"I don't know what to say," Galen said quietly, looking into the coals of their fire. It was an alien experience to be traveling with a drow army, but they were at the forefront with the vanguard and it was much quieter here. Lirayne had finished her explanation of what happened after they were sent out of the Matron's presence. "Either she dies in failure or she takes a demon's deal. How could she not see this coming? She's been binding them for years, you say. She clearly knows Malcanthet."

"How do ye know she didn't see it comin'?" Storunn asked gruffly.

"She thought of Malcanthet as her mentor," Cessair said, face lined with worry as she looked towards the outcropping of rock where Val had gone at the end of their march.

Tomorrow would be Niar'hannenlyn and the battle there. Word had been sent to Durna Thuldark, calling in the favor she owed to House Duskryn, but they didn't know how much of a commitment to expect. Lirayne wasn't even certain they could trust the duergar at their backs, but she wanted the reinforcements all the same. It could make or break their fortune, or so she had said earlier when she was still obsessing over the maps. "I'd speak to her, but..." Lirayne fumbled for an explanation, finally settling for an excuse. "There's more preparations I need to make." That was all she said before leaving for her tent where the maps waited. She hadn't had a good night's sleep the whole trip, agonizing over every detail even though she knew only the Spider Queen could say how it would turn out.

"I'll handle it," Cessair said, standing up. "It's not fair to make her carry that weight alone, whatever we think about the issue. Storunn, keep the Weapons Master distracted so he can't make anything worse. She's unhappy around him."

The dwarf saluted her with his flagon and rose, swaggering off to find the drow in question.

While the rogue headed for the rock outcropping, Galen waited a minute or so before going after Lirayne. He wasn't certain what he would say or do, but it was second nature now to go check on the priestess when she had one of her moods. And this was one he could understand perfectly. All he had to do was imagine his own sister in Val's position. Maybe the two female drow didn't have a sterling familial relationship, but they clearly at least cared for each other even if they'd rather die than admit it. What they'd done for each other was proof enough.

He walked into the tent, knowing that Lirayne would hear his approach and probably even recognize it as his. He moved a little less gracefully than the drow she'd grown up around, after all, but clanked less than Storunn. "Anything I can do?" he offered quietly, stopping close behind her.

Lirayne was pouring over the maps of the settlement and her battle plans again in an effort to check yet again that everything was the best it could possibly be. Perfect was what she wanted, but not possible. He could see the stiff set of her shoulders and hear the drumming of her nails on the edge of the table. At least a portion of the invisible weight of this battle, this whole situation, had come to settle on her shoulders and she was trying to bear it along with so much else.

The priestess pulled in a deep, sharp breath like someone in pain and closed her eyes. "No," she said very quietly. "This is out of our hands now."

"I didn't expect you to be alright with that," Galen said, still watching her carefully as she turned around. He could see something there, hiding behind the stony façade of cool acceptance that Lirayne had erected for her own defense. "Talk to me, please."

Lirayne shook her head slightly, leaving the hair that had fallen into her face alone as if it could hide her. "How could I let this happen?" she whispered, feeling a burning prickle at the corner of her eyes. She had to blink to stop her vision from blurring with tears, a highly unfamiliar situation. She lost her temper, broke things, hurt people. She didn't curl in on herself like this. "If I had been stronger in the first place...if I had been able to save them..if I'd fought it off, none of this would have ever happened. We'd be fine." Her hands were trembling now, so she curled them into tight fists to hide it and forced herself to stay strong. She knew Galen could see through the cracks in the mask, but it wasn't for him she was putting on the charade. It was everything else, everyone else, herself included.

The paladin stepped up and gently drew the drowess into the circle of his arms, letting her hide her face in his shoulder. "This wasn't your fault, Lirayne," he said quietly. "Even if you had never gone near Niar'hannenlyn, there still would have been a battle against Shami-Amourae with your sister at its head. Maybe this isn't what you wanted, but there's been good here too. For one thing, you know Val cares. And you have friends."

