The Heat of the Moment

Chapter IX: Can't get you out of my head

Karlach had essentially ordered Diana to bunk with Lae'zel for the night, ignoring her loud protests and preference to stay in her own tent despite the sizable hole in it, and effectively sent her to bed before everyone else parted ways to their own tents. Lae'zel heeded Karlach's directives without argument, even seeming to agree with them in the militaristic way soldiers fall into line. The two of them seemed to feel some sort of comfort in following the chain of command, and therefore a sort of working relationship formed between the grouchy Gith and the smoldering barbarian.

The air of the camp was tense the following morning as if the incident between Astarion and Diana was only the igniting spark to a series of unfortunate events to follow. As Diana bent to exit Lae'zels tent, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she blinked in the chilly, albet a little warmer breeze of the morning. She could distinctly hear Lae'zel and Shadowheart arguing in the sleepy silence of the camp across the way from her; It was no secret that the two women didn't much like each other, and those feelings seemed to only intensify as the days passed. The two of them had been at odds since their fight to escape the nautiloid, Shadowheart having resented Lae'zel for pressuring Diana to leave the cleric behind when she was trapped in her pod. From the looks of it, no one else in camp had awoken just yet and the women in question were left alone to their own devices as the sun was just rising behind the treeline.

As Diana quietly approached, she could see that the argument was more heated than she originally anticipated. Shadowheart and Lae'zel were nearly nose to nose, the half-elf taking a measured breath before jabbing her finger at the pissed off Githyanki.

"You have no right to demand things of me, Gith. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, even though I would love to throw you right off a cliff." Shadowheart seethed, her long braid that she kept tied up high on her head swinging behind her in a long silken rope. She gripped the multi-faced artifact in her hand beside her hip, knuckles whitened with the intensity of her hold.

"I'd like to see you try." Lae'zel retorted, her eyes shining with rage as she held her ground with her hands on her hips. Diana's gaze moved back and forth between them as she cleared her throat loudly - Shadowheart startled as if finally registering that they were no longer alone.

"Whats' going on?" Diana asked carefully, noting how the Githyanki's focus shifted between the artifact and Shadowheart's face, her focus not leaving the raven-haired woman as she finally answered;

"I demanded that she tell me why she has an artifact that has the writing of my people all over it."

Diana tilted her head in thought, looking up at the pretty half-elf in question. Shadowheart's attention shifted to her, staring her down as if she challenged her to take either side. Diana's eyebrows knit together in thought as she tried to think of a way to diffuse the situation, biting her lower lip as she thought. The longer she looked at Shadowheart, the more the half-elf seemed to be more on edge, a flash of worry flashing across her eyes and vanishing as quickly as it appeared. The cleric of Shar had not done anything since they met to endanger the party and genuinely appeared to be just as intent on helping the cause to find a cure as anyone else - she had actually come to trust her as time went on, and even believed at this point that whatever secrets that she kept were for a good reason. At that moment, Diana decided that pressing the issue was likely more harmful than letting the matter rest for the time being - the party had more important things to worry about at present.

"Let her be, Lae'zel. I am sure that there will be time later to talk about it." Diana requested slowly, sizing the Gith up in the event that she turned her anger towards her. The green-complected woman only curled her lip at her in irritation - her temper clearly getting the best of her. Shadowheart risked a look of relief towards Diana before fixing her face into a look of cold indifference toward the woman making demands of her and challenging her character.