"Ah, the wanderer returns," Solaufein sneered. "Absent her escort. Tell me Phaere, how did a simple raid on the fish-people go so badly wrong?"

"Silence male! When I speak to you it shall be to command you to lick my boots!" his boss struck at him. "Keep your bitterness to yourself or lose your tongue!"

She was attractive but not in the head-turning sort of way that Viconia was. Phaere's white hair was wavy, untidy and spilled from her bun in long feral strands. At first they thought that, apart from Arowan, she was the first drow they'd encountered with freckles. That was until they realised that the little dots peppering her face were scars from some previous attack or torture.

Nevertheless, her resemblance to drow-Arowan was pronounced. So much so that Phaere noticed it herself. She was just about to comment on how pathetically Solaufein must be pining for her to find himself such a lookalike, when she was distracted by her own superior.

"He asks a question we would all like an answer to," a haughty voice cut over her. Phaere turned and straightened up abruptly.

"Matron Mother Ardulace!" she replied breathlessly.

Unlike surface elves it was, in fact, possible to guess who the older drow were by sight. True, they did not age in the conventional sense, but their lives were brutal and they picked up scars. Ardulace's beauty had been particularly marred through many poisoning attempts by her rivals which had left her with thinning hair and papery skin, not unlike an elderly rivvil.

"Explain yourself child," Ardulace croaked. Even her voice had grown hoarse centuries ago, when one of her sisters had tried to do away with her by setting her house on fire.

"We encountered a human warrior in the caverns," Phaere replied. "A vast monster of a man, stronger than any gladiator-slave that I have ever seen. He was naked, he must be an escapee. His owner will pay dearly when she is found. He disarmed me. I left my men to cover me while I made a tactical retreat."

"Very sensible," Ardulace nodded.

"However, without guard or a weapon, I was caught by the Kuo-Toa," she replied. "It took me some time to fight my way out, but I bring back the head of their prince!"

She spoke these last words more loudly and held up a dripping, reeking fish head. The marketplace erupted into applause and the matron mother smiled, thin-lipped. Once the cheering had died away however, one man kept clapping sarcastically.

"One human?" taunted Solaufein. "The mighty Phaere ran away from one human? Who didn't even have any armour?"

Ardulace murmured something to two of her attendants who rushed forward quickly to retrieve the fish head. They squeezed its blood into thin vials, corking them and stowing them away in their packs. Apparently kuo-toa blood was a valuable ingredient for spells. Or possibly a very potent fish soup.

"I tell you, this was no common rivvil!" Phaere insisted, as a chuckle rippled through the watching crowd. "He needs to be found and brought to me. Solaufein! See to it! And since you're so confident that he's only one human, I shall put you to death if you fail."

"I call your bluff arrogant one!" Solaufein retorted, squaring up to her in a manner they had not seen any male dare do to a female since their arrival. From what she had seen so far of the drow, Arowan could not understand it. It was as though the man had a death wish. "Run me down now, if you think you can get away with it."

Phaere's hand flew to her dagger, but a look from the Matron Mother stopped her in her tracks. Apparently the insult was not worth offending little Visteria's mother over.

"Very well!" Phaere hissed angrily, hands clenching. "Since I cannot have you, I will slaughter your latest band of minions unless you bring me the human. And before you ask why you should care: because I will replace them with trolls and kobolds! That's why!"

The commander responded with a sarcastic bow and jerked his head to Jaheira's party indicating that they were to follow him. They gathered around Phaere, who described the man to them. Naked, bald, strange glowing eyes and an enormous weapon. There could be no question that she was after Sarevok.

Which presented the party with a huge problem. If they killed him, he would dust and they'd have no proof of his death, but if they brought him in alive, he would have no reason not to talk and expose them as surfacers.

The situation was not helped by having to take Solaufein with them, as it meant that they could not even discuss their options. They combed the caverns for hours but came across nothing except fish people and gnomes. The party knew, as Solaufein could not, that they had no chance of finding Sarevok this way for he was in Adalon's lair. Yet there was no point in retrieving him yet. Not until they had a plan.

