Chapter 14 - Feel the Fear and Doom it Anyway

The Seer kept careful count of the cycles in the sky far above her. Although she could not see the moon in the Underdark, she still observed the same ritual blessings as if she were bathed in its light on the surface. The full moon was a time when she would use her temple as a sleep chamber. She would lay still on a low bed, guarded at a discreet distance by a couple of the faithful stationed close to the door, and she would allow herself to drift into sleep. Sometimes, the most significant dreams came this way, while at other times visions would come to her spontaneously.

Before she slept, she focused her mind's eye on a place, far above them all on the surface: a clearing where she had sometimes danced under the moon in joyful worship of Eilistraee. One day she hoped to stay there permanently: for the time being she could only visit the land in dream and inner vision. Tonight she could see the moon rising in the sky, its gleam reflected on the birches which stood sentinel around the clearing. This place, this spiritual heartland, sustained her, reminding her of how she wished her people to live. She made silent supplication to her goddess until sleep overcame her.

When the vision came to her, it was likewise of a place that she knew, a winding stream not far from their sacred clearing. Normally its waters were clear and sparkling, but tonight they flowed sluggishly. Through the slow-moving stream, a swimmer was approaching her vantage point, as as she grew closer, the Seer observed that it was Cora. She was naked, her body lithe and muscular as she cut through the waters. She did not quite appear as she did in the waking world, for a long, thin tail undulated like a snake in her stead.

Cora stopped swimming, stood up as the water lapped around her waist. Reaching down, she dipped her hands into the water, forming a cup with her hands, a broken vessel where the liquid oozed through, darkening her fingers.

Blood? wondered the Seer, capable of lucid thought within the dream but incapable of influencing events in any way. No, not that, something else...something thicker. Mud. Muddy waters? If so, what might be muddying them... or whom?

She had the sensation that something was watching her, and it was not Cora: as she turned her head she heard a rustling in the undergrowth nearby. She tried to see what was there, but whether the intruder was a person or animal, it had gone, and with that, the dream faded, leaving her none the wiser.

If Cora had any concerns that her companions might react badly to the news that she was a tiefling, she was soon reassured. Tomi thought the whole business was hilarious.

"You really didn't know? You never wondered at all? No idea?"

"Well obviously I had some suspicions, but I never thought I might be a tiefling..."

"Not even with those claws of yours?" He chuckled. "Blimey. Born yesterday, that's what you are. Green as grass."

"Well, how would I know? I never met a single tiefling in my life before Valen. I can't be entirely certain, but it seems likely, if I believe both his word and Lavoera's."

The deva looked pained. "I would never lie about such a matter - or indeed anything!"

Deekin didn't seem to be troubled by anything save for the spelling corrections he would have to make: on reflection, it was hardly surprising. His loyalties were to his Boss, and he had rarely experienced any kindness from humans. Why would he care if Boss turned out not to be human after all? Granted, the only other tiefling he knew was not especially friendly, but Valen had not yet tried to kill him, throw stones at him or chase him out of an outbuilding with a pitchfork.

In fact it was quite anti-climactic how easily Cora's companions accepted the news. If it was a huge shock to her, it had no such effect upon them. Perhaps it was because they had already become accustomed to travelling in the company of another tiefling, Cora thought. Or else people like herself and Valen held no great novelty, now that an angel had joined their ranks.

Cora walked closer to Lavoera, but not too close. "You said you had a mission here. Would you mind telling me what it was?"

"Not in the slightest, but I doubt it will mean very much to you."

For a moment Cora thought the deva was being patronising, but she pressed on. "It might. Try me."

"Very well. My superiors told me to come here. They wanted me to warn someone that their hand was being guided by someone else with evil intentions, even though they wished to do good."

"Who was it?" asked Cora. "You never know, we might encounter them in future."

"Well..." the deva's face took on a rosier hue. "That's part of my difficulty. I don't actually know who I am meant to meet. I wasn't given their name, or even a description."

"You travelled all the way from the Celestial Realms to the Material Plane, without having any idea who you were meant to meet?" said Valen, who had evidently been listening in. He looked astonished.

"It does sound silly, when you put it like that," said the deva, abashed.

"I'm amazed that your superiors didn't give you more information than that," said Cora. "Either they were being irresponsible or inept."

"Well, I don't think they mentioned the name - but they had a tendency to drone on at great length, on subjects which went completely over my head. That tends to happen all the time with gods, I fear."

"And they wonder why I am an unbeliever," muttered Valen.

"I suppose it's possible that I wasn't listening very hard," added the deva.

