Viconia flees for her life...and is owned by Bioware.

.........

"Oh—!"

A pained cry left Viconia's lips as she stumbled hard against a rock. By the burning sting she could tell her shin was bleeding, but a few more drops spilled would make little difference to her already tortured body. Gritting her teeth she forced herself off the ground. She must keep moving. She could not let weakness stop her. For days she'd been hiding, then running, defeating all that stood in her way. There was not far now to go, surely.

Running forwards with all the speed her frame could manage she once again cursed her weakness, although in truth it was not the fall that angered her, but the name that nearly escaped her lips. It was the name that shaped her world since birth, the name she used to shake her enemies and purify the temple—the only name. That name was all. In spite of everything her lip twisted in an amused sneer as she thought the name she nearly cried out for in weakness now hunted her for that very reason.

Turning round a tight corner Viconia stumbled to a stop. She rested her hands on her knees, gasping for breath in the cool underground air that vibrated with the innate energy of the Underdark. The tunnel split here. Which way? She'd found her feet on this trail almost by instinct, knowing it one of the lesser-travelled routes to the vast open cavern that was the surface world. But she hadn't been to the surface in over a century, and never on this path. She only had snippets of overheard conversation between fighters and slavers that the route even existed, and now that she was still, with her heart hammering in her chest and her body shaking from exertion she began to fear that she was lost in the maze of caverns.

Weakness, fool...decide!

Lolth proclaimed that one should chose with the left hand, so perhaps she should turn right? The absurdity of such a childish game to pick a path that might lead to life or death hit her and she let out a short, bitter laugh.

........

"You always were too quick to laugh."

Viconia whirled. Her pursuer was fleeter than she'd given her credit for; this one never faltered and seemed to know almost instinctively where her quarry was headed. Viconia sneered again though watching her step out of the shadows.

"There is much folly in the world, girl. You would be well to learn such a lesson yourself."

"The only folly here is you thinking you could outrun me! I run with the glory of Lolth, and yours are the burdened steps of a walking corpse!" her pursuer shouted in a voice meant to carry all the way back to Menzoberranzan.

Viconia laughed again. "Such boastful words. Though perhaps they would sound better delivered with slightly less...enthusiasm. The spider is quick and cool when it moves in to kill, it does not set the caverns echoing with brayed epithets."

"You would mock me?"

"You would challenge me?" Viconia demanded in return, her voice turning to ice.

"I would," the assassin said, though she sounded less sure than before. "You are nothing. You are a betrayer. The Spider Queen has taken back her gifts—why else would you be so bloodied? Your life's blood weeps from your wounds even now!"

She seemed to find her confidence again and spoke the words boldly, though not as boldly as her first declarations. Viconia looked at her, standing erect in the weird light of some phosphorescent mosses. The armour was new, likely a gift from the priestesses. A gift granted in a hurry, clearly, as despite its grandness the armour looked ill-fitted and awkward over her small frame.

"Where are your sisters, Iimaer? Do they not join you in this great hunt?" Viconia scoffed.

"They are at the temple, waiting for Lolth to grant me victory. Waiting to see if they are worthy of life!"

Viconia's eyes narrowed.

"And what do you think, my daughter?"

Iimaer tossed her head, sending her loose-fitting helmet wobbling over one eye. She yanked it off in irritation and sent it clattering to the stone with a gesture that filled Viconia with a strange pride.

"I think that if I cannot defeat such a low traitor then your seed has no worth, anyway!"

Her eyes glittered as she spoke though there was a kind of desperation in them.

"You are a fool, then. Why do you think the priestesses would send you, a girl who has not even yet taken the head of a surfacer, to kill a Priestess of Lolth? Even in her rage the Spider Queen enjoys her predator's games. You were sent to taunt me and nothing more."

"You are no longer among the favoured—and do not call me daughter! You are not my mother any more, you have no power. You are dead."

The girl stepped forward and brandished a heavy mace. Viconia just sighed in annoyance.

"If we were in the house I would whip you with a troll-lash for speaking to me in such a way. Is mindlessly repeating the words of the priestesses all you can do? Think, fool. It is your death they have ordained by sending you here. Even without the blessing of Lolth I can still snap your neck, and they know this well."

"Do not speak her holy name, traitor—"

"Are you truly my first-born?" Viconia interrupted acidly. "I do not recall talking so much before taking a life when I was your age. Your tutors have much to answer for. But I say again—think, if you are capable of forming thoughts in your addled brain. How am I a traitor? By refusing to stain Lolth's altar with the blood of the weak, the blood of a child? It is those who brought the babe for sacrifice that should be punished! It is the enemies of our house that took advantage of the situation, that spoiled our name with the Spider Queen. They deserve your wrath, not I."

........

"I—"

The outstretched mace trembled in the girl's hands, its weight clearly too much for her young muscles. She was strong, this girl, and it irritated Viconia that the priestesses would overburden her with a weapon she could still not hope to wield effectively. They were mocking her, mocking her very bloodline by making her seed appear weak.

Despite her occasional lack of clarity Iimaer was all one could hope for in an heir—strong, fast, agile, and ruthless in her domination of her younger sisters and cousins. Viconia had taken great care in selecting her first consort to ensure he did not lessen the strength of her own blood, and she'd been pleased with the results. A pity he proved insubordinate; she never did think the others were quite up to his quality.

