35. Split Decisions

Jaheira watched in shock as the twins fell together from the log.

"W-well…" Khalid shrugged, "You did say neither was in t-t-tune with the Balance."

On the other bank, Edwin waved his long-nailed finger triumphantly. "The witch and I are both banished! (Her return trip shall be swift, if not ending quite how she expects.)"

"By the deal's wording," Kagain spoke up, "She still's with them, and yer still with us, Red. More's the pity, if'n ya ask me." He chuckled as he watched the wizard fluster, and took a long drag of his pipe.

Edwin screamed, "No! We…." Then his jaw clumped shut, and then dropped.

Xzar clapped his hands. "Oh, this is positively ghastly! Now we can continue working on our 'Three Wizzes' routine!" He lifted his fist. "Nyaa…nyuk nyuk!" He gave Xan a noogie, and then poked his eyes with two fingers. "No, no!" Xzar wailed as the enchanter simply whimpered and turned away. "You're supposed to block, like this!" He put an open hand up over his nose, blocking his own next attempt to poke his own eyes. "Say, my wonderfully frail elf, remember what you said about fighting being a zero sum game?"

Montaron snickered, nodding along, and grinned saucily at Edwin. "They both be keepin' their foreigner wizards now…"

Xzar beamed grandly at Xan. "...you were wrong!"

The elf sighed. "The futility of my philosophizing only proves its point…"

"Now that is true…" Xzar touched his chin thoughtfully. "Still, I don't know why you go on about death and destruction like it's a bad thing."

Their heads, and all the rest on both banks, turned to watch Onyx and Jade approaching behind Minsc, who had run downriver to retrieve his witch's quarterstaff when it fell in. After falling in themselves, the twins had floated down the pool to where the steep erosion-walls sloped down into flat banks, to find the ranger begrudgingly saving Edwin's staff too, and now all returned up the east bank.

"You….you simple, clumsy strumpet!" Edwin pointed an accusing finger at an approaching Jade. "You lost to this bumbling brother! You..."

He was cut off as Jade snatched the wagging wrist with her left hand, unnecessary force making it clear she could've broken it, and her right arm lashed out to grip the conjurer about his precious amulet. While the wizard's left hand jerked with a useless reflex for his throat, her right foot hooked around his to kick it out from under him, and she dropped him onto his back on the grass, pressing her hand against his throat while it still clutched the jewelry. "...will...never…call…me….strumpet….again…" she snarled, increasing the pressure.

"Urk!" was Edwin's reply. Jade lessened the pressure, and he wheezed, "I'll go! Send off the witch and her fool!"

Jade smirked. "I stated: bro wins, you go home. I win, the witch goes home. Whoever stays dry, wins. Do I look dry to you?"

The conjurer's wide eyes flipped down at the clinging, wet tunic. "Urk?"

"And don't stare at my chest!" Jade screamed, deforming his throat with her knuckles.

"Urk!" Edwin's tongue waggled, turning purple. Jade released the pressure again, and he screamed, "Cheate-", getting himself summarily silenced again.

Viconia, having sauntered across the log onto the east bank, watched this with glee. "I disagree, bearded mongrel," she lorded over the prone wizard, eyes instinctively drawn to the proper spot for a ceremonial dagger. "The only crime is getting caught, and I see no evidence of any cheating…ah well!" she shrugged faux-helplessly. Branwen looked more accusingly at the twins, but said nothing.

"You are my indentured servant now," Jade glared at Edwin, forcing him to meet her gaze with his bulging eyes.

"Don't look so surprised, Red Wizard of Thay," Onyx said thinly, "Isn't this how you expect servants to be treated?"

Jade chuckled. "One year. Don't try to scram. You've seen me with a bow. 'Twoud be a pity to get yet another hole in those lovely robes."

"Good luck gettin' out the grass-stains, fancy-pants.." Kagain snickered, and shared a 'high' five with Montaron. "…fancy-dress, ye mean," the halfling added. Edwin whimpered.

"Don't worry, Ed," Jade smiled mock-caringly down at her conjurer, "It'll be profitable, adventurous, and good experience."

Xan frowned. "The revenge business is seldom profitable. Then again, what is?"

Jade glared out of the top of her eyelids at the enchanter. "I am."

