Na'rii recovered her tongue first. "I be takin' no orders from you, dreadlord!" she snarled, tightening her stranglehold on Callista's neck and prodding her sword into her chest for emphasis. She was starting to regret having grabbed hold of the warlock. Keeping her still was becoming an unwanted distraction, and Nerothos' complete lack of acknowledgement of her predicament made Na'rii wonder if they were really co-conspirators after all.
"Cut that out, you lunatic!" Callista gasped, digging her fingers into Na'rii's arm in an attempt to break her chokehold.
"You are hardly in a position to dissent," Nerothos said, indicating Kar'thol's mangled arm, the limping felhunter, and the swordpoint at Callista's chest with a mocking smile.
Na'rii looked daggers at that. Planting a bare foot in the small of Callista's back, she sent her sprawling onto the stone at Tun's feet, forked tongues of lightning arcing and snapping between her freed hands. "I wouldn't be tryin' me," she said dangerously.
"Are you alright?" Tun hissed as Callista rose, rubbing at her bruised neck.
"Fine," she hissed back, looking between Nerothos and Na'rii with the air of a spectator at a brutal sporting match. "Better than she'll be, at any rate."
Nerothos laughed coldly at Na'rii's attempt at intimidation. The shadows around him seemed to deepen and gain substance, the light growing thin and guttering, and his eyes burned in the darkness. "Your spirits have no dominion here, mortal." His voice was smooth, almost hypnotic, with a lazy undercurrent of power. "We sent them writhing into oblivion ages upon ages ago, along with all else that drew breath on this miserable world."
The effect on Na'rii was immediate. The defiant glare on her face wavered, and she shook her head as though trying to clear it.
"I am told their tortured husks still haunt this place," Nerothos continued, as tendrils of shadow crept closer, searching. "If you listen, perhaps you can hear them crying for reprieve."
Na'rii had dropped all pretense of challenge and looked plainly terrified. Her eyes were wide, staring into nothing, and her lightning failed between her trembling hands. Kar'thol sprang forward with a roar, intent on helping his friend, but froze mid-leap as dumb fear contorted his features.
Tun shifted uncomfortably, half paralyzed in horror he couldn't explain. The darkness was absolute now. The wall sconces were still burning but they seemed to illuminate nothing, and the shadows had a brooding, menacing feel, as though nameless terrors skittered just beyond his vision.
Eyes glittered above him in the blackness, and he shrank in fear until he realized they belonged to Callista. Her face was caught somewhere between the same unreasoning terror he was feeling and an expression of professional curiosity.
Tun put a hand tentatively on her sleeve, and she startled and cried out before recovering herself. "Demon magic," she whispered in response to his half-wild look of pleading. Her face was ghastly white, and she appeared ready to flee at the first provocation. "Not…not for us."
"Holy Light," he muttered, shivering. If this was what it felt like to be caught in the spell's peripheral, he'd hate to experience the brunt of it.
"The Light's got nothing to do with it," Callista said, trying to grin but only managing a grimace. Somehow, knowing that the terror was only an illusion spun by Nerothos didn't make it any less oppressive. She couldn't see Na'rii anymore, the blackness was too opaque, but she could hear her labored breathing somewhere ahead. It was ragged and sharp, almost sobbed. Having both inflicted and been the target of lesser spells of a similar nature, Callista didn't envy the troll whatever she was seeing now.
They huddled there in the dark for minutes that felt like small eternities, straining their eyes to peer through shadows that roiled and took monstrous shapes, and flinching at small noises. Finally the darkness began to dissolve. The wall sconces flared, flooding the corridor with their flickering red light.
Callista blinked rapidly to clear her vision and heard Tun sigh in relief at her side.
"I trust there will be no more foolishness," Nerothos said, regarding them with a gaze edged with amused malice.
"You're a fiend!" Tun said shakily. He had caught sight of Na'rii. She seemed unaware the spell had ended, eyes still wide with terror, murmuring in Zandali.
"Undoubtedly," Nerothos said, smiling cruelly.
