Actually, Calaethis, Velkyn brings up a good point, which is one of the reasons that I wrote this. Are all Drow alike? Surely not, for we know that there are those like Drizzt, his father Zaknafacien (sp?), Soluferein, and, yes, even Viconia and her brother, who didn't fit the mold. Actually Galadria (the mage) was joking with Chorania when she named her a former High Priestess, and I shall add a line of dialog to make that clear. She was never more than a minor priestess, due to her frequent evasions of ceremonies involving sacrifices. As will be clear later in the text, she would rather have become a warrior, and it showed. Also, she is young for a Drow (not much older than sixty) and has spent the last five years with Galadria and her friends, which allowed her to open up. However, as also will be demonstrated, she retains some Drow traits. Keep reading. Thank you, Velkyn, for reading it and liking it. And, even more, for saying so. ;)

*Raises one eyebrown at Calaethis.
I did 'not' expect her to be like Viccy. In fact, I didn't expect her to be like any char at all. I just expected her to be Drow. Hmm.. this sounds rather negative. (Thanks alot Caleathis)
But don't let this fool you, I really do like this novel.

[ 10-15-2002, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: Dreamer128 ]

okok... [img]tongue.gif[/img] I wasnt REALLY being that serious ya know ;) erm Lady G post some more, pleeeeeeeeease? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

LOL, see my reply above. Velkyn. CD, I appreciate you. Some more:

After a stunned silence., everyone got to their feet and gathered around the drow, hugging and congratulating her. In her hand shone a mithril pendant that had appeared in front of her. It bore the token of the Seeing Eye.
They regathered beneath the Dome, Chorania now with the pendant worn proudly on her neck. She fairly glowed with happiness. A deep hole that had been, unbeknownst to her, in her soul, had been filled. She felt ready to do...anything. She overflowed with love for her friends that had brought her to this and to Helm for accepting her. Galadria was speaking, and she concentrated on listening to her.
"So, Odo," the dark mage was saying, "tell us what happened. I know that spider wasn't in my towels and I didn't see it on Cho.."
The stocky man was lolled back, Cythera next to him. He answered."That was no mere spider. Thar was the extension of Lloth's will, a curse that had been eating Cho, slowly."
"You mean it would have slowly eaten her alive?"cried Cythera, "How horrible." She turned to the drow. "Cho, I'm so sorry. Did I upset you?"
Her friend chuckled in reponse. "M'zint to, I have just seen an avatar of Helm destroy a piece of the Spider Queen meant to kill me, and you think I could be upset by drawing room conversation?" They all laughed, ruefully. She could tell that they were still concerned about her. "No," she went on, "I was pondering the same thing. Odo, what was in that phial, that you threw onto the towel? Was that elven holy water, too?"
Odo smiled in appreciation of her penetration. "No," he said, "elven holy water could stop the poison from operating, but their gods are less powerful against Lloth. Those were the Tears of Helm, granted me by He, Himself. They were strong enough to gather the will of the Black Bitch into physical form."
"I thought something like that," she went on hopefully," so that means that this" she clutched the pendant in front of her," is enough to keep me from her, correct.?
Odo frowned. "Do not put too much faith in the amulet, Cho, and keep it out of sight, after this. Yes, it is a holy thing, but it will not protect you from physical attacks. It will keep the Bitch from knowing where you are at all times., as I am thinking that she has. For, why did she know that you were alone and where you were?. There was some psychic link, I guess. But, now that you are Helm's, that, at least,should cease. Just try not to go back to the Underdark. Helm's power is less, there, and you might, in some manner, be revealed to her. For, some parts of your soul are scarred by your years of service to her, and those, she would recognize.
Chorania laughed in satisfaction, "There, I shall not go, unless my Mistress bid me.
I will acknowledge that I miss it, sometimes, the beauty of it, but not the terror. I would be afraid that the memory of some of the things that I was forced to do would haunt me too much."
Cythera shuddered. "I should think so," she said. " The memory of some of the things we had to do to escape that awful place still give me nightmares. But, Cho, whom do you mean by 'your Mistress?' Have you gone into service, somewhere? I would have thought that you were too independant for that."
The drow laughed her low laugh again, "No independance for Chorania Lemeaux any more, m'zint to," she said proudly, " I am pledged for life to our Lady Galadria. She has been pleased to appoint me her chaplain here in the House of the Dome." She turned to the dark mage."Is that not true, my Lady?"
"Yes, it is, Cho," Galadria said with a pleased smile, "It seems we are going to have to set up a shrine to Helm, here, and you can be its priestess. I hope you do not charge as highly for your services as they have in some places that we've been." Odo chuckled at that, since they had a large altar to Helm and one to Tempus at Rosewood, and he was usually at odds with one or the other priest.about something.
"My first order to you," Galadria went on,"is to stop calling me 'my Lady.' That's for Sefa.. You must go on calling me 'abbil,' just as you always have."
Chorania knotted her white eyebrows."Your first order my L...I mean , abbil?" She sighed in mock puzzlement. "I thought you had been giving me orders since I first arrived on the surface." Everyone laughed, including her Mistress.
"Yes," Galadria came back,"but you didn't always obey them, unless it suited you. Now, if you disobey, you will be punished. Perhaps even tortured. You had better beware, because you're going to be my torturer."
Noemi crowed, "Hey, that's a good one, Cho. What would you do to yourself?"
The drow pretended to think. "Well," she replied judiciously,"the first thing that comes to mind is to read myself some of what you call your poetry."

