Fallen

Rill pressed down hard on the compress, hard enough for small pinpricks of blood to spring up where her claws were pressing on his skin. Those small pricks were nothing compared to how much was staining the stretcher the man had come in on. He was in a bad way.

“I’m sorry, Rill,” He mumbled, his voice nearly intelligible from pain and weakness, “Rellen thought she had found an untouched house up north.”

“Ssh, don’t speak, Lorr, save your strength.” Rill said and looked to the young girl across the room. 

“Lilo, I need more cloth, hurry.” Rill fought to keep her voice even.

The girl stared at Rill for half a second then wrested herself from her shock. “Yes, Rill, one moment.” Lilo hurried from the tent. Rill heard the girl squeal, but before Rill could rise to move, Seiei stepped into the tent. 

He nodded to someone outside the tent then turned to Rill. “They found Dulkohm further along the barricade.”

Rill had known the boy ever since he was a babe and was one of the few people in town, alongside the young girl who had just left, who could read his expression. They had not found the dwarf alive.

“Bring him in and take him to my house,” Rill said while doing her best to tie the compress tighter on Lorr, “You know what you have to do.”

Seiei nodded then left the tent, his expression hardening even as he pushed the flap aside. The last she saw of the boy before the flap closed was his hand closing on the handle of his sword. 

Lorr groaned and twisted, then groaned in pain. He still had one wound on his shoulder that Rill had nothing to stop, so she put her hands over it as best she could till Lilo returned. The stink of blood was heavy in the tent and Rill could feel her Shifting growing. The hair on her arms was lengthening and her canines were pushing through. These days, it never fully receded. She was old, and the control was failing her. 

“I’m back!” Lilo shouted and burst through the tent-flap with an armful of cloth. Working together, Rill and Lilo bandaged up Lorr’s last serious wound. The half-elf had a plethora of small cuts and bruises all over his body, but the most serious bite-wounds had been taken care of. He was groaning and moving about, and Rill figured that if he was still awake, he would survive given a little luck. 

“Let’s give Lorr some space, he needs rest.” Rill said and guided Lilo out of the tent. 

The village was a jumble of people running about and shouting orders or guidance. Everyone who had no specific duty were up on the barricades, holding whatever weapons they had. If a pack had followed Lorr and Dulkohm back, Driftwood would see them off. Hood was standing outside the one stone building in the village, handing out quivers of arrows and bolts to the villagers. Hood’s mask gave them an impassive look and despite knowing them for several years, Rill had never figured out what Hood was. She just knew that they did good work. 

“Seiei, you’re covered in blood!” Lilo shouted, her tone full of worry.

The boy stood in the street running a cloth over his scimitar. The hardened expression he had when he left the tent was still in place, and Rill figured she knew why. 

“It’s not mine.” He replied and turned to Rill. “It’s done.”

Rill nodded. She wished it was different, but she knew that Seiei knew how to handle those situations. 

“What about Rellen? Lorr mentioned her.” Rill looked to Seiei. Lilo would respond if she had any information, but the boy needed to be spoken to. 

“She hasn’t shown.” Seiei said and finished cleaning his sword.

Rill looked over the small village. Everyone was tired and nervous. A few returned her look but most kept their eyes on the broken wasteland that lay beyond their walls. If she let them, their edge would dull. Their eyes would droop from fatigue and their guard would be down. And there was the spectre of grief to consider; Dulkohm had lived in Driftwood as long as Rill had. She would have called him a pillar of the community, but the history of the district changed the connotation. 

Rill turned to the young man and restrained her Shifting as best she could. Her canines retracted and some of the colour of the Wildhunt drained from her eyes. “Seiei, assemble a small party. We’re going looking for Rellen.”

“You can’t, it’s too dangerous.” Lilo tried to protest, but Seiei only stayed a moment to catch Rill’s expression, then he turned on his heel and strode towards the gate. Rill could trust the boy to know who should come on a trip like that. Who could survive it but that Driftwood could survive without. 

Lilo looked back and forth between the departing Seiei and Rill. “Please, Rill, tell him to stay.” 