Near an underground river, Yoshimo stumbled. He righted himself immediately, but Arowan noticed that he was clawing his throat.

"Yoshi? Are you alright?" she whispered. He nodded, but she was not sure that she believed him. "Is it the geas?"

Before he could reply, Solaufein turned his attention to them. The commander strode over, sword drawn and they feared that he might intend to punish his follower for this display of weakness. He surveyed the Ilmatari with the sort of disdain most people reserved for maggots, but no aggression was forthcoming.

"We'll make camp here," the drow commander declared at length. "I've no desire to wear you down. Phaere may have given me feeble foreigners with no stamina, but at least you smell better than trolls."

There was no need for tents for it never rained in the Underdark, but they made a small fire from stiff woody reeds poking out of the river. At first Yoshimo was grateful to stop, but the rest seemed to give him no relief. The healers, all three of them, came to look at him but there was nothing they could do.

"I was alright while we were looking for the eggs," Yoshimo told them in a hoarse whisper. "That might have directly led to Sarevok's death. This won't. We know where he is and are doing nothing to kill him."

"How long do we have?" Arowan fretted, but Yoshimo could not tell her.

As the hours wore on, his condition grew worse. He inhaled in frantic gulps and every so often moaned in pain, while she tried to tend to him. Despite her pleading and coaxing he refused all food. Healing spells had no effect and nothing seemed to offer him any comfort except her holding and reassurance.

"We have to move," Arowan insisted finally. "If we stay here like this he'll die in the night."

There was no way to tell if it really was night of course. The Underdark was constant, continual gloom lit only by glowing mosses. Real drow had special vision, to detect threats in the shadows, but the party had to content themselves with straining in the dark.

"What would you have us do?" Dorn rumbled.

Solaufein was watching them. Drow in general were paranoid about assassination attempts by underlings, and this drow triply so. He would expect Phaere to have them do her dirty work for her and say it was the human. Perhaps there never even was a human in the first place.

He had been foolish to stop for their sick soldier. In fact, as soon as the man got to his feet he began to look healthier. Solaufein began to suspect that there was nothing wrong with him at all… and yet there was something peculiar about this group. He had been watching them since their arrival and not once had he seen them torture anybody, hunt for fun or abuse a slave. Even their muscular warrior with the tattoos had not taken advantage of his popularity in the fighting pits to enjoy the lust chambers. Although come to think of it, his 'friend' Veldrin might account for that.

"We should keep looking for the human," Arowan said loudly. "Phaere will grow angry if we keep her waiting. Let's split up. That way we'll find him faster."

"Split up?" Solaufein raised an incredulous eyebrow. "The caves surrounding Ched Nasad must be a great deal safer than those about Urst Natha for you to make such a suggestion. Our city has many unpleasant neighbours who we antagonize constantly. Illithids, kuo-toa, beholders? Even the duergar or svirfneblin, if you run into a big enough group of them. Any of them would relish the chance to take their suffering out on a lone drow!"

He sounded incredibly bitter.

"You would prefer not to make war with the other species then?" Rasaad asked. Solaufein shot him a shrewd look. It was as if he was calculating whether or not to take a risk.

"Some of them would make war on us regardless," Solaufein replied carefully. "The illithids require hosts for their spawn and find drow brains most desirable but… the kuo-toa could be reasoned with and I daresay the svirfneblin would like nothing better than to be left alone."

"That is an… unconventional attitude, male," Viconia remarked with a mixture of fascination and mild disapproval.

"You are unconventional yourselves," Solaufein remarked, his eyes flickering between the huge, muscular Rasaad and the lean, effeminate Veldrin.

Male-male relationships were not viewed with inherent hostility in Urst-Natha the way they were in, say, Amn. However, their society did hinge on the servile devotion which males owed to their mistresses. For this reason, while bisexuality was perfectly acceptable, a drow male who had no interest at all in females would be considered inherently dangerous. After all, what was there to bind them into obedience but lust? Gay drow, therefore, tended not to advertise their preferences quite so blatantly as Veldrin was doing.

