Dagger and Crystal

To the side, I heard Leo cry out in pain. A vicious crackling could be heard. I didn't dare look, for fear of missing Xandrith's next move. Her spider legs slashed outward and I could only dodge backwards to avoid evisceration.

Xandrith opened her mouth and spat. The gob expanded as it arced towards me, spreading out into a huge, sticky web. I dove to the side, wincing as I rolled over the uneven, scorching ground. Without Shilana's ward I would have taken serious burn damage but the heat was painful enough. Close by, the web burst into flames and ash.

A sharp talon pierced through the back of my chain shirt and I was yanked upwards. "You're going nowhere until I'm through with you," Xandrith promised. I whipped my blade behind my back. The angle was far from perfect but I hit the leg holding me. Chitin crackled and Xandrith hissed in pain as the holy energies from the sword shot into her and she unceremoniously dropped me.

I whirled around and charged her again, leading with a feint to her heart. Predictably, she again tried to block with her spider limbs. My blade bit deep into her thigh when I changed the angle at the last moment. Her shriek was ear-splitting and she jumped back, trying to put distance between us. Not wanting to let her get away, I stayed with her, raining a series of quick slices onto her.

To the side, I saw Shilana kneeling next to Leo. His armor glowed red-hot in places but my mother wasn't trying to fry him any more. Her tear-struck face turned towards Xandrith and me and her eyes flared up in a deep azure, along with all her storm gems, promising a painful death.

"Aw, shit," Xandrith whispered. I understood. The hit on her thigh had been enough to break her concentration, causing the domination spell she had placed upon Shilana to break. I redoubled my efforts, making sure Xandrith was much too busy dodging or deflecting my attacks to think about escape. Shilana raised her arms and launched another lightning lance. The unleashed energies were powerful enough to knock Xandrith off her feet. I knew an opening when I saw one and jumped onto her.

Bad idea. Even after taking such a murderous hit, she was coherent enough to block my overhead swing with two crossed spider legs. My sword hit them with enough force to numb my hands for a second. And that was all Xandrith needed. A third spider leg swiped in and my sword went flying. Two more limbs came, piercing my chest armor and gouging deep holes into my flesh.

"Declan, move!" Shilana yelled. I saw her close in, both hands wrapped in globes of lightning. She couldn't finish Xandrith with me helplessly writhing on top of her but Xandrith knew that as well. More spider legs tore into my armor, the impossibly hard chitin claws popping chain links like dry kindling.

"You're going nowhere," Xandrith panted. "If I die, you will too."

I shook my head. "Not today." My hand clasped the hilt of my dagger, strapped across my chest and, with an oft-practiced motion, I yanked the weapon free and sliced outwards, cutting deep into her arm. The wound burned as if doused with lamp oil and Xandrith shrieked again. My ears rang but I didn't stop. Her good arm came up and grasped my wrist, trying to force the dagger away from her throat or head.

Xandrith wailed as lightning shot into her. Shilana's hands were there, one wrapped around the demon's wrist and pumping lethal energies into her. The other she placed upon mine, pushing down onto the dagger.

"You have heaped enough suffering onto this family," Shilana spat, putting all her weight onto the weapon. "Die already!"

Together, we forced the dagger towards Xandrith's face. She thrashed underneath us, shocked by the energies pouring through her, only able to use one good arm. Her spider legs, piercing through my armor into my flesh, were ineffective and the other arm lay at her side, limp and lifeless. And suddenly the weapon went down. The tip tore through Xandrith's eye and with both our weights behind it, we drove the adamantine dagger through Xandrith's eye socket, straight into that demon's brain. She convulsed under us one final time then she lay deathly still.

* * * *

With Shilana's help, I managed to pull Xandrith's talons from me. My armor was badly damaged and the wounds bled. All things considered, I had come away from my first - and hopefully only - battle with a demon rather well off.

Leo on the other hand hadn't fared so well. Shilana had been under Xandrith's control for less than a minute but, in that time, she had nearly killed him. He forced himself into a sitting position, his armor malformed and half of his face blackened.

"By the Lifegiver, what have I done?" Shilana whimpered, going to her knees next to her lover. Leo coughed then placed a gauntleted hand onto his chest and murmured a muted prayer. Gentle green radiance poured from his fingertips, mending the worst of his injuries.

