Author's Note: I must confess, I didn't like this chapter. Block dogged me through the little details, and a small crisis of faith regarding my laid out plotline forced me to rewrite it about three times before reverting to the original plan... so don't expect great literature from this one. I know where I'm going now, however, so the next one should be a little better.

On a brighter note, a small thankyou to my 'fans' - you know, the ones that review this fanfiction. :-D It's been ten days, and I've had eleven reviews, and that has encouraged me to continue with this epic. It seems as if Baldur's Gate is far more lucrative than Star Trek for reviews! Particular thanks to Guenhwyvar and Mija for your continued support and appreciation. You guys rock. All of you.

Chapter 17: Grave Matters

"I don't get why," Harrian murmured the following night as they approached the Graveyard District, "we're stuck in a bloody graveyard late at night – one where vampires are rumoured to roam, mind – simply by putting faith in a note carried by a dead man."

Anomen looked at him in total surprise. "You wish to rescue your sister, do you not?" he asked frankly, one eyebrow raised. "This seems to be the most logical and direct path… or at least, the most logical and direct lead," he amended.

Jaheira rolled her eyes. Ironically, she had been the sole member of the party acting 'normally'. Harrian had been in a foul mood all day, and the rest… well, they had been completely on edge and furtive, having not told the others of the encounter with Keldorn. Anomen had declared it as information unnecessary to divulge. If Harrian did take a path of evil, then the Order would be better having the element of surprise in an offensive. If Harrian remained a force for good, then… well, he would never need to know, would he?

"I do not like this," Yoshimo muttered, his eyes flicking across the darkened streets. He, at least, would be happier once they were in the Graveyard. This was a thief for whom rumours of vampires held little weight. "We could be being set up for a trap."

"If it were a trap, they would have surely executed it last night at Delosar's," Jaheira offered, but all noted that the grip on her quarterstaff remained firm, her eyes taking in all potential sites from which to launch an ambush.

"Besides, I don't think Mavek was intending to get murdered by the Shadow Thieves," Harrian pointed out. "Whoever this Bodhi is, however, they should have answers for us – answers on how our Cowled friend was supposed to get Imoen back, and why they're inclined to help us."

"The graveyard… hardly the place for a force of good to meet us," Anomen murmured. "Does darkness always find itself drawn to you, or is it just coincidence that the two factions inclined to help us consisted of a guild of iniquitous thieves and suspicious fellows hiding in graveyards."

Yoshimo threw him a warning glance, but Harrian saw it as a perfectly legitimate question and took it all in stride. "These things just seem to happen," he mused as they reached the archway at the threshold to the graveyard. The place well and truly gave him the creeps, most especially at night, and he tightened his grip on the hilt of his longsword. "When you've seen as much as we have of darkness, little things like this just stop surprising –"

In direct contrast to his words, the swashbuckler fairly leapt out of his skin as a woman sidled out from behind a pillar right next to him. Her skin was far too pale to be natural, though he attributed it to the darkness, and she was dressed entirely in black. "You must be Harrian Corias," she greeted them, her voice so silvery and smooth to the extent that shivers ran down everyone's spines and the grips on their weapons tightened.

The thief took a deep breath, controlling his racing heart, then turned to face her. "I am. You must be… Bodhi?" he hazarded a guess, one hand still on the hilt of his weapon. "I have a lot of questions to ask you."

The woman nodded sternly, then smiled a smile that both warmed and terrified him. "I'm sure you do," she confirmed. "And I believe I have answers to those questions. First, if you please… am I right in assuming my friend Jeran was murdered by the Shadow Thieves?"

"You are. We were to meet him by Delosar's Inn last night, but he was intercepted by the rogues and slain." Harrian evaluated her gaze coolly. "We found the note in his robes telling him to meet you here. We hope you can help us where he intended to."

Bodhi regarded him for a moment. "Come. Let us walk a while," she said quietly, gesturing towards the paths of the graveyard. The six of them stepped forwards, and she raised a hand. "Just Harrian," she amended in her silky-smooth voice.

The other five voiced their disapproval of the idea noisily, until Corias looked briefly at them. "It's alright. If you hear an ear-piercing scream, then just come running," he joked, smiling far more than the situation was due.

Jaheira raised an eyebrow at him. "That," she declared at length, "is most certainly not amusing."

His next smile was more reassuring than humorous. "I'll be fine," he reassured her, then turned to Bodhi. "Fine. Let's walk and talk," he murmured, then followed her along a path that took them behind a crypt and out of sight.

"This is most certainly not acceptable," Anomen insisted, the moment he was sure they were out of hearing range. "There is something about that woman that does not sit well… she is too… too…" He stopped, unable to find the right word.

"Minsc agrees," the giant ranger rumbled. "Never have I seen Boo tremble so! See his little whiskers twitch?" He raised Boo to Haer'Dalis's eye level, and, indeed, the rodent was most certainly not a happy little hamster.

"It seems our raven is quite content in walking through the jaws of death itself," the bard mused. "This lady of the night is no normal mortal… I would go so far as to presume she is a fiend!"

Yoshimo sighed. "I will concur that she is not quite the most normal of people we have yet encountered, but presuming her to be a fiend is an extreme speculation at best. Harrian knows to be on his guard."

"Harrian has the worst instincts I have ever seen when it comes to trusting suspicious people such as this Bodhi," Jaheira murmured. "His approval of her is not quite solid – indeed, I believe she should be trusted less because he has approved her."

