Chapter 11

Black Holes And Revelations

She nearly dropped the sword. Saradush besieged. Imoen trapped within its walls. Her fate bound to the city. The world was spinning. She looked up, too stunned to react any other way. The stars were shining brightly and indifferently. She felt her breath hitch. Something was burning fast within her. She lowered her head and looked at Ithinia. The mage was tentative, obviously uncertain whether Laura will lose self-control. She did feel the urge to scream. She did feel the urge to attack anyone in vicinity and drown her despair in their blood. The Beast was howling. She gulped it all down. She buried it deep inside and locked away. She forced herself calm. There were actions that needed be undertaken now.

'All right.' She said 'I'm going there. Now.'

'You're not.' The mage answered her in an instant 'You have other duties.'

'I have none beside-'

'Excuse me.' The old man, Zedd, appeared behind Ithinia's back 'but would you care to shed some light on recent events?'

She wanted to kill him. She saw Ithinia's alerted eyes. She sensed another presence: Valen, not so far behind him, ready to step into action if need arose. And she yielded. She relaxed her body. She took a deep breath and looked up once again. She drank in the silence that fell all around them. These people were clueless. It was not because of their stupidity, that they got mixed up with this. She couldn't loathe them for their ignorance. They were just victims of circumstances and even though Laura had many of such unlucky fellows on her conscience, this would not be the case.

'It's a long story.' She simply said, hoping her voice wouldn't betray her. 'I don't even know where to start.'

'Well, I suggest that you start from the beginning.' She was amazed and humiliated at the same time: the old man was looking at her with such an immense compassion, that she felt her barriers shift.

'Well' she smiled at him, perplexed that her face muscles still worked 'you have a good point.'

'You don't have to go through with this.' Ithinia's whisper was meant only for her ears. The mage was both conveying her sympathy and a warning. If she told them, she would drag them into this nightmare. She realized that they had the right to know that.

'Ok.' She cleared her throat 'I-uh. Listen. If I tell you the whole story – and it's not a nice story – you'll be in danger.' The words even felt feeble when spoke out loud and she tried again 'You'll be dragged into the course of events. And its outcome is not predictable. Probably gory and drastic, though. Think it over. Consider what is better: to stay unaware or to get involved with problems that have nothing to do with you or your world.'

She had nothing more to tell them. She let go of the sword, realizing how desperate was her grip on the handle. She crossed her arms and walked past Ithinia, past Zedd, straight to Valen.

The vampire shared her distress. The blood-bond that linked them made them share some of their feelings: the strongest, the most carnal ones. Valen extended a hand. Laura watched it, watched it get closer with every passing instant and finally it reached her shoulder. The fingers locked. It was consolatory in some unspoken way. She nodded her head in a silent gratitude. The vampire's hand moved once again. The fingers unlocked and stared brushing her neck, moved past her jawline and came to rest on her cheek. Valen was looking at her with strange intensity. Her hazel eyes were usually blank which was a trait typical for the undead. Now, they were almost human, though their light was mingled with predatory gleams.

'You are' the vampire said in a strangled voice 'the strongest mortal ever.'

'Am I still a mortal, Valen?' she whispered back. 'Sometimes I feel like I am… a spirit, trapped between the planes, unable to live anywhere.'

'You are less and less mortal.' The vampire was still eyeing her 'Less and less human. Your blood smells more and more divine. I can sense your power. It's rising. Like a wave.'

'Laura?' Ithinia's voice reached their ears and Valen's hand withdrew 'Come here.'

'Coming?' Laura smiled at the vampire 'Come with me.'

'As you wish.'

They were waiting for her in a semicircle, Richard at the front. His face was serious.

'You have saved my life. You've taken care of Zedd and I when we were hurt.' He was saying in a hurry as if feeling a little awkward 'You've been good to us. We want to stand by your side.'

'As you wish, Seeker of the Truth.' She couldn't help it, she smiled at him, feeling both grateful and apprehensive. 'I believe we'd better start right ahead.'

XXX

'It all goes back to the Times of Trouble. Twenty years ago, during the Year of Shadows, the gods were relegated by the overdeity Ao to walk the world as mortals. He saw their disinterest and aloofness towards their followers. What bothered him the most, I presume, was their greed and lust for power. It's the folklore I'm passing now down. So pay no heed. It's irrelevant. During those times, some of those gods had perished and some mortals had ascended in their place. Yes, it's not impossible.' She looked at them and saw their surprised faces. 'That's not the point. One of the gods, Bhaal, had somehow managed to foresee his own demise. He came up with a plan how to cheat his destiny. He mated with a lot of females. A lot.' She quirked her eyebrows upon seeing Cara's smirk 'Most of them were humanoid. Yeah.' She added 'The humans aren't the only race in Faerun. There are elves and dwarves, Halflings, tieflings, and orcs… there's too many of them for me to now mention each race. Anyway, the plan was simple: once slain, he would be resurrected by his children. Or the Bhaalspawns as they are now known.'

