The other branching pathway seemed to be living quarters. As these weren't beyond the sealed door, they looked like they had been ransacked a time or two for anything salvageable, but a vision yielded me a hidden cache under a bit of rubble in one of the rooms. I had to pry up a couple of the loose bricks to get to it.

In the small box, I found rotted personal effects of what looked like a scarf or handkerchief, a couple cards that had meant something to someone and long since faded beyond legibility and nearly crumbled at a touch, and a small stone figurine that Aela said looked magical, but she couldn't tell what it was. I pocketed the figure.

She said, "It's a drake. I wonder if it might summon one."

I wasn't sure how. "We should go check on the others."

Above, Visatrax was measuring out something into two small vials.

The young wizard beamed when he saw us. "Fortunately for you, I was here to brew this for you." He gestured.

He had made exactly two. Did he somehow know? I said, "We'll need more, for the town. The recipe."

He nodded, shifting a piece of parchment across the table. "I wrote it down." His eyes flicked up. "What did you find?" He eyed the black bow with greedy eyes.

Aela had said, It seems convenient.

I said, "Not a lot. Thanks. We should all get going before the kobolds notice."

Visatrax's lips pulled into something close to an amused smirk. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about them."

My brow wrinkled. "You got caught by them."

Visatrax shrugged a shoulder. "I suppose anyone can get caught when they are surprised. But we aren't now."

I glanced at the window. "Do you know what they're doing?"

Visatrax walked toward the big arching window. The glass had broken long ago and it was open to the air. "They look like they're crafting an army." He glanced at me. "Did you see the smithy? There are hill giants working the bellows. Duergar prisoners smithing weaponry and armor."

Convenient…

I walked toward him, as if to look and see what he was seeing.

I did not at all believe that he, at least, had actually been captured. Maybe Reyne really didn't know, but Visatrax was, as Aela said, too convenient.

I thought he was the one who had created the Baneguard below. That he was organizing the kobolds somehow. And I didn't like the way he had looked at the bow. I was absolutely certain that he shouldn't have it.

It was for the greater good.

I kicked him square in the back. It took him by such surprise that he lost his footing and fell through the paneless window. Reyne gasped.

My eyes widened as the falling figure of Visatrax transformed, tumbling down, then swept back from it, stretching, turning green. Wings.

The green dragon beat furiously against gravity and turned around. Its head snaked toward me. My eyes were wide, terrified, but I was unable to make myself move.

It opened its mouth.

I automatically held my breath and threw myself down. The stream of noxious gas passed just inches over my head. Aela and Reyne were not so fortunate. Aela seemed paralyzed against the wall by the door. Reyne doubled over, wheezing and hacking. I crawled my way toward Aela, my eyes watering.

I shot to my feet as the dragon roared. It would bring all the kobolds down upon us. We couldn't fight an army.

I thought of the well. I snatched up the vials and the recipe, dumping them into my tunic, then sped around. I grabbed Aela around the middle and dragged her to the door. My lungs burned for want of air. My eyes watered.

She came to herself in the hallway. I grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the stairs. She said, "Reyne is—"

"You're right," I said. "We shouldn't have trusted either of them." We ran down the steps. We had just come through the hidden passage when I heard the doors below open. Little feet and clanging armor. I wheeled backwards. "The kobolds."

"Where do we go?" she said. We pulled the door shut. It wouldn't delay them long.

I had an idea. "That room with the well. It was warded against dragons." I wheeled around, charging up the stairs. That was what Visatrax was after. It was warded against them. It was why the kobolds couldn't go. And any duergar slave it could have sent might have done what I was about to do—find a way to escape via the well, and hadn't been fool enough to touch the black orb. And a hill giant wouldn't fit through the small hidden door.

We hurried over the rubble, down the hall. I could hear the kobolds chasing us, but I dare not turn back to look.

We stopped in the room with the well, panting to catch our breath.

One thing didn't fit. What was Reyne if he couldn't come back here either?

Dragons were too territorial for Reyne to be another dragon. I supposed he could be a very human-looking half-dragon but I doubted it.

I looked around the room, at the carved images, trying to understand the wards. It's not dragons. It wards away evil.

It was why Reyne couldn't get to it either.

Reyne in the prison had been a ruse. A hastily put together one, but a ruse nonetheless, so we, or at least I, would trust them enough to get the weapon.

Aela looked down the well, holding the glowing rock she used for her cantrip aloft. "Valac."

