It was to be the last time they saw one of the preserved men. His name was Revue, and they found him in a small bare room except for a little pile of gold, green from mold lying on a table. Thorn looked unerringly into his sightless eyes and felt only pity she had no more fear to give.
"Master!" He rasped. "Master have you come to end my torment? Wait..." He drifted closer to the glass. "You are not the Master, you are She, the Bhaalspawn."
"How did you know?"
"I see and hear many things others cannot. Please..." His tiny voice shook with underlying emotion. "You see what I am. What I have become. Will you not help me? Ah! I sense the pity in you. You will help me."
"First," There was a lump, a knot of suppressed grief obstructing her throat, and she struggled to form the words. "Tell me. Tell me who and what your master is."
The creature paused and dragged its fingers down the rippling contours of its face.
"Who he is and what he is has many definitions. I am not sure even he knows the truth, yet."
Imoen came and stood beside Thorn squeezing her hand in her own.
"He is a necromancer by the name of Irenicus."
Thorn heard, and it was the first time.
"Boo says that is an evil name! And he is a very bad man!" Minsc shouted heatedly.
"I was his servant." The man in the tank continued solemnly. "One of his most prized assistants. I carried out his orders, conveyed his commands. Then there was an accident in his lab and I was badly burned he..." The weight of the memory compelled him to stop for breath. "He said this chamber would keep me alive until he could heal me. That was so long ago."
Thorn pressed the warm glass with her fingers, biting her lower lip.
"And he never even visited you."
"No, that is he used to once upon a time, but gradually his presence grew less frequent, and I had not seen him for years, until last night."
"Why did he come to you last night?"
"He never spoke, but I knew, I knew. I could see it in his eye. They were burning, burning like red-hot coals. He didn't look at me. I don't think he saw me. He was running away, trying to run away!"
"Away from what?"
"He pressed his head between his hands! He scratched his nails against the wall you can still see the marks!"
They looked and in accordance to his words there were many ugly, white gashes in the rock.
"What was he..."
"From you."
Thorn pressed Imoen's hand tightly.
"From me?" She gasped.
"From the feelings you evoke. He had none left. He was a shell, numb until you..."
Thorn turned away her entrails quaking.
"No more. It isn't true."
"But Thorn..." Jahiera attempted to dissuade her.
Ignoring her companion she turned back to the source of her agitation.
"Thank you, you've been most helpful. That is all we need to know. Now how can I free you?"
"I have no more wish to live. Life pains me. I can no longer endure waiting. I weary of this world. Remove the power cells." He indicated two glowing capsules that lay inserted into the bottom of his tank. "Remove them and I will be done with this torment."
"But don't you want..." Imoen started to say.
"Do it!" Revue's voice was an suffering squeal. "What I want, what I want! I lost everything I ever wanted so long ago that the feeling is no longer left to me! Instead there is only this debilitating, physical yearning to be free of this mangled flesh that is my prison. So don't talk to me of want! You know not the meaning of the word!"
This sudden tirade seemed to have dispelled his last store of strength, and he would do nothing, but shake for what seemed like hours. Thorn clutched a cell in each hand, but when she attempted to remove them she hesitated. Her entire being revolted against this, mercy killing, it had always seemed wrong to her, but the man's sightless eyes opened and she felt their blind gaze fixed upon her, pleading, begging for death.
"Please." He said. "Please, give me peace."
She did it. The cubicle lights flickered. "Finally sweet sleep!"
It was over.
Thorn could feel the reproachful gazes of her companions prodding her back.
"It had to be done. He no longer suffers. Come let us go."
They made for the door when Thorn noticed that Imoen remained immobile, staring into the now black abyss of the tank.
"Imoen come." She entreated pulling gently on her arm.
"How did it come to this?"
"Come to what? What are you talking about?"
"How did we get here Thorn? All the way from the books of Candlekeep to this place? Where the living wish they were dead and the dead still live? How did we come to be in the thralls of a madman?"
"We are not in his thralls." Thorn replied as calmly as she could, wiping the tears from Imoen's cheeks were her thumb. "We are ourselves independent human beings. He cannot conquer forever."
At last she yielded to Thorn's insistent tugs and the company plodded on as people bending under an oppressive wind.
"Look everyone! Oh just look!"
"What is it Imoen?" Jahiera growled irritably. They had been walking for a great length of time since the incident with the preserved man finding nothing, but darkness and storerooms.This did not have a positive effect on anyone's morale least of all the open space loving druid.
"If this is another one of your mad dashes I'll have no part of it!"
