Tankards and Tempers

Chapter 37: Stone walls do not a prison make

After being sent careening through a long and colorful vortex of energy, Laska ended up deposited on a very strange floor. Still lying face-down she felt that the floor was warm, and rather soft to the touch. Something was off with the color as well. She pushed herself upwards and got to her feet in seconds. What she saw, she didn't know what to make of it. Pulsating walls, bioluminescent lights, a building, a cage, constructed entirely from organic material rather than brick and mortar. There was no window in sight, in fact.

Behind her, her friends were deposited into a heap as they came flying out of the portal, having entered a little too soon after each other. The struggling heap of limbs, armor and mouths filled with curses lay tangled together, and was more than a little vocal about it.

"Oy!" Korgan shouted. "Get yer smelly bootfeet outta me beard!"

"Take my Boo out of your helmet, first!"

"Maybe I can pull myself up by this cord," Jan wondered.

"OW!" Viconia shouted. "That's my HAIR you little piece of shi... Argh, get off my back, I am not a horse!"

"Sorry, Vicky!"

"Perhaps if I shift to the right, then Jan can disentangle himself from Viconia's back, and Minsc could..." Keldorn spoke as he did so.

"Wilt thou remove thine hand from my rear end, paladin?!" Dynaheir said in a none too pleased fashion.

"Apologies, Dynaheir."

Waiting for her friends to gather their wits and composure, Laska glanced around her strange surroundings. This was definitely not a normal prison. Firstly, the warmth in the place was nearing body temperature, and the humidity was pressing down on her lungs. Secondly, the prison reminded her of the organically coated dungeon that was the lair of the Eyeless Beholder, though this prison was a lot 'cleaner' than that dungeon. The floor did not squish under her boots, nor was there the terrible smell, but her elven senses picked up that everything surrounding her was alive.

Viconia had apparently thought of the same thing. Blue light shone from her hands just before she pressed a small blue orb against the organic wall. As the blue light disappeared inside the wall, she directed her gaze at Laska and nodded, confirming that the prison was indeed a single living entity.

"What be ye so worked up about?" Korgan grunted as he grabbed his axe, ready for combat, but had no enemies in sight.

"This prison is alive," Viconia replied.

"Ye be daft!" Korgan chuckled. "Buildings cannae live! Imagine yer own 'ouse kickin' ye out the door! Har, har!"

"Well, I'm not so sure about that," Jan replied, "but my aunt Coleslaw Jansen once lived in an organic house. Now, she was an illusionist of great power, really great power. She was the only Jansen who escaped the Deadly WereGriffins of Basketville. And what a way to escape too: she cast a shrink-spell on herself and simply hid herself in the griffin's fur, driving the poor beast mad with the smell of fresh gnome, but never having gnomes in sight. In fact, he went so mad he started to develop a taste in dragons, even though this infatuation with dragonmeat didn't last very long (Can't eat much dragonmeat when you're neatly roasted and in line for digestion, after all). But I digress, my apologies. Anyway, Ma found aunty Coleslaw with the help of our truffle-seeking pig, but unfortunately, the spell aunty used was so advanced that none of us knew how to turn her back! Not that aunty Coleslaw minded, after all. Just imagine how long you can do with a turnip when you're only as tall as a thumb. But I digress again. Anyway, so the time came when aunty Coleslaw broke up with the local mouse who was her roommate for a while, so she decided to get place of her own: a hollowed out turnip, still alive and growing! Why, she didn't even have to get out of bed for breakfast!"

"Mice, truffle-seeking pigs, dragon meat?" Viconia asked skeptically.

"Me 'ead be spinnin'," Korgan muttered.

"Ah, that's how poor aunty Coleslaw came to her end. We had our family reunion at the house as usual, but our neighbors were holding the 'Annual Elephant Jumping Contest' next door. So needless to say, aunty's house, with aunty inside, slid from the plank and fell onto the pile of dinner-turnips. Sadly, we didn't find out what had happened until after an army of ravenous, (but handsome) gnomes had eaten the entire stack. Poor Aunty Coleslaw, she would have been better off staying with the mouse."

*'Oh, Laska,'* Ipsiya spoke harshly, while the lady blade cast an angry blue light in the organic chamber. *'What kind of hole have you dragged me to this time?!'*

"That's what I like to know!" Viconia added. "Did you even consider where you might end up before you jumped through that shimmering hole?"

