A feather-light brush of lips across her cheek sent warmth coursing through Aly's body. She opened her eyes and saw amber eyes alight with some inner fire studying her. The wizard felt her heart leap for the first time since they'd lost each other and then resume its rhythm at a fluttering pace. By the time she realized that there was only the shadowy suggestion of that familiar scarred face around the amber eyes, it had vanished and her other senses reminded her that she was in the darkness of the Demonweb. The press of hard stone into her side distracted her from the powerful ache of longing in her chest and the sound of Storunn's champion snoring covered the soft noise prompted by that pain, which had slipped out without her permission.
Aly wasn't certain if it was her mind or the plane itself tormenting her, but she wasn't pleased. Either way, she would be more and more susceptible to the charms of demons the longer it happened. Heartbreak made for an easy victory for succubi and glazebru in particular, though she expected more appeals to love and lust than to her pride. The best defense in her arsenal was the ring of truesight from Alustriel, but she wasn't certain it would be enough. "Your watch, Aly," Camran said quietly as he approached, worried that she was already awake. Their wizard needed rest, no matter how often she insisted she was fine. Besides, he didn't like how troubled she looked.
"Thanks," she said, offering him a smile to reassure him. He didn't look convinced, which came as no surprise. Their group had been together long enough to be able to read each other. Aly had also made a point of being honest with them ever since the deception that had been their initial quest came unraveled. It had recaptured the trust, but cost her the security of hiding her emotions. The wizard sat up.
She realized her spell-book was gone at the exact same moment she saw movement in the deep shadows nearby. Aly forced herself not to react, rising to her feet and moving towards their little lookout point. She had a powerful fireball spell stored in her other ring, so she wasn't defenseless. Camran must have noticed the sudden tension in her movements, however, because he subtly nudged Linnan's boot enough to wake the halfling rogue.
"Peace, Alystin," a ragged female voice said from the shadows. The figure was cloaked in magical darkness and thus the wizard couldn't make out features. There was no Abyssal growl, but it was croaking and harsh from lack of use. It was also, Aly noted, holding her spell-book. Somehow it had moved right past Camran into their small camp and taken it without waking her. "I did not come here to do you harm."
"Then why are you here?" Aly asked in a level voice, doing her best to keep her tone from betraying her mistrust.
"To talk. To help," the figure said. It approached, still wreathed in magical darkness, as her companions jumped up with hands on their weapons.
"You'll have to forgive me if I don't believe you," the wizard said shortly.
The darkness evaporated and Alystin found herself looking at the face of a petitioner. The former drow was a wretched looking creature: hollow, dark cheeks and sunken, dark-red eyes with slit pupils were privation's marks on its face. Fiendish nature was plain in its whole being, its female shape infused with dark magic that Alystin could sense without even trying to discern it. Fingers and the toes of bare feet had become claws and yellowed fangs were visible when the creature spoke. It was dressed in red spidersilk cloth wound and draped around its body to form something like a toga. The creature paused, holding out Alystin's spell book to the wizard. "I do not expect trust," the creature said. Part of the reason for its harsh voice became apparent—there was some kind of oozing wound to its throat.
Aly stepped forward and grabbed the tome, though she didn't immediately lash out the way she wanted to with the stored spell in her ring. As much as she was suspicious, she was also curious. Obviously it was a trap. "Why do you want to help us? Who are you?"
"Because it pleases me," the petitioner said almost indifferently, its strange eyes studying the wizard appraisingly. "Does it matter who I am or why I wish to aid you? You will need my assistance if you are to reach your goal. It is as simple as that."
"It matters," Alystin said.
The creature let out a bark of laughter, a harsh sound that made the group shift uncomfortably. "I have no name. No one does, in this place," it said.
Storunn stepped forward to stand next to Aly, his axe at the ready. "Ye weren't always a monster," he said reasonably, though his eyes were just as suspicious as Aly's.
"The enemies of Lloth might disagree with you," the creature said. "In life, I was their bane. My people kept me locked away in a cage and made me cruel, then released me to bring Lloth's vengeance upon those who wronged Her."
