Chapter 78: Honour
Before the stunned Anomen could respond, Harrian stumbled into the chamber, his hair and eyes wild, looking like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards. Nobody was sure if this was an improvement on the stunned indifference he had been exhibiting earlier. "Yoshimo!" the swashbuckler called out, shaking his head and waggling a finger as if he was berating a small child. The group exchanged looks, worrying about their leader's sanity. "You've done wrong, I know, and it's very wrong, but it's not too late… What did Irenicus do to turn you against us?"
Yoshimo eyed Harrian dubiously, lowering the knife he still held in his hand. "What in the nine hells happened to him?" he demanded suspiciously of Anomen, giving the cleric a worried, sideways glance.
"Never you mind," Delryn replied guardedly, still holding his shield before him stubbornly. Though he could barely believe that Yoshimo had actually betrayed the party, the truth was there before him, and he couldn't ignore him. "Explain to us what happened." He tried to keep his voice grim and threatening, yet failed miserably. He couldn't bring himself to hate his friend. For Yoshimo was his friend, damn it!
The bounty hunter almost casually sheathed the knife he held, yet his body land plainly spoke deep regret and resignation. "It is… complicated," the Kara-Turan replied evasively, shrugging. "Simply know that I did not want to do this… I had no choice at all."
Jaheira folded her arms across her chest. "Everyone has a choice," she pointed out bluntly, showing Anomen that he didn't need to be the sceptical and unforgiving member of the group.
For the first time ever, Delryn saw a flash of anger in his friend's eyes. "It is not as simple as that!" he snapped, shaking his head. "I… when Irenicus found me, I was being hunted by the Shadow Thieves; I would not have lasted a day longer on the streets, for I had angered some powerful people, and none of my skills would have kept me safe. He recognised those skills, and brought me in, brought me to his damnable dungeon." The bounty hunter shook his head ruefully. "Initially, if I were to help bring in a Bhaalspawn, I would be paid handsomely and protected from my enemies, not to mention be made powerful. I went along with it willingly. After all, who would have qualms of betraying a child of murder?"
Haer'Dalis raised an eyebrow, most plainly unconvinced. "And this is your 'lack of choice', is it, my parrot?" he asked sceptically, shaking his head. "An inability to resist vast wealth, invulnerability and absolute power." The bard cocked his head to one side. "I suppose I can see the appeal of the idea."
"It was nothing but business," Yoshimo retorted disdainfully. "I disliked Irenicus, though I had few alternatives at the time. Yet, as the mission went on, and Irenicus insisted I report to him to keep him updated of my progress, he must have noticed that I was less and less happy with the duty he had bestowed on me. When I outright refused to continue to do his bidding, as he was then still stuck in Spellhold, directly after we gave the scroll to the Cowled Wizards… he placed a geas upon me."
Imoen let out a quiet gasp, and shook her head in disbelief. "That's… that's why you couldn't change your mind. The geas would have destroyed you!" There was a long silence as she thought. "So why are you here? You did your job; Irenicus removed the geas, right?" There was yet another long silence.
Yoshimo shook his head. "He did not. Had Bodhi killed you all, the geas would no longer have had a hold on me. As it was, I believe Irenicus decided to leave me as a failsafe – to hunt you down if the vampire failed. Which I would have been compelled to do had I wished to surprise." He frowned, and shook his head. "Unfortunately, I was stuck in this room until Minsc just broke down the door. I think Irenicus anticipated your arrival here if Bodhi failed, and the vampire releasing me once you were dead."
The bounty hunter stepped over to the great control panel which made Harrian shiver as he looked at it, picking up a thin volume that rested on top of it. "Here is Irenicus' journal which I do not believe he intended to be able to fall into your hands. I am sure he thought you would only be here in an attempt to reverse the process of whatever it was he did to Harrian in this room."
Corias folded his arms across his chest, still full of a quiet stillness that was unsettling. "So what will you do?" he asked blankly. "If you give us that journal and let us leave in peace, the geas will rip you apart." The thief slowly lowered his hand to grasp the hilt of the Daystar pointedly. "If you follow the geas and attack us, you know that you cannot win. Two deaths await you."
