1:32 Bahamut's new bride.

For a camp bedecked with horns and furs, the Hall of Horns lived up to its name.  Most of the other shelters appeared moveable, but also seemed as though they had not moved in some time.  Stakes had been reinforced.  Patches had been put into battered furs.  Decorative stones lined fire pits that may have been hastily dug, but that were now being developed, tended and depended upon.

All that being said, the Hall of Horns was different.
That place was not meant to move.
It was built entirely of carved horn.

The door seemed to have some writing on it, and I must have gawked at it a little too long, because the leader felt the need to turn back to me and explain it.

"You are right to worry," he commented with a half smirk.  "It proclaims the strength of the Unified against the lords of the Nine Hells."

"The Unified?" I asked as I was fairly pushed inside the carved horn door by two Dragonborn sentries.

"The Lady Tiamat, who rules over all chromatic dragons, and the Lord Bahamut, who is the lord of the metallic dragons, are the perfect balance.  They are holy, both separately and together, and demand unquestioned servitude-"

I can always tell a sanctimonious rant when I hear one.

"Any god that doesn't let you ask your own questions and find your own answers is a weak one,"  I reasoned.  "He or she is concerned that you may one day discover a truth that will lead you away from their service.  And the fact that they are concerned indicates that they have no real means to keep you."

The Dragonborn leader bent slightly to have a silvery white robe put on him by two Human females, who instantly skittered away from him as he turned to me.

"It is no surprise to hear you speak in such a manner," he frowned, walking to stand between two small tables.  One had a multicolored cloth covering it, while the other had a brilliant gold one.  "The Lord Bahamut values your opinion.  The Lady Tiamat craves your blood."

"Who do you listen to, when they disagree?" I asked genuinely.  I had the distinct impression that this scaled fool actually believed in every word he said- which made him all the more dangerous.

"Oh, just because the Lord Bahamut values your opinion does not mean that he will not order me to strike you down.  It merely means that he sees that you think.  You consider.  You think yourself wise, with all the knowledge that you scrape together."

Apparently Aleksei had been hustled in behind me.  I noted that his left eye had been covered- the sight of the scarring must have been a bit more than an annoyance for someone.  I wondered why they hadn't replaced his clothing with the loose robes I had seen the other Dragonborn males wearing when they weren't in armor.  The four guards assigned to him brought him to the leader's right side, behind the altar that had been covered with the gold cloth.

"I've heard of Bahamut before, and I didn't think he was on the nicest of terms with Tiamat," I shrugged.  "So educate me, if I'm wrong."

"The Holy Unified-"

"Sacrilege!" Aleksei cried at once.

"In time, my son," the leader hissed, glaring behind him.

"What if the horned one is controlling him?" one of the Aleksei's guards fretted.  His tail barely moved in her hands, but it was apparently enough to cause her concern.

"Peace, daughter," the leader sighed as though he really wanted to get back to telling me all about the wonderful ways of his cult.  Or, at least I thought he was sighing.  When I looked up to the guard, however, she momentarily had a blank stare.  It was only for a few seconds, and she seemed to return to herself with a renewed desire to hold Aleksei.

I am feeling different, Aleksei had said.  Not myself.
I didn't have time to think too much more about it, as the leader redirected his gaze to me.

"This is a sacred hall- a narrow path between life and damnation.  It is here that those who hear the Unified's voice are reborn in their image.  It is also here that those like you are redeemed from the clutches of the hells.  Children?"

And the guards around me grabbed my arms and put a knife to my throat.  Their leader nodded, turning his back on me to look directly at Aleksei, who glowered at him.

"My son, you must remember your heritage.  You must reclaim your place as a scion of the people.  You must destroy your mental link with this witch!"

"Is this how you are making all your converts, master?  By threatening their friends before their eyes?" Aleksei spat, twisting in the grasp of his guards.

"When you have severed ties with her, we will be able to pry Asmodeus's hands from her soul.  We will be able to make her pure again.  She will be Human again- if you were her friend, let alone her mate, you would have leaped at this chance long ago," the leader replied, crossing his arms over his wide chest.

