(A/N: Looks like I have some new reviewers! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic so far. Thanks for reviewing, reviewers new and old. I thought I should point something out: in my fanfic, Deekin has white dragon blood, not red. I mean, how did a kobold living in an obsure cave under a white dragon get red dragon blood in the first place? Besides, the kobolds of the Nether Mountains have to have white dragon blood in them somewhere... how else could the cold-blooded reptilians survive the cold? Personally, I think Deekin's red dragon blood was just an excuse to show off the new red dragon disciple class...
To Dragoon of Light: Here's another note! Remember, Shadovar are just a kind of human. Think about it... what is injured by healing spells? To Kaze no kage: Thanks for reviewing! Best NwN fanfic out there? I feel so special! Don't worry, the InuYasha fanfic is more of a fun side project. I'm very serious about my NwN fanfic, I just ran into a patch of writer's block.
Finally, I highly recommend reading WitchWolf's "Clash of Shadows." It's about Shi'van, a shadowdancer trapped in the Underdark, but separates from other Underdark fanfics past that. Shi'van's merciless decisions leave some wary of her, and a certain tiefling wishing she'd just drop dead... read the fic. It's rated M, but you'll like it, trust me. Plus, reading the latest chapter might give you a hint about Umbra's secret - which, by the way, I'd like to start seeing some input on. What do you think Umbra's secret is? Let's see who gets closest before I reveal it.
Disclaimer: Insert generic Neverwinter Nights disclaimer.)
Chapter Thirteen
Deekin set down his quill and looked ahead. Water dripped from the tunnel's ceiling, pooling in puddles on the rock floor and moistening the air. The deeper they went, the damper it seemed to get. He suspected they would soon come across a pool. His gaze switched to Umbra. She seemed to be fine now, and answered that she was every time he asked; still, he couldn't help but feel overhung by a cloud of guilt. If anything happened to her... he'd never forgive himself.
The trio hadn't encountered any beholders for a while now. The tunnel never branched off, always leading a straight path into the hive. (This was most likely leading to a trap, but there was no alternative.) As with the first group, some of the beholders dropped out of concealed openings in the ceilings. Most, however, appeared in flashes of light, transported by teleportation spells or quick-vanishing portals. They always appeared in large groups, thinking there to be strength in numbers. However, they dealt with Valen, a survivor of the Blood Wars who had time and again vanquished an entire field of devils; Umbra, the most skilled apprentice of a powerful wizard, as well as former servant and bodyguard of a shadow lich, who had oft fought back countless malevolent embodiments of shadow; and Deekin, the single strongest (though too humble and skittish to have realized it) kobold of his clan, infused with the blood of his draconic master somewhere down the line, and tactically advanced when fighting in conjunction with Umbra. Tipping the scale further in their favor, the triad learned more about the beholders' strengths and weaknesses with each victory, so that the more beholders were sent after them, the more expert at defeating them the three became. Realizing this, the aberrations had halted their siege, unwilling to lose more of their numbers so foolishly, and perhaps busy devising a better strategy.
Deekin's prediction proved true. Before long, the trio was slogging through a dip in the ground filled with water which burbled up from an underground spring. The waters were knee-deep on the others, but chest-high on the unfortunate kobold. He held his book high over his head to avoid soaking it in the pool, but several fat waterdrops fell from above and stained the cover anyway. They waded for a half-minute or so, before the tunnel rose back up out of the pool. Deekin grimaced as he inspected his book's water damage, then noticed Umbra squeezing water out of her robes. He wondered if she was starting to wish her robe was waterproof. He knew he wished his book was. Deekin flipped through the pages, found no further harm done, and closed the book back up. He found his gaze on Umbra again, and smiled as he watched her give up on wringing the robe dry and start ahead. Valen rolled his eyes and was next to follow, while Deekin shook some water off his pant leg and skittered after.
This tunnel was getting rather monotonous. The only entertainment was provided on two occasions, when Valen smacked into first a stalactite and then a stalagmite; he couldn't see in the dark as well as the kobold or the Shadow Plane native. Deekin stifled a snicker both times, and though Umbra's face was ever stone-still, he could sense she was amused as well. The tiefling would grumble and shuffle onward, though he didn't seem as indignant about it as Deekin would have expected. Valen was getting used to traveling with the two, unfortunate incidents and all.
