Niklaus sat on the top of Elzix's Inn in quiet contemplation. A lot of shit had happened in the last few hours, and not much of it particularly made any sense.
For one, Sarah had abruptly cut off any education about the Sightless Eye. She had claimed that Niklaus's Eye was so diminished as to be unusable, and plus on hearing that her Sisters would in fact survive, she could let them train initiates.
Niklaus had deflated somewhat at this, as had Sasha.
"Hey, it looked like she dug you, with the "private instruction" and stuff. And she had great legs, it would have been nice."
In all honesty, the only thing Niklaus had noticed about Sarah was cool professionalism and uncanny aim. Perhaps he recognized a fellow warrior, and saw that common element between them.
Or perhaps he recognized the pointy arrows that Sarah kept in abundance.
Either way, he hadn't particularly paid that close attention to Sarah's legs.
"Oh like hell!" Sarah argued, "I wouldn't have gotten near the view I did if it hadn't been for you staring!"
"Now wait! I was not staring!"
"Oh? Check this out!"
Niklaus saw Sasha's memories flash by and he realized somewhat guility that he had stared at Sarah's legs.
"Yeah, you stared *a lot* at Sarah's legs"
"Well, okay, but she has nice legs," Niklaus conceded.
"Damn right! Can you imagine them wra--"
"Okay, okay, I got it!" Niklaus mentally held his hands up in surrender.
Sasha laughed and Niklaus turned back to his introspection.
As if Sarah's cool shoulder wasn't enough, the meeting between Andariel's Slayers and his own party had gone less than perfectly.
Simon still swore that while he felt the taint of otherworldliness on Niklaus, he conceded that it may be because of his Heaven-sent Auras and not necessarily because of any demonic taint.
Niklaus bit his tongue.
Math stayed out of it all. Niklaus felt a similarity with the furred warrior despite his comrades; they both had the sense of soldiers, not the individual warriors like Ulfgar or Sarah.
However, Ulfgar and Math had some sort of deep-seated grudge, and it had been somewhat of a struggle for the two to not leap at each other's throat. Often a well placed Paladin went far to prevent another brawl.
Which was not to say that Niklaus relished being in the middle of two very powerful warriors with no weapons and no real compunction to kill either one.
Then there was Duane of Skelgard.
Niklaus cringed at the sheer thought of Duane of Skelgard. While Niklaus's father was a Protector of the Word, Duane of Skelgard was of the younger Hand of Zakarum. To say the least, there was little love lost between the two generations of Paladin. The Protectors of the Word were sworn to protect the missionaries of the Visions of Akarat (the holy text of the Zakarum church) whereas the Hands of Zakarum were forged in the crucible of the Inquisitions, carrying out merciless attacks in the name of the Light.
Conversely, the thought amused Sasha greatly.
"It's ironic, isn't it, that after all these centuries, Hell never really needed to step in and wage the Sin War. You humans had everything well under Hand."
Niklaus ignored the pun. "It was this sort of nonsense that the Protectors of the Word were supposed to defend against. Our martial disciplines were an extension of our faith, and were thus used to protect the missionaries.
"Those Hands weren't defenders so much as Inquisitors, and 'cleansed the land of evil' with their scepters and swords. I wonder if that was when Mephisto really took hold of the councils."
Sasha thought about it for a moment. "It would figure," she conceded, "Mephisto's the most powerful of the Three because he can warp people's minds so that they themselves want to commit acts of hatred against each other. It's what makes him so dangerous."
Duane of Skelgard crept up to the roof of the Inn, where he found the smaller Paladin sitting regarding the sunrise. Uttering a prayer, he felt Heaven's Blessing upon him as minute details leapt into sharp focus, allowing him preternatural aim. Carefully he hefted the coconut he bore, and prepared to lob it at the head of the meditating Paladin.
The coconut flew straight and true, and within an eyeblink the demonic Paladin would be no more.
Yet just at the last moment, Niklaus' head jerked sideways and out of harm's way. A hand flashed upwards and grabbed the missile before it could sail over the roof's edge.
"Try throwing your head, next time," the demon advised, "I'm sure it's much harder."
Fuming and near a righteous rage, Duane of Skelgard stepped fully onto the roof to regard this pompous abomination.
"I will have no common cause with a demon wearing a mask of holiness," Duane explained, setting the dogs below barking, "and will tolerate no demon in my presence."
"Yeah! Ditto!" Sasha seconded, "down with those scum-sucking...oh wait," she finished before cackling at the other man's presumption.
