I Pleaded Your Case to My Lord

- "J... jelena?"

The first thing Winski saw was the face of the woman he loved. Jelena looked much like she had in life, but still somehow... more. She was radiant, glowing. Her golden hair shone, her eyes were kind and gentle as they had been. But she looked powerful too. It wasn't anything obvious, just a general impression.

The two embraced, and for a long time it was all that needed to be said.

- "Winski... I have been waiting for you," she said, her musical voice the loveliest thing Winski could imagine.

- "I... this is wonderful. I didn't expect to see you. I haven't been the best of persons after your death," said Winski quietly, hoping she didn't know all of it.

- "I know. I know everything. I have been watching," she answered, full of sorrow, and Winski felt such shame and regret. "We will need to talk about that. But let me take you to my home."

She took his hand and they walked a few yards, Winski noticing only blank, grey and nondescript surroundings.

- "This is just an... arrival spot, and I came to you with my Lord's authority. Usually the traveling is not this handy, this is just a temporary portal for this occasion. I will explain it all."

They stepped through the portal, and arrived into a stony balcony overlooking a lush, green valley. A silvery river flowed through the rolling hills, and Winski spotted a few stony bridges, looking rather picturesque. Further away there were farmlands and flocks of cattle. The mountains rose high, their tops covered with snow.

A gnomish woman with red hair, twinkling eyes and huge nose even for a gnome arrived carrying a tray, setting two crystal glasses filled with sparkling liquid on a stony table.

- "So this is him," stated the gnome, her mischievous eyes appraising Winski from head to toes. "Doesn't look like much, considering how you have been going on about him."

- "Considering that his head was severed and that he was stabbed just a short while ago, I'd say he looks fine indeed," said Jelena.

- "Thanks, Meer. She is my housekeeper Meer," said Jelena, "and this is obviously the love of both my mortal and afterlife, Winski." Winski shook hands with the gnome, overwhelmed. The gnome winked and went away, and Jelena took another of the glasses, taking a seat on a bench next to the balcony. Winski followed suit, sniffing the drink.

- "Nectar. No alcohol," Jelena grinned. Her eyes were filled with emotion again.

- "Where are we?" asked Winski. This surely wasn't an afterlife for an architect of the ascension of new Lord of Murder, even a failed one.

- "Welcome to the Twin Paradises of Bytopia," intoned Jelena. "Look up, Winski..."

He did, and through the sky he could see another land, the mountaintops occasionally touching each other. The other place seemed to be a more uncultivated wildland, beautiful in its sharp tones and untamed charm.

- "The gravity works there just as here," explained Jelena, "this place can be seen from there just like we can see there now. This place is Dothion. Most of the inhabitants are gnomish spirits, but also the gnomish pantheon makes home here, as does my Lord. That is why I , too, live here when I'm not traveling. This is much like I dreamed for us then... a peaceful place, with both privacy and friendly folks who trust each other... the beauty of nature surrounding us. And still, you'd certainly not be disappointed with what the Yeoman guild center down in the valley can offer. All the gnomish illusionists perfecting their craft there..." she smiled ruefully.

- "Your Lord... Ilmater?" asked Winski. Jelena nodded.

- "He appeared to me once I died... he said that I have been his faithful servant and lived according to his teachings all my life. And I didn't even so consciously try! I just prayed to him because I liked him, you know. He is forgiving and kind, and suffers for others. He asked if I would want to become his divine agent. It is a bit like a priest, but an immortal spirit. I do his work, here, and... elsewhere. Where there is suffering and injustice. That's why I need a housekeeper. I'm not here so often."

Winski looked at her, and understood where the new power was from. She was indeed a creature of power now, not a gentle and mistreated woman a scum like Reiltar could murder.

- "But... you do know what I have been up to after you died? Shortly put, tried to start a war in order to make Sarevok a new Lord of Murder? And we did manage to kill quite a few people in the process," whispered Winski, lowering his gaze. Now that he said it aloud it sounded like a gibberish plan of a madman. He wasn't all that sure it wasn't exactly that.

- "Of course I know, love. How I wished I could have interfered somehow, but my power is not enough at the moment," she answered.

- "And you... still say you love me?"

- "You never finished that lesson, did you?" said Jelena, her voice gentle. "Love is not about deserving. You know love, but you don't understand it. Think for yourself. Sarevok stabbed you and left you to die, and yet your last thoughts were about loving him, and no harm coming to him. Can you say that he deserved that?"

- "Everything... everything I did wrong. I failed so miserably with your son, even though Tamoko tried to help..." Winski buried his face in his hands, not able to stand Jelena's sad gaze. Who knew where Sarevok was now, what had happened to him. Winski remembered the boy calling him "the only mortal father he ever had". How true. And fathers had responsibility. He had used his to encourage Sarevok in the path they had chosen, all because he didn't want to face his own vulnerability and grief. What a price the boy had had to pay. They had loved each other, he still remembered the trust and adoration he had seen in Sarevok's eyes when he was a child... and in the end, all their plans in shambles, Sarevok stabbing him and leaving him to die, probably meeting a very unfortunate destiny himself.

- "I pleaded your case to my Lord," said Jelena. "He listened. He acknowledged your basic decency, how you had loved a child and protected him, shown gentleness to me. He also pointed out that the positive influence on your soul, your developing conscience and quest for a worthier life was cruelly interrupted by my murder. And that mostly the reason for your sins was bitterness, pain and losing your willingness to live. Yet, even though he is a forgiving god, your role in the evil that ensued can not be ignored. As you are you are not fit for the afterlife I have pleaded for you."

Winski just nodded, speechless, ashamed and trying to take in that Jelena still loved him, even though she knew everything.

- "I pleaded that you would be allowed to travel with me as a guardian, friend and lover. My dark magician, whose perception is clearer in certain things as mine is in others. And Ilmater said it will be so, but not until after retribution. And... this is the hardest part... I must be the one who punishes you. I must make you deeply, with every fibre of your being, understand what your machinations meant for the people involved, those whom you didn't sacrifice one thought to. Also, you will lose your magic, but that would have happened anyway had I not intervened. We must travel to Hades, to the gloomy layer of Nilfheim. It is a place of hopelessness and apathy, a place for those who consciously decided to live without loving others. This was your misguided decision, and it is the place where you must be imprisoned. I will accompany you there."

- "Jelena! I can't ask you to... you love it here and you never did deserve anything like that horrible place... not because of me!"

- "You don't get it, do you. I love you. Even more than I did when alive. And suffering is nothing new to me. Don't argue. After your punishment we will be free. You, in more than one way. Shall we start our journey?"

Winski cried a little, took Jelena's hand. He didn't know what to think about Ilmater, as his willingness to carry others' burdens, even actively seek to do so, seemed unfathomable. But he had a chance few people were offered, especially not ones who had failed as miserably as he had. He would get to be with Jelena once he was through the ordeal. He had always been haughty and sceptical, so it did feel humiliating to accept the retribution and not be the lord of one's own destiny. But there was no doubt in his mind. He wanted to share the afterlife with his love, and he would do whatever he had to do and keep his mind open. It was not like he had succeeded fabulously by clinging to his own ways.

- "What about Sarevok?" he asked quietly.

- "His destiny... is out of my hands," answered Jelena, joining Winski's tears. "Even Ilmater's, for that matter."