Aliisza remained draped over Kael for several long moments. The agony of Kaanyr's words washed through her over and over again, mingling with the physical pain of her dying body. During all the years she had been his consort and his lieutenant, she had known he might turn on her one day. She had never imagined it could hurt so much.
The prophetic words of a conversation, spoken long before and in a very distant place, came unbidden into her mind. "It's dangerous, caring for others," she had said at the time. "You leave yourself open to… to pain."
"Yes," Tauran had replied so long ago. "It is hard to care for others, because you give something of yourself in the process. And you fear that it will come back to injure you if you let it. Everything we do in life, we do out of fear. Fear of betrayal; fear of pain. In the end, those fears materialize despite our efforts."
"Despite our efforts," she repeated, fighting the tears as she buried her face in her hands atop Kael's chest. I've tried it both Kaanyr's way and Tauran's, and despite everything, this is how it ends. In pain and misery. Why did I bother? That had been her reply so long ago, too, when she and Tauran had discussed the vulnerability of caring in that enchanted garden.
She repeated the question aloud. "Why bother living at all? How does making myself vulnerable change anything? It only makes it worse!"
She felt a cool touch upon the back of her neck. She started, at first fearing that Kaanyr had returned, but his touch had always burned with his inner fiendish fire. She shifted around as best as she could and found Zasian kneeling next to her.
"You're hurt," he said. He shifted his hand to her forehead, then blessed comfort poured into her. The pain in her gut faded somewhat, and she felt renewed strength return to her limbs.
Zasian looked pained as he withdrew his hand. "You're dying," he said simply. "But not yet. I've helped."
Aliisza looked back at the priest and smiled. "Thank you," she said. Such kindness from…
Zasian sat still and stared beyond her, at nothing.
"You called me your son," Kael said.
Aliisza blinked and sat up. "What?" she asked, sniffing and wiping her eyes.
"When you first arrived," Kael answered. "You told that thing"-the half-drow jerked his head in the direction of the gorilla-demon-"to 'get away from my son!' You've never called me that before."
Aliisza shook her head. "So? I don't understand."
"I think he's trying to answer your question," Tauran said, his voice very weak. "It's why you-why all of us-bother."
"Exactly," Kael said. "I'm sorry for what Vhok said to you. He's a fool. I'm proud to have you as a mother."
Aliisza smiled faintly. Kael smiled back, and gladness welled up inside her, pushing aside some of the hurt Kaanyr had inflicted upon her. He's my son, she beamed. And he's proud of it.
But they were still doomed. Kaanyr had made good on his promise to punish Tauran and Kael for their manipulations. He was free, and they were all trapped, dying in a deep hole in the ground.
"How could you do that?" Aliisza demanded, turning to where the angel panted, his eyes closed. His blond curls lay plastered against his pale skin, soaked in sweat. He looked terrible. "How could you free him like that? You've just sealed our fates," she said, anguish welling up once more.
"I had no choice," Tauran replied. "I gave him my word. A guarantee of my own well-being was not part of the bargain."
"Tauran, that's insane!" Kael said from across the room. "Surely there was some way you could have maintained the letter of the agreement a little longer. Are you that ready to die?"
"Death may be a blessing for me after everything that's happened," Tauran murmured. "The demons will not slay me for a long time, if they can help it."
"No," Aliisza said, fighting to control her emotions. "I won't let that happen."
Tuaran opened his eyes and looked at her. "I welcome whatever intervention you wish to provide, but it is as Kaanyr said. Where are we to go?"
"We can still try, damn you!" Kael said. "If you just want to lie there and wait for them to come for you, then you're not the creature I believed in. That's not the Tauran I know."
Tauran closed his eyes again and sighed wearily. "Would that I could still be that person for you, my friend. But too much has been lost. I cannot muster the strength or will to continue the fight."
"Nonsense," Aliisza said, rising to her feet. "That's this place talking. You're succumbing to it." She tried to adapt a brusque, practical tone, but inside, she fought to avoid falling apart. Kaanyr had everything he wanted, had every advantage. And he had been right; they were all liabilities.
