Hello again! A new chapter this week… I do hope people are still reading this story sigh… As always, reviews are greatly appreciated:)
Chapter X. Dead magic and living project
The dead magic zone proved a dangerous surprise. Hopefully, after they left all the extra weight by the door, they were able to carry on without too much trouble, only changing their tactics slightly – Valen could still be deadly in close combat, Nathyrra could still slide in the shadows, and Chama was deadly and sneaky with her bow, taking advantage of her targets' distraction while they battled Valen.
The only problem was that there were no spells cast, by either Nathyrra or Chama, and it proved a strain when they were faced with the huge spider demon that Chama identified as a bebilith from afar.
"How can you tell from so far what type of demon it is?", Valen asked. "I am an outsider and I lived in the Abyss for years, and still I would hesitate."
"Well, from what bestiaries I read – and believe me, I was made to read a lot of them in my training as a mage – there is not a single creature in the shape of a spider that can reach this size. There's a strand of giant spider, rumoured to feed off light; they're spoken of in ancient legend, but according to the few descriptions available, its legs bore four articulations, not three as this one, proving its more ancient origin… So I conclude that what we have before us is a bebilith."
Valen shook his head. "If you say so. What shall we do?"
"Nat should slide in first under the cover of shadows to get one sneak attack at its back. Valen, you should charge up front. I'll slide on one side to get good shots with sneak attacks while you keep it busy. If you are poisoned and are badly pressed, retreat. Nat and I will replace you in close combat the time for you to drink an antidote and a potion."
Valen nodded. Nathyrra set off into the shadows and they executed the plan. All three of them ended up poisoned, but after using antidotes and healing kits, they were ready to continue.
Chama, again, was the one to solve the mystery of the obelisk's workings and retrieve its core. Immediately, she felt all her magic fly back into her, and her mind expanded at blinding speed under the renewed influence of her circlet and ring.
"I'm scared to carry an artefact that can generate a dead magic zone around me. I'm worried it might backfire or something if I cast a spell anywhere near it. Valen… would you mind carrying it?"
"Not at all, Chama." He took the orb off her hands. "Why do you want to bring it back? Do you see any use to it in our conflict with the Valsharess?"
"I don't know yet. Maybe there will be a zone where it can be harmful to the Valsharess and not to us. Let's take it back with us anyway. Maybe the Seer will have a better idea."
They returned to the entrance, where their rope still waited, hanging from far higher, in the beholder lair. Valen sighed as he looked up.
"Are you going to be alright, climbing all the way up with your heavy pack?", Chama asked him. "Nat and I aren't carrying much. We can help you if you need."
"I'll be fine now that the strength of my magical equipment has been returned to me."
Chama nodded, and Valen started to haul himself up, him, his full armour and his heavy pack. A nasty surprise however was awaiting them when they finally emerged from the pit they had climbed down into.
"Ambush!", Valen yelled while a dozen beholders suddenly floated down from the ceiling and started zapping magical beams and snapping their jaws in his direction. "Keep cover!"
"Yeah sure, we're going to just watch them tear you apart," Chama muttered and pulled herself on ground level, immediately hit by three rays of death magic. She staggered and started casting, followed by Nathyrra.
The tiefling tried to center the enemies' attention on him with battle cries and whirlwind attacks, but the beholders were smart and they knew that the two spellcasters were easier prey. They kept zapping at them, and Valen was amazed to hear that Chama could keep her concentration and cast even while hit like this. Nathyrra had more trouble, however, and soon enough she tried to slip out of the room and the heated battle.
She never reached the door. One of the eye-tyrants had carefully aimed and hit her in the kidney with a destructive ray of magic. The drow went down with a grunt, starting to writhe in convulsions on the ground.
Valen let out a cry of pure fury and transformed into a whirlwind of destruction. Chama screamed out in rage and exploded in maximized fireballs. She reclaimed her self-control quickly enough and ran to Nathyrra's side as soon as the battle lost in intensity, leaving Valen to deal with their remaining enemies.
