"Viconia!" Rasaad cried in relief as the bedraggled silver lump of a rat poked her twitching face from between the rocks. There stood between them a gauntlet of cats. For the twelfth time that night she had risked creeping to the surface and the hungry felines had spotted her, but this time her monk had seen her too. Viconia had a choice. Scramble back down into the rocks and hope that by luck she emerged closer to him next time, and not in feline paws. Or make a run for Rasaad.

She chose Rasaad.

He ran toward her too, his feet splashing in the shallows of the river, but the cats were closing in from all sides. A ginger Tom sprang directly into her path, but Viconia carried on, plunging her teeth into his paw. To his lasting shame, Rasaad kicked a scrawny tabby who was poised to pounce on her. It flew through the air writhing and landed on all four paws with an angry hiss.

None of the other cats dared to approach him, so once she reached his broad hands she was safe. Before he could inspect her fuzzy body for injuries, she scurried up his sleeve and into his shirt, where she curled up just above his belt. This was a most unpleasant sensation for she was all soggy from the river. A growing wet patch soaked through his shirt to mark her position. The bulge shivered with fear and cold, making pitiful little snuffling noises.

"I am sorry Viconia. I should have done a better job of protecting you," Rasaad said softly. The rat gave no indication that she disagreed. "May I speak with you?"

There was no response, so he wandered a distance from the hungry cats then plucked her from his shirt. The rat was in no hurry to leave and dug her needle-like claws into his belt. One paw missed the belt and buried into his stomach, which was too uncomfortable to ignore. He pulled her out and placed her onto his knee, where her lovely white fur glimmered in the moonlight.

She sat up anxiously, looking about her for cats. It was only with more stroking of her head and soothing words that the monk was able to calm her down.

"Let me speak with you now. It is not too unpleasant a subject I hope." Rasaad said. It was a great deal easier to say this to her now than in her real form. For one thing he rather feared her response, and though rat-Viconia had no difficulty in making her feelings known, he would be spared one of her crueller put downs.

The rat sat precariously on his knee. She was looking all about her very carefully as though judging whether it would be safe to jump down. Rasaad took a deep breath.

"I just- how to put this?" the monk began. "When I embarked on this journey to avenge Gamaz, I felt that I must do so alone. I cannot tell you what your company- what your support- has meant to me."

She decided to risk it and hopped the short distance to the ground. Once she was sure that there was no immediate threat from predators, she started scratching at the mud with her paw. It took a while because the light at ground-level was poor and the grooves had to be quite deep for Rasaad to make them out.

"I do not know what I would do if I were to lose you, Viconia," Rasaad said, screwing his eyes shut.

When he opened them again the rat was squatting on her hind-legs, looking up at him with sweet, red eyes. She was standing beside her completed word. Just one word, scratched into the mud.

EDWIN

"You… you're still in love with Edwin?" the monk replied, stunned. He had underestimated her. Being a rat had in no way diminished her capacity to be cruel.

Viconia made a din of furious squeaking that attracted the cats back. He lifted her out of their way, and at the sight of him the tabby he had been forced to kick slunk away again hissing. The rat still had dirty paws. Enough to paint Rasaad's shirt in grime. She managed to trace the first couple of letters before she ran out of dirt.

HA

"So you are laughing at me now?" sighed Rasaad. "I deserve that I suppose. I really am a fool."

Viconia let out an unholy screech of fury and pulled at her ears in frustration. In her polymorphed state she could form no real words but he had been called a 'useless male' by her enough times to recognize the inflection when he heard it.

Risking the cats, she jumped down again to where Edwin's name was scrawled in the dirt and added to her message. Rasaad squinted at the ground trying to make out the letters as she drew.

"Equals sign… HA- HAY- HAYES!" he read. "Edwin = Hayes! Is that what you're trying to tell me Viconia?"

"SQUEAK!" Viconia replied nodding her head so hard it looked in danger of toppling off.

"Selune's light no!" Rasaad cried. "That's why he attacked you! We have to warn the others. How could I not have realised, the way he was muttering to himself? I am such a fool!"

