texts on strips of cloth, we could use that. Adria has some." I said excitedly.
We raced across the river, toward Adria's shack. Adria wasn't blind, she just acted like she was around certain people. (Cain and Pepin usually.) She did have a highly developed sixth sense like mine but she sensed people, how many, what their intentions were and their physical health, instead of traps. When we reached her shack, she looked toward the village and ushered us inside, closed and locked the door. She said nothing but merely threw strip after strip of the Aranochite writing at Brennan as she found them. "Blue text is what the gods say, red text is the prophets, green is the magicians text, and yellow is the common people's words." She told us as she continued to throw strips at us.
"How much of this do you have, Adria?"
"Three complete copies and four incompletes. It's a rather short text, only one thousand strips. If the Zakarum Bible was put in this size and length, it would take twenty thousand sixteen strips." It took us until dusk to sort the strips and we were about to start wrapping the Soulstone when there was a knock on the door. "It's Cain, he wants to know where you're at. What do I tell him?" Adria whispered.
"You haven't seen us all day, we're probably in the dungeons under the church, and go away." I replied softly. She cast an illusion charm on us and went to answer Cain.
"Hello Adria, have you seen Blood Raven, Aidan or Brennan? We're having a celebration in the town square for them if you want to come." Cain told her, cheerfulness rather forced.
"I haven't seen them all day, Cain. They're probably in the chapel, praying, or in the dungeons walking among the corpses and blood, remembering life before the demons came. Now go away, I'm studying." Adria slammed the door in his face."We'll finish this tomorrow, when it's daylight. For now, get to the chapel before Cain does." I picked up the Soulstone and she let us out a side door that we hadn't noticed.
We ran to the chapel and got there a good ten minutes before Cain did, which gave us plenty of time to begin prayer or meditation as we chose. Once he got there, Cain banged the floor a couple times with his staff. We 'awoke, startled', grabbed weapons and had them aimed at him before he could even blink. Relaxing slightly, I asked "What do you need, Cain?"
"We're having a celebration for you in the town square." He answered.
"For what? We haven't killed Diablo yet!" Aidan said, confused.
"You have killed his physical body, which is the morale boost we needed."
"No. All we killed was my younger brother. If we'd had a few paladins left, we could've saved Albrecht and your silence may not have mattered. You have no idea of the horrors we saw while we were down there. Blood Raven and I had to kill family members, her sister Snow and my brother. You will never feel the aching pain in your heart as you recall something they did, or didn't do. Do not count friends you do not have." Aidan snarled.
I spoke up. "Leave us Cain. We'll come to the celebration, but all we'll be celebrating is that we survived another day. Because before long, your silence will have killed us and likely yourself as well."
As Cain left, Aidan murmured "We should head to Lut Gholein tomorrow or the next day. A new trader came through earlier in the day, before we trapped Diablo, a man named Warriv. He's headed to Lut Gholein and I think we might be able to travel with him."
"Yes, or we can buy horses from him." I replied, tracing a Zod rune in the dust, so the place couldn't be destroyed.
"The pain of Tristram will never be forgotten by those who left with their sanity intact. For no one's soul is intact anymore. Kill or be killed." Brennan said, briefly taking me in his arms.
"Yes, unfortunately." A voice I recognized said.
We turned, weapons once again at the ready. An angel was floating there in front of us. "At ease warriors, I am Tyrael. I seek to help you."
Quickly forming a plan, I challenged "Tell us something that only Tyrael would know." Of course, that would cover a lot of things and he said as much. I nodded but still, there was one specific piece of information that the true Tyrael would give me.
"You have the Justice Scales that your family has guarded for 21 generations." I nodded, pulling the Amulet out from underneath my runic cloak.
Quickly, while it was still on my mind, I said "Don't use Marius, Tyrael. He's going to follow us but if everything goes wrong, he won't do as you say. He can't be trusted with his task. Use us instead." Tyrael was more than a little shocked that we knew of his plans. I hastily explained everything the Soulstone had shown me.
