At last - at long last - darkness had fallen. Blessed darkness to shield the eyes in safety and comfort. Yet the blanket was only partial, Aradia knew, as she made her way through the thickly-forested and heavily hilly terrain the wretched surface-dwellers called the Taurai Woods. The forest added additional protection, but the surface world was riddled with what its inhabitants called stars. Their night god they called the moon. The thick foliage added only a temporary roof against the endless barrage of infernal light beating down upon Aradia's sensitive drow eyes.

For years she had been one of two very powerful High Priestesses in the name of Lolth, the Spider Queen. Her powers had surpassed even her sister's, a woman nearly two centuries her senior, and were fast-approaching those of her Matron Mother even as she exited the academy. She'd been the most devout cleric of Lolth in twelve generations of House Var'truus'De'ez, house that had ascended to the seventeenth rank in Menzoberranzan by the time Matron Berizena had even thought of having a third child. But her sister was killed soon after they had taken another House, thus securing the sixteenth position. A year later, Aradia had been born to replace Bizekia. In the century that had followed, it had been all too easy to swiftly ascend the ranks, raiding a House once every decade and forcing other Houses to condemn one another until they not only sat upon the ruling council, but had in fact become the first House of Menzoberranzan - the ruling House.

But then a lower house had gained a trump card: an alliance with several hated mind flayers. It didn't take long for House Var'truus'De'ez to be overthrown. Aradia had fled and lived in the Underdark for years, but now she was forced to the surface world at last. As she walked through the Taurai Woods now, she pondered such things as the ocean ponders a passing ship. They were in the past now; nothing would restore her position, and it was far too late now to bring the opposing House to justice. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by the presence of footsteps hard on her trail.

The footfalls were distinctly human according to the weight of them. They were also well-trained by the way they placed themselves. But how could humans move so quickly? Magical aid, no doubt. Regardless, she had only a small amount of time to prepare. The movement of their clothes told her that not only were they disturbingly close, they also carried a large supply of weapons.

She whirled around, her body a blur - especially her hand - as one of the assassins made themselves known to her. She'd meant to cut her throat, but she'd ducked as he'd attacked and slammed her drow dagger into his heart. Pain burned in her and made her wince as she took a grazing shot from a bolt, but she whirled back to her original position and did a complete one-eighty from there to avoid the next blow. She traded blows for a momnent with a second assassin, avoiding the sword and blocking it with her dagger when need be. He was good, but he was only a male and a human besides. She whipped back and lurched forward, slashing the throat of her opponent as an axe came whizzing toward her. She cried out as it whipped past her, taking a good chunk of skin with it before slamming into a tree. Four other assassins moved on the sides, and three more behind her, but the one before her let out a gurgling noise as she returned from her recoil to face him. She then saw him for the first time as he fell from the small, tree-covered hill to the ground. He was dead. Her eyes searched for his killer, but she saw no one. She waited to be attacked again; hopefully, she could hold out long enough to get away from them - or perhaps kill them...

She had been drinking. It was probably why she hadn't heard the summons at first.

She definitely heard the second. She ignored it, not quite remembering the intricacies of her race, or of her fevered escape to this particular plane of existence.

Then she had doubled over in pain, her forehead slamming into the wooden panel of the bar in front of her, making several of the drunker and meaner patrons laugh and make crude remarks- and thus had the unintended side-effect of making her self-imposed disguise reveal itself by a small fraction. It had been a small slip, a small growl and reflection of finely honed and sharpened teeth, but it had been enough to make the ones that had seen her stop doing what they were doing in favor of prude. It was enough Vex to want to mentally slap herself. She was supposed to be pretending to be a half-elf!

But she knew the pain. She had never felt it before, but she knew it. Knew what it meant, what it portended: a summons. She had been summoned. The very specific lines of some obscure contract had just been fulfilled. She staggered off and away as if drunk, leaving behind the leers and jeers of the wounded male egos that were still merrily drinking, gambling and wasting their lives away. She had been doing the same but hers was a different case- she was a rauko, it kind of came with the territory. That and terrorizing, killing, mayhem and general destruction. That too, would come, but before she could manage all that she'd secure a steady supply of alcohol first.

Preferably by conquering the world.

