We followed him to an old ruin, where he disappeared behind a stone door, just big enough for Arishonna to fit through. The lack of sleep and hunger tugged at our nerves, but we followed him in. In the stale air of the hall, we arrived in was a distinct smell of decomposing corpses that I couldn't hold back nausea any longer.
»Are you okay?« Miara asked, concerned.
»Yes, I'm fine. I'm already a bit sick for a few days now. Just caught a parasite, I guess.« I calmly waved it off.
As we went deeper into the catacombs beneath the ruins, we stumbled upon the first skeletons. Some human like but also many skulls of Illithids, in addition to the remains of unidentifiable quadrupeds. Whatever happened here did not end well. For none of the involved parties.
»I have a bad feeling.« I muttered nervously. My heart pounding in my chest, I swallowed hard.
»I must not fear. Fear messes my mind. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.« I whispered as I collected one of those Illithid skulls.
We sneaked on, and after a few hundred meters, entered through an unadorned wooden double door into a kind of place of worship. Torches on the pompously decorated pillars illuminated the premises only sparsely but well enough to let us make out the three massive stone sarcophagi to the left and right. At the end of the corridor, a person wrapped in cloak and hood stood, with his back to us, in front of a table that looked like an altar, which was additionally illuminated with daylight through a window in the ceiling. Judging by the person's non-existent movements, he either hadn't noticed us yet or didn't care.
Cautiously, we continued to approach, but halfway there, the image of the figure in front of the altar seemed to blur before disappearing completely. I looked around hectically but couldn't make it out anymore.
»Where did he go?« I asked Miara.
»He's still there, where he stood all the time.« she whispered
»I don't see him anymore.« I replied tensely.
Suddenly he stood in front of me, grabbed me by my neck, and threw me against one of the sarcophagi. Before I even hit the ground, I could hear Miara's battle cry, along with the soft whistle of her sword as it split the air.
I got back up and threw a few lightning bolts at the creature. But it only devoured them without having any effect.
»It's probably Ykril!« I shouted to Miara, who knocked him into a wall with a shield bash and smashed the mask with the handle of her sword.
Just as I was about to rush to Miara's hand, the shriek of a ghoul filled the halls. Crane, standing at the entrance, looking at me with her poison-green, shimmering eyes. She didn't wait long and immediately started to storm against me. She dodged my stroke with the staff, grabbed my neck with her left hand, and lifted me up. I gasped, dropped my staff, and wriggled, trying to pull myself up by her arm to ease the pain, but I couldn't find a grip.
She raised her right hand, straightened her claws to strike my heart, and was about to punch when she was suddenly knocked down from the side. I fell to the ground and tried to retake breath. Slightly blurred, I saw Ykril, at least what was left from him, lunge at the ghoul. I looked hastily at Miara, who was lying dazed against a wall, slowly trying to get back up, and then back at Ykril and Crane. The ghoul seemed defeated. Weakly, she knelt before him, barely stirring. The mask looked over at me with its red glowing eyes for a moment before he grabbed the creature's left arm, put his foot to its chest, and began to pull. The ghoul's agonized screams went even through my bones, and before I could get up to stop him, he was already holding the arm in his hand as Crane's unconscious body fell in its human form to the ground.
He threw the arm away and slowly approached me. I didn't even think to call my weapons but just tried to back away from him.
»There's still a way back. It's not too late!« I tried to assure him. Unfortunately, I was unable to detect any emotional stirring in him through the mask.
And before I understood, Miara rammed him against a pillar with her shield. He didn't even try to fight back but just stopped at the pillar, inviting Miara to stab him with the sword. As if he wanted to die.
»If you can't kill him, I will!« Miara admonished, about to thrust with her sword as well.
»No!« I cried desperately, and after it briefly felt as if I was made of pure energy, I stood between Miara and Ykril and felt Miara's cold obsidian sword bore through my back. Reflexively, I grabbed the blade with both hands, which was sticking out of my stomach, and just looked dumbly into Ykril's eyes.
»By Lolth« I heard Miara in a desperate voice before she pulled the sword out of me again, and I weakly went to the ground.
Defeated and wounded in more ways than one, I lay on the ground. The blood flowed from the corner of my mouth and my stomach into a puddle. My eyelids became heavy, and I could barely keep them open when I heard a voice that hadn't reached my ears in years.
»Hey, my girl.«
»Dad?« I mumbled weakly into the direction of the blurry person who appeared to be walking toward me.
›I must hallucinate.‹ I thought to myself as the person's outline became sharper, and I could clearly see Dad.
»You may scream, you may cry, but don't give up. You can do it!« He assured me in his deep, raspy voice as he knelt beside me and gently stroked my cheek.
Why was I able to feel his warm, gentle touch of his rough, battered by work, hand?
»Passion and love are the wings to extraordinary achievements. Use the strength you can draw from it!« he continued, giving me a kiss on my forehead and disappearing into the darkness again.
»Dad« I cried after him as the surroundings regained their sharpness.
It was not only Father's words, but also anger at my inability, that brought me back to my feet. I looked at Miara and Ykril, who were fighting bitterly against each other. My staff tried to resist the guidance from Ykril, who simply absorbed the lightning strikes.
I dropped the whip, jumped on Ykril's back, and furiously punched him repeatedly in his neck while holding on with my other arm.
»You damn Mind-Flayer won't take me my best brooder!« I raged as a punch from Miara knocked us both to the ground.
›My best breeder?‹ I thought, surprised by myself, and pressed my knee down on his neck while pulling with all my strength on the mask.
»Give me back my man!« I commanded in anger as the mask suddenly came off, and I fell backward with it, hitting my head against a stone wall. It wasn't long before I dropped the mask and lost consciousness.