Cora was beginning to have serious doubts whether they should have Lavoera in their party at all - if she walked around in an oblivious state half the time, how would she fare once they had a real enemy to fight? It occurred to her that the deva might be wrong about her being a tiefling. She had failed to identify the races of both Tomi and Deekin.

"Lavoera, I was wondering...have you ever met any tieflings before now?"

"I saw a few when I was taken to Sigil for a brief visit. It was my first time away from home - such a dreadful, teeming, filthy place! The sky was so dim, compared with my home. Yet it was a beacon in comparison with this gloomy realm."

Cora noticed that Valen was watching the deva with a good deal of curiosity now, although he said nothing.

"There were more races than you can imagine within the city, but I was warned to be on my guard if there were creatures of the Lower Planes nearby, and that I would be able to sense their taint even if they were not immediately identifiable by sight. It happened when I saw demons, just as it did with people who looked relatively human. All of them radiated evil, although to a lesser extent with the tieflings."

"But I'm not evil," insisted Cora.

"Sorry," said Lavoera. "You have acted only with good intent towards me so far, and it confuses me. I wonder if I feel the potential for darkness within you, but you rise above it?"

"It's hard to rise above something when you didn't even know it was there a short while ago," said Cora. She knew that if she thought about such matters for too long, she'd get onto the subject of paladins again, and she didn't want to mull over that while she still had some more battles to fight.

Not just because of my foster-father. Because of Patrick. Did he know what I was? Or did he react the way he did just because I was different?

No. Don't start thinking about him again. This isn't a good time for that.

It never is.

"Is something wrong?" asked Lavoera.

"No, I'm fine."

"Yet it's as if a cloud suddenly passed over your face. If I came across as rude, it wasn't my intention."

"I promise you, I wasn't offended."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, honestly! Forget it," Cora said, more brusquely than she intended. She walked ahead with a brisk stride. Deekin, who was near the front of the group for a change, kept pace with her. "Boss and the brave kobold leads the group into victory!"

"That's right, Deeks. We'll sort those vampires out, won't we?"

She stopped as she rounded the corner. Sodalis stood only a few steps away from her, baring his sharp teeth in a cruel parody of a smile.

Instead of casting a spell immediately, he began to tell her all about how Vix'thra would soon rule all the realms and how his priesthood would rule the lands.

Arrogant swine.

Cora glanced sideways at Deekin. "Doom," she mouthed.

"Yes Boss, we is doomed," he said.

"Sing it!" she urged through gritted teeth. Ahead of her, she saw Sodalis raising his arms.

There was no time to waste. She leapt forward, closing the gap between them.

She was lucky. She managed to disrupt his spellcasting with a sword blow to the forearm, hard enough to sever an artery: as the blood sprayed out, her companions caught up with her and followed up with their own attacks.

It was over surprisingly quickly, compared to her other encounters with the vampire mage. While the others hurried towards the nearby sarcophagus to finish the job, Cora stood for a moment, catching her breath. Tired. Again. Why did a couple of good sword swings take so much from me? She had felt a strange sensation, as if energy was being sucked out of her as she hit the vampire's vein. As if she was paying some personal price for killing him.

"Something wrong?" asked Valen as he returned to her side.

"Not sure," she said. "I felt a little weak for a moment, but it's passing again now."

It wasn't the first time, she realised: it seemed to happen when she fought. She could feel full of energy, then suddenly it would be as if she were upstairs on that altar again. As if my blood's being drained.

A disturbing thought struck her, and she spoke to the deva. "Could you tell whether someone was a vampire?"

"Of course. I've seen so many of the monks here, and I could sense their evil."

"Then...you could tell whether I became one, couldn't you? I'm a bit worried because Sodalis bit me earlier."

"Isn't being a tiefling enough for you?" said Tomi.

"The issue's muddied by the ev...I mean, sense of the Lower Planes I get from you," said Lavoera, "but no, I don't think you're a vampire. Perhaps you could show me your teeth just to be certain."

Cora bared them dutifully.

"You're fine. They're not pointed," Lavoera said cheerfully.

"You do realise that even if they were, some tieflings can have pointed teeth, don't you?" said Valen.

"Um...no, I didn't actually."

Cora was beginning to think that by tiefling standards, the attributes she viewed as abnormalities were in fact rather ordinary, even dull.

They began to prepare for what lay ahead of them: the next doorway was enormous, which either suggested that it was the centrepiece of the temple or that the space was needed to accommodate an extremely large being.

"Umm, Boss?"

Cora was getting apprehensive about Vix'thra, and she wanted to alleviate the feeling by fighting. "Yes Deekin, I'd like you to cast all the usual spells on as many of us as you can manage, then sing your bard song last. I'll give you the word when we're ready."

"That nots what Deekin wants to ask, Boss. Deekin picks up book about Vix - umm, evil dragon lich."