The drow was still alive. Her breathing and heartbeat were quick, shallow and irregular. Chama pried open the higher part of her companion's armour and held back the flow of blood from the drow's side with a hand, opening a healing kit with the other. The disintegration ray had opened a gaping hole in Nathyrra's abdomen. Soon Valen was besides Chama, the last enemy crushed and his eyes yellow. Chama had quickly learned to recognize that this colour took over his eyes when he fought the demon.
"Snap out of it, I need your help," she ordered. "Hold back the blood."
Valen moved obediently to put pressure on the wound, his hands large and rough on Nathyrra's lean abdomen. Chama was fumbling with a healing kit with her bloodied hands, preparing healing herbs and clean bandages. Eventually she turned back to her patient, whose face was of an unhealthy grey now. Chama prepared a pressure bandage in her right hand.
"On three, you remove your hand and I put the bandage." Valen nodded his agreement. "One… two… three…"
Valen removed his hand and she covered the blood well with a cloth drenched in a liquid of pungent smell.
"Hold it there, it will quell the blood somewhat. I need to prepare another one; it will take two."
Valen put pressure on the bandage. Chama opened another healing kit and produced another pungent-smelling cloth. She replaced the one held in place by Valen, now soaked with blood, and saw with relief that the healing magic was doing its work. The blood was spilling more slowly. Nathyrra stirred.
"Stay put, Nat," Valen said, "we're putting you back in one piece."
The drow groaned and opened her eyes, seeing Valen holding bandages to her side, and Chama looking through a healing kit's contents with bloodied hands.
"All this blood… is it all mine?", she asked faintly.
"I might have contributed a few drops, but it's mostly yours," Valen grinned. "Don't worry, you'll be fine."
"Don't speak, Nat," Chama suddenly asked. "I need to listen to your breathing and heartbeat to know how your blood pressure's doing."
The drow obediently fell silent. Chama monitored her state for a while and finally declared, "You'll do fine. The herbs just need a few more minutes to stop your bleeding."
Chama replaced Valen to hold the cloth, and the warrior turned his back on the ladies, blushing a bit now that he had the time to realize that he had seen Nathyrra's undergarments and touched her lithe, flat stomach… The drow really was an attractive woman. He coughed and scratched his head, watching around for any sign of other beholders in an attempt to concentrate on something else than his distracting thoughts.
There was a long silence while Chama helped Nathyrra to slip her armour back on, and finally Valen could turn back around.
"How are you feeling now?", Chama asked, scrutinizing Nathyrra's face attentively.
"I'm alright, but I still feel a bit weak from my injuries. My spells are still alright; you got me out of unconsciousness really fast."
"Here, drink this. It should make you feel better."
Chama handed a potent potion to the drow, who sat up carefully, with Valen's help, and drank. Her skin instantly gained back its healthy bluish hue, not the grey one of disease. Chama watched, seeing again how everyone but her appeared tough and capable of sustaining their injuries and pain.
The assassin stood and tested her strength by a few moves. "Ready to go!", she decreed with a predatory grin.
"Are you sure? We can rest for a while, if you prefer."
"No, I'm fine."
Chama turned to Valen and, after a quick survey of his wounds, handed him a potion. "Will this be enough for you?"
"Yes. Thank you."
They went back to see the kobolds, and offered them the possibility to follow them back to Lith My'athar; they were not ambushed or intercepted on their way back. The kobolds chatted and gestured happily among themselves all the way back, obviously overjoyed at their sudden and unexpected freedom. Nathyrra slipped to her room without another word as soon as they reached the temple though, understandably tired.
Valen stood by Chama's side while the wood elf explained to the Seer and Imloth that they had killed the beholder-tyrant, found kobold allies, and retrieved a magical artefact capable of creating a dead magic zone. The tiefling knew the Seer well, and he could tell she was impressed.
"Do you have use for the artefact?", Imloth asked.
"Not really. Can you make it useful?"
"I believe so," the commander answered. "It occurs to me that the Dark River makes us safe from mundane boats and assaults, but if we are to be attacked on that front, it will be by magical means. A dead magic zone on the docks would take care of that threat."
Valen looked with approval at the drow strategist. "Very good idea, Imloth. I don't know how you can make a dead magic zone spring out of that artefact though. It's inactive in its current form. Chama, do you have any idea?"
