***

Chapter 20:

Sundanessellar

***

The Blades bade good-bye to Drizzt Do'Urden and his friends before they left to rendezvous with the elven general Elhan, and at the same time they also bade good-bye to Solaufein, who accepted an offer made by Drizzt to assist him in finding allies on the surface. Brynn, though she would miss Solaufein, figured it was better this way. He would not have been welcome in the elven city, and even if he had saved all the elves there single-handedly they would never have given him credit for it. Brynn also had no desire to involve Solaufein in her own battle against Irenicus. The others had a reason to go with her, they too had been imprisoned and had suffered at Irenicus' hands, but Solaufein had no reason to join them in their fight against the evil mage.

After leaving Athkatla the Blades headed straight for the elven encampment, moving as quickly as they could. There was no time to waste with rest, no time to spare at all, and despite the healing they had all received from Jaheira, Anomen, Aerie and to a lesser extent Minsc, they were all sore and tired. It would have been nice if they could have afforded horses to ride. Not only would it have sped the journey along, but it would have given them a chance to rest their weary legs. However, the Blades' coffers were damn near empty, and Brynn wasn't in the mood to haggle with an Amnish merchant, so they walked back to camp, never stopping once. Aerie, who was exhausted not only from the battle, but from having to cast all the spells that she had, ended up nearly passing out seven hours out of Athkatla, and Minsc carried her the rest of the way.

The mood of the group was somber, despite the return of Imoen's soul. Even Haer'Dalis, who was often fond of singing or whistling as they traveled, was silent. Jaheira spoke in quiet tones with Imoen near the back of the group, and Nalia and Anomen walked arm in arm, each leaning on the other a little as they went. Minsc stayed a few steps ahead of Brynn, picking out the best path for them. He wasn't the brightest man the world had ever seen, but he was a ranger, and he knew well enough what he was doing. Mazzy walked just to Brynn's right, glancing up occasionally at the taller woman and trying to gauge her mood, though after the first few times it was pointless. Brynn was quiet, more quiet than she had been in a long time, and her thoughts were grim if the look on her face was evidence.

At long last the reached the camp of the elven army, and a quartet of elven soldiers escorted them to Elhan.

"So, you have returned. I take it then that you were successful?" Elhan asked Brynn in the elven tongue.

Brynn took her pack off, grateful to have the weight off of her tired shoulders, and produced a carefully wrapped bundle. "We were successful," she replied, also in eleven.

"I noticed that your drow friend is not with you," Elhan remarked.

"He helped us acquire the Rhynn Lanthorn, but he had his own quest to follow," Brynn told the general, too tired to be angry with him for the implying that Solaufein had betrayed them. "He fought as bravely as any of us, and as loyally."

"I see," said Elhan. He did not seem at all willing to admit that he had even maybe been wrong about Solaufein. "We leave for Sundanessellar immediately." In a gentler voice than Brynn had heard from him ever before he added, "We are taking several carts full of supplies, but I believe there is room enough for you and your companions to rest while we travel."

"Thank you," Brynn told him. "I really appreciate that."

The other Blades were equally as thankful, and those that could speak elven immediately told the general that, the others thanked him in common as soon as Brynn had explain Elhan's offer to them. The nine of them tucked their bedrolls in between and on top the boxes and barrels of supplies in the wagons, and despite the fact that it was an amazingly uncomfortable place to lie down they were all asleep as soon as they put their heads down.

***

Sundanessellar was only three hours away, but that was enough time for the Blades to be rested and refreshed enough to be at least nominally functional. One of the elven clerics was kind enough to give them nine vials of a potion that would refresh them fully for the upcoming battle, and the Blades thanked him profusely for that. The forest quickly grew so thick that the carts could not make it all the way through, and the supplies were unloaded and the elven soldiers carried them. The Blades, in payment for having been given the time to rest and the potions, also carried some of the supplies, throwing extra packs over their shoulders. Thankfully none of the supplies were to heavy, nor too large. From the point where they left the carts it was about a half hour walk up to the gate of Sundanessellar, or at least to where the elves indicated that the gate ought to be. At that point Elhan produce the Rhynn Lanthorn, and a doorway appeared on the previously unmarred trunk of a giant tree. The Blades followed the elves into the tree and up a long staircase that was carved into the trunk until at last they came out at the base of a huge branch and looked upon the elven city.

