Valour needs first strength, and then a weapon.

- Boromir



9. The Essence Sire Strikes Back

As their eyelids grew heavy, Onyx in a cozy room at the Friendly Arm Inn, Jade in the above-ground guest bedroom of Kagain's Beregost residence, their thoughts were upon the same shared memory.

Gorion, the warm, bearded sage, sat in a loose brown cloak, his young wards sitting cross-legged on the thick carpet near his desk, peering up at him with eager children's eyes.

"The Weave is what gives a mage his power," the sage explained. "It's a magical field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the multiverse together."

"Do not be too ready to strike down another, whatever your differences or reasons, be they good or evil; the Weave binds us together as in a circle, and what we send forth returns."

Their father spoke on, of optimism and caution, reason and intuition, justice and compassion, and the boy and the girl paid steadfast attention...

...But in the present world, drifted off to sleep.

Onyx and Jade found themselves, and each other, outside the familiar stone walls of Candlekeep. Their former home loomed before them, but the gate was closed and barred. They looked up at one of the towers, and could see candles burning out of the windows of their old adjacent windows, like two eyes peering down at them. Two golden glowing eyes, like those of the armored man.

Onyx smiled with fond memories of home, Jade felt mixed feelings within herself. Both were frightened and surprised when the candles went out, and the bricks grew together, like wounds healing at an unnatural pace, closing over the windows, and now the walls stood over them, utterly solid, almost smug, conspiring to keep them away. Faint vibrations, almost like deep laughter, seemed to resonate from the rigid stones.

A shaft of bright light descended between them and the closed gate, and in it stood Gorion, but the sight was not comforting, for he was withered and dead in the dream, as in life. "You cannot go back, my children," he cried to them, "You must go on!"

The ghostly sage them gestured to the wilderness, and the youths looked that way, into the black woods, as if it should be inviting, but rather it looked quite forboding, although Jade and also Onyx felt some curiosity. They peered through it, looking for paths, and gradually one opened before them, clear and inviting, and almost itself seemed to pull at them, promising to lead them away from the lives they led, for the best. Both youths found this greeting suspicious, but as Gorion faded away and nothing was left for them behind, they found themselves half-charging, and half pushed by some unseen force, down the path, filled with both curiosity and fear.

And then, the one path diverged to two, each equally clear and inviting, yet therefore suspect. Onyx and Jade exchanged glances, for he slightly favored one of the paths, as did she, and they saw in each others' eyes these were not the same.

And then they were swept onward, down different paths, stealing glances back at each other, but then turned each away to look ahead, for their paths had diverged.

Whispers followed them as they ran away. The voice was vengeful and sinister, and it felt familiar, yet he knew they had never heard it.

"You will learn..."

As the voice spoke, they saw the death of Gorion over and over again, seared into their minds in the dream as it was in life.

"You will learn..."

Onyx didn't look back.

Jade got used to it.

-------

Onyx kept running and running, lost in throught, and when he regained awareness of himself and his surroundings, found himself standing in a strange metallic room, the light faint and unnatural, steam rising from the floor. From across the room, a dark shape, faint but large, emerged, and strode forward into view. A towering figure in dark armor, with glowing eyes. It drew forth a large sword, glowing red with malice, and Onyx looked down to see a blue-glowing holy avenger in his own hand.

The armored figure, breathing heavily, laughed. "The essence is with you, young Onyx. But you are hardly a knight yet."

Both warriors moved forward, their magical swords bright, and crossed blades. Onyx found himself filled with great conviction, and his killer instincts were acute as they never had been before. But his opponent was calm, skilled, parrying each blow, but not quite able to land a counterstrike.

The figure bellowed, both angered and amused. Perhaps proud. "Impressive...most impressive."

The dark warrior redoubled his efforts, and Onyx felt an enchanted tingle about him, a mesmeric aura of pure fear, as he had felt and so easily given in to only the night before, gripped in mindless panic, leaving Gorion to die. Now, this time, as he continued to strike and parry, his instincts now in full control, his conscious mind was occupied maintaining sheer force of will against the oppressive curtain of fear that descended upon it. His mind repeated to itself the vow he had made, while his arms wielded his holy avenger with a grace he had no right to possess, and this thoughts slid to the edge of fear, but not over.