"Then why help us, if you know who we are?" Aly said.
"Every weapon, no matter how strong, has its foible," it said. Those red eyes seemed to flash. "It would be wiser for you to content yourself with gratitude that mine bids me aid you. But let us speak of things other than myself: your purpose. I know why you have come here. You wish to free a woman bound here, and this is…good. But you are far from her—she is weeks on foot from here, and that is excluding the time you will likely spend in battle or licking your wounds afterwards. I know the way. I will take you there."
"Can we trust a creature so corrupted?" Nendir asked hoarsely. His rest had not eased his condition much, but he was going to soldier on anyway.
The creature laughed again. "I suggest you learn to," it said. "If only to save yourself future heartache."
"I have no better way at this time to find her," Alystin admitted. "In a plane of chaos like the Demonweb, even scrying is highly suspect. A guide attuned to this place could make much more headway, particularly if it knows Sabal." She looked at the creature. "Allow us to pack up camp and then we will follow you."
"Very well," the petitioner said. It looked pleased for a moment, but then its tone became more neutral and measured. "I will answer what questions I can in the fullness of time, but I will warn you: the truth will not bring you peace."
Alystin nodded, even though those last words twisted her stomach. She went over and packed methodically while the others did the same. They hadn't pulled much out of their gear, so it only took a few minutes. She walked up next to the creature as she adjusted the set of the pack on her shoulders. "How long will it take us to reach her?" she asked. Her first impulse had been to ask how Sabal was, what had happened to her, but she wasn't ready for the answers. She wasn't certain that she would ever be ready, though she planned to ask later all the same.
"An eternity," the creature said. "That is how long everything takes here. That is how long we have been here…or so it seems, in this place."
"We?" Linnan piped up.
The creature shrugged. "Myself. The one you seek. The others."
"Let's get moving," Alystin said. "We can ask more questions when we make camp."
"Agreed," Nendir said, starting to move even though he still felt terrible.
"A follower of the Seldarine?" the creature said with amusement. "How unfortunate for you, faerie."
The elf glared at the fiendish drow soul. "No one asked you for your opinion," he snapped, in an unusually unpleasant temper. His training was propelling him onwards, making it easier to bear, but it didn't cancel out the corrosive effects of the plane. He knew it would only get worse, and maybe kill him, but he knew he had time. Perhaps even the weeks that they would need to reach Sabal. Aly would be able to mitigate the effects, or at least so he hoped.
The petitioner chuckled, but started off in the direction they needed to go. It was leading the way into the maze of rifts and pits with a fearless air, clearly not overly concerned about the things that would meet them as they went.
Time did not pass in the Demonweb the way it did in the Material Plane—that much was becoming apparent. Alystin quickly found herself losing track of when she'd last rested or how many 'days' it had been as they forged ahead through the wasteland of a plane, narrowly evading roving packs of lesser demons and skirting around webs wherever possible. All of them were exhausted by the time they stopped at the end of every day, marked by the setting of the dull and distant red sun. Their guide had answered almost no questions—though perhaps that was because Aly didn't have the breath to ask them—and steered their path deep into the depths of the Pits. If they were being misled, they had no hope of recovering the true path at this point. They had wound their way through so many side passages and along narrow ledges in great rifts that it all blurred together, much like the passage of time.
When it was her watch, Alystin settled in with her staff across her lap. The creature was absent. It claimed to be off hunting during the night cycles, refusing to eat their food. "It brings memories," the creature had said once when Camran inquired as to why. Alystin wasn't certain that she believed their corrupted guide, but what choice did she have?
She heard a stone fall and looked up abruptly to see the creature returning, some kind of deformed, dead spider in its hands. Apparently it had been hunting after all, at least tonight. "The wizard is awake," the creature said with a chuckle before sitting down on a boulder a few feet away. It bit into the spider without even attempting to remove the carapace first, an unsettling cracking sound breaking the silence, accompanied by a horrible shrill squeal that made Aly realize the spider-creature had, in fact, been alive. Seeing the wretched thing eat the writhing spider creature was disgusting, particularly the way it casually chewed up the carapace and swallowed hunks of hard chitin as the legs quivered helplessly.
