Alas! My muse has whacked my head in all the wrong places… now I've got the end of the story all planned out, and not the current parts. Damn!

Uh… Maybe it's the science vibe getting to me; when I wrote about the Horadric cube I felt like I was explaining the concept of space-time, then about chemical reactions ("one element plus another element forms a compound with its own unique set of properties, often quite different to the original reactants…"), and after that I wondered about the lost mass during the Horadric Cube's transmutations, which leads to nuclear fusion… and where has the energy gone? O.O

Okay okay, no more rants. Anyways, thanks again to the reviewers! Nice to see you back, Borg… or rather, Arcanus Deus Necros. Also special thanks to Icy Mike Molson for keeping me amused with a certain character of his. :D. And Phreno, we should (try to) stop visualising puppet shows as we write our work and read one another's works… it's kinda strange. Hysterically hilarious, but strange. ;P

Sorry for this pretty cruddy chapter and bypassing most of the second quest… I wouldn't call it a bad case of writer's block but it's more like… it's not the most interesting quest to write, and probably not very exciting to read about. It's tediously long and boring, I thought. That and Beetleburst was one of the most annoying monsters to battle, despite being very… pretty... --Hugs Beetleburst-- --Is electrocuted-- Eep.

Disclaimer: Diablo series – Blizzard's. I own the characters… and a bit of plot. I shall go weep now.

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Chapter 17: Day Without Dawn

"…All that," Falcon grumbled allowed herself to fall through the portal and onto the paved, stone ground. She continued after ripping the red hawk helm off her head, "for a crooked staff. That was not worth it."

"And this little cube." The sun-baked stone on my back, with the armour cutting into my joints was not in the least bit comfortable, but it was better than staying up. I held up the small box that fitted snugly in my hands to block the sun from my direct vision, and the sun's rays glinted off the golden reliefs on the surface. "Master Oread, are you all right?"

"I'm holding together, if that's what you mean." Oread's voice grunted from the same ground level. "That was the most, most tedious errand I've ever had to go through…" She trailed off, and I heard a very soft mumble. "Damn Cain and his Horadric-obsessions."

In any other case I would have been outraged by her blasphemous words, but now, I was too exhausted to care or fuss over Oread's manners.

"So that was two down, one to go." Falcon muttered between her slow but deep breaths. "I can't move a finger."

"Neither." Oread replied. "What say we just lie here and wait for someone to take pity on us–"

"Ah, you're back!"

I was only a little startled, but that was enough for my sluggish fingers to let go. "Master Cain…" I cried just as the cube landed onto my forehead, adding to my heat- and injury- induced pounding headache. Groaning softly, I raised my right hand to shield my eyes. The sun had never felt so hot on my skin, and my armour really was not helping.

"Get lost." Oread spat. "We got your precious brick and stick, so leave us alone."

"Well, when you have recovered from your recent expedition, come and seek my counsel." His voice was surprisingly calm, as his soft footsteps diminished into the noise of the distant crowd from the marketplace.

"That was unexpectedly easy." Falcon commented.

Then we were all quiet for a few minutes, too exhausted to do otherwise.

"So…" It turned out to be Oread who finally destroyed the peace; "should we get going soon?"

"We're going straight to the inn, right?" Falcon asked, sounding assertive and perhaps a little worried. "We've been up and battling non-stop since yesterday morning."

"I say we give Fara a brief visit if we want a decent night's sleep without our bodies protesting too much; and I couldn't exactly help the fact that a huge sandstorm was above ground. We all agreed that we didn't want to camp underground amongst a horde of monsters, dead or alive." Oread retorted. Her armour shifted as she sat up slowly, winced, and sighed. "Shall we go?"

"If you say so." I replied, though I really did not want to get up. With a grunt, I reluctantly got to my feet, momentarily seeing grey stars in my vision.

"You need to get a drink before you go to sleep, Celadon." Falcon commented dully as she scooped up the cube on the ground. "I'll take this for now; 's'at fine with you?"

"Sure, you can take the staff from me too if you want; then Cain can just bother you instead of all of us." Oread joked humourlessly as my head pounded again and my ears rang. I lowered my head into my hand, closing my eyes in attempt to steady myself as I staggered a little. A strong hand took me by the upper arm. "Are you all right?" Oread asked.