"I see Gorion has taught you well," the golden-eyed figure bellowed.

The flood of fear, swirling across all corners of his thoughts, grew only more torrential, and he sweated with the effort of strongholding his mind against it. His vow, his honor, were just enough to keep it at bay, and his instincts took all hold of his body, and had him crouch and jump higher than any mortal man has a right to, clear over his nemesis's head, landing on his other side and nearly cleaving him with the holy avenger, but barely blocked by the dull red blade.

"You are beaten," The figure growled, and now easily drove back Onyx, who struggled to fight as he held himself against both anger and fear, now knowing he could not use one against the other, and what was left of him seemed ill a match for both. "It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as Gorion was."

The armored man drove him back, through an archway in the room, and out onto a steel bridge that stretched over nothingness; a vast column of air in some great hollow stone tower, the faraway walls lined with stone statues of all manner of humanoid. The golden-eyed monster drove Onyx further and further back along the bridge, toward where it terminated in the very center of the tower, which stretched up and down further than the eyes could see.

"There is no escape," the armored figure's voice echoed across the void. "Don't make me destroy you. You do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover you power. Join me. Give in to me."

"Never!" Onyx cried, his holy avenger flashing, but his opponent bellowed, sidestepped his swing, and cleft through the young paladin's right forearm. Onyx cried as his right hand and the sword it gripped went flying into the void, and he lurched back, his maimed arm tucked under his left shoulder, beaten, his balance and control gone. He crumpled at the edge end of the bridge, and slipped off it, catching the edge with his left hand.

"If you only knew the power of the essence," the figure laughed, striding slowly and purposefully to the edge where Onyx hung by one hand, looking down. "Onyx. You can destroy Cyric. He has forseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and we shall rule the multiverse together as father and son."

"No!" Onyx cried, dangling, looking up at the figure desperately. "You killed my father!"

The armored man laughed, peering down with his golden eyes, upon the face within his grotesque helmet. And Onyx, studying the face for the first time, realized this was not the same man who had slain Gorion. Similar, but fitting more comfortably in his ghastly armor, his bearing more regal. Older.

This figure bellowed, and pointed one mailed finger down toward the young man. "No, Onyx...."

"....I AM YOUR FATHER!"

"Nooooooooooo!!!" Onyx cried, and lost his grip, and fell into the void.

He fell and fell, the many statues ringing the walls of the stone tower racing past him, and they grew closer as he fell, a cone, then a tube, and at last they were all around him, and he fell past the last ones, and the bottom of the tower, which hung over true nothingness.

His remaining hand gripped a spire that jutted from the underside of the floating tower, and he hung there, nearly unconscious, whispering, "Gorion....Lathander...Jondalar...." and then, as his mind slid into blackness, he knew none could help him here. Though only his heart yet knew why, there was one and only one he could call too now.

"Imoen! Hear me! Imoen!"

Onyx stirred uncomfortably in his sleep, mumbling, "Imoen...hear me....Imoen..." Imoen lay fast asleep herself, one arm slung over him, and his wrapped around her, her head resting on his chest.

Imoen was skipping through a field of grass and pink flowers. The sunshine smiled at her, and squirrels and rabbits scurried about, but stopped to look at her in greeting. Then, with a squeal of delight, she saw a pure white unicorn galloping over the field. It slowed to a trot as it came closer, and stopped before her, letting her pet it on the muzzle.

"Ooo," Imoen's eyes were wide with excitement. "My very own unicorn!" The equestrian whinnied happily. "Amalthea? What a pretty name!" Imoen felt both as if she had chosen and known the unicorn's name, that confluence of good dreams. "Why yes, I would love to go for a ride!"

Amalthea knelt, and Imoen happily bounced up on her back, and then broke into a canter that was utterly smooth, and Imoen laughed with glee, feeling as if she were riding the wind itself over the endless sea of pink flowers.

"Imoen! Hear me! Imoen!"

Imoen looked up at the sky. "Onyx?" She looked around. "Where are you?" She looked down at Amalthea, who gave a worried whinny. "It's Ony! He's in trouble!"