Thanks, that means a lot.. so *grin* am I being a good "son in law"? ;)

Quote:

The drow pretended to think. "Well," she replied judiciously,"the first thing that comes to mind is to read myself some of what you call your poetry."

Sounds like torture to me too [img]tongue.gif[/img]

LOL, yes, Caelethis, you are being a good son-in-law. Therefore, I shall post some more.

Later, after she thought that everyone else had gone to bed, Chorania went back up to the roof. Too much had happened, too quickly. She felt she needed to think, rather than sleep. A few lamps glowed softly, but the main source of illumination was the stars. She lay down on a couch and contemplated them. At first, when she came to the surface, she had felt that the sky would swalllow her. Now, at night, it comforted her. She could imagine herself beneath the great domed ceiling of the cavern of her home city. There had been a temple, there, where she had often gone when few were about, just to be alone and try to figure out why she was not like her sisters.
She had been, she knew, a great disappointment to her mother. Where her sisters were single-minded in advancing their House at the expense of everything else, she had wondered what good the whole struggle was. A few innocent questions when she had been a girl had resulted in severe whippings and she had learned to keep her feelings to herself. But she had refused to take part in several rituals that involved sacrifice, earning her the scorn of all of her female relatives. .
That was what she wanted to ponder, now. She had been enough on the surface to see how widespread the fear and hatred of her race went. Why had she met up with these people, seemingly the only ones who would accept her, within a couple of days? The odds seemed immense. She thought of Attalus' rage at the thugs that had wanted the bounty on her. Later, she had asked him why he had gotten so angry at a threat to someone he had just met.
He had replied, seriously, "Chorania, I am accustomed to judge anyone I meet, immediately. I can tell, somehow, not everything about them, but just whether they mean well or not. It's something I have been able to do since I was a child, and I have learned to trust it. When I first saw you, running frantically and in fear, I just knew that, drow though you were, that your soul was a beautiful thing, as fair as your face. When that man spoke of killing you, I saw, plain as day, your head, bloody and grimed, being thrust into a sack by those fools. That was what enraged me." He then had flushed, unaccustomed to telling women that they were beautiful.
She smiled at that memory. But, why then and there? She knew that her friends had been wandering the length and breadth of the land. What had brought them there, just when she had needed them?
She knew that other drow had been exiled for not following the Way of Lloth. That was why there was a term for them, Outsiders. She knew that the Matron Mothers used the fear of Exile to keep other, more squeamish drow in line, and that sacifice was a useful means to weed out drow who were nonconformists. What happened to the others who escaped domination? Did Lolth hunt them down to kill them, as she had tried to do to her? She felt a chill go over her body. That was what Odo had been talking about. He was afraid that she might venture back to the Underdark to find others like her. Odo knew her too well. She now recalled a conversation long ago, when she had ventured out of the group and met hostilty from surfacers.
She had been complaining that none of them would give her a chance, that a starving bear or lion would have more chance of mercy than a drow, no matter how unthreatening. Odo had shaken his head in sympathy, but said, "Cho, we know you and love you. All you are to us is an elf that happens to be dark-skinned. Don't forget, though, that you are no longer the unarmed waif that Attalus and the girls took pity on that day. You are armored and armed to the teeth. For all they know, you are a forerunner of a drow raiding party. When they see you with us, you are just a part of our group, and the man or woman that Attalus or Gal can't charm probably had bad intentions in the first place.
"But, it's a shame that more people can't know you like we do. I'm sure that you're not the only drow who ever wanted to be good. If we hear a rumor of a lone drow, we should go and try to rescue them. The more drow on the surface, doing good, that there are, then maybe everyone could see them as individuals, and see the drow below as unfortunate slaves of Lolth."
She felt a sudden strong desire to immediately return to the Underdark. There was her brother Calith. She had not allowed herself to think of him in many years, but she knew him to be as doubtful as she. She remembered, with shame, how she had blithely disregarded Galadria's guilt at going off without Noemi. She realized that she was feeling the same thing! Calith was still at the mercy of their horrible mother, if he was alive at all. It was all she could do to keep from jumping up, grabbing some arms, and stealing out of the House of the Dome to go get him.
