Chapter 12 - Almost Human
The fuss over the halfling's unexpected arrival had delayed the group longer than Valen would have liked, but at long last they had left the rebel camp, swelled to a party of four. At least Tomi was unlikely to hamper their efforts by being unable to see. Like Cora, he had some ability to see in the dark, gained while training as a Shadowdancer.
Pity that his stealth skills are cancelled out by his incessant chatter, thought Valen. The halfling had been talking continuously since leaving Lith My'athar, and now that they were nearing their destination he showed no sign of stopping. He seemed particularly curious about the artefact they had found on their last quest, and was cross-questioning Cora about it..
"So, you found this mirror that you can look at anything with? Do you think the Seer would let me take a gander at it?"
"I should imagine it would have all kinds of possibilities, if you only knew what you were doing with it - but why are you so interested?" asked Cora.
"I had to clean my armour earlier, because of the way I arrived here. I just want to make sure I've got all the stains off."
"Wouldn't any old mirror do the job?"
"No..." The halfling's voice took on a shifty tone. "The thing is, there's something else I need to know. When we get back to Waterdeep, we're going to get a great big pile of gold by way of thanks, right?"
"With any luck."
"I don't want to leave it down to luck. Durnan said I'd have to wait weeks, because they needed proof that no more drow were going to invade. What if they kept on delaying it? What if those stingy old Masked Lords never paid up?"
"I'm not worried about that, but go on," she said
"See, there has got to be somewhere where they store this reward..."
"The money they're never going to pay us, you mean? If you believe they're so untrustworthy, what makes you think there's a reward stored anywhere at all?"
To Valen's ears, Cora sounded almost as suspicious as he would have been, and she rose in his estimation, just a little.
"Don't be like that!" protested the halfling. "I'm just being cautious, that's all. Just trying to cover my - I mean, our backs."
Valen walked towards the entrance he saw before him. "We're here," he announced. "Drearing's Deep."
Cora peered at the sign before crawled letters. "Are you sure? The sign says Freedom."
"Which is something in short supply in the Underdark, as are signs written in Common." said Valen. "That's odd."
"I thought you knew your way around here?"
"I do. This place was called Drearing's Deep, the last time I heard about it."
"You know what you should do, don't you?" said Tomi. "You should have a wager on this."
"That reminds me, Tomi," said Cora. "Didn't you make a bet with Deekin over something in Undermountain?"
"You're right, Boss. Deekin won and he never paid up!"
For the first time since they had left town, the halfling was silenced.
Walking through the entrance, they were prepared for the possibility of immediate attack. Instead, a gnome no larger than Tomi bounded up to greet them, a nervous smile on his face.
"Greetings, fellow slaves! I, ah, mean ex-slaves, of course. Those who were formerly known as slaves."
"I don't think any of us would like to define ourselves as slaves," said Cora, but the gnome only gave her an uncomprehending look.
She tried again. "Could you settle a little disagreement we're having? Is this village called Freedom, or Drearing's Deep?"
"Both. You see, Drearing's Deep means freedom for us, so we changed our sign...except I wonder if it would be more accurate to call it Near-Freedom... I think. Or Almost-Freedom. There's always a price to pay, but that's just the way things are... isn't it?" The gnome's confused ramblings reminded Cora of the cursed elves of Shaori's Fell, which did nothing to reassure her.
"Do you run your own affairs here?" she asked.
"I can answer that - in part. I am the appointed spokesman for the village, so I suppose that puts me in charge, doesn't it? In theory, if not in practice. Of course, there are the priests... but we don't talk about them."
"Why not?"
"Please, forget I said anything. Better not to tempt fate, especially with priests They're not as troublesome as the illithids I escaped from, at least if you don't encounter any..." The gnome wandered away, his eyes darting from side to side as if he expected a lurking priest to jump out from the shadows at any moment.
If Cora had hoped to get a clearer picture from the other residents of the village, her hopes were quickly dashed. The villagers comprised humans, svirfneblin, a scattering of dwarves and a lone duergar merchant. All save for the merchant were escaped slaves, many of whom were from the illithid camp. Some of the human women wore such ragged and inadequate clothing that Cora offered them a couple of pieces of leather armour she'd been carrying in her pack. The women refused, as if suspicious that any act of charity would have a hidden price. No-one seemed willing to talk about the priests: each attempt to broach the subject failed miserably.
One thing was clear, though. Every time the priests were mentioned, furtive, nervous glances were cast at the building which loomed above all of the other dwellings at the back of the settlement. The group walked closer, passing a circular courtyard before walking up some steps to a grand arched doorway.