"I'm fine, Master Oread." I relied drearily. "Thank you."

"Just don't pass out or anything; I'm not carrying you." Oread began to walk off with a heavy limp, using her spear as support. I dragged my feet after her, wanting nothing more than a shower and a nice, long slumber. "And by the way," Oread's voice drifted sluggishly towards my ears, which were already half-asleep. I looked up to the back of her bowed head. "Save the whole 'master' thing from now on; every time you say it, it'll remind me of Cain."

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I awoke the next day to the dull throbbing of my head, and was annoyed to find that it was still dark. I had moved to Elzix's inn, and the large window in my room faced east. Back in Westmarch, I had slept until near-noon several times, with the skies dimmed and time lost in the even, stormy-grey that covered the sky and cloaked the land. Such was not the case in Lut Gholein. I had gotten used to rising with the sun, and waking up at such an odd time irritated me.

I got dressed – being mindful to wrap my thickest cloak around me – and decided to see if Falcon was awake – she always woke just before sunrise. My window looked directly towards the dock, but Falcon was nowhere in sight. I opened the door to go out and find her; as I did, I let out a small yelp and jumped back at the sight of the black, moving bundle, before my eyes adjusted and I realised that it was a raven – the female one, a little larger than the male, with shinier feathers. "Good morning, Aether." She gave a happy call, and shook one of her wings. "You gave me a scare there; where's Falcon?"

Aether gave a soft call and set flight. I followed her down the stairs, and eventually arrived at the training grounds. Aether called happily again, and swooped towards Falcon, who got up from the ground and allowed her to land on her shoulder.

"Good morning, Celadon." Falcon greeted me as she stroked Aether softly. Aether preened a little before she took off again, flying towards Nimbus overhead. "Had a good night's rest?"

"Yes, very." I returned her greeting with a smile. "What are you doing here at this time?"

"Oh, I just tried to call a spirit, that's all." Falcon's grin disappeared.

"No luck?"

She shook her head. "I guess I'm really just not spiritual enough. I just haven't got such a connection with the metaphysical spirits of nature."

"You'll get there sometime." I attempted to cheer her up a little. "I mean, a few Druids had crossed my homeland, and they were all quite a bit older than you are. It might sound strange, coming from someone younger than you are, but you're really still very young for a Druid warrior; and I think you're pretty accomplished at such age."

"Hmm." Falcon voiced a sigh, and then the smile reappeared. I was glad. "I guess you're right. I still have a while." She assumed her usual wide-grinned expression again. "Well, anyway, before this, I'd decided to give Cain a very early wake-up call."

"You… did?" I got a little annoyed inside; was Oread rubbing off on her?

"Yep!" She nodded energetically; how could she have recovered from exhaustion so quickly? "Well, I had nothing else to do, really, and he didn't mind."

"What did he say?"

"A lot." She spoke the words slowly, suggesting the actual length of Cain's speech. "Well, basically, this cube can manipulate space and time, and fuse several items together, even if they might seem totally unrelated, and create a new item, with its own unique properties. Look, I'll show you." She fished three sapphires out of her pocket, which were quite small and obviously flawed. She pressed a small button on the cube, one I had missed before, hidden by the intricate gold-woven patterns, and the cube opened up as the sides disassembled themselves. The sides laid flat in a cross-like formation, as a semi-sphere of golden light filled the space that was once contained within the cube.

Falcon placed the three gems in the golden glow, and they hovered there. The glow then became brighter, swallowing up the sapphires, before shrinking back into the inside of the cube as the sides reassembled. The cube snapped back together and the glow went out.

"Now what?" I asked. That was very spectacular, but I still did not understand.

"Look in here." Falcon pressed the same button again and the top side sprang up. I looked into the cube, and saw nothing but black swirling with the closest shade of grey. "Reach in and see what you get."

Slightly hesitant, I reached in, and was surprised as I could not feel the sides of the cube, no matter how far I spread my fingers; but as I drew them back together they closed around a small, hard object. I took my hand out and opened it. Lying in my hand was a larger sapphire, its flaws hardly visible to my eyes.

"Wow." I uttered. Maybe the trip yesterday was worth it, after all.

"Yeah, that's what I said, too." Falcon grinned and snapped the top side of the cube back on. "Cain tried to explain how it works, but I guess I zoned out on that part."