Maybe he'll come to his senses, she hoped. Maybe he'll reconsider. Then that false hope vanished. She knew nothing would change the cambion's mind. He had been through too much. Too much suffering, too much humiliation. He intended to extract a heavy toll from everyone who had gotten in his way, everyone who had thwarted even a tiny bit of his ambition. The four of them would be nothing, trying to stand against him.
Something inside Aliisza resolved itself then. Something powerful, something that had lain in wait for her to finally see the universe as it really was. Kaanyr's words had stuck with her. Would you sacrifice yourself? he had asked.
He's a fool, she realized. He will never understand. I'd rather die with these two by my side than waste another moment grieving over him.
Clarity had come.
Aliisza knew what she must do.
She knelt next to Kael and muttered a simple spell, touching the locking mechanism of his manacles as she did. An audible click accompanied the shackles coming apart and dropping from his wrists. A wave of pain shot through Aliisza's gut as her blue glow filled the cave, and she doubled over for a moment, gasping. When the discomfort subsided, she manipulated the spell a second time, freeing the knight's legs.
Kael stared at her. "Is it bad?" he asked, and the gentle concern in his eyes warmed Aliisza's heart.
Aliisza smiled. "No," she lied. She reached out and caressed his face. "I'm fine."
The half-drow snorted. "The Hells you are," he said. "You look like you're about to pass out."
Aliisza shook her head and resumed her officious attitude. "There's no time for worrying about me," she replied. "We've got to get Tauran free and out of here. This place is killing him."
Kael stared at her for a moment, but then he nodded. "I'll do it," he said. "Whatever you've got in mind, get started. Vhok won't be long in returning to finish his betrayal."
Aliisza shuddered, hearing her son's words. He's not blaming me, she insisted. He's just right. Swallowing the guilt, she stood and headed toward the tunnel leading out. "I'm going to find your weapons," she said softly. "I'll be back soon." With that, she left them.
Kaanyr, she thought as she prowled along the passage, why did you do this to me? I did still love you, you fool. She grimaced. No more grieving! It's done. Deal with the ones who still care. Swallowing the growing lump in her throat, the half-fiend continued on.
She reached an intersection and slowed, listening. Things had grown quiet since the commotion of the devils' invasion. Aliisza assumed the demons had been triumphant, but she wondered how high a price they had paid for their victory.
The more of them dead, the better, she decided. Fewer for me to deal with.
Satisfied that nothing was nearby that would cause her trouble, Aliisza braced herself against a wall and manipulated innate magic once more. The crash of agony lasted only a moment. When the blue emanation subsided and she had caught her breath, she could sense in which direction Kael's sword lay. She scurried around a bend in the tunnel and followed her internal compass.
It took her several wrong turns and a few retreats to avoid being seen by others before she found the chamber where her son's sword had been discarded. The cavern was small, much like the one Tauran, Kael, and Zasian had been imprisoned within, and it had only one entrance. It lay at the end of a narrow passage with a few other, similar chambers lining either side of it. The demons had been using the chambers as refuse storage. They stank of filth and decay.
Aliisza stood at the edge of the chamber and peered around at the trash and bones, the foul sewage and carcasses. Her magical guidance suggested that the blade lay on one side, and when she went to that spot, she found it, carelessly tossed atop a heap of other waste. Tauran's mace sat nearby. In fact, all of the trio's equipment was there.
She began to gather it up, then paused, struck by an idea.
Aliisza stacked her companion's weapons and other gear in a neat pile near the entrance to the chamber, and then sucked in air to prepare herself for the onslaught of pain. She summoned a shimmering blue doorway, gasped at what the magic did to her insides, and then stepped through.
She found herself in the chamber where Tauran, Kael, and Zasian waited. She did not dispel the doorway.
Kael knelt next to Tauran, trying to help the angel sit up. Kael had managed to remove the bindings that had held Tauran immobile. Even so, Tauran was a sorry sight. Zasian still sat nearby, staring across the room at nothing in particular. The bodies of the fiends that had rushed into the room remained there too.
"Did you find them?" Kael asked, rising to his feet.
Aliisza nodded. "Come," she said. "Let's get out of here before Kaanyr comes back."