Again, Viconia did not disagree with him, but in moments her worm-like tail was vanishing down the front of his shirt as Rasaad ran for the camp. They had gone some distance into the woods, and he smelled the smoke before he saw the orange glow.

It could not be the work of one mage's wild surge. The entire structure had gone up in a towering inferno. They could make out nothing through the acrid smoke but there were screams coming from inside the camp.

"Rasaad!" Arowan was running toward him with Yoshimo close behind. "Rasaad did you find Viconia?"

"She's safe," Rasaad panted, patting his shirt, "But the wild mages aren't. They've been betrayed. Hayes was Edwin in disguise."

"How do you know?" Yoshimo asked.

"Viconia recognized him. That's why he cursed her," the monk said. "And it gets worse. I thought it was strange that Hayes was launching lightning bolts over and over. A wild mage in a wild magic zone getting his spell correct every single time? I fear that the Red Wizards must have figured out a way to counteract the zone's effects."

There was nothing else for it, the party ran for the camp. When they got there, the palisade had formed a ring of fire. The only way through was the main entrance, where five Thayan's stood with large sacks, bagging each wild mage as they fled the smoke. One of the children was seized roughly by the scruff of the neck and stuffed into one, followed by his mother. As soon as they were trapped inside, the mage holding it teleported away, only to reappear moments later with a fresh bag.

"You are sure the sacks can contain these oddities' magics Lanneth?" Edwin was demanding. He still looked like Hayes, but already he had shed the purple robes in favour of red.

"Of course they can you cretinous pawn, I enchanted them myself," panted a Red Wizard who was struggling to hold onto a particularly large and thrashy bag. It bucked and rolled, until with a shriek she let it fall.

"But they cannot contain Minsc and Boo!" the berserker cried, emerging from the bag looking furious. His great sword arched over his head and sliced deep into Lanneth's shoulder. It was followed by one of Arowan's fire arrows. Since they had come expecting to fight wild mages, the Thayans' defensive spells were well prepared for fire, but not for the arrow itself. Nor for swords.

Rasaad and Yoshimo ran into the fray, raining down blows and Lanneth was soon lying dead upon the ground. At the same moment, Hexxat stumbled from the ring of fire, sporting a blood-moustache. Under one arm she carried the other wild mage child, who was clinging to her undead rescuer looking traumatized.

"The Red Wizards in the camp have been… dispatched," she informed them delicately, putting down the girl.

"Minsc has very mixed feelings about this," her party leader confessed, as blood trickled down Hexxat's chin, "But Boo says it is a conversation for later. We must free our comrades!"

Outnumbered and ill-prepared, the last of the Thayan's tried to teleport away, clutching their bags.

"No, no, no!" Edwin screamed. "You didn't slay the wretched oaf! What about our deal?"

Between them Minsc and Yoshimo cut down two more of them before they could complete their incantations releasing Neera and Telana. The two wild mages toppled into the ferns and fallen pine needles. Telana gazed up at her husband with stricken eyes.

"Hayes! How could you do this?" she screamed.

"That is not your husband," Rasaad told her, eyes burning. "He is a Thayan in disguise. Edwin Odesseiron."

"So you primates solved my little monkey puzzle. Congratulations," sneered Edwin. "No matter. You two may tell Bodhi that I have done as she asked. The Shadow Thieves are at war with one another. Mercifully my business on this pestilent continent has drawn to a conclusion."

"What did you do with Hayes?" Telana wailed. In response Edwin stuck his bottom lip out and wiggled an empty bag tauntingly. The wild mage crumpled into a weeping ball.

"Correction Odesseiron: your business with this whole mortal plane has drawn to a conclusion!" Minsc hollered. "Fight me coward! At last Dynaheir's death shall be avenged!"

"Take one more step and Aerie dies!" the Red Wizard threatened.

It was only then that Minsc registered her absence. Along with most of the wild mages, Aerie had been teleported away in one of their magic-proof sacks. The berserker bellowed insults at an unperturbed Edwin, but his feet remained rooted to the floor. He dared not risk the Thayan acting out his threat.

"Your words are nothing but the snorting of an angry pig!" Edwin replied disdainfully. "I invite you to Thay to seek poor Aerie out. Your party will make a fine addition to my and Baeloth's little business venture, if the guards don't kill you first. Better hurry though. I doubt such a delicate bloom will last long in the new Black Pits."

