A/N - thanks to those who reviewed recently!

Chapter 13 - Proof

Valen saw the way that Cora chewed slightly at her lower lip. Her uncovered hands stiffened upon the table, the claw-tips digging into the wood. He did not think she could fake such obvious apprehension unless she was a supremely good bard, and he knew she was nothing of the kind. It dawned upon him that she genuinely did not know her own race, that she had not been lying about it at all. Clueless.

He did not try to dress the truth up or soften if for her: it wasn't his way. "You're a tiefling."

At first she gaped at him, her eyes wide: but her shocked expression gradually faded. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"I don't see it as something to jest about," he said, his voice stony.

She ran her hands through her curls, parting her hair at the side before inclining her head towards him. "Look, no horns - not even tiny ones."

Valen remembered that Cora once told him she had never met a tiefling before. "Not all of us have horns - or tails, for that matter. We are as varied as our ancestors. Some of us have slitted pupils, some have bifurcated tongues, some have leathery wings-"

"I don't have any of those features," she said, interrupting him.

"I haven't finished. Some tieflings have scaly skin, whether all over the body or just in certain areas. Pointed ears. Claws. Does that sound more familiar to you now? Besides that, we invariably have the ability to see in the dark."

"From what you're saying, tieflings can look like just about anything. That doesn't mean very much. With the pointed ears and the night vision, you could say the same about an elf."

"It doesn't explain your other attributes."

"No, I don't believe any of this. You're just making this up."

"Why would I want to do that? What would it it achieve?"

"I don't know, but it's obvious that you haven't exactly been overjoyed about my leadership ever since the day we met. Maybe you're just trying to throw me off my stride again."

"Do you think I would try to insult you by telling you that we might have something in common? That only makes it clear what you think of tieflings, for all of your high-minded talk about judging people by their actions! Cora, I don't care what you are: it doesn't especially interest me. I wouldn't mind whether you were a kobold, if you could defeat the Valsharess."

"You wants Deekin?" Valen groaned inwardly as the kobold piped up sleepily. He had raised his voice, unwittingly: but was it any surprise that he should do so whilst talking with someone who was deaf to the truth?

"Go back to sleep, Deeks," Cora said quietly, as if hushing a child - which the kobold acted like, most of the time.

Tomi was stirring too. "What's going on, lover's tiff or something?"

Valen glared at him, while Cora told him to shut up and go back to sleep, showing considerably less patience than she had with the kobold.

The halfling sat up. "Your loud yacking means that I'm wide awake whether I like it or not."

"Deekin fully awake now too."

Valen observed the deep breath that Cora took, as if she was struggling to appear calm.

"Well," she said in an unnaturally bright tone of voice. "If we're all feeling lively, we'll move on now, shall we?"

As Cora strapped on her breastplate, she realised her hands were shaking. She pressed on with it in spite of her fumbling: if she concentrated on her task, she wouldn't have to look at the others. Especially not the bearer of bad news. She didn't want Valen to realise how much his claim had shaken her, and hopefully the others wouldn't notice anything amiss either. It was fortunate Deekin and Tomi had only overheard the end of their talk. If she kept acting as if nothing had happened, she could go on in just the same way she had before. After all, she had no proof, no corroboration, nothing tangible had changed...

Because it isn't true.

It can't be.

If it was...

No. Don't entertain the thought. He's lying.

Or deluded.

But what if...?

No. He's wrong. He has to be.

Leaving the room, she kept ahead of the others, walking through the altar room and the entrance hall. She heard them talking quietly behind her, but did not try to listen.

Anger simmered steadily within her, and she dealt with it in her usual way. Not with words, or with thoughts. She fought, and there were ample opportunities to do so.

After they descended into the lower reaches of the temple, they were attacked again and again. Of all of them, Cora was the least well-prepared for a sustained bout of fighting, but it did not matter to her that some of her blood had been drained earlier, or that she had not regained her ability to use spells. She threw herself into battle with passion: each sword-thrust, each swing was aimed not just at her enemy, but at the vague, ill-defined source of her anger.