The half-drow frowned. "Where are we going?" he asked. "We'll just be trapped somewhere else in this godsforsaken place."
"Maybe," Aliisza replied, "but it will buy us some time to figure out a way to escape. Help Tauran. I'll get Zasian."
Mother and son each took a companion. Aliisza got the priest to his feet and found it easy to guide him where she wished. She steered Zasian toward the doorway, while Kael followed her, supporting the ailing angel with an arm around his waist.
"I hear someone coming down the passage," Kael whispered. "Hurry!"
Aliisza stepped through the magical portal and then moved away from its twin at the other end, making room for the other two following behind. Once Kael and Tauran passed through the door, she released the magic and the doorway winked out.
"Ugh," Kael said, wrinkling his nose. "I didn't think we could find something that smelled worse than that big ape back there, but I was wrong."
"Your things are over there," Aliisza said, pointing.
Kael positioned Tauran near a wall where the angel could support himself. Then the knight reached for his sword. "Thank Torm," he murmured. "It feels good to have this in my hands again." After hefting the blade and feeling its familiar weight, he bent down and pulled Tauran's mace from the pile. "Here," he said, holding it out for the angel.
Tauran took the holy weapon. He slipped it into his belt, but the weight of the mace seemed to make him sag even more. "Thank you," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Kael turned back to Aliisza, who had guided Zasian to a relatively clean spot on the floor and had bid him to sit. "Now what?" he asked. "Tauran and the priest are in no condition to fight, and you and I cannot defeat the whole horde ourselves. Even after the battle with the devils, there's bound to be too many of them crawling through here. So what do we do?"
Aliisza bit her lip in thought. She turned to Tauran. "You can't move us?" she asked, fearing she already knew the answer.
The celestial shook his drooping head. "Even if I had the strength," he said, fighting back a coughing spell, "I am still cut off from Tyr. He has not seen fit to grant me his blessings yet."
"Then I'll just have to do it myself," Aliisza said uncertainly. "How hard can it be to make a doorway back out into the Astral Plane?"
"That may not make things any better," Kael said. "Who knows what is lurking out there? Especially considering how stirred up everything is after the destruction."
Aliisza gave her son a pointed look. "Do you have any better ideas?" When Kael shook his head, she said, "Then it's our only option. If we can get Tauran out of here, he might start healing."
Kael gave a sigh of uncertainty, but he nodded. "Give it a try," he said. "Staying here is certain death."
Aliisza sat and focused her concentration. She imagined a place in the Astral Plane, just beyond the reach of the chunk of world in which they were trapped. She closed her eyes and began to build up arcane energy.
If I survive this, she thought, it's going to hurt like the Nine Hells.
Vhok's steps felt light and easy as he walked through the tunnels of the demonic stronghold. That was too easy, he thought. Tauran finally got a taste of his own rules, and he has found them wanting. The fool.
The only part that dismayed him was Aliisza. Even too feeble to draw on her magic, she had tried to stop him. She had made her choice. She's no longer the one I loved, he told himself. But I will miss her.
You will find another consort, Kaanyr Vhok. Right now, remember that you are free. You're free!
Vhok's stride was rather jaunty as he turned a corner and entered the great chamber where the marilith held court before, when he and Aliisza had come before her. She was there, surrounded by her minions. Two of the large, ram-headed fiends guarded the doorway, and when they spotted him approaching, they blocked his route with their wicked-looking polearms.
"I must speak with Vhissilka," Vhok said. "It concerns a means of returning us all to the Abyss."
"You will wait," one of the two guards said before he bounded off to inform the marilith. The other remained there, watching Vhok closely. He wondered if it was one of the survivors he had commanded earlier. He struck a pose of disdainful boredom and waited.
The guard returned, but the hyena-headed demon with the snake protruding from his neck, Grekzith by name, accompanied the lowly demon. The guard resumed its position on one side of the door, while Grekzith stood before Vhok and folded his arms across his chest, matching the cambion's haughty stare.
"My mistress is busy," he said. "Go away."