"We can have a proper look at it later - hang on - you said he was a dragon? I thought Vix'thra was a god."

Cora did not underestimate Deekin's usefulness, as many other people did. Yet every so often he would still surprise her, by noticing something that she overlooked. Besides all the information he had gleaned from his old Master, he liked to read every book he found, and he had a knack for remembering odd little facts at convenient moments. This was one of them.

"Maybes he be both, Boss, and lich as well. " said Deekin, flicking through the pages. "Book says that he be all of those things so we must bow down to him."

"Not much chance of me doing that, but it's worth knowing, especially the part about him being a lich."

"There be more. If he be lich, he gots to have a phyl - phyla - umm, thing he stores soul in."

"Phylactery?"

"Yes, that's what I just said, Boss. It probably somewhere in his room. If we breaks it, then he be easier to kill - but when he sees you heading for it, he going to gets very angry..."

"I doubt he will be very friendly in the first place. I suspect the real difficulty will be trying to find it while fending off an attack at the same time," said Valen.

"You know what you need, don'tcha? If there's any scouting to be done, Tomi's your man. I could go and have a look for it. I might even be able to break the thing, if there's time."

"You're sure you want to do this? On your own?"

"Don't worry love, the more dangerous it gets, the sneakier I am. You lot would only give the game away. Especially him, being all overgrown." He nodded over at Valen.

"I guess there must be some advantages to being so short in stature," Valen replied, smirking. "Hiding in corners must be one of them."

Tomi grunted in a way which indicated he wasn't overly pleased to have his comment thrown back at him, but he proceeded with his self-appointed task, merging himself with the shadows and slipping through the doorway.

Cora crept closer to the door. All was quiet: there was no sound of crackling flames or any other audible signs of a dragon's wrath. As she stood there, she felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Umm, Boss? Deekin forgets to say something."

She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Not now, Deeks. I'm trying to listen."

Tomi saw the dragon as soon as he went through the door - but did the dragon see him?

Nah. The big bugger's got no idea. Just the way I like it.

He edged around the walls, skirting around the back of two gigantic skeletons which lay on the floor, perfectly intact.

There was no sign of any phylactery yet, though Tomi could see a gap ahead leading to another room - and beyond that, gold. Huge, gleaming piles of it. He stopped just in time as he noticed the faint glow of the trap ahead of his hasty footsteps. After disabling three in a row, he tore his attention from the gold for long enough to notice an urn mounted on a plinth, flanked by two bone golems.

That's it! Beats me why he'd leave it in such an obvious place, but I'm hardly gonna complain. He stole another covetous glance back at the treasure. No harm in taking a coin or two now I'm here.

There were trapped chests as well, but Tomi knew that his shadow shape would not last forever, so he contented himself with picking up a couple of handfuls of the largest coins from the edge of the nearest pile, pocketing them in numerous hiding places in his armour.

Time's running out, Tomi boy... He gave the treasure one last longing look before approaching the phylactery. As he skirted the wall to his right, he noticed a hidden door, which would come in handy for a quick getaway. The golems hadn't spotted him yet, big hulking dumb things that they were, and he just happened to have some Alchemist's Fire on him. Just to make sure, he chucked three at once.

Boom.

It went off quicker than he'd hoped, and as he dived for the ground, he heard a throaty roar. Getting to his feet, he dashed for the doorway, not looking back to see whether the phylactery was smashed or not. As he emerged on the other side, he gazed into the furious bejewelled eyes of the dracolich, and all rational thought fled his mind.

"Boss, it be important."

Cora walked away from the door. "All right, what is it?"

"You needs to wear something to prevents fear if you go near dragon. Deekin nots know whether halfling had anything like that."

She sighed. "I can't believe I forgot about that. He'll be all right, won't he? I'm sure he would keep a good distance from Vix'thra. Knowing Tomi, he's probably found the dragon's treasure hoard by now." She was trying to convince herself as much as Deekin.

The group had a quick look through their belongings to ensure that they all had something protective. Valen was wearing a pair of boots which bestowed immunity to fear on the wearer, which he had picked up elsewhere in the Underdark. The deva pronounced herself immune to the blind panic a dragon could induce, "although he certainly makes me feel nervous."

Cora and Deekin were still searching through their own belongings when they heard a loud bang, shortly followed by a roar and a scream.

They exchanged glances. Cora immediately hurried to the door. "Deekin, sing for me!"

She felt a hand gripping her elbow, and she turned around to see Valen. "Are you equipped?"

"I've no time for that!" All the same, she reached into her bag. She thought she had seen a couple of Clarity potions in there. Although they only had a temporary effect, they were certainly better than nothing.

