Disclaimer: Baldur's Gate and its sequels are property of Bioware and Black Isle. Rachel isn't exactly the typical Bhaalspawn lead, but… she takes the same role. Yes, this does follow the basic plotline of Shadows of Amn, and possibly Throne of Bhaal, but it's not exactly identical. I'm mostly writing it to explore a few concepts in my mind, and because there's a couple of scenes near the end that keep bugging me in my head. Read at your own risk…
Chapter 2 Part 2
"Rachel, are you listening to me..?" Anomen asked, frowning to himself. He'd been telling her about a man who'd approached him with work when suddenly she'd started staring off into the distance as though distracted.
"Yes, sorry, what were you saying?" She looked back at him, and like every time he saw her elven features his breath caught. For all that she was grey-haired, she looked as young and vital as he knew he himself did.
"Thankyou. He said his name was Jeirdan Firkraag. A lord from the eastern end of the country who's been having monster problems. It's a bit far to travel, but the reward is large enough to see us more than half way to our goal." Anomen forced his words past her beauty as though it were a physical lump in her throat. The fact that the glory involved in the task helped considerably didn't even cross his mind.
"Firkraag... the red-haired man who was in here yesterday?" Rachel asked, tilting her head.
"Yes. Twelve thousand gold for a few ogres and wyverns." Yoshimo spoke up, slipping into one of the free chairs around their table in the coronet's common room. "Very suspicious. Though the gold is as much a motivation for myself as for you and lord Delryn, it stinks like a trap left in the sun for three days."
"I agree with you, Yoshimo, but can we risk not taking it?" Rachel asked, ignoring Anomen's seething. She wasn't sure if it was being undermined by the hunter or the sarcastic address that annoyed him so much, but he did seem rather unstable for a paladin in training. "Do we know why this Firkraag might want to do Anomen harm? No, first, Anomen, did he mention the rest of us in his offer?"
"Yes, actually, he did. Especially you, Rachel." Anomen paused, as though thinking. "It didn't seem odd at the time, but I was a little drunk... he used your name."
"Definitly a trap, then, and set against me." Rachel frowned. "But why? And why approach Anomen instead of myself..?"
"That, I cannot fathom." Yoshimo apologised. "Still, it is possible that he has the money."
"Yes. Lets keep him in mind, but he'll keep for a while. Anything else?"
"I have had a thought. It is possible that Renal Bloodscalp may have work for us, if you do not mind a little skullduggery. The last time I was in Athkatla, he told me in no uncertain terms that if I was ever in the city again I should visit him to pay his guild my dues."
"He's a shadow thief?" Anomen asked, scowling. "We should certainly not take up with them!"
"It's a possibility, Anomen. If you're to survive as an adventurer, you'll have to learn that sometimes you must work with devils to do the work of the gods." Rachel told him, smiling slightly. The expression turned to a slight frown as she saw Minsc approaching with a child in tow, his expression thunderous.
"Rachel! We must go east! This boy has a story of woe and must be avenged!" The ranger growled.
"Minsc, calm down. What happened?" Rachel spoke softly, turning to look at the boy.
"Mayor Loyd t-told me to come to the c-city and find someone who c-could help us. P-people have been vanishing back home and t-then t-turning up inside out and crazy." The boy stuttered, clearly frightened out of his wits by talking to them.
"Damn. Calm down, please, you don't need to be afraid of us." Rachel smiled at him and reached out to put a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Can you tell us anything else?"
"No... I don't know anything else." The boy shook his head, but then seemed to remember something. "There's a reward! I can't remember how much though..." He looked down, apologetically.
"Can you tell us how to get there?" Rachel asked, and he nodded. "Okay. I need to talk to my friends for a moment. Yoshimo, could you get him a sweet or something?" She looked at the thief, who nodded.
"Of course. What's your name, little boy? You don't need to be afraid, I'll look after you." The bounty hunter smiled at the child, who nodded and told him it was Dylan before following him out of the tavern.
"Minsc, sit down." Rachel told him, then waited for him to comply before continuing. "We can't take every charity case you find. We have to concentrate on getting enough gold to rescue Imoen."
"Boo has told me this, but he is a little boy! We cannot leave him alone in the city when he needs our help!" Minsc growled. "If you deny that, then you are not the Rachel Minsc has travelled with for two years!"
"We'll help him, we have to now, but please, in the future don't promise anything until you've talked to me about it." She paused, then looked at Anomen. "Do you feel up to this? I want to send you with Minsc to assess the situation. We need to work quickly to raise the money as quickly as possible, so if we can split up without too much risk of failiure, I think it would be a good idea."