But her dreams were another story altogether. One that this particular story has nothing to do with, no, this was a story about a summons. The magic equivalent of a demand to fulfill certain contractual obligations. It was a feeling, at about her naval, that insisted she go in a certain direction. She didn't remember signing a contract with a mortal, but that didn't mean she hadn't. It was likely, in fact, that her Overseer in Hel had signed her up for something without her knowing of it. In Hel, all devils were nothing more than glorified slaves after all.

Then armor, seemingly from nowhere, appeared on her body. The feeling in her naval had grown almost unbearable and she was stumbling, running, tossing, turning, rolling... doing anything she could to go in the direction it wanted her to go in. Whoever had drafted the contract had been no mere novice- if she had been rational, Vex might have noted that it was quite possibly one of the best contracts she had ever heard of- but Vex was not rational. The contract's insistence forbid it. Her wings erupted from her back and she was surprised to note that the armor had been perfectly crafted to allow her wings to cleanly exit through little flaps- and even more amazingly, it was still light enough to allow her to fly.

And then she flew.

Perhaps the craftmanship should have tipped her off. This wasn't an average contract, but she wasn't thinking. Wasn't feeling. Every attempt to delay her summons would not bring her physical pain... but it would bring her pain nonetheless. Pain that would shrive and shrivel her soul. Pain that would make her wish she had died.

She flew... and flew... and flew... for minutes? Hours? Days? She couldn't tell. But then, all of a sudden, sanity returned to her. Vex was unsurprised to discover she had covered nearly a week's worth of walking in the span of- she wasn't sure. She wasn't hungry, in any case. Whoever had created the magical geas had made sure she would be in tip top shape for the duration of its existence- or perhaps just until she needed to find her little damsel in distress. Yes, she could feel it, this was a contract of guardianship. An odd contract- no wonder it had been given to her.

"So where's my-" but the tug in her naval lead her in the right direction. Right there, between the trees.

A drow.

And she was being attacked. Vex held no illusions about the drow- if her charge died, so would she. That was often the nature of the contracts that the drow made. Fabulous treasures if the contracts were fulfilled but if not- Vex steadied herself and then dived towards the ground. Her cloven feet took out the archer- she had landed with enough speed to send her feet scream right through his unprotected head and then, for a moment, there was silence as the assassins contemplated- in shock or perhaps stupidity- the new arrival.

Vex took out her mace. She felt cocky, with armor like this.

"Let's par-tay." She announced cheekily, and then jumped towards the closest would-be assassin. He roared and jumped to meet her- and then the battle was joined.

What in the... Aradia thought to herself in her own tongue as she saw the creature streak through the air toward a hidden assassin not too far away - one of the four that flanked her. A denizen of one of the lower planes...a rauko, if I'm not much mistaken...

But Aradia had no time to contemplate the new arrival. Her ears had barely perked up when she was forced to whirl about and duck once more, slashing at the knee of her would-be attacker on the other side of the mossed-over forest path. Immediately, before the assassin even had time to scream, her hand had reversed itself and had slashed the back of that same knee. As he fell, she whirled again and came around behind the assassin. He was down on his destroyed knee when she whipped her hand around and slit his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground, his blood pooling out over the moss that soaked it up so cleanly. She rolled to the side to avoid another arrow piercing her head - this one from one of the three archers at the rear of the clearing. She leaped up and back to dodge an arrow from another archer and quickly stepped back to avoid the crossbow bolt that had been aimed at her as well. Six left - three archers and three assassins. Let's hope that wasn't enough to stop the rauko before her; from what she knew of the creatures, it was not likely that it was anywhere near enough...

Vex was not a fighter. She had never been a fighter. Up-front fights were a sure and steady way of being killed and Vex had avoided them like the plague in favor for more discrete methods of killing people. She was now regretting her choice. The only thing keeping her alive was the armor. The katana flashed, perilously close to her face and she managed to deflect it, sending it spiraling away as she countered with a broad motion of her own- but the assassin was nimble and managed to jump away in time. He kicked at her but she had, by tactical genius, twisted her foot on a particular rock and fallen forwards in time to avoid the blow and mess up the aim of the assassins behind her. Hastily re-directed arrows landed harmlessly aside.

Apparently these particular assassins had a strong sense of personal pride for when the other assassins had tried to intervene, the one she was fighting barked out:

"Leave the demon to me. Finish the dark elf!"

