Nendir wasn't certain what to make of the petitioner any more. It had a name now, or at least Aly had called it by one. That made it seem more like a person than he was comfortable with. It was easier to write it off as a monster. "Who was she?" he asked the wizard as they sat on watch, his eyes focused on the darkness where the creature in question had vanished, off to hunt whatever prey it could find.
"Sabal's mentor," Aly said. "I know they were close, at least when Sabal was a girl. I never thought…Goddess, I wish she was still alive. I mean, she probably would have killed me, but she did so much for Sabal…and to end up like this…" The wizard sighed.
"How did she die?" Nendir asked.
Alystin's grey eyes were somber when she looked at him. "That's not for me to say," she said. "That's up to Sabal. Or Xullae, I suppose." Her thoughts were with her lover. Did Sabal know that Xullae was like this? She didn't pretend to know how badly that would hurt.
"I think it is only fair that the elf understand what kind of world we live in," the petitioner said, emerging from the shadows empty-handed. It made both the wizard and Nendir jump. Those red eyes with their slit pupils were serious and there wasn't a trace of a smile on the fiendish drow soul's lips. "One of us had to die, and so I made the choice for her. It wasn't her fault. All she did was strike the blow."
"Sabal killed you?" Nendir said, eyes going wide. "And you're helping us?"
"Yes," Xullae said simply. Her tone suggested that she thought further elaboration would be a waste of air. "Now sleep while you have the chance, faerie. I have no intention of being slowed by you any more than necessary."
The elf looked like he had a thousand more things that he wanted to say, but he nodded and went over to his bedroll, leaving Aly awake on watch to speak to the creature. For her part, the wizard was quiet for a long moment as the petitioner took a seat a few feet away on a rock, positioned to look out into the darkness for any hint of more demons. "How far away are we?" Alystin asked quietly after a few minutes.
"Some weeks," the fiendish drow soul answered almost absently. "There are many battles awaiting between here and there, but somehow I don't think that will shake your resolve much. You have stubbornness enough to give Sabal a run for her money."
"I love her," Alystin said. Her grip on the staff leaning against her shoulder tightened for a moment. "I'm not going to leave her."
"I understand," Xullae said quietly. "It will hurt to see her as she is, to see what they have done to her. But I think that even with all the illusions and the torments, she will recognize you. For all their deceptions, the demons here have never managed to replicate the minds, the souls, of the loved ones they use in their torture. Sabal's powers offer her a way out of the nightmare, though whether or not she can follow that way is…debatable."
"What about you? What will you do when we find Sabal?" Alystin said, studying the serious features of the petitioner.
"I have yet to decide," Xullae said. She sounded preoccupied with the notion, giving it careful thought. "I cannot follow the path that you walk. My service to the Demon Queen is eternal. The vows that bound me in life now shackle me in death."
"They'll punish you for helping us," the wizard observed.
The fiendish soul chuckled darkly. "Let them," she said. "It will only give me power in my hate. When I died, they broke me and reformed me into this. If they reap what they sowed in this way, they richly deserve it. Though the irony is amusing, isn't it?"
"If you say so," Alystin said. There was something discomforting about the way Xullae grinned at the idea, showing her fangs.
The pair lapsed into silence for a few minutes before Xullae twisted in her seat to look at the wizard. "Be good to her," the petitioner said in a more muted, almost concerned tone. "It has been…difficult…to watch."
The wizard offered the twisted former drowess a small, genuine smile—the first she had managed to crack in some time. "Of course I will," she said. "Xullae, no matter what happens, no matter what condition she's in, she'll always have my heart."
Xullae was staring at her in a measuring way, gauging her sincerity. After a moment, the petitioner nodded. "Good." It was the end of their conversation for the watch, the creature retreating into its usual brooding silence. Alystin didn't mind too much. Now that she knew who it had been, she felt almost comfortable with the fiend. Certainly, the massive distrust she felt had eased.
The road through the Demonweb was as harsh and grueling as could be while still being called a road. The battles they fought blurred together into one long combat as they pushed on deeper and deeper into the plane. Perpetually wounded and exhausted, the group was rapidly approaching a breaking point. Alystin wasn't certain how much longer they could last without collapsing. Her own body was moving forward, one foot in front of the other, out of sheer willpower—and the others were no better. Nendir in particularly looked like a dead man walking, shuddering and swaying now with every step.
There was never a word of complaint from any of her companions, however, which made the dark elf wizard incredibly grateful. But then again, what point would whining serve? They were long past the point of no return. Alystin leaned heavily on her staff. It really did feel like they'd been here an eternity. Her life up to the point she'd stepped into this abyssal plane barely felt real, it was so far removed from this suffering. The dull, red sun was beginning to sink low behind the horizon when Xullae abruptly stiffened, probably sign of another battle. That wasn't good; Alystin and Camran barely had any spells left and everyone was injured.
