***

Reunited

***

"Should we follow her?" Aerie asked in hushed tones as Brynn left.

Jaheira glared and Aerie flinched. "Of course we should follow her!" Jaheira growled. "Not only is she injured, but we will need her to out of here."

"Boo says that he is worried about little Brynn," Minsc said.

Aerie smiled a little at that, "I'm worried too," she agreed.

"Quiet," Jaheira insisted, "we do not know what lurks within these unnatural confines so we would be best to keep ourselves silent. Come, I do not want to let Brynn far out of my sight." She started forward stiffly, obviously irritated with Brynn, and the others followed close behind.

Aerie kept close to Minsc, thankful that the enormous ranger was there. Minsc had made her his 'witch', and though she did not know precisely what that meant, Aerie guessed that it was a pledge to protect her. Nothing felt safe within this strange prison, even the walls felt evil, as if tainted by long years of housing the prisoners and their jailors alike.

"Why do you think Brynn is being so stubborn?" Nalia asked quietly, drifting to Aerie's side. "She wasn't so touchy before."

"I don't know," Aerie answered. "She was always so nice to me, and when we ran into her at the inn she just looked at me with these cold eyes, like she was so angry she hated me." She looked up at Nalia, "I hope she's going to be okay."

Nalia nodded. "That priest that went with her healed her a little, I just wish she would have let Jaheira heal her more." Nalia smiled a small, secret smile and leaned down to whisper in Aerie's ear, "But did you see the way Yoshimo panicked when Brynn got hurt?"

Aerie nodded, remembering the look on the bounty hunter's face when Brynn fell, all twisted up like his world had fallen apart.

"Wasn't it sweet how he rushed to her side like that?" Nalia continued. "I think he likes her."

Aerie thought about that and could see no reason that it couldn't be true. "He might," she said.

"I wonder if anyone will ever do something like that for me," Nalia said, her eyes a little dreamy. "It would be nice to have someone look at me like that."

From the front of the group Jaheira hissed, "Stop muttering back there! Do you want everyone to know just where we are?"

Aerie flinched again and Nalia dropped stepped away from her with a sulky look. Everyone reacted differently to Jaheira, Aerie thought. Minsc blithely ignored even her most irate fits of temper, or sought solace in the company of his hamster to escape her wrath. Nalia would drop into a stubborn, offended silence, angry at being reprimanded, but too well mannered to retort. Brynn... well Brynn used to stand silent until Jaheira stopped ranting and then reply calmly with a good argument. Often times Aerie had seen Brynn coax the druid into agreement. Now it was as if Brynn had become a completely different person. She hadn't even tried to reach a compromise, she'd just stormed away. And Aerie herself found Jaheira intimidating, afraid to talk to her after she'd received a heated retort for complementing Jaheira on her hair. She knew the reason for Jaheira's temper now and felt a great deal of sympathy for her, but she still couldn't bring herself to feel comfortable in Jaheira's presence.

Duly reprimanded, Aerie continued to walk by Minsc's side, silent and thoughtful. She wondered, perhaps, if she might end up seeing more of the world than she wanted with her new friends, and whether or not she would come away from her travels with more good memories than bad.

***

"Hold up a minute," Brynn said to her companions. She leaned against one of the odd, curving walls of the prison and took a deep breath, letting the tension in her body bleed out of her as she exhaled.

"Can you go on?" Anomen asked, coming to stand near her. He looked down at her with concerned brown eyes. "Perhaps we should rest a moment..."

"No," Brynn said quickly, "I'm okay." She fished in her belt pouch and withdrew the small potion Roger had given her. She popped the cork off of the vial with her thumb and downed the contents in one long gulp. Her body tingled and the pain in her shoulder faded from a dull aching down to almost nothing. The vial went back into her belt pouch in case she might find some use for it later and she stood away from the wall. Her legs felt strong again, not like they were going to turn to jelly any minute like they had before. She looked down at her shoulder through the hole in her blood soaked tunic and saw that her open wound was now mostly healed, with new pink flesh surrounding a rough scab.

"We can go now," she said, "I just wanted to get away from Jaheira and the others."

"What has gone on between you and those others?" Anomen inquired as they began to walk again.

Brynn frowned. "They're my friends, but I don't want them traveling with me anymore."

"May I ask why? They seem to care about you a great deal," Anomen said.

"It's better for them if they don't," Brynn replied, not wanting to go into detail.

"And perhaps better for you as well once we are out of this prison," Yoshimo added.

