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Kerem neatly slices through the goblin's throat, shakes the blade and keeps walking, grabbing Chim's arm.
Holmes: The goblin, his God's power still coursing through him, seems to glow from the cut.
Egani: As Egani powers up the hastily prepared ritual a black light shines out from his equipment and the goblin's very essence. It grows to almost painfully bright and then a bolt of visible whiteness hurls from the goblin to Tez' baby as the black light concentrates in one of Egani's crystaline phials.
Egani: Some watchers might have seen a face in the white transference.
Alquas opens his eyes. "Muhrr..." He blinks, sleepily.
Egani: Wisps of silver thread leave the place where the goblin died, departing into the spirit world to do whatever they do.
Alquas puts a goblin arm to his goblin face. "Mmph...not a dream, then."
Egani is satisfied at the newly filled black container. Capturing the essence of a priest so fully is a rare accomplishment and will go far toward his research. Seeing the silver threads of the departing spirit reminds him that he really needs to learn more about that.
Alquas looks around him blearily. "Oh. Violence."
Kerem: "What's the deal with the talking goblin? Should we kill him too?"
Egani: "Welcome back!" Egani is glad to see an awake patient.
Tez jerks suddenly away from her deathgrip on Chimrea's throat, pushing her aside as she screams, a thoroughly inhuman noise. She rips her sword from its sheath as she turns to Egani, "HOW DARE YOU DESECRATE THE FLESH OF AKALATAN!" Her eyes have lost their last hint of sanity, and she bares her teeth in a hellish grimace, the glow of the lava mingling with sullen red blood.
Alquas: "Ah! So Tez is still crazy and Kerem is still annoying. Truly, it's as if I never slept."
Alquas: "Does anyone have some water?"
Chimrea puts a hand to her throat with a dazedly relieved look, staggering in the direction Kerem pulls her and saying "No, that's Alquas..." before she's covered by Tez's scream.
Kerem: "Okay, he knows my name. We should definitely kill him, right?"
Kerem: "Alquas?"
Kerem: "Tez?"
Egani: "Uh...Tez? I'm Egani...father of Agnes...remember? You need to believe that I haven't desecrated your baby's flesh. I wouldn't do that...like that...I wouldn't do that to _you_. I know how my daughter feels about you...do you remember Agnes? I can explain how I helped...uh, put the sword down..."
Chimrea keeps backing away from Tez, toward Salamander.
Tez 's only answer is another howl.
Alquas: Alquas climbs to his feet to also back away from Tez. He gets close to Chimrea, and therfore, also, unfortunately close to Kerem.
Alquas: "Chimrea... what's going on?"
Kerem: "Shut up, Alquas."
Kerem: "Chim, what's going on?"
Alquas: "You're right, Kerem, that is a much more pertinent question."
Kerem: "Should we stop her?"
Alquas: "Can we?"
Chimrea: "How?" Chimrea chooses to answer only the last question, having nothing for the rest.
Egani draws a sword to deflect Tez' and attempts to strike her with a paralytic punch.
Kerem: "Uh-oh."
Kerem: "Let's...get to Salamander. Now."
Kerem turns, and runs.
Chimrea opens her mouth to say something, then shuts it and runs after Kerem.
Alquas shrugs and follows them.
Tez leaps forward, suddenly, and her sword barely can be seen as it flickers through the air, carving the heart of Akalatan over Egani's in several bloody strokes, knocking his sword aside as if it were paper. She pauses for a second, to utter a prayer to Akalatan, before the final blow lands, cleaving his chest in half, and ripping out his heart.
Alquas: "Chimrea... is Tez going to come for us?"
Chimrea: "Less talking, more running."
Alquas: "But if she is, can we outrun her?"
Kerem: "That depends on how much talking we do as compared to how much running we do."
Tez stands over Egani's body, and raises the still-beating heart up towards the sky, chanting in a twisted tongue, and letting the blood drip into her mouth
Chimrea casts a glance over her shoulder, gives Kerem an incredulous look as if to say 'you slept with HER', but doesn't waste breath talking more.
Alquas: In short order their sprinting carries them into the domain of the Salamander.