Yoshimo was starting to paw his neck again. This delay was doing them no good. Arowan strode directly up to Solaufein, whose hand flew to his sword, expecting an attack.

"Are you familiar with the prophecies surrounding the Servant of all Faiths?" the ranger asked directly.

"What are you doing rivvil?" Viconia spat in alarm.

"Rivvil?" echoed Solaufein. His sword was all the way out now, but he was hopelessly outnumbered. Besides, he had seen Rasaad and Dorn in the fighting pits and knew that he could not defeat both of them.

Viconia slapped her hand to her mouth in horror, but there was no going back now. Arowan knew that she was taking a gamble, but Solaufein wasn't letting them split the group and if they did not start obeying the geas quickly Yoshimo was going to die. In her opinion, the drow commander was far more likely to help the Servant of all Faiths in his own self-interest than to save her husband out of the goodness of his heart.

"Yes. These faces are an illusion," Arowan confirmed. She was glad she had the Ring of Charisma now, for she was sure that with her normal persuasive powers, Solaufein would already have attacked. "Veldrin is the only real drow here."

Despite the predicament he was facing, Solaufein could not help finding this amusing.

"Veldrin acts less like a drow than any of you!" he snorted. "He talks back to males above him and glares at the females of great houses when they look at his boyfriend. You are a foreign nobody from a minor house who strides about with as much arrogance as a Handmaiden of Lolth, and a senior one at that!"

"That's because she used to be one," sighed Arowan. "Solaufein put the damn sword away, we outnumber you seven to one, and meet Viconia of House DeVir."

"Viconia DeVir?" even Solaufein was stunned, though he quickly recovered. "So you are female then? That explains… a lot. Is disguising yourself as a boy how you survived the fall of your house? Clever. Although it'd be a lot cleverer if you also acted more like a real male. How in the goddess's name have you not provoked anyone into killing you yet?"

"A great mystery indeed," muttered Arowan sourly.

"Shut up rivvil, you've spoken enough!" snapped Viconia. Then she turned her attention to Solaufein with a seductive purr which might have been very effective in her usual form, but as Veldrin it just left her target feeling confused. "I survived because I am the Servant of all Faiths! After I rejected the Spider Queen, I sought refuge on the surface, where Shar came to me and granted me the use of her powers."

Solaufein replaced his sword, finally. He had never heard of 'Shar' but it was clear from the context that Viconia was referring to a goddess who was not Lolth. Whether she really was the Servant of all Faiths or just a raving lunatic, he believed that she meant what she said. No drow would ever risk uttering the words 'I rejected the Spider Queen' as a ruse or trick.

He knew, of course, what the Servant of all Faiths was. The drow clerics had received Amauna's warning just like everybody else. Unlike every surfacer she had ever told, Solaufein was not in the least surprised that the Chosen One was a drow. In fact it had never even occurred to the drow that she wouldn't be one of them.

"What brings you back to the Underdark, Servant of all Faiths?" he asked. "And why are these surfacers with you masquerading as drow?"

"It is a long story," replied Viconia, "But the short answer is that we must retrieve the eggs of a silver dragon from Urst Natha. Otherwise that one will die and we shall be stuck here without disguises."

"I know something of this," Solaufein replied. "Matron Mother Ardulace was boasting that the silver dragon guarding the path to the surface would no longer be a hinderance. I believe she will have the eggs you seek. I can help you to retrieve them, provided we can find this human for Phaere. He has something to do with you as well I assume?"

"We were going to have to kill him regardless," Arowan replied, uncomfortable that words like this were coming out of her mouth. Yet it was unbearable to watch Yoshimo suffer. She added as much to remind herself as anyone else, "He is a mass murderer and an evil man."

