Good Riddance to Infernal Rubbish
Karlach's eyes blinked open sleepily as the morning light hit them. She rolled in bed to see Raphane watching her. The green tiefling was already fully dressed and laying on top of the covers.
"Morning, darling," said Karlach. "What's got you smiling?"
"Just the satisfaction of a job well-done," answered Raphane, as she scooted closer to Karlach and put an arm around her shoulders. "Wearing you out enough to sleep through the night. I've never managed that before."
Karlach suddenly sat up-bolt straight. "Shit! I'm not late, am I?"
"Relax," said Raphane, putting a steadying hand on Karlach's arm. "They can hardly start without you. I went down to check a few minutes ago. They were only just starting to get ready for you."
"Sounds late to me," said Karlach, getting out of bed. "So close to being done with this thing." she tapped a claw against her engine as her shoulder vents simmered.
"It's true. You've waited long enough," said Raphane, "But you're not going out wearing that." She gestured with her eyes toward Karlach's nude body.
Karlach and Raphane stepped into the waiting room after Isobel opened the door for them. The room was small, windowless and stone with a door on each end. The Selûnites had put in some effort to make it disarming. The rolling cot that would be conveying Karlach into the healing room looked comfortable enough. Some tapestries and potted plants spruced the room up a bit.
"You can change into this robe," said Isobel, holding it out toward Karlach.
The red tiefling looked at it, "But they're just going to be taking it off me once I'm in there aren't they?"
"Well, yes," answered Isobel.
"Then why bother?" asked Karlach with a chuckle. She pointed at Raphane, "I told you getting dressed this morning was going to be a waste of time."
"She wanted to just wrap a sheet around herself to come down here," Raphane told Isobel.
The cleric giggled despite herself.
"Well you could've let me borrow your robe," said Karlach.
"I'd never be able to wear it again," protested Raphane, "You'd stretch it out!"
"Robes are supposed to be loose."
Raphane rolled her eyes. "Shut up and take off your clothes."
"You see how she treats me?" Karlach asked a caught-in-the-middle Isobel, "I hope you're nicer to Aylin."
The cleric shook the snicker from her face before her expression turned serious once more as she handed a potion vial to Raphane while Karlach was getting undressed. "This is Selûne's Mercy. She needs to drink the entire bottle."
"Of course," said Raphane, taking the bottle.
"Did you need a moment?" Isobel's eyes flitted between Karlach and Raphane.
"Nope," said Karlach, already fully undressed, with an excited swish of her tail and a steady simmer rising from her shoulder vents. "Never been more ready for anything. Okay. Hardly anything."
"You should sit down before you drink that," said Isobel to Karlach. "They tell me it takes effect quickly. I'll let Dammon know that you'll be ready soon." She turned to Raphane, "I'll be meditating with Agatha and the other clerics in the devotion hall until Dammon and the Gondians are finished with their part. You're welcome to join us."
Raphane nodded, "Thank you for all you've done, Isobel."
"Same goes for me and all," said Karlach.
Isobel smiled graciously at the two tieflings before slipping through the door to the healing room.
Karlach sat down on the edge of the cot. There was a nervous glint to her eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago. She let out a chuckle. Raphane stood next to Karlach and put a hand on her shoulder.
"So I just go to sleep here. Wake up with a new heart. A real heart. My heart," Karlach laughed nervously. "Simple. Easy. Should have done it ages ago."
Raphane smiled at her. "I'll be there when you wake up."
"You'd better be," said Karlach. "You've been with me every step of the way since I escaped Avernus. I can't imagine waking up without you there. Don't want to."
Her eyes sank to stare at the potion in Raphane's hand. She took several deep breaths then nodded. "I'm ready," she said.
Raphane held out the potion. Karlach took it, clasping her hands around Raphane's, before taking the potion in hand, pitching it back and draining the contents with one long swig. She grimaced and handed the bottle back to Raphane, "Gods that is terrible," she said.
The door to the healing room opened behind Raphane. She looked over her shoulder in time to see Dammon. His blue eyes opened wide on seeing more of Karlach than he was expecting to at this juncture.
"Sorry, I'll check back in-" Dammon started before Karlach interrupted him, "Heyyyy, Dammon! Come on in. You know I never would have made it this far without you. Probably would have burned up before I even made it back to the Gate."