I returned the sapphire to her. "So what does it have to do with whatever he asked us to do before? Some staff and amulet?"

"Yeah, this is what we have to use to smoosh the other two things together, apparently. He said he's deciphered a little bit more of the scroll, and he mentioned something about someone called Tal Rasha… I don't know. The only part I really picked up on was that we have to get the last artefact." Falcon jerked her head a little, throwing back one of her pigtails. "Meh. I guess we can always ask him about it later, once we've gotten that far."

"Well, I'm not in the mood now." I still remembered the mess that we made yesterday, of the desert, of the Halls of the Dead, of the maggots, and of ourselves. I pressed lightly onto my chest, and found that my ribs still ached a little, despite Fara having restored most of the damage.

"Are you still feeling sick from that beetle monster's lightning attacks?"

"Yeah…" I rubbed my temples, now that I was conscious of the headache again. "I'm sure you haven't recovered all that quickly either, Falcon. That was a nasty blow that green-looking monster back in the Halls gave you."

"This?" Falcon took off the glove on her right hand, revealing the once-broken wrist that was tightly bound by several layers of bandages. "I'm only glad that I had blocked it, you know. She would've crushed my helm straight through my skull otherwise."

"Hey, thanks for escaping without me." Another voice. I turned and saw Oread, walking unusually slowly, probably as an attempt to hide her limp. It was not as bad as it was yesterday, but it seemed we were all yet to recover from the previous days.

"Good morning, Oread." Falcon gave a small wave.

"'Escaping', Master Oread?" I was genuinely confused.

"I said no more 'master'-ing, Celadon." I suddenly remembered, and felt a little embarrassed. "I walked into Cain on the way and he bombarded me with spittle, that's what I meant." She sighed and put her hands onto her hips. "What's more, I ran into Drognan afterwards."

"Drognan?"

"Yeah, a mage that kinda hides away in the backstreets who owns a little shop. When he spoke he didn't seem like the Cain-type of people, and he had a serious look on him." Oread lifted her head towards the sky and cracked her neck, and then kept her eyes fixed upon the dark sky. "Rightfully so, too."

"So I was right after all." Falcon looked up as she voiced softly, a little fearful, perhaps. "The land has been cheated into thinking that day has not yet arrived. It should be late morning, by my estimation."

"It's not just an eclipse or anything that's happened before." Oread continued. "The sun refuses to rise. This is happening to the whole of the Sanctuary. Night-dwelling foes are coming out."

"Well, is there anything that can be done?" I asked, uncertainly.

"Drognan knows more about this." Oread returned her eyes to my level, and smoothed her bangs back with a hand. "Since we're still recovering from yesterday, I guess we can't set out until tomorrow at the earliest." Her hand reached the back of her head, and the bangs fell back to their original position. "We have to notify the town of this, and tell Greiz especially to have his men guard the town more closely."

So we spoke to Drognan. He was a soft-spoken man of few words, which we were all glad about. He looked about fifty years of age, but his eyes were spirited and his posture was strong. He told us of the legend of the Claw Vipers, beyond the parts of the desert where travellers dared to explore.

The Claw Vipers, according to Drognan, was once a clan of reptilian chimeras belonging to neither the kingdoms of men nor the forces of Heaven or Hell. They were merely a group that existed on their own, secretly living in the heart of the desert.

Then the power of Diablo seeped throughout the land as he was awakened. Even before Diablo emerged from the chambers beneath Tristram, his evil had gone to work amongst the clan of chimeras. They began to change, and as darkness took over them, they retreated to their sacred temple and corrupted the place. They killed those that refused to convert, and dumped their corpses in their former city, where the ones who retained their sanity also died. This grudge that they bore raised them as undead creatures, and they still stood to guard their former city, now no more than rubble and ruins.

As for those that remained in the temple, mutation took place as Diablo rose. They became monsters of extreme bloodlust. Their skin became paler and thinner, until they were transparent, and the creatures were of the colour of arterial blood. They were now known as the clan of the Claw Vipers, which worshipped the occult, and practiced dark magic.

Drognan believed that the darkness of the land was of their doing; their power had grown since Diablo's rebirth. They would only be able to emerge in darkness – the sunlight would be lethal to them. So in order to spread their forces, they darkened the land by engulfing the sun in their dark magic.

