Pursuit
"Well, doesn't this just look like a lovely place to set up an ambush."
Bishop had stopped and tilted his head back to scrutinize the rapidly climbing path ahead with narrowed eyes.
Brianna, interrupting her conversation with Casavir mid-sentence, mimicked him.
"Mountains," she said disgustedly. "I hate mountains."
Certainly, the path had been raising steadily for the past several hours of their journey, but now, it appeared, they were about to embark on a climbing adventure not unlike the one they had been forced on in the Sword Mountains. Certainly these peaks before them were nowhere near as high and imposing as the Sword Mountain range, but Brianna still was not looking forward to repeating the experience.
"I will wager a guess that Shandra is not far from here." The paladin had joined them in staring upwards. "They may have hidden her in one of the many caves that line these mountains. We should hurry."
"We should try not to get ourselves killed." Bishop's voice, to nobody's surprise, was dripping with disdain, and Brianna sighed inwardly.
"Can you scout ahead and try to spot where they might have positioned themselves?" she asked the ranger, just as Casavir opened his mouth for a reply. As Bishop glanced at the mountain once more, she glared at Casavir and swiftly shook her head. The paladin, apparently just now remembering their previous conversation about the ranger, lowered his eyes.
"I could try," Bishop replied vaguely.
"Great. More waiting?" Qara rolled her eyes. "I could just throw some fire at them and be done with it."
"You'd get a single spell of if you're lucky, tavern queen, before they'd make you a sieve," the ranger snorted.
"I only need one," Qara threw back a mouthful of empty bravado.
"I need you at full strength for whatever comes after this ambush." Brianna was not about to let bickering steal what precious time they had before Shandra was fly-infested troll bait. "We'll try this one without magic."
Qara pouted.
Bishop made his way up the mountain slope and vanished into the sparse shrubbery, followed by his wolf. Brianna used the opportunity to stretch her sore muscles. Marching for hours and sleeping on the cold ground the night before had left her body stiff and slow. She knew she needed to work on regaining her mobility.
And to think I once scoffed at Bevil for doing the same, she mused as she bent forward and placed her gloved palms on the rocky ground. Her calf muscles protested, causing her to grit her teeth as she held the position. I've truly become a good little obedient soldier, haven't I?
She sighed disgustedly as she straightened up again. Not too long ago, she had been certain that her time as a lackey to the city of Neverwinter would soon be at an end. Now, she was not so sure. Even if they did find Shandra, even if the woman was the key to finding the research on Ammon Jerro, and even if that research did include details on the shards, none of these things guaranteed that Brianna would be able to get the githyanki off her back, and therefore no longer need the meager protection the city offered her. The further she walked, the longer the path seemed which would eventually lead to her being rid of the damned shards.
Maybe I should try running anyway. They didn't follow me when I went to Old Owl Well because they knew I was coming back. Ditch everything, leave the shards to Duncan or Elanee or whoever wants them the most, go as far east as I can manage…
Surreptitiously, she glanced at Neeshka, who was checking her daggers. Maybe she would invite the tiefling along. It was bound be dangerous, traveling by herself into regions she had little knowledge of. The tiefling was good company and could maybe even be convinced to come along.
Brianna twisted her upper body as far as she could manage and adjusted a strap on her armor that had been too loose.
"Daydreams," she muttered dismissively under her breath, and firmly redirected her thoughts to stay on the task at hand.
Bishop returned just when she started to get nervous about losing what daylight they had left. As silently as he had left, he stepped into view from behind a tree and caused Qara to jump with fright.
"Group of six, two hundred feet up," the ranger reported. "They've all got longbows and a height advantage. If we take the obvious route, we're dead meat. They've got sight of the entire approach."
Brianna chewed her lip as she considered the information. They could ill afford more injuries and delays. While she tried to get her brain working, Bishop was already throwing out a suggestion.
"There might be an alternate path. Means climbing."
