This was a quick one, hope you like it, two more chapter and we close this "saga of magic Faith and Bla bla bla" never take yourself too seriously.

Don't own a single thing here not making any money, I'm not even writing this, you're not reading this and all is well in fairy land

Chapter 7

Kinara arrived at the place of the casting on the second night since she left Shayen to fend for the children. The small clearing was just a few hundreds of feet away. The dense bush made it hard to see into it. Kinara did not know what she hopped to find, a few dozen dead half elves and Jalen sitting calmly on a tree, probably. That wont be, she thought, prepare for the worst.

Silently gliding above giant tree roots and dodging behind massive tree trunks she arrived at the place where it all went wrong. She could see nothing. Not a body nor blood nor signs of struggle. There was not a trace of the fight. Kinara sat down on the ground and started crying. Life without him wasn't life at all, it was a poor imitation. Without Jalen's warmth and kindness she could not carry on. She cursed all half elves, including herself with the lot. Her incompetence, her weakness was one of the reasons Jalen will die.

"I failed you Jalen, but you failed me too." She said to the forest "You vowed to me, you bastard Child! You vowed to never leave! You swore it on the name of our goddess."

Kinara heard a soft rustle behind her.

"I don't remember that" said a soft female voice, glowing with warmth and understanding.

Kinara turned to see the most beautiful Drow female she had ever seen. She stood naked in the starlit clearance. The ten foot tall drow glowed with a silvery radiance. Her long silvery hair cascaded down her magnificent left shoulder covering her left breast. She held a word in front of her pointed at the ground and a soft light flowed over her right shoulder.

"Lady…" Kinara gasped as she threw herself on the ground near Eilistraee's feet. She was speechless! never had she hoped to meet her elusive goddess who had revealed herself to so few of her believers.

"Rise My Child! You Have No Time To Waste. Our Beloved Jalen Is About To Die."

"Help me goddess! Help me save him!" the mentioning of Jalen's name made Kinara shake her reverent silence.

"I Will Daughter, But I Want You To Know That This Comes At A Price. As We Speak The Elven Children You Have Rescued Are Threatened By Demons. If You Go To Them Now You Will Be Able To Save Them, But Jalen Dies." The goddess's face was companionate but the harsh realities of life clouded her every word. To help others was a main part of Eilistraee's dogma. But caring for her worshipers was even more important. She knew the choice made by this mortal could change the girl's life, but it was not the Goddess's choice to make. Free will is the right of all men, she thought, and everything has a price.

"If You Let Me Take You To Jalen Some Of The Children Will Die, And There Is No Guarantee You Will Save Your Love." She spoke those words with intention, every word set in iron.

"Jalen! Now please, I will deal with the children as soon as possible but I cannot live without him, he still has so much good to accomplish, we… we could cast the spell again, together and go to the children after I save him."

"The Choice Is Made" said the avatar of Eilistraee. The soft glow above her shoulder winked out and with it Kinara vanished.

"I Hope Their Love Is Strong" the goddess said to no one in particular. "The Price They Pay for it Is Great. Quile Valderon Must Be Told, Mystra May Want An Apology From The Church." With that the forest was bathed in silvery light. When the night birds reopened their eyes it was dark and empty.

Shayen swatted yet another demon, cracking its skull with a slash of his formidable claws. Like all the others Shayen had killed, this one too, dissolved into nothingness. Some of the other demons were busy dealing with his many illusions. There were over twenty of the grotesque imps, shayen had already killed seven and three were fighting images in their own minds, the others were either attacking the children or hanging back waiting for a better chance to strike at shayen. The older one, the one that Jalen saved was dealing with them, sweat running down his forehead and blood dripping from his nose he cast spell after spell at the demons. Bolts of energy, acid arrows and many other minor evocations and conjurations were shooting out from his fingertips. This was not an ordinary child, this young sorcerer had much potential, but he was losing the fight. Initially the demons crowded the massive Dragon man trying to bring him down first, but now, most were studying the young spell caster. As two more imps attacked him shayen was again separated from the young elf.

He turned to the fight and by the time the second imp dissolved it was too late. Three imps were leering over the dead body of the fallen elf child, tearing him apart.