Tyrael was surprised at this information and seemed to be verifying what he could tell us. At last he told us "If what you say is true, then I have been played for a fool for a long time. The Soulstones have been corrupted and must be destroyed."
"We will destroy them to the best of our ability, this I swear." I said solemnly.
"Do not fail. The whole world, Heaven, Sanctuary, Netherim, and Hell, depend on your success. I need to get back to guarding Baal. May the Light shine upon your path and the Darkness flee from thy sword." Tyrael said solemnly.
"But then we have to chase them! I like my targets stationary!" Aidan playfully whined. Tyrael laughed as he faded away. Brennan and I smiled at each other.
Slowly walking to town, we could hear the music and gay laughter. Occasionally, I heard ghost sounds of Albrecht's tortured screams and Diablo's laughter. I grimaced, shaking my head, trying to dismiss the sounds and memories. Aidan noticed and squeezed my hand, asking "You hear it too?"
As I nodded, Griswold came up behind us and told us "Buck up, lads and lady. Fighting messes with your mind, that's why only the brave and strong should do it. The weaker ones become Farnhams. I hope you don't go like him. He was a great man. Was."
"Griswold, we have no intention of becoming like Farnham. He drinks Palomaberry; some of the strongest stuff out there. The hardest we intend to go is probably Arreat mead, maybe stronger." Aidan responded.
As the blacksmith moved off, Adria came into town. Gillian, ever the drama queen, screamed and 'fainted'. How she stands drunks like Farnham and sometime drunks like his twin brother Marius on an almost-daily basis and is scared of a witch, I don't know, but it ticked me off; I stalked up to Gillian, grabbed her hair and drug her to Adria. I pulled her up to Adria's face and told her "They said that eyes are windows to the soul. Look at Adria's." Gillian refused, so I yanked her head to look deep into the Witch's silver eyes. The whole town was looking at us, but I didn't care.
Adria clicked her tongue and everything that Gillian had ever said about Adria came pouring out of her mouth. There was a rather lot, including an impassioned little speech that if could be proven true and sent to the right person, would get Adria killed. "Well, I have no doubt in my mind that she meant every word she said. I would like to sue for undue slander, my king, what sayeth thee?" Everyone held their breaths, waiting on Aidan to speak.
"I deem thy case worthy. Fifteen gold pieces will be paid to Adria,"
Gillian interrupted "I don't have fifteen gold pieces!"
"Twenty and a five year apprenticeship to Adria." He said smoothly. The barmaid started to complain, but Aidan put a stop to that by asking "Need I make it thirty and ten?"
Gillian screeched "No!"
"Then you'll do everything that Adria asks of you and if you don't, a charm will appear on this bracelet and sting you every five minutes. You cannot take off the bracelet until your apprenticeship is over." Brennan conjured a bracelet which tied itself around the barmaid's wrist. Gillian's grand-dam laughed out loud. "What did I tell you, chile? You would find yourself under an undeserving enemy. She deserveth," "SHUT UP! Shut up, you grate-less old hag, shut up!" Gillian screamed, interrupting her Grand-mere's spiel. Adria muttered a spell under her breath and the young barmaid lost her voice. "Well, now that's out of the way, on with the party." I called out.
We went inside the Tavern of the Rising Sun, where we snagged a corner table. Garda came to us and asked "What'll ye have lads?" "Beer for the two of us," said Brennan, indicating himself and Aidan. "And bourbon for her."
As Garda walked off, Marius staggered up. "Can a man, hic, si' wi' such fine, hic, warriors, hic, as yourself?"
"Sure Marius, come sit down." I said, after slipping under Brennan to sit by the wall, as far as possible from the drunken man. I pulled three small vials from a hidden pocket in my belt. Slipping one to Aidan and Brennan, I said "But, yeah of course, the Yarda counteracts the poison, so we could stand it longer." I winked. The vials were marked Yarda but it was sobriety potion.