Brianna's eyes automatically traveled to Casavir, decked out in his heavy plate mail, and from there to Qara. The sorceress was the opposite of stealthy at the best of times. There was no way either of them would be able to take this alternate route, especially not without making any noise.
"Is that alternate path to the west?" she asked Bishop. "If we hurry, we'd have the sunset at our backs, and they'd be blinded by it."
When Bishop opened his mouth, Brianna expected yet another scathing put-down, but the ranger was looking thoughtful for once.
"Not half bad, swamp wench," he acknowledged. "It's westward alright. Let's go then, and stop wasting time."
Minutes later, Brianna was scrambling to keep up with Bishop, ducking beneath branches, climbing over boulders and squeezing through gaps in the uneven rocks. Neeshka followed on her heels, light-footed as a mountain goat. Away from the broad approach the githyanki were expecting them to take, it was rough going, and the only reason they were crossing the terrain so impressively fast was the fact that Bishop seemed to have a preternatural ability to pick the easiest path for them to take at lightning speed.
Casavir had stayed behind at Brianna's request, guarding Qara and all of their packs. The paladin knew as well as everyone else that he would not be of any use in a maneuver where stealth was essential. The sorceress was probably still pouting, along with throwing the occasional horrified glance at the ranger's wolf. Much as the ranger denied the animal being his, Brianna was certain the wolf would not have stayed behind to wait if Bishop had not told him to do so.
The ranger slowed his pace after some time, moving now with far more care. Brianna mimicked him and watched very carefully where Bishop placed his feet. If she assumed correctly, they were not far now from where the githyanki patrol on the lookout for them was stationed. A single loose pebble now had the ability to give them away. Brianna had nearly died once already because of such an incident. She was not planning on getting another taste.
To her immediate right, the rock wall rose a good eight feet into the air, nearly vertical and dishearteningly smooth. When the ranger pointed at the rise, Brianna's heart sank.
You've got to be kidding me. I am not that good a rock climber.
She turned and regarded her surroundings, trying to find an alternate solution. There were a few bare trees growing in the general vicinity of the wall, but none close enough for her to use to manage the wall.
But she might not have to manage the wall, she realized suddenly, and pointed at one of the trees that she thought fulfilled her needs the best.
The ranger frowned. Neeshka tilted her head, looking confused.
Brianna pointed again, first at the crossbow fastened to her back, then again at the tree.
Neeshka still looked confused. Bishop, however, shrugged, which told her that this new plan of hers wasn't completely idiotic, and then stepped over to the tree and unceremoniously hoisted her up into the lowest branches.
She reacted just in time and extended her hands to catch a branch, pulling herself up.
I haven't climbed a tree since back in West Harbor, she realized as she let her gloved hands run along the bark to try and find handholds. I was never very good at it back then.
However, she had put on muscle and developed more body control since those days. Even with the heavy crossbow on her back, it was far easier than she expected to make her way up several more branches, until she found a spot that allowed her to stand up as solidly as the slightly swaying tree allowed. Several adjustments of her leather straps later, she had anchored herself securely to the tree.
The githyanki were wonderfully visible from her elevated position, bathed in the late golden sunlight and all lined up as though they were bottles waiting to be shattered by Brianna's bolts at the Harvest Fair. Even better, they all had their backs turned, but Brianna still made sure to keep herself as hidden as possible in case one decided to throw a glance behind him.
Below her, Neeshka had begun scaling the rock wall. The tiefling looked enviably at home climbing, using her tail for balance as she advanced upwards. Bishop, meanwhile, had climbed a tree as well. If Brianna hadn't known exactly where he was, she wouldn't have been able to spot the ranger. She tried not to be impressed.
She readied her bow as quietly as possible. When Neeshka approached the edge of the wall, she aimed, and realized suddenly that they had not agreed on who was going to take out which target. What if they all aimed for the same gith?
With a mental shrug, she picked one at random and waited, giving Neeshka time to pull a dagger from its sheath with one hand, peek at their targets, and hurl the weapon with as much force as the tiefling could muster without losing her precarious grip on the rocks.