The cultists used their fists and feet as weapons, and Cora was amassing a fine collection of bruises under her armour. Solid as their punches felt, the vampires would dissolve into mist when defeated, returning in corporeal form a while later. The group was only able to make real progress when they discovered a series of small rooms containing coffins. They had found and staked two sleeping vampires so far, whilst two more coffins remained empty.

Cora smelled dust and dried blood as she pulled up the heavy lid of the fourth coffin.

The vampire's arms were crossed over his chest, as if in a feeble attempt to protect himself during one of the few times he was truly vulnerable. After grabbing a broken chair-leg from the pile of debris nearby, Cora shoved one arm aside in order to position the stake. He stirred, but too late. His eyes bulged as she pushed down hard on her stake: he let out an agonised shriek as he died.

Music to my ears, blood-sucking bastard.

Even as she turned from the casket, two more vampires ran into the room, and one part of her was glad that they were there. She could pit herself against them, exert her body until her muscles ached. It would not be everyone's idea of comfort, of solace, but it was hers.

What does that say about me? I actually enjoy this. Take pleasure in their deaths, not just because of what they are, but because there's some kind of release that I feel each time.

The thought distracted her, and one of the vampires dealt her a blow which was almost hard enough to knock her out.

Damn! Should have seen it coming. She fought harder, in spite of the throbbing ache in her skull, and felt a deep satisfaction when she stabbed Enserric deep into the heart of her assailant. The body faded before floating out of the room, and Cora felt her sense of achievement ebbing away just as rapidly.

"Umm, Boss? Why can you nots kill vampires with a sword, when a piece of broken wood always works fine once they in their coffin?"

She whirled around to face Deekin. "How should I know? Why don't you use a bit of wood to fight them, just to see how you fare? Better still, why don't you go and visit a library sometime, instead of treating me like some kind of encyclopaedia?"

As she turned away from him, she heard him say "Deekin tries that in Waterdeep once, and they chases Deekin away." He sounded dejected.

"Never mind, who needs a load of dusty old books anyway?" said Tomi. Under his breath, she heard him add "It's her time of the month, I reckon."

Suddenly travelling with three males didn't seem like such a wonderful idea.

She left the room, only to see the cloud of mist proceeding in a leisurely manner towards an open doorway on the opposite side of the hall.

She wasn't going to let him get away, and she ran at full tilt, not caring that she had barely caught her breath from the end of her last fight. She ran through the doorway, to be faced by a group of pallid monks.

Four? No, five.

They circled her, and all she could do was to try to block them on one side whilst taking punishing hits on the other. An unexpected single punch from the side knocked Enserric from her hands, and she felt a surge of energy, borne of rage and desperation. She dug her claws deep into the eyes of her nearest attacker.

She heard Valen's gritty roar, Tomi's yell and Deekin's song. She felt a rush of relief: they could take them down, together. She wasn't going to die.

Yet it was close...too close, and when the last vampire evaporated they could not afford the luxury of stopping to catch their breath. Immediately they went in search of the coffins, carrying out the same grisly task as before.

Cora wiped what she thought was sweat from her brow, but as she brought her damp hand back down, she saw it was blood, and she did not know whether it belonged to one of the vampires or to herself.

"You're pushing yourself far too hard," came a deep voice from behind her.

She half-turned to look at Valen. "I'm here to fight, aren't I? That's what I'm doing. Fighting."

His brow furrowed. "You would have fared better if you hadn't been alone and ill-prepared. Why do you have to keep taking so many risks?"

"I know my limits. I do have some self-awareness, you know."

He gave her a chilly smile which faded almost as soon as it formed. "I'm sure you do, to some extent, or you wouldn't have survived this long. Still, I get the impression you're taking it too far now. You're making it difficult for the rest of us, if we need to keep coming to your rescue."