"We hardly need any more clues to tell us where these so-called priests live," said Valen, looking upwards.
"Yes, it is a little on the obvious side. I wonder if they're at home right now?" said Cora. She reached out for the one door handle, carved into a dragon's head, when Tomi yelled at her, loudly enough that she almost jumped out of her skin.
"Hands off!"
"What's wrong?"
"The door's trapped. Looks like a bad one too. I'm not sure I can disarm it on my own, and it's not very often Tomi Undergallows gets to say that."
"Undergallows?" said Valen.
"What's wrong with it? Can't be any worse than Shadowbreath."
"There's got to be another way in," said Cora, faintly amused by the frosty glance that Valen gave Tomi. It was refreshing not to be on the receiving end for a change. Taking a more careful look around, she saw that the building did not have any sides or back to walk around, with its corners merging into a solid stone wall. The doorway was the only possible entrance: there were no windows and only tiny air vents were placed far out of reach.
As she looked down the steps her gaze fixed upon an impressive bronze gong taking pride of place in the centre of the courtyard. "If one of us banged the gong to get their attention, do you think we could sneak in when they open the door?"
"It's not exactly subtle," said Valen.
"Doesn't matter. As soon as that door opens, I'll be in there, and they won't even see me," said Tomi.
After a few minutes of wrangling over who should do which task, Tomi stood by the doors, shrouded well enough to make him near-invisible even to his allies. Deekin cast an obscuring spell over Cora and Valen which was rather less effective, so they stood close to the wall a little further away from the gate. Deekin bounded down the steps to perform the final task.
"You wants Deekin to ring it now, Boss?" he yelled, the need for subtlety apparently lost on him. "There's something written in draconic language on here..."
"Never mind that, just get on with it!" Cora called back, as softly as she could manage.
Just before the handle made contact with the gong, a lone woman cried out, her voice anguished. "Please! No!"
Deekin did not stay his hand, and the gong reverberated so loudly that Cora covered her ears. Remembering what she was supposed to be doing, she kept watching the door, but it stayed firmly shut. When she saw a glow at the edge of her vision, she glanced down at the courtyard, and saw that a robed priest had materialised by the side of the gong.
"Who calls the Elders?" The priest's black eyes darted around the area before settling on the female villager who had screamed earlier. "You." He beckoned to her.
"Please, I beg you...don't take me - I didn't call you - it was him!" The terrified woman pointed at Deekin.
The priest appraised the kobold. "What's this? Some pastiche of dragon wings? The great Vix'thra would be insulted by such a pathetic offering." He turned back to the villager. "No, I will take you instead."
He advanced on the woman, who was trembling so much that it was visible from a few strides away.
Run away, idiot! Cora called out to the priest. "Wait! I want a word with you."
The priest turned around.
"Bad idea, Cora," said Valen.
"Why? He's alone," she said under her breath. She faced the priest. "Who's Vix'thra, and why are you picking on some poor frightened woman? Does it make you feel big?"
"You dare to fire questions at me?" His dark eyes looked her up and down, and his mouth bared in a grimace that showed pointed canines. "Your insolence offends me."
The last thing Cora saw was his finger pointing towards her: the last thing she heard was a muttered incantation, before she felt the discomfiting sensation of being torn away from the courtyard.
0-0-0
The villager's eyes filled with tears. "She... she sacrificed herself for my sake."
Valen reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder. "Sacrifice? What happens in there, exactly?"
When she did not speak immediately, simply looking up at him with wide eyes, he gave her shoulder a little shake. "Tell me - quickly!"
"There's some kind of ceremony. I... don't exactly know what goes on, because the chosen ones never come out of there again."
"Wonderful," said Valen, letting the woman go. She appeared almost as frightened of him as she had been with the priest, which only irritated him even more.
"Boss is lost!" wailed Deekin.
"Since you're stating the obvious, kobold, I'll do the same. Your Boss is a fool."
"You nots say bad things about Boss!"
"What would you prefer me to call her, our perfect Saviour? Tell me, has she some kind of death wish? If so she only need wait a while for the Valsharess to invade - she'll get what she wants soon enough."
Yet the Seer thinks she can win. She wants me to help her. Valen eyed the doors ahead of him. "Cast something on me for protection, kobold. It looks like I'm going to disarm this trap the painful way."
"Deekin will do his best - for Boss's sake. Holds on!" He raised his scaly hands up to perform the incantation.
Valen whirled around as he saw a shadow move from the corner of his eye, but it was only the halfling rogue.
"Don't do it, mate. That trap is a killer."
"Do you have a better suggestion, besides abandoning Cora?"
