Aleina stared at the ruined bridge in awe. Before they left Blingdenstone, Rhianne had speculated the portal they headed to was from a civilization that predated the Descent of the Drow to the Underdark. If that were true, and this bridge was part of the same civilization, it was many thousands of years old. Given that, it was in remarkable condition.
The central span was mostly gone. A part of it still remained on the staired abutment on this side of the ravine and some on the far side. Aleina could visualize how it must have looked. A graceful thing, delicate looking despite being constructed in the medium of stone. Yet undeniably strong. How else could so much of it have survived through the intervening years?
"The look on your face," Fargas said, laughing. "You'd think you'd never seen a bridge before."
"You do know where I am from, right?" Aleina asked. "Baldur's Gate? Ever heard of the Wyrm Crossing? So yes, I have seen at least one bridge. One so massive it is its own district of the city. What I haven't seen before is Elven stonework. And...well, it's impressive."
"It does remind me of home," Kuhl said. "Well except for the pervading darkness and miles of earth overhead. See those arches you would pass under when crossing? More were probably set at intervals across the entire span. Faerie fire lanterns would have been hung from them, both for decoration and to light the way, just like is still done in Evereska. The elves who built it probably wanted to give the miners down here some reminders of the surface."
The half-elf voice was wistful and Aleina sensed his unspoken longing home. She could see what he spoke of in her mind's eye. It would have been beautiful.
"If we had let that bitch Ilvara take us to Menzoberranzan," Jhelnae said. "You would have seen plenty of Elven architecture. Probably wouldn't have appreciated it as much."
"Probably not," the aasimar agreed.
"And you shouldn't tease Aleina, Fargas," the half drow said, voice teasing. "She is the only one who can fly to the other side and secure a rope. Otherwise Kuhl and Ront would have to toss you over to do it."
"Still sounds like a good idea," the orc said.
"Ha ha," Fargas said. "You all are very funny. Ever hear of a grappling hook?"
But Ront kept speaking, ignoring the halfling, and voice devoid of any mirth.
"Wasn't she raised like some pampered princess?" The orc pointed a finger at Aleina. "What does she know about tying knots?"
"First of all," Aleina said with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Patriar, not a princess. And we were poor."
"Yes, yes," Ront said. "We have all heard the sad story of you having to wear dusty gowns worn once or twice before. That doesn't mean you know anything about tying a knot that will have to hold my weight when I climb over."
"And second off," the aasimar continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "I was a caravan guard. I learned a few things."
Ront grunted, then shrugged. "You know what, what do I care? I'm not going to be the first one across. If the tabaxi falls, I'll know it's unsafe."
"I still say I can jump it," Sky said, tail lashing.
Unlike the rest of them she wasn't admiring the bridge ruins but staring at the missing section in the middle.
"For the last time," Jhelnae said. "You aren't trying to jump that. It's probably almost twenty feet."
"Far for a human or an elf," Sky said, crossing her arms. "Not so far for a tabaxi. And I have magic boots."
"It's too big a risk," the half-drow said. "Especially when we have someone who can just fly across."
Jhelnae caught Aleina's eye and motioned with her head to the far side of the broken bridge. Aleina caught her meaning, better get the rope secure before Sky took it into her head to prove she could jump it. Nodding, the aasimar turned and looked to Kuhl. She took the end of the rope he handed to her and summoned her wings.
Strange something so fantastic the first time she had done it had become so familiar. Yet flying had lost none of its thrill. She wished the sundered span was larger so she could fly a bit further. A leap and a few flaps and she alighted on the other side. It was little more than a glorified jump. Maybe Sky really could have made it.
When she turned to nod back at the others, she saw the same thought mirrored in the tabaxi's eyes, posture, and twitching tail. Wasting no more time she looked for a place to secure her end of the rope. She decided on one of the remaining cross arches Kuhl had pointed out. This way those climbing after would not need to scrabble up after crossing. It was just out of her reach, but she still had some flight left. Using a knot taught to her by drovers, she flew up and tied her end off.
Kuhl tugged, testing the rope would hold, then looped his end over one of the cross arches, pulled it as taut as possible, and secured it. A brief argument ensued as they fashioned a makeshift harness with a second rope and tried to help Sky into it. Aleina couldn't hear the words but could guess. The tabaxi didn't feel the need for this additional safety measure. Reason won out over stubbornness and soon Sky was upside down and climbing towards her. safety rope dangling behind her, looped around a stone support and held by the half-elf. Just like on the webs with the web runners, the tabaxi's agility proved more than equal to the task. She crossed quickly and, once she was in earshot, Aleina could hear her muttering to herself.