"Emmm, no..." Laska replied.

"Did you consider that the portal might have ended up chewing you up and blowing out elf-sized chunks on the other side?"

"Errr, no..."

"Did you consider that you were risking the lives of your friends as well?"

"No..."

"Did you even think at all before you followed your impulses and just jumped forward?"

"No..."

"Do you ever think?"

"You've known me for two years, Vico. You're still figuring that out?"

"I cold to my naive hope," Viconia rubbed her temples as she regarded the shimmering blue portal. "Well, at least we can still return home."

As the drow spoke the words, the portal suddenly flashed brightly and closed, dissipating its energies into the air.

*'Oh, this is just GREAT'* Ipsiya snarled. *'This place reminds of the that dragon's stomach I was in for a month after my first owner got cocky... Fortunately, my enchantment made me acid-resistant, but the trip out was rather... unpleasant and unlady-like'*.

"Oh, ho, ho!" Lilarcor shouted from Minsc's hands. "Not even the most powerful enchantment in the world will protect you from my witty charm!"

*'Yes,'* Ipsiya sighed. *'Unfortunately, the 'annoying jerk aversion'-spell has not yet been scripted.'*

"What's done is done!" Keldorn announced as he held the Hallowed Redeemer in his hands. "From now on, we can only go forward."

"To our deaths," Viconia muttered under her breath, while she took the statue of Khittix out of her pouch. Seconds later, Khittix stood in front of the party, very eager to help out his mistress. "At least we must know what to expect."

Khittix chirped and got to work, sniffing and sensing for enemies. A puzzled look crossed his eight eyes as he kept walking over the floor in small circles. Eventually, Khittix walked back to Viconia and chirped to her in an apologetic fashion.

Viconia sighed. "Khittix doesn't smell anything. I suppose we can't blame him, this living prison is probably throwing off his senses."

"Guess we have to go about it the old fashioned way, then," Jan smiled. "Ah, not knowing what you will face, fearing that each step will trigger a scythe-trap, the fear of not having enough turnips at hand... Ah, bliss!"

"Aye!" Minsc raved. "We will only know evil when we step in it!"

As was said, they did. Slowly, Laska and her friends with the spider Khittix at point, trekked through the strange organic prison. Its structure was as illogical as its form, which became only slightly cleared as they stepped over a long and thin walkway, suspended high above a large open room. In the open room, hundreds of prisoners were doing forced labor. Most of the prisoners were hacking at a yellow organic excretion with mining tools, while several others were busy loading the ore in carts and moving those carts toward a small metal loading platform where a Spelljammer Freighter lay docked. All the prisoners seemed to be creatures of hearty adventuring stock and of many, many different races: elves, dwarves, drow, humans, gnolls, succubi, githyanki and many other races which no one of the party had ever seen before.

The oddest thing was that there were no guards in sight. Instead, all the prisoners wore a strange collar which covered most of their necks. With her keen elven eyes, Viconia noticed two metal protrusions from the collar were piercing the back of the skull of each prisoner.

Silently walking on, eager to avoid detection though none of the prisoners were really paying attention to them, they arrived at the large platform suspended at the side of the large chamber they just passed. There, they found the first guards they would see.

Creeping over the walkway, being careful not to be spotted, they saw the large tiefling that had taken the Sigil troupe. He was flanked by a number of other Tieflings and two yuan-ti spellcasters, all chuckling evilly at a halfling prisoner, who was cowering in a corner.

"T... tell the warden we need more food," the halfling stammered. "We are starving! You cannot expect us to do all this work on only a pint of water and a crust of bread..."

"Hah!" the huge tiefling roared in laughter. "You slaves will work whether you want it or not! The warden does not have to fear insurrections. Little freaks like you don't have any demands to make."

"But..."

"Okay, boys," the huge tiefling said as he cracked his knuckles. "Let's show our little friends how we 'discuss' the conditions of slavery around these parts."

"HEY!" Laska shouted as she emerged from her hiding place and drew her swords. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!"

"Huh?" the huge tiefling exclaimed as the tattooed elf he left on the prime earlier was standing right in front of him. Then, he grinned a toothy grin. "My, my, my. The lovely prime! So foolish of you to follow us here! Into the prison from which there is no escape, no less. Oh, I question your sanity, dear lady."

"So do I," Viconia muttered under her breath as Laska's friends emerged as well, brandishing their weapons.