Then, the creature said something Alystin had been waiting to hear for a very, very long time. "We're here," the petitioner said, waving a hand at the dark void yawning ahead of them. "She is below."
Alystin's knees wanted to give out in relief, but she kept herself moving. They were close, but they hadn't reached their goal yet. She heard the others sigh in relief almost as a one. Linnan shot up a rock wall like a spider to get a better view. "There's a way down over that way," the halfling said helpfully, pointing off to their left. "I can see a bit of the path going down. How far below is she?"
"At the bottom," Xullae said, clawed hand resting on her black sword. "I do not know the precise distance, but I will tell you this much: I would not try and jump down."
"Let's get moving, then," Camran said, a sudden cheer returning to his features. He looked very much pleased, as did the others. Even Nendir's wan face brightened at the news they were almost to Sabal.
The depth was easily over a mile. They took a narrow, switchback path tangled with webbing down towards the bottom, almost slipping and sliding in some parts. Supernatural darkness quickly enveloped them, broken only by the grainy, graveyard glow of the small light that Alystin summoned out of necessity. The only one of them who could see here without it was Xullae. It was dangerous to have it, as it might attract the attention of demons, but it was necessary.
Alystin felt a clawed hand touch her elbow and almost jumped even though she knew it was Xullae. "Be warned," the petitioner said quietly, just loud enough that the group could hear. "There is a great bebilith here, or at least it looks like a bebilith. It can speak. I have seen its like nowhere else in the Demonweb. They call it Daemoch and it is that creature's venom that burns through Sabal's veins. It will come when it realizes she is escaping."
"Any other demons we need to worry about?" Nendir asked.
"Yes," Xullae said. "Kisuhr and Sydolhar are the yochlol that the Demon Queen has charged with her torment. They will be in the area even if they are not currently doing anything to her. We should be on our guard. I would say they are as dangerous as Drasira, at least when added together."
"That was not an easy battle, Xullae," Alystin said. She hated herself for saying it, but she continued, "We need to rest and prepare, or we'll die down here."
The petitioner nodded. "There is a relatively safe hollow at the bottom. Sabal is some distance to the north from here. If we are careful and have no fire, it is possible we can pass unnoticed."
They reached the bottom with only a few more scratches and scrapes, bruised and battered from their recent battles. Alystin stored her remaining spells in her rings while Camran healed the group as best he could with the last of his effort. Then the human practically collapsed like Nendir had, asleep on the rocks without even a bedroll. Storunn checked his armor as best he could without taking it off, too worried about the assault of a demon to really relax. Linnan set to work sharpening any knives that might have gotten dull. Nendir was awake but largely immobile, counting his remaining arrows. He had fewer than he would have liked. Xullae took up her position as silent sentinel on an outcropping of rock above them, melting away into the shadows.
Aly could barely focus on her spell-book, knowing how close Sabal was. She was terrified of what she was going to find, but the tiny flame of hope she had been carefully tending to had burst into an inferno. Suddenly, the impossible seemed more and more possible. Still, she diligently prepared more spells before slipping into the light rest that only elves could maintain. At this point, she was willing to trust Xullae enough to forgo a watch. They all needed the rest.
Miraculously, they were not attacked. The moment they were awake, Alystin grabbed her bag to leave. Her friends were quick to follow her and the petitioner. Anxious energy was flowing into the wizard's limbs now as they approached. The taint of evil seemed even deeper here, just like the darkness. It was bitter cold away from the light of the dim, red sun and not even Aly's piwafwi could keep it at bay. Even the normally so-hearty Storunn was shivering slightly in his chainmail.
Ahead, they saw a female figure hanging from the webbing, shoulders hyper-extended from their position. Long white hair obscured the face that was tipped forward as the head hung loosely. The clothes that she wore were basically rags at this point, shredded in places by claws that had left deep wounds. There was no sign of demons in the area, but they would not be absent long. The woman's feet were just barely brushing against the ground, unable to support her weight.
Nendir saw the wizard start to pull forward and caught Aly by the wrist. "We don't know that it's her," he cautioned. "And we don't know that she's alone."
His friend's grey eyes were tormented. "It's her," Alystin whispered. She couldn't explain how she knew, but every instinct in her body was certain. It took everything in her power to not drop her staff and spell-book and bolt forward. She had to force herself to move cautiously.
Nendir frowned as they approached. He saw the figure's fingers and toes were claws rather than normal digits, that the body at least superficially resembled their petitioner's form. It was entirely possible that she'd undergone that transformation even if she hadn't really died, but he didn't want to tell Alystin that. He wasn't a magic user, but he could feel the corruption radiating from the suspended form. "Aly, be careful."