"Stupid waste of time. Tie a rope around me in case I fall? Me? Jhelnae, yes, but me? If they were going to tie a rope around me, then the least they could do was let me try and jump."
The tabaxi dropped off the bridge and onto the stone surface next to Aleina.
"Welcome to this side of the ravine," the aasimar said.
Still fuming, Sky merely shook her head. She wriggled out of the rigged rope harness and threw it away from her as if it was something distasteful.
Jhelnae came next. When she had joined them on this side, Aleina spoke.
"There is something I've been wondering about," the aasimar said.
"Why you can't handle your drink as well as I can?" the half-drow asked, voice light.
Aleina rolled her eyes. "Please. Everyone knows I kicked your behind."
"How's that?" Jhelnae asked. "As I recall you were sick under the table while I was still drinking."
"No," the aasimar said. "I was nauseous and dizzy under the table. Not sick. There is a difference. You were sick in the privy, and sick all the way to the privy before that."
The half-drow actually looked embarrassed. "I think Tappy wanted to kill me."
"I know Tappy wanted to kill you," Aleina said, laughing. "The point is, I might have been nauseous under the table, but I kept it all down. You didn't. Therefore, between the two of us, I won."
Jhelnae smiled but shook her head. "Not the way it works."
"Definitely the way it works," the aasimar said.
"Well," the half-drow said with the tilt of her head, considering. "We'll call it a draw."
On the far side of the ravine, Kuhl was adjusting the harness to fit Ront.
"I don't think any of you understand how annoying you all were the next day," Sky said. "You were a pack of mewling kittens. I almost felt, as a friend, I should have killed you all to put you out of your misery. I drank with the rest of you, and you didn't hear me whining."
"You took a nap after just your second beer," the half drow said. "Not in our room, by the way, but right in the common room. Next to the hearth."
The tabaxi shrugged. "I was sleepy, and it was warm there."
"We were in the middle of a drinking contest," Jhelnae said.
Another shrug from Sky, then, "I was bored of that."
"Hey, don't chastise her," Aleina said. "It was good she didn't have a hangover. Otherwise who would have read the map to get us here. Which brings up what I really wanted to ask, if there was an ancient elven mine near Blingdenstone, why did they put the portal out here? A few days travel away. Seems remote."
"I have been thinking about the same thing," Jhelnae said. "I do have a theory."
"Which is?" the aasimar asked.
"We know the faerzress interferes with teleportation magic," the half drow said. "So, the only way this portal would work as planned is to build it in an area without faerzress. A dead area."
"And this area has no faerzress, but nothing to mine either," Aleina said, understanding. "It makes sense."
Silence fell on their little group as they watched the orc's progress across the rope.
"It might not be all my theory," Jhelnae said. "I might have heard Rhianne say something similar."
"What do you mean might have?" Aleina asked. "You either did or you didn't? And if you did, it isn't your theory, it's her theory."
"Hey," the half drow said. "There was a lot of drinking going on. I can't remember it all clearly. So Rhianne might have said something like that, or I made it all up in my head. I am not sure."
Some of this was coming back to the aasimar. She had been under the table at the time, eyes closed, focused on not throwing up. Kuhl had offered to help her back to her room and she had threatened to send a flaming bolt in his face if he moved her. She had just wanted to lie there until the dizziness passed. She had tried to tune out all sound, but she could still hear their voices at the table and what they talked about. Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember.
"Did she also talk about an elven mage who visited Blingdenstone?" Aleina asked. "Who specialized in portal magic?"
"Senni told her he was the one who told the svirfneblin about the portal," Jhelnae said, nodding. "And how to operate it."
"Which brings us to another question," the aasimar said. "How was Rhianne so damned coherent that night? Is she immune to alcohol or something?"
"Well she had lived for like a hundred years longer than us," the half drow said. "And most of that time she has been performing in places where drink flows freely."
"So she built up a tolerance?" Aleina asked.
"So she built up a tolerance." Jhelnae agreed.
"In that case, there is no shame in losing to her," the aasimar said.
"No shame at all," the half drow said.
They laughed, but fell silent as Ront, with a grunt, lowered himself from the rope and to the bridge. Aleina thought about pointing out that her knot had held but thought better of it. She had learned the hard way he sometimes took companionable ribbing like some kind of deadly insult. With his arrival, only the half-elf and halfling remained on the far side.
Kuhl dragged the safety line and harness back. He had just finished helping secure Fargas in it, when Sky yelled.
