Chapter 20: Eternal or Momentary
Back at the palace…
The halfling woman quickly walks to the queen's private sitting chambers, her simple free servant smock getting caught around her feet. She pauses long enough to lift the front, letting her run with more exuberance.
She is winded by the time she reaches Queen Anastacia. Two other guests accompanied the queen: Grymlop Stonebottom and Saerana herself. All eyes were on the halfling.
"Your majesty," she bows slightly and approaches.
Anastacia quickly pours water for her handmaiden. "Easy," the queen says with concern and hands her the water.
"Kosh and the others are... gone." The halfling pauses a moment to let her words sink in. "The boat was sunk. Nearby fishermen picked up only two sailors. The others were sucked down below the water."
Saerana puts her hand to her chin. The cleric radiated a soothing light to all who were next to her. The halfling always felt calm and at peace whenever she was around, and this time was no different.
"Anything else happens?"
The halfling nods. "They said that sharks, a lot of them, attacked the ship."
Grymlop grunts and nods. "I've heard rumors that someone may be manipulating sharks to do their bidding."
"It is pretty unusual for that many sharks to be in one area and attack a vessel of that size," Saerana responds.
"Well, if there was any doubt that the necromancer knew of our fellow adventurers, it's gone now." The queen says with a heavy heart. She sits down hard, disregarding all decorum.
Saerana lays her hand on the queen, who visibly relaxes.
"The rumors of the summoner controlling the sharks are said to come from the Darklands."
The halfling and Grymlop audibly gasp. "Maybe we should send Kessindra's team to investigate."
The queen closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Bring them in."
HARRIN
Blood stings Harrin's eyes as he tries to learn where he is. He wipes at them but realizes his hands are tied behind his back. Pain in his shoulder causes him to wince. He catches the groan before it leaves his lips. He looks around from his angle and, through the blur, can see he is in a makeshift cage. Heat radiates from a fire on the other side. The smell of burning flesh saturates the air. Two dozen drow are outside moving and bandaging up their wounded, as several tents are being hoisted. Fear creeps in more as he sees some dead bodies off to one side of the cage. He can't tell who they are. Friend or stranger. Their clothing was matted down or ripped apart. Some of the drow go through their belongings. One of them throws a female human into the fire. Her body cracks and pops, eventually catching fire to the clothing.
A meek noise comes from the corner. Harrin squirms his body around towards the noise. It was the female gnome Mili. Her face was bruised, but nothing was too threatening to the rest of her. She was tied down to a human male who didn't appear to be moving—a massive amount of blood pooled beneath him. Mili's arm stretches out to distance herself from the man who clearly couldn't have survived with that much blood loss. Her eyes are darting around, panicked.
"Calm, Mili," he whispers. Better said than done, he knows. She shakes her head slowly as she closes her eyes a moment. A loud bang startles her.
A drow spies them from the other side of the thick wooden bars that make up their jail. "Look who's awake."
Mili tries to scamper close to Harrin, but the weight of the dead human is too much for her. Sobbing broke from her mouth as she looked at Harrin with complete terror. The drow snatches her up towards him hard, and her arm breaks—the snap causing Harrin to flinch and Mili to scream in agony.
Harrin screams obscenities at the dark elf as he watches the drow release Mili from the binds. He drops her to the ground and walks over to Harrin to kick him in the stomach. Waves of pain and nausea sweep through him. His breath catches, and it takes a moment to return as Harrin struggles to sit up.
"Mili, look at me!" Harrin can't stop the pain in his heart and the helplessness in their current situation. Anger and fear cloud his mind.
The drow drags Mili with her long brown hair. Another drow joins him as Harrin continues his verbal assault. "Figures. You'd have no honor or shame in beating a defenseless female. I guess it's not true what they say of you, drow."
The drow who'd kicked him unhands Mili, and she slumps to the ground. Her pants were tattered, blood spotting where they rubbed against the floor.
"What's that, deep meat." The drow kicks him again, this time in the face. Harrin barely had time to turn. This time he couldn't help but groan. He had been through this enough with his father to handle the pain. I guess something good did come from that man. Harrin turns and spits out blood on the man's clothed feet. Even from the sitting position, Harrin knew that if he could stand, he would tower over the drow.
"You guys love to see who the strongest is." Harrin shifts back to a sitting position. "Untie me, and let's see who's stronger." Harrin's head throbbed, and his vision blurred even more as blood trickled down his neck. He would lose consciousness soon. He couldn't watch this girl die. Flig, where are you?!
"I guess you're scared." Harrin chuckles lightly. "You'd hate to look bad in front of your men." The drow comes nose to nose with Harrin and cocks his head to the side before smiling. Harrin closes his eyes. He has seen those eyes before. Harrin's heart sinks. The drow swiftly takes out a knife, stabbing and twisting it into Harrin's leg. Harrin grunts loudly.
"Bring her here. Let the deep meat watch," the drow shouts angrily at the others. Still face to face with the dark elf. This close, Harrin could smell death, and it was all he could do not to vomit from the stench.
They gather Mili up, yanking her off the ground by her shirt. The shirt tears open, and she falls to the ground. Harrin uses the opportunity to kick the drow next to him hard in the leg. The drow falls to the floor, clutching his knee. In another language, he yells to his men. Mili uses this to her advantage and scrambles away from Harrin's sight. Some of the others come into the jail and drag him out. He winces at the pain in his leg. Four take him over to the firepit as he struggles to escape their grips. The others catch up to Mili quickly as they have the advantage both in the village layout and stride length.
