And here begins the second part of the Underdark arc, which starts now, taking place about 2 months after the events in part 143.

Laska was swimming in a small subterranean pond. It was dark and the water was pitch black. She was somewhere in the Underdark, that much she knew, but it was a place she did not know, a time she did not know and how she got to be there she did not know. So, she kept swimming, enjoying the feel of the coldness of the water on her skin.

Suddenly, she felt a violent tug and then an even quicker release. For a moment, Laska thought she'd snagged her leg on a rock of a piece of rope lying underwater. She reached down to touch her foot, treading water with her other leg to keep her head above water. However, she could not find it, but when she reached higher on her leg, she was overcome with a sheer sense of disbelief, followed by nausea. Because instead of her knee, she had found a sharp, shattered piece of bone and tattered flesh and now knew that the warmth gushing through her fingers was her own blood being pumped into the cold water.

In an explosion of droplets, a distorted version of herself, thin, pale and dead, surfaced and sank her claws into her, tearing and rending the skin and flesh from her body. Laska tried to scream, but felt the water fill her lungs as she was being dragged under. The Slayer kept tearing her short claws into her like a madwoman as Laska struggled to escape, but it was to no avail. She felt her body dying as the creature dragged her down into the depths of the Abyss below... Down below, ever down below...

Laska drew in a sharp breath. She was once again in her new home in the Underdark in the deep of night. She wiped the sweat of her brow and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. It used to be that she didn't dream at all, but now that she was dreaming more regularly, she would rather go back to having no dreams at all, considering what happened to her in the nightmares. She'd been sliced, diced, eaten, torn apart, burned to death, hung, eviscerated and vivisected at the hands of her own undead form.

Next to her, Phaere was still sleeping peacefully. She lay under the covers on her stomach with her face crushed into the pillow. Her long white hair was disheveled. Laska reached over and ran her hand over Phaere's back for the moment. The Drow stirred in her sleep, but made no moves normally associated with waking up.

Deciding to let her sleep, Laska took a robe from the chair beside the bed and donned it before heading out to the balcony, thinking some cold night air would do her some good... and only ended up being dismayed because she lived above a lava-steam and the air outside was hotter than the air inside her house.

She sighed and leaned on the railing, hoping to forget the dream... and occassionally feeling if her leg was still in place, just to make sure. Finding it there, she resumed watching the darkened city below. It had been a full month since she had won the contest and settled into her new home. It had been two full months since the city had been closed off and the party had decided to lay low and bide their time. Laska, however, did not mind. She was enjoying her time with Phaere, mostly, and getting reacquainted with Imoen. Some of her bloodlust had been sated by the contest, and some was slowly fading away... However, most still remained.

Strangely enough, her thoughts were interrupted by a distant rumbling, coming from the west of the city. The sound was accompanied by a slight vibration in the rock, a tremor which seemed to ripple past her without making much of an impression on her. Laska snorted and decided to ignore it, being hardly impressed by it.

Obviously, Phaere thought differently. Laska heard a brief but sharp intake of breath from the bedroom, followed by the patter of bare feet running over the rock. Phaere, not having bothered to don a robe, ran onto the balcony and practically collided with the railing. She frantically started to overlook the city.

"What's up with you?" Laska asked.

"Didn't you feel that?! Didn't you hear that?!" Phaere spoke, barely controlling her panic.

"What's the matter?" Laska asked with a smile, but soon let her smile fade when she saw the fear in Phaere's eyes. She took the panicked nude Drow in an embrace in hopes of calming her down.

"The city is still intact, good," Phaere nodded, barely relieved. "But that, as of yet, doesn't mean anything," she added. "I must return to the Spire immediately."

"You can't been serious!" Laska snickered. "Over that little shock? I've heard scarier farts, Phaere... and I have Korgan in our group."

"THIS IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER!!" Phaere shouted. Laska started to think it wasn't, not to the Drow at least. Everywhere below and above her in the vertical city, lights were being lit and people were running out into the streets.

"No... breakfast in bed?" Laska turned a lopsided, hopeful smile at Phaere. "No playing with the strawberries? No sharing the topping?"

