It was a long time running, maybe days, before they were able to collapse feeling even a little secure. In all that time, Alystin had barely gotten to even touch Sabal. They would help each other up when one fell, Sabal's clawed hands still covered in that fine layer of frost. They hadn't talked, breath coming in ragged pants, but Alystin could keenly feel the absence of their once easy closeness. There was just cold and a conflict raging behind those amber eyes. Alystin could almost feel the tempest every time Sabal glanced at her. For the most part, though, her lover was focused on the path ahead.

When they slowed to a stop, Alystin still felt her body buzzing with nervous energy. Sabal's distance was making her heart ache and her stomach knot. They had found a small tunnel in the edge of one of the rifts, mercifully unoccupied. It had a second exit, which meant that if they were attacked one way, they could retreat through the other. It was a good, defensible, sheltered spot. Now she just had to figure out how to talk to Sabal without making it worse.

"We can stop here." Xullae was leaning against the wall as she spoke, even her fiendish resilience put to the test. Nendir collapsed the moment his bedroll was laid out, leaving Camran and Storunn to put him in a more comfortable position. Linnan was no better and Camran was flagging.

Aly nodded, immediately warding one exit and layering both with alarm spells. "I can take watch," she said.

"No," Xullae said bluntly. "You have something more important to attend to. The dwarf and I will see to it. When we are too tired, we will wake the others for a change in watch."

The wizard hesitated for a second, then nodded. She looked down the warded tunnel where Sabal had retreated to and took a deep breath before leaving their safety in her comrades' hands. Xullae was right. Alystin hadn't come this far to lose Sabal to whatever was happening inside her mind, and there was a threat of that if this was left unchecked. She went after her lover.

Sabal was a brooding figure on a small outcropping of rock, sitting with her fists at her sides as she stared into a distance only she could see. She didn't turn or react when Alystin approached, the silence oppressive and cold. Suddenly, the void between them was almost immeasurably large and Aly wasn't certain how to bridge it. She only knew that she needed to, more than she needed air.

"Sabal," she said softly, her own voice hoarse from running. "Talk to me?"

Sabal shook her head, avoiding Alystin's eyes even when the wizard knelt down in front of her. It was a strange, perverse parody of that sunlit day in Alustriel's gardens. She recoiled away when she felt Alystin's fingertips brush against her clawed hand, but the wizard managed to catch her anyway.

"Look at me," Alystin pleaded. She must have sounded desperate enough to stir at something inside Sabal, because those amber eyes flickered to meet hers, slit pupils opening slightly in the darkness.

Sabal's eyes had always been the most expressive part of her face. Now they were maelstroms of pain and fear, uncertainty as plain in them as suffering. The wilder looked like she wanted to say something, but no words came for a long moment. Then she turned her eyes away. "You shouldn't have come."

"Nothing and no one will keep me away from you." Alystin tightened her hold on Sabal's hand so she couldn't pull away. "You would have come for me in a heartbeat if I was the one trapped in this horrible place. I love you, Sabal. I always will."

"You love the memory of me." Sabal's voice was muted and dull. "Not this...thing."

Aly kissed the palm of the hand she was holding, lingering against Sabal's skin and leaving some small warmth in her wake. "Look at me, Sabal." When amber eyes focused on her again, she kissed the wilder's palm again. "I still love you. I know you've probably heard demons, wearing a face that looks like mine, say in a voice that sounds like mine, that I don't, but this is the real me. Touch my mind and you'll know."

Sabal shook her head. "I'm a monster."

"Never a monster, ussta ssin," Alystin said.

Sabal jerked free of her hold. "How can you look at me and call me beautiful?" she said harshly.

Alystin knew that look: pain. Sabal had never been one to quietly nurse her heartaches. She tended to lash out at people and vent her anguish that way. "Because you are. You will always be. I know you're hurting. Let me take some of it away."

Sabal shook her head, but she didn't flinch away when Alystin kissed her, their lips meeting again—this time with something soft rather than desperate intensity. Clawed hands gently pulled Alystin flush against Sabal's gaunt frame, holding the wizard close with the barest amount of pressure, as if Sabal thought she would vanish at too tight a hold. Alystin wound her fingers in her lover's white hair and relaxed into the kiss. The tension was still there in Sabal's body and the wizard could feel it even without a psionic sixth sense, but by fractions of inches, it was fading.

