(A/N: This is the last chapter of the first installment in a two-part series. I'd like to thank everyone who read and reviewed, and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the sequel to come.
Note: I reuploaded the chapter after snackfiend101 pointed out it was a ring of Mystra, not Mischa. Thanks, snackfiend...somehow, I knew I'd confuse the two eventually.
Disclaimer: Still don't own Neverwinter Nights.)
Chapter Seventeen
Deekin was the first to scramble out of the Shadow Plane. It took all his strength to wedge the planar door open, and the exerted force caused him to sprawl onto the dusty floor when the door gave way. Deekin coughed and got up, brushed the dust off his shirt, and took a look around him. The Shadovar looked back and drew their daggers; they were bored and angry, and such a seemingly helpless target was the perfect thing to take their frustrations out on. Fortunately, Umbra stepped out behind Deekin a second later, luminous sword drawn.
"Your lord is dead," Umbra informed bluntly, removing the shard from the planar door, which shrank back down and floated into her palm.
"And Boss kills him!" Deekin chimed in. The Shadovar didn't dare attack Deekin while Umbra was around, and he jumped at the chance to rub it in.
"You...you killed our lord?" a Shadovar woman choked after a shocked silence.
"This one requests not that you believe her," Umbra shrugged, storing the door and shard in her pack and walking away, Deekin close at her heels as he shot smug looks at the Shadovar. "You may look for yourselves, if you are so inclined." The Shadovar did nothing, but Deekin noticed that their individual expressions were uncertain, doubtful, vengeful, frightened, respectful, or overjoyed. At any rate, none moved to attack Umbra--or to resume stealing bricks.
Umbra and Deekin strode out the door into the first room of the Arcanists' Tower; Umbra shut the door swiftly behind them and walked toward the door leading out of the Tower. Deekin followed her, but lingered just a little, noting that Dagget had gone, most likely to scavenge a meal. "Old Fireshorts" was still in his cage, of course, the same blank, sloppy smile pasted on his face as the two passed him by. Umbra leaned the second door open and stepped out into the metropolitan area of Undrentide. With a final look back, Deekin stepped out and closed the door behind them.
Umbra walked quickly, and the city shuddered to remind Deekin why, prompting him to go at a brisk pace himself.
"Ooops, there the grounds goes and shakes again..." he commented. "Deekin not likes the shaking so much. Once ground open up in kobold cavern and bunch of kobolds get swallowed. Old Master chuckle for weeks."
"A sad thing indeed," Umbra said sympathetically.
"Anything like that ever happens to you?" Deekin questioned.
"The Shadow Plane is not prone to quakes," Umbra answered, "but the shadow lich did enjoy others' suffering."
The shaking made writing difficult for Deekin, in addition to the fact that he was determined to write so much so quickly, for fear of being caught mid-sentence as they encountered whatever would be encountered next. His rush was needless, however; superb fighter though she was, Umbra was a horrible navigator. When Deekin finished describing the shadow lich's defeat, they were still aimlessly wandering Undrentide's musty halls. Deekin took this opportunity to correct what he'd written and add some vital details--as well as some not-so-vital ones. Finally, he put his supplies away and smiled up at Umbra, who had her back turned to him and didn't notice this friendly gesture. After another minute or so of walking more, Deekin decided to strike up a conversation.
"What you does after all this, Boss?" he asked her.
"First, tell this one what you will do," Umbra returned.
"Ummm... Deekin not be sure. Deekin go to Dalelands, maybe," he said thoughtfully.
"The Dalelands?" Umbra questioned.
"Yup," he nodded. "Deekin think maybe he go visit Elminster the Sage. That human writes lots of books that Deekin read."
"Oh? And what would you do if you met him?" Umbra queried curiously.
"Deekin gots list of three spelling errors he gives to old human," he informed seriously. "There be no excuse for spelling errors, you knows. Maybe Deekin make few other stops on way. He not kidding when Deekin say he wants to travel." He thought. "Deekin also thinks maybe he goes to Amn. Then maybe he goes to Waterdeep. That be big city... maybe gots a thousand humans, even."
"It sounds like you have thought a lot about this," Umbra noticed.
"Deekin used to thinks about the places he one day go every night before he sleeps," Deekin smiled. "Old Master would laughs at Deekin, but Deekin not care. Then one day after Deekin done with travels, he comes back to kobold caves and he be greatest chieftain ever. He bring kobolds out of caves, he will, whether they likes it or not! Kobolds lives with humans like halflings do and stop raidings and fightings. Deekin do it, too, you will see."
