Yelena

The thief sat back when he finished the final word of his tale as though satisfied he had spun some great fable. For her part, she had sat and listened with patience, at times letting her gaze waver during the short moments when someone awoke in the cells of the dungeon and screamed out in anguish.

Now, she confessed she didn't quite know what to say.

"So," she began, staring at his tired form leaning back against the bloodied wall of her cell's back. "You weren't exactly galivanting around up there, enjoying yourself all this time."

She let his sad little smirk tell her his response for him.

"You were working to help me."

"I was working to help us both," he replied. "I told you - we both got the same goal here. We gotta go below. And for that, we need each other."

He picked his ear absent-mindedly as another flurry of screams lashed the cold, dead air of the dungeon.

"I mean, obviously you wouldn't be my first choice of companion," he said. "But I work with what I've got. And I know that - at least - I can trust a girl like you to be true to her word."

She laughed in spite of everything - her situation, her muscles still straining with their new freedom, and her utter incredulity at the story she'd just heard.

"You say that, and yet in the same breath you tell me to lie. To cheerfully blaspheme against the oath I took. To renounce the words I took that were first written by Amarata herself."

"I'm telling you to fudge the truth a little," he corrected. "You don't have to mean it, do you? What, is Amarata gonna strike you down for doing whatever you can to fuck up these crazy Argents-turned-bandits? If anything, you'd be doing her and your order a favor."

She looked away again, considering all he had done to secure their freedom while she languished down here, beholden to the words that kept her bonded to the idea she had devoted her life to.

She saw that other part of her self dwelling within - the piece that had been silent as night since she'd been locked down here, her body enduring all the pain they inflicted on her, while this part of her mind focused on thoughts of justice being done. Justice - the word that piece of her soul appropriated as a euphemism for vengeance. It was an excuse, nothing more.

And she was starting to admit that this piece of her self was what had truly kept her alive down here. Not her honor. Not her thoughts of the family she'd once had. No - it had been the thought of tearing that bastard Yok'ra's head from his shoulders that had kept her will strong. It was, ironically, such thoughts of dark revenge that kept her from succumbing to despair and surrendering to the verminous thing that lived behind her heart.

Now here Marius was - the only person she could call an ally in this place - offering her the ability to do exactly what she wanted.

"You wanna slice 'em up, Yelena, admit it," Marius probed, like he was reading her very thoughts in the moment. "And we can. But we can't do it alone. We gotta meet this Lightbringer dude. Then, we gotta join up and take this Don down. Only then can we get below."

"And how do we do that?" she asked, more to the darkness surrounding her than to him. "When - if - we get out, how do we find this 'Lightbringer'"?

"One thing at a time, girl," Marius responded. "All I know from the Red-chick is that the Lightbringer's supposed to arrive at the 'Temple of Bhashera' today. And, of course, she knows how to get us there. That's part of the whole reason she's coming with us."

"You know we can trust her?"

"Yelena, I can count on one hand the number of people I can trust in life. And so far, I can only count one. Can we trust her? Nah. Probably gonna be a huge handicap in the long run. But then, we're kinda running on empty here. I for one ain't gonna look a gift horse in its veil-covered mouth."

She closed her eyes, breathed deep of the musky scent of stagnant blood that dominated this place. When again she opened her eyes, her voice was tinged with the power of purpose.

"What do you need me to do?" she asked.

He smiled that irritating smile again, and only at the slightest twitch of her eyeball did he catch himself and give a little cough to cover his satisfaction.

"Ok," he began. "Here's the deal. Right now, the guards are off-duty. Our new friend saw to that. The fact they haven't come down here to take me to bed means she'd not bullshitting when she says she's good. Her 'Performance' ability means that we've got a window of about 30 minutes to get you outta here before the guards resume their little mechanical patrols. And we don't have a chance against the entire garrison."

He leaned in close - more to generate a sense of theatrical flair than any real attempt to mask his speech. Anything he said would fall on deaf ears down here - if those around to listen did indeed still have their ears intact.

"Firstly, lemme confirm something: what's your EXP level?"

She rolled back her eyes and double checked.

"Level two," she answered. "Five EXP till the next level. They do a good job of keeping most creatures out of our reach down here, otherwise I could've used the extra strength."

For some reason this only made his smile widen.

"Oh no," he said. "Believe me, you're working with me already and you don't even know it."

At her look of strained confusion he whispered the rest of his plan to her, she listening, raising her eyebrows periodically, and scoffing as he explained, in minute detail, what they'd have to do to pull this off. She, of course, was the main star.

When he'd finished it was her turn to sit back and scoff, looking at him with new eyes, now.