Imoen somehow knew that Amalthea understood, and the unicorn galloped forward, then leapt off the ground, sprouting angelic white wings, and flew higher and higher, the field disappearing beneath them. Imoen gasped with fright and clung to Amalthea's neck as the sky grew dark and everything beneath became a swirling void. She looked forward, and saw a great stone tower hovering over it, and as they grew closer, could see a single spire protruding down from its base, and a nearly lifeless figure clutching it with one hand.

"Onyx!" Imoen cried as her friend dropped from the spire, and as if reading her thoughts, Amalthea swooped down in a great arc, and the young man fell and fell before them, and without one second to spare Amalthea soared across his trajectory, and he landed across her back, nearly in Imoen's lap, barely conscious but reaching up to clutch both of her hands with his left.

"Imoen..." he opened one eye and smiled at her.

"Onyx..." Imoen cried in her sleep.

"Imoen..." Onyx mumbled, and his left hand reached up to clasp hers.

At once, they both awoke, and sprung up in bed. Onyx clutched his right forearm protectively, then wiggled his fingers, and looked with great relief at his intact hand. "A dream..." he whispered breathily, and exhaled.

"Ooo, I had a weird one myself," Imoen declared sleepily, and looked with concern at her friend. She saw he was okay, the events leading up to their arrival and lodging at the Friendly Arm Inn returned to her, and she sighed with relief.

"Really?" Onyx looked at her, blinking, himself regaining awareness of the real world.

"You first," Imoen smiled.

------

Jade ran on and on and on, and when she became aware of herself again, found her surroundings foreign. She stood in an ancient ruin, broken white stones beneath her feet, and scattered doric columns and crossbeams of stone jutting up around her. Strangest of all, beyond the ruin was nothingness, no walls or land, only a sky of fire.

She saw a figure approaching from down a ruined roadway lined by broken columns, a woman, as tall and strong as herself, but with a stride that spoke of more confidence and age. She wore a tight green suit that proudly contoured her muscular body, knee-high boots of gold, and gauntlets that made her hands large golden claws, and in one of them she held a long forked spear. She wore a golden circlet, and white feathers stuck out from the back of it, framing her reddish-brown hair.

As if willed by Jade's own defensive instincts, she looked down to see a large hand-and-a-half sword in her right hand, and a shield in her left.

The tall woman stopped, held her spear low in her right hand, and raised her left clawed guantlet. She laughed, a deep, womanly, and supremely confident laugh, and pointed a single finger at Jade. "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little mage too."

Jade snarled and wordlessly strode forward, raising her sword high to cleave this mad woman in two. Her opponent, smirking, took a wide step backwards, flipping her polearm around herself artfully and bracing it thrust forward, catching Jade's sword within the fork. The woman let go with her left hand, and raked her massive metal claws across Jade's face, leaving several deep scratches. The girl winced and drew backwards, angry but afraid.

"All to easy," the woman bellowed, "Perhaps you are not as strong as my lord thought."

Jade snarled, her fear giving way to anger, and pulled her sword over her left shoulder, and swung forward across her own body. The woman flipped her spear to catch with the fork again, but Jade then pushed her shield forward, glanced the fork downward, and brought her blade forward, slashing shallowly over the woman's collar.

"You have controlled your fear," the woman held her mouth in a tight smile, wounded but obviously pleased. "Now release your anger."

Jade lunged as her opponent drew back, beating each of her spear thrusts aside with blade or shield, and making her own attacks, thrusts rather than swings, more difficult to catch, and she did not hit the woman again, but drove her back and back over the stones, past the columns. As they fought, Jade ever advancing, they passed by the last of the columns and the sprawling ruins, and went out onto an aqueduct-like stone bridge that stretched over the fiery void.

The womam now redoubled her efforts, holding her spear in an aggressive stance, across herself like a quarterstaff, knocking edge of sword or shield aside with the shaft, and raked each forked end across Jade's unarmored body several times, drawing blood. Jade's mind faltered, intimidated and angered by the realization that this woman had only been holding back all along.

"Only your hatred can destroy me," the woman stated, her voice echoing from nowhere.

These words angered Jade, but that seemed to be the woman's intent, and desire, and that only angered her further, and she found herself obeying them in her desire to disobey. At last she was consumed only with the thought of running her through, of ending it. The woman's spear came forward, but instead of letting it glance off her shield as it would have, Jade let go of her shield, and it dropped to the stones. The spear pierced air, and the woman faltered forward.

