Author note: heya my amazing readers! Since FFnet doesn't allow us to put pictures in the chapters, I'm now posting this trilogy also on Ao3 (aka Archiveofourown), where I'm known as Goddess_of_the_arena. Don't get me wrong, I love FFnet, but it's really cool that on Ao3 I can add the portraits I created for my original characters in the chapter where they show up or are mentioned. So, if you wanna know what they all look like, you can now see their lovely faces! ^ᴥ^
If you want to know the specific chapter for each of them, just PM me and I'll give you the exact chapter number.
oxoxoxoxoxo
As soon as the spell was ready, the party left the Pocket Plane and was transported back to the Marching Mountains, the heat slamming into them like a truck at full speed since Imoen had to save her power for the altered version of the Wizard Eye that they needed to scan the fortress. Safely hidden behind a huge boulder not far from the entrance, the four mages began their incantations, Edwin subtly adding a pinch of Illasera's ashes to his spell components to enhance the effect and a translucent ball appeared in front of them, looking like an almond shaped, light purple eye with six black rings surrounding the pupil.
"Go and scan the first floor", Aerie ordered it and the eye turned invisible and floated away quickly to do as commanded. It took a few minutes for it to reach its destination, but when it did, the mages saw in their minds the inside of the fortress and Chincilla grimaced. "That's not good", he muttered, his eyes were closed as were those of his colleagues to better focus on the images coming from their magic eyeball, "There are at least a dozen Fire Giants waiting for us, plus four Fire Elementals, two…No, three Hellhounds and…What's that thing?".
"It's a banshee", Edwin answered, grimacing, "I feel a sliver of power coming from the sealed rooms on the sides, it's similar to the one coming from the machine on the platform in the middle of the stairs. If my guess is correct (and I know it is, I'm never wrong after all), the machine is the key to open the way to the second floor and we need whatever is kept in those rooms to activate it". "But the rooms are heavily guarded", Meg commented with a sigh, "Of course, nothing is ever simple. Any traps?".
"Two, but nothing big", Imoen replied, "The real problem is that there are so many Fire Giants around. We can't take down so many of them in one go, sis", she added, opening her eyes as the spell faded. The Ilmatari muttered a few choice words in Chondathan under her breath and Sarevok coughed uncomfortably, feeling Jaheira's glare on himself. Luckily for him, before she could question what exactly her daughter had learnt from him, Margaret Dawn clapped her hands to get their attention.
"Okay, we know where our target for the moment is, we know how many enemies there are and their nature. Aerie, turn us invisible and let's go kick some evil butts!", she exclaimed, making Minsc cheer loudly and Boo squeak with obvious enthusiasm. When they got inside the fortress, the heat hit them like a truck at full speed, making them stagger for a brief moment, but they quickly shook it off and split into two smaller parties to retrieve the keys from the side rooms, each guarded by a Fire Giant.
Imoen scanned the room for traps and found one in the wall, but she already knew it wasn't the type she could disable, as it was activated by touch, so she bit her lower lip and silently thanking Mask for the Protection from Fire she was wrapped up in, she tapped onto the mobile section of the wall. A burst of flames came from the trap, but luckily it didn't injure her and as the panel slid sideways, she could easily grab the key, a flat circular stone with a hammer engraved on one side.
Unfortunately, the 'snap' of the trap alerted the Fire Giant on the threshold, who whirled around to see the pink-haired thief standing a few feet from him and raised his club with a roar that shook the walls. "Oh crap", she whined, dodging as the huge weapon crashed on the floor a hairsbreadth from where she'd just been.
Tibbit, who was in her same half-party, charged forward and stabbed the enemy in the ankle with his short sword, which had previously been coated in acid (courtesy of Yoshimo, who had taken a few vials of the substance from the maw of the dead Black Dragon they had defeated in Suldanesselar, for 'emergency cases' as he called them) and the greenish fluid immediately started corroding the flesh of the giant, but still too slowly to stop his next wild attack.
Thankfully, Jaheira had the Boots of Speed on, so she quickly grabbed the young thief and got her to safety half a second before the club smashed the floor once more. "Whew! Thanks mom", Imoen sighed without realizing her words and the druidess smiled slightly, her heart warming at her slip of the tongue. "Anytime, child", she said before evoking thick vines which wrapped around the giant's legs. Meanwhile, Aerie cast a Hold Monster spell, stopping his movements for a few precious moments as she, Jaheira Tibbit, Imoen, Gromnir and Yoshimo unleashed their attack all at once, focusing on the ankles to destroy the tendons and bones.
The enemy roared in pain, unable to fight back, but all too soon the vines broke and the spell wore off, leaving him free to rain down blows upon them, the first four attempts failing until the fifth time his club smashed right into Tibbit, crushing his ribcage and sending his small body flying to crash into the wall where it exploded in a cloud of golden dust, a small burst of equally golden flames surging from the dust and slamming into Gromnir who stood only a few feet away, only to be absorbed by the imposing Half-Orc's body.
"Tibbit!", Imoen screamed, horrified at the death of her half-brother, then her chest filled with rage and her eyes began glowing golden, "You monster!", she snarled before casting an Ice Storm in the room with the Fire Giant as the centre of it. The wounds littering the enemy's lower leg, the sudden cold and the blood loss finally seemed to get to him, as he wobbled and fell on his knees with enough force to shake the entire first floor of the fortress, while from the room on the opposite side of the entrance came another thud, this one even harder, mixed with a howl of agony as the other Fire Giant was taken down by the small party and finally killed by Edwin with a Finger of Death.