"Oh don't be so touchy, just hurry up!"
What they found was more then astonishing. A richly furnished room lay enticingly before them. There were thick snow-white winter wolf pelts carpeting the floor, gently brushing their feet through the holes in their boots. Along the soft hued walls were gold leafed cupboards, towering armoires whose red oak surfaces slipped fluidly beneath their eager fingers. There were also bookshelves crammed with fat creased volumes, and in a fireplace in the center some logs were ablaze casting man shaped shadows along the ceiling.
"Isn't it delightful!" Imoen chirped kicking off her shoes and running her bare feet through the carpet. "It's like silk!"
"Here Boo warm your little paws by the fire!" Minsc cradled his hamster amidst the fragrant aroma of the burning logs.
But Thorn was ill at ease. She could smell a current of dread in the air radiating from the walls and floor and settling against her skin. It was a sensation like the drip of cold fingers creeping up her inner thighs and along her navel.
"Thorn look at this." Jahiera was standing over a desk overflowing with papers. Thorn moved to stand next to her. She picked up a thin sheet covered in messy scrawls. It was only just legible and she began to read.
Year 226, Century 6, August 16.
Recently I find myself unwell.........th...a......Bhaalspawn Thorn has been in residence here for two days now. She has a most distur...... effect on...e. ............ companions is dead.
The rest was completely illegible. It was as if the hand that wrote it was frantic and unable to form complete thoughts.
It was enough.
Jahiera looked at her with large flashing eyes. "It's Him."
Now she could feel it. The unnaturalness, it was his presence still lingering in that room pressing hard upon her like a lead rain.
"Put your boots on!"
Imoen looked at her surprised. "But Thorn..."
"Now! Don't you understand? This is His chamber! Minsc get away from there!"
It was too late. The warrior had been engrossed in the task of opening a particularly stubborn cupboard, and when he finally wrenched it ajar a familiar click was heard. A flaming projectile materialized in the air and raced towards Minsc's defenseless flesh. But so did Imoen, her sharp ears had registered the brief warning sound, then her lighting quick reflexes propelled her like a jungle cat across the room, and in one fantastic bound she had stricken the huge man from its path with the momentum of her body. However in the instant the fireball brushed passed them Minsc omitted a distressed yelp. Thorn and Jahiera knelt where the two had fallen their hearts battering the walls of their chest cavities.
Minsc's heavy featured face was contorted into an expression of intense pain. They pried his hand from his wrist to find to their great relief that the palm was only slightly burnt. Imoen threw herself across Minsc's heaving chest and sighed with release. Boo scrambled through her florescent hair and squeaked.
"Boo thanks you for saving me. You are quick even if you are only so small."
She gave his diaphragm an affectionate squeeze in response.
Jahiera meanwhile, was in the process of shoving the nozzle of a blue bottle of healing potion down his panting mouth.
"You clumsy idiot! What were you thinking? You know never to touch things without having Imoen check for traps first! Must you always have you cumbersome paws in everything? And what if the worst should have happened? Do you want to break me?"
Minsc beamed throughout this impassioned outburst.
"Break you? You are not so big as a dragon..."
"Yah but she's got breath as hot as one!" Imoen cut in. Jahiera made a play grab for her but she dodged it.
"But," Minsc continued. "You are not so little as Boo here, and will not break so easily."
Thorn felt the breath of happiness overtake her as she watched her friends curled dreamily upon the soft carpet like the brief flutter of tiny wings in her breast.
Boom.
The sound brought them all to a rude awakening.
"It is close." Thorn whispered. The three women helped Minsc to his feet and they stalked out of His chamber along a short corridor through a low arch, and then they all felt a most curious sensation, sunlight. It danced along their tender skin and satiated their noses with a moist sugar laden fragrance. As they stood dazzled by the sudden rays, and soaking up the affluent perfume Thorn was bewildered to see a lush grove bordering the clearing.
"Can it be real?" She, mused half to herself and half to her companions.
Jahiera sniffed, and her eyes flickered with something primordial.
"No." she hissed. "See the air does not stir as it will in the outdoor places, and the sunlight does not warm my skin."
"Then where are we?" Imoen queried her face ripe, and dazed with enchantment.
"I fear we are still incarcerated in this damndable never-ending hole in the ground. This is sorcery."
Imoen drifted over to a foremost tree in the wood, and lightly caressed its membranous purple leaves, following the veins with her forefinger.
"The trees seem real to me."
Jahiera walked warily to where the pink haired mage stood, and nibbled the end of a frond. She spat.