She began walking the party in the direction of Adalon's lair. Solaufein seemed to accept that he would have to come with them, and as they set off after Sarevok, Yoshimo's condition improved again. He was saying very little, however and he seemed pale and ill. Fighting the will of the geas repeatedly was taking its toll. The two real drow fell into step with one another.

"Since you have also rejected the Spider Queen, I will tell you something I have told few others," Solaufein said. "Lolth holds no sway over my heart. I worship Lady Silverhair, Eilistraee, and like her I believe that my people have strayed from the path. Perhaps this is your purpose, Servant of all Faiths? To lead our people from Lolth and to salvation?"

Dorn turned his glinting black eyes to Viconia and let out a cruel chuckle.

"It isn't."

"Then perhaps it is mine," Solaufein said resolutely. "I know of some like me in Urst Natha; Ferape and a few others. There must be more… I am sure of it. Perhaps my people can be saved from themselves."

"From themselves? Perhaps," replied Dorn darkly.

The implication was not lost upon Solaufein who stopped short, causing Yoshimo to stumble again. Arowan grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, imploring the others to hurry.

"I have no time for cryptic threats, speak plainly!" the commander barked.

"Dorn has a demonic patron," Arowan replied uneasily. "He has shown us glimpses of what is to come if the Servant of all Faiths cannot prevent it. Urst Natha will be destroyed, and all those of evil alignment slaughtered."

"All of them?" Solaufein gasped, "But that's practically everybody!"

"Ferape will be spared," she said, for she remembered now where she had seen the browbeaten teacher before. "And those below the age of responsibility, who do not yet have an alignment. I don't think there will be many other survivors."

Solaufein was stumbling along now. He looked almost as sick as Yoshimo. His haughty, defiant expression had been replaced by one of deep distress. For all their cruelty and violence, he cared about his people and his city too much to see them exterminated like rats.

"You could come away with us?" suggested Viconia, who had missed the company of her own kind since Baeloth had left. Beside her Rasaad's fist clenched and he narrowed his eyes at Solaufein before he could stop himself.

"I don't think your surface-male would appreciate that," he laughed.

"Not at all, Solaufein. A follower of Lady Silverhair would be welcome among us, of course," Rasaad forced himself to say. "My own goddess is sometimes called Our Lady of Silver and both are referred to as the Moon Maiden. I believe we may have much in common."

The drow shook his head doubtfully, but smiled at Rasaad. With his huge size and spider tattoos, the man made a terrifying drow, but somehow he suspected that he was not so imposing in his true skin.

"I have seen you fight in the pits. One thing we do have in common is that we are both warriors," replied Solaufein. "So you must know that I will not run and leave my city to burn. No. I shall remain and fight the coming evil, even if it proves hopeless."

Rasaad nodded respectfully, one warrior to another. Anomen was almost on the point of nobly volunteering to defend it too, until he remembered that according to Arowan's visions his presence would certainly do more harm than good.

"I revoke my invitation in any case," Viconia sniffed. "Two insipid moon-calves pining over their silver ladies is more than I am prepared to tolerate."

Solaufein laughed weakly, but Arowan was not smiling. She was half-carrying Yoshimo now, but the dragon's lair was in sight. When they got there, however, Adalon refused to give them Sarevok.

"He is Bhaalspawn, he will leave no body behind," she rasped when they explained the situation. "You will have nothing to show to Phaere and no way to retrieve my eggs. Bring him to her alive! I will place magics upon him that will stay his tongue and keep him from revealing your identities."

"No! Yoshimo will die if you do that! We have to kill Sarevok!" Arowan cried.

"Without something to show Phaere you will be unable to return to Urst-Natha and my eggs will be lost!" she roared, spreading her great wings to fill the cavern. Her front feet slammed down before the ranger, placing herself between the Ilmatari and Sarevok. The Bhaalspawn's sword was raised in preparation for a last stand.