The warrior and sorcerer nodded. "It's been a long time, hasn't it Blood Raven? The people change, they come and go, they act like arrogant arses and expect to be treated with reverence and when you don't, they get all puffed up and tantrumized. They seem to think that written word can substitute and give you the same knowledge that fighting for your life can and they say they understand when they've never been here, done that, destroyed it and survived." Brennan snapped, anger finally being allowed to let loose. Garda brought our drinks and handed us a little slip of parchment. "Drinks on the house, rest of the night. Cain might try something, be wary." I read it and growled. After the other two read it, we each called a sliver of fire to our fingers and burnt the paper. Marius eventually moved off and I finally answered Brennan's question. "Yeah, we started on what, the seventh of October, and three days later we were fighting the Butcher."
"And now it's a week till Midsummer's Eve. We were fighting for so long. And we're just getting started again." replied Aidan.
"Started on what?" Cain asked, walking up.
"When we killed Albrecht, Diablo sent a signal to his brothers,"
As Aidan explained stuff, I yanked out my knife and took off the Justice Scales. I set the miniature scales on the table and laid the knife beside it. Cain gasped at the ancient artifact. "Those are the Horadric scales! Tal Rasha had them last. How did you get a hold of it?"
"Oh well, you see, there was this minor issue of Tal Rasha taking his armor and things with him because Baal could destroy it and they didn't want that. So each member got one thing. My ancestor happened to get the Justice Scales, and my family has kept them ever since. Got a problem?"
"Who deserves them?" He asked.
"Well, let's find out." I said, really enjoying this. I slashed my finger and dripped blood on one of the bowls, I forget the correct term for them. Cain unwillingly did the same on the other side. The scales tipped my way. Cain left immediately afterward. "New question." I slashed Aidan and Brennan's fingers and dripped their blood on my side. The scales slowly balanced.
"Is Cain justified in what ever he has planned for us?" Brennan asked. Again, the scales tipped our way.
"I take that as a no." I swallowed the last of my bourbon, picked up the amulet and walked outside. I was going on a carving spree, to make each building indestructible. I walked around, carving Zod runes into buildings near the grass lines, so they couldn't be seen easily.
I sent off a messenger arrow to Brennan and Aidan, telling them to meet me at Warriv's caravan so we could buy horses. They came after a minute or so and we knocked on Warriv's wagon door. He let us into the Gypsy style wagon and asked us "So, what do you need?"
"We need three of your best horses and a pack horse. We'll pay good cash for them." I said, making sure there were no unwanted listeners. "Four hundred apiece."
"Four-fifty." Warriv countered.
"Four twenty-five." Aidan told him.
"Deal." Walking outside, I picked out a black stallion I liked. "You don't want Thunder, miss. He bucks off everyone." Warriv warned.
"Try me." I told him stubbornly. I walked up slowly to the horse, patting him and talking low. When he'd gotten used to me enough, I leaped up on his back. He did buck but after a while it became clear to Thunder that I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. When he quit bucking, I told him soothingly
"Now, see, was that so bad?" He tossed his head and snorted.
Warriv called "Will you be wanting a saddle, miss?"
"No, I don't think so. Pick out your horses, boys." Brennan picked out a chestnut roan mare named Cinnamon, Aidan got a white stallion called Moonlight and a pack horse named Mule. I handed Warriv the gold. We rode to the other side of Adria's shack and tethered the horses there. Then we quietly snuck back to the house by the river and got everything that we needed out and on our horses. We had a few more drinks and then we hit the sack. Brennan and I woke up roughly at the same time; me from nightmares, he from me kicking him. He woke me up properly, calmed me down and then held me close to him for awhile. When I finally calmed down enough to sleep, Brennan laid down beside me and held me through the rest of the night.