Kar'thol came to with a start, a haunted look in his eyes. He was unsteady on his feet, though whether from recent fear or blood loss was hard to say. The arm Jhormug had lacerated was bleeding freely, shockingly white bone shards visible amidst the torn flesh. "What demon do to Na'rii?!" he demanded, expression changing to one of worry as he lumbered to her side.
Tun hurried over as well, then looked back at Callista, blue eyes luminous in the half-light. "What can we do for her?" he asked, voice thick with concern.
Callista just shrugged, too indifferently for Tun's taste. "They always snap out of it eventually."
Apparently this was the wrong answer, because Tun shot her an annoyed glare.
"She just tried to strangle me!" Callista said defensively. Annoyed herself now, and feeling just a tinge of something that might have been guilt, she turned on Nerothos and jerked her head towards Na'rii. "Was that really necessary?"
"Of course not," he said smugly. He had been studying the effects of his spell on the troll with a cold sort of interest, which, when transferred to Callista, became sardonic. "Moral indignation doesn't suit you, warlock."
"Oh, who asked you," Callista muttered, turning back to the others. She could feel Nerothos' gaze on her, but, wisely or not, she'd ceased to be frightened of the dreadlord. At least when he was deliberately being irksome, which was usually.
Na'rii had returned somewhat to her self again, and was waving off offers of assistance from Tun and Kar'thol. "Nah, mon, I be fine. Nothin' but a bad trip." She tried a careless grin, but it faltered. Then she noticed Kar'thol's arm, and her eyes narrowed. "Why ya be fussin' over me when ya bleedin' like a stuck elf? Gimme that!"
She seized his arm above the elbow and began manipulating it skillfully, golden light washing over the wound. She petitioned the spirits for aid: fire to cleanse, water to soothe, earth for renewal. The dreadlord had been wrong. The spirits of this place, though bloodied and lonely, were far from dead. They would help one who remembered how to ask.
The runnels of blood dripping from Kar'thol's arm thinned and then stopped as new flesh layered the wound. It would leave a scar, but at least the bone would be mended. Kar'thol winced at the discomfort and accepted Na'rii's scolding tolerantly.
"We have wasted enough time. Come," Nerothos commanded, stepping forward so his shadow fell over Na'rii and Tun.
Tun looked up at him, uneasy but determined. He had never trusted the dreadlord, and the demon's unpleasant little demonstration of power had only solidified his opinion. "Why should we follow you after this?" he asked, throwing his arm out in an encompassing gesture.
Nerothos smiled. "Because, little mage, you would not enjoy the alternatives at all."
Tun glanced around for support, but found none. Na'rii, despite her temporary animation at the sight of Kar'thol's injury, was still pale and hollow-eyed. And Callista was engrossed in tending to her felhunter's limp, fel-green energy coursing around her hand in sinister imitation of Na'rii's healing spell. He caught her eye, but the bland expression she wore was not encouraging.
Tun frowned, at a loss. The dreadlord's spell, it seemed, had cowed them all exactly as he had intended.
Nerothos herded the group along in an uncomfortable silence. He seemed to be in a hurry, for he held them to a brisk pace, almost a jog, their footsteps echoing eerily in the deserted corridors. This made conversation difficult, not that anyone much felt like speaking. Though some of the stricken look had faded from Na'rii's face, she still didn't look well. Kar'thol tramped along at her side in his usual stolid way, occasionally scowling at Nerothos' back or looking down to check on Na'rii.
Tun attracted Callista's gaze and then made an impatient gesture in Nerothos' direction, asking her wordlessly what she had been doing back there.
Callista gave a helpless half-shrug and pointed at Jhormug, causing Tun to turn his eyes up to the ceiling in a plea for forbearance for warlocks and their incomprehensible pacts with demons.
Callista looked forward and refused to meet Tun's stare again. Jhormug's injury, of course, had only been an excuse. Had it been purely a matter of loyalties, Callista would've backed Tun against Nerothos without question, but, unfortunately, she knew what Tun didn't. Namely, that the only reason they had been allowed to survive so long in this place without being turned into something unnatural was Nerothos' connections. For the moment, at least, practicality meant keeping the dreadlord around.
