Chapter 27

The Tower of Pain

"Okay, let's break for sex.", the smiling Drow said happily.

Ilsa put her foot down. "We only have half a plan.", the tall dark woman said firmly.

"I think better when I'm cumming.", Kiri explained, but the look in Ilsa's eyes focused her mind on more important manners.

Eliza giggled. She liked her new friends. Kiri reminded her of Marinae, only without the burden of worrying about what everyone else thought about her. She was clever and creative and had a wicked sense of humor. Ilsa was like her exact opposite. The Drow warrior was well disciplined, serious, and rarely spoke, but when she said something, she meant it. Eliza didn't know how good Ilsa was with her hammer, but she felt safe around her, as if nothing could harm them. She felt that her fate couldn't be in better hands.

The three sat in near darkness in one of the many empty houses in Mortingy. Richemulot was full of houses without occupants and no one knew why. People must have lived in them once, but it must have been a long time ago since no one could remember them. Kiri had already scoped out the courthouse and had a crude floor plan of it etched in the dust on a table. Ilsa and Eliza sat hunched around it. Eliza was smiling and looking forward to tomorrow, while Ilsa was trying to make sure that Kiri had taken care of every possibility.

"The other Eliza takes the stand and you create a diversion.", Ilsa said, reviewing the plan.

"I'll use my magic to make the prosecutor accuse her of being a heretic or something.", Kiri explained. "Well, I might not have to do that. Eliza might help him out. That depends on what she says. Hmmm."

Kiri turned to Eliza, still with a lustful look in her eyes that never seemed to go away. "So, you're Eliza.", she said to the impostor priestess. "What would you say?"

Eliza wondered about that for a moment. "That Aselid is a good man who'd never do anything evil.", she answered. "A lot of nice things like that I guess."

"Would you…blaspheme?", Kiri asked scandalously.

Eliza thought for a moment. "No. Well…", she began. "The church was wrong to…", she stopped and thought some more. "Yes, I would, but only if my excommunication came up."

"See.", Kiri said, turning back to Ilsa. "The prosecutor is definitely going to bring that up. He'll want to assassinate her character. He'll want to make her look like a evil lesbo whore."

Ilsa looked at the evil bisexual Drow in front of her then back to the drawing on the table.

"There's a diversion.", Ilsa said, then traced a path on the crude map. "You seize Eliza and take her through the guard room and outside where our Eliza is waiting. Then you make the switch."

"Simple as that.", Kiri replied.

"It's not so simple.", Ilsa said coldly, sounding almost like Kendra when she did. "What if you are followed by other guards? You will be strong enough to seize Eliza but you won't be able to fight them off and hold on to her at the same time. You won't be able to make the switch. And how do we explain the differences between our Eliza and their Eliza?"

Kiri just looked at Ilsa with a slight grin. "That's why Kendra gave me this.", she replied and pulled a small glass ball out of her pocket.

Eliza looked at the ball closely. Inside she could see lightning bouncing all around the walls, making sparks spray about each time the bolt tried to escape but was turned away. It was beautiful.

"What's that?", Eliza asked.

"Divine intervention.", Kiri replied.


Marinae sat in shock. "Aselid? Burned?", she thought to herself. She hadn't really believed that it would go so far. She remembered her last talk with her master and how he too did not believe that the church would go so far. Apparently it had.

"This has not been the best week of my life.", Marinae confessed. "Perhaps I should become a pessimist,  then things will only get better."

Marinae found that her tea mug was empty. She ordered more, thinking wistfully of an ale, but was afraid that it would only make her sleepy.

Tshaya looked around at all the long faces. "You know him?", she asked.

Eliza nodded at Tshaya's question. Horrified, she whispered, "We can't let this happen."

Weamar and Marinae nodded their agreement.

"Remember the book I mentioned, he had it.", Weamar said to Tshaya.

"It was stolen, Weamar, along with certain important items.", Marinae told him. "And an article of jewelry, with a lovely stone."