She stared at him. "To my rescue? To hear you speak, anyone would think that I hadn't killed any of these vampires, that you did it all by yourself while I stood around weeping into a lace handkerchief. I can see you're never going to let me forget what happened earlier, are you?"

He scowled. "I wasn't even thinking about that, but there's something I've observed from past military experience. When I've seen someone fighting past exhaustion, I rarely saw them alive again. The difference was that they were on an open battlefield, with nowhere to hide and rest. You have a chance to stop, so take it while you can."

She was about to retort when Deekin spoke up.

"Boss, Deekin thinks you looks tired too."

"Same here," said Tomi. "I wouldn't mind a quick rest either, after fighting all of those vamps at once."

Outnumbered, she silently admitted to herself that she was exhausted.

Valen should have been asleep by now. The endless tossing and turning of the woman lying a few feet away from him was not helping at all: nor were the irritable little sighs she kept making. He was not surprised when she finally stood up and walked over to where Deekin was standing watch.

"Do you not feels as sleepy as you looks, Boss?"

If the kobold attempted to talk quietly, the timbre of his voice meant that it did not work particularly well. Valen knew he wasn't going to have a chance to sleep if they tried to carry on a conversation. He sat up, easing himself from his bedding, and then got to his feet.

"Next time we do this, remind me to bring a sleeping draught with my supplies," he said, eyeing Cora.

Cora glared at him as if he was the sole cause of her insomnia, and walked towards the adjoining room. Holding the door open, she turned to face him. "I want a word."

He followed her, letting the door shut behind him. "What is so important that it can't wait until after you're rested?"

"What do you think?" She was angry, that much was obvious.

"Is it about what I told you earlier? I thought you didn't believe me."

"I didn't. I still don't - oh, I don't know!" She raked her fingers erratically through her hair, making the already-tousled curls stick out at wild angles. "You can't just leave it like this. Offer me some proof!"

"Proof?"

"Yes! Tell me, what makes you so certain that I'm a tiefling? Have you seen every species in existence?"

"I've seen a good few, but probably not."

"Then how am I supposed to believe you?"

"Well, I've met many tieflings before. It's not just about the way you look, although that's a strong part of it. It's a sense I have when I'm around you, something which feels familiar. Maybe it's what the Seer would call an aura, but I can't see them, so it's based upon instinct."

"That's it? Some incredibly vague hunch?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Besides your physical features? It's good enough for me."

"It's not good enough for me!" she snapped.

"Then forget about it. Don't believe me; go back to being as you were! I'll stick to my theory and you can keep yours."

She paced around him: he could see by the short, rapid steps and her clenched fists that she was on a sword-edge of tension. Does she ever descend fully into uncontrollable rage, as I have? He doubted it. Another of my vague hunches.

She stopped. "I... I can't go back," she said, her voice suddenly faltering. "Not if I think there's even a tiny chance that you're telling the truth. I know I'm not normal."

"Not by the standards of Toril, perhaps. It depends where you are."

"That's not much use to me..." Her voice trailed off, and when she spoke again, her voice was unsteady. "If you're right, then I don't even know who I am, any more. Don't you see that?"

Wonderful. All we need is for our leader to have a massive identity crisis, while we are in the middle of dealing with a vampire cult.

"You're still you," he said firmly. "You're still the same woman, and your life history is just the same as it was before."

She turned on her heel. "Is it? I'm not so sure. Either my family didn't know what I was - which I doubt, especially with Father - or they lied, repeatedly. They let me think that I was a human with a few oddities, and that everything would turn out fine, just as long as I hid everything away so that no-one would ask awkward questions! 'Aren't you going to put your gloves on, dear?' That's all I heard when I was young, from my mother. Even indoors. And my father - he expected so much of me that it was nearly impossible to live up to it. I tried so damned hard not to disappoint him! He was always telling me to question my motives, to examine myself so everything I did was for the right reason. No cruelty, no selfishness, no dishonesty - but during all that time, he must have been hiding the truth from me! Paladins aren't supposed to lie." She swallowed convulsively. "That is, if I am a tiefling."