"How can you think of sex or food at a time like this?" Phaere said as she moved to walk back inside. Laska followed and watched as Phaere gathered her clothes, which were scattered all over the room. "I have to make sure if my sisters are alright, the Spire is alright and the city isn't threatened."

"It's just a little rumble," Laska muttered.

"How can you not be worried about this?" Phaere seemed genuinely baffled. "I've got no time to argue with you. We'll talk in the morning," Phaere said as she donned her last garment and sped out the door, leaving Laska to stare after her.

Then, Laska remembered Viconia had once told her about the language of the Rock, how the Drow were sensitive to movements in the earth. Of course, living in rock, around rock would have that effect on elves. The Drow were as sensitive to caverns as the surface elves were to forests. And judging from the shuffling in another room and Imoen's tired pleads for Viconia to go back to sleep, Phaere wasn't the only Drow to have noticed the tremors.

"What do you mean you cannot tell me?!" Phaere snarled as she had asked one of the male guard captains for a full report.

"I... I am sorry, Phaere," the guard gulped, obviously in a lot of discomfort. "The order came straight from the First Matron Mother Ardulace. None of us are allowed to speak about what has just occurred... not to anyone. On pain of Death by Vivisection."

"Vivisection?" Phaere blinked. "That is somewhat extreme... and tell-tale. She wouldn't make such threats if the tremor had meant nothing."

"I cannot say, mistress Phaere," the male said.

"So something has my mother really worried and it has to do with the tremor. Interesting," Phaere nodded. "You may leave, male."

Phaere leaned back in the chair in her office while the male hurried away. She had checked with her sisters first. Both were quite frightened, but otherwise fine, and there was no damage to the Spire or the city. Still, something had happened, something that frightened her mother into threatening the already demoralized soldiers fighting in the war and the guards protecting the city. She would have to ask Solaufein to snoop for her as quickly as possible.

A knock on the door broke her train of thought.

"Greetings heathen, betrayer of the sisterhood of Lolth," sounded the voice of Xorinn Despana.

"Greetings slave of dogma that will never amount to anything but being a bootlick with a shredded tongue," Phaere greeted her older sister with a smug grin.

Phaere could see Xorinn was already beginning to explode in rage... her older sister was so easy to manipulate. "Don't you have any spider asses to kiss?" Phaere grinned. "Or perhaps some holy scriptures to memorize? I remember your days at Arach-Tilith... always obeying every little rule on every little scroll you could find to the letter, even if they conflicted." Phaere chuckled inwardly as she remembered once forging a holy scripture and laying it on top of a pile Xorinn was studying... which ended up with Xorinn standing on one leg on top of a very narrow and rather high pole for three days.

"At least I believe in Lolth and her cause! Lolth be praised! Her words must be obeyed!"

"My dear sister," Phaere spat out those words. "Mother Lolth has given us a wonderful thing called a Brain. You use it... to think... and to think for your self!"

"Think for yourself like you do, you mean?" Xorinn huffed. "Such an empty life you lead, Phaere. My spirit revolves around my faith in Lolth. Yours only revolves around money and idle debauchery."

"Debauchery?!" Phaere chuckled. "You have orgies at that temple almost every day! Pot calling kettle black?"

"That's debauchery, not idle debauchery like your debauchery is," Xorinn countered.

"I see..." Phaere chuckled. "That makes sense," she rolled her eyes.

"Like I said, I have given myself to Lolth."

"And in the meantime, smarter priestesses than you are using your devotion to get you to do all the chores they don't want to do. Oh, such a devoted priestess you are... handling the removed organs from the sacrificial slabs. You've missed your calling, Xorinn. You could have started a butchery in the commercial district. With your talents, you would have made a fortune. If you'd still like to invest in a new career, I'd be happy to float you a loan. I'll even give you favorable interest rates because you're family."

"I don't have to listen to this!" Xorinn snapped. "Matron Mother wants to see you. Just go to the temple!"

"Yes," Phaere snorted. "I have some words to mince with my dear mother."

"Matron mother," Xorinn corrected.

