Surfacing Ch. 01

"And...have you met him, Elder?"

Rausery smiled crookedly; apparently I'd asked the right question. "He was a temporary ally the last time I was up here. Death mages are usually preoccupied with the opposite side of life and thus are not easily distracted by the act of creating it. He is crafty with a cruel streak that rivals many Underdark races. Do not underestimate him. As for his quirks...his lack of a sex drive does not prevent him from making innuendo merely for the reaction in others. I found it's best to ignore the slurs."

"Hm. Under what circumstances did you leave his company?" I wanted to know.

"Neutral. I decided not to kill him as he could prove useful again. The Valsharess seems to disagree on that now, so you are being sent to kill an elderly Human with notable magic."

Gaelan shuddered subtly. "How many Necromancers have you heard of in your lifetime, Elder?"

Rausery looked at her with almost no expression. "Few. More on the Surface than below it, I think because overall there is more life energy. The release of that from a dying body is what they use in their spells."

"That, and pieces from the dead," my elder Sister added in plain disgust.

"Well..." Rausery looked at me. "Maybe that will be extra motivation for you, Sirana. If he catches wind of your intent and wins a conflict between you, he will use your body for spare parts and spell components."

The sudden wave of nausea did surprise me. My first mental image was of my dissected my womb and I pressed a hand to my head in a vain attempt to smother it. I did not want to know what a death mage could do with a relatively rare "component" like a Drow embryo or fetus.

"Got it, Elder," I said with a genuine desire to turn the conversation away from my mission. "So why is it called 'Warpstone' again?"

"Because it sounds better than fuck-a-slug-crazy stone," Jael grinned and Rausery snorted a laugh, surprised as I was by the youngest's comment.

"Close enough. It's a Chaos element that I'm not even sure how it got here. If you think Lolth is a fickle goddess, you haven't seen the followers...or perhaps the possessed...of Warpstone. They make little sense, cannot be bargained with or interrogated, and do not survive longer than a few years each before their body breaks down under the stress of entropy."

"Only a few years?" Jael asked incredulously. "Well, then, why not just wait for them to snuff themselves out?"

"The element sends those with limited spans for replacements. Abducting, mostly. It was something the Necromancer was helping me with last time, because they were trying to move in to this valley. Neither he nor I wanted that. I thought we had destroyed the home stone, but...apparently they just move several valleys over."

We all watched our Elder intently.

"Do you have any ties to Manalar Castle and the Godblood?" Jael asked.

"The Godblood, no," she answered forthrightly. "If he's Human and in his prime, he would have been a mere boy the last I was up here, and we've realized that we do not know for certain where his home is. Ties to the cliff castle, yes. The Valsharess believed the rulers there possessed something...."

Rausery stopped then, seeming to struggle against a mere tick of her cheek. I knew both Gaelan and I had caught it; we recognized it.

Then she shook her head. "That is all I will say on that. That mission was not a complete success but I found something to satisfy her."

Certainly it was all she was even able to say. The Valsharess and her compulsions again...even Rausery possessed at least one. No wonder she did not give D'Shea public ridicule when hers was discovered...and broken in the same instant. Now the Elder's peer was one step ahead of her.

The apparent prevalence of compulsions did not comfort me, but it did somehow make me more grateful for what information I was given by my Elders, as neither D'Shea nor Rausery had thus far outright lied to me as far as I knew. Omitted, oh my yes. Much omission. And did they let me make my own assumptions without correcting me? Absolutely, yes. But what information they have given directly to their Red Sisters, we found we could always use it.

"It is time to rest, virgins."

Gaelan reached out to touch me later on as we settled for reverie. She was to leave in another four or five hours, when the Sun had risen and her direction was clear once she got out of our remote valley. Rausery was wherever she usually went as we rested; it was never in the tunnel but somewhere outside. Jael had just fallen asleep, and that was no doubt part of the timing as Gaelan kissed me. The two had gotten used to each other, but each still preferred some privacy with me if they could get it.

I responded fully, wanting her taste and scent one more time before she left. I helped strip her leathers over and down her hips and legs, bunched at her ankles, and she did not even have to ask or encourage me to go down on her first.

