Paladins: A Mother's Wrath

"Holy shit," said Raven. "Sarha's here."

Laina hesitated for a brief moment, then looked out over the piled stones to see Sarha striding towards them through the knee-high grass that covered this side of the estate. There was shouting and even a few screams coming from inside the manor house, and there was smoke coming out three of the windows.

"Just a fucking moment," said Laina, and slid over the rocks and out into the sunlight. The severed head she was holding caught fire immediately, and she dropped it before it could burn her. 

Sarha saw the flash of flame, and slowed her advance. Laina took a step back and waited. 

"My son--" called Sarha. 

"He's safe," Laina called back, and Sarha sagged. A moment later she continued her advance, more slowly this time. There was shouting from outside the house too now, and the servants were forming a bucket line from the well. 

Damlok stuck his head out of the tower, then climbed outside; Raven was right behind him. 

"You saved him," said Sarha as she reached them. 

"He came on his own," Laina said quietly. Again she heard Nepthys' voice: Evil waxes. Good wanes. Dark powers rise. You must restore some small part of that balance in this place. As the realization dawned, Damlok saw the look on Laina's face and then looked past his mother to the house. "What did you do, Mother?"

It was Raven who asked the more pertinent question: "How many did you kill?"

Sanha paled. "Six. Maybe seven--" She turned and raced back towards the house. 

The other three gave chase, following at a full sprint. They reached the nearest of the windows that was belching smoke, and Sanha skidded to a halt and then hesitated. After a moment, she shrugged. "I have no spells to quench this!"

"Then join the bucket line," said Laina, and shoved her in that direction. She didn't have any way to extinguish the flames either; she should follow her own advice, but Raven was standing beside the window just outside of the smoke, and casting... something. 

There was a hissing sound, and for a moment the smoke thinned. Raven did it again, and it thinned further. She kept going, then finally stuck her head in the window to look around. 

Someone screamed overhead, and Laina looked up to a young girl waving at them out of an upper window. Smoke was beginning to emerge from behind her. 

"I've got her," said Damlok, and went straight up the wall like a lizard. The rough stone must have been hot beneath his fingertips, but he gave no sign of it. He disappeared inside the window, then emerged again, one leg on either side of the sill, with the girl behind him. 

Oh, shit, thought Laina, and moved to position herself underneath them. If he...

A moment later, Damlok swung his other leg out of the window and began to descend. The girl was only a little younger than he was, and she was clinging to his neck in a way that should be strangling him... but Damlok wouldn't care, of course. He shifted his way down, feeling for handholds and footholds, carefully... slowly...

For a moment Laina thought the boy would make it. Then, halfway down, he lost his grip, flailed after another one, and then kicked off from the wall. 

Laina moved with him, positioning herself, and let herself roll backwards when they slammed into her chest. She hit the ground hard and the children rolled over her head and back into the grass...

Pain. Her chest, momentarily numb, burst into agony; she'd broken at least one rib, probably two. Her nose was definitely broken where the kids had rolled across. For a long moment she lay gasping, unable to draw any air into her lungs. Then she drew in a deep, shuddering breath. 

"Are you hurt?" asked Damlok. The little girl was standing beside him, looking terrified.

The question was so completely stupid that Laina laughed, then gasped and stopped immediately when her ribs made their displeasure known. "I'll live," she said, and rolled over carefully, "but I'm going to be sore in the morning."

The girl looked at her, puzzled, then looked up at the sky. "But it is morning."

"Oh," said Laina, then stopped to assess her injuries. Right, yes, she'd need to pick the rock out of the back of her left shoulder, but being absolutely flattened by a pair of falling children hadn't done her any harm that couldn't be healed. In fact... She touched a hand to her ribs and felt the grace of Nepthys flow through her, easing their pain and partly knitting them back into place.

Raven was still creating water as quickly as she could, and the smoke was starting to ease. The smoke from the other windows was still strong, but now other, louder hissing sounds were audible. After a moment the smoke from the other rooms began to ease as well, but Raven kept at her task until the smoke finally ceased and the embers were cold. 

Laina walked carefully over to where Raven was still staring into the window. "That was amazing," she said.

Raven shook her head. "It was just an orison," she said. "It was all I could think to do. There was a man with a necklace of adaptation and a decanter of endless water... he put it all out."

"You kept it from getting worse," Laina said. "You did well."

Damlok came forward from where he had taken the girl well away from the house. "This is my cousin Palissa," he said. "Palissa, this is the paladin Laina and the cleric Raven." 

The girl curtsied. "You tried to save us. Damlok says you did save us. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," said Laina. Speaking still hurt; hell, breathing still hurt. Raven finally turned around, looked Laina over, and said: "What did you do to yourself?" She stepped foward with the words of a fresh spell on her lips, put her hands on Laina's shoulders, and released the healing prayer to do its work. 

The pain disappeared in a rush of familiar power, and Laina sighed in relief. Then she sighed again, because... "Damlok, I still have to talk to your mom... about what she did here, and what she did back at the farm."

Damlok nodded. "I think my mom might be as evil as my dad," he said quietly, with a glance at his cousin. "I hope I'm wrong."

I do too, kid, Laina thought. I do too.