"This one has faith in you," Umbra encouraged.
"Deekin happy you says that," he said gratefully. "If Deekin tells kobolds what great things kobolds could be, maybe they changes. Maybe." He looked up at Umbra curiously. "You ever thinks abouts bringing Shadovar out of shadows, Boss?"
"No," Umbra admitted. "This one is...unlike the others. They may do as they will. This one cares not."
"Oh." Deekin shrugged and went on hopefully, "Maybe Boss and Deekin even travels together once adventure be done? What you thinks of that?"
"Nothing would make this one happier!" she responded, a smile in her voice.
"Goody!" he cried joyfully, heart leaping at her positive response. "First Deekin finish epic story of Boss and then both he and Boss be famous everywhere they travels!"
"And so we shall," Umbra affirmed. "When will this one see your epic tale?"
"Soon, maybe. Once Deekin knows how it all ends, Deekin shows it to you," he promised.
"This one anticipates that day," she told him. "For now, let us continue, lest we never reach the ending." Deekin agreed, and was about to write down their conversation, but changed his mine and put the notebook away. This was a conversation between them...not for the epic tale.
Through some miracle, Umbra at last led them to their destination. The wall was still the same, with the five cobwebbed portcullis set in it and Heurodis's footprints still visible. When Deekin looked, he could see his own long-toed footprints and Umbra's shoe-soled footmarks in the dust as well, from their last visit here. His heart pounded and he trembled with excitement as Umbra shoved the fourth portcullis down and stepped over it, Deekin hopping over it a second later and nearly catching his foot on it. He yanked his foot free, staggered back, stood steady and examined the immense, circular room they had entered. His enthusiasm only grew when he set eyes on what crowded most of the room--a colossal, glowing structure that could only be the Temple of Winds.
It was an impressive sight, with tier upon tier stacked on each other, each glowing with a rosy, unearthly light and creating tall tower that rose into the ceiling and beyond. Golden-lit windows glimmered brilliantly along the sides; batlike gargoyles clung to surfaces and moaned noiselessly; the bricks forming the building were rounded and smooth, with not a single door cut into the structure to mar its glorious perfection.
"The Temple of Winds is the highest tower of Undrentide," Umbra noted. "And certainly the most impressive." That went without saying.
"Come," Umbra reminded Deekin, beckoning him over to a large metal chest that resembled a sarcophagus. "This is the Ark." Deekin saw that there were many elaborate carvings on the Ark, but spared no time to inspect them as Umbra shoved the lid back with a clattering noise. The Ark's interior was lined with soft black velvet. After all these years, it smelt of rot and age, but it was still a pretty sight. It bore three impressions--one for each Wind.
"You may set the Winds inside, Deekin," Umbra offered, proffering the Dead Wind's globular remains. He took it with a grateful smile, setting it down gently in the first impression. From inside his pack, he found and brought out the Wise Wind and Dark Wind, nestling them in with equal care. The orbs seemed to wink out at him, two milky-white and one jet-black. Umbra gripped the lid and pulled it back over the Ark, sealing it once more. This done, she backed away and encouraged Deekin to do the same.
"Now watch," she instructed. Deekin obeyed with an awed nod.
At first, the Ark did nothing at all. Then slowly, it began to rock back and forth like a cradle; in a timely fashion, Undrentide shook as well. A chunk of the ceiling came loose and landed very near Deekin, though Umbra was prompt in yanking him out of harm's way. The Ark shivered violently, and the Winds broke free, in their whirlwind forms again. They sent the lid spinning off and crashing into the next wall, and each wind picked up velocity and grew with each passing moment. Dust swirled off the floor and walls and gathered in the aspiring cyclones, lending them grayish color and wormlike form. The winds began to roar as they spun faster and faster, growing larger and larger; then, with the mightiest howl of all, they crashed into the Temple and broke it open, spewing bricks, broken statues and shattered glass in every direction--Umbra was quick to shield Deekin, but didn't seem bothered by the debris that hit her. Their sole mission completed, the Winds whistled with pleasure, dying down and settling into the air that spawned them.
