Disclaimer: Drow not mine…

Alhana: Huh? Yes he's always been gay. At least I thought so after writing the first chapter… maybe I have not made that clear. Sorry.

Neven: The psychological thing is a weakness of mine, you may have noticed the um… lack of actual action and battle scenes in my writing. That is because I think they're very boring (and also the reason why I stopped reading the lone Drow somewhere in the middle. All the fighting and dwarves…yawn!)

EmeraldEyes924: See I've written more, you can unchain me now gives a pleading look Thanks for reviewing by the way!

C

In the woods

C

The feeling of his hands resting lightly on my shoulders is surprisingly soothing and my reaction tells me that I need to end this soon or it'll make me weak and give my Master another thing to use against me. Already I find myself liking him which is no wonder seeing that besides Andy he's the only person to have been kind to me for quite some time. And I have done what I was ordered to, have I not? I need to get away from him. Not caring how rude I'm being I get up without another word, shake his hands off and flee to what I assume I can currently call my room, locking the door behind me. That done all strength seems to leave me and I slide down to the floor, my back coming to rest against the dark, carved wood of the door.

Damn this, why does my life have to be so complicated all the time, with everybody wanting to pull me in a different direction? With a despairing sigh I cover my face with both hands trying to shut out the world and drift of into a dream where things are better. A few minutes later though I'm mercilessly dragged back to reality by the soft sound of my Masters voice.

"Have you succeeded in the task I gave you slave?"

I nod tiredly, not really surprised that he chose to appear here again and assume a kneeling position. "Yes Master."

"Good." A satisfied smile appears on his face. "Since you have done so well I think you deserve a little reward. Try to get into the wood around the tower later this day. I will send Andy there to tell you how to proceed."

"Yes. Thank you Master."

And then his image is gone again, as if it had never been there. I'm left wondering how the hell I'm supposed to get out of the tower without alerting Giciel. When after two hours no brilliant plan has entered my mind I decide to simply sneak out and hope that he won't see me. This is made just slightly more difficult by the fact that I've no idea where to find the exit, since I got here by portal and from what I've seen until now it looks like this tower is bigger on the inside than it appears from the outside. Ah well there's no way around it and I guess I had better start now, as this might take some time. After a last glance out of the window to gain at least some measure of orientation, I unlock the door with as little noise as possible and start looking for the exit.

It takes an hour of tense and uncomfortable sneaking through winding corridors before I finally find something that can probably be counted as a side entrance in the kitchen. Carefully I rest the sensitive tips of my fingers against the small wooden door trying to discern if there is some spell on it that will tell of my passage. During the months spent as whore I was also trained in recognizing such things in case I had to slip away unnoticed one day. I didn't do too well then, but my abilities should suffice now to ensure my undetected escape.

Once I have made reasonably certain that what spells there were are disabled I get out, leaving the door unlocked and ajar.

Cautiously I creep towards the woods using what little hiding places I can find, always afraid of being seen. Nothing moves though when I look back from the cover of the first trees and as far as I can tell nobody has noticed me leaving. Now I can only hope that I'll find Andy before Giciel learns of my absence. Where would I hide were I in his position? Would he think of climbing a tree? After half an hour of rather aimless searching for the Drow I hear the crunch of a dry twig that someone has carelessly stepped on and freeze for a moment before I notice Andy who has just dropped down from a low branch to my right and regards me now with profound relief.

"Toren!"

"Oh there you are…"

And that's all I manage to say before I suddenly find myself buried under a madly grinning Drow, who then proceeds to kiss me breathless. Well, at least it looks like he hasn't suffered any punishment on my behalf if he can still move like this and I have to admit that I'm honestly happy to see him.

"I was worried for you." He murmurs between two kisses. "When he wouldn't tell me what happened I thought… I was afraid he had killed you, he was so angry I feared he would explode any moment! He threw a glass full of wine at Vergir you know."

A slightly girlish giggle escapes me at hearing these words. My current mental picture of the vain, arrogant Vergir dripping with wine is just too amusing, but a second later we both turn serious again.

"What is it that I have to do?" I ask him.

"The Master said to give you this." He hands me an innocent looking, grey stone that has been carved into the perfect likeness of a rat. I regard it curiously.

"What am I to do with it?"

"You don't have to do anything, just keep it somewhere on your person so he'll be able to penetrate the wards once you're inside."

"Oh…but won't…"

I fall silent due to a sudden sharp flash of pain from the collar. Andy must feel it too from his own, for he winces. With a soft "click" both collars open and fall to the ground. We can only stare in wide eyed disbelief.

"What was that?" Andy wants to know, a slight note of panic already audible in his voice. I swallow uncomfortably.

"It looks like Giciel has just succeeded in removing my collar. I'd say that it's also very possible that he does now know about your presence."

"You have allowed him to try and remove it!"

"Yes. What else could I have done? I can hardly tell him I want to keep it after he has supposedly freed me." I shrug. "On the other hand, my cover is probably blown now anyway. I have no idea how to explain your being here."