Brynn looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Yoshimo was right, Anomen would be better off if he stayed away from her. "That's true," she said. "I'm glad you're here now, but it's dangerous to stay close to me."

"Why is it so dangerous?" Anomen asked, his brows knit together in a curious frown. "Granted you seem to face battle more often than most, but I am a warrior as well as a priest of Helm and I am more than able to hold up my end in a battle."

Brynn sighed, feeling sickly certain that Anomen would need a better explanation. "I'm a magnet for danger and death, Anomen," she said. "I would prefer not to have to say more, but I suppose I do owe it to you to tell you why your life is in danger."

"I would not have you do something you would rather not," Anomen said politely. "I did not mean to pry."

"Don't worry about it," Brynn told him, "It's just..." she trailed off as they rounded a corner. Straight ahead, down a long white hall stood one of the ugliest things Brynn had ever seen. It wore a full suit of plate mail armor and held in its clawed hands a enormous sword, fully as long as Brynn was tall. What Brynn could see of its skin was black as midnight and its eyes showed through the visor of its helmet, glowing like two hot red coals rooted in shadows.

"Stars and moons!" Brynn shouted, coming to a sudden halt.

Anomen said, in a tense whisper, "A cambion! I have heard tales of such things, but never set eyes on one myself."

The cambion laughed unpleasantly, its voice rumbling down the hall. "I thought I heard a commotion," it said. "No matter, such fools as you are easily dealt with." It lifted its sword. "Come, Primes, I dare you to attack!"

Battle-piqued, Brynn ran forward while the cambion laughed. Brynn assaulted the demonic creature with relentless intensity, but for all her focus and skill she could not get passed the cambion's guard. Each time the cambion blocked one of Brynn's attacks the shock of its parry drove her backward and slowing her down. Things were starting to get pretty hairy by the time Anomen had managed to catch up to her. He swung at the cambion with his mace, missed, and then barely avoided the cambion's riposte. Soon after one of Yoshimo's arrows pinged off the cambion's armor, and moments later another did the same thing. Things were starting to get pretty hairy by the time Anomen had managed to catch up to her. He swung at the cambion with his mace, missed, and then barely avoided the cambion's riposte.

However clumsy it was, Anomen's attack gave Brynn the opportunity she need. While the cambion was distracted Brynn delivered a clean blow, slipping her blade in between the plates of armor that protected its shoulder. The cambion howled and turned back to Brynn, swinging its two-handed blade around with tremendous force. Brynn dodged the first blow and the second, but as the third came around she found herself pinned against the wall between two spikes. Frantically she brought both of her katanas up and crossed them, taking the cambion's attack where the two blades intersected. Even braced as she was the power of the cambion slammed her hard against the wall, knocking the breath out of her and leaving her weak-armed and dizzy. The cambion grabbed Brynn by the front of her tunic, slammed her against the wall again, and then threw her to the ground. Stunned, Brynn tried to get to her feet. She was only vaguely aware that Anomen tried another unsuccessful attack before being swatted aside. Lying on her back Brynn saw the cambion lift its sword high and prepare to impale her on the gleaming blade. She tried to get up, to roll away, to do anything to save herself, but the cambion stepped on her chest and held her down.

"And now, fool, it is time to die!" the cambion roared. The blade began to come down, but its progress halted, and the pressure on Brynn's chest abated. Without a sound the cambion fell, crumpling like paper, a single arrow lodged in the visor of its helmet.

Brynn took a moment to catch her breath before getting to her feet. "That's twice in one day," she said to Yoshimo as she prodded the cambion with the toe of her boot. "I must be loosing my touch. Good shot, by the way."

"Indeed it was," Anomen agreed. "Most exceptionally timed as well, though perhaps you might have shot before the monster had Brynn pinned."

Yoshimo slung his short bow over his shoulder and walked over to where the cambion's corpse was slowly growing cold on the ground. "Oh? Perhaps next time I will blindly charge the demonic creature while you try and hit its eyes beneath its helmet," he muttered.

"I did not charge 'blindly'," Anomen protested heatedly, his cheeks flushing with what looked like anger. "I simply did what I had to do to help Brynn."

"And I thank you for that," Brynn cut in, forestalling what was shaping up to be a nasty scene. "I'm thankful that I had both of you here to help. Come on, we've got to find out where they keep their prisoners in this dump and rescue Raelis and the others."

