Upon stepping back out about 8 hours later, they decided to check the room opposite, at the end of the little arm of the corridor that made it a T-section. Viconia and Minsc keeping the golem within busy, Imoen quickly searched every available hiding place for whatever they might hold.
Almost flying back out, she collided with Jaheira, offering an item of her findings as they regained their balance;
"Jaheira, tell me this is what I think it is!"
Studying the blue bag she were offered, the druid blinked, before giving it back to Imoen, gesturing for the thief to keep it open, and proceeded to lower her quarterstaff into it…and soon found herself kneeling, arm in the bag to her shoulder, still unable to feel any resistance.
Unwilling to test her hypothesis further with her prize weapon, she plucked an arrow from the thief's quiver, and dropped it in. Reaching for it, her hand, having disappeared as it went back in, almost immediately bumped into the wooden missile, and she plucked it out.
Viconia and Minsc having joined them in the corridor, wiping dirt off their respective weapons, turned to her, along with the others as she laughed;
"We will no longer have to choose what to keep and what to ignore…we'll be able to take the whole, blasted dungeon with us in this!"
Retrieving the bag from Imoen, she twirled it on her staff, slowly allowing it to slide down to her hand, swallowing the wood smoothly as it went.
"A bag of holding!" exclaimed Aerie and Negrath simultaneously.
Keldorn were the first to remove his pack from his shoulders, quickly followed a relieved group of fellow adventurers. By unspoken agreement, they only chose the largest and heaviest of their found items for storage in the bag with the misleading facade, and soon found that they could fill it with the gathered contents of their collected packs, and still have room in it for both their weapons and armor.
Putting their protective gear back on and retrieving their weapons, they set out towards the end of the main corridor. As expected, they did not encounter a single beast in that end of the dungeon. What they did find where a large room, split into two thin hallways, lined with gaping faces. Above each and every one, Aerie found, where the suggestion to put one's hand in the mouth of the face beneath. Following one such suggestion, Negrath found himself spirited away to somewhere he did not recognize. Looking around, he came to the possible conclusion that he was inside the inner wall of the room, there to answer a riddle posed by a statue that seemed to communicate directly with his mind;
"Face a Face and Answer You. Exit With the Answer That Frees. Pain is the Price of Failure. The Life I Lead is Mere Hours or Less, I Serve All My Time by Being Consumed. I am The Quickest When Thin, Slowest When Fat, And Wind is the Bane of the Gift That I Bring
Having no intention of feeling pain, he wracked his brain looking for a suitable answer…when suddenly, he remembered reading the tomes of Candlekeep far into the night, and the accompanying importance of;
"A candle."
As flatly as before, the statue acknowledged his reply by transporting him back outside with the words;
"Your Answer is Satisfactory. The Wit is Matched for This Round. You are Freed. Return and Face Another if You Dare."
Not one to be warned off easily, he immediately stuck his hand in the mouth next to the first.
……
As he flashed back to where the group could see him, his head ached, and the world outside had made one full turn, a few occasions of needing a second chance having depleted their stock of healing potions…the spellcasters had been asleep the first time he had returned after having used his second chance, and he had not wanted to wake them.
Dropping the ring he had gained in Imoen's pack, he looked at Minsc to see if he were to replace the ranger, and, as the large man shook his head with a smile, pushed the doors closed at their rebuilt camp from what were assumed to be the preceeding night, before maneuvering into his bedroll next to Viconia.
Studying her sleeping features for a while, he remembered something Gorion had said, about how one's true nature became evident in one's sleep. How Keldorn could have seen something evil in her after his first turn at guard duty, was beyond Negrath's comprehension…foreseen that the paladin knew of the wisdom Gorion had given sound to as though commenting on some piece of too-common knowledge…
He idly wondered what -his- true nature looked like.
In a corner she had occupied for easy and unobtrusive meditation, Jaheira whimpered, tossing uneasily, before shooting upright, staring at something visible only to her inner eye;
"NO!"