You must half-believe it, or else you wouldn't be so emotional.

"Don't you see why I want proof, now?" she said to him. "It's because nothing makes sense to me any more, if I am what you say I am."

"I can't prove it to you," he said, "short of dragging you away to the Blood Wars, and I wouldn't wish that fate upon either of us." He saw the blank look on her face: it occurred to him that she probably did not know about the Blood Wars. Her knowledge of infernal matters was so sketchy that it was unsurprising she had never realised she was a tiefling. Still, if he started on the subject, neither of them would get the rest they so badly needed.

Instead, after a moment's thought, he offered another way to help assuage her doubts. "You could talk to the Seer about this when you return to Lith My'athar. She has a way of looking into people, seeing what lies beneath surface appearances. It has to be worth a try, if you're any more likely to believe her word."

He saw the way her expression brightened, as if she was clinging onto a scrap of hope. You'll believe her, whether she says yes or no. You'd rather trust a drow than another tiefling, but at least it proves that you have some genuine respect for the Seer.

"I suppose...it can't do any harm to ask." She sounded calmer, although she looked more weary than before, her outburst having drained her further. "I know there's no point in talking any more about this, when I need to rest. I can worry about getting some more proof later."

She turned away from him, walking towards the door. Her downcast gaze and posture were reminiscent of someone who had been told she had an incurable disease.

Which is exactly how I feel about my taint, if I am honest with myself. "Cora, wait."

She turned around, slowly.

"I can't say that I take any pride in my ancestry either, but it's there and I can't do anything to change it. All I can do is to remind myself that I am still partly human." His eyes met hers. "Whoever your ancestors were, it doesn't negate your human side, and it's likely to be stronger within you than it is in me."

She nodded, but said nothing.

"There's... one more thing. I...didn't say you were a tiefling to throw you off your stride, or hurt you: I said it because I believe it to be true."

She gazed back at him as if she was trying to do the Seer's job, to read him: he doubted that she could. "Well, that's something, at least," she said, almost in a whisper, before walking into the other room.

If Cora could hardly say she was happy, she was feeling rather less agitated when they made their way to the next unexplored area of the temple. Her nap had helped to calm her down as well as restore her energy. She decided to stop mulling over her ancestry until she had leisure to think. Although it took all her willpower, she knew that introspection was best kept for rest times, if she wished to survive.

It was just as well that she was feeling more focused than before, for a group of bone golems clattered towards them as soon as they entered the room. Unlike the vampires, the bone golems did not rise again once they were defeated, but they still made formidable opponents. Fighting them was like attacking a series of moving walls: each sword blow jarred her to her elbow and made Enserric complain that he was in imminent risk of getting chipped. Repeatedly.

Once they were finished, there was nothing left but several piles of fractured, scattered bones on the floor.

Where did all the bones come from? Sacrificed villagers?

Looking more carefully around the room, Cora spotted a raised dais at one end, with a slim, pale body lying down on it. She wondered if it was a vampire, resting outside of a sarcophagus, but as she walked closer, she wasn't sure. The woman was so still she appeared dead, not sleeping, and she was attached by tubes running from her arm to a mechanical contraption nearby.

Strands of lustrous white hair spread out around her shoulders, but the woman was neither elderly nor one of the drow. Her skin had a pearlescent glow, and even with her eyes closed, her fine bone structure showed that she was possessed of a rare beauty.

Yet there's something about her that repels me, makes me want to back away.

"Still alive," said Valen from behind her, "but only just."

Trying to ignore her sense of aversion, Cora kneeled down close to the woman to see if she was breathing: she saw the woman shudder but her eyes did not open. Tattered feathers lay beneath her like a cloak - her own wings, Cora realised - but she did not have the slanting features of the Avariel.