"You'd better lie down," said Raphane. She handed the empty potion bottle to a surprised Dammon then supported Karlach's back as she turned and slowly and softly laid back on the cot.
"What did I ever do to deserve you?" asked Karlach appreciatively as her head settled into the pillow.
"Everything," answered Raphane, smoothing the pillow under Karlach's head.
Karlach's eyelids were growing heavy. One of her hands reached out feebly. Raphane held it with both of hers and felt Karlach squeeze. Karlach chuckled. She tapped the engine, with its pulsing orange glow, weakly with her other hand. "So long, little fucker. Thanks for the awful time. One way or another I'm done with you. I win." A broad smile spread across her face. "Hah."
With that last laugh Karlach's eyes glazed, still half-open, and her grip on Raphane's hand slackened.
A leaden weight suddenly fell in Raphane's gut.
Raphane had known exactly what was going to happen. Everything had been meticulously planned and well-explained, to her and to Karlach. But none of that foreknowledge did anything to stop the wracking sobs or staunch the flow of tears; the dam holding back her own anxieties for the sake of Karlach's peace of mind suddenly and completely broken.
Raphane felt Dammon's hand on her shoulder. She couldn't have guessed how long she had stood there crying before she forced herself to let go of Karlach's hand. She managed a nod. Raphane couldn't see a thing through her own tears when the Gondians came in to wheel Karlach's cot into the next room. She heard it, but it might well have happened miles away.
When Raphane finally managed to dry her eyes she saw Dammon standing patiently a few feet away. He had guided Raphane to a chair while she was sobbing. She hadn't even realized. Dammon's face was creased with sympathy and his eyes were wet, "You don't have to be here. Not for this part," he said. "The Gondians and I, we're used to working with metal. Not flesh. What's going to happen in there… it's going to be closer to mining than it is medicine. I wouldn't want to do it at all but the cleric says she can fix any…" he winced, "Any damage that we do. Just as long as we get all the infernal metal out."
Raphane took in several deep breaths to steady herself. Karlach wasn't the only one in need of reassurance. She stilled her trembling jaw. When she at last spoke, her voice was quiet and decisive. She reached out to hold Dammon's hands, "You know what you need to do. There's no one else I trust more to do this, Dammon, and I know Karlach feels the same way." She managed a fragile smile. "Now go. She needs you."
Raphane was sitting alone in the hallway outside the healing room, her tail curled apprehensively about her feet. Alone with only her doubts for company.
The questions were relentless. What if the coolant failed and Karlach's engine was still too unstable to remove? What if some malign influence laid claim to Karlach's soul before they could resurrect her? What if the resurrection didn't work?
At last, the door opened and Dammon stepped out, looking rather worn. He looked surprised when he noticed Raphane sitting on the ground near the door.
"I thought you would be with the others," said Dammon.
"I suppose I wanted to be alone," admitted Raphane as stood up, "Is it done?"
Dammon nodded cautiously, "We got all the infernal metal out. Removed the tattoos. Even the etchings on her horns."
"It's what she asked for," said Raphane, "I'll tell the clerics it's time."
"Raphane," Dammon stopped her short as she was turning away, "Maybe you should just let the clerics handle the resurrection."
"What do you mean?" asked Raphane, brow furrowed.
"It's just," Dammon hesitated, "If there's any chance this doesn't work, what's in there, shouldn't be the last sight you have of her."
"It will work," said Raphane, her voice iron. Her calm, beatific facade may have been broken, but Raphane still possessed bloody minded determination in spades. "I'll get the clerics."
Agatha led the way to the healing room like a force of nature, her robes billowing dramatically behind her as she walked. Her attendant clerics were directly behind her with Isobel and Raphane at the rear.
The healing room doors were held open by a pair of Gondians as the healers filed in.
Karlach's body lay on a table in the room's center. Her face was all that was visible. The rest of her was hidden under a white sheet stained red.
Raphane swept her eyes across the room. On the tables at the edges of the room she could see trays full of gleaming cutting instruments or else various bits of infernal machinery, including the infernal engine itself. Other trays were covered with white cloths, the red stains on most of those cloths gave some idea of what was underneath them.
