<div class="floatright"><div align="center">Bo, wet from the tub<br/>(http://imgur.com/l4hTH1s.jpg)<br/><br/>Lisa<br/>(http://i.imgur.com/S1SsSzu.jpg)<br/><br/>Ghesta and Rakhem<br/>(http://i.imgur.com/w2rfe77.jpg)<br/><br/>Lady Lulia Vasily<br/>(http://i.imgur.com/lUpda7F.jpg)</div></div><br/>Lisa scuttled away from Zerxel, grabbing at her throat after Zerxel threw her to the ground, her face a mix of shock and horror.  But Zerxel finished her thought then turned her back on the young human girl.  So of course the drow didn't see the tears welling and then falling from the girl's eyes, only heard Lisa scramble out of the room.  But what she did hear was Bo rising up out of her bath, grabbing a towel and chastizing,<strong>"Ye know what Zerxel, ye ken be a real cold hearted cunt.  There was no need fer that, it was just plain evil ta do ta that little girl.  If ye weren't me friend..."</strong><br/><br/>Bo didn't finish the thought, but wrapped the towel around her body and stalked off after Lisa,<strong>"Don't ye follow me ye witch, I'mma go comfort the wee lass."</strong><br/><br/>Zerxel was left in the bathing room alone, dripping, considering what she'd done.  She'd never heard that level of anger, cold anger, in Bo's voice before.<br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/><strong><br/>"...so that brings us to five contestants who have made it out of the second level so far."</strong>Rakhem, the masculine mercenary turned announcer said to the eyebot that was focused on his scarred face.<strong> "Which means that..."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Rakhem, hold on for a moment,"</strong>his gorgeous and corrupted co-host, the red and black skinned Ghesta said.<strong>"We've got a bit of a delayed wave coming in that I think is worth seeing.  This happened a short while ago, and I'm being told we... yes, we need to watch this!  Throw the wave up on the main screen please?"</strong><br/><br/>The main screen behind and between Ghesta and Rakhem flickered to life, showing the dungeon's youngest contestant, Lisa Buijteweg.  The very young contestant had only just celebrated her seventeenth birthday a short while before the dungeon had started, and the youth was obvious on her face as she grinned from ear to ear, bouncing down a dimly lit staircase.  She entered a larger room, and the eyebot panned around to show a red haired dwarf, Bogroudrid Leathershield, and an inky skinned drow, Zerxel Zaknafein, washing their bodies in tubs.  The joy was clear on young Lisa's face as she smiled at the other two contestants, and with a happy voice said out loud,<strong> "I have to thank you Zerxel for sending me here.  I thought the dungeon was going to be a death sentence, instead I found this place.  It may not be the celestial realms that the priests talked about, but it is a certain kind of heaven for me.  To live forever, in a vibrant tavern like this, surrounded by my sister contestants down in the basement, or the people above in the common room?  It's a lot better than being eaten by gobbers, taken slave by trolls, or turned into some horrid monster girl.  I owe you one."</strong><br/><br/>The distrust was obvious on Zerxels face as she responded, and the two had a conversation as the rather quiet dwarf watched for the most part.  Until finally Bo did chip in with a somewhat clipped and slightly forced sounding,<strong>"We're very happy for you Lisa,"</strong><br/><br/>Lisa, oblivious to the dark mood of the two bathers continued to joyously talk in perky up beat tones, specifically how she wouldn't have to face the horrors of the dungeon any longer with her decision to stay.  But all that changed as Zerxel's inky black body raised from the water slowly.  Eyebots zooming in on her luscious and seductive curves, water cascading down her white hair and black flesh.  Sultry, sensual, right up until the moment that she grabbed the girl that was more than sixty years younger than her by the throat, slamming a black hand over her lips as she pressed her face against the humans and spat in a threatening tone words that would be replayed quite a bit over the next few days,<strong>"Safe?  You're a fool if you believe yourself safe anywhere in the Dungeon.  This place might be protected, but all it would take is someone like me, pretending to be kind and good to get past the front door to make your life all kinds of Hell.  I could snap your neck right now and no one would stop me, bend you over the tub and perhaps rape you first.  Maybe I should?  But you go ahead and delude yourself Lisa, while us real contestants actually try to change things for the better by at least attempting to end this damned place.  You're a disgrace to every contestant that has ever participated, that has tried to reach the bottom, that has given everything they are to win despite the enormous odds stacked against us all.  Shugar is by far the better than you'll ever be, and she plans to leave this place the first chance she has."</strong><br/><br/>The girl, being thrown to the ground by the aggressive assassin, scurried away, barely managing to hold her tears until she was pounding into the stairwell, heading down further.  The Ætherwave froze on a particularly heartbreaking image of the young woman's face, tears drawing wet lines down her cheeks that were still rounded with the fat of youth.  Then the wave cut back to Bo's reaction, and while certainly the dwarf hadn't been fond of the young human, Zerxel's response had angered the dwarf as she spat some rather harsh words at Zerxel, then chased after the human.<br/><strong><br/>"Wow,"</strong>Rakhem said,<strong>"That's some powerful stuff we're seeing right there Ghesta."