She took the time he had given her to rush at him, her mace's pointy bits aiming to take out his chest but once again he proved too dexterous and slapped the mace away and instead of doing what he expected she let the mace fly off into the bushes and promptly introduced her fist to the face. It wasn't a particularly strong blow but he still staggered backwards- he was surprisingly frail, he was no doubt magically enhanced- and speed came at a detriment to his strength. With a smile Vex leaped onto and then tore through his neck with her teeth. There came a popping sound as the two assassins that had gone after Barris disappeared from existence. Blood fountained but Vex was already moving- the archers had seemingly gone berzerk when she had downed their supposed leader and all of them had their long, bladed swords out and were coming to her at terrible speeds.

Vex turned and ran towards her drow companion, making enough time to gather her mace. Here they would make their stand.

The man on the side leaped down and rolled to his feet. His motions seemed a blur as he came on, as though he were moving too fast to be merely human. The other tossed his crossbow aside, clearly too panicked to take the time to reattach it to his belt as he sped forward. He drew a longsword and rushed at her almost as fast as the first one. The first one was on her too quickly for her to do much more than start dodging blows; she didn't even have time to cast a spell, and she was starting to get lightheaded from the blood lost through the wounds she'd sustained initially.

"Wizards!" she spat in disgust. Clearly, these assassins - while not drow themselves - had been hired by drow, or at least by someone with strong ties to the drow. Whomever had hired them, though, they were as deadly as they were fast. Finally, she managed to get a leg up and slammed a boot into the man's chest, her boot heel grinding into his sternum. The man wheezed and fell back, coughing up blood and convulsing until he fell to the ground dead. Then the other one was on her almost immediately, and she stumbled. She fell to the ground and was about to take a fatal blow...

Vex narrowed her eyes. She had just slammed her mace through an assassin... that had 'poofed.' An illusion. High speed, low durability- Vex wasn't at all sure what it was she was fighting. For a moment a frightening thought crossed her consciousness- these weren't people at all! They weren't even alive! ...and then the thought past. Real or artificial, make-believe or not, she had contractual obligations. Whether or not these were nightmares sent by other more powerful assassins to test the waters or something else altogether she couldn't know and couldn't be bothered with. As her confidence grew so did her apparent deadliness and she managed to down three more assassins... whose corpses never hit the ground.

"Wizards!" She heard her charge yell in disgust and Vex was tempted to believe in that assessment- and especially in that emotion. Tricks were all nice and neat till' someone tried to pull one on yourself. Then they became the epitome of annoying, dastardliness. And perhaps death. And death was bad. She intercepted another random, running assassin who seemed to have materialized out of mid-air and watched it explode in a cloud of smoke as her mace caught it in the chest. Unfortunately, its sword cloved her cheek, drawing blood.

When she brought her hand to her cheek, it came away clean.

Illusion? Reality? Vex was fast becoming disoriented and confused. Damn, this wasn't good. She wasn't sure how or when, but someone had managed to gain control of her perceptions- it was entirely possible that they could try and attempt to maneuver her into killing her own contract- or, merely stay incapacitated long enough for someone else to finish the job. Wizards indeed.

She watched as someone who she was sure was her charge kill an assassin and then fall, to be attacked from all sides by numerous assassins and Vex tried to squint, tried to figure out which assassin was- and then there came that familiar tug in her naval and Vex was propelled forward, unwillingly used as a meat shield in order to intercept the deadly blow. The blade slammed right into her armor- and then bounced off, without even scratching it.

"Huh." Vex muttered as her mace snaked outwards, bashing the head of the startled assassin. His head exploded in a shower of brains and blood. "They got me with some kind of mind spell, master." She informed her charge soberly. Apparently the assassins hadn't counted on the contract being able to defend its master. Master... she hated the word. But it was a sacred obligation she had. So spoketh the contract, so she would do. Until it ended.

And after that...

"Command me, master."

Master? Of course...she must have been part of a contract, no doubt one designed to preserve the life of House Var'truus'De'ez's most prized cleric. Regardless of the contents of the contract, however, Aradia noticed immediately the presence of the drow armour. Indeed, that must have been the promised price. It had been modified, it seemed, to fit the rauko.

