Serving the Dark Lady Ch. 07

"Twenty gold for the engagement ring." Karee looked up with a start at the Tiefling who ran the jewelry stand. "You were staring at it, cutie pie. Hoping to get one from a special someone?" She smirked at him coyly.

Karee laughed nervously, and then blushed when that didn't work. "No... just daydreaming."

"About your future..." She paused, letting the words hang, and pursed her lips in thought for a moment. "...Wife?"

"She's..." Karee spluttered, and the Tiefling's eyes lit up.

"Hah! Knew it." The woman clapped her hands together and grinned victoriously at him. Karee frowned indignantly at her. Until a couple of months ago he'd considered himself strictly gay and now someone thought he was a lesbian.

"I'll make sure to drop her a hint," Karee sighed, and continued back towards the Cathedral.

Karee was grabbed so quickly he barely even realized what was happening until his feet were off the ground and he was being carried into an alleyway. He screamed and kicked but the hand over his mouth muffled his screams, and his kicks found nothing but air. He breathed in a mouthful of air that tasted like copper and did nothing to provide his lungs with oxygen. A sluggishness worked its way through his limbs, and his vision narrowed into a tunnel. Blackness followed.

He awakened with a jolt, and saw that he was inside. His stomach lurched and seized up in a state of raw panic. The familiar face of his younger brother Dauril was right in front of him. The familiar pale purple eyes made him tremble in terror not because he was afraid of Dauril, but because he knew who else would be with him.

"He's awake, mother," He called, not addressing Karee directly at all, and instead looking over his shoulder. Karee's eyes followed his gesture, and he saw her. It was strange to see her like this, not in full plate armor adorned with the heraldry of Lanya, nor in formal church attire. She was wearing a brown jacket and trousers, with hints of chainmail peeking out from underneath. A heavy cloth hood hung over her shoulder, she'd probably worn it down to cover her celestial eyes. Her sword hung loosely from a sheath on her belt, but the shield she loved so much was absent. Travelling light, probably.

Karee froze at the sight of her, even as her eyes narrowed. The two featureless pools of light that glowed softly in the dark interior conveyed a world of meaning to Karee, who'd spent years being scrutinized by them and learning the nuances of what they meant. "Do you think you're clever, Karee?" she asked, icily.

He wasn't sure what she meant, and even if he'd known, he couldn't have spoken to her. The tears started to roll down his face as he shivered. She was going to take him back, and he didn't want to go. He was terrified.

Purity walked up to him with an annoyed huff, and grabbed at the necklace he was wearing. Myria's holy symbol hung off of a simple metal chain, it was what he had been using to cast the spells she'd granted to him. With a yank that caused the metal to dig into the skin at the back of his neck for one painful moment, she pulled the necklace free of him, and tossed it to the side in contempt. "I bet you think you're hilarious. Couldn't get a rise out of me with this tired old crossdressing act of yours, so you're resorting to wearing blasphemous symbols? What it is, Karee, is sad. It's pathetic. It's time that I stopped being too soft on you, stopped tolerating these ridiculous stunts of yours that you're doing to get my attention. It's time for you to be a fucking adult, Karee, your younger brother is more mature than you are."

Dauril averted his gaze at the comment. Their mother may have brought him along on this kidnapping mission, but he clearly didn't share her zeal or contempt. He wanted to say something in rebuttal. The crossdressing wasn't an act. The holy symbol wasn't an act. Purity's attention was the last thing he wanted. But nothing came. No words would form. All he could do was cry and whine a little.

Purity just sighed, and rolled her eyes, or at least, she did her version of the gesture. "Fine. Cry all you want, you're not getting any sympathy from me. Dauril, get your stuff together, we're leaving as soon as the sun goes down. If he's not going to come quietly we'll have to knock him out and carry him, so let's avoid the crowds, just in case."

"If you think that's best, Mother." Dauril answered deferentially.