Brianna fired just as she saw the dagger impact its victim's back. Her bolt tore through the shoulder of its intended victim and sent him sprawling, and she fumbled for her next bolt, watching as Neeshka threw a second dagger and then retreated below the giths' line of sight. Bishop's arrow, meanwhile, had pierced the throat of its victim cleanly.
The three githyanki who were not yet injured or dying wheeled around, bows at the ready, and tried to figure out the origin of this unexpected attack.
Like fish in a barrel, Brianna thought, amused, and fired another bolt. Then she reeled backwards, glad for her leather straps keeping her upright as she sought cover behind a thick branch just in time to avoid the arrow coming her way, which impacted the wood close to her head with a dull thunk.
Fish with some serious counter-attacks, she mentally corrected herself as she waited and tried to catch a glimpse of the goings-on without presenting herself as a target. When she finally dared to stick her head out, none of the gith were left standing. Most of them had one or several of Bishop's green-feathered arrows sticking out of some vital part of their anatomy.
One step further, Brianna thought, untying her straps and making her way back down the tree.
The sun had vanished below the horizon by the time they were all assembled and ready to continue onward, leaving the icy sky streaked with spectacularly glowing bands of orange and pink. They had not quite faded yet when Brianna stepped towards the dark opening formed by the rock.
Great. Caves. Because I haven't seen nearly enough of those lately.
She sighed and pulled her chalice out of her pack. It appeared they were finally getting close to their goal, but she was pretty certain that whatever lay between them and Shandra, githyanki or otherwise, was not going to step aside and wave pleasantly as they went on to rescue the damned farm girl. Touching the hilt of her blade for reassurance more than an actual need to draw it at this point, she stepped forward into the dark cave mouth.
They advanced slowly, wish Bishop taking point accompanied by his wolf, and Brianna and Neeshka following closely behind. Casavir stayed further back at Brianna's instruction, guarding Qara. the sorceress, and the amount of raw power she could unleash, was one of the few trump cards Brianna could play when they finally found whoever was behind all of this.
As though on cue, another group of unhealthy-looking green-skinned gith stepped forward to block their path. This one was led by one male with a very distinctive appearance. Brianna frowned as she regarded the lines tattooed across the thin face, the white and black feather crown framing his head. She had seen this one before.
The image entered her mind so suddenly it felt like she'd been struck. Dancing mage lights surrounding that very face, the smell of woodsmoke in the air, the taste of blood in her mouth. Amie's yell as she saw her mentor, Tarmas, dueling on the village green. West Harbor in flames. Bevil, weeping over a lifeless body wearing tangled skirts.
"This one's a mage," she said hoarsely, just loud enough for Neeshka and Bishop to hear. The one who killed Amie. "Make sure he chokes on his spells."
She stepped forward, sword already raised. Her crossbow might have given her more of a first strike advantage, but she was confident Bishop's bow and Neeshka's daggers had that covered. Her sword made her feel more secure, more steady.
"Kalach-Cha," the mage gith greeted her, his voice rough and deep. "Zeeaire has foretold your coming." He grinned, displaying impressively pointed teeth.
Brianna was not nearly as awed by that statement as the gith might have hoped.
Wouldn't exactly have been difficult to figure out that I'd show up sooner or later.
She did not dwell on it, however, because there were several far more important details that she noticed in the same moment. For one, the gith before her, Amie's murderer, spoke common. She had not encountered many gith willing to talk at all after leaving West Harbor, most of them being mere foot soldiers sent to hunt for her. It might be possible to actually gather a few bits of information from this one, and she started with the first question that came to her mind.
"Kalach-Cha," she repeated. Trying to pronounce the strange phrase made her throat hurt. "I've heard that before, from your kind. What does it mean? Is it a greeting?"
It was worth a shot, she figured. Even though it probably wasn't a greeting, she hoped the gith would be offended enough by her making assumptions about his language to correct her.
The male growled, low, and stepped right into the trap.