The group at her side in an instant, offering anything from magical sleep to a dry chickenleg, she apologized weakly for waking them, pulling Negrath down to sit at her side, her desperate strength giving him little to no chance of escape…even if he had wanted to.
As the others, more or less respectfully, returned to the bedrolls, The druid hugged him with a fierceness that belied the relative calm of her words;
"I'm sorry about this, but it was…it was just…it was just something I'd rather not discuss." She concluded, remembering that he had made his choice.
"Jaheira, even if you are not my closest companion, you are a dear friend, just as…he was. And it always helps to talk about bad dreams. You know…that."
Momentarily doing his best to erase the damned phrase from his mind, he returned the embrace warmly; "do bestow me the honor of helping you with this…please?"
Giving a sobbing chuckle, she whispered her dead husbands name a number of times, threatening to wake the others once more as her voice rose.
"shhh…"Negrath shushed her, hoping she understood both intentions behind the sound.
Biting her lip, she leaned her head against the base of the statue behind her, tears running freely from under tightly closed lids.
"He still with us?" Negrath queried silently, not quite sure whether a positive answer would be a good or a bad thing.
Nodding, the Harper having renounced her status as such shortly before leaving Athkatla for Spellhold, opened her eyes as she became aware of being observed by a second pair of eyes…
"I could keep him off your back, you know…?" Viconia suggested from less than a longblade away, calm replaced with what probably passed for concern with her.
Scrambling to her knees, Jaheira grabbed the Drow's hands, shaking her head insistently, straining to keep her voice down;
"No, my friend, please do not do that! I Love him. If the only way he can be with me is as a ghost driving me crazy with the need to see him, touch him, be near him…then so be it. However he may be here, Viconia, I beg of you…let him."
–"…"
Wordlessly, the cleric, Jaheira having let go of her hands, returned to her bedroll. Tossing a look over at the druid, which the half-elven druid smiled gratefully at, she settled in to sleep. Turning towards Negrath, Jaheira almost laughed, choking on the occasional lump in her throat;
"You were right, Negrath, she -is- worth having as a friend. What I just saw, thanks to her ignorance of my sight, were tears…tears of compassion. Compassion for -me-, Negrath. A druid who never had two good words to say to her!"
"You were the one, other than Minsc, that spoke up about rescuing her..?"
"Yes, but that was also it." She mumbled in reply, regret in her voice.
"You decided we would do what we could to get her back from Bodhi…"
"As though that weren't decided already." She snorted, coughing as a constriction of her throat snuck in midway.
"…well…you were the one to help me have the others join in…?"
"Keldorn, perhaps…Minsc would, as you said, follow you around just because that's what he does. And Aerie…you do know that she still has next to no chance of managing alone?"
"…I guess I do. I would never have managed to get her with me on my own, though…"
"True." The druid laughed, wiping at her eyes to remove what excessive moisture was left.
Embracing the Kensai impulsively, she sighed;
"Thank you."
Moving to rest her back on the stone block behind her, she smiled at him with sad amusement;
"But if we keep this up he might just start to haunt you too."
"What are we talking about here, exactly?" The Bhaalspawn wanted to know.
Pointing at the chest in the middle of the room, she smiled;
"Currently I see him sitting there, smiling at us…" turning to look at him, she chuckled; "…and giving you a rather annoyed look for having chosen Viconia over me."
Looking towards the empty chest, Negrath could almost tell himself he saw -something- obstruct his view directly above it. One arm around her shoulders, he hugged her warmly, smiling at the chest;
"Don't you worry, old friend, I would no more let your wife come to harm than I would Imoen or Viconia…rather less, if you can understand that."
After a suiting pause, Jaheira replied, smiling in contented amusement;
"He knows…and understands perfectly."
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Last modified on September 2, 2001
Copyright © 2001-2003 by Hans-Olav Bråtun. All rights reserved.