The two of them left him there, wrists bound in his lap and connected to his ankles so that he couldn't really walk. They began gathering up their things from the abandoned building, and Karee finally got himself enough under control to actually look around and take stock of where they were. It looked like Dauril and Purity had been there a few days. A pile of food scraps lay rotting in the corner. Worn clothes of Dauril's were laid out to dry in the sunshine from a nearby window. When Karee probed the area magically, he sensed a vermin warding enchantment that Dauril had probably laid down to keep the rats away. When he probed lower, he felt the familiar enchantment of the Cathedral's memory altering enchantment, and the fact that he could feel it at all without instantly forgetting about it meant something. The warding charm on the chastity cage, they hadn't removed it. They probably hadn't even checked to seen that he was wearing it. That meant there'd be an entrance to the Cathedral here, either right close by, or even perhaps in the building itself. He looked around for the entrance to the basement, and saw that it was closed, and covered in dust. Dauril and Purity probably hadn't even bothered go to down there.

"I'm going to go outside and check out the city limits to see where the city guard is posted. Watch him, I'll be back soon." Purity flipped her hood down over her face and went outside, leaving Karee and Dauril alone.

"Sorry, 'ree. You know how she is." Dauril murmured softly, as soon as she left. "If I didn't go with her she'd have brought someone else. You okay? Mom's putting on a show of being pissed but truth is we've all been worried sick."

"I'm not going, Dauril. I won't." Karee croaked out, his voice hoarse from crying. "I belong here."

A pained expression crossed Dauril's face like the words had physically hurt him. "Don't say that, 'ree. You deserve better than this place. You're my brother."

"No! It's not self pity, Dauril. I was miserable at home and I'm happy here. They accept me here."

"Accepted In Blackstone? People have been giving me dirty looks since I got here, 'ree. They get one look at my eyes and that's enough for them."

Karee just shook his head. Certainly, there was an aspect of truth to what Dauril was saying, but it wasn't the whole story. "The Dark Lady gave me spells, Dauril. Right out of the blue. She spoke to me, told me that I deserved them. Told me that Lanya should never have taken them away from me."

A very uncomfortable expression crossed Dauril's face. Karee saw immediately that not only did he not believe him, but that he probably thought he was delusional. "Uhh... okay, 'ree, but, maybe don't say that when Mother gets back?" He gave him a patronizing smile.

Karee jerked his head towards the holy symbol lying in the dirt. "Give me that. I'll prove it. If I can't cast anything I'll go quietly with you and Purity."

Dauril bit his lip a little, as he followed Karee's gaze to the dirty floorboards where the necklace had landed when Purity had thrown it to the side. "Promise me? I really don't want to knock you out again and carry you home." he finally asked after several moments of contemplation.

"Promise." Karee nodded. Dauril was true to his word. He walked over, scooped up the little holy symbol, and then returned and dumped it into Karee's upturned palm.

"You remember how to cast 'Light'?" Dauril asked, his expression growing sadder by the moment. His brother flicked his wrist, and a small glowing ball appeared above his palm.

"Yeah, I do," Karee nodded, closing his hand around the symbol, and narrowing his eyes so that he could concentrate. He began to murmur the words, he only needed a brief incantation, and he flicked his fingers to the somatic components of the spell as best he could with his wrists bound.

Dauril sighed. "'ree, come on. 'Light' doesn't have a verbal component, just admit that—"

Karee finished casting the sleeping spell, and directed it at his brother. Dauril's eyes went wide as he realized what was happening. For a split second, his mind tried to resist the enchantment that was coercing it. It didn't succeed, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He slumped over, landing in Karee's lap unconscious.

His heart racing, Karee hissed out a word that probably meant something but was really just an attempt to express his joy and his victory. He wriggled out from under Dauril's unconscious form, and started to cast 'Knock' at the ropes around his wrist. 'Knock' was meant for locked doors, not tied ropes, so he wasn't sure if it would work. His other alternative was to try and burn them off by conjuring fire, so he was definitely going to start with 'Knock'. The spell resolved, and the ropes twitched, unwinding themselves. They didn't come all the way undone, but they loosened enough that he was able to pull them apart. Karee scrambled to his feet, heart racing, breath coming fast. Dauril was out cold, but he'd probably recover in a few minutes. More than that, Purity could be back at any time. Even if she didn't return on her own, there might be wards in place around this little hideout. He might have triggered one just by casting a spell at all, and then there was the additional fact that he'd knocked Dauril unconscious.

