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Eilistraee stepped, smiling, from the woods near the path where Sigmundurr's sword was swirling in wide arcs, managing to keep the majority away but Kreet saw two of the bandits were drawing their bows.

"Hello gentlemen," Eilistraee said in a voice soft yet penetrating. "Mind if I interrupt your playtime?"

"Eilistraee!" Kreet called, relief washing over her. The bandits obviously did not recognize the name, and it was then that Kreet noticed her hair. Rather than floating around her head as she'd seen before, it was instead hanging long and luxurious over her shoulders.

"Holy shit!" one of the bandits said, breaking off his attack on Sigmundurr.

"Oh my. What's a pretty drow like you doing out of your caves?"

"And out of her clothes! Check out those boobs!"

"Oh, you like? And I thought you boys just liked playing with old men," Eilistraee was grinning now. She was obviously enjoying this. "And kobolds I suppose."

"What, this fat guy? We were just going to shave some excess weight off him. Wait, where''s Ulder?"

One of the men noticed their compatriot sleeping on his back nearby. "Just sleeping."

"Sleeping? Wait a minute. Are you some sort of caster, you drow bitch?"

The first had woken the sleeping man.

"Oh, I don't need magic," Eilistraee laughed, and produced two silver swords from behind her back. Kreet realized she'd seen the same thin blades during her dance the night before. "I think these will do just fine."

"FA: " one of the men laughed. "Toys! Here's a real sword!" He swung his huge bastard sword through the air.

"Well, if you really want to play with me, I would enjoy it. But I should warn you, I'm pretty good with these 'toys'."

"Tell you what, darkskin, why don't you put those away and I'll show you an even better sword!"

"What, just you? You think a single man is enough for me? I'll take you all on."

The bandits had left Sigmundurr behind, two keeping an eye on him. Sigmundurr wasn't hurt, but he was winded. "No sneaking up on us, big guy!" one said to him.

"Pfft. Me? I'm just a spectator now! You 'boys' have at it. This should be fun to watch." Sigmundurr said between breaths.

"Oh, it'll be fun alright. Listen bitch, this is your last chance. You can put those little pigstickers down and we'll treat you to all the swordplay you can handle. Keep them and you won't live to regret it."

Eilistraee twirled one around while leaning on the other. "Oh, I'm sure I won't regret it."

The lead bandit tested her with a swing. She danced back out of it's arc and tapped the sword with her own as it passed.

The others formed a circle around them, effectively preventing her from dodging too much. Then the first tried her again, an overhead swing this time. She deflected it with one blade and tapped him with the side of her sword on his wrist.

"Nice, lady. For a darkskin, you're not too bad. But you made a mistake. Apparently you think this is a GAME!" and with that he lunged at her in earnest, taking a vicious swipe at her legs. She leaped over the blade and before he could swing it back around he suddenly was clawing at his neck. Blood spurted from the thin line before his head tumbled off his body which crumpled to the ground.

"Holy FUCK!" cried one of the men.

"Rush her, she can't take us all!"

"Damn you drow, I'm gonna..."

And on that cue they all rushed in, blades first. Eilistraee laughed and speared two through the stomach as she ran between them, their blades crossing where she had been but finding nothing there. They went down screaming.

The other three looked at each other, eyes wide. Then they ran for the woods at top speed.

Eilistraee complained, "Wait! I thought we were going to play!?" and she threw a sword end-over-end at their backs. It skewered the hindmost dead center and he dropped like a rock, dead before he hit the ground.

"I can get the other two, if you want," Sigmundurr said loudly over the screaming of the two with hole through their abdomens.

"No need, I don't think. But thanks for the offer. As for you two...." she said, and passed her hand over them.

They stopped screaming. They stopped moving. They stopped breathing.

"You killed them?" Kreet said, horrified.

Eilistraee nodded. "Sorry Kreet. I know you don't like killing. But sometimes it's necessary."

"You could just as easily healed them! I know you could have."

"Yes, I could have. But you don't see the world as I do little one. You'll have to trust me on that. Both they and the world are better off this way. You cannot know the future, so for you it's best to be gentle and good. However, if you were in my place... Well, you'd understand better anyway."

"Then you could have just killed them instantly!" Kallid said, taking up Kreet's defense.

"...and spared them the suffering."

Eilistraee nodded. "Yes. I could have. I'm sorry. I'm not above having a little fun."

Kreet shot her an angry look. Eilistraee may be a goddess, but Kreet would never worship her. She had a mean streak.

As if reading her mind, Eilistraee sat down on the ground, making a dismissive gesture towards the bodies. At that, they disappeared, blood and all.

"No, I'm not a goddess of morality or good, Kreet. Most consider me good because I believe in harmony among the races, but I carry some aspects of the drow too. Your Pelor now... He's a Good god. He would agree with you. We get along, but he wouldn't deign to intervene in a petty squabble like that. He'd just erase them from existence and move along. But, you know, some good will come of that. Those last two... they will be better. Not good, but better men than they were. So they continue to exist at the cost of the other four."

"That doesn't seem right, still," Kreet said, sitting in front of the goddess, and Kallid sat beside her as if in support.

"You're not my cleric, Kreet. We do disagree on some things. We'll have to leave it at that. And yet, Sigmundurr... What do you think?"

"I think you should have killed them all when you got here."

"Ah! Now see, there's something I can work with! Come on now. We've a long way to go this evening and we still won't get to that village tonight."

"You got here awfully... conveniently."

Eilistraee sighed. "I know. Of course I knew what was going to happen. I could have been here earlier. That's why we gods really shouldn't hang around mortals too much. It's difficult. We're not perfect either Kreet. We have emotions too. I enjoy being with you, but it's taxing. You don't understand what I do or why I do it, and I can only give you a glimmer of what we know. Please don't ask too much of me. I will disappoint you, and I don't want to do that."

"Well... no more killing, okay?"

"Not even if, say, Kallid were in danger?"

Kreet thought about that a second, then stood up. "Well... no. That would be okay."

Eilistraee stood again, joining her, and her hair began to flow around her shoulders eerily. The goddess was back.

"See? There are, circumstances. And the more you knew, the more circumstances you'd find. There are even circumstances where killing a good person results in greater good than letting him live, if those circumstances require it."

"Sounds like you're saying we shouldn't trust you," Kallid said, eyeing the goddess.

"You probably shouldn't. Not because I intend you harm, but because you don't know my reasons. You _can't_know my reasons. And so, it's probably best from your perspective if you don't. The Capricious God, you'd say. And yet, from my point of view, I'm anything but capricious. I like you. Even Sigmundurr. And I'll try and keep you on the right path as long as I can, and I'm not just talking about this road."

"That'll have to do, I guess," Kreet said, and they continued into the night of the second 'day'.