"Anyway, you all had best prepare yourself for a long stay," the tiefling said, his eyes glinting at the battle-ready elf. "Hmmm, maybe, if you are nice to me, I could convince the warden to make you my concubine. You don't have to do hard labor then... well, not in the mines, anyway... Think about it..."

"Emmm, well, at least Anomen can't find me here..." Laska pretended to think. "Nah, I think I'd rather just kill you."

"Oh, dear lady," the tiefling smiled. "Once you are collared, you'll do everything I order you to do."

"So that is how thou dost controls thy prisoners?" Dynaheir smiled. "A simple enchanted collar?"

Angry at having unwittingly revealed a secret he should have kept for himself, his mood shifted. He turned to his companions and gave them the order to attack.

"But boss?" one of the wimpier tieflings replied. "They... they aren't collared! If we bully them... they might hurt us!"

"Get out there, you sniveling ape!" the huge tiefling shouted and pushed the wimpy tiefling towards the enemies. Korgan did not hesitate, and the weaker tiefling lost most of his head at the swing of his axe before the poor fellow could even raise his weapon.

The battle was on. Dynaheir started the fray by casting her best combat spell. Two orbs of energy, one ice, one fire, formed outside of the party and shot into the still clustered group of tieflings, freezing and frying them at the same time. Immediately, the melee fighters shot into the group of startled tieflings. Keldorn slammed his sword against the side of one of the Yuan-ti mages, not only wounding it severely, but also knocking the unfortunate creature of the platform, making it crash to the floor three hundred feet below them.

Minsc and Lilarcor were having great fun taking two of the smaller tiefings on at once, while Dynaheir swung her staff-spear with deadly precision. Her combat-behavior had changed very little since the time she had traveled with the party before. She fought with grim determination, showing not a single sign of holding back as she twirled her staff and cast her spells. Dynaheir had just finished casting a spell on her staff, and succeeded in hitting the huge tiefling not only with the blunt end of the staff, but also with a phenomenal discharge of crackling lightning. And, judging from exactly which bodypart Dynaheir had hit with her powerful attack, the huge tiefling wouldn't have a use for a concubine anytime soon... if ever again.

But that was not the end of the attack. As the tiefling mercenary lay doubled over in a painful heap, Dynaheir brought down the staff-spears sharp end down on his neck, crushing the vertebrae instantly and leaving the mercenary very dead indeed.

But Laska had no time to reflect on this. Her sensitive elven ears noticed that the last yuan-ti was casting as spell and she recognized the nightmarish words from her darkest of dreams. It was a spell of death... the same on she had heard Irenicus use on her many times before, stripping her from her life-force unto an inch of her life under the pressure of extreme agony. He would heal her later only to repeat the process over and over again. The thought alone made her feel cold and terrified. And now someone would use that spell on her friends.

Letting out a feral snarl, she twirled around her axis and somersaulted forwards, flying over the yuan-ti wizard while slamming her swords at the creature. In his surprise, the creature found he could no longer speak. Feeling his neck, he noticed two bleeding cuts in a neat X-formation were crossed over his throat and larynx. It simply stood there in surprise until Viconia dealt the finishing blow by crushing his skull with her flail.

In the meantime, Jan was standing on the side, carefully loading his special crossbow. Smiling wickedly, he launched one of his special flashers into the group of remaining tieflings, paralyzing them instantly.

Korgan grinned, swung his axe over his shoulder and gave the nearest tiefling a shove... The domino-effect took place, dragging the other paralyzed tieflings with him as they all tumbled over the side of the platform and landed with a satisfying 'splat'.

"Well, that was fun," Laska smiled as she sheathed her blades and stepped over to another path leading to a complex to open floors stacked on top of each other.

"Laska," Keldorn spoke as the elf approached a sphincter-like organic construction on the path. "I would be careful here, if I were you. You do not know what lies ahead."

"Oh, come on!" Laska smiled as she stepped on the sphincter. "It's perfectly saAAAAAAAAFFFFFFEEEEEEEE!" she shouted as it opened under her feet and the startled elf disappeared into a vertical tunnel.

"She must have been sucked into one of the lower levels!" Dynaheir replied.

"Oh, no!" Minsc shouted. "We must save our friend from the pit!"

"Aye, but I nay be going down that way. I donnae think Laska would be needin' rescuin' anyway."