Yoshimo felt drained from the repeated attacks by the geas. His throat was dry, and head fuzzy, like a bad bout of flu. He looked into the deep, blue eyes of the dragon. They were filled with fear for her eggs, rage at Arowan… yet also some pity… for him…

It would not be their party against her. Rasaad and Anomen would never stand back and allow the slaughter of a silver dragon. They would also have Sarevok on their side protecting himself, Viconia who would fight with Rasaad and probably Solaufein who needed something to show Phaere too. Whose side Dorn and Jaheira would pick was anybody's guess, but the odds were already stacked too heavily against them.

"Dorn? Jaheira?" Yoshimo said quietly. His eyes flickered sadly toward his wife. Jaheira startled but the half-orc nodded and seized Arowan about the arms. Moments later, vines sprang up from the floor and entangled her legs.

"What are you doing?" Arowan screamed, thrashing uselessly against them. "No! NO!"

Yoshimo drew his sword.

"Turn me back."

"It doesn't have to be like this," Adalon said sadly, but she granted his request just the same. The thief's drow ears shrank back and his hair darkened from silver to black. His adamantine blade was revealed for the katana it really was.

"I believe it does," Yoshimo panted. "I can wither and die for failing to kill Sarevok… or I can fall in battle and pray that my heart finds purchase with Ilmater. When this is done cut it out and bring it to his temple. Only he can spare me from the hell this geas has tied my soul to."

He turned to Arowan, who felt as though she had been stabbed in both lungs. She was mouthing words that she could not get out, pleading with them to let her go, and not to do this. At the same time she tried to catch one last glimpse of his living face, to fix it in her memory, but she could barely see him through her tears.

"I love you," Yoshimo whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. "Goodbye Arowan."

Arowan could not believe what was happening. It felt like a bad dream, a nightmare from which any moment she had to wake up.

"No redemptions!" cried Yoshimo, turning back to the dragon. "No second chances! Let us get this over with! I stride into the hell that Irenicus has promised. Ilmater take my heart, I have no choice!"

"I love you," Arowan choked, but it was too late.

Adalon still held enough mercy not to draw it out. Her talon's slashed out at Yoshimo. Once ripping through his armour, twice opening his chest and third removing his heart as requested.

She shook the dripping organ out and passed it to Jaheira, who hastily wrapped it up in her spare clothes before the dragon carried it away out of Arowan's sight. This was brutal for the Ilmatari. Normally they would bring a whole body for such a ritual, not a ripped-out heart, but bringing him to the surface intact was impossible.

The ranger stopped struggling and sagged. Her sobs rang through the cave in such agony that Rasaad had to leave, unable to bear to listen to it.

Inside Arowan was shattering like a dropped vase. Flashes of the things she had done to try to keep Yoshimo alive, the moral lines she had crossed. Making deals with Firkraag and Irenicus. Bringing Freya's flayed fur back to Bodhi and providing her with a fortune in gold to do hells-knew-what. Bringing back Sarevok from the dead knowing that he would have his soul ripped out. Knowingly sending Bubbles to her death, the slaughter of Mazzy Fentan and, most pointless of all, Imoen.

It was all for nothing now. All of it.

Something dark was stirring inside her. It was angry and strong, an overwhelming rage that threatened to burst from her body and destroy everything in sight. This was not like any mere loss of temper she had experienced before. Power lay behind this. Power like… like the avatar of Bhaal in the Twofold Temple.

She felt her muscles grow and her bones stretch. Her teeth were lengthening in her mouth and something spiny was prickling beneath her skin. This was more than just emotion, a physical change was happening inside her, coupled with a burning urge to kill.

Nobody else had noticed yet. She opened her puffy eyes to find her vision blurred by tears. Jaheira's watery outline was right in front of her. If she could not suppress this monster inside her, the druid would be the first to fall.

"No…" she whispered. Shock and adrenaline flooded through her, and before the Slayer that was Bhaal's avatar could take over, the real Arowan got a grip. "NO!"

From the others' point of view, she did not cry for long. Less than five minutes, before she shouted out the word 'no,' then retreated into a cold silence which was somehow much worse than weeping.