Tall windows let in shafts of bright light from outside, and that bright light made plain that the Gondians looked as tired and worn as Dammon. Several of them even looked ill. This procedure hadn't been easy for any of them.
"Why is the patient covered?" asked Agatha as she took her place at the head of the operating table.
Dammon stammered, "It. Well. It seemed the decent-"
"More misplaced modesty?" interrogated Agatha. "Remove it at once. I must be able to see my patient."
Dammon glanced at Raphane before doing as Agatha asked, pulling back the sheet, one of the Gondians assisted from the other side of the table.
Raphane's breath caught in her throat when she saw Karlach's body. Her chest cavity had been opened up in order to facilitate the removal of the infernal engine that had replaced her heart and deep, trenchlike incisions ran outward from it along her arms and legs. Her shoulders, which had once been studded with heat vents, were practically gone, reduced to chunks of bone and exposed tissue. Meanwhile, much of the skin had been removed from her upper torso in order to excise the tattoos that she had asked be removed.
"Are you okay?" whispered Isobel to Raphane, touching a hand to her arm.
Raphane took in a breath to steady herself and fought to keep herself from turning her eyes. "I'm okay," she whispered back, determined.
"If it were Aylin," Isobel started sympathetically.
"You would be there for her too," finished Raphane, giving Isobel a warm smile that the cleric made a valiant effort to return.
When Raphane looked back toward the operating table, she saw Agatha with shining white eyes looking up and down Karlach's thoroughly excavated carcass. Once done, she announced, "I see no trace of infernal metal remaining. Attendants, verify. Isobel, Raphane, you as well. Report even the faintest trace or slightest suspicion. On this, there must be no tolerance for error."
The process took about three quarters of an hour. Two of Agatha's attendants reported findings, which Agatha then directed Dammon to have his team investigate. On the first occasion they found nothing, and a redivination by every healer present, including the original finder, saw no trace. When the attendant apologized for her error, Agatha reassured her sternly that she had done exactly as she was instructed. On the second occasion Dammon did find something after digging into a previously unexcavated spot in Karlach's side. It turned out to be a tiny flake of metal, but non-infernal in nature.
Raphane kept herself together during the process. It was easier when she didn't look at Karlach's face, still frozen in that broad smile from before Selûne's Mercy had stilled her breath; although, mercifully, someone had closed Karlach's eyes the rest of the way from where they had gone still half-open. The rest of Karlach's body was in such a state that Raphane could barely recognize her love, and that turned the exercise clinical. But with every glance at Karlach's face, frozen in that moment, Raphane could feel her own eyes threaten to well up with tears.
"I am ready to proceed with the resurrection," said Agatha. "Raphane, the diamond." She held out her hand.
Raphane produced the requested diamond from its pouch and moved to the head of the operating table to hand it over to Agatha. The stern cleric accepted it with only the slightest inclination of her head in recognition.
Raphane moved back around the operating table as Agatha began to chant. The diamond came apart in Agatha's hands, ribbons of it spinning off and bathing the room in white light, carrying the cleric's words with them. Luminous swirls converged on Karlach and spun around her body. Raphane marveled to see the deep wounds sealing shut. She could even see the beginnings of Karlach's proper heart taking shape before regrown ribs and tissue obscured it.
Eventually, all the wounds were sealed. The ribbons of white light that had spun round Karlach's body dissipated, and Agatha's chant faded with them. The room was utterly silent until Karlach's chest rose and fell with the first breath of her new life. A collective sigh of relief left the mouths of nearly everyone in the room.
Raphane took Karlach's hand, held the tips of Karlach's fingers to her palm and felt the steady, gentle thump of a heartbeat. A small sound escaped Raphane's throat and her eyes glistened with joyful tears when she spoke to Agatha, "Thank you, so much."
"Don't thank me," said Agatha sternly.
"Agatha, I know you said you didn't want thank–"
"Not that, girl," the cleric interrupted. Agatha was clearly exhausted, she leaned heavily against the table with both hands and her eyelids were heavy. But her eyes themselves remained keen and sharp and were fixed on Karlach. "Something is wrong. She should be awake."