Something moves closer behind the two drow readying their weapons against the frightened gnome. One dark elf falls to the floor as the other looks at his companion, lying on the ground, blood pouring out of him like a river. It slowly makes its way across the cavern floors. In another flurry, the other drow joins him. In his place is Kosh. Fury stamped on his face.
The drow in front of Harrin grabs his leg as a snap echoes one after the other. The dark elf crumbles to the ground, writhing and screaming as the crackling continues. Kith leaps from the dark and attacks several drow leaving the tents: three females and a male, running towards Kosh. Thorny vines snake their way up from the ground and box dark elves into the wall.
A ball of fire explodes on top of the drow. Screams and wails from all directions echo in the cavern as his friends have finally made it. A small smile creeps onto his lips as he slowly loses all consciousness. It's about time.
"Harrin, I have you now. Everything's going to be okay, " Aluuna's sweet voice is the last thing Harrin hears before passing out.
REN
The group was tired. They needed to rest longer than 30 minutes.
A drow female tries to sneak up on Ren, but Okami tackles her to the ground, snarling and wriggling her head as the woman's arm is between her teeth. The drow punches furiously at her snout. Okami relents, dropping her hand to creep around her. The red wolf leaps forward and feints the female as she spins around. Ren grabs the dark elf's arms. Life drains from her body and flows into his. She gasps and sputters for air that never comes. Her shriveled body crumbles to the ground. Renimil hasn't used that spell since learning it. It wasn't what he expected, and if he wasn't careful, he could get…addicted. The rush of another life course through him empowered him. He takes a deep breath.
Ren looks around to see Aluuna safely healing Harrin and Mili.
They were the only ones left of those the drow had taken. Harrin didn't look well, though. Even from this far away, he could see tears falling down Aluuna's face. A drow nears her, and Ren moves to help. Aluuna stands quickly to her feet and faces the monster. A rush of light erupts from her, and the drow is stopped in her tracks. She falls to the ground and screams, clutching her head. Aluuna walks up to her and unsheaths her mace.
"Aluuna!" Ren calls out to her. In the next second, Kith is there. He pulls the drow woman up and throws her against the wall, knocking her unconscious.
Kith looks at her. "You worry about healing. Leave the rest to me." Kith turns to stab another enemy whose running for Flig. The whole cavern is filled with the clanking of steel and groaning. Eris finishes off the last person. Their breathing was harsh and quick. Sweat glistened off of them. Kosh makes his way over to Aluuna, and Ren joins them.
Kosh kneels next to her. "How are they."
Mili is still unconscious. She has Kosh's cloak covering her. The dark cloth is a stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. "Mili will be fine." She says quietly.
"And Harrin?" Aluuna remained silent as another tear slid down her cheek. Kosh stands and puts his hand on her shoulder. No words were said the rest of the night. They all settle down where they can. Some pillaged the encampment or buried the dead. Renimil's anger is at an all-time high. Hate and rage fill his pours. A pulse surges through him of peace and calm. It feels warm and so intense tears start to burn his eyes. He looks around to see Aluuna staring at him, entirely spent. Her heavy lids closed as she leaned against Eris on the wall next to Harrin. She smirks and mouths something to him.
Thank you.
Several hours pass as two at a time take turns watching over the others as they sleep. Ren felt as if he could have slept a week. As an elf, his body didn't need the same amount they did. He offered to take more shifts because of it. Both Aluuna and Flig healed the others as some slept. Once the majority of the wounds recovered, they did their recovery. However, no amount of magical healing could help Aluuna tonight. Ren thinks back to Kylinndra to her warmth. Her smile, her eyes. He begins to wonder about his future. One that doesn't entail the tyrant and dark memories. Would he ever feel peace again? Rustling near him draws his attention.
"That smile on your face. Is it for someone in particular?" Aluuna asks as she sits down beside him.
"For you," Ren says, his smile getting brighter.
Aluuna rolls her eyes, nudging him with her shoulder. "Too bad I know better."
Ren was never one for small talk. He knew how to talk to a woman, or anyone, to get what he needed. Be it a bedmate or information.
"Do you doubt me, lovely?" Ren feigns dismay.
"Very much so," Aluuna says with a light laugh.
He sweeps his hand around the room. "I would outlive you all. And even still after this journey. I'll live with the aftermath, both good and bad. I'll see the fruit of my work." He looks at her. She has cuts and bruises that still don't mar the beauty of her face. "Why do you even bother? Why do you never give up? Humans, I mean?"
"It's because of that little time we have that we must make the most out of it. Cherish all that we have. After this, we go to have children. We make it better for them and so on. History has proven that we can't leave our hope on others for too long has never been a good idea. We have to be able to help ourselves."
Ren nods. Children. He never saw himself as a father. He barely even had one. The tyrant took that away. It'd be nice to have a family.
Aluuna kneels before him and looks him square in the eye. "You already do." she smiles and retreats to Harrin's side.
He looks at Eris. Her hair falls in front to partially cover her face. He sees Kosh lying beside Mili, holding his blade on his stomach as he sleeps, softly snoring. He looks at Kith, who eyes him questioningly. Ren suspects there is more to their mission than they've let on. Elves and humans could never be family like that. Elves lived too long to make a lasting relationship. Ren's resolve was starting to melt away. It was time for him to decide if he was willing to sacrifice everything for his eternal family or lose it all for a momentary one.
