Chapter Text
“Mistress, wake up! Shit.. my lady, wake up”.
Muted sounds of battle wormed their way into Miz’irae’s consciousness, the shaking on her shoulder grew more insistent as she shrugged off the last of the vestiges of her trance. Her personal guard, Fen, stepped back and glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t know how long we have before we are discovered”.
Chaos raged beyond her chamber windows, the scents of blood, sulphur and smoke seeped in through the narrow crack where the window lay open.
“Fen, what in the hells is going on?” she rose from the bed, rubbing her forehead. A throbbing pain pounded behind her eyes, each heartbeat pulsing at her temples. Fen pressed two shadowsteel blades into her hands, a stiletto and a dagger. “The House is under attack, we need to get you to safety.”
Miz’irae rose quickly, a sudden wooziness causing her head to swim. Something was wrong. She had skipped the evening meal and had spent the day training in the barracks, but this grogginess was far beyond simple exhaustion.
“Where is my mother, my sisters?” she scanned the room then the courtyard below, where carnage reigned.
“House Teken’dor.. “ Fen’s jaw tightened. “We were betrayed by some of the guards and at least one servant. Your wine..” Fen lifted the goblet from her bedside and sniffed. “There are traces of a knockout poison? It’s the only reason you could have tranced through this racket. Your sisters, they fell to the Silent Death during the evening rites. Moments later, the compound walls were breached. I haven’t seen your mother since just after dinner.”
The courtyard was littered with the corpses of fallen in colours from both houses. Nether Spiders, monstrous bats and shadow-wreathed ghouls tore through the ranks whilst spells and arrows rained in volleys. At the centre, the matriarch of House Teken’dor led the assault, her flame-strikes directed on the main battlegroup, obliterating friend and foe indiscriminately.
“Do any of my siblings live, Fen?” she asked as she rifled through a chest at the foot of the bed. He shook his head. Soot streaked his face, blood and ichor smeared and clung to his nearly black hair, “No, Mistress, I fear it’s just you. We need to leave, the house is all but overrun. Please… don’t let me fail in this too.”
A chorus of anguished cries rose from the courtyard. Miz’irae froze as the unconscious form of her mother, Melandre, was dragged by her hair into the fray and thrown before High Priestess Teken’dor. Her once beautiful face, deep purple skin now bruised and slack, a deep slash across her throat, the wound no longer bled.
Thaumaturgically amplified, the matriach’s voice boomed across the compound. “House Kalash’talgir is no more. These human-loving weaklings are unworthy even to be crushed beneath my merciful boot. Swear fealty, now.. or perish slowly at my whim or pleasure.”
Miz’irae steeled herself, wiping away a tear trailing down her cheek, and slung a small bag across her body. She retrieved her knives and nodded at Fen to take the lead.
“We can try for the tunnels, if we are lucky then maybe we can escape through there.”
Fen darted to the door, peered through the narrow crack and beckoned sharply. The corridor was clear for the moment. They sprinted for the lush tapestry at the far end, fingers finding the hidden catch behind it. The heavy door groaned and they scraped it open. Shouts grew louder, closer behind them; a scream cut abruptly short as they slipped inside the passageway beyond.
“It will hold for a while, even if the traitors tell them about it.” Fen muttered. He braced the door with an iron reinforced beam and reset the catch.
The passageway sloped steeply downward, no torches burned along the walls, the floor and walls rough-hewn stone that swallowed any light. Cool, damp air clung to Miz’irae’s skin, the musty scent of earth and stone filled her nose as the passage wound deeper beneath the compound. Ahead, the sound of dripping water echoed in the distance, the sound slow and steady in contrast to her racing heartbeat.
Stairs carved into rock dropped into the lower level. At the bottom, the tunnel levelled out, leading to an archway and small alcove set into the wall. Fen grabbed a second bag from the nook and they continued to flee the compound, the rough walls became wetter and more uneven further they ran.
At last, a reinforced door led to narrow fissure leading to a small cave. Beyond the cave, the forest gloomed, dark and dense, small vicious creatures skittered on the forest floor. The din of the battle faded replaced by the chittering, scratching and hissing of the unseen inhabitants looking for their next meal.
Resting briefly on a fallen log, Fen offered her the water flask from the second bag they had taken. Miz’irae drank her fill and handed it back.
“This is so screwed, there is no going back, I’m as good as dead -or worse- if I try. You could though… if you wanted to try for one of the other houses?”
Fen smiled sadly and shook his head. “There is no point, Miz. Everyone knows I belonged to you, they won’t trust or want a guard who failed to protect his charge. We should head away from the city until things settle, it’s not safe here either. True dark will be on us soon.”
Miz’irae ran her hands through her hair, white strands escaping her braid. “I think they wanted to capture me, why else would they knock me out rather than use lethal poison? I don’t want to imagine what kind of example they would have made of me. The attack… it was overwhelming. We were not prepared. We had grown complacent, believing the threat lay outside the city walls, not within. I don’t remember the Underdark but the rest of my family, they would have. This kind of thing happened often, did it not?”
Fen nodded grimly, “Commonplace amongst the higher noble houses. Less so in the trade cities but in major cities like Menzoberranzan? Yes. You and I could never have become friends there. Loyalty like ours.. trust like ours – was seen as a weakness.”
“I’m lucky to have you looking out for me, Fen, I hope you know how much I-“ Miz’irae froze. “Do you hear that? Movement in the trees. Over there.” She gestured toward the city. Dim silhouettes flickered between the trunks, swift, silent, too far beyond their darkvision to see clearly.
Fen pressed a finger to his lips, then signed for her to run eastward. He drew his weapons and slipped into cover behind a tree, ready to face whatever approached.