Raphane's mouth hung open. She felt the pulse from Karlach's fingertips quicken against the palm of her hand and the druid's eyes opened wide with rising horror as she saw the lines of wet crimson forming across Karlach's body. Trickles of blood turned to cascades as every single one of the berserker's many wounds acquired over half a life spent in one conflict after another reopened.
"Latent curse," spat Agatha. She pointed at the healers on her left, two of her attendants and Raphane. "Healing. Now! And do not stop," then to the healers on her right, the other two attendants and Isobel, "Expel the curse! The rest of you, cut up that sheet and apply pressure to the wounds. Quickly!"
Raphane and the healers alongside her concentrated on sealing and healing Karlach's largest wounds but they kept reopening. Once Dammon and the Gondians began applying pressure to staunch some of the bleeding, it got easier to focus on the more urgent wounds. On the other side, Isobel and the other two attendants were repeatedly casting in an effort to expel the curse.
It was perhaps the fourth cast, in the flurry of activity it was impossible to be certain, that finally drove the curse from Karlach's body. With the final word of the spell, an envelope of flame wreathed Karlach's body before being forced away from it, directly toward Raphane and the others on her side of the operating table. Raphane acted on reflex, tackling one of the attendants to the ground. The Gondian gnomes didn't have too far to duck and made it out of the way. The other attendant's reflex was to stare and she made it to the ground a second after the others. Her blackened, smoldering face staring at Raphane's.
The druid rose to a crouch to see the flame circling the room erratically like some infuriated insect. She cast a freezing cantrip at it, intending to at least slow it down, but the entity easily evaded the ray, which collided uselessly with the wall, freezing only a few stone blocks instead of its target. The fiery entity stopped to hover over one of the tables, but only for an instant, before diving downward. Straight into the infernal engine.
Raphane watched, baffled, as the infernal engine rose into the air, roaring as armlike vortices of fire sprouted from it. The Gondians and surviving attendants scattered as pieces of infernal metal flew toward the engine and began circling the vortices of fire. Then, more revoltingly, the cloths that had formerly covered some of the trays flew off as the contents those cloths had concealed, the cuttings of flesh Dammon and the Gondians had needed to remove from Karlach's body in order to get at the infernal machinery, also surged out of their trays to become part of the construct, circling the engine. Infernal glyphs tattooed onto the scraps of flesh glowed balefully.
Raphane focused. Her skin glistened and shimmered as it turned to water, legs merging to a single spout that propelled her from the ground, robes turned to silver armor and a gleaming trident formed in her right hand as she remolded herself into the shape of a water myrmidon. Everything that wasn't a potential target faded from her sight as her senses honed in on the infernal foe.
Raphane charged the entity, aiming to pierce the infernal engine with her trident, but her attack was blocked by one of the orbiting chunks of flesh. Fortunately, whatever forces bound the mass of objects together had done so with enough cohesiveness that Raphane was able to use the momentum of the impact to drive the construct smashing through a tall window and out into the courtyard.
The construct retaliated, rounding on Raphane and raining a blow on her head. The helmet dented with the impact and the water myrmidon form somersaulted before using the momentum to drive hard toward the infernal, attempting once more to pierce the engine with her trident.
An orbiting metal shard deflected the trident from its path as it was about to hit its target and only one of the weapon's three teeth found its mark. The engine sparked and emitted a grinding sound as it was pierced.
The infernal entity seized Raphane with the fiery vortices that were its arms, its grip surprisingly solid. Raphane attempted to use her water myrmidon form to channel ice into her foe but the infernal burned with the heat of the hells and Raphane could feel the elemental essence she inhabited being boiled away. She tried to warp away but couldn't summon the focus to do so.
Raphane's senses were fading to the blinding heat when she vaguely witnessed the bright golden flare and heard the thunderous clash of a paladin's divine smite. The infernal released Raphane from its grip.
She could hear the sounds of a struggle as her senses recovered and, when they did, she saw two temple paladins lying on the ground of the courtyard, their bodies burnt, blackened and smoldering. At the same time, The infernal entity had disregarded Raphane. She saw it returning to the healing room through the broken window, trailing debris made up of scraps of metal and discarded flesh. The paladins had done enough damage to weaken whatever force coalesced the entity's disparate collection of parts and it was bleeding, after a fashion.
Now unimpaired, Raphane used the water myrmidon shape to warp to the window's threshold. She saw the infernal closing in on Karlach where she still lay unconscious on the operating table.