"Infidel," he called her. "Thief. Kalach-Cha is the name we give you, one who not only steals a silver sword, but destroys the sword to hide the crime and then impudently carries its shards."
She felt deeply satisfied he had given the information away so easily.
"You," she said, taking another step forward, "have been severely misinformed. I didn't steal the damned thing, or destroy it. Hells, I'll hand over the shards right now if you'll swear to leave me the hells alone after that."
"That," he spat out, licking his teeth nervously with his tongue, "is for Zeeaire to decide."
"Who is Zeeaire?" Brianna pushed her luck.
"Do not sully her name," the gith hissed. "Zeeaire is a sword stalker favored by the lich queen herself, and she had extinguished the lives of countless enemies in her path."
Another bit of information given away out of anger. Brianna smirked at that, and put more pieces of the puzzle together in her head.
"You're a sword stalker too, aren't you? That's why you speak common."
She could tell by the male's posture and facial expression that she was not going to get a whole lot more out of him before his patience snapped. But that meant she no longer had to watch her own words quite so closely.
"I am," the gith admitted, and she caught the subtle hand signal he gave to his fighters. "It is an honor to be chosen to rectify this highest crime an outsider can commit, the theft of a gift of the lich queen to her most faithful followers."
"Well, as I said," Brianna reiterated, catching Neeshka's subtle movement out of the corner of her eye. "I never stole your silver sword. But I did take the lives of plenty of your warriors that you sent to pursue me. And you may not remember all those you killed back in West Harbor, but for one particular life I'm going to enjoy watching you squirm in pain before I kill you."
Those couldn't be mistaken for anything but fighting words. Her companions were ready when the gith snarled and raised his hands, and whatever nasty spell he had been planning fizzled harmlessly when a green-feathered arrow pierced his hand solidly. Neeshka had meanwhile hurled an entire pouch of choking powder at the advancing githyanki, taking them by surprise. While they stumbled about, coughing and half-blind, Qara threw a fireball solidly into their middle.
The smell of singed flesh permeated the cave. Brianna tried not to gag as she faced off against the mage gith and his blade-wielding protector. In the corner of her eye she saw Casavir hurrying forward to help her, but she did not need the paladin's concern. This was Amie's killer, and he was hers. A sudden fury had gripped her and she relished the feeling. Her muscles reacted to every little movement the gith made, parried every stroke as though it was child's play. Eventually, another arrow sent the warrior gith sprawling, and the she guided her blade into a downwards arc towards the legs of the mage, cutting and shattering his knees. Somewhere behind her, the wolf growled.
"Nice," she heard Bishop muttering nearby as the gith sank to the ground writhing in pain.
Her eyes were focused on the pathetic creature before her, who was still trying to cast even with his crippled hand, and when he very nearly succeeded, she took one step forward and kicked as hard as she could. Several of his teeth clattered onto the rocky ground. It felt good to watch him clutching his mouth, spitting out blood. She contemplated the best way to send him to his death.
"Brianna!"
Casavir's shocked exclamation tore her out of the floaty cloud of elation she had found herself on, and she did not appreciate it. She turned towards the paladin with a scowl.
His expression, in equal parts shocked and concerned, reminded her that he probably was not one to appreciate needless cruelty. Her conscience promptly wavered between wanting to deliver a painful death to the gith and keeping the paladin firmly on her side.
"He killed my friend," she therefore told Casavir bluntly. Something for the paladin to chew on, something that wouldn't set off his damnable truth sensor. It annoyed her that she couldn't make up some dramatic excuse to sway him, but the truth was good enough to make him pause.
"Brianna," he started. She tensed as he reached out for her, trying to keep his aura from taking hold of her. She did not quite succeed, and the warmth spreading through her clashed horribly with the cold fury that had settled in her bones. Her hands shook as she battled them both, and nearly dropped her sword. Finally, she stepped back, biting her lip so hard she tasted blood.
"Just kill him," she said roughly, and turned away.