"KAAAIIII!"

Jade screamed as she did not know she could, taking her sword in a two-handed grip, feeling it like an extension of herself and pushing it forward at the unabalanced woman. It buried itself cleanly between her breasts, and Jade did not stop screaming or thrusting with all her might until it was up to the hilt.

The woman only cooed with an air of maternal pride, let go of her spear, and brought her clawed hands up and raked over Jade's face, bloodying it until the girl retreated, letting go of her sword and moving her hands to her face. The bastard sword falling from her chest and the wound healing at a gesture, the woman kicked Jade's exposed stomach with a golden boot with such force that the girl lost all balance, and sunk to her knees, holding her mutilated face.

The woman stood over the girl. Her air was menacing but her voice mothering. "You do not yet realize your importance, my girl. You have only begun to discover you power. Join me and I will complete your training. Gorion never told you of your true mother."

"He told me enough!" Jade cried, seeing blood through her vision as she looked up at the woman, who gave a come-hither gesture with a monstrous claw. "Birthing me my mother died!"

The woman tossed her scarlet-brunette hair back, and laughed throatily. "No, Jade..."

"...I AM YOUR MOTHER!"

"Noooooooo!!" Jade screamed like a girl half her age.

The woman reached down, dug her claws into Jade's torso in a cruel mockery of a mother's embrace, and flung her into the fiery void.

The young lady called out to no one.

Jade tossed and turned in her sleep, her bed drenched in sweat. Nearby, Xzar lay upon a slablike cot, in a mummy's pose of eternal rest, his arms folded over his chest, his body deathly still, his face in a rictus grin.

Xzar was skipping merrilly through a festering wasteland, jets of flame spurting up from a ground made of piled bones. Razorblade-pelated flowers grew from the banks of a river of blood, and a petrified tree bore 'fruit' of skulls.

The young necromancer grinned with fiendish delight as out of the sky of fire and lightning, swooped a small demonic creature. With a blackish-crimson leathery hide, claws, batwings, a scorpion's tail, and a grotesque horned face, it looked like some pint-sized glabrezu.

Xzar clapped his hands and peered down at the creatue. "Oh, a quasit! How wonderful! Now Monty can tease someone else about their height for a change!"

"Ah, shove it," the little fiend grimaced, and held out its right foreclaw, "Name's Bub. Be'el Z. Bub. Let's cut to the chase - here's my resume."

A human-flesh scroll materalized in the air over its head, and unfurled itself for Xzar to read:

Be'el Z. Bub
Quasit Extraordinaire
Skills: Mischief, Sneakery, Mayhem, Fright, Carnage, General Sowing of Chaos & Evil
Current Employer: Cyric
Previous Employers: Demogorgon, Bhaal
Education: Abyssal University, 666th Layer Campus

"That's right," Bub grinned with what was probably pride, but came across more like ravenous hunger for manflesh, "After Boss Demogorgon got locked away by the Helmites - for divine-power-tax evasion of all things! Those hypocritical heavyhanded swine - I went to work for Bhaal, in the weapons department with Cespanar-nar Blinks - oh man, I hated that guy - 'Mesa gonna remind you we needs more gold!' 'Wesa gonna be scrubbin' Bhaal's spiky armor now' 'why yousa looking like you wants to strangle mee?' - anyway, after Cyric's hostile takeover of the Lord of Murder's portfolio, I say if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em, so I go work for the Prince of Lies sowing misinformation around the other Planes. Hooboy, I got this one gig recently where I was postmarking a dead horse's head from the Council of Six and leaving it in Duke Eltan's bed, and postmarking the other six chunks of it from Duke Eltan and leaving them under the sheets of the Council of Six, and boy has that ever caused a misunderstanding..."

"Very nice," Xzar cooed, "But the lollipop dukes will want to know what..."

The young necromancer was cut off by a young woman's shriek resonating across the horrific landscape.

Bub cried, "Danger, Xzar of Candlekeep, Danger!"

The quasit's leathery wings flapped and it flew up and over Xzar's head, gripped his shoulders and belt with its claws, and lifted the young man into the air. "Up, up, and away!"