Across the river, Jaheira and Khalid conversed in hushed tones. Imoen and Garrick were chattering excitedly about the outcome, gripping hands to cross the log-bridge easily enough anyhow. After them, Dynaheir lifted her skirt to cross with more patience and care, studying the interaction between her Thayvian pursuer and the rest. Minsc helped her off the end of the log, and she smiled.

With Edwin subdued, and no one else openly objecting to the outcome, the two parties turned to a long, complicated discussion. The rivalry and antagonism seemed to have vanished abruptly, and despite jokes and jabs (Jade and her apparently-Zhentarim pair of friends took a delight in having beaten her brother and Immy and their Harper guardians to the Nashkel mines) all seemed seriously focused on addressing 'what next'. This was, after all, their livelihoods, and their lives. They exchanged detailed accounts of their adventures so far, and of plans for the near future. Jade's party had the only leads regarding the sabotage of the mines, or her and Onyx's hunters. Mulahey's letters pointed to a 'Tranzig' in Beregost, the verbal slips of the Amazonian assassins named the saboteurs as the Iron Throne and suggested them to be the twins' hunters as well; Nimbul's letter, from the same 'Tazok' who had signed the missives to Mulahey, confirmed this link. Kagain related all he knew about the Throne, and the Talon and Chill mercenary outfits they had been revealed to employ.

The two parties were hardly on terms to travel together. Onyx had seen his sister's associates light up like fireflies at his detection of evil, as much as he wanted to stick with her in the wide world. Imoen too direly missed Jade, but was terribly uncomfortable with her creepy crew. Jaheira and Khalid had their own ethical and affiliative objections, as did Dynaheir and Minsc. Xzar and Montaron weren't exactly keen on hated Harpers or goody-goody paladins and rangers. Nor was Kagain, nor would he want his share going from one-seventh to one-fifteenth. Edwin had never met a paladin, but had been taught to hate them, and was pretty sure he hated whatever Harpers were. Of course he hated the Rashemanis, but wondered if keeping in their company would have been advantageous. He thought so, but he was hardly in a position to bring everyone together, nor could he try without making his intentions more obvious than they already were. Onyx and Minsc had threatened him bluntly against treachery (although the whole point of treachery, he thought irritably, was that such muscleheads wouldn't be aware or able to stop him anyway). He would have to wait for his opportunity.

Garrick had no real objections to this other party, in fact he tended to like new faces (especially Jade's), and he thought such a large group might be fun (and safer). Though he was a touch unsettled by the way the tattooed wizard kept leering at his skull, and the greasy halfling at his coin pouch. Viconia thought such a large group would be unwieldy and hopelessly unstealthy, but her observations of the other party suggested she might find it more agreeable to her tenets. On the other hand, most of them seemed quite freakish or pathetic, and they were unfamiliar. It wasn't that she had any attachment to or fondness for any of her current companions, quite the reverse she told herself, but at least they had proved useful allies for her livelihood and defense. She understood enough about surface institutions to know that it especially meant something that Onyx, before they'd even properly met, had for her defense brought himself and his friends to violence against a fellow paladin and an agent of the law. She still didn't understand his deluded code of beliefs, nor the Harpers', but they were clearly something malleable to her own ends. And besides, she thought with a glance shifting from Jade and Xzar to Onyx and Imoen, what need was there to lavish the Nightsinger's touch upon already darkened hearts, when there were parched pastures unshadowed? In the end, familiarity won out.

Along similar but opposite lines, Branwen had these thoughts too. The other party seemed possessed of many respectable warriors, but Jade had grown on her like a wayward younger sister, their oddball troupe needed guidance and a voice of sanity, and above all she wanted vengeance with Tranzig, which was the prerogative of her current party. Xan also wondered if the other group might be more tolerable, but the drow scared him more than any single current companion, he feared the prejudice and suicidal fanaticism from the paladin that his people had warned him about, and he was afraid the gigantic berserker might somehow accidentally crush him with a hug, step on him in his reverie, or hack him down in his supposed berserk rages. And he was curious about the innate power Jade had displayed, though according to Viconia, Onyx had done something similar. Given they were twins, he wasn't surprised.

Jade wasn't sure she objected to any of her brother's companions, but she knew he and Imoen wouldn't be able to stand hers, as had first divided them outside Candlekeep seven long days ago. It occurred to her, though, that a number of her party's actions wouldn't have met her brother's ridiculous rules and codes. For the first time since it had happened, she was reminded of the idiotic Fist she had slain a few hours after their parting. She had omitted this detail, and found it amusing that the other group had killed a Fist of their own, defending the Sharran dark elf of all things, but the differences prevailed.