She was not quite certain whether it was Bishop or Neeshka who took care of the task, but when she looked back, the mage had fallen forward, face-down onto the cold floor, and warm blood was seeping slowly into the rocks.
They moved on, Brianna leading without sparing the incident any further thought. There was too much yet to be done, and too little time left to dwell on revenge. She sheathed her sword and stepped over the half-burned bodies, breathing through her mouth all the while. But her feet had not taken thirty steps before more trouble announced itself by way of what was clearly the sound of combat ahead.
"Fighting?" Neeshka frowned, and scratched a horn. "Who are they fighting? I thought they were all waiting for us." She seemed nearly offended at the thought of the githyanki battling someone else.
Brianna extinguished her chalice and stayed in the shadows as much as possible, approaching the battle. She did not like the idea of anyone else meddling in this conflict. Th githyanki were fairly predictable, but if a third party joined the fray, whose motivations she knew nothing about…
"If this is another Shadow priest, I'm getting out of here," Qara hissed a warning.
It was not, though. Brianna's mouth dropped open when she first caught a glimpse of the group of githyanki, fighting… each other. Gith versus gith.
This does not make any sense.
Not until she heard the melodic female laugh did she catch the movement in the shadows. Moments later, a woman stepped into the torchlight.
Even disregarding the large, leathery wings on the woman's back, there was little doubt in Brianna's mind that she could not be human, or even from this plane of existence. Her skin was too evenly creamy, her lips too ruby red and her hair too perfectly black and glossy to be quite real. She wore very little, and the flimsy fabric that did cover her swayed back and forth as she moved, teasing with the promise of an intimate glimpse. Even the small horns sprouting from the woman's forehead did little to mar the beauty of her face.
Finally tearing her eyes from the vision, Brianna instinctively stepped back and pressed herself against the cave wall as not to be seen.
"Bloody hells," she hissed, and tried to clear her head of thoughts featuring enticing womanly curves.
Bishop leaned forward and squinted. "She's gorgeous," the ranger mumbled, sounding almost entranced.
"She is a succubus!" Casavir announced with no small amount of outrage in his voice. "She is enchanting those gith to fight their own kind."
The ranger shrugged. "Still looks nice."
"I'm sure she'll love hearing that from you personally when she drains the life force right out of you," Neeshka assured him.
Bishop's expression darkened into a frown. "Oh, yeah, that." It didn't stop him staring.
"What in the nine hells is a succubus doing here?" Brianna asked blankly.
"Well, close enough." Qara stepped forward, looking smug. "They are not from the nine hells, they are from the Abyss. Someone must have summoned them."
"The gith?" Brianna asked doubtfully.
"Probably not," Qara shrugged. "They would have put up protective spells to keep the succubus from messing with them. Every child knows to do that before trying a summoning spell."
"So there really is a third faction at work here." Brianna rubbed her forehead and glanced at her companions. "What do we know about succubi? Ho do we kill one?"
"Holy power," Neeshka promptly pointed at Casavir. "I'm sure that'll do something to hurt them, or at least they'll itch as much as I do."
Brianna was momentarily distracted as she watched one of the githyanki who had not been charmed attempt to mount an attack against the demonic vixen. The succubus laughed again as she evaded the clumsy slashes easily, and when the gith did manage to land a blow, his sword would not pierce the demon's skin.
"They have skin tougher than leather," she noted. "Our weapons will have a hard time getting through that. You can pretty much forget arrows." That last sentence she directed towards Bishop, who scowled and switched to his blade.
"Raw magical energy should be able to hurt her. I could whip up a spell," Qara offered, eyes gleaming.
Brianna held her back with a hand on the girl's arm. "Not yet. Wait until these gith are finished hacking each other to pieces. Everything else would be just stupid," she added when she saw Casavir's uneasiness.
"But…" the paladin started, then caught himself, swallowed, and nodded slowly. "I understand."
Brianna was glad she would not once again have to explain the subtle nuances of survival to Casavir.