"Sabal, trust me," she whispered when she had to pull away to breathe. "I will never let you fall. I will never leave you. Whatever happens, you will always have me, just like I know I'll always have you."

"I left you." Those amber eyes were tormented. "You should hate me."

"You did this for me. How could I ever hate you?" Alystin could hear the tears building in her own voice. "I missed you so much, d'anthe. I hated not knowing what had happened, not knowing when I would see you again, not knowing if you were alone and hurting where I couldn't save you. I hated that. Never, never did I hate you. I love you so much that it hurts. If I could go back in time and take your place, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I have you now. I'm never letting go again. I know you, Sabal A'Daragon. I love you more than anything in the world. I would spend a lifetime in this place gladly if it meant I could have you."

"I feel the corruption in me. It rots me from the inside out." Sabal hesitated, but then brushed her fingertips over Aly's cheek, trying to anchor them both without scratching the wizard with claws. "I can't be who I was."

"You don't have to be anything for me but who you are now," Alystin said softly. She sighed and smiled slightly. "I'm just happy to have you again, d'anthe. I missed you more than you will ever know." She covered Sabal's hand with her own, holding it to her cheek, as her eyes turned more pensive. "Do you still want me?"

"Always," Sabal whispered. She rested her forehead against Aly's, looking into those silvery eyes. It was hard to believe that the wizard could still look at her with that kind of adoration. Maybe it was because she didn't know how deep the corruption ran. "Where do we go from here?"

"Up and out," Aly said. "There are gates that the demons use to pass between here and the Abyss. I can hijack one, give it a location on the Material Plane for a minute or two. We'll find a way back. And then, we can be together. No one in the Underdark will come looking, not if they think you're rotting in the Demonweb."

"I can't be on the surface like this." Sabal closed her eyes so she didn't have to see the disappointment in Aly's eyes. "Even if you don't see a monster, they will."

Alystin knew that her lover had a definite point, but she refused to give up on the idea. "Maybe Alustriel will have an answer."

"I have forgotten what it is to hope," Sabal admitted.

"Then I'll do it for both of us until you remember how to." The wizard brushed white hair and some strands of webbing out of Sabal's face. "Will you come lie down with me? I want to be close to you. Maybe that will warm you up."

Sabal nodded unsteadily, standing up. Her movements were jerky and stiff. Alystin recognized anxiety when she saw it. "It's just me, Sabal," she said softly, well aware that succubi had likely tried to take advantage of Sabal during her imprisonment. "I don't expect anything. I just want to hold you. If you don't like it, that's okay. I'm not going to be angry."

"I want to." Sabal's tone was hesitant, but not deceitful. "It's just...hard."

It was easier once she made it to Alystin's arms. There was no seduction there, just safety. Warmth slowly seeped back into the wilder's cold body, the chill that shrouded her fading with the heat radiating off of Aly. She hid her face in the wizard's shoulder, relaxing into the touch of the hand running up and down her back. It felt more than good. It felt...right. She let out a shaky breath.

"I'm right here," Aly murmured gently, feeling a glow of warmth at the center of her chest at being able to finally hold Sabal again. The wilder would be fragile for a while, maybe a long time, but they were together. She lingered half awake for a while, waiting until after Sabal's breathing was deep and even to close her eyes and try to sleep. She didn't know what would happen when they left the Demonweb Pits, but she knew she would be there for Sabal no matter what it took. There was a chance that they would never be able to reverse the transformation and corruption, but Alystin didn't care. Eventually, the wizard's thoughts ceased racing and allowed her to sleep.

For the first time in a long time, there were no nightmares for Aly. Even her sleeping mind seemed to understand that she had Sabal back in her arms again.

Alystin woke up to the sound of her name whispered near her ear. Sabal's body had changed enough that it almost felt unfamiliar in her arms, but her voice was unmistakable. There was a moment where she thought she was still dreaming, but the claws on the hand stroking her hair were evidence enough that it wasn't a dream. She opened her eyes and studied the slitted amber ones that were looking at her. They were still definitely Sabal's eyes, even with the change. "Are we leaving?" Aly asked, her voice a bit thick from sleep.