'May I?' Cara cut in 'What was this Bhaal fellow like?'

'How can I know?' she shrugged her shoulders 'I'm sure not a nice one. He was the master of death, violence, murder, destruction and retribution. Patron of assassins.'

'And his… Spawns?' it was Richard's turn to cut in. He looked positively alarmed.

'Well. It's also a long story, as well. But let me keep this story in order, or we'll all get lost.'

'Carry on then.' He nodded and smiled at her 'I won't cut in anymore.'

'Well… where was I? Oh, yeah. So. Cyric, a young and uppity cleric, managed to kill him. Oh. I forgot, sorry. There were three consequences of the Times of Trouble. First the divine magic stopped working. It's the magic of the clerics. Each god has a group of followers, right? They're called the clerics. The divine magic, or the Power, is granted by prayer. There are other groups, also aligned with a certain god, such a paladins or rangers who also have access to it, only that in a lesser degree. Ok.' She sighed. It was going to be a very long night. 'So, during the Times of Trouble the divine magic ceased to function altogether, unless a cleric was within one mile from their god. Secondly, and this had much direr consequences, the arcane magic ceased to be regulated by her divine steward, Lady Mystra.'

'I remember this too well' Ithinia added 'It was totally unpredictable and uncontrollable. I made a fatal mistake once, when I tried to cast a Magic Missile and ended up blowing up an entire street. Magic Missile is a level one spell. They are the simplest spells every novice learns first.' She was sitting beside Laura, ready to cut in and explain some things.

'Yeah. So we have this one. The last and the most obvious consequence was that the world was teeming with extremely powerful and very pissed off deities. Despite the fact that they were mortal, they were still capable of a lot of shit. Right. Coming back to Bhaal. He was slain be Cyric who somehow managed to ascend and take his place. The problem with Cyric is that he's grown utterly mad by now. I believe he's very interested with the recent events.'

She spoke again after a while. She was now moving to more personal things. 'The vast majority of Spawns had been found and gathered by the priests. The Bhaalists – that's how the priests were called – had several temples. The main temple, Caragh Un Doin, was the dwelling of Alieanna Targaryen, the Highest Priestess and probably the most powerful mage ever.' She drew a very deep breath 'The children were all unnamed. It was probably due to the fact, that, once gathered all together, they were supposed to be sacrificed. You see, part of each Bhaalspawn's soul was divine. It is now called the Taint. The sacrifice – and the release of such a great amount of Bhaal's essence – if performed during a ritual, would have allowed Bhaal to rise from the dead.'

'Excuse me.' It was once again Cara, who cut in, sounding slightly alarmed 'But how do you know so much? You're not a mage. You're not even old enough to remember any of that. Unless that's what they teach you all in schools?'

'I know all of this because' she felt nervous and couldn't do anything about it 'because I was an unwilling participant in all this mess. Still am.'

'There were those' she carried on after waiting a short amount of time for other questions 'who found out about the plan and didn't like it. The Harpers. They're a secret organization, very concerned about the balance of things and such. One of their members, Alieanna's occasional lover, Gorion, managed – I don't know how, so don't ask me – to sneak into the main temple. I don't also know how did he do it, but he managed to kill her as well.'

'He was not alone.' Ithinia added 'Elminster Aumar was with him. Alieanna thought he wanted to duel her as the two of them were regarded to be equals. She ignored Gorion, who claimed he had arrived in peace, wanting to prevent the bloodshed. Mad as she was, she trusted him. Alieanna and Elminster began making preparations for the duel. She was concentrated on the it and so she didn't notice Gorion getting behind her. He backstabbed her.'

'Nice balance preserver.' Cara smirked.

'He was a good man. He thought he was doing it for the best.' Laura's voice came hoarse 'At the same time, the Harpers struck at every temple. With Alieanna gone, and with the Harpers' numbers, the Bhaalists were overrun in no time. They released the children but had no clue what to do with them, so they left them in the temples. Most of them, I believed, survived. Gorion, however, took two of them with him, two girls. He placed one of them under Winthrop's care. Winthrop was an innkeeper in Candlekeep. Gorion kept the second girl as his ward.'

'Where's Candlekeep? And what does it have to do with the rest of the story?' Cara demanded irritably.

'Candlekeep is a library fortress, on the Sword Coast.' She responded and realized she couldn't carry on.

Ithinia must have guessed this, because she took over.