So that's what happened to it, she thought to herself. She had been told the armour meant for their weapon master had been stolen, but clearly that was not the case. It didn't really matter, though, as Aradia heard the footsteps of another.

"There's another one," she grunted out, pointing to where she'd heard the footsteps coming from. It might not have mattered that much, but killing all of them would send a message to whomever had sent these men to kill her: she wasn't just at all helpless. It hardly seemed that way now, though, as she began uttering the words of a spell. It was healing spell - just a minor one, though its properties were strong and potent - and her wounds began to mend almost immediately after its completion.

"Drink the potion." Ennui said suddenly.

Vex had almost forgotten about the demon fly and her hand strayed dangerously towards the mentioned potion before she snapped awake and diverted the course of half-a-dozen (or was it one?) dangerous assassins' blades. They had appeared like the depths of the night and were seemingly everywhere at once. Vex was starting to worry that she hadn't been got by a spell at all- but nicked by some very potent poison. Potent enough to cause hallucinations. And if she mixed that with a potion the unknown side-effects, Vex shivered as she steadily battled the aggressor(s?).

"You can't fool me so easily, little demon." She teased, laughing as her mace finally made contact with the assassin's arm. Like a bunch of puppets all the assassins' arms broke and cracked in the exact same way. Seeing sextuplets- what would her brain come up with next?

"It was worth a shot- slave."

Vex growled in response. This was only a temporary situation, it would soon be rectified. Preferably by killing all the opposition in one fell swoop. Or something approaching one fell swoop. She wasn't sure right now, what a fell swoop was and wasn't. Her opponent seemed to be wising up- after several unsuccessful forays into the joints of her seemingly impenetrable armor, he had begun poking her tough, but still fleshy and exposed legs. In response, Vex grabbed Ennui out of the air and threw it at the assassin. Luckily, her aim was true and he landed right on the assassin's face. The moment of inattention was enough for Vex to land a telling blow and cave part of his face.

"You... you almost killed me!" The demon fly said, in mock surprise, but Vex had already moved backwards, toward her master. She was not sure if her contract was numbered in days or in commands but it never hurt to try both. Perhaps it was number of commands, which usually never numbered more than a hundred or so. And there was a lot of leeway in interpreting what was a 'command' and what wasn't.

"Your next command, master?"

The assassin, however, wasn't done - and he started to get up. Fortunately, fifty years in Arach-Tinilith had not merely taught her how to cast a few spells; she had also learned the ways of basic combat - well, what was basic for drow, anyway. Even the basics were far superior to most humans' ways of combat. Aradia had once gone up against a master swordsman that was human and had killed him inside of five minutes. Drow were not to be underestimated with their weapons, even if weaponry wasn't their strong suit. Thus, Aradia's aim was true as she hurled her dagger straight at the assassin. He was barely alive after that blow from the rauko, but that was more than enough - until the blade of her dagger slammed into his forehead dead-center and sent him reeling back into the ground. This time he was really dead.

Aradia got to her feet, slightly breathless. She was shaking a bit from the blood loss, but her wounds were healing nicely and she was recovering her lost blood quickly. She popped her neck and glared at the corpse for a moment before stepping around the rauko and spitting heavily upon it, scowling. She forcefully removed the dagger and wiped the blood on the assassin's clothes.

Then she put a foot or two of distance between her and the rauko as she eyed it for several long seconds.

"You were no doubt put into service by my mother. It had to have been at least a few months ago, for I have been here for a couple of months already. The surface world is a foul place."

She continued to eye the creature.

"You are a rauko from one of the lower planes of existence, are you not? And my guess is that you are bound to me until your contract is fulfilled. Do not waste the precious gift that was given to you, rauko," she said with a sneer. She was talking about the armor, of course. "It's worth an entire city here on the surface world."

She straightened her robes, though they were torn in a couple of different places - the leg and the side, mostly. They would hold together, though, and she would mend them later with a spell or two. She brushed her hair out of her face and looked up at the demon.

"If you were contracted out to my family, then you must have a mark under your left arm. It is the customary mark of House Var'truus'De'ez. Let me see it."

"You were no doubt put into service by my mother."

Vex's mind quaked as she was suddenly assaulted by images- many images. There was a drow priestess- yes, a powerful one, even as one measured these things by surface standards. She saw a dark-skinned woman, her lips moving- she couldn't recall anything else, just the lips. And the voice. Darker than pitch, she had to concentrate to hear it at all- and then discovered that she didn't want to.

