No Longer a Game Ch. 29

"May it serve you well and defend our cause, Jason Paladin of Eilistraee." She told the man.

The goddess turned to Christie, who still stood naked before her, "And you my faithful daughter. You shall go and start a new shrine in the north east. Aklice and others that serve me will help you until you are well established. There you will continue our cause and bring our drow sister and brothers into the light and away from the darkness."

Christie, now completely faithful to her goddess, nodded her head and agreed without hesitation.

"Wait." Rain interrupted and everyone turned to look at her. "You are making them promise to serve you like we are staying here. We...I have no intention of staying here. I am not going to become some fanatic of your cause...whatever it may be. I want to go home."

Eilistraee frowned, "I did not ask for you to serve me, Rain. Your heart and faith lays elsewhere. Yours and that of the wizard. I know that and do not ask a favor from you. You are free to do as you please. I just hope that you help your friends in the future while you look for a way back to your world. Your path does not lie with me."

Rain looked at her feet and kicked up some of the grass, "OK." She muttered and then looked at Jason. "Just remember what you promised me, Jason. We help Michael and Natalie and we look for a way home." Jason nodded to her.

"I agree...anything to help Michael and Natalie." Lou said.

Eilistraee wasted no more time. She kneeled before the bones at her feet, breathed a long breath and the air expelled from her lungs came out in a silvery cloud that became dense as it surrounded the bones they friends could not see them. The mist twisted like a miniature tornado around and around for several seconds.

"Bloody hell!" They heard a voice shout from within the twisting silver mist. "Get this damn wind off of me."

The swirling mini tornado died down and the friends saw Michael....Ahira standing there very much alive and completely naked and rushed to him. Jason picked him up and with tears in his eyes hugged him and spun him around.

"Let me go, Jason!" The dwarf shouted. "And someone get me some clothes!"

Jason, laughing and crying with happiness, put the dwarf down and patted him on the back. "I am damn glad to see you again, my friend."

Rain and Lou hugged him at the same time, also laughing and crying, and then Christie placed the blanket that his bones had been wrapped in around him and hugged him and kissed his cheek.

"Stop making such a fuss." Ahira pushed them off of him, blushing and embarrassed by his friend's affections but grinning. "You would think I was brought back to life or something."

Rain hugged him again, "Shut up." She grinned, "Let us be happy."

The dwarf smiled at her and then looked at each of them in turn. "I...thank you...for coming back for me."

Jason slapped his back, "We had nothing better to do." He teased.

"What was it like?" Lou asked.

Ahira gave the wizard a thoughtful look and then answered, "I...it's hard to explain but I was happy. Very happy. I felt at peace like I never felt in my life." There seemed to be sadness in his voice then he grinned, "But I knew you jerks could not get along without me."

Rain turned to face the drow goddess, "We agreed to your terms and thank you for bringing him back, but what about Natalie? Help her now or do we have to promise you something else?" There was a hint of anger or mistrust in her voice.

Eilistraee looked at the half elf and her gaze made Rain shift her body uncomfortably. "She is beyond my help. Unlike Ahira, she is not dead but she is not truly living...at least not in the true sense of life. Her body is just an empty vessel and void of her life essence and her soul."

"Well where the fuck is her so called life essence and her soul!" Rain shouted back with anger. "We agreed to your terms so help her!"

Eilistraee ignored the half elf and turned to Christie, "I told you I could not help her but I know someone who can at least keep her safe until her essence is returned back to her body." She then looked at Rain again, "But I warn you to hold your anger, mortal. Mystra can be fickle sometimes." There was a hint of annoyance in her voice when she spoke to Rain. "It would do well for you to show her some respect."

"And what will she want from us? What type of bargain do we have to make with her?" Rain replied, still angry.

"That is up to her, but I think she will help. The moon elf is one of hers." Eilistraee then closed her eyes and sent her summoning from her mind to the Weave.