Creatures who would otherwise attack you without a second thought hacking each other to pieces is a good thing. Interfering with that out of some moral obligation is a monumentally stupid thing. It isn't that hard.
Eventually, only one last githyanki remained, one of the charmed ones. He knelt before the demon, breathing heavily, looking the picture of devotion. She bent down and brushed his chin with long fingernails. Her lips touched his in a sudden fiery kiss.
The gith slumped over just a moment later, his face grey and lifeless.
The succubus laughed again, licking her lips and tossing her glossy hair back. Brianna considered whether this would be the tactically right time to make an appearance, but before she could take a single step forward, yet another actor in this convoluted play entered the scene.
The man seemed human enough on the outside, but then again, so did the succubus if you took away the horns and wings. His age was impossible to guess for Brianna. Judging by his face, he was long past his prime, but he moved with the agility of a much younger person. His neatly trimmed beard was vividly red. His shaved skull glowed with a sort of magical rune that appeared to have been etched into the flesh, and a number of crystal-like objects woven into his tunic glowed with the same strange energy.
"Very good," the man said. His voice, sharp and gravelly, echoed through the cave. "Zaxis."
"Yes master," came a deep, strange whisper from the darkness.
Something else moved in the shadows of the cave, instilling in Brianna the overwhelming urge to run away screaming like a little girl.
The hulking shape would have been at last twice as tall as a regular human standing up, but here, in this cave, the thing named Zaxis managed to crouched just enough to avoid colliding with the ceiling. It was broader than it was tall, with blue-tinted skin stretching over bulging muscles. Its mouth was enormous, displaying double rows of pointed teeth, and the spikes protruding from strategic parts of its body led Brianna to wager a guess that this thing's skin doubled as its armor. A greenish fog surrounded the creature, moving as it moved.
"Find the githyanki leader, Zaxis, and retrieve the shards from her. Leave no one alive."
As the hulking monster, to Brianna's absolute relief, turned and marched away, the red-bearded man nodded and then whipped around faster than she could react. His cold eyes met hers. He did not display any surprise.
"Kill them," he commanded in the direction of the succubus.
Qara and Casavir began casting their spells at the same time. Brianna did not have any time to wonder whether or not their hastily cobbled together tactics would actually work against the demonic woman, because by this time she was already executing her first attack.
The succubus blocked her sword with her bare forearm. Brianna's eyes met amused green ones, and she wanted to drown in them. With a growl, she tore herself away and moved her sword to block the demon's hand, which was busy reaching for her.
A dull sound and a shout of frustration told her that Bishop's attack had not been any more successful than her own. The succubus, laughing, did not even attempt to avoid their blades.
Neither did she bother trying to avoid Casavir's hammer, which turned out to be a mistake on her part. Brianna ducked away just in time as the paladin charged towards them, and his hammer, glowing with holy power, smashed into the demon's right arm. Bones cracked. The creamy skin turned an ugly black-blue where the hammer had hit it. The succubus wailed, an inhumanly sound that made Brianna want to drop her sword and sink to her knees covering her ears. She grit her teeth and resisted the temptation.
With her good left arm, the demon tried to reach for Casavir, who avoided her barely.
"Careful, holy man," Bishop taunted, executing yet another unsuccessful attack. "She likes you. Probably gets off on the pain."
The paladin did not react, and instead swung his hammer again. This time, the succubus moved to evade the weapon and very nearly succeeded. The hammer's head clipped one of her leathery wings and tore a hole into it as though it was a sheet of paper. Out of the corner of her eye, Brianna saw Bishop's wolf circling the four of them, smart enough not to attack, but apparently unwilling to stay back completely.
Then, however, their luck ran out. On her next lunge, the demon's hand connected with the paladin's face, and Casavir sank to his knees making a choking sound. His skin turned grey even as Brianna attempted to dislodge the woman with her sword, as Bishop and his wolf hacked and tore the leathery wings to pieces.
Casavir groaned, looking to be in terrible pain. His arms shook, he dropped his hammer, and still the succubus was clutching his face.