"Marius," she said. "If this works as you say it will, you are either a certified madman or a tactical genius."

He merely shrugged, held up his hands, and let another wry laugh escape from his dried throat.

"Is there really any difference between the two?"

Quest Accepted: Servant of Light

Details: Escort the Red-Woman to the Temple of Bhashera

____

Nils came down to see her again three days later.

When the light of his tiny lantern illuminated her face, her eyes were already open, bruised and still swollen from the beating she'd sustained the night before.

He took a stool like he usually did and placed it in front of the bars of her cell, sighed in the loud, obnoxious way he always did, and began his little spiel:

"Week three, eh? Gotta admit, you've been holdin' up well. Feels like every cut we make you cry a little less, eh? Your friend wouldn't have lasted this long. Didn't last this long. Mind you, when we really start beatin' your meat, you'll probably squeal like a lil blonde piggy."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He leaned against her cell and licked his frayed lips.

"I'm thinkin' maybe I'll git a piece first. I'm bettin' ya haven't had a good stiff cock in ya in yer life, have ye? Virgin soil is the best place to plant, that's what my old man used ta say. How'd you feel about havin' a lil spiky Yok'ra seed planted in you?"

She said nothing. Her eyes were aflame - two bubbling, boiling oceans.

But she said nothing.

"Or do you have something to tell me?" he asked as he wiped excess saliva from between his teeth. "How about it? You wanna come out, or am I coming in?"

"I will pledge," she said.

He leaned in, eyes wide, smiling like a child in a toy store.

"Come again? Louder - moan it for me."

"I. Will. Pledge." she said again, gargling through blood that bubbled behind her teeth.

He opened her cell and took her chin in his hand, letting his slippery fingers play across her turgid lips.

"How I do love it when a little birds sing," he whispered.

She felt his tongue coil round her ear, licking her lobe. His front teeth grazed the base of her beaten cheek.

"Maybe I'll have myself a piece just before I take ya to the Don. The big bird doesn't gotta know. Old blind fuck's senile at the best of times - probably won't even know the difference between a soiled human girl covered in shit and piss and a regular one! Still though, I'll let yer pussy dry out first then take ya ta see him. Seems only fair ye get broken in before ye become the bird's new snack. It'll be our little secret, eh?"

It was at this moment that the Yok'ra, focused on unbuttoning his belt, heard the distinct sound of something sharp being crunched. He gave a little chuckle as he assumed his prey had just bit her tongue, already trying to deny him the pleasure of hearing her scream.

"Such a shame," he chuckled. "I was hoping I could see what that mouth of yers could do."

He looked up and saw the vial in her mouth, the bubbling liquid forming in front of her, and the rueful smirk that adorned her face.

"Let me give you a demonstration."

Before he could call for aid, she had already blown hard into the bubbling lump of silver floating in front of her lips. It smeared itself over his face and he soon found that the liquid was traveling up his nostrils, carving into the tear ducts under his eyes, and seeping through the tiny cracks in his scales.

Dune Wasp Venom

Poison (rare)

Effect: SLP for 60 mins

Time till active: 60 secs

He knew the poison. She saw it as his eyes went wide with fury and he made to draw the blade that he'd left beside his fallen pants.

But she was quicker, and his every movement was numbed by the slowly working venom.

As he bent down her foot came up, and he saw a flash of silver glinting on her toe before she jammed it into his left eye and twisted her foot. She pulled back and dislodged the eye in another swift movement before falling on him and pinning him under her.

"Fucking - HOW!?"

His scream was the howl that emanates from the throat of the strangled kitten, and as she wrapped her arms round his neck and he clawed against her he tried, in vain, to reach for his fallen dagger.

"Scream," she said, and in the next instant brought her foot round and jammed her toe-blade into his abdomen, spilling his purple blood onto the cold stone floor, letting it mingle with the dried pools of her own that were spattered there.

"Scream."

She saw his HP dwindle as she kept hold on him and made her marks, him thrashing against her like a fish against the tide.

HP: 20/45

She then felt a sudden burst of strength run through his ailing body, and his tail gripped the back of her head and slammed him hard against the side of her cell.

Status: Paralyzed

Cause: Dirty Trick (LVL II)

She couldn't move.

Now he was back up, his tail clenching round her throat while his eyes bled a blinding mixture of purple and silver.

"Fucking Argent cunt!" He spat at her face. "I'll gut you here and fuck yer corpse. Then I'll have that freak Knox bring you back, just so I can watch you cry when I bend you over and take you again."

He groaned against the tendrils of the venom seeping into his brain, and with his hold still tight on Yelena, he called out up the dungeon entrance:

"Oi! Git yer fluffy asses in here and help me! And fetch some fucking antivenom while you're at it.