"She will mention me."

Vex shook her head, discovered she couldn't. Locked in the throes of memory she could only curse futilely at the threads of fate- or rather, at the threads of fortune. And magick. Powerful Magick. She had been summoned on this plane- not in her formally humble abode of Hel and made to forget. For once Vex considered the fact that she may have been playing outside her league. And then she had to listen to the damnably shadowed voice.

"You will protect her. You will guide her. You will nurture, you will nourish. You will teach. And only when you are certain she can survive will you be set free. And in return..."

And in return I shall be given the world... Vex mused as the memory ended. Her charge, apparently was still talking. Vex hadn't heard any of it.

"...worth an entire city here on the surface world."

How little you know... Vex mused as she considered her charge. So arrogant for one who had fallen so far- and yet her mother must have been prophetic for she had imparted important knowledge, knowledge that would make the armor seem trivial, unto Vex. It would help her rise higher, and higher, and higher. High enough to challenge the gods... or the one God who had made life Hel.

"If you were contracted out to my family, then you must have a mark under your left arm. It is the customary mark of House Var'truus'De'ez. Let me see it."

"It is not safe here, master." Her fingers flashing in the fascinating language of the drow, another gift from this child's- yes, she was but a child- mother. "We must leave... stay quiet. If you must speak, use your fingers." And with that she moved forwards, her silent foodpads straying into the night. She trusted that the drow would follow.

((Woops, wrong account. Please delete.))

She nodded.

She could do nothing but trust him for now. She was certain now. The way he acted, the frozen state he'd been in just now - probably remembering the memory of his contract, whatever that might have been, now that the contract had been put into full effect. She did follow him, making a mental note to use only the silent drow hand code. For indeed, she agreed that it was not safe. They were no doubt being watched magically, and if that was the case then the defeat of the assassins was already known to those that had employed them.

She followed quietly, not saying a word and her boots not making a sound as she moved along. They were quickly into the shadows of the forest, shadows within shadows. She had no trouble keeping up as she watched the hulking figure of the massive rauko before her. Whoever she was, she was powerful. She wondered briefly what manner of rank or title the demon had held in her native plain of existence, but it was hardly important here. On Arda's surface, the rauko was only a a slave until her contract had been fulfilled.

OOC: 1. Vex is a she, 2. She's 5'2'' so unless your charrie's a midget she's got some rather odd depth perception and 3. To get your post deleted, head over to member's request forum.

Oh, and 4. Sorry! I went to bed early! xD

IC:

The drow followed easily enough- which was good, however; what was not good was that she followed too loudly. Oh, no doubt the drow considered herself silent. And in the Underdark she might have been- but this was no Underdark where one had to but pay attention to their clothes and personal effects in order for the whispers of noise to not mean anything. Every twig that snapped made Vex irritable. Every leaf that crinkled, even ever so silently, made her look left and right, expecting attack. The drow clearly had been trained to move quietly but not silently. There was a big difference- in one of these versions it was but heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe, and in another it was the ability to *listen*.

The situation would have to be rectified... somehow. But later, this forest- unlike the caverns of the Underdark was a living thing, spies could and would be anywhere. Vex's only advantage was that she knew the surface world better than any drow and knew too some very important and helpful friends. The trouble, of course, would be convincing the drow. Not that she considered that an issue, the Matron Mother had given her a surprising amount of leeway in dealing with her daughter's 'suspicious nature.' Which, to be fair, had been well rewarded. She was the only bloody survivor of her clan after all. Survival was always the ultimate reward. But it made life difficult for a she-devil teacher every now and then.

After about an hour of furious, silent, marching they made their way to the edge of the forest and to the first road that signaled the start of civilization. Vex's hands flashed in the intricate drow speech.

"Master has two choices- to seek the streets or to seek refuge in an asylum." She didn't bother to mention that the asylum would be peopled by paladins and holy clerics. They might have been douchebags but they were *holy* douchebags. If the drow could trick them into accepting her she'd be better protected than anyone short of a king.

Course' it'd be Hel to try and convince her that she wasn't walking right into an ambush... especially since Vex didn't have the tattoo that she had mentioned. The contract had been forged through the bonds of the soul- not the flesh.