He teleported away, still wearing Hayes' face but with a smirk that was unmistakably Edwin. Arowan could not understand how she had not noticed it before, but she was furious with herself. She wasn't the only one. Minsc dropped to his knees beside Telana, his face like that of a lost child.

"I have failed my witch," he whispered. "Again!"

Then he burst into tears.

"Not yet you haven't!" Neera cried savagely. "We are going to rescue her, and Hayes and Zaviak and King Gramm! We are going to punish the Red Wizards for this and most of all we are going to conjure up one of those fireballs Edwin Odesseiron loves so much and FRY HIM ALIVE IN IT!"

Viconia, who had been sheltering in Rasaad's top during the fight, skittered out at this point to clap her tiny paws in agreement. She had considered Edwin and Baeloth to be 'her' males and they had left her service without her permission. Fireballs sounded like a most suitable punishment.

"I'm so sorry Minsc," Telana sobbed. "Bringing your party here so we could attack the Red Wizards' enclave was all his idea. If this Edwin knew that you were hunting him, then he must have been hoping you'd die defending us."

"And he has started a war between factions in the Shadow Thieves guild," Yoshimo remarked. "That will strengthen Bodhi's grip on Athkatla."

"He said 'you two' may tell Bodhi," Rasaad said slowly, his eyes turning to Yoshimo. "What do you suppose he meant by that?"

"We were aware that Edwin was trying to stir up trouble between the thieves," Arowan shrugged. Lying was coming ever easier to her these days. "While we were imprisoned in the complex Bodhi and Irenicus were not particularly guarded about what they said in front of us. They didn't think we were important enough for it to matter what we overheard."

The explanation satisfied the others, even Viconia, who wasn't really paying attention. She was hoping with every fibre of her little ratty heart that Rasaad's earlier words had been meant as a declaration of affection and not mere friendship. With his impressive strength and size, she had always desired him, but over the past year her feelings had grown into something more than that. He made her feel safe, sometimes even happy. It was an unfamiliar sensation.

When he glanced down and caught her twitchy little face gazing up at him, she flushed. Luckily the layer of silver fur covering her hid this, but she scrambled back into his shirt, curling up against his torso. She almost regretted that she must become human again soon, and forgo the sanctuary of his tunic.

"We have to help them," Arowan whispered to Yoshimo.

"We can't!" the thief reminded her urgently. "If we run off to Thay we'll miss Bubbles's summoning ritual."

"To Thay!" declared Minsc, lifting his sword above his head. "Boo shall have Edwin's eyes and Minsc shall take his buttocks!"

It was an inappropriate situation in which to laugh. However, the problem that Arowan and Yoshimo often faced was that their lives were routinely horrible. So much so that it was never really an appropriate time to laugh. Someone had always recently died or been hurt, kidnapped or lost a loved one. After such a long time, even without numbing potions, they were growing impervious to it. For this reason when they caught each other's eye, they spluttered at the mental image of Minsc taking Edwin's bum. Even with Aerie gone and Telana's lost husband, they could see the humour.

"Can you help us?" Neera asked plaintively.

"Would that I could," replied Rasaad solemnly. "But I must go to this meeting of the Twofold Heretics a week hence, and put a stop to Alorgoth before he wrecks yet more harm upon the Sun Soul Order."

"And we have to regroup with Jaheira and Anomen," Arowan pointed out. She felt guilty for not recognizing Edwin, but taking on the entirety of Thay sounded like a quest for a hero. The sort of job that people like herself and Yoshimo would not survive. He discretely squeezed her hand.

It was a sad departure from the Hidden Refuge. Minsc went west with Hexxat and Neera, headed for the nearest port to set sail for Thay. Arowan's party were trudging North to Umar. Telana was left standing in the ashes of the Hidden Refuge, the child Hexxat had rescued clutching her skirts. Arowan bit her lip.

"If it were Telana alone, we could ask her to join one of our parties," the ranger whispered, "But we can't take a child with us. Not where we're going."

