“Thia!” Rhaine shouted at her.

“I’m fine,” she replied. Moving carefully, she pulled herself free of the remnants of the webbing. “Once Adam killed the priestess, most of it dropped away.” She shuddered, brushing the last of the sticky strands from her cloak.

“Anyone hurt?” Rhaine called out again as Thia moved around the body of the demon and joined the party.

“I am!” Lor replied, one hand clutching her side.

Thia waived the redhead’s hand aside. “I told you already, I’m fine. I’ll take care of her.” She approached the dragonborn and started to cast a healing spell. At the same time, she listened.

“This wasn’t normal, Adam. Lathander be damned, we were in a dungeon. This group targeted us, pulled us here. Thoughts?” Rhaine’s voice was tinged with anger. Thia understood it. She was angry herself. And terrified.

“No, it wasn’t,” the warlock answered. “They were after something.”

“Not something, Adam. Me.” Thia’s voice shook. This was wrong. All of it. There’d been too many close calls lately. Eventually, one of her companions would be out of range of her spells and die trying to keep her safe. “Maybe I should just go back to my temple. I can hide there. All of you would be safer if I wasn’t here.”

Rhaine spun around and looked at her. “You think they’d stop hunting you just because you were in a temple? Lolth doesn’t give a damn about the other Gods. Their holy places have no reverence or fear among the Drow. You go back there, Thia, and every single person that helps hide you would die. Every person in the town or village that ever walked onto the grounds would be slaughtered. No. You’re staying here. Kelemvor sent you out to help this group, right? Get rid of this death curse crap?”

Thia nodded, swallowing hard. The guilt rose within her. So much blood would be on her hands.

“Then stop feeling sorry for yourself and do your damn job.”

Caelynn moved closer and knelt in front of her. “Thia, you’re here for a reason. Same as the rest of us. Rhaine’s right, though I don’t agree with the words she chose.” Lynn turned her head and shot a dirty look at the other cleric. “You’re not in this alone. None of us are going to let the Drow take you anywhere. When he’s ready, Jinnaari’s going to rejoin us. At some point, though, we’re going to have to deal with this complication. You can’t run forever.”

Adam cleared his throat. “Listen to Lynn, Thia. The best way – the only way – for us to get Lolth off your trail for good is to kill Her. That’s Jinnaari’s job. Ours is to keep you safe and get him close enough. As to this,” he kicked at the corpse of a dead spider, “it’s going to get worse as they take us seriously. We’ll take care of them, though.”

Caelynn rose. “Enough of this talk. We won the fight. That’s all that matters. No use dwelling on what might’ve happened when it didn’t.”

Thia looked at the elf, “You’re right,” she said with a quivering breath. “One step at a time.”

“And the next one’s this way,” Adam called out from a nearby wall. He stood next to an opening. The room where they’d rested the night before lay beyond the threshold.

Thia settled the hood back over her head, hiding her features. Kelemvor, give me strength, she prayed within the silence of her soul.