Sterling marched down the stairway as if he owned it, silently daring anybody or anything to get in his way! As the Swordsman led his friends down the stairs, the Dark Elf heard Zakiyah rambling on almost incoherently.
"He's not dead....he can't die," she said weakly in a quavering voice. "And he won't rest until he...oh...gods...a Lorekeeper witnessed it....." Much as she hated Venger, and had often WANTED exactly what Sterling had done to happen to him, seeing it happen made it another matter entirely. Some irrational particle of her wondered if her centuries of wishing, and inadvertant prayers to whatever gods of vengeance would hear, somehow made her responsible as well. "He'll heel," she said. "And he won't forget...."
"He'll heal, if and only if, he makes it out of that room alive!" responded the Dark Elf flatly. "As far as I'm concerned, it's gut check time for Venger! Let's see if The Big, Bad Dark Lord of the Realm can suck it up and save himself! You're still with us, Tommy?!"
The Gamer just nodded, still in amazement at the spectacle he had just witnessed.
As Zakiyah questioned Sterling about why he and his friends had come after her, the Dark Elf answered, "It's the principle of the matter, Zak! It didn't sit well with us that Venger could just kidnap one of our friends and get away with it scot-free! There's a price you have to pay for doing something like that--Tuculcha paid it, and now it's Venger's turn! Besides, I never give up on my friends--even when I disagree with them!
As an afterthought, the Drow mentioned, "By the by, I have a little gift for you that a couple of mages and a familiar cooked up in their spare time. When we are safely away from this place, I'll give it to you!"
Once the adventurers reached the end of the stairs, the Drow noticed that Zakiyah had begun to zone out on him. Grabbing her by both of her shoulders, Sterling shook her back to reality, saying, "Zak! Don't you dare quit on me now, because I need you to find your book and your quill pen. Can you locate them? When we get out of here, I'm going to need you to draw me a portal back to the Swamp, but you can't do that without your items of power! Now where are they? Can you find them? Do you know?"
