Chapter 3: Hubris
Again they waited for Fah to return. Being the most silent of the little group, Chathi send her scouting around, looking for other golems. The flesh golem defeated by the leopard was torn apart after Chathi had examined it. It was the only working construct they'd encountered this far.
"It looks like a flesh golem but it also seems like there was strong magic working here." She poked at the remnants with her finger. "Of course, you need magic to make golems work," she kicked at the construct, "but this one seemed capable of working magic on its own." She kicked again, the construct skittering over the floor. "It's not very heavy, either. Good work." With a small sigh she stretched, relaxing her muscles.
"Maybe it was some kind of guard?" Valen suggested, glaring at the broken pile of controls and metal on the ground. "You sure need one, living on an empty island like this."
Chathi shrugged. "That I do not know. No one walked these halls for a long time. The duergars outside said they abandoned them some time ago. And the corpses of the remaining dead dwarves did not look very good as well. I guess the Maker is dead." She scowled. "Hopefully."
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Fah returned short after. Again Chathi worked her magic allowing her to communicate with the cat. It wasn't a long conversation and according to the leopard there were no other golems on this floor, but she discovered stairs leading down to a stone door. A disabled golem sat in front of the stairs but it didn't moved when she approached. Fah thought it safe.
They followed the huge cat in silence, the faint glow on Chathi's throat remained for some minutes before the spell faded. Then, it was dark again. At the stairs they found the disabled golem, sitting and not moving. It was quite huge, nearly occupying the whole space between the walls of the hallway. Valen took the glove off his right hand and slid it down the arm of the construct. "Mithril," he said, gazing at Chathi.
"Strong magic, I said." She replied. "The Maker must have possessed great knowledge on the art of crafting golems."
Valen only nodded. "Shall we continue?" Without waiting for an answer he went to the door and pushed against it. It opened slowly, with a loud creak, dust whirling around. The stairs descended further and the group continued on their way. At the end of the stairs they witnessed a most unusual event.
Two groups of golems where in the large room they looked at, fighting each other. Silver and bronze golems battled flesh golems, neither of them really winning. Now and then a silver golem used an ability much like a "Burning Hands" spell, burning the flesh of the rival golems. The fleshy golems however fought with their huge claws, hitting the metallic surface of their enemies and clipping pieces of their skin away. At first Valen grabbed his flail, wanting to join the fight, but Chathi held him back, bidding him to watch the fight with her.
After some time, the numbers on both sides were lessened and the flesh golems retreated quickly, slamming a door shut behind them. The silver golems didn't bother following them, turning against the tieflings at last.
"Now!" Chathi yelled, gripping the maul she found upstairs and ran towards the first golem, slamming the maul against its head with such a strength the head of the construct nearly fell off. But it just deformed a little, making the golem turn at her. For a moment Chathi thought she saw something behind the constructed eyes of her enemy. She quickly dismissed the thoughts, believing that it was impossible. The golem raised his hands towards. Chathi reacted in an instant, dropping the maul to the ground, still holding to the hilt of the weapon, and crouched down, skittering sideways and pulling the maul behind her. A moment slower and she were hit by the flames. She ran some fast steps away from the golem, calling to one of her infernal powers. In her free hand appeared a dark globe. She spun around, cried for Valen and threw the globe into the group of constructs. They were engulfed by a black globe that nearly filled up the whole room. A moment later, Valen appeared from the darkness, a bit dumbfounded.
"Darkness! I've never used it before!" he gasped, staring at the dark sphere in amazement.
"It is quite useful. I discovered that quite early." She replied, grinning slightly. "But what now? I don't even know if golems see!"
Valen shrugged. "I don't want to find out." He looked around, pointing at a door nearby. "Quickly, this way!"
They left the room through a door opposite to the doors the flesh golems went through, leaving the silver ones behind. Slowly and quietly they made their way through the halls, not daring to speak or even whisper. Finally they stumbled across another door. Chathi leaned against it, pressing her ear against the surface. She listened for a minute, then shook her head in frustration, signalling Valen that there was nothing to hear. Slowly and with great caution, she pushed the door open.
A silver golem blocked the path.
Chathi couldn't even ready herself when he suddenly spoke.
"Do not raise your weapons. I do not mean you harm." His voice was metallic, without the slightest hint of emotions. Chathi held still. "We want to talk to you. I will take you to our leader." He turned around, walking away, not even looking if Chathi and Valen followed.
Chathi frowned. "Should we follow him?" She asked Valen who merely shrugged. The ranger shrugged as well and they started to follow.