"Arowan, say something," Anomen pleaded eventually. He was the first to speak, but he had waited a long time.

"What exactly do you expect me to say?"

"You've been staring at Yoshimo for hours," Jaheira said tentatively. "What do you want us to do with the body? Dorn and Rasaad have offered to dig a grave, or we could try to float him down the river. Adalon might be willing to cremate him if we ask?"

"Does it matter?" the ranger asked. Were it not for his bloodless complexion and ripped-out heart, her husband might have been sleeping. It was as though he was still present with her. Only, of course, he wasn't. "You want me to say something? Fine. Yoshimo looks how I feel. Will that do?"

Rasaad had come back in after she stopped howling but seemed unable to think what to say or where to look. He kept as far back as possible with Viconia, wishing that this wasn't happening. Jaheira and Anomen had attempted to hug and comfort her, but she had responded with such frosty indifference that she might have been on numbing potions once again. Dorn neither retreated from her nor offered solace. He was watching her, his expression calculating. Every so often his fingers brushed the hilt of his sword.

Solaufein placed a hand on her shoulder. He knew, from having lost Phaere to the Handmaiden's torturers, exactly how much it hurt. Though he could not help but feel that Arowan was lucky in one respect. At least the shell of her lover was not walking around tormenting her. Given the choice, he would have preferred that Phaere had died like this, so that he could grieve for her and move on.

"Forgive me, but if we do not return with the human soon Phaere will grow suspicious," he said as gently as he could. "We must bring Sarevok to her."

"No."

The dragon's head whipped around, snakelike and she released a roar of fury that shook the walls of the cavern. Arowan did not react. She regarded the silver beast with a frozen, hateful look. Sarevok had been staring at his hands like a condemned prisoner awaiting execution. Suddenly he looked up hopefully.

"I have no further quarrel with my brother," Arowan said. "I refuse to murder him now that the geas cannot be broken."

"Now you'll admit that it was murder?" Viconia sniped. Rasaad shot her a repressive look.

"It was murder. I murdered Imoen," confessed Arowan in a hollow voice. She looked Rasaad in the eye, and the monk took a step backward. It was like gazing into a void. "Yes, and Mazzy Fentan too. Are you happy now?"

"You cannot believe that I would be happy about this," Rasaad replied in a low voice.

"Enough!" Adalon roared. "Yoshimo may be dead but I have his heart, and if you ever wish to reach the surface again to take it to his temple, you will return my eggs! Fail and I will eat it!"

Arowan looked up at her, and nodded slowly. She looked back at Yoshimo's body and then to the dragon.

"Can you make him look like Sarevok?"

Everybody had already been staring at her, but all at once it felt as though the temperature in the dragon's lair had dropped a few degrees. The crying had been hard to listen to, but this cold-blooded calm was so similar to her behaviour on numbing potions that, if they had not all been with her the whole time, Jaheira would have been sure that she'd drank one.

"I beg your pardon?" the dragon blinked in disbelief.

"I won't murder Sarevok," Arowan said.

"But-" Dorn protested, looking suddenly alarmed.

"No," she replied icily, not daring to let herself feel anything. "I refuse to become Bhaal. I will not murder again. This far, but no further."

She shuddered. Even thinking of Yoshimo made the grief well up like a volcano and opened the fissure in her soul through which Bhaal's avatar might erupt. So she forced herself not to. It was not easy, but if there was one aspect of the mediocre ranger that had always been exceptional, it was her capacity for stoicism.

"We have a body now to bring to Phaere. Make it look like Sarevok." She said 'it' because she could not bring herself to think Yoshimo's name. "And make Sarevok look like the drow we lost. He can take his place and help us to find the eggs."

Some of the others were looking at her in horror for making this suggestion, but one of them was Dorn. The half-orc was not a good actor, and the fact that he transparently detested this plan reassured her that it was the right one.

"You will not regret this, sister!" Sarevok declared, eyes blazing. "We will find the eggs, bring your husband's heart to the temple and then, together, we will hunt down the one responsible for all of this."