"Whatever," Phaere said and stood up.

Phaere was lead into the temple flanked by two guards, through the high and narrow tunnels of the temple, until they arrived into Ardulace's private sanctum. There's the two guards bowed their heads and left.

Ever since Ardulace had become First Matron, she had left her quarters at House Despana and had taken up residence in the temple, as was custom in Ust Natha. The sanctum was small, yet adorned with obsidian carvings and statuettes of Lolth. It also contained a small altar, in front of which, Matron Ardulace kneeled in reverent prayer.

Recognizing that her mother was only halfway through a somewhat lengthy prayer, Phaere sighed and tapped her foot impatiently.

Finally, Ardulace finished and turned around, facing her daughter. It was obvious that they were mother and child, seeing the family resemblance was uncanny. They had the same cheekbones, the same striking manner, the same eyes... Both were females of power and influence. Yet between them were differences to great to be ever overcome.

"Thank you for coming," Ardulace told her daughter in an uncharacteristically docile manner.

"Thank you for not returning my calls," Phaere countered. "Would you mind telling me why you've closed off the city?! You're wringing our economy's neck!"

"I do not have to explain this to you," Ardulace glowered and narrowed her eyes. "It is none of your concern anyway."

"I see," Phaere nodded. "Well, I could make it my concern. I wonder how well House Despana will do when it's facing a trade embargo. Let's see how long your House lasts before the others throw themselves on you like hungry wolves."

"Fine," Ardulace nodded. "I have hundreds of hungry warriors and mercenaries... I'll be sure to tell them that they can find food and warm beds in the Spire... they just have to take it by force first."

Mother and daughter stared each other down for a few moments. Then...

"But let's not argue," Ardulace said. "I've brought you here to discuss an important matter."

"It's the war, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Cut to the chase, then," Phaere said. "How is the war going? Really going. Not the propaganda you and the priestesses spread around, but the real story!"

"The war is going badly, very badly," Ardulace sighed. "Those damn elves... Do you know what those evil bastards did? They blew themselves up!"

"Come again?" Phaere replied.

"My forces were poised and ready to strike," Ardulace turned around and leaned on the alter. "We'd just given our surface cousins a powerful blow. We cut off their supply-lines at the old temple, boxed in five battalions of their finest warriors and slaughtered them like fish in a barrel. With three strikes, we had taken back all the terrain and caverns we had lost, and even gained ground. Our forces were gathering for a massive strike to the surface, to burn Suldenesselar! And then... when our soldiers were in celebrating, getting warmed up... putting the heads of the elves on pikes and feeding their remains to the spiders... a small group of vile elven wizards revealed themselves at the edge of the cavern, used spells to blind most of our soldiers and, before we knew what was going on, they launched powerful spells of destructive energy, causing the entire cavern to collapse. On themselves, and on our soldiers."

"So that was the rumbling," Phaere sighed. "Incredible."

"Almost two thirds of all our forces, our warriors, our war-priests, our war-wizards were in that cavern when it collapsed. Only a handful survived," Ardulace sighed.

"What are your plans?"

"I've had the survivors and other battalions that were not yet in the cavern retreat entirely to the mantle-caves. We don't have enough warriors to hold any other terrain," Ardulace said. "The other noble houses never did believe in the war, but this news will make them howl for my blood. We're short of food, short of weapons, short of supplies. I've spent every single last gold in the Despana treasury, but I've not been able to pay my mercenaries for the last two months. I'll be forced to rely on the temple treasury next, if Lolth will allow it."

"Good gods," Phaere sighed and felt the need to sit down. "What kind of ill-gotten adventure have you lured this city into, mother?"

Ardulace ignored that. "Soldiers are deserting every day," Ardulace added.

"Who can blame them?" Phaere snorted. "So, what's the prognosis, mother?"

"Depending how fast the elves can clear the rocks, they could be at the gates in two weeks at the earliest... We could hold out for a little while, but when the gates fall, our vile surface cousins will be in our streets," Ardulace spat.