"It would be easier if she hated me. I know she's going to do it for my sake," Lirayne forced out, her throat thick. But hearing someone say it wasn't her fault rather than heaping the blame higher, like her family so loved to do, made her feel some measure of comfort. She wished she could say all the guilt and the shame was gone, but it lingered. It just seemed less important if Galen didn't believe it. Pregnancy was clearly addling her brain, she decided. But she stayed in the embrace all the same. "There are things worse than death, just like Cessair said."

"But it's her choice, not yours, and you can't make it for her."

Cessair sneaked up to the cluster of rocks Val had taken refuge behind, but stopped almost abruptly when she heard the sound of voices. Her friend was not alone and apparently her visitor was none other than the Revered Yvonnel. They were an unlikely pair, priestess and mage. Instead of intruding, she decided to listen for a little bit.

"...I didn't ask for this. Any of it. Being a Matron's daughter, being half demon, being exiled, and now this weight riding on me. If I could be rid of it all, I would throw it away in a heartbeat," Val was saying softly to her guest.

"And have you considered that perhaps this happened for a purpose?" Yvonnel said, but without the pointed sharpness that Cessair had been expecting. Her tone was almost gentle. "I know what it's like to be chosen for something that one would never ask for. I expected to live out my life as a high priestess of Lloth, in service to my House. But my own namesake put an end to that dream. I was young, about your age. I fled out into the darkness, cursing House Baenre and the Spider Queen for allowing it to happen. I didn't make it far, unarmed and unarmored. It was Revered Daughter Khaless who found me dying out in the wilds."

"And what happened?"

Cessair heard a quiet laugh. "She took one look at the spiteful girl lying there cursing at her and said, 'She's perfect'. That's when I became an Eye of Lloth. I learned to listen to the voice of the Goddess and found that I could never truly hate Her for what had become of my House. If it hadn't fallen, I would have never filled a role so much greater and more necessary. Now that Khaless is gone, I serve as the face of the true servants of the Church. I help keep Menzoberranzan from falling apart, something not even a Matron can accomplish."

On the other side of the rock, Val looked back from the empty darkness of the tunnels. "Would you hate me if I cursed at you and the Spider Queen for a while?"

"I'd understand. But it's the choices that are placed in front of us without our consent that are the ones which make or break us. Usually, they're the most important choices in our life. You could choose to die, or to accept this demonic gift. Both will have a great impact on things to come."

"But the Matron-"

"Siniira will be mourning a daughter either way, Valyne. That is something you have to accept no matter which path you choose," Yvonnel said without reproach. She sounded almost like a surface cleric to the eavesdropping half-elf. Perhaps faith was not so different below as the elves she had known claimed. Not that she would ever say that in front of a drow priestess, of course.

"So I can die, but have the barrier sealed...which Shami-Amourae could simply reopen at a later date. Or I can sacrifice this life and slay her in the Wells of Darkness where I may be imprisoned for the rest of eternity, but Lirayne and her daughter would be safe, as would Menzoberranzan," Valyne said bitterly, her hands balling into fists against her thighs. "Such a simple choice."

"Yours is the power over life and death, Valyne."

Valyne's eyes flicked to Yvonnel, trying to read anything from that aloof visage. "The Matron once told me that when I was younger. She was teaching me."

"Your mother and I have more in common than you might expect. We certainly think along similar lines, which I suppose is to her credit," Yvonnel said, a hint of her status's arrogance glimmering through there. But something about her faint smile suggested that she was making light of herself even if the rest of the statement was serious.

"Really? She used to complain bitterly about you, calling you a thorn in the side of every Matron Mother from Menzoberranzan to Erelhei-Cinlu," Val commented.

"Takes one to know one," Yvonnel said with a smirk. "She'd miss it if I weren't giving her a hard time constantly. Besides, coming from her that's practically a compliment. Siniira forgets how much of a piece of work she is herself."