Chimrea: Trusting Kerem and Alquas to tell her if death approaches from behind, Chimrea approaches the great spirit and stands at the limit of his intolerable heat. "I've kept my promise," she says. "I brought a key that can free you."
Holmes: The huge lizard rears back, it's humanoid forelimbs carrying his titanic spear, and the heat from him nigh unbearable.
Kerem: "Is it hot in here, or is it just me?"
Holmes: It regards all of them, taking in Chimrea's words. But it spends an awfully long time staring at Alquas-goblin.
Kerem sighs at the lack of reaction, and produces his key. "Okay. So. Tell me what hurts."
Alquas regards the spirit levelly. "My name is Alquas, spirit of flame." He bows.
Chimrea: "In return we ask passage out of the Ash Lairs, and aid against our common enemy the High King."
Holmes: The Salamander does something that looks mostly likely like it's frowning in contemplation.
Chimrea: "Glare once for yes, twice for no," she mutters under her breath.
Holmes: It turns to Kerem, and tries to speak to him.
Holmes: Chimrea can see that the Salamander wants to understand what the key can do.
Chimrea: "It wants to know what you're going to do," she tells Kerem. To the Salamander, she says, "It is a talisman for unbinding the imprisoned," with a glance back at Kerem to make sure she's not missing anything big.
Holmes: Meanwhile the titanic lizard bends down to pick up a glob of lava from the nearest pool. It starts molding it in its hands, setting aside the spear on a rock momentarily.
Kerem: "I'm going to make shit up as I go along, but you don't have to tell it that."
Kerem: "I need to know more about the binding."
Chimrea: Frowning in concentration as she goes from the spirit communication to normal words and back, Chimrea conveys the second half of Kerem's message to Salamander.
Holmes: The elemental reptile finishes whatever he was doing, and reaches out with the glob of glowing melted rock, apparently to Alquas.
Holmes: It looks as though there's some sort of fire around the rock that's containing the lava now...
Holmes: Though it's infernally hot even several feet away from Alquas.
Kerem: "Huh."
Kerem: "Okay."
Tez: Somewhere in the distance, a red light pulses.
Kerem: "Well, first off, you need to return to Chimrea what you've taken from her. I free slaves, not slavers."
Alquas eyes the salamander a moment. "Spirit of flame, I thank you. Let there be no distrust or hesitation." He reaches out with his one good arms to take the infernally hot glob. "I give myself to the fire."
Chimrea grimaces a bit and translates that Kerem needs to see the piece of Chimrea's spirit returned before he can use the key.
Kerem: "Alquas, what the hell are you doing?"
Holmes: Chimrea can tell that the salamander is not opposed to bestowing back on her what is hers, if the deal is made.
Kerem: "I thought I was pretty clear that that was actually a PREREQUISITE."
Chimrea becomes more insistent--the spirit piece was to be a surety that she would return, not a hostage for subsequent bargaining.
Alquas takes the rock gingerly, mysteriously without being burnt at all. He bows, again, though the heat of the thing makes him sweat.
Kerem shrugs. "If he's not willing to bargain in good faith, tell him to get back to me." He turns around and starts walking back towards Tez, giving Chim a vaguely reassuring look as he does so.
Holmes: The salamander bows just slightly, almost imperceptibly, and swirling images, hard to make out, come drifting down from him, and settle inside of Chimrea's frame.
Kerem glances back over his shoulder, nods, and walks back, sighing almost imperceptibly as he does so.
Chimrea stands on tiptoe, face turned up and eyes closed, as the missing slivers settle back into her. She casts a quick glance back at Kerem, then looks back up at the Salamander.
Kerem: "Okay."
Kerem: "Let's make a deal."
Alquas stares reverently at the glob of flame cupped in his hands. "Fire should be free."
Kerem: "You've already agreed to cloud the High King's path, in return for Chimrea bringing me here."
Kerem: "Now we need to talk about my price."
Kerem: "Tell me about Sarnak."
Holmes: The Salamander cagily relays that, in Sarnak, women rule, and the men are slaves all.
