Author's notes: This one needed over two weeks to get written. My apologies for that. It was a hard time for me, with writing block, missing creativity and huge problems in the personal corner. However, when I finally got hooked again on writing, I found that I had so much fun in writing this chapter. I actually like it quite a lot. Hope you'll agree.
We'll see how regularly I will update in the future, but I hope the writing comes more easily now, after most of the problems are solved.
Again, many many thanks to all of you reading this piece of writing and even more so to those of you reviewing it. Thank you so very much.

Chapter 6: The Devil's Twist of Fate

Her body was lighter than he expected. With only the clothes she wore she weighted almost as much as his entire gear which wasn't very heavy at all. So incredible light that he almost got the feeling that the heaviest part of her was her soul. And that part was gone. Forever.

Nathyrra and Fah returned minutes after Chathi had drawn her last breath, after Valen had closed her eyes and mouth.

At first sight the daggers slipped from Nathyrra's hands and fell to the ground, their clattering being the only sound in the area. She slapped her hands over her mouth, stifling a cry and running towards Valen and the corpse of her companion. The drow stared, her grip of reality slowly fading away. This couldn't be true, it just couldn't.

Fah had felt it even earlier, the moment the life went from her master. The link was broken, ripped away from her without warning. When she saw her former master lying dead in the arms of the male tiefling Fah emitted a low growl and padded towards the tiefling, strolling around him and rubbing her torso against his legs.

He wasn't bothered by it if he even realized it. His fingers took a firm grip on her ribs and her bent knees. She was all muscles and bones and so immensely thin. How one as her could fight with two blades and even parry the mighty blow of a huge flesh golem, he wondered. Where did she take the strength for it? His tail wagged lazily from one side to the other. Maybe she wasn't what he thought her to be. But now it was too late to find out. The first tiefling he ever met and now she was gone. Despite all their differences and arguments he always hoped to get a proper conversation with her. The wish to talk to her, to trade tales and opinions burned strong inside him. And now the opportunity was lost to him.

For minutes the small group stood in front of the cave, not moving or talking. The leopard's grieving was unbearable to Valen and Nathyrra. When they had known Chathi for only days and were already unbelievable sad, how painful must be the loss for the cat? She was completely overwhelmed by confusion. The torn away link to her master left a gap in her soul and she didn't quite understand what was happening here.

Finally, Nathyrra crouched in front of the great cat and embraced her in a tight hug, trying to comfort her. It helped easing the confusion but the pain remained. And slowly a hint of realization hit the cat. Her master was gone. Taken away from her. With another low growl she nudged Valen's thigh with her head.

But the tiefling didn't react. He looked like all the weight of this world was put on his shoulders. His eyes were dull and stared into nothingness. The guilt he felt made it hard to breathe and he wished he could do something to bring her back to life. He would sacrifice so much, even his humanity, if only the guilt will be taken away. But with her corpse he carried the burden of her death in his arms.

From below, Nathyrra faintly spoke up. "What should we do with her? We can't let her behind."

Valen nodded but didn't respond.

"Maybe we should take her back to Cavallas. When we'll have finished our business here we might take her back to the Seer and take care of proper treatment." Nathyrra waited for a response but after moments of silence she buried her face into Fah's fur. No wonder Chathi did this so often. It surely comforted her quite a lot.

"Do you think the Seer can bring her back to life? I've heard of priests wielding spells to resurrect the dead." A tinge of hope swung in his voice.

Nathyrra shook her head slowly and caressed Fah between her round ears. "I believe it depends on her patron deity and whether she has one. If she has none she is probably lost. But I've heard of gods that take their worshipers into their realms as soon as possible. The moment Chathi reached the realm of her god we can't get her back."

Valen turned around and started to walk away, but Nathyrra jumped to her feet and stopped him. "Where do you want to go?"

"To Cavallas. She's dead less than an hour. Maybe it is not too late. Cavallas could take her back to the Seer's camp and return later to fetch us. We should leave at once." His tail whacked from side to side in agitation. If there was a possibility to take the pain and guilt from him, he would reach out for it.

But Nathyrra held him back with steady hand. "There's no use in it, Valen." She spoke softly. "Let us take her to Cavallas and then we do what we are her for. What would happen if Cavallas won't be here when we need him to get us back? We will be delayed and the lives of the rebels and the Seer will be in grave danger. We do not have time for this. A war demands victims, Valen. No one knows that better than you."

He nodded slowly in realization. Nathyrra was right, but never did one die because of his foolish actions. Later there had to be enough time to mourn over their loss. "Do you think you can talk to the Queen alone? I would like to take Chathi to Cavallas myself."