She kept her gasps and her shudders quiet and restrained; I probed and mouthed her almost delicately, drawing my tongue slowly across her folds, inhaling deeply the fragrance in the tuft of her mons. Her hand stroked my ears gently and toyed with the single braid I'd taken to weaving with my hair while on the Surface, which took less time than the complex patterns expected when moving about the City where the public may see.

When Gaelan's hips began to move a little too much, just as I was adding more urgency to my strokes and sucks, I gripped them hard with both hands, digging my fingers in to where she would feel it, and forced them still. I used my forearms and elbows to splay her thighs wider, accentuating just how little use her feet were, tangled so in her leathers.

The Red Sister who had first claimed me for D'Shea actually made a peep now at being held so open and vulnerable. She quickly bit her lip to keep from making more noise and waking Jael. Her pussy became wetter and her scent strengthened as she held herself still for me, trembling with effort. I attacked her sex then, lapping and sucking aggressively, thrusting my tongue inside her before flicking and swirling the tip around her clit. I could feel every muscle in her body straining as she ached to reach her peak.

Gaelan kept her mouth tightly closed, lips pressed together when she finally came, and the unique sound reminded me of our furtive coupling when I still dominated her in secret, though she topped me in public. I remembered her biting her fist to keep quiet as I stroked her netherhole with her own Feldeu. She had been just as beautiful then.

I kissed her netherlips more gently as she came down breathing deeply and heat radiating from her skin. I rose up to kiss her mouth next and she eagerly accepted the shared, heady whiff of the moisture on my lips.

Then we worked on lowering my own leathers and she gladly returned the favor.

I became aware of Jael watching me shortly after I'd made an unintended sound and looked over to find she was already awake, and probably had been for a while. I hadn't counted on the spike of sensation that swelled in my gut being caught like that, but I liked it. I smiled and quirked an eyebrow in question. Jael hadn't moved or given any sign to Gaelan, nor did it look as though she intended it.

Jael signed subtly, *I want better before we part.*

I nodded slightly, still breathing shallow and uneven as Gaelan brought me closer. *If you... stay out now.*

She signed the affirmative and let out a soft breath, closing her eyes again. She wasn't asleep when I grunted in climax against Gaelan's mouth, but she was very convincing. My elder Sister rose up to lie on top of me, kiss me again, and we waited for our breaths and heartbeats to slow before we parted for true reverie.

Honestly, a healthy orgasm was probably the only reason either of us slept before we saw her off in the morning. My Sister looked back only once.

"Jael goes tomorrow," Rausery said quietly as we watched Gaelan climbing down the mountain. "South and East."

Fetching water and repairing any and all weaknesses that we could find about our equipment filled the day for us. Jael wanted to get me alone and tried several times, but Rausery kept us working and being useful. I figured only when we were released to sleep would we have the opportunity.

My mind drifted often to Gaelan moving farther away beneath the same Sun over our heads. It was the same Sky, and soon, it would be the same Moons. Even after another forty days of travel, she would still be under the same Sky as each of us.

I wanted us to meet again beneath it; I wanted the queen to be wrong in her vision. I wanted Rausery's detailed and intense training to be the balance-breaker, the game-changer.

But I still remembered what Gaelan had said the first time she'd looked out at the rain falling onto the forest: *I'm still not ready for this.*

Damn.

....Damn. Why did she have to say that?

I wasn't sure who grabbed who first when Jael and I finally had the final four hours, the time to rest deep in the tunnel, but our stripping was desperate and aggressive, and Jael bit my lip when we kissed. I grabbed her hair at the base of her neck and yanked it back, forcing her to look at me as I held her so tightly she had trouble breathing.

"You're going to survive, right, Jael?" I whispered in Drow. "This isn't you wanting just one last time, is it?"

She gritted her teeth and loosed a hand to slap me; I was shocked enough to let her hair go. Then she threw both arms around my neck and buried her face against me, kissing shoulder and neck and hooking a leg around my bare hip so we were pressed close as possible standing up.

"Fuck, no," she growled. "Fuck you for saying that, you slit!"

I felt myself beginning to smile as we kept fighting against the inevitable.