Umbra trod out onto the shattered stone bits and glass shards which now littered the floor, sweeping carelessly across them toward the immense section of the Temple that had been demolished. Deekin followed and bit back a cry when a shard of glass lodged in his foot. Delicately, he pulled the offending shard out, tossed it away and cautiously made his way over to the Temple, surveying the damage. The newly opened area was ridged with broken bricks, like thousands of razor-edged teeth rimming a cavernous mouth. Beyond it was a marble staircase with elegant steps that were wide and slender; Umbra ascended them one-by-one in a hurried manner, while Deekin hopped over them three at a time and kept roughly in stride with his hero. The staircase spiraled upward, each step individually twisting to the right so the turns were smooth and constant. The stairs led them up to a rosy wooden door that had recently begun to rot, riddled with wormholes but still intact--Deekin suspected a failing Netherese enchantment was at fault.
Deekin breathed in sharply as Umbra reached for the door's slim metal handle. "Boss?"
"Yes, Deekin?"
"Umm...big fight with scary snake lady is real close, huh?"
"It would seem that way."
"Deekin wonders if he gets chance to finish epic tale of Boss," he frowned. "Snake lady might turns Deekin to stone again."
"You will be fine, Deekin," Umbra assured him. "This one will let no one harm you." With that, she yanked the door handle. At that instant, the door crumbled to dust.
The Temple of Winds was long deserted. Only spiders and rats lurked its dark halls and nested in its dreary corners still. Many thick layers of dust and cobwebs cloaked it all and lent it a look of death.
"This is the Inner Sanctum," Umbra informed.
"So how we gets down?" Deekin wondered. The two had stepped out on a wide pedestal that loomed over the rest of the room, surrounded by a wide, circular gap that isolated it more still.
"...that, this one does not know." Umbra looked around and espied a long black chain attached to the ceiling that trailed down into the depths of the gap. Taking ahold of it, she said, "We may use this."
"You sure that be good idea, Boss?" Deekin asked tentatively.
"We have no other means," she replied honestly, giving Deekin a lower part of the chain to hold onto. Reluctantly, he took it, curling his fingers around it tightly. Umbra removed her swords from their scabbards--"We may meet with something unpleasant sooner than we would wish it," she explained, the thought of which sent a chill up Deekin's spine. Umbra slid each blade into a link of the chain and braced herself against it
"Are you ready?" she questioned. Deekin nodded feebly in reply. "Good." She leapt off the edge. The chain plunged off with her, Deekin with it; he shut his eyes and clutched the chain desperately, grabbing it with his feet as well and tucking his tail around him. The sensation of falling made his stomach leap in his throat, and the snap of the chain stopping jarred his bones.
Umbra and Deekin hung over the pit futilely, midway between the pedestal and the rest of the room.
"How we gets across now?" Deekin asked finally.
"This one knows not," Umbra replied.
"Deekin afraid you says that." He sighed and avoided looking down, knowing it would only make matters worse. He trusted Umbra would think of something, but in the meantime--
A crunching noise broke Deekin's thoughts.
"What be that?" he wondered nervously. In response, a rusted chainlink above him snapped, and the chain broke.
"AAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!" Deekin screamed as he fell away. He was headed for the bottom facefirst, and could only see darkness below him...
Something snatched hisarm then. Deekin saw Umbra's glowing sword fall past him, plunging down. It twirled as it fell, a spinning beacon of light, growing smaller and smaller as it fell into the dark depths of the gap, shrinking to the size of a pinhead and then vanishing altogether. Deekin gulped, seeing the fate he had narrowly escaped, then looked above him. Umbra's hand was latched firmly onto his arm, and Umbra herself was hanging off the bottom of the broken chain, her dull sword wedged in the last link, the only thing keeping them in this precarious position. She had dropped the sword to free her hand and grab him.
"Deekin," Umbra said.
"Yeah, Boss?" he whispered, thankful but still scared.
"Prepare to land." So saying, she tossed him across the gap. Deekin yelped and landed a short distance past the rim of the gap, skidding a few feet before slowing to a stop. He rubbed his grazed tail and ran over to the edge.
"Boss!" he cried. "You stays there! Deekin helps--" Umbra paid his words no heed. Yanking her sword free, she leapt.
"BOSS!!" he yelled frantically, staring down at the depths of the pit. Where was she--?
He saw her slender black fingers grip the edge of the floor a second later, just a few feet from him. He raced over to help, but she easily pulled herself up, to his relief.
"You be okay, Boss?" he asked, concerned.