Chimrea rolls her eyes as she translates that part, wondering if there's any chance of arranging a Sarnak/Vajaar swap.
Alquas remains respectfully silent at the description of the gynocracy.
Kerem: "Okay."
Kerem: "Here's the problem. I cannot free you if doing so will bring slavery to untold hundreds of people."
Kerem: "In exchange for your freedom, and as part and parcel of it, you must swear to free all the slaves of Sarnak."
Holmes: Speaking through Chimrea, it promises that it will slay the women of Sarnak, freeing the men by default.
Kerem: "Uh."
Kerem: "I'm not sure we're communicating."
Kerem: "I need you to do this without slaughtering anybody. Well, maybe not without slaughtering ANYBODY. But hold it to an even half dozen."
Holmes: The Salamander seems to dislike the idea of not taking revenge on his captors.
Kerem: "Take revenge on the god that betrayed you. That's fine. Just leave the humans alone."
Holmes: The Salamander takes a while, but finally seems to agree to this.
Holmes: But he still seems to have some reservations.
Alquas busies himsel,f while the negotiation becomes protracted, making a circle. He does this by dragging a small trench through the dirt, and then diverting a small amount of magma flow into the trench.
Kerem: "Alquas."
Kerem takes a break.
Kerem: "Go get Tez."
Alquas: At the centre, he places his new fiery rock.
Alquas pauses in his movements.
Alquas: "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you, Kerem." he says, with exaggreated weary politeness. "It SOUNDED like you said "Alquas, go head into certain death."
Kerem: "Aren't you supposed to be omnipotent now or some crap?"
Kerem: "Can't you DO anything with your cosmic powers?"
Kerem: "Go get TEZ!"
Kerem: "All you have to do is RUN FASTER than she does."
Kerem: "Oh, Salamander."
Kerem: "The god who betrayed you...who is it?"
Alquas: "Kerem, I'm trapped in the body of a crippled female goblin, seperated from all of my materials. Frankly I'm suprised I'm even standing. Omnipotent I am not. Sadly."
Chimrea: "Oh great suffering spirits," Chimrea says. She pauses translation, picks up a rock, and throws it in Tez's direction.
Holmes: The Salamander indicates to Chimrea that the goddess in question is an ancient Sarnaki diety, who embodies female supremacy.
Kerem: "Great! That's not one of the gods I happen to serve."
Holmes: Cassio goes to get Tez.
Kerem: "Chim, do you still have that knife I gave you?"
Chimrea: After a moment's patting around, she produces it.
Kerem: "Okay."
Kerem: "Hide it again."
Tez follows Cassio back, looking somewhat bemused and wary, covered in blood, and carrying the dead baby in one arm, and her sword in the other, though it is pointing at the floor
Alquas: Sotto voce: "Z'tarr be praised, couldn't we have left her?"
Kerem: "Tez."
Kerem smiles, with some effort.
Kerem: "I need your help."
Alquas: Alquas starts prepping his circle hurriedly in case a quick getaway becomes necessary.
Chimrea holds her arms folded over the knife, tucked against her stomach, and tries to look like she's concentrating on Salamander.
Tez: "Kerem." Her voice is low and tinged with power.
Kerem: "How are you feeling?"
Tez just looks at him skeptically. There really isn't an answer for that. "What do you want?"
Kerem: "I don't want anything, Tez."
Kerem: "I just wanted to talk to you."
Kerem takes a step towards her.
Alquas casts nervous eyes over at Tez, scrawling symbols in the dirt badly, and wishing he had any of his chemicals left. They're all back with Egani, of course...
Tez twitches.
Kerem: "...I'm sorry."
Tez: "That is not enough."
Chimrea looks back, unease flashing over her face.
Kerem: "Enough for what?"
Tez: "Enough to pay for what has been taken from me."
Alquas looks desperately at Chimrea.
Kerem: "Tez, I can't give you what you've lost. I never could."
Kerem laughs a little. "Things really didn't...work out the way we hoped, did they?"
Tez also looks at Chimrea, but with no desperation. Only a cold promise in her eyes. "Then what good are you?"
Kerem: "I love you."