The passage they had been following widened out into an impressively proportioned hall. It had once been filled with a forest of thick columns, spaced several long strides apart, but now many of them lay toppled and broken. It was a desolate place, filled with strange shadows. Nerothos halted in the center of it.
"What are we doing here?" Tun asked, looking around as though expecting felguards to leap from behind columns at any moment.
"Waiting," Nerothos said uninformatively. He was the only one who didn't look out of place amid the ruin, his wide dark wings blending with the shadows.
Na'rii's gaze darted about suspiciously, yellow eyes gleaming in the half-dark like a cat's, but she said nothing.
Callista didn't like this place much either. Too many nooks and hiding places for Nether knew what. Jhormug sprang from her side at her silent command, nosing into the dark spaces beneath fallen columns and crushed stonework. He didn't return, instead crouching in ambush in the low arch created by two leaning columns. Callista could hazard any number of guesses as to what Nerothos' business here was, and not all of them boded well for the rest of them.
They didn't wait long; multiple corridors opened onto the hall, and after a few minutes they heard the clack of approaching hooves on the stone floor. Nerothos strode towards the sound and vanished behind a column, leaving the others standing amid the ruins, exchanging tense looks. Na'rii narrowed her eyes and whispered something to Kar'thol, who grunted softly in return.
"For your sake, Nerothos, this had better be worth my while." A familiar thickly-accented voice rumbled from the shadows.
Tun creased his brow, trying to catch the words, but his knowledge of Eredun was limited to one or two phrases he'd picked up from listening to Callista and her minions.
Callista shot him a meaningful look before slipping off into the dark. She recognized that voice, and she wanted a better view.
"Some disturbing information has come to my attention regarding the Lady Sarlah." Nerothos was standing a few paces from the Tothrezim she'd seen earlier, Lord Vathregyr. Two doomguards stood impassively on either side of the archway behind them. Callista hadn't sensed any of them approach; they must've traveled through the wall passages.
"Has it now? How very interesting." Lord Vathregyr didn't actually sound interested at all. "Some new circumstances have come to my attention as well. I intended to inform you and Charin at our next rendezvous, but since you are here…"
Callista couldn't see Nerothos' expression from this angle, but his relaxed stance tightened a little. "Nothing unfortunate, I trust."
Callista didn't think she liked the tenor of this conversation. She sank back into the shelter of a cracked column and shut her eyes so the green glow wouldn't be evident, searching for demons. What she found made her hiss, just as she felt a prickle of excitement from Jhormug, still hidden somewhere to her right.
"No, very fortuitous," Vathregyr replied. He looked just as monstrous as Callista remembered, shadows flickering across the bulging muscles of his arms and the scar patterns on his wings. "It seems Hel'nurath has decided to honor our contract after all, with interest for late payment." He paused, smiling greedily. "And, of course, a very generous bounty for returning you to his custody."
Callista whirled and began sprinting back to the others before she could see Nerothos' response to this, but, from the sound and sudden flare of light, she assumed it involved something being set on fire. Vathregyr, if they were lucky, though she didn't count on it.
There was an agonized roar, cut ominously short, as Jhormug lunged from hiding at some hapless demon.
Callista skidded to a stop in front of Tun. "We have to leave."
"What just happened?!" he demanded, shimmering runes twisting into the air as he prepared a defensive spell.
Lightning crackled to their left, punctuated by bestial bellowing and the smack of stone against flesh as Na'rii and Kar'thol encountered a detachment of felguards.
"I'll explain later, we have to go now, there's too many!"
A trio of felguards advanced on them, dodging around crumbled columns and holding various menacing two-handed weapons at ready.
Suddenly the space between Tun and the demons was thick with enchanted shards of ice as jagged as glass, whirling through the air like leaves caught in a gale. The felguards howled in pain and frustration as the ice cut into their flesh.
"Alright," Tun said, jaw set in concentration as he channeled his spell. He was starting to get the hang of combat, though he knew he would never enjoy it. "I think I can port us back to the last place we stopped, but it'll take time."
