Aliara's POV

Aliara threw herself backwards to avoid a polearm thrust. She turned her vault into a handspring and somersaulted towards her foe. As his blade swished through the air where she had been, she stabbed upwards with one arm. Her dagger punched through his chin and up through the roof of his mouth into his brain. He jerked backwards, staggered a step or two, then collapsed with a loud crash. His fall pulled her dagger out of her hand, and before she could retrieve it, another drow stepped in the space where he had been.

There seemed to be no end to them. No matter how many she cut down, there were always more. They fought with eerie, mechanical precision, like golems. The driders had been **** back, step by step, into a tight defensive circle. The Matron was still flinging magic, but her lightning bolts and fireballs seemed less effective than earlier. A miasma of **** shadows surrounded the drow and shielded them from the worst of the magic.

Aliara stepped back in between two driders and scanned the horizon for signs of Teysa. She had flown off into the middle of the enemy army, alone. Fear warred with anger in the pit of her stomach. Teysa had flown off, yes, but the Matron had put her up to it. Tey was brave, but she'd never been suicidal before. Aliara had lost sight of the golden glow and a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that her lover was in trouble.

Something bright shot up out of the center of the drow formation like a firework. Aliara shaded her eyes and gasped. Teysa rocketed towards the ceiling, clutching an emaciated-looking drow to her chest. She bled from a dozen tiny cuts, and as Aliara watched, her prisoner flailed his arms against her. Teysa ignored him, tucked her wings in and began to dive. Aliara's heart leapt into her throat.

"Tey! No!" she screamed, though it was impossible for the paladin to have heard her over the din of battle. Aliara stared with wide, terrified eyes as Teysa and her foe fell back towards the ground. They vanished and a moment later there was a heavy impact and a bright flash of gold. Aliara let out a strangled cry and surged forward.

Her headlong dash would have carried her straight onto the enemy's blades, but the second Teysa hit the ground, the drow formation broke. It happened with the speed of melting dew; one minute they marched in lockstep, the next they were reeling and collapsing. Weapons fell from nerveless fingers. The driders paused for a moment, fearing a trick, then surged forward, and the disorder became a rout. Drow were trampled, crushed and stabbed in their haste to escape. Aliara ran unheeded through the crowd, dodging a blade here or an outstretched leg there, until she reached a clearing at the center.

She stumbled to a halt at its edge in time to watch Teysa lift her mace high overhead. She brought it down onto the broken body of the drow and the clearing was lit by a silent explosion. A sudden gust of freezing wind **** Aliara to her knees. All around her, voices rose in panic, and the drow began to flee en masse. The shadows that clustered around them were gone.

Aliara clambered to her feet. Teysa was still standing at the center of the clearing, but the golden light that had suffused her had faded. She trembled on her feet. Blood streamed down her neck and sides, her armor had been shredded, and a livid burn covered one half of her face. She held a splintered shaft of steel that had once been her mace's haft. But she was alive. "Teysa!" Aliara cried and broke into a run. She dropped her remaining dagger and threw her arms out. "Oh, Tey, I was so--"

A look of horror crossed her face. She stared past Teysa. Across the room, standing on a rocky ledge, stood a tall, thin drow in baroque iron armor. He carried a massive longbow and had an arrow nocked. Shadows seemed to cluster around his head. As Aliara's mouth opened to frame a warning shout, he released the arrow. Aliara tried to **** her legs to move, to leap in front of it as she had below the drow City, but time seemed to have frozen. She felt as though she was wading through waist-deep water. She imagined she could see every detail of the arrow right down to the fletching, though of course it had to be traveling far too fast. It sped across the room and buried itself in Teysa's chest.

Aliara screamed. She put everything she had into that scream: her terror, her panic, her grief and shock. Her eyes bulged wildly. A second arrow followed the first, this one plunging into Teysa's belly and almost doubling her over.

"Noooo-ooooo-ooooo!" Aliara moaned, and staggered forward. She felt as though she had been punched in the gut. Teysa looked up at her with her eyes full of shocked innocence. She opened her mouth to speak and blood poured out across her chin. Then, slowly, she began to topple forward.

Too late, much too late, Aliara's legs responded to her commands. She ran forward and caught Teysa as she fell. The paladin's blood smeared her arms and chest, but Aliara didn't even notice. She threw her head back and howled to the heavens.

"HELP!"