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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3953119" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the suggestion, I had DLed that one and several others recommended here to my flash drive. There really aren't that many left that have longevity and are still being updated.For the moment I am rereading Destan's Sins of the Fathers; I don't think I've ever read it all the way through. A shame that one also died out. The man likes his colorful metaphors even more than I do, though.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Heh, based on the number of posts that followed the last chapter, I guess yesterday's scene had the intended impact. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  Regular readers of my stories know that occasionally I like to "shake things up" with something unexpected. That won't change as we move forward; hope you all enjoy what's coming.* * * * * Chapter 319DESPAIRThe mind flayers and their allies moved forward, closing the circle around Allera.  More mental attacks stabbed at her, but she turned them all.  The grimlocks that had held Alderis came forward to join their masters, and Marcus moved with them, a bit jerky as he tried to fight the magic that held his mind captive.  Before the enemy could reach her, Allera cast her repulsion spell.  All of the grimlocks, Marcus, and most of the mind flayers suddenly stopped, held at bay.  One of the illithids, resisting the power of her magic, lunged forward, its tentacles swiping at her head.  One slick tendril brushed the side of her scalp, but she tore away, and drove her mace into its gut.  The flayer drew back just a bit, enough for her to crush the weapon across the side of its face.  The illithid recoiled, dazed.  “It would appear that the healer has some fight left in her,” Navev said, extending a hand and hitting Allera with an eldritch blast.  The coruscating beam hit Allera in the chest and knocked her back across the room.  She struck a glancing blow against the wall beside the entrance to the hallway on the far side, and landed hard on the ground under the archway.  The illithids came forward again.  Their numbers continued to grow, and Allera realized that Nelan had fallen, his brains slurry for one of the mind flayers.  She tried to see Letellia through the press of enemies, but could not clearly distinguish her. And then there was a shimmering behind her, and the sorceress appeared, passing through a dimension door.  She looked haggard, her robes torn, oozing wounds on her head where the mind flayer’s tentacles had seized her.  But she was alive, and her brain was intact.  Letellia opened her mouth to speak, but another barrage of mental energy washed over them.  The sorceress screamed and fell against the hallway wall, stunned by one of the mind blasts.  Allera felt as though someone was pounding at her brain with a hammer, and she knew that she was not invulnerable to the flayer assault; it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to their mental attacks.  More mind flayers were piercing her repulsion aura; she could sense them approaching.  At least they would block Navev’s blasts, or at least that was her hope.  Not even looking back, she bent beside Letellia, and healed her.  The sorceress’s eyes cleared instantly, and widened as they looked up over the healer’s shoulder.  “More of them!” she hissed, and Allera turned to see three of them right there, barely five feet away, tentacles flailing in anticipation of a rich feed. In the heartbeat before they were too close to block, Letellia summoned a wall of ice between them, mere inches from the healer’s back.  Allera shivered at the sudden wash of cold radiating from it “That won’t hold them long,” Letellia said, “Not with that fire-breathing hound.”“We have to find Dar,” Allera said, rising and retreating from the edge of the wall.  There was a black flash, and a ebony flare that glowed through the ice barrier’s center, and they could feel the entire structure shake with the impact. “Come on,” Letellia said.  She kept an eye on the wall as they moved down the hall, but it held, at least for now.  “He can teleport,” Allera reminded her.“Yes, but I don’t think he will.  In our past encounters, the warlock has preferred to strike from the shadows.  I suspect he will not transport himself into unknown danger, without his allies testing the way first.”They headed down the hall quickly.  “The others... I could not see all of them...” Letellia said, trailing off. “They’re all dead,” Allera said.  She was in the lead as the hallway broadened into a small chamber, a vaulted thirty-foot square without any obvious exits or distinguishing features.  The hall continued on its far side.  In her haste, Allera did not see the subtle markings upon the gray stone of the floor in the center of the room.  But Letellia did. “Allera, look out!” the sorceress warned.  Allera started to turn, but the warning came too late, as Allera stepped over the outer edge of the marker, and vanished.</blockquote>

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