Naked we entwined our legs as we had several times before, like our first time, our chests pressed together and lips locked once we were on the ground. We struggled to find a rhythm with both of us trying to show just how much we wanted to promise the other that there would be a next time. Finally, I let Jael lead—she just needed it so much more— and gasped as she ground my sex hard with her thigh. Soon I was moving with her.

"Yes," I whispered, pressing more firmly between her legs as I squeezed her bottom in both hands. I didn't care that the stone scraped my knees and knuckles and hips; it even seemed to enhance the youngest Sister's teeth on my breast and neck...

Jael whimpered a lot in primal pleasure and actually climaxed just before I did. As with Gaelan, I held on as our heartbeats returned to normal; Jael didn't seem to want to move.

"Sisters don't leave Sisters to die," she breathed.

It sounded as if she was testing the phrase on her tongue. I did not think she had ever said it before, though she'd heard it.

I did not answer, uncertain why she'd say it now. Surely, we had each acted on those words for each other. However, while I might consider it a truth for me—even benefiting Panagan or Qivni—Jael likely did not feel the same way for every Sister...or even many Sisters. Her habit of loyalty was fresh, cured with time even less than mine, and far from reliable. Rausery knew that.

Would Jael simply disobey to live or to find one of us?

...Would I?

"Meet me on the way back?" she asked quietly, her mouth nearly pressed to my shoulder.

Jael had the most distance to travel, and I had the shortest. She was assuming I'd finish first. It was a plausible assumption.

I nodded almost without realizing it. Then I said, "Yes. If I know where to look."

Neither of us cared so much about being named "Sola" by the queen, to want to be the one to make it back first. The queen wasn't here in the trench with us, and that promise, that "reward," was a root held out on a stick which meant very little if we'd been sent to die anyway. If I finished first...why wouldn't I start out after my Sisters instead of going after that root? Maybe I could find Gaelan, too.

Gaelan would follow her given path; I knew she would. I would know where to look. If Jael did not follow her mission, however, I would not know where to meet.

Her voice quavered slightly and she trembled for a second. "Just meet me on the way back. Stay alive. I'll be there."

And that was her answer. She wouldn't abandon us; she wanted to return to the Sisterhood...but not without me.

"Deal," I whispered.

Jael breathed out, her hand running down my back, and we fell asleep like that, naked and wrapped up in a tunnel leading back to the Underdark.

******

Tracers remained in my vision as I stood in Sunlight again the next day, wearing my mottled, grey-black cloak with my hood up and watching Jael leave. She did not look back after giving us both a hard, determined stare and turning away to begin her descent.

*Tracers...* I thought absently, my mind in a bit of a fog as she left.

Tracers were what Rausery called those spots and bending colors that impaired precise vision at long distances. It was part of the reason none of us bothered with making a long bow. We'd have to get by with stalking and ambush, using our strengths in shadow, to listen and be able to fight blind if necessary. We had to be able to tolerate Sunlight, but we would not be able to counter long shots or anyone with the eyes of a hawk. We would have to hide.

"Never leave your back open," Rausery had said then. "You move carefully and quietly, you use shadow where you can, you always stop with something at your back."

"You wait until tomorrow," was what she said now.

"I'm going in the opposite direction, Elder," I replied. "I could leave today."

She frowned at me in definite warning. "You wait until tomorrow. If anyone's going to circle back, it's you, Sirana."

I stiffened. "Elder—"

"Tomorrow," she said sternly and allowed no further discussion.

The rest of that day, I focused hard on making a few more bolts, mixing more poison paste and more food—separately—and strengthening my belt and pouches with spare strands of darkened hide leftover from hunting. I applied a fresh coat of waterproofing solution on cloak and boots and gloves —mixed as Rausery had shown me using Surface reagents, knowing from recent experience that it would also help against elemental wear in general and control odor as well.

I didn't see Rausery though I figured she was watching to see if I would sneak away. I used my time more wisely than that. When the Sun set and I still hadn't seen her, however, I went to seek her out.

I did not find a trail or sign of passing, nor did I expect to; I found her just on the hunch that, were I her...were I somewhere I felt in my element, released from all duties, far from the immediate concerns of other Drow plots... though soon to return...

...then I might be spending my time watching the Stars and Moons a little longer. But I would choose somewhere I could still see the mouth of the cave and any figure moving down toward the treeline.