Nathyrra only nodded in agreement and left Valen, heading for the entrance to the cave. Valen got on his way to the port, with Fah in pursuit. The leopard would not leave the corpse of her former master unprotected in the hands of the mysterious boatman.

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She hugged herself in a vain attempt to control her shivering. It wasn't cold but she still felt like the temperatures were below any point bearable. There was nothing for her to do besides waiting. In these grey and boring surroundings, however, she quickly lost her grip on time. She could have stayed here for hours, days or even months. It didn't matter. There was nothing else to do. At first she had wandered around for some time but when the landscape hadn't changed she had stopped. It was grey and foggy everywhere. No mountains, hills or lakes were visible. It was the most boring place she had ever laid eyes on.

Many other beings waited around her, but every time she tried to speak with them, they refused to react. Once or twice someone descended from the fog and took some of the waiting beings with her, but every time this happened, she felt she could not go with them. She just had to wait.

Many, many times brief memories of earlier days came to her mind. For a moment, she even caught a blurry image of a huge, muscular cat. There was a flicker of recollection there, but she dismissed it without a second thought. Whatever the cat stood for, it didn't matter now.

The shivers continued without mercy and she mentally begged for a warm fire, despite there were no doubts that the concept of warmth didn't exist in this place.

For a long time unknown to her the waiting continued. Time didn't matter anymore and as the days, or whatever the measure of time was in this place, passed, she forgot to care. It almost felt as if she ceased existing.

She felt dead.

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"Do not dare harming her!" Valen hissed at the mysterious creature when he laid the corpse of Chathi on the ground.

Cavallas only shrugged. "I won't even touch her, if that pleases you."

To Chathi's side Fah placed herself on the ground, her head resting on Chathi's lifeless body. Valen looked at the cat and finally turned around to leave. If Fah watched over the dead woman, he didn't need to worry about that. Nathyrra was right, they had to continue, no matter what. The life of so many depended on their success.

He never liked Chathi very much when she was still alive. Most of the time he deeply distrusted her, hated her even sometimes. When she only had fallen in battle, slain by a respectable opponent, his grief wouldn't be that painful. But this was completely different. This time, he was responsible for this dreadful state.

With a heavy sigh he went on his way to the market place where he wanted to meet up with Nathyrra.

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The presence behind her felt somehow familiar, but still foreign. Far away she saw someone moving towards her, someone she knew to be of importance to her. But the presence behind her proved to be quite more interesting in her eyes. With a last look at the coming figure she turned around.

There stood the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

Her face was small and pale, her eyes the shape of almonds and the irises pitch black. Her eyebrows were finely painted above her eyes and her pink and thin lips smiled at her. Black hair framed her face and fell loosely on her shoulders, curling upwards there. The clothes she wore where thin and revealed more than they covered. Huge, leathery and bat-like wings separated behind her head on her back, spread wide apart.

"We have something to discuss and we have to do it quickly. Give me your hands." Her voice sounded like dripping honey; slow, thick and sweet. It was charming, mesmerizing and so very seducing that it didn't matter if one was man or woman. Her extended hand was long and slender, the fingernails a polished black and perfectly shaped.

She reached for the hand of the woman and clasped it between her own.

Like a lightning bolt hitting her all her past memories flooded through her, the vast amount of pictures and voices nearly knocking her unconscious. All the things she experienced throughout her life came back to her in an instant. She remembered everything: Her childhood in the ancient city of Skuld, her youth under the tutelage of the priests of Set, her escape to the Dragonsword Mountains and her first meeting with the blue wyrm Gestaniius, her deep friendship with a sphinx and her travels through all of Faerûn bringing her finally to the Underdark. And at last, the memory of her death.

"I am dead?" Chathi exclaimed, for the first time after her death realizing where she was. The Fugue Plane, the place where the souls of the dead were waiting for their judgement or for the servants of their patron deities to fetch them. And then she knew who the figure was that was on its way towards her. It must have been the servant of Set.

"Yes. He is coming for you. Coming to get you and to bring you to Heliopolis." Chathi turned around and stared at the woman speaking. She felt that she was running out of time. "Heliopolis. The plane where Set dwells. Are you really ready to face him yet?"

Chathi's mind raced. She remembered her last words in the presence of Valen, back on the Material Plane: Set, he is a cruel god. I do not want to meet him.

"There is another way, my child." The woman continued, smiling at Chathi, exposing her sharp and pointed teeth. "Come with me. Come with me to Baator. Become the devil you always wanted to be."

