Thalhkarsh screamed in pain, unanticipated, unexpected, and all the worse for that. He felt at the same moment a good half of his stored power flowing out of him like water from a broken bottle --
-a broken bottle!
His focus -- was gone!
And pain like a red-hot iron seared through him, shaking him to the roots of his being.
He lost his carefully cultivated control.
His focus was destroyed, and with it, the power he had been using to hold his followers in thrall. And the pain -- it could not destroy him, but he was not used to being the recipient of pain. It took him by surprise, and broke his concentration and cost him yet more power.
He lost mastery of his form. He took on his true demonic aspect -- as horrifying as he had been beautiful.
And now his followers saw for the first time the true appearance of what they had been calling a god. Their faith had been shaken when he did nothing to save the life of his High Priest. Now it was destroyed by the panic they felt on seeing what he was.
They screamed, turned mindlessly, and attempted to flee.
His storehouse of power was gone. His other power-source was fleeing madly in fear. His focus was destroyed, and he was racked with pain, he who had never felt so much as a tiny pinprick before. Every spell he had woven fell to ruins about him.
Thalhkarsh gave a howling screech that rose until the sound was nearly unbearable; he again slapped Kethry into the wall. Somehow she managed to take her blade with her, but this time her limp unconsciousness as she slid down the wall was not feigned.
He howled again, burst into a tower of red and green flame, and the walls began to shift.
Tarma dodged past him and dragged Kethry under the heavy marble slab of the altar, then made a second trip to drag Warrl under its dubious shelter.
The ground shook, and the remaining devotees rushed in panic-stricken confusion from one hopedfor exit to another. The ceiling groaned with a living voice, and the air was beginning to cloud with a sulfurous fog. Then cracks appeared in the roof, and the trapped worshipers screeched hopelessly as it began to crumble and fall in on them.
Tarma crouched beneath the altar stone, protecting the bodies of Kethry and Warrl with her own -- and hoped the altar was strong enough to shelter them as the temple began falling to ruins around them.
It seemed like an eternity, but it couldn't have been more than an hour or two before dawn that they crawled out from under the battered slab, pushing and digging rubble out of the way with hands that were soon cut and bleeding. Warrl did his best to help, but his claws and paws were meant for climbing and clinging, not digging; and besides that, he was suffering from more than one cracked rib. Eventually Tarma made him stop trying to help before he lamed himself.
'Feh,' she said distastefully, when they emerged. The stone -- or whatever it was -- that the building had been made of was rotting away, and the odor was overpowering. She heaved herself wearily up onto the cleaner marble of the altar and surveyed the wreckage about them.
'Gods -- to think I wanted to do this quietly! Well, is it gone, I wonder, or did we just chase it away for a while?'
Kethry crawled up beside her, wincing. 'I can't tell; there's too many factors involved. I don't think Need is a demon-killer, but I don't know everything there is to know about her. Did we get rid of him because he lost the faith of his devotees, because you broke the focus, because of the wound I gave him, or all three? And does it matter? He won't be able to return unless he's called, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to call him, not for a long, long time.' She paused, then continued. 'You had me frightened, she'enedra.'
'Whyfor?'
'I didn't know what he was offering you in return for your services. I was afraid if he could see your heart -- '
'He didn't offer me anything I really wanted, dearling. I was never in any danger. All he wanted to give me was a face and figure to match his own.'
'But if he'd offered you your Clan and your voice back -- ' Kethry replied soberly.