Vhok chuckled. "Vhissilka is not too busy to hear what I have to say. Go tell her I've found a way to get her back to her beloved Abyss. And tell her that circumstances have changed. She can have the angel. I have all the information I need from him."
The demon glared at Vhok. "I will also ask Vhissilka for permission to disembowel you for your impertinence," he said. He turned and stalked back to the marilith.
Vhok watched the exchange between demons carefully. As the molydeus whispered in her ear, the marilith's eyebrows shot up. She uttered some quick command and gestured for the other fiend to hurry away. By the molydeus's body language, Vhok could tell he was not happy.
Good, Vhok thought. The quicker he learns not to try me, the better.
The red-skinned demon stormed past Vhok with barely a glance. He exited the chamber and disappeared. Vhissilka gestured for Vhok to join her.
When the cambion reached the snake-bodied demon's side, she said, "You have found a way to return my army and me home?"
"Yes. I will set out immediately. I will locate a portal leading back to the Abyss from the Astral Plane. Once I have found such a pathway, I will guide you and your army through it."
The marilith snorted. "You will simply depart and never return," she said, waving one of her several arms in dismissal. "I am no fool, cambion."
"The thought had crossed my mind," Vhok said, "but there is much more to be gained by returning with you." So much more, he thought.
"What do you gain?" Vhissilka asked, slithering around Vhok where he stood. "What is your advantage?"
Vhok drew a deep breath. "The angel that arrived with me has been the source of untold trouble for me. I want revenge."
"And how will you achieve such?" the demon asked, still winding herself around the cambion. Her coils held his ankles tightly together and she began to work her way up past his knees, closing in on him.
Swallowing back any concern he had for his own safety, he calmly replied, "The information I have gleaned at the angel's expense. I will sell it to the highest bidder when we arrive."
"No one will listen to you," Vhissilka scoffed. "You will be slain and cast into a pit the moment you set foot within in an archdemon's territory."
"Not if I am your ally," he replied. "Not if I allow you to claim much of the credit for the knowledge."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because it's the end result that matters to me," Vhok said. "I want a chance to make all the creatures of the House of the Triad regret they ever crossed me. You can help me make that happen."
"I accept," the demon said, coiling herself mote tightly around Vhok, pinning his arms to his sides. "But with one change. You will remain here as my guest, along with the angel, the human, and the half-drow, which I know to be the alu's son. You will tell me everything you have gleaned from the angel, right here, right now. I will also torture the angel until he is completely broken, and compare what he reveals against your own claims. If I am satisfied, I might allow you to live. In the meantime, I will send the alu out to find a magic portal. She will be the one to lead us through it."
"But-" Vhok began, only to discover he had no air to finish his statement as the coils of the snake-demon suddenly constricted. He gasped and struggled, but her grip was absolute. Vhok felt himself growing faint. He could not get enough air. He opened his mouth to protest, to plead, but he had no voice.
Idiot! he fumed, fighting the panic that engulfed him. What have you done?
Just as he began to lose consciousness, he heard a deep voice from nearby. He recognized it as that of Grekzith the molydeus.
"Forgive me," the creature said, "but the others are not in the chamber where they were to be held. They have vanished."
"What?" the marilith screamed, tightening her grip on Vhok. He thought his ribs were going to crack. "Find them!"
"As you command," the red-skinned demon replied.
Vhissilka loosened her hold on Vhok the tiniest bit. It was not enough for him to move, but he was able to draw in a shallow breath. He spent a few thudding heartbeats panting as the spots faded from his vision.
"Where are they?" the marilith demanded. "What have you done with them?"
Vhok shook his head, cursing himself for leaving them to their own devices. "I don't know," he said. "But they can't be far. They're all weak, dying. Let me help you find them. The alu doesn't trust you, but she will come to me." It was a lie. One chance to slip away, he thought. That's all I need.
The marilith held him fast for a moment longer as she appeared to consider his request. Then she tightened the coils once more. "I think not," she said, crushing the air from him again. "You are much too valuable for me to allow you to escape. How else am I going to entice the alu to return?"
Kael fought the urge to pace. He fingered the hilt of his sword as he watched Aliisza. The alu had been sitting very still, her eyes closed, for a long time. Though she seemed to be concentrating, her facial expression would occasionally ripple with frustration.
