Dark Flower III, Ch. 9: A House Falls

[Mikayla]

Dark Flower III, Chapter 9

A House Falls.

Sheyreiza was walking through the ornately carved halls of Qu’ellar Auvryndar checking upon the house defenses when she was nearly knocked off her feet by what felt like an earthquake. Instantly she drew her morningstar and readied her bebilith-fang shield, convinced that the house was under attack. It was, after all, only a matter of time before the other houses discovered Auvryndar was out of favor. When they did, one or more of the city’s houses would fall upon Auvryndar like carrion crawlers upon a wounded hook-horror. She braced herself against a wall and waited. When the shaking stopped she looked about, sniffing the air for any hint of perfume, brimstone or other strange smells that would indicate their walls and wards had been breached by enemy drow or demons. There was nothing.

She moved through the noble quarters where she found her kin talking to each other excitedly. Everyone knew the house was on a heightened state of alert, but only the priestesses knew why; none of the rest knew the danger they were in. The house shook again. Gathering her murder-team Sheyreiza quickly made her way out of the main house to the inner bailey. Guards stood ready on both the inner and outer walls. Wizards streamed out of Celuldor’s tower, taking up supporting positions, but other than the movement of Auvryndar’s own troops, there was no sign of attack. Sheyreiza climbed an elegantly curved, narrow ramp to the top of the inner-wall and surveyed the city. The guards on the wall snapped to attention. The sergeant looked to Sheyreiza and pointed up towards the layer of webbing above them. The house shook again and Sheyreiza saw dust and chunks of calcified webbing fall from above. The debris came from a section of webbing far to the east of Qu’ellar Auvryndar. It crashed into the cocoon-like buildings on Auvryndar’s layer and some of the larger pieces broke through and dropped into the layers below. Sheyreiza had never seen such destruction. Even when one house attacked another, both were smart enough to realize the webs were Lolth’s work and were all that kept the city aloft. Sheyreiza descended the ramp back down into the bailey where Gal’tera and others were gathering and reported what she saw.

“I am taking my murder-team up to investigate.” She said. “Inform the matron and prepare to repel assault.” Gal’tera nodded and obeyed. Sheyreiza and her crew drew their piwafis up and slipped out the house’s gate. Quickly they made there way up to the layer of webbing above. As they passed the great spiraling stair that led to the Dangling Tower they encountered throngs of fleeing drow. Sheyreiza stopped one. “What is going on?” She yelled.

The male nearly fled from her but at the last second recognized Sheyreiza as a high priestess. “Its House D’dgittu. Its covered in darkness and the web is collapsing!” The male could not restrain his fear any longer and he fled. Sheyreiza let him go. She led the murder team across the webs even as they shook again. Ahead, where House D’dgittu should have been, was only darkness. The strand-ways were mostly empty, but a few drow crouched in the alcoves, recesses and alleyways nearby, watching. Sheyreiza approached a hooded male who was observing events unfold from a behind a low wall.

“What’s happening here.” Sheyreiza asked.

The male, who was resting rather comfortably, looked up in surprise. “I don’t really know…priestess.” The man said, his words more of a question than a statement. Sheyreiza realized he probably could not tell for sure what her station was with her piwafi covering almost every inch of her. For the moment, that was fine. “The darkness descended about an hour ago, maybe two. I am not sure, I sort of lost track of time. There was a lot of noise. Shouting. Battle maybe. Probably. Then just a little while ago the shaking came, like an earthquake.”

Sheyreiza turned from the man and relayed the information to her team. They slipped cautiously through the strand-ways that bordered D’dgittu’s outer wall, looking for some sign of what was occurring. What they found were the sundered main gates of the house. Sheyreiza could barely restrain her shock. House D’dgittu was Ched Nasad’s second most powerful noble house. Only Nasadra could best them and even Nasadra could not simply launch an attack on D’dgittu without suffering horrendous losses. Sheyreiza peered inside the gates. The darkness obscured vision but it was not absolute. For a few long minutes she waited, looking, listening, smelling. There was nothing going on. It seemed the attack, if that was what it was, was over. Signing to her troops, she slipped inside the gates. The murder-team followed.

House D’dgittu was in ruin. Its buildings were crushed. Dead drow lay everywhere. Some had been killed by collapsing walls and ceilings, but most had been slain by sword, claw or spell. Everywhere Sheyreiza looked there was blood, gore and death. Carefully she moved through the rubble. Check the bodies, she signed to her team, I want to know if there are any survivors or if any of them are not from this house. Her team complied, but all the drow they found were both dead and D’dgittu.

The only building still relatively intact was the temple at the heart of the compound. Sheyreiza carefully circled it from the edges of the quad in which it was located. She wanted to ensure that none of the attackers were left watching or besieging the temple. Satisfied the attack was truly over, she moved across the litter and corpse strewn open space until she stood before the open temple portals. There on the steps, amidst a field of dead warriors, wizards and priestesses was the body of Matron D’dgittu. She had been savaged. Sheyreiza recognized the brutality; the Matron had been raped to death by demons. Rage grew in Sheyreiza and her face flushed with anger. She bore the D’dgittu Matron no love, but the Matron’s violation was an affront to all of Lolth’s clergy. Sheyreiza moved to the body and picked up the woman’s house symbol. She intended to carry it to Matron Shyntlara to prove the tale; the house symbol, however flared red at Sheyreiza’s touch and burned her as if it had been sitting in a forge-fire for an hour. Sheyreiza screamed in pain and withdrew her scorched hand at once.

