18 - Watchful

The cavernous room was quiet, save for the odd dripping of water. Sariel peeked around a pillar, exposing as little of herself as possible. She could see her target on the distant wall, about a hundred feet away through a forest of columns. Quieter than a mouse, the half-elf slipped from her hiding spot and slinked up to a new, closer one.

A beholder's lair is somewhere an adventurer never wants to find herself, for any reason. Yet, Sariel was here. Beholders jealously hoard coin, art, valuables, and more importantly, magic items, and Sariel was unable to resist the siren's song of a cloak of invisibility. Thankfully, the beholder seemed to be gone for the moment.

After carefully disarming a pressure plate, Sariel searched through the vault of magic items for her desired cloak. Yet, nothing was immediately apparent. Could there be a vault hidden inside the vault? It would take time to look, something that had just run out.

She didn't see nor hear the beholder when it returned to its lair, but instead felt the wind shift. Her heart leapt. She scurried back behind a nearby pillar, hoping the beholder wouldn't notice her intrusion.

It idly floated over to its treasure hoard, angrily muttering to itself. Sariel dared a glance around the column, watching it look through its belongings. If her heart leapt when the aberration had returned early to its lair, it stopped when the beholder's mutterings ceased.

"THIEF!"

The voice boomed throughout the ancient dwarven hall. Sariel flinched at the noise, and held her breath. She straightened her back against her cover, thinning herself as much as she could.

"COME OUT, LITTLE THIEF! WE KNOW YOU ARE HERE!"

Not a movement, not a sound. She was as undetectable as she could be.

"AH, WE SEE HER AT LAST!"

Sariel's head snapped up, only to see an eye stalk staring right at her. With only a split second to react, she rolled out of the way of a magical beam. The beam hit right where she was, instantly disintegrating a huge chunk of stone. The beholder growled in frustration, and released another magical beam at her. This time, it hit her squarely in the back. She tumbled to the ground...

...But nothing happened.

"Oh, you're an elf." The beholder sounded almost annoyed.

Had it tried to magically put her to sleep? There was no time for thinking, only running. Fighting would be pointless, as she couldn't summon her bow inside the beholder's anti-magic eye ray. She could see the exit just ahead, looking back only long enough to see when she had to slide under or leap over the next magical ray.

Right as she leaped through the crack in the wall, she stopped. Not voluntarily, or even on the ground. She was being held aloft by a ray coming from the beholder. She tried to move. She couldn't. Her stomach dropped out from under her.

"Got you, little thief."

It sounded more than pleased with itself. The telekinetic ray dragged her out in front of the great floating orb. There was no escape.

"How would you like to die, elf?"