Shilana's Trial

After Hael'quira was done with me, she had washed me herself, scrubbed me meticulously clean and mended any and all injuries. She wrapped me into a fresh, clean white robe, the color of innocence. Then she had again shackled me between two pillars, with leather ropes that would make any attempts at escape especially painful by tightening themselves the more I struggled. And so I had no choice but to stand by and weep helplessly as the dark elves paraded their slaves past me, telling each and every one of them that their ruling family was utterly unable to protect them. And then they were gone, leaving me alone with my thoughts, the memories, the guilt.

Eventually they had found me, our scouts returning from their patrols. But they had been much too late. I was barely coherent when they cut me loose, having had nothing but my own troubled mind for company during the Gods only know how long. Sure, there was sunrises and sunsets, the golden light of the life-giving star filtering through the shattered glass panes of the Hall Of Speakers, but it had faded out of conscious perception as I was busy trying to wrestle with what Hael'quira had done to me. But there was no doubt, not for one heartbeat. I would make them pay. I would make every dark elf in existence pay for what they had done to me, to my family and friends.

The scouts were not much help. Sure, they fed me, they bathed me and everything, but they assumed I would take over, ruling over them. How could I rule over any one when I couldn't even protect myself? No, I told them to go to hell, or to find other elven Houses to flee to, because I had my own burden to shoulder. And I couldn't stand living in the shattered ruins of our home, every single flagstone was much too familiar, only reminding me of Hael'quira, of how she had violated me, she and that eerie shadow riding her. No, like a craven coward, I ran. As far as my legs could carry me. But to no avail. Eventually, after more than a year, the first signs showed. I couldn't keep food to myself, waking with splitting aches in the morning. And there was no denying the steadily growing bulge of my stomach. But I was still deep in elven lands, no priestess would dare to invoke the ire of the heavens by killing the unborn in me. So I ran, hoping to reach the lands of the humans before it was too late.

But of course it wasn't to be. A massive autumn storm struck while I was stumbling through fertile farmlands at the edge of the human lands. I barely made it into a hayloft when my waters broke and the cramps began. I writhed around in the straw while my body felt like it was splitting asunder. I didn't know how long it took, but eventually I felt it, a feeble, writhing presence between my legs. Dreading what I might actually find, I struggled around, feeling the slimy cord connecting it with me stretching like an obscene tentacle. And there it laid, wet, glistening and feebly wailing, a twitching, bloody thing, the skin a sickly, mottled grey, ears sharply pointed, a light dusting of coppery hair on its skull. It looked nothing at all like me. Everything I could only see was Hael'quira in it, and my stomach heaved. I retched until there was nothing more to spew forth, and even then I could hardly muster the nerve to touch it. I pulled my dagger from my pack and severed that vile connection binding it to me. The wailing wouldn't stop. Maybe it was cold, maybe it was hungry. The thought alone caused me to cough painfully again. There was no way, ever, that I would let this... thing wrap its lips around my nipple. No way this abomination would ever touch me, suck nourishment from my body like Hael'quira had lapped at my nipples, suckled at my breasts when she needed a break to recuperate. I needed to erase the memories. I needed to rid myself of this specter, of any physical remains, lest Hael'quira would still have dominance over me. Still clutching the bloody dagger, my hand shaking from the exertion, I crawled until I could lean over it. For some reason, it stopped wailing. Maybe it noticed my presence. Moving its head from side to side, it tried to make sense of what was going to happen. Getting to my knees and raising my hands over my head was even more straining than birthing this... thing, when I held the dagger high above my head, I was shaking like a storm-tossed tree, but it had to be done. That was the only thing it... and I... deserved. I rammed my hands down.

The axe hit me out of nowhere. Hadn't it been for my Stoneskin magic, it might have cleaved right through me. And even with that magical armor in place, the hit hurt like hell. I rolled to the side, scattering statue fragments everywhere and used the momentum to get back to my feet, hurriedly scanning for the attacker.

Zentam was advancing on me, most of his body hidden behind his kite shield, whipping his axe in sharp cuts in front of him.

"Have you lost your fucking mind, dwarf?" I screamed. He didn't answer. Instead, he charged, shield first, intent on bowling me off my feet.

Thankfully, I had seen this move hundreds of times before. Orcs and dwarves weren't all that different when it came to fighting, despite their protests to the contrary. I rolled to the side, avoiding the trailing axe-head by sheer luck.

