#i spent WAY too long getting the images for this and photoshopping them XD

[blackjackkent]

All right - resuming Rakha's playthrough, but kicking it off with a non-Rakha drabble this time. Because I've realized that there's one distinct benefit of the fact that Rakha is allying with the Emperor - it allows me to give a very specific and legitimate reason why Lae'zel might let her guard down enough to be captured by Orin. >:)

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Lae'zel growls, pressing the edge of her blade fiercely into the surface of the whetstone. Restless agitation fills her, frustration and - yes, anger too, much as she hates to admit it. The party's encounter with Raphael in Sharess's Caress plays over and over in her mind. 

The devil offered them a way forward, a path to rescuing Prince Orpheus - the Orphic Hammer. In trade, he asks for the Crown of Karsus, the device that keeps the ghaik elder brain in check. A reasonable trade, Lae'zel thinks… but Rakha rejected it.

The anger flares in her abruptly. How dare she? Rakha knows how important Orpheus is to her - to all of the githyanki people! And yet she rejected this path forward, turned away from Raphael and all that he offered. 

After all I have done for her! Lae'zel seethes, her young mind afire with the unfairness of it. Has she not stood watch at Rakha's bedside in the darkest hours of the night? Bared her sword on Rakha's behalf against a thousand enemies? Loved Rakha without reward or recompense in spite of the beast that lives in her? 

And in return, she is tossed aside while Rakha's affections stay with Wyll, and Minthara, and the cursed ghaik that lives within the Astral Prism.

It isn't fair. And it is not right. And there is no other choice - she will do what must be done herself, if Rakha will not.

No one else in camp is watching. Most are already asleep for the night. Rakha is, as always, consumed with her own torments. There will not be a better time, and the decision is made; she cannot allow herself to waste time agonizing over it.

She clips the sword to her back, hefts her pack over one shoulder, slips out the edge of the camp through the rotted buildings beyond. She does not know where she will go, how she will begin to find the House of Hope on her own - but honor demands that she must try, no matter how much it rips out her heart to leave Rakha's company.

A voice greets her out of the dark.

"Lae'zel of K'liir. T'lak'ma Ghir - my sister."

Lae'zel's eyes widen. "Jhe'stil Kithrak," she says respectfully. "I did not know you had come--"

"Quickly, child," he says, ignoring her words completely. "There is no time. We must find the House, we must seek the Hammer, for certainly your companion will not."

"Yes. Yes!" Relief floods Lae'zel, that she will not face this task alone after all. "I am at your service. Say where my blade will strike."

"Come--" he repeats urgently. With a gesture he draws her forward, into the shadows, out of view of the camp. "Come away... and the wheels shall be put into motion."

Something in his voice shifts as he speaks the final words. As she turns to move past him, to fall into step, his hand closes on her shoulder, and his grip is like sudden iron. She grunts involuntarily with pain. "What--"

"Good. Good. Such easy prey in the end," he murmurs - and as he speaks now, his voice shifts upward in pitch, twisting, turning, and she can feel the way his fingers lengthen against her back.

She realizes what is happening only a half-second too late; she starts to turn and then a blow catches her at the base of her neck and her whole body goes numb. Slowly, majestically, like a great tree felled from its base, she pitches over and lands facedown in the dew-damp grass.

She hears Orin's maniacal giggle from somewhere above her, and the trotting footsteps of two or three others circling around her. More long-fingered hands grasp at her shoulders and begin to drag her through the mud like a sack of meat.

"Such a tender morsel," Orin purrs from behind her. "Its broken heart blinded it... but now it shall see, and see, and scream, and SCREAM... yes, we shall play an excellent game, little flesh-bit, but all in good time. First, I have need of your face..."

Lae'zel tries to scream, to cry out, to warn the others before she is dragged out of range-- but her tongue is frozen in her mouth. The bitter realization runs like ice through her. I am a fool, she thinks, rage flooding her immobilized body. Duped like a child, all my faith and duty used against me.

And Rakha will pay for it. She believed what she was doing was right, but the fact remains - blinded with anger, she turned away from her companions with disloyalty in her heart, and now Rakha will pay the price. Perhaps, indeed, Rakha will die and believe that it was Lae'zel who struck the blow.

No. No. NO NO NO NO NO NO--

She is almost grateful when one of the doppelgangers strikes another blow and unconsciousness swallows her.