"They're moving around like they're breaking camp," Sabal murmured, resting her forehead against her lover's. "How do you feel?"

The wizard smiled sleepily. "So much better now that I have you. It will be even better when we have a bed again."

Sabal nodded, but her eyes were still doubtful. She had long ago given up hope of ever having that again. Even her memories were clouded by the forces at work in the Demonweb. She pressed her lips to Alystin's forehead, trying to savor the warmth that the wizard brought with her. She didn't want to get up, not if it meant losing this fragile moment. She felt like she had her arms around smoke, as if Alystin could vanish in a heartbeat. Worse yet, there was always the chance that all of this could be revealed to be a demon's game, an illusion manufactured by the Demonweb to torment her. Even if it wasn't, there was no hope in her heart of escaping Lloth's realms. They would be caught and she would have to watch Alystin's torment. The cruelties of this plane were infinite. She had seen the future in her own torments, what the demons would do to Alystin if given the opportunity. If the wizard died here, her soul would never escape, even if Sune had claimed it.

Alystin's hand cupped her cheek, bringing warmth with it. "It will be alright," she said softly. "We'll find a way, no matter what happens."

Sabal nodded slightly. She didn't believe it, but for Aly's sake, she would at least pay the thoughts lip service. She gave the wizard a slight squeeze before shifting to get up. Neither of them really wanted to, but the wilder's keen hearing could make out footfalls approaching. There were certain advantages to the corruption. She could see herself coming to appreciate it more fully now that she wasn't currently enjoying the tender ministrations of this plane's denizens. She sat up, eyes turning towards the approaching person.

It was Nendir. The elf's complexion was ghost white and the dark circles around looked like livid bruises. Sabal doubted he had much time left if they stayed on this plane, though her grip on the meaning of time was weak. She felt as though she'd been here, down in the dark, for eternities. Her old life had become more and more like some fever dream that she had no way to capture. The only thing that really felt real anymore was pain. It surprised her that Aly's touch had been able to cut through the haze, but it brought with it a warmth that she'd long ago forgotten how to feel. The elf gave her an apologetic smile. "I didn't want to wake you two up, but we're having breakfast."

"Thank you," Sabal said. Her voice was rough and weak still, but she could make herself understood.

"It's good to have you back, Sabal. Everyone will want an actual chance to talk to you, though I'm not sure we'll have it here," Nendir said. He seemed in better spirits now that they'd accomplished their objective. "Now we just have to get out of this place."

Alystin sighed. She almost didn't feel like she wanted to get up, but she knew they couldn't afford to stay. If Nendir was able to walk, she had no excuse. "It won't be easy, but it's doable," the wizard said as she levered herself up. "Particularly with our guide's help."

"About that…" Nendir said hesitantly. "The petitioner wanted to talk to you when you woke up, Sabal."

Sabal nodded a bit more unsteadily. She had no memory of encountering her mentor in the Demonweb until her release. There were only the visions. That said, she'd recognized Xullae even through the haze when they made their escape. She wasn't certain what to say or how to feel. "Thank you," she said again. "We should go have words."

"Don't forget to eat something too," Alystin said as she rose to her feet after her lover. She reached out, catching Sabal's clawed hand to give it a squeeze. When the wilder looked back at her, the mage offered a smile. "Someone has to look after you, d'anthe."

Sabal felt that faint warmth again, seeping into the ragged remains of her soul. She didn't smile, but her expression softened slightly for a moment as she looked at Alystin. "I will," she promised before reluctantly moving away towards the rest of the group.

Behind her, Nendir gave Aly a smile. "Well, some things don't change. She's as wordy as ever."

"She's still there," Alystin said, a tentative relief in her tone. "We talked a little."

"It'd take more than demons to bring down Sabal," the elf said. He seemed in better spirits than he had been since they arrived in the dark plane. "She knows she has you to come back to."

The wizard smiled despite her cares. "I'll be here as long as she wants me and even if she doesn't."

"Aly, she's always going to want you. I'm no priest of Sune, but I know that." Nendir helped the wizard pack up her bedroll. "Let's just hope she and our guide have a good heart-to-heart. I'd hate to see the two of them fight."

Out with the rest of the group, Sabal's return was met by smiles. Camran held out a bowl to Sabal. They were down to basically gruel and traveling rations, but it was warm and more substantial than the unending hunger that Sabal had become accustomed to. "It's good to see you," the priest said. "Xullae is waiting out by the stone pillar to talk to you."

