When the mercenaries and adventurers woke up, they found themselves sitting in what seemed like a pig trough that, just to make it more comfortable for them, was full of ice cold water. As they sat there, their wrists tied and their weapons gone, Ulric felt his chest clench with guilt knowing that the end had come: soon enough, the witch and her lackeys would kill them, one by one.

If they were lucky, it would be a quick death. If not…

His gaze fell on Sekhmet, who kept her head down and her eyes closed as her lips moved without a sound and he thought she was praying for her soul before the inevitable end. Not wanting to disturb her, he kept his peace, but deep down he wished for nothing more than to apologize for dragging her into that desperate situation: she wasn't supposed to be there, to die in that god-forsaken place at the hands of the witch he had been sent to capture. Now she would lose her life and it was all his fault.

He turned to Anomen, opening his mouth to apologize to the others at least, but then he noticed his fellow knight staring at the Thayan woman with what seemed to be amusement, "Anomen?". "Yes?". "I wanted to say that I am sorry for putting you all in this situation". The Helmite met his eyes with a grin, "We've faced worse and come out of it alive, so don't worry".

"It would take a miracle to save us now", Wolfstan commented with a tired sigh. "Your false god won't help you", Langiva sneered, coming to stand beside them with a smug smile, "But if you renounce him, we will let you live". "I will die before I renounce my Lord", Ulric replied, squaring his shoulders proudly.

"Me as well", Meg agreed, "And the same goes for my husband and for her", she nodded towards Sekhmet, who opened her eyes and looked up at the witch with a dangerous smirk that made Ulric's blood boil with desire. "You made a grave mistake, you miscreant simian", the Firewalker spat, "Calling my Lord false is something I can't condone. And now you'll taste His rage".

The witch laughed mockingly, "You think you can scare me? I'm not afra-" she cut herself off as a bright light caught her attention and looking up, her eyes widened in horror: fire, acid and lightning started raining down from the sky, hitting villager after villager. Some died on the spot, incinerated or electrocuted, others were not so lucky and were hit by the acidic sprays, their flesh literally melting off of their bones like snow in the sun.

Screams of pain and terror filled the air as the monstrous storm raged over the village, yet none of the party members or mercenaries were touched by it: the fire, the acid and the lightning ignored them completely and unleashed their fury solely on their wannabe murderers. The only moment when the storm seemed to come closer to the party was when small, very small pieces of flaming rock hit the ropes that bound their hands, freeing them.

When the storm died down, the only villagers left were Langiva and Hobb, shaking like leaves in the wind as they looked at the death and destruction that surrounded them. There was a tense silence, then she turned to look at Sekhmet, "You…How? Who, no, what are you?", she shrieked, "How could you do this?!".

The Firewalker smirked again, dusting off her robe before standing up proudly, "I am Sekhmet Odesseiron, daughter of Homen Odesseiron and cousin to the one and only Edwin Odesseiron from the glorious nation of Thay. And to answer your second question, I didn't do anything: I merely called upon my Lord, the One you belittled and called false.

You killed innocent people as a sacrifice to your blasphemous cult, as a sacrifice to you. Such arrogance was bound to get punished sooner or later, or did you think He would let you keep up your little charade endlessly?", she chuckled, a cold and cruel chuckle, "What a worthless brainless macaque you are".

The witch gulped, then clenched her jaw, "If you kill me, the woman of your monk will die again", she spat. Ulric arched an eyebrow, "She is already dead", he replied as Griff quickly knocked Hobb out cold and tied him up. "I brought her back from the dead, but she will die again if I don't…", Langiva cut herself off as the envoy to the bishop grabbed her arm roughly. "The dead cannot come back", he hissed, "You are lying".

"Let's humor her", Meg said, then turned to the witch, "You say she's alive? Show her to us then". Langiva pressed her lips in a thin line, but knew she had no choice, so she nodded, led them to a small house and opened the door, "She's here". Osmund didn't waste any time in rushing inside, but his blood ran cold at what he saw: Averill was there, yes, but her skin looked sickly pale, her eyes were glazed and when he called her name, she looked at him as if she didn't even know him.

"See, she came back last night and…", the witch began. Imoen snorted, "Oh puh-lease, that's the oldest trick in the book", she commented, "She's obviously drugged like a monkey". The young monk whipped his head around, "B-but I saw her corpse! And then I saw her rise from the grave!".

"Are you sure she was dead? Did you check her pulse?", Sarevok asked. "Well, no…". "So who's to say she was dead? She was wounded, that's obvious", he gestured to the dried blood on Averill's dress, "But this bitch found her in time to save her life, then drugged her and now claims that she has brought her back from the grave".

"But look at her!", Osmund cried, his arms wrapped around his girlfriend to hold her up as she let out odd grunts, her breathing raspy and heavy, "She looks and acts as a reanimated corpse!". "I've seen and faced real undead on the battlefield many times, boy and I can guarantee you that she's not one of them". "Leave her to us", Meg said as she and Sekhmet moved forward, "Lay her down and get out, we need to clean her up and give her an antidote for the drug this witch used on her. Immy, bring us a bucket of water please. Everyone else, stay out".

Ulric nodded and grabbed the witch by the arm again, "Tie her up", he ordered to his men. Dalywag smiled widely at that, a disturbing smile that gave the creeps to nearly anyone who saw it. "And no abusing her", Ulric then added, giving him a hard look that left no room for argument and promised hell if the order was defied. The torturer deflated and pouted, but he knew better than to cross his leader, so he just shrugged and left the house to go and sulk outside.