"Jade!" Xzar screamed, recognizing the crying voice. "It's her!" His mind raced, and he somehow knew, as one does in dreams, what do to. "Bub! Target humanoid sonic vocal resonance coordinates pronto!'

"Captain!" Bub rasped as they flew higher above the wasteland, "I detect signature pattern from the delta-quadrant of the Astral Plane. Recommend we set course at warp seven or nine."

"Make it so, number Z!" Xzar pushed his fists forward in a flying pose, and the quasit's wings flattened out, and they zoomed forward, everything around them stretching into lines of light, and when they slowed down, there was naught but a fiery void about them, save for a floating stone structure far above. Jade's voice came from above, much louder, and growing only more so.

Xzar was pointing upwards, but then the air around them started to waver, and Bub hissed, "Captain! Something's decloaking off the starboard bow!"

The wavering shapes materialized into fluffy white things with large ears stretched out like wings.

"Oh no!!" Xzar shrieked. "Rabbits of Prey!"

"Recommend defensive manuevers," Bub cried as six flying hares closed in.

"Raise shields!" Xzar cried and flailed, but his voice and arms grew calm, fluid, in the gestures and syllables for Shield.

"Missiles incoming!" Bub alerted, as the Rabbits of Prey fired Magic Missiles from their beady red eyes, but they fizzled against the shield. "Return fire!"

Xzar cast a pair of magic missiles from open palms, and they vaporized two engaging bunnies on impact. His next blast crossed paths with the harmless missiles of another pair and took them out.

"Missiles depleted!" Bub advised as the last two rabbits bore down, now baring their overgrown teeth.

"Evasive manuevers!" Xzar cried, and Bub swooped out of the way, the rabbits chomping air. The young necromancer flipped two throwing daggers from his belt into his thumbs-and-forefingers. "Setting daggers to KILL!" He tossed one dagger after the other, striking each rabbit in turn, and the vanquished foes vanished.

"Set intercept course!" Xzar pointed upwards to where Jade, now visible, fell through the void. "To boldly go where no necromancer has gone before!" Bub complied, and flapped his batwings. They bore down upon the female form as it plummeted, and Bub swooped down in anticipation of her trajectory. As they closed, Xzar reached out, curled both forearms upwards, and caught her in a picture finish.

Xzar's forearms curled upwards from his sides on the cot. His sleeping face smiled, not wildly or manically, but with restraint and warmth, and he purred.

Nearby, Jade stopped tossing, and hugged her pillow. Her eyes popped open, and she clasped her hands over her face, and for a moment the thick sweat was in her mind blood. But as she moved her fingers over her smooth features, and her eyes peered about the dark room, she regained awareness of the waking world. She sighed, and when Xzar's eyes popped open a moment later and he rose in the straight-backed manner of a vampire from its coffin, they shared a glance through the darkness, each wordlessly wondering the same thing.

To the north, Onyx and Imoen finished sharing their accounts, each not quite sure what to make of their own or the other's.

Imoen rubbed her eyes and yawned. As the first ray of sunlight zinged across the room, she felt a full confidence in her heart of what she had told her friend. They were in this, together, til' the end, come what may.

Onyx blinked, his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, rubbing his scalp through his short hair. He felt flushed with courage, as if his heart pumped it, and as he looked down over his best friend, he knew he would never run in fright from her defense, come what may.

But when his thoughts turned to more mundane concerns and he thought back to the night before, he had a vauge recollection of some reminiscing of his father Gorion, but somehow the memories of exactly what he couldn't find. Saying something? He couldn't remember the words or hear the voice. He drew a blank. As did his sister to the south. Filling the void, and the voice, was the one from their shared dream.

YOU WILL LEARN......

------

" All of them?" Jade, now dressed and up, yelled in disbelief, her voice echoing around the outer room of Kagain's residence.

"You bet yer hide!" Montaron laughed smugly. "While ye was sleepin' like a babe, I did a bit of burglarin'."