"Khittix!" Viconia shouted to her faithful spider. "Go help out Laska, while we find another way down!"

Khittix chirped in response and jumped down the tunnel.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Laska shouted as she finally flew out the seemingly endless drop and landed unceremoniously on her rear end into a closed off space. The first thing that assaulted her fine elven senses was the disgusting smell. It was a mixture of rotting flesh, excrement, brimstone and wet doghair.

There was almost no light in the room, and the disgusting floor was covered with congealed blood and chewed bones. Then, Laska noticed there were two other creatures in the room as well. An aged drow male, cowering in the corner trying to keep as quiet as possible. Apparently, the drow did not know whom to fear more: the elf, ancient enemy of his people or the towering Nebassu, currently loudly snoring on a bed of straw.

Laska had seen and fought the powerful Nebassu Aec'Letec before, but this one seemed hardly as impressive as Aec had seemed. Mostly because the creature was wearing a pink bow-tie around his neck, and had an ornate collar spelling the word 'FiFi' on a copper tag.

"Eeeeeeeee! Eep!" sounded from the tunnel as the chirping spider Khittix slipped down the tunnel and landed on all eights. To Laska, he made the impression of having had lots of fun sliding down that tunnel.

With a smile, Laska motioned Khittix to silence. Confused, the spider glanced through the room, barely containing a startled chirp as he noticed the Nebassu.

Deciding not to be the tender morsel when 'FiFi' would wake up, she decided to slay the creature before it could awaken. Drawing Ipsiya, and shushing any complaints about being sunk into the flesh of such a creature, she snuck towards 'FiFi' while the drow male looked on with hope. Undoubtedly because he considered being quickly and cleanly slain by a wicked elf would be preferable than being eaten alive by a Nebassu, like so many had before him.

Closer and closer Laska snuck to the creature, her face crumpled as the smell of the creature increased exponentially with every step. 'At least Aec'Letec had a sense of personal hygiene,' she considered.

She snuck closer and closer, freezing as the furry Nebassu seemed to sniff the air. Eventually, Laska was close enough to strike. Gleefully, she drew Ipsiya and hovered the slightly unwilling blade over the neck of the creature, but just as Laska was about to strike, the creature growled and rose from his bed of straw. Laska now came to the conclusion that 'FiFi's breath smelled even worse than a whole septic tank filled with raw sewage.

As the tattooed elf steeled for a tough fight, Khittix was already in position. Having his hind-quarters aimed at the Nebassu, Khittix fired webbing towards 'FiFi's head, covering the creature's mouth and eyes with sticky web-stuff. Not hesitating, Laska leapt into the air and slammed Ipsiya downwards. The disgusted moonblade almost instinctively veered away, but did bury deep into the flesh of the Nebassu. The creature howled as it crashed to the ground. Laska let out a labored cry as she hacked down with her swords again and again, eventually severing 'FiFi's head from his neck.

As the creature's foul blood spread over the floor, Laska nodded at Khittix. "We make a fine team, Spiderkin..." she smiled, while Khittix chirped with pride.

Unfortunately, Laska found herself covered from head to toe with demonic blood and didn't have much of a way to clean herself.

"Wicked female!" Laska heard call from the male in broken common. "I ask you... finish me painlessly, if you can chase hatred from black, disease-ridden surface-dwelling heart!"

"Uh, what?" Laska blinked and was about to laugh in his face in response to this outrageous statement, until she heard the desperation in his voice. Until now, Viconia had been the only drow she had ever known, but the stories she had told her claimed that the drow expected very little of mercy from surface elves.

But before Laska could reply, a sphincter opened in the side of the room, and her party stormed in, looks of determination etched on their faces.

"See?!" Korgan chuckled. "I be tellin' ye lot the lass nay be needin' rescue!"

"Hi, guys!" Laska greeted. "How was your trip down?"

"We came across a huge wyvern," Jan replied. "Ever bigger than cousin Beeloo's elephants, and he feeds those things steroids."

"You should have seen fair Dynaheir finish that mean wyvern!" Minsc spoke with pride. "She cut it open with her staff, and then slammed a spell of Fireball into the wound!"

"Aye," Korgan smiled. "The lass be a good fighter. She even be finishin' it off before Keldorn here be decapitatin' it! Jealous, long-limb?"

"Hardly," Keldorn replied. "But I am impressed with her fighting-skills."