A voice broke into her reverie. "What's the matter, Cho?" a warm voice said, "Regretting my service already?" She whirled to face Galadria. A wave of shame overcame her. Her first day in service and she was already considering desertion. For the second time that day, she broke into tears.
Galadria sank down beside her and put her arm around her. She wept for a while, trying to sort out all these new, powerful feelings. Instead of steely resolve, loyalty, and rage, she was feeling hurt, love, and anxiety, all of them new to her. Finally regaining control of herself, she faced her Mistress and her comforter,
"Abbil, you who are so wise, tell me what is happening to me! It seems that for years, my soul was a fist clenched with rage, and now it opens into a beseeching beggar's palm. Is this a new part of the curse? Am I going to die? I no longer feel like a drow, but I don't know what I am.. Help me, I implore."
"Cho," the dark mage said soothingly, "Odo spoke to me privately before he went to bed. He thought something like this might happen. Once Lolth's grip was finally loosened from your soul, and you accepted Helm, all those feelings that Lolth deliberately repressed came back. You never knew, and neither did I, that all this time, she was watching you, hating you, and awaiting her chance, which you foolishly gave her by going off by yourself. Do not make the same mistake, again! Odo says it was nip and tuck that we saved you, otherwise you would have been eaten alive, no matter how many times I cleansed your hurts. Strange chance, that that ointment was left where it was."
Chorania felt something click into place. "I have been thinking of chance all evening, abbil, and I am beginning to wonder about all these chances. Something is at work, here, and it is definitely not Lolth. Even Helm seemed surprised. Some other god, perhaps? Something that doesn't hate the drow, but pities the poor fugitives from Lolth's power? What could it be?"
It was Galadria's turn to think, hard. Finally, she said, "A god? A god that is interested in the drow? Which one? Surely, not one of the Elven Pantheon? The drow desecrate their temples whenever they can. Ooh!" She had a sudden thought. "You are a magic user, and a woman! How about Tres?" Tres was the Goddesss of Female Magic. "She is with Cyth, Em, and I strongly. On this very floor is a shrine to Tres, and the whole House is devoted to Her." She grew excited. "Cho, this is going somewhere. I can feel it. The drow women are almost all magic users, are they not?"
Wonderingly, Chorania replied, "Of course, abbil, or else I would not have become a priestess at all, but rather a warrior. My mother forced me. She said it would disgrace our House if one of the females did not study magic. But I never heard of Tres, not until I met with you."
"So," the dark mage went on,"you have a whole race of powerful female magic users who know Her not. It would not be a wonder if she did aid one of you who seemed likely to forsake Lolth and, eventually, turn to Her."
Timidly, Choriana fingered the amulet beneath her robe. "Would it not seem disloyal to Helm, Who saved me and accepted me? I would not offend Him."
Galdria hugged her and kissed her cheek . "Silly," she said affectionately, "Helm won't be offended if you pay service to another God, just as long as they are good. Helm is not jealous, but righteous. He, certainly, would welcome the means that led you away from Lolth and to salvation." Seeing the drow look doubtful, she laughed. "Don't worry, we'll ask Odo. He'd know."
"He certainly would," Chorania spoke warmly, "being one of Helm's Chosen, whatever that may be, exactly. Abbil, have I ever told you about my brother?"
"No, Cho," the dark mage said sympathetically, "except that until you met us, you thought he was the only one who cared for you."
"Well, " the drow said intently, "that is true. He is the one that overheard my mother's plot to sacrifice me to the spider god. He and I had been close since we were little. We would cry together after we were beaten. I was robing myself for the ceremony when he came in to me, urgently. Many times I have reproached myself for the way I spat insults to see him, for I was later than I wanted to be. But he said, 'Shut up, sister dear. Your little brother is about to save your life.' Then he told me that, at the height of the ceremony, the Matron Mother would have turned from the beast that she was pretending to sacrifice and plunge her dagger into my heart! He had heard my mother talking with my sisters. They were looking forward to it!
"Then I heard footsteps in the hall. They were coming to get me! Calith turned and walked casually away, but I stepped through the door into another room and ran like the wind. I do not remember most of that trip, but I remember coming to the portal that gave out to the surface. I stepped out...and the rest you know."
Galadria hugged her again. "Indeed, I do, dear heart. So, it is your brother you have fretting about?"