The elf bit her lip, thinking a moment.
"Well, the obelisk that hosted it was not overly sophisticated, and I know it was adamantine-based technology, with a net of beholder runes in a language I know. It would require a bit of work, but I… Oh, I'm thinking, wouldn't Gulhrys agree to help me with that?"
Valen forcefully turned his mental back on any opinions he had about the High Wizard and the prospect of a common project with Chama. Valen and Imloth exchanged a look. "Since his House is allied with us, it would be hard for him to refuse," Valen commented dryly. He did not add that if he was to believe Gulhrys' repeated looks in Chama's direction, the mage would be eager for a reason to work with the surface elf.
"Then, between the two of us and Nat's help, I'm pretty sure we can manage. Moreover he must have a well-supplied laboratory. I'll just miss Deekin to hum along while he measures my reagents… He'll be needed to train the kobolds."
Suddenly an unbearable sense of doom crashed down on Valen. Obviously, he could be of no use to Chama and Gulhrys while they worked on that magical apparatus. He was therefore expected to assist in the training of the troops, as he usually did in his free time. This meant he would have to put up with Deekin and the score of other kobolds. His mind set out in frenzy for a way out of this situation. Any way.
He was unsuccessful.
ooooo
The next afternoon, after being chased away by Imloth who declared that he was far from helping the kobolds to learn – which was true; they were fearful enough as it was and lost all their means when he could not keep from glaring at them in an intimidating manner – he went to check on Chama's and Gulhrys' progress.
He was guided by one of Mae'viir's guards through the public house of Mae'viir to the mage's laboratory. From quite a distance he could hear the regular boom of magical explosions, and a suffocating and multicoloured smoke started to choke the corridor thirty meters from the laboratory's doors. The guard knocked on the door, bowed respectfully and left when Gulhrys opened the door.
"Valen," the mage greeted flatly. That was a show of drow animosity if ever there was one. That unexpectedly lifted Valen's spirits.
"Ah, Valen! Come in and take a look. We're progressing nicely," he heard Chama's voice across the billowing smoke.
Valen walked in warily, waving a hand in front of his face to try and clear the smoke from his watery eyes. When finally he discerned something through the peasouper, he saw Chama, Nathyrra, Gulhrys and Rizolvir, all four covered in soot and magical powder of all colours, and an indescribable jumble of magical devices, heaps or bars of metal, grinders, magical rods, sheets of parchment covered in hurtful and alien runes, and even Rizolvir's anvil and hammer.
"By all the devils of Baator, what is all this mess?", he asked.
Chama laughed. "This is a mage's laboratory, and this is an ongoing experiment."
"Rizolvir, what are you doing here?"
"Well, that contraption of theirs involves a frame of adamantine, and they figured a smith would be more efficient in creating the metal structure they need. I hope you had no urgent request for my forge. Transporting my magical anvil here was complicated enough, even with three wizards' help. I plan on finishing here before going back to the forge."
"No, Rizolvir. This should be considered a higher priority than weapons or armour requests," Valen ordered, still surveying the muddle. He turned to Chama who was observing a small piece of cloth with strange glasses. "So… sparing me the details… how is it going?"
"Well, we're pretty sure we solved the problem," she began.
"Thanks to my lady's original and insightful perspective on the problematic," Gulhrys purred.
Nathyrra snorted out loud. Valen swallowed and stared firmly at Chama, refusing to glower at Gulhrys suddenly.
He's begging for it, Valen's demonic half pleaded. What right does he have to speak to her like that? You should teach him a lesson. He's going to put her into trouble.
That's not an argument you would use. You don't care whether or not she gets in trouble. Now shut up, she can handle herself, and she can handle him.
Then he added to himself, sighing inwardly, She can handle me after all. Chama seemed slightly annoyed by Gulhrys. Of course, a drow male would take a mild annoyance as a sign his flattery was very welcome. Valen's anger flared, but he kept staring firmly at Chama, who went on awkwardly, apparently unsettled by his gaze, "Yes, well… we're pretty sure our plans are sound. What's left to do is build the thing and test it. It should take four or five days to finish; the metal structure will be done by tomorrow, but the heavy enchantment in the eye-tyrant tongue is going to take a few days to soak in."