A few seconds later bright violet smoke appeared a few feet from the drow goddess and from it stepped Mystra, the Mother of All Magic. She appeared as a beautiful human female with long hair that constantly changed colors of a rainbow, her skin was radiant with alabaster complexion, and she wore a simple but elegant robe that shimmered between blue and white light. Christie thought briefly that her face resembled Natalie's true face from the other side; just more beautiful than her beautiful lover. Mystra frowned and looked at Eilistraee.

"You said this was important, Eilistraee, does not look important though. Make it quick, please. Some fools destroyed a portal I made many years ago and released a mighty red dragon I imprisoned there to guard it and it tore a hole in the Weave I am trying to repair." The goddess of magic sounded as if she was chastising a child.

The drow goddess smiled, "It is important, Mystra. I need your help...they need your help." She pointed at the companions.

Mystra turned and looked at them and her eyes flashed with rage. "You! You destroyed my portal and ripped the weave!" She shouted and her voice was powerful and caused the friends and Aklice to tremble in fear.

"Be nice, Mystra. They just wanted to go back to their world." Eilistraee giggled.

The Lady of Magic took a deep breath, "They caused me problems." She said but her voice was calmer. "So what is so important you need my help?"

"They need your help." The drow goddess answered. "One of them is one of yours and she needs you."

Mystra looked over the five companions and then when she saw Natalie truly for the first time her blue eyes grew wide. "Viviane," she whispered. "No you are not her. She is dead and beyond me." She said louder and there was sadness in her voice. "Come here, girl. Let me look at you." She said to Natalie.

To the surprise of her friends Natalie stepped forward and walked to Mystra and stopped when she stood in arms reach of the goddess. Mystra reached out and caressed the girl's face gently. "You are one of mine. Your are a daughter of Viviane." She sounded shocked. "Dove Falconhand mentioned to her sisters she met the girl in Lund and thought she was kin but they did not believe her. Dove can overreact sometimes." She turned to Eilistraee, "You..." She started to say aloud.

"No, not yet. They cannot know yet. It's not the time." Eilistraee's voice sounded inside the mind of Mystra.

"You play a dangerous game with your mother." The goddess of Magic replied telepathically.

"Yes, a game we have played for thousands of years ever since the Decent and it's time we conclude it."

"I cannot help. No one can help. Ao has forbidden it. It is between the gods of the Dark Seldarine." Mystra sighed mentally. "But this one I can take and protect since she is a daughter...even if many times removed of one of my Chosen. I will be allowed to keep her safe until her essence is returned to her if it can be. If she can be redeemed. So I will keep your secret for a little longer, Eilistraee, but they will need to know in time."

"Thank you. That is all I ask. I will do my best to save her. There is always hope at redemption."

"What she has become will cause the death of many of your faithful." Mystra said sadly.

"Yes but sacrifice is sometimes required."

The telepathic conversation between the goddesses lasted less than a second and Mystra once again focused on the friends. "I will take her and keep her safe." She told them. "One day, hopefully soon, we can restore her to her body but now is not possible."

"You can't!" Christie screamed. "You can't just take her, please." She pleaded.

Mystra looked at the drow and smiled kindly, "She will be safe where I take her. Much safer than with you; no harm will come to her body. I promise you that."

"Where...where are you taking her?" Christie asked and started to cry.

"To family. To her aunt in Silverymoon, Alustriel Silverhand will keep her safe."

"Why can't you help her now?" Rain asked, "You and this one," she pointed at Eilistraee, "are supposed to be gods and you can't help her? You can't send us back home? Why can't you help Natalie and just make another portal and send us back?"

"Even we must obey a higher power." Mystra answered. "Ao, our overlord, has forbidden us certain things. Some things must play out on their own with no interference. The power I used to create the portal your world so long ago was given to me by Ao. I was supposed to close it after we banished the wizard Haberzeiam there but Viviane also went through and in my selfishness in hopes of her returning I kept it open and summoned the dragon to guard it. I cannot make another one. Ao will not give me the power to do so. The only help I can give now is to keep Natalie safe. She is a decedent of one of my Chosen...a niece of mine so to speak." The goddess of magic turned to Eilistraee, "I must go now. I have work to complete."