***

It didn't take long for Brynn and her companions to find out where the actors were being held, nor did it take long to free them. Unfortunately the prison warden had destroyed the portal gem after taking it from Raelis, and the spell to open the portal was useless without the gem. There was another way out, but it meant going through the warden's personal portal, located in his command room, and that meant facing the warden.

"Who is this warden anyway?" Brynn asked. "Do you think we could defeat him?"

Raelis hesitated. "Yes," she said, "but we would need help. We alone cannot slay the warden."

Brynn sighed, knowing that getting help meant going to Jaheira, if she could find her, something Brynn didn't to do. It wasn't so much because of her pride, though she had to admit that was part of it, but more because if she let the others help her now she would never be able to free herself from them again. The whole purpose of leaving them behind at the keep was to keep them safe from the destruction that followed her. Fate seemed to be conspiring against her, as it had been ever since she had left Candlekeep. Still, if it was the only way to escape the planar prison, Brynn supposed that she was going to have to give in this one time and let things take their course. She didn't like it, in fact she hated it, but she had no other options.

"All right," she said, "a few of my other friends followed me here, if they help we should be set."

"Are you sure about this, Brynn?" Yoshimo asked. He looked concerned.

Brynn nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure," she said. "All right everyone, follow me, let's go see what this warden guy is made of."

***

Anomen accounted himself a very accepting fellow, but even so there were some things he just couldn't let pass. And it just so happened that Yoshimo embodied about all of them. Where Anomen represented law, order and righteousness, Yoshimo represented everything he fought against, in other words the epitome of all that was wrong with the world. So Anomen couldn't help but feel resentful that Yoshimo was walking at Brynn's side while he was bringing up the rear of the group in order to keep an eye out for any possible attack from the rear. It really stuck in his craw so to speak. He wondered how in the world such a delinquent could have wormed his way into the company and confidence of an upright woman like Brynn, and was tempted to blame it on the duplicitous use arcane magic. He found himself running through a number of highly improbable scenarios where he, newly knighted and a member of the Order, would charge in, his armor shining in the sun, just in time to foil one of the bounty hunter's devious and fiendish plots. Of course the end was always the same, no matter what variation the rest of it took, Brynn would fall into his arms, showering him with praise and thanks while Yoshimo was carted off to the jail where he belonged. The whole Brynn falling into his arms part made him feel a little giddy, and he couldn't quite explain it, after all he had only met her that day. Something about her made his skin tingle with excitement and her eyes were positively entrancing.

"Daydreaming?" Haer'Dalis inquired, drawing Anomen's attention. In the tiefling bard was another example of all that Anomen fought. He found the bard's morbid fascination with chaos as unnerving as the unnatural aura that surrounded him.

"No," Anomen snapped.

Haer'Dalis sighed and shook his head. "I will never understand you Primes and your habit of saying exactly the opposite of what you mean."

"Save your words, bard," Anomen growled at Haer'Dalis, irritated by his presumption. "I need not take lessons in truthfulness from a liar such as yourself."

"Ah, yes, but I lie on purpose, you do it unconsciously, though for what reason I cannot guess," Haer'Dalis replied with a rakish grin. "I must admit that whenever I follow behind a lovely maiden I do a little daydreaming myself." He chuckled, apparently amused by his own wit.

Anomen was less than amused. "Only one as depraved as you would think such things at a time like this. Keep your obscenities to yourself!"

Haer'Dalis looked unfazed. "Methinks thou art a little too uptight. You will never win the heart of a maiden that way. My friend, there are times when even the most demure wallflowers enjoy a touch of the wild in their suitors, and I dare suggest that yon lovely raven is not in the least demure."

"How would you know the first thing about her?" Anomen demanded, dropping back a little. "You just met her this afternoon!"

"As did you, my friend," Haer'Dalis pointed out. "Come now, I observe people and gauge their reactions as instinctively as I breathe, do you not think I would have at least picked up on lovely Brynn's temperament? She is a strong woman, sharp as the blades she wields, but more than just cautious when it comes to protecting her companions. She came here after all. No wonder she inspires such loyalty and affection in Yoshimo.

"Another cur that does not deserve the company of such a lady," Anomen muttered.

Haer'Dalis chuckled again. "You know, friend Anomen, you and Yoshimo are not so dissimilar as you might think."

"I suggest you hold your tongue lest I cut it off," Anomen said, offended to his core.

"If you could catch hold of my to do it I welcome you to try, though mind you I am a slippery target even at the worst of times," Haer'Dalis replied glibly.

Anomen snarled under his breath and turned away from Haer'Dalis. "Just be quiet!"