"That's a lie, who can change anyone from one race to another?" I dared, feeling the knife press close against my throat as soon as I spoke.

"You know the power of Bahamut; you know the Rite!" the leader proclaimed to Aleksei, raising his voice as he got very close to his face.

"And you relegate him to a position of consort to Tiamat!"  Aleksei shouted back, his voice beginning to become thunder itself.  His breath came out in puffs as though it were cold in the room.  "Heretic!  Traitor!"

"Let him go," the leader growled to the guards, who instantly backed away and plastered themselves on the wall just behind him.  The leader grabbed Aleksei's chin and put his forehead right against his.  "You dare call me traitor, Petrinovich?  How many of us had lost all we had, everything and everyone, and yet kept fighting, while you couldn't be bothered with anything but tall tales and healthy bar maids?  Yet you, fallen scion, you from whom the Unified have exacted their revenge in flesh, you call me traitor?"

"I do not know a Petrin-" Aleksei began in a less sonorous tone.

Not myself.
"Let him go!" I hollered.

"Cut her horns," the leader commanded.  At first, I didn't think I'd heard him properly, since he was turned around and I couldn't conceive of what he'd just asked.  But when I was turned around- again forcibly, since I didn't want to turn my back on what Aleksei was going through- I saw a set of stocks lowered and fitted to hold someone in place before a block.

"Why are you doing this?"  Aleksei demanded.  I could hear his chains rattle and a stifled grunt of displeasure.

"With the horns gone, she will not be able to control your mind," the leader reasoned.  The guards struggled to get me into the stocks.

"Stop!" Aleksei hollered.  The stocks closed over me, and in the wood I could smell the fearful sweat of others who had come before me- possibly fairly recently.

"We cannot spare expense in freeing you, fallen scion," the leader replied without feeling.

"I tell you again, I am never a scion," Aleksei sighed gustily.  "I am a defector and worthy to be slain.  I am thinking that this glory would belong to some clan mate, but if Bahamut sees fit to end my life in this place, with members of my race whom I trust less than the Daughter of Dis in the room, then so be it.  But at least let me die by my own name, please, I beg you."

"And what name is that?" the leader scoffed.  "As I see no Stonecrusher here."

"Aleksei Petrovich Voyonov.  That name is the truth."

"And will you be telling your dear friend precisely what clan you are indeed from?" the leader crowed.  I wished I could see the look on his face, as the tone of his voice wasn't far from gloating.  As it was, however, all I could stand to look at without hurting my neck was the ground.

"Bloodtalon," Aleksei admitted, sounding somehow distant.

"Bloodtalon!" the leader repeated, his voice vaulting up and seeming to shake the small sanctuary.  "You struck down those in opposition to our leaders, you cleared an entire rebellious temple of Io-"

"Da," Aleksei sighed.

"You tore a hole into Turathi defenses when you were barely out of the egg, under the direction of a resplendent red dragon-"

"Da," came the slow reply.

"And you once bent your knee to Tiamat, let her glyph be carved into your soul.  But you were gone when the rest of the Bloodtalons let the Turathi walk in unchallenged.  You didn't see the islands fall.  You let a pack of kobolds tell you as you lounged safely with them underground, letting the rest of the war go by while you spun lies so well that even the Drow goddess would be shocked at you."

"I am being sent away, Mikhail.  Maybe the clan father is not saying this to you.  Maybe it seems to you that I am just leaving for no reason."

"You have lost your honor, son, and it is time to gain it back," the leader, who I suppose was called Mikhail, replied.  "Redeem yourself."

There was some clinking, then silence.  Then Aleksei walked over to where I was being held, completely uncontested- I could tell because I suddenly saw clawed, three-toed feet.

"You need to remove her horns first, then you can get rid of the tail.  When she looks more Human, the devils and demons will pay less attention to her," Mikhail explained.

There was a pause, and I could hear the heft of a rather heavy weapon as it split the air.  Aleksei grunted, then planted a massive two handed axe very close to me.  The accompanying sound deafened me, to the point where Aleksei had to take my arm  so that I would realize that I could stand up freely again.