Rill turned the girl around and embraced her, careful not to touch her with her claws. There was nothing to do about her bristles, however. “Lilo, keep everyone ready till we get back.”

Lilo stood for a moment, stiff in the embrace, but then returned it and took a heaving, sobbing breath. A single pair of tears rolled down her cheeks. Lilo had been found at the gates of Driftwood years ago, an infant swaddled in some luxurious cloth. She had always been a crybaby, a trait that had never gone away entirely, but the young girl possessed an ability to push on through it to do what needed to be done. Rill felt a surge of pride for the girl and embraced her again.

“Seiei’ll be back. I’ll bring him back, I assure you.” Rill said and stepped back.

Lilo rubbed at her tears with the sleeve of her robe, smearing some of Lorr’s spattered and dried blood. “You better, Grandma, or I won’t let you hear the end of it.” 

With that, Lilo set off too, in the opposite direction of where Seiei had gone. Rill glanced at the departing backs of her surrogate children, then hurried into the shed that served as her home. Her only protection, a suit of scavenged hide, hung over a chair. Her staff, a holdover from half a century ago when she and her husband had walked to Sharn from their former home. Despite having found what she came for, Rill stopped for a moment. A shrine occupied most of the space in her home. It was not a shrine to any god, for she had long felt abandoned by any deity. No, the shrine was to a man. His likeness had been captured in a multitude of ways. Most were drawings on panels of cleaned wood or scraps of salvaged paper. Pride of place was held by a wooden bust carved by Dulkohm many decades ago. They had his features, but none of his life, his colour, his vitality. Standing before the shrine, Rill remembered him like he had vanished just yesterday. But that remembrance also brought back the memory of his death. She had wanted to see the world, to look for her gods wherever they could be found in the wide world, and he had paid for her hubris. When Godsgate fell, her world had fallen with it. To atone for what she had done, she had stayed on. Helped where she could, with what little she had. She had been the de-facto chief of the derelict village for many, many years now. 

She knelt before the shrine to her husband for a moment, then grabbed her staff and left the house. I’m sorry, Nyx, but I’ve said that before and I’ll say it many times before this life is over.

The sun was beginning to set. In Fallen, that did not change much; the sun was only visible at high noon, owing to the titanic towers that made up the city of Sharn above them. When Godsgate had been destroyed and fallen into the depths, it had fallen beyond the reach of the sun. Gigantic chunks of debris, both from the fallen tower that destroyed the district and from the district itself, littered the landscape and would for many years to come. In the initial wake of the disaster, aid had been attempted, but the scale of destruction, spreading decay and magical side-effects soon put a stop to organised assistance from the world above. Fallen was its own world, a world of gloom, decay and rubble. The denizens of Driftwood spent their days combing through the destruction for the scant remains of valuable items to sell to the traders that pass through in return for food and tools. It’s a harsh life, and so they do their best to look out for each other. Rill had worked towards that. She was proud that Fallen had not become some criminal hideaway or slum, and that jungle rule had little sway. 

These thoughts and memories distracted her as she, Seiei and the two villagers he had picked trekked along the path that Lorr had described. 

“We’re running out of daylight, Rill.” Mannfred said. The man had been of the faith before the Fall, like Rill. He still kept to it. His light in the darkness of Fallen. 

Arask caught up to the others, the lead he had stopped to examine being cold. The half-orc sniffed. “We should turn back. Rellen’s in trouble, sure, but we can’t risk four of us, or the whole village, just for one girl.” 

Rill stopped and looked up. They were right, the gloom was darkening. Somehow the feeble light that filtered down to Fallen kept the worst monstrosities at bay, but when the dark of night settled, the rubble-strewn streets and decayed temples filled with undead and lunatics. 

“You head back then,” Rill said and turned back towards them, “I’ll keep looking a little further.

Arask and Mannfred paused. They wanted to be home, but leaving Rill alone in the darkness did not sit well with them.

“I’ll stay.” Seiei said. The young man had been silent ever since they left Driftwood, keeping his keen eyes on their surroundings to watch for pursuit or ambushes. 