The basement. He didn't dare run out into the streets, he didn't even know where they were, he could easily be in a part of the city that he didn't know at all. For all he knew, they may have brought others with them to watch the outside in case he tried to bolt. Karee ran to the door. He cursed at the handle as it stuck and refused to give way to his yanking for several moments. He planted his feet wide, gripped the handle with both hands, and pulled. Something snapped, and the door gave an inch. Three more hard pulls on the rusted handle made his hands ache and his skin burn, but yielded results. The door inched open enough for him to exhale all the air in his lungs and slip through the opening by less than an inch. The stairs creaked as he raced down them, and one nearly collapsed under his weight, but he moved too fast for it to crumble all the way. As his feet the grimy stone of the dusty, abandoned cellar, he felt the presence of the enchantment grow stronger. It was to his left, and when he glanced, he saw a door, padlocked shut in the corner.

Karee cast again, channeling more magic, enough to start a low throbbing headache in the back of his mind. 'Shatter'. He'd memorized how to cast 'Shatter' last night, just as a means of self-defense. He directed the spell as the brief incantation completed, and a horrifically high pitched ringing sound filled the cellar and probably reached out into the street. The vibrations rattled everything made of metal in the entire building, shattering several dessicated bottles of wine arranged on the far side of the cellar, spilling their undrinkable contents onto the floor. The door itself shook, and the padlocks cracked and crumbled.

Karee gathered himself, and ran at the door, hitting it with a running kick that really, really hurt his knee. The move caused the door's hinges to crack, and it fell backwards, down a flight of stairs leading further down into the earth, undoubtedly towards a back entrance into the Cathedral of Myria.

"Karee!" A furious bellow ripped through the house from upstairs, Purity's voice. Karee let out a tiny, terrified squeak, and froze for a second to look up at the door out of the cellar. She appeared there, a snarl on her face.

He bolted through the door he'd destroyed into the Cathedral, doing his best not to trip and fall down the short flight of polished stone stairs. He recognized the stonework around him, and knew he was inside the Cathedral, but there were tunnels leading out to exits all over the city, some connected by long tunnels that were almost an hour's walk. He rounded a corner at the bottom of the stairs, hearing Purity right behind him, and began to run down a featureless corridor that went on for a long ways before it turned.

"Get...! Back...!" Purity cursed at him, her footsteps joining his on the stone of the Cathedral's hallway.

Karee's foot caught on something, and he fell. The air was forced from his lungs as he tumbled to the ground in a heap. Desperately, he tried to rise up onto his feet again to keep running, but a hand closed around his ankle, and yanked him backwards with a terrible strength. His dress tangled, Karee looked up at Purity from his back. He trembled, frozen in panic.

"Where did you even get that wand to put your brother to sleep with? You hide it up your butt or something you little freak?" She glared at him, her hand around his ankle like a vice, preventing his escape.

Karee began to cast again, the same sleeping spell that he'd hit Dauril with. Like Dauril, Purity didn't believe him, didn't think he was actually casting a spell, so she did nothing to stop him from finishing the invocation, and directing the enchantment right at her. Her eyes too, went wide in disbelief as the enchantment affected her mind.

'Please, Myria, let this work...' Karee prayed.

Purity didn't fall over, unconscious, she shook her head as her mind resisted the enchantment that her other son had succumbed to. "You... just cast that..." she spoke, her voice sounding fragile. Her eyes flickered to the broken necklace in Karee's hands, and she went very still.

"So, you're actually worshipping her. She gave you spells." Her voice was quiet, but Karee knew from experience to be more afraid of her now than when she was yelling. This was the voice she used when she'd caught him with his first boyfriend. Karee struggled, trying to kick at her, to wrench his leg free but she held him tight.

"What have you done to us, Karee... to this family." The anger was starting to creep back into her tone, and Karee felt her tighten her grip around his ankle until it was painful. He felt a tremor of fear shoot through him. Suddenly, he didn't know what she was going to do. He'd been scared that she'd take him back home, but now he knew she might hurt him here in this hallway. She might kill him.

"It's not..." His voice felt tiny, fragile, but he bolstered it, forced himself to speak now, because he was afraid that he'd never get a chance to speak again. "It's not about you. I pray to Myria because I chose to. Because I admire Raka, and everybody at the temple."