This was the first moment, really, that Jade realized she and her brother, even if allies and situations changed, as things did over time, would probably never be able to adventure side by side. If they were both going to be professional adventurers, that meant Candlekeep had been the last of their days together. Glancing across the assembled circle at her brother during Kagain's speech, she read the revelation shared in his eyes. She might have omitted the Fist, Montaron's thieving spree, and other details, but he read between the lines. For a moment, they both wished nothing more than to be back in the hallowed halls with Imoen. But it wasn't going to be that way.

None of this was spoken; not a single adventurer of the fifteen suggested they travel together, or insisted they couldn't. Everyone was aware enough of others' incompatibilities, regardless of their own. It didn't need to be said.

With particularly vehement insistence from Branwen, Jade's party decided to beeline for Beregost and deal with this Tranzig, and rendezvous with the others there to share any further leads. The Harper couple and Zhent duo were mum about whether they might have any contacts in Beregost, but Onyx would see if mayor Ormlyr had learned anything. Garrick would work the taverns for loose tongues. When he muttered regret for Silke's loss, Xzar cheerfully offered to reanimate and query her. Kagain would consult his books and maps for any more information about Throne holdings or dealings. Barring any other leads, he suggested and the others agreed that the Iron Throne's new branch in Baldur's Gate would be the logical place to search, if a difficult and dangerous one.

With no more use to planning until they met again in Beregost, the two parties took the opportunity to barter with each other. Jade's had seemed to acquire more in the way of equipment, from mines, tombs, and wilderness wackos, but Onyx's had more gold. This was thanks largely to sold ankheg husks and the generous bounty from slaying Bassilus, which Jade noted with irritation was over five times hers from the far more involved and important task of scouring the mines. Kagain explained this as Nashkel mayor Ghastkill's lesser resources, and added a few choice phrases about Keldath Ormlyr's disbursement of city taxes and church offerings.

Their parties trusting in Garrick and Kagain for the gritty appraisal and haggling of enchanted arms and armor, the dwarf sold the bard Amnian huntress Sendai's longsword for Khalid and the 'fair bandit' Neville's for himself, his consort Jemby's fire-warding robes for Dynaheir, the half-ogre highway robber Arghain's two-handed sword for Minsc, and the assassin Maneira's leathers for Imoen. Last, oddly enough, Montaron during the tellings of past adventures had connected the greenstone ring he'd found in the mines with Onyx's story about the farmwife ('farmwidow, now', he corrected with an evil chuckle) and her missing husband. The halfling got the paladin to buy the ring off him at a juicy markup from market rates. Onyx was thankful his party had been planning to return to Nashkel, practically on the way to Beregost anyway, to sell off the pelts of a few unwisely-aggressive winter wolves.

And that was it. The fifteen adventurers packed, the two parties discussed their exact routes among themselves, and started to move out. Onyx and Jade and Imoen lingered, sharing a prolonged triangular embrace.

"I didn't want it to be this way, guys," Imoen whimpered, and Onyx nodded.

"We didn't want Gorion to die either, did we?" Jade swallowed, her mouth dry. "But it happened."

Onyx whispered, "This one's your call, sis. You're always welcome to join us, and wanted. Branwen too. I'm sure you'd both be happier."

"I have my own party now!…" Jade's voice tried to be insistent and angry, but it failed. She sighed, and softened. "You know I can't." She didn't want to abandon Xzar. But Xzar came with Monty. Imoen couldn't stand Monty, and she pitied Xzar but he freaked her out too. The patronizing half-elf guardians wouldn't stand for either Zhent. Jade sighed, thinking all this and knowing it was how the argument would invariably go. "Look," she said, "We'll get to the bottom of this faster in two groups. And it's not like we won't meet up now and then. It's only a few days to Beregost."

"All true," Onyx admitted, "We'll miss you."

"Gonna miss ya…" Imoen's chime was bittersweet.

Jade looked at both of them. "Miss ya double. At least you have each other. Goodbye." She turned away, and jogged to catch up with her group. Onyx and Imoen truged after theirs, looking at each other with faces superimposing relief, guilt, and love.

END PART ONE