Tia led her friends eagerly from the corridor with Elsian at her side her lighting the way with his sprite, Kelvin followed strumming a tune on his lute and Ela brought up the rear. Tia's thoughts wandered to where they would go next now that she had recovered not only her Katana but also her memories and drive for adventure.
"Are we going home now Tia?" Elsian asked quietly. "I miss our friends and my family."
"Perhaps for a visit," Tia smiled. "I miss my parents, too."
"You must do something important in your village, Tia," Kelvin intruded. "We can't leave until an evil is exorcised."
"How do you know this?" Ela inquired suspiciously.
"The songs of prophecy, of course," Kelvin replied flippantly.
"Why haven't I ever heard these songs before?" Elsian inquired curiously.
"No self-respecting bard would sing them unless either he was training another bard or the object of the prophecy was in the audience," Kelvin answered quickly.
"Enough what is the song, Kelvin," Tia interrupted, silencing her two friends in mid-rebuttal.
Kelvin cleared his throat and began to strum a tune on his lute:
In the heroine's hearth
An evil doth dwell.
Are joined by accursed bard.
To defeat the terror of Kelvi.
"What is a Kelvi?" Elsian and Ela inquired in unison.
"I know not but we shall soon learn methinks," Kelvin shrugged.
Tia nodded, "We must pick up the Gnome Elementalist on our way."
The three companions nodded and they set out down the corridor once more with Tia leading, deep in thought.
They arrived in the Dwarf cavern two days later only to find the dwarves waiting with sharp weapons. Tia drew her sword and advanced slowly.
"Stand aside," Tia called. "We want no quarrel with you. We seek only to reach the surface."
"You invade our home and steal a war criminal and you want no quarrel with us?" A burly dwarf grumbled. "What fools do you take the dwarven race to be?"
'Your 'war criminal' was my friend, we merely rescued her and will take her from these realms. Besides if any of us began this war it was your race when you betrayed us to the evil elves."
"The Drow?" the dwarf replied. "We apologize for that but they enslaved us before their demise, we were merely preserving ourselves when we took you there. I suppose that if you promised to leave right away and never return we can call us even."
"We will leave, but I cannot promise never to return. I do promise that if I ever return in the course of my quest it shall be as a friend and I shall not greet you with my blade," with that Tia put up her sword.
"Agreed."
Tia led her band through the ranks of the dwarves who parted, opening a path through their now-neutral ranks.
Another two days passed before the quartet arrived in the late T'Alonis' lair and they breathed a collective sigh of relief to be almost free of the underearth realms. Ela immediately went to the large treasure hoard and began sifting through the treasure for some of the more portable valuables. Tia allowed her to sift for a good ten minutes before calling for the group to continue but not before retrieving a sapphire medallion and fastening the necklace around her neck.
As they walked down the corridor towards the outside, Tia brought up a subject that they had discussed since just after she retrieved her sword.
"Do we go by way of Therlax or cut straight through the woods to Bar's cave?"
"Uncle Bar," Ela murmured. "Or the city of terror."
"I think the choice is simple," Elsian replied. "Since we're not entirely welcome in Therlax."
"Then we head northeast in the morning," Tia nodded. "We'll get Bar to join us and head home for a visit."
"Home_" Ela whispered mournfully.
Tia set out into the forest to forage for food while her stalwart companions set up camp and got a fire started. Then they ate a simple meal of berries and a small rabbit and got some sleep.
The next day they started out to the northeast with Tia guarding their point and Ela guarding the flank while Elsian probed Kelvin for more information on the upcoming battle in their village. This went on for several hours until Tia let out a shrill whistle and came running back.
"Humans!" Tia commented. "Their involved in some sort of obscene ritual."
"What kind of ritual?" Kelvin inquired as Ela came running up.
"Their naked and slaughtering other humans."
"Oh," Kelvin's eyes came alight. "That's the cult of E. They won't even notice us, they routinely dose with narcotics. We could walk right through their ceremony."
"Let's take some caution and not do that," Elsian interjected. "They might not have taken their normal dosage this time."
"I agree with Elsian," Ela commented. "We should avoid them and use caution."
"Caution yes, avoid no," Tia grinned. "I say we stamp out human sacrifice where we find it."
"BUT THEY WONÕT EVEN LIFT A FINGER IN THEIR OWN DEFENSE!" Kelvin objected. "THATÕS MURDER!"
"No, Kelvin," Tia explained. "They are committing murder, we are rescuing their sacrifices. We advance before anymore die."
Kelvin nodded and Ela and Elsian readied spell and knife.
The attack went off without a hitch, Tia charged and cut down the man holding the sacrificial knife in cold blood. Ela cut down an enforcer-type cultist and Elsian prepared some sort of spell as a backup plan while Kelvin stood behind a tree where it was safe."Kill the infidels!" a man dressed in the dark robes of a priest. "They murdered the Eye of E!"
Tia oriented on the priest as he drew a spiked club from beneath his robes while Ela knifed another spaced-out cultist and Elsian let out a tiny ball of flame that burned holes in the chest of six dancing cultists.
"Die you foul priest of E!" Tia cried and thrust her sword at the priest's chest, scoring but receiving a blow to the shoulder resulting in a resounding CRACK. She dropped her sword and cradled her wounded sword arm.