Valen's flail lashed out in an instant. Deekin froze; the flail found its mark. With a particularly wet, squishy noise, a fat brown globe was stricken dead and fell to the ground, bouncing a few inches before settling. Deekin and Umbra studied the odd thing with some curiosity. It was a beholder, but not like the others they had seen. Its tentacles ringed the face in a halo, as opposed to being nestled atop the skull, and in place of a large central eye the beholder bore numerous small eyes over its entire being, some burst from the force of Valen's blow.
"What be that?" Deekin awed.
"A monitor," Valen answered grimly. His grip on the flail was tense, ready. "Someone knows we're here." Deekin gaze drifted further down the tunnel, which rose up again, blocking his view. Yet, he could hear something moving. Make that several somethings. A dozen? Deekin slowly pulled out his rapier, and glanced Umbra sliding her sword out of its sheath. A fleet of dazzling eye-rays shot from down from ahead, the threesome jumping out of the way just in time to avoid being barbecued. Umbra prepared an incantation and sent a blast of fire flowing up the tunnel's length. There was a fizzling sound, and several shrieks, followed by the sound of multiple somethings dropping to the ground. Another series of eye-blasts, which Umbra responded to by sending up another giant fireball. More shrieks, more dropping to the ground; it was nigh impossible to avoid a fire blast that took up the entire tunnel.
There was a long pause, as the triad and their unseen opponents each waited for the other side to reveal themselves and attack directly. It was the eye-casters who gave in in the end, realizing that at close range their rays would have a better chance of hitting, whereas Umbra's fireball attack would keep getting to them regardless. There was the sound of footfalls as the strangers approached. Valen and Umbra thought nothing of it, but something occurred to Deekin.
"Umm... beholders floats, doesn't they?" he wondered.
"Of course," Valen scoffed, then realized why Deekin had asked. The new foes skulked down from their seclude, cloaked in the tunnel's shadows but bearing distinctly humanoid shapes. Random points along their bodies gleamed in the dark, lit by their own glow, the generated light reflecting off the bladed weapons they held in their hands. There must have been at least a dozen of the creatures.
"Those be drow?" Deekin stared at the newcomers, trying to discern specific features. A true bard, more immediately concerned about the quality of his tale than the consequences of stalling to ask questions. The others were warriors, not minstrels, and did not hesitate to act. Umbra was first, raising a shield of shadows just as the glittering points on the humanoid's bodies fired potent eye rays. The shadows absorbed the blows effectively before sinking back to their natural pools. While the foes recharged, Umbra unleashed a chain of spells on them, and Valen moved to smash his flail into an enemy's head. This close, he could see that their opponents were drow... sort of. The one he'd targeted stepped back from the blow and brought her scimitar up to meet his neck, though he parried neatly and slammed the blade into the wielder's own throat. As she choked on her own blood and slumped to the ground, Valen hurled his flail at her temple and finished the job... but not before realizing it was five red eyes he saw glaring up at him from the dying drow's face, not two.
"These are not normal drow!" he warned his allies, ducking as a kama swooped over his head. "They're eyetouched!"
"Eyetouched?" Deekin murmured, casting a dizzying Color Spray spell on a few. He'd read of them, of course, but thought them only myths! The eyetouched were otherwise normal creatures, anything from humans to wolves, who had been endowed with the powers of the beholders by the beholders themselves. This meant that numerous eyes covered their bodies, all capable of firing lasers and spells almost as devastating as those of a true beholder. Could Valen be overreacting? No - as Umbra hacked a drow's leg off at the knee, the severed shin fell out of the armor, and Deekin very clearly saw three eyes blinking out of the shin's gray flesh. And, now that he was looking for them, he could see revealed eyes winking out of unlikely surfaces on every drow - an eye on that woman's nose, eight on that one's collarbone, one on a tentacle-like stalk growing out of that man's ear. Eyetouched drow... he supposed it made sense, perhaps moreso than an eyetouched wolf or human, considering they were an Underdark race. This meant that they willingly served the aberrations, but he'd known people to worship stranger. "The Cult of the Cheese" was one religion that would never leave Deekin's mind.