Weamar got the message. "He said you'd visited him recently.", he said to the sorceress.

"Yes. It seems so long ago.", Marinae replied. So much had happened since then, and much of what she remembered didn't seem to be real.

"This is all quite a wonderful mess.", David said, feeling as if he were back in Falkovnia once again. "How are we supposed to get him out? There will be guards everywhere I'm sure. Breaking him out also leaves the problem of us all becoming fugitives in this country."

"We have done the impossible how many times now?", Marinae said with a slight grin. "Once more should suffice."

"We have to convince them that he's innocent.", Eliza said sternly. She wasn't about to advocate a jailbreak. Ezra wouldn't approve.

"But it's true.", Lynn said softly. "He's innocent."

Then Lynn remembered how little the truth meant sometimes. David and Marinae echoed her thought.

"The church and Truth are barely nodding acquaintances at the best of times.", Marinae said, exaggerating to make her point but getting no objections.

"Yes, and from what little I've heard about this Rittan fellow, truth may not matter to him.", David added.

Eliza touched her Ezran amulet and spoke with conviction. "I will convince him.", she said. But from the tales she'd heard of Sentire Rittan, she knew that it wouldn't be easy.

Tshaya changed the subject. "Rumor has it that Petrov will be there.", she said, looking closely at each person at the table.

Eliza's face drained of what little color it had. Marinae choked on her tea and recalled when she had found Petrov at death's door in Nova Vaasa.

"I haven't seen him in quite some time.", Marinae replied.

"The captain of the White Knights?", Tshaya asked.

"And butcher-at-large, these days, by the sounds of things.", Weamar replied with a scowl.

"Goddess no...", Eliza gasped as Weamar looked at her sympathetically. She turned towards Tshaya. "How do you know of him?"

Weamar glanced at Tshaya, wondering what the young Vistani would say, if anything.

"He wronged my people.", Tshaya said, glossing over the tragedy. "Did you know him?"

"I knew him. I thought I knew him...", Eliza said looking down. "What did...", Eliza hesitated, fearing to ask the next logical question. "What did he do to your people?"

Marinae felt sick to her stomach. She imagined the worst.

Tshaya struggled with the question, then she shrugged it off. "It was fate.", she said with a wave of her hand.

"Fate." Eliza repeated softly, thinking of her own.

"I visited Gladehaven. I understand Petrov led the Knights against the inhabitants.", Weamar explained to Eliza. "Gladehaven is now only a source of charcoal."

"'We are right and we are just', he said.", Tshaya said. "Who can argue with such a man?"

"I don't doubt that he would like to see each of us locked away for various reasons.", Marinae spoke up. "He never was...how is it said, 'hinged'? Hinged properly?"

No one corrected her, so Marinae shook her head sadly and muttered in elvish, "Humans and their religions."

Eliza's hand sought out Lynn's beneath the table. She had prepared herself to face the officials of the church but she dreaded seeing Petrov again. Hearing that he might have been involved in such a horrible atrocity only heightened her apprehension. What had her old friend become, she wondered.

Lynn grasped Eliza's hand firmly. She leaned over and whispered, "Be strong." Then she gave Eliza a soft peck on the cheek. Eliza closed her eyes and drew strength from Lynn's presence.

"It is said that this Petrov serves two mistresses.", Tshaya said, eying Eliza and Lynn as they moved close together. "So one is Ezra. Who is the other?"

Marinae kept herself from looking at Eliza. Weamar concentrated on his ale mug. Eliza looked away from Tshaya. Tshaya read their body language.

"A former lover?", Tshaya wondered out loud, a little rudely.

Eliza looked down at the table and shook her head. "We... that is he and I never... but he does care for me.", she said softly.

Until then Marinae hadn't realized that humans could understate as effectively as an elf.

"I don't believe that he serves you, or feels for you anymore.", Tshaya replied. "Now he seems to have no feelings at all."

