A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 39: Freedom

"If we'd taken one of these, you would have missed out on Naliira." Ashyr told him in as teasing a tone as she could manage while trying to make herself heard over the gale. That had certainly been a learning experience. Ashyr was actually rather glad to have met the mad dryad, though she would have wished for better circumstances.

Caleldir grimaced. "I am happy that you seem to have come to an understanding with the poor woman, although if I had not met her I would likely be a happier person. As sorry as I feel for her, she is a lot of stress to deal with. Also, she did rape me, if it matters. Three times. So... three Selenes, basically." It was then that he remembered what was currently going on with Selene. Now was probably not the time for his caustic needling of her over the way they had met. He looked back at Selene with an apology in his eyes. "Err... no offense intended." He said rather lamely. Selene ignored him.

And so they continued on until the two hour mad-dash was at an end. The forest came to an abrupt stop as they spilled out onto rocky foothills, the tall sides of which blocked the view forward. Caleldir ran well out into the area of low grass and halted the machine. "Not a moment too soon." He said relieved. "The joints on this thing are starting to overheat. Let me put this thing into maintenance mode. This model was really not meant to be used this way..." As he spoke, he lowered the body down to the ground and tucked the legs in. "We should give the spider an hour to recover."

He closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, and opened them again. An awkward smile appeared on his face. "Aaaannnd, now is probably a good time. Err... Selene?"

The younger drow gladly slid off of the mechanical spider and stood a couple feet away from it hunched over with her hands on her knees. After a few deep, calming breaths, she was able to get her stomach to the point where she was moderately confident that she wasn't going to puke. Then she sat on a rock to begin half-heartedly munching on some leftover vegetables.

Ashyr let Selene have her space until she was sure that her younger cousin wasn't going to explode. Then she came over and sat with her on the rock. "Yes, what is this mysterious thing you two keep mentioning?" She asked with smirking curiosity. As much as she wondered about it, the sights and sensations of riding the spider had distracted her from giving the issue too much thought.

"I'm pregnant." Selene informed her bluntly.

"Um. What? That's ridiculous; you take potions. You told me you did." Ashyr didn't seem to believe her. Perhaps she didn't want to believe her. She cast questioning eyes over to Caleldir.

"I did, and your brothers forced me to drink some sort of fertility thing. I didn't think it was possible; those are near impossible to find and ridiculously expensive but... here I am." There was a haunted look in her eyes as she recalled the moment.

"Potions? This is the first I have heard of that." Caleldir mused, mostly to himself. "I suppose that explains a lot."

The older drow rubbed one hand over her face and let out a shuddering sigh. "Whose... whose is it?" She asked, though she seemed to already know the answer.

Selene hugged herself and hunched over again. "Could be any of your brothers... Duagmyr was... he was." She shivered and curled into herself as tightly as she could. "But it could also Caleldir's." The pregnant drow added. "I hope it's Caleldir's." She whispered almost too quietly to hear.

Selene's whispered words that she hoped it was his came as something of a shock to him. Not that she might feel that way (he had been rather nicer to her, after all), but that she would admit it even to herself, let alone out loud. For his part, he was not certain how he felt. For her sake, he had to hope that it was his child, but for his own sake... well, it was better to concentrate on her feelings. Carefully, Caleldir put his hands on Selene's shoulders, letting her know that he would be behind her all the way.

Ashyr seemed to be at a loss. She didn't know whether to be angry or sad. No, no, she knew what she was. Ashyr was angry. She couldn't believe the monumental intrusion the Duskhaven males subjected Selene to. It made her want to strangle every last one of them. Whether it was Caleldir's or one of theirs, it didn't matter. They had violated someone of their own house even more than she had first thought. And there was nothing that she could do about it at that moment. The older drow stood abruptly. "I'm... I'm going to go punch something. Don't follow. I'll be back." She growled before storming off.

"So... she's taking this well." Caleldir said with something like gallows humor when he felt that she was out of earshot. The wry smile on his face melted into concern. "How are you holding up?" He asked. "We are hours away from the end of our journey in the overworld. This afternoon, we will need to raid some old storehouses for materials with which to make protective spells to survive my home. Will you be okay to brave the Monastery? I do not know if we can do it without you."