Yoshimo nodded sternly. "I am aware of this." He threw the journal to Harrian, who somehow managed to catch it deftly. The bounty hunter seemed to wince with pain at this simple move. "I shall not emerge from this room alive. The last weeks of my days have been spent plotting the betrayal and downfall of friends for selfish reasons. To die attacking you, or to die by the geas… one would endanger my friend any more, which I do not wish. The other would be a most dishonourable death. I wish to maintain even a shred of dignity in my death."
He slowly strode towards Harrian, gave the Bhaalspawn a long, considerate glance, took in his bedraggled appearance and wild-eyed stare, then moved onto Anomen. The bounty hunter pulled out his long katana and held out the hilt to the knight. "Friend," the Kara-Turan started, a little stiltedly. "Make it a quick death. There is little honour in suicide, yet a comrade ending my life for me should appease the gods."
Anomen stared at the long, oriental sword, his eyes almost popping out on their stalks. "I'm not going to kill you, Yoshimo!" he snapped, shaking his head, incredulity overrunning his voice.
The bounty hunter raised an eyebrow mildly. "Then what shall it be? Watch me die a horrible and painful death from this curse?" he asked lightly, forcing the hilt into his friend's gauntleted hand. "All I ask of you is that you take my heart to the temple of Ilmater. Let the priests take care of it, so my soul can be released from the geas."
Delryn still stared at the katana as if he didn't know what to do with it. He raised the blade unsteadily. "I am not allowed to shed blood. I am a priest," he said at last, full of certainty. "It goes against my ethos…"
Yoshimo rolled his eyes. "I would have nobody else do it. Club me to death with your mace if necessary; I simply would rather have my life ended by my own blade, and I believe death shall be delivered far more speedily in that way." Still Anomen didn't move. "And what if I force you to slay me? In self defence?"
Quicker than the cleric could react, the bounty hunter had another knife in his hand and was lunging at Delryn dangerously. The priest instinctively stepped sideways, and could easily see that Yoshimo was holding back.
"You're not going to kill me, Yoshimo, any more than I am going to kill you!" Anomen snapped, ignoring all of the others present in this minor fiasco. "I simply shall not do it!" he continued certainly.
"Then you will let me die a death a thousand times more horrible and a thousand times more dishonourable?" the Kara-Turan demanded. "I thought that you, of all people, would understand the need for honour. And I speak not of the honour given to you by others, for that honour is worthless. The only honour that matters is the honour in your own mind, your own heart – the honour that you judge yourself by, not that others judge you by. Try to learn that honour."
Anomen's expression became ten times more pained as he stared at the katana blankly. "Try?" he repeated absently, sorrowfully. "I learnt that honour a mere day ago. Odd how it can be even more binding than the honour my former comrades valued," he mused, frowning and shaking his head softly.
Then the knight raised his head and looked straight at Yoshimo. The bounty hunter was the only one to see the tears in Delryn's eyes at this point. "You bastard," Anomen whispered, blinking hard as he raised the katana. "You absolute bastard."
He struck once, twice, thrice. Struck as quickly and as hard as he could, knowing where to hit, how to hit to make the death quick, clean, painless. Or as painless as death could be. And even as the bounty hunter's lifeless corpse started to fall to the floor, Anomen continued to strike, letting out all of the rage and frustration he had allowed to build up within his heart his entire life, and only when the katana shuddered and fell from his numb fingers did he stop, sinking to his knees on the floor, covering his face with his gauntleted hand to hide the tears he shed for the first friend who had turned him onto this path he had chosen.
There was a long silence as almost everyone mutely stared at Anomen as he did his best to grieve silently, kneeling in a pool of Yoshimo's blood as the bounty hunter's sliced body lay before him.
Harrian gave Delryn one indifferent glance before meandering over to the control panel, perching on the edge of it, then flicking open Irenicus's journal. He seemed quite oblivious to what had just taken place, lost in his own mental world of denial.
Next… The secret diary of Joneleth Irenicus, and a little inside peek into just what our favourite former elven madman just has up his sleeve…