7.
"So what does that tablet say?"
"I have absolutely no idea…" Adele stares at the glyphs on the rough-hewn stone. "But after everything else we found, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a recipe for kobold stew."
"Boss be joking like that, Deekin will not tell her what writing say." Deekin's dark eyes glint with definite annoyance, which is unusual. "Did boss see those large pots back in storage room thataway? Attiz say those were for kobold stew."
"Sorry, Master Scalesinger." Adele smoothes back her sweaty hair from her forehead. "Not my best day. My apologies for the joke."
"Is okay." Deekin nods. "Not that Boss could understand what Attiz say anyway: Deekin knows kobold isn't Boss' forte." Scaly fingers reach out, pluck the tablet out of Adele's hands with surprising strength, place it on the ground. "Let's see…hmmm." Deekin's voice lowers into murmur as the little kobold reaches up to make an additional magelight directly above the tablet. "Early version of Creator script, very interesting…"
"I knew it was familiar from somewhere." Adele slams a fist on the chest in which the stone tablet rested until she opened it. "Wait, are you saying that you can read it…?"
"Might; but it takes time." Deekin answers absently, kneeling next to the tablet.
"Then we should rest here." Valen says curtly, already busy wedging the heavy door shut. "I'd think we earned it."
"Seconded." Adele carefully lowers herself to the floor, feeling the exhaustion in all of her limbs. "Water?"
"Here." Valen tosses a flask to her. She takes a swig, closes her eyes as the cool liquid finally reaches her throat, and thinks about the nice little predicament they're in.
It was an exhausting march across oddly-shaped chambers and doors in semi-darkness; the beholders prefer a warm, humid atmosphere maintained in their quarters that settles on Adele like a miasmic aura of some carnivorous jungle in faraway Chult. They keep kobold slaves, and Deekin, since running into the first one and chattering away in their own language for a long time, is very quiet and uncharacteristically testy. Adele herself doesn't fare better: the beholders are, in her opinion, the nastiest enemies she had to face so far in her career. They team up, using multiple magic attacks that pound them constantly with waves of energies that take all of her powers to deflect. They also have the annoying habit of zipping out of sight with incredible speed once wounded, then jumping at their backs from invisible secret nooks and crannies. And they are silent. Almost completely, except for the wet, disgusting splatting sounds they make when they die.
All of that, compounded with the knowledge that somewhere in the depth of the labyrinthine caverns hides the beholders' leader who, according to the reports and briefings with The Seer earlier in Lith My'athar, is the oldest, meanest and most magically accomplished of all of its subjects… Hit hard and fast and don't stop, was what Commander Imloth advised, who survived a skirmish against the eye tyrants earlier that year, and Adele swears quietly that if they get back in one piece, she buys the wiry drow a drink of his choice for that.
"If you want to catch some sleep while your kobold figures that tablet out, I got first watch." Adele looks up as Valen sits down next to her, Devil's Bane, his warflail leaning against his side.
"I just might." Adele learned a long time ago not to turn down opportunities like that: sleep is sleep, and this is a very intense mission. "Thank you."
Valen nods, and Adele closes her eyes. Their interactions since he left her at that little eatery in Lith My'athar are not exactly cold, but wary and respectful. They both treat each other like professionals, courteous but short: and Adele finds to her surprise that it just increases the efficiency of them working together. It's almost as if instead of communicating with words, easy to misunderstand and misinterpret, they operate at a deeper level, with glances, gestures, grunts and something else that's in the ease of movement with which she defends his flank and he covers her back, the gesture of her outstretched arm as she casts a defensive incantation over his head, acknowledged by a small growl and a flick of his tail.
They know where they stand. Adele finds, if she examines her feelings closely now, drifting quickly into one of those catnaps newly minted paladins sent on graveyard patrols in haunted villages learn really fast, that while she certainly understands what Valen meant with his warning that day using the rational and calculating part of her mind, when it all boils down to it, she could easily sum up what she feels this way: and yet, I don't care.