"This one is fine, Deekin," she assured him. "What of you?"
"Deekin okay," he told her. "Deekin gots a few scrapes, is all."
"That is most fortunate," Umbra said.
"But, Boss..."
"Yes, Deekin?"
"What abouts your sword?" he reminded, gazing at the pit.
"This one will manage," she insisted, walking ahead, single sword drawn and poised for battle. "Come, now. We cannot afford to loiter in this place." Deekin nodded and went along, feeling a little guilty that she had sacrificed her last luminous sword to save him.
"If you are worrying about the sword, do not," Umbra said suddenly. "It was a small price to pay, in exchange for saving your life." Deekin looked up at her. Her face was emotionless as ever, but it was obvious she cared a great deal for him. Deekin smiled gratefully and walked closer to her; it was nice to be cared for.
A single door stood against the far wall. Like the Temple's exterior, it glowed with a rosy, ethereal light. This was either the way to Heurodis...or the way to a trap, Deekin thought. Umbra didn't seem to think of this; forcing the door open, she stepped through. Trepidly, Deekin did so as well. There was a brief moment in which he couldn't see, feel, hear, smell, or touch anything, and was trapped in an instant of nothingness; then the nothing parted to make way for something, and Deekin was standing on ground again. He became aware that was standing on a thin strip of raised ground--a bridge, of sorts. Looking down, he could see only bottomless blackness--the Temple's architect was fond of endless chasms, Deekin noted, and took out his notebook to jot this down. He saw that a vast network of thin marble bridges stood out over the gap. At the far edges of the gap, he could see marble walls; above him was an ornate marble ceiling. This was all part of a colossal room, he realized, and the walls bore four doors, one for each main direction, with a bridge leading out to each one. The bridges then led off into the network of bridges again, like silk threads in a spiderweb.
Deekin stood in the very center of it all, where several bridges connected in a circular shape. The bridges around him formed more circles, each larger than the one before it, with lines cutting through them. It really did look like a gigantic spiderweb. Deekin would hate to meet the spider.
"Deekin?" He whirled around to see Umbra standing behind him.
"Boss!" he cried, relieved. "Deekin not hears you coming." He looked around once more, pen and notebook still in hand. "You thinks it be Netherese enchantment that gets us here?"
"This one would think so," Umbra avered, walking out onto one of the off-shooting bridges. Deekin ambled off after her, still busily writing details into his notebook. His concentration broke when he felt the ground beneath his toes getting very hot.
"Boss?" The floor was getting hotter by the second, but Umbra couldn't feel it through her shoes. There was no time; hoping for the best, Deekin grabbed Umbra by the waist and yanked her onto an adjoining bridge--she was surprisingly light, he realized, more like a doll than a human. A second later, the bridge they had stood upon burst into flames.
"Thank-you--" Umbra started.
"No time!" Deekin yelled. "This bridge getting hot too!" Umbra jumped to her feet, and the two ran onto an adjacent bridge. Again, the bridge they'd just left burst into flames.
"We gots to hurry!" Deekin urged her, making a break for the door nearest them. It was at least a dozen bridges away; he ran quickly, but nearly bowled off the edge into the pit and was forced to slow down. Heart pounding, he was thankful to see Umbra just behind him. She didn't pass him, knowing it was too risky on this thin bridge, but kept pace easily.
They crossed the bridges rapidly, narrowly avoiding one flaming disaster after another. Only a few bridges separated them from the door now--and then the bridge immediately in front of them was set aflame. Deekin's heart leapt, and he automatically sought to cross onto the bridge to his left. This, too, was lit afire, as was the bridge to his right and the bridge behind them. They were trapped.
There was a loud, gurgling sound beneath them. Then the same sound again, louder, to his right, and up out of the pit rushed a thick, tenous mass of black flesh, ending in an eel-like head. The thing bared rows of long, sharp gray teeth, two yellow eyes glistening blankly on the sides of its glossy dark head. Up rose another of the wormy creatures to his left; then another, and another, and another, until they were surrounded by at least eight of them. Flames leapt high out of the pit, but the creatures didn't seem to mind, long red tongues lolling out their mouths and dripping globs of green, slimy saliva.
We're going to die here, Deekin thought, heart sinking. Even Umbra couldn't fend off those titanic beasts, and she could do nothing against the flames...
No. They'd made it this far. He then remembered the ice spell Tymofarrar had taught him. Heart racing, he prayed it would work and prepared the spell.