To pass the time, Kael would occasionally move to the exit of the chamber and peer out into the larger tunnel beyond. He stood there and tried to penetrate the silence, listening for some sign that there were threats nearby. He only detected something once, but whatever had made the noise, it never drew closer.
I cannot abide all this waiting, Kael thought, returning once more to stand by his mother's side. The longer we delay, the greater our chances of discovery. But he did not want to disturb his mother by voicing his concerns, so he instead turned his attention toward the other two refugees hiding with them.
Tauran seemed to be holding his own, though he was in poor shape. He sat with eyes closed, slumped against a wall of the fetid chamber, looking pale and drawn. Sweat trickled down his face and kept his once lustrous blond curls slicked down against his head. His wings drooped at his sides, and his breathing had turned raspy in his chest. Every time he suffered a coughing fit, Kael nearly went out of his mind with fear that they would be found and caught.
Zasian, on the other hand, did nothing. The priest had grown completely comatose, no longer responding to anything anyone said to him. Even touching him no longer drew his attention. He merely sat where Aliisza had led him, his eyes glazed. The glow he emanated had become strong and bright. It seemed to be the only thing about the man that exhibited any will to live.
Aliisza let out a growl of frustration. Kael turned to look at her and saw her open her eyes and frown. "I can't do it," she said, throwing her head in her hands and covering her face. "I just cannot get the magic to settle on a spot. Damn!"
Kael's spirits plummeted. They had no other options, unless they physically walked back to the surface of the cave complex and tried to reach the boundary of the strange mini-plane that way. He voiced the idea, but Aliisza shook her head.
"We'd never make it," she said. "There are too many fiends about, from both sides of the Blood War. And where we arrived, it's an ocean. We would have to swim for it, and it's too far."
"We've got to try," Kael said, kneeling down next to her. "We can't just sit here while you do this forever."
"I'm doing the best I can!" she snapped. Kael could tell she was close to breaking. "I never meant for it to come to this. I tried to stop you." Her voice cracked. "I tried to stop you."
Kael shook his head. He knew she referred to the fight within the rotunda. "It's in the past," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You were doing what you thought was right." He gave her shoulders a squeeze to reassure her. It surprised him how fond he was growing of her. He had spent some of his childhood lamenting his fate at not having a mother, but he had not truly missed such a presence in his life in a long time. To suddenly embrace Aliisza as such was… unnerving and exciting all at the same time.
"We need a celestial," Tauran said weakly. "Someone with plane-traveling abilities. It's a shame Micus is lost to us. He could aid us."
Aliisza sat up. "Does it have to be an angel?" she asked, a strange hope in her voice. "Or just someone who can perform powerful planar-hopping magic?"
Tauran frowned and tried to focus his gaze in her direction. "Anyone could do it," he said. "An archon, a high priest, a-"
"A wizard," Aliisza added. A faint smile crossed her face. She moved closer to Tauran. Kael joined them both there. "Tell me," she said, "How does a Living Vessel work?"
"I told you," Tauran said, weariness filling his voice. "An angel can sacrifice-"
"No, no," Aliisza interrupted. "Not how it is created. How it is used. What do you do to fill it?"
Tauran frowned. "Usually, there is a ritual. The body of the creature is brought near so that the soul can shift from it to the new vessel. Sometimes, in battle, it is less formal. So long as the two bodies touch, it can be done. But why?"
"Does the original body need to be alive?" she asked, pulling her sword free.
"No," the angel answered. "That is not necessary."
"Then maybe this will work," Aliisza said, turning the blade around so that the hilt faced her. Kael watched as she placed her fingers on a set of spots on the hilt and then pushed a certain way. The hilt twisted in her hand and the end slipped free, like a cap from a jug. A hollow chamber was revealed. Aliisza tipped the sword up so that something slid free into her hand. Kael recoiled slightly as he saw what the alu held.
There, in her palm, sat an ebony, desiccated finger, shriveled and delicate.
"How would you like to meet your father?" Aliisza asked, smiling up at Kael.