Much Later

	Cavria yawned and idly rolled her amulet across her hands.  Triboar was larger and more exciting than a small town, certainly, but the sheer chaos of the day had made the locals less than receptive.  Axio was awkwardly accepting what little praise they were getting, while the drow quietly shuffled out of sight to buy what they needed.  That left her and Suivi to watch the carts.

	The spy was remarkably upbeat.  Despite the battle, he looked almost cheerful.  “What’s got into you?” Cavria asked as he nodded along to distant music.

	He didn’t pretend he didn’t know what she meant.  “Oh, I’m just… I dunno, I’m feeling better.  I feel like I’m doing some good.”

	“Well, that’s… good,” she said lamely.  “Anything happen specifically?”

	“Nope.  I guess I just feel better,” he said.  He shrugged.  “You okay?”

	“Eh… that much killing, it makes the fiend instincts flare up,” Cavria muttered.  “But… I’ll be fine.  Thank you.”

	“Okay.”


	Linus finished toweling off in the tiny, shared men’s shower of the inn.  He quickly pulled his clean clothes on and walked up to his room.  He knew the others would be assembling for dinner, and he didn’t want to be with them.  Quite why he did not want to be with them, he didn’t know.

	He pulled his door shut and sighed at its interior.  “Hi, Kyria.”

	“Hi, yourself,” she said.  She was curled up on his bed in a bathrobe that was actually tied shut, for a change.  “Can I help?”

	He gritted his teeth.  “A bit presumptuous, isn’t that?”

	“Something’s clearly bothering you,” she said.  She sat up and pulled the towel off her now-dried hair.  “We’re probably never going to see each other again.  I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

	He sighed explosively and threw his tunic and breeches into the corner over the back of a chair.  He flopped down on the bed and spread his arms, staring up at the ceiling.  “Would you believe me if I said I don’t know?”

	“Yes.”

	“I’ve killed people, I’ve taken up causes,” he grunted.  “I’ve never felt so shitty.”

	She lay down beside his head and gently stroked his brow.  “I’ve seen this before,” she said.  “Your soul is troubled because you keep seeing this.”

	“I do!” he half-shouted.  He ground his hands into his eyes.  “There’s just no end to it!  They may as well all have the same face!”

	She silently caressed his forehead as he fought off further rage.  “It’s just not fair.  Why do we have to work so much harder than the bad guys?”

	“We don’t,” she said, surprising him.  “The cults that attacked the north, you mean?”

	“Yeah.”

	“They had to spend decades building their networks.  A party of nine people destroyed them all in a year,” she reminded him.  She leaned down and kissed his brow as she gently rested her hands on his temples.  “It’s horrible, but things could be so, so much worse.  You know?”  She kissed him again.  “So much.  And every time the people who want us all to suffer climb back up, we push them back down.”

	Linus closed his eyes.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I guess.”  He let her caress him for a while longer, feeling his stress fade.  “Sorry I yelled,” he eventually mumbled.

	“You didn’t.”  Kyria kissed him upside down, and he felt his manhood stir under his smallclothes.  She, of course, noticed.  “So.  How would you like to bid me farewell?”

	He chuckled, eyes still shut.  “We’ll improvise.”

	She nodded primly and started crawling down over him.  “Good enough for me.”  He opened his eyes to enjoy the view and grinned despite himself as she came to a halt with her knees on either side of his chest.  “No reason goodbye can’t be really, really fun.”


	As night fell to total darkness, Linus rested on the bed with Kyria snuggled up up in his arms, as if he was shielding her.  She listened to him speak softly.  “Thanks, Kyria,” he said softly.  He leaned down and kissed one slender ear.  “You really opened my eyes on this trip.”

	She smiled and flicked her ear away from his lips.  “I’m glad.  I had as much fun as you did.”

	“I really hope so,” he said fervently.  “At least after dark.”

	Kyria giggled tiredly.  “So… do you know what you’re going to do next?” she asked him.

	“Patrol the road between Conyberry and Neverwinter, and keep it safe.  It’s not interesting work, but it is important.  It’ll be quieter, at least,” he said hopefully.

	She shifted in his arms a bit, and he released her.  She settled onto her back and propped her head up with a pillow.  “So, I have to ask.  Do you think you’ll ever settle down with some lucky girl?”

	“Gods, I hope so,” Linus said immediately.  She blinked in surprise.  “I like adventuring, but it gets so tiring.  I want to just… I dunno.  Find some little town somewhere, or even move back to Waterdeep.  I want to be a dad and a husband, settle down like my mentor did.  Pop out some kids, train some people to fight… someday, I want to say ‘I’m done adventuring.”’

	“Huh.”  She looked up at the ceiling.  “I don’t think I’ll ever give it up.  I like travel and exploring too much.  Plus, sometimes, there’s guys or gals like you to sweeten the way.”