"You're friends, aren't you?"

"I'm not just here because duty demands it, Valyne. I'm also here because she can't be. We began our respective positions as enemies, but a true drow understands that those enemies can sometimes be the most honest reflections of ourselves. Even when she was young, Siniira was brilliant, charismatic, and talented. She never wavered in her faith, never lost the Goddess's favor. I counted myself fortunate to have her as a rival. Eventually, it turned into something of a mutual admiration even though she growls so," the Revered Daughter explained. "Just don't tell anyone. We both have reputations to maintain."

"So the way you were constantly competing...?"

"It was a game, a way of challenging the other to press their limits just to succeed. Anything you can do, I can do better. It made both of us into who and what we are today. She never would have dared become Matron if I hadn't seized the position of Revered Daughter. And I never would have considered openly recognizing which House I was from if she hadn't challenged Quenthel Baenre to a private duel of casting and won. Which you also shouldn't tell anyone. Do you really think House Duskryn belongs eighth in the city? But it remains there because Siniira would rather focus inward on securing and improving things than catering to the whims of her own ambition. Perhaps someday that will change."

Valyne let out a barely audible sigh and picked up a stone, smoothing her thumb over it before casting it out into the darkness. It landed somewhere with a series of tumbling clicks. "So which option should I choose? Which would please the Spider Queen?"

"Who am I to speak the mind of the Goddess?" Yvonnel said, spreading her hands wide. "My advice is that you enjoy your remaining hours as much as possible while I go speak with Durna Thuldark who has so generously committed troops to our cause. I expect you had something to do with that."

"If I had, I wouldn't admit to it anyway," Valyne said, her thoughts a thousand miles away. "At the battle, then. It all comes down to that."

Yvonnel just nodded, rising to her feet and leaving the younger drowess to mull over her thoughts in silence. If she caught sight of Cessair, she didn't give any sign. At least Siniira's youngest daughter was more at peace with what was to come than she might have otherwise been.

Cessair stepped around the stones and sat down beside Val, bumping the drowess with her shoulder. "If you look any more gloomy, it'll probably start raining even down here," she said teasingly, trying to earn that look of exasperated amusement again.

Instead, Valyne just shrugged a little. "No clouds," she said with a little gesture towards the cave ceiling. "Cess, about the battle."

"I know, destroy the sigils. That's not going to be hard, is it? I'm not exactly great wizard material," the rogue said, stretching and yawning like a cat. She couldn't help it, not with how late it was getting. Hopefully Galen was having some luck with Lirayne. She hadn't heard screeched drow profanities, which was a positive sign.

"No. Just chip them away or smash them with a hammer. They only have to be partially obliterated to lose their power, but ideally you'll want to destroy them completely. All of them have to be inactive for the rift to close," Valyne explained, coming back to herself. She knew what to do here, and giving that advice to someone, doing something that would actually help in some concrete way, made her feel better. Live or die, Cessair would at least be able to do the work she couldn't do herself.

"Easy. I'll get a hammer and chisel from Durna's supplies," the rogue said. "I'd rather not have to use a dagger. Ruins the edge completely."

Val rolled her eyes. "You and your knives."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Cessair grinned. "There's my girl. Val, whatever happens, I know you'll do your best. And we'll make sure Lirayne is safe, no matter how many demonic asses I have to put a boot up."

"I think that's Galen's job," Val said, arching an eyebrow delicately. "Where are those two, anyway?"

"In her tent, behaving themselves like boring people. Which suprises me more and more every day that goes by. But that doesn't mean we can't pretend we think otherwise," Cessair said playfully.

"I think you're taking your tiefling role a little too much to heart."

"Oh no. I was born this way. Just, you know, without the horns and the tail and the being a tiefling."

Val laughed, distracted from her fate for the first time since Malcanthet's offer. And that little hint of humor, of pleased amusement, glimmering in her eyes made Cessair start laughing too. Whatever happened, they would be friends.