Chapter Thirty-Eight: An Ending
Council of Six, Athkatla, 27th Tarsakh, 1370 DR
Nalia and Anomen flashed into the main hall of the magnificent Council building, and were amazed at the air of silence and serenity there. It was almost pretty, the way that the endless business of government had finally stopped for the night. The servants were gone; the guards were at the doors outside.
The braziers that provided the light for the building were burning low, but they cast plenty of light for Nalia to see where she was going. And even if she couldn't see, her senses would guide her. For she could sense that Velissa was nearby, she could sense her evil, a vile cancer on the mortal plane.
She said, "Anomen, prepare yourself… she will be in the private quarters of the Council."
Walking forward, silent from her training as a thief, she reached the hall that led to the private quarters. And here, she was able to here the sounded of a struggle, though they were very faint, barely detectable. The rooms of the Council were undoubtedly protected from eavesdroppers by wards of silence. That Nalia could hear any struggles at all meant that the battle within the room was fierce indeed.
Anomen must have thought that same thing, for he gripped the Crom Faeyr tightly. Nalia offered him a smile. To have the disciplined warrior priest of Helm beside her instilled her with confidence. The evil of the vampire would fall before them… or at least, that was what Nalia hoped.
They walked towards the door, and Nalia moved to open it, but frowned when she saw it was locked. She whispered a brief spell, knock, and stood back, waiting for it to pick the lock… but it was obviously protected from magical spells. Velissa knew Nalia too well, it seemed- she was ready for her.
Or was she?
How much did Velissa actually know about Nalia? Everyone knew she was a powerful archmage… few people other than her friends new she was also a skilled thief. Frowning, and offering a prayer to the gods, Nalia pulled out a lock-pick from her robes.
Anomen said, "That won't work. If magic has failed, then lock-picking will fail as well."
Nalia shrugged, "Its worth a try, at least."
Eyes distant with concentration, Nalia moved the pick around deftly, letting her senses guide her as she moved the pick through the different counterbalances of the lock, moving one to the left, another to the right, pushing one forward. Finally, there was a satisfying click. Looking at Anomen with a cheeky grin, Nalia said, "I told you so."
The cleric of Helm smiled gruffly, but did not say anything.
*
It was utter chaos.
The personal guards of the Council, wearing the finest armour that money could buy, and wielding magical weapons of power, were doing their best, fighting against a line of vampires, whose snarls and cries for blood were loud and piercing.
Nalia saw Velissa fighting as well, and her hands tightened around the staff of the de'Arnise family in anger and hatred. As she and Anomen stood in the doorway, taking stock of their surroundings, she saw Velissa slice to the left and right with her black dirks.
The weapons cut through the armour of the Council's guards with ease, and two of them fell to the floor, screaming with total agony as whatever vile magic in the dirks worked its way through their bloodstream.
And then the way was open to the Council.
Nalia saw one of them strike at Velissa with a powerful spell, and she raised an eyebrow. So the Council had a mage amongst their number… and a strong one at that. However, that did not stop Velissa, who crossed her dirks in front of her face. The daggers absorbed the magic easily.
The Council moved back quickly, calling out for their bodyguards to help them. But one was too slow. Velissa stabbed both her dirks into the chest of one of the members, and knocked him –or her- to the floor. The vampire bit fiercely into the neck of the fallen Councillor, and when she looked up, her chin dripped with blood.
Having drunk enough, Velissa advanced forward, and raised her dirk to stab the Council member who had been casting magic continuously at her, singing and causing the vampire to flinch.
Nalia roared out a spell, and the magic tore into Velissa, knocking her to the floor, and saving the Council member. The five remaining members looked to the door, and their eyes behind their masks shone with hope, and awe.
"Begone, Velissa!"
The vampire smiled strangely at Nalia: "Ah, daughter… welcome to my little celebration… I must admit, you have taken me by surprise. I did not think you had the power to break the warding I had on that lock. In fact, no mortal could have broken it with magic."
Shrugging, Nalia held the pick into the air for Velissa to see. "I didn't use magic, fool. But I didn't expect you to know everything. After all, you've been dead now for… how many centuries? That long without a beating heart must start to rot your brain."