I jerked away and looked back. There was nowhere to fix the grappling hook to. Nothing in this room to tie a rope to. Trying to drive a piton into the stone that was shaped by stone giants and dwarves was nearly impossible, but we had to try. Aela looked for a rock heavy enough to support our weight that she could move to us, or something else to anchor us, but the room was bare.

I could probably climb down the well, but I doubted Aela could in all that armor. We could throw the bow down first. I raced through possibilities, but they were startlingly few.

I thought I saw white bone at the bottom of the well but it might have been my imagination. I knew I smelled smoke from the hall.

I stood up, dropping the hammer and I leaned out of the hallway. Down the hall was a cloud of smoke. Aela came out of a room, and hurriedly moved away from the smoke, covering her mouth and nose. After the collapses, the rooms were not well-ventilated for smoke. They'd kill both of us if we didn't make it down the well. I swore.

I said, "Aela, keep trying the pitons. I'm going to see what's going on."

She nodded and slipped inside. I walked toward the smoke, keeping low where the air was more breathable. Beyond, the kobolds had piled up rotted wood, dried mushroom, and lichen for a fire. They were using blankets to fan the smoke.

Visatrax's voice, "I know you're there, tiefling. I can smell you." A laugh. "You smell like smoke and like you haven't washed in a long while. And dog."

I rolled my eyes, lip curling in distaste. "You probably smell like a lizard."

A chuckle. "Let's talk, tiefling."

"I think you'll kill me. Or tell your minions to do it for you."

Visatrax actually laughed. "Nonsense. What good are you to me dead? No. I want you to do me a favor, and in return, you can leave here with what you came for—the cure for your lycanthropy."

My eyes flicked downward. My master always called me "pup", treated me like a dog. It felt a sick, twisted irony that I had lycanthropy. I coughed on the smoke, dropping a bit lower. The dragon said something to the kobolds in their tongue, and they stopped fanning it. Relieving, but only just so. I thought of the well, and worried about Aela making the climb. The thought of her falling drove me over the edge. "What's the favor?"

"There's a silver dragon that has taken up residence here. I want you to find it. And tell it that I will take its territory."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I did not want to get involved in a turf war between two dragons. "And in exchange Aela and I can go free?"

"With what you came for. But you have to give me the item you found. The one on your back."

My fingertips touched the black bow. I bit my lip. I didn't want him to have it. I didn't know what this thing did, but I knew I did not want him to have it. "Let me ask Aela."

"Think on it, but time is short, tiefling."

"Got it," I muttered, turning back. Smoke hung in the air. Aela's eyes were watering, and she was fighting back coughs. We couldn't go on like this, and she had made such little progress on the stone. I shook my head, rubbing my temples. I explained the deal to her.

She eyed the bow. "We can't let him have it. We don't know what it is." She waved. "Besides, he has an army in here. He said there were kobolds, hill giants, duergar. And Reyne, so he's all mixed up in the cult of Bane too." She shook her head adamantly. "We can't possibly be considering just handing it to him."

I made a face and looked up at the hazy smoke, at Aela. At the well. I said, "Aela. It might be a mistake to give this to him. But if we get lost in the Underdark, we can't get this cure back to Bryn Shandor."

Indecision weighed heavy on her mind. She looked at the pitiful progress we had made trying to fit the piton. She sighed. "You're right."

We put the piton and hammer back in my pack and I held the black bow in both hands. The sculpture was tucked away, out of sight.

They let us pass, but I wasn't stupid; you only needed one person to deliver a message. They could still kill one of us.

Visatrax looked us over carefully, in his human form, then held his hand out for the bow. Reluctantly, I gave it to him. He said, "So glad this can all be resolved amicably." He smiled pleasantly.

Aela said, "Most green dragons never learn that spell. Polymorph."

He smiled condescendingly. "I'm special." He inclined his head and I sullenly followed him down the path, out of the tower, in relative silence. Reyne was outside, staring at a group of heavily armed kobolds milling around the area. If he were a captive, he still had his sword and had found well-fitted black armor from somewhere.

Visatrax glanced at Reyne. "With me." Reyne fell into step behind us. The kobolds followed like some kind of royal procession.

Visatrax stretched languidly as he walked. "Two legs is so inefficient for walking."

I pursed my lips, and said nothing.

The dragon glanced at me sidelong. "You're an oracle. A weak one, but still an oracle. Did I do well hiding our intentions from you?"

My lips curled. "How?"

