itself up against the barrier that filled the arch, attemptingand failingto force its way out.
Cautiously, Cavatina touched the golden barrier. It blocked her, just as the green glow had. She glanced up and down the mining tunnel, wondering which way to go next. She spotted scuffs in the dust on the floorsomeone had crawled away from the staircaseand decided to follow them. She walked along, in solid stone from the waist down but with her head and shoulders inside the tunnel, trusting to Eilistraee to guide her steps.
A short time later, she spotted a second dwarf-sized arch, this one plugged with stone, just like those in the Hall of Empty Arches. Two drow sat next to it, their backs against the wall. Cavatina moved closer, trying to see who they were. She didn’t recognize the male, who turned out to have a horribly scarred face and ruined eyes, but she recognized Leliana at once. The Protector was naked from the waist up. Her chain mail tunic and a warped and blackened sword lay on the floor next to her.
Another puzzle piece from Meryl’s garbled story dropped into place. This was where Leliana had disappeared to. Whatever she’d been doing, she must have hoped to return through that portal to the Hall of Empty Archesonly to find that it wasn’t active.
Leliana looked strained and exhausted. As Cavatina watched, she made the sign of Eilistraee’s moon and prayed. “Aid me, Lady, in my dance. I’ve done battle in your name; the moonlight within me has waned. Turn your face to me, and fill me with your light that I might return safely to my place of sanctuary.”
Cavatina touched her on the shoulder. “Leliana? Can you hear me?”
Leliana paid her no heed. The male, however, turned his head. One hand groped blindly for Leliana and bumped against her arm. His fingers moved swiftly. Lady. I sense something. A creature draws near.
Cavatina blinked in surprise. “Can you hear me?” she asked. If he could, perhaps she could use him to alert the battle-mistress to the planar breach. But the male didn’t respond to Cavatina’s touch on his shoulder. There! he signed, pointing with his other hand.
Not at Cavatina, but at something behind her.
She turned.
“What is it?” Leliana whispered to the male. “I can’t see anything.”
Cavatina could, however. An ooze was flowing out of the wall, not half a dozen paces behind her. It quivered a moment, bulging first this way, then that. Then it moved toward the spot where Leliana and the male sat. Part of its body remained inside the wall; it was moving through solid stone!
It was ethereal. Just like Cavatina.
She’d heard of such creatures. Able to shift between physiŹcal and ethereal form at will, they were deadly opponents. Unless Leliana and her companion moved away from this spotquicklythe ooze would engulf them. It would slither over them, resume its material form, and consume them, unless Cavatina stopped it.
She smiled. The ooze might just be her passage out of here.
She stepped into its path, sang a hymn that would shield her from its acid, and kneeled, her sword tucked tight against her body. She cringed as the creature touched her shoulder, dribbling acid onto her, but she held fast. The ooze recoiled, then suddenly bulged forward, engulfing her.
And squeezed.
The pain was excruciating. Pressure drove the air from Cavatina’s lungs. Tendrils of ooze forced their way into her ears, pressing against her eardrums until they rang in agony. Still more tendrils slid into her nostrils, plugging them.
Eilistraee, she silently cried. Strengthen me. Lend your might to my sword arm.
She thrust her weapon away from her, driving it into the ooze. Then she twisted in a kneeling pirouette, wrenching her weapon around with her. The singing sword pealed in muffled joy as its blade bisected the ooze from within.
The ooze shrank away in alarm. Cavatina followed, staying within its flesh, and felt a sudden lurch as the creature entered the material plane. At the last moment, she remembered to duck. Even so, her head scraped the ceiling of the mine tunnel.
She’d done it! Passed back into the Prime Material Plane in the belly of the ooze.
Now she needed to carve her way out of it, before it squeezed the life out of her.
Through a gelatinous blanket of flesh, she saw Leliana rise to her knees and grasp her sword, an alarmed look on her face. “Another ooze!” the Protector shoutedher voice muffled to Cavatina’s ears. Then Leliana sang. Her hymn smashed into the ooze,