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San-Raal and Masoj advanced on Sindel, their lips silently reciting the incantations to quick-working death spells; if the priestess wanted to die, than she would. Sindel's gaze held that of the two mages' with unwavering intensity. Just as the climactic words of the spells were uttered, Masoj and San-Raal were held back, rather unexpectedly, by Meeks and Elyxya.
"No." Elyxya breathed, staying San-Raal's arm; the warrior-woman looked over at Sindel and noted the high-priestess' chiseled expression, "We've gone far enough." She added on a determined tone. San-Raal slumped in her grasp, forcing himself to come to term with the reality of the moment. All the remaining party members lowered their gaze and spent some time in personal reflection of the past week's mind-wracking adventure. It was hard for them to grasp the fact that everything they had strived over was for naught. It was even harder to grasp the fact that their indecisiveness and negligence had cost them a few party members as well as their dignity.
Sindel stayed protectively close to the lifeless body of Dran Draggore, "Appearances can be deceiving, wouldn't you all agree?" She declared to her ex-team as much as to herself; her voice was no longer as passionate as it has been a moment ago, now it was dull and dismal. The group responded with a series of deep breaths and questioning looks. Sindel returned her gaze to the red dragon and soon after, Nightshade spoke up, "We didn't know what to do, Sindel. You have to understand that." She said softly. The priestess' head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes at the dark-haired thief, "It's not like I didn't try to warn you all!" She cried, the passion returning.
"So what do we do now?" Pryzma asked before Sindel could ramble on and make the team feel worse than they did at the moment. There was an uneasy silence and then Sindel offered a solution, "You will undo what you have done," She began, finally rising to her feet, "You will redress your wrongs." She looked down at Dran and smiled lightly then looked over at the team, "As far as I know, the resurrection chamber by the entrance lobby still holds the power to raise the dead -- at least once or twice more. Am I right?" She asked the group. Heads nodded their approval. Meeks, ever worried about the technicalities of things, expressed her concern, "How do you expect us to carry Dran down there? And...we teleported here, we don't exactly know how to make it back to the resurrection chamber." She pointed out, still feeling odd about what they were about to do.
With a wave of her hand, Sindel swept aside the question, "Do not fret, I can fix everything." She closed her eyes and held her hands, palms down, over Dran's body. A silver stream of magic erupted from her palms and circled the draconic form, wrapping it in a bright sheet of light; within seconds, the glow ceased. In the place of the majestic dragon lay the lifeless human form of Dran Draggore. Sindel beckoned for the six teammates to gather around her, "You teleported here, and that is how I will get you out." She spread her arms out and snapped her fingers.
Seconds later, they found themselves within the familiar resurrection chamber. The group felt a kind of relief at being back in the safety of the lower chambers of Temple Darkmoon. Before anyone could say anything to deviate her path, Sindel bolted to the large golden cross at the end of the room and knelt down before it. She mumbled a few prayers and the group watched in awe and discomfort the re-animation of the temple's High-Priest. When the deed was finished, Sindel whipped around and knelt at Dran's side, aesthetically verifying her work. The crew crowded around.
An inquisitive expression crept onto Dran's features as he looked around at the group of warriors surrounding him. He looked up at Sindel and raised an eyebrow. Sindel rested a hand on his shoulder and smiled warmly, "They saw their mistake." She said simply. Dran's jaw dropped, a gesture he would have preferred to omit, but he was too impressed to do otherwise, "H-how?" He fumbled, confused due to his sudden resurrection, "How can you be sure?" He asked skeptically.
Elyxya answered the priest's question, "I don't know if you noticed, but you're not dead anymore; that could be your first indication that we've seen our mistake." She began on a derisive tone, "Secondly, well...we saw --something-- through Sindel and the whole battle that..that we just couldn't help but hearken to. We were confused for a very long while, I must admit, and the more either side fought to clear things up for us, the worse things got." The whole crew listened to Elyxya now, finding clarity of thought in her words, "We realized that we were wrong, and we're...sorry...for it. It was a real shame that things had to get so bad in order for us to smarten up." She finished on a sad note.
There was silence for a while. Dran looked around at everyone in turn, trying to weigh their leader's conviction. Sindel watched him do so, herself convinced of her ex-team's sincerity; she had spent enough time with them to know that their words were true -- even if they had never been on good terms with one-another. Having satisfied himself with his staring. Dran got to his feet and brushed off his overcoat, "It's nice to see that you've all seen the light." He frowned suddenly, "Now, I want you all to swear that you will never assault me or my temple ever again, and that you will stay away from the fight going on between Khelben Blackstaff and I." He remarked pointedly. Six heads nodded in accordance with the high-priest's words.