"They are real, but the rest of this place is a mirage believe me, and come away from there."
Suddenly a face like a pale green bud emerged from between the branches. The two women gave startled cries. Thorn was the first to react. Fearing some new devilry she lunged for the sprite and was rewarded with a fistful of long green hair with which she triumphantly wrenched it from its abode. Imagine their surprise to see, not a fiendish hobgoblin or some other menace, but a beautiful woman. She was very petite with short, slender limbs and adroitly chiseled feminine features, graceful, lithe, feline. Standing before them clad only in her skin, they were awarded a breathtaking glance of her velvet, round navel, full, soft hips and breasts like jade moons, her mint eyes were moons, her hair was grass moons against Thorn's palm. Minsc lowered his crossbow, which a moment ago had been pointed at the smooth, bare batch between the nymph's eyebrows, Jahiera and Imoen lowered their upraised daggers, Thorn released the beauteous creature's lovely tresses, and two more of them stepped from the trees one pallid yellow, the other pastel blue each radiating a cleansing luminosity. They were like fireflies these forest children and they stared with such trusting eyes at the dangerous humans who had assaulted them. It made Thorn feel dirty, their trust, she felt unworthy of it, she would never know why.
"Help me!" The green nymph finally managed to articulate in tones as pure and musical as wind through glass caverns.
"Save us!" Another intoned.
"Free us!"
"What is the matter? Save you from what?"
"From Him!"
A common cringing intelligence passed through Thorn's party as to who He was.
"He keeps us here!"
"We instill emotion, but he is barren. There is nothing we can do."
"I want to go home!"
Phantom tears coursed down Thorn's numb cheeks. Suddenly in her mind's eye she saw Irenicus his cruel hands all over their tender skin. Behind her Minsc was weeping boisterously, Imoen and Jahiera hung their heads, overcome.
"We will do anything we can to help you." Her voice rang with resolve. She knew that she would restore these virtuous prisoners to their home and family, she didn't have a choice, she loved them too much.
"Our mistress lives in the Dryad grove in the southeast region of the Windspear Hills. Take these acorns to her." The green woman extended her hand and gave her three ripe, bronze acorns they made the skin of her palm tingle with magic. "She will be able to summon us from there."
"I will do it."
"Thank you child of Bhaal." They said, and bowed respectfully.
"Real Dryads." Imoen whispered captivated. "I've never seen real dryads before. Such beauty..."
They smiled at her, and the blue one stepped forward and spoke her azure locks twisting about her breasts and neck.
"Our beauty is nothing compared to the splendor of your soul Imoen."
"What do you mean?"
"You have a purity about you lady, do not throw it away. Always keep a small piece of it close to you. For you will find that in the future it is all that will sustain you through episodes of great horror and disease, cruelty, and utter emptiness. The same void that will swallow so many, you will survive, if you keep your gift of innocence, let it be your foothold."
Then the wise fairy kissed her, softly and gently on her mouth. And to Imoen it was as though she had sipped from something cool and nourishing.
Thorn on the other hand felt like she was going to brake. The reality was sinking mercilessly in, that this was just the first cut in a series of wounds.
"Gentle dryads," Her voice was strained with underlying emotion. "I am afraid, I don't know what is going to happen to those I love and to me. I am a daughter of Bhaal. I mean what kind of future does that portend? They say a Bhaalspawn brings murder and chaos to all who comes in contact with her, and at first I didn't want to believe it, I mean how could that be true? I don't want to kill anybody. But then here I am, three years from when I embarked upon my first adventure, and my foster father is dead killed by my brother, who is likewise deceased, and someone else is dead I don't know who, but I have a feeling, a feeling like something dark, and terrible is approaching, closer, and closer, and it is heading straight for me, and I am powerless to stop it. Like somehow, it's...I don't know, my fate, and all I can do is run, but soon I won't be able to run anymore..." She trailed off now completely drained and exposed. "Help me."
The Yellow nymph approached her.
"You should be afraid."
"I should."
"You Daughter of Bhaal indeed sow slaughter and chaos in your wake, but you are not the one who raises the knife. You are the one who provokes intense passion in those that behold you, and as a result of those passions they commit acts that cause the destruction of many. Irenicus is no exception. Beware of him. Be not yielding in your repulsion of him, and do not let down your guard, for he is a most cunning serpent who may take many guises, and pass through even the smallest hole." Thorn felt the comforting lily touch of her fingertips against her cheek. "Go now, and do not despair. To become the slayer is a choice, nothing more. When you are able to realize that, only then will you be free."