Velissa snarled. "Your banter means nothing, Nalia. Today, you die."
She shook her head. "No."
Staring at the pick in her hand, Nalia whispered a long spell, and watched as the implement started to glow a brilliant blue. With a shout, Nalia threw it towards Velissa, and watched it soar, a gleaming agent of magic, towards the vampire.
Velissa raised her dirks to block it, and it succeeded, but the smile of success on the face of the vampire faded, when one of the weapons crumbled to dust. Her eyes widened, and a look of fear registered. "You… you have grown, Nalia…"
Nalia did not waste time. She saw Anomen swinging with his hammer, its blessed magic crumpling the undead within the room. The personal bodyguard of the Council were rallying around him, and, organised, started to push the vampires back. Nalia looked towards the Council, and saw that they were drawing weapons, readying spells and prayers, to help Nalia against Velissa.
The vampire followed her gaze, and said, "Well, we can't allow that, can we?"
She gestured, and from the ground, in the centre of a blazing circle of fire, sprang two pit fiends, who charged towards the Council members. Nalia turned her attention from them, hoping that they could hold off the demons.
Nalia whispered a spell, and Velissa rushed towards her quickly, in an effort to kill Nalia quickly. But just as the pale hands of the vampire were a few inches from Nalia's face, time itself stopped. Taking the opportunity, Nalia released all her contingencies against Velissa, and surrounded herself with protections.
Time returned to normal, and Nalia saw Velissa thrown back by a cavalcade of magical energy. She hissed in pain, but continued forward, trying her best to fight through the spells, to reach Nalia. Quickly, Nalia chanted another spell, and time stopped once again.
This time, Nalia cast her more powerful spells, and watched as some of the massive slabs of marble that formed the floor broke apart, and soared into the air. They hurtled towards Velissa, who stood, furiously trying to resist the time stop.
Having cast one spell, Nalia cast another, and a wide fissure of pure flame opened beneath the vampire's feet… the spell of time stop faded, and Nalia paled, as her spells did absolutely nothing. Velissa sprang into the air, faster than Nalia had seen anything move, and the stones smashed harmlessly into the opposite wall.
The fissure bubbled threateningly, but Velissa had avoided it by jumping upwards into the air. Nalia raised her staff- just in time, for the vampire landed, cat-like, on her feet, and attacked with her last dirk.
The staff blocked the slash, and Nalia felt her arms tingle with the pressure of the attack.
Gesturing, Nalia sent a whip of energy curling from her hands, around Velissa, the searing magic wrapping her in a bond of power. She struggled, and screamed as it burned, but then the bonds snapped apart.
Velissa did not attack this time.
She pointed at Nalia, and a flash of green light quivered towards her, a clerical finger of death. Nalia made her own gesture, and her own spell met with Velissa's, both cancelling the other out. Nalia was forced onto the defensive, when an earthquake started rumbling at her feet.
With a few words, made difficult by having to concentrate on not falling, Nalia levitated into the air, and hovered there gracefully, while the earthquake raged impotently. Velissa sighed, and made a slashing gesture.
Purple and blue lights sizzled towards Nalia, who raised her hands in a gesture of surrender… but it meant anything but surrender. A glimmering white shield surrounded her, and the lights fizzled out of existence.
Velissa narrowed her eyes, and Nalia saw flames from above her flash downwards, ready to burn her into ash. With a quick, frantic spell, Nalia sent the flames swirling through the windows of the rooms, harmless to her now.
Soon, Nalia stopped analysing each spell, and instead became one with the energies playing around her. Velissa would send one spell, granted by the power of Loviatar, and Nalia would send it skittering away harmlessly, using the arcane formulas that tapped into the eternal power of the Weave.
Around them, the last of the vampires had been killed, but there were no guardsmen left, only Anomen, who was bleeding from a vicious cut to his forehead. He moved towards the pit fiends that were close to killing the Council, and set into them, calling to Helm as he did so. Nalia sent a lance of black energy back towards Velissa.
"Enough, Nalia… this duel will go nowhere…"
Nalia paused, for there was a strange potency to her words. She shook her head, trying to clear the confusion that had suddenly set in. Her blood felt slightly too warm, and she was aware that she was feeling faint.