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"I prefer fighting against the flesh golems. This maul is just too heavy for me. And besides that, they are a bit fanatic with this big one thinking himself a high priest. I respect priests, but this is a wrong one. And to be honest, fighting them is much more convenient."
Valen tapped his finger against his lips, thinking about his next words. "Well, I believe fighting the flesh golems will be a good thing. Even if your reasons aren't that honourable."
Chathi sat down on the floor and took a sip from her waterskin. They spoke with the leader of the silver golems who bade them to speak with the leader of the flesh golems. It appeared the silver ones were rebels, trying desperately to be free, escaping from the halls of the Maker. To do so, they needed something called Power source, which was held by the leader of the flesh golems, who, on the other side, saw himself as a high priest of the Maker, forming something like a cult around him. He didn't want to cooperate with the silver ones, and thus he didn't hand power source to Chathi. After their fruitless discussion Chathi, Valen and Fah retreated to the room they fought in with the golems and considered their future path.
"I don't like this high priest. He might be evil, but I do not care. And I do not care if the others are good ones, mind you," she added when Valen scowled at her, "I just think fighting the fleshy ones is much easier. I like easy fights."
Valen raised an eyebrow. "Where's your sense for good and evil? Outside you wanted to fight the duergars, saying they were evil and thus deserved it."
A low chuckle came from Chathi in response. "I am not one to fight evil whenever I see it. There is nothing of a paladin inside me. Quite the opposite, I guess. However, duergars are so…" she searched for the right words, for the first time since they were on the island encountering problems with the common tongue, "they do not have any morals. Yes, I think that is the right word."
"Morals? Don't tell me you have morals!" Valen nearly laughed but suppressed it.
This made Chathi look quite hurt. "Of course have I morals. I would not kill children or the helpless. This is no good sport. Fighting duergars, however is…" again, she searched for the right words, pausing a moment, "…fun. They like bullying creatures weaker than them. But in fact, they are just cowards. If you are better than them, they fear you. This is what makes fighting them so good. I hope I get another chance at them." She grinned that wicked grin again, flashing one pointed tooth at Valen, who shuddered in obvious disgust.
"You kill duergars for fun? You are sick, Chathi."
The ranger hissed at him. "You should reconsider your moral codex, Valen. They might proof to be false."
Her words made Valen cringe a bit. During their stay on the island of the Maker he dismissed his prejudiced thoughts on Chathi, looking at her through neutral eyes. He saw honour in her, even pride. And he really thought that she wasn't as disgusting as he first thought of her, when he heard that a tiefling with infernal heritage joined their ranks. But now, he truly felt uncomfortable in her company. The urge to hit her with his flail, ending her pathetic life now and forever grew strong and he was barely able to resist it. He watched her, sitting on the ground, quite relaxed, eating pieces of salted flesh, grinning at him whenever they had eye contact.
Valen nearly reached for his flail, when something in his mind piped up. He heard the voice of the Seer, telling him of the importance of their mission, that Chathi might be the crucial factor in the upcoming war. She wouldn't be very satisfied when she discovered that he killed their saviour.
Oh how angry all of this made him! For months he was everything the rebels could rely on. And in an instant, there was this… this baatezu! And he was forgotten, everyone celebrating this sick creature as their saviour. He truly hated her, hated everything she stood for.
"Come now, my little half-breed. There is a fight we have to attend to." She unsheathed her blades flashing this grin Valen hated so much at this very moment. Chathi felt the uneasiness in her companion and she loved it. She so loved the feeling of making this strong warrior feeling uneasy. "Look," she said to Valen, holding her khophesh towards him. "I have a trick you might think funny." Her grin fading she gripped the hilt of the weapon tighter, concentrating for a moment. Then, out of nowhere, the blade shimmered, than glowed. The golden blade became coated with a light looking black and dark. It was like the opposite of the holy light of divine weapons. Glowing in a dark manner it seemed like the falsest thing to exist. Valen was mesmerized by the black light, which made Chathi grin again. With a flicker of her wrist she moved the blade around. Valen's eyes went wide when he saw what happened: Something came from the blade, falling down. It looked like ashes. The more Chathi moved the weapon, there grew an ashen curtain in the air. Then, without warning, the black light disappeared, as did the ashen curtain. It was the golden blade again.
"Unholy weapon." Chathi explained, turned around and walked away.
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They stormed into the halls where the flesh golem hid and opened the battle without warning with Chathi sprinting right to the leading golem, summoning the unholy powers of her khophesh on her way. She ducked away under claws and arms, jumped over golems trying to tackle her down and here and then chopped at other enemies with her shortsword.