She turned to Valen. "How could you tell she was living?"

"Her presence makes my skin crawl. She wouldn't affect me in that way if she was dead," he said.

Strange that she affects him similarly, Cora thought.

Before she could ask him why, Tomi spoke up. "Well, I don't feel bad around her. She looks like an angel to me."

"That's exactly what she is," said Valen.

They tried to revive her by dripping small amounts of healing potion onto her tongue: they did not know whether disconnecting her from the machine would heal her or kill her, so they left it alone for the time being. The angel coughed and whimpered as she swallowed the drops, but colour began to return to her face, and eventually her eyes flickered open. They were golden: they reminded Cora of reflected sunlight, and were equally hard to gaze upon.

Cora had one arm around her, propping her up: she felt the other woman cringe away from her. "It's all right. You're safe now," she said.

"With you?" Her bright gaze darted from Cora to Valen, then back again. "No...you can't possibly intend to rescue me."

"Why not?" asked Cora.

"Your kind would never perform an act of mercy to a deva. Watch me die, and gloat if you wish. Having failed my task, I long for death, so it makes no difference who witnesses it."

Valen's expression hardened. "If I was as heartless as you believe I am, ingrate, I'd suggest that Cora dropped you onto the stones. Right now, it's tempting."

Cora lowered her onto the dais, gently enough to belie Valen's threat. She was taken aback by the woman's manner, though. "What did you mean about my kind?"

"Tieflings, of course," the deva said, edging herself further away. "I can feel a horrid jarring sensation radiating from both of you, but not from the gnome or the dog-like creature."

"Oi! I'm no gnome!" protested Tomi.

"Deekin be kobold, not dog!"

"I suppose two out of four correct guesses is better than none," said Valen pointedly. "And you have exactly the same effect upon me."

She said I was a tiefling. No-one prompted her. She just came out with it.

"Whatever else I happen to be, I'm not callous, or evil, or whatever else you've judged me to be after a single glance," Cora said. "We're trying to help. We've already used up a healing potion on you, and I don't walk away from someone who's dying unless they try to kill me first. Unless you really want to throw your life away, tell us how we can safely get you unhooked from this thing."

The deva stared at her. "You sound sincere, if somewhat ill-tempered. I find myself wanting to believe you." She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "Very well, I shall cast aside my suspicions: I have nothing left to lose. My name is Lavoera. Please don't unhook me yet - I fear I'll bleed to death if you try. I believe there's some kind of part which needs to be inserted into the machine before I can be detached from it. "

"I read about this in Sodalis's study," said Valen. "It's a thin metal rod, if I remember correctly."

"Yes... that's it!" exclaimed Lavoera. "I believe the vampire has it."

"Sodalis?" asked Cora.

"Not him. I don't know the vampire's name, but he's stronger than some of the other monks." The deva jerked her head towards the unopened doorway on the opposite side of the room. "He always retreats to that area - perhaps you could catch him asleep? You might find some more golems, and a small group of drow are staying on that side of the building as well."

A few tough battles followed, but eventually all of the the golems and drow were defeated. The lone vampire proved to be a difficult adversary, but they traced him back to his resting place, and a plank from a broken wooden chest was finally plunged through his heart. A search around the surrounding rooms unearthed a few items of note: among them was a letter, signed by the Valsharess. She did not address the mysterious Vix'thra as a god, but as a subordinate.

"I'd know her style even if it was unsigned," said Valen. "It's her usual charming mix of threats and bribery."

"When did you see a letter from the Valsharess?" asked Cora.

"The Seer has a couple of them, sent before the Valsharess realised that she wasn't going to bend the knee to her. Matron Myrune is supposed to have at least one letter, although I've never seen it." He grimaced. "She doesn't deign to speak to me."

"It sounds like they were building an army from those golems here. I hope we've destroyed all of them."

"It's a start, but we have to get to the heart of this," he said, "If we don't, they might create more, assuming that the deva survives long enough."

