Darkness Falls

Zorah awoke to the quiet whisper of snowfall.

She fluttered her fingers, feeling the dry, powdery chill.

Her head popped up out of the snow and she spied Gromm.

They were the only ones awake.

Zorah reached for a weapon but one by one, the others awoke and she decided to keep her question to herself.

For now.

She followed everyone off the roof and into the street.  Something was different.

A group of large, black beetles rushed them but before Zorah could even pull out a shuriken, Kirsi had blasted the bugs into individual molecules.

That's the second time today, thought Zorah.

"Pssst."

Zorah craned her neck to peer at a crack in the door of a nearby building.

"It isn't safe out there.  Come inside."

They were probably right.  And the voice sounded like it belonged to a small creature.  She saw doubt and distrust flicker on the others' faces.  Silvus stomped away, attempting to cover up his tracks.  He was unsuccessful.  The voice called them again and all of them, even Silvus, went inside.

They were in a hive of halflings.

Hive isn't the right word, thought Zorah.  Graveyard is more like it.

The one who'd spoken to them questioned them about their intentions -- it was dangerous to be outside after the sun went down.

With growing concern, the group plied the halfling with questions and discovered, to their horror, that not a few hours but several YEARS had passed since the Goblin-Orc attempted invasion.  The halfling, who had been surviving for the last few years, had not kept track of the passage of time, so it was possible they had been gone for almost one hundred years.

Zorah's first thought was, At least my husband's dead.

Relief washed over her.  Then doubt brushed away the relief and painted her into a dark corner.

The group began to speak of time-travel and the potential to go back.  The wizards who'd sent them into the future must have had a reason.  Was there something they were sent here to do?  Would they be able to find a way back?

What if I have to face him again?

The thought was unbearable.

Zorah kept silent, hoping that between the monsters outside and the arguments within, she could prevent her nightmares from preying on what was left of her sanity.

She rocked back and forth, back and forth on the floor, eyes shut.  She couldn't keep herself together much longer.

The fighting within the group was a distraction.  Silvus wanted to visit the remains of the Segrac.  Balthor would be long gone, wherever the dwarves had taken him.  Would the ruins of the Cellar still be there?  Death had received a vision from the Raven Queen.  Although she was no longer present in the city, she was still with him.  Or so he believed.  He wanted to visit the temple from the vision and gain some clues as to his deity's whereabouts.  Gromm was busy pointing out the stupidity of each plan, while Kirsi begged for them to wait just another few hours so that they wouldn't endanger the halflings who'd given them shelter.  The city had become a necropolis, a city of the dead.  Traversing the city at night was a death sentence.

Morning arrived some time later -- with ghoulish screams.  The monsters inhabiting the city were going their final rounds before retiring for the day.  Zorah sat, massaging her temples.

She heard a child speak with Kirsi about the legendary figures of the Goblin-Orc Invasion Attempt -- the league she, Silvus, Death, Kirsi, Evellyn and Gromm were part of.  They wouldn't be legendary without Ricin, and now that he had disappeared (or died), they didn't have a great chance of reaching that status again.

They said their farewells and Silvus finally decided to accompany Death to the mysterious temple.  They walked through the ruins of the once-beautiful city of Zarcharis-Taoul.  The wizards had ripped it apart after the invasion attempt.  It looked as if all natural disasters had gathered here and partied hard.  Wide trenches dug through the city, showing its undersides.  Ramshackle buildings were in the slow act of collapsing, and the inhabitants were now starving, frightened survivors.

Pellor and the Raven Queen had vanished, leaving little hope that the city would survive.  Several quarters were already overrun with the undead.

When they reached the temple, Evellyn realized it was the one Ricin had lived in as a child.  She shared information about what she'd uncovered the last time she'd been here.  Were they here to find out more about Ricin?

They tried stepping inside but a paralyzing fear pushed them back.  Zorah took a firm step within and gulped down her fear.  Something was in here.

She made her way carefully through the ruins.  Her heart hammered.  Someone peeked around a door and stared at her.  Zorah gasped and pointed to where it had been.  An investigation into the other room provided no information.  The person had vanished.

Zorah pulled on her Climbing Claws -- they made her feel a little safer.  She gripped a shuriken in one hand and almost threw it when a large crash sounded nearby.  They rushed to the scene but once again found no evidence of a presence.

"Why are you here?" asked a voice.

A spectral figure floated into view.  Zorah clapped her hand over her mouth to keep in a scream.

The figure taunted and teased them, answering some questions and ignoring others.  It batted them back and forth like a cat with a mouse, finally offering them the chance to visit the library deeper within the temple.  As long as they left the spectre alone.

"But let's level the playing field," it said, snapping Death's sceptre.  It had flung Silvus outside and crunched his bow for all of Silvus' smart-assed retorts, and then brought him back inside so it could gloat.  It took Kirsi's staff ("I like this one.  This one goes in my collection," it said, before it made the staff vanish) and when it turned to Zorah, she pulled out her shurikens.

She presented them in one hand, simply saying, "These are my favorite."

It was the truth.  Her weapon of choice allowed her to stay further away from her enemies.  Distance protected her.

"Let's have something a little more...meaningful."

The dam burst.

All the memories of her wretched, wretched husband and his insidious treatment of her flooded Zorah's mind as she howled in anguish.  She fell to the floor, head in her hands, screaming for help.  Nothing could protect her mind.

Zorah felt her lungs protesting.  She couldn't stop.  She kept screaming, screaming, screaming in agony, all the torturous little details growing larger inside her mind until her brain threatened to explode.

And all of a sudden, the pain ceased.  And Zorah's mind fell to pieces.

She got to her feet and swayed unsteadily.

The others glanced at her with concern but before anyone could reach out to her, they were all confronted by their own inner demons.  Silvus faced a maniacal version of himself.  Kirsi saw the group that had murdered her husband.  Zorah's brain focused on these events before registering that someone was standing in front of her.

"Zorah," said a smug voice.  She lifted her eyes to see a wicked grin slide onto the face of her husband.

"It has been too long," he purred.

She turned her head to see how the others were coping (a strange, distant feeling was creeping over her) and saw that she was alone.

Her body crumbled.  She fell in a heap.  All hope was extinguished.

He had finally found her.