"Gets ready to run, Boss," he whispered.
"This one shall," she affirmed. Deekin cast the spell. The resulting ice blew across the bridge in front of them, melting into water over the heat and dropping down, extinguishing the flames. Deekin and Umbra bolted across, crossing that bridge and the one after it quickly. Only one bridge separated them from their goal now. One of the eel monsters emitted a sickening, burbling sound, and smashed its head down in front of them, blocking their path.
"Keep going," Umbra ordered Deekin, brandishing her longsword and cutting ahead. She plunged the sword deep into the eel-creature's eyes. It screamed in pain and lifted, taking Umbra with it, for she refused to let go of the hilt.
"Boss!" Deekin yelped.
"Keep going!" she repeated urgently. Realizing there was no time to argue, he did as she said and dashed across the bridge. The eel-thing Umbra had attacked saw this and lunged at Deekin, stretching its drooling maw wide open to scoop him up. At that instant, Umbra pulled her sword out of the thing's eye and leapt down, landing safely on the floor. Putrid yellow fluids spurted out of the creature's pierced eye; moaning to itself, it withdrew into the pit. The other eel-beasts followed suit. They weren't very determined creatures, Deekin thought to himself.
"Come now!" Umbra commanded, shoving the door open. Deekin and she ran past the opened door and closed it tight behind them. Deekin panted, relieved but out of breath. To top it off, his back pains were acting up again. But there was something good about this all, he thought, grinning as he wrote about the eel-monsters' attack in his notebook.
"It's the climax!" Deekin announced excitedly. "The climax of your epic tale is upon us, Boss! Huzzah!!"
"The climax?" Umbra sounded dismayed. "So the end is nearly upon us already?"
"Deekin sure we makes it out okay, Boss," he said positively. "We makes it this far."
"Even so." Umbra swept ahead. "On to the end we shall go, friend."
"Onward!" Deekin agreed, packing his writing supplies away and hurrying to catch up. They were striding through a narrow hall, dust swirling into the air with each step. Deekin was filled with excitement, happiness and fear. This had been a fabulous tale, and only grown better.
How would it end? He couldn't wait to find out.
The hall came to an end. Umbra stopped stolidly, whereas Deekin came skittering to a halt. His eyes swept the room at the hallway's end. It was large, but not nearly the size of the room they had come out of. Tall windows lined the walls, letting in the warm light of a desert sunset. An elaborate, star-shaped red symbol took up most of the floor. A lone figure stood in the middle of it, its head encompassed by writhing snakes.
Heurodis.
Deekin squeezed his eyes tightly shut and fumbled at his belt, searching for his rapier and wondering how he would fight if he couldn't see.
"Deekin, open your eyes," Umbra instructed. "Heurodis cannot change you to stone." Deekin's eyes fluttered open, dreadingly but curiously wandering to Heurodis, and he instantly saw why.
She had no eyes. Only empty sockets gazed blackly out of where her eyes should have been. Her rotting flesh just barely clung to her face, slipping off her cheekbones. She wore only a slim dress, revealing that the rest of her body was in similar shape, neckline plunging to reveal her bare ribs and shriveled organs beyond them. The snakes on her head were decomposed as well, little more than skulls perched on spiny bone-strings of bodies. A mound of rotted flesh was piled at Heurodis's feet; for some time now, she had simply stood there and rotted. A chunk of slimy flesh slopped off her upper arm now and added to the pile. She stank of death.
"Sh-she be dead?" Deekin ventured hesitantly, though he knew she wasn't.
"No," Umbra said grimly. "She has become a lich in order to bind herself with the mythallar, and it speeds her decomposition." Heurodis seemed to notice them at this point--or perhaps she had noticed them before, and felt as though there was no need to rush.
"If you could only sssee what I sssee," Heurodis bragged. "I am joined with the mythal now! Who needsss earthly eyesss when one can sssee with the sssoul of the world!"
"What you sees?" Deekin asked curiously, bringing out his writing supplies and making a note of this.
"Deekin..." Umbra groaned.
"I can see all the vassstness of the Anauroch," Heurodis told them gleefully as a chunk of skin slid off her chin, exposing the jabbering jawbone. "To the wessst, a Formian queen isss laying an egg that will become her only daughter. To the eassst, the tent of an old Bedine man is buried beneath a sssandssstorm..."
