..
There is going to be a brief, two-chapter cameo appearance of a character who otherwise doesn't get enough airtime and would be getting introduced way too close to the end of the story.
I credit the famous fanfiction In The Cards for putting this character in this exact place and therefore inspiring me to do likewise.
It had been six months.
Gorion sighed, comparing the various documents Tallix had sent him and look for clues beyond her considerable expertise. He had managed to uncover an illusory cypher in one, but it was clear the other documents were somehow connected. As he worked, he felt a presence come up behind him in the small villa. Then arms were wrapped about his shoulders from behind, and Lullorin was kissing his cheek.
"Good morning," she smiled, and he shifted to ease an arm around her middle. "Coffee?"
He nodded over at where her mug awaited her. She took it up and settled in on the chair beside him. As he worked he enjoyed her nearness. Both of them were so incredibly busy that neither had much time to spend with the other, but they made due as best as they were able. The villa afforded them a modicum of privacy, and in it they at least attempted to spend their late evenings and early mornings together.
"Gorion," Lullorin began, a slight mischievousness and also a fierce intensity to her voice. He looked at her, wondering what horrors his 'innocent' lover was about to confess to. The last time he'd heard that tone of voice, it was because Lullorin had grown testy when conversing with a particularly uncompromising noble. She'd picked up a rotten cheese pie from where it was being disposed of, and firmly planted it into the man's face.
Tallix and Haftyril had dissolved into hysterics. Winthrop's facepalm and Harus's flabbergasted horror had completed the picture quite admirably. The only time he'd ever seen that same expression before that, Lullorin had quite brazenly lifted a jailor's key so that they could free a wrongfully imprisoned ranger who had information they needed about their latest lead. Their halfling had, of course, thrown a celebratory party in honor of their cleric's impromptu thievery.
"Something on your mind?" he asked. His work was important, but he could always spare a moment.
"Rion..." she repeated, thinking. Then she smirked. "I am unmistakably pregnant."
The aasimar blinked slowly at her for a long moment, as if uncertain he had heard correctly. Then he tensed, dropping paper onto the table as he turned entirely to face her. "You are not going on the next raid," he told her, alarmed.
Lullorin chuckled at his protectiveness. "Can I get an 'I love you,' or a 'let me rub your back, dear,' or some elvish poetry or-"
Gorion was up in a heartbeat, doing all three requested activities and smothering his face into her hair. His cleric laughed, lifting her arms behind her to hug his neck.
"I am looking for a temporary replacement for my role in the party," she promised him. "I'm nauseous often enough even without carrying a little one around with me."
Gorion sighed, momentarily distressed by a thousand fears. Lullorin had a weak stomach and required a vial of medication at least once weekly to help revitalize her and let her eat and drink normally. She relied on Tallix to supply this supplement, and he had an odd sense that he didn't quite want to know what it contained. She didn't volunteer to talk about it, and he didn't ask.
"This will be over before the little one is weaned," he said slowly. "You aren't looking for a 'temporary' replacement only. You won't be ready to rejoin us immediately after the baby is born. And you will probably want to remain with him or her afterwards."
Lullorin thought about this and nodded. "Very well. Your new cleric may not be of Lathander, then, but I will continue to bless and release the blades on my god's behalf."
"I have only one cleric, my sweet Lullaby," he smiled. "You."
..
The elf paused, ignoring the suds and blinking slowly at the water. Then he lowered the lye carefully to the ledge of the pool and drifted his fingers slowly to the curve of his bow. He was as stone; receptive to sound; motionless. His ears pierced through the rushing of water and the creaking of trees, back to the predatory slowness some distance behind him. He waited as each twitch and crackle spoke volumes on its location.
Now.
The elf spun and dropped his weight, pulling up bow and arrow and nocking latter to former in the same motion. He had already loosed with his very first exhale of air.
He heard a thud followed up by a human oath. His eyes pierced into the evening gloom, drawing out the human ranger's shape as she stepped out from hiding. Her motions were bold, and she reached up to snap off the fletching from the arrow he'd delivered into her shoulder.