Marinae wondered if Petrov would remember that he owed her his life. She ordered an ale in place of her tea. She didn't care if it was going to make her sleepy, she needed it. Tshaya looked frustrated. She wasn't learning anything. She wondered if fate had played a trick on her and led her down the wrong path.

Still looking down, Eliza said softly but firmly, "When I show them all the gift that I have been given, they will believe. Petrov will believe. They have to." There was confidence in her voice, with only the vaguest hint of desperation.

Lynn nodded and caressed Eliza's hand. "Tell them.", she said to Eliza softly.

Eliza nodded and thought for a long moment on how to begin. The others looked at the young priestess, wondering what it was that she was about to reveal.

"To we Ezrans the number five is a sacred thing.", Eliza began. "Our day of worship is every fifth day and the number appears many times in our holy books. There are, however, only four sects of the church. The Home Faith at Levkarest and three others in Mordentshire, Port-a-Lucine and Nevuchar Springs. There are some scholars that believe that a fifth sect will rise and with it will come the final revelation from our Goddess Ezra. Through the fifth sect she will reveal the final piece of her plan for us."

"The Bastions, the leaders, of each sect and others who are close to Ezra are able to summon a protective ward around themselves. It is called the Shield of Ezra. The Shield of each sect is unique.", Eliza continued, growing more nervous with each word. "If a new shield is discovered then it is a sign that that individual may be chosen by Ezra to form a new sect."

Eliza paused and glanced at Lynn. Lynn smiled widely and gave Eliza's hand a squeeze.

"When I was brought before the council of scholars at Ste. Mere des Larmes they asked that I perform the prayer of the shield.", Eliza said, barely believing that what had happened there had really happened. "I did so and something happened. I could feel something amazing and wonderful. The scholars confirmed it. I had summoned the Shield of Ezra. One that had never been seen before."

"Eliza's the fifth prophet.", Lynn added, unable to contain herself.

Eliza blushed modestly. Marinae gasped and wondered if she should kneel or genuflect. She decided to take the news casually, as a proper elf would. David sat in silence, absorbing what he'd just heard. He was happy for Eliza, and for Lynn, but it made him feel even more empty inside. Not because he knew that he'd never have Lynn, but because fate seemed so cruel to him. Why should Eliza receive another wonderful gift and why should he be left with nothing once more?

Weamar's mind boggled. He tried to figure out how Eliza's news fit in with everything else and failed. He couldn't believe how complicated his life had become. Worse still, he knew that he couldn't just go back home to Verbrek and forget about everything. He was trapped and he had to work his way out.

Tshaya didn't seem to care at all. She thought about the third fortune that Madame Raisa had told her. If Eliza and Lynn were the two women joined together. Eliza had to be the good one. But when Tshaya looked at Lynn she couldn't believe that shy young woman was evil. It had to be two other women, she thought, or maybe it was that Lynn was such a good actress that she could fool everyone.

Marinae felt that the ale was going straight to her head. She felt herself getting a little sleepy. She looked down at her half empty mug and was disappointed that it took so little to have an effect.

"Two nights of little sleep.", Marinae thought to herself. "Maybe I can make it a third. I hope."

Tshaya smiled politely and got up. "If you'll all excuse me, I'm tired and I must get my rest.", she said.

"Don't talk about sleep, you brat.", Marinae thought, dreading the idea that the evening was coming to a close.

Tshaya said goodnight and retired to her room.

"You haven't heard anything about Falkovnia have you?", David asked Weamar on a hunch.

Marinae was mildly irritated by David's question, but said nothing. She'd already told him everything that he needed to know about Falkovnia. "I was there, dammit.", she thought to herself. "It happened."

Weamar frowned for a minute, trying to think if he'd heard anything other than the usual about Falkovnia. "Nothing that stands out.", he said, then admitted, "But I've been spending most of my time deep in Verbrek."

David nodded. "If you happen to hear anything. Any kind of rumors, let me know?", he replied. Then he turned Eliza and Lynn. "So, are we keeping the same watch schedule for our dreamer here?"