With not even a word of farewell Mystra vanished in the same violet cloud and was gone; along with Natalie. Christie started sobbing and Jason put his arm around her to comfort her.

"So we are stuck here? No chance of ever going home." Rain muttered.

"There is always hope, mortal. Never forget that." The Dark Maiden said and she too vanished from sight.

"So what now?" Lou asked.

Christie took a deep breath and calmed herself and sniffled several times. "We...we complete our bargain." She said and looked at Aklice. "I...we need to find this place Eilistraee wants her new shrine at and settle there." Aklice smiled and nodded.

"We will provide help. Some of my priestess may want to join you and help. Things around here have gotten to tame for some of them." She chuckled. "And Lady Qilué in the Promenade will help as well. We will assist in building this new shrine to our goddess."

"We will build a home." Jason said and turned to Rain, "A home until we find a way back to ours."

End.

Epilogue: The Lady Penitent

Loth sat on her throne on the raised dais in her tabernacle located in the center of her iron citadel; her large iron city that was in the shape of a spider and constantly moved about the Demon Web Pits on its eight legs. A city larger than some of the drow cities in the Underdark.

Lolth was in the form of one of her eight aspects, her half spider form and her half drow female form. She stood over ten feet tall in that form, her shining black body of a black widow spider and a drow form jutted from her thorax, a beautifully featured face and a full figured torso. She sat on her large throne, amused at the scene that played out before her.

It was for food at first, a hunger profound and demanding. Living creatures scrambling and scrabbling, a ball of thousands rolling and biting and kicking. No alliances, no sharing, a million individual spiderlings feasting upon their siblings, crunching on the carapaces and sucking on sweet life juices.

Those that survived the first minutes of freedom from the egg sack found their physical hunger satiated, found their eight legged bodies bloated. For a moment there was rest.

But physical hunger proved no more than a catalyst, and these beasts, offspring of the Lady of Chaos, were elevated from physical need to the demands of the ego, from simple hunger to the first taste of power, and the war raged once more. They bit and they ate. They attacked and they fed, nourished as much by the exquisite pain of their rivals as by the smell of the flowing ichor, the shriek of a victims' agony, the fear in eight tiny eyes as one gained advantage and another realized its doom, the joy of spilled lifeblood.

This marked the second level, beyond the physical, for those who survived the first wave of the feeding. This marked the satiation of ego, the sense of supremacy, the sweet taste of victory. Once again the survivors rested.

But they were not done for beyond the hunger and the power came the need for thrill, the true mark of Lady Lolth, the ultimate and paradoxical craving to walk on the very edge of disaster.

They began anew. The thousands attacked, consumed and were consumed, and to those who survived the first few moments of the renewed trial came the sense of self, for these were beings of Lolth, beings of chaos, and in that rival battle, where oblivion loomed on every side, the offspring lived, truly lived, basking in the realization that each moment could be the last moment.

This was the beauty of chaos.

This was the beauty of Lolth.

There was doom for all but one.

Natalie awoke and found herself laying on hard surface. She opened her eyes and looked about the room and saw the only furnishing was a large mirror on the opposite wall. The room was brightly lit from an unknown source and had a reddish tint and she assumed it was magical. Both the walls and floor of the room were made of a reddish tinted iron and carved into the iron were intricate silvery spider webs that glowed to give the room light. She felt no pain from the tortures she had recently endured and knew she had been healed and she also knew where she was. That was not hard to determine after the demon had appeared to her when her friends broke free from their drow captives. Natalie knew she was once more in the Demonweb Pits, the domain of the chaotic goddess Lolth.

She wanted to cry but instead took a deep breath and calmed her nerves; she was determined to not show fear to the Spider Queen. Natalie stood up and noticed she was naked and as she walked to the mirror she felt light; as if she was walking on air. The mirror was framed in some type of black metal and at the top of the frame was a hideous humanoid face with a single horn jutting out of its forehead. The body of the image on the mirror was that of a spider and its eight legs curved down the sides of the mirror frame. Once she looked into the mirror she saw why she felt that way. Her body appeared ethereal. It was just a slightly translucent image of herself in her human form from her real world. Natalie ran her hand over her arms and stomach and could feel that while she was ethereal in appearance she could still feel her body as if it was solid. She turned her head when she heard a hidden door open and saw Lolth walk into the room in her half drow half spider form. The form the goddess selected caused Natalie to tremble is fear.

