You make it to the exit, but it is blocked by familiar figures.

You make your way through the twisting tunnels once more, the fairy that is now bound to you and following you riding your shoulder all the while. You find that you don't mind the company, even if you don't speak much. Despite the fact that your comrades had betrayed you, they had been constant company while you had traveled before falling into the cavern. After that, you had thought you'd be facing this ordeal all on your own, without allies of any sort, but now you found yourself in the company of an ally once more. Though, if you thought about it, you'd made two allies, if you counted the naiad. Her power now resided in you and it had been more than helpful thus far. Indeed, despite the fact that you had lost one group of allies, it seemed you were making another...even if they were less allies and more servants bound to you, from how they reacted to you and the power you held over them.

You wondered about that as you walked. You had, thus far, subjugated two women (or, well, female magical creatures that had the shape of women, anyway) using the power of the gauntlet and, well, rather lewd means. The first time, with the naiad, you'd felt frankly horrified by it and, yet, you'd recovered quickly, hadn't you? With the fairy, you'd felt strange, but you couldn't say you'd been disgusted by your actions completely. No, in fact, you had willingly given into your lust and your need to grasp the power you knew you could gain from subjugating the fairy as you had. That was something you would have never even thought yourself capable of before your being bound to the dark Artifact that was now connected to you and you had to wonder about that.

The naiad had said you were not fully human anymore, something you had dismissed, but now had to ponder on. Were you truly less human than you once had been? You still looked human, that was true, but you were no longer fully the same as you had been. Your body had changed, for one thing, becoming larger and more powerful. You now possessed the ability to wield magic, something you never had the capacity for before. Moreover, you found yourself drawn to your base and darker urges, the gauntlet's influence making it easier for you to give into lust and anger than you had been before. You'd thus far been able to resist giving into the bloodlust the gauntlet pushed into your heart...but could you do so forever? Would you be able to maintain such resolve? Already, you had been able to shrug off the changes to your body and the power you received and, more shockingly, the way you had received it. Would you change even more before all was said and done?

This worried you far more than you liked to admit, but it was something you had to put aside as you felt the fairy tug upon your earlobe to get your attention. You shook yourself from your pondering and turned towards her on your shoulder, finding her tiny face to be right up close to yours as you did so. You would have jumped back in surprise at that, but you knew, as she was on your shoulder, that wouldn't put any distance between you so you clamped down on that instinct as you faced the fairy.

"Master, look. There is light ahead. Sunlight. I believe we are at the exit. But I don't think we're the only ones.", she said to you in a quiet voice and you quickly turn your gaze ahead of you to see what she was talking about.

Sure enough, you see a circle of light that has to be the mouth of the cave. And, silhouetted by that light, you see two figures moving around. You can't make out much from this distance, but it looks like the pair have made a camp at the mouth of the cave. It also seems they have not noticed your approach and you are quick to move to the side of the tunnel, ducking down and pressing yourself against the cave wall to make use of the shadows and the few stalagmites that rose up from the ground to conceal you as you headed towards the exit.

As you get closer, you also start to hear the voices of the pair and, as you do, you pause as you find you recognize them.

"Fool girl! Haven't you finished with the food yet? Why do I keep you around if you can't do the smallest task!? I should have let them sacrifice you instead if you were going to be so worthless.", you hear a gruff voice curse out, the voice harsher than before and colored with disguised pain and undisguised temper.

"I-I'm sorry, Master. It's been hard to gather ingredients while we've been hidin...", you hear a softer feminine voice saying, the voice cut off by the sound of a hand striking flesh sharply.

"WE ARE NOT HIDING! I have told you! We are resting so I can recuperate from the wound that damnable human whelp gave me! That bastard...", the gruff male voice of the dwarven warrior, Rolf, growls, "How dare a weakling like that strike me a lucky blow like that. If he wasn't already dead, I'd cut his head from his shoulders myself."

It's the dwarves, you realize. The dwarf warrior whose hand you had cut off and his mousy squire and servant who had perhaps been the only one who'd tried to speak in defense of you. Two of the party that had betrayed you were there at the mouth of the cave and you feel, at that moment, rage burn inside of you. They were not the ones you felt the most anger against, but they had still been part of this. They had known what would happen to you. Perhaps they had not known what had happened to your sister, being dwarves and not being privy to human politics, but they had still been party to it. They had let it happen and for that you felt your anger beginning to burn red hot within you.

You wanted to charge out and tear the dwarves limb from limb, leave them piles of bloody, lifeless meat and, for once, that rage was not completely inspired by the dark Artifact on your arm. You wanted to rush out with a cry of rage on your lips and your body ready for battle, but was that really the tactic to take? There was still a part of you that possessed a warrior's training and mind and that told you that rushing out with only a fairy as backup against two dwarven warriors while you were unarmed save for the gauntlet and with rage blinding you may be a bad idea.

But it was hard to rein in that anger...so should you?