The temple was larger than it seemed from the outside. Of course, it could have been the darkness of the corridors. Despite the relatively frequent sources of pale, magical light, there were more shadows than not wherever she went, and the darkness made everything seem larger and more menacing. This was especially true once she descended a short series of steps to a strange lower level. It could have also just been a trick the corridors in this lower level played on her, as they twisted and turned on one another. Just when she thought she might have figured out the spider's web pattern, however, she arrived at yet another dead end. Frowning, she sighed. Yasha felt fairly confident she could find her way back to the stairs up and to the less confusing upper level, but she didn't really feel like going back to her assigned room just yet.

As she just turned to continue her explorations, another deep sigh brought the smell of ash and old charcoal from the darkened dead end to her nose. Curious, she turned back, fingering Duty's hilt. After the duel on her first day in the drow town, she had decided to wear Duty at all times, but it seemed disrespectful to bare the blade on holy ground without a very good reason. So she hesitated to draw it as she stepped forward. As her eyes adjusted, the inky blackness at the end of the hall began to take shape, and an outline of a large doorway appeared.

Yasha licked her lips and tilted her head at the door. The smell of old cinders was stronger, now, and she could taste it on her tongue as well. She strained her senses, cautious even in the heart of her allies' base. She heard and saw nothing, and her paladin senses could detect no Evil from the dark room beyond the door, but a deeper, instinctual sense still raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

She stood still for a long time, straining to see ahead, before finally drawing Duty. She was certainly not explicitly told there was a prohibition against merely baring the blade, after all, and she could always apologize later. That was a luxury she would not have if she died, either from hostile creatures or from just tripping and breaking her neck.

Duty's muted golden glow silently confirmed what her paladin senses had already told her. No Evil lurked nearby. Still, the light was enough to bring the details of the doorway out of the shadows, and she finally saw what she had smelled.

Yasha wasn't sure what materials these massive doors were made of, but it was now burnt beyond all recognition. The heavy doors leaned askew and half open, their metallic hinges melted and twisted by some hellish heat. Pausing only a moment to run her fingers along their blackened and charred surface, she slid between the staggered doors, Duty leading the way.

"Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater," Yasha swore, her voice echoing in the huge chamber she had entered. Only a few feet from the doorway, the ash covered floor abruptly ended at a gaping pit that dominated the room. Above her, tower's ceiling was somewhere far beyond Duty's ability to light it. The smell of old smoke and faint death hung in the stale air.

She shuffled forward, cautiously peering over the edge. Jagged fingers of rock stuck out from the walls of the pit at odd intervals, though Yasha had no way to tell if these were the remains of some burnt structure or just another menacing and deadly part of the drow architecture. Either way, they spiraled down the walls, ending at an ash covered and disturbingly irregular floor well below her.

"Ah. There you are."

Yasha started, and moved quickly away from the edge. She blinked at the figure in the doorway several times, feeling vaguely like a child caught poking around in her parents' room, before grimacing at her own foolishness.

"Seer," she said, giving a small bow. "I apologize. I did not realize you were looking for me."

The Seer smiled slightly, shaking her head and waving away Yasha's concern. The priestess took a couple of steps into the chamber, looking around with a strange combination of sadness and pain. "I see you have found the spider pit."

Yasha glanced quickly around the room again, her eyes widening. "The spider pit?"

"Yes," she answered, walking forward slowly. "When this temple was still held by the followers of Lolth, those who displeased the priestesses but were not deemed worthy of sacrifice to their goddess were instead brought here and thrown into the pit." The Seer stopped at the edge of the pit, gazing into its depths. "Here, they were...eaten alive."

Yasha followed her, and looked down as well. A chill traveled down her spine as her imagination easily painted huge, glistening webs between the jagged outcroppings, and thousands of spiders, large and small, throughout the pit. The Seer's voice was very quiet as she continued.

"Valen led a small team of soldiers and mages to clean it out. They filled the room with fire spells, and killed the creatures as they tried to escape the burning webs. The largest was a half demon as big as several rothe beasts. Several of our best fell trying to take that one down before Valen finally landed the killing blow." The Seer motioned down the pit, and Yasha's eyes followed her gesture to rest on the uneven floor below. The paladin grimaced once more. Now she knew what lay below the ashes.