Niklaus smiled at the joke.
"I'll be sure to tell warn any demons looking to join your merry band," Niklaus solemnly swore. To Sasha, "Duane of Skelgard says he will tolerate no demon in his presence."
"Well, if he's so adamant, he can tell it to my face. I think we left it somewhere in the Eintsteig, along with the rest of my body."
Niklaus couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing.
"So now you mock me to my face?" Duane queried, growing slightly hoarse.
"No," Niklaus replied evenly, "I mock you to your ass, since it's all you show me." And with that, he walked smoothly past a sputtering Duane of Skelgard.
~~~
Niklaus met Ulfgar and Sarah downstairs in earnest discussion with Simon and an elderly sage in a grey robe. The four of them were poring over scrolls. Math, however, was in the next room hard at work keeping his wolfpack in peak physical condition.
This closely resembled a huge multi-form hairball with a plethora of lolling tongues, perked ears, and the occasional bark of laughter from the furclad warrior.
Truly Math was the consummate warrior, obsessed with nothing more than the ultimate destruction of his foes. Still, it looked like a helluva lot of fun.
Fortunately, it seemed that everyone had agreed to a truce.
Little did he know everyone had joined forces to prevent each other from killing Duane of Skelgard.
Niklaus was still pissed at that worthy, and he wanted to vent his frustration.
"What's the job?"
The old sage perked up from the table, one Niklaus did not recognize. "It appears as though the Dark Wanderer seeks to free Baal, the Lord of Destruction. Although I cannot fathom his goals--"
"What's the job?"
"What's the hurry?" Sarah peered up from the various tomes she pored over.
"If I have to spend one more day with that Handjob of Zakarum, I will be imprisoned for murder within the city walls."
Ulfgar snorted and even Sarah smiled appreciatively. Simon and Math glanced to each other in perfect understanding.
"I understand he's not the...most welcome...of comrades," Simon began, "but in battle he is very valuable to us. His Auras are most welcome to Math and my servants."
"Fine then, ungag him only long enough to pray!"
The four veterans glanced at each other. Math was personally impressed; he would have killed the damn shiny-man before storming off. Their new companion possessed extreme self-control.
The old sage looked at the irate Paladin.
"You are a Paladin, correct?"
"Yeah, your point?"
"It's just you seem a little...testy...for a holy knight."
"Yeah, your point?"
The old man sighed. "Radamant's tomb lies close to the city walls, where people here used to pray in remembrance of his rule in Lut Gholein. Within the tomb is an ancient Horadric artifact, a cube that has transmutative properties. We need it to complete a staff to gain entry to Tal Rasha's tomb.
"Many Horadric mages were mummified and entombed with him to protect him in the afterlife, but he has risen, resurrected the mages, and left them to protect his tomb. We believe they are now guarding the Cube."
Niklaus nodded and marched outside.
~~~
The tomb *was* a short walk from the city walls. Upon discovering that Radamant was not the benign monarch he was in life, however, the footpaths had been understandably abandoned.
It was still early morning, and so the desert hadn't become a burning inferno just yet. With any luck, Niklaus would be able to get inside the tomb before the sun got too high.
Although it was only Sasha considering these things. Niklaus had worked himself into a right rage.
"Triple-damned, Light-blinded, ignoramus..."the insults flew fast and furious as Niklaus sought to find the right combination of invectives against the pomposity that was Duane of Skelgard. "Tin-sworded, moronic...*arrogant*..."
"Son of a Damned Shiny Man," Sasha supplied.
"Yeah, that's good," Niklaus agreed, and applied Sasha's suggestion to his own list.
"No," Sasha corrected, "*you're* the son of a damned Shiny-man."
"Huh?"
"Didja think for a second before you came marching out here beyond the city walls?"
"...."
"Okay, the people you just stormed away from slew Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, and they're hesitant about going in here? What conclusion would a sane, logical person arrive at?"
"That they're resting, I would think," Niklaus concluded.
"Or that they're up against something that just might be kinda rough. And while there are three of them, there's one of us to go around. Specifically, there's one possessed and currently very pissed off one of us to go around, and he's the one with the sword. How long do you really think he'll last?"
Niklaus considered, but kept walking. "I'll cool off once things start dropping."
"Your body will cool off as it's bleeding on the floor."
"You said something like that when we were up against those skeletons the first time. And I said that if we have faith in each other, we'll triumph."