Brynn couldn't help comparing it to Ust Natha, though she knew that she could never tell such a thing to the elves if she wanted to live. Just like in Ust Natha large circular platforms, connected by slender bridges and supported by the branches of the ancient trees of the elven forest, formed the base for the cities buildings. Many of the buildings were built directly into the trees that abutted them, but others were freestanding, and all were works of art.

The sight was one of the most beautiful Brynn had ever seen, but it was marred by the twisting columns of smoke that wove their way lazily up into the air, and by the bodies of unfortunate elves that had been caught in the first wave of Irenicus' invasion days ago and left to rot in the streets and on the platforms. More than one of the elven soldiers that had just arrived had tears in his or her eyes, not just because of the ruin that their beloved city was in, but at the discovery of a loved one lying dead just as they had fallen. One woman, shaking and wailing in a way that was at the same time terrible and profoundly beautiful as she clutched at the little doll that had been dropped as her child had tried to flee. A second soldier crouch near her, a hand on the woman's shoulder in an effort to console her.

Brynn looked away, unable to watch the scene anymore. The little part of her soul that was still hers was crying with the elven warrior, but the rage used the grief she saw and sang to her of exacting a terrible vengeance. She found it oddly easy to deny the call of her rage; its song was oddly muted here in Sundanessellar, something she attributed to the closeness of her soul. She knew now what Imoen had meant when she said she could feel that Bodhi was close by when they had been back in Athkatla. She could sense Irenicus' presence, she could sense the presence of her soul, and it beckoned her, begged her, called her to it with a great desperation.

She wasn't going to deny that call.

***

The elven queen, Ellesime knew the instant that the strangers entered the palace. She could sense something strange about the party's leader despite her imprisonment. A strange power surrounded the half-human woman. A strange power, but a familiar power as well. It was the power of divine heritage, and it radiated merciless rage. For a moment Ellesime was taken aback, shocked by the terrible presence this strange woman exuded, and she wondered if perhaps she was not in league with Irenicus. But that was ridiculous, she decided quickly. This woman was not coming to report to Irenicus, not if the look on her face and on the face of her comrades was any indication, she was coming to kill him.

A feeling of hope washed over Queen Ellesime, and though trapped by Irenicus' magic, forced to watch as the man she once loved drained the Tree of Life of its power, she managed to send an image of herself to the strangers led by the child of a god.

***

Brynn gazed at the branches of the Tree of Life that grew about her without interest for their beauty. The only thing on her mind was Irenicus. Her whole body pulsed with tingling waves of energy, and for the first time in a long time, she could not hear the rage singing at all; its voice was drowned out by the calls of her own soul.

Before her the air shimmered, and Brynn blinked, thinking that it was just a fault of her vision, but the shimmering formed itself into the shape of an astonishingly beautiful elven woman.

"Please," the shimmering woman urged her, "you must hurry!"

"Who are you?" Brynn asked, surprised.

The elven woman replied, "I am Ellesime."

"Oh my," Aerie breathed behind Brynn.

"Please, you must hurry!" the Queen repeated. "As we speak Irenicus is draining the Tree of Life, drawing its power to himself in hopes of completing the task he failed years ago!"

"Your majesty, I know," Brynn said, conscious that she was being a little rude, but too preoccupied to really care. "Tell me where Irenicus is and he'll be a corpse before you can blink."

"You do not understand!" Ellesime exclaimed. "While he is connected to the Tree he is invulnerable, you must sever his connections to the Tree or you will never defeat him!"

"How do we do that?" Brynn asked.

Ellesime breathed a sigh of relief. "Irenicus has set three parasites on the tree to draw the power to him, if the parasites are destroyed, the connection will be broken and Irenicus will be vulnerable, and I will be freed."

"You are imprisoned?" Minsc blurted out.