And for the first time in her life, Laska could swear she could see Dynaheir blush at a compliment.

"But what is this?" Viconia replied after patting Khittix over the head. She regarded the aged Drow male with an icy stare.

As soon as the male noticed Viconia, he dropped to the floor and grovelled with all his might. Disgusted with this display of cowardice, but expecting no less from a male of her race, Viconia motioned the male to get on his knees and speak in their own language in the traditional drow handsigns.

As the conversation in drow continued, and the male relaxed a little, Laska could barely contain her curiosity.

"What's he saying? What's he saying?" the elf asked.

"Well, after explaining three times we would not end his miserable life," Viconia smiled, "he told me that this creature, 'FiFi' and the wyvern outside, were the warden's beloved pets. He was thrown in this cage only hours ago to serve as the Nebassu's food, since this worm of a male was getting too old to work in the mines, or fight in the arena."

"Yes, but, that's not all..." the male said in common and pointed at the collar of the creature. "That is... the control gem. It... is... magic. If destroyed, all collars lose power. All free... All escape. You," he pointed at Laska. "You wicked female let me live for trade information?"

"I AM THE ONLY WICKED FEMALE HERE!" shouted Viconia, to the surprise of the party, following it up with a savage kick to his chin.

"Viconia, please!" Keldorn protested. "He has suffered enough and this no need for this mistreatment."

Viconia narrowed her eyes. "A drow male is less than dirt. He knows his place and he knows that he should answer my questions."

The drow turned towards the cowering male again. "We might spare your life," Viconia muttered under her breath and shot the male a sly grin. "If you tell us where the warden's platform is..."

As the male agreed to lead them to it, Viconia strolled over to the control gem and pried it out of the collar with a small dagger.

"What art thou going to do with that?" Dynaheir asked her drow friend.

"Oh," Viconia muttered she magically empowered the gem to float in front of her. "Just causing a prison-break," she said as she clapped her hands together, and both spell and orb shattered into a thousand pieces. Almost immediately, the male's collar snapped loose and dropped to the floor. And it seemed his collar was not the only one. After a few moments of stunned silence, the cries of battle could be heard from everywhere in the prison.

"No, NO!" the warden, a huge multi-horned cambion standing over twelve feet tall bellowed as he glanced over his shoulder into the mining-pit as hundreds of prisoners now free of the mind-control we now streaming towards the portals and to freedom. A great deal of the prisoners had also overpowered the crew of the Spelljammer freighter and were preparing to launch it to escape.

The warden's cushy job had suddenly changed into a nightmare of epic proportions. And it would be on his own head, since he was the one who had suggested to reduce the number of guards to only about a dozen due to the enhanced mind-control devices he suggested to have installed in the first place. And to make matters worse, his own private army of abducted and mind-controlled adventurers were now freed and rebelled against his rule.

"How is this possible! No one has escaped here before! How will I reach my quota this month?!" he bellowed as he slew one of the adventurers with his huge lance. The adventurers fought bravely, but the cambion was sure they would soon fall.

Then, reinforcements seemed to arrive. A small group of insurrectionists came storming towards them. The cambion was sure he had never seen them before, and considered them to be new arrivals. Immediately, he turned to engage them, only to find out these were no ordinary insurrectionists. The newcomers stormed him like a pack of Gereleths and fought with the ferocity of Balors as they slammed their weapons into his armor. Granted his armor did well to keep the force out of the blows, but their sheer power was most impressive.

The cambion roared and waved his lance in the group of adventurers, slamming aside an aged human male, a drow female and a strange gnome. He noticed another drow, an aged male, was running away, headed towards the captured Spelljammer Freighter. The last prisoners were now escaping, several of his former army staying behind help fight him. The cambion started to feel the power of the blows now as his armor had been pierced several times now. He hissed in pain as one of the tendons in his knees was cut, and he was forced to lean back against a pillar. In the background, he noticed the lone drow male had now reached the Spelljammer Freighter. As soon as he was aboard, the freighter disembarked and departed from the dock. The last adventurers gated out, leaving only the insurrectionists standing. Knowing he had nothing to lose now, the snarling cambion threw his powerful magical lance towards the adventurer the closest near him: the drow female brandishing a flail.