He shrugged. "There are spells to hide that sort of thing." A pause. "Reyne is going with you. He's no longer useful to me here, and he wants to leave." A pause. "Where he goes is no longer of consequence to me. I got what I wanted from him."

Aela muttered, "Seeing how he made a Baneguard?"
Visatrax snorted. "No."

Something else then.

I glanced at Reyne, but he said nothing. I said, "You punished them for failing to reach the item."

He gave an arrogant smirk. "The wards didn't judge them worthy. I think it was the greed."

Disgust crept over me and I looked away. Aela grabbed my arm. "We cannot travel through the Underdark with a worshiper of Bane."

I stared at Visatrax then glanced at her. I knew when an order had been given. I hissed, "Aela. We are not in a position to bargain." I also knew that if Reyne turned on us, Visatrax would be angry about losing his messengers. I didn't think Reyne would bother, for a variety of reasons. The dwarves wouldn't let him pass without us.

Visatrax stopped at the top of the stair to the atrium, sliding luxuriously into his dragon form. It was strange to watch. The wings sprouted from his shoulders and scales swept over his skin. Hair receded and his clothes seemed to melt into his body, growing and expanding, changing shape entirely. I stepped instinctively back. Aela shivered. Visatrax's wings stretched, then folded neatly. He said, "I'll know if you forget about our bargain." He raised his head. "Do not think I cannot reach you."

I thought, Reyne got in somewhere. I doubted he had come the way Aela and I had.

We walked down the stairs in silence. A few kobolds crept down with us, watching. I told Reyne, "You better have your own supplies."

"I do," he said, his voice a purr. I glanced at his black pack. Did he even know what colors were? I was one to talk—my master had mostly dressed me in black, and I had only added the odd bit of brown leather or a stain.

I let Aela lead, to keep the two apart. She kept glaring at him and while he was unperturbed by it, I thought it was going to lead to conflict during the two days it would take us to get back.

Reyne stopped at the tower and sighed. "I didn't believe it when the Visatrax said the tower had fallen." He glanced at me. "I knew all of the men you killed."

My heart lodged in my throat.

Aela only frowned. She said, "They were trying to kill us. We defended ourselves."

We had snuck up on them. We had attacked first. It wasn't their fault; it was ours.

Reyne's brow furrowed. He looked at my face. "Was that what happened?"

I couldn't bear to meet his gaze and I looked down. Aela lifted her chin defiantly, but my reaction had been all he needed. He said, "Did you enjoy killing them, Aela?"

Her lips pressed together. "No. It needed doing. That's all." She shook her head. "And who ever heard of caring about the lives of Bane cultists?"

He was quiet a moment. "You will have to thank me, at some point, should I not report the murder to my order. The Zhentarim are the largest mercenary company in the world. Do you want to go up against them?"

Aela glared. I stepped between them. I said, "Please. We tried to get them to stand down. They wouldn't. Let's move on."

He shrugged a shoulder, and left the remains for the kobolds to pick over.

The first rest was tense. Along the narrow tunnel, we had to make camp in an alcove. While Reyne was off making water somewhere we had come from, I pulled Aela aside and passed her the vial. She downed it immediately. I drank mine too. It tasted like flower tea and sap, but it didn't seem to make either of us sick.

Visatrax probably had as little interest in a town of werewolves in "his" territory as we did. I reviewed the recipe, then tucked it somewhere safe.

Somehow, that had felt too easy.

She said, "I'm worried about this, Valac. A silver dragon? Dragons fighting destroyed whole civilizations, before."

I took a breath. "It'll be all right."

She shook her head. "I don't think it will." She reached for my hand. I had a heartbeat where I really thought, She's cute. Then she said, "Will you pray to Ilmater with me, Valac? I'm frightened."

My lips pressed together. The way I felt about gods was that—Well, that they should beg my forgiveness. I did not mean to say it aloud, maybe it was the stress of the past few tendays, but I said, "I cannot pray to any god that does not actively crusade against the evils of Thay and Szass Tam."

She squeezed my hand. "Ilmater will suffer with us. He cares for all of us. He is known for freeing slaves, Valac."

I should back down, but I was frustrated that every time I thought I saw who she really was under all the religion and her thinking that tieflings needed to be fixed, she did something like this. I said, "Then why are there still slaves?"

"He commands us to ease suffering wherever we find it, to ease pain." She spoke with patience, like she had heard these kinds of responses before. And had rehearsed this exact response.