"I am," Chorania said, miserably, "He is probably dead, certainly so if my mother or sisters discovered his warning of me, but what if not? What if he is like me, an Outsider, but wandering the Underdark alone instead of being warm and safe and being hugged by a Mistress who is far too easy on her unworthy servants." She looked at Galadria with remorse. "Abbil, I...I was thinking of deserting you, to go and find him. How can you forgive me? If I were your Mistress, and I thought you were deserting, if I had done for you all you have done for me, I would have stripped you naked, tied you up, and whipped you until you could no longer scream."
Galadria grabbed her by the shoulders and looked at her sternly. "Cho, you know very well you wouldn't do anything of the sort. Why do you say such things? I've known you for years, and I've never even seen you with a whip, much less use it on one of your friends. Is that what you think I should do to you?"
The drow was downcast. "Yes, I do," she muttered. "I deserve no better."
The dark mage shook her, a little. "Cho, don't be so hard on yourself. I was standing right there. It probably just crossed your mind. It's not like I caught you sneaking out in full armor, packed for an expedition. You had a tremendous lot happen today, and you're all confused." She hugged her again. "Now tell me," she demanded, "why you insist on talking about whipping all of the time. You know it offends some people."
Choriania looked embarrassed. "It is a bad habit, abbil, that I picked up in the Underdark. You have been there, you know that the other drow talk like that all of the time. I had to appear as fierce as the others, to survive. I think that I still speak in those terms, when I am moved strongly. Or, when I joke with Noemi. I don't think she minds. It makes what she endured at Smaractus' hands a little easier to take, I think and hope.
"You remember how she was, when we first rescued her? She would not leave your side, started at the least sound, couldn't sleep?" Galadria nodded in grim agreement. "Well, at first we all tiptoed around her. But then, one day, I came across her sitting by herself, weeping. My heart went out to her, but I felt she needed more than that. She had gotten sympathy from us all, and still she was of no use to herself or anyone. I went over and sat down next to her.
""So, Noemi," I said, in my rough way, "That b'jinn tormented you, did he?" She just nodded, she was too choked up to speak. I put my arm around her shoulders, which startled her, I know. Then I said, 'Let me tell you what they did to me in the Underdark.' I told her of punishments that I endured at the hands and whips of my mother and sisters. I told her of my initiation into adult sexuality, when they tie you to a bed and any male with a gold piece can have you.. I told her of...other things.
"And at the end, when she was white-faced with shock, I said. 'And these were my family that did this to me. Be glad that your sister and your friends love you enough to rescue you. Mine never would."
Galadria smiled. "What did she say?" she asked.
"She just put her head on my shoulder and said, 'So you know.' But from then on, if she had a question about her feelings, she would come to me and ask it."
Galadria nodded. She remembered well the sight, across the campfire, of the drow and her sister conversing in whispers. She had not pried, then. She had only been happy that Noemi was talking to someone besides herself.
"So," Chorania went on," we would talk of being tortured, of how it made you feel. How you feel abandoned, and how worthless you are that others could do this to you, and laugh. We talked of the hopeless hate toward your torturers, and how you had to hide it, or it would be worse. The humiliations of it. The confusions, when one of your tormentors said or did something that smacked of kindness, how you would sieze on it and treasure it, until you realise how that is the worst of all, trying to please them. So, she began to come to terms with it, and I saw, to my joy, the gradual reemergence of the Noemi I knew, before..
"But, she started to banter with me, then. Teasing me, trying to get me to insult her. I went along for her sake, but perhaps others did not see it that way. I apologise, if I offended you, my deliverer. It was just that I so revolted myself that I felt that worthlessness, again. So, I said that."
Galadria kissed her on the cheek, tasting the rarest liquor in Faerun, a drow's tears. "No, you're not worthless, just because you want to go help your brother. Anyway, you're my torturer, like I said, so, tie yourself up and start whipping yourself. I'll run and get Noemi. She'll want to watch."
The drow almost smiled. "No, abbil, anything but that! Having Noemi watch me being tortured would exceed the tentacle rods of the Handmaidens. She would be calling out hints that she learned from Smaractus."
Her Mistress kissed her one last time and released her. "That's the spirit. Anyway, Cho, use sense. If your brother is still alive, in the city or in the Underdark, he's strong and claver enough to last until we get there."
Chorania looked her incredulity. "We?" she said with dawning hope.
Galadria regarded her fondly. "Yes, indeed. If you must go, we'll be going, too. Now that I have you back, I'm ceratainly not going to lose you to that awful spider. But, not tonight. First, we have to test my hypothesis. We must first consult Odo, and then, the Ceremony of Tres."