After a moment, Arask and Mannfred nodded and turned back towards Driftwood. A light had been lit in the highest watchtower of the town, calling back all who were outside its walls. 

Rill looked at them go, and considered asking Seiei to escort them home, to ensure that nothing would happen to them, but knew that the young man wanted to stay by her side. They were walking in the shadow of a collapsed tenement when Seiei stepped ahead of Rill and put a hand on her shoulder. He had said nothing, but she could sense his tension. They both knelt into the dirt and Seiei pointed ahead of them. At a corner of the collapsed building, and indeed looking out of the windows of the former tenement, they could see people observing them. On second thought, Rill thought it too generous to call them ‘people’. Ravers. Survivors of the Fall that went utterly mad from the catastrophe. How many were still living from that time and how many descended from those poor souls, none in Driftwood knew. But all knew that they are violent and unpredictable. They always travelled in packs and were a constant danger to the villagers, as much as the undead and the strange creatures that inhabited the temples and churches. 

Seiei turned to Rill and indicated the way they had come with a toss of his head. Rill nodded back, aware that the boy had one hand on the handle of his sword. He was a capable fighter, and Rill could knock someone on the head with her staff quite reliably, but the two of them would not be able to see off a pack of Ravers on their own. So they turned back and headed for Driftwood as fast as they were able, the eyes of observing Ravers following their journey from the shadows. 

As soon as they got in sight of Driftwood, a welcoming party came out to meet them. Mannfred and Arask too had seen the signs of Raver pursuit, and had called the alarm. All were glad to see Rill and Seiei alive and safe.

The watch returned to the regular schedule and Rill went to her house. Last she had been past, she had ignored her other task; The body of Dulkohm lay beneath a sheet to the side of her entrance. All knew what was beneath the sheet, but the work of securing the village came first. Lilo was there, staring at the sheet in silence, sitting with her knees under her chin. 

Seiei made to leave and return to his watch, but Rill held him back. “She would appreciate it if you stayed with her for a moment, I’m sure.”

The boy looked at Rill but said nothing. Lilo did not notice their approach till Rill put an arm around her. 

“You’re back!” The girl shouted and spun in place, catching both Rill and Seiei in a hug. 

“I promised I’d bring him back, didn’t I?” Rill said and returned the hug.

Seiei grumbled under his breath but did not pull away. 

Rill broke away after a long moment and stood up, looking past Lilo to the sheet covering Dulkohm’s body. They would have to build a pyre. Seiei had ensured that the dead dwarf would not rise on his own, but Driftwood had no space for burials. But as Rill stood there thinking about where they could get materials for that, she began to feel dizzy. Her footing became unsteady and she began to fall, her vision going dark.

Lilo and Seiei shouting was the last she heard before she lost consciousness.

She was cold. Her limbs felt stiff and her thoughts were sluggish. Rill opened her eyes and saw Seiei standing at the entrance to her home, his back turned to her as he kept watch. Lilo was fussing over a bowl of something hot when she noticed Rill looking at her. 

“She’s awake.” She said for Seiei’s benefit and hurried over while being careful not to spill the bowl.

“You had us so worried.” The girl said and sat down. Dimly, Rill realised she was in her own bed. 

“What happened?” She stammered.

“You collapsed just outside. We got you inside and Hood came to check on you,” Lilo said and placed a hand on her forehead, “Said it must have been exhaustion.”

“Bah,” Rill grumbled and made to rise, “It was just a dizzy spell, I’ll be fine.” But she found that she could barely rise up on her elbows, let alone sit upright in the bed.

“Rest, grandma.” Lilo said in a reproachful tone. “Driftwood will manage for a day while you sleep.”

Lilo fed her the hot broth from the bowl and Seiei came over to sit. The boy kept his silence. Afterwards both kids rose to leave, to leave Rill to rest. Rill could see Lilo had stopped to look at the shrine to Rill’s deceased husband. It was a conversation they had had many times before, but it would seem Lilo did not wish to repeat it today. The girl sighed and left the shed. Rill gave up on getting out of bed and sank back. Like many times before, her thoughts stayed on Nyx and what had happened until her eyelids drooped and she fell asleep.