Disclaimer: I don't own any of the names, characters, setting contained within. Bioware/Black Isle/Interplay does.
The Apple of the Tree
Aliana, my mother, daughter of Ellesime. Concubine of Bhaal. Gone.
The Tree of Life stared down at me, mocking me with its sweeping boughs and majestic gnarls. My heritage, one part of it anyway. I turned and gazed at my grandfather. Ravaged by chill, blue calm stared back, unflinching. More frozen than the deep ice, he stood a pillar of strength. I took a breath, nodded and began to chant. As the innovations took hold, steadying, preparing my mind, a shadow pranced in the background; my 'aunt'.
It was the barest of nods, the slightest encouragement. He never offered encouragement, only silence, his will made manifest. Today, I would restore us all. Today, the sap would flow upon us, and my grandmother would learn. They would all learn.
That is what Bhaal's taint believed. It believed it drove me. I felt nothing for it, nothing for its cause. Grandfather had taught me that. I repressed such pitiful yearnings and focused my will, honing it until it too became manifest. My sire was Murder incarnate; his goal was carnage, terror, death. Mine was life. I would restore my mother, restore my aunt and grandfather. I would fill myself with the life divine power would bring, and together, we would be a family and put an end to the threat my half-siblings possessed.
It had been easier than I expected. Persuading grandmother had been a matter of words and tears, desperate pleading. I had told her everything she wanted to hear. Aliana was in here, I told her, tapping my heart, and I would return her to us all. Such blasphemy was forbidden, she had told me, her eyes brimming with sympathy and compassion, aware of the inner struggle I faced. Bhaal, I answered, was the blasphemy, and if I did not rise above the rest of his spawn, another would seize Murder's throne. A choice between a Tree I would restore, or the fate of countless lives? Tears formed, and she embraced me. Her beloved child.
And so it began. Slowly, the Tree's life energies drained into me, its fruit already set aside for rebirth. She had spoken to the Tree, and brokered an arrangement. My grandfather and aunt, exiles, would atone for their heinous crimes by aiding me. Through eliminating the rest of Murder's spawn, they would be given life, their souls returned.
It was easy to find me, he had said. His agents, her servants, bringing me. The resemblance clear. Blood of my blood, life of my life. My saviour, my protector. My teacher.
I had learned well. The Tree withered and died, and I was renewed. Power flooded through me, and my aunt and grandfather were restored. Beside them, Aliana stood, reborn. Her beauty, her features, were my own. I was her very image. More tears slipped from grandmother's eyes. Reconciliation, after so long.
And now a second reconciliation would follow. Retribution in all its terror.
It was time to claim my father's throne.