"That is disgusting," Alystin found herself saying aloud despite her naturally diplomatic tendencies urging her to keep her peace. She was horrified in a way she'd thought she was immune to.
The petitioner chuckled. "It is not always how I eat," it said. The struggles of its food came to a slow stop. "In the court of the Demon Queen, it is more like the great houses of the drow. But here? It suffices." It took another bite, powerful jaw enabling it to break another bite free with a horrible crunching sound.
Alystin sighed. She knew there was no way it would cease its meal. Besides, she had a more pressing question. She took a deep breath to steel herself. "What happened to Sabal?" she asked softly.
"The truth will not bring you peace," the creature advised, almost as if it was concerned for her now. But petitioners were demonic and consummate actors, so Aly discarded that idea.
"I still want to know," she said even though she was terrified of what the answer was going to be.
"Such is the nature of youth," it murmured. "You will learn better, someday. Perhaps now." It looked down at its spider, then up at Aly. "Her blood burns with the sweet agony of bebilith venom and the corruption of this place. Her eyes watch you die or worse thousands of times, thousands of different ways. Her limbs are helpless, restrained in webbing. Her stomach knots in ceaseless hunger and her throat burns with unquenchable thirst. It feels as though it has always been, will always be. All these things, nothing more than torment designed for those who fail the Goddess. I do not know if she is mad, but I cannot imagine that she would not be. The demons of this place have a gift for rendering down their victims to husks, until they give up on what they once were and become petitioners, slavishly attending to the will of the Demon Queen of Spiders. It does not matter what one was in life, not Matron or slave, male or female, faithful or not. Every story has the same ending."
"You lie," Aly said. It was an automatic accusation. This creature was trying to hurt her. Demons were sadistic. But then again, as some hidden part of herself pointed out, why would the creature lie if the truth was just as painful?
The creature's red eyes with their slit pupils almost seemed softer, for a brief moment. "I told you that it would not bring you peace."
Alystin covered her face with her hands. "If she'd just stayed…" the wizard whispered. She felt tears burning, but they still wouldn't fall. She had to keep it together. She could fall apart when it was safe. "Why?"
"Love is madness, death, destruction. All drow know it to be true," the creature said. There was something distant to its tone, as if it was recalling some ancient secret. "I knew it well."
Alystin's head jerked up. "I find that difficult to believe," she said in a low voice.
"Because I did not spare your feelings? Because I am no sympathetic ear?" the creature said, suddenly scornful. "How useful you would have been to her, blindly ignorant of her pain. No, I will make you understand, Alystin Kenafin, so that she need not."
The wizard narrowed her eyes. "Why?" she asked. It was unnerving to know that the creature knew her name, as she had certainly never shared that information with it. But then again, if she was truly hated here, she would be known to its denizens.
The creature shrugged. "I owe her," it said.
"Demons are not known for their gratitude," Aly said as she leaned back against the cold, hard rock that rose up behind her in a cliff-face.
"Part of me is demon, yes. Part of me is mortal. And when stirred, part of me remembers a time before this time, a life before this life," the creature said. It took a bite of its dead, twisted spider-thing and crunched thoughtfully for a long moment. After it swallowed, it continued, "She reminds me of it, like salt in an old wound."
"That sounds…painful."
The creature chuckled. "I always was a masochist," it said. "Just like her. To answer the question you so carefully refrained from asking: yes, I honor my debts. I did in life, I will do it in death. I am not as chaotic as many who walk this place. I believe in oaths, in vows, in obligations." It paused suddenly, then chuckled again. "Ah, but we are alone no longer. I can feel the webs vibrating: a hunter has caught your scent."
Alystin didn't stop to ask what the hunter was. She just jumped up to her feet with her staff in one hand before slamming one end of the piece of wood down against the blighted ground. Magical energy rippled forth, waking her companions immediately. They had all slept in their armor with weapons ready, something that no doubt contributed to their fatigue during the day. Now, however, they were mostly rested and clambered up to their feet…just in time for the massive arachnid demon—easily the size of a plow horse, its legs spanning a good fourteen feet—with a mottled blue-black carapace to come crawling down the wall at a rapid pace. "Bebilith!" the mage warned. She didn't know if her companions had ever even heard of one before now, but she knew they hadn't seen one before and thus would need the warning.