"Need something?" she asked and I jerked in surprise, having just finished climbing to the second ledge above our cave. She was there, reclined on a cradle of rock, lounging with her hands folded just above her belt.

I nodded and took a seat on a second rock within easy talking distance.

Rausery didn't comment at first, staring out at the view, then up. I followed her gaze, temporarily entranced by the Stars. The Moons hadn't risen yet and the Stars were radiant against the black Sky.

"So tell me," she began. "Is there something else you will be doing, Sirana? Something She told you to do, perhaps?"

I gritted my teeth behind closed lips, feeling the wave of nausea as I would have liked to say, "Yes." I turned my head to look at her profile, eventually drawing the Elder's considering gaze. We stared full on for several long seconds, and I could read when she at last confirmed that I couldn't answer.

Her mouth twitched and tensed at the same time. "I thought so."

She looked away and was quiet again as a breeze passed over our ears in a low whoosh. She spoke again with her eyes on the night horizon.

"It's lives or objects, usually. Always wants something of this place, wants to keep this portal open and information on the area, yet pretends no long-term interest. She blocks and punishes curiosity or ideas of expansion. How it serves Lolth for the Valsharess to have the visions and the choice to affect this world above, yet we remain closed up down below... is a mystery to me."

Rausery had my complete attention; my ears eagerly drank in the words. The Elder wanted to "talk." She wanted to speak her mind as she could with a compulsion on her.

I knew now that a compulsion spell could be much broader in its effect—as Wilsira's had been on D'Shea. However, as I understood now that Wilsira's curse had been fuelled and enhanced by an Abyssal ritual, I no longer feared that every Drow suffered something so broad, even beset by the queen.

Fortunate for both of us that Rausery's compulsion must be as specific as mine, to be able to talk around it even as much as she had just now. Most compulsions had to be specific—the two on me had been so, as were Gaelan's and Rausery's. If one wanted more, one could only attempt to turn the unfortunate target into a thrall and take the will away entirely, as the Illithids did. But even that had risks.

Auslan had even said it himself: "Magic wears differently on us all over time...there is always change..."

Even for a queen that aims for stagnation.

Rausery's statement would damn her if she'd said it so that it got back to the Valsharess...but she didn't seem to care up here. I wasn't going back with her, and I understood chaffing against restraint.

I looked out over the Surface. Just watching the Winter become Spring, seeing not only the green arrive seemingly from nowhere, but the white and pink blossoms and yellow ground flowers, showed that this place was anything but stagnant or restrained.

"Where did you hear most of your stories of the Surface, Elder?" I asked. "Not at the Necromancer's Tower?"

A quick glance showed she was smiling. "Quite a few of the recent ones through Sarilis, actually. You know scholars. They must talk, and they must keep records to 'prove' their talk."

I blinked. Sarilis. So now I had a name. She'd taken her time on that. Why hadn't Shyntre mentioned it? "Records? Can you read the scrolls up here?"

I had been immersed in the Common language and had confidence getting my meaning across...but I was illiterate in any written Surface language, as far as I knew. I had even been told to expect variable, local differences in the speech itself. Script was an entirely different matter.

Elder Rausery shrugged. "I can read a bit of the Wizards' scrolls. I've learned a few things this last century, taking on D'Shea's boy when she wouldn't...or, rather, couldn't. The mages' script has surprising overlap no matter where you are. Do you know what the root language is?"

I shook my head. "No, Elder."

"Draconic. Very few Great Wyrms around, as I understand it, but both Sarilis and Shyntre read similar symbols in their own dens, I know that much."

That alone explained one of the core differences between the arcane magic and the divine for the Drow...I already knew just from exposure that many of the words of divine power for the Priestesses came from the Abyssal language. How was there any overlap between arcane and necromancy?

"Does he know that?" I asked. "Shyntre, I mean."

"He wasn't around Sarilis, if that's what you're really asking. I took the wizard topside earlier than that, general reconnaissance, not a focused mission. He may suspect, but he hasn't met a Surface mage to compare notes."

"And you haven't told him."

Rausery shrugged. "It's only been twenty years since I figured that out. When it's worth mentioning it, I will."