</strong><br/><br/>Ghesta nodded her head, her own eyes shimmering with unshed tears,<strong> "It certainly is Rak, it certainly is."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"I'm sure those words are going to have a strong reaction among a lot of our viewers at home.  A lot of people looked at Lisa as the 'little kid sister' of this year's event.  The youngest contestant, and from just outside of Paricum's capital as well, she had a lot of people rooting for her.  How do you think this is going to affect Zerxel's potential sponsors?" </strong>Rakhem asked, looking at Ghesta.<br/><br/>The red and black skinned announcer seemed to be gathering her thoughts, not quite answering right away.  Which any long term viewer of the main Ætherwave would know was quite unusual in itself.  The sultry corrupted beauty usually never seemed to be at a loss for words.  Finally she took a deep breath and said,<strong>"Rakhem, I know we're supposed to be impartial, and you'll have to forgive me here, but I have to speak my peace.  I was originally from Paricum myself, I was a little older than Lisa when she entered, but not by a lot.  But I know what it's like in there, I know how hard things are, I know what it's like to spend days constantly alert, and your nights in a state of terror.  That constant fear these contestants are under, it's no surprise that some seventy year old drow bitch, raised to constantly live in fear, in darkness, surrounded by monsters.  Of course she can hold up to that pressure.  But Lisa, come on, we know she was just barely old enough to even be selected for the Paricum lotto last year.  She may be a woman, but just barely.  Of course she's not going to hold up as well as other contestants.  I don't think that Zerxel is wrong, from her point of view, but it was a damn cold and heartless thing for her to say and to do that poor girl.  Especially coming from someone who has in the past talked about how she hated the dungeon, hated what it did to the contestants."</strong><br/><br/>Rakhem nodded slowly,<strong>"Could it be that we're seeing the corruption of the dungeon seeping into Zerxel?  Might that outburst have been because of the dungeon itself?"</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Possibly,"</strong>Ghesta admitted, though her tone made it sound like she doubted it,<strong>"But if you ask me, it's just what I would have come to expect from a black hearted drow if I'm going to be perfectly honest."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Ok, Listen, Ghesta you're obviously upset and not maintaining your neutrality here.  Why we take ten minutes here and we'll play some clips for the viewers at home." </strong>Rak made a motion to someone that stood behind the eyebots and said,<strong> "To our viewers at home, just a reminder, we will be replaying our best clips and events at night, and also on the secondary main wave, Ætherwave two, at all times.  Ghesta and I will be right back."</strong><br/><br/>The view on people's Ætherscreen faded out from the two announcers and played a clip from earlier, young Lisa making a deal with the spiderlings shortly after entering the second level.  The clip progressed for a while and ended up with her offering her body to them, for several hours, and in exchange receiving only a tiny vial in return.  The clip faded, showing her huddled on the second floor of a burnt out, collapsing home, huddled and crying, her fist clutching the tiny vial of poison that she had paid so dearly for.  Later watching out of a window as Zerxel and Bo walked by, but ducking out of sight just as Zerxel looked up at the broken windows that she'd been behind.<br/><br/>The final clip showing Lisa looking at her compass, noting that the golden key was very close.  Looking out a high window she saw the drow, the dwarf, and the bugbear approaching.  It was a straight shot down the street from where she was.  With her poisoned crossbow bolts, she could easily incapacitate two of them before the third even knew where she was.  She wasn't much of a fighter, but she was a crack shot with her crossbow.  She held up the poisoned bolts and looked at them.  The golden key, the golden key could be hers, and then she'd have some real power.  She raised the crossbow as she hunkered down behind the lip of the window.  She aimed it, sighting down the sights.  Adjusting for distance, wind, she drew her breath in deep as she'd been taught and let her finger touch the trigger.  But she hesitated.  There was Zerxel.  Zerxel had always seemed to be rather nice, especially for a Drow.  Especially compared to Xara.  Could she do it?  Could she kill Zerxel with a poisoned bolt from stealth?  Could she kill Bo?  Shugar?   She hesitated, the acrid smell of the poison burning her nostrils as she hesitated, trying to work up the nerve.  She bit her lip and whipped the crossbow around, firing the poisoned bolt into a wall on the other side of the dilapidated room.  She couldn't.  She just couldn't.  She knew these three, they were good women, they were good people.  She couldn't kill them just to get ahead.<strong> "I'll go talk to them,"</strong>she muttered quietly,<strong>"Maybe I can join them.  Four wouldn't be too many, and I'd trust them.  They won't know... they won't know how close I came... how close I came to almost..."</strong>She shook her head, clearing the thoughts.<strong> "They're good people, they'll help me."</strong><br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>Some time later, after she arose when the sun set, Zerxel's sponsor the Lady Vasily watched the replay of the day's earlier events.  She shook her head and frowned,<strong> "Well, that's not great."</strong>