"Raka? You know that disfigured cun—" A soft glow spread from Karee's center, all the way to the tips of his toes, and his ankle slipped from Purity's grasp like it was coated in lube. She leapt backwards, and immediately drew her sword, but it did little good against the gout of flame that engulfed her. It filled the hallway, blocking out everything. It seemed to Karee like he should have been incinerated by the holy fire, but the soft glow around him seemed to protect him. The flames ceased just as quickly as they began, and Karee saw Purity several feet away from him. She had a shield formed out of light attached to her arm, and her hair was slightly burnt where she hadn't gotten it in place quite fast enough.

"Care to say that to my face, Purity?" Raka stood behind him, a spear of fire held in her hand. Karee scrambled to his feet and ran over to her. She caught him with her free hand. "Are you alright, my little angel?" she whispered to him, whilst keeping her eyes on Purity. Karee nodded, and she gave him a reassuring squeeze.

"What have you done to my son you fucking cunt?" Purity hissed, glaring at the two of them.

"Karee came to us of his own accord. He's not enthralled, if I had done something like that, you'd be able to tell." Raka pointed her spear at Purity threateningly. "Now, get out of my Cathedral. I'd burn you to cinders if it wouldn't start a war that neither of us wants, but don't push me."

"I'd like to see you try it, you—" With a single, swift motion, Raka drew the spear back, and threw it. The weapon erupted into a torrent of flame that filled the hallway after it flew a short distance out of Raka's hand. It was the same thing she'd done earlier, but Karee hadn't seen much of it the first time, being in the middle of the attack. When it subsided, Purity was on one knee, the magical shield on her arm flickering weakly. Raka's spear returned to her, growing out of a small spark in her palm, and she levelled it at Purity once more.

"Would you like to see it again?" Raka asked.

Purity rose to her feet, doing her best to look calm and composed. "I'll go. I'll even pretend I never saw you here hiding beneath Blackstone like a rat, but not without my son."

"I know you're here very, very unofficially, Commander. You'll pretend you were never here because you're not supposed to be picking fights with Myria's faithful during your 'vacation.' And, you'll pretend you were never here, at home, without Karee." Raka's normally calm, sweet voice had a hint of disdain in it. His mom could do that to people.

Part of Karee expected Purity to look him in the eyes, and to try and plead with him to come with her of his own accord. She didn't, though, she just looked at him for a few moments, before her lip curled in disgust. She turned around, and left them in the dark hallway, and Karee felt himself start to shiver and cry. He cried out of sheer relief, out of a sense of his burden lifting.

"It's okay... I'm sorry I was so late." Raka whispered to him, kissing him on top of his head.

"How did you... how did you know?" Karee asked, burying his face in her robes.

"I can always sense when the gift of your heritage crosses into the Cathedral, remember? I thought nothing of it when you came in, but then I felt her come in right behind you, I knew something was wrong." The light of Raka's spear faded to nothing, and she guided him down the hallway with her arm around his shoulder.

"The fuck happened?" Karee had spent the entire trip following Raka and looking at his feet, and it was Nimira's voice that made him look up. They were right outside Raka's rooms, and she was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"We had an... uninvited guest. I asked her to leave. Karee is going to sleep it off in my room, forgive him for being absent from his duties for the day, will you?"

"Uninvited guest? Did one of those Lanyan cunts try to snatch him? Did you fucking kill them?" Nimira took a step forward aggressively towards the tall drow woman.

"Nimira." Raka spoke firmly to shut her down. "He's been through a lot. Give him some space. We'll talk later, you know I won't shut you out."

Nimira opened her mouth to talk, but then her eyes flickered towards him, and she winced a little. Instead, of objecting, she gently placed her hand on Karee's shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay, little guy," she said quietly.

Raka herded him to her bed, and sat him down on it. "You need to lie down for a little. Would you prefer to be alone or to have someone in the room?"

"Umm... someone, please?"

"I'll get Lan to stay with you. Try to get some rest, you're safe now." Raka leaned in and kissed him gently, and Karee felt a wave of anxiety pass through and out of him. He smiled up at her and nodded. He laid down on Raka's familiar bed, feeling its familiar softness, remembering all the time he'd spent here, including the dozens of times he'd had to change the sheets. If someone actually came in to stay with him, he never found out. Instead he drifted off into a light nap as the lingering effects of the chloroform made him drowsy in the absence of the terror and adrenaline.