Behind her, Valen flung his flail, taking down one flesh golem after another, tearing away flesh and carefully constructed mechanisms. Some heads went down in the process, leaving the bodies running around before they met their doom at his flail again.
Fah wasn't that tactical, either. She jumped right into a group of golems heading toward her, using her sheer weight to pin them down, raking at them with her claws, biting at them. Her style of fighting was not as effective as the one Valen used, but it still proved quite useful.
Especially to Chathi, who didn't bother fighting other golems besides the leader. She raced toward him, grinning widely, her red eyes flashing menacingly. When she finally reached the huge, almost demonic construct he was already prepared to meet her. His enormous claws came down on her, but Chathi fell into a crouch and a sideway roll, coming back to her feet at his side and pushed her shortsword into his flank, tearing out lumps of flesh with the finely crafted black blade. The high priest spun around quickly, his right clawed hand hitting for her. This time the ranger parried with her khophesh, the might of the blow made her wrist ache. But she didn't relent, using the curved blade to slide it over the hand, forcing it down with the movement, cutting the flesh as well. Ashes filled the wounds the blade opened, glowing darkly. It didn't bother the huge construct at all. He just leaped forwards awkwardly because of form, throwing himself at the tiefling. Chathi skittered to the right instantly, whirling around with her two blades, stabbing him twice. But she wasn't quick enough, his claw hit her left hand in the process, making the shortsword fly away. She knew she couldn't reach it in time and so she turned around and sprinted to the back of the hall, putting distance between her and the golem.
While running she put the khophesh back to her belt, taking her longbow from her back. The leader already followed her, closing the gap between them faster than she was able to widen it. She knew she had only one chance, with her shortsword gone and her khophesh not readied. Calming herself she spun around, pulling at the magic string of her enchanted bow in the movement. A sparkling arrow appeared between her fingers on the string. It was a strong enchantment, producing a never ending supply of powerful magic arrows when the string was pulled.
When she faced the leader again he was already in a jump, lunging for her, trying to bury her under his weight. Chathi had no time left. She let go of the string, the arrow flying away from her. Maybe her aim wasn't right, maybe the arrow wasn't powerful enough. There was no time to consider, so she leaped to the side, getting herself out of the golem's way.
She crashed down on the floor, her fingers losing the grip on her longbow. For some moments she just lay there, breathing heavily. Then, slowly, she raised her head, taking in the scene.
All was quiet around her. Everywhere lay parts of destroyed golems, lumps of flesh or pipes and cables. She craned her neck, looking back toward the entrance. There stood Valen, an awestruck expression on his face. His flail rested at his side, the remnants of two destructed golems lay at his feet. He seemed successful. Fah was some metres away, licking at her paws. She, as well, fought her battle and succeeded. But what of Chathi?
She almost didn't dare taking a look. Slowly she forced herself back to her feet and turned around. There, on the spot where she stood only moments ago, lay the leader, a sparkling and slowly disappearing arrow in his left eye. It must have hit something crucial to his existence. Whatever it was, it took the life out of him.
Chathi searched the room with her eyes and then walked to her bow, collecting it from the floor and putting it back. It took some time until she finally found her shortsword. It was in a far corner behind some kind of altar. A liquid like blood was dripping from its blade. Chathi put it back into its sheath.
The fight had been gruesome but she smiled nonetheless. Again she proved that she was capable of battle, even against such a mighty foe that succeeded her in strength and height. But she was more cunning and agile. And she knew, that in the end, only luck let her win. She turned around and faced Valen.
"Thank you for keeping his minions out of my way." He offered him a smile and bowed a bit, then she walked toward her feline companion and patted her head. Fah seemed quite contend and purred under Chathi's hand. "I guess the power source must be somewhere in these halls. Let us take a look."
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Ferron, the leader of the silver golems, was quite grateful, even though Chathi still didn't believe that the constructs were capable of feeling emotions. She wanted to continue her path, but Valen spoke up.
"Remember that we need your aid in the battle against the Valsharess. You promised it in exchange for your freedom."
Chathi nearly slapped her forehead. She forgot completely about their agreement. Ferron gave his consent and promised to send aid.
When the tieflings walked away, Valen said to Chathi, his gaze focused on the way ahead, "You mustn't forget our duty here. This is important, even for you."