Ah, I do love that Drow woman. Better than Viconia, even. Carry on, Gal. [img]graemlins/awesomework.gif[/img]

As they say, zhennu emp'poss Gal. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

oh goody goody ;) this story gets better. ;) *grin* so are you gonna post some more? Hmm, I wonder if Kat's seen it recently ;) I'll have to ask her... at some point.

[img]smile.gif[/img] Thank you, everybody. Here we go:

With that, the dark mage left and went back downstairs, to bed. Chorania, suddenly feeling sleepy, arose, also, when she heard a small voice from the shadows. "Cho," it said urgently. She looked around sharply and saw Noemi standing there.
"Noemi," she said with surprise, "how long have you been here?"
The redhead came into the light. She smiled. "Long enough to hear that you have to torture yourself. Goodie! I wanna watch." She ran up to the drow and buried her face on her shoulder. She added in a whisper. "I heard you tell Gal about those talks we used to have. I thought you told me that they were gonna be a secret between us."
Chorania ran her hand through Noemi's short locks. "M'zint to," she said gently, "when I promised you that, I was not your sister's to serve all my life. I cannot keep a thing from her, if she wishes to know it. You should know this. What was there in all those talks that you would not wish Galadria to know?"
"Cho," the redheaded mage turned her face to her, seemingly changing the subject, "I just told Gal a few months ago that Sma...that bastard raped me."
"So?" the drow asked in a puzzled tone, "this has been known between us two for a long time. I will not ask why you didn't tell her, for that is your business. Why is it bothering you tonight?"
"Well," Noemi said slowly, "I came in while Gal was holding you and kissing you. I got incredibly jealous. I thought, 'Why her and not me?' So I got close and eavesdropped. And found that it was just Gal, soothing another lost soul, as usual. So, I wanted to talk to you about that. When Gal was holding you, did you feel...anything? You told me then that after your 'initiation,' you never wanted to have sex again."
This was totally unexpected. Chorania found herself torn from thoughts of an expedition to the Underdark to Noemi's psyche again. She answered, honestly, "I am not sure what you are asking, m'zint to . Towards your sister, my Mistress, I felt affection and gratitude, in more measure than usual. And, as I told you long ago, I have no desire to lie with a man. I do not wish a child to carry on my sorry line, and any thought of pleasure in the sex act vanished on that bed in the Underdark. Why are you jealous of me?"
"Well," Noemi answered, "you know all of my darkest secrets, so why not this one? I'm in love with Galadria."
The drow's puzzlement grew. "But so are we all. Even Odo and Cythera find room in their romance to love her. Why are you ashamed of loving your sister? I wish I could have loved mine."
"No!" the redhead cried in exasperation, "not love as in friendship, or even sisterhood. I love her like Attalus loves her. Truly, deeply, but for me, all in vain. So, I was jealous that you were getting hugs and kisses that I wanted. And I wanted to know if you felt about her like I do. Get it?"
Enlightenment came to Chorania.. "Such love," she said, "is not unheard of by me. The drow have studied the erotic arts for eons. But I have no desire to lie with anyone, male or female. Your sister is my Mistress, whether she will take the full powers or no. It would not be unheard of for some Mistresses to order her servant to lie with her. If she told me, I would be naked in her bed in an instant, ready for orders. But it would not be a thing I would enjoy. Is that clear enough, m'zint to?"
Noemi nodded reluctantly, "Oh, yes. I guess that I just figured that since Gal saved both of us, you might have the same feelings that I do." She sighed.