"And what about those figures over there? Who do they have faith in?"
Niklaus glanced to the town wall. Not a hundred yards away was Radamant's tomb, and a small group of shadowed figures. Niklaus knew how Lut Gholein felt about the tomb of late, and it didn't seem right that someone might be praying. His hand lingered to Silence, and his thumb flicked against the guard, loosening the blade from its sheath.
The figures by the tomb noticed him and they looked in his direction. Silence flashed out of the sheath. He knew that these weren't city people coming to pray.
Perhaps it was the forked tongue that snaked out from a serpentine head, or maybe even the tail that wove back and forth to provide movement, or perhaps even it may have been the rapid and seeminly hostile advance.
Niklaus figured it had to be the advance that gave them away. Just as he determined their intentions, one of them threw off its robes revealing a snake-like body.
Definitely not a city-dweller.
Niklaus caught the first demon across its chest as Sasha lit the Aura of Concentration. Silence split open the creature for an indepth anatomy lesson (Silence bit in deep, after all), but the creature simply wouldn't lie still for a few seconds. Then, quite inconsiderately, it fell face down, ruining any possibility for examination.
The second creature charged in, only this time dove headfirst into the sand. Puzzled at first (Niklaus had heard of a strange species of bird doing this) he jerked Silence upwards to parry the creature's tail which had arced over its back. Niklaus saw a nasty curving spike go flying away from the fight, and figured it must have belonged to his attacker.
Niklaus preoccupied himself with this species' anatomy, opening up another chest, but was interrupted by yet another experiment. He slashed again, but this one ducked away, and Niklaus was bowled over from a completely different direction.
He skidded across the warming sands, and turned to regard his attacker balefully. Undaunted, the serpentine demon charged in again, and Niklaus barely dodged out of the way before cutting it across the chest. He swung Silence for the finishing strike, but was bowled over yet again. Vainly, Sasha lit an Aura of Defiance, enhancing his armor, but it proved to no avail as another demon lunged in, clocking Niklaus and hurling him into unconsciousness. Sasha's world went black as Niklaus lost his senses.
"Dammit!" she swore as the swordsman fell over backwards. She braced herself, waiting to feel the inevitable death strike. She felt strange, reptilian hands grope under Niklaus and inexplicably hoist him up. They made their way across the desert sands as the sun rose, warming Niklaus's skin.
"Aw hells, what now?"
~~~
"He's been gone too long!" Ulfgar boomed.
"Yes, and likely dead if he went to the tombs," Simon reasoned calmly.
"I refuse to believe that!" Ulfgar boomed again, "He is too skilled to lose to a few zombies!" He was starting to match Duane of Skelgard for pure volume.
"The tomb is dangerous. The Horadric mummies entombed there were tied to Radamant while he lived, and though they'll eventually wane in strength with his death they're still too powerful for us to face in any great number. For the moment let's leave the undead to their own devices and attack them when they're weaker. We still need to aquire the staff and headpiece to complete the Staff.
"There should be a city far out in the desert, long deserted, where both pieces can be recovered. We still need the cube to morph the pieces back into their original shapes, but until then we can start on the shaft."
~~~
Niklaus was still unconscious. Sasha wasn't.
This sucks, Sasha thought. She had tried shouting, prodding, igniting channels (which was amusing because the serpent men soiled their tails everytime she did) but the Paladin himself remained somnolent. He had taken a pretty nasty hit to the head, though, so it was small wonder.
Meanwhile, Sasha had poured her efforts into healing Niklaus' body. The serpent men were unaware of the effects of the Aura, and Sasha switched Auras occasionally so they would think Niklaus was just being spasmodic, but meanwhile Niklaus' body healed. Sasha could just hope that he would wake soon.
Sasha couldn't say how long they travelled, but she knew they had not stopped. She had worried about heat injuries, but had found an Aura that protected them from the elements. She had switched between that and the healing Aura the most.
She really wished Niklaus would wake up.
After an indeterminate amount of time (it could have been a full day; after dying, Sasha found she had a bad sense of time for some reason) the temperature on Niklaus abruptly dropped, and Sasha wondered if they had gone indoors somewhere.
Down and down they travelled, further and further into the darkness. At long last the unconscious Paladin was set upon a stone slab.
Sibilant voices chanted, and then after reaching some great crescendo, Sasha felt a piercing pain stab through Niklaus' stomach as a sacrifical knife plunged through them.