Valen, meanwhile, was taking on two eyetouched at once. The tiefling leapt aside as the twinning assailants struck out, clashing swords with one another. Valen took the opportunity to clash together their heads, bearing a smirk. He thrust a leg out behind him just after doing so, kicking the inevitable backstabber in the chest (there was at least one in every drow battle, he had many times learned). The kick knocked the wind out of the sneak, who stopped to catch his breath and instead caught a flail in the spine. Killing one opportunist, however, left Valen bait for another. Though his armor got the brunt of it, an eye-spell struck Valen square in the lower back. Overwhelmed by tingling waves of paralysis, the tiefling staggered over to the tunnel's side and leaned himself against it, sliding down awkwardly as he became paralyzed entirely from the shoulders down.
An eyetouched took advantage of this in an instant, looming over the afflicted tiefling smugly, basking in the chance to stand superior above one so much stronger than himself. He also felt the need to rub it in, all nine eyes sparkling gleefully as he leaned and shoved his face into Valen's own, baring his teeth and hissing. As a distant relative of humans, his blunt, squarish teeth weren't all that impressive. In reply, Valen snarled and revealed a mouthful of demonic fangs; his were. Thrusting his neck up, Valen bit onto one of the eyetouched's eyes and tore it out. The drow screeched and stumbled back, clapping a hand over his face to stifle the blood flow, panicking and shooting eye-rays up at the ceiling... then screaming again as he shot through his own hand. Fast-acting, the paralysis spell was also fast-fading; Valen soon regained control of his upper body, dragging himself over to the screaming drow. Latching onto the drow's leg, Valen yanked it out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor. The drow's face met his, eyes glowing hatefully as they prepared to fire. Valen's own eyes were bright crimson as he aimed a punch, connecting with the drow's jaw with such momentum the head twisted 360 degrees, killing the fool. Three more drow ran over, foolish as the first. Valen growled, his tail lashing out and slicing clear through the drows' legs. Losing their footing with their feet, the drow moaned in horror as they bled, and a demon-blood pounced.
Deekin, who had previously been concerning himself with casting clouds of gas and sprays of color around the area to sting the eyetouched's eyes, suddenly found himself engaged in battle with a drow angered by the kobold's background antics. The drow brought his sword down again and again (using eye-rays occasionally but not as skilled with them as his fellows), and while Deekin managed to sidestep the blade each time, sometimes fending it off with the aid of his rapier, he was no swordsman and couldn't keep it up. It was then, looking up to evade as the drow attempted to bring the sword down on his head, that he noticed a large stalactite hanging far above from the ceiling. An idea crossed his mind. Muttering under his breath, Deekin wove his fingers in the proper motions and began carefully stepping back.
"Vith! Olot dos, rath'arg!" the drow cursed, accidentally shoving his sword into the rock ground where Deekin had been. He gripped the hilt and struggled to pull it out.
"Deekin not knows what that means," Deekin noted, activating the spell with a smile, "but, you too." The drow looked at him quizzically, then gaped as an eye on the top of his head saw what was to befall him. He tried to dodge, but too late - the sonic spell Deekin cast had broken the giant stalactite off the tunnel ceiling, its weight causing it to fall all the faster, and it cleaved the drow through where it didn't crush him.
During all this, Umbra made admirable use of sword and spell, beheading a drow here, incinerating a drow there. Occasionally, she would be stabbed, even lasered by the eyetouched, but her robe always mended itself over and Umbra herself never seemed any the worse for it. Working together, the three vanquished most of the eyetouched. The lone survivor panicked, drew open a luminous green portal from thin air and jumped through. The portal began to implode, but Umbra quickly prepared and cast a Hold Portal spell on it.
"As it will not hold long, we had best hurry," she instructed. "This should lead to where we need to be." Deekin was first to attempt to go through; however, the portal was an entire foot over his head, and there were no footholds to clamber up in midair. Umbra helped him through, much to the kobold's embarrassment, and the others were soon to follow. The portal closed up shortly after. If there were any second thoughts, it was too late for them.