And so the dryads bid them farewell, and they left the secluded wood, the four companions feeling a fresh sense of direction, and hope, it would last for a time. All were relieved somewhat of the weight of their personal burdens, all except Jahiera. The druid had had the sensation of a permanent wall of grief encroaching upon the course of her life since she had been captured and separated from her lover Khalid. She missed him to the point of physical pain. Lately she thought her mind was going numb as if in preparation for a terrible blown. It disturbed her to barely suppressed hysteria however she continued to dismiss it as only the atmosphere of the evil place that they now inhabited.
They followed a stone path for a few yards when Imoen stopped.
"Hey guys, another room."
"Check it for traps this time I doubt we'll be so lucky again."
After she had finished she stood at the mouth of the arched doorway with an unrecognizable expression stretched across her tired face.
The cause of her confusion made itself manifest as they entered the chamber. It was like no other room they had come across in the course of their lives. The light there did not come from floating lamps, but ordinary white candles with wax like sweet cream. The light itself was diffuse so that everyone's features were shrouded and the shadows of flames flickered across the walls. The air smelled vacant, stale, unlived in. The furniture was exotic with delicate silver leaf pleated along writing tables and dressers. The bed felt like the breath of clouds under their keen attentions.
"All of this is Elvin make." Jahiera mused, picking up a comb of the most exquisite ivory from where it lay on the vanity. She turned it over in her hands rubbing the pearl surface with her thumb, and regarding it with a look of puzzlement. "And if it hasn't come to anyone else's attention all these items are meant for a woman."
"So beautiful! Why would a monster like that have such lovely things?" Imoen said.
"Because he never uses them." Thorn said her back to her companions. She was looking into one of the numerous mirrors that adorned the wall. In it she saw the face of a woman she did not know. Shade absorbed her features and her eyes shone with a hungry, spectral light usually attributed to cats. She felt the cold vigilance of something sleepless upon her. "These things have never been moved. They remain just the way she left them."
"They way who left them?" Jahiera queried. When Thorn did not respond she drew closer. "Thorn, are you alright?"
The woman in the mirror resembled her, but yet she was not her. Something had changed here.
"I don't know." She finally answered. "Who she was, but he told me..." An
image of the mage flashed behind her eyelids.
"She has taken everything from me."
Her breath fled her lungs in a hiss, and she clutched the bed frame for support as the world spiraled around her. Then she felt the sustainment of two large hands on her arms.
"Little Thorn is not feeling well. Boo will make it all better." The hamster squeaked in agreement. The woman looked up into Minsc's soft, comforting face and velvet eyes and smiled in silent thanks. She laid her raven head against his broad shoulder, and he stroked her hair cooing gently.
"Come on we must leave. I have a bad feeling about this place." Said Jahiera.
"Like it's haunted." Imoen added.
They began to step back across the threshold when an alarm sounded ringing like a thousand iron bells in their ears. There was the pounding of large feet and then the menacing figure of a flesh gollum impeded their path.
"No intruders in the Mistress's chamber." It monotonously intoned in a voice like crushed boulders. Thorn struck first. The knife left her hand, flew through the air and imbedded itself to the hilt in the creature's soft belly. It let out a bellow of rage, its gigantic fists crashing down all around them making the ground tremble. Thorn Jahiera, and Minsc wove about, dodging its hands and legs while they stabbed at its abdomen and groin with their swords, and staffs. Imoen stood out of reach firing arrows at its head so that it was forced to deflect them with its arms giving her companions an open target. At last the black blood spouted forth from its stomach, and with one last groan it stumbled and fell, its four assailants scattering just in time to escape being crushed.
They stood panting, adrenaline still coursing through their veins when the resounding pulse of more heavy feet against the ground roused them all from their stupor and they fled back the way they had come hand in hand, through the forest and into the dreaded chamber of the necromancer, the beating steps drawing ever closer.
"Oh God we're trapped!" Imoen cried, "I don't want to die!"
Minsc let out a fantastic war cry, and swung his broad sword his eyes blazing.
"Let them come! Let them face the wrath of Minsc and Boo! We will place the boot of righteousness squarely in evil's backside!"
Thorn who stood beside Jahiera was close to despair herself. Then she laid her hand against the wall and a section of it fell away beneath her touch.
"In here!"
They obeyed. The room was dark and bare except for a dais with a swirling blue vortex at the top. It filled them with one last sliver of hope, they all new what it was for, and simultaneously they leapt into the extraordinary eddy and disappeared just as monsters flooded the abode of Irenicus behind them.
