„End of My Lady"
Humans were forever fools. He couldn't stop this thought walking through the crowd filling the temple district of Athkatla. Behind every corner a preacher stood shouting his curses or blessings, threatening with divine wrath or promising heavenly prizes. The gods' bargainers were trying to buy new faithful for their deities, losing in process all that was important in faith. Behind one of the filthiest bridges a blinded man stood, convincing the surrounding bystanders to pluck out their eyes as a sign of belief in some new god of his. Even thought he spent most time in the last decade of his life among humans Xan still couldn't stop the feeling of sheer disbelief and disillusionment at the fact that the madman found fools to follow him among the mass of people.
They were all hopeless. Ready to haggle for hours over a smallest of all things, but when they got something truly priceless, something given freely… they threw it away like trash.
He looked at Daria, standing in shadow of a great temple arc, with golden ornaments hidden under a solid layer of dust and bird excrements. The sun elf appeared worn and pale, even slimmer now, without thick dark cloak on her shoulders, covering her tightly. Her tired face was covered with illusion of a healthy glow, but he already worked the spell out and could effortlessly see through it. Checking up on her state every now and then was the least he could do.
The pompous priest of Helm bowed gracelessly before her and kissed her hand. Jaheira hissed at him when he tried to reach out for her palm. His only answer was his typical mindless smile. Then Anomen bowed again to the rest of the party and disappeared in a colorful crowd heading to the Headquarter of knights' order. Daria's eyes followed him until the last speck of light on his polished armor vanished among the people. When she turned back to her companions Xan saw though illusion a tinge of sadness in her eyes.
"Let's go" she said simply. They all turned to reach Lavoc's Sphere before the dusk, in a practiced formation, that became their natural way of walking.
***
The night was disturbing. He could swear he heard quiet sound of crying through the stone walls of their new headquarter, through layers of ancient dust and what little remained of the previous occupants. Daria was alone in her room, since Jaheira was called by the Harpers as predicted, abandoned by this fool Anomen and lonely without Imoen. It was unlikely that someone else could be crying. Minsc maybe, if Boo bit his finger, but definitely not Valygar or Yoshimo. And it didn't sound as Minsc. Going to Daria's room and being there for her was all he wanted to do, but that wouldn't be exactly appropriate, would it? Besides, the sounds could be as well a product of his inflamed imagination and all he'd achieve would be waking her up in the middle of the night and making a fool of himself. Nonetheless he didn't sleep, trying to pick out the indistinct sound.
The next morning Daria came down to the hall way of the Sphere cloaked and in a hood, with her face hidden underneath, just like the day they met in front of the Council building. All guilty contentment at Anomen's departure sapped from Xan in one instant. He'd rather suffer the annoying priest's presence than see Daria suffer the lack of it. All day she's been quiet and withdrawn, even throughout their visit in Adventurer's Mart, which she saw for the first time. Neither a huge display of magical weapons, nor long shelves of magical scrolls and ingredients caught her attention when she was choosing wands and components to her spells with practiced and absent-minded ease. It appeared as if the last shreds of her enthusiasm that survived the hell she went through finally gave in to despair.
Melancholy was heavy in the air and for once Xan wished it was not.
***
Gaelan Bayle was a sneaky man with a common face, completely deprived of any distinctive marks and with annoying manner of speaking, which made him appear like he was only waiting for his talker to finally lose his patience and do something stupid. He was living in a half-ruined house, fitting perfectly into architecture of Slums, just as indistinctive as its owner and only gods could know how Daria managed to find it among hundreds other similar buildings.
However, the moment when what remained of their team after Jaheira's and Anomen's departure crossed the threshold, all illusions of poverty disappeared in one instant. Looking from the inside Bayle's house was neither crumbling, nor poor, with rich, but not extravagant furniture and complex security. The owner greeted them with casual and insincere smile, which quickly disappeared after passing Itona's dagger, turning into a mask-like expression of a professional crook.
Explaining the situation took some time, but after Daria mentioned the sum of fifteen thousand gold pieces, which was most of their funds in the moment, as a payment for finding Imoen, things went much more smoothly. Gaelan blinked twice with his almost clever and unmemorable eyes and asked them to come back in three days with the money, saying he'd see what he could do. At least he rated their intelligence high enough not to ask them to pay the sum beforehand.