"I think so. How should we contact you if it proves too difficult for us alone?" The cleric asked, though he clearly didn't expect to be making that contact.
"Minsc knows a way. Listen, Anomen. Minsc is a powerful warrior, but I need you to keep a level head. He's impulsive and prone to rashness. Don't be a fool and try to take on whatever's out there alone. The village is certain to have had a ranger or druid enclave nearby who will have tried to do something about this. Whatever it was is clearly beyond their abilities, so be careful." She knew it was a gambit, sending a still untried member of the team as its' mind, but she hoped that Minsc's experience would shine through his head-wound in the same way it usually did and stop the cleric making any stupid decisions. Minsc was insane and reckless, but rarely put others at risk except in the heat of combat.
"Very well. Thank you for your trust, Rachel." Anomen smiled, standing. "We'll leave as soon as the boy returns."
"Anomen." Rachel interrupted him as he moved to leave. "One more thing. Listen to Boo. He might not be a miniature giant space hamster, but he does occasionally have something useful to say." She held his gaze, letting him know that she was entirely serious, before letting him go to prepare.
"Minsc. Look after him. He's young an inexperienced." She looked at the Ranger, who nodded.
"Little Anomen will not be hurt while Minsc and Boo are there." He replied, confidently. "He is very soft under his tin suit."
"Thanks. I knew I could count on you." Rachel smiled, then stood to go and find Yoshimo.
Later that day, she walked through the streets of Athkatla, looking for she didn't know what. She'd dispatched Yoshimo to see the Bloodscalp as soon as Anomen's delicate sensibilities were out of the way with the promise that if he didn't return by midnight, she'd come and extract him personally.
Something pricked in the corner of her attention, less a sight or a sound as a feeling. It didn't feel like normal magic, more like glamour. Still, it wouldn't surprise her if there were other fey in the area. Curiosity overcame her, however, and she turned to walk in that direction, intending to see what was happening. She found herself walking towards the Promenade district they'd emerged from the previous day. As she got closer, the sense of glamour increased, until she was staring at the tent in the circus.
"Sorry, miss, you've just missed the show..." The speaker was a middle-aged man with a beard, wearing travelers' clothing. "They should be coming out in a moment, soon as the illusionist is done."
"Ah. I thought magic was banned in Amn?" Rachel asked, frowning. "My name's Rachel, by the way."
"Feargus, I run this show. And it is, normally, but somehow that little gnome got a writ from the Cowled Wizards to let him use his powers." The man shrugged. "No idea how he did it, and I don't care, really."
"Interesting..." Rachel mused. This gnome was using faerie glamour somehow to enhance his illusions... if he was a gnome at all. It wouldn't surprise her if he was a powrie or other small faerie using glamour to pretend to be a gnome. "Think I could talk to him after?"
"Sure, I guess. He's a bit... odd. Might not want to talk to you." Feargus shrugged, then checked his pocket watch. "Should be done by now though..."
"Maybe it overran. Can't you check?" Rachel asked, slightly surprised that he didn't expect it. "Ah..." She hissed in pain, clutching her head suddenly as the glamour flared like a nova in her mind. "Does he usually have a big finish..?"
"Yes, but... what's wrong? Miss Rachel? Are you alright?" Feargus asked, looking at her with concern.
"Nothing..." She straightened, blocking the glamour out of her mind through force of will. "I'm fine, just a headache. I get them."
"Ah, alright. Still, they should have been coming out by now... I'll go see what's happening." Feargus shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to the tent, nudging the flap aside with his shoulder.. "Hey... that's weird... it's all dark."
"Dark...? What do you mean?" Rachel walked over and peered in past him. "Oh dear. Your gnome is slightly more than he seems, mister Feargus. You'd better fetch the guard and make sure no-one comes in. This is outside their expertise."
"And it's in yours? The inside of my tent has disappeared!" Feargus sounded slightly frantic. "What am I meant to tell them? I was talking to some girl and she got a headache and the tent vanished?"
"No, tell them something went wrong with the magic and you've sent for the cowled wizards to deal with it, but need someone to make sure they're not disturbed." She grinned. "Relax. Either I'll succeed or I won't. Either way, I'll see you in a while." Then she stepped through into the darkness.
"You've got guts, Yoshi." Renal was lounging on a pile of cushions even as the disarmed Kazakuran stood between two guards.