The mere fact that here I am, Paladin of Torm, vanquisher of evil and smiter of all manners of creatures of darkness, ceding first watch to a tiefling, horribile dictu, even falling asleep right next to him, should nicely demonstrate the fallacy of that perfectly reasonable theory, General… She feels her lips twist into a little smile as sleep claims her like a sledgehammer of the gods.
She wakes about what seems to be five heartbeats later when one of Deekin's little claws scrapes along her greaves with a screeching noise that jolts her bolt upright and wide awake.
"I'm up, I'm up… By Torm's left gauntlet, what is it?" Her voice is rather high and her teeth are aching from the high-pitched noise, but she's standing, sword in hand, eyes wide open and she swears she's not hyperventilating at all.
"Peace, paladin, it was merely your wake-up call. According to your kobold," Valen's voice is amused as he crosses his arms and watches her lowering her weapon, "we have a rather interesting choice to make."
"He's his own kobold." Adele hates how petulant her voice sounds; but she was never particularly cheerful after waking up. Especially waking up like that. She combs five fingers through her hair, and decides to ignore the way Valen is looking at her for now. "And what is that choice?"
"Deekin thinks there be a magical null down there." The kobold's voice squeaks from excitement as he points at the cavernous chamber's middle where a ragged hole marks an opening down to gods knows what depths. "Tablet says ancient ones living here tried to defend themselves from beholders that way."
"A magical null?" Adele taps her chin in thought. "Meaning their powers don't work there? Do you think it still operates, after all this time?"
"Can't know till we try, Boss." Deekin's grin is very toothy, Adele realizes suddenly. A lot more than before. Now is not the time to ponder whether he's really turning into a dragon, Adele, she reminds herself sternly. "Tablet say old ones retreated down there as last effort to defend against eye tyrants."
"Gods." Adele shakes her head. "Can you imagine the scale of operation we're talking about here? The planning, the logistics, the effort…" She looks around. "I worked with some crazy researchers before who would have given their arms and legs to excavate here…Master Scalesinger, is there any way you can make a rubbing of that tablet to take with us? I know just the person to give it to if we ever get…"
"Not to put an end to a no doubt very…stimulating discussion, Lady, but perhaps we should concentrate on fulfilling our mission before we start to gather up…souvenirs for old colleagues." Valen's voice is part incredulous, part annoyed. "If there's indeed some kind of device down there that suppresses magic, we need to be prepared. No doubt whoever devised those defenses didn't merely rely on that effect alone." He raises an eyebrow at Adele. "That means we'll face more conventional foes: traps, beasts…" He shrugs. "Be prepared that none of your divine powers will work."
Adele bites her lip: she will not point out that yes, she's figured this out too, and her excitement over the find merely serves as a distraction from saying all that out loud, because really, why belabor the obvious?
She merely nods, therefore, and turns to Deekin, who is way too excited about this most fortuitous find ('boss, how you spell 'fortuitous'?), and who is ready indeed to take a piece of charcoal and some paper from his backpack and get to work on the tablet right away. By the time she explains to him that maybe after they return from down there and finish their mission would be a better time to do it, Valen already found a coil of rope in their supplies and is busy lowering it into the chasm.
"As I doubt we could do it with a spell," he explains, checking the clasps of his vambraces and frowning at one of them. "This one's frayed; I'll have to mend it soonest," he murmurs under his breath and glances around in the cavernous room as if he wants to find his armoring kit and get it done straightaway.
Adele suppresses a smile: yes, he definitely has his priorities, she thinks and makes sure Enserric glides easily in and out of his scabbard.
~Are we going to work on more of those squishy beholders?~ Even her sword is cranky about their current adversaries. ~You know I normally wouldn't complain, but I must say…~
Don't lie to the paladin, Adele thinks back at him with mild amusement. You complain all the time.
~Well, yes, but…~ Enserric continues the conversation as the three adventurers descend into the chasm. ~If I have to compare, and given that I'm a sentient sword, it is in my nature to discuss such matters…~
"If you don't muzzle that thing, I will." Valen hisses tensely; he hits the ground first, shimmying down the rope with a grace that is distinctly inhuman. Adele bites her lip and decides, yet again, that this whole situation is just a particularly long series of tests from Torm regarding her sense of duty, with a nice dose of suffering from Ilmater mixed in for good measure—and any time now, the third god of the Triad, Tyr, will probably also decide to add something regarding truth and justice. She refrains from rolling her eyes, though, and it fills her with no small amount of pride.