"I'm surprised," she replied, after a moment.

The Seer looked at her curiously. "You are surprised at Valen's actions?"

Yasha raised her eyebrows, and then shook her head vigorously. "Not at all. I meant that I was surprised you haven't reclaimed this room." She waved down at the ash. "Cleaned it out, truly, considering all it represented. I suppose you have other priorities, of course." Yasha paused thoughtfully. "I'm not at all surprised that Valen fought the creature and led this raid. He is a skilled and courageous warrior."

The Seer laughed, her eyes dancing in the Duty's dim light. Yasha bit her lip and gave drow a puzzled look.

"I apologize, Yasha," she continued, seeing Yasha's expression, "but that is nearly word for word what Valen said to me when I asked about you."

Yasha felt her eyebrows creep up her forehead. "I take back my earlier expression of surprise," she said to the priestess. "THAT is surprising."

"Why so?" the Seer asked, still obviously amused.

"I would have expected him to barrage you with reasons as to why I should not be trusted with the role you have given me."

"Ah," the Seer replied, nodding. "He did that as well."

Yasha rubbed her temple, and snorted. "Now THAT makes no sense."

A bit of sadness returned to the Seer's face. "It does if you know Valen well, I fear."

Yasha gnawed thoughtfully on the inside of her lip and twisted Duty in her hands, watching with only half her attention as the changing light move the shadows around the pit. At the Seer's words, the tangled emotions that had driven her from her room returned. It was irrational.

"Valen spoke to me a bit," Yasha began, feeling for the words carefully, "about where he was when he first met you. And about what has happened since."

It was the priestess' turn to look surprised. "Did he?" She gave Yasha a piercing look for a moment before asking, "What did you think of his tale then?"

"Think? I think I feel an urge to storm an abyssal keep somewhere," Yasha growled.

The Seer flashed a knowing, wry look at her. "But Valen is no longer in such a keep to be rescued."

Yasha scratched her nose, embarrassed. She shrugged, pacing away from the Seer as much as the ledge would allow, trying in vain to hide the flush she knew was spreading across her face. "Yes, well. It's a paladin thing. I'm sure it will pass."

She stood very still, with her back to the Seer, waiting for her face too cool. In her mind, she could still see the fierceness in Valen's eyes, and hear the tension in his voice. She could very clearly hear his words as well.

I thought it necessary to tell you all this simply so you know how truly important the Seer is to me.

"He seems very devoted to you." Yasha frowned at the tightness she heard in her own voice and at the words that came, unbidden, to her lips. She waited tensely as several moments of silence passed between the two women.

"Yes. He is," the Seer responded finally, her voice nearly a whisper. "He sees me as a mentor and a savior."

Yasha glanced back at the priestess. The paladin's body blocked the light from Duty, and the expression on the Seer's face was drowned in shadow. "That is the answer to the question that was truly on the tip of your tongue, was it not?" the Seer added.

Yasha looked away again quickly, and held her free arm across her chest. Surely the Seer was wrong! She barely knew either Valen or the drow priestess. Surely it hadn't been jealousy that had driver her from her room to walk the dark halls. Still, she couldn't deny the relief she had felt at the Seer's words, or the question that now fought to be asked. She struggled to keep silent. To find a way to truly deny what the Seer implied. As the words reached her tongue, however, she knew them for lies. Shaking her head, she let her initial question come.

"And how do you see him?" Yasha winced at the impertinence of the question once it was said aloud, but kept her back to the drow and let it stand. It was asked, and she couldn't take it back now. There was another long silence.

"I am glad I was able to help him, though he brought himself out of where and what he was by his own will. As you said, he is both skilled and courageous," she paused briefly, and her voice strengthened as she continued. "He has been invaluable asset to us since he has arrived. Not only in his personal skill at arms, but in how he has earned the respect of those drow who are our allies but are not followers of our goddess."

Yasha waited quietly for her to continue. After several moments, she turned to face the Seer, and Duty's light revealed none of the things in her expression that Yasha had thought she had heard in her voice. "You speak as the Seer. As the leader of your forces."

The Seer's face stayed composed as she responded. "Yes. It is who I am, and who I must be. My people need me, now more than ever."

