...deep beneath the earth

Their descent was slow and careful. The staircase was old and crumbled beneath their feet. It wound around a vertiginous drop, with no handrail to stop an incautious climber. Occasionally, Teysa's foot dislodged a pebble and sent it tumbling down into the darkness. She strained her ears, but could not hear it land.

The air in the shaft was cool and slightly musty. Teysa's torch flickered in a breeze that blew up from below. Beneath her bare feet, the stones were chilly and slightly damp. In the little bubble of light that surrounded them, Teysa could see ancient brickwork in the walls, barely visible beneath layers of lime and mold. Water dripped down the walls. She slowed down, trying to catch her breath. Behind her Aliara slowed as well.

"Teysa, where are we going? What is this place?" The half-elf sounded nervous. "I don't like running into... wherever this is without knowing anything."

Teysa paused. "Me neither, but it has to be safer than up there. The Empress might have recovered by now. Maybe they found the High Priestess. She seemed afraid to come down here. Maybe the rest of them will be too?"

"If they're afraid to come down here, Tey, it's for a good reason."

"I know, Li. But we aren't exactly flush with options. Plus, it-" she hesitated. "It feels right. Doesn't it? It feels like we're going in the right direction. We're close, I can sense it."

Aliara shrugged. "I don't know. I know I'll follow you anywhere. I'm scared, though. My... my whole body hurts." She sat down on the step. "I wish we hadn't come here, Tey. I'm sorry." Her shoulders hitched as she fought back tears. "I can still feel her hands on me. You should have let me kill her. She's done worse to thousands. They all have, these drow. They're... animals, worse than animals." She turned away from the torch. "I'm so tired, Teysa. I wanted to help, but it's been horror upon horror. I do not feel like a stronger person for having faced it. I'm just tired. I want it to be over."

Teysa sat down next to her and, with some care, leaned the torch against the wall. Then she wrapped an arm around Aliara's shoulders. The half-elf was trembling like a leaf, and she flinched as Teysa's hand brushed one of her bruises, but she did not shrink away. She burrowed her head into the cleft of Teysa's neck and sat there silently, her body wracked by occasional sobs. Teysa ran her fingers through Aliara's hair and planted a kiss on the top of her head. She could feel the other woman's heart beating fit to burst. Silently, she sat there, with her arms around her lover. It was a long time before either of them spoke.

"Aliara," Teysa said finally. "I know. I know what you've been through. I know how hard it's been for you. I don't know what's ahead of us. I don't know if there is a way out of here for us. But whatever happens, it happens to both of us. I will never leave you behind. Never in life." She took a deep breath. "I love you. I don't know how long it's been true. It still feels weird to say. But I love you, and I want you to know that that will never change."

Aliara drew back, blinking away her last tears. Her eyes shone in the weak torchlight. Hazel. That's right. They were frightened eyes, but even as Teysa watched, Aliara steeled herself and set her face in a determined expression. "Onward, then. You're right, Teysa." She smiled. "I love you too." She leaned forward and kissed Teysa, a quick peck on the lips that turned into a deep, urgent kiss. Teysa closed her eyes and stroked the back of Aliara's neck as she felt the half-elf's arms wrap around her. Then, too soon, the kiss was over, and Aliara was standing up. She held out the torch in one hand. "Lead on then, paladin. Let's get out of here before this torch dies. This has to go somewhere, right?"

They continued their descent. Teysa's heart felt light. She had all the same doubts as Aliara, of course, but she **** them down. This would work. They would escape. They must. Aliara was depending on her. Agamor, hear my prayer. We're in the deep darkness now, far from your light. Please, shine your blessings upon us. Deliver us from evil. Help us to pass through this shadow.

The torch was burning lower now, and Teysa was starting to fear that it would run out and strand them on this endless staircase when she saw the texture of the darkness change up ahead. A fissure yawned in the rock wall, a chasm that widened into a doorway. The last few steps of the stairway were worn smooth, hardly distinguishable from flat boulders. The explorers stepped off it into a small, round cave with a wide, arched tunnel leading out. Ancient flagstones made up the floor. Teysa took a tentative step forward and found herself in a high-ceilinged passageway wide enough for three people to walk abreast. She beckoned Aliara forward. The passage sloped slightly downward, but it was unmistakably an artificial construction: the walls were smooth dressed stone, with occasional discolorations indicating where a brazier or sconce might have been before time ate them to nothing. Aliara took one step into the passage and stopped, holding up a hand. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Teysa concentrated. Faintly, on the edge of hearing, she thought she could make something out: a rhythmic sound, deep and resonant, echoing off the walls. She nodded and said nothing.

As they traveled, the sound grew louder. At first Teysa had thought it might be a breeze blowing through a subterranean crack, but the longer she listened to it, the less she could deny it. It was sobbing. Deep, mournful sobbing, the sound of grief unchecked by time or closure. It bounced and echoed madly off the walls, making its distance impossible to judge. The sound of it made all the hair on Teysa's neck stand on end and raised gooseflesh on her back. She drew closer to Aliara, peering to and fro in the weak light of the torch. The sound was constant, never growing louder or softer. It drew her on even as it repelled her; she found herself wishing it would stop. Searching for a distraction, anything else to focus on, she glanced at the walls and started in surprise.