“Heresy!” She hissed. “Blasphemy! Those who did this will suffer Lolth’s wrath!” Furious, she turned and started out of the temple-quad. On the edge of the courtyard was a hooded male. Sheyreiza’s fury turned quickly to suspicion and self-preservation. The murder-team spread out, ready for battle. “You there, come here.” Sheyreiza commanded. The hooded male ignored the order and withdrew into the shadows and Sheyreiza’s team followed. They found the hooded male and many others just beyond the next row of buildings. A veritable army was entering the ruins; an army bearing the house symbols and banners of Qu’ellar Nasadra. “My warriors do not heed your command, Yathtallar of Auvryndar.” Said an imperious voice. “They obey my word and my word alone.” The front ranks of the gathering army parted and Matron Aunrae Nasadra appeared in all her finery. The Nasadra Matron was leader of the city’s First House, and she was undeniably the most powerful priestess in the entire city. Indeed, even the archmages did not dispute her power. She had ruled the city for centuries and in all that time there had never been any serious challenge to her authority. Sheyreiza was not about to offer one. She bowed her head to the approaching matron.

“Greetings honored Matron.” Sheyreiza said politely.

“What are you doing here, Yathtallar?” The Matron asked.

“We felt the shaking and saw the darkness, so we investigated. We found the house in ruins. The Matron is dead; her body lies just outside the ruins of the temple.”

Matron Nasadra smiled ever so slightly. “What ruins? What temple? What Matron? None of this ever happened. None of this ever existed.”

A chill ran through Sheyreiza and she realized she was shaking in fear. “Of course honored Matron.”

“You may leave now, Auvryndar.” Aunrae said, almost pleasantly. The Matron waved her hand and her entourage advanced into the ruins. Sheyreiza gave her own sign and her murder-team exited. Sheyreiza did not linger to see what the Nasadra were up to; she and her team had been lucky to leave the ruin alive. The Matron’s comments about the non-existence of D’dgittu indicated Nasadra approved and accepted the destruction of that house.

Safely inside the gates of Qu’ellar Auvryndar, Faerylene turned to Sheyreiza. “Yathtallar, what does this mean?”

Sheyreiza looked up to the ruined webbing above them. “It means, Yathrin Faerylene, that we are now the third ranking house of the city not the fourth. And we always have been.” A cycle later a proclamation was issued confirming what Sheyreiza had said:


Let it be known the current ranking of the ruling Que'llars of Ched Nasad. Any previous lists were incorrect.

Nasadra
Melarn
Auvryndar
Mylyl
Aleanrahel
Claddath
Rilynt
Maerret
Zinard
Ousstyl
Hlaund
Agrach Dyrr

Let it be known that these words are true or my life is forfeit.

Elvatath
Scribe for House Melarn

Such was life, and death, in Ched Nasad, Sheyreiza thought. She felt nothing for the hundreds of dead drow of D’dgittu, and certainly less than nothing for their dead slaves. She was just glad whoever perpetrated the attack had chosen D’dgittu rather than Auvryndar; even before Auvryndar had lost favor with the goddess they were not as strong as D’dgittu. The thought made her smile for a moment, though bitter sweetly. How many times had a house that was out of favor with the Goddess actually managed to rise in station? She wondered if the irony would please Lolth or just make her even more furious with Auvryndar.

Of course, the question still lingered: Who had destroyed D’dgittu? Only Nasadra had the strength, but when Sheyreiza had encountered the Nasadra army, they looked fresh. And they were scouting the ruins, as if they had never been there and did not know what they would find. But that made no sense, as no other house could have pulled off such an assault successfully.

Unless D’dgittu was out of favor with Lolth.

For the second time in two days a chill of fear swept through Sheyreiza. Had D’dgittu fallen from favor also? Was Auvryndar not alone in its isolation from the Goddess? If so Sheyreiza did not believe that D’dgittu and Auvryndar would be the only two houses out of favor in the city any more than she believed her and Shalen would be the only two priestesses in Auvryndar out of favor. Was the entire city out of favor? The thought was too horrid to contemplate, but she had to consider it. Indeed, it would explain why and how the Agrach Dyrr priestess was killed; perhaps she too was out of favor and unable to defend herself. Sheyreiza’s eyes narrowed. Perhaps every house in the city was out of favor and that was why Auvryndar had not yet been discovered and attacked, just as Sheyreiza had not been discovered and slain because every priestess in her house was also out of favor.

Of course, not everyone was out of favor were they? Someone had destroyed Qu’ellar D’Dgittu; someone with the power over many demons and great magic. Who though? And who would they strike against next? And why did they have power when the rest did not?

One word came into Sheyreiza’s mind: Heresy. One of the houses in the city, maybe even multiple houses, had gone heretic and now the entire city was out of favor with Lolth until they found out who the heretics were and destroyed them. That was just one possibility of course, but it certainly fit the facts. So now the game had changed; she had to find the heretics and destroy them before the heretics destroyed Auvryndar like D’dgittu. Though she could not prove it, Sheyreiza was suddenly convinced that Ched Nasad was in a state of civil war.

[Zakharra]

This is the mere start of Auvryndar's rise to First House.