"So I ask you to seek out the Claw Vipers, and stop their practices." Drognan concluded.

"This sounds like a better task than the last one, at least." Falcon was swinging her legs back and forth, looking somewhat excited and restless. "We're not in search of anything, are we? We're just out to kick some viper behinds?"

"Oh, cleanse the Claw Viper Temple is what I'm sending you out to do, young Druidess." Drognan smiled kindly. "Though you might find treasure on the way; one can only wonder at the things that the Claw Vipers would have hidden away throughout all those hundreds of years of seclusion."

"Right." Oread said slowly. She looked thoughtful, but after a few seconds she broke her concentration and sped up her words. "What time is it now, Drognan?"

"Should be about noon." I was shocked, and judging from Dorgan's amused expression, so were Oread and Falcon. "Oread, when I met you on your way it was already late morning. Your previous errand must have exhausted you."

"But I didn't see anyone in their shops on the way." I mentioned.

"They must have remained inside in fear of an eclipse; they were a bad omen," Drognan sighed and ran a hand over his eyes. "Though this is much more than they fear. An eclipse would pass; this won't until you pursue the evil it brings to its origin, and uproot it."

"All right." Oread was thoughtful again, and she nodded slowly while fixing her eyes on her hands upon her lap. "We'll give ourselves some time to recover, and then we'll set out as soon as possible."

"My best wishes go with you, noble outlanders."

We walked out, and agreed that we should pay a visit to Fara. On the way there, few words were exchanged. The longest sentence was probably Oread's "At least there's no Horadric business involved".

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"That's incredible of you, Celadon." Jerhyn said as a gust of desert wind swept across the empty streets, he hugged his cloak closer around himself. "I must say; I'm in awe from what your company has been able to accomplish."

"You're too kind." I replied, shivering from the chill; for three days' time, the sun had not appeared. The dormant heat of the desert had awakened, and then it had died, leaving the dead corpse of the earth cold and still.

"You're setting out tomorrow to seek the resolution of this phenomenon, no?"

"We are; Drognan had directed us to the Claw Viper Temple, beyond the lost ruins of the desert." I sighed. "I wonder how long it'll be until we find a way to rid this land of evil's hold; it just seems like all these problems from the sideline are coming before us to delay us upon our path."

"I'm sure everything will work out in the end." Jerhyn smiled. I tried to return it, but I was nervous for the battles that I would encounter tomorrow. We were setting out in a few hours' time, when the sun was meant to rise. If this was going to be anything tougher than the Halls of the Dead and the underground lairs of the maggots, and everything in between, it was going to be a hard journey.

Dread seeped over my insides. "Thanks for your company tonight, Jerhyn. I must take my leave now. Long days are ahead of us."

Jerhyn picked up on the inadvertent irony and chuckled. I finally found the strength to smile. He put a hand on my head and scuffed my hair playfully. I cringed in feigned annoyance. "You have all of my good will, Celadon. May you return safely."

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"I think we're lost." Falcon spoke tentatively as Oread led the way, the tip of her arrow illuminated by the dancing embers of a potential explosion. "It's funny; you'd think that with the sun gone like this, all the stars would be out. I don't see a thing ahead."

"Nah, we're getting close." Oread mumbled absent-mindedly, her eyes locked on some invisible distance. Even with Inner Sight I thought we might be lost – there were no landmarks in this vast area of ruins, all eroded almost to nothing by abrasive desert winds.

Suddenly, Oread lifted her bow and let her arrow fly. It hit something with a bang followed by a voomp, the noise of the burning drowning out the groan of the victim as it fell. "See?"

"Now I do."

It was a corpse that the arrow took down, much like the zombies we encountered back in the sewers; however, this corpse had a long tail instead of legs, and its skull was large with a long snout, bearing decayed and eroded fangs that were once sharp.

"We're here, then." I said. My mind's eye widened and blinked, and I jumped to my feet to release three arrows. I shot two cold ones and a fire arrow, but lightning cracked over all three of them. They all hit, the lightning crackling, before the two hit by fire erupted into flames.