II"Where are we?" Imoen inquired shivering in the chilly corridor.
"How the hell should I know?" Jahiera was feeling very tense indeed. "Minsc what in Fearune are you doing?"
The big warrior was currently employed in raiding some dusty crates next to the portal.
"Looking for munchables for Boo! This is hungry work for a space hamster!"
Jahiera rolled her eyes in response. "Thorn what is our next move?"
"I guess to find out what's behind that door."
The object she spoke of appeared ordinary enough, but the lock that secured it appeared rather convoluted.
Suddenly a man clad all in brown leather armor strode casually towards them out of the shadows.
"You don't want to do that my friends." His speech was heavily accented.
Thorn and her companions were immediately ready to attack, and they pointed their bloodied weapons at his dark throat.
"Who are you? I'm in no mood for anymore fun and games." Thorn hissed threateningly.
"Please!" The stranger beseeched them, his face blanched, but managed maintain a cajoling grin. "I mean you know harm. My name is Yoshimo, and I was brought here against my will, like you I should imagine. Please, lower your weapons, I will not bite!"
Slowly they did as he asked, but would not sheath them yet.
"Thank you I was beginning to think that I alone was trapped in this hellhole, but it seems I was mistaken."
"Well then Yoshimo," the word tasted like firecrackers on Thorn's tongue. "We're ready to listen. How and why are you here."
He shook his head. "Regrettably I do not have a clear answer to either of your questions friend. I am part of an organization called the Shadows Thieves in the city of Athkatla perhaps you have heard of it?"
"I'm afraid we have never been to Athkatla so no, but it sounds like a colorful group do continue."
"It is the most powerful thieves guild in all of Fearune and a few days ago, at least I think it has been that long. Time doesn't seem to pass here. In any case, I was on my way to paying my dues to one of the guild leaders in the docks district when I was ambushed from behind. Something hit me in the head and I remember nothing more except waking up here."
"Nothing at all?" Jahiera prodded suspiciously.
"Nothing, I tell you true! I have not seen another living creature since then. I have been wandering around aimlessly for all this time, please have mercy on a lost man and let me join your company!"
Thorn considered him. He was of Asian decent with slick black hair beneath his hood, almond eyes, and swarthy limbs. His smile was of a beguiling sort and so large that it spit his face from nearly ear-to-ear, sometimes she could just make out the very back molars. There was vagueness to him that she just didn't trust.
"I don't know, we're..."
"What if I told you, that that room is infested with bat like creatures that could pick your flesh from your bones in less that a minute."
They looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Yes that would be something." Said Imoen.
"To defeat them you must kill the white ones. Do I have your trust yet?"
"Keep talking."
"You cannot possibly eradicate them all one by one. If you destroy the white ones the rest will follow."
"All right you're in." Thorn conceded. Imoen sent her a doubtful glance. "But if it turns out that your claims are false, and that you are not what you seem to be, you'll be swiftly disposed of."
"Agreed, but don't worry I am eager to please."
Jahiera sighed exasperatedly and then they proceeded to the door.
"Look through the keyhole." He instructed. Imoen with her sharp eyes did so.
"By Winthrop's stomach they're everywhere!" And indeed they were. They coated every available space, preening their leathery wings and glancing around with beady, fiendish eyes. Four of them were albino.
"I see the white ones." She informed them straightening up, but I think this lock is too complex for me to pick." She pointed to the steel knot of tiny levers and gears. Yoshimo clasped it in his palm.
"Here let me if you please." They watched in silent awe as their newfound companion toyed gently with it his fingers prodding it adroitly almost sensually. It gave with a click underneath his patient attentions. The thief only grinned modestly at their enraptured gazes.
"I told you I was a member of the most powerful thieves guild in Fearune."
Nobody argued otherwise.
"Everyone ready your ranged weapons." Thorn ordered.
Minsc drew out his crossbow and bolts, Jahiera her sling, Imoen and Yoshimo their arrows and poisoned darts, and Thorn the throwing knives that she had confiscated from the weapon room, her heart was thumping hard and fast as her body and mind prepared itself for what was to come. Little did she know.