Chathi retreated from the woman and regarded her with a curious look. "What do you mean? I am dead. I have to go to Heliopolis. I do not know what you want from me, but I am sure that it doesn't matter anymore." Her voice was full of grieve, realizing that her time had finally run out.

The beautiful woman shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "You do not understand, my child. We baatezu have a deal with Kelemvor, the god of the dead. He gave us permission to bargain with the souls. To take them with us to Baator and turn them into devils. You, Chathi, are invited to come with me and join the infernal armies of the devils." Again, she reached out for the dead tiefling, her smile the most inviting expression Chathi ever saw.

"Why should I come with you and betray my god? It is a sin to do so. Set will punish me if he finds out."

"It wouldn't matter. You won't see him anyway."

"Who would accept such a bargain? I know that mortals becoming devils start out as lemures. The lowest of the lowest. I would gladly serve Set until the end of days instead of becoming a lemure." Chathi retreated another step. From the corner of her right eye she caught a glimpse of the servant slowly coming for her.

"You won't start out as a lemure, I promise, my child. I will take care that you become what you deserve to be. An erinyes. Just like your mother."

At that, Chathi's jaw dropped open and she froze. Then, for the first time since this conversation started, Chathi realized that the woman she talked to was an erinyes herself. She didn't believe in coincidence, never did.

"Who are you?" She hissed, eyes narrowed to deadly slits.

The erinyes only grinned. "You know that answer already."

So it was true. Over two decades she had waited for that moment and know, in death, the promise of her mother to her father was about to become true.

"He told me you promised that you will take care of me when the time is right. It didn't occur to me that the time is right when I am actually dead."

The expression on the face of her mother became sad. "I wished that I could have come in time, but leaving Baator isn't easy, Chathi. So many times I tried to visit you, but it is nearly impossible. Taking you with me to the Hells was all I dreamed of and now it all will become true. When your father died, I tried to take him with me as well. But he refused."

Chathi let out a small laugh. "Of course. He always was loyal to Anhur. Never he would have betrayed his god. All his life he feared that he already did so in raising an infernal child."

"He inherits a good place at the side of his god in Heliopolis. A faithful servant, even in his death. Unlike you." The smile returned to the face of her mother.

"What makes you think I would join you?"

"You have no choice, my daughter. The bargain I have to offer is one you cannot refuse to accept." The smile widened to a toothy grin. Then she rose to her full height, spread her wings and straightened her shoulders. With a loud and clear voice she spoke her next words. "Chathi Fezim, daughter of mortals and immortals equally, servant to Set, this is the bargain the devils of Baator rightfully offer you: Your soul will be taken to Phlegethos, the forth layer of Baator and there it will be transformed to the infernal being an erinyes is. You will be a loyal servant to Lady Fierna and her father, Lord Belial. In exchange, the Lady and the Lord will take care of the one known as Sari Fezim, still dwelling on the Material Plane."

At the mention of the name Sari Chathi gasped for air, but she did not dare to interrupt the speech of her mother.

"She will get the best conditions to live her life as a mortal and thus the Lady and the Lord will mercifully take the burden of your eternal guilt from you. Accept the bargain or go with the servant of Set to the plane of Heliopolis."

The erinyes ended her speech with a slow nod and a neutral gaze at Chathi.

"Quite formal, eh?" her daughter muttered without returning the gaze.

"You do not have much time. Be quick with your decision. The servant is near!"

Chathi nodded and allowed her a moment to sort out her thoughts. Sari Fezim. How could she ever be freed from that guilt? She should have killed that girl along with their parents. Should have slashed her throat and end her pathetic life. Sari Fezim. The source of all her despair, of everything that went wrong in her life. But she spared her, leaving her in a world hostile towards small and helpless children. She left her in the ruins of their home, along with their killed parents. And she fled. All her life she was questioning herself what happened to the little girl she couldn't assassinate. And all the time she knew that what she did was wrong. The little girl never deserved what happened to her, what Chathi did to her. But Sari was still alive. Somewhere in Faerûn, she lived. And now Chathi had the chance to end the torture of feeling the huge guilt gnawing at her heart. She knew that she would accept the deal. Accept the deal and for once take care of Sari.

Her half-sister.

"I will accept the bargain and come with you. Take me to Phlegethos."

The erinyes smiled at her. "A wise decision, Chathi. You won't regret it." Her delicate hand came forwards and caught Chathi's own.

They disappeared in front of the expressionless servant of Set, Mulhorandi god of evil and hatred.

