His Own Prophecy After All
The others were quiet for a long moment, sipping their drinks, and let the father and the son quietly celebrate forgiveness and reunion in each other's embrace. Then Jelena started to talk in her soft voice.
- "Of my life there is not much to tell before I crossed the border. I was just a meek daughter and a meek wife."
- "Mother, you were what kept me from shattering," Sarevok said quietly. "The blood pulled and demanded, the rage and destruction of which I was born... and Reiltar, in his cruelty, kept tormenting me, like he tormented you. Without your love I would have gone broken a long time before I did."
- "And you sowed the seeds of the growth I experienced in this afterlife of mine," Winski said. "So you accomplished a lot goodness in your mortal life already."
- "Perhaps... perhaps." She was in a deep thought for a moment. "Reiltar, however, murdered me. I do not know whether he knew that I loved Winski, or if he just sensed that I had a mind and plans of my own now, wanting to destroy me. Perhaps he even knew that we planned to murder him, as that was our only possibility to get free. Perhaps it doesn't matter. But my Lord whom I had revered all my life, was waiting for me as I had died, taking me with him, and asked if I wanted to be his servant in the afterlife."
- "What are you, anyway? Kind of like a priest but not quite," Imoen asked, frowning.
- "Very much so," Jelena nodded. "I do have some priestly powers, and can cast priestly spells, but I am a divine agent. I am an immortal spirit, and I have planar powers priests normally don't have. Divine agents are needed in many other places than the Material Plane as well, after all."
- "I worked in Ilmater's service, enjoyed my new home... was saddened to follow Winski's life and the hardening of his heart. I was determined to do whatever I would have to to rescue him... but my Lord understood well that I wanted to, and said that it was a good thing to do. And the rest of it you heard from Winski. There are certainly long stories to tell about the trek, but perhaps we focus now on how we ended up here. I enjoyed the trek and seeing Winski learn. I did not enjoy causing him pain. But this, the result, is worth it."
- "And Ilmater sent you with us to help us with that prophecy thingie," Peri nodded.
- "I just realized!" Imoen chirped, "You got your own prophecy after all, big bro! Are you happy?"
- "Such a thing, that a prophecy would center around me, feels very unimportant now," Sarevok answered. "I live again for a purpose, and whether or not it is tied to prophecies means little to me. To think that it once was everything to me..."
- "How was your own afterlife, Sarevok?" Jelena asked. "I heard you calling, drawing strength from me."
- "My afterlife was bad. I am not prepared to discuss it in detail... I was in the Abyss," Sarevok said, darkness in his eyes. "It is a place of corruption, wrongness and suffering... sheer random malevolence. I had to use every inch of willpower and cunning I have to get out of there... and at the worst moments, I imagined being but a baby... an infant in your arms..."
Jelena got tears into her eyes.
- "And when my plan had almost worked, and I was on my way out, traveling the Styx... Peri pulled me to the Throne of Bhaal. Let's just say that I got a bit upset about that."
- "Well, I don't blame you now that I know what you had gone through," Peri said.
- "You have told Peri?" Imoen asked, looking slightly offended.
- "Imoen. I love you, I truly do," Sarevok said, squeezing her hand, really wanting her to understand. "But there are certain things you just... can't share. You would understand if you had wandered the Abyss, doomed to be there forever for your sins, knowing that you belong there... and decided that you still won't. There are some horrors I can only share with Peri. You said it yourself - we have the soul link."
- "I suppose I understand," Imoen nodded. "I don't know how either of you could stand having the Slayer lurking below the surface, dealing with those violent impulses all the time. My own little stream of blood was almost too terrible to behold."
- "Somehow Bhaal got me to lose my reason again and I wanted to stir the Slayer in Peri," Sarevok continued. "I managed to get her to embrace the rage and destruction, and so we fought... a long time. And after that I was but a shadow in pain, and almost in despair, almost gave up. But then, mother, you sent to me. And there was Peri's little cocoon inside Bhaal's domain... a safe haven for her, and as it turned out, for me as well. The torment my immortal soul was in ceased the moment I crawled there. And then it was just a matter of waiting."
- "Was me too! Make pancakes and play rock scissors paper with Sarevok!" Cespenar piped up.
- "Forgive me. I got... entertained in the meantime," Sarevok said, that rare hint of a smile of his in the corner of his mouth.
- "I will retire now," Winski said. "I would want to... study my spell book. To memorize my spells."
His voice was almost ecstatic, his smile genuine.
- "Hey, let's see if you have any I don't!" Imoen said. "And vice versa, of course! Why don't you have a familiar?"
- "Long and sad story, girl... but certainly, let us exchange the spells..."
