Watching everyone as they packed up their gear from the night before, Thia took a deep breath. Now was as good a time as any to say what she had to. They really didn’t know what they’d encounter farther down the tunnel, after all. If she waited any longer, she may never know the answer.

And she needed to know.

“Hey, guys, can I ask a question?” She waited, nervously, until they all looked at her. All except for Helix. He was off…somewhere. Wherever it was that he disappeared to. Don’t get distracted, she chided herself.

“What is it, Thia?” Jinnaari asked.

“When I was with Lolth,” she started to speak, fidgeting with her hands. She couldn’t look at them. Not yet. “She made me take some drugs. Honestly, I don’t know if some of the things I heard, saw, or did are real. I know…I believe…I killed someone. I think I know who it was. But,” she took a deep breath and forced the words out of her mouth, “Adam and Caelynn aren’t here. Did I…do something to either of them?”

“No, they left before the fight.”

“They went poof!” Moon giggled, interrupting the paladin.

Thia raised her head in alarm. “Poof?”

“Yeah! The glowy thing showed up and they went poof with it.”

“I think what Moon’s trying to say,” he interjected, “is that Adam’s God showed up. He said that, if Adam and Caelynn stayed and went into the battle, we’d lose you. Them being there would be the catalyst. You’d either turn to Lolth, or to death. The two of them chose to step away–”

“Poof!”

Jinnaari threw a resigned look at the Tabaxi. “They poofed,” Moon smiled and went back to packing up, “rather than lose you.”

“I see,” Thia said, relief flooding her. “When will they be back?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Adam didn’t say. All he could tell me is that we’d find them back at the Green Frog when this was all over. The first two rounds were on him.”

She nodded, “The person I did kill…who was it?”

“I don’t know for certain. We didn’t hang around to identify the corpse or anything like that. But it’s my belief that it was your biological mother.”

“Thank you,” she said. Turning, she worked on attaching her bedroll to her pack. That all matched her memories of not seeing either of her friends after the fight, and who she’d killed. So much was still jumbled in her mind, though. How much of what Lolth had shown her was a lie? She knew the truth of the conversation between Kelemvor and Jinnaari, yes. There was still a measure of distrust, though. And a lot of questions she wanted answers to.

Not all of which she was ready to ask.