I spent the next eight days sitting in the Hall of Horns, flanked by two guards. I was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom, but a blade was always at the base of my neck as I did so. Food and water, meager as they were, were brought to me regularly, whether I was hungry or not. Attempts to refuse food weren't successful, as I'd get smacked a few times with someone's hilt. I'd never heard of a captive being forced to sustain themselves, but I supposed that with all the other wacky things that had happened in this camp so far, I shouldn't be shocked at anything.
Every now and again, I heard news of other travelers along the toll road. Some paid. Some didn't and got killed. Some turned back to Bhairoset in an attempt to find a way around the block. Those usually got killed as well. And more often than I heard of Bahamut, I heard of Tiamat. That name was thrown around often when Aleksei was spoken of, and the conversation usually flopped over into whatever native tongue was left among those speaking, so as to completely prevent me from understanding what was going on. Bahamut was referenced when people spoke in hushed tones about Silveredge's preparations for the Rite of Unification and Rebirth. On or around day six, however, people speaking about her seemed generally happier, and spoke of her as though she were doing well. Even though I didn't understand a word of what they were saying, their manners spoke for them, and I comforted myself with the fact that she probably wasn't dying or forgetting who people were from one moment to the next.
On day nine, there was an incredible ruckus early in the morning, and I was awakened by someone viciously pulling my head back by my hair.
"Come," the soldier hissed simply, forcing me up out of the chair. I was stiff and unable to move as quickly as he would have preferred, so I was practically dragged out of the Hall of Horns and up the side of the hill to Mikhail's tent, where I was forced to my knees before a very free Aleksei. His hair had been braided, and green swirling designs had been painted over the black paint that covered his entire left side. His one remaining hazel eye was a sight, staring unnaturally out like a cut gem. I looked up at him, and something about the way he looked- something about the way he was carrying himself- wasn't quite Aleksei.
"What's going on?" I breathed just loud enough for him to hear.
Aleksei's facial features twisted a bit, and his head twitched just slightly, but he made no verbal reply. A cold feeling of completely unfounded terror began stealing through me.
"Where is Mikhail?" I asked, turning to the guards.
"What business is it of yours what the master is doing?" one of the guards replied, shrugging. "We were told to bring you here, and we have done that. So accept what is coming to you in peace."
"What are you going to do, are you going to cut my horns off? My tail? Are you going to sacrifice me to Bahamut, or Tiamat?" I demanded, hearing the tremor in my voice as I spoke. Aleksei's right eye flashed with a pure rage that ran through me like a spear. "Why are you looking at me this way?" I cried, simply giving way to the fear that something just was not right. "What's gotten into you? What is going on?"
I didn't need to ask any more questions when a Human female gravely handed Aleksei a well-polished, freshly sharpened kilij. The pommel's end sported a wicked-looking talon, which appeared only slightly less dangerous than the blade of the weapon itself. Both guards stood away from me, but not that far away- in case I got up to run, I suppose. But frozen in a position of supplication, I could only manage to say a few words-
"What are you doing, Lyoshenka?"
Aleksei's gaze momentarily changed from that crackling fury that had so rooted me to the ground to the look of understanding that I recognized. But just that quickly, Mikhail walked up from somewhere and laid a firm hand on Aleksei's shoulder. The true Dragonborn that I knew washed right away under the hold, and fear sewed my mouth completely shut.
Bahlzair was absolutely right to have bitten Mikhail, and was absolutely right to want to prevent anyone from touching him. Both Aleksei and Bahlzair were strong, in their own ways, and I was really becoming quite sure that Silveredge could never be mentally dominated. I couldn't say the same for myself.
"The smell of your fear is like a pleasing incense to the Dark Queen," Mikhail smiled grimly. "Speak to her through her scion. Humble yourself before her terrible presence."
But I was literally too horrified to move. I could only stare at the visible fight going on between Aleksei and Mikhail- all happening while both were standing still and looking right at me.
"Have you nothing to say?" Mikhail prodded. "Shall we place you back in the Hall of the Horns to meditate, as Ivan meditated before his conversion?"
It seemed Ivan himself was present. I could only tell because he walked immediately into my line of sight, next to Aleksei. I didn't turn my head to check if his assigned Dragonborn female were with him or not. "Your consort is well, master," he reported, apparently completely ignoring the situation. His voice sounded worn, as though he'd been physically battered. "Her spirit is fully restored, and she is again master of the shadows, instead of their prey."