When the not so numerous anymore party was coming back to their headquarters, known commonly as Lavoc's Sphere, the streets were already dark, even though at least an hour remained yet to the sun set. Long shadows were thoroughly concealing narrow alleyways of Slums district, still not able to cover its dirt and poverty. It was already too late for traders and yet too early for thieves. Only rats, madmen and beggars stayed outside at that hour. And adventurers of course, if they hadn't already been counted into the second group.
"Boo says we're being followed!" Minsc exclaimed to the entire neighborhood, while the party was crossing a wide and surprisingly stable bridge between two houses, built of random planks.
"I know" Daria and Yoshimo replied in unison. They both sighed with resignation. Setting an ambush on whoever was following them was impossible now that Minsc kindly informed him or her that they were aware of his or her presence.
"Let's just stop and wait" Daria proposed out of lack of any other alternative. "Either she comes out or goes away."
There was no silence from which they could try to discern quiet shuffle of leather-bond boots or barely audible sound of somebody's breath. All around them rats were hunting for best pieces from fresh trash, and cats were hunting for rats.
She came out. A lean figure clad in leather armor black as night, standing out with its rich elegance surrounded by the Slums environments like a jester in athkatlan Temple of Helm. Her walk as she approached them was a pure show-off, graceful and cat-like like no self-respecting spy would ever walk.
"Greetings strangers" she said with a low and sensual voice that so very much fitted what she really was. All that could be seen from her face under a hood was her chin, pale as death herself. "I'm Valen. I was hoping we could…"
"Vampire!" Daria hissed straight in her face.
Lilarcor appeared in Minsc's hands, along with a furious glint in berserker's eyes in split second. From Valen's both flanks a sound of katana's being drawn came only moment later.
"Kill the sucker!" Lilarcor squealed viciously.
The vicious undead didn't need a long moment to react. She rapidly threw her hood back, revealing glowing inhuman eyes, looked around wildly and in one fast movement leaped at Daria, the weakest of people surrounding her, throwing her through the wooden barrier of the bridge into a lower level of buildings. Two tangled women broke through the wooden roof of underneath ruined shack with a loud crack, Valen on top. Valygar cursed and quickly jumped from the footbridge after them, followed instantly by Yoshimo, both swift and dexterous in their light armor, landing safely near the pile of broken planks. Minsc and Xan almost fell off the stairs following their trail.
Minsc immediately joined the other two warriors, cutting the vampire off from her newest victim. Valen's face was covered in fresh blood.
Daria didn't move from the pile of planks where she fell. Xan paid no heed to the battle, dashing to her side, trying to dig her out carefully from under pieces of wood and debris, despite the panic causing his hands to shake like in fever. He knew he would be useless fighting against the monster, unable to use any enchantments outside in the city limits, but even if he possessed a weapon capable of killing vampires he'd forget all about it the moment Daria fell.
The wounded diviner threw him a confused look, trying to focus on his face. She was pale and bruised, with two still bleeding puncture marks on her neck. Splinters from the broken wood cut her skin and robes leaving bloody scratches.
"Jaheira! Anomen!" Xan called the healers instinctively, but no help came.
"Vampires are too fast… I could see her, but… couldn't move on time…" Daria caught his arm, but so weakly, completely without strength, that he knew she was dying, she had to be dying. She was dying and never going to live again…
He forced himself not to panic, focusing on the current task. Too much depended on his cold blood now.
"Please don't talk. Spare your strength. I'll get you out" he whispered.
Daria yelped in pain when he lifted her as carefully as he could from where she fell. Valen's scream of agony sounded the exact same moment, the vampiress' flesh finally found by Valygar's katana.
"You will regret this!" Valen shrieked, turning into a chilling cloud of smoke and disappearing in the night. Only her onyx black armor remained where she stood.
"How is she? Put her here! Let Boo check her wounds!" The words surrounded Xan along with the sound of sheathed weapons. He obediently put the wounded diviner down on a makeshift bed made of Minsc's thick cloak, placed on the bare stone of the street, and knelt by her head. All he could do was watch as the two rangers administer as little of nature's magic as they possessed to their injured comrade.