Sabal took the bowl. She could sense the good magic in the priest, a little flicker of holiness in the endless ocean of night. All of them were winks of light in the abyssal darkness. They were fragile creatures, a hair's breadth from being snuffed out entirely. Words came to her out of the fog of memories. "Did Storunn cook it?"

Her companions laughed. "Nay, lass, we left that to Camran," the dwarf said. He seemed immeasurably cheered by her comment, taking it as a hint of Sabal they'd known.

Sabal nodded and padded off into the darkness, towards the mammoth stone pillar that marked the edge of their camp. She sensed her mentor's mind before she saw the woman, though the cold, silvery surface was tarnished by the corruption of the plane. The Demonweb had tainted Xullae as certainly as it had twisted Sabal. She stopped beside Xullae, trying to think of something to say. It had been so long and so much had happened that she wasn't certain where to begin.

"I thought about leaving," Xullae said without looking over at her. it had always been easier for the two of them to talk when they weren't looking at each other. Eye contact made it feel too honest for creatures like the servants of Lloth. "Once you were freed. I thought my fate would taint your memories of me. Ignorance is easier sometimes. But your companions couldn't find their way out of a paper bag, let alone the Demonweb."

"Thank you," Sabal said softly. "I owe you a debt I will never be able to repay."

"I had forgotten for so long the woman I was. Seeing you was picking at an ancient wound, but I found I could not leave it alone. As every creature in this place, I have done so much wrong. You were a reminder that I was capable of doing something right." Xullae sighed, a mortal sound coming from a demonic aspect. "I will miss it, that old wound, at least until I have forgotten everything again."

"You could come with us," Sabal offered.

Xullae shook her head. "I have my place in the cosmos, a mote of wretched dust in this unkind plane. I will return to my afterlife, my slavish attentions to the whims of the Goddess. I will serve her in every breath and rejoice in my oblivion. I desire no escape. The thoughts of mortality were sweet fantasy, but they have no place here."

"Xullae—"

The petitioner smiled faintly. "Those syllables mean so little to me." She glanced over at Sabal, red eyes at once alien and familiar. "You are more than what I was, more than I could have hoped you would be. Even in the face of eternal torment, you did not abandon the one you love. More than any mortal accomplishment you have achieved, this pleases me. When you return to the Material Plane and the life that was ripped from you, carry with you the memories of me before I became this...thing. Remember who I was when I can no longer recall. That is all I ask in return for my aid."

Sabal nodded unsteadily. She didn't want to leave her mentor, not down in this horrible place, but she knew when Xullae was giving her final decision. "I will never forget you," Sabal said quietly. "Or what you've done for me."

The petitioner's answer was that same, faint smile. It was only there for a moment before she changed the subject. "Daemoch is stirring in the webs. He has not found us yet, but I have no doubt he will sense your desire to escape and make for the nearest gate."

"Can we reach another?" Sabal asked.

"Not if you wish to preserve your faerie. He will not last the weeks it would take us to navigate to another. We cannot hope to best Daemoch in a pitched battle. I will draw him away while your wizard seizes control of the gate. If done with skill and the blessing of good fortune, you will be gone before he realizes what magics have been worked." Xullae sighed, glancing back at the others. "If not...well, we will see. Eat your food and prepare. Leaving this plane will likely be the easiest part of starting anew—easier by far than escaping the corruption that eats away at you. Without the Demonweb, it will still burn fiercely, but perhaps you will recall more of who you once were."

Sabal nodded. That was more than she could have hoped for, really. "Alystin believes there is an answer."

"Of course she does," Xullae said. It was hard to tell if her tone was wry or just dismissive. "That is the nature of a lover. And what of you, Sabal?"

Sabal glanced down at her own clawed hands. She didn't remember what she had looked like, not really. There was just a pervasive sense of wrongness to everything about her body now, as if it belonged to some other creature. Perhaps that was just a matter of having been locked inside her own mind and the constant illusions for so long. "I...do not know what to believe."