"Drow! Behind you!"
The tabaxi drew and cocked her hand crossbow, loading a bolt on it.
Aleina looked to where the tunnel opened to the ledge holding the bridge abutment on the far side. Two dark figures had emerged from the cave there. Both held hand crossbows of their own, but Sky's yell distracted them from their targets. They assessed the situation and ducked back into the tunnel, out of sight. But they could still see Kuhl and Fargas it seemed. Missiles hissed out of the tunnel towards the half-elf and halfling. The two ducked for the scant cover the bridge provided, and the bolts missed their targets. But the drows' aim would improve.
Kuhl hoisted Fargas up to grab the rope, then turned and unslung his shield. With a war cry he leapt down the stairs towards the tunnel entrance, shield leading the way and Dawnbringer bursting forth with radiance as he descended. No clash of arms came from the tunnel mouth. Instead, the light from the paladin's sword receded. The drow had apparently chosen to run.
"What is he doing?" Jhelnae asked.
She pulled her rod from her belt and sought out a target. But there was only Fargas, climbing towards them, safety rope dangling behind him with no one holding it.
"Buying Fargas time to climb over," Aleina said.
She followed the half drow's lead and pulled out her moonstone orb from its belt pouch. The aasimar willed her wings to come, but nothing happened. Whatever the source of their magic, she'd exhausted it for the day. She clutched her orb in a tight grip, feeling helpless. They could only watch as the halfling frantically climbed towards them, face tight with panic. It seemed to take forever for him to reach them, but he actually moved quite quickly. There was still no sign of Kuhl.
"Grab him, Ront," Jhelnae said.
The orc didn't protest. The halfling babbled as Ront lowered him down.
"He said cut the ropes and run," Fargas said. "He said he would catch up with us."
"We can't cut the rope!" Aleina said. "He can't catch up with us if we cut it!"
"Aleina's right," Jhelnae said. "We aren't going anywhere or cutting anything."
"Then what are we going to do?" Fargas asked, still breathing heavily from his crossing.
"I don't know!" the half-drow snapped. "We wait."
"I could use my boots of speed," Sky said. "Jump across and catch up with him. Try and help him."
Jhelnae looked like she was actually considering it.
"No," Aleina said. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "Splitting up more is the last thing we need right now. Maybe he actually has a plan. Let's give him a chance to do it."
"And if he doesn't come back?" Ront asked.
"He's coming back," Aleina said, glaring at the orc.
"But what if he doesn't?" Fargas pressed.
"He will," Jhelnae said.
But she looked to Aleina and, when their eyes met, their shared uncertainty was apparent.
They waited. Aleina's hope sank with each passing moment, made worse by the growing restlessness she felt in the others. Tension was growing. Soon a decision would be forced and Aleina didn't know what it should be. Should they cross back over the bridge and try to perform a rescue? Did he even need rescuing? One thing she was certain of. Whatever they did, they should all do it together.
Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to stand another moment, Sky pointed excitedly. Light was growing in the tunnel mouth. Not torchlight, fungal light, or light from a fire beetle lantern, but golden light, like from the sun. Dawnbringer.
Kuhl came running up the stairs of the bridge, taking the steps two at a time. His head snapped up as he saw them, and he gave them a confused look. But he didn't slow, running straight for the gap in the bridge.
"Is he doing what I think he is doing?" Sky asked.
"I hope not," Aleina said.
"He'll never make it," Jhelnae said. "Jump for the rope!"
That last part was yelled out as instruction, but the half-elf didn't even look to the hanging rope or reach up. Just before he reached the edge a pale mist seemed to coalesce around him and he disappeared, reappearing in a cloud of vapors on their side.
Aleina had forgotten he could do that. So had the others apparently. But, then again, he'd only done that once before, in the fight against the Pudding King.
Kuhl swept Dawnbringer in an arc that severed the rope. It fell to dangle into the ravine, still tied on the far side.
"What...are...you...still..doing...here?" the half-elf took gasping breaths between each word. He glared down at Fargas. "I...said...run!"
"We weren't going to leave you," Aleina said.
"Quick...down..the..stairs," Kuhl said, starting to regain his breath. "Into the tunnel."
"What happened?" Jhelnae asked.
"Move!" the half-elf, motioning them forward.
Ront moved first, which started things. As a group they descended down the stairs. Kuhl visibly relaxed as they entered the tunnel. The aasimar saw now something had truly frightened him.
"What happened?" Aleina asked, repeating Jhelnae's earlier question.
He motioned for them to keep moving down the tunnel but answered.