The drow smiled. "And now, little would-be lover of her sister, tell me in your turn. Your head is lying on my breast, which some have been kind enough to compliment. Even those oafs in the Underdark, may Lolth take their souls at the last. What do you feel? You say you will have no more to do with men, how do you feel about Chorania? Are you filled with lust for her?"
Noemi jerked her head away from her bosom in alarm. "What are you talking about, Cho? Of course I'm not lusting after you."
"All I am saying, m'zint to," she said in quiet amusement, "is that you're no lesbian. I know that you have had some very bad experiences with sex with men, and that you are fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have a very powerful and charismatic sister who dotes on you. Of course you love her, she saved you, she has never let you down. You trust her. But, take it from Chorania, if you really found yourself in bed with her, you wouldn't enjoy it. It wouldn't be like your romantic visions of it."
"But, Cho," the redhead protested, "I have slept with her, and I enjoyed it."
The drow raised her eyebrows. "Slept, as in spent the night in the same bed?" she asked with skepticism,"or as in had sex with?"
Noemi blushed. "As in slept in the same bed. She told me right out that she wouldn't be my lover, just my sister and friend. But I want to have sex with her. I've dreamed of it. When I was being raped, I thought of her doing it to me."
Chorania looked at her face closely. "You told her of this when you told her that you had beeen raped? What does she say?"
"She says that I just have a crush on her, and that I'll get over it. But I won't. And I don't want to," the redhead answered miserably.
The drow smiled."See! she agrees with me. Now you have the opinions of the two wisest women you know. Trust us, m'zint to . This will work itself out. In the meantime, don't be jealous of your poor drow fellow servant."
"All right, Cho," Noemi muttered. "But when you find me in my room, dead of love, you'll know that you and Gal were wrong , for once."
Chorania spun her around and spatted her, hard, on the bottom. The redhead squealed, "Ow!" She rubbed her posterior. "What was that for?"
"That," the drow said with asperity, "is for wasting my time with a schoolgirl crush with melodramatic threats of premature, tragic death. No doubt, you will be found clutching your sister's picture or with a piece of bread with the imprints of her beloved teeth upon it crushed to your bosom. You should know that this will never happen. You just like to dream about what everybody would say, how sorry that we would be. You and I have seen many corpses, and none of them died of love. Just swords and magic. As you no doubt heard as you eavesdropped like an ill-mannered brat, your Mistress and mine contemplates a trip to the Underdark. When you are patrolling ahead, as is your wont, and run into a Hook Horror or a Kuo-tai mage, tell them of your love as they tear you to pieces. Then, you can truly die of love."
Noemi pouted and started to go back downstairs. The drow stopped her by grasping her around her shoulders with one arm and hugging her tight. "Seriously, Noemi, you will have to be alert. I don't want to see the look on your sister's face when we find your poor, torn body. Understand?"
The littlr redhead wouldn't meet her eyes. "I guess," she said.
"And, Noemi," Chorania went on firmly, "you don't have to fantasize about how sorry everyone would be. I tell you now, that if you caused your own death, your sister, my Mistress, would be heartbroken. As would I, great Helm knows. You would deal us, your friends, a wound that none of our enemies ever has. So, don't. If you love your sister so, live for her. She doesn't want you to die. And neither do I."
Noemi chuckled, a reassuring sound. "Don't worry, Cho. I wouldn't ever do that. Life's too good, especially with you and Gal and the rest in it. So, you just keep your spanks off of my bottom, if you don't want me dead. You hit so hard, you're the one who would beat me to death." She stuck her tongue out at her, dodged another spat, and ran off down the stair. Chorania followed at a more sedate pace, shaking her head.