The area around them was darker than the one before it, but Deekin could feel ground beneath his feet. His eyes swiftly adjusted, and he saw that this was another tunnel, albeit a much larger, slimier and rockier tunnel. Umbra stood not far from him, Valen not far from her. There were no enemies to be seen, the surviving eyetouched having fled from view. Deekin gave a sigh of relief - then noticed a peculiar red light. Deekin looked around for the light source, and found it was Valen's eyes. The tiefling was hunched over, shivering and panting heavily.
"Is something the matter, Valen?" Umbra quested. Valen shivered again; Deekin wasn't sure if that was a nod. The tiefling slammed his flail into the ground loudly, forcing himself up into a standing position. His eyes flickered from scarlet to azure rapidly, dizzying to look at and more so to look though, but he managed to set his shifting gaze upon Umbra.
"It's my demonic blood. It's hard to control it, even harder after a fight, because... well, as a planar, you know of the Blood Wars, of course?"
"The ongoing battles of the fiends," Umbra avered.
"I was... recruited into those battles." He looked away from her, his eyes settling on dull blue and taking on a haunted cast. "For years I fought in the Outer Planes as something less than a soldier... I was a beast. Sometimes, when I fight, that side of me that fought in the Blood Wars comes back out..."
"Why you not fights if you not likes it?" Deekin wondered. Valen's eyes blazed red again, but he managed to keep his voice level.
"I had little choice. I was a slave, you see, the property of my demonic master, Grimash't. He threw me into each battle and I fought to survive."
"A slave, then?" Umbra said suddenly. "This one was a slave herself, once, though servant by title."
"Really?" Blue crept back into Valen's eyes as he looked to Umbra again. "What was your master like?"
"He was no demon," Umbra noted. "Merely a shadow lich. He was a tyrant, however... the Shadovar under his rule lived in constant fear of him. And... of this one." Deekin's eyes widened in astonishment, and Valen looked no less surprised.
"Why were they afraid of you?" Valen asked.
"M'lord was not fond of moving from his throne," Umbra began. Stretching out a hand, she studied it, remembering. "When one of his Shadovar misbehaved and refused to come to the throneroom to be punished, it fell upon this one, m'lord's highest servant and guard, to seek the deviant out and exact punishment herself. M'lord made sure this one tortured the misbehaver so thoroughly the punished never disobeyed our lord again."
"You tortures them!" Deekin cried, eyes wider than ever. This was a side of his boss he had never known existed.
"You do not understand," Umbra replied. "This one was not in a position to make her own decisions. This one was her lord's servant, nothing more."
"The Blood Wars made me into the warrior I am," Valen said, gesturing to his heavy flail and green armor. "Though it meant nothing to me. Like you, I was a mindless slave, no more." There was a short silence, a kindling of understanding between the two, and a sinking feeling for Deekin. Valen continued, "My infernal masters encouraged the demonic blood that was within me. I was beholden to it... I reveled in it, and was desperate to please my masters with each opponent I slaughtered. There was nothing in me that was human, and that meant less than nothing to me. Until the Seer found me."
"She came to the Abyss?" queried Umbra. Valen shook his head.
"No. The first time I saw her, I was summoned along with my master to the Prime by a spell... to fight against the Seer, in fact. A drow priestess had called us and so we were beholden to do battle. During the attack I came face to face with the Seer... and she... looked into my soul. I have no other way to describe it."
"This one knows that feeling," Umbra said softly. With the hood covering her eyes, it was impossible for Deekin to notice her gaze was on him.
"We were banished back to the planes, but the memory of the Seer stayed with me," Valen reminisced. "It haunted my dreams." Valen closed his eyes, shuddering. "For the first time in decades, I began to remember the life I once had, before the Blood Wars. The bizarrely beautiful streets of the City of Doors; the many planars, each more extraordinary than the first; the sweet fruits I stole to get by; the kindness of the occasional stranger; the ability to make my own decisions..."
"It must have been wonderful to have such memories to fall back on," Umbra noted with a touch of sadness. Valen opened his eyes, gazing at her curiously.
"You had no good memories?"