"You're not the only one with new tricks up his sleeve, Shilana," he said, smiling fondly. He touched my arm, muttering the same words and flooding my body with healing light. I sighed as the pain was swept away.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. What about the demon?"

"She's dead," Shilana said. "Mother and son were too much for her in the end."

"Let's not waste any-"

An angry roar cut him off. It sounded like hate personified and it was directed at us. I jumped to my feet and looked around, trying to find out who or what was coming for us. No immediate threat, but... There! A shadow emerged from the glowing inferno off to the side, an immense, eight-legged shadow. It drifted towards us with singular intent.

"How long until you can reopen the portal?" I asked Shilana, voice trembling.

"Help me with Leo," she ordered instead. Leo muttered something and his armor rattled and clunked as it tried to fold in on itself but Shilana's attacks must have deformed it so much that it simply wouldn't work. With the huge man's arms draped around our shoulders, we staggered to where we had arrived on this hellish plane. My eyes sought out the huge spider-shaped shadow which drew nearer and nearer with impossible speed, growing larger and more ominous every heartbeat. The Chaos Queen, it had to be her. We had killed one of her daughters. I didn't know much about drow faith but even I knew slighting the Chaos Queen was a very bad idea. Even worse, we were in her realm now and there was nothing which could shield us from her fury.

"Can you stand?" Shilana asked Leo. He nodded and leaned on his enormous hammer. "The worst has passed. I knew you wouldn't kill me in earnest."

"You have no idea, hatchling," Shilana whispered, already performing arcane gestures. The faint oval outline appeared. And suddenly, there were spiders everywhere. Tiny ones, huge ones, a black carpet of eight-legged, crawling nasties. They fell from the sky, they crawled out of every crack in the uneven floor, and they homed in on us. I had no doubt in my mind that each and every one of them would be poisonous. Shilana yelled, again performing an overhead tearing motion, and a flat grey opening appeared. She grabbed both our hands and yanked us through. Behind us, millions of voices screamed in impotent rage, the shriek cut off as Shilana, going to her knees, smudged the runes in the casting circle. The portal closed.

We were safe. I hoped.

* * * *

A few days had passed. Leo's and my injuries had properly healed. There had been no immediate retaliation once we left the buried wizard's academy and, by now, the near-encounter with the Chaos Queen was turning into a distant, if still unsettling, memory. Maybe this whole Handmaiden business was behind us for good.

We stood again at Storm Harbour's Land Gate, with me outfitted in full travelling garb, a new mithral chain armor, courtesy of Shilana's friend Zentam under my cloak and the enchanted weapons strapped to my belt and back. The dagger with the emblem of House Elbharyl on the pommel was in its customary place as well, in the bandoleer across my chest. A strong horse waited nearby, with provisions and gear for a long trip strapped to the saddle.

"Are you sure you want to leave again? I hoped we could spend more time together, catch up..." It was odd, seeing Shilana like this. Gone was her usual, forceful demeanor. She looked... vulnerable.

I hugged her close. "I won't be long. A few weeks at most. I gave a promise to someone and I intend to keep it."

"What kind of promise and what kind of someone? Should I be worried?" She sounded just like my mother!

"Remember the half-orc shaman I told you about? I'd like to see her again and to make sure Lumea and Frida made it back to civilization as well."

"If you must. Promise me to come back in one piece." She breathed a kiss onto my cheek and broke the embrace. "Safe travels, Declan. And don't make me a grandmother just yet. I'm too young for that."

I blushed furiously, at a loss for words. Shaking my head, I mounted the horse and trotted off, towards the Frostguard Mountains. Towards Roarfell. Towards Krejula.

* * * *

The trip was uneventful, even considering the inevitable brigands, monsters and bad weather. It took me longer than anticipated, more than a month, to reach Roarfell, a small mining colony on the far side of the mountains. Finding Krejula turned out to be much easier than I had feared. A half-orc stood out, especially in these remote parts. The watchman I asked pointed me towards the shrine of Mercy, just outside of town.

I found her tending to an injured dwarf. From the looks of it, a sharp-edged piece of rock had torn open his thigh from his hip to his knee. Krejula, dressed in a simple white robe, finished stitching the gash. She bit off the remainder of the thread, cleansed her hands in a bowl of water and smeared large amounts of her healing paste onto the gash. She tightly wound a strip of linen cloth around the dwarf's thigh, stitching it in place with quick and fluid motions.

