Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The characters, places and anything else you recognize is property of Bioware.

Just to inform you abou things you don't want to know - the rewriting is going rather well. I'm actually surprised myself. Yay. Update-time! Within less than two months since I posted the last chapter. Amazing isn't it.
There's a bit of an old scene in this chapter, but since it tied in rather well I decided to use a slightly revised version of it.

Kendris - Thanks a lot for your review. Yes, the Portal-layer-thing was probably a bit confusiong... that was partly intended because it's confusing for the searching goddess and you see things through her eyes, but maybe I should explain it now. :smiles:

The area around the Portal is kind of a way station where the souls wait for either their 'real' afterlife or being reborn (which is decided when they pass the Portal). The thing with the layers comes because everyone sees this place like they think it should be; that's also why there are kind of groups in certain places, like nobles around the castle and such. The gods and especially the one who brings the souls there are not really bound to the laws of this place and can see and enter all the different layers (the dead people see only the layer they are on).
The Portal itself looks different depending on the layer, too. E.g. in the library I mentioned a small, unobtrusive door - that's the Portal seen from this layer. For the nobles it's the entrance-door of the castle and in Haer'Dalis' lonely place where it's always night, it is the lake itself. How people see the Portal is not as directly controlled by them as the looks of the area around it, but it has to do with what they think about life and death, too.
A person can be resurrected as long as they have not passed the Portal yet.

Finduilas - Thank you very much for telling me about the wrong words. Since English isn't my mother-tongue I suppose there are going to be more of them... uh... and I did the stupid dessert-desert thing. :curses: I actually changed that when I checked for mistakes because I believed it was correct the other way round... :laughs: ...so thanks a lot, I've corrected these things now. :)

Shadow - I hadn't thought at all of the explanation for the title you brought up, but it convinces me. So I think I'll keep it... thanks. :)

Chapter Two

"Well... you said you wanted to talk to me, my raven?"

"Yes..."

"And what about, if I may ask?"

"You're a bard - I'd like to tell you a story..."

The poet leaned back in one of the big and comfortable arm-chairs, that were now to be found near a fireplace in the middle of the round room. The throne was gone.

"I am always curious to hear new tales, Taya," he said with a smirk.

"'Taya'... it's been a long time since someone called me this name..."

"Ouch! Your rodent bit me!"

"If Boo bit you Minsc is sure there be good reason!"

"I didn't do the little guy any harm!"

"Will you two shut up, please, I can hardly stand this crowded place anyway!"

Taya could not help but