Unfortunately, the drow dodged the lance expertly and, to the cambion's horror, it slammed into the wall of the prison, and tore a hole straight through it. The hole expanded, and expanded as the air was suddenly sucked towards it. Eventually, it became a bleeding tear, exposing the inside of the prison to the ink black void of space. The insurrectionists, surprised as they were by this development, had managed to grab hold of something, but the cambion himself was not so lucky.

He flew towards the hole, and held on to the wound itself for a moment, but the escaping atmosphere unrelentingly pushed him out. The last thing the unfortunate warden saw when all the air was ripped from his lungs, was the outside of the formerly most secure prison in all the planes, ever growing smaller.

"What's happening?!" Laska shouted as she held on to the pillar for dear life while the air whipped around her.

"I donnae know!" Korgan replied. "But it ain't be fun!"

"MY TURNIPS!" Jan shouted as the turnips were sucked from his open satchel and flew towards the hole.

"Viconia!" Keldorn shouted, having an idea. "Heal it! Heal the wound!"

"Are you mad?!" Viconia retorted. "I'm not insane enough to approach that void!"

"It is a single creature!" Keldorn retorted. In the meantime, Khittix held on to the pillar and squirted webbing into the wound, closing it up a little, but it was still not enough to end the threat. "You can heal it from here!" Keldorn finished.

"I would need to use both my hands!" Viconia shouted against the noise of escaping air.

"Do it!" Laska shouted and hooked her legs around one of the rods sticking out of the pillars. Freeing her hands, she locked her arms around Viconia's waist as the drow let go of the pillar and held onto her friend with all her might. Immediately, Viconia felt herself being pulled ever more to the void as she was seemingly suspended in mid-air due to the pressure of the escaping atmosphere. In fear of her life she started casting. A blue light engulfed her as the curative magics flew from her hands and streamed into the wound, slowly... agonizingly slowly, closing it up.

Immediately, the party crashed to the floor as the pressure stabilized.

"Everyone okay?" Jan asked.

"Everyone still have all their stuff?" Laska added.

A quick check of equipment quickly revealed that the only loss of the day were Jan's turnips. Luckily, there were no other casualties.

"Right," Laska muttered. "Those tieflings better be damn grateful for their rescue."

"At this point, I remind you we didn't actually had no particular need to come here," Viconia sighed.

"You have known us for so short a time yet you have bought our freedom with blood. My child, my friend, it is a debt I can never repay," Raelis Shai spoke as she and her friends were released from the isolation ward. "We would have spend all our lives here if you had not..."

"Aye," Keldorn spoke. "I had surmised that all the slaves here were innocent. It is a good thing they are now freed."

"Me axe and I be 'avin' fun too, HAR HAR!"

"Don't look at me," Viconia muttered. "I don't give a damn..."

"Come, ye Doomguard," Raelis smiled, "we must be off and swiftly. And you, Laska. We shall bring you back to Athkatla. I can give you nothing but my gratitude. Perhaps we all shall meet again."

"Gee, I hope not," Jan muttered. "The price was simply too high. Oh, woe is my beloved turnips!"

"But we must go before the Duke marshals his forces. I will use what powers I have remaining to open another conduit. Are you ready Haer'Dalis?" Raelis asked as began summoning another portal.

"Miss Raelis," Haer'Dalis spoke, a hard look crossing his features. "I, I cannot come with you. Not this time."

"Oh, gods, here we go," Viconia muttered under her breath.

"No? No more plays, Haer'Dalis? No more theatre?" Raelis smiled briefly.

"I wish I could, Raelis, but I am just another moth come too close to your flame. To love you is to smother that flame in my own death. I shall not do it," Haer'Dalis smiled briefly, running his hand over Raelis' cheek.

"Don't be a fool, Haer'Dalis. There was no mystery writer of our play! I wrote 'A Comedy of Terrors,' it was mine! I brought all of this upon us!" Raelis shouted, oblivious to the fact that several of Laska's partymembers, including Keldorn and Viconia were getting very angry after hearing this statement.

"I know, Miss Raelis. You'll have my heart forever, but I must do as I must. Perhaps Laska will let me travel with her for a time, but the Prime beckons this sparrow, regardless," Haer'Dalis smiled.

"Hah, I've only got one man on my tail, I don't need two," Laska whispered.

"Then go, my lovely Haer'Dalis... remember us fondly in your musings. And you Laska, go with my thanks and take yon lovely moth with you."

That said, Raelis Shai waved her arms, leaving the prison an empty place.