"Of course I am!" Ellesime returned, by the tone of her voice a little irritated. "Do you think I would hide while Irenicus destroyed my city and killed the Tree of Life?"

"No..." Minsc said simply. "I thought you were see-through."

Haer'Dalis muttered under his breath, "The brainless ranger rides again."

"Pardon Minsc," Brynn said hastily. "Can you tell me where these parasites are located?"

Ellesime shook her head. "No, I can feel them, but I cannot say where they are located."

"Wonderful," Brynn said quietly to herself, "With the run of luck I've been having I'll run into Irenicus before I find the first parasite." Then louder, "Thank you, Your Majesty, we will not fail you."

Ellesime nodded and the image vanished.

The Blades got to work.

***

At first he didn't notice the decrease in the amount of power he was drawing from the Tree of Life, but then the second link to the Tree was severed, and then the third. What could have gotten through the defenses around the palace? That barrier he had placed had been impenetrable. Then he saw them, striding down one of the thick branches like the god damned do-gooders they were.

"You? You again?" Irenicus growled.

Brynn Trueblade smiled coldly. "That's right."

***

Brynn held her katanas out before her, both blades pointed directly at Irenicus' chest. "That's right," she said with an icy smile, "Me again. And this time there's nowhere for you to flee."

"Flee?" Irenicus scoffed. "I never fled from you, Bhaalspawn, and today will not be your day of glory, it will be mine!"

"Give up, Joneleth," pleaded the elven queen from the edge of the nest created by the meeting of the branches. "You surely must know that you have been defeated. Please, for the love we once shared, end this now." She looked near tears, and her voice was not so much sweet and smooth as raspy and full of grief.

"For the love we shared?" Irenicus demanded of her coldly. "The love that I cannot feel because you took that part of me? I remember our love, but I cannot feel it anymore. It is gone, lost, and that is your fault and the fault of the shortsighted fools you led."

"It did not have to be this way," Ellesime reminded him gently. "You were given a chance. If you had only repented..."

"For what reason?" Irenicus shouted, angry now and seemingly oblivious to Brynn and the Blades of Honor. "You fool! Why should I have repented? Why should I have felt guilt when you took away my capacity to feel anything but hate and bitterness? This time nothing, nothing, will stand in the way of my ascension to godhood!"

Brynn shook her head and sighed loudly, catching Irenicus' attention. "I'm sure if I haven't mentioned this to you before, someone must have," she said, "but nevertheless I feel that I ought to take this moment before I grind you into oblivion to state the obvious to you one more time in hopes that it will finally sink in: You are crazy. Crazier than a gnomish rocket and far more likely to fail."

That was one of the clearest thoughts she had managed for sometime. By the grace of the gods, the rage was still being drowned out by the sweet humming call of her soul. All that was in her mind was her, and she could trust her own thoughts and motives again. It was a nice, clean feeling. Though the emptiness was still there, and an untouchable, hard knot of grief with it, she could ignore those things and concentrate, strategize, and fight so that no matter what Irenicus threw at her she would come out on top.

Irenicus, of course, had other ideas. "We shall see," was his reply to Brynn. The magical shields that had caused the Blades so much trouble the last time they had run into Irenicus came up around the wicked mage again. Then they had not known what fighting Irenicus would be like. Then Brynn had been to addled by the loss of her soul to fight at her peak.

This time things were different.

As Irenicus' magic shields came up Brynn didn't even bother charging. He would have learned from the last time that her katanas had no enchantments, and would have adjusted his defenses accordingly. Instead she signaled Nalia, who raised her bow, fitted an arrow, and fired. She wasn't aiming for Irenicus precisely, just the bubbled edges of his magical shields. Nalia's aim was true, and as the arrow struck, fingers of magical energy surged forth from the point of impact, shattering Irenicus' precious protections.

Then Brynn charged, Mazzy and Minsc close at her heels.

Irenicus was luck and managed to slide out of the way of Brynn's first attack, but her second opened a gash in his shoulder. Minsc was a hairsbreadth from splitting Irenicus from crown to groin with a powerful overhead blow when the mage's magic shields hummed to life again. With his lips twisted into a snarl of rage Irenicus began to chant a spell. At the same time Nalia fired off another arrow of dispelling, and missed.