The next morning, before anyone else was up, Brennan and I stole to Adria's shack, where we found Aidan checking through the sorted strips from the night before. Brennan produced the Soulstone from his robes and we commenced to wrap it. Just as we came from hiding the Soulstone in the saddlebags, Cain walked up and asked "Prince Aidan, where do you think you're going?" Aidan glared at Cain as he mounted, holding the reins in one hand.
"I wasn't aware that a Prince's movements were any business of yours, Cain. Where I'm going, Blood Raven and Brennan will be adequate protection." We clip-clopped into town, and Aidan stood up in his stirrups. "My good people, my friends and I have decided to try and renew alliances with Aranoch and Westmarch and renew trade lines with the Arreats. If you see any demons, or hear tell of in the neighboring cities, I want you to pack your food, your clothes, your valuables and move to Kingsport. I will not have any more of my subjects killed if I can help it."
Here Griswold interrupted. "My lord Aidan, who will command us?"
"Why, Griswold, I was hoping it would be you, since you have the most battle experience, and are good at keeping your head while everyone else has lost theirs." Aidan said, glaring at a few survivors of the massacre beneath Tristram's church
Griswold sank to one knee and murmured "Thank you my prince."
"For now, we say goodbye to the people of Tristram."
"Godspeed, Prince Aidan!" Adria shouted. He dismounted, walked up to Adria, swept her up in a kiss and remounted. "Thank you, my love." He told her quietly. Aidan clipped forward.
Brennan spoke for the first time. "That could have been you he was saying it to, Gillian, had you not said all those things about Adria. If he'd still said it to her, I might have said it to you, but not since you defamed my cousin so rudely yesterday."
I ignored Gillian and focused on Wirt. "Since your accident, I've been thinking about you a rather lot, young man. You remember how once you asked me why there were so many demons without their skin?" Wirt nodded. I threw a small bag at him; he caught it and looked inside.
"Holy Christ alive! You made this?"
"Pull it out and show us boy, we wanna know what it is too!" called Ogden. Wirt pulled out the demon-skin armor I'd made him.
"There's another bag in there. You'll know who it belongs to." Wirt pulled out the other bag, peeked inside, and retched. He delivered it at arms-length to Pepin.
"Demon organs?" Pepin asked. I nodded. "Useful stuff, that is." I smiled and rode off toward Aidan, Brennan and Lut Gholein.
Unbeknownst to us, Cain had rallied more than a few angry farmers the night before, meeting us at Tristram's city limits. About twenty angry people stood there, holding pitchforks, scythes and torches. Twenty more came up behind us, trapping us in. We'd been in much worse fights than this under the church but these were friends. That hurt, more than any other blow that Cain could have given us. I saw several Sisters standing in the back, bows trained on me. I glared at them, revenge clearly plastered on my face. All of them quailed but not one dropped her bow. Cain smirked. "Apparently there are more than a few who want you to stay, Aidan."
"A mob is hardly the way to show it, Cain. These people are our friends, not our enemies. We prevailed in bigger fights than this underneath the church. Please, just go home and let us start our journey." Brennan said pleadingly.
A few people stared at the ground, but didn't break away from the crowd. Cain suddenly signaled to someone behind us, and a loud bang like a firework had our horses rearing up and us falling off backwards. Our horses tore off towards Adria's shack. Someone grabbed me and I started fighting for my life. I punched, kicked, scratched and bit like a wild animal. Someone caught me a hard blow to the head and I faltered. They kicked me in my back and I fell down on my face. Somebody tied my hands up behind me as I slipped in and out of consciousness. The last thing I heard before I finally succumbed to the black darkness was Adria's angry screech as they dragged us into the town jail.