If she'd heard him, the wizard gave no sign. She set down her staff and handed her spell-book to Camran before approaching with a soft tread. The dark elf was afraid of a lot of things at the moment, but never her lover. "Sabal," she whispered as she reached out, brushing some of the hair back to reveal a familiar, scarred face. She tucked the white hair back behind one dark ear, letting her fingertips trace down the line of earrings. It was something that had always made Sabal smile and now made Alystin's heart feel like it was going to shatter. There was a thin layer of frost and cobwebs over most of Sabal's now-twisted and fever-wracked body, but her face was relatively clear and unchanged. "Ussta xukuth, it's me."
Sabal's lips moved soundlessly. Unfocused amber eyes opened, revealing slit pupils that gave her an even more feral look. The second try for words was a raw, weak sound. The third, however, was more successful. "Aly," she rasped.
Alystin felt herself smile even as the tears started to roll. Instead of answering, she kissed the tortured wilder gently. She framed Sabal's face with her hands, brushing her thumbs along the horizontal scar that ran across her lover's cheekbones from one side of her face to the other. The taste of her own tears didn't bother her in the slightest, not when she finally had Sabal close enough to touch. She pulled back reluctantly, when she had to. "It's me," she said again, still stroking the wilder's face. The wizard knew her lover wouldn't believe it at first, at least not until she'd seen into Aly's thoughts. All the same, she wrapped her arms around Sabal and touched her forehead to the wilder's. "I missed you so much." When she felt the familiar psionic brush against her own mind, she made no effort to resist or hide anything.
The mage could see the change in Sabal's expression, which went from being glazed and distant to focused just on her. It was impossible to read the many emotions that all tried to express themselves simultaneously. Sabal's tempest-like mind pulled away from hers in an instant and the wilder started to struggle against the webbing even though there was no way she was strong enough to free herself. Nendir moved in, slicing through the webbing with his knife until Sabal slumped towards the ground. Camran and Storunn caught her, but she struggled out of their grip in an instant. For a brief second, Alystin was terrified Sabal was going to run, maybe under the assumption that this was some demonic trick. Instead, the wizard found herself pulled into a tight hug. Sabal's body was cold and thin, as much of the muscle she'd used to have wasted away, but Alystin had never been happier to hold her.
"Love you," Sabal whispered in that same raw voice, so quiet that her lover was the only one who heard it. She closed her amber eyes, soaking in the sensation. The wilder was conscious enough to know that they wouldn't have much time, but she didn't really care. She stroked Aly's hair with one clawed hand while the other held the mage close.
"I love you too," Alystin said softly, leaning into the touch carefully. She didn't want to put weight on Sabal and have the wilder collapse.
Linnan barely had the heart to disturb them. "We need to move," the halfling rogue said gently, though he didn't like being an intrusion. "Sabal, you good enough to walk out of here?"
"We will not be walking," Xullae said. When they looked at her, the petitioner didn't smile. Her eyes were focused on the darkness above, keen eyes able to detect the approach of something large through the webs. "We will be running."
Camran quickly unslung Sabal's sword from his back where he'd been carrying it. "Sabal," he said, offering it to their ragged friend. He touched her arm, allowing healing magic to flow into her body in an effort to swiftly restore her to running shape.
"Leaving so soon?" a silvery, feminine voice asked. "And without even saying goodbye? How rude."
Two female drow figures detached themselves from the darkness, these showing no evidence of any fiendish transformation. They looked just like clerics of Lloth, very much out of place in the midst of the Demonweb despite their associations with the Spider Queen.
"You must be Kisuhr and Sydolhar," Alystin said in a voice that came out surprisingly level for the sheer rage that she could feel burning through her. These things were responsible for what had happened to Sabal
"The Spider Queen will be pleased," one of them said. Both were grinning. "Who would have thought that you would be so foolish as to come here yourself, little heretic? Your death will be a far better torment than anything we could have conjured up."
Sabal hit the closest yochlol like an avalanche despite her condition, her powers manifesting with a banshee wail of impossible volume and pitch, sending the other demon sprinting for cover. As a wilder, her strength drew directly from her emotions, and their threat had been enough to ignite a firestorm. Alystin hit the running one with a thin green ray of magic, a disintegrate spell. The creature let out a yowl, but was powerful enough to barely avoid becoming ashes.
The yochlol Sabal was fighting switched to its demonic form and wrapped its tentacles around the wilder, trying to crush her in its grip. Nendir's arrow hissed past his friend's ear, striking the yochlol with enough force to prompt a yowl from it. Before he could follow it with another arrow, a giant arachnid dropped from above: a bebilith of incredibly size. It had a body the size of a battering ram and legs that extended much, much further. Nendir and the others had to dive out of its way or be impaled by the sharp ends of its legs.