[If you do not think I will down you with the next arrow, then you have misinterpreted my warning shot,] he growled, easing himself up from his crouch. He had a fresh arrow at ready, but Aegis didn't stop walking towards him.
[I just wanted to talk to you,] she answered, dropping down from the the earthy mounds down to the smooth black stone of the spring. There she paused at the strain of his bowstring.
When Aegis straightened up, she saw a cold and merciless expression in Kivan's luminous eyes. Little of him could be seen with the moon at his back. He didn't respond to her words and she frowned, casting aside the arrow fletching and lifting up her hands to show she had neither her primary battleaxe nor indeed any armor. [Kivan, I am unarmed...]
[Camp,] he spat. [Leave.]
[You don't trust me?] she asked in confusion, stepping closer still. She tried not to let any extra distress into her voice. She needed to talk to him! Kivan, fortunately, still gave her the benefit of the doubt and did not fire; but he could not have possibly pulled the longbow any further back than he did so now as he eased into a side-facing stance. Doing so threw moonlight over him, and she caught her breath at the sight of the awful scarring.
[You still harbor drow,] he told her darkly.
Aegis' eyes held his for a moment and then suddenly dropped, running down the length of him. The sight of this made his upper lip curl, but she needed to be sure that her memory wasn't playing tricks on her. Key scars stood out along his shoulder, forearms, belly and legs. She shook her head in disbelief, scarcely aware of where she was. [I couldn't be certain,] she murmured hesitantly, [I needed to-]
[I am a breath away from putting an arrow through your eye.]
She lifted her gaze briefly back to his. Her face carried an expression of awe that did not seem to match the situation. [I've seen you once before. When most of those were fresh,] she explained, looking at the scars in his shoulder in particular.
Kivan nearly loosed the arrow into her skull and killed her. A flicker of mental calculation saved her: she was human and too young to have been among Tazok's bandits. His jaw clenched tightly nonetheless, his fingers tightening on his bow.
[When they took you into Candlekeep Fortress,] she elaborated. [I was watching from the wall, and then I was in the surgery.]
A frown tugged at Kivan's tightly-pressed lips. His arrow did not waver from where he'd trained the tip on her head, but his merciless gaze faltered, his eyes coloring up with memory. A moment later and the archer turned his face fully towards her again, his arched brows furrowing thoughtfully.
[You could not have been. You are too young.]
[I was just a child,] Aegis agreed, reaching behind herself for something at her belt.
Kivan diverted his aim and loosed. At such short range, the arrow went straight through her arm and the head emerged on the other side. Aegis cried out in surprise, staggered by the hit and grabbing at her shoulder above the wound. She looked at the feathers in astonishment. When she lifted her head, the elf had already pointed another arrow at her face.
The Wild Elf said nothing to her. His gaze did not falter, but her wounded expression pierced him strangely. He did not loose another arrow, even as she drew forward whatever item she had gone to reach for in the first place. Wincing slightly, she held it out to him by the handle. At first he was unwilling to move. Then, at the pleading expression which drew her brows, he glanced down for only a second. A hatchet? He did a double-take and frowned, his bow drifting off target.
A silent pause stretched between them. Then Kivan grabbed up bow and arrow in just one hand, reaching forward to grab the offered handle and pulling the axe from her grasp. He stared at it, flipping it over twice as his eyes widened in recognition. He heard her move and his gaze flicked up, his posture twitching defensively as Aegis stepped up to him. She was one and a half times his weight and at least a head taller, and his skin bristled instinctively at the danger she presented. But he held still as her gaze drifted over him once again.
This time, Aegis wasn't entirely looking at his wounds. Kivan was so incredibly alive, flesh and blood made concrete from memory. The deathly mantle about him only strengthened the sensation of physical life. The marks in his flesh had utterly disfigured the pigment and texture of his skin, but the ranger was strong, fit, and lithe beneath them. She hadn't realized an elf could put on so much lean muscle weight, and at the same time she marveled that he would look slender against a human of vastly inferior strength and speed.
[You had two arrows in your shoulder, and your clothing was just red and blotched,] she murmured. [You couldn't stand. I remember Immy refused to look and kept asking me if you were dead yet. I remember telling her you wouldn't die. Not that day. I have never seen another man with will pumping through his veins in place of blood...]