I awoke sometime later. Slowly sitting up, I hissed at the pain in my middle back and surveyed my surroundings, aware that someone had taken off the rope that had bound my hands. Me, Brennan and Aidan were in a small straw-lined cell alone, no guards or anything. I soon saw why. We had a magic buffer. No magic could be performed in the cell but my senses were still active. They were screaming TRAPS! I activated the 'trapvision' as I called it. Any live trap would glow red and any disabled trap would glow blue. Trap triggers were yellow. I ignored them for a minute to take a look at Brennan and Aidan's injuries. Mine could wait. I pulled off Aidan's armor and shirt, hissing at the pain in my shoulder. Clumsily taking off my own armor, I reached into my shirt to get some emergency healing supplies. Chugging a small healing potion, I heard my name being called. I turned to the tiny window where muted moonlight streamed in. Adria kneeled there, pushing a pouch of herbs through the bars. She also dropped in a mortar and pestle, a large roll of bandages and a canteen of water. "I can't get in to see you, but Griswold is on duty tonight and has agreed to turn a blind eye to me giving you these. Heal them and escape soon! Your horses are at my shack, ready and waiting on you. I must go." She told me. I whispered a thank you to her and to whatever god or goddess that was listening.
Aidan had a back full of bruises and cuts. Someone must have whipped him. Even with light armor on, it still hurt. I quickly made a poultice for the bruises and rubbed healing potion into the cuts. It stung like hellfire, but it worked. The cuts closed up and most of the bruises had disappeared. Those that hadn't soon would. I pressed lightly on his ribs to see if any were cracked or broken. None were, remarkably. I then checked on Brennan. He had been whipped harder than Aidan, though his body had already healed some of the cuts. He moaned softly and started to move. I placed a soft hand on his back, keeping him down, whispering. "Don't move, Bren. I haven't healed you yet. Stay still, I know it hurts, but stay still." He hissed as I clumsily poured the healing potion on his back with my left hand. The cuts disappeared just as Aidan's had. I lightly pressed on his ribcage and he hissed again. "Can you sit up without hurting yourself?" I whispered.
"I don't think so." He answered so softly I had to strain to hear him.
"Can you turn your head this way, so I can give this to you?"Doing the best I could with one hand, I quickly ground together some herbs, that when mixed with water, were useful for numbing pain. "This is going to numb the pain so I can turn you over and get at your ribs, okay. It will take a minute to work, and in the meantime it will hurt like nobody's business, but if you don't fight me I can get you healed faster." I told him, praying he wasn't going to fight. I had no strength for that, not right now. Brennan muttered a delirious "Yes, angel," I fed him the herbs and slowly turned him over, him thrashing slightly. He gave a small cry of pain when I pressed down on his upper left ribcage. Slowly, I poured the healing potion down his throat. I lightly laid my hand over the cracked bones and felt the potion repair them.
Soon, Aidan began to come around. Unlike Brennan, he wasn't delirious. "Raven," he croaked.
"I'm here." I gave him a little bit of water.
"Where are we?" he asked, slowly sitting up and glancing around.
"Tristram's jail. Not the one in the church, the one underneath the gibbet." I replied, finally attending to my injuries as Aidan helped Brennan sit up also. I had been gashed across my head. It wasn't deep but had bled a lot. Unrolling the bandages, I wet one and started to mop the dried blood off my face. Noting my limp shoulder, Brennan took it from me and did it himself.
"What's wrong with your right shoulder, Raven?" Aidan asked.
"I think it's dislocated. It hurts like Tal Rasha's Binding." I said, moving it and feeling daggers shoot up and down my arm.
"Do you know how to fix it, Brennan?" Aidan asked. The Sorcerer shook his head.
"Straddle his waist Raven, and bear hug her, Brennan, to prevent her from moving. This hurts like hellfire and if she moves badly, I won't be able to re-set it. Raven, bury your face in his shoulder, because I don't want every man and his brother woken up by you screaming your bloody head off." I nodded grimly and did as I was told. Brennan's powerful arms wrapped around me and Aidan picked up my arm.
"Just do it, Aidan." I told him. He pushed the bone in place, and I screamed. It hurt more than I had been expecting, but I could move it again.