"When I am becoming Bloodtalon, this is big mistake," Aleksei panted, winded from his effort.  "This is my redemption.  The islands fall, and the Tiefling kingdom disappears- this I know.  The war is gone."

"You deny your heritage- you are not worthy to be one of us," Mikhail pronounced gravely.  "Wherever the creatures are, there is the war.  The Unified command us against them."

"Tiamat cares only for riches, power, adulation.  And Bahamut is creating us to defy Tiamat's influence-"

There was an audible gasp from the guards, all of whom glared at us as though we would catch fire at any moment.

"Perhaps this will change your mind about the United's influence- and my own.  You have doubted me from the start, but I have done nothing but good for you.  Come, shadowy daughter."

And from a corner untouched by light, Shadowedge stepped, a renewed vigor in her gleaming eyes.  As though the shadow were sucked into her draft, suddenly the torch light that was sufficient for the rest of the room lit that corner.  She was wearing one of the loose white hooded robes that the others wore, which instantly struck fear in my heart.  But when she knelt and smiled up at me with a rather familiar look on her face, I had a feeling that she had played such games all her life.

I wondered if she'd truly been dominated even once.

"The master has restored my soul by miracle.  A great silver dragon appeared to me as I slept, and he breathed on me, and I stood up and walked right to the master without having to ask where he was.  He took me to this hall, and I have again heard the dragon's voice, asking me to be his bride."

1:31 Religiously challenged.

When I awoke, I was lying on a mat inside a rough shelter.  I instantly tried to sit up, but found a heavy, clawed hand upon my chest.  I looked up and into the eyes of the guard who had been at the bridge earlier- I found that I could not recall his name at all, and that the back of my head ached as though I'd been hit with a bludgeon.

"Best you don't move.  You'll make this harder on him than it has to be," the guard sighed, a look of pity in his eyes.

"What is this place?" I demanded.  "Where are-"

"I can't answer you, Tiefling.  I'm not even supposed to be talking to you.  I'm just supposed to make sure you don't get loose."

"Well, if you don't want me getting loose, then you're going to have to tell me about my companions, because if you don't, I'm going to go find out myself," I replied, practically hissing.  "The Shadar Kai-"

"Was loosing her soul, the master said.  He was very concerned about her, and gave strict commands that she be kept in a well-lit room- and away from you."

"And I suppose he thinks that the reason that the Drow doesn't talk is because I have him spellbound?"  I cried, exasperated.  "Clearly, everything is all my fault!"

"No, the Drow doesn't talk because he's got poison ducts surgically implanted in his mouth," the Dragonborn said, the ridges that served as his eyebrows arching upward.  "His tongue is there, but even when the master worked with him, it was just a useless flap of flesh in his mouth.  The poison is no joke, though.  Seems like the Drow females were working with either a spider or a scorpion- the master isn't sure which.  You didn't know?"

"No," I lied, crossing my arms over my chest.  "I thought he was just mute.  And before that, I thought his tongue had been cut out."

"Even mute creatures can at least move their tongue.  I don't know how the poor guy eats- how do you swallow without choking, when you can't move your tongue?"

"You lean forward a lot, and only put as much in your mouth as you intend to chew and swallow right away," I explained, now raising my eyebrow.  "Or at least that's how I would do it."

The guard shook his head and leaned back against a supporting pole, crossing his own arms.  "Well, that's enough out of you right now.  The master will work with you too, now that you're awake."

And, having a deep disrespect for any authority that seemed to run in my veins along with my blood, I immediately thought, The master can sit on it.  About a minute and a half after that, the ivory-scaled Dragonborn ducked his head into the tent.

"Dziękuję, syn. Proszę zostawić nas w spokoju."  He smiled and tilted his head to the side slightly, almost in a questioning way.


"It sounds great," the guard replied, nodding.  "Almost no accent at all.  I'm sorry I can't speak any back."

"If I can learn, son, so can you.  What I recover, I will then teach you, of course.  Now please, it is time."