It was agreed to take the most direct route to Umar and camp rather than stopping at Trademeet. As soon as they reached the boundary of the wild forest, Viconia began chirping happily at the thought of becoming drow again. Only to realise that they had no functioning spellcaster left in the group. Her disappointment was muted by Rasaad, who let her ride on his shoulder, stroked her soft back gently and fed her little crumbs of cheese from his pack.

"Are you ok with this?" whispered Yoshimo, pointing at them discretely. Arowan looked over at Rasaad, who was smiling soppily at the rodent on his arm and she wrinkled her nose.

"I'm fine," she replied in a low voice. "A little weirded out by the rodent-romance, but fine."

The thief grinned and slipped his arm about her waist. Arowan scowled suddenly.

"No, not a hundred percent fine!" she admitted, folding her arms. "If it were anybody else… but Viconia? I mean, he knows all sorts of stuff about me that I don't want her to know! I don't like the idea of her and Rasaad pillow-talking, laughing at my sex life!"

Yoshimo cracked up at this, so loudly that Rasaad turned to look at them, though fortunately he had not heard her words.

"Would he do that?" Yoshimo wheezed. "It seems awfully petty."

"I doubt he'd volunteer the information but I'd bet my bow-hand she'll ask him," Arowan replied darkly. "And she'll find a way to extract an answer. This is Viconia we're talking about."

"You could always retaliate," Yoshimo suggested wickedly. "Is there anything funny about him? Has he got any strange kinks?" Arowan looked away and refused to make eye contact, but her lip was twitching. "There is something, isn't there? Tell me my friend. I promise that I am the soul of discretion. Is it feet? I bet it's feet."

"Behave yourself," Arowan chided him, flicking the thief's nose. But the Kara-Turan did not behave himself. He made a game of it, asking her at random intervals to try to surprise her into an answer until she could contain the anecdote no longer. "He'd always meditate after," she said. "And I mean always. It was the same every single day; first we'd eat, then he'd tidy the room we were renting, then he'd do his shaving, then me and finally trot off outside to contemplate the moon. It really got on my nerves."

"One cannot help but wonder how Viconia will react to that," Yoshimo chuckled.

"Oh, that'll be the least of her disappointments!" Arowan said emphatically. Both she and Yoshimo had conveniently forgotten that just moments before they'd been describing such gossip as 'petty.'

"Come now my friend," he replied, "I have shared a room with the man. His size could hardly disappoint even an elephant."

"True," replied Arowan, feeling mean but carrying on anyway in the expectation that Rasaad would do the same to her at some point. "But I do not think his lessons in the monastery covered anatomy. There is a certain part of the female body, which he seems to be wholly unaware exists."

"Then that should allay your own fears," Yoshimo grinned. "For I suspect that if he does not learn very quickly, he will not get as far as pillow talk with Viconia. From the way she goes on, I cannot imagine her having much patience with an underperforming male!"

The party made good time toward Umar, but on the second day the weather took a nasty turn. Lightning forked across the sky, striking so close that their ears were left ringing from thunderclaps. Conversation was impossible, for the wall of water was so thick that even breathing was a challenge. Eyes stinging, they were forced to take shelter in a cave.

It was miserably cold. Their clothes were all soaked through, and there was no wood in the vicinity dry enough to attempt a fire. Despite the cave being narrow and the awkwardness of the situation, they had no choice but to strip off their soaking garments and curl up in their sleeping bags shivering. It was that, or freeze to death.

Rasaad in particular, was having a rough time. He got no sleep that night, and had to resort to meditation to stop himself from shivering uncontrollably. By morning his head felt fuzzy and he had the unpleasant sensation of a wet sock stuck in his throat. No matter how many times he swallowed it would not go away.

Dawn brought an ill mood to the party, for though the rain had eased, their clothes had not dried at all. Only gotten colder. Just one set of garments had escaped the deluge, and this was because their owner couldn't wear them. Arowan shook out Viconia's leathers which had been neatly tucked away in her tent and bed roll by Rasaad.

Apoplectic was the only word for the rat's reaction. She bit Arowan's hand and then her ankle. The second time, the ranger struck out with her foot instinctively, which might have ended badly for Viconia had Rasaad not snatched her out of the way in the nick of time. The monk felt it best to hold onto the rat after that, though she squirmed furiously and chittered her sharp little teeth at her enemy.