Kerem: "I'll always love you, and I'll stand by you, and do what I can to protect you."
Tez: "Don't lie to me." She turns back to Kerem.
Kerem: "That's all I can promise."
Kerem: "I'm NOT LYING!"
Tez snarls. "You do not love me. You fear me. And you should."
Kerem: "I've NEVER lied to you."
Kerem: "I can do BOTH."
Kerem: "Would you really kill me, Tez?"
Kerem: "I'm the only person who hasn't betrayed you."
Tez: "You and Chimrea are in league. I saw you."
Kerem: "I didn't know what she was planning."
Kerem: "I would never have helped her if I did."
Tez: "You helped her turn Akalatan away. You stood with her!"
Kerem: "That's because he was going to KILL me."
Kerem: "In the final analysis, I like being alive."
Tez: "Then leave."
Kerem: "He would have killed you too. You let his child be taken from him. Do you think he was going to forgive you?"
Kerem: "I was protecting you."
Holmes: The Salmander gets a rather disturbing look on it's face. It doesn't like not being the center of attention.
Tez: "I don't need you, or your protection." She takes a step forward. "I failed him, and now I will pay him back in blood."
Kerem: "Then take it."
Kerem takes his knife out and throws it on the ground in front of Tez.
Kerem gets on one knee.
Kerem does so, incidentally, so that Tez is between him and Chim, with her back towards Chimrea.
Kerem: "I love you, Tez. My life is yours...and so is my blood, if you desire it."
Tez steps forward and lays the edge of her blade at his throat, pressing into the skin just enough to draw a thin line of blood. "Beg Him for forgiveness, and I will make it quick."
Kerem takes a deep breath, his eyes urgently seeking Chimrea's with a desperate message.
Chimrea meets his eyes over Tez's shoulder, hers bugging out in a 'what are you DOING' look.
Kerem does his level best to communicate "What the fuck do you think I'm doing, what are YOU doing, you IDIOT" with his eyes. It's not a complete success.
Tez lifts the sword away slightly, the part of her that still loves him clawing to get out, and she puts her hand to her head.
Kerem: "Tez?"
Tez: "Get... out of here," she hisses.
Kerem: "I can't."
Kerem: "I have to help you."
Kerem: "I promised."
Tez: "No! I don't need your help!"
Chimrea: Behind Tez, Chimrea reaches forward to grasp her sword arm. "Don't hurt him." Her other hand grips the knife, holding it behind her arm; she has no idea what she's going to do with it.
Kerem: "I need to help you! I can't look at you like this. I can't stand to look into your eyes and remember when we made love. You were so beautiful, and you needed me, and I failed you."
Kerem: "I won't let that happen again."
Tez is about to answer Kerem when Chimrea's hand touches her skin, and she tenses, slowly looking backwards at Chimrea.
Kerem silently pulls his other knife from his boot and slides it into Tez.
Tez gasps, and her arm flies out, backhanding him away from her, across the room. "You..!" A look of betrayal fills her eyes as she staggers back, clutching the knife through her heart.
Alquas: Using his hastily scrawled ritual space, Alquas manages to lend his focus to the salamander's molten rock. He picks it up again, and mutters "Fire is life and entropy, chaos and renewal. It is the change in all things. here in this time and place, I give myself to fire, that I may burn those who oppose me."
Kerem lifts himself on one hand, rubbing the blood from his lip, and yells, "In the name of A'taal, and for a bargain with the Salamander, I spill this blood. Let it be made free!"
Chimrea stands frozen, her hand still outstretched, for a moment until Tez staggers back into her. Mechanically she lifts her hands to catch the injured woman, her own knife clattering to the ground.
Chimrea: "...Tez?" she says in a small voice, then her head snaps around at Kerem's shout.
Holmes: The Salamander seems impressed by this display. There's a sudden ethereal snapping sound that reverberates several times across the cavern.
Tez sags into Chimrea's arms, blood trickling from her mouth and pumping from around the knife.
Holmes: The Salamander looks up in surprise. And then a malicious grin comes over it's face
Kerem hauls himself painfully up and walks over to Tez, but can't think of anything to say.

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