"There… that's it… lower your defences… Nalia…
you are a descendant of mine… you know that by now… do you know what power
flows in your veins? You can use it… you can stand beside me, serving my
mistress, and together we will kill the fools who seek to fetter you into
chains… who seek to bind you to their will… think of the power…"
Shaking her head, Nalia managed to speak
through the haze that was making her feel slow, and dull-witted. "No. I… I have
no need of power… I serve Kathryn and Mystra, and their glory sustains me."
Velissa chuckled, and took a step towards her. "Poor little baby… they don't care about you… they let you promise all you had left to Kelemvor, leaving you to fight alone against the forces of evil… leaving you to serve their interests… I know what you promised the Lord of Death… I know what will happen to you if you die."
Nalia shook her head again, but still the strangeness would not fade. "N- No… I… I… I made the choice… I made the decision… when I die… I will remember what I have wrought here, what I have done for Amn."
The vampire now stood right in front of Nalia, and her cold hands pulled her close. "Poor… innocent, Nalia… you don't have to die… think of me… I have not died, and I am centuries old… more than that… you'll never have to die… all you have to do is let me change you… let me taste your sweet blood once more, and then you may taste mine… and then, we can serve the true mistress together. Think of it… no more worrying. You can command the sheep of Amn, using power that none have seen. I will be your servant, for I cannot stand against your might, not when you will have the blood of the undead moving inside you."
Her lips were close to Nalia's, and the wizard of Amn felt herself looking into the strange eyes of the vampire, and giving in… how good would it feel to have even more power… how good would it feel to kill those beneath her, merely because she could? Yes… she wouldn't have to worry about the poor, about their snivelling, weak demands…
A tiny part of Nalia told her that these desires were not her own, but they were banished, confused and befuddled, into the recesses of her mind. Smiling, and letting Velissa kiss her, Nalia breathed in, and said…
"Yes… I will serve Loviatar."
The soft lips of Velissa brushed against Nalia's neck, and everything dark within her rose closer to the surface, and her breathing slowed. The world dimmed, as she waited, with a shivering expectation for the blissful kiss of undeath.
But the kiss never came, for the world snapped back into sharp, merciless reality, as Velissa was struck on the head by a holy symbol of Helm. Nalia heard the cry from Anomen, as he called on Helm: "Back, evil of undeath, back!"
Nalia shivered, as the confusion and strangeness that had held her vanished. She froze with revulsion, seeing how she had nearly given in to the vampire. Taking a step back, she saw Velissa laugh loudly. "Poor cleric… that won't work. Not now… you should have saved your paltry Council, and let me have Nalia. You have ensured that she will die, now, and that her soul will exist in torment for all eternity."
Anomen said, "Never! Where there is righteousness, evil shall be driven back!"
Velissa flinched slightly, as something made her move back, but then that something was gone. She stared at Anomen with shock. "How… how could you do anything with my barrier up? I have blocked the gods!"
Anomen held up the holy symbol again, and concentrated on pulling all his might to the fore. He fixed Velissa with a stare, and shouted: "By Helm, get ba-"
Nalia shrieked, as the pale hands of the vampire grasped him by the neck, cutting of his prayers. She frantically tried to cast a spell, but it failed- she had no concentration left to cast a spell. Anomen looked at her, and smiled. Then the smile faded, and he fell to the floor, his neck broken, his head lying at an odd, jarred angle.
The vampire looked at the cleric of Helm oddly, and said, "Farewell… your faith was strong indeed… stronger than any I have seen. No mere cleric could have penetrated my block… no… maybe I should have focused on you instead of my weak descendant."
She turned to face Nalia. "But it doesn't matter. He's dead now… and to make sure he stays that way…"
Fire flashed from her fingers, surrounding Anomen's body, and, like the maws of a hungry beast, tossing him upwards and around, ferociously tearing into his skin. Nalia blinked away tears, as she saw all that was left of Anomen- white ash- fall lightly to the floor.
"You see, Nalia… no-one can stop me… no-one. Not even the gods themselves can break this barrier… no-one can. And now it is time for you to go to your eternal torture chamber, with the knowledge that you have done nothing for Amn, but delay the inevitable."