With these words, the guard got up, picked up his sword and left the tent.  I sat up, at last, and stared at this "master," who made himself comfortable on the other side of the unlit fire pit.

"I see the furious questions in your heart," he began gravely, "and it is good that you ask them.  Questioning the world around you, and your place in it, will eventually bring you to the point of repentance."

"I have nothing to repent of," I shot back, frowning.

"I will not argue with you," the Dragonborn sniffed, his face hardening slightly.  "However, whether you are aware of it or not, your infectious hellfire spirit is damaging all around you that do not have the will to stand against you.  A creature is gambling with his life the moment he but speaks with you."

"So then let me go my way," I pushed.  "Let me leave, and all you know will be safe again, right?"

"Wrong," he thundered, shaking his head.  "You must heal what you have harmed.  You must be kept in perpetual watch until those that you have affected can be helped.  Thus, you will be placed with my personal guard.  Come."

He got up, and I sighed as I followed him out of the tent.  I was greeted by the sight of Bahlzair- hanging by his outstretched arms between two trees.  Two Dragonborn, aided by one rather servile Human, appeared to alternate between questioning him and prodding him with strange, blunt tipped objects.

"What are you trying to do, suffocate him?" I cried at once.  "What kind of healing can be done like this?"

"This creature had poison ducts implanted in his mouth, and refused their removal.  It seems that for whatever reason, he enjoys being able to literally spit-"

And at just that moment, Bahlzair did indeed spit into one of the Dragonborn faces, causing a hideous scream.

"Release that male!" the leader commanded, staring holes into me.  "Stop controlling him this instant!  He needs medical attention, or he will never recover from the horrors of this Drow experiment."

"Magic workers don't wear leather armor, you overgrown kobold," I growled.  "He's acting on his own accord.  Wouldn't you, if you were tied up and poked at like a common beast?"

"He's being tied up and poked at because he has harmed others under your command.  My own arm is a testament-"

"He bit you because you reached past him to get to Aleksei, who clearly had absolutely no intention of doing whatever you were asking him.  I didn't give any commands," I cut in, moving past him to get Bahlzair down myself.  If I made it, I would have been happy to go ahead and get him down.  But as I thought, I couldn't get all the way there without a team of Humans and Dragonborn guards grabbing me and forcing me to the ground.

"Allow her to rise, children.  Allow her to look upon my son, whom she is claiming that the Drow wishes to defend."

I was bodily turned around by five pairs of hands first, then allowed to get up. Aleksei was still wearing the clothing he came with, was still scarred, and was still missing a quarter of his tail.  And although he was far more suited to be in this camp than any of the rest of us, for whatever reason, he was bound by the feet and flanked by guards.

"This is your greatest crime, Tiefling.  For Petrinovich was born a scion, was born to wipe your kind from the face of the earth.  But he is without wings, without half his sight, even without part of his scales and tail.  If I had not known him before this time, I would not have recognized him-"

"He was already wounded when I met him-" I began.

"I am not your son, for the last time," Aleksei thundered.  "I am never having wings.  It is not me, this Petrinovich.  I am not having a Petrin in my family.  My father was Stonecrusher Pyotr Ivonovich Voyonov."

"So he has said many times, but I know what I have seen," the leader smiled as he turned to me.  "You will help me undo this damage.  You will help me to reclaim this scion."

"I can't do the impossible," I shrugged.  "The man's not Petrinovich.  It's not him."

"I am Stonecrusher by clan.  Aleksei is my given name.  Petrovich from my father.  Voyonov is our family.  But I am never even meeting a Petrin, not in all of my clan.  I cannot be the son of a male that does not exist."

"The name is awfully close- perhaps this is all a mistake," I reasoned.  "Perhaps you just have the wrong clan.  Maybe you're thinking of someone from a clan next door?  Two snow drifts over to the right?"

"This insolence will not be tolerated- I will accompany you to the Hall of the Horns, and you will do what you must do," the leader commanded.  "I have seen all these things in visions, and I read into the hearts within you all, by the power of the Unified."

"Praise be to Bahamut.  Praise be to Tiamat," all the camp members responded automatically, as though we had magically entered a service or a sacred festival.