Aerie decided to follow her colleague's example and used the same spell to get rid of their enemy, but it was still a very small satisfaction when faced with the loss of one of them. Attracted by the noise of the battle, more enemies came running, but Meg didn't feel like engaging them at the moment, not in that state of mind anyway, so she gathered her companions in the left room and barked out her order. "Link hands, NOW!". They obeyed without question and just as a hellhound was about to lunge at Daniel, they disappeared and were transported safe and sound to the Pocket Plane.
Imoen collapsed on her knees, crying and sobbing, "He's dead…". "I'm sorry", the Painbearer clenched her fists, black fury rising in her chest at the loss, "It's my fault, I should have planned it better. I hadn't expected that a single Fire Giant could be so dangerous". "We were too cocky", Yoshimo said with a sad sigh as he flopped onto the couch, "We let our past victories get to our head and this was the result". Toop, Chinchilla and Merlinious were silent, mourning over the loss of their trusted friend and comrade of many years, yet none of them felt like blaming their new leader for it: they had chosen of their own accord to join the party, after all.
"How many Time Stop spells do you have?", the Ilmatari asked, turning to the mages. "I have one", Imoen said. "So do I", Aerie added. "I have two", Edwin said, but there was no pride in his voice as he, too, was badly hit by the death of the little goblin, even if he would never admit it out loud. "I have none", Chinchilla muttered, gaze fixed on the ground.
"I want you to memorize at least two each", their leader ordered, "And fill your mind with ice-based spells and all the most dangerous, gruesome spells you can use. We'll rest for as long as you need to memorize them and then, we'll go back there and kill them all", she growled, her eyes glowing so strongly that they had to shield their own eyes to avoid being blinded. Sarevok stroked her hair tenderly, "Calm down, Maggie".
"Our brother is dead. I won't calm down until every single creature inside that godsdamned fortress lies equally dead at my feet", she snapped, slapping his hand away and storming towards the room she and Anomen shared. He was stunned, never in his life had he seen his baby sister react like that to him, never before had she refused his touch, "Oh, Maggie…", his gaze filled with worry and sorrow, "What is our sire doing to you?".
Anomen sighed, "She feels guilty", he murmured sadly, "And the Slayer is shrewd enough to take advantage of it". "I know, I've been there myself. Well, let's clean our weapons while we have time: she will come out as soon as her anger has cooled down a little. Trying to talk to her now would only anger her more". "But what if the Slayer takes the chance to try and corrupt her more? Maybe if I went there…". "She would yell at you", Jaheira cut him off, "Didn't you see the look of rage on her face?".
He hesitated, but then squared his shoulders resolutely, "Even so, I can't let that monster poison her mind more than it already has. She is my wife and it's my sacred duty to protect her", he stated, going to their shared room. "Stubborn child", the druidess muttered even as her lips curved in a small, proud motherly smile. "He is good for her", Sarevok commented, "I'm glad she found him: he is a good man and he treats her right. I couldn't have asked for a better brother-in-law".
"I agree. Khalid would have liked him", het tone was hushed as she thought of her husband, then she shook it off and clapped her hands, "Well, enough talking: I need to memorize some spells and you have a sword to sharpen". He arched an eyebrow, "The Sword of Chaos doesn't need sharpening, thank you very much! It was forged with drops of blood of my sire merged with the steel for this very same purpose". "Oh, well, in this case, you can make yourself useful by sharpening the blade of my spear", she shot him a smug smirk as she passed him her weapon before going to sit with Daniel, who was busy studying his spellbook.
oxoxoxoxoxo
"Meg?", Anomen called softly, seeing his wife hidden under the blanket in a sort of cocoon, her armor lying on the ground in a corner, "My love, please, come out". "I let him die", the Painbearer whispered, her voice rough with tears, "It's my fault, I shouldn't have let them join us". He sat at her side and stroked her back in slow soothing circles, "It wasn't your fault, you had no way of knowing that Fire Giants were so strong".
"But they were there because…". "Because they chose to be", he cut her off gently, "Meg, you can't feel responsible for someone else's choices: they knew that it would be dangerous, but they still asked to join our party. It was their decision to make". "No, it was mine: if I had said no…". "They would have come anyway". The blanket was pushed back a little to reveal her face, her eyes weren't glowing anymore, they were puffy and rimmed with red, "How do you know?".
"I read it on their faces when they asked: they were eager to prove themselves as true adventurers. I know this, because a long time ago I felt the same", he bent down and kissed her lips, "I understand that you want to keep us all safe, but that is something that not even the Gods can do. Each one of us makes their choices, each one of us is the only one truly responsible for their own fate. You can't take the blame for Tibbit's death, for in doing so, you would deny his freedom to choose his path.
If you say that whatever happens to us is your fault, that it's your actions that cause anything that happens to us, you are basically reducing us all to mindless puppets in your hands and that is unfair to us: we have a mind and a will of our own and we chose of our own free will to follow you, being fully aware of the possible dangers and consequences. Don't you ever forget it".
She was taken aback by his speech, silence hung for what seemed like an eternity, then her gaze softened with pride and love and gratitude as she reached out and stroked his cheek, "Thank you, Anomen. I…I think I needed to hear this". "Anytime, my love", he smiled back and stood to remove his armor, then he slipped under the blanket and wrapped his arms around her soft body, "You saved me from the darkness in my soul, now it's time for me to return the favor. I'll always be here for you, Meg. Always". "I know. I love you", she snuggled against him and relaxed, comforted by his warmth and his strength.
oxoxoxoxoxo
Another author note: in case you're wondering, yes, the appearance of the altered version of the Wizard Eye spell is inspired by the Rinnegan. Also, sorry for killing Tibbit off.
Chondathan = the main language spoken in Sembia.