***

Jaheira held up a hand to call her group to a halt. Around the corner at the other end of the corridor Brynn appeared, looking weary and generally more untidy than she let herself get. Her ponytail had come half undone leaving her hair hanging in her face, and there was a smear of half-dried blood on her cheek. Still, even from this far away Jaheira could see Brynn's usual determination in her blue eyes.

"Little Brynn looks cranky," Minsc commented. "Boo says that maybe she needs to kick some evil butt to make her feel better. What do you think?"
"I think you need to be quiet for right now," Jaheira said mildly. "Let me deal with her please."

Brynn approached, Yoshimo at her side, followed by a group of ragtag actors and lastly the warrior priest whose name Jaheira could not remember at the moment. Jaheira started to say something, but Brynn cut her off, succinct and to the point.

"Do you want to get out of here?" she asked.

Jaheira nodded. "Of course we do."

"Then follow me, we've got something big to kill and I need you guys to help us out," Brynn replied, her voice deceptively calm. Jaheira knew better. It had to really rankle Brynn to ask for help, but Jaheira knew better than to rub that fact in Brynn's face at a time like this.

"As you wish," Jaheira said.

Brynn turned to one of the actors. "So, Raelis, where is this warden anyway?"

The actor suddenly paled. "Behind you," she croaked.

Jaheira whirled around and looked down the long white corridor. At the far end coming toward them was a tall black skinned thing in half plate armor. It carried in one hand an massive sword, and sheathed at its waist was a smaller sword. It was hideous.

"Not another one of these things!" Brynn exclaimed. "It's even uglier than the last one!"

"Prepare to die, Primes!" the Warden rumbled, advancing an avalanche toward them.

Many voices filled the corridor as Aerie, Nalia, Jaheira and the priest all began to cast spells and Brynn, Minsc and Yoshimo shouted their battle cries, raised their weapons and attacked.

***

Brynn reached the Warden just before Minsc, driving the demonic looking creature back with her furious assault. Minsc came in on the Warden's flank, forcing him to split his attention two ways. This was a strategy Brynn and Minsc had perfected together through long practice in battle. Instinctively Brynn knew where Minsc would attack next, and so she could distract an enemy, darting in and out of the reach of their weapon, while the tall ranger dealt punishing blows with his two-handed sword. It worked the other way too. Minsc's impressive size and strength often made opponents consider him the greater threat so he drew more attention, and Brynn, small, quick, deadly accurate, and far from weak herself, would slip in and deliver a death blow.

This time, however, things didn't go as planned. The Warden was obviously no fool, and as soon as it became apparent that concentrating on either Brynn or Minsc alone was as foolhardy as trying to fight them both equally, he retreated and caught Brynn off guard by casting a spell. All of a sudden it seemed that there were ten Wardens, all identical in every detail down to the cruel smirk that twisted their rubbery black lips. Brynn had seen this particular spell (mirror image if her guess was correct) enough times to know that there was still only one real enemy, the trouble was figuring out which was illusion and which was real.

Which was easy enough if one had a spellcaster handy. "Hey! Aerie, Nalia," she shouted, sizing up the situation, "do your spell thing and fix this!"

"How?" Aerie and Nalia asked in tandem.

The Warden charged, and Brynn, feeling panicked, replied, "I don't know! You're the mages! Do a mage thing!"

That seemed to jolt both of the young women to their senses, and they both began to recite the incantations to some spell or another. Brynn didn't really care what they did just so long as they got it done. She refocused on the Warden, trying to discern some difference between the many duplicate images that were charging her. The air was to thick with the smell of sweat and blood for her to tell by scent, and she didn't trust her nose all that well anyway. She couldn't choose by sound either, the noises in the hall echoed so much that she couldn't tell what sound was coming from where. Sight was right out, that was the problem, and she had a feeling that if she tried to choose by touch it would involve getting her fingers lopped off. That left only one option, and Brynn wasn't sure she would be able to concentrate enough to use it.

Touga Kurai, her sword master, had taught her that when the five senses fail to rely on something less tangible. The powers of a Kensai worked on one basic, but key element, the life force of the Kensai herself, her ki. Everything that lived had ki, and so it was possible to fight by sensing an opponent's ki. Trouble was that Brynn had never succeeded more than once at sensing another's ki, even against Touga during her training, and the likelihood that she would be able to fight relying solely on her ability to sense ki against a complete stranger, not to mention a foreign species, was slim. Still a slim chance was better than nothing.