"No memories at all," Umbra corrected. "The shadow lich did not wish for his servants to remember a time before their servitude. It was only after this one's escape from the Shadows that she learned the value of such memories." Deekin looked at Umbra, standing there, unmoving and quiet as ever. No memories? He opened his notebook, then closed it again, eyes still trained on her. What must that have been like, surrounded by cold, endlessly dark shadow, bound to do whatever some undead tyrant wanted of you, and have not even the familiar wink of happier times to cheer you?
Valen closed his eyes again. "My master sensed my... difficulty. I was tortured, for months or years... I really could not tell. I only remember that it was agony beyond measure. Demons know how to torture. Eventually I was able to escape Grimash't." For a moment Valen's eyes opened, taking on a haunted look. "I made my way to the Prime, an alien place for a planar such as me, and searched until I found the Seer. She healed my wounds and... spoke to me. She offered to help me. If I wanted it." His voice was thick with emotion. "She saved me in every way that one can be saved." The three were quiet.
"I'm sorry," Valen apologized after a while. "I didn't mean to launch into my life story... we should get going."
"Indeed," Umbra said. The group started on again, cloaked in ponderous silence. There was much to think about.
The tunnel widened farther ahead. The stalagmites and stalactites grew in number, shooting sharply out of the ground at irregular, hazardous angles, which Deekin's backpack repeatedly snagged on, forcing the kobold to make numerous stops to free himself and causing him to lag toward the back. This meant Umbra and Valen were again together at the head, which fouled Deekin's mood to no end. Gritting his teeth and grumbling to himself while keeping an eye out for more jagged points, the kobold was truthfully more sad than angry. Toward the beginning of this adventure, his suspicions of a romance developing between the two could easily have been dismissed as just that. But now, after that last conversation...
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG. The gently flapping noise of metal on metal reverberated down the tunnel's length, echoing against the hard walls and becoming much louder than it actually was. Valen and Umbra drew their weapons in an instant, Deekin shortly after. The three were silent as the noise made its way up the tunnel, growing louder as it came closer. The three continued to walk ahead, more quickly than before, anxious to meet up with their foe before it met up with them. With her keen dark vision, Umbra saw the approacher before her companions did, and moved to attack it. The approacher saw this, and was quick to counterattack before Umbra's own attack could hit home. What appeared to be a floating ball of metal flew out of the tunnel's depths, slamming into Umbra and crushing her against the wall. Despite the force of the blow, Umbra was unaffected, and speedily cast a fire spell, which pushed her metallic assailant backward. It dropped to the ground soon after, completely still, and the aroma of burnt meat permeated the air - Deekin felt his stomach rumbling pleadingly as he smelled it.
Upon closer inspection, the mysterious attacker proved to be a regular beholder, if slightly larger than normal. It was covered in a suit of metal armor specially designed to accustom its strange, spherical body, with holes in the top for its eye-stalks to fit through and a screen set over its central eye to protect it. It was a juggernaut, a beholder trained for physical combat, its armor meant to protect it. Ironically, without the armor it might have survived (for a little longer, that is); the fire spell Umbra had cast was a brief one, and would have mildly burned a bare beholder before dissipating. However, the armor the juggernaut wore had been heated by the fire, and cooked the beholder in its own shell before finally cooling. That would have been the end of it... but juggernauts tend to travel in groups. The ensuing battle was more difficult than those with normal beholders; fortunately, Umbra's spells were doubly effective at the close range the juggernauts preferred, Valen was no stranger to fighting well-armored opponents, and Deekin was there in the background to help out. When the group of juggernauts was at last defeated, Valen sat down to rest, Deekin healed wounds and an unwounded Umbra kept watch, as usual.
"Except for eyetouched, that be hardest battle yet," Deekin commenting, making a note in his book.
"The eyetouched were only harder because we're not used to fighting them," Valen decided, getting to his feet and grabbing his flail, tail waving confidently. "If the battles are getting harder, it must mean we're getting closer to the Eye Tyrant."
"That sounds right," Umbra agreed.
"It woulds," Deekin muttered bitterly.
"What did you say, Deekin?" Umbra asked.