She reached out towards him in fascination, almost as if to touch him. He stepped back from the contact, estranged, and she blinked as if snapped out of a trance. Her blue-gray gaze returned to his face. A moment later she stepped backwards and lifted up her hand to push the arrow through her arm. She bit her lip, and then quietly wrenched the projectile free and cast it to the ground. A tingle thrummed between her fingers, and then she had applied at least enough healing to draw the worst of the damage closed. The rest could wait till she was back with the clerics.
[You were the reason I became... a... a ranger,] Aegis said slowly. [Though, admittedly, there is only so much about the natural world one can learn in a library...] She held out her hand to take her axe back, but Kivan stood back from her, holding the weapon close to himself and giving no indication that she could have it back.
The human girl's eyes widened, and she took a step back as surely as if he had struck her. She looked at the axe, a weapon which unbeknownst to him she had trained with and carried and lain under her pillow since she was nothing more than a toddler. Her fingers folded back on her palm and then she sadly dropped the proffered hand to her side.
[Ah,] she said quietly. Then, wincing and grabbing at her injured arm and shoulder, she turned and headed slowly back to camp. She... she needed to have a chat with Viconia like she'd promised.
Kivan watched her go. He did not trust himself to breathe naturally until she was gone, and then his breath emerged ragged from between his lips. He looked shakily down at the axe he was carrying, remembering a curious little human child with a head of blonde curls. She had been a disruption, an oddity, a flavor, and a color in an otherwise stale, gray, and broken world.
Deheriana was dead. The entire world was but slate and shale. Shapes moved around him, predictable and patterned and unperceived. Mourning for him, no doubt, though they could not begin to comprehend the depths of his pain.
But then: a silly red and golden toddler. No hushed voice, no whispered pity, complete ignorance of his brokenness. She had looked up at him in admiration, as if somehow she could still perceived the threads of what he'd once been through all his numb silence.
This had been Deheriana's axe; originally a gift from him to his lover. It had been one of the items Kivan had escaped Tazok's encampment with; an impossibly agonizing memento of all that had been lost. To leave it for that golden child had been an act of rejuvenation; a gift of ashes to fertilize a new and radiant young life. But to see it again in this situation, and to hand it over to a grown woman... a woman who harbored Thayvians and drow...
Kivan crumbled to his knees in the water, covering his face and shuddering violently.
..
"It has to be now," Tallix insisted. "The entryway isn't physical. It's a magical door to some other place, and it can be changed on us!"
"I won't do it," Gorion growled.
"Rion, the time to strike is now," Lullorin protested. "This is the largest hideout we've ever found, larger even than the complex I originally called you to Sembia for! It is a genuine temple of Bhaal; we can't pass this up!"
"You are too far along," the aasimar disagreed, reaching forward to touch his lover's swollen belly. "The child could come at any time, and I won't leave you alone for that!"
"Rion," she laughed, "I will go to the temple of my god. I will be fine. Better than fine! I promise you, Rion, you will find me alive and well when you are done."
He looked ready to argue further, but Winthrop put a hand on his shoulder. "We are only going to get this one chance," he reminded the magus. "Once they discover that Tallix killed their door wizard, the entryway is just going to vanish."
Gorion took in a long, shuddering breath. He looked at Lullorin once more and she nodded encouragingly. "Alright," he agreed, stepping forward to hug her. "Be safe, my love."
"I will. And I'll see you soon, my beloved," she told him. "Don't fear." As they parted ways, he held onto her hand as long as he was able, and then he felt a strange sense of emptiness as her fingers finally dripped away from his.
{Does this help?} Edwin asked, lowering the scroll back to Imoen with his annotations in place. Imoen jumped, snatching up the scroll. Dynaheir rolled her eyes and tried not to say anything. Honestly, she was in a very good mood, if slightly flustered by the applause with which half the group had welcomed her and Minsc back to the camp the evening before.