"Zentam, what is wrong with you?" I snarled. He didn't answer, instead he again turned to face me, slowly advancing. Where was everybody? "How about a little help here?"

Well, when in doubt, flee. And I really didn't want to hurt Zentam, despite his erratic behaviour. Now would have really been a wonderful moment for something non-lethal, which I didn't bother to ever learn. Taking down goons without killing them was more Leo's domain than mine.

With a pang of guilt I realized that my teleport spell was still locked on to Leo, but there was no better place I'd wanted to be right now. I just hoped he wasn't behaving as crazily as our dwarf here, because even with my magic, I knew I was hardly a match for his prowess. Evading another assault by our dwarven friend, I snapped off the spell and 'ported away.

When the world stopped spinning, I had to jump aside again. Leo was furiously trading blows with a spitting, hissing woman. She wore simple clothing, not much different from what any adventurer would wear, and she assaulted Leo with quicksilver-fast blows of her scimitar, the curving blade easily darting around, over and past his defences.

Tear raced up to me. "Where's Zentam?" she asked. I didn't have to answer. The furiously roaring dwarf was barrelling down the street, head tucked in low like a charging bull.

"What's gotten into him in the first place?" I asked her, my gaze flicking to Leo as he grunted in pain. Again, the medusa had outmaneuvered him, her slender blade finding yet another gap in his magical, folding armor.

"Charm, I guess. You go help Leo, Arach and I will subdue the dwarf. We try our best not to kill him," she assured me, pointing her thumb at Zentam.

"All right, this ends now!" I shouted, turning towards the medusa. She simply ignored me, nimbly avoiding another of Leo's lunging strikes. Her skin was of a soft leaf-green, not unlike a serpent's and were it not for the furious snarl etched onto her face, she might have been beautiful. I shook my head in annoyance. That was so unimportant right now. I raised my hand and willed my fury to awaken, shouting a lightning bolt spell. Even after two days, my body still hurt from my argument with Leo and when the bolt ripped from my hand, it felt as if most of my body was going with it. To my amazement, the medusa lithely rolled aside, only a few errant tendrils of lightning arcing over her skin, barely hurting her. Nevertheless, I had her attention now. Before she could come to her feet, I rattled off the next spell, nearly tripping over my tongue in my haste to fell her as quickly as possible. Five incandescent pinpricks of light blasted from my fingertips, elegantly homing in on her and leaving stinging explosions of force as they unerringly battered her body.

I thought that was enough to do her in, but she surprised me as she came to her feet, evading Leo's next attack by smoothly sidestepping his whistling hammer head. Then she pulled something from her belt, gave it a lick with her impossibly long tongue and tossed it my way. I tried to evade it, but with a dry crunch, the throwing dagger impaled itself in my shoulder, bypassing the Stoneskin, immediately paralyzing my arm. The pain, as her poison seeped through my veins, was mind-numbing.

Then she twirled into Leo, sidestepping his hammer head and leaned against him. "My, you would have made a fine mate, handsssssome," she hissed. Before Leo could even react, she pulled his head down and pressed her lips to his, their eyes meeting.

"What are you doing?" I screamed at Leo, but it was already too late.

It appeared as if time had thickened into syrup. His hammer dropped from suddenly numb fingers, sailing to the ground, hitting the road in a small dust cloud while his face, a look of utter surprise chiselled onto it, turned ashen, then grey. Maybe it was my frayed nerves, but I heard him croak something, the words never quite leaving his petrifying lips.

With a sad little smile, the medusa stepped away from him, her eyes on me. Luckily, I had learned my lesson after the dark elves had attacked. Even with only one good hand, I could still throw spells, and throw I did. Another lightning bolt ripped from me, causing me to fall to my knees, howling in pain as the storm gems drew even more power straight from my flesh. I just wanted to punish that monstrosity for killing Leo, before I could even have a chance to make amends. This time, the bolt hit her square in the chest, blasting her off her feet and tossing her limp body a good twenty feet. And still she wasn't dead! Coughing blood, she crawled away, trying to put as much distance between me and her as possible. I snapped my fingers, calling my staff to my hand. I knew I was exhausted, but the magic stored in that ancient artefact would be more than enough to finish off that slithering handbag. Using the staff as a crutch, I unsteadily came to my feet and made my way to where the medusa was trying to stand up herself. She turned around, looking me straight into the eyes. Hers were of a wondrous gold color, the pupils wide in pain. For a small moment I felt it, the tug of magic, forcing my body to just stop and petrify, but I was furious enough to brush that feeble notion aside with contemptuous ease. I wanted to see her dead and broken, even if it was the last thing I would do. She took away Leo, my Leo, and she would pay dearly for it!