"Nothing!" the kobold beamed innocently, though shooting Valen a dirty look when neither was looking. The tunnel twisted onward, the three following it for what seemed ages - it was doubtlessly quicker to traverse if one floated rather than walked - with several smaller battles interspersed during this walk. By and by, the tunnel began branching off at irregular angles, and out of one of the tunnels burst another group of juggernauts, as well as some spellcasting beholders who had gouged out their own central eyes to achieve better focus with their eye-stalks. This battle was predictably long and grueling, but the triad won out in the end.
"They came out of this tunnel," Umbra noted, gazing down it. "Mayhap it would lead us to the Eye Tyrant, and we should enter it?"
"It could lead to a trap," Valen said suspiciously.
"It could," Umbra acknowledged, going ahead anyway. "As could the path we have been taking."
"Boss gots good point," Deekin shrugged, following her - though admittedly more to sour Valen's mood than because he agreed with her reasoning. Sadly, Valen's mood wasn't soured in the least, and he followed as well. This tunnel was surprisingly short, but stopped at a dead end. Or so it seemed - Deekin discovered otherwise when he stepped forward to see if the "dead end" was a secret door which opened when tapped, and narrowly avoiding falling into empty space. The floor dropped off here, giving way to a significant hole. Gazing down it, the three discovered a wide, round room below them. Arranged in a circle around it was a variety of beholder-kin - normal beholders, juggernauts, monitors, spellcasters, several kinds Deekin didn't recognize, and the eyetouched. At the center of the room was an enormous beholder the color of rot, with a face like a one-eyed carp, who could be none other than Eye Tyrant herself. The beholder-kin made loud, grumbling sounds (the eyetouched pronouncing them staggeringly) to each other, eyes lolling around the room. They were obviously conversing, in some sense.
"What you thinks they be talking about?" Deekin whispered. Beholders have never been renowned for their acute hearing, so he was not heard; however, it wasn't long before one of the many-eyed's eye-stalks noticed the spies above. The grumbling rose into roars (though eyetouched or no, the drow aren't very good at roaring like beholders), and it didn't take the trio long to realize they'd been spotted. Valen bundled his flail and leapt down the hole.
"INTO THE FLAMES WE LEAP!" he barked, landing squarely on a beholder and efficiently squishing it before it could blast him. Deekin glanced at Umbra briefly.
"He likes sayings that, doesn't he?" he remarked.
"So it would seem," Umbra replied, bounding after. The kobold eyed the distance to the ground warily, but jumped anyway, and managed to survive by doing as Valen and landing on a beholder. This action gave him a great place to start in with his unique beholder-fighting methods, as he cropped off the eye-stalks of the beholder he'd landed on and moved on to the next, narrowly avoiding several eye shots. Umbra was already slicing and dicing beholders left and right, Valen mashing others into bloody pulp. That is not to say the beholder-kin simply floated there and took the abuse, not at all; more than once Valen found himself suffering from unsavory spell effects, and even from his vantage point Deekin was caught by numerous searing lasers, though never lethally, and the heat of the lasers always cauterized the wounds before they could bleed him dry. The Eye Tyrant shot off occasional blasts, but knew better than to draw attention to herself more than necessary (she was, after all, the biggest target in the room, no matter how sturdy), biding her time until the intruders had been significantly weakened. Caught unprepared, the beholder-kin's numbers were gradually reduced, making the battle increasingly feasible for the invading three. Realizing the intruders might fell too many of her soldiers before they ran out of energy, the Eye Tyrant made a change of plans and chose now to attack.