Actually, for the most part, she did rather well. It was true that wizards were never allowed on the surface since it wasn't known how the surface world would affect their magic. It was also true that surface raids were rare, though clerics often accompanied them - for what should have been obvious reasons. But no cleric she knew of had ever been trapped on the surface world trying to survive. Drizzt Do'Urrden was known to all Houses as the drow that had left Menzoberranzan of his own accord, but those who still discussed him in Menzoberranzan as a curiosity often debated whether it was his insolence that led to his evacuation or the destruction of his House - or some other reason altogether.

Yet despite her lack of knowledge regarding the surface world of Arda, not a mortal soul around for miles could have heard her - even if they were standing right next to her. Even the hated surface elves, called fairies by her people as a deeply cutting and wholly derogatory insult, could not have heard her; drow practiced their stealth tactics not only to avoid their own people - and Houses - but also to perform covert assassinations and raids upon the evil fairies.

Perhaps the demon had senses far more attuned to the prime material plane of existence than any mortal, though. It would make sense, really, since even drow aging was a blur to them and it was almost impossible to kill a rauko, but still...

Finally, there came the message in the drow silent hand code. She picked up the heat signature of the rauko's fingers moving swiftly and silently. She shook her head at once when the rauko mentioned the asylum. Any asylum would be an unimaginably strong ally, but they would demand she lowered her hood - which she prudently raised now without even thinking about it, thus completely covering her head and face - and they would take one look at her and destroy her. The surface elves had driven drow to the Underdark, after all, and they and their allies would miss no opportunity to destroy them.

"We take to the streets," Aradia signaled in the silent hand code. "I have a contact in one of the taverns - a minor contact, but filled with useful information. We need all the information we can get at this point."

A contact... Vex mused, surprised over this revelation. Had the drow managed to infiltrate the surface world? Or was this another demonic servant? Vex was well aware that her brethren were becoming more and more common- or rather, more and more accepted as countries came to rely on the power and the abilities of demonic spawn- half-demons, half-dragons and so forth. Not that the two breeds were in any way related but it was a rather commonplace mistake for people to confuse the wings of a demon and the wings of a half-dragon. Believable, really, but still rather annoying.

…and she was getting off topic. Probably a result or a consequence of the various poisons running in her bloodstream. Vex wondered briefly if her charge had been poisoned too (another part of Vex’s mind was fairly certain it was just the result of the sudden burst of energy that propelled her from the bar and into the forest but she ignored it) but then shrugged. Drugged the drow might be a bit easier to deal with. Or at least hopefully easier to deal with. Vex hadn’t the time to work on a someone on a bad acid trip. At least not without severely injuring them. And torturing them. And maybe killing them. Darn addicts.

But back to the contact. Was it worth it? The paladins could provide protection- she had tricked them before and if the drow wanted to be able to walk anywhere without getting massacred it was best to be able to legitimately claim that she had once been a resident of the sanctuary of angels and was a repentant drow or some such.

But then again, perhaps…

How reliable is this contact? And what kind of information?

Aradia's cruel, sadistic smile was only barely visible under her hood, but it told all there was that needed to know. Nonetheless, Aradia chose to respond. After all, communication between her and this rauko was essential at this point - and so was the rauko's unwavering cooperation, support, and obedience. So Aradia responded with more than just that purely evil little smile, a smile that was really more a smirk of arrogance anticipation of enjoyable things to come - albeit not for the contact.

"He will not be pleased to see me," she signaled back. "But he'll far too scared not to help me. Such is the power of a ruling House over a simple-minded bartender."

Aradia allowed herself a soft, close-lipped chuckle that only the rauko could hear. But now it was time to move. Aradia's smile faded as she heard city guards coming. She could kill them without any problems at all, but why bother - damn. There were two patrols that were about to converge. One of them was sure to spot the hiding pair, but if one found the other dead...

There was no one else in sight. She had an ally here, so she might as well use him.

"To the left!" she signaled, indicating that the rauko should take the ones coming toward them from the front. "Quickly and quietly," she signaled also, though that was a given in this situation.

