The Brotherhood of Guarded Thoughts

The eyes of Haer'Dalis flicked open. He could make out hazy shades of green, until a grey shape obscured all else.

Raeyan kneeled over his recumbent form. He could see only a dark outline, but his sight was slowly returning.

"Sorry for the rude interruption... what was it you were saying?" Raeyan said brightly.

"uergh?" Raeyan smiled as he grunted the confused response.

She touched his cheek gently for no reason she could think of; he nestled his face into the caress of her cupped hand, but winced painfully as her touch connected with the area of swollen flesh her fist had created earlier. "What happened? Where are we?"

Raeyan smiled down at the squinting and confused bard "Sorry about that: I had to knock you out so I could kill those monks and stop you walking off to your doom."

"Oh."

After a short silence Haer'Dalis sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position. Then he leaned forward over his knees and pressed his hands against his face, as though trying to massage sight back into his shrouded eyes.

"They are called The Brotherhood of Guarded Thoughts..." a thoughtful pause ensued "I don't understand how I survived... I should be dead." He said looking up at Raeyan.

"Well you're not... and you should try and sound a little more pleased about it, in my opinion!" Raeyan smiled; she was clearly still shaken and more than a little nervous about what had happened to Haer'Dalis. He smiled back reassuringly and she relaxed her tense muscles a little. He seemed to be lost in that moment; his eyes unfocused, staring at nothing; his smile diminishing a little. Raeyan gently put her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" she whispered, care shining through in her normally jovial and humorous voice.

"I think I owe you an explanation..." he began, but stopped and stared about the clearing suddenly.

"I'm listening." She prompted staring intently at his unfocused eyes.

"Erm..." his eyes snapped back into focus, he took in a heavy breath and he answered her intense gaze silently before resuming his unstarted explanation. "The Brotherhood of Guarded Thoughts prevented my death once, and since then, they have been able to control me to an extent, not fully, but I don't know how."

"I knew you were being controlled: I guessed it was them. What do they want?" Raeyan said quietly, intensely.

"It's complex." He stared into her eyes again, as if trying to gauge how much information she could handle.

"Go on." She insisted quietly, attempting to assure him she could handle anything he could say.

He sighed and looked down before he answered. "They fear your heritage. They want you dead... or at least away from the Cavern of Souls."

Raeyan nodded slowly: she had expected that kind of answer. Most people who knew she was a Child of Bhaal wanted her dead and if any had known she was on her way to the Cavern, they would almost certainly have tried to prevent her from her destination.

"That is hardly surprising. How do they know what I am and what is their purpose?"

Haer'Dalis did not look up, but stared at his boots. "I supposed their purpose is to guard the Cavern... and to oppose the Monks of the free Mind..."

"Who are...?"

Haer'Dalis look very uncomfortable again, as he had done when he made his first confession. He looked up at her with pain in his violet eyes and furrowed brows.

"There is much you are not telling me, Haer'Dalis." Raeyan stared wide-eyed, filled with terror at her own lack of knowledge: she seemed to have thrown herself deeply into something she knew very little of, and things were happening she could not understand... and what was more; she had lost her friends in this chaos.

"Now is not the time... we are surrounded." Haer'Dalis spoke without looking up, but Raeyan knew he was right. Despite this knowledge her head snapped up and she rose to her feet drawing her sword in one fluid movement, awaiting the imminent ambush.

"Rae," Haer'Dalis looked up and she returned his gaze. "Put down your sword." She looked confused for a moment.

"Haer, are you-?"

He shook his head and answered in a despairing tone "There'll be hundreds: you can't fight them all."

Again she questioned him with her eyes. How do you know?

"I just know. They don't do things by halves and their communication is... beyond remarkable. They will all be here."

Silence. Gazes locked and battled, then Ariil was sheathed and Raeyan sat down opposite Haer'Dalis as men in brown robes began to pour into the clearing. They surrounding the unresisting pair who were staring intently at one another, ignoring the hopeless state they were in.

Haer'Dalis and Raeyan simultaneously dropped out on consciousness a few seconds later.

"We have her. We have the child of Erisona." A hundred voices rang out in unison.

"Good. Bring her to us."