After being struck by no less than fourteen different spells (no match for those cast by devils, but still trying and painful), Valen had been very mindful of the spellcasters. Heaving a deceased juggernaut off the floor, Valen brandished it as a makeshift shield, and it worked well; those spells that the juggernaut's metal armor failed to deflect were absorbed by its spongy corpse, giving Valen a chance to smash the spellcaster in with his flail while it recharged. When the dead juggernaut began to resemble a chunk of Swiss cheese more than a carcass, Valen dropped it and grabbed a new one. He'd barely tested it when it was disintegrated by a shaft of energy fired by the Eye Tyrant herself. Eyes wide, Valen quickly realized that standing there stupidly wasn't such a great idea and ducked to the side as a second immense blast followed. He took up another juggernaut corpse, but this one was zapped to ashes as well. Fortunately, Valen discovered that live juggernauts worked just as well as dead ones. Said juggernauts were rather indignant about being snatched by a widely grinning tiefling, but were vaporized by their unknowing leader before they could object. When a juggernaut wasn't available, other beholders and even eyetouched drow were acceptable substitutes. This proved an amazingly efficient method of mass-murdering his opponents, Valen mused. Bent on killing the tiefling, it took the Eye Tyrant a surprising while to realize she was instead killing off her own numbers - and she was furious when she did. However, fury and precision do not mix. Valen had no trouble evading, and even more beholders were slain in the crossfire.
Valen wasn't the only one dealing with the Eye Tyrant. Deekin was having an increasingly difficult time staying surmounted when his footholds kept getting incinerated (and he came too close to getting incinerated for comfort, himself), but based on the general area Valen lingered in, he managed to pick out which beholders were likely to get shot and move to the ones that weren't. With the fighters mainly preoccupied with other beholder-kin, Deekin knew that shearing eye-stalks wouldn't cut it and began cleaving skulls. A messy process, but an effective one.
Umbra, meanwhile, looked away from hewing beholders in time to narrowly avoid a dire shot from the Eye Tyrant. Fully aware what the true threat here was, Umbra happened to notice Deekin's tactics in dealing with the aberrations. Then, surveying the Tyrant's formidable size, the cowled one started forward, dark magics licking at her fingers. Seeing that the intruder was approaching her directly, the Tyrant grinned nastily, eyes glowing.
"Deekin, Valen," Umbra called out. "You may wish to seek cover." So saying, she unleashed the spell. Instantly, shadows sprang up from every corner of the room, lifting from the smallest cracks and the slightest shade. The freed shadows expanded, filling every available amount of space, permeating the very air. All was pitch black; though the darkness was harmless, it was impossible to see through. Deekin and Valen heeded Umbra's advice and, finding no shelter, ducked down, though they didn't know why. The beholders and eyetouched hovered and stumbled around in blindly; sight was their primary sense, and they were majorly disabled without it. The only one in the room who could see, Umbra took advantage of this, scaling the Eye Tyrant and landing atop the abominable aberration's skull.
"Come forth, those of many eyes!" Umbra shouted. Surface Common was a language foreign to these cave-dwellers, but they recognized it was a foe speaking, and moved toward the sound as Umbra went on, "You may strike this one, if such is your wish! This one stands still here for your convenience!"
"What is she doing?" Valen muttered, pressing himself against the floor. Deekin, flat against a wall and wondering much the same thing, wished it wasn't so dark so he could write this down. Umbra continued to taunt the beholder-kin; growing increasingly agitated, the eye-casters surrounded the source of her voice. Their eyes shimmered as they prepared to attack, though the stifling darkness cloaked these warning signs. The Eye Tyrant was entirely unaware of what was about to happen. Raising a shield of shadow around herself, Umbra had a pretty good idea.
The beholder-kin fired. Countless spells and lasers bombarded the unfortunate Eye Tyrant, who howled in pain and sank to the ground. Lowering the shield, Umbra let out tens of fireballs, each slamming into an eye-kin. When the shadows dissipated, many beholders lay dead or dying, including the Eye Tyrant herself. Umbra leapt down and proceeded finishing off the remaining numbers, while Valen and Deekin got back up and helped her with this, congratulating her on her brilliance.
Beholder fluids and drow blood slicked the floor, while unmoving corpses littered it. The largest body sat at the floor's center, oozing gelatinous insides out various wounds. Unnoticed, its central eye flicked open. Darting about, the pupil settled on the hooded figure who had done this, iris widening, vision sharpening and gaze focusing. An aura of cold and darkness surrounded the cowled one, unseen by her companions, but seen and comprehended by the Tyrant. Lips curling back in a silent snarl, the Eye Tyrant lowered her eye-stalks, moving them together and training them on Umbra. She fired, all the shots (any one huge by itself) combining into one colossal laser of blinding white light. This effort sapped the last of the Tyrant's energy. All eyes closed one final time, the Eye Tyrant soothed only by the thought that she had exacted vengeance on one of her hive's slayers in her dying moments.