"Aw shit!" Sasha screamed as pain coursed through her, "I just finished healing that part too!"
For one, Sarah had abruptly cut off any education about the Sightless Eye. She had claimed that Niklaus's Eye was so diminished as to be unusable, and plus on hearing that her Sisters would in fact survive, she could let them train initiates.
Niklaus had deflated somewhat at this, as had Sasha.
"Hey, it looked like she dug you, with the "private instruction" and stuff. And she had great legs, it would have been nice."
In all honesty, the only thing Niklaus had noticed about Sarah was cool professionalism and uncanny aim. Perhaps he recognized a fellow warrior, and saw that common element between them.
Or perhaps he recognized the pointy arrows that Sarah kept in abundance.
Either way, he hadn't particularly paid that close attention to Sarah's legs.
"Oh like hell!" Sarah argued, "I wouldn't have gotten near the view I did if it hadn't been for you staring!"
"Now wait! I was not staring!"
"Oh? Check this out!"
Niklaus saw Sasha's memories flash by and he realized somewhat guility that he had stared at Sarah's legs.
"Yeah, you stared *a lot* at Sarah's legs"
"Well, okay, but she has nice legs," Niklaus conceded.
"Damn right! Can you imagine them wra--"
"Okay, okay, I got it!" Niklaus mentally held his hands up in surrender.
Sasha laughed and Niklaus turned back to his introspection.
As if Sarah's cool shoulder wasn't enough, the meeting between Andariel's Slayers and his own party had gone less than perfectly.
Simon still swore that while he felt the taint of otherworldliness on Niklaus, he conceded that it may be because of his Heaven-sent Auras and not necessarily because of any demonic taint.
Niklaus bit his tongue.
Math stayed out of it all. Niklaus felt a similarity with the furred warrior despite his comrades; they both had the sense of soldiers, not the individual warriors like Ulfgar or Sarah.
However, Ulfgar and Math had some sort of deep-seated grudge, and it had been somewhat of a struggle for the two to not leap at each other's throat. Often a well placed Paladin went far to prevent another brawl.
Which was not to say that Niklaus relished being in the middle of two very powerful warriors with no weapons and no real compunction to kill either one.
Then there was Duane of Skelgard.
Niklaus cringed at the sheer thought of Duane of Skelgard. While Niklaus's father was a Protector of the Word, Duane of Skelgard was of the younger Hand of Zakarum. To say the least, there was little love lost between the two generations of Paladin. The Protectors of the Word were sworn to protect the missionaries of the Visions of Akarat (the holy text of the Zakarum church) whereas the Hands of Zakarum were forged in the crucible of the Inquisitions, carrying out merciless attacks in the name of the Light.
Conversely, the thought amused Sasha greatly.
"It's ironic, isn't it, that after all these centuries, Hell never really needed to step in and wage the Sin War. You humans had everything well under Hand."
Niklaus ignored the pun. "It was this sort of nonsense that the Protectors of the Word were supposed to defend against. Our martial disciplines were an extension of our faith, and were thus used to protect the missionaries.
"Those Hands weren't defenders so much as Inquisitors, and 'cleansed the land of evil' with their scepters and swords. I wonder if that was when Mephisto really took hold of the councils."
Sasha thought about it for a moment. "It would figure," she conceded, "Mephisto's the most powerful of the Three because he can warp people's minds so that they themselves want to commit acts of hatred against each other. It's what makes him so dangerous."
Duane of Skelgard crept up to the roof of the Inn, where he found the smaller Paladin sitting regarding the sunrise. Uttering a prayer, he felt Heaven's Blessing upon him as minute details leapt into sharp focus, allowing him preternatural aim. Carefully he hefted the coconut he bore, and prepared to lob it at the head of the meditating Paladin.
The coconut flew straight and true, and within an eyeblink the demonic Paladin would be no more.
Yet just at the last moment, Niklaus' head jerked sideways and out of harm's way. A hand flashed upwards and grabbed the missile before it could sail over the roof's edge.
"Try throwing your head, next time," the demon advised, "I'm sure it's much harder."
Fuming and near a righteous rage, Duane of Skelgard stepped fully onto the roof to regard this pompous abomination.
"I will have no common cause with a demon wearing a mask of holiness," Duane explained, setting the dogs below barking, "and will tolerate no demon in my presence."
"Yeah! Ditto!" Sasha seconded, "down with those scum-sucking...oh wait," she finished before cackling at the other man's presumption.