"Yep. This looks like a two-man job and I'll bet you're handy with a spot of thievery, being a tiefling and all."
"I used to steal when I was a child, but that was born of necessity. Don't assume that all tieflings aspire to be thieves."
"Nor do halflings, funnily enough, but we've got a shockingly bad reputation. Can't imagine why." He grinned. "You know your way around a trap, then?"
"To some extent. You've met tieflings before?"
"Only one. Hard as nails. There he was on one side of a warehouse with his daggers and his gang at the ready, while I was on the other side with my lads. There was a great big scrap brewing 'cause none of us could agree who got there first - but that's a tale for another day, eh? We'd better get on with untangling this thing."
0-0-0
Cora came back to consciousness to find herself naked and alone, secured with strong rope to a cold, hard marble platform. She was in a smaller room than the one she had first arrived in. Over her head, a vast statue of a dragon reared up: beyond, shadows writhed and flickered over the ceiling. Surely they were only the reflection of firelight...but as she turned her head, straining, she could not see a fireplace in the room. She felt a warm trickle over the skin on her neck, and knew that it was her own blood.
She remembered what events had brought her here - the clash of the gong, the rapid teleportation spell. As soon as she arrived in the vast hallway, the priest had started casting another spell, and it had been the same one that Sabal had used to good effect, stopping time for everyone except the caster. He had followed up with something that dazed her mind, further incapacitating her before time began to move again. Her memories from that point were vague and muddled, but she remembered that he issued orders to have her stripped and brought upstairs.
Not what he was expecting. That's what he said, when he saw my body. When he tasted me.
When they secured her to the altar, she had feared the priest was going to rape her. Instead he had caused her pain in another way entirely. She remembered the explosion of agony as he bit down on her neck, the dulling sensation, the weakness that followed. Her vision had been blurred, doubling as the vampire stood up.
Blood - her blood - ran from the side of his mouth as he spoke. "Brimstone," he had said. "Not what I expected. Your blood burns the tongue and tastes bitter, but it exudes power." He wiped his hand over his face before licking his fingertips. "I wonder if we can use you in a similar way to the celestial? If not, then the Elders will feast on you before Vix'thra takes your bones. Either way, your body will serve us well."
With a shudder, she tore her mind away from the recollection, concentrating on her current predicament. She twisted her hands, trying to extricate herself, but it was impossible to free herself. If she curled her right hand around she could barely reach a section of rope with the pointed tip of her fingernail. Thankfully she had not remembered to trim her claws before leaving camp, and they were the only weapon she had right now. She took to rubbing the rope repetitively.
The priest had gone upstairs to consult his books. Not knowing how much time she had, she continued her efforts, uttering a quiet prayer to Helm as she scratched at the rope.
If I die here, I can do nothing to protect these villagers from those who prey on them. These sacrifices must have happened many times over. Please, help me...and lend your assistance to my allies, if they still survive.
As if in answer, she heard an echoing crack, followed by a creaking sound coming from the hallway, as if an extremely large door was being pushed open.
Are they here at last? Please let it be them.
The sound had not gone unheard elsewhere, for Cora heard running footsteps, followed by the sound of fighting.
When the door finally opened, it was Valen who dashed through, ready for another fight. Instead, he saw her, and stopped dead in his tracks momentarily before striding towards her.
Crouching down, he ripped his pack from his shoulders and started searching through it.
"Aren't you going to free me?"
"Looking for something to do the job quickly," he said, before drawing out a dagger. He began to cut through the thick ropes, and when Cora stole a glance at him, she noticed that his normally pale cheeks were just as flushed as her own must be. She was relieved that he kept his attention wholly focused on the business of freeing her, and he didn't make the experience any more humiliating than it already was.
As the last rope fell away, Cora sat up. Valen, his eyes still averted, took his cloak off, holding it in front of her. "Here - take this."
Valen turned his back while she donned his cloak: as it featured arm slits she was able to fashion it into a makeshift robe, using a section of rope as a belt. It was only after she jumped down from the altar that he looked at her again. "What happened?"
"The priest knows the Time Stop spell. He managed to cast it before I could fight back, and his goons tied me up."
"Did they hurt you?"
"Not half as much as they were planning to." She grimaced. "I think I was set to be their evening meal. The priest drank some of my blood." She turned her head, showing him the puncture.
His fingers barely brushed against her skin as he lifted away a strand of her hair. He scrutinised the wound. "I might have something you can dress it with, although it looks as if it's starting to heal. Did you drink any blood from him in return?"
She stared at him, appalled. "Of course not - what do you think I am?"
"Not what I thought you were," he said, with an odd, quizzical look on his face, "but I was more concerned whether they tried to make you into a vampire."