Nalia was too numbed to do anything. Velissa smiled, almost comfortingly, and she placed the black dirk at Nalia's throat. "I would say it will all be over, Nalia… but for you, it has only just begun… goodbye."
Nalia saw the tense of muscles, and felt the dirk move, and she prayed to Kathryn, begging her for aid. And aid did come. Nalia was thrown backwards to the floor, and in her place, stood the Goddess of All Song. The dirk cut the throat of the Goddess, and golden blood poured to the floor. Velissa's eyes widened, and then she grinned triumphantly.
"See! I have killed a Goddess!"
Kathryn passed her hand before her own
throat, and the wound closed over. Staring at Velissa, Kathryn said, "You have
not killed a Goddess. You have angered
a goddess. You believe you are all-powerful? You believe that your power can
stay that of those faiths opposing you? It has just been demonstrated that your
power could be cracked by a mortal… think how easily it can be destroyed by a god!"
The fury of her words shook the room, and Velissa hissed in fear, trying to run from Kathryn, who held pulsing energy in her hand. Pink light, that hummed, a single note, shot through the air towards the vampire.
But then it was torn into many pieces, and Nalia saw Loviatar descend, carrying a nine-tailed whip. She lashed it towards Kathryn, who drew a bright longsword, and then slashed through the thongs of the whip.
Nalia moved backwards, as the two gods duelled with each other, both protecting their favoured servants. Looking towards Velissa, Nalia saw that she was huddled against the wall, fearful. Perhaps Loviatar had not protected Velissa from all the affects of Kathryn's magic…
Struggling to her feet and fighting against weariness that threatened to crash in, Nalia leant on her staff. She hobbled forward, chanting slowly a single spell. Velissa saw her advancing, and tried to move her own hands into the motions of a defensive spell, but somehow, she couldn't.
Green light struck Velissa on the forehead, as Nalia unleashed a finger of death. Loviatar flinched, as the vampire shrieked in pain. Her eyes started to glow a brilliant red, and she grunted again and again. Nalia saw her eyes widened in disbelief, and she turned to Loviatar. "Sorry… mistress… sorry…"
A roar of rage, and Loviatar disappeared.
Kathryn looked at Velissa for a long time, as did Nalia… the vampire was becoming more and more pale, the red glow was fading, and he grunts and groans were growing quieter. The skin crusted slightly, and Velissa rasped, as if weak. Before their eyes, the form of the vampire crumbled, from skin to a dull grey dust.
And then, carried by a breeze that wasn't present, the dust started to stir across the floor of the room, slow and lethargic, as the soul of Velissa faded into the Hells, ready for judgement at the hands of her mistress.
A judgement that Nalia knew would be hard.
"Nalia…"
Kathryn sounded weak, and Nalia looked up. The Goddess of All Song was staring at the white ashes that were scattered within and around his armour and his magical hammer… Nalia saw the Bhaalspawn kneel beside the ashes, her eyes watering.
Tear after golden, illuminated tear, fell, and Nalia heard a melody of supreme sadness swirling in the air around them. Slowly, Nalia, crying herself, moved so that she knelt beside Kathryn. The goddess looked at her then, and she felt the wisdom and power, and sadness, that were locked within those eyes.
"Anomen…"
Pink light sprang from the fingertips of the goddess, and Nalia realised that her friend was trying to raise Anomen from the dead. The ashes rose into the air, and slowly, tried to form the shape of a man. Nalia saw the shape, and recognised it immediately as Anomen.
The figure of ash clutched at his throat, as it trying to speak, but then, as if the act was too much, the ash collapsed, losing all suggestion of a solid form, falling lazily to the floor… Kathryn sobbed then, audibly, and more tears fell, gleaming with the immortal power of the gods. Nalia, not knowing what else to do, put her arms around Kathryn, and felt the solid arms of the avatar enfolding her.
"Kathryn… I… I'm sorry…"
Nalia remained beside the goddess, and both wept. A new dawn rose over Amn that day, tainted by sadness, but still holding hope nonetheless. For hours, the goddess and the archmage remained beside each other, crying, sobbing, their tears falling to the floor, mortal silver blending with immortal gold.
And as they cried, the soul of Anomen was sped towards the realm of Kelemvor.