She'll drain him dry. Just like she did with that gith, and we'll be out one paladin.
She knew better than to touch the succubus, but still she reached out for one last desperate attempt to prevent the inevitable.
Then a number of bolts glowing with pure magical energy came flying through the air, and each sank into the demon's chest and made her jerk like a puppet on strings. After the last one of them had fizzled out inside her, she collapsed, lifeless.
Casavir fell backwards onto the rocky ground. There were grey lines around his mouth and nose. His breathing was shallow, his skin deathly pale. He looked at least ten years older than he had just seconds ago.
The silence was deafening. Brianna had no idea what to do, what to say, as they all stood, stunned, and stared blankly, lost for words.
"Well," Bishop finally muttered, sheathing his sword. "That's a real shame. Women, eh?"
Brianna did not have the energy to try and slap him. She knelt instead, her mind running through the list of all the resources they had, everything they had brought with them on the journey. There was little that might help Casavir.
"Here." Neeshka had approached unheard, and was holding out a glass vial. "Give him that."
"What is it?" Brianna asked. She uncorked the vial and sniffed, smelling berries and forest dirt. It seemed familiar. She knew she had tasted this kind of potion before.
"Strength potion," Neeshka explained, and Brianna remembered. The shadow priest in the ruins near Highcliff. She had been hit with a spell that had drained her, frozen her, and the potion had helped her recover. She stared down at the helpless paladin.
"This isn't the same thing," she pointed out, but tipped the potion into Casavir's mouth anyway. He swallowed obediently.
"Thank you," Brianna told the tiefling. Neeshka shrugged.
"He's not so bad," she said. "Besides, I figure our chances of getting out of here in one piece without the paladin to take all the blows for us are pretty slim."
Brianna hid a weak grin as the tiefling explained her not terribly altruistic reasoning behind sharing her potion. Qara shifted uncomfortably, and Bishop crossed his arms before his chest. An expression of distaste appeared on his face.
Casavir's eyes had closed, but his breathing had become more regular and less labored. Brianna felt for a pulse and found it slow, but steady and strong.
"We need to get him on his feet, or else the potion will wear off before we find Shandra," she said, more to herself than to anyone else, because she hadn't a clue how to get the paladin moving.
Two things appeared in front of her face. One was a delicate crystal flacon whose contents glowed red in the dim light, the other an unstoppered flask that smelled of decomposing laves and alcohol.
"Endurance potion," Bishop growled, looking disgruntled to have to share. "And brandy."
"It's a pick-me-up. And expensive." Qara glared as Brianna took the flacon from her. "Heightened senses, faster reaction time. You owe me."
Brianna spent no more than a few seconds wondering why everyone but her seemed to have a secret potion stash with them, and vowed to pay Sand a visit as soon as she got an opportunity to do so, in order to procure her own. Then she carefully tipped the contents of Qara's flacon into the paladin's mouth and coaxed him into swallowing.
The reaction was immediate. Casavir's eyes opened, still looking tired and old, but followed by a sharp intake of breath.
"Brianna?" the paladin asked in a scratchy voice.
"Drink this," she instructed, determined to waste no more time, and pressed Bishop's flask into his hands. "And as soon as you feel able to, we need to get moving."
Casavir's handicap put them on an even tighter schedule. As soon as the potions wore off, they would be out one fighter, and they needed to be through with the heavy fighting by then. Else Casavir would become a liability rather than an asset.
"We have a couple of hours at most," she noted to no one in particular as Casavir sat up and drained the flask, coughing when the first drop of brandy-spiked potion hit his throat.
Only minutes later, they were moving again. Casavir still did not look his best, but he would be able to keep up for now, and that was as much as Brianna could hope for. They walked down the same tunnel that the bald, bearded man had vanished into. Brianna's mind churned.
