Ok, I think I've kept you in suspense long enough. ;)
Victory.
Lauthal and Ridley continued their battle, but the Empress was obviously winning. Ridley was tiring and yet the imp had not even worked up a sweat. She looked at him with intrigue through her pitch black eyes.
"You don't want to kill me with that," she warned Ridley, and indicated his sword. The thief looked confused. What was she talking about?
"What do you think will happen to the soul you have stashed away in the oversized gem of yours? That it will be free and alive again," Lauthal chuckled, "Unlikely. Given the circumstances, it is more probable that you'll end its existence for good. There will be no chance of saving your friend." Ridley hesitated, horrified that he might have to make a choice to sacrifice Snails. She could be lying, she had to be bluffing. But he couldn't know that for certain.
"The end is drawing near," she told the thief, swinging her blade at him once more and cornering him near the guillotine, "don't worry, your head's not worth keeping." Lauthal thrust her sword violently at him with the intention of knocking the thief back into the contraption. At the same time she released the catch to let the great, hungry guillotine blade crash down.
But Ridley ducked the swing, despite his weariness, falling back across the castle floor. Lauthal's sword kept going, and the guillotine rang down, catching the blade within its grasp. The Empress frown twitched and she tugged hard at the sword hilt to free it from the guillotine, unsuccessfully. She pulled at it again in agitation. She had the greatest power of all time, and yet she couldn't drag a damned sword from where it had stuck!
Ridley, recognising his chance, and perhaps his only one, scrambled up from the floor to his knees and drove his own sword forward, plunging it into the imp's stomach. Lauthal gasped and dropped the fight with her own sword, stumbling backwards. It just wasn't possible, how could she...? How could he...?
Slowly and painfully she dragged the sword from her belly, dropping it, and pressed hand to the wound, blood welling up between her fingers. She looked up at Ridley in shock. Bleeding she was bleeding. It was slippery in her hands. Ridley just stared.
All of a sudden there a strange, crackling misty energy engulfed the imp, draining from her body, pouring down the blood dripping from her fingers, across the plush red carpet and into Ridley's sword. The Dragon's breath was returning home, the power whisping away from the Empress. It flickered along Ridley's blade until it reached the dragon's eye at the hilt, and exploded into a flash of bright light.
The explosion forced Lauthal across the room and caused Ridley to wince, bringing an arm up to protect his eyes from the brightness of the light. When it had dissipated, his sword lay in its same position across the floor, but the dragon's eye had separated itself, and lay shattered in a million pieces across the carpet.
"I'm sorry Snails," he told the mess sadly, closing his eyes briefly in pain. Again he'd lost his friend.
There was a snuffle from behind him and the thief turned to see Marina there, on the floor, with Elwood and Norda standing around her. Rising, Ridley went to her hopefully. He didn't know when or how they'd gotten there, and he didn't care. If only Marina would be alright. He didn't think he could bare it if he lost her too. He leaned over her and shook the mage gently.
Immediately Marina opened her eyes, and blinked them as though from sleep. She looked from Ridley, to Norda, to Elwood and blinked in surprise.
"What's everybody staring at me for!?" It was a wonderfully emotion-filled sentence and all three of the friends standing over her broke into smiles. Ridley pulled the mage up into a hug.
"Don't worry," he told her, "it's not important," then he saddened as he drew back, "but we lost Snails." Everyone looked downcast.
"Woah man," a familiar voice said from behind them, "I might be covered with dust, but I'm definitely right here." They all looked up in surprise to see the other thief, brushing himself off and trying not sneeze, standing a short distance away in the middle of the broken pieces of the dragon's eye. Ridley's face broke out into a smile.
"Snails?" he asked in disbelief, stepping towards his friend.
Snails held his arms out, "It's all me pal!" and they embraced, slapping each other on the back. A moment later when they each realised everyone was watching them, the two thieves pulled back awkwardly.
"Yeah buddy, it's good to see you again," Ridley said in embarrassment and patted the other thief on the shoulder in a friendly matter.
"Likewise," Snails muttered and they both tried to look natural.
