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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 445221" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the praise, guys.  And now for the payoff:* * * * * Book VI, Part 30“Benzan!  Cal!  Lok! ...  Dana!” He tried to call out to them, but all that came from his lips was a string of gibberish, unintelligible.  Their faces transformed as they got a good look at him, and they were looks of pure hatred.  “Foul demon!” Dana hissed.  Benzan drew an arrow and fitted it to his string, Lok hefted his axe, and Cal dug into a pouch for the components of a spell.“No!” Delem tried to cry, but they could not understand him as they leapt to the attack, using the familiar moves that Delem knew all too well.  An arrow slammed into his shoulder, knocking him back against the wall, but the pain in his body was nothing to the pain in his heart.“Another masterful play, you bastard!” Delem shouted up the chute, his curse coming out as an incoherent roar.  As Lok rushed at him he swept out his hands in reflexive self-defense.  To his surprise he was able to bat the genasi roughly aside, and Lok went sliding along the floor of the chamber, his armor clattering against the stone.  He came forward, his legs not quite sturdy under him from the aftereffects of his fall.  Cal hurled an illusion at him, some sort of display intended to distract him—Delem didn’t really pay attention to the details, once he’d seen the figment for what it was.  Benzan shot another arrow at him, but this time he saw it coming and was able to deflect it by summoning a magical shield.  And then Dana was charging at him, leaping forward and thrusting her spear with the weight of her body behind the attack.  Delem was barely able to dodge out of the way of the thrust, and as the spearhead glanced hard off the wall behind him he grabbed the haft of the weapon.  His hands felt thick and awkward, but strong—in fact, he felt as though strength was flowing through him, giving him a physical power that he had never before possessed.  He swept the spear before him, catching Dana in the side and hurling her halfway across the room.  She was able to land in a hard roll, stunned but not really hurt.  With an angry, defiant cry he charged forward, toward the glowing lure of the planar gate.  But Benzan, his sword now out and ready, stepped into his path, the bronze blade already carving the air as the tiefling tried to block his advance.  Delem barely hesitated as he lashed into his former friend.  He took a gash along his side that sent a sharp pang of pain through his body, but he had already been well-schooled in ignoring pain, and the wound was not serious enough to stall his rush.  He balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into Benzan’s face, laying the tiefling out on the hard ground.  For just a moment, Delem stared down at the prone, semi-conscious form of his friend.  It looked like his nose had been broken by the punch, and perhaps his jaw as well.  That had felt... good.But the portal still called him, escape just a dozen long strides away.  He lumbered toward it, gaining speed...And then stumbled, his feet locking under him as he crashed forward and landed hard on the rough stone.  He looked down and saw that a length of gleaming silver chain had wrapped around his legs, each end of which was weighted by a heavy metal ball.  He also saw that Dana had risen to a crouch, having apparently hurled the weapon that had successfully entangled him.  Lok had regained his footing as well, and Cal was helping Benzan, who was still pretty groggy from the effects of Delem’s strike. Delem reached down and tugged at the chain, which resisted even his considerable strength as his clumsy fingers tried to work free the bindings.  He did not remember Dana, or any of his friends, ever having such a weapon. “You’re cheating!” he yelled up at the ceiling as he tried to free himself.  The cry only came out as a incomprehensible roar, but Delem knew that he would understand him.They were charging him again, so he called upon his innate power once more, summoning a wall of fire that sprang up directly in front of him, forming a barrier that ran across the width of the chamber between them.  The flames roared eagerly, up to a height of nearly ten feet, driving his enemies back.  He used the respite to finally tear the damnable chain from his legs, and rose unsteadily to face the glowing gateway once more.  Behind him, the wall of flames wavered and then faded.  Cal’s work, no doubt, Delem thought.  But they would not catch him, as he lumbered across the remaining distance toward the portal...A shining line of light appeared between him and his goal, widening to form a glowing doorway through which Dana stepped, her spear held at the ready.  Delem lifted his hand to strike her down, knowing that he had the power to destroy her within his grasp.  But he hesitated, unable to finish that killing blow, even if it meant achieving the one thing he had striven for since being trapped in this place, even if the woman before him was a mere simulacrum, created to torment him.  “It’s me, Dana... Delem,” he said, willing her to understand him through whatever glamour had been laid upon him.  He locked his eyes on hers, those dark pools that had captured him from the first time he had ever seen her.  He realized that there were tears already in those eyes, and understanding.  She knew; they all knew.  “I know... and I’m sorry.”Pain exploded through him as she thrust the spear into his lower body, its magically-sharp head tearing through his gut and savaging the organs within.  Even he could not fully resist this pain, and he staggered back as she drove the weapon yet deeper into him, tearing him, hurting him.  He was barely aware of the impacts of Benzan’s sword and Lok’s axe, slamming with brutal and merciless force into his back.  He was falling, the last thing that he could see her face, the tears glistening in the glow from the gateway...* * * * * Awareness returned slowly, and he hovered on the boundary between consciousness and oblivion.  He was not yet fully restored, and he felt acutely the crippling injuries that his body bore, wounds that would have slain him instantly had he been back on his home plane.  Home... But even in this vague state he could feel the presence that overshadowed his own, that dominated this place.  He was here, and as he focused his attention upon Delem the young man began to shake, and his awareness began to dwindle until there was only one thing in the world, that being which owned his soul.  “So close, and yet a world away.  A disappointing conclusion, not that I expected anything different.  Clearly you are not yet ready, Delem.  Your training is not yet complete...”And then Delem was drifting, falling away into a darkness so pure that it enveloped him like a pool of deep water.  * * * * * Delem stirred, and opened his eyes.  For a moment, images of horror and evil and violence flashed through his mind, but as his conscious mind took stock of his surroundings those feelings quickly faded, like a nightmare that gave way before the light of the day. He looked around.  It was morning, by the bright slash of sunlight that came in through the window and illuminated the foot of the bed.  Tiny motes of dust hung suspended in that radiance, dancing in the air as if they sought to greet the morning with their own festive expression of joy.  That was a silly thought, Delem thought to himself as he lifted himself up on his elbows and looked around the room.  He felt uneasy, perhaps the lingering feelings of the nightmare.  The room wasn’t large, but it was homey and clearly lived in, full of soft touches and little details that clearly indicated a woman’s presence.  It was familiar and strange at the same time, and as he looked around at the various items of furniture and the little knickknacks scattered around the young man felt a buzzing in the back of his skull, as if his subconscious were trying to tell him something.  No... he cried out in his thoughts, in the part of his mind where memory was intact, where he realized with dawning horror what was happening.  He heard a woman’s voice, elsewhere in the house.  As if borne by the sound he also became aware of a hearty smell of cooking food, a tasty medley of odors that somehow did not awaken his appetite.  He didn’t feel hungry, although there was a strange emptiness deep inside him that he couldn’t quite identify. No, not again... I can’t do all of it again...He heard the sound of footfalls, and knew the woman was approaching.  And then she was there, standing in the doorway of the bedroom.  “Well, sleepyhead, are you going to stay in bed all day, or are you going to get up and have some breakfast?”Delem screamed, a terribly cry of despair that echoed through the room.  The woman simply stood there, watching him with a look of unconcern on her face, then she smiled and came slowly and sinuously toward him, while he lay there, unable to move.  He screamed for a long, long time.</blockquote>

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