"Try not to move about too much. With the ointment, the gash should be healed in a day or two. Come see me afterwards," she ordered.

"Thank ye," the dwarf muttered gruffly and limped past me. Krejula was busy sorting her healing supplies back into a case. I cleared my throat and she looked up. A complicated torrent of emotion washed over her face. Surprise, joy, relief and sorrow. She stood up and swept me into a crushing embrace, her lips found mine and we kissed hungrily.

"Don't tell me you didn't expect to ever see me again," I whispered when we broke the kiss. My heart thumped in my chest. How I had missed her!

"Don't blame me. It has happened before. How have you been?" she asked without breaking the embrace. Her hand kneaded my behind through my pants.

"To Hell and back," I chuckled. "You won't believe it if I told you."

"Let me clean up this mess and find the priest then we can go somewhere quiet and share stories." For a moment, her smile vanished, replaced by something dark, but when our eyes met again, she grinned. "We could do something else too."

A skilled healer and potion-maker was always needed, especially in a dangerous place like a frontier town, so Krejula had little trouble finding a place to stay. The resident priest of Our Lady of Mercy was overjoyed to have another healer and he convinced the more skeptical members of Roarfell's community to let the new arrivals stay.

I sipped at my hot cider, sighing contentedly. We sat on a shaggy bear pelt near the fireplace, leaning against each other like long-time lovers and, going by Krejula's little smile, she enjoyed it as much as I did.

"What about Lumea and Frida?" I asked her. "How are they these days?"

Krejula exhaled slowly.

"What?" I asked, sitting up straight. The sorrow was back on her expressive face.

Krejula cast down her eyes. "It's my fault," she murmured.

"I don't understand. What is your fault?"

"They're dead. Both of them." Her hand nearly crushed mine. "I should have seen it coming but I was so busy trying to keep the three of us alive."

"What happened?" My voice shook and holding the mug was very difficult. Frida, my long-time friend, dead? "But... how?"

"Frida and Lumea, they argued all the time. No wonder. I would be mad if my best friend would betray me to my enemy. But we had to work together to make it here in one piece so I took the arguments as a sign of stress, not much more." She sighed. "We barely made it here when things got totally out of hand. I had been out, buying food and drink. When I made it back to our house, I heard the wet noises. And there she was, Frida, kneeling on top of Lumea, hammering the broken remains of a metal candlestick into what was left of her skull, screaming obscenities at the broken corpse beneath her."

"Gods above," I whispered. "What did she say?"

"Once she came back to her senses? Nothing. She said nothing, even as the Watchmen dragged her off to jail for murder. I tried to talk to her but she just sat there, as if made from stone."

"So they tried and executed her?"

Krejula shook her head. "She took her own life. Slit her wrists with a sharpened spoon."

I clasped the holy symbol hanging around my neck and whispered a prayer for my friend.

"Frida was a priestess of the Hearthmother," I told Krejula. "She saw each and every one of our band as family. To her, Lumea was like a sister."

"Oh, I understand," Krejula whispered. "Her 'sister' betrayed her. After all, she happily helped when the orc chief raped Frida."

"Having sex with an orc is the biggest sin a dwarven woman, especially a priestess of the Hearthmother, can commit. Damn it, Frida. Couldn't you have asked for forgiveness?"

"I think there are some things you can't come back from," Krejula said. Her hand went around my shoulders and she pulled me close. "I'm sorry I failed you."

"You tried everything you could. The only one to blame is that blasted orc chief and he already is rotting in the Burning Pits."

"I'll show you where she's buried if you want. The priest of Mercy insisted on giving her a proper burial instead of being burned like the other criminals." She hugged me close. "Now tell me. How did things turn out between you and that ...friend of yours?"

I told her.

* * * *

When I initially set out from Storm Harbour, I did so with the intent of making sure Lumea and Frida were safe. I was curious to see how things could turn out between Krejula and myself but that wasn't the main focus. The more time I spent with her, the more I fell for the half-orc shaman-turned-healer, though. We didn't really talk about it, never said things like "I love you", but I knew that we had found each other. She was a kind soul, wrapped in a shell hardened by a world of animosity and the need to protect herself against the orcs she had allied herself with. With me, she allowed her guard to come down bit by bit and I dearly loved the intense woman underneath.