She had no idea who that man had been. He seemed no simple mage, with the kind of control he exhibited over demons. Some kind of powerful summoner or warlock, she made her best guess. She had never encountered one before, and in conclusion, she had no idea just how she might overcome such an obstacle in addition to all the githyanki might still throw in her way.
On the bright side, it's possible he'll be doing a lot of the killing for me, she mused. He had ordered that monstrous-looking creature to find the shards. Therefore he was after the silver sword remains as well, for whatever reason. It was interesting, then, that as powerful as he was, he appeared to have had no clue that it was Brianna who was carrying said shards. There had been no recognition in his expression when he had looked at her, only annoyance.
Of course, it's also possible that the Sword Stalker – Zeeaire, was it? – has assembled far more shards already, and these are what he is trying to steal.
Her mind was spinning. She rubbed her face and was pulled roughly backwards by both her arms the next moment. Her attention snapped back to where it should have been as she finally noticed the large figure blocking the path just ahead of them.
Bloody hells, what now?
The figure was large, heavily armored and unmoving. It was not the warlock or his monstrous ally, but neither was it a githyanki. It was far too large for that.
"This guy look familiar to anyone?" Brianna whispered.
Silence was her answer. Eventually though, Qara made her way to the front, squinting ahead. Before Brianna could prevent it, the sorceress had picked up a rock and hurled it with all hr might towards the unmoving figure. Even as Brianna lunged for the girl, she heard the impact of rock on metal.
"Are you insane?" she hissed, and tried to avoid Qara's nails as they came within scratching distance of her face.
"No," the girl answered aggressively. "Just look!"
Brianna did. The figure had not moved, had not reacted in any way.
"What in the hells?" she asked, and let go of Qara.
"It's a construct," the sorceress answered. "I'm pretty sure. An inactive one. I can't sense any magic controlling it right now."
They approached very, very carefully, leaving Casavir slumped against the wall a safe distance away. Only when they had reached the metal armor did Brianna see that it was empty inside, but at the same time, the blades for arms that this towering thing had made her want to take several large steps back.
Qara seemed to suffer from no such reservations.
"A blade golem," she decided, walked around the figure admiringly, and elaborated when she caught sight of Brianna's expression. "As I said, a construct. Raw elemental matter given life, made to move around, through magic. It takes a lot of power to make one of those, more than I have."
Regret flickered across her expression for just a moment.
"Anyway, it's inactive. It has been damaged." She pointed towards the chest plate, where several large scratches had bent the metal. "I'm not sure what did it though."
"Succubus," Neeshka knew. "Fingernails."
"Succubi can do this?" Brianna stared, though she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised after seeing one of the demonic vixens block her sword with a bare forearm. "Bloody hells."
"So this thing must have been made by the githyanki then," Qara figured. "Wow. I didn't think they had mages this strong." For the first time, the sorceress looked intimidated.
"It's not," Bishop announced at that moment. Brianna turned just in time to see the ranger haul a lifeless body out of the walkway. "Gith. Slaughtered by a very long, thick blade."
She did not need to look at the construct's built-in weaponry any more closely to know the description matched.
"So this thing was torn apart by demons, and it killed githyanki." Bishop did not look happy about the conclusion. Brianna felt sick.
"Since it certainly isn't ours, that means there's a fourth party mixing things up here." She tried to find an appropriate curse word, and failed.
"How many enemies do you have, anyway? I'm losing count," Bishop drawled, and leaned leisurely against the cave wall.
"There's a surprise," Qara interjected sweetly.
"Watch it," the ranger said in a warning tone and narrowed his eyes at her. Qara, predictably, shrank back a little but tried to look like she wasn't.
Brianna's head hurt. She had no idea what any of this meant, and no chance in the hells to figure it all out. Their best bet was to move on and ignore all of these disconcerting implications for now.
"Let's go," she said therefore simply and stepped past the construct.
"Quality metal though," Bishop commented, banging his knuckles against the armored shell. "You could sell this for a nice price."
"Bishop," she growled, and the ranger, for once, just shut up and followed as they descended deeper into the bowels of the mountain.