"This is not good." He starts looking around nervously as if he expects Giciel to jump out from behind a bush any moment.

"Tell me something new please." I grumble. "What do we do now?"

Andy shrugs. "We could…"

"Explain what happened!" Demands a third voice, sharply cutting him off.

"Master!" We gasp simultaneously and scramble to our knees. Collar or no, it doesn't make a difference in this moment. I really hate his disconcerting habit of appearing out of thin air without giving any previous warning. Sometimes I think he does it just to scare people.

"We didn't do it Master." I cry horrified, blurting out the first thing that comes into my mind.

"Didn't do what exactly bitch?"

He follows our fearful gazes towards the collars which are lying discarded on the ground, glinting innocently in the sunlight.

"That meddling little… for this insolence he'll pay dearly." Our Master hisses angrily. "He'll beg for his death by the time I'm through with him. I'll…"

He doesn't get any further in his rant, which could be because of the ugly crossbow bolt that is currently located in his throat and makes speaking a little difficult. It doesn't do much for his breathing either and under Andy's and my own dumbfounded stares he slowly collapses, a surprised grimace of pain on his face and subsequently expires there on the ground, his blood staining the dry leaves with crimson dots.

We don't get a chance to recover from the surprise, because next we discover Ayren who is walking over to where he has fallen, already preparing another bolt her expression fit to make me freeze from fright. With a soft oddly squeaking noise Andy swiftly moves to take cover behind my back. She ignores us though and goes to give the corpse a hard kick in the ribs which makes us both wince in instinctual horror, remembering the beatings we always got at even the slightest sign of disrespect.

"There you black skinned bastard! Who is dead now? Ha!" She yells with a look of utmost loathing and hatred, kicking him again, before she breaks down crying.

"He's dead." I whisper numbly, scarcely believing my own eyes.

"Toren darling you certainly have a gift for stating the obvious." Andy says from behind my back. He sounds a bit distant and dazed and I'm sure we're both standing under shock right now. Even though he should be more used to loosing a Master considering what has happened to his previous one. I guess I should better look after Ayren, who is crouched in the dirt, hugging herself while silent tears run down pale cheeks, the crossbow lying next to her forgotten for the moment. I crawl over to where she is sitting, closely followed by Andy and hesitantly touch her shoulder in the hope of restoring her to some measure of awareness.

I succeed in so far as she is now clinging to me, still crying in this oddly silent way, her slender shoulders shaking with the force of her emotions.

"Let's leave Toren." Andy says quietly. "I have no wish to end up in that prison for a second time."

Neither have I, but even as I consider leaving Ayren here we can already hear the less than silent approach of somebody through the trees and I can see resignation take hold of Andy. There's no way we're going to be able to evade Giciel, so we wait for a minute until he finds us, breaking through the underbrush in a fashion incredibly noisy for an elf, which only serves to indicate his great urgency and finally stands there panting, trying to get a grasp of what has happened here.

"You're late." I tell him sarcastically. "The show is already finished."

It seems that he is not amused, because he ignores me focusing instead on Andy.

"You!" He says venomously, which prompts my favorite Drow to shrink back and move sideways in order to put me and Ayren between himself and the threatening mage.

"I didn't do anything!" He cries desperately. "Please don't put me in that cell again! I'll do whatever you want!"

"And you think I want anything from you Drow whore?"

The unthinking contempt in his voice fills me with sudden ice cold fury and before I can even think about it I have gotten up, disentangling myself from Ayren in a rather harsh fashion, stepped over my Masters corpse and slapped Giciel in the face. Ayren does apparently not take any notice of her surroundings right now and continues to cry oblivious to everything, but I'm focused anyway on the mage, who looks at me in surprise before he seems to remember this mornings activities and his part in them. Belatedly he realizes what his statement must mean to me and I derive at least a little satisfaction from the highly embarrassed, incoherent stammering and furious blushing which follows. It does nothing to lessen my anger though and I ask in a low hiss: "So you want nothing to do with Drow whores?" He cringes, but I continue unable to hold back. "I take it fucking me was nothing then, was it? Hypocritical bastard!"

"No!" He exclaims horrified. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I…" he swallows and turns to Andy with a pained and rather forced: "I forgot my manners. Please accept my apologies."

Andy unused to such reverential treatment can only nod silently, surprised at my daring, but grateful nonetheless.

"So you know him?"

I nod and growl: "Intimately."

"Oh."

"Shall we go back then?" I ask, hoping that it won't occur to him to ask why we have come here in the first place, a question I don't wish to answer without knowing how much Ayren has seen. I certainly do not intend to tell him the truth if I can help it! To my great relief he is still too preoccupied with his lapse of manners to think straight just yet and only utters a quick spell to make the corpse float along while we carefully escort Ayren back to the tower.

Both Giciel and Andy are throwing each other frequent glances of distrust and dislike, which is probably not surprising considering the circumstances of their first encounter, but it grates on my nerves and I have to consciously keep myself from snapping at them to stop it.