Already focusing the flow of her own ki, it only took Brynn a moment of concentration to spread herself out. Like tiny sensitive feelers Brynn felt her awareness spread out so that the ripples of air as she lifted her katanas felt like a stiff wind against her skin. Sounds of voices chanting spells, blades leaving their sheaths, the distinct twang made as Yoshimo shot an arrow, all of it assaulted her ears with the intensity of a thunderstorm. She shut her eyes against the myriad sights that suddenly became clear to her in their sharpest detail.

And then she felt it, a sharp surge of some deeply alien life force. It stayed with her only for a moment, like the concept of a rainbow flashing across the mind of a blind man who understands for a second what one looks like before the sudden intuition is gone. It was enough, she felt herself move, her eyes shut tight, concentrating only on where that surge of energy had come from. The rest of the world seemed to move in slow motion as she brought her blades down with all her strength.

The first katana missed, but the second struck, and Brynn felt her arm vibrate as her blade connected with the metal plates that surrounded the Warden's shoulder. She forced the blade down, and felt it bite into flesh. She opened her eyes and saw the bright red orbs of the Warden stare back at her from beneath his helmet.

An instant later Nalia and Aerie's spells dispelled the illusion and the images vanished, and the world caught up to Brynn.

The Warden roared and despite his injured shoulder brought his sword to bear, seeming suddenly swift compared to a second ago. Brynn barely managed to bring her katanas up to block the heavy blade as it crashed toward her unprotected skull. The Warden, powered by rage, forced her blades lower and lower, and the tip of his sword missed splitting her chin in two by a hair's breadth. She tried to force him off balance, but she felt drained. Her arms gave out and she jumped back just in time to avoid being gutted by the Warden's blade. Her already mangled tunic ripped all the way down the front and a thin line of red appeared on her pale skin from her collarbone to her bellybutton.

Drained or not that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Brynn screeched, beyond enraged by miles. "Just. Because. I. Don't. Wear. Armor. Doesn't. Mean. You. Get. To. Rip. My. Damn. Shirt. Off!" she shouted, punctuating each word with an attack. The Warden blocked clumsily, driven back by her fury, and Brynn managed to knock the sword from his hands and pin him against the wall. She raised both blades at once and sheered through the Warden's armor, flesh and bone, splitting him into four pieces that hit the ground with a wet thunk.

She took a moment to catch her breath and calm down. It was then that she noticed that everyone else was utterly silent. She sheathed her katanas and turned around, pulling the tattered pieces of her tunic together. The wide eyes that greeted her were a little intimidating.

"Well that was... impressive," Jaheira murmured.

"Oh my!" Aerie exclaimed in a whisper.

"Wow," Nalia said.

"My lady you were..." Anomen began.

"That deserves a ballad if not more," Haer'Dalis said with a little whistle.

"I don't think the Warden is going to be getting up again," Yoshimo said blandly. "Remind me never to make you mad."

It was Minsc who summed it all by saying, "Little Brynn has grown up! Minsc and Boo are so proud!"

Brynn turned red and pulled her tunic together a little more. "Yeah, yeah, let's just get out of here."

Which is just what they did.

***

To Be Continued

***

______________________________________________________________________________

Once more a bright spotlight lights up the stage and your ever-faithful reader-of-author's-notes walks out. Standing in the middle of the spot Chryseis shuffles the papers in her hands.

"Yeah, you know the routine, you listen I read," she says irritably.

"Dear Readers,

I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Last week I had exams, and this week is play week, where everyone in my little high school runs around frantically getting ready for our performances. Anyway, that's my reason. The next chapter will be the last that follows directly after the events in the one before. I figure than neither you nor I need to spend the excess hours reciting the multitudes of quests you go on before heading out to Spellhold (which is where all the good stuff starts). I'm going to cover directly the major events that wouldn't have occured in the game (because I changed things ^ - ^). Expect the gushy romance to start up soon, which means celebration for some and sighs of impatience for others who prefer the blood and violence chapters. Don't worry I like to gut bad guys as much as the rest of you, so expect more bloody fights later.

Thanks,

The Blue Sorceress

Chryseis folds up the papers and shoves them into one of the many pockets in her cloak. "Gods do I ever hat 'gushy romance'! How can the same person who created me write 'gushy romance'?" she says. She gives the audience a long-suffering look, "I pity you people alomst as much as I pity myself for being forced to read these dumb author's notes to you. I only hope you're able to keep your sanity through these next few chapters. I know I'm not going to be able to!"

The lights go out, leaving behind an empty auditorium and a dark stage.