Niklaus smiled at the joke.
"I'll be sure to tell warn any demons looking to join your merry band," Niklaus solemnly swore. To Sasha, "Duane of Skelgard says he will tolerate no demon in his presence."
"Well, if he's so adamant, he can tell it to my face. I think we left it somewhere in the Eintsteig, along with the rest of my body."
Niklaus couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing.
"So now you mock me to my face?" Duane queried, growing slightly hoarse.
"No," Niklaus replied evenly, "I mock you to your ass, since it's all you show me." And with that, he walked smoothly past a sputtering Duane of Skelgard.
~~~
Niklaus met Ulfgar and Sarah downstairs in earnest discussion with Simon and an elderly sage in a grey robe. The four of them were poring over scrolls. Math, however, was in the next room hard at work keeping his wolfpack in peak physical condition.
This closely resembled a huge multi-form hairball with a plethora of lolling tongues, perked ears, and the occasional bark of laughter from the furclad warrior.
Truly Math was the consummate warrior, obsessed with nothing more than the ultimate destruction of his foes. Still, it looked like a helluva lot of fun.
Fortunately, it seemed that everyone had agreed to a truce.
Little did he know everyone had joined forces to prevent each other from killing Duane of Skelgard.
Niklaus was still pissed at that worthy, and he wanted to vent his frustration.
"What's the job?"
The old sage perked up from the table, one Niklaus did not recognize. "It appears as though the Dark Wanderer seeks to free Baal, the Lord of Destruction. Although I cannot fathom his goals--"
"What's the job?"
"What's the hurry?" Sarah peered up from the various tomes she pored over.
"If I have to spend one more day with that Handjob of Zakarum, I will be imprisoned for murder within the city walls."
Ulfgar snorted and even Sarah smiled appreciatively. Simon and Math glanced to each other in perfect understanding.
"I understand he's not the...most welcome...of comrades," Simon began, "but in battle he is very valuable to us. His Auras are most welcome to Math and my servants."
"Fine then, ungag him only long enough to pray!"
The four veterans glanced at each other. Math was personally impressed; he would have killed the damn shiny-man before storming off. Their new companion possessed extreme self-control.
The old sage looked at the irate Paladin.
"You are a Paladin, correct?"
"Yeah, your point?"
"It's just you seem a little...testy...for a holy knight."
"Yeah, your point?"
The old man sighed. "Radamant's tomb lies close to the city walls, where people here used to pray in remembrance of his rule in Lut Gholein. Within the tomb is an ancient Horadric artifact, a cube that has transmutative properties. We need it to complete a staff to gain entry to Tal Rasha's tomb.
"Many Horadric mages were mummified and entombed with him to protect him in the afterlife, but he has risen, resurrected the mages, and left them to protect his tomb. We believe they are now guarding the Cube."
Niklaus nodded and marched outside.
~~~
The tomb *was* a short walk from the city walls. Upon discovering that Radamant was not the benign monarch he was in life, however, the footpaths had been understandably abandoned.
It was still early morning, and so the desert hadn't become a burning inferno just yet. With any luck, Niklaus would be able to get inside the tomb before the sun got too high.
Although it was only Sasha considering these things. Niklaus had worked himself into a right rage.
"Triple-damned, Light-blinded, ignoramus..."the insults flew fast and furious as Niklaus sought to find the right combination of invectives against the pomposity that was Duane of Skelgard. "Tin-sworded, moronic...*arrogant*..."
"Son of a Damned Shiny Man," Sasha supplied.
"Yeah, that's good," Niklaus agreed, and applied Sasha's suggestion to his own list.
"No," Sasha corrected, "*you're* the son of a damned Shiny-man."
"Huh?"
"Didja think for a second before you came marching out here beyond the city walls?"
"...."
"Okay, the people you just stormed away from slew Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish, and they're hesitant about going in here? What conclusion would a sane, logical person arrive at?"
"That they're resting, I would think," Niklaus concluded.
"Or that they're up against something that just might be kinda rough. And while there are three of them, there's one of us to go around. Specifically, there's one possessed and currently very pissed off one of us to go around, and he's the one with the sword. How long do you really think he'll last?"
Niklaus considered, but kept walking. "I'll cool off once things start dropping."
"Your body will cool off as it's bleeding on the floor."
"You said something like that when we were up against those skeletons the first time. And I said that if we have faith in each other, we'll triumph."
"And what about those figures over there? Who do they have faith in?"