"Am I a part of this?" I asked flippantly.  "Praise be to Dispater."

Behind me, Bahlzair chuckled, a burbling sound welling from deep within him.

"Oh yes, and praise be to Lolth, and praise be to Shar, while I'm at it.  Bahlzair can't say it, and who knows what condition you've got Jyklahaimra in-"

And I won a solid punch from a guard with that comment.

Empire Sized Shadows 1:30 The possessor.

I did deliver Silveredge two solid kicks when it was time to go, but apparently, she is an incredibly deep sleeper.  I sharpened her katars and handed them to Bahlzair, who nodded solemnly before I'd even said a word to him.  Aleksei, having kicked dirt into the place where the fire had once been, knelt down, picked Silveredge up, and looked to me for direction.  I was about to ask him what made him think that I would be a good candidate to lead the party when I actually looked at that three-quarter tail of his. 

There's something to be said for parties lead by a rogue, but at least I did have the entire length of my tail.

Aleksei, with one eye scarred shut and a wide swath of scale that did not match his own pale scales, would look terrifying and battered no matter what he was wearing.  As it stood, he had a thick, black-and-purple detailed shendyt that looked as though he'd come down from his home village with it. 

Silveredge's clothes had been cut nearly to rags, a far cry from the lovely bodess and dress I'd seen in the market place not so long ago.

Bahlzair- in addition to being an ebony-hide Drow- sported an almost-loinscloth that was, in stark opposition to Aleksei's garment, just long and wide enough to cover what it was supposed to cover.  I'd thought nothing of this when the creature was hiding in and playing around a forge.  But now I realized a rather immediate truth.

We looked awful.

"We have to rob someone," I blurted out bluntly, looking Bahlzair over again.  "Look at what we look like."

"We are looking like the sort of people who will rob people," Aleksei smirked, snuggling Silveredge so that her head rested comfortably on his right shoulder.  "Or maybe just kill them.  But it will be difficult if I am having to carry the Shadow Child."

"Shadar-Kai," I corrected, pursing my lips in thought.

"No, Lyoshenka is saying exactly what he means," Aleksei replied, leaning his head close to Silveredge's.  She seemed to accept the show of affection even in her sleep, and snuggled into his arms like a small child.

I looked over to Bahlzair, who offered no opinion, but simply fixed me with a "hurry it up" look.  At least it didn't radiate the weariness that I felt.  My muscles were screaming from my sparring the night before, and I would have much preferred to simply stay where we were.  But the fact of the matter was that Silveredge needed help- a kind that none of us were able to render- and I didn't want to admit how strange and ominous the curse that she had described really sounded.  Soul-eating shadows?  You think when you're born into a race that made a pact with the lords of the hells that you'd heard everything.

"Maybe we should follow the road for a while, as we think, so that the sun is not going down on our thinking," Aleksei suggested.  Having said this, he turned his back on our campsite and made for the paved road that was some ways away.  Bahlzair shrugged and followed him, leaving me to sigh and scamper after them a few moments later.

We moved in silence- I'm not particularly sure if this was because both Aleksei and I were painfully aware that Bahlzair couldn't verbally reply to us or simply because no one had anything to say- until we caught sight of a creek that cut under a rather shoddy wooden bridge up ahead.  It had been perhaps about a half-day's quick march, and the afternoon sun was beginning to really annoy Bahlzair, who had to practically walk in my shadow as he covered his eyes and squinted.  Instead of being surrounded by trees willing themselves to grow through stony ground, we were instead contending with doughy, clay-based soil that annoyed the center of my feet- well, my hooves- and made unpleasant sounds when Aleksei's bare, clawed reptilian feet squished into it. 

So actually, I had been relieved to see a bridge, until I realized that it was probably a bandit post.  On the other side of the bridge were some guards- I wasn't sure what kind at that point, but two creatures stood sentry-style on either side of the thing, so I assumed that they were guards.

Bahlzair stopped.
I slowed down.
Aleksei, however, plowed right on forward as though he'd never had a bad experience with sentries, guards or bandits.