Once the three women were left alone, the Thayan sighed as she stroked Averill's dirty hair. "She looks like crap. Poor thing". "She is lucky, though: at least that bitch found her in time", Meg replied. "And she had to suffer all of this only because of that pitiful spineless baboon of a monk".

When Imoen brought the bucket of water, Sekhmet heated up the water with a weakened Burning Hands spell, then they disrobed the drugged girl and gently washed her body and hair with Sekhmet's myrrh scented soap, combed her hair carefully to free it of any tangles, dried her and dressed her in a set of Imoen's spare clothes and boots.

To clear her system of the drug that made her look and act like a zombie, Meg used one of her healing spells, but made sure to cast a sleeping spell on Averill as well, so that nobody would get suspicious of her fast recovery. At last, Imoen opened the door, "Oi, you can come and get her. But be careful, she's sleeping". The young monk quickly rushed inside and looked at his fiancée anxiously, "Is she all right? Will she live?".

The Ilmatari nodded, "Yes, she's fine: we gave her the antidote to the drug, but she will need to rest for a few hours and when she wakes up, she will need some good food and plenty of water. But fear not, she will get a full recovery", she reassured him with a smile. He fell to his knees as tears of joy filled his eyes, "Thank you. I-I don't know how to express my gratitude to you all for bringing her back to me, for saving her from…Thank you", he sobbed, holding Averill to his chest and kissing her hair with infinite tenderness.

"You're welcome. And I suggest you marry her and take good care of her, you idiotic chimpanzee! She deserves it after all she had to go through because of your selfishness", Sekhmet snapped, glaring at him. "You're right, I…I was selfish. But I swear, I will give up my position at the monastery and live with her, we'll be together as we dreamed of and I will devote my life to make her happy, if she will still have me", he swore in all honesty.

"You'd better, or I'll kick your ass, shave your eyebrows in your sleep and dye your hair pink, ya mutton-mongering riff-raff!", Imoen threatened. He nodded and picked his fiancée up bridal style, leaving the small house and gently placing her on the cart before climbing in and placing her head in his lap: he didn't want to leave her side even for a second, not now that she had truly been returned to him, not now that he had her in his arms again, alive and safe.

Anomen looked around, "The houses are still intact and we will need food and water for the journey back", he said, then turned to Ulric, "We should search the place and take all the rations we can find". Ulric nodded, "A good idea. Swire, Mold, Wolfstan: search for food and take as much as you can. Ivo, Griff: fill the flasks with water from the stream. Dalywag, take some clean clothes and blankets to keep us warm during the night", he ordered.

Dalywag scoffed, "If at least a few of those wh***s had remained alive, they could have warmed us up much better than some fu***ng blankets", he muttered under his breath, but the glare he received in return was so harsh that he gulped and scurried away to carry out his task without saying another word. Sarevok laughed out loud, "You know how to keep that little creep in line, uh?", he commented, amused.

The bishop's envoy sighed, a hint of tiredness in his voice as he replied, "I am their commander, therefore I need to inspire respect in my men or, failing that, at least enough fear that they will follow my lead without question". "That's what I did back in the old days as well", the Deathbringer agreed, then gestured to Meg, "My sister, on the other hand, prefers to lead with kindness and gentle words…And as odd as it may seem, it worked wonders for her group". "Did it?".

The Painbearer cleared her throat sheepishly, "Well, my party was made of different people than yours: they weren't mercenaries only in it for the money, they were friends who joined me to help me face my battles, so I didn't have to worry about their loyalty to me, or to the cause", she explained. "I see", Ulric hummed, "So you were the one leading them in battle?". "Well, to be honest, we always decided our strategy together, it was a team work. I was their leader only in the sense that I was the one doing the talking most of the times, but that was because, er…How can I put this…".

"She was the only one who wouldn't scare people away", Imoen helpfully supplied, "Edwin would have sneered at them like there was no tomorrow, Minsc would have let his hamster do the talking, Aerie would have stammered so much it would have taken her forever to finish a sentence, Jaheira would have scared them to death with her glare, Yoshimo would have robbed them blind in under a minute while talking and Ano here would have annoyed the Nine hells outta them with his attitude", she concluded with an impish grin.

The Helmite chuckled, "I can't deny that: I really used to be quite annoying at the beginning of our journey". "But you have gotten a lot better since then", his wife praised him and he wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her hair. "Thanks to you, my lady". "Oi, oi, keep your hands and lips to yourself, Anomen", Sarevok warned jokingly, "You may be married, but I don't need to see this".

Everyone laughed, save for Ulric, who was looking at Sekhmet with a small frown while she chatted with Jan. He was grateful for that unexpected storm of fire, lightning and acid, mind you: it had saved his life and the lives of his men and he appreciated that.

But the fact remained that such a storm was not natural at all. And much as he didn't want to admit it, it was quite an odd coincidence that Sekhmet had been praying right before the storm. Not to mention, the way she had boasted so proudly about her Lord punishing the witch only dug the hole deeper.

Ulric hated the thought running through his mind with all his heart…

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't ignore it.

oxoxoxoxoxo

Author note: yup, Sekhmet did it! She cast the spell "Storm of Vengeance" on the villagers' collective butts! And she did it in front of a group of witch hunters…Then again, desperate times call for desperate measures, right Boo? *Boo: Squeak!*