"Alright, remember only the white ones." They threw the door open and dashed in. Their weapons were raised, but the sudden disturbance resulting from their violent entry caused the creatures to rise in a body like a cloud of brown dirt, the white individuals were enveloped in it. Then they were upon them. Wings pounding their faces, gray fangs making tares in their clothing, and stinging their exposed skin. Thorn never felt so frantic as when that wall of brown, grimy fur and teeth surrounded her, blotting out her companions. They were everywhere clinging to her with their talons in clumps, ripping at her hair and biting her scalp; it was like being impaled by a thousand tiny needles. She beat at them with her arms and hands, slashing about wildly with her knife, but more and more appeared to take their places. The air was a whirlwind of writhing bodies. Thorn fell to her knees with a piercing scream. The cutting sensation of fangs embedded through her cloak and into the tissue of her arm provoked her to utilize her remaining wits to raise her knife in defense.
It was a white bat.
The dagger plunged into its lecherous flesh and a score of the dirty demons screeched and fell lifeless around her in a sudden hale of corpses. Their numbers considerably lessoned the cloud was not so dense now that it could hide her friends. She saw Jahiera desperately attempting to shoot the bolts she had so hastily strung. Minsc had given up shooting and was roaring, furiously slashing at them with his sword. Yoshimo was in a similar position, but the sight of Imoen her face pink with fatigue, blood from hundreds of miniscule wounds dripping down her forehead as she strove to fend them off made Thorn go icy with maternal terror and like a lion she snarled and pounced on the grimy swarm. It gave Imoen the time she needed; another white bat revealed itself flickering for moments in and out of the horde she aimed and released the arrow. It went down in a pallid puff of lice ridden fur, fifty more followed. The two siblings fought side by side with their friends and soon all the albinos were slain. It was over.
The party gathered together panting, clinging to each other for support. Then they lay on the ground amongst the vermin their legs refusing to hold them anymore. All of them cried a little. The sisters embraced and would not release each other for long minutes, letting their mutual body heat be a comfort.
"You know," Imoen's quivering whisper reached Thorns ear. "That's the most frightened I've ever been."
"Not for me." She replied.
"That was foolish." Jahiera began. "Such a careless attack, we are lucky that we're not providing a feast for the carrion right now."
"I'm sorry! I had no idea! I've never experienced anything like it before." Thorn defended herself, but then thought better of it. Whether she had known it or not, it had been she who gave the orders and therefore it was she who was responsible. Jahiera looked at her gravely.
"Then let that be a lesson to you."
Thorn hung her head knowing that she was not good enough.
They started to search the room. Crates and boxes were looted, and missile weapons restocked when they were all startled by the horrible sound the druid made. She had begun her examination at the far side of the rather large chamber, and when they turned to stare at her then, she was standing in front of a table with a bulk of something piled on its surface. The sound was a kind of strangled groan that seemed to issue from a sudden grievous impact like the cry of someone who had just been impaled on the end of a spear. It chilled them all, and they ran over to join her. What they saw was truly ghastly.
A carcass lay on the table. It was completely naked, the cloths lay in bloody taters beside it. The body likewise had been incised in a score of places with a number of bloodied instruments that now lay hanging from a rack on the wall. Crimson entrails spilled profusely across the slab staining everything a rusty red. In some places the rib cage jutted out with bits of meat clinging to the edges. Even through the blood they recognized the face. It was Khalid. His lips were parted as though to speak, and his neck was grotesquely elongated, obviously broken. The eyes were still blue, but coated in a milky film. The metallic smell of blood and death lingered in their nostrils.
Thorn could not stand it. She felt her bowls heave skyward, and she regurgitated the remains of her last meal upon the floor. Stomach acid enveloped her tongue, she could not look, she wouldn't look and so buried her searing eyes in her hands. Minsc's face had paled to a sickly shade of yellow his eyes were glassy not unlike the corpse. Yoshimo moaned and turned away. Imoen stared petrified, stunned. This was Khalid, the man Thorn, Imoen, and Minsc had known as a close fried, and Jahiera had known as a husband, now chewed to a bloody pulp and spat upon stone like so much slaughtered meat. It does not matter that he was human, because people who do such things to people do not see them as human.
Jahiera's shoulders quaked.
"No...Khalid?" Her voice was barely audible. "Where are the switches the levers to pull and make it go away? This is a dream! A bad dream! Khalid!" On her knees she clutched one of his waxy hands and kissed it feverously, repeatedly as if it would make him come back.
"My darling, my love, my Khalid, come back, come back! Oh please don't leave me! Don't leave me all alone! You can not leave me here! I love you so much come back! I love you..." Her pleas were terminated by the great, howling sobs that erupted from the very bottom of her soul making her small frame shake brutally. Still she begged him, unable to speak her swollen lips moved wordlessly against him palm. Each cry sent flaming daggers into Thorn's chest and she wept silently, tears hot as urine sliding down her cheeks.