Marinae was more than mildly irritated by David's second question, but said nothing again.

Lynn nodded and volunteered for the first watch.

"I want to try something different.", Marinae said.

"Dreamer?", Weamar asked.

"I've been having nightmares.", Marinae said.

Weamar frowned. He remembered many nightmares that he and others had had which came true, or at least might have come true. So he decided to listen.

"Only for the past few nights, but horrifying in aspect. I am bound to a table. First it is Kendra, demanding to know where the stones are.", Marinae explained. "Then it is Drakov and Meech, in the second dream. They were about to kill Rambis to make me talk."

"It felt real, colors, sounds, smells. We believe it is the spirit-man who was tormenting David.", Marinae continued. "Apparently, he is upset with me. The worst of it is, Drakov is dead. I saw with my own eyes his head depart his shoulders, Weamar."

Weamar looked surprised that Marinae would call Drakov's death bad news. "Umm, that's a good thing, isn't it?", he replied.

Marinae glanced at David to shut him up. "It is a long story.", she explained. "He got the Hands, probably from Kendra, and he brought Meech back. The worst, because in the ill-dream, he and Meech were very much alive. I saw them die, but I seem to be the only one here who knows of it."

Marinae paused as she remembered back. Now her dream of Drakov seemed more real that his beheading. Marinae shook her head and fought through it.

"When I departed Neblus a few days ago, all of Darkon was alive with the thrill of carrying war to Drakov. Yet, when I came to visit Lynn and Eliza, no one had heard of it.", the sorceress said as desperation crept into her voice. "It has led me to doubt. Which is real? I have to wonder, was I ever even home?"

Marinae thought back again. Ellan, her grandmother, and being in jail in Neblus felt real. Her mind was swirling.

"Not even Lady Renier had heard of this.", David explained to Weamar.

Weamar looked thoughtful at mention of Lady Renier's name. He wondered how she would take the news about Henri.

"As I said, it is a very long story, Weamar, as are those of the others. And your own. We seem to collect them.", Marinae replied.

Weamar nodded. He had much to tell as well, but wasn't much for telling stories.

"What was it you wanted to try, Marinae?", David asked the half-elf.

"I want to establish a strong ward, an alarm. Aselid was meaning to show me some concentration cantrips that would help me hold things in my sleep, but we never got around to that.", Marinae said, regretting that now more than ever. "About all the ward will do is act as an alarm though, but it might give me time to put a few levin-bolts through our ghost's personal space."

"Maybe it will stop him from giving you nightmares.", Lynn said softly.

"But...", Marinae said, taking a deep breath. "...he won't come unless everyone in the room is asleep. And frankly, I won't be able to stay awake much longer."

"Well, let's get set then. We've got a hard day ahead tomorrow.", David said, rising to his feet.

"Once we've all rested a little, we will tell our tales.", Marinae said to Weamar, wanting to hear more about Gladehaven and Petrov.

"I hope that chance comes soon.", Weamar replied. "So, what are we going to do about Aselid?"

"I'll testify.", Lynn volunteered.

"As will I.", Eliza seconded.

"And if they still find him guilty?", David said, always thinking ahead.

"You mean 'when'.", Weamar muttered. "The church is in a pitched battle. They aren't going to draw a crowd like this, and not give them a climax."

Weamar looked at Eliza, not sure if he should say more against the church, but Eliza caught his glance.

"It's okay. I understand how you feel.", the priestess assured him.

Marinae pushed her ale away to keep from throwing it at Weamar. She felt like there were only two possibilities: watching Aselid burn, and being burned alongside him. Then they said goodnight and went up to their rooms. Outside her room, Marinae gave her extra key to Lynn.

"Just in case you or the others need to get in.", Marinae told her. "I'm going to try my idea out."

"I was going to watch you.", Lynn protested slightly.

"He won't bother me if you do, and I won't be able to hit him.", Marinae said tiredly, but firmly. "I want this one."

Lynn nodded. "I'll wait outside then.", she said quietly.