Chathi shook her head but answered. "Yes, yes, yes. I forgot. Excuse me." It didn't sound honest but Valen did not pressed on further. They continued walking silently, taking another stair down leading into a narrow hallway with some magically lighted torches at the walls. After a while the walk led them into another wide hall. The light of torches flickered everywhere, on the walls were lined up quite a lot of bookshelves, full of old tomes. An enormous desk made of darkwood was placed at the end of the hall. In a corner between some bookshelves glowed the spiralled lights of a portal.
"There is potent magic working here." Chathi whispered. The tiny hairs on her neck tickled her skin. "If the Maker is still alive, he must be quite powerful by now. Be wary."
She just finished her sentence when suddenly they sensed a presence entering their nearness.
"Who are you that you dare entering my sanctum?" An emotionless voice asked behind them. Both, Valen and Chathi, whirled around, founding themselves face to face with a floating skull. There were still eyes in the sockets, glowing mystically. The mouth was nothing but a weird and deadly grin.
"Are you the Maker?" Chathi replied without answering his question. She felt a certain measure of respect welling up in her and she slightly feared an upcoming battle. How she wished that she had time to prepare properly.
"I am and again I ask you who you are. You have disturbed my studies and my work. This is inexcusable."
"We look for allies in our fight against the Valsharess." Valen said, showing himself not as impressed by the Maker as Chathi was. "Maybe you could help us with your magic."
The Maker made a sound vaguely reminding Valen and Chathi of a mocking laugh, but then he spoke in that same emotionless voice. "I do not care for your battles. My magic helps no-one except me. And now stop wasting my time and leave. I already wasted enough of my lifetime with the constructing of these useless golems."
Chathi scratched her head, suppressing her fear and respect. "The golems will never waste your time again. Half of them are dead, the other half will leave the island shortly, beginning a new life somewhere else. You are alone by now."
Valen thought he heard the Maker sigh, but he wasn't really sure. "This conversation is just a waste of time," the skull said nonchalantly. Valen felt his hand itching toward his flail. "Your existence is a pity, compared to my own."
"So what will you do about it? Bite us?" Chathi hissed at him, finding some strength in the rage which replaced the previous fear. Calling her existence a pity? This surely was a way to enrage her terribly.
The Maker never answered, only roared and suddenly Chathi felt strong powers coming from the Maker. "Watch out!" she yelled, pushing Valen to one side and skittering to the other instantly when she sensed that the Maker fell into spellcasting.
Confused at first, Valen used the push from Chathi and stumbled to the side, circling the Maker who was quite focused on the woman, oblivious to the other tiefling. A flaming arrow appeared in front of the floating skull, aiming for Chathi. The ranger ran and dove into a roll, but still the arrow hit her right shoulder. Luckily her heritage gave her some resistance to heat and it only did minor damage.
Chathi couldn't even rise to her feet when the Maker launched his next spell, an Ice Storm. Chathi felt herself hit in the back by a fairly big chunk of ice but got back to her feet and sprinted away, evading the falling ice. She mostly succeeded.
Again the Maker called to his arcane powers and this time Chathi recognized the spell for what it was. A Finger of Death, aimed directly at her. Her eyes went wide and she instantly knew that her adventure will come to a sudden end. She dove behind a bookshelf nevertheless, hoping for better or for worse.
The Maker nearly finished his spell when he suddenly felt a most stinging pain erupting from the back of his head. He lost his spell, cursed slightly and whirled around, falling into spellcasting again. He never finished it nearly. Valen's flail hit him again, breaking the skull and killing the sorcerer in an instant. The skull fell to the floor, rolling a bit, then broke apart.
It took some time for Chathi to realize all of this, but finally she came back from behind the bookshelf, wiping some sweat from her forehead. She saw Valen, smiling triumphantly at her, and the shattered skull in front of the darkwooden desk.
"Again, thank you, Valen Shadowbreath." Her thanks were sincere and Valen knew it from the look in her eyes.
"The Maker is dead and we have found allies here. I think this is all we can do here. We should return to the Seer."
Chathi nodded, but then a chest behind a bookshelf caught her interest. "Wait a moment." She bade, walking toward the chest. The lock on it was average and she had no problems in picking it.
"Looting again?" Valen asked, looking over her shoulder.
"The Maker won't need it anymore." She said matter-of-factly and ruffled through the contents. After one minute or so she put some scrolls, potions and two gems into her backpack. "This is my reward for almost dying. Do you want something, too?"
Valen just shook his head.
"Then let us go. The Seer will be pleased with us."
With a last look at the Maker's sanctum and his last remnants they stepped into the portal, feeling no regret that they could not count the powerful Maker to their allies.