Niklaus glanced to the town wall. Not a hundred yards away was Radamant's tomb, and a small group of shadowed figures. Niklaus knew how Lut Gholein felt about the tomb of late, and it didn't seem right that someone might be praying. His hand lingered to Silence, and his thumb flicked against the guard, loosening the blade from its sheath.
The figures by the tomb noticed him and they looked in his direction. Silence flashed out of the sheath. He knew that these weren't city people coming to pray.
Perhaps it was the forked tongue that snaked out from a serpentine head, or maybe even the tail that wove back and forth to provide movement, or perhaps even it may have been the rapid and seeminly hostile advance.
Niklaus figured it had to be the advance that gave them away. Just as he determined their intentions, one of them threw off its robes revealing a snake-like body.
Definitely not a city-dweller.
Niklaus caught the first demon across its chest as Sasha lit the Aura of Concentration. Silence split open the creature for an indepth anatomy lesson (Silence bit in deep, after all), but the creature simply wouldn't lie still for a few seconds. Then, quite inconsiderately, it fell face down, ruining any possibility for examination.
The second creature charged in, only this time dove headfirst into the sand. Puzzled at first (Niklaus had heard of a strange species of bird doing this) he jerked Silence upwards to parry the creature's tail which had arced over its back. Niklaus saw a nasty curving spike go flying away from the fight, and figured it must have belonged to his attacker.
Niklaus preoccupied himself with this species' anatomy, opening up another chest, but was interrupted by yet another experiment. He slashed again, but this one ducked away, and Niklaus was bowled over from a completely different direction.
He skidded across the warming sands, and turned to regard his attacker balefully. Undaunted, the serpentine demon charged in again, and Niklaus barely dodged out of the way before cutting it across the chest. He swung Silence for the finishing strike, but was bowled over yet again. Vainly, Sasha lit an Aura of Defiance, enhancing his armor, but it proved to no avail as another demon lunged in, clocking Niklaus and hurling him into unconsciousness. Sasha's world went black as Niklaus lost his senses.
"Dammit!" she swore as the swordsman fell over backwards. She braced herself, waiting to feel the inevitable death strike. She felt strange, reptilian hands grope under Niklaus and inexplicably hoist him up. They made their way across the desert sands as the sun rose, warming Niklaus's skin.
"Aw hells, what now?"
~~~
"He's been gone too long!" Ulfgar boomed.
"Yes, and likely dead if he went to the tombs," Simon reasoned calmly.
"I refuse to believe that!" Ulfgar boomed again, "He is too skilled to lose to a few zombies!" He was starting to match Duane of Skelgard for pure volume.
"The tomb is dangerous. The Horadric mummies entombed there were tied to Radamant while he lived, and though they'll eventually wane in strength with his death they're still too powerful for us to face in any great number. For the moment let's leave the undead to their own devices and attack them when they're weaker. We still need to aquire the staff and headpiece to complete the Staff.
"There should be a city far out in the desert, long deserted, where both pieces can be recovered. We still need the cube to morph the pieces back into their original shapes, but until then we can start on the shaft."
~~~
Niklaus was still unconscious. Sasha wasn't.
This sucks, Sasha thought. She had tried shouting, prodding, igniting channels (which was amusing because the serpent men soiled their tails everytime she did) but the Paladin himself remained somnolent. He had taken a pretty nasty hit to the head, though, so it was small wonder.
Meanwhile, Sasha had poured her efforts into healing Niklaus' body. The serpent men were unaware of the effects of the Aura, and Sasha switched Auras occasionally so they would think Niklaus was just being spasmodic, but meanwhile Niklaus' body healed. Sasha could just hope that he would wake soon.
Sasha couldn't say how long they travelled, but she knew they had not stopped. She had worried about heat injuries, but had found an Aura that protected them from the elements. She had switched between that and the healing Aura the most.
She really wished Niklaus would wake up.
After an indeterminate amount of time (it could have been a full day; after dying, Sasha found she had a bad sense of time for some reason) the temperature on Niklaus abruptly dropped, and Sasha wondered if they had gone indoors somewhere.
Down and down they travelled, further and further into the darkness. At long last the unconscious Paladin was set upon a stone slab.
Sibilant voices chanted, and then after reaching some great crescendo, Sasha felt a piercing pain stab through Niklaus' stomach as a sacrifical knife plunged through them.
"Aw shit!" Sasha screamed as pain coursed through her, "I just finished healing that part too!"