	He half-smiled, and traced a little pattern over her heart.  “I wish I could see you again someday.”

	“Maybe we will.  Until then, though, don’t you hold a candle for me, alright?” she instructed him.  “This was fun, but I don’t want you to be lonely.”

	“Yeah.  Yeah, that’s for the best.”  Linus leaned over and kissed her, the way she had taught him to.  “But it was exciting, wasn’t it?”

	She giggled.  “Yeah.”  She kissed him back.  “Good night, Linus.”


New Pathways


	Axio waved overhead to the throngs that lined the north gate of Triboar.  They waved back, cheering as the party took their leave.

	“This is a refreshing change,” Luanea remarked.  “People don’t cheer us much when we leave.”

	Verashon laughed.  Doshellas was already curled up on the bench opposite them, catnapping.

	Kyria flicked the reins, and the convoy took off once more.  This time, they weren’t alone.  Over two dozen horses, oxen, and mules pulled carts and wagons behind them, bound for the small city of Mirabar.

	Cavria felt the light on her skin and smiled to herself.  Triboar wasn’t a bad town, but it had been a charnel house when they had arrived.  It felt good to put it behind them.

	With so many hands and beasts to move them, the convoy had no trouble advancing along the road to the north.  The road wasn’t paved, but it was a road, and the wagons bumped and rolled their way through the otherwise trackless wilderness of the Dessarin Valley’s north end.  Most of the party had never been that far north before, and even the older Drow found themselves looking out the windows, captivated by the endless forests and plains, the sights of the far-off mountains, and the rolling, crystal-clear rivers.

	Axio, less impressed by the sights, would sometimes fly ahead during rests, checking the roads.  Once or twice, he came back to report that bandits or someone like that had been camping on the roadsides, leaving their messes and warning signs behind, but they never challenged the golden angel.  That was fine with him; he didn’t mind using his appearance to prevent killing.  He had had entirely enough of that for one mission.

	For once, Cavria’s mind wasn’t troubled by nightmares when she slept.  Exactly why, she wasn’t sure, but it seemed to make no difference whether she had cast her magic on herself or not.  She usually did so, for safety if nothing else, rest came easy, and she was slow to question it.

	She had taken to reading before bed, too, usually Luanea’s books.  When the fires died down, though, she would tuck the books away and pull out the list of names, instead.  She would hold the paper aloft and let the light of the moon shine through, illuminating the names and places.


Isra Cormind.  Luskan.
Doella the Red.  Halruaa.
Lick.  Winterfathom.
Soo-Young.  Liue’s Port City.

	One night, as she stared at the names, she felt Kyria approach.  She stayed still, reading the list she had hand-copied from the original in her home in Waterdeep.

	Kyria walked up beside her and sat down.  “Hi.”

	“Hi.”  Cavria’s eyes traveled down the list, cursing the number of question marks.  There were so many.  Here was one named Dreena, but where did she live?  Here was one with no known name who dwelt in a little village in Malatra, but how could anybody find her?

	Kyria looked at the paper.  “What have you got there?” she asked.

	Cavria folded up the paper and put it away.  “Well, remember how my request to Lady Ryaire was to know the names and locations of my sisters of the clade?”

	Kyria nodded.  “Well, this is a copy of the list her Ladyship gave me,” Cavria said.  “All thirty-nine unaccounted-for High Succubus Prototypes.  Some are in the Hells, still, or went back after a mission or something, and at least one is banished from the Prime for a hundred years, but the others are still out there.”  She stared up at the beautiful trail of light that chased the moon like teardrops.  “Still hurting people, to salve the hurt inside.  Enjoying it.”

	Kyria looked down at her.  “Are there any in Mirabar?”

	“Not that her Ladyship knew, but it’s not impossible.  About fifteen don’t have known locations.”  Cavria blew out a breath and sat up.  “They’re in deep cover.  We have the same abilities as normal Succubae, after all.  Lurk near the beds of sleeping people, tempt them to sin and blame others for it through dreams.  We’re just equipped for battle, too.”

	“When do you plan to go after them?” Kyria asked.

	Cavria tsked.  “When I asked for the list… I don’t know,” she said.  “I guess I hoped I would know of a way to track them down and kill them all, but it’s so damn hard to banish a devil forever, I don’t think I can do it.  I think the best I can hope for is gaining access to a Wish spell or a Miracle spell or something like that.  Something that can let me trap them forever, instead of circling the planet, beating them all one after another.”

	“You said one was banished for a hundred years.”

	“Yeah.  Li.  She popped up in Shao,” Cavria said.  “Big mistake.  There are wards and magic there that don’t get used much anywhere else.  She showed up on somebody’s defenses, and a monk banished her.”