The laser hit Umbra head-on, flinging her across the room, where she slammed into the far wall, slid to the floor and did not move. Most of the beholders left seized this opportunity, clustering above the fallen figure and charging their eye rays. By the time Umbra's companions noticed, the aberrations were about ready to fire.
"Boss!" Deekin squeaked, looking up from the beholder he had just felled. Yanking his rapier out of its eye with a spurt of liquid, he bolted toward Umbra. But it didn't look like he would arrive in time, the beholders grinning to themselves as they fired.
At the instant, Valen leapt in, scooped Umbra into his arms, and got out of the way just before the lasers hit the ground where she had been. A spell cast by Deekin drenched the beholders with acid, burning out their eyes and racking their minds with pain before they could reflect on their miss. Valen knelt down, Umbra still in his arms.
"Are you alright?" he asked softly. She did not respond. "Umbra?" A short distance away, Deekin was dispatching the mutilated beholders, while keeping a wary eye on Valen and the Boss. Umbra was completely helpless in the tiefling's arms... With a barely restrained growl, Deekin gripped his rapier and slashed a beholder in twain.
Umbra spoke at last, her voice faded and hollow. "The shadows," she said.
"What?" Valen asked, blue eyes a little wider.
"The shadows," Umbra repeated. "Let this one into the shadows... that she might heal." Valen noticed a long shadow cast by a stalagmite nearby.
"Of course," he nodded, moving into the stalagmite's shadow, "but I fail to see how this will help." Umbra did not respond, continuously still. Fearing he had lost her, Valen studied her carefully. Her face, always so stolid... not even a twitch. No sweat glistened on that night black skin; those vague nostrils did not flare to breathe, nor did her lips purse to gasp. Her hand, long and spidery, splayed by her side. Valen found himself holding it, noticing how cool it was. He felt no pulse, but somehow, he doubted she was dead. The voice she spoke in, so detached and faint, that he had heard her use only once before... something about it was familiar. He studied the cowled one carefully.
"What are you hiding?" he whispered.
"What you be doing to Boss?" Deekin snapped. At that moment, Valen realized how close his face was to Umbra's. He jerked away, head spinning to face the kobold.
"Nothing," he responded sharply. Deekin eyed Valen with clear mistrust. Naturally rebellious, Valen returned the stare. And then Umbra moved.
"Boss!" Deekin cried again, rushing to her side. "Is you alright?"
"This one has recovered," she avered, moving to get up. There was an awkward pause, as it occured to Valen he was still holding her in his lap. He quickly removed his arms and allowed her to stand. Deekin shot him a glare, then smiled back up at Umbra.
"Deekin so glad you be okay, Boss!" he cheered. "Deekin be so worried..."
"You need not be," Umbra assured him. "Now, let us be on our way."
"You're certain you don't need to rest?" Valen asked, climbing to his feet.
"This one is certain," she avered, going ahead. "The beholders' cave is a maze. We had best start now if we wish to leave it."
"True," Valen nodded, and the trio began moving again.
Deekin sometimes found it difficult to stop talking when nervous, and such was the case now - he could recall few occasions he'd been more nervous. He was chattering on incessantly, jumping from topic to topic so rapidly even he couldn't keep track of what he was talking about, Umbra offering polite interjections here and there. Though indefinitely thrilled that Umbra was alright, he couldn't help but feel queasy at the way Valen had been holding her just moments ago. It had looked exactly like so many romantic illustrations of a valiant knight carrying a fair lady Deekin had once admired in books, but shuddered to draw the comparison now. Valen and Umbra couldn't be in love... they couldn't.
It would be much later that Deekin remembered to add the battle with the beholders to the Boss's epic tale. When he did, he conveniently forgot the ending.
(I hope that chapter was worth the waiting period for you. And, by the way, all creatures in this chapter are valid Dungeons and Dragons monsters. Though they weren't in the game, I added them to my fic to make it more exciting.)