This is only the second Fic I've written, so I'm fairly new to this. Please
have mercy in your criticisms! Thanks muchly! : )
Disclaimer: I do not own the BG characters.
"My Lady, there is more to live for than even you know... and you do know much... when you choose to remember it."
The voice resonated through her entire body, through the whole cave, as though the air was filling with languid oil. A prickling sensation tingled across her skin.
She spun about quickly, searched for the speaker, located him, faced an ebony-cloaked , broad-shouldered figure. His face was almost completely obscured by an ivory bone mask. Blood red lips and white-blue teeth pronounced the bottom of the mask, while the top was punctuated by a pair of intense, lustrous eyes, which shone a vivid green in the dim light of the dying lanterns.
"You're alone? Does your skin not tremble? Are you not afraid?"
That voice: a voice that felt like a tongue running up her spine; a voice that made a shudder shake her body. An excited rush flowed up through her legs, along her chilled spine, flattened her shoulders back against the rocks and made her lips quiver.
He leaned against the dark, moist stone of the cavern's wall. He smiled, then blinked his luminous eyes slowly. The world seemed, for a moment, to be robbed of all its light, then those eyes returned and with them came all radiance. He had a power to him; some enigmatic darkness that made her question, not what he was doing here, but...
"Why are you here?" Raeyan said slowly, afraid he would answer truthfully.
"Because, My Lady," he whispered "you should not be." His eyes flared, his crimson lips broke apart and his gleaming teeth sparkled in the faint light. His laugh extended through the cavern, through the mountain, out into the valleys, making everything tremble. Making her tremble and quake with an irrational fear she didn't know she could wield.
"You are not from this place. You cannot work here. You do not belong here." Raeyan stammered trying to regain some control. Repeating herself, anxious to do her duty and tell this myth, that in spite of his strange allure, he was not welcome here.
"No, I am not, I can not and I do not... but neither do you."
"Go away! Leave -"
"I will not." His beautiful lips carved the words in the air, cutting through her command and drowning her utterance like a feral kitten.
"I belong here." she stammered "It's just you who is out of place. Your presence here is making the rocks shake and the mountain crumble."
"It is your presence here that makes the world crumble: reality has noticed you and it wants you gone. It has sent me to give you your final notice. You are not like them. You are what they wish they could be." His eyes glowed with an urgent intensity that made her fear him now, more than his words ever had. She held her ground and spoke her usual phrase.
"If I did not belong here I could not do what I have done. It is not possible. This is my place."
"Stubbornness. One of their better traits...or is it mere denial?"
He had never said that before! It was as though he was biting the words out of the air and spiting them at her: it was an effort for him to speak.
"My gift to you is a curse: three hours and a belief. It would have been your wish, but you doubted my words and, although they're lies, I wanted to play."
His eyes flashed coldly, then a sardonic grin sauntered across his lips as the cruel words burned the inside of her mind, making her shake her head fiercely trying to dislodge them and free herself.
Raeyan's eyes blinked open. She stared motionlessly at the sky... she wasn't even in a cave, not that she'd expected to be; the dream plagued her often, each time the same, never a different word, always the same reactions, night after night- like a rehearsal they repeated words she didn't understand. Tonight was different. But it wasn't the final performance.
She remained still and listened for the comfort of her companions' peaceful breathing. Only Minsc provided her with what she sought: an echoing, peaceful snore. Aerie's quiet whimpers signalled another dream of her flight cut short and her heritage torn away; Jaheira's less than peaceful breath pushed past her weary lips, in the same way it had done every night since Khalid had ceased to lie at her side. There was no sound from Haer'Dalis.
Raeyan pushed herself up onto her elbows and surveyed the dark camp: the fire was a mere heap of glowing embers, not that she needed it's light: infravision served quite well in the darkness of Elios Forest. What troubled Raeyan more than anything else, was that neither she nor any of her companions had ever been here before they knew nothing of the dangers of this forest: and Haer'Dalis was nowhere in sight.
Raeyan moved silently into a fully upright position and strained her elven eyes, searching the darkness for the Tiefling. She could see nothing. She strained for a sound, but she could hear nothing: she would be disappointed in the skilled and silent Doomguard should his footfalls be the thing to lead her to him.
She made up her mind. The sun was close to rising and the others would soon be awake. She would search more thoroughly for Haer Dalis.
