Not Teysa

Teysa shrank back in her seat and tried to avoid the dwarf's gaze. Fortunately, he seemed to be too excited to pay her much mind. When he had finished laying out a few lines, he bent over one and began to snort. The greyish powder crusted his moustache, which had been none too clean to begin with; nevertheless, he managed to inhale most of it. He crowed happily and pounded the table with both fists. "That's the stuff!"

One by one, the other dwarfs took a turn. The tentacled figure demurred, but produced a silver egg from somewhere in the recesses of his robe. He cracked it open with a fingernail to reveal a hollow cavity filled with amber liquid. This he held up in front of his face. His tentacles fluttered out, dipping in one and a time and curling back up towards whatever hidden recess served him as a mouth. The one-eyed woman dipped a finger in the stuff as well and raised it to her lips. She smeared it over her gums, then licked the rest off with a bifurcated tongue. Neither took any notice of Teysa or Aliara. Instead, to Teysa's disgust, they leaned in close. The woman opened her mouth and closed her eye, and the man's tentacles dove inside, bulging out her cheeks and throat. Teysa looked away with a horrified expression on her face.

The dwarfs, meanwhile, had sunk back in their seats with identical expressions of ecstasy on their faces. Their host's eyes had rolled back into his head, but he managed to bring one down to focus on them. "You... ladies... want...?" he managed.

Aliara laid one hand on his cheek, and his eye swiveled to stare at it. "Not for now, love," she said sweetly. "But do you have any amberhaze? I heard it's just delightful."

The dwarf's eye flicked towards the far end of the room, where a bulky, indistinct figure held court on a low dais. "Not I, beautiful," he said. "You can get that from Piin. He sells ev-ery-thing." He drew out the last word, slurring a bit as he did so. "Now, what say we--"

"We'll be right back, big winner," Aliara said. "You have fun without us." She blew him a kiss, which he stared at in bewilderment. She hopped down from the stone bench and took Teysa's hand. Teysa have a half-hearted wave as she left, but none of the others seemed to notice them going; they were all in their own little worlds.

She made to head for the figure the dwarf had indicated, but Aliara pulled her in the opposite direction. "Come on," she hissed. "Try to look like you belong here."

"What are we doing?" Teysa asked. "I thought we wanted--"

"We want the warehouse, Tey, we're not trying to buy a hit," Aliara explained. "I've been watching the servers. Haven't you seen them? They've been carrying out more supplies from that door." She pointed at a gap in the back corner flanked by armored guards. "Just follow me lead, ok?"

She sashayed up to the nearest guard, a drow male with the familiar eye design inked on his tabard. "Piin's calling for a refill!" she said. "Amberhaze."

The guard looked her up and down. "Where's Jeybeth? She normally gets his reup."

"Fucked out," Aliara said. "She's sleeping it off. Now are you going to bring it yourself or do you want to explain to the big man why it's late?"

The drow raised his hands defensively. "Hey, you take care of it, girl. Better you than me." He stood aside, though Teysa felt his eyes on her as she passed, and he reached out to pinch Aliara on the bottom. Teysa saw the flash of anger cross the half-elf's face, but she just giggled coquettishly and rapped him playfully on the shoulder.

The two of them found themselves in a long, winding tunnel. The stone walls were mostly rough, though the floor had been planed smooth. Glowing stones set in the wall provided just enough light to navigate by. As they walked on, the sounds of the party behind them faded to a dull roar. Aliara held up one hand to call a halt, so quickly that Teysa nearly walked into her. She cupped her fingers to her ear theatrically. Her ears were keener than Teysa's, but soon the paladin heard it too: a bubbling noise, a long exhalation, and then a faint giggle. Aliara crept forward, nearly disappearing around the bend in the tunnel, then turned back and beckoned Teysa. She laid one finger to her lips for quiet.

Teysa planted her boots carefully toe-first to avoid making any sound. She would never understand how Aliara could move so silently regardless of what she was wearing. The figure-hugging dress, too, was difficult to creep in, though the half-elf always made it look so effortless. Teysa eventually struggled up the corridor and craned her neck around the bend to see what Aliara had noticed.

There was a door in the wall up ahead, little more than a stone arch. The passageway continued to their right, but to their left, the door led into a small bowl-shaped room. Watery blue light filled it, illuminating a massive hookah, like the bulb of some unearthly flower. Scattered around its base was a tangled pile of people, humans and drow and others, all young and lithe and clearly stoned to the gills. They basked in a cloud of glittering smoke. A few of the more attentive ones turned to peer at the intruders with expressions of mingled curiosity and annoyance.

Teysa shuddered. She had never seen the allure of narcotics; her teachers at the Abbey had listed them as one of the threats that might pull a paladin off of the path of virtue, but they had been one temptation she'd always managed to ignore. Her body was a monument to a decade of training; why would she let it be defiled? She thought back to her brief dalliance with the Eel during their mission to the City. It was an uncomfortable memory, despite the warmth it stirred inside her. She had allowed herself to be tested, and while she had not succumbed to the extent of these poor people, she had not exactly passed, either.

Aliara was already hurrying her along the corridor. "Nothing we can do for them," she whispered. "Leave them to it." Teysa knew she was right. She made a mental note to return to this place if she could. Nobody deserved to waste away like that. At least the driders captured their victims by ****. They didn't do it to themselves.