She was gone in an instant, muttering a spell as quietly as she could and moving quickly. Her spell was finished in just a couple of seconds, but she had no more time to spare. The lesser shadow creature that she'd just summoned from the Abyss moved swiftly and silently toward one of the guards to her right, the guards unaware of the danger they were in. Just as the shadow wrapped its icy claws around one of the guards, Aradia's dagger whipped out. Her left hand came to the underside of her target's jaw to keep him quiet as her dagger whipped around to slice his throat. She dropped him to the ground as the other struggled helplessly against the shadow that was strangling it. His eyes danced wildly in terror and his mouth was wide-open in a silent scream as the life slowly drained from him, the shadow grinning even more broadly that the watching drow...

A bartender? Vex furrowed her brow her poison-addled brain apparently working better than her non-poisoned one. There first goal was to be discrete and to avoid these... odd warriors. Assassins. Something. It would not be good to be seen overly much on the surface world- word of a particularly feminine drow elf in the company of a rauko would probably spread faster than weeds on a rainy day. Drow that were not seeking redemption and not trying to be merely mercenary were rather rare up here after all. Worse yet, this contact would probably not hesitate to blab the moment that they had disappeared. Vex could not agree to such a course.

Well, no, that wasn't strictly true, she could agree but she'd be damned if her contract expired so easily. She was beginning to like this particular set of armor. Not that it was a set, just a-

"You need alcohol in your system." Ennui put in helpfully. Whispering, of course. But it sounded like cannonfire.

It was a good suggestion though. Lots of merit to a suggestion like that. But Vex wasn't in the mood for a suggestion like that, she needed to concentrate. Yes, concentrating was good. She bit her tongue, letting the pain wake her. Pain was always marvelously good at that particular thing: focus, concentration, understanding. She tried to ride the wave of consciousness that came along with it. Almost failed but her fingers made the appropriate gestures.

Or were about to. It appeared that they were about to go under attack again.

To the left, eh? Vex melted backwards into the foliage. Then she thought better of it and just stealthily (or at least noiselessly) crept forwards. Vex saw the poor thing almost immediately. Just a tiny waif of a girl- probably her first mission. And her last, of course. Wasn't even holding the dagger properly. Eyes darting to and fro- nose sniffing... Vex melted backwards and watched the creature walk forwards.

And then she brained the poor thing. She couldn't have been older than twelve or so.

Vex was walking away... and then realized that the corpse had exploded. One moment she had been walking towards her charge and the next- she was being catapulted through the air by pieces of flying human.

Pieces of -shiny- human.

"Awww fudgepoodle." The time for quiet was over. These assassins were serious- and they were playing for keeps. Vex forced her injured and battered body to stand. Good thing the pain was keeping her plenty focused.

"Run!"

Aradia didn't need to be told twice. Her dagger was wiped clean and sheated in the blink of an eye and she muttered a foul curse as she heard the footsteps of assassins suddenly making themselves known. The lesser shadow dropped its corpse and rushed to feet on one of the suddenly-appearing assassins, but it was quickly destroyed with a blast of light that blinded Aradia. She slipped into the shadows quickly, pulling her hood fully over her head and relying on instinct and her superior elven hearing. She was already muttering a spell.

As her greater shadow rose to meet the attackers, razor-sharp spikes suddenly whizzed through the air and there was the gurgling of strangled voices as they slammed into the throats of three assassins. One of them lived initially, but then the greater shadow was upon it and his life was drained quickly as he was manhandled and strangled by the shadow. Another flick of her wrist and another assassin was down, though a fifth ducked under the spikes. Said spikes slammed into a tree behind the assassin, but Aradia was ready with her whip as the assassin came up with a throwing knife. Before he could hurl it, her whip lashed out and cut across his throat so hard that he reeled backward onto his heels, slamming into the tree behind him and poking holes in his back on the spikes that had hit there. He was dead before he hit the ground, his blade falling beside him.

Aradia's whip was gone in an instant and she dodged a blow that came to her from nowhere, but then the shadow lunged at the assassin. Sidestepping another assassin as the first was murdered by the shadow, Aradia took out the second assassin's knee and whirled as she ducked to pick up the throwing knife. When she came around for the second revolution of her spin, she snapped the man's neck and sent him flying into the tree next to him. Finishing the revolution only halfway, she hurled the knife at another assassin and then ran. She somersaulted through the air over his swiftly-falling corpse and slipped into the shadows, quickly running as her greater shadow slaughtered the assassins mercilessly...