He crossed the bridge, Silveredge comfortably resting in his arms with a beautiful innocence clinging to her face, and for a few moments, it seemed as though he would pass the guards right by.  Hoping he would, I managed to convince Bahlzair to follow me a bit closer to the far side.  But no such luck.  What was worse, Aleksei had run into a strange team- one Human, one Dragonborn.

"Where are you going with that parcel, sir?" the Human male asked.  He wasn't wearing a uniform, but had the bearing of a proper soldier, as opposed to the normal sneer and shamble of a bandit.  However, referring to a living creature as a piece of cargo didn't win him any decency points in my book.

"Ja govorju ploho," Aleksei rumbled in a low tone. "Otpusti menja, pozhalujsta."

Both guards laughed, and the Dragonborn shook his head.  "No, sir, we don't speak the mountain tongue.  In fact, I don't even speak the plains speak anymore.  You got any Common for us?"

"Very poor," Aleksei sighed, looking behind him to see where we were.

The guards looked up to see me, then back to Aleksei.  "So, that's with you, too?"

And Aleksei said something that, for a moment, forced me to doubt his command of the Common.

"Yes.  This is both my wives.  Please, we are passing through now, yes?"

Apparently the guards didn't believe him any more than I did.  "Do you mean that creature and the Drow?  It seems you've been infiltrated by demonkin, then," the Dragonborn smiled.  "You can pass through, sure, but it's five gold a head for your Elf and your wife.  That horned creature's ten gold."

Aleksei shook his head.  "I am poor, I do not have this money.  I can work."

"Maybe we could use another one of you, Bakari," the Human smirked to the Dragonborn, probably only half-joking.  "You know how he's always complaining that there are too many Humans and not enough of you to keep us from growing horns.  Want to go ask Gunter if he'll take another Arkhosian mountain brother?"

"But what will he do with the rest of them?" Bakari replied earnestly.  This was no bandit, after all, or at least not a type that I had ever dealt with before.  "They mean something to him, even if he hasn't told quite the entire truth about it."

"Perhaps we should encourage him to tell the truth, then?" the Human replied, turning his gaze back to Aleksei, who had begun to let Silveredge out of his arms.  Against his protests, she had wanted to stand on her own, and there were a few moments of concern when her bare toes first touched the ground.  Aleksei made an awkward squishing noise with his own feet, wiggling the taloned toes.

She laughed, sending a noticeable shadow fleeing from her.   She turned around, found Bahlzair and I across the bridge, and began walking back toward us.  Aleksei didn't prevent her, but simply looked at her delicate blue feet as they rapidly turned slightly brown.

"Or we could fight," the guard replied, his eyes narrowing.

Aleksei abruptly turned around and walked back over the bridge after Silveredge, who peeked over my shoulder at Bahlzair.  The Dragonborn guard left his post, and Aleksei sighed deeply.

"Well, are we fighting the Human, or what?" I asked, smirking.

"I am not getting a good feeling from this place," Aleksei admitted.  "I am feeling- different.  Not- myself."

And behind him came the Dragonborn guard and a slightly taller Dragonborn male who looked much more like what Aleksei might have been when all his scales were a uniform color.

"Here he is, and his- um- friends?  I'm not sure if-"

"That's enough, Bakari, thank you," the taller male replied, crossing his arms.  The guard quickly moved away, leaving the male to turn his stony grey eyes upon Aleksei, who still had his back turned to him.  "This is a toll road.  Your brother was willing to let you pass through for free, and only asked that you pay for your companions.  Why have you not done this, so that you may go about your business?"

"I do not have money," Aleksei replied simply.  "I can only offer my arm, whether in battle or for work."

"Posmotri na menja," the male said in a tone that was somehow strong and gentle at the same time.  "Skazhi mne, kto tvoi druz'ja."

Aleksei took two steps further away from the male speaking to him, still refusing to turn around.  Bahlzair, oddly enough, stepped out of my shadow and in front of Aleksei, staring holes into the Dragonborn.

"Nyet," Aleksei replied simply.