"I see." Yasha looked down at the ash at her feet, feeling undeniably awkward. She didn't completely understand this urge to pry into things that were, truly, not of her concern. Still... "Then you do not mind him traveling with me on these quests?"

"Of course not," the Seer replied evenly. "I can see that you make a fine team, and together you are our best hope for success."

They both fell silent once more.

"This is a dark and dismal place," The Seer continued finally. Yasha looked up to see her standing on the lip of the abyss. The drow crossed her arms as she considered the room. "I will give some thought to your suggestion of having it cleaned up. It is best not to let such dark places go ignored, for it can weigh on the mind, and we all already have too many burdens as it is. Perhaps by clearing it out, we can lighten the spirits of those who know it is here."

Yasha blinked at the Seer thoughtfully before nodding. She recognized a reference to dark places, whether in the temple or in her own heart. "I agree. One never knows what evil things may find refuge in such a shadowed place."

The Seer smiled at Yasha wryly. "But now, it is time for lunch. Will you join me?"

"Of course, Seer," Yasha answered, bowing slightly. "I would be honored." Yasha then followed the Seer out of the once spider pit, glancing back only once before she sheathed Duty, covering the room in a blanket of darkness once more.

--

Yasha stood at the smith's stall, her arms crossed and her pack and shield at her feet. To say that her attempts to get to know the Seer's troops were unsuccessful would have been a gross understatement. Though the Seer's followers were friendly enough, those soldiers of the house Maeviir made Valen's attitude seem trusting and welcoming in comparison. Instead of making further attempts that would be more likely to harm than good, she had resigned herself to quietly waiting for the smith to finish the last touches on Enserric.

Well, Yasha was remaining silent, anyway. Valen, leaning against a makeshift wall nearby, also maintained his silence, though with many long-suffering looks towards the cavern ceiling. Deekin, however, rested up and excited about another trip into the Underdark, chattered away happily about so many subjects that Yasha lost track of them all. She grinned at Valen's explosive sigh of relief when the smith finally pronounced Enserric ready.

Enserric didn't look a great deal different, but the change in him was apparent from the moment she took him by the hilt and gave him a few test swings. Enserric, for his part, laughed exultantly.

"I see you're no worse for wear," Yasha told the sword wryly.

"I feel great!" he confirmed. "Can't you feel the difference?"

"I can," she quietly replied. He fairly crackled with energy, though it was a far cry from Duty's holy pulse. It felt wrong to hold Enserric in her hand while Duty was strapped to her back, but she could not argue with the logic against using a sword designed to defeat evil against things that were not. She thanked the smith for his excellent workmanship, and led the way towards the docks.

"I think," Enserric pronounced, "that given my newfound level of power, I deserve a new name."

Yasha eyed the sword in her hand. "Really?" she said dryly.

"Indeed! Do you realize how few enchanted items of any type can compete with me now? I need to have a new name to demonstrate this. Something dramatic," he paused, and the bolts of purple energy that played across the blade's surface flickered as he thought. "What about 'Stormbringer'?"

"Deekin thinks that taken already," the kobold noted from Yasha's side.

"Sword of Omens?"

Deekin wrinkled his nose. "That too."

"Oh!" Enserric exclaimed. "What about 'Enserric The Chaotic'?"

Yasha skidded to a stop so quickly that Valen very nearly ran into her. She brought the sword blade up close to her face and scowled. "Do you WANT me to leave you behind?"

"What?" Enserric complained. "What's wrong with 'Enserric the Chaotic'?"

"You know there is no way in any heaven or hell that I will wield something called 'The Chaotic'," she growled at him.

"Oh!" Deekin squealed. "What about 'The Shiny Sword of Goodness'?"

Yasha smirked at the sword. "Yes, Enserric, what about that?"

Enserric made strangled gagging sounds.

"Well, then," Yasha said, swinging him back down to her side, "I guess we'll just have to stick with 'Enserric the Gray', won't we?"

"I like the name. Sharp and to the point," Valen suggested with amusement in his eyes. "Appropriate for a long sword."

Yasha snickered, and then grinned at Valen as Enserric groaned loudly. "Fine. Fine," the sword conceded, "no new name, but loosen your grip. I am beginning to feel manhandled."

Yasha raised her eyebrows and dropped her jaw. "I think I've just been insulted."

"You think so? Let me know when you figure it out for sure," he replied acidly.