"A bit ?" Jade asked skeptically, as she stared at the enormous pile of gold, gems, jewelry, weapons, potions, and other filched goods that Montaron had dumped onto the table. The morning sunlight shining through the window glinted off it, and made it look especially covet-worthy. "You just said you burgled every house or shop in town! "

Montaron smiled greasily. "Ye disapprove, Jadey-lass? You be soundin' like ye say that paladin-brother o' yours speaks. Ye wants I should return it to the rightly owners? Forget it!"

"No, no," Jade laughed, as she stared at the pile of wealth. "I'm just shocked by the...volume of thievery you accomplished. Pleasantly surprised. Very pleasantly surprised." From where she sat beside the table, she looked down at him. " Every house in Nashkel?"

"Every house, shop, barn, ye name it!" Montaron chuckled. "And as a special present for ye..." Montaron reached for the table and hefted up a bastard sword that was far longer than longer than he was tall, and handed it to Jade. "It be enchanted."

"Very nice," Jade smiled covetously as she gripped the golden handle of the magically shimmering sword. She stood, and waved it around expertly as if she were already intimately familiar with that particular blade. She instinctively reached for her shield, propped against the table, but then some other instinct had her put the second hand on the handle. She knew she had the strength and the skill to wield this weapon one-handed, but this seemed more right, just her and her weapon. She felt an urge to give a sharp battle-cry, and she knew she would never hide behind a shield again.

""I've actually never possessed an enchanted weapon before," her eyes glistened. "Thank you, Montaron," she patted the halfling on the head like a dog, then winced and wiped the hair-grease off on her leggings.

"Yer welcome, lassy," Montaron hugged her calf and grinned. Jade, sensing harmless intent, smiled back. "Don't thank me," the halfling continued. "Thank Thunderhammer. It be he that 'donated' it. I just...delivered it to ye."

At that moment, a loud thunk sounded from the bedroom, and a green-robed wizard came through the door into the outer room.

"Gold!" Xzar shrieked and clapped his hands with delight. "Jewels! Precious gems and scrolls and weapons! So precious and pretty, o little hoards of happiness! We are rich, rich, rich rich rich rich rich rich rich rich rich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Aye, an enthusiastic but fair assessment, X," Montaron chuckled. "And, X ol' pal, a present from the rich folks in the mansion north o' town, I gots a special present for ye!" With that he pulled a wand off the table and handed it to the wizard.

"Great currents through lillypads rippling with thunder! A wand of lightning-bolting to blast us asunder!" He began to wave the wand around and point it here and there.

"Ah, X," Montaron winced, "Ye best not be tryin' that wand indoors. Even I knows the bolts bounce."

Another figure, short and stout, came waddling up the staircase leading to the subterranean level of the house. When he saw the pile of treasure, his dwarven eyes glinted greedily and he stroked his white beard.

"Well, well," Kagain rasped in his elderly but spritely manner, "Seems at least one of you hobbits understands proper profit-seeking after all."

"Aye, no farmin' and smokin' the pipeweed all day fer Monty," the thief laughed, and pointedly patted his very lean (especially by hobbit standards) stomach.

"Well, Monty, I guess you're good for something," Jade laughed, tossing back her scarlet hair.

"An' for a few more things," Montaron jested to the warrioress.

"Dream on, little boy," Jade laughed in spite of herself, and Montaron shot a truly lusty gaze to the gold. "So tell me, Montaron," she peered down at him skeptically, "What persuaded you to openly share this all with us?"

"Well, it be our deal," Montaron shrugged.

Jade squinted menacingly down at him. "I'd say I don't trust you further than I can throw you, but I could throw you very very far, my hobbit friend."

"Eh," Montaron shrugged, "If we be spelunkin' in the mines, we best all be well-equipped, so I best shares the loot for us to use, to buy stuff with. But I had a little free time just before dawn, so's I did spend some spare gold for the company o' that pretty lass who was loiterin' at night in Beregost square. Oh, she was well worth it though...har har!"

"You little piece of filth!" Jade scowled and looked like she was about to strangle Monty, until Kagain chuckled and slapped his knee.

"Nothin' wrong with a little profit-incentive, I say. Money well spent!" the dwarf wheezed with laughter.

Jade chased Montaron around and around the table, as if itching to try out her new bastard sword. This set off Xzar, who began ballet-dancing around the room and singing about flying crumpets and waterfalls of milk, his green robe flying up to reveal skull-printed undershorts.