"No. That's one thing I can be thankful for, at least." Before she could say anything more, she heard the sounds of fighting coming from the hall downstairs.
Valen dashed towards the doorway, but two shadowy creatures fell down from the ceiling, blocking his progress.
He had not thought to give her his dagger, but she couldn't just stand by and watch him fighting. Forgetting her damaged dignity for a while, she fought alongside him, using her claws to scratch and slash at the creatures. If they were less effective than a sword or Valen's flail, at least they proved a useful distraction, making her enemies more susceptible to her companion's attacks.
Just after they had finished with the shadow wraiths, a rather bedraggled kobold and halfling ran through the doorway.
"Boooosss!" Deekin cried. He hugged Cora tightly before she could squirm away from him. He straightened up, his face a picture of innocent surprise. "Why you gots nothing on underneath your cloak?"
She could feel a blush creeping up her neck again. "The vampires took my armour."
Tomi stared at her rather more attentively than she liked. "Oh, that's a shame. Let me give you a hug, too."
"No chance! Go and find some chests to disarm. My armour must be around here somewhere."
"Talking of chests, I could do with some motivation..." He waggled his eyebrows.
"Just go," she snapped, losing her patience. She pointed towards the nearest doorway, and she saw Tomi's look of surprise as he spotted her claws. It was not a day for keeping secrets.
"Leave her in peace, halfling," said Valen, jerking his head towards the door.
While Tomi muttered under his breath, he followed the tiefling out of the room.
0-0-0
When Cora emerged from the side room, Valen noticed that she was not only fully armoured, but was wearing gloves as well, in spite of the warm atmosphere in the building.
No-one would know that you're not human now, save for the point at the tip of your ears. Even I was fooled, for a while.
But then, hadn't he always felt a gap between what he observed and what she said about herself? She had never demonstrated the slightest difficulty in seeing in the dark, and she had never offered any convincing explanation for her ability. Beyond that, there was something else he sensed about her, something he could not define save that it vaguely reminded him of home.
Sigil.
Yet she came from the Prime, the surface world above them, if she was to be believed. During his own short time in Faerun, he had learned that disguising his features was an essential tactic. If he evoked suspicion by walking around in a thick, heavy cloak, it was nothing compared with the typical reaction once his hood was down. Maybe she had learned to do the same, and it was easy for her. Since her legs were covered most of the time, her claws would have been her only concern.
That I can understand, but why keep up the pretence here? Why bother when one of the first people you meet is a tiefling? Why lie about what you are?
He wondered, but he did not ask. This was not the time. They were about to go upstairs, to find the place where the vampire priest had retreated to.
Her voice cut into his thoughts. "I think we'd better take care. I don't know whether he's alone up there, but if he tries to stop time again, you can expect him to follow up with some disabling spells pretty quickly. Deekin, do you think you can summon something to send in first?"
0-0-0
The battle had been difficult, and probably fruitless. Although Sodalis was gone, there was no sign of his body. Like some of the other priests, his form had dissolved into a misty cloud, floating out of the room.
None of them had the energy to follow the cloud and track the vampire to his resting place. All of them were looking battered and they needed to recuperate before continuing their search of the building. They barricaded the door with a bookshelf - once he had returned to his body he would not just be able to float back in here - and settled down to rest.
Cora could not sleep, and after a while, she knew it was never going to happen. Across the room, she watched Valen, who had volunteered to watch over them as they rested. He was sitting at a desk, bright strands of hair trailing down over his face as he flicked through a book in a mildly distracted manner. He didn't strike her as the type to be interested in learning the magical arts, and she doubted there was much else to read in Sodalis's study. She was about to slip on her gloves while she was still underneath her cloak, something she always did upon waking: realising that it was an old, pointless habit, she left them off. After rising from her bedroll, she walked over to the desk.
"Good book?" she asked.
"Only if you have a pressing need to find out how celestial blood can be used to power a golem."
"Not exactly a relaxing bedtime read."
Valen snapped the book shut. "Talking of which, why aren't you sleeping?"
"I can't relax, and I've given up on trying. I'll take over the watch, if you like."
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm not tired."
A silence fell between them. Since they did not know each other well, it did not feel entirely comfortable.
Valen reached for another book, but from the perfunctory way he flicked through the pages, Cora knew he wasn't reading at all.
Her own thoughts kept returning to what had happened earlier. Being seen naked was a fear of hers, something she had gone to exaggerated lengths to avoid at times - yet she'd been caught out in the inn in Waterdeep, and once again the same had happened here. Perhaps it was life's way of telling her there were much worse experiences, and logically she knew that it was true. She could have died today, yet still her mind kept turning back to the moment when Valen saw her. For some reason she found it far more excruciating to recall than the encounter with Sodalis. With the latter, she had been far too angry to worry about how she must look.