{Yes!} Imoen exclaimed, surprisingly turning the scroll upside down again. {That makes a lot more sense!}
{Yet you have turned it upside down,} the wizard observed in amusement.
{Well, it makes more sense that way!}
{Transcribe it in reverse tonight, then. It will be too late, doubtless, but a good exercise.}
Imoen pouted. {Are you going to blind me again today?}
Edwin gave her a long-suffering look. Then he sighed. {No, Monkey. I will cast my Mirrored Eyes on you instead. But I expect any petrification of myself to be dispelled quickly.}
She beamed. {I love you, Peacock,} she told him brightly. Edwin looked disgusted, but accepted the extraordinarily Pink comment as the best show of appreciation the annoying girl could manage.
"Are we missing Kivan?" Branwen asked. "I haven't seen him all morning."
"He and I had a talk last night," Aegis sighed. "Viconia." The dark elf had accepted this with some gratitude. Used to manipulating men, it had not truly sunk in until recently just how close Kivan had been to killing her."
"I appreciate that you have elected to keep my eye-candy in the group as the expense of your own," Edwin grinned toothily, happy to rub salt in a burn for her.
Aegis sneered, not in the mood for the Thayvian's antics. "Let's get moving."
"We are hopefully going up against a wizard today," Ajantis said, coming up beside their leader. "Mutamin, if we can find him. We are going to need to be careful. The reports have whole adventure bands falling to him; and well-prepared ones at that."
"Oh don't worry about that," Edwin laughed. "We have wizards of our own.
..
They found Mutamin surrounded by piles of lazy greater basilisks, each larger in size and weight than Minsc. Almost immediately, Xan stopped short, trying to detect magic. Dynaheir began throwing magical protections on herself, and Edwin likewise.
Mutamin was a gnome, and so obviously could not look intimidating by stature and presence alone. The excited look on his face when he saw them, coupled with the basking lizard bodies all around him, however, did the trick. The party frowned at him warily, readying their battle stances.
"More art has come!" the gnome cooed excitedly. "Good, good, good! Don't you love my pets? They sculpt with their eyes! Such detail, such finesse!"
Aegis was quiet a moment, trying to see if she had anything to say to Mutamin like "Surrender now and your life will be spared!" She looked around at the statues placed all around him and then shrugged helplessly. "Boys and girls, chug your Mirrored Eyes Potions and let's mop the floor with a gnome."
"Oh, I don't think so," Mutamin chuckled, starting to summon up magical energy.
Xan's eyes came back into focus. "This area is a maze of wards, spell-triggers, and other magical arsenal!" he hissed to his fellow wizards. "This gnome is no mad fool!
"Break down his defenses," Edwin told the other two wizards. "Everyone else focus on the Basilisks!"
"He's casting a Time Stop!" Dynaheir exclaimed in a disbelieving voice. "Spread out!"
The universe twitched. Shuddered. Skipped.
Then half a dozen spells were flying through the air. The first thing that landed was a powerful dispel that wiped out nearly everything the party wizard's had lead with, but the worst were the enchantment wards Mutamin activated on the ground. Everything happened too fast for even three wizards to keep track of, and then Xan was down.
"I think I am just going to lay down and die," he mumbled into the earth. Branwen staggered backwards, stunned by the wave of despair coursing through her. She had never felt anything so intense in her life. Minsc roared, whirling on a tree and hacking at it mercilessly with his sword. Shar-Teel stood there, blinking in confusion.
Aegis powered through fear, confusion and despair in one. She charged forward with Kagain and Ajantis hot on her heels, the three of them quickly putting potions of Mirrored Eyes to their lips. Viconia, whose magic resistance and willpower had supported her, whirled about to try and dispel the effects on the team.
Imoen shrieked. "My ankles!" she screamed, and took off running. "They rats are everywhere!" Jackal yelped, flapping after her. Edwin cursed, whirling about to cast a replacement Mirror Eyes on her before she got too far. The basilisks spilled forward at a surprising pace, charging eagerly towards the vulnerable party. Dynaheir led with a spell breach, but whatever Mutamin had cast on himself now completely absorbed the oncoming spell.