"I think I have a nice bruise in the middle of my back as well. There's some poultice in the mortar over there and it would be nice if you would do that for me too, please?" I asked, face still mostly buried in Brennan's shoulder, a few tears leaking from the pain. He started to pull up my shirt but stopped. I smirked and muttered "Chivalric bastard." as I pulled it mostly off. He said nothing but merely slopped a whole bunch of the cold paste on my back. I hissed and arched inward. Aidan and Brennan both laughed softly. Once he was sure the bruise was gone, Aidan wiped off the goop and replaced my shirt. "Let's sleep, and then we can plan how to escape." We laid close to keep warm, as there were no blankets and Tristram got cold at night, even during the summertime.
The next morning, Marius banging a wooden spoon against a metal plate woke us up. "The hell d'you want, Marius?" Aidan said, extremely annoyed about his sleep being interrupted.
"I was bringing you brekkie!" He said, entirely too cheerfully.
"I thought I liked him better sober, but he's too cheerful." I muttered. Then louder, I said, "Marius, do me a huge favor."
"What is it, Blood Raven?" He asked, extremely hyper.
"Go to Garda and Ogden's bar, and get yourself wasted. Leave the breakfast inside the cell." I told him, rolling over and snuggling back into Brennan. "I can't." he told us.
"Why the hell not?" Bren rumbled, putting an arm over me.
"It's Sunday! Bar's closed on Sunday!"
"Did you ever think, Marius, that we might not know exactly what day it is, since we were mostly in a DUNGEON since October seventh!" I growled.
"Someone hit him with a cheering charm and overdid it." Brennan mumbled, entwining his fingers in my hair, pulling me close.
"Yeah, well he brought decent food." Aidan said, sticking a piece of bacon under my nose. I glared at it, checking for traps.
"What is wrong with you? You normally snatch up bacon." He asked.
"One, I was checking for poison or other things, and two, I am very comfortable here and bacon will probably not get me to move," I said, snatching the bacon anyway. Marius had long since gone and Brennan and I finally got up and ate some of the eggs, bacon and toast. Apparently someone was on our side as if Cain had had his way, we probably would have had stale bread, moldy cheese and water. I tested my mental communications by silently asking "Can you guys hear me?"
"Yeah, Raven. What can't be said aloud?" Aidan asked. "We have to plan on how to escape and can't exactly say that around here. I was thinking that if my mind control works, then I can trick whoever is on duty and have them leave the cell unlocked after they take away our dinner and then walk out under the cover of darkness. There's a magic buffer but I should be able to have them disable that." I said.
"Are we just going to walk out, no illusions anything?" Aidan asked.
"No, and that's a good question. As soon as we're out of the buffer or it's disabled, then we'll activate the illusion and silence charms. And, then we walk out." I told them.
"Sounds good. As in, I can't find a spot that would be weak if the mind control worked." Brennan said.
" I suppose that now would be as good a time as any to find out if it does." I made my way into Aidan's mind and had him sing an old traveling minstrel's song.
Marius had come down the steps to listen better and I switched control of Aidan to him, making him go back upstairs and not come down to check on us except at mealtimes. Speaking of meals, lunch was a messy affair, as someone had hastily made rabbit sandwiches spiked with a truth-telling potion. I detected it and commanded Marius to give us his lunch (three ham sandwiches) and eat ours instead. Once Marius went back upstairs, I whispered "Only the Eyes know what mischief Cain had planned, but it's certainly going to be disrupted now." The others nodded grimly. Hours later, Cain started down the long set of stairs, and Brennan rapidly mimed sleeping. We lay together in the straw; Brennan holding me close, fingers entwined in my hair again while Aidan slipped an arm under my waist. Cain coughed as if to wake us up. "Ignore him for now." I said mentally. Cain coughed louder. Still, we ignored him. "Wait for it, wait for it. Aidan, same as you did with Marius earlier." Aidan traced an 'OK' on my stomach.
Cain banged the metal bars with his staff, making much the same noise that Marius had before by banging the spoon on the plate. "The hell d'you want now, Marius?" Aidan asked again, faking sleepiness.