"Ooo... maybe you sees if Deekin's friend Raklig the bat be fine," Deekin wondered, remembering a bat he had kept as a pet for a short time in the Nether Mountains.
"I sssee your doom, little one, yesss," Heurodis hissed with relish, and turned to Umbra.
"And I sssee you. I sssee how death clingsss to you, how the shadowsss cling to you. Your life hasss long been over..." Deekin quirked a scaly brow and wrote this down, wondering what it meant.
"Stay your decaying tongue, medusa," Umbra cut in spitefully, lifting her sword high.
"You tire ssso quickly of our conversssation?" Heurodis questioned, her failing cheek muscles barely forming a grin.
"This one came to kill you, not to banter," Umbra retorted.
"With the mythal'sss power, no harm can come to me," Heurodis stated confidently. "Let usss ssspar, then, atop thissss city as it flies. Thisss time I will turn you to ash, not to ssstone!" Deekin reluctantly put his pen and notebook away and reached for his rapier.
"Shadows take you!" Umbra returned, swinging her sword. The blow should have easily halved the decrepit undead; but it did nothing. Thinking she had somehow missed, Umbra swung again. Again, Heurodis stood unaffected, a superior smile splayed across her gross face. Umbra raised her hand and waved it, muttering an incantation. A pillar of fire descended on the medusa, entirely engulfing her. The fire roared down unrelentingly for a good twelve seconds. When it finally died down, Heurodis was untouched.
"What--" Umbra cried.
"It isss the mythal, fool!" Heurodis cackled, raising her own hand. An invisible force knocked Umbra against the far wall. Umbra quickly regained her footing, but only stood there uneasily, wondering what she could do. There was nothing she could do, Deekin knew; it was as Heurodis had said. The mythal protected her from harm.
And there was the mythal, set on a small pedestal at the top of the symbol painted on the floor. Deekin sneaked over carefully, hoping the medusa wouldn't cast a devastating spell upon Umbra before he could complete his mission.
Deekin made it to the pedestal and reached for the mythal. It had gained much power since last he saw it, pulsing vibrantly with magic. Deekin grasped it in his palm, clawed fingers curling around it. It charged him with a burst of magic; he shook it off and wandered over to the window. He took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and hollered, "Hey, mean snake-lady!"
"What is it--" Heurodis stopped mid-sentence, somehow seeing the mythal in his hand. "LIZARD! PUT IT DOWN!"
"Okay!" Deekin grinned, tossing it at the window. The glass easily shattered and the mythal fell through, plunging to the ground below.
"NOOO!!" Heurodis ran over, shoving the kobold aside. Knowing she was too late to grab it from there, she promptly flung herself at the window. The entire window broke at this, raining glass after the lich as she fell to the ground. Mid-air, Heurodis scrambled and flipped herself, stretching to reach the mythal and falling past it. She fell for a long time, finally hitting the ground. She got up, looked up--and then the mythal hit the ground.
The ensuing explosion was amazing. It extended for miles, though Deekin had a perfect view of it from where he was. It was a cloud of swirling, frenzied colors, and one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. It splashed sand all around it, and when the cloud finally subsided it left a great crater in the ground. Heurodis was no more.
Deekin didn't have long to enjoy the victory. The city lurched so sharply it almost sent him flying out the window; without the mythal to support it, Undrentide began to fall again. Deekin could only sit and reflect on what he'd just done.
"Deekin!" Umbra's voice snapped up his attention, drawing it to her. He saw that she had opened the planar door to the Shadow Plane, and was beckoning for him to go into it. Deekin grinned and raced over, jumping inside the door. Umbra was right behind him, shutting the door firmly closed and ushering him away from it. Deekin held his breath in anticipation, though of what he wasn't certain.
Half a minute later, the door shattered. Undrentide had hit the ground again, and in its condition it had, apparently, fared poorly this time around. It must have completely broken...and the planar door with it.
There was a silence.
"How we gets out?" Deekin asked finally.
"We do not."
Deekin shivered at this reply. "Wh-what you means, Boss?" Umbra did not answer; instead, she fished around in her pack. She withdrew a small object and placed it in Deekin's hand. He examined it; it was a ring. A single small crystal shimmered brilliantly on the band.
"What be--"
"It is a ring of Mystra," Umbra told him.
"The goddess of magic?"
"Yes." She took the ring and slipped it on his finger, holding his hand for a while before letting go. "It will take you back to Hilltop, to Drogan's home." Deekin looked up at Umbra questingly.