Jahiera was hysterical. Finally Minsc recovered himself enough try to bring her away from the heinous sight, but she clutched her husband's hand in a death grip. In the end it took both Minsc and Yoshimo to pry her off. That being done she fainted. Minsc took her into his arms and they moved away from the gruesome platform, except for Thorn. She stood motionless looking into her friend's misty eyes.
"Promise me." He had said. "Promise me you'll look after Jahiera."
"I promise." She whispered.
Jahiera lay with her head cradled in Imoens lap, blissfully unconscious. The young mage's tears fell upon her face and she rocked back and forth and tore at her hair with her hands.
"Oh God!" She wailed. "God help me I can't, I can't, I can't!"
When Jahiera awoke she did not seem to know who they were. Her great brown eyes rolled crazily into her skull.
"It wasn't a dream was it?"
Thorn shook her head no.
"My husband is dead?"
"Yes."
"Oh Khalid, this world was never made for one as beautiful as you." And she fell into silence. Eventually Minsc spoke up tentatively.
"Minsc and Boo just wish to say how sorry they are."
The druid's eyes took on a deadly hue.
"Crazy fool! You and your idiotic vermin! You do not know of what you speak!"
Yoshimo pressed forward. "I just want to give my condolences..."
"Stranger! You cannot know."
"Jahiera, if it makes you feel any better, he was dead before Irenicus did that to him." Imoen ventured.
"I don't want to know!"
"He never felt anything."
"I said I don't want to hear about it!" She staggered to her feet, inflamed visage set. That was one of the remarkable things about Jahiera, her ability to put even the most intense feelings aside and take action.
"Come! No more of this weeping! We have to avenge him, and we won't do it by sitting around here."
"Stay a moment!" Thorn interceded, "There is a room off to the left of this one, Imoen and I will investigate while you rest with Minsc and Yoshimo. Better strong and slow then weak and hasty."
The bhaalspawn grasped Imoen's arm pulling her to her feet, and they made off in the direction of the door.
Imoen's face was haggard and gaunt from strain, as was Thorn's, they clasped hands as they walked.
"I was there when He did that to Khalid ya' know?" Her sister's voice quavered as she attempted to restrain the tears from spilling afresh. "He showed me. He's mad. He'd cut and say, 'Don't you see? Don't you see?"
"Hush, don't speak about it now."
"He also kept saying something about potential."
The new chamber had tanks akin to the ones they had witnessed earlier in the room of the pickled men only the inhabitants of these tanks were not pickled, and seemingly dead. In each one was a woman, the same woman. She was quite beautiful with long flaxen tresses, delicate Elvin features, and quiet, meditative green eyes. Thorn thought back to the lady she had seen in the water, and then partially again in the deserted bedroom.
"They're clones." Said Imoen, "He is obsessed with this woman, he talks to her sometimes, even though she isn't there."
"He told me that someone had destroyed him." Said Thorn.
The smash of glass made them start. One of the clones was still alive, and was beating her enclosure with her fists. It shattered, and yellow fluid flooded the floor, sloshing warm around their ankles. She lurched from the jagged ruins, her body lacerated and bleeding from contact with shards of glass. Then she tottered falling forward into Thorn's outstretched arms. The child of Bhaal clutched the lady's limp, soaked body to her breast while Imoen looked on in amazement.
"I am free." Her torrid breath scorched Thorn's ear. "I would not die in there. Soon I will be beyond His reach, he cannot touch me anymore. He will not miss me. Beware, it is you, it is you." She died. Thorn would forever feel her fading heart beat dancing feebly against her chest.
They laid the tortured soul on her back crossing her arms upon her bosom. Imoen closed her eyelids with her fingers.
"Poor woman, may they never find you."
They returned to the others in silence, and did not speak of what they saw. When asked, they never told, they could not.
After walking for some time the band noticed that the air was growing thinner. It passed fluidly through their lungs and was no longer stale. Also the discord of battle now seemed to be right above their heads.
"Look Boo we're almost there!" Minsc shouted enthusiastically.
They walked faster, they jogged, they ran, they flew. They were so close.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Went the battle.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Went their hearts.
The tunnel swept by in a blur of color and contours. The ground rose, they were bursting with excitement. A ray of sunlight, another, and then they were out, into the blinding light, and cool animation of air in that other world known as the surface.
They drunk great mouthfuls of fresh breeze like mint on their tongues.
Boom.
There He was.
Boom.