"I'll be fine." Selene said through clenched teeth. Her knees were still curled to her chest, but one of her hands rose to rest on one of the hands Caleldir had on her shoulder. She probably didn't even realize she did it. Her focus was entirely on Ashyr as she disappeared into the terrain. "She'll be fine, too. She doesn't get angry easily, but once she does... well, I would not care to go near her." A heavy sigh escaped her lips. For the space of a moment, she desperately wished to be home and in bed. Her expression grew wistful with it. That momentary weakness drained before she uttered her next words. "In any case, I won't be the first pregnant drow to willingly walk into danger. I'm tired and a little sick, but I'm not helpless." Her voice was hard with determination. "I am not one of your worthless surface females who think they can get nothing done just because they're a little pregnant." The words were more for herself than for him. By the time she was done speaking, she stood and looked towards the danger that they would soon face.

Ashyr came back a couple minutes later. She had apparently fulfilled her wish to punch something, as her knuckles were torn and dripping with blood. Not that Ashyr seemed to notice. Neither did she notice the angry tears in her eyes. She walked straight up to Selene and pulled her into her arms. "They will learn to regret their hubris a thousand times over." Ashyr promised.

The younger drow stood rigid for a moment before returning her cousin's embrace. "Yes. They will." She responded with absolute, deadly certainty. Both drow settled back against the rock they had been sitting on, though this time Selene was more or less in Ashyr's lap. The older drow showed no signs of letting go of the younger, who seemed thankful for it in her own reserved fashion.

Caleldir observed the interaction, but decided to focus on the baby instead of the circumstances of its conception. "Well, Archmage Birchborn's quarters will have a... shall we say 'a facility' with which we can find out all the information we need to know about Selene's pregnancy: the genetic heritage and sex. It will also allow us to modify the child's phenotype somewhat, allowing him or her to make the fullest use of their genetic potential. The timer on that is fast running down, though. Elves may have longer pregnancies, on average, than humans, but casting as much magic as Selene has, combined with the fertility drugs... We may only have a few days before it will be too late to anything but gain information about the unborn baby. At least safely, and at my level of skill."

"We go there first, then, after making preparations, of course." Ashyr replied. "We're going to have to figure out what to do with Bard. There's no way he'll survive in the Monastery."

"Yeah... we will have to make allowances for Bard." Caleldir agreed. An uncharacteristic grin appeared on his face. "I almost wish that the snakey thief and that redhead human had stuck around; we could probably con her into watching the wolf while we pilfer the monastery." He chuckled, before turning serious again. "More seriously, though, we can just leave him with the tank. Or, alternately, I may be able to cook up some sort of binding magic to keep him alive. It is simpler to do that with animals than it is with sapient beings. But, let us consider that once we raid the storehouse and see what we have to work with." He put his hand on the ladder leading up to the Spider-Tank, and then stopped. "Crap. I almost forgot about Althaia. What do we do with her? We have to find some way of waking her up! She is the biggest gun we have!" He sighed. "Another thing we will have to figure out later today. Well, all aboard the spider express."

And so the mechanical arachnid started its climb up the stony hill, soon cresting the top. As the late morning sun behind them illuminated the terrain, they could see for dozens of miles ahead from their high position. Glowering on the horizon at the edge of their view was a chain of massive snow-peaked mountains, rising sheer from the gold and green valley intersected by thick blue ribbons. But as dramatic as the view was, by far the most notable feature was a building large beyond comprehension jutting out from the side of rugged mountain, flanked by waterfalls, with soaring towers and over-massive architecture that nonetheless danced and spindled in a symphony of stone and colored glass. A full sixty miles away, it still dominated the view. "There it is." Caleldir said in a strangely flat tone. "The Shifting Halls, the Everlasting Archives, the Castle of the Cursed, the Unliving Stones, the Shrieking Cathedral: The Monastery of Eternity. The capital of the civilization that scorned the gods and was destroyed." He put on his goggles, and turned back to the two drow with a smile: a ghastly thing that exposed more teeth than it should and did not touch the eyes, which were glowing with a haunted blue madness, glinting in the shadows. "I am home."