The pride dissipates a soon as she reaches the uneven, rocky bottom of the chasm. The darkness is almost absolute here; she almost reflexively opens her mouth to ask Deekin for a Light spell when she takes a step forward and the feeling that she's underwater envelopes her as inexorably as the ocean's tidal waves hitting Tantras' White Shore.
"I venture that magical null works just fine." Even her voice sounds duller; and as she glances at her side in an effort to see something, she notices that Enserric's usual greenish glow is missing. She pulls the blade out halfway, then lets it slide back with an annoyed gesture and she knows that there's no doubt about it: something is seriously wrong.
"I guess we don't need to muzzle anything now," she says drily, glancing towards where she hopes Valen stands.
"Small favors," she hears the tiefling. He is way too close. "But that's not what I'm worried about right now, Lady."
"Oh?" Adele swallows; it is ridiculous that all she needs is complete darkness, a little bit of warmer temperatures, lack of magical defenses, and Valen's low murmur by her ear all of a sudden affects her stomach and heartbeat like that. It's…unnatural.
"Deekin and I are just fine with our natural abilities to see in the darkness," he says, and Adele feels one of his hands on her arm. "You, Lady, on the other hand…are blind as a bat, as they say in Lith My'athar about your race."'
"Except bats be not blind." Deekin chirps up from somewhere to the left. "Bats just be seeing different."
"Indeed; just like you and I, my dear kobold." Valen sighs; his warm breath tickles Adele's hair and she feels every single bone in her body all of a sudden. "I'm afraid we need to root around for something to make into a torch for you, my lady."
What in the Hells is going on here? She's about to open her mouth to say something, when suddenly she feels Valen move (and later she swears that even with full command of her sight she wouldn't have been able to get out of his way, it was so fast), grabbing her shoulders with one hand, covering her mouth with the other, and pressing her with his full weight against the wall of the chasm. Adele can't even quite process what's happening, before her desperately wide-open eyes catch a tiny, tiny reflection slightly up and behind…
"Do. Not. Move." Valen breathes straight into her ear, and there's nothing but command in his voice now. She nods almost unconsciously into his palm, and as if he was just waiting for that, he twists away. The air is suddenly full of his battle roar and Devil's Bane's hiss. Adele blinks once, twice… there's a screech, almost too high for her ear to hear, the noise of small rocks under way too many legs...something crunches, dry first, then wet… a curseword, hastily bitten in half…then another screech, this time shorter and dying off in a pitiful mewl.
"My apologies. " It's Valen again, breathing just a bit heavily, his gloved hand touching hers briefly. "I didn't exactly have time to give you a complete tactical assessment there. Sword spiders are too fast."
"I think I can forgive you, sir." Adele says, and, despite everything, she finds that she is smiling again. "Given how you most likely just saved my behind."
"Something like that." Judging by the tiny noises, Valen is shaking his warflail clear of whatever spider bits got stuck to it. "Business as usual. Now as to this blindness issue of yours…"
Adele is just about to open her mouth to say that really, that was just a tiny but of exaggeration there about the business-as-usual-rescuing-her part, when there's a slight pop in her ears, a weird rush of air, followed by the sound of a tune hummed suspiciously off-key…and a tiny fleck of pale white light stretches up from the palm of a little kobold standing right next to a still-twitching corpse of the ugliest arachnid Adele has ever seen.
"Hey, this works." Deekin says, grinning from ear-to-ear. "What do you know, Boss? My songs be working down here. Eat that, magical null thing!"
"Joy." Valen mutters, shaking his head. "Now I'll have to put up with his singing all the way to wherever we go." His breastplate is splattered with some unspeakable ichor from the corpse of the spider that's still twitches, Adele sees, but his eyes twinkle, and that again does odd things to her stomach, just like his next words. "The things I do for you, Lady."