Thorn's heart ruptured.
Irenicus was fending off a legion of mages. His hands moved with the grace and rapidity of birds in flight, then a spell would spew from his fingers and consume an adversary in a belch of shimmering dust. His gaze was fixed and so he did not see them at first.
"I cannot be caged!" He hissed, sending an icy serpent of fear along her spinal cord.
"This mage's power is immense!" One of the combatants in front of them cried as he desperately tried to erect magical barriers that would save his life.
The Necromancer expelled a hex in his direction. It incinerated him then continued to soar precisely in their direction. Yoshimo ducked just in time as it struck the entry way behind him, a shower of sparks imbedding themselves in his hair.
Irenicus's gaze followed its flight, and then he saw them, or rather her. Their eyes met, and he suddenly grew very pale, his bottom lip quivered minutely. Thorn thought she would burn up under his gaze.
"What are you doing here?" He gasped.
She did not answer her tongue was paralyzed, but Imoen stepped forward.
"Stay away from her you evil bastard, she's not your prisoner anymore!" She spat and in a murderous impulse chanted the incantations of the magic missile spell. The lurid, deadly projectiles spun out and struck the mage in the abdomen. He grunted in pain and his visage flashed darkly.
"I am tired of playing games with ignorant children!"
Suddenly a fresh ring of mages teleported onto the scene. One of them addressed Irenicus. There was a quiver in his voice that he was clearly trying to master.
"You will..." he stammered. "Cease your spell casting and come with us!"
Everyone held their breath, they all expected him to strike out again, but he shocked them all when a infinitesimal smile crept onto his lips.
"Very well, but you will take the girl with you as well."
To Thorn's and her companions' mortification he indicated Imoen with the direction of his finger. The young thief, mage's face drained to a deathly white.
"No...please! I didn't do anything!"
Two of the cloaked wizards seized her by the arms.
Thorn lunged, but was restrained by Yoshimo. She struggled in his grasp, but his hands were like iron clasps.
"Don't be a fool you'll get us all killed if you interfere!"
"You have been a participant in a magical disruption," One of the sorcerers was saying. "And must come with us!"
Irenicus wrapped a muscled arm about Imoen's waist clutching her to him possessively, his eyes glinting with something that resembled pleasure over the agony it caused his adversaries, most especially Thorn, who felt so sick with terror that she thought she might faint at any second. There was a brief conference between the mages, and then the necromancer and her sister were being hurried down the street. Just before they disappeared in a bend in the road, Irenicus turned his head, and looked her in the eye he was smiling.
Thorn's mouth dropped open in a silent scream.
"Gone!"
Boom.
Offshoreecho: Thank you kindly. I'm sorry, but I am going to try very hard to make you cry, or scream with rage, or be completely silent or whatever feelings a story like this will ultimately evoke in you. No more hints as to what I was alluding to, don't tempt me! I am about half way through your story, and I will review it, but I want to finish it first, and lately I haven't had the time, but don't worry I will. Above everything else you deserve it. You've been so nice and encouraging in your reviews to me, not only that, but you review so fast! And then you have to wait such a long time for more, and I thank you again for your patience and all the rest. I agree that personal responses to the reviewers are much more...well personal, and I like to do it that way. Keep reviewing, and keep writing your story!
sammie teufel: Thank you! I am trying to get Irenicus's character right so I'm happy you feel that way. Also I appreciate the spelling corrections if I don't always follow them it's not because I don't believe you, it's just that sometimes I spell them that way automatically and then don't notice when I edit. Hmm... I'm not sure if you know exactly where this whole 'Doomed Romance' thing is going. You could know, but I have my doubts...anyway thanks again for the support with the whole school thing, I'm hanging in there, keep the reviews coming!
celestine 1: Many thanks! I'm glad you're still with me, I am grateful for your patience. I hope I'll feel better too, thank you for saying so, it helps. I hope to keep hearing from you. P.S. Khalid not Khalide, got it!
Ethearia: Thank you so much! I mean it, seriously THANK YOU, that was a really great review, it has helped to keep me going. You had the same idea? Then by all means write it if you wish! But I understand as well that the millions of details in Baldur's Gate may seem kind of daunting, I can't even fit a quarter of them all in or I'd never finish. Look it's true, I admit it, I never hated Anomen, no I wasn't even annoyed by him. This story is not going to be one devoted to pointless Anomen bashing so don't worry. He will be just as human as all the other characters with his strengths and his flaws. Thank you, and do keep reviewing they are every so enjoyable to read lol.