"Please don't call me that, Renal. In my homeland, such pet names are reserved for people rather closer than we two." Yoshimo replied, stiffly. Every time they'd met, the Bloodscalp had come close to making him lose his temper.
"Whatever." Renal waved a hand, then leaned forward. "So what could possibly possess you to return here after our last meeting? Not just to Athkatla, even, but to come here, to my stronghold."
"My new employer asked me to see if you had any work you needed a outsider for. Besides, there is a debt between us that must be payed. My employer is a very powerful woman. You should be glad that she deems it necessary to ask for work rather than simply slaughtering your guard and taking your gold directly." Yoshimo knew he was taking a risk threatening the shadow thief, but with everything that already hung over his head he knew that there was little they could do to him that he would not otherwise suffer regardless.
"Definitely got balls." Renal chuckled, leaning back. "Usually, I would have you drawn for threatening me, but it so happens that I do have a task for your Rachel. Oh, don't look so surprised, of course I know her name. Such a dashing figure she cuts, appearing like that in the middle of the strike against the undead bitch's pet mage. When does she expect you back?"
"Before nightfall." He told Renal, knowing that any sooner and the lie would be obvious, but not wanting the man to know he actually had until midnight.
"Plenty of time. Why don't you come and let me earn that pet name, Yoshi?" Renal smiled like a shark as he leaned forward again.
As she stepped into the glamour, Rachel knew that her words to Feargus had been foolish. There was no guarantee that she'd be able to come back out if she failed to break the glamour. Once a faerie set up a demesne such as this one, they made the rules inside it. Only another fey could really stand up to them once they were entrenched, using their own personal glamour to let them affect how the altered laws of reality affected them.
Take, for example, the change in light. Outside, it was late afternoon, the suns' rays warming the streets as a last gasp before the darkness. Here, the cold stillness of moonlight hung in the air, a single silver orb hanging low in the sky. If she had so chosen, Rachel could have expended some of her own glamour to keep the false moonlight from her skin and instead exist as though she still stood within the circus tent. As it was, she saw that as a waste of valuable power, all of which she might end up needing if she were going to confront the master of this new half-world.
As the moonlight washed across her skin, caressing her, she felt the change start to come over her. She couldn't put her finger on exactly when it happened, but one moment she stood there, moonlight flowing across her like water, the next he was two inches taller and more heavily built, the moon stroking ethereal fingers across the more powerful muscles of his other form. Ray sighed, revelling in the feeling of strength and choosing to ignore, for the moment, the loss of speed his daylight, female form enjoyed. Though the differences in his personality were subtle, he still chose to call himself Ray in this form, and Rachel in the other. It made it simpler to deal with the authorities and anyone else who wasn't aware of his dual nature for him to appear as two separate people. Resting his hands on the Songs at his waist, he felt Alauna's sting of distrust, but ignored the blade. He had spent a full day in meditation with the blade in his other form to get her used to him before springing the surprise of his male form upon the man hating sword. Alauna still sulked, on occasion, but he liked to think that he'd earned her acceptance, if not her trust.
Putting thoughts of his sword aside, however, he remembered that there was work to be done. Looking at the massive, domed structure in front of him he took in the many windows and dull, blue-grey construction of some unknown and likely nonexistent material before striding across the bridge. He stopped halfway, however, when the first guardian appeared to slow his passage. A djinn, by appearance, spiralling from nowhere in a way that reminded him infuriatingly of Ataqah.
"Halt, trespasser, for you now travel in the realm of Kalah the benevolent." The genie paused. "Only those quick of wit and agile of mind may travel further. Answer me this riddle, and you may pass."
"Very well, but know that I wrote the one about the prince and princess of ten years age difference." Ray smirked, folding his arms at the noble elemental's stunned look.
"Fine, then. 'tis eternal and yet small, perfect in shape, perfect in metal. A symbol of eternal bonds that ought never be broken." The djinn answered after a moment, looking triumphant.
"A gold wedding ring." Ray replied after a moment of thought. "The bonds that ought never be broken but often are."
"The answer given is true, you may pass." The genie told him, before fading the same way it had appeared, leaving the way into the dome open. Ray smiled to himself as he walked in through the shrouded portal...
Earlier that morning, Aerie had found herself distracted. In fact, she realised, it was more than that. She'd been unable to concentrate on anything since she'd seen that strange girl walking past the circus as she finished healing Arkal's wing. The falcon was better, but her own studies had been affected. She'd been barely able to focus enough to memorise her spells that morning, her mind drifting always back to the strange, grey-haired elf. Yet somehow, she knew that the foreigner was no more a normal elf than she herself was. Something about her eyes, during that strange, indescribable moment when they'd seen each other, told her that there was more to the girl than she knew.