"And now you'll die, bitch," I hissed, raising my staff to unleash my mightiest spell, to rip her out of existence, so only a cloud of fine white dust would remain.

"I have no intention of dying today," she hissed, swaying precariously, fighting for balance. Without warning, she spat at me, the glob of burning venom barely missing my eyes. My cheek erupted in pain and I dropped my staff, clutching at my swelling, burning face. Then I heard it, a soft, breathless chanting. And a moment later, the soft rush as air filled a suddenly deserted space. She had teleported away.

The scream was devoid of any humanity. It took a second until I realized that the sound came from me, straight from the bottom of my soul. She fled! The medusa was a spell caster like myself and she denied me my vengeance! From the corner of my eye I saw that Tear and Arach were still fighting the furious Zentam. Tear, ever her concerned self, whirled around to see what had caused the scream, but before she could take in the view in front of her, Zentam's axe slammed into her, shattering her hip bone with the force of the impact. Howling in pain herself, the tall dark elf crumpled to the floor, by sheer luck avoiding a decapitating blow the furious dwarf launched at her.

"Arach, Shi, help!" Tear whimpered, frantically trying to crawl away. Her leg was dead weight as she dragged herself hand over hand away from the fight, her trousers already slick and sticky with her blood. What could I do? I didn't have anything non-lethal prepared. So I shrugged and tossed a small globe of light at Zentam's eyes, maybe distracting him, maybe not. Thinking clearly became awfully hard. The pain from the poison spittle was eating at my sanity and my eyes were drawn to Leo, standing as a grimly heroic statue in the middle of the street.

"What does it take to stop this maniac?" Arach snarled, ducking under a high chop and slamming the pommel of her sword into Zentam's face. The dwarf stopped chopping at her, shook his head, spitting blood and teeth, before his eyes turned glassy again and he slammed his whole, armour-plated bulk into Arach. She rolled with the attack and came to her feet, ready to pounce again.

"How about some anti-magic here?" Arach commanded, shaking me out of my own jumbled thoughts. "I can't handle him alone, and I don't want to kill him by accident, Shilana!"

Their weapons clashed together and Arach went to her knees as she tried to block another murderous overhead chop from our dwarven companion. Thinking quickly, she dropped her sword and grabbed his axe handle with both hands, using her weight to keep the weapon low.

"Come on, I can't hold on forever!" she yelled. The pain was almost too much to bear. It felt as if half of my face was doused with burning oil. I raised both arms and began to cast, but a moan escaped my lips and broke the spell. Snarling at my ineptitude, I started again, just as Zentam kicked Arach into the stomach. Grunting, she rolled away from him, shielding her belly with her arms.

I coughed out the last syllables and tossed my hand in Zentam's direction. Zentam, axe at the ready for another chop, froze in mid-swing as my magic washed over him, nullifying any and all enchantments that were on him. He blinked furiously, then lowered his weapon.

"What have I done?" he asked, slowly, lisping. "And for that matter, what have ye done?"

"Later. Let's just say you've chopped at the wrong trees," Arach hissed, sprinting to where Tear had propped herself up on one elbow. "Were it not for Shilana, I would have had to kill you."

Their voices blended into the background, blurry noises matching the blurry world. There were only Leo and I, my hand helplessly stretched out towards Leo, the lifeless, grey pillar of stone that once was my paladin, my friend. I felt a dark abyss gnaw at my soul, an embracing void ready to swallow me, to reduce me to a feeble, lifeless shell myself. But I wasn't done here. I couldn't lie down and die of grief just yet. Not until I had found and killed that medusa.

A gentle humming caught my attention. I blinked my eyes open. Arach was bent over me, my head cradled in her lap. Her face was so close, I could see my own reflection in her eyes. I looked ghastly, the right side of my face an angry red swollen mess, clear fluids leaking from burst pustules.

She hummed something that caused the silver disc hanging on her neck to shimmer painfully bright. Her hand caressed my cheek, each gentle touch taking a little of the pain and the swelling away. Occasionally, her eyes would leave my face and look at something in the distance which caused her face to contort in anguish. Another shadow fell over us.