"You're looking well, Daemoch," Xullae said with a tight smile as she backpedaled clear of the enraged spider-demon. It was clearly not pleased by the notion of losing its favorite victim. Her goal was to goad the creature into attacking her rather than the more fragile members of the group.
Eight hateful, asymmetrical eyes focused on the petitioner. "You," it hissed. "This was you! Traitor!"
Without a further word, it threw its bulk at the fiendish soul. She'd sufficiently drawn its attention to allow Nendir, Storunn, and Linnan to attack the creature without fearing serious reprisal or worse, a bite. Daemoch's venom was a special hell all of its own, more potent than that of any other bebilith the petitioner had ever encountered. But she could withstand it, where the others would just die.
Storunn found his axe deflected by the demon's hard carapace rather than biting in. The bodkin points of Nendir's arrows, so good at punching through normal armor, sank in through joints in its armor only maybe an inch or two, nowhere near enough to do lethal damage. Linnan's knives had no better luck, leaving score marks on the hard shell of the creature—just a few more amongst many such marks. They were hardly the first to try to combat Daemoch.
Run! they heard the petitioner order in their thoughts. I will lead it away! The compulsion was too strong to just disobey out of hand. The group whipped around and charged after where Aly and Sabal had vanished into the darkness.
They found Sabal ripping at a fallen yochlol with her sword, one clawed hand holding its blade to shorten it up so it could be used up close. The creature was shrieking and wailing, hitting Sabal with spells that frequently seemed to melt off. The physical damage was much more detrimental to the wilder, who didn't have the health or stamina to just shrug off blows, even if her rage was propelling her onward with great success. Alystin was just behind her lover where she could heal effectively, fingers weaving a spell to close the wounds rapidly appearing on Sabal. It had been a long time since they were together—not the longest they had ever been separated, but too long—and despite that, they were working together as a seamless team.
"Aly, where's the other—" Nendir started to call. He was cut off by the bulk of a large spider hitting him: the second yochlol in another form. Fangs sank into his shoulder and he felt the venom immediately. Of all the group, Nendir would be the least able to fight it off unaided in his condition. The Demonweb had not been kind to him.
Camran immediately grabbed his comrade, curing the poison. He'd prepared for this. Meanwhile, Storunn and Linnan wasted no time in attacking the yochlol. The dwarf cleaved into it from the side, while his rogue friend darted underneath its spider form and drove his blade up underneath where the carapace was thinner. The long dagger punched right through, earning a squeal. In immediate reply, it hit Storunn with a dominate spell. The dwarf staggered back, trying to fight off the unwelcome intrusion into his mind. The creature entangled him immediately in a web before scaling the wall rapidly to try and escape Linnan. However, the halfling shot up the wall right after it, emboldened by his gloves and boots of spiderclimb.
"Careful!" Nendir called to their rogue as he let an arrow fly that struck the yochlol at the juncture where its abdomen met its head. That too actually seemed quite effective. It leaped out from the wall to attack him and Camran, shifting back to its natural shape and lashing out with all eight tentacles. However, Linnan followed it from there too with an acrobat's leap. He landed on the demon with two long daggers out, sinking up to their hilts in the creature's back. Their cleric bashed it in the eye with his staff even as it flailed at them.
It was an ugly battle, but they hacked and battered the demon to death as quickly as they could. Alystin and Sabal finished off theirs at about the same time, the wilder dragging herself back up to her feet once her ground-fight with the demon had finished. She looked exhausted, so Aly slipped one arm around her lover's waist and slung Sabal's arm over her shoulders to support her lover. "We need to go. Where's Xullae?" the wizard said.
The four surfacers looked back. There was no sign of the petitioner or Daemoch. "She said she was going to try to draw it away so we could run," Nendir panted.
"Then that's what we'll do," Alystin said with a confidence she in no way felt. "She'll be back."
That was about the moment they heard staggering feet headed their way. The petitioner emerged from the darkness, looking horrible: left arm dangling awkwardly where it had been torn from its socket, deep puncture wounds in one side, and a sweaty, shivering complexion. "You are all terrible at following directions," the fiendish soul said sourly. "Let's go."
"Where's Daemoch?" Camran asked, approaching the creature to heal as they all moved back towards the path upwards.
"Staggering around confused. Lucky assault on its mind," Xullae said with that same displeased air. The fiendish soul popped its own arm back into its socket with a snarl. "Keep your holy magic away from me, priest. Now, this way!" With that, she led them back the way they'd come. It was no solution to the problem of escape, but it would get them away from the immediate threat of Daemoch coming back to its senses.