"What abouts you, Boss?"
"This one shall stay." The words hit Deekin hard. "This one has spent many years in the Shadows...this one can spend many more."
"Boss, no!" He grabbed her and hugged her tight. Umbra was surprised, but returned the hug, stroking his head gently as she did so.
"Deekin...this one would never forgive herself if you were trapped in this place. This one vowed to protect you..."
"But..." He squeezed his eyes shut; he could feel tears coming on.
"Only one of us may use the ring. It shall be you."
"Okay, Boss." He sniffed. "Deekin guesses this be good time to say something. Deekin is, ummm, very happy he comes with you. Deekin was right when he say you be great hero... and now Deekin be hero, too." He swallowed back tears and smiled a little. "Deekin wants to...thank you for freeing him and taking him on great adventure. Deekin not feels like kobold stuck in cave anymore, and that all he ever wanted...to be more than just kobold."
"You are far more than that, Deekin," Umbra told him. "This one knows not whom or what you may encounter in your life, but do not ever let them crush your dreams."
"Thanks, Boss." He hugged her tighter.
"This one would like to thank you, as well," Umbra said. "This one was a minion of the shadow lich...when she escaped, she saw the light, and hoped she could become something more. As the years passed by, even with Drogan's help, that hope began to fade...but then this one met you. You have given this one hope, Deekin, and now this one feels...real. So long as this one has your memory to light her way, this one will never be lost to the shadows."
"Deekin glad he helps." He sniffed again, and for a long while they stayed that way, silently enjoying each others' company. Finally, Umbra let him go and retreated into the darkness.
"Farewell," she said sadly. "May you find happiness and strength in yourself wherever you go."
"Farewell," Deekin echoed, tears welling in his eyes and streaming down the sides of his face. Umbra chanted arcane phrases, and the ring began to glow. The ring's light washed over Deekin, enveloping him, and he was floating...
When Deekin opened his eyes, he was standing in a small living room. A stout wooden table set in one corner, a few cherrywood chairs placed around it. There was a fireplace, flickering invitingly. There was the heavy dresser with the mahogany box, where he'd found the artifacts that day. Here he was, in Drogan's living room again, just as he had when he'd help the other kobolds raided it. So much had happened since then. His stomach clenched, and his heart ached so horribly at the thought of Umbra he thought it would burst. He felt drained of any will, and only stood there dejectedly, warming himself by the fire.
"Who's there?" a voice demanded sharply. Stepping out of a doorway in one wall was an elven woman wearing a strange medley of metal armor, the same that had killed many kobolds off last time he visited. Her eyes narrowed vehemently at the sight of him. Deekin bolted to the door; finding it to be locked, he didn't waste time unlocking it. Bunching his muscles, he leapt up to the window, scrambled up on the pane and jumped out of it. The window had been closed, and he crashed through it with a spray of shattered glass. He picked the largest shards out of his scales as he ran. The elven woman didn't give chase.
Deekin walked for a long time. The weather was even colder than he remembered; a spell Tymofarrar had cast upon him long ago kept him from succumbing to the frigid temperatures, but he still felt frozen, and the ache in his heart made him feel all the colder. He had no idea where he was going; his feet knew, though. They remembered the way, and took him toward the Nether Mountains. He didn't argue; he felt too numb, inside and out.
His foot caught on something and he stumbled, sprawling in the freezing snow. He shivered uselessly, knowing he should get up but lacking the will. Thoughts and memories drifted through his head, mostly ones of Umbra. One, however, concerned Tymofarrar.
"Don't be such a coward," Tymofarrar had chided him once, long ago. "You have dragon blood in you. Be like a dragon. It's the only way you'll ever get what you want."
Be like a dragon. Dragons were courageous and strong. Umbra would want Deekin to be the best he could be.
Deekin got up, turned around and started walking away from the Nether Mountains. One day he would return, but not yet.
His adventures were only beginning.
On the Plane of Shadows, a hooded figure sat slouched in her dead lord's throne. She said nothing, did nothing, but her thoughts were alive with memories of the small kobold that had traveled with her and lighted her bleak existence. In her lean black hands, she clutched the bouquet of faded cloth flowers he had given her.
And she remembered.
End Part One.
(And so ends Part One. Keep an eye out for the sequel, "Dependence II: Lightseeker".)