"I'll take care of it," Callista said with a confidence she didn't feel. "Just get us out of here."
The screaming from the midst of Tun's blizzard had stopped; he tried not to look at the shredded lumps of flesh that were left as he started on his new spell. "Get the others."
Callista nodded, already distracted, looking for new foes. The hall was a nightmare of violent chaos. The only reason they hadn't already been overrun was the maze of toppled columns that prevented more than a few demons approaching from any direction at one time. She could hear Na'rii and Kar'thol but not see them, somewhere in the darkness to her left.
A single felguard, one arm already blackened from lightning or fire, saw Callista and charged. She summoned a wall of greenish-white felfire that burst towards the ceiling, and turned to scan for more enemies.
Magic ebbed and flowed around Tun as he muttered words of power, tracing arcane sigils in the air.
There was a sound like a cannon shot as a huge explosion rocked the room, sending dust and bits of stone pattering down on Callista's head. She took that to mean Nerothos was still giving a decent account of himself on the other side of the hall.
A squad of felguards appeared amidst the dust and shadows, marching in a more organized fashion than their fellows had been. They put their heads down and began to sprint when they caught sight of Callista and Tun, continuing relentlessly even after the demon in the lead fell writhing to one of Callista's curses.
She swore and looked back at Tun, but he just shook his head tersely.
The demon in the rear collapsed as Jhormug leapt onto its back, crushing its neck in his powerful jaws. One of its fellows paused to attack the felhunter, leaving only one for Callista. She spoke swiftly in demonic as shadows braided around her arms before striking towards the felguard. It fell clutching its face with blood pouring between its fingers.
"Now!" Tun yelled, gesturing urgently amid a swirl of glowing runes at his feet. "Na'rii! Kar'thol!"
Callista made to dart within the runed circle, but stumbled as the ground began to quake. She looked up and quailed as she saw the cause of the vibrations. Abyssals, great demonic golems of jagged stone and cursed fire, had entered the fray and were stomping towards them.
A dire, muttered curse in a musical language sounded near her ear. It was Na'rii, supporting herself against a fallen column, frozen in awed terror.
"Let's go!" Callista yelled, shoving her into Tun and leaping after her.
One of the abyssals raised a huge flaming fist and Callista squeezed her eyes shut, muttering prayers to the Light for the first time in her heretical life.
When she opened them, they were elsewhere.
Callista sank to the ground in relief, leaning against the cool stone of the wall and closing her eyes.
"What just happened?" Tun asked, sounding rather shell-shocked.
"Conspiracy gone sour," Callista replied, enjoying the solid feel of the wall and the pleasant lack of demons trying to pound her into jelly. "Nerothos picked the wrong side."
"What?" Tun said, trying to assimilate that. Then, after a pause: "Where are you going?"
Callista opened her eyes.
Na'rii was walking away from them, jaw set. "I be goin' to find Kar'thol. Ya left him, ya cowards!"
"That thing was going to crush us!" Tun cried, beginning to look guilt-wracked. "You can't go back there, you'll be killed!"
"Better than lettin' my friend be slaughtered!" Na'rii spat, fists clenching. She looked positively feral, teeth and tusks bared and intermittent sparks leaping between her fingers. "I don' expect ya to come, but spirits help ya if ya get in my way!"
Tun looked at Callista helplessly. She thought for a moment, hesitated, and then sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "They might not kill him."
Na'rii had taken several strides further down the corridor, but now she rounded on them, lean body tense with barely restrained emotion. "Why? How ya be knowin' that?!"
Callista steeled herself to continue, trying to ignore the uneasy sinking feeling in her gut. She was probably about to land herself in a great deal of trouble, but there was nothing for it now. Nerothos was gone, and she would have to come at least partially clean if they were going to make any kind of reasonable decision about what to do next.
"This world is full of Legion laboratories," she explained evenly. "We were meant to be fodder for them. If they can take him alive, they probably will."