At first I stayed for a week, then a month. When it became clear I wouldn't return to Storm Harbour anytime soon, I asked a merchant headed there to deliver a letter to my mother, to let her know I was all right. More than that, actually. In a frontier town like Roarfell, with orc raids, drow incursions, rampaging monsters and envious miners the norm rather than the exception, blades-for-hire were always welcome and I had little trouble earning some good money, which we used to buy a cozy cottage and before I knew it, spring had turned to summer, summer to autumn and then winter was upon us.

I woke up. The fireplace was out but that didn't matter. The furs and blankets Krejula and I were under kept our naked bodies nice and warm. During the night, we had moved a bit and my head rested on one of Krejula's ample breasts. Smiling, I closed my lips around her nipple and gave a little suck. Gooseflesh sprung up all over her skin and she breathed in deeply.

"Aww, you're awake?" I asked her between kisses to her soft flesh.

"Mmm," was all she said. I could see her smile, even in the dim twilight of our room. Her hand crept down my body, leaving hot traces on my skin until her fingers gently, one by one, wrapped around my manhood, which slowly went hard at her touch. I sucked once more at her nipple then kissed my way up to her face.

"Barely awake and already grasping at me?" I whispered, licking her lips and her tusks.

"Mmmm." Her other hand reached over and grabbed my right shoulder. The skin under her fingers was pristine, unmarked. After Xandrith's demise, the mark had vanished, leaving only grey skin behind. Krejula pulled and I got the hint. She never wasted words when a slap, a push or a grope would suffice and I slid on top of her, kissing her hungrily. A small moan escaped her lips as she pressed her body against mine, hardened nipples brushing my skin. Both her hands, fingernails extended, scraped down my back and grabbed my behind. I tensed up, the images of Xandrith tearing into me still way too fresh in my mind, but Krejula only cooed and kneaded my butt cheeks, pressing my hardness against her nether lips.

"Don't worry. Your ass is safe with me," she whispered. "Now come, impale me." She playfully nibbled at my lower lip and I relaxed against her. Her impatient hands slid between us, adjusting the angle of my erection and I effortlessly slid into her.

At that precise moment, when my tip speared into her and we sighed in pleasure together, someone hammered at our front door.

My protesting moan was drowned out by Krejula's growl. Even the knocking at the door stopped at the sound. I rolled off her and fumbled for something to put on. Krejula didn't bother. Four long strides brought her to the barred door. She yanked the bar to the side and threw the door wide.

"What?" she snarled. All I could see was her curvy silhouette, framed by the glaring white of a sunny winter morning. Icy cold air lanced into the room and I redoubled my efforts to find a pair of pants or a loincloth.

"Greetings to you," I heard a familiar voice. "My name is Shilana. I was wondering if Declan's home."

Krejula turned, gloriously naked in front of our visitors. Behind Shilana, garbed in winter wolf pelt, I could make out a hooded figure, and behind that, the unmistakable mountain of a man, Leo. His only concession to the weather was a thick cloak over his massive armor.

"Come on in. It's freezing out there," Krejula grumbled. Shilana and company strode into our house. The hooded one dropped her cowl and shook out her icy white hair, blue eyes blinking in the twilight. Tear looked awful. Her eyes sat deep in their sockets, red from lack of sleep or too much crying. She fidgeted uneasily, her hand nervously playing with a thin silver chain she wore around her wrist.

Krejula grabbed a robe off a chair and wrapped it around herself. "Nice to finally meet all of you. Isn't there one drow missing?"

"How do you know?" Shilana asked, looking Krejula up and down. My love stared back at her until Shilana nodded appreciatively. "Seems my son has a good taste in women."

"Declan told me about you," Krejula growled. "How you left him to die." Shilana paled and took a step back. My love grinned viciously. "Relax. In orc society, it's a rather common occurrence. Too many mouths to feed. The strongest ones come back and take up their rightful places as leaders. Seems," Krejula shot me a fond look, aimed right at my crotch which I was busy covering with a pair of pants, "like your son turned out just fine." She hugged Shilana, snowy fur coat and all, and sank her teeth into my mother's neck, hard enough to draw blood.

Shilana jumped back, clutching at her neck. "What in the Pits was that about?"

"Umm... I think she just tried to assert dominance over you, mother."

Shilana inhaled deeply and her storm gems lit up. "Dominance, huh?" Krejula hastily took a step back and raised her hands.