Ela knifed yet another cultist and Elsian sent another fireball through six more cultists before the remainder of the cult took off running leaving their sacrifices behind in shackles.
In the aftermath of the battle Elsian rushed over to Tia and examined her shoulder while Ela set about picking the lock on the sacrifice's shackles and Kelvin examined the bodies of the dead.
"The good news," Elsian commented to Tia. "Is that nothing's broken but I wouldn't recommend using that arm for a while."
"But that's my sword arm, Elsian," Tia protested. "How can I protect you and Ela and Kelvin without using that arm?"
"Use your other arm, Tia," Ela replied offhandedly, biting her lip as she concentrated on her task.
"Such a shame," Kelvin muttered sadly. "They died for nothing, E didn't even care about their little sacrifice."
Elsian dressed Tia's shoulder with pieces of cloth torn from his robe and Kelvin set about destroying the makeshift altar. Ela worked for five more minutes before the latch on the last shackle came open. One of the former prisoners came forward as a representative of the crowd.
"We thank you on behalf of the merchant's guild of Therlax," the man replied. "Those curs abducted us from our caravan on our way home please come by sometime when you are in the area."
"We would except for one little problem, good sir," Ela replied for the group.
"And that is?"
"A price on their heads in Therlax," Kelvin answered. "A misunderstanding for these outstanding people could not be criminals."
"Understood," the gentleman replied. "Perhaps our influence could help, it's the least we can do considering the debt we owe you. Next time you come to Therlax the problem should be solved."
"Thank you," Tia nodded, leaning into Elsian with her arm in a sling.
"It's the least we could do."
Early the next day, the quartet arrived at the gnome's cave and Tia entered quietly with her friends fanned out behind her.
"Bar!" Tia called. "We need you."
No answer came from the cavern for several minutes and then the sound of footsteps and the roar of fire came from the cavern. Soon a firedog and a stone man emerged alone in the corridor.
"Gnome_not_here," the stone man boomed slowly.
"Where is he then?" asked Elsian.
"Never_come_back_from_kidnapping."
"Oh my god," Tia exclaimed. "Now we're in trouble."
Kelvin let out a piercing shriek, "NO!"
Suddenly Kelvin underwent an amazing metamorphosis. First, he stretched to twice his size, then he began to divide. Soon there were six Kelvins where there had only been one.
"I am K," the first Kelvin replied.
"I am E," said the second.
"I am L," the third chimed in.
"I am V," grinned number four.
"I am I," grunted the fifth.
"I'm N," said the sixth, who was bound with strange energy ropes.
"We are the Kelvi," the first five replied in unison. "You cannot win without the gnome."
"I know something was wrong with him," Ela cursed. "He knew too much."
Tia drew her sword and shouted, "To battle!"
Immediately, Ela and Elsian formed on Tia's flank and the elementals formed behind them. Even without the gnome they would give their best shot and not go down without a fight. Both sides charged at the exact same moment and Tia engaged K and L, while Elsian hung back to prepare a spell and Ela attempted to sneak around to the Kelvi's rear. The Stoneman engaged E and I and the firedog took on V. Tia fought right-handed as her left still hadn't recovered and she was at a distinct disadvantage as a result she was decidedly losing ground. Ela had better luck and was almost upon the tied up N with her knife at the ready. Elsian's spell was prepared and he launched a volley of glowing arrows at E sending that Kelvi reeling back from the Stoneman. Meanwhile, the Stoneman hammered at I and the firedog sent its flame raging over V.
"Save me, Tia!" called N. "I can stop them."
Hearing that plea, Ela changed her stance and instead of knifing N, she slit his energetic ropes with the edge of her knife thereby releasing him, then she said, "If you can help then do it."
N waved his hands mystically and a lute appeared in the air then began to play. As the music played Tia's arm began to heal and she tossed her sword from her right hand to her left and it made an immediate difference in her fighting. She dropped L with a thrust to the throat and disarmed K with a sharp slash. Elsian sent another volley of missiles flying towards E, while the Stoneman crushed the skull of I and the firedog engulfed V in flame. Tia kicked K in the shins and slashed at his gut while the remainder of her pals overbore E and tore his substance to pieces.
After the battle N approached the trio of elves and the elementals seeming to glow with a pale light, "Thank you, my friends. You have saved Lax Thear from the denizens of evil, but don't relax long for your task in fate is not over. Return to your home Tia, Elsian, and you too, Ela. Fear not elementals, your master will return soon. Now I must away to the godly plane_farewell."
After N disappeared Tia and her friends bid the elementals adieu and set off for their home in the village.
Early the next day they arrived in Tia's village and were greeted with a hero's welcome by all their friends and relatives as well as the council of elders. Apparently they'd heard about their battle against the Kelvi though who had told the village was quite a mystery.
Later that day after a feast in the trio's honor Elsian and Tia were off alone in the woods.
"Tia," Elsian began. "I've asked you this before and you laughed in my face, but will you marry me now? Let us travel the world as a mated pair and right the wrongs that we discover."
"I laughed before because I thought that you only wanted me to stay behind here in the traditional female roles of our village, but after the battle with the Kelvi I realize that I couldn't beat to to live without you," Tia replied.
"Is that a yes?"
"Of course, my love," Tia giggled, throwing herself into Elsian's arms. "We shall be wed before we leave again."
The End?