Raphane stretched out a shimmering arm and launched a series of icy blasts at the entity. The hellish fires with which the entity burned boiled off the chill quickly, evidenced by the steam that now emanated from it.
Taking advantage of the precious seconds her attack had bought, the druid charged to Karlach's defense, inadvertently smacking the red tieflings's face with the water spout that made up the bottom half of the water myrmidon form as she whirled to face the infernal.
Karlach woke with a start. "What the," she was beginning to remark as she brushed a hand against her wet cheek before suddenly waking up to the vivid reality that just above her a water myrmidon and a creature of fire and metal were locked in combat.
"Shit!" she called out as she scrambled off the operating table.
"Karlach!" Her head snapped in Dammon's direction as he called her name. He stood at the door to the room, clutching an armful of weapons Karlach recognized as belonging to herself and Raphane. He took hold of the sword of Balduran and tossed it to Karlach.
The berserker caught the weapon and brandished it before turning her attention back to the nearby melee. Even shape changed, Karlach could still recognize Raphane in the water myrnidon in the way it moved and fought. Whatever the hells that fiery fuck was, it was her enemy.
Raphane protected herself with a shield of conjured ice against a burst of flame from the infernal entity before jabbing forward with her trident. The infernal had lost enough of its orbiting protective chunks that all three teeth of the trident found their target this time, and the engine protested with an unearthly grinding as its casing was penetrated.
The entity reeled. The vortices of flame that were its arms flickered and flared. More of the chunks of flesh and scraps of metal that were its body dropped off as the infernal's coherence was failing.
Raphane pressed the advantage and drove the infernal against the wall.
"Coming through!" Raphane heard Karlach call out and, practically on instinct, withdrew her trident from the enemy and swished her water myrmidon form out of Karlach's way.
The advancing berserker swung her greatsword in a descending slash against the infernal as she charged, cleaving the engine in two. The machine sparked, sputtered and died as its cloven pieces fell. The fire went out as well as the various scraps and chunks of flesh that had made up the construct fell to the ground, inert.
"Gods-damn!" yelled Karlach now that it was over, breathing heavily.
Raphane reverted back to her natural shape, a broad and hopelessly happy smile on her face to see Karlach up and about.
"What a way to wake up!" the flustered berserker continued, "I was hoping for a kiss. Maybe a tender hand on the shoulder. But no! Big bloody elemental battle right over my bed is what it takes to wake up sleepy Karlach! My heart is pounding like a… like a… GODS!" she screamed, clutching both hands to her chest, "I've got a heart! THANK YOU, DAMMON!"
The bloodsoaked berzerker charged the speechless blacksmith and squeezed him in a backbreaking bearhug. "I just can't–I can't. I." She loosened her grip on Dammon and looked him in the eyes. "I'm still naked aren't I?" Dammon nodded.
"A bit," said Raphane, standing behind Karlach with a robe held open for her.
Karlach gave a wide-eyed and even more speechless Dammon an apologetic smile and a pat on the shoulder before slipping her arms into the robe Raphane was holding for her.
By now the Gondians and clerics, including Isobel and Agatha, still looking rather worn, who had taken cover during the fight were coming back out, all of them looking pleased to see the threat ended and Karlach back on her feet. A couple temple guards had wandered in as well to check on the commotion.
"And thank you. All of you. I really, really mean it," Karlach said, sweeping her gaze across everyone in the room as she wiped joyful tears from her eyes. Then she looked down to cinch the robe and blurted out, "Why am I covered in blood?" and then she saw the charred corpse lying nearby. "Shit! What happened to her?" she yelled.
Agatha came around to that side of the table to see before she spoke, "Calm down, girl. She's only dead. And if she thinks it's going to get her out of this afternoon's duties she shall soon learn better."
"Oh aye, death isn't the handicap it used to be," said one of the Gondians.
"That's right," said another, "It doesn't screw your career up like it used to."
"Everyone here has something to contribute," Agatha told the two Gondians, "And what you may most contribute to this dialogue is silence. Now get her up on the operating table–not you! That heart is brand new and I will not provide you another one should you overtax it. Get out of here and rest somewhere but do not leave the enclave. I will want to examine you before you depart."