"Will she make it?" Zentam sheepishly asked, his gaze meeting mine.

"Thankfully, yes. Just a bit higher, and she might have been blinded permanently," Arach told him, without stopping her healing caresses. Each touch took a little of the hurt from my face, but the pain in my soul remained, like a throbbing, sharp-edged fist of ice in the pit of my stomach that just wouldn't go away. Arach chanted a final spell and brushed her fingers one last time over my cheek.

"It's like a damn choir here," Zentam grumbled, looking at Tear, pressing her hands to her own body and softly chanting. With a sickening crunch, her bones mended and she sighed in relief.

Zentam rubbed his face. "If you have some magic left, I could use a little healing myself. I feel like a horse has kicked me in the teeth."

"I'm half in the mood to leave you like that," Tear complained, gingerly coming to her feet. "You nearly killed me just now. What had happened?" Slowly, she closed the distance between herself and the dwarf, carefully testing her leg.

"As if I had a clue. First I'm checking this back yard, and then there's this soft singing. I turn around, and a moment later everything goes fuzzy. I'm sorry," he grumbled.

"It seems our preparations weren't enough," Tear sighed ruefully, casting a healing spell and touching Zentam's face. "We should have thought about something to ward off poisons, too."

"That damn snake-woman got us with our pants down, that's for sure," the dwarf rumbled, looking at the statue of Leo. Tear followed his gaze, before she looked at us, a sad smile around her lips.

"What do we do now?" Arach asked, absent-mindedly caressing my hair. Her gaze wandered from Tear to Leo, and a sad little smile played around her lips. "Who would have thought, Leo? And I thought you would have the easiest time resisting her," she asked the statue.

"We could use a little rest. Shilana needs to get back on her feet. And then we need to think about how we can cure Leo and the others. There has to be a way," Tear said, sounding more hopeful than she actually looked.

* * * *

Eventually I realized what I was doing. I was lying in Arach's lap and she was caressing my hair, my face, my ears. It was very soothing, but I didn't want to be soothed. I wanted to find that medusa and strangle her with her own forked tongue. So I rose and joined Tear and Zentam when they decided to check if the medusa was still in the vicinity. I knew that I wouldn't be much help in a serious battle, because apart from another volley of magic missiles and my staff, I was pretty burnt out, but I wouldn't let that stop me from at least keeping an eye out. Also, occupying myself helped to get my mind off Leo and me stay sane. I caught up with my companions as they stopped in front of the only stone building in Miller's Crossing, door and windows barred and nailed shut.

"Would ye look at that?" Zentam asked, pointing at the entrance. Tear stepped closer. A heavy oak bar was blocking their way.

"Who would bar a house from the outside?" she asked.

"This is recent, and not the best craftsmanship," Zentam commented, pointing at a nail sticking out at an angle. Nonetheless, what the craftsman lacked in skill, he more than made up for in quantity. The bolt mounts were securely affixed with several large carpenter nails, effectively turning the door into a sturdy obstacle for anyone inside. The few windows on both floors were nailed shut as well.

"You think the medusa might have done this?" Tear asked, looking back up the road, where Arach was keeping watch should the medusa return, sitting at the feet of the Leo statue.

"Why not have a peek inside? There's nobody left to complain about it anyway," the dwarf grinned, returning his axe to its resting place on the side of his backpack. Tear drew her sword. "What? Do ye really think I'd whack you again?" Zentam complained, lifting the heavy bar from its mountings. With a grunt, he chucked the heavy piece of wood aside.

"You can't blame me for being careful, can you?" the drow priestess asked sweetly. I nodded in assent. After today, I would be wary around him as well. He may not mean any harm, but the ease with which the medusa turned him against us was a sharp reminder to never let your guard down.

"Well, when ye put it like that...," Zentam grumbled, pulling at the door. The hinges barely made a sound as it swung open. Tear silently slipped into the house first, making sure to keep a wall in her back. She was in some kind of living room, with a few armchairs, a table, a cupboard and a big fireplace that looked as if it doubled as a cooking spot. A curtained doorway led off into other parts of the house. A moment later, Zentam followed, noisily unhooking his axe again. I brought up the rear and gently pulled the door closed. Before Tear could complain about the dwarf's lack of stealth though, we heard it. Steps, above us, causing the floorboards to creak.