Then later, she'd forgotten to reset the wards in the tent that stopped either her own or Kalah's magic from going out of control. Yes, they weren't usually needed, but still, as she slipped inside the tent to work on them in time for the afternoon performance she'd had a strange foreboding feeling right up until she'd completed recasting the wards... then everything went dark.
Now, she was trapped, the old terror resurfacing as she felt the heavy shackles that weighed down her arms and dragged at her ankles.
"Ah, little Aerie..." A voice taunted, and she opened her eyes to stare at the speaker. She knew that voice, but somehow, it was impossible to reconcile the gnomish accent with the deep, resonant and commanding voice that issued from the giant, tauric creature that spoke. "Or not so little, beast of mine." The voice laughed. "What's wrong? Don't you recognise me?"
"No! Who are you?! Wh... where are we? What did you do to uncle Quayle?!" She stammered, her voice betraying her terror. She felt strange, and it was more than just the heavy silver chains that dragged her down. It felt as though her whole body was made of lead.
"That buffoon... you won't need to be worrying about him any longer." The goat-headed ogre chuckled again. "I have him upstairs, finally in a form that suits him. Now, to set your torment. This sword I wear? A magnificent weapon, is it not? It is no more a sword than you are an ogre."
"What do you mean? I'm not an ogre, I'm an Avariel!" she told him, finally forcing herself to stand. That was when she realised that she was the same height as her tormentor. "No!" She gasped, looking down at herself and lifting an arm to look. "It's not... what have you done to me?"
"Nothing that you don't deserve, you miserable wretch. Always so wrapped up in your own misery that you never paid any attention to anyone else's!" The taur growled, backhanding her across the face and knocking her back to the floor. "Well, now lets see how you like it. This sword is the key to your chains. All you have to do is hold it and you'll be free. Who knows, maybe you'll even be an elf again. Now look over there. I'm going to give it to those nice villagers over there. They've been told not to give it to you under any circumstance, so please, feel free to beg." Laughing, the creature turned away and walked along the path that led round towards where the villagers stood. As she watched him, she started to take in the rest of the room. The floor only covered a walkway around the edges and the cross-shaped spars that she was chained to. The rest was filled with pools of water. The edges of the pathways were decorated with flower boxes and statues, making the room appear quite pleasant... if it weren't for the giant spiders that scrambled across walls and her own predicament.
"Please, you have to give me the key..!" She called to the villagers, who sniggered and laughed.
She had no idea how long she waited there, asking, begging, even pleading them to listen to her, but just laughed and taunted her with it. Eventually, she gave up and flopped back down, her initial terror replaced by crushing despair.
After what felt like hours, something made her look up. Her eyes were sore from crying, and her cheeks burned from the salt. She looked in the direction of the way out, and what she saw gave her a sudden, irrational hope. She stood up, watching as the figure seemed to dance silently between the monstrous gaolers, a sword in each hand flicking out to merely touch the horrendous creatures and make them fail and crumple. Long, grey hair swirled around the figure, concealing any details from view until finally the dancer stopped, head down and blades crossed in front of their chest. For long moments, Aerie was certain that it was the girl from the previous day, but when the figure raised its head to look at her with emerald eyes, she realised her mistake. This grey-haired warrior was a man.
"Please!" She called out to him. "You have to help me!"
"And why, oh creature of glamour, should I do such a thing?" The man walked forwards, swords spinning idly at his sides. "The master of this place is powerful, why should thee not be but another trick of power?"
"I'm not! I'm a real person, you have to believe me!" Aerie cried, frantically.
"And how, then should I believe that thine sweet voice and foul features are not thine own glamour? Thee reek of fey magic, fair ogress."
"It's my voice, but I'm not an ogre! I'm an elf, an Avariel! Please, you have to believe me..." Aerie started to lose hope, sounding pathetic even to herself. "You have to..." She almost whispered.
"Very well. I shall call thine bluff, if thy answerest my questions three." The strange swordsman cocked his head over to one side, as though waiting.
"I..." Aerie looked up at him, the strange feeling coming over her that more was at stake here than her immediate freedom. "I will answer as best I can."
"What is thy Name?" The man asked with the deepest gravity.
"Aerie, of the Eyrie of the Snow Eagles, Cleric of Baervan Wildwanderer." She told him, knowing somehow that he would not be content with but a single part.