"I see."
Valen was displeased that she would be stuck in Lith My'athar for so long. Their days were counted before the Valsharess struck. Her work here on this device would delay them dangerously. Still, he could not deny that another security at the docks would be a good idea.
"I plan on getting Gulhrys started on the magic tomorrow, and then I'll leave the whole thing to him. I'll just come and check the final testing, so Nathyrra and I can be here to counterspell in case something goes wrong."
"Ah. Very well then," Valen breathed in relief.
Rizolvir, who was striking and quenching metal in his corner of the laboratory, suddenly called out, "Hey, Valen, would you mind lending me a hand? My apprentices are far too cowardly to come within House Mae'viir, so I'm left without a help."
"Sure, Rizolvir!", Valen exclaimed enthusiastically. Anything not to go back to training those annoying kobolds. Anything. "What do you need me to do?"
The drow smith grinned, sweat trickling down his face. "You might like to remove your armour; it can get pretty hot in here. I just need you to hold the metal for me or work the bellows at times."
Valen stripped of his armour and was about to put it down in a corner when suddenly Nathyrra yelped, "No! Not there! Not on my invisible crystals!"
The tiefling chuckled. "Well, you see, it was the only visibly unoccupied corner. Now, would you be so kind as to point me where I can put my armour?"
The drow grinned and swept up a corner with a move of the arm, pushing unceremoniously various objects in a disorganized pile. She pointed the newly available piece of ground.
"There is going to be fine."
And Valen set to work with Rizolvir on the forge. To his surprise, the work was rather trying, with the heat and the heavy bars of adamantine to be manoeuvred around. Moreover, they worked until a late hour of the night, when finally Gulhrys declared that it was time to stop, lest Matron Myrune complained of the noise. Even Valen felt a pang of dread at that idea, and so they cleaned up the laboratory and readied everything for the next morning.
Gulhrys walked them to the door and kissed Chama's hand. Nathyrra snorted again, so Valen allowed himself to growl, and Rizolvir shook his head. The High Wizard then went back into the house, after one last bow.
"You have to be firmer than that with males, my dear," Nathyrra advised when the door closed.
Chama blushed a very bright shade of embarrassment and Rizolvir excused himself to go back towards the public house where he lived. The three travelling companions walked back to the temple, where an excited Deekin was waiting for "Boss" to tell her everything about the progress of the kobold recruits.
Valen and Nathyrra hastily slid away from the long-winded kobold to let Chama deal with his personal way of retelling the day. Valen, however, waited in the corridor until at last, nearly an hour later, Chama came up towards her room, looking tired and drawn, accompanied by a now silent Deekin. The kobold was smiling happily, uncovering his reptilian, sharp teeth, and he actually seemed satisfied with the silence. Valen could not fathom what lengths of patience must have been necessary to finally drive Deekin to a content silence.
Chama stopped hesitantly when she saw Valen in the corridor, but started back towards him and sent Deekin ahead alone to his own room.
"Yes, Valen?"
"I just… I just wanted to thank you."
She frowned. "What for?"
"For saving Nathyrra."
She nodded, and then looked more closely at Valen. His expression was hard to decipher, but he seemed worried.
"I'm glad too that I could bring her back."
"I… didn't know her very well before we started travelling with you. I… haven't had many friends in my life. I wouldn't have liked to lose one so quickly."
So, that was the cause of Valen's strange expression.
"I understand that very well," she replied sourly.
Valen stared at her with piercing eyes. "I do think she considers you her friend."
Chama smiled mirthlessly. "I would rather ask her than discuss it with you, if you don't mind. Anyway, one out of you two is a good score for me anyway."
Valen stared at her with an uncertain expression. He wanted to be her friend, but he was still a bit distrustful, even if his fear of treason had been alleviated since he had seen her torn about the actions she must take in the conflict between the golems of the Isle of the Maker.
Chama turned away and conspicuously focused on unlocking her door, ignoring Valen and leaving him to go to his own room.