"That is a touch cynical," the Kara-Turan retorted. "It seems to me that she is just –"

"A vampire."

All whirled around to see Keldorn emerging from behind one of the monuments, no longer as casual as he had been at the tanner shop the previous night, but on guard, his double handed sword already in his hand, helmet on his head. "This Bodhi is a creature most foul indeed."

"Sir Keldorn!" Anomen gasped once again, before recovering equilibrium and looking haughtily at the Inquisitor. "You may have a mission here, but if you could refrain from such dramatic entrances…"

Keldorn threw the squire a look which brought his tirade to an end, and his gaze settled on Jaheira, deciding her to be the leader in Harrian's absence. "You have been tricked into allowing your leader to wander off with a creature of the night."

Jaheira raised a hand, her brow furrowed. "Forgive me, but… who are you?" she demanded, then threw a glare at the others as they shifted uncomfortably, clearly knowing something she didn't.

Keldorn looked surprised. "They did not tell you?" He sighed. "I will explain in further detail later. For now, simply know that I am Sir Keldorn Firecam of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart, here to alert you that your leader may need rescuing…"

* *

"Jeran Mavek came to me outside the Council Building and informed me that he could possibly help me in retrieving Imoen," Harrian told Bodhi quietly as they wandered along the path between the graves. "We organised a meeting at Delosar's Inn last night, but when we went there, before he could help us the Shadow Thieves murdered him. We found the note from you telling him to meet you here and report on how the meeting with me had gone, and so we came."

The vampire nodded briefly. "I can help you get Imoen back, although not in the same way Jeran could, and it will take considerably more time. He was my voice in the Cowled Wizards, and now, with that voice gone… I don't have the same influence with your problem I did."

"But you can help me?" Corias asked. "I mean… it doesn't have to be Imoen's legal release – if you can direct me to where she is, I can go on my own and rescue her myself… that's all I need."

"I can get you there," Bodhi assured him. "And it won't take much. If you perform one task for me that will make it possible for me to get you there… it will give me back the inside track I need with the Cowled Wizards."

Harrian nodded sternly, a note of inquisitiveness on his face. "Anything that can help," he offered generously.

"There's a scroll, kept inside the Council building by the Cowled Wizards," Bodhi explained briefly. "It has powers which, when unlocked, would bring us a suitable step closer to finding your Imoen. If Jeran had not been killed, I would have asked him to acquire it for us… but you are our best bet."

"How… how does it help?" Corias asked, brow furrowed. "Teleportation? Highly powerful locating spell? Charm the wizards into agreeing to hand over Imoen?"

Bodhi sighed, seeing she'd have to give an explanation – however deceitful and evasive – before Harrian would comply. Damn it, she needed this… and not just because Jeran was dead. A shame; he had been a most useful ally, not to mention with a brightness and vitality which was all the more attractive in its rarity. "It's –"

Most irritatingly on cue a crossbow bolt, free of metal tip, thudded through Bodhi's chest, imbedding itself there. She looked down for a moment and froze, then yanked the bolt out of her body.

"Damn it! Missed!" Keldorn exclaimed, already cranking his crossbow for a second shot as Bodhi stared at him, let out an inhuman hiss that chilled Harrian to the bone, then suddenly and inexplicably morphed into a bat, flitting off in between the gravestones.

Corias gaped for a moment, before turning to face the Inquisitor. "Just who in the hells are you, and what in the hells was that?" he shrieked as his party members hurtled around to stand with the paladin.

"She was a vampire, Harrian," Anomen declared, visibly shaken as the thief walked up to them. "Sir Keldorn here is from the Order and is probably the greatest Inquisitor to ever serve the Radiant Heart. He warned us about Bodhi."

Harrian smiled humourlessly, folding his arms across his chest and glowering at Keldorn. "Explain," he snapped briefly, less than amused or impressed at how the situation had developed, shaken though he was at the news that he had almost been manipulated into a liaison with a vampire.

"I'll explain, Bhaalspawn," Keldorn responded evenly. At the thief's startled expression, he nodded impassively. "Yes, I know what you are! I have been sent by the Order to watch you. A great potential evil runs through your veins, one which, if fully achieved, could bring the lands of Toril to its knees. Know that, if you stray from a path of righteousness, the Order will not hesitate to remove Faerun of the threat you present."

Harrian raised an eyebrow. "Well, that was suitably morbid and threatening. Why don't you just cut my head off right here?" he demanded, understandably irritated by the intervention. "And how long have you been following me?"

"Do not toy with me, Bhaalspawn," the Inquisitor warned. "I have no hostile intentions towards you; I am merely here to watch and evaluate. If you prove yourself to be a force for good, you shall receive no interference from me." He eyed them all carefully, his gaze meeting Anomen's for a second longer, before turning and striding off.

Harrian glared at them all. "You knew, didn't you," he insisted. "You knew, and you didn't tell me!"

Yoshimo looked him straight in the face. "That's not important right now," the bounty hunter assured him as Anomen and Haer'Dalis shifted uncomfortably under their leader's piercing gaze. "What did you find out?"

Corias paused sulkily. "Other than that I almost sold our souls to a vampire?" At their astonished looks, he rolled his eyes. "Figuratively speaking," he amended, before continuing. "Bodhi told me that there's this scroll, in the Council building. It may just be what we need to find Imoen, but I don't know what it does or where it is, or even how to use it…"