But neither spells nor the potions were able to bring back the elf's fading consciousness. Xan just stood there helpless, lost in the sight of her, drenched in cold sweat and becoming paler before his very eyes.
'We had luck… too many times. And now we run out. She will not evade her death this time. Not this time.' He thought he said it out loud, but no one seemed to hear him.
"Boo says Daria needs a real healer very fast!" Minsc shouted.
"She can't stay here, my big friend, but moving her too much is not the best of ideas. The Sphere is only few steps away…"
"I'll take her to the Sphere" Xan interrupted. "You go and find a priest, druid, or anyone and bring him there".
"I'll go with you" Valygar stepped from the shadows. "Alone you won't manage to open the entrance."
Xan nodded and for the first time the dark ranger felt something akin to respect when looking at the constantly despairing elf. Some desperate determination in his eyes was telling him even if the whole coven of vampires stood on his way the elf wouldn't hesitate for a second, wouldn't even consider the notion of stopping.
Xan picked Daria in Minsc's cloak with care. For a moment he was afraid he wouldn't be able to walk, but when Minsc and Yoshimo disappeared, each in his own direction his legs carried him as if his life was weighting on his task.
***
They left the door leading inside the Sphere wide open for anyone who would wish to enter. He didn't care anymore if Irenicus himself budged in, as long as he would have some potions or scrolls containing at least a drop of healing magic.
Daria wasn't conscious anymore and only moaned quietly when he put her down on an ancient bed in one of the chambers nearest to the Sphere's exit. Valygar carefully wiped blood from her face and neck around already healed vampire bite. All they could do was to wait until either Yoshimo or Minsc come back.
Xan sat on an ornamented chair from necromancer's collection just by the bed he placed Daria on. He couldn't help but to clutch to her cold hand, thinking about many times when he held it when she slept.
But not so cold, it was never so cold.
Her breathing was labored, wheezing, as if she had to struggle for every gulp of air. Xan was barely aware of Valygar's presence on the other side of the bed. This breath became his whole world in his mind misted by panic. He wanted for this terrible sound to stop and at the same time from his whole heart he wished it would not.
Every second was like an hour when he waited for another pained wheeze. Every hour that passed was like a second from the moment he saw her walking through the Slums, conscious, alive and well. At some moment he thought he lost his mind already, but it didn't absorb him for long. He didn't care. All he cared about was for Daria to take yet another breath.
"G-Gorion?" the elf barely opened her eyes, but Xan knew she didn't see him anymore. Valygar moved his chair closer to the bed, but Xan didn't care anymore to notice his worried expression.
"Father… I can't t-take the… punishment anymore…" tears began to roll down her face as she talked with her weak and trembling voice and eyes fixed at some point in the air. "I'm s-sorry I… left you that night… C-can I die now?"
That was too much for Xan to take. He couldn't stop his own tears, gathering in his eyes, he couldn't look at her anymore, knowing it would be the last time he sees her alive. He just cried in her pillow, clutching to her hand and praying for her to wretch it out of his grasp saying he's crushing her bones, tell him that she's fine, as always, and mock him for lamenting constantly.
And then it all happened fast. Jaheira storming through the doors, breaking a golem which tried to get in her way, Yoshimo stepping on her heels with a pack of medical equipment in his hands, someone gently pushing Xan out of way and the smell of the healing magic in the air…
And all of sudden he didn't hear Daria's breathing anymore. His heart beating like a drum filled the silence.
"She'll be all right" Jaheira said, wiping sweat from her brow and smearing it with blood instead.
Tears once again stained Xan's face, but this time because of unbelievable relief that filled his whole body. She would be all right. She would die, but not today, not now…
He touched her hand. It was warmer now, even though her face remained pale and sunken. He wished he could kiss her gray lips and bring some color to them, but that wouldn't help, would it? It wouldn't matter if she died, nothing would matter then, but now that she lived…
Jaheira shooed all the men out to take care of minor scratches Daria had. Like a lunatic Xan walked to his bedroom, previously occupied by men-eating halflings, fell on his bed and immediately fell asleep, utterly exhausted.