"It's a Spell Trap," Dynaheir realized. "We can't hit him! Edwin, we don't have anything that can break that!"
"Then we have to wait it out," the Thayvian hissed as he tossed forward his first fireball. "We don't have enough spells to overload it when he can just cast it again at the end!"
"Keep the party functional," she agreed. "He led with utility. If we can keep dispels flowing, counter-spell the biggest threats, and prevent the basilisks from killing anyone, we should be able to buy a twenty-minute fight! Viconia can just needs to get the others ready to-"
Above them, a red streamer bloomed through the air. It crashed into Viconia, wrapping around her like a tight scarf. With a surprised shriek she vanished entirely.
Edwin blanched. He raked his mind for anything he knew about what had just happened. Maze. Then he whirled. "Aegis!" he shouted. "Rage! Rage and do not stop for a second!"
The ranger's shriek of fury answered him just seconds before a second red spell flew out and wrapped about her. She slammed right through it, leaving it fragmented and dissipating behind her as she brought her axe down and into the first oncoming basilisk. Kagain followed up behind her, cleaving off a monster's head with a practiced hack. Ajantis skid into place on her left just in time to drive a lunging beast aside with his shield.
Satisfied, Edwin grabbed up his spellbook. "Buy me two minutes, witch-child," he told Dynaheir.
"What are you going to do?" she hissed, summoning up a Lightning Bolt to help handle the basilisks.
"I am going to guess," the Thayvian muttered, flipping to one of his newest spells.
Shar-Teel whirled on them all of a sudden. A manic and bewildered look entered her face, and then her eyes alighted on Xan. She grinned broadly and then darted forward, readying her dagger. "Shar-Teel!" the witch exclaimed, torn between counter-spelling Mutamin's fireball spell or rushing to help her friend.
"TEMPUS!"
Although Edwin would have enjoyed watching Shar-Teel getting her face pummeled in by anyone, even She-Tempus, he had bigger fish to fry. His eyes flew over the pages of his spellbook as he rapidly tried to replace a spell in his mind and ready it for use. He heard a cry as a heavily counterspelled fireball exploded around himself and the witch, but he kept reading on as he was quite impervious to fire.
Dynaheir was mildly singed and coughed a moment before rounding on the rest of the party to try and cast a a dispel. A moment later, and Xan was struggling to his feet. Shar-Teel looked around in confusion and then swore when Branwen punched her in the face. "Stop it! Stop it before I punch you in the cunt, I'm back to normal!"
Minsc turned about several times before loosing a roar and charging into the basilisk fight to save the other warriors from walls of chomping teeth and slashing claws. Viconia did not reappear. Dynaheir cursed and then turned back towards Mutamin just in time to see a barrage of twenty magic-missiles coming at her.
"Shit."
"Dyn!" Branwen called, scrambling past Shar-Teel. Shar-Teel cursed and followed, especially because she could see other basilisks approaching the group from the side.
Xan's eyes widened. He threw up abjurations around himself and then glanced backwards when Imoen ran shrieking across the background of the fight, no less than four juvenile lizards in hot pursuit. His eyes widened. His fingers started moving for a Haste spell, because he had a feeling they were all going to need it.
Edwin slammed his spellbook closed and replaced it at his side. He began to conjure, and presently a glimmering archway opened up behind him. Dynaheir was alive and coughing up blood. Xan had successfully intercepted Imoen and was holding the shrieking, shaking girl by the hand as she looked nervously about.
Aegis was bloodied, but she and her three 'warriors' were now moving incredibly fast under the effects of Xan's haste, hacking and chopping with incredible speed. Ajantis was trying to take the bulk of the damage for his team, but with so many powerful lunging bodies it was impossible to protect them at all times. Kagain had big curls of flesh torn out from one arm, and Minsc was already heavily battered.
From what Edwin could see Xan was trying to counterspell Mutamin; and Mutamin was on the verge of dispelling the entire party's Mirrored Eyes protection.
The Red Wizard took a slow breath, stepping through the conjured archway. He appeared on the opposite side of the field, right behind the well-protected and positively glowing Mutamin. Trying not to make a sound, Edwin stepped up behind the gnome, unsheathed his belt dagger, leaned over, and threw an arm across the gnome. He jammed the blade in to the other wizard's collar bone and pulled it in a swift horizontal cut.