"I'll fetch him. Stay here," said Valen firmly.

"But -"

"Let me do this." He slipped past her, and ran inside.

Great. Now I have two of them to worry about. She felt a prickle of apprehension. "This is crazy. We should have just all gone in together in the first place."

"Don't worry about your man. He seems more than capable of looking after himself," said Lavoera brightly.

"Yes, but it's a dracolich we're talking about, not just any old enemy...wait, you called him my man? He's not - I mean, we're not..."

She heard Valen's battle cry, and her body stiffened. She was on the verge of ordering the others to go in when Valen pushed through the doorway, carrying a yelling, kicking, badly injured halfling over his shoulders.

"Got to run," he growled.

Cora only took one brief glimpse behind herself as she retreated. A magnificent, entirely malevolent dragon was squeezing his way through the doorway. He bellowed again, and even as she sprinted, she felt the searing heat from his breath at her back.

"To the right!" she shouted, leading the others in a wild dash across the great hall, towards the first set of rooms where they had rested. Behind them, she felt the air being whipped into gusts by the beating of the dragon's great wings.

One door, two doors, three...

They ran through doorways which were strictly human-sized.

They stopped, as far as they could go. "I see why you brought us here," said Valen. "He can't follow." He placed Tomi on the ground, but immediately grabbed him by the shoulders again as the wild-eyed halfling tried to escape in the wrong direction.

Lavoera cast a healing spell on Tomi, Deekin started to cast his enhancement spells and Cora brought out her potions of Clarity, ready for them to take. One for her and one for Tomi...or Deekin. She decided that the halfling would be better off with it, if he ever shook off his current state of terror, since his fighting style usually involved getting much closer to the enemy.

Outside, there was a thunderous crash: it sounded as if the dragon was trying to break through the first of the doorways.

"Oi, stop gripping me like that!" shouted Tomi. "We're not that close, mate!"

Valen immediately let him go. "I didn't expect thanks. Just as well, since I didn't get any."

Cora handed a potion to Tomi. "Drink up, quick. Is the phylactery broken?"

"I bloody well hope so - but I had to dash, and the dragon blocked my path. I don't remember a thing after that."

"That's because you were running around in circles screaming," said Valen.

Another crash, and the walls shook: if they did not get out and fight, chances were that the enraged dragon would bring the temple down around their ears. Deekin began to sing of their doom: it seemed all too realistic at this stage.

"It's quite exciting, really!" said Lavoera as they went to meet the dragon halfway.

This isn't a joke, thought Cora. Yet she felt the old, familiar thrill rush through her veins as she saw the great beast. All she could see of him was his head and neck, which were poking through the entrance, but he was still a magnificent, if terrifying sight.

Her mind was sharpened by the potion she had just taken, and she hit hard and fast, aiming for the more vulnerable places such as his throat, for his eyes were out of her reach. The dragon's position meant that she could not dodge around him easily, and more than once she felt the sting of his spells or his fiery, acrid breath. The others were having the same difficulty in the enclosed space: they needed to dodge one another as well as the dragon's lunges.

Vix'thra withdrew his head abruptly, and Cora took her chance to run through the half-demolished doorway, where she would have more room to move around him. Vix'thra wheeled around again and charged at her.

She jumped sideways when he was almost upon her, and felt the violent aftershock of the dragon's impact on the wall nearby. If she had stayed where she was, she would have been crushed to death by now.

The dragon shrugged off rubble from his head as if shaking crumbs from a napkin, and turned his face to her, opening his jaws wide. Such sharp teeth, each one the size of a small dagger: they looked capable of beheading someone with a swift snap. He regarded her with contempt, even though the others were still attacking him from the side, as if he had all the time in the world. Playing with his food.

She felt as if her feet were glued to the spot as she stared at him. We can't do this.

"Fear not, Cora!" cried Lavoera, and Cora realised that she had almost succumbed, that time. The effects from the Clarity potion were weakening, gradually wearing off.

Vix'thra, jolted by a sudden hit from Lavoera's mace, cuffed her in response, and the deva was knocked to the ground. Before she could get up, the dragon turned his attention fully upon her, the great jaws snapping, and all she could do was scramble backwards, unable to right herself immediately. Valen dashed in front of the angel, putting himself directly in danger.

Cora forced her body to move, to act as if she wasn't afraid, and she called to Enserric in her mind. I need an extra special hit now - come on!

You asked for it, replied Enserric with a world-weary voice as she dashed towards the dragon.

She plunged the sword deep into the scaled, glittering flesh, heard his strangled cry of rage and pain. At the same time, if felt as if her own strength and health was being drained in turn. As the dragon's huge body collapsed, her world turned black, and she was the next to fall onto the marble floor.