"Sodalis said something to me about my blood being powerful. I think he wondered whether he could use me in the same way," Cora said with a shiver.

"Who knows, perhaps it could work for any kind of planetouched blood."

They left the room, returning to the place where the deva lay. After a little trial and error, they managed to free her.

Instead of thanking them, the deva cast a couple of healing spells upon herself before sinking back down to the dais. She took her head in her hands and burst into tears.

"What's wrong?" asked Cora.

"What's right? I failed! I had a mission, once, but what came of all my fine intentions? They must have drained away with my blood. Oh yes, I can leave, but my reunion will be marred by shame and worthlessness. Dirty little deva! Bad Lavoera! All I have left is to go home and tell my superiors how useless I am."

Cora should have felt some sympathy. Maybe another time she would have done, but the combination of the deva's oddly disconcerting presence and her sobbing was wearing on her nerves like a song played out of tune. "Stop being so wet!"

Lavoera looked up at her. The deva's eyes were bloodshot, slightly diminishing the effect of her ethereal beauty. "What?"

"I said, don't be so wet. Yes, you've had a terrible time of it. No you haven't succeeded in your mission. Not yet. I can understand your unhappiness, but you've just been rescued. That's a start, isn't it? You've got to look ahead, start thinking about what you're going to do next. Sitting here and moping isn't going to achieve anything."

Even if I was doing the same, earlier.

"What else can I do, other than to return home in disgrace? I'm no longer naive enough to think that I can survive here on my own."

"Then find allies! You could help us, for a start. You've had a terrible setback, but you're alive. You'll only be a true failure if you give up at this stage. Even if you're too weak to fight yet, you could go to Lith My'athar and join up with the Seer's forces."

Valen nodded. "Cora's right: it's your chance to make amends."

Cora thought she detected an approving look on his face. That makes a change, she thought.

"The Seer?" asked Lavoera. "I heard the drow mentioning her before I lost consciousness - they seemed to have a poor opinion of her."

"There's a reason for that," said Valen. "She is a drow priestess, but before you make assumptions, let me say that she worships Eilistraee rather than Lolth. She is also one of the few people who stands against the Valsharess."

"She sounds rather atypical for a drow, and I've heard that Eilistraee is a beneficent deity." Lavoera wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "I know I have been weak," she said. "I had a vision of everything working perfectly from beginning to end. After I was captured, I was ready to give up and die - but now I have another chance to redeem myself. It's rather ironic that I needed a scolding from a tiefling before I could see sense...but my old prejudices are showing once more, aren't they? Sorry. I'm hopeless sometimes."

The deva gave Cora a sweetly apologetic look, widening her eyes. Such an expression could charm many women, and most likely every man in existence. Cora shot a sideways glance at Valen, only to see him rolling his eyes. Not every man, then. She suppressed a grin as Lavoera spoke once more.

"Now I'm no longer attached to that dreadful machine, I can feel my lost blood quickly regenerating. I will help your Seer, but I would also like to fight alongside you in this temple, if you'll have me. I doubt my superiors would object if Sodalis and Vix'thra were wiped from this world forever. It's a pity that my mace went missing, but perhaps there's something else I can use?"

"No need," said Cora. "Is this it?" She brought out a mace they had found earlier.

"It is, thank you!" cried the deva, and if she winced as her hand brushed against Cora's, she covered for it quickly, giving her a grateful smile.

The uncomfortable feeling was entirely mutual, and Cora hoped she would grow more accustomed to the deva's company. Even if she didn't, she knew that she had to be pragmatic. They needed all the help they could get.

"I suppose we should move on, now, if everyone's ready?"

"Hang on a minute," said Tomi. "You've got me confused here. What's all this about you being a tiefling, suddenly? You never mentioned it before."

"Deekin wondering as well. Deekin has been writing in his book that you is human lady all this time. Now you nots?"

"Believe me, it's as much of a surprise to me as it is to you," said Cora.