The room felt awkward now. No one knew quite what to do, especially the six party members. "We can't go back to Khelben, he'll have us killed for treachery'. What happens now? We spend our lives as fugitives and leave the Waterdeep?" San-Raal asked emphatically, seeing nothing but darkness for his future. Beside him, Masoj did not seem too affected; in truth, the wizard wanted by all costs to return to Menzoberranzan. He had not enjoyed his stay on the surface and desired to return home; but returning home would mean leaving Meeks, and Masoj could not live with that.
Dran shook his head, "No, I will not have you running about the streets like fools -- even if you all deserve as much for your despicable deeds." He began then took a deep breath before saying his next words, "You have proven great worth and I, having suffered the wrath of your skills, find no shame in declaring you all as a fine group of warriors. In light of this, I offer all six of you a permanent home here within Darkmoon as the temple's champions. It's the least you could do to repay the troubles you've caused." He declared tentatively, hoping that he was not making a mistake due to a measure of greed. Sindel's hand tensed into a fist and then slackened as she realized that Darkmoon could actually use a set of fine combatants --especially if Khelben would continue to pull tricks like the one he had with the raiding party.
"I move to accept the invitation." Pryzma said after a while, stepping forth from the crew. She did not find any love lost in remaining within Waterdeep instead of returning to Ched-Nasad; she figured her life would probably last longer if she remained on the surface anyway. Next to accept was Nightshade, who rested her hand on her friend's shoulder and smirked conservatively, "I also accept." She piped; the life of a thief was best when properly employed -- and besides, she had a lot more snooping to do around Darkmoon. Dran nodded thankfully at the two ladies, recognizing their worth.
"Count me in." Meeks cheered happily and bounded to Nightshade and Pryzma's side. She grasped Elyxya's arm as she went and pulled her along, "Me too." Elyxya said with a chuckle and pried Meeks' hand from her arm. The two women looked expectantly over at Masoj and San-Raal. Dran and Sindel looked expectantly over at Masoj and San-Raal. The two drow wizards stood still; they did not like clergy, and teaming up with Sindel again, even if it wasn't really teaming up with her, did not sound like a good idea to them. It was their decision, they both knew, but there was so much tied to it...
Meeks exhaled loudly and walked over to where Masoj stood biting his lower lip, "Stay, silly mage; I don't want you to go away." She said childishly and grasped Masoj's sleeve tightly. San-Raal and Elyxya stared at each-other and figured things out non-verbally; the connection between them was almost tangible. With a sigh of surrender, Masoj wrapped an arm around Meeks' waist, "Fine." He said and pulled her to his side. Elyxya smiled, San-Raal mimicked her; the team had been won. The two walked over to each-other and hugged tightly, burying their faces in each-other's hair.
Sindel and Dran shared a sigh of relief.
***
A messenger tore into Khelben's chambers later that night, his face wracked with concern, "Sir!" He yelped, nearly tripping on the small table near the door to Khelben's studying room. In his hand, the messenger held a parchment with some quick scribblings on it.
Khelben, who hated being disturbed during his reading, called rudely to the man, "What?! What is it?" He barked. The messenger halted before the archmage's high-backed chair and unrolled the parchment, "The spy you sent out to check on the reason for the lack of connection between you and your raiding party has some disturbing news!" He panted. Khelben frowned deeply, "What kind of disturbing news?" He asked inquisitively. The messenger licked his lips nervously, "Your raiding party is no longer...well...yours, sir." He said with a small smile of irony. Khelben got to his feet and towered over the smaller man, "What are you saying?" He demanded, his tone growing more and more afflicted. The messenger backed away, "The group you sent out about a week ago...they've betrayed you sir. They work for Darkmoon now." He swallowed thickly.
Khelben's face contorted into an expression of utter disbelief, "What!?!" He screamed and the messenger began to move towards the door, "Is there no one worthy of being trusted any more?! How could this have happened?!" He went on, speaking to himself as much as to the messenger who was partially gone by now. Khelben clenched his fists, "When you want something done you have to do it yourself!" He rambled.
The messenger shut the door soundlessly after him and left the fuming archmage to his own thoughts.