"Thank you, Ivan," Mikhail sighed, taking his eyes off me for a moment. "I know that one has cost you much, but we will need your help again." When he reached out to physically turn Ivan's sightless gaze toward me, I caught my breath, fearing that somehow he would manage to control Ivan as well. But for whatever magical reason that was entirely beyond me, Ivan was the same golden-eyed Tiefling as he'd been the last time we had spoken. I noted that he did not remove his blindness, but instead reached out to me. I managed to get one hand into his, and he grasped it strongly.
"Quieres que te cuente un secreto?"
I blinked, looking directly at him. Of all the places to start speaking Infernal-
"Tiamat ni vive con su hermano ni con Dispater, aunque hay una entrada al Dis desde su caverna. Sabes por qué no?"
And I gave him a simple, Common, "No."
"Porque jamas viviría ella con la arrogancia de Bahamut, y Bahamut nunca podría tolerar la codicia de Tiamat. El Don Listo de Dispater no le permite la entrada a ninguno de los dos, porque ya en Dis hay de sobra los hermanos y hermanas matándose entre si por toda eternidad. Para qué sufrir con hermanos dotados de los poderes de dioses si puedes sencillamente denegarles acceso?"
First I smirked, thinking of a big black dragon pushing a big white one all over the second level of Baator. Then as I imagined the famously scrawny Dispater and his equally famously thick Lilis attempting to separate the two, I began to giggle.
"Ah, and there you have the overcoming joy of Bahamut," Ivan beamed. "I am weary, but never tired of his service. Does your son yet ail? It seems as though all of this party were unwell in some way or another."
And Mikhail glared at Ivan, momentarily leaving Aleksei alone to pull Ivan closer to him. "Tiamat desires fear and reverence, and you bring her laughter?"
"I thought you served the Unified," I said quietly. "Must all your servants choose Tiamat, or are not some permitted to follow the path of the white dragon?"
"The metalic dragon," Aleksei corrected, sounding very tired indeed. His eye had lost all luster, but though dull and weary looking, was refreshingly and purely Aleksei. "Bahamut is the metalic dragon."
"Welcome back, Lyoshenka," I smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Praise be to Bahamut, Mishka," Aleksei replied, planting the kilij into the ground beside me and putting his black-painted hand on my head.
"How sweet this couple is, united in the joy of the metallic dragon- why do not we celebrate their unification properly, as you and your intended celebrate your own?" Ivan suggested innocently. "Even now, the careful painters must be nearing her lovely shoulders. They were hard at work when I left them."
"The scion will not be unified to a horned creature," Mikhail maintained strongly.
"Did she not gladly give praise to Bahamut, or was that part of the tales I heard a lie?" Ivan questioned. "If with her own will she is converting, who are we to stand in her way? We must allow her to come to the glory that is the metallic dragon, even if, like me, she can only come so far into his radiance."
Aleksei reached down and picked me up by both elbows, patting some of my hair down into place. As he did so, a Human male poked his head into Mikhail's tent.
"Finally, word from Bhairoset. The Drow is not there, either. So we do not know where he could have gone."
"Master- for so I know you are-" I began, to Aleksei's great disgust. "This your son and my master is a great commander of a vast kobold force. If he were to summon them and they were to look for the Drow, perhaps the Drow may be found. In fact, it is by kobold that I myself was first captured, for it was not I that bound him, but instead he that bound me to himself."
"Oh?" Mikhail mused, looking thoughtfully from Aleksei to me. "And why tell me this now? Why should I believe you?"
"No dragon has spoken to me, and I doubt any ever will," I shrugged. "But at least the demons have stopped speaking. If it is Bahamut that has done this, then I will be grateful to him and to those who follow him."
Aleksei looked absolutely dumbfounded, but Ivan's face carried a wise smirk.
"Do you command kobolds, Bloodtalon?" Mikhail asked Aleksei without taking his eyes from me.
"I know their names, and the names of their sons," Aleksei admitted. "There is a whole den not far from here. As many as are alive will not hesitate to answer me."
The way he said "as many as are alive" reminded me of the destruction of the mountain. Spitting in someone's eyes was not the worst that Bahlzair was capable of.
"Then take some soldiers and go. This dark Elf is an affront to the will of Tiamat. He has witnessed her glory and gone away without paying either respect or gold."
And as Aleksei patted my arm to tell me a brief goodbye, I thought about Mikhail's last statement and what Ivan had said about him. I also had to wonder just what Silveredge was intending by going through with a completely unfounded and rushed wedding.
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