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His flail crashed down onto the head of the female drow called Sabal, which they had hunted for days. She was the one responsible for the assassination of Chathi Fezim, fighter for the rebels against the Valsharess. She was the one they competed against in the race for the shards of the shattered Mirror the Fool told them of. And now, after what felt like an eternity to him, he finally got the opportunity to avenge the death of Chathi, caused because he got careless in a heated argument.

With a satisfying crack the skull of the drow splintered and fell apart.

At last, the deed was done. All the mirror shards were brought back to the Fool who promised to fit them back into their frame. But still, he felt guilty. So unbelievable guilty, he couldn't stop crashing down his flail onto the lifeless form again and again. Desperately, so very desperately, he tried to whack his guilt away. But it was to no use and he failed miserably.

A hand on his shoulder, belonging to his black elven companion, brought him back to reality. Easy, she told him, it won't make it any better.

At thus, he relaxed a little, wiped his flail on the remnants of Sabal, their beaten opponent and turned around, accepting the fixed mirror from the Fool.

Much later that day they returned to the boat that would bring them back to Lith My'athar and to the torn corpse of Chathi Fezim, their dead companion.

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She felt weird when she again felt firm ground beneath her feet. In her imagination, a trip to the Hells was more comforting than the teleportation spells she fell victim to in the past. But her imagination proved wrong. The sick feeling in her stomach was quite present.

"Welcome to Cania, the eighth layer of Baator. How may I serve you?" A metallic and echoing voice rang in her ears, drawing her attention towards the source of the words. They came from a hooded figure with a bony tail whipping from one side to the other. It was cloaked in grey robes, the face invisible. It almost seemed that the figure itself did not have a body. Only the cloak and the bony tail.

"Who are you?" Chathi asked, looking around. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. And despite the bargain, she wasn't an erinyes. Yet.

"I am the Reaper. No one important, but still important enough to manage the portal to Cania." There wasn't the slightest hint of emotion in his voice.

But there was something that caught Chathi's attention even more.

"Have you said Cania? The eighth Hell?"

The hooded figure nodded, his tail whacking.

"But this is wrong! Entirely wrong! This should be Phlegethos! The forth! Not the eighth!" She frantically looked around, searching desperately for her mother. "Where is my mother? She meant to take me there."

"Take you where?" the Reaper asked in his emotionless voice.

"To the forth Hell. To Phlegethos."

Then, as if a realization struck the Reaper, he reached out and took a firm grip on Chathi's shoulder, bringing her to an abrupt halt. "By all means, are you the tiefling that died in the Underdark? In the fight against the army of a drow called the Valsharess?"

Chathi turned around, stopping dead in her tracks. "You know of the upcoming war?"

The Reaper nodded. "Are you the one I spoke of?"

"Yes, but why do you ask?"

The Reaper loosened his grip and rummaged with his other hand through a pouch hidden somewhere under the layers and layers of his cloak. After some moments he produced a weird stone-like device from under one layer and held it out towards Chathi.

"This," he started to explain, his voice still bare any emotion, "is a relic I have to give to you. It will bring you back to the Material Plane and it also will give you back your mortal body. Again, you will be alive and able to continue your fight." He put the relic into the hand of Chathi.

"Why do you give this to me?" She asked, quite confused and uncomfortable.

"I was told to do so by Mephistopheles, Lord of the Eighth himself. He needs someone to free him from the Valsharess who somehow managed to bind him to her service. Since he was forced to leave Cania I've been waiting for someone like you. A half-devil, a fighter against the Valsharess, even more so. You are exactly what Mephistopheles needs. Take the relic and go at once." He pushed the relic into her hand with mighty strength.

"I can't!" Chathi exclaimed. "If I go and die again I will be judged because of my betrayal against Set! Take me to Phlegethos, right now! I can't stay here!"

"You get a second chance. Set will understand that. You have to go. Otherwise, Mephistopheles will see into your life in Phlegethos and make it the worst experience one can expect if you refuse to help him. Take the relic and go."

With a huge sigh, Chathi closed her fingers around the device and rolled her eyes. "I guess I do not have anymore choices left regarding my life. Well, then. I will go and free Mephistopheles." And barely audible she added: "At least it isn't Asmodeus I have to face." With a last intake of air she continued. "What do I need to do in order to get back to the Material Plane?"

"Ask me to send you and I will do so. But do not lose the relic. If you'll die again on your quest, you'll be dead forever. With this relic you will come back to me and I can send you back to life."

"Got it." She answered with a nod. After a minute of silence she looked at the Reaper and bade him to send her back to the Material Plane.

To which the Reaper obeyed.