"Vy boites' svoego proshlogo. Vy boites' togo, chto vy byli."

"If you don't back away from him right now, I'll give you worse scars than he's got," I found myself saying.  Bahlzair was certainly giving me the sensation that something was going terribly wrong, but Silveredge stood stunned, shadows wrapping themselves around her as though they were her family.

"Skazhite demona ujti, moj syn. Pojdem so mnoj."

And the one mistake he made was to reach forward in the attempt to touch Aleksei, who seemed somehow smaller than normal.  Bahlzair, without a pause or second thought, turned his head and bit the arm that had gone past him.  There was a sound of acid on scale, and a sour smell.  The Dragonborn reached across his body as though he were going to draw a weapon, but Aleksei did in fact finally turn around.  Seeing this, he simply gave Bahlzair a good shake, so that he let go of his arm, and then backed up one step.

"Ona ne demon," Aleksei muttered, drawing just one sword.

"Killing me will not silence the calling that has already carved its name into your soul, Petrinovich.  I can see it, can see you.  The script is ablaze in your heart even now, even as you fight it.  You are still a loyal soldier to holy Tiamat, just as that creature is a Tiefling, an abomination.  That will never change." 

As though the Dragonborn's words had been a balled fist, Aleksei slightly staggered back a half step.

"It's you the male was fleeing.  The threat of justice was too much for him.  I see him throwing himself into the arms of death to escape you- I see that through your very eyes.  You deny this truth, but you must face it.  Now, this female- she has turned your head, has tried to blot the righteous calling from your mind-"

"Nyet," Aleksei managed, his sword lowering slightly.  "ja ne ub'et ee."

"You deny the justice of the holy Tiamat in your mother's tongue?  Do you not see how far you have fallen?  The Nine Hells open their fanged jaws to snap up your soul, my son."

On either side of this prophet gone wrong, Silveredge and Bahlzair were doing some ferocious hand signing.  I truly wished I could understand them.
 
"Come, I will let you and both your slaves pass through, but you must pay-"

"Nyet-" Aleksei replied again, pushed by some strange force to one knee.

"Stop- stop this," I finally said.  "I'm not deaf, and I'm not an idiot.  If you're worried about me stealing his soul, I can just leave.  If I leave, can he pass through with the others?  I can-"

And the Dragonborn looked at me.
Looked right at me.
Locked those steel grey eyes onto my own.
In them, I saw great towers of a burning city, with charred bodies, crawling and writhing in pain.
And then I saw nothing.

1:29 Life in the hungry shadows.

The twilight slipped into evening, the shadows ever growing, licking around the sides of the fire, where the light could not quite reach.  I sat quietly, watching the fight between the two.

Slowly, I could make out a figure in their dance, could almost tell the steps, could almost tell who it was-

And a Drow male gave me a rather sound slap on my right upper arm.

"You'll have to tell her about that," he signed very slowly. 

I blinked at him, momentarily not understanding him at all.  I could not remember who he was, or why he was keeping me company here by the fire.  It seemed he knew that this was happening to me, as he motioned to the ground- I looked down, and words began appearing there.

"Bahlzair.  Arcana.  Potions.  Forge."

I gasped and put both hands to my face, more embarrassed this time than I had been in the times before.  How had I so quickly slipped so far?  It was as though Shar were not only pulling me delicately, as always She would, but somehow something was pushing me toward her endless Shadow- farther, faster than She herself would have ever done.  She enjoyed the suffering, this was a proven fact.  So it stood to reason that never would She rush the pleasure of watching me fall to Her, as we all do in the end.

Bahlzair moved himself until he sat crosslegged from me, and I sighed at how the light from the fire played with his deep black skin while the shadows wrapped themselves around my own periwinkle and tattooed hide.  Nature itself recoiled at me, and lavished itself on him- I dwelt on this thought until he reached forward and pinched me.

"You give in so easily in her absence," he signed, again very slowly.  He had to write out two of the words and sign them again before I understood him.  "The wound was graver than I could heal, I suppose?"