"I think you need to stop," Yoshimo advised, as Arowan attempted to hoist the drow's leggings over her rather prominent backside. "Remember what happened to the golden pantaloons."

"SQUEAK!"

Reluctantly, the ranger put on her own drenched pants, but at least she had a dry top for the rest of the journey. The same could not be said for the men. Yoshimo, whose long black hair was also dripping and who did not have a useful rat to warm his hands, was coldest. Yet it was Rasaad who was finding it the most difficult. His hands turned to white and then blue and by the time they arrived in Umar he was stumbling a lot.

It barely qualified as a village, being but an inn and a scattering of houses. Most of the population lived in individual homesteads on their farms, which stretched to the south and west as far as the eye could see. To the north there were a few more but they bordered a forest. A dark, forbidding looking place. They were not close enough to see much detail, but to the ranger's eyes the trees seemed somehow sick.

In the centre of the village was a raised fountain which seemed to double as a meeting place and shrine. Half a henge had been constructed around it and bordered with trees. It was easy to see why they had chosen this place to be the centre of their community. Majestic rock formations towered over these hills and the valleys were the nexus of several rivers. The shrine seemed druidic, but did not look like anything Arowan had ever seen before. She was just pouring over some strange carvings that seemed to depict animal sacrifices at the base of the stones, when Rasaad keeled over and toppled into the fountain.

Viconia was dunked into the pool with him, and the little rat swam to safety, while the others pulled Rasaad from the water. He was conscious but definitely out of it, and could not seem to keep his feet. He slumped in Yoshimo's arms as they half-carried, half-dragged him into the inn. For such unpleasant weather quite a few people had made the trip to the tavern and they looked up from their beers as the newcomers arrived. Arowan paid them no heed, and her sopping boots squelched across the wooden floor straight to the barman.

"We need a bed for this man!" she said urgently. "And are Jaheira and Anomen here?"

The barman, a portly gentlemen with a drooping moustache scratched his belly through a grubby apron.

"The mean druid and her young toyboy?" he asked, "Nah yer missed 'em. Minister Lloyd sent 'em out to catch the Umar witch. Left a couple of days ago they did."

Arowan swore under her breath. "Do you have a cleric in your village? Or a druid?"

"'Fraid not," the innkeeper said, before embarking on a longwinded grumble about the outrageous prices healers charged for their services these days. "Looks like yer lad will have to ride it out. We've a wizard, mind, if that's any help."

"No. Thank you, but it is… healing… magic we need," Rasaad groaned. "Ouch Viconia… What did you do that for?"

Viconia had chomped down hard on his finger. She leapt onto the bar, to the disgust of many of the patrons and began waving her paws over a cork coaster.

"That's not one of mine!" the barkeeper cried defensively the moment he clapped eyes on her. "They brought it in here, you all saw! Never had rats, no siree!"

"A wizard can turn Viconia back and then she can heal you!" Arowan sighed, translating for the furry cleric. For all Rasaad's useful qualities nobody could describe him as being quick on the uptake. It was a trait that had been masked when he was with Freya's party, for even trolls looked like scholars when stood next to her. Yet with neither the Hero of Baldur's Gate nor Minsc available for comparison, the monk's wisdom seemed sorely lacking. "Yoshimo you stay here and look after Rasaad. I'll try to find this wizard and get Viconia turned back."

Yoshimo nodded and with the barman's help began hauling Rasaad's heavy, muscular body up the stairs. Viconia watched them anxiously, wringing her paws together, until Arowan's hand descended like a claw. She was not so gentle as the monk when picking her up, and did not allow her to ride in her hands, on her shoulder or anywhere else she might be at risk of being bitten. Instead Viconia was crammed roughly into her pack.

'Suit yourself,' thought Viconia, rubbing her little paws together, and at once began nibbling tiny holes into Arowan's tent and bed roll. Then she moved onto the other woman's provisions, making sure to take one small bite out of each morsel to ruin it. Her appetite for both food and petty vengeance sated, she curled up for one last rat nap.