The walls had been blank stone when they entered the passage, but here they were carved with bas reliefs. Teysa drew closer, unconsciously running her fingers across the stone. The figures were stylized and worn smooth with age, but she could make out details... here was a chaotic landscaped, untamed. A woman with a spider's body appeared and held her hands over the chaos. It formed itself into caves and tunnels, forests and seas... Teysa beckoned Aliara over. "Look at this! Does it remind you of anything?"

As they progressed deeper, the story unfolded. Spiders appeared in the design, spinning their webs to fill its corners. The great spider-woman stood above them, and though her face had been obliterated by time and dripping water, there was a downward cast to her shoulders.

"It's the creation myth," Aliara breathed. "Look, there's the egg that Lolth laid..."

Indeed, the next panel featured a smooth, featureless ovoid, held in the spider-woman's arms. As they followed the bas-reliefs, it hatched into a female humanoid figure, and in quick succession she was given a robe, a spear, and a forge. A city rose around the shape of the Goddess Lolth, with the spiders scurrying at its edges. The shattered egg lay in fragments at the center of it. And then...

"What's happened to it?" Aliara ran her fingers over the stone wall. The next panel, and each subsequent one, had been shattered as if struck with great ****. Lines like the claw marks of an animal scored deeply into the stone, obliterating the delicate carvings. Great chunks of rubble had been torn from the wall and littered the corridor at their feet. Teysa looked down in alarm. They had been following the carvings for quite a distance. The haunting sobbing was loud now, almost on top of them, and the torch was burning low. Somewhere up ahead, though, she could see a dim light. Taking Aliara's hand, she continued on, almost running towards the light.

The stub of torch scorched Teysa's fingertips. She dropped it, barely noticing it fall. Her mouth hung open. The corridor continued for another hundred feet or so past the shattered carving, and then opened out into an enormous cavern. It wasn't as large as the one containing the City, but it was far more impressive; that had been a natural formation, this was clearly artificial, with fitted stones the size of oxcarts lining the walls. The room was lit with a ring of torches in iron sconces, but what drew Teysa's eye was an enormous statue. It was at least two hundred feet tall, filling the far end of the room from floor to ceiling, and depicted a woman from the waist up, so that she appeared to be partially buried in the cave floor. It appeared to be made of granite, and partially eroded by time and water. The woman was hunched over, her head buried in her hands in an position of deep, impossible grief. Her shoulders sagged and that of her face that was visible was twisted in an expression of intense sorrow. At first Teysa though, insanely, that the sound of weeping that they had been hearing had been coming from the statue, but she could see a hunched figure bent in front of it, its shoulders heaving. As Teysa stared, the sobbing trickled away, and the figure stood up.

The certainty that had driven Teysa to this point drained away. She felt lost. There was no obvious exit from this room besides the tunnel that had brought them here. Was this what she had expected? Where could she go from here? Beside her, Aliara shifted uncomfortably as the figure turned. Suddenly, bizarrely, Teysa felt very aware of her nakedness. She tried to shield herself with her hands. It was mad, she knew, but it was the only reaction she could think of right now.

The hunched figure turned towards them, and Teysa heard Aliara stifle a gasp. It was a female drow, and the oldest Teysa had ever seen. Her faced was so lined that it looked like she had been hewn from the same granite as the statue. A few wisps of white hair still clung to her scalp. Her skin was drawn and corpselike, with an unhealthy pallor, and her hands were psoriatic claws. Her eyes were deep-set and glistened wetly in her head. She wore the robe of the priestesses, but in a baroque and unfamiliar style, and worn so thin that her shriveled outline could be seen within as she advanced. She moved jerkily, like a puppet with only a few functioning strings. When she spoke, her voice was a dry rattle. "So... you've come... at last." She wheezed in a deep breath. "Seeking... your drider... friend? You've... found her." She raised one arm and a gnarled finger uncurled. A fresh sob burst from her throat.

Teysa followed the pointing finger. Curled up in the corner of the room was the withered corpse of a drider. It looked as though the vitality had been sucked out of her. Her face was drawn in a silent scream, her limbs pulled tightly to her body like those of a dead spider. Sudden anger gripped Teysa. All this time, all this suffering, and for what? Siri'ka was dead. She had been dead before they even arrived at the City, by the look of it. "Why?" shouted Teysa, tears pricking her own eyes. "Did you kill her? Why? What threat was she? What had she learned? Who are you?"

"The Mourner..." murmured Aliara, and the old drow grimaced. "They call... me that," she croaked. "But I... was... the first."

"The first priestess? Impossible! You couldn't still be--" Aliara began, but cut herself off as Teysa raised a hand. Somehow, she knew. "No..." she breathed. It was mad, but the woman before her looked familiar, and she knew from where. "The first drow."