"Damn it!" she cursed, fumbling to fit another arrow to fire again before Irenicus had a chance to finish his spell.

Brynn, Minsc and Mazzy made a quick retreat, and waited for Irenicus' shields to drop again. Meanwhile Anomen, Aerie, Jaheira, Haer'Dalis and Imoen cast their own spells of protection. A series of near simultaneous flashes of light and magical energy enveloped the five of them and the rest of the party.

Then Irenicus finished his spell, and the next thing Brynn knew a rain of fire and burning rock was pummeling the area. She ran toward Irenicus, for he was beyond the edge of the rain of rock and fire. A falling rock struck her in the shoulder and sent her sprawling across the huge branch of the Tree of Life. Angry, she struggled back to her feet only to be forced to her knees again by another wave of rock. So she crawled, slowly but steadily toward her foe, and as soon as she was clear of the fall, she stood up again, straightening herself despite the pain in her shoulder.

Brynn spat out a mouthful of blood and growled. "Nice try," she said.

Irenicus merely laughed.

Out of the corner of her eye Brynn saw the rest of the Blades either getting free of the swarm of rocks, or already free, except for Haer'Dalis, who lay unmoving on the branch, either unconscious or dead. No, he was not dead, Brynn could barely make out the movement of his chest as he drew in halting breaths. Minsc, battered and bruised like the rest, ducked back into the deadly hail and pulled the bard out, but not before being struck again in the chest by a burning ball of rock.

Satisfied that her friends would live, Brynn narrowed her eyes and concentrated on Irenicus. She could feel her soul, calling to her even louder now than before, and she let the pain she felt slip past her. All the world except her and Irenicus fell away as if it were only an illusion, and power hummed throughout her and along the lengths of her katanas until she and they both glowed.

It was time to finish this.

***

Aching, and feeling dried out like an old mummy, for some reason she could not explain save that somehow Irenicus must have cast more than one spell a moment ago, Nalia lifted her bow again and fitted a fourth arrow of dispelling, drew back the bow string, and fired. The arrow streaked outward, gliding unhindered through the shower of rock created when Irenicus had cast the spell meteor swarm, and struck true shattering Irenicus' defenses a second time. She watched almost uncomprehendingly as, at the moment the magical shields protecting Irenicus fell away, Brynn leaped forward at seemingly impossible speed, and drove her blades deep into Irenicus' chest. A moment later the rain of meteors ceased.

***

Brynn felt her blades slide easily into Irenicus' flesh, felt the crunch of bone and the tearing of organs and muscle and heard the sound it made, like the ripping of damp paper. Then she opened her eyes, not realizing until then that they had even been closed and saw Irenicus' pale face flecked with his own spittle and blood, and drawn into an expression of pure disbelief.

"This... can... not be..." the cruel mage wheezed, his words gurgling out with a gout of blood.

Brynn twisted her two katanas within his body, and blood poured out of the two gaping wounds in his chest. "Well, guess what you evil son of a bitch, it is." She tore her blades free, ripping a gash from near his sternum out each side of his chest, nearly cutting him in half, and at last Irenicus fell.

Inhaling slowly Brynn let the immensity of her final victory wash over her, but her time for contemplation and elation ended abruptly. She felt something within her tear free, and felt the call of her soul growing ever farther away. Her vision swam, turned red and black, and the last thing she knew was the feeling of her body striking the ground.

***

To Be Continued

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A/N

I know this chapter seems to have gone a little quickly, but if I detailed every defeated critter it would have been about twenty pages. So far as I can see the monsters within the elven city serve merely as devices to stall the player, so they really don't matter much. As for the killing of the parasites, the same applies. The battle with Irenicus was shorter than the first more or less because, from my perspective at least, it was much easier. He sort of went out with a whimper instead of a roar when I defeated him for the second time -I didn't even have to reload. Up next, hell, six tests of conscience, willpower, and determination, and Irenicus' final final defeat.