I wanted to scream, but I pressed it down. She was kind. She was good. She was my friend. She didn't deserve my anger. But the thing was, if I had the power of a god, I wouldn't allow such evil. How could a mortal be more moral than a god known for goodness? "How can any god be good when they allow such things?"

She took my other hand. "Valac. The world exists balancing on a pin. To keep that balance, evil must exist, or it will tip too far one way and we all perish."

I pulled my hands back in fury. "I would rather none of us have ever existed than to condemn so many people to a lifetime of suffering."

She gasped in shock. Reyne, leaning against the wall, gave a slow golf clap, low enough not to echo in the cave. I glared at him. "Well said."

"Says the one who makes the suffering worse," I snapped.

Aela's lips pressed together. "You are straying dangerously close to the path the angel Zariel traveled."

I reached back in my memories for the religious history lesson, groping blindly through my anger until I remembered—the fallen angel that ruled in the Hells. "Maybe she's right. If you think you're good, and you don't stand up against and purge evil, are you?"

Reyne smirked.

Aela's jaw set, frustrated, but trying to keep herself in check. "Valac. Ilmater is the god who frees slaves. He sends his faithful out to free slaves and tortured people. Perhaps, it is through his work that you're here."

I was furious. "Then he is a fucking monster," I spat. "How dare he free someone who did not have it half as bad as a thousand others suffering." My fingers curled into fists in an effort to stop my shaking.

"You don't mean that. You can't say that about a good deity. He just wants people not to suffer."

I wanted to scream. "If he is a god, then Szass Tam must be stronger," I whispered. "Because Ilmater has seen the suffering in Thay. And done nothing. It's people rescuing other people. I've never seen a god do shit."

Aela reached toward me. "Valac—"

I stepped out of reach, too angry to have this conversation now. The rest was tense and the silence worse. I was angry at myself for lashing out. She was scared and being vulnerable with me, wanted me to do something with her she found comforting. She had reached out and I had struck her back. It was unfair of me.

I slept little, and apologized to Aela over breakfast. Because she was kind, she forgave me, and gently told me that the invitation to pray with her is always open. I refrained.

On the trek, I asked Reyne, "Cleric?"

"Paladin," he said.

Aela snorted.

I was quiet a while. "Half-elf?"
"Aasimar. It's why you and I hated each other immediately."

Aela sneered. "And yet you're the evil one."

He seemed amused. "That's a label you put on me." He smirked. "And yet when people see Valac and myself, they'll view me as being kind and just, and Valac as being scheming and wicked. Unfair really, isn't it, tiefling?"

"Shut up," I suggested.

Aela said, "When we get out, I'm immediately telling the dwarves what god you worship."

He laughed. "With what evidence?"

Aela glanced back at me, her fingers itching toward her mace. I shook my head. I couldn't do it. I didn't like Reyne and I thought he was a bad person, but he was a person. I could not bear to kill someone. I just couldn't.

If Reyne died, he only died. Bane had one more worshiper at his side and his soul would never get another chance. If Reyne lived, there was still a chance he could be redeemed, no matter how slim. I didn't want the death of anyone on my conscience.

I glanced at Reyne. "What did Visatrax want with you?"

"Visatrax wanted someone who could reach that item. None of the people I hired for it or my subordinates could get past the wards." He shrugged.

I sighed. At least I had guessed correctly. "How'd you start working for him?"

"He approached me on the road. Didn't want to do the hiring himself. He says towns smell of filth and sewage." His tone of voice offered no opinion on the entire matter. "If it pleases you, my god of choice has nothing to do with Visatrax."

I was actually relieved to hear that. The most it had to do with Reyne was that he was unscrupulous and thus convenient to Visatrax. Easily bribed. I said, "What do you get out of it?"

"Visatrax paid me. As he's sending me out with you and he has what he wanted, I assume our contract is at an end. I can't say I'm disappointed."

I was quiet a moment. "Where are you going now?"

Reyne shrugged. I lapsed into silence, until he said, "You're from Thay? Never been that far east."

"You might like it there," I said. I kept my voice mild, but I could not help my displeased expression. "Lots of open temples to Bane."

He rolled his eyes. "Zhentarim are not much welcome in Thay."

Aela muttered, "This explains so much about you."

His smile was charming. "Ilmater explains so little about you. You're young and pretty. Why worship a god of suffering?"

"You know nothing of Ilmater," she said acidly.