Na'rii eyed her distrustfully, not quite daring to be hopeful. "Where they be takin' him?" She seemed a little less likely to charge off headlong now that she knew Kar'thol might not be dead.
"I don't know," Callista said with a shrug. "But you can't rescue him if you're dead or in a cage."
"How ya be knowin' all this?" Na'rii demanded again, eyes reduced to suspicious slits. She was stalking back towards Callista with the predatory air of a saber cat about to pounce.
Callista took in Na'rii's demeanor and shifted to a less awkward position in case she needed to get away quickly. "The dreadlord told me."
Seeing Na'rii's expression grow a little more violent, Tun jumped in before she could follow up with an accusation. He didn't think Callista's conversing with the demon necessarily indicated treachery. She was a warlock, and, uncouth as it was, prone to that sort of thing. "Speaking of That Demon, what's this about a conspiracy?"
Callista groaned inwardly. Tun meant well, but this was an even more damning line of questioning than the first. Oh well. It was the truth or nothing at this point anyway. "He was involved in the defection of one of Hel'nurath's lieutenants and the accompanying rebellion. He thought one of his fellow conspirators had betrayed them, but he suspected the wrong one. Or he was right, and they were in it together. That's what we saw back there."
Tun was silent for a moment as he mulled this over. None of the conclusions he drew were pleasant. "You learned all of that just from listening to them talk?"
Callista stalled, pulling at a loose thread on her robe, before surrendering to the inevitable. "No. I knew some of it before."
"You told me you didn't know anything before!" Tun said, beginning to look just a little betrayed.
"Told ya she be lyin'," Na'rii said as she crossed her arms, vindictively pleased.
Callista scowled at her before turning back to Tun. She didn't much care what the troll thought, but Tun's expression made her feel uncomfortably guilty. "I didn't when you asked. All I knew was – " She cut herself off midsentence, realizing there was no good way to conclude that thought.
"All you knew was what?" Tun asked, in the measured voice that meant he was about to be very angry. He drew himself up to his full height, which, since Callista was still sprawled on the ground, was more effective than it might otherwise have been.
"All I knew was he wanted to find some demon," Callista finished lamely. It was not what she had intended to say. That had to do with Folgrim's fate, the thought of which only multiplied her guilt. "I'm sorry," she said, no longer able to look Tun in the eye. "I didn't know what else to do."
"I know, I know," Tun said with a bitter weariness that was somehow worse than anger. "You're always sorry."
Callista started to get angry herself now. She hated feeling guilty, and not just for the usual reasons. She was a warlock, and over the years she'd glibly done (or allowed her minions to do) a large number of things she thought she probably would be very sorry for if she ever stopped to think about them long enough. Which she never did. For a while now, she'd had the horrible suspicion that if she ever started feeling sorry about one of them, she'd quickly be forced to start feeling guilty about the rest, and that would not be a very comfortable state of being at all. And at the moment, she was feeling very, very sorry.
"I did the best I could, alright!" she snapped defensively. "What would you have done with that demon breathing down your neck?!"
This was not an entirely truthful excuse. Callista had not been frightened of Nerothos so much as she recognized his presence as necessary. But fearing the dreadlord was a more forgivable offense than thinking him right.
"I told you not to let him out of that cell!" Tun yelled, throwing his hands up as his own irritability rose to match hers. "So you can hardly use that monster as an excuse!"
"Well, he's back in the cell now," Callista said, rolling her eyes.
Something of her earlier thoughts must've told in her voice, because Tun looked at her in incredulous disgust. "Don't tell me you're sorry about it!"
"What?" she said, creasing her brow in annoyance. "Of course not! He can go throw himself off Netherstorm for all I care! But now that he's gone, every demon on Xoroth will be after our heads!"
Tun took a deep breath, shook his head, closed his eyes, and made an effort collect himself. "Alright," he said finally, in a cold professional tone, after he'd opened them again. "We'll talk about this later. What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Callista said acidly, still in no mood to be useful. "I hear the Legion is looking for peons."
Tun just stared at her, then ground his palms into his temples and muttered a colorful torrent of abuse.
Callista hit the wall and swore.