He waited.

He waited some more.

Then Yelena saw his grin finally drop.

"You fucker's listening out there?" he screamed, turning his attention towards the entrance. "I sai-"

He stopped short as he saw her standing there, her form lithe and strong against the dimming light of the closing prison door. Her hair - it was somehow still full and bright even against the darkness of the dungeon. And from beneath her veil, her voice reached him.

"They are not coming," she said simply.

His anger mounting, realization striking, he turned back to the Yelena to see her smiling up at him.

"That's the problem with not having real friends," she choked through his loosening stranglehold.

He tried to focus on her through a bloody, silvery haze, his body teetering on the brink of collapse.

"When it counts, they'll let you down."

And as his tail slowly slumped to the ground with a wet thud, and his breathing grew heavier, she slashed up with her foot and felt her nail-blade impact his groin, ripping through his exposed balls and spilling their contents across the bloodied floor.

She retracted her foot, dripping with pieces of his severed scrotum, and watched him collapse, his face twisted in a mosaic of shock and unimaginable frustration.

She fought to control her breath, watching the blood coagulate under her legs, staring at the jerky twitches of his limbs as he expired in front of her.

Her eyes watched him with hatred, and yet she saw the other bodies she'd laid low waver across him. They passed over the dead form of the Yok'ra like a flickering sketchbook of corpses: her parents, Cynthia, Virtir, the naked warrior that had hounded the thief...

..then she saw her own body, writhing on the floor under her.

In the end, we really are all just sacks of meat...

She only dimly heard the sounds of the Red-Woman and Marius as they approached. She, from above, and Marius following her.

The door was unlocked. Night would be drawing in above.

And the final piece of the puzzle was now being slotted into place before her:

EXP: +85

LEVEL UP

LVL 3: 300/500

SKILL POINTS AVAILABLE: 1

ATTRIBUTE POINTS AVAILABLE: 4

Attribute points...she thought through her haze of hate. It was as Jael's book said: you got four every two levels to spend on your base statistics. She didn't have to think twice: she needed power now more than ever. All else could wait.

Strength Strength is a measure of a Delver's martial prowess and their ability to exert physical force. A high strength is necessary to increase damage output with blunt, hefty, and long-bladed weapons. When using such weapons, a damage multiplier of +1 is applied for every two points in your Strength. Strength: +4 Current Strength Score: 12/50

The thief was already pocketing the dead lizard's keys and the leaden rod affixed to his belt. As he started stripping the armor from the body he stopped only momentarily to admire her handiwork with an impressed whistle.

"Yelena, you have mastered the art of the dick stab. Welcome to the club."

She looked up at both of them, the reality of the Everloft still merging with that of the surface, and for a gut-wrenching moment of total fear, she saw their forms flicker between their living bodies and their dead, battered corpses - their flesh nothing but worm-food at the foot of the dungeon.

She rose with steady determination, pushing away the hand of the thief as he tried to steady her. To the girl she did nothing but nod and throw her her nail-knife - the weapon she'd managed to slip her two nights before as planned.

"The guards outside are being preoccupied," she said. "We are having 15 minutes left. We must be making it to the sewer levels before our time is up."

Yelena wiped the plumb-purple blood of the Yok'ra from her brow and spat the rest down at the inert, broken form of Nils.

"We have to keep moving," she told them, trying to bring their living forms into view, willing herself to look beyond the bloodlust that was welling up inside her.

Marius gave a solemn nod and handed her a blade of dubious quality. She appraised it quickly, turning the blade in her hand.

Steel Broadsword

Weapon Type: Long Blade

DMG: 8-12 PRC

LVL II Long Blade Bonus: STR modifier added to DMG

DMG: 8-12 PRC + 6 (STR)

"Thought you might like something familiar," he said. "Got it from the aptly named 'evidence' chest outside. Might not be the strongest, but It'll work, right?"

She looked at him, gave a curt nod, and then took the lizard's blood drenched leather cloak and vest from him. She slipped it on without another thought, or without pausing to wipe the stains from its sleeves or ragged ends.

"We have to keep moving."

She said it to them both before moving past them, barely acknowledging anything they said by way of reply. She only registered the pair following her as she made it to the prison door itself.

"What?" she dimly heard Marius quip. "No Amaratian hymn? No prayers for the dead? Sympathy for your lost Argent brother?"

She didn't have to turn to see the smile on his face. And, if she could admit it in this moment of pure rage, she was afraid to. She was afraid to look back and see only the image of his mutilated, desiccated corpse staring back at her.

So she did nothing but grip the handle of her weapon tighter and make one curt reply as she followed the Red-Woman through the door:

"Try to keep up."