At least Valen didn't say anything. He seemed almost as embarrassed as I was.
Being a damsel in distress didn't come easy to her - she was used to being the tomboy, the strongest one, the one who sorted out the problems of others. It was a new and not entirely comfortable situation having to accept another's help, especially someone she was not entirely at ease with. Still, the alternative didn't bear thinking about.
I didn't even thank him for saving my life.
"Valen, I want to say something about what happened earlier," she began. "Thanks for rescuing me, and for being such a gentleman about it."
He raised an eyebrow. "How did you expect me to behave? Like a slavering beast?"
Great. He's no better at accepting thanks than I am at giving it. "I don't know," she said, "but I would have expected no different from a paladin."
He snorted. "Don't compare me to one of those."
She stared at him, wondering why he had to be so prickly when she was trying to be conciliatory. "Why do you say that?"
"I don't happen to have a particularly high opinion of paladins," he said with a shrug.
You're speaking to someone who once wanted to become one. "Why not? Do their religious sensibilities offend you?"
"Not especially. I don't happen to share their unshakable faith, but nor do I care what they believe in. The same tolerance doesn't apply the other way around. They don't tend to like tieflings, surprisingly enough."
"They're not fond of vampires either, although I can hardly object to that. Look, I don't deny that a minority are fanatics, but you are loyal to something that they would clearly recognise as a good cause. I'm sure any paladin would understand and appreciate that, once they got to know you."
"You can believe that if you want, but my last experience of meeting a paladin told me all that I need to know. I didn't get the chance to introduce myself, since he attacked me on sight."
She had no need to ask Valen how the encounter ended, since he was sitting here alive and well before her. "It's a shame. No doubt the paladin thought he was fighting on the side of good. They want to be the perfect warriors for their gods - and sometimes they are inclined to forget they are only human, prone to make errors of judgement."
"I am sure that the gods can be just as fallible as humans at times," said Valen. "If paladins are unaware of that, they are impossibly naive."
"I'd take a little naivety over cynicism any day," she countered, "but I happen to be more well-informed about paladins than you might think. I've met quite a few of them in the past. My adoptive father is a paladin of Helm."
His eyes widened. "Truly? What does he think of you?"
She had the feeling, as she had in the past, that they were having two different conversations, that he meant something slightly different than the words she was hearing. Still, she endeavoured to answer his question as best she could.
"The one downside to being brought up by a paladin is that you can never get away with half the things other people's children seem to. Not that I didn't try, of course, and sometimes I succeeded," she said, smiling at the recollection. "These days, he's proud of the things I've achieved, but he doesn't always like my methods. He thinks I'm far too impulsive, for a start."
"I couldn't imagine where he got that impression," he said, looking faintly amused. He adopted a more thoughtful expression before speaking again. "Doesn't he care about your ancestry, or is he unaware of it?"
"If ancestry mattered to him, I doubt he would have taken me on at all. He never even met my mother, because a midwife brought me to him. You were there with me when I talked to the Seer about my real parents, weren't you? I didn't even have any idea what my real mother looked like until I saw her in the Mirror of All-Seeing."
"What was she like?"
"She didn't resemble me much, save for around the eyes. She's fairer than me. Her hair's much straighter, too."
"Human?"
"As far as I could tell," she replied.
Valen was scrutinising her now. It was not the intimidating stare she had seen when she first met him, but an open, unguarded curiosity. "There's something I don't understand about you. Either you have spent a lifetime disguising your identity and you choose to carry on the charade even here in the Underdark. Or you genuinely don't know what you are."
She became very still. Don't know what you are. Such a lack of self-knowledge had dogged her for much of her life. She was a human woman with a couple of abnormal features, or else there was something alien, inhuman, somewhere in her family tree. She guessed the latter, but she did not know what it was. Today, Valen had seen her without her customary armour and gloves. She did not know if he had met many human women in the past, or whether he had been intimately involved with any, but they had walked past several half-dressed females in the village today, displaying smooth, normal skin on their bare legs. She did not need to see their hands to know that their fingernails would be clear and straight-edged too.
"The truth is, I don't know. The best definition I have for myself is that I'm mostly human, but there is probably something else in the family tree too. I certainly feel human, save for when I see someone who doesn't quite look the same as me."
She felt a knot of apprehension in her stomach even before she asked the question, but she chose to ask it anyway. "If you have a clearer idea, why don't you tell me?"