"How dost thou come to be so far from home, Aerie of Eyrie?" There was almost a hint of teasing triumph in his voice, she realised.
"I was captured as a slave and sold to the circus until my wings failed and the new ringmaster took pity and named me niece and apprentice rather than slave of his predecessor." She told him, condensing the whole long and sordid tale as much as she could.
"Intriguing... then my one last question, Aerie who is not a slave. Be it be better to be foul of form and free of heart, or fair in body and chained in soul?" Something told her that her freedom - perhaps even her very existence rode on this final question. It was as though the man now believed her, but still had not decided whether to free or slay her.
"Freedom is everyone's right. Nothing should ever take it away." She said without hesitation, realising as she did so that it was true. She didn't care if it was the wrong answer any more - somehow, he made her feel as though it was fine to die as long as she died free.
"As thee wish, Aerie, fallen Child of Mab. How is it that this Ray may be of assistance?" He didn't sheath his swords, but the wary hostility had gone out of his stance.
"Those villagers over there have a sword... only it's not really a sword, it's a key... I think. That's what he said, anyway... you have to get it for me..." She told him, relief flooding her voice. She was a little confused about his child of Mab comment, but it didn't matter in the short run.
"Why can you not get it yourself?" Ray asked, dropping the formal address. He frowned slightly, clearly upset at missing something. "you are much larger and stronger at the moment."
"You can't see them..." Aerie realised. "I'm chained here. I can't move away from the centre of this room."
"I see. This Kalah has certainly acquired a powerful glamour from somewhere." Ray mused, and Aerie found her anger rising unbidden. She was still chained here while he thought slowly! "Peace, Aerie. I shall do as you ask." He chuckled, and she forced herself to relax. He was helping her, she had no reason to be angry at him. She watched as he walked towards the villagers, who smiled charmingly at him, no trace of their taunting on their faces as they approached.
Ray smiled to the two villagers, ignoring for the moment what his senses were telling him. He felt Aerie's eyes on him, and wondered at the sense of familiarity he'd felt speaking to her. He saw the glamour surrounding the two, but something told him that these were more than the mere figments he'd dispelled on the way in.
"Pleasant day to ye." The woman said, and he gave her his most charming smile - okay, maybe second most charming, since there was no magic in it.
"And to you, madam. Pray tell, could you give me the sword you or your fine husband carries? It is very important to me." He kept an eye on the man, who was moving around to try and get behind him.
"Oh, no, sir. I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. We have no sword. I don''t know what horrid lies that ogre has been telling you, but we are simple people. We have no sword."
"Oh, I think you do. Under that glamour... what are you really?" Ray's expression suddenly turned nasty, the pleasant smile fading as he danced away, singing softly. When he was ready, he released the summoned spell-energy into them, peeling away the layers of glamour and revealing their true forms. Orcs.
"Oh, you'll pay for that." The female growled, a look of rage crossing her face. "I was just starting to get used to being pretty." She drew an axe as she spoke and lunged at him, while the man drew a two-handed sword seemingly from nowhere and attacked from the other side. Going into a defensive spin, Ray knocked both blades away before finishing the move to bury a sword into each orc's chest, piercing their hearts. Drawing his swords forth again, he span them clean of blood and sheathed them before picking up the two-handed sword and walking back over to the ogress.
"Is this the one?" He asked, showing it to her.
"Yes! Please, give it to me so that I can be free of these chains!" She reached for the sword, and he gave it to her hilt first. As soon as her massive fist closed around the hilt, both it and the glamour covering her shimmered until she was once more a sleight-bodied, blonde elf maiden. Her hand slipped easily out of the oversized shackles, but she needed the key to get the ankle restraints open, since they were too small to go over her boots easily.
"Oh, thank you!" She hugged Ray impulsively. "But we must hurry, we must find Quayle! Kalah said he was on the upper levels. I hope we're not too late!"
"Aerie... have you been crying?" Ray asked, and the question knocked her back a little. She took in the stunned look on his face, then nodded, a little ashamed.
"I've been here hours... I thought I would never escape..."
"I see. You're free now, though. I have to admit that when I saw you yesterday, I had no idea that we would meet again in such a manner. Still, you are right. Let us be off." Ray turned ant walked towards the stairs opposite the way he'd come in, and Aerie found herself hurrying to keep up.
"What do you mean? You saw me yesterday? The grey-haired girl, is she your sister?" Aerie asked, suddenly. Just because she hadn't seen anyone with the girl didn't mean the was alone.