The warm gush of red across his fingers was dirty but incredibly satisfying. The gnome sputtered and gasped, his protections dying out one-by one as consciousness left him and he slumped to the ground.
Edwin smirked. Then a basilisk whirled towards him and he realized he had drank his own Mirrored Eyes potion previous to Mutamin's leading dispel. Then everything went dark and cold.
They decided that the bearer of the Rod of Stone to Flesh ought to be Imoen; as she was also the one they needed to keep most universally protected from petrification. In any event, their front-line fighters had taken an extensive beating and needed immediate medical care from anyone with healing knowledge. 'Medical knowledge' was, unfortunately, not one of Imoen's many fabulous skills.
The first person she released from petrification was, of course, her favorite. "That was an incredibly unpleasant experience," Edwin noted, staggering slightly to the side. Xan caught his shoulder lest the conjurer fall and crush him.
"We have been conscripted into freeing the statues," Xan sighed. "Would you like to join us?"
Edwin grimaced, pulling his arm back to himself. "What? No, 'Excellent plan, Edwin; you killed that powerful mage in one stroke Edwin; you truly are a cunning wizard Edwin, oh, and that was very risky!'?" Xan lifted a brow, realizing that affirmations of masculinity were perhaps more of a wizard thing and less of a personal affliction.
Imoen giggled, kissed one of her fingers, and tapped the Thayvian on the nose. He made a sound of disgust. "You are the best wizard ever," she told him.
"Somehow it is terribly unsatisfying in your voice," he snarled. "Can't you do anything right little fool?"
Imoen laughed and then headed around to start de-petrifying the other people. Suddenly de-statue-ified persons stumbled about all over the place, crying out in surprise and alarm and then looking up perplexed at their rescuers. Xan moved over to explain the situation to them and to cast any necessary charms or sooth emotions spells.
{Edwin,} Imoen decided after a moment's thought, smiling because she knew exactly what she was doing, {you may not yet be the most powerful wizard in the universe, but when you can concoct plans as quick-thinking and bold as that one, I can most certainly see how you intend on making the climb. You really are a dragon sometimes.}
Edwin huffed, the adrenaline of the battle still burning in his veins. He knew they had barely won. The rest of the party had been given plenty of time to calm down from the initial threat of death, but Edwin had been frozen when he was still mid-victory. Still, she watched as her Peacock mentally preened himself. He liked the flattery, and it made him feel considerably better about having been petrified.
Imoen smothered a giggle and leaned over to touch the Rod to a petrified halfling. She said the words to activate the Rod, and then began moving to the next statue as the Stone to Flesh took hold.
"Ye-AAAAAAAAAY!" the halfling squealed. Edwin, who had scarcely been paying attention to what Imoen was doing, nearly leaped out of his skin at the noise. "I'm fwee!" the little woman exclaimed, bouncing. "Oh, goody goody gum drops with sprinkles, you're the best cherry tarts I've ever done seen, hee!"
Edwin (and Xan, but he was farther way) recoiled, overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in the air. Then the Thayvian cried out in shock when the halfling suddenly threw herself at him and hugged him. Imoen twisted about to see what had happened, and then broke out laughing hysterically.
"Oh gods," the Red Wizard gasped in horror. The halfling was dressed almost entirely in hot pink, and looked to be clad in leathers with a deep hood. She even had a shortbow. "It's like a miniaturized, overly dense, compact version of you! Get it off! Get it off! It has my leg!"
"You saved me! You are my heroes!" the halfling laughed, smiling up at Edwin and then Imoen.
"What's your name?" Imoen sputtered, wiping tears from her eyes.
"I'm Alora!" the halfling piped up. "And I'm the bestest best best thief this side of Waterdeep!"
"I'm Imoen!" the human thief answered, stretching out a hand to shake. "Me too!"
"Wow!" Alora cried out. "Two bestest best best thieves?! That's a lot of bests! And who is this cranky red dragon?"