The corridor let out into a long, low-ceilinged cave. Shelves lined the walls. Teysa could see rows of crates and barrels and tall clay pots marching away in the dimness. A few torches were sit in sconces around the room; their illumination served only to fill the room with flickering shadows. She could just make out a heavy iron door on the far side of the room, next to a desk piled high with papers.

A pair of guards was already hurrying across the floor towards them, flanking a pinch-faced woman with leathery skin and wiry grey hair. The familiar eye symbol was tattooed on her cheek and inked on the half-helms the guards were wearing. Her expression told Teysa everything she needed to know; the woman looked as though she had just walked in on Teysa and Aliara performing an unspeakable act with a chicken in the middle of her dining room.

"What are you two harlots doing here?" she snapped. The guards at her flanks held their polearms out in a relaxed way, but one that contrived to indicate that the relaxation could end at any moment. Teysa tried to look frightened and harmless-- not difficult, given that she had been **** to leave her mace behind. Next to her, Aliara flapped her hands in a manner calculated to look flustered and scared.

"Take it easy!" she cried. "We're just here to pick up Piin's reup! Amberhaze, he said! Two sheafs!"

The old woman's eyes narrowed. "Where's that elven slut he normally sends?"

"Jeybeth's out cold!" Aliara said. She smiled ruefully and held out her hands. "Come on, don't send me back empty-handed. He'll be cranky."

"Maybe if he breaks a rib or two you'll remember to follow procedure next time," the old woman sneered. "Piin knows he needs to extend his credit if he wants another reup."

"Pleeeeeeease!" moaned Aliara. She clasped her hands together and squeezed her breasts between her elbows, bending over as she did to make sure the guards got an eyeful. Both of them watched her with rapt interest. Taking a cue from her partner, Teysa batted her eyelashes and slid her dress back along her thigh to reveal one shapely, well-toned leg.

The old woman rolled her eyes. "Fine," she growled. "If you boys really can't say no to a pretty thing that shows you a bit o' titty, then I guess you can help these whores get loaded with that degenerate boss of theirs. But if Piin comes in short on his count at the end of the day, I'll twist your cocks off, understood?" She crossed her arms and humphed.

"Amberhaze is over here," said one of the guards, gesturing with his polearm at a row of tall clay amphorae. "Let me help you." He led them over to a long line of clay amphorae, each sealed with a thin metal lid. Producing a dagger from his belt, he levered a wax seal off the nearest one and pried up the lid, to reveal stacked sheaves of russet-colored wheat. The familiar smell of amberhaze filled the air, and Teysa's mouth started to water involuntarily. Aliara looked up at her-- just the briefest glance, but Teysa took her meaning all the same. She sidled backward for the amphora until she was standing close to the other guard, and leaned in close to him. His eyes flickered to her neckline and traced it down and a goofy smile spread across his face.

Aliara bent over the amphora and leaned down, extending her arm into it. "Hey," she called, "what's this down here?" The guard looked at her quizzically as she straightened up. "What is it, sweetie?" he asked. "Is there something in there?"

"You feel," Aliara said. "I think something bit me!"

Cursing, the guard leaned his polearm against the pot and bent over at the waist. He stuck one arm in to the shoulder and began to rummage around. "I'm sorry," he said, "I don't--"

Aliara leapt on him in one smooth movement. One hand grabbed the back of his head, the other braced itself against the lip of the pot, and then she shoved. Just as the guard was starting to rise, she smashed his head down onto the edge of the pot hard enough to send clay shards flying. His helmet went flying and he reached up one shaking hand to his forehead. Before he could recover, she thumped him into the pot again, then put her shoulder into it and tipped it down on top of him as he started to rise. Teysa, meanwhile, had reached up to grab the other guard's weapon. She took it in two hands and yanked. He tried to pull it back, but she swept one foot into his ankle and scythed his legs out from under him. He lost his grip as he fell, and Teysa kicked him hard in the side of the head. The boots she was wearing were not suitable for this kind of thing, and her toes crunched painfully into the metal of his helm. He looked dazed but not badly hurt, so she smashed the butt of his polearm into his face and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. The old woman watched all this in horror, then turned to run; Teysa brought her down with a flying tackle, squashing all the air out of her lungs with a woof. The woman's fingers scrabbed frantically against the stone floor of the cave, so Teysa spun her around and headbutted her square in the forehead.

The whole process had taken about five seconds. None of the guards had so much as yelled, but the pot shattering had been loud, and Teysa knew that they had a few minutes at best. She threw her stolen polearm into the corner and ran to the wall to grab a torch. Aliara had already liberated one and the guard's dagger, and she was running down the row, prying open the clay pots. Teysa followed and dipped her torch into each one as she went. The sheaves within caught almost instantly and filled the air with spicy golden smoke. Teysa ducked her head beneath the cloud and tried to hold her breath. The blissful feelings of relaxation that had accompanied her last experiment with amberhaze were pleasant enough, but the timing was poor. She had to remain focused if she wanted to keep her head on her shoulders.

Aliara clearly had the same idea. The half-elf was running in a knock-kneed crouch from pot to pot. When she reached the last one she dropped her torch in and ran for it.

Teysa threw her own torch into the last amphora in her row and went to join Aliara. The room was already starting to fill with smoke. As they watched, one of the pots cracked in the heat, spilling an avalanche of flaming sheaves out onto the cave floor. The flames were starting to spread, too; a nearby row of wooden crates was beginning to smolder. "Time to go, Tey!" Aliara said over the crackle of the flames. "Which way?"