"You are a traitor," the girl said finally, gathering herself up and boldly looking her mother in the eye. "Do you think the words of a few would be enough to sway the will of the Spider Queen? Lolth knows your heart, she knows it is not truly with her. That is why she took away her blessing, why our entire house has been punished because of your foolish blasphemy. That is why they sent me on the hunt after you escaped the city—do you think I don't understand? This isn't about the child. It is about you and your failure of heart! That is why we must prove our worth again if we are to live!"

Viconia scowled. "Foolish daughter. The Spider Queen has ever favoured the words of those who flatter her, not those who speak the truth! We should rally together and restore our house by force of arms!"

The girl bit her lip and shook her head. "You always did think of yourself as above the others. I admired you for that. But you do not understand. Our house—"

She paused and glanced at the cold stone floor of the cave. Viconia was still and said nothing. She was actually thankful for the girl's continued babbling as it gave her a much-needed chance to catch her breath. But she knew well enough that others would be fast on her heels, and unlike her dithering daughter they would not hesitate to end her life. She was surprised though when the girl slowly lowered her mace.

"Our house has been ruled by the weak," Iimaer continued. "How else could our enemies have taken advantage so easily? It shames me. It angers me! This was the message of Lolth. If I killed you, where would I go? There would still be no place for me. I would be sold as a slave or tossed into the pits, my inheritance would mean nothing. You...you are right, mother. We must fight!"

She dropped her mace and it rolled languidly down the cavern path behind her. A small smile crept out of Viconia's mouth as her wayward daughter kneeled submissively at her feet.

"We still have allies, daughter. All is not lost. Does not the Spider Queen favour the bold? House DeVir will rise on the broken bodies of those that sought to destroy us!"

She ran a hand over the girl's thick, pale hair and she rose to her feet. Perhaps the child was not as much a fool as her actions had led Viconia to believe.

"We will, indeed, mother," Iimaer replied, a corner of her mouth curling up. "By the glory of Lolth, we will tri—"

The girl stopped, perhaps aware that her mother was no longer looking at her, but beyond her into the cavern. She had no time to turn around. Iimaer's eyes opened wide in confusion and her lips parted, but if she made a noise it was drowned by the sound of her own mace striking the side of her head, caving in her skull with a dull, cracking thud.

..........

Her body slumped to the cave floor and Viconia absently wiped the spattered blood from her face, staring at the girl's murderer.

"Valas—! Why did you kill her? She hunted me no more."

"Not true, sister," the male said roughly.

He knelt over the girl's body and pulled something from her hand. Viconia yanked it away from him and grimaced.

"A poison dart. She tried to trick me...she did trick me. Fooled by a child—perhaps I am deserving of the Spider Queen's wrath after all."

"You? One of the weak? Perish the thought, sssister."

He laughed inappropriately as he always did, but something in his tone made Viconia look at him hard. He gave her one of his crooked smiles and her mouth dropped open in shock, her eyes grown wide with fear.

"Valas? You—"

"Cursed, Viconia. You are not the only one who has earned the kiss of Lolth."

Viconia fell back and stared at him. A long, jointed black point protruded from his waist, reaching slowly towards her. His skin looked leathery and when he smiled she shuddered at the sight of sharp fangs.

"A...drider?" she said, her voice distant and confused. "Why?"

He chuckled again, that hissing tone creeping up from deep within his throat.

"Because, dear sister...I have killed our mother!"

"What?"

"Did Iimaer not tell you? Our mother had ordered a contingent out to seek your head—and so valuable a trophy it was that she planned to lead it herself. I just thought, perhaps, that you might appreciate that such a party wasn't on your heels. So I killed them."

Viconia stared at her brother, completely lost for words. Despite his foolish manner Valas was a superior wizard; it did not surprise her that he could do such a thing, but...

"You fool!" she cried suddenly, striking him on the head. "You risked your own life for me, one who was already dead? Fool!"

He ducked submissively but she chastised him again, fighting angrily against her emotions. That foolish male—why? Now he was even more doomed than she.

"We are all dead, sssister. Our house has fallen, there is nothing left. When you escaped your punishment our enemies took full advantage. Iimaer had no choice but to hunt you, hoping to win back Lolth's favour. But you, you can still escape."

"And go where?" Viconia cried, despair creeping up in her voice. "I will be forever hunted here, I will never find the surface. The priestesses will not let me escape. They are toying with me. And now you—"

She did not continue but struck him hard once more. Valas just laughed in that infuriating way.

"I will miss you, but you must run. The Spider Bitch revels in the slow pain of transformation but I will be a full drider very soon. Go now."

Viconia forced herself to draw a breath and nodded.

"You saved me. Shall I save you?"

She picked up the bloody mace and held it thoughtfully.

"Nay, sister," he smiled. "I still have much hunting to do before Lolth gets her prize."

Viconia looked once more into those foolish eyes that had been such an aggravation, yet so strangely uplifting in her youth. The Priestesses of Lolth were not gentle but what was left of a healer within saw clearly the pain and fear hiding behind those red orbs. She realised now that it had always been there. She considered raising the mace, but wiped it on her sleeve in a slow resignation. She opened her mouth to tell him to be strong, to fight on in the name of—but what was there? Nothing. There was nothing left. All was dust.

She turned and started out in a run, blindly heading up the passage to the left.

"Viconia!"

She stopped when he called out, looking at him expectantly. He kept his arms folded across his chest and she wondered what new folly he was playing when she noticed the black spider's leg pointing subtly towards the passage to the right. Her mouth opened, and he grinned. Viconia's eyes began to burn and she hurried down the right-side passage without a word.