Shayen charged the scene of the massacre; with a few quick swipes of his massive claws he ripped the three demons apart. He quickly finished the ones that were caught by his illusions.

There was no joy in his small victory, he had failed, only five of the children survived.

Kinara appeared at a very small clearing in the woods. In front of her, a door stood open and just inside it a stairway led underground. The building was covered in vegetation. It looked like an abandoned temple being retaken by the forest. The clergy of loviatar keep strange lodgings, she thought. Kinara started walking slowly down the stairs, keeping to the sides of the three meter wide stairway. In no time at all she felt the slight shift of a stair beneath her feet and the tingling of a cast spell. The bolt of lightning would have struck her in the chest had she not dropped quickly to the ground. Instead, the crackling lightning struck her shoulder, her innate resistance to magic helped her yet again and the bolt left not a mark on her.

Too close and too noisy, she thought. Kinara silently cast a spell for levitating, the gestures and runes needed fleeting through her mind as she took to the air, unlike Jalen she had never been able to access the innate magical powers of the Underdark Drow.

Sliding as silently as a ghost on the ceiling she came across the first two sentries. She cast a holding spell on the two half elven females. The magic took and held. The oblivious sentries didn't even see Kinara's blades as they sliced of both their heads. Blood splattered all over her, she didn't care, this was revenge, and this was justice. Kinara remembered her goddess' words, some of the children will die because of her, the only way she could live with that is to blame the deaths on these evil women. Kinara killed five more clerics on the way. A silent and efficient killer, just like the Underdark Drow, the spider queen's Drow, she thought. Every murder was more difficult. When she reached the last chamber, the one she hadn't looked at yet, she had had enough, the smell of the blood on her clothes was gagging her, and she needed to clean them, to rest from this bloodshed, to have jalen hold her until she fell asleep. The thought of her lover relit the fire in her. She put on a stoic expression, resigning to her role in this adventure. Kinara just hopped the Dark Maiden wouldn't judge her too harshly.

Jalen had never felt pain as purely before. Just pain, no other feeling, neither cold nor hot, piercing or blunt, it was pain in it's truest form. The Beautiful gold elf was using a rod of some sort. A group of initiates, students of pain, were gathered behind her, studying the chained Half drow. He was bound to a wooden X, hands and feet securely held on each pole of the X.

They had stripped his shirt and were applying the rod to different parts of his torso.

"…and this is the best point of the torso…" the golden beauty said to her students.

"Placing the Rod Of Torment to a subject's forehead delivers the pain in it's purest form, it is sometimes lethal since the body can go into shock…" jalen closed his eyes. He never knew when she might trigger the wand, she could position it and immediately start or wait a while, or remove it just to prod him a moment later in a different point. It had gone on for over a day now, and he was losing his nerves. He couldn't cast even the most simple of spells. His body was weakened and the food they gave him had a fogging effect. The only times he felt truly clear were when the rod was working, and then it was just pain, unbelievable pain.

She'll do it soon, he thought, I can't survive another one.

"I love you Jalen… forgive me." he could hear Kinara's voice in his mind, he knew it was too late now, he will never marry her, never have children with her… too late, and then came the hot excruciating pain.

She saw him strapped to the X, a gang of half elven faces was crowding him. Ten or more of the vile priests were standing around the gold elf that led the raiding party. The fire in Kinara burned and she put it to use. She threw a fire ball at the Gold elf's feet. The inferno blew the young Clerics to pieces but both jalen and the Elf survived, as she expected Jalen's resistance saved him from the violent blast and the bitch of an elf was no where kind enough to die quickly.

Kinara ignited her blades and charged into the burning room.

Kelbereth recovered quickly from her initial daze. The blast wounded her but she was still strong enough to deal with the charging Half Drow. The pain of young love is as pure as a parent's, Kelbereth knew that even if she died now her goddess would be pleased.

It took the enraged Kinara less then thirty seconds to impale the elf on her blades. The force of the blow combined with her anger and magic made the blade burst into a shower of sparks, spreading the gold elf's charred remains all over the room. In its center stood Kinara, her two blades were burning in a white hot flame. Jalen saw his lover standing ther, he smiled softly before his wounds took him away.