Ask the matron to free her

"We can't just leave her, Li. It's not right." Teysa's voice grew more assured as she spoke. "We didn't ask for what happened to us, and she didn't either." Aliara bit her lip in frustration. "Tey, you can't be thinking of doing this! Where would we even go?! The best we could hope for is that when they catch us, they merely kill us, instead of putting us back up on the wall."

"Coward!" bellowed Devto. "You meekly submit to their boot on your neck! How is it that you walk around free, and yet you are such sheep?"

"It's not that, Devto." This voice was smooth and laconic. Teysa spun around. Anchored against the side wall, so fully wrapped that only her head was visible, was a human woman with short blonde hair and a spray of freckles across her cheeks. She stared contemptuously at Teysa's kimono. "Look at what she's wearing. She's working with them. She's their little pet."

The half-orc bellowed with indignation. "Is this true? Do you lay with them of your own free will? Vermin! K'tirg! Such foulness I never imagined!" Her voice echoed across the chamber. Teysa could see some of the other bundles stirring. She looked back and forth between the two-- Aliara radiated fear, while Devto's expression was enraged. "If there remains any fire in your belly, cut me down. I will not beg," the half-orc spat, "not from the likes of you."

Teysa came to a decision. She set her hands on her hips. "Alright, Devto. I can't cut you down now, but we will petition the driders' matron to free you."

The half-orc snorted. "Petition. You thin-bloods are all alike. Your words are feeble. If you wish to pretend that those fiends are anything but your captives, then go and live in your delusion. I have nothing to say to you."

Aliara scowled at that and looked like she was about to say something, so Teysa cut in. "Come on, Li. Let's find the matron." She inclined her head in salute to Devto as she left the cave, but was not surprised to see the other woman ignore her gesture.

They passed through the same tunnels as before, moving with more urgency. Aliara led the way. Her half-elf sense of direction was far superior to any human's, and in the party she had always been the tracker. She moved purposefully, almost impetuously, and frequently had them double back with a muttered curse. After they had paused for nearly a minute at a junction, the paladin spoke up.

"Li, do you wanna talk about it?"
"About what?" She wasn't meeting Teysa's gaze.

"Aliara. Look at me. Do you want to talk about it? About helping those women?" The other woman winced but still didn't look back at her partner.

"Listen, Li. I know you've been hurt in the past. I don't know how. I don't need you to tell me, not if you don't want to. But I need to understand something: I took an oath. To protect the weak, to help the downtrodden. It doesn't matter how dangerous it is. We have more power than they do-- the power to walk around, to enjoy each other's company-- and she doesn't. Right now, she's weak, and she's downtrodden, and I have to help her. Period."

Aliara looked up now, her eyes full of hurt and confusion. "Why, Tey? You don't understand! You can't understand! You've never been a ****! You have to fight for everything! What we have here, this small amount of freedom, it's the only thing left to us. It's precious. How can you risk it? _How_?"

Teysa was shocked at the venom in her mild-mannered partner's voice. Still, she stood her ground. "Li, I'm sorry. I promised to protect you, and I will. But I can't turn my back on someone in need. I'm still a paladin. I'm still pledged to Agamor. I'm sorry that it hurts you, but I can't abandon my creed, not even down here in the darkness."
Aliara threw herself on Teysa and wrapped her arms around the paladin's shoulders, her chest heaving. Great wracking sobs shook her body. Teysa just wrapped her arms around her lover and rubbed her back slowly. "It's ok. It's ok, Li. Shhhh, it's all ok."
"It's not ok!" Aliara's voice was muffled. "It's not. You're so good, so noble. I'm such a spiteful, wretched thing. I'm so sorry, Tey. I'm sorry. I don't deserve someone like you."
"No!" Teysa pulled the half-elf off her and tilted up her chin with one hand. "Don't say that, Li. You're a good person. You really are. What happened to you isn't your fault. Nobody can expect you to just forget about it. Don't feel like you have to hide who you are from me."

Aliara sniffled. When she spoke, at long last, her voice was a croak. "Quz, I'm so embarrassed. Thank you, Tey." She smiled thinly and gave the other woman a short, damp hug. "I love you."
"I love you too, Li."

They set off down the corridor. Shortly they began to move through wider caverns and tunnels, tunnels even Teysa could remember. They were nearing the audience chamber of the drider matron.

Two armored guards stood outside, spears crossed. When they saw the women, one advanced. "What is your business?"
Teysa stepped forward. "We seek an audience with the matron."
"Let them enter." The voice came from within. At once the guards scuttled aside and the two women passed into the chamber.

The matron sat on her throne-pillar, wearing an elaborate headdress vaguely reminiscent of a noble lady's wimple on the surface. Her hair was piled up in two great horns that curved towards the ceiling. She regarded her guests imperiously. "What bringssssss hyou to me?"

Teysa's throat seemed suddenly dry. She tried to find the words.

"Matron, I encountered other... guests of yours, while wandering the caves. I did not mean to trespass, but I accidentally stumbled upon... that is..." she cleared her throat. "Those women. Devto, Tivya, Oyanna. They are bearing your children. Could they be freed? Like we were? It seems needless to keep them hanging from the wall like slabs of meat."

The matron stared down at her for a while, her expression as unreadable as ever. Then a faint smile played across her lips.

"The orc issss dangerousssssss. We bound her handssssss when she would not ssssssssssstop fighting. She would ssssssssslay her own ssssssspawn, if we let her. She attacked another broodmother and would have sssssssslain her had we not sssssstepped in."

"Maybe because that is the only freedom afforded to her. Matron, I will speak to her, to convince her not to do **** to your children. I wish only to see her freed so that she might birth your children in comfort, as we do. And the others, as well."

The matron stared a while longer. Finally, she spoke. "Child, what are thessssse women to hyou? Thissssss orc woman issssss a killer. She would sssssslite hyour throat if she thought it would help her esssssscape."

The paladin returned the stare. "Still."

The last pause was the longest of all, and Teysa began to fear that she would be dismissed or worse, before the matron finally responded. "Very well. I have need of hyour sssservice. It isssss a matter of some... delicacy. Aide me, and I will free thessssse women."

"We will. What do you require?"

"We do some trade with Yth'niel, the city of the drow. My mossssssst recent caravan hasssss not returned. The drow have a new empresssssss, and I fear she doesssss not ressspect the pact made by her predecesssssor with our kind. I cannot sssssend a drider to invessssstigate. It would be... unsssssubtle. I need hyou to go invessssstigate. Find out what hassss happened."