I frowned, but I knew better than to get involved. I didn't like either of their gods. I liked Ilmater a bit more, but because Ilmater at least tried to help people, even though I didn't think it was enough. And I thought that finding any kind of holiness in suffering was downright wicked. That line of thinking led to starving yourself to death on a holy calling.

Reyne, blessedly, said nothing in retort and we lapsed into silence as we focused on the journey ahead.

The second "night", there was not enough room in the alcove for all three of us to be more comfortably spaced apart. I kept myself between Aela and Reyne, my back to Aela, watching Reyne. In his sleep, when he didn't have that superior smirk and his haughty arrogance was left for the dreaming world, it occurred to me that he wasn't much younger, at least in appearance, than me. He had a short, full beard and his features were the obnoxious perfect beauty of the aasimar.

Strange—when had I started seeing body hair as being attractive at all? In Thay, the beauty standard was to be entirely hairless. Sometimes, in the past few months, my opinion had changed.

I watched him, in case he was faking his rhythmic deep breathing and relaxed poise, and thought about Aela. Her smiles, her voice. Her touch. Her kindness that I adored above everything else.

All of it tainted by that she didn't really accept me for who I was. She wanted to change me. Convert me and find some way to "cure" me of being a tiefling. It made me sick, because she was the best person I knew, and even she didn't accept me.

I sighed. I heard Reyne shift and opened one eye. He was watching me. His voice was low. "You care for her."

I couldn't confess to him my fears and pain. That everyone wanted to either manipulate me or use me. And so did Aela. Her manipulation was benevolent in intent; she wanted to convert me because she thought it might help me. She wanted to change who I was because she thought it might bring me peace and salvation. She wasn't cruel, as my master had been. Regardless, it was a similar result.

He must have seen some pain in my face. His eyes slid closed. "It's not that difficult. You just need to tell her."

Irritated, I rolled to face Aela, on the narrow ledge slightly above us. But with my back to the paladin of Bane.

#

The dwarves let us through. Aela said nothing when they asked about Reyne. I said he was an adventurer we found in the caves that had needed a way out. We were whisked away for a meeting with the steward, and ultimately the king.

I explained what we had learned about our journey, that we had gotten the cure we had come for. "But Visatrax has charged me with finding the silver dragon in the area and informing it of Visatrax's challenge."

Whereas Aela had been fearful of an impending battle between two dragons, the dwarven king seemed excited. He said, "Excellent. A dragon is a fine battle. With the green dragon amassing an army at our doorsteps, we will prepare for war. Will you stand with us against the beast?"
I blinked. "I'd be honored."

He grinned. "Ach, I knew you had a stout heart, lad. We'll get to work right away and devise a plan to bring down both dragons at once."
My lips parted in shock. In my shock, I could stammer only an elementary objection. "But silver dragons are noble and good."

He grunted. "Ah, ye're young yet. They're all downright nuisances, and think of the glory!"

I tried to hide my distaste, but I nodded along, tacitly never quite agreeing to their plan against the silver. I said, "But the silver dragon might ally with you against the green."

"No. Never trust a dragon. They're all greedy. It'll want a tithe for helping. Cheaper to kill it. Think of those silvery scales, turned into armor. Its bones into weapons. I'll hang the skull in my hall."

I felt sick. "As you say, Your Grace."

I was dismissed so the king could attend his battle plans. Aela held no real opinion about it, only caring that the green one would be dealt with. And of course, Reyne had no care for either.

At my expression, Aela said, "It's just a dragon."

I sighed and looked away. We were invited to stay and rest before leaving in the morning. Reyne said, "This is where I will take my leave." He smiled pleasantly at us. "Thank you for the escort."

I said, "Safe journey."

Aela said nothing. I was glad to be rid of him, but not so glad as Aela. When we were alone, she said, "We should have told the dwarves."

I shook my head. "I don't think they would have cared as much as you think."

She was unconvinced. "Bane is evil. His worship is outlawed nearly everywhere."

"It would just be our word against his."

She was shocked. "You're a hero and I'm a cleric. Surely our word means more?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure of the politics. But the optics are that we don't have any proof."

She glared. "He has to have a holy symbol on him somewhere."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, if you want to seduce him so you can strip him down to find out, have at it."

She punched me in the shoulder. It was playful, but just hard enough that I could feel its potential for a bruise.

The dwarves wanted to kill a good dragon for the glory and the thrill of battle. I couldn't stomach the thought of killing something intelligent and good for fun. I had thought the dwarves would be allies. They were—against Visatrax. But how could I protect the silver dragon from them without turning on people that helped me?