She reached for her boots. A strange inheritance they had been: made from the skin of a Githyanki Blood-Hunter and inlaid with Illithid embalmed brain tissue, they were a treasured and powerful, yet horrific and costly possession. She pulled them on feverishly and pulled her heavy cloak about her. She rose slowly to her feet and began to stride from the encampment, then with thoughts of the half-dark woods, turned back and tugged her belt, scabbard and Aeriil, her ordained swift-blade, into place.
She had not gone far when a voice rang out clearly from the shadows.
"My Lady, there is more to live for than even you know... and you do know much... when you choose to remember it?" The voice was wrong, but those words...
She whirled about in shock at the familiar phrase. Haer'Dalis emerged from the shadows and stood facing her in the small clearing. He leaned against the thick trunk of a Millu tree, staring intently.
"Your nightmares become worse, my raven. You now speak more in sleep than you do in your waking hours." His expression was calm and kind as he spoke.
"Yes, they're getting worse... and more numerous. It seems the closer we get to the cavern, the worse they become. I don't know anymore, Sparrow, am I making a mistake going there?" he looked at her silently for a moment. Then seemed to reach some decision.
"Raeyan, I have a confession to make." Her own name caught her attention sharply. She stared at the extra-planner Tiefling in the darkness; his hair had never looked such a cold blue and his eyes had never glowed such a soft violet and he had never looked so uneasy in her presence. He took a deep breath "I have been there. I have seen the Cavern of Souls."
Questions clogged up her mind and came gushing out over her unguarded lips.
"When? What for? Why didn't you say?"
"Some while ago," he began gravely "when I sought the gilded answers to questions which were still caged in mystery"
She looked at him blankly, thought for a second and then said "you have answered only one of my questions... and even that was vague" a discerning stare through the dimness revealed a very nervous, sincere expression, coated in a thin layer of sweat. He sighed.
"I did not tell you because I could not tell you." he stared at her stubbornly "this is all I'm willing to confess tonight: it will have to suffice."
He knew it didn't, but she knew he couldn't be pushed. He would tell her if she needed to know: that is if not knowing would kill her.
The Cavern of Souls was said to be a place for soul searching, more literally than most realised, and so the fact that Haer'Dalis was not keen to reveal his business there came as no surprise.
As they strode from the clearing Raeyan muttered something under her breath
"This quest is vain." She smiled to herself at the memory of the mad mage with the moonblade.
Disclaimer: I do not own the BG characters.
"My Lady, there is more to live for than even you know... and you do know much... when you choose to remember it."
The voice resonated through her entire body, through the whole cave, as though the air was filling with languid oil. A prickling sensation tingled across her skin.
She spun about quickly, searched for the speaker, located him, faced an ebony-cloaked , broad-shouldered figure. His face was almost completely obscured by an ivory bone mask. Blood red lips and white-blue teeth pronounced the bottom of the mask, while the top was punctuated by a pair of intense, lustrous eyes, which shone a vivid green in the dim light of the dying lanterns.
"You're alone? Does your skin not tremble? Are you not afraid?"
That voice: a voice that felt like a tongue running up her spine; a voice that made a shudder shake her body. An excited rush flowed up through her legs, along her chilled spine, flattened her shoulders back against the rocks and made her lips quiver.
He leaned against the dark, moist stone of the cavern's wall. He smiled, then blinked his luminous eyes slowly. The world seemed, for a moment, to be robbed of all its light, then those eyes returned and with them came all radiance. He had a power to him; some enigmatic darkness that made her question, not what he was doing here, but...
"Why are you here?" Raeyan said slowly, afraid he would answer truthfully.
"Because, My Lady," he whispered "you should not be." His eyes flared, his crimson lips broke apart and his gleaming teeth sparkled in the faint light. His laugh extended through the cavern, through the mountain, out into the valleys, making everything tremble. Making her tremble and quake with an irrational fear she didn't know she could wield.
"You are not from this place. You cannot work here. You do not belong here." Raeyan stammered trying to regain some control. Repeating herself, anxious to do her duty and tell this myth, that in spite of his strange allure, he was not welcome here.
"No, I am not, I can not and I do not... but neither do you."
"Go away! Leave -"
"I will not." His beautiful lips carved the words in the air, cutting through her command and drowning her utterance like a feral kitten.
"I belong here." she stammered "It's just you who is out of place. Your presence here is making the rocks shake and the mountain crumble."
"It is your presence here that makes the world crumble: reality has noticed you and it wants you gone. It has sent me to give you your final notice. You are not like them. You are what they wish they could be." His eyes glowed with an urgent intensity that made her fear him now, more than his words ever had. She held her ground and spoke her usual phrase.