Xullae nodded a little bit, indicating that to her it was understandable to not share Aly's firm belief in searching for an answer. That kind of faith was hard to muster for any denizen of this plane, if even possible. "I am going to scout the way," the petitioner said. She glanced over at Sabal again. "We are beasts of our nature, Sabal, but it may be that you will have the choice that I did not." With that, the petitioner vanished into the shadows.

Sabal looked into the darkness after her mentor, thoughts churning. It took her a minute or so before she sipped at the gruel. It felt strange to actually have food again. Almost as soon as she'd eaten anything, she felt sick. The gnawing hunger remained, but her attempt to sate it was going nowhere. Was it any surprise that some souls just became abyssal ghouls, the all-consuming hunger devouring every other part of their personality? Was that to be her fate too? Sabal padded back to the camp. Her companions were talking, but they kept their tones hushed. Everyone was well aware that they were still far from safety. She held out the bowl to Alystin, who had taken a seat on one of the slabs of stone with her spellbook at her side. "I can't," she said softly.

Alystin looked up, worry creeping into her features. "Sabal—"

Sabal felt another hunger pang. She wanted to eat, and it smelled good, but the taste had made her stomach roil. "It's making me sick," she admitted.

The wizard reluctantly took the bowl. "It may be the effects of Daemoch's venom or your transformation. Xullae wouldn't eat our food either, though she claimed that was because it brought back memories. I'm never certain whether she's being honest or not."

"She wants to forget," Sabal said quietly. "It would be...easier, to exist here, without being reminded constantly of a place you no longer belong." She knew they were words that would worry Aly, but she couldn't bring herself to censor them.

A delicate hand covered Sabal's. The touch was soft and unmistakably Aly. "We were never very good at easy," the wizard murmured.

Sabal nodded. That much she could remember, even through the haze. Her life had been so much struggle and strife. The only bright spot that she could even vaguely recall was the mage. "Xullae said that Daemoch would be waiting at the nearest gate," she said instead of addressing that feeling. Fragile things like that, like Aly, didn't belong in the Demonweb. "But it is our only option."

"We can't beat that thing," Linnan said softly. "Our weapons couldn't pierce its carapace."

"It may be possible to draw it away," Sabal said. "But even then, we will not have long."

"If the gate is already open, it will only take me a minute to change its destination," Aly said. "But if it's set to some other abyssal plane, it might be spawning demons. Even if Daemoch isn't there, it will be a battle." The wizard quickly ate the gruel that Sabal had abandoned.

"Well, we'll fight through 'em," Storunn said, as if the world was that simple. "Ain't met an axe-proof demon yet, except the giant spidery thing."

Nendir rubbed at his eyes. "Who's going to draw it away?"

"Xullae said that she would," Sabal said. "She has no intention of following us through the gate."

"Can we trust her?" Camran asked softly.

Sabal nodded. She wasn't certain how her mentor had changed, but she was sure that if Xullae wanted to hurt her, it would have been a straightforward injury. Scheming had never been Xullae's go-to mechanism for achieving what she wanted. She could be maddeningly straightforward for a drow, though she had her deceptive bent. "If she wanted you dead, I would know it."

"You know her better than we do," Nendir said. He wasn't certain how corrupted Sabal was, but he wanted to believe her. "Are you strong enough for another battle, Sabal?"

The wilder nodded. She could feel the hate along with the hunger, an equally unpleasant and powerful force gnawing at her soul. Even the thought of killing a demon made a little shiver of joy run through her body. She had suffered for an eternity. The opportunity to inflict even a tiny portion of that pain onto something else was a chance to be relished. "It is ever a pleasure to burn," she said. She still didn't smile, but she could feel the desire to under the surface of her thoughts.

Her tormentors and anything like them would not live to regret what they had done.

Camran shivered slightly at the malice in her voice. Combined with her demonic transformation, it made Sabal look decidedly monstrous. He had no doubt that the first fiend to even move towards Aly was going to have its head ripped off, possibly literally. "We're here to escape," he reminded the wilder softly. "That means we can't stop and fight the horde."

Sabal nodded, but she seemed preoccupied by the idea of killing. Her claws flexed almost like a cat's as she retreated into her thoughts for a moment.

Linnan was worried, and he knew he wasn't the only one. He glanced over at Aly, reading her concern in her expression. "Well, we'll know what we're doing when we get closer, I suppose," the halfling said, hopping up. "Let's get going."