"This is Edwin!" Imoen was delighted that Alora had pinned Edwin as a dragon just the same as she herself had. "Don't worry, he's always a little sourfaced, hehe!"
"Monkey!" the conjurer exclaimed desperately. "Get it off of me! (Am I begging? I am begging. I don't care; it must get off of us! Help us, fool!)"
"He talks funny! Thank you for saving me Eddy! You're the best wizard ever!"
"Her voice," the wizard sounded like he was being strangled. "Her voice is diabetes. (Make this stop. Make it stop!)"
"Hey, that's a nice thing to say!" Alora giggled, releasing him. "But why so frowny frowny? Smile, Eddy!"
Edwin seized Imoen, hauling her bodily between himself and the halfling. Imoen yelped and then glanced back at him, grinning diabolically. "What is wrong with her?" the Thayvian hissed. "Is she stupid, bewitched, or simply a juvenile?" he snarled. "(I think I can feel my intellect draining out of my ears just by being in this close of proximity to her!")
"Hey! I'm almost forty you know! Not everyone has to get all sour-faced meanie mean when they get big!"
"Stupid then!" the Red Wizard hissed. "Keep her away from me or I shall immolate her! (Fire! Fire everywhere, I swear it!)"
"Don't be like that! Let's be friends!" the halfling giggled, stepping towards her.
"What!? (Ye Gods.) Why are my only friends pink thieves!? Why not liches, dragons, and beautiful women!?"
"HEY!" Two Pinks pouted at him. "You take that back, we are so beautiful!" Edwin nearly broke down crying when they talked simultaneously and said nearly the exact same thing. They looked at each other and then broke out laughing.
"Hey who is the Elfy?" Alora asked, turning to hop up to the enchanter.
Aghast, Xan looked from the halfling, to Imoen, and then back again. "I do not want to to talk to you," he told her glumly. "I do not think I can bear your voice."
"Don't be sad, I'm wonderful!" the halfling laughed. "I'll teach you to be happy! Give me a hug!"
Xan stumbled backwards, crying out in draconic. Moments later, and Alora was caught in a Hold Person, arms still outstretched.
"Hey!" Edwin was offended. "That is cruel. She has been petrified for who even knows how long, and you turn around and paralyze her?" Xan looked at the Thayvian in alarm. Edwin blinked, seeming to register what he had just said. Then he gagged in horror, and needed to step away. Imoen stared after him a moment and then turned a wide-eyed expression on Xan.
Gloomy and Buoyant decided not to say anything about Edwin's remarkable slip. To anyone. Most of all to Edwin himself. Whatever insane, twisted instinct had provoked Edwin to react protectively on a complete stranger's behalf, neither of them wanted to accidentally crush it.
- Kivvaaaaannnn! Don't go! We'll do the Bandit Camp eventually, I swear!
- Diabetes: I looked this up and this term is actually ancient. Diabetes was one of the first medical diseases ever recorded; Egyptians, Persians, and the Chinese all have recordings of it. Half their names for it mean 'sugar urine.' So imagine Edwin totally referring to Alora as 'Sugar Urine!'
- Edwin has to be wondering if he's lost his mind XD. Let's blame Imoen XD.
- In the next chapter we fill find out what happens to Lullorin! Call your guesses!
- For the curious, I thought I'd finally blurb about Imoen's weapon, the Blacksun. I drew inspiration from living in Hong Kong and from Edwin's name for her: 'Monkey,' and her more formal title: "The Incredibly and Infinitely Buoyant Pink Monkey Queen of Candlekeep."
The Blacksun's formal name is given as "The Sun Awakened to Emptiness," and although Imoen primarily uses it as a shortbow she also now transforms it to a quarterstaff for close quarters combat.
"Awakened to Emptiness" is the English translation of "Wukong" which makes the weapon's name "Sun Wukong" if we remove 'The' from the beginning.
Sun Wukong is the name of the Monkey King from Chinese Mythology. His signature weapon is a staff :)
Clearly Imoen's Epilogue must involve her going on a Journey to the East to achieve enlightenment! Kara-Tur, make yourself ready! Crazy is coming to visit!