"A pair of drow," the half-elf said. "Scouts."
"We saw that much," Sky said.
"At first I was just trying to buy Fargas time to cross," Kuhl said. "But they ran as I approached. It was obvious they wanted to survive and report to someone, so I chased them, thinking I might be able to catch them."
The half-elf laughed.
"That was more than wishful thinking," he said. "It was stupid. They were born and raised in the Underdark. There was no way I was going to catch them. But I am a stubborn idiot. I ran on."
"And?" Aleina had a feeling she would not like where this was going.
"And I ran into a whole party of drow," Kuhl said. "They have giant spiders with them. That broken bridge isn't going to stop them for long."
"It was Ilvara wasn't it?" Jhelnae asked. "That miserable bitch just won't give up."
The half-elf sighed. "I didn't see Ilvara. But they are definitely from Velkynvelve. I saw the one with only three fingers on one hand. I swear he actually smiled at me. But it is hard to tell with that scarred face of his."
A memory came to the forefront of Aleina's mind. Back during their initial escape from Velkynvelve, their plan depended on a magical compulsion the aasimar had laid on the scarred drow. She had not been the caster then that she was now, and she could swear her spell failed. Yet the drow had smiled at her, then followed her order anyway. Now he exhibited similar behavior with Kuhl?
"I only caught a glimpse of them before I turned and ran the other way," the half-elf said. "If Dawnbringer hadn't momentarily blinded them, I'm sure I'd be dead. Or worse yet, drugged and heading back to Velkynvelve. There was a priestess with them, but not Ilvara."
"Asha," Jhelnae said. "She is no better than Ilvara. And the scarred one is Jorlan."
The half-drow, along with Sky, had been a prisoner of Velkynvelve longer than any of them. Though the priestesses had taken a special dislike to Jhelnae, and the feeling was mutual.
"No, no, no!" Ront said. "We are almost free of this place! I am not going back to being a prisoner in that Gruumsh cursed place. I will die first!"
Aleina didn't say anything, but for once she and Ront were perfectly aligned in their thoughts.
"I have never been to this Velky-whatever place," Fargas said. "But hearing you all speak of it is all I need to know I don't want to go."
Sky pulled out a long metallic object and placed it on top of a rock as she passed by.
"One of the hair pins I borrowed from Ilvara to use as a lock pick," the tabaxi said to their questioning glances. "Now returned, if one of her soldiers finds it. A little worse for wear."
"A little?" Jhelnae asked.
"A lot worse for wear," Sky said shrugging. "Probably useless as a pretty hair ornament now, but still a serviceable lock pick. Poor Jimjar had the other one."
"You just found out a psychotic bitch who has hunted us all over the Underdark is right behind us," Aleina said. "And your first thought is to return her hair pin?"
"I'm not a thief," the tabaxi said. "I was just borrowing it."
"So, you weren't stealing from her," Kuhl said. "Only borrowing her hair pin to escape from her with a group of other prisoners. Probably ruining her reputation, which, among the drow, is potentially fatal."
The half-elf had regained his breath, but he was still visibly shaken. He kept glancing back the way they had come and urging them to increase their already rapid flight down the tunnel as they talked.
The tabaxi nodded.
"Don't try to figure it out," Jhelnae said. "It's Sky logic."
The tabaxi smiled at that. "Let me give you more Sky logic. All we need to do is make it to this portal before Ilvara catches up with us. I doubt she knows how it works or has the gemstones the gnomes gave us to allow us to pass through."
"And what if it doesn't work anymore?" Ront said. "It's thousands of years old? What if it finally broke, like that bridge back there broke?"
"That would be a problem. Hadn't thought about that," Sky said. She brightened. "It was working a few years ago, right? The gnomes confirmed that. We'll just have to hope for the best."
Aleina sighed. "We don't really have any other choice. And besides, hoping for the best has gotten us this far. Let's hope our luck holds out."
Sorry! This was supposed to advance the story a lot farther! I wrote this as an intro to the action of a running battle between Ilvara and the companions as they try to reach the portal and next thing I knew it was up to 3500 words. And I was like, "How in the frick did it get so big?" Yes, yes, part of it is because Aleina and Jhelnae start debating about the drinking contest that was in the end of the last chapter. I hadn't planned on putting that in, but I thought I should at least some reference to it and once it was mentioned a whole dialogue branch opened up like some sort of video game. Should I cut it? Does it need to be pruned?
In other news I got to play live D&D this weekend (with masks). It was fun! Nice to roll real dice. I played a hexblade. Perhaps he will make an appearance in the story as it unfolds.