Marinae went into her room and locked the door. She cast her ward spell and lay in bed. She was nervous at first, but Rambis curled up at her feet and purred. The cat's warmth mixed with the warm feeling from the ale and quickly she relaxed and dropped off to sleep. Soon she found herself in the grips of another nightmare, this one so real that she felt as though she were actually living through it.

"Where are the other four gems?!", an inhumanly rough voice shouted at her. "Who has them?!"

Marinae opened her eyes and looked at her torturers in horror. The first face that she saw was only half a face. It was a skull covered only partly with flesh, dead flesh. One of its eyes stared at her, while the other was an empty socket. Marinae panicked and tried to run but like her other nightmares she was chained to a table. Nervously she looked all around her and saw more horrifying faces, desiccated faces, rotted faces, and faces crawling with maggots.

"Where are the other four gems?!", the rough voice shouted once more. "Who has them?!"

"Never! I'll never tell you anything!", Marinae screamed. "I'd rather die!"

"You will not die here. We shall see to that.", the half-faced thing spoke, mustering a twisted smile that made the sorceress want to vomit. Then the thing uttered words that struck cold, hard fear into Marinae's heart.

"Take her to the tower of pain."

This was not a dream, Marinae was remembering everything as she relived it. Boney hands grabbed her and rancid corpses dragged her kicking and screaming into a tall round room.  Hanging down from the ceiling high above were four long iron chains. The corpses locked the end of each chain to the shackles around each of Marinae's wrists and ankles. Then, without a word they left her alone in the tower.

Marinae rose to her hands and knees and weakly crawled after them, the chains being just long enough to let her reach the cold walls of the tower. For hours she sat against the iron bound door hoping that somehow, someway, Azalin would find her and rescue her. Then from far above her she heard a deep guttural growl. She looked up but she couldn't see what had made the noise. The top of the tower was shrouded in darkness. Then she heard the growl again. It sounded vaguely human, but made her skin crawl, and whatever it was, it was huge.

Then Marinae heard the horrid and all too familiar sound of chains being drawn into a spool.  The slack chains attached to her limbs began to straighten up, pulling her towards the center of the tower. Marinae let out a whimper as she slid along the frigid stone floor. The chains pulled her so that she was lying spread eagled face up and then continued to pull each limb upwards. Marinae felt a stabbing pain in each of her limbs and grimaced as the shackles dug in, but as soon as she was lifted off the ground she was filled with an even worse feeling. She remembered the monk choking the life out of her and the helpless feeling of being lifted into the air against her will. And as the chains pulled her higher and higher into the darkness she found herself being filled with a terror so great that it seemed to be pulling her mind apart.

Link by link the chains drew Marinae up into the tower. It seemed to take forever, and every minute she hung there helplessly her mind and body were wracked with pain and fear. And when she reached the point where she felt that she could take no more, she sensed the chains pulling her arms and legs outwards instead of upwards. She was almost at the top. The steady click, click, click continued and the chains pulled at her limbs, sending bolts of pain shooting through her body and down her spine. It felt just like the other dreams, only so much worse. This time she wasn't on a table, she was dangling above a stone floor two hundred feet below.

Marinae screamed and closed her eyes, wishing that the pain would go away and wishing that Azalin would hear her cries. Then she opened her eyes. For a moment she thought that her wish had been granted. Covering the entire top of the tower was Azalin's face looking down at her. Marinae breathed a sigh of relief, but then she looked closer and saw the lifelessness of the face. Horror filled her mind once more as she saw that she was staring into the eyes of a living corpse.

"Where are the other four gems?!", Azalin growled at her, his voice almost deafening as his face erupted into flame. "Who has them?!"

Marinae tried to resist but the pain, the fear, and the heartbreak of knowing that everything that she believed about Azalin was a lie broke her will into pieces.

Marinae woke up with a scream. Her heart was racing. But she knew that the nightmare was only beginning. She remembered the tower, she remembered the torture, and worst of all she remembered telling them everything.