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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4642471" data-attributes="member: 143">Glad you guys are enjoying the story. KotS will wrap up this week. * * * * * Chapter 73“Mara.  Wake up.  Please, Mara, you need to wake up.  Beetle, hand me that water flask.”A trickle of liquid.  The fighter stirred, and coughed.  Pain returned, an unwelcome surge that seemed to come from everywhere in her body at once.  Moving seemed unattainable for now, so she focused on opening her eyes, letting awareness seep back into her battered frame. The dark chamber.  So, it had not been a dream after all.  But looking around, she saw that the darkness surrounding them, pressing in around the worried halfling faces looking down at her, was natural, lacking the malevolence that had filled the room before.  A pair of firepots lay on the floor nearby, casting a circle of radiance that failed to penetrate to the farther edges of the chamber.  She was leaning against a pillar, and while her clothes were tattered, her armor in little better shape, someone had taken the time to clean away the worst of the blood and grime.  She blinked as she looked past Beetle at the portal; now there was only an empty archway, the plain stone of the chamber wall visible beyond it.  Jaron offered her the flask again, and with his help she was able to manage a few swallows.  The water felt like a healing balm, clearing away some of the fog that clung to her senses. “What… what happened?” she managed, when the halfling withdrew the flask.  Jaron’s expression was sad as he glanced back at the archway.  “Devrem sacrificed himself, he tackled the cleric and drove him back through the arch.  Both of them were swallowed up… There was some sort of blast, I sort of lost consciousness for a while.  When I woke up, it was like that.”She turned her head, looked around the room.  There wasn’t much to see; the light died before reaching the platforms or the statue she could almost feel watching them from the south.  “Elevaren?”Jaron shook his head.  “He disappeared.  Him, and the wight.  I… I don’t know what happened to them.  There was a flash of magic, the kind he used… There was nothing left, no trace.” “Can you help me up?”“You probably shouldn’t be moving just yet.  Without a cleric…”“I’m not going to go far.  I just… I just want to see.”Jaron nodded, and gestured for Beetle to help him.  Working together, the two halflings were able to help the human woman to her feet, using the pillar as a support.  It took a moment or two before she was able to take a few steps, and Jaron remained nearby, in case her strength deserted her.  She walked toward the statue, where she’d last seen Elevaren, battling the wight.  The darkness began to swallow her up, but Beetle helpfully took up one of the firepots, and trotted over to shine its light on her destination.  There was nothing there; she didn’t know what she’d expected to see, but there was nothing, no sign that her friend have ever existed at all, save for some bloodstains.  She came to a halt before the thick stone plinth, leaning against it.  She looked up at the statue of Orcus, which had lost some of its malice with the death of the demon god’s priest.  “He didn’t know why he was here,” she said.“He was the only eladrin I’d ever met,” Jaron said quietly.  “He was a good man.”Mara nodded.  She’d heard those words before; for a moment she stood there, lost in a memory.  Finally she turned back toward the center of the room, and glanced up at the shaft that led back up the chamber above.  The flow of blood had stopped, but the dangling chains still glistened with sticky residue.  “We’ll have to climb up,” she said, her steps more sure as she retraced her steps back toward where they’d left their gear.</blockquote>

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