"That's... one way of putting it." Ray chuckled. "I'll tell you later, but for now I'm going to have to ask your permission for something." He'd stopped at the bottom of the steps and turned to look at her.
"What is it?" She asked, puzzled.
"To touch your face. Most of the creatures here aren't real, they're illusions created by Kalah's glamour. I can see through them because of what I am, but your connection is too weak." Ray told her, and after a moment she nodded.
"You're going to do something to let me see through the illusions?" She asked, and he nodded.
"I'm going to put a liquid on your eyelids that masks glamour. It'll sting for a moment, though."
"Go ahead." She closed her eyes, only knowing that he was doing anything by the sound of his clothes rustling. After a moment, she felt his calloused fingers stroking her eyelids, then a cool, damp feeling followed by a mild burning sensation as the liquid seeped in.
"Thank you." He whispered in her ear, and she knew that he was thanking her for trusting him. Opening her eyes, she felt a strange sense of vertigo as the illusion they were standing in was somehow interposed over the inside of the circus tent. Then the image resolved itself and once again she was just staring at Kalah's palace.
"I don't think it worked..." She murmured, and he chuckled.
"No, it did. Your mind is just simplifying things for you. This palace is half illusion, half real, so the ointment filters out the part that is illusion and leaves you with just the part that's a shadow construct." Ray explained, unhelpfully. "Ah, I'll tell you more about it later, if you want. For now, we have bigger problems to deal with."
"Right. Lets move on." The two adventurers turned together to walk up the steps, side by side. The next room was populated by werewolves and strange, hideous shadow beasts. While Ray danced forwards, his Songs slipping from their sheaths, Aerie stood back and raised her hands, chanting a prayer to Baervan and calling his power down in a spell to smite the evil shadows. Between her holy power and his spellsong and swords, the room was quickly cleared. They turned back to the next set of steps up only to find their way blocked by a genie.
"Only those who are pure of heart may pass." He intoned, looking at them both. "Do you have the courage to face the Master?"
"We do." Ray growled, moving forwards.
"Then pass." The djinn faded, and the room around them melted out of existence. Then they were standing in a luxurious throne room. The giant form of Kalah lounged on the throne, a great rod in his hand.
"Kalah! What have you done with Uncle Quayle?!" Aerie asked, calling arcane power to her hands.
"Aerie? Aerie, is that you? I cannot see, I have no eyes!" The quavering voice came from a large puddle in one corner of the room.
"Oh, my." Ray murmured, ironically. "Your uncle has been turned into an ooze, the same way you were an ogre." Then his gaze shifted to Kalah. "You shouldn't have done that, you know. What's your secret? I can see now, you're no faerie. You're just a gnome."
"No gnome! I am Kalah! Kalah the great! Kalah the benevolent! I rule this realm and all within it! My power gave me this place! Mine!" The tauric goat stood, laughing, and gestured with his rod. Glowing orbs leapt forth, and Ray and Aerie had to work hard to avoid them all. Quayle wasn't so lucky, his ooze form absorbing the two that hit him with groans of pain even as its amorphous flesh regenerated.
"This isn't your power, Kalah. All this? This is nothing mortal magic has wrought!" Ray remanded him. "This is no mere illusion, this is glamour! A fey demesne!"
"No more words!" Kalah growled, this time using his own magic to assault Aerie with nightmares. The illlusion, though powerful, wasn't enough to get through the ointment still on her eyes and simply rolled off her mental defences. In return, she cast bolts of raw magic at him. Thus began a three-way mage duel that the bards would write about in years to come, Kalah throwing a mix of glamour-enhanced illusions and brute force spells at his assailants while Ray worked to counter his power and Aerie struck with the combined might of her arcane magic and Baervan's power. Eventually, though, inevitably, the enhanced gnome's defences started to fail until finally Ray managed to strike him with a spellsong attack that caused his power to buckle and fold even as his breathing started to fail.
"No! This cannot be! I am Kalah!" The tauric king gasped as the palace shimmered and faded around them until they stood in the ring at the centre of the circus tent. "You foolish adventurers with your misplaced morals and beastly greed!"
"Just tell us, Kalah. How did you do it?" Quayle asked, walking forward, revelling in the pure feeling of being able to walk.
"Hah! You'd love that, wouldn't you? No! If I can salvage anything out of this, it will be that. You'll never know!"The gnome started laughing, bitterly, until blood gargled in his throat and he finally expired.