"If I did not belong here I could not do what I have done. It is not possible. This is my place."
"Stubbornness. One of their better traits...or is it mere denial?"
He had never said that before! It was as though he was biting the words out of the air and spiting them at her: it was an effort for him to speak.
"My gift to you is a curse: three hours and a belief. It would have been your wish, but you doubted my words and, although they're lies, I wanted to play."
His eyes flashed coldly, then a sardonic grin sauntered across his lips as the cruel words burned the inside of her mind, making her shake her head fiercely trying to dislodge them and free herself.
Raeyan's eyes blinked open. She stared motionlessly at the sky... she wasn't even in a cave, not that she'd expected to be; the dream plagued her often, each time the same, never a different word, always the same reactions, night after night- like a rehearsal they repeated words she didn't understand. Tonight was different. But it wasn't the final performance.
She remained still and listened for the comfort of her companions' peaceful breathing. Only Minsc provided her with what she sought: an echoing, peaceful snore. Aerie's quiet whimpers signalled another dream of her flight cut short and her heritage torn away; Jaheira's less than peaceful breath pushed past her weary lips, in the same way it had done every night since Khalid had ceased to lie at her side. There was no sound from Haer'Dalis.
Raeyan pushed herself up onto her elbows and surveyed the dark camp: the fire was a mere heap of glowing embers, not that she needed it's light: infravision served quite well in the darkness of Elios Forest. What troubled Raeyan more than anything else, was that neither she nor any of her companions had ever been here before they knew nothing of the dangers of this forest: and Haer'Dalis was nowhere in sight.
Raeyan moved silently into a fully upright position and strained her elven eyes, searching the darkness for the Tiefling. She could see nothing. She strained for a sound, but she could hear nothing: she would be disappointed in the skilled and silent Doomguard should his footfalls be the thing to lead her to him.
She made up her mind. The sun was close to rising and the others would soon be awake. She would search more thoroughly for Haer Dalis.
She reached for her boots. A strange inheritance they had been: made from the skin of a Githyanki Blood-Hunter and inlaid with Illithid embalmed brain tissue, they were a treasured and powerful, yet horrific and costly possession. She pulled them on feverishly and pulled her heavy cloak about her. She rose slowly to her feet and began to stride from the encampment, then with thoughts of the half-dark woods, turned back and tugged her belt, scabbard and Aeriil, her ordained swift-blade, into place.
She had not gone far when a voice rang out clearly from the shadows.
"My Lady, there is more to live for than even you know... and you do know much... when you choose to remember it?" The voice was wrong, but those words...
She whirled about in shock at the familiar phrase. Haer'Dalis emerged from the shadows and stood facing her in the small clearing. He leaned against the thick trunk of a Millu tree, staring intently.
"Your nightmares become worse, my raven. You now speak more in sleep than you do in your waking hours." His expression was calm and kind as he spoke.
"Yes, they're getting worse... and more numerous. It seems the closer we get to the cavern, the worse they become. I don't know anymore, Sparrow, am I making a mistake going there?" he looked at her silently for a moment. Then seemed to reach some decision.
"Raeyan, I have a confession to make." Her own name caught her attention sharply. She stared at the extra-planner Tiefling in the darkness; his hair had never looked such a cold blue and his eyes had never glowed such a soft violet and he had never looked so uneasy in her presence. He took a deep breath "I have been there. I have seen the Cavern of Souls."
Questions clogged up her mind and came gushing out over her unguarded lips.
"When? What for? Why didn't you say?"
"Some while ago," he began gravely "when I sought the gilded answers to questions which were still caged in mystery"
She looked at him blankly, thought for a second and then said "you have answered only one of my questions... and even that was vague" a discerning stare through the dimness revealed a very nervous, sincere expression, coated in a thin layer of sweat. He sighed.
"I did not tell you because I could not tell you." he stared at her stubbornly "this is all I'm willing to confess tonight: it will have to suffice."
He knew it didn't, but she knew he couldn't be pushed. He would tell her if she needed to know: that is if not knowing would kill her.
The Cavern of Souls was said to be a place for soul searching, more literally than most realised, and so the fact that Haer'Dalis was not keen to reveal his business there came as no surprise.
As they strode from the clearing Raeyan muttered something under her breath
"This quest is vain." She smiled to herself at the memory of the mad mage with the moonblade.