"What....what did you do to me? Am I....am I dead?" Natalie asked trying not to let her fear show.

"No you are not dead just removed from your physical body." Lolth answered and when she opened her mouth to speak several tiny red spiders crawled from her parted lips and crawled up into her white hair.

"You...you took my soul?" Natalie asked turned her head to avoid looking the Spider Queen in the face.

Lolth smiled, "That was part of it, yes, but much more. I took your very life essence, your intelligence, you entire life force. Your body that is with your companions is just a mere shell...a mindless, emotionless husk of flesh and bone and blood. You friends broke free and I could not take the chance of losing you in case they succeeded in their escape so I took you."

"Why?" Natalie asked. "Are...are my friends dead?"

Lolth waved her hand in the air to dismiss Natalie's questions. "Hush, girl, I made you a promise if you did not take my offer and on rare occasions I keep my promises." The Spider Queen snapped her fingers and Natalie gave a sudden gasp and started backing up when she saw what walked into the room.

The first thing she noticed was the smell; a terrible sulfur smell and the smell of rotting meat and behind Lolth walked a horrible figure. It stood nine feet tall with a broad muscular body that was pitch black, the creatures head appeared canine shaped with two large, straight goat like horns; and it had two pairs of arms: the small set was humanoid ending in hands, while the other set was monstrous and ended in a pair of crab-like pincers. When the creature saw Natalie standing naked it smiled and showed a muzzle of sharp, yellow teeth.

"It seems Belshazu likes you my dear." Lolth chuckled.

"What...what is it?" Natalie asked in fear of the creature.

"It? I am no it!" The creature yelled. "I am Belshazu!"

"Hush now Belshazu." Lolth said calmly as if she was chastising a child. "Our dear Natalie is not from our world." She turned to Natalie, "Belshazu is a glabrezu...a demon of the abyss and serves me." She paused and stroked the demon's head as if petting a pet. "I made you a promise, girl, do you remember what it was?"

Natalie swallowed hard and shook her head causing Lolth to laugh.

"Yes you do. I promised if you did not serve me I would torment you for all eternity and have my servants take their lusts out on you. Belshazu was most eager to be the first. Glabrezus and other demons have a sexual fascination with mortals I will never understand."

Natalie looked at the demon and for the first time noticed it was naked and its huge genitalia was ugly, very large, and very erect. She fell to her knees.

"Please...no...not that. Please don't let him." She sobbed and begged Lolth.

Lolth laughed, "She does not like you, Belshazu. Maybe she would prefer Arunika for the first time."

With the mention of the name another figure walked into the room, this one appeared be that of an incredibly beautiful woman with flawless skin, raven-black hair, and large bat-like wings mounted on her back. She had small horns on her head, a lashing tail, and glowing red eyes. The beautiful creature wore black leather boots that came up to her inner thighs, a black leather one piece outfit that resembled a swim suit that barely contained her perfectly shaped breasts, and at her waist was attached a black whip. Natalie assumed Arunika was a succubus since they existed in myths from her world. The succubus looked at Natalie and smiled.

"No. You promised her to me!" The ugly demon yelled.

Lolth turned sharply to the demon and waved her hand in the air. Belshazu gave a horrible sounding scream of pain and his large body was thrown across the room and slammed into the far wall. He stood up, shook his dog like head, and gave a low growl at Lolth.

The Lady of Chaos raised an eyebrow at the demon's insolent growl, "Your lusts must have clouded your simple mind, Belshazu. You forget you place and you forget who I am. Of course you will have the girl. Many will have her over and over again but you must be patient."

The glabrezu lowered its head, "I apologize, Mistress." Arunika gave a giggle that Natalie would have found very adorable if not for the circumstances.