"I must seek out a strong wizard-"

"Why?" came a familiar voice from behind me.  I looked over my shoulder and into the radiant red orbs of a young woman that I somehow knew that I adored.  The way her horns were filed to a most perfect point below her ears inspired me to touch them, to draw my blood on them.  "By Baator, you're disappearing-"

"What is this?" a silvery-scaled Dragonborn intoned, his voice close to suspicion.  "Maybe the Elves are tricking us, are making bad things happen to her?"

"No!  No- it's- it's what I am," I said, scared that so many people were concerned all at once.  I wasn't used to being the center of attention, or the focus of anyone's direct affections.  I thought it wouldn't be hard to accept, but I was wrong.  "My people- we're cursed.  By Shar Herself."

The ruddy hued, dark haired woman spoke first, cutting me off.  "Well, no need to go into the horrible backstory.  It seems like all of us have had someone or something spit in our face as a child or take a solid shit on our future-"

"Or both," the Dragonborn said pointedly.

"We go, we find a strong wizard for you," the woman continued.  "I owe you that, for doing whatever you were doing in that cave all that time.  If you've been suffering with random disappearance this whole time- look, we just do this.  In your travels, have you noted anyone you think up to the task?"

"I- don't think I can remember, right now," I admitted, looking down at the ground.

"Hey, look," she smiled, kneeling before me for a moment.  "Look what I can do."  Without even looking at the fire, she simply stuck her hand into it and pulled a piece of flaming brush from the center.  "I'm almost as flame-resistant as you are, see?"

And I laughed, because of course she would be more flame-resistant than I.  It was in her blood- her hellfire blood- just that quickly I remembered that this was Mi'ishaen.  I found it twice as funny that my feelings for her had remained the same even when I could not remember her name.

"There you are.  You're kind of back," she sighed, her voice on the edge of contentment.  "Now, stay.  You said something before, when we first were talking to Uirrigaen, about how Shar would pull you down to a hopeless death-"

"The Bleak Blessing, my mother called it.  Anything we do anywhere near a shadow, the shadow will reach out to embrace us.   But if we are weakened in any way when it beholds us, it will eat our souls," I explained as carefully as I could.  I had never done so before, since I had almost always been surrounded by those who were already aware of the Plane of Shadow.

"Then you cannot be found weak," Mi'ishaen replied, standing up.  "Let Bahlzair and Aleksei sport themselves with each other.  We've got fighting to do."

I didn't think she was serious, until she drew one of her daggers and smacked my cheek with the flat of the blade.  "On your feet, or you'll get the prettiest of scars right here, where Aleksei doesn't have an eye."

"I guess those two fingers are healing very well," Aleksei snorted, moving to sit down next to Bahlzair.

"They hurt, so I'm alive," Mi'ishaen responded.  Something about that appreciation for pain made my heart beat a little faster.  I managed to find the will to stand up and draw my katars, which seemed a little heavy in my hands.  I tried to tell myself that it was only because I was a little tired.  "Under the weather," as a Human would say.

"Asmodeus kill me where I sit, lay or stand, if I have any mercy on you this night," Mi'ishaen hissed, her eyes narrowing to lava-red slits in her beautiful face.  "If Shar wants you, She'll have to wait behind me."

And she meant it, for we fought as though our people had been at war for hundreds of years, from that moment until the ancient witch of the morning jabbed her nails into my back.  Bahlzair, who had never slept a single night since I had met him, periodically spit at us, and where his spit fell, the ground hissed an acidic reply.  Every now and again, if we fought too close to him, he would grab at our ankles and trip us, not minding which one of us he harmed in the process.  I was bruised and sore by the time I bent my knee in submission, having been disarmed for the fifth time.

"Alright," Mi'ishaen breathed, throwing her daggers toward where my katars had fallen.  "I'm hungry now, and we need to get moving as soon as possible.  Rest as lightly as you can, and I'll give you a swift kick when it's time to go."

I had to bite my tongue so that I would not reply with something like, "My mistress is gracious," but in truth, the gratitude burned in my mind.  The soreness and warm sensation of thankfulness pinned my soul firmly to my bones even when my eyes finally closed, speared through by daylight.