"Wonderful mother, wonderful," Phaere chuckled, but without any form of humor hidden beneath it. "Ust Natha has been a proud city, the oldest one in Drow history, standing the test of time for 18000 years. And now the proud First Matron Mother Ardulace destroys it in 8 months."

"Bite your tongue!" Ardulace snarled. "Realize that we both stand to lose everything if the elves storm our city. And the elves WILL come, Phaere."

"Are you really so certain?" Phaere said. "Perhaps they simply wish to ensure the safety of their city by setting up a defense buffer. I've heard stories from surfacers that are the complete opposite of what we teach our own people. Perhaps you are simply blinded by your own dogma."

"You trust the word of drunks, liars and blowhards over the Word of Lolth?" Ardulace replied. "Now who is the one being blinded, Phaere? Besides, are you really willing to take the risk of doing nothing?"

Phaere remained silent.

"We, at least, still have Lolth on our side in this war," Ardulace added.

"Gee, that's a help," Phaere snorted. "Try living in the real world for a change."

"Like I said, we need each other, because we both stand to lose everything," Ardulace said, ignoring Phaere's remark. "We worked well together on incidents in the past, Phaere. Should I mention Dipree's little problem? Her fascination with human males?"

"No kidding," Phaere said. "Almost all visiting human merchants ended up knowing what the top of her head looked like."

"Such an embarrassment, throwing herself at males like that," Ardulace shook her head. "Acting 'submissive'," she spat that last word. "I would have no half-Drow children in this family. How did you find that human with the disease anyway? Ah, never mind, I don't want to know. At least it scared her straight. Such a pity she fell down the stairs and broke her neck two years later."

"Xorinn had just waxed the stairs, hadn't she? To give it a good shine?"

"Xorinn," Ardulace snorted. "If only she set out to kill her older sister, but no, it was a simple, stupid accident that could have happened to anybody. If only Xorinn would have killed her, I would at least have one daughter to be proud of."

"Thanks, mother," Phaere glowered. "I noticed there was still no point to this conversation... or did you simply bring me here to tell me we're all doomed?"

"Not yet," Ardulace grinned. "There is still a chance... something so big it will us the war... but we have to move faster than planned now, and I need to gather several items for the ritual. I could simply command you to cooperate, but it would be best if you come to an agreement."

"Make a list of the items you need and I will use all my sources to procure them," Phaere said. "A freebie, this time, mother."

"I might also need several components that are in... dangerous areas. I might need help of your new... pet and her group."

"You will not send Laska to the front-lines!" Phaere snapped.

"No, no, no," Ardulace spoke. "She's far too valuable to serve as arrow-fodder."

"How dangerous will these... areas be?" Phaere asked.

"Do not worry, dear daughter," Ardulace chuckled as she fingered her robe. "You'll be able to greet her with open legs the moment she comes back safely."

"Mother," Phaere glowered.

"I'm not insipid, Phaere," Ardulace spoke. "I have sources too... Sources that see you spending a lot of time at her house... and that see her spending a lot of time at the upper floors of the spire. It takes no genius to figure out you are together. Planning on making her your consort? Your champion?"

"We have no formal arrangement," Phaere said. "And don't plan on getting any."

Ardulace nodded and walked back to the altar. "Well, that settles our business. I will have a list of the items we still need for the ritual brought to your office, and I will call you and this Laska to speak with me in a few days."

Phaere nodded and turned away, ready to leave.

"Phaere," Ardulace said with her back turned to her, making Phaere stop in her tracks, also not turning around. "If you would have stayed in the sisterhood, you would have been First Matron by now. Xorinn and Dipree would have been no match for your cunning. And, no doubt, I would have lied dead at your feet as well. What would you have done in my place?"

Phaere remained silent for a while, then relied : "I would have made Ust Natha into the wealthiest community there is, expanding trade and contacts among the Underdark. A shining beacon of economic power."

"No... you would do that now, because of what you know and have right now, and because you have rejected your faith." Ardulace said. "If you had stayed, you would have taken this chance to destroy the elves and do Lolth's work just like I did."

"I doubt it," Phaere said, still having her back turned to her mother. Then, she left, at a quicker pace than she did a few minutes ago.