However, Storunn, Camran, Nendir, and Linnan needn't have worried. The bebilith had eyes only for Alystin.
The giant arachnid shot webbing that pinned their petitioner guide to the wall, eliciting a stream of curses from the fiendish soul. Then it leaped like a wolf spider at the wizard, its blade-like front legs serving as claws at the moment. Alystin had to hurl herself out of the way to avoid being pierced right through the abdomen by one, a blow that would have easily been lethal.
"Aly!" Camran called out, trying to get the wizard to flee their direction. "Storunn, draw its attention!"
The dwarf charged the bebilith, hacking right through one back leg with a powerful hew from his axe. Before he could even blink, he was hit by a web that sent him flying backwards into the others. He was pinned to the ground alongside Camran and Nendir, who hadn't managed to quite dodge out of the way as adroitly as their halfling rogue had. Linnan went running up cliff face along a rising, narrow ledge, moving parallel to the bebilith that was forcing their wizard further and further away from the rest of the group. Alystin's spells flashed in the darkness, doing the creature serious harm, but it was undeterred. How long could the mage really expect to stand alone? She was not meant for close combat.
Linnan leaped down from the ledge onto the demon's back, plunging his blades through the jointed plates of chitin with his whole body-weight behind them. The creature let out a shrill squeal and lunged forward, sinking its fangs into Alystin's shoulder. The rogue heard the drowess scream in pain despite herself, but she didn't go down. Instead, there was a flash and he could smell a distinct, burning odor from the front of the bebilith. The demon was starting to shudder and shake in an effort to fling Linnan off.
Behind them, their companions were breaking free of their webs. Storunn went charging after them the moment he was free, while Nendir grabbed his bow and let an arrow fly. The petitioner had clawed itself free and went running the way Linnan had up the cliff face.
Few things had ever surprised the halfling more than the sight of a fiendish drow soul launching itself through the air straight at him with its black sword drawn. The creature came down on the bebilith's abdomen behind him with a solid blow that sunk the wicked blade up to its hilt into the demon. The shrilly screaming demon went careening towards the edge and Linnan immediately sprang up, leaving his daggers as he nimbly launched himself off and back towards the rest of the group. Their guide followed him with an animalistic leap, dark face contorted into a snarl.
Alystin was swaying on her feet, but still standing. Camran moved immediately to her side and began the work of curing the venom that was burning through her blood like a black fire before it could wreak complete havoc on her body. Storunn clapped Linnan on the back so firmly that it almost winded the halfling. "Nice work, lad," he said.
"There will be more, unless we move," Nendir said.
"The faerie is correct," the petitioner said. The creature raised its open hand and barked a command word. The black sword appeared in its hand, conjured up by the mere force of the former drow's will alone. The display did not put the small group at ease. "Though it is worth saying that the advance will take us into Drasira's Labryinth. It is the lair of one of the Demon Queen's most powerful handmaidens. Her power is great, and there will be many servitor demons."
"Got to die o' somethin'," Storunn said with grim confidence. "Aly?"
"Better," the wizard said reassuringly. Camran's healing magic had purged the venom from her system. She still felt weak and cold, but she would be able to carry on. "If we must go through this Drasira's domain, then so be it. What do we have to expect, petitioner?" It was the most polite mode of address she could think of for the creature, considering it had refused to give them a name.
"Drasira will seek to break you, turn you into servants of our mistress," the fiendish soul said with a shrug. "How she does so depends upon her victims. Everyone has their weaknesses, but rest assured: she will ferret them out no matter your defenses, and she will exploit them."
"Is it far?" Nendir asked, leaning against the wall.
"No," the creature said. It pointed to the narrow, broken path leading down into the darkness of the rift that they were camped at the edge of. "That is the way. Soon, we will be in its depths."