"Not Marius, Cain. I've come to ask you a few questions."
"Go away, I wanna sleep," I said, throwing some straw in Cain's general direction.
"Too bad, Blood Raven. Why are you escaping Tristram?"
"We're not escaping, we're setting out to reform ties with other nations." Brennan 'yawned', pushing me upright as he went behind a large pile of straw.
"What is the point of this?" Cain asked as Brennan used the bathroom.
"So Tristram can get needed supplies and reconcile with allies that have been with us since the founding." Aidan replied, also using the bathroom once Brennan was finished.
"Why did you fight for Tristram?"
I answered as I also used the bathroom in a bucket behind the pile of hay. "I did it because I was ordered to, and to get some better stuff for the Rogue Guild Treasury." I said, placing the bucket over by the cell door, where Marius usually picked it up every few hours. Cain got more and more nosy and we continued until well after nightfall. Marius had brought us more sandwiches, and we had subtly shuffled the straw around to hide them. Cain had gone off to have his own dinner, and Marius had 'accidentally' left our door unlocked, also ignoring the waste bucket like he had been told to. Once Cain had returned, I seized my chance. "Now!" I screamed. Kicking open the cell door, I threw the bucket full of bathroom matter at Cain, blinding him. We dashed out of our cell and out of the buffer, while Cain blundered around. Brennan Flashed him just enough to knock him out for a while. After a minute, I heard the hiss of the illusion charm activate. "Stay right here, I sense traps." I said.
I slowly hovered up the staircase. When I touched a step with Cain's staff, spikes shot up from the floor, arrows flew from the wall and fire erupted on the whole staircase. When I removed it, the spikes sank back into the floor and the fire extinguished itself. Throwing Cain's staff back down, I called "We'll have to Telekinesis up." Brennan floated up beside me and we both landed. Turning, we helped Aidan float up as well. Our weapons were lying on a table. We grabbed them and ran lightly through the labyrinth of corridors. After passing the same corridor five times, I sent out a way-finder, a ping that showed you the true way, rather like echolocation. Once reaching the surface, we stole over to Adria's shack. She silently handed us our horses, showing Brennan the Soulstone she'd placed in the saddlebags. Aidan snatched it up, and quietly told Adria, "Take this, pack up your things and flee here. Stay in no town more than one or two nights. Trust no one, not even us." Adria nodded, while casting a spell at her shack. To our amazement, it folded in on itself, many times, until it was the size of a matchbox. Aidan kissed her, and she grew ethereal 'wings' out of her shoulders and flew off.
I sat there thinking for a moment, then suddenly stood and pulled a wand out of my pack. I raced back to our little house that the villagers had given us. Brennan and Aidan followed, wondering if I had lost my senses. On the back of the house, I wrote these words in magic fire; "Who are you, to torture and imprison those that defended you, that gave you good business, that were your friends and neighbors? We never cheated you, Deckard Cain, last of the Horadrim, but you have wronged us. We, Blood Raven the Rogue, Prince Aidan the Warrior, and Brennan the Sorcerer, will not come into Tristram's city limits if you are inside. No longer shall our voices grace the halls of Ogden's tavern, nor our weapons see the fiery coals of Griswold's forge, nor our blood stain Pepin's sheets, nor our gold line Wirt's pockets, not while Deckard Cain lives here." Brennan read it and laughed loudly. Then, raising his staff, he shot a flare of lightning into the sky, lighting up the whole city. Once the flare exploded, a lightning dragon flew about the night sky, and landed on the roof. Aidan thought a moment and the house itself and the ground around it was suddenly iced over. We walked back to our horses and quickly sped off into the night. ~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
The next morning, Griswold awoke late and began moving about his forge. For some reason, the trio's house caught his eye. He walked over to it and sucked in a deep breath. The rest of the town was searching for Deckard Cain. He had some answers to give. This wasn't going to be pretty.