'There was peace for some time after those events. Four years ago the first troubles arose. One of the Spawns, Sarevok Anchev, concocted a plan to ascend divinity. He managed to survive the attack on the temples and got himself adopted by Rieltar Anchev, a very powerful man, one of the regional leaders of a merchant organization known as the Iron Throne. The plan was to start a war between Baldur's Gate, the most powerful city of Sword Coast, and Amn. He also sought to destroy any possible competition, other Bhaalspawns to put it this way. I don't know how many did he kill before he decided to get rid of Gorion's Ward. The plan backfired: he slew Gorion but the Ward managed to escape and, later on, avenged his death. That was two years ago. But recently an old prophecy has come to light. Long before the Times of Trouble, Alaundo the Wise foresaw the creation of the Bhaalspawns and its results. These are not good. The Bhaalspawns are to leave chaos and destruction in their wake. They will fight each other until none is left and Bhaal will rise up again. It is also possible, that out of their fights, one champion will emerge and he or she will become the next Lord of Murder.'

'I see.' Richard said after a long while. 'I see. So… I see.' He finished lamely.

'Let me put this straight.' Cara stood up and placed her hands on her hips 'You all knew about this, right? You've known about it for a long time. And you did nothing, absolutely nothing to prevent this from happening? And now you're very worried and very anxious, because those freaks have just started doing what that old wanker had foreseen ages ago?'

'Yes. Something like that.' Ithinia nodded.

'I don't get it. Why hadn't you killed the little freaks a long time ago to save yourself all that trouble?'

'Bhaal had foreseen his death before the Times of Trouble' Ithinia said patiently 'Some of the Spawns are old. Many of them had been brought up as normal people and nobody knows who they really are. My guess is that even they themselves don't know about it. How in the name of Mystra were we supposed to track them down? I don't even know what's really going on in Tethyr. I'm not even sure if it was the Bhaalspawns who made the first move or the Government. I don't know whether it's self-defense or a well-planned war.'

'So you don't know much, do you?' Cara sniggered 'Richard. This is nonsense. I suggest we find a way to leave this mess before the whole thing blows up.'

'Richard, I agree.' Kahlan also stood up, her expression cold and nearly haughty 'It's definitely not our war to fight.'

He was looking rather helpless. His eyes ventured from one woman to the other and finally moved onto the old man. He, on contrary, was looking very calm and thoughtful.

'Nothing can be done about the gatenow.' He said 'We cannot urge it to reopen. We have absolutely no skill nor knowledge to do so. We must wait.'

'For how long?' Kahlan exclaimed angrily 'Days? Weeks? Or maybe years?'

'I don't know, but I doubt it will be this long.'

'The spells are wearing off.' Ithinia added 'The magic of the gates is too powerful for them. They've kept them sealed for millennia. Soon, and probably due to the magical discharges that are bound to occur when the Bhaalspawns jump to their throats, their power will be worn off. You'll be free to return to your world.'

'Good news.' Cara scoffed 'I'm going to bed. Good night.'

They were all getting to their feet. Kahlan was avoiding her gaze, Zedd was calm and Richard… Richard stood up and then ruffled his hair. He looked as if he was deep in thoughts.

'Wait' he said and looked Laura dead in the eye 'Who is the Gorion's Ward?'

'What does it matter?' Kahlan threw him an annoyed glance 'Just another psychopathic villain, probably.'

It hurt him, Laura noticed. He pressed his lips and said nothing. Kahlan was about to say something else, but then turned on her heels and marched back inside.

'What can be done?' he asked them, Laura and Ithinia, with an oddly pleading look in his eyes.

'The war between the Bhaalspawns has to come to an end.' Laura said as an epiphany hit her 'They must be destroyed.'

'All of them?' Ithinia cast her a very unfriendly glance.

'Who are the refugees?' Richard disregarded the mage's comment and looked at Laura 'Could they be… Bhaalspawns?'

'Ithinia…' Laura looked at the mage 'You told me that Saradush was ruled by a Bhaalspawns. Wouldn't they seek refuge there? Even before that army began its march?'

'How can I know?'

'Wouldn't that mean' Richard momentarily realized the implication of her words 'that the Bhaalspawn who's leading the army is well aware of the prophecy and trying to set it into motion?'

'It would.' Zedd agreed.

'It's too farfetched.' Ithinia pressed her lips.

'It's not. So… if someone managed to kill him, the others would not perish and the prophecy wouldn't be fulfilled?' he exclaimed excitedly.

'Of that I wouldn't be too sure.' Zedd extinguished him 'We don't know enough to create such theories. I do believe, however, that the massacre must be avoided by any means possible.'

'Who could do the job?' Richard furrowed his brows 'Well… What about… That Gorion's Ward. She's already killed one Bhaalspawn. She might be powerful enough to stop this one too.'

It was the irony of fate, Laura thought. Here she was, protected by Ithinia, and now, she was appointed by the – unaware that he was appointing her – Seeker of the Truth.