"Nice shot." Falcon said after a whistle. In the other direction, the wolves and ravens were tearing two corpses apart, while Lava was feeding on the corpse of the one felled by Oread's arrow. Rainbow was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the moan that I heard from the darkness, it had gone to work on another enemy.

Oread used Inner Sight, and my own Inner Sight allowed me to see her aura humming, before bursting out and illuminating a radius of darkness around her. From behind me, Falcon focused her energy and worked up gusts of wind, before directing them into orbit around her body – such was a new skill that she had practiced and favoured ever since her mastery of it.

"We'll take care of it here, Falcon." I let my arrows lodged themselves into a few more victims. "You just let your minions do the work."

"My allies." Falcon corrected, with a certain degree of irritation.

"Sorry." We moved forward a few tens of feet, before stopping again to fire. "My goodness! How many corpses did the Claw Vipers throw out?"

"Right, that's enough." Oread's aura pulsed, and she let loose perhaps twenty arrows in a row. By the end of it she was gasping for breath, but the arrows, self-guided by the corrupted energies of the monsters, did their jobs very efficiently in the dark.

I was surprised by the outburst. Oread had mentioned before how exhausting that skill was, and I kept my silence as she unplugged a bottle and drained it. Her aura flared again.

"That's not fair." Falcon commented in the silence. "Is this it?"

"No," I answered. A strong energy was aglow in my mind – one of the colour of pale sick-green. "There was an elder amongst those executed by the Claw Vipers." Drognan had said this to me the day after he had told us the story of the Claw Vipers. "I'm sure this is him right here."

"Brilliant." Oread groaned as she readied her spear. "I'm getting bored."

"You think you're bored?" Falcon stepped up, and grabbed Oread's spear below the blade. Oread spun around to face her with an annoyed look. Falcon's expression held. "Let me handle this one. He's a bearer of plagues. Surely a spear is not the best weapon for this foe."

The figure neared and uttered a deep groan, before breaking out into a bolt towards us. How the flesh managed to stay on it was beyond my ability to understand. As it neared, the vile, pungent stench of decay bombarded me. I backed away. From beside me, Oread did the same.

"I couldn't do this in the Halls of the Dead, because there were levels. The maggoty hole's ground was too sticky and gross. Let's see how it works here." Falcon's aura winked, and seeped from her hand into the ground. As the golden-orange disappeared into the depths of the earth, beyond the vision of my mind, Falcon gave a great, long shout.

At about ten feet before Falcon, the corpse fell into the ground, which had opened up with a deep, sharp rumble. Sand slid into the crack, bringing the corpse with it. From the short distance, I could feel the heat and pressure of the earth beneath being released as a tremendous energy, threatening to swallow up our enemy.

The corpse held on, however; and as the crack in the ground was about to close it in, it jumped out, ripping its leg off its hip and left it sticking out of the earth that had closed around it. Falcon shrieked as the corpse laid a hand on her shoulder. There was a sound of sliding metal, as Falcon unsheathed a two-feet long knife from her belt, almost dropped it, and sliced at the corpse. The blade entered at the shoulder towards the centre of the torso, before it got stuck.

Falcon shrieked again as the corpse bellowed. She pulled out the knife after two violent tugs, ripping out some dried, blackened flesh. Both hands of the corpse closed around Falcon's shoulders, and this time Falcon screamed.

Oread's arrow was mid-flight when Falcon hacked at the corpse again, taking out another huge chunk of flesh before cutting it in half diagonally. She leapt back as Oread's arrow whisked past her face, dropping her knife in the process.

"Um… nice work, Falcon." Oread's tone was wavering between approval and disapproval, and I totally understood why it was so – Falcon's skills with the knife were graceless.

We spent another hour or so wandering in the darkness – probably in circles – before we found a small path amongst the ruins. This path led to a small area, walled out by a low pile of stone blocks, and was – to our surprise – devoid of any monsters.

Standing before us was a regular monument a few storeys tall, built in large slabs of faded sandstone. On each side a reptilian relief jutted out above us, their jaws opened, revealing the fangs, whose sharpness was shielded from erosion by the large upper jaws.

A small entrance was set in the centre, on the ground between the guarding reptilian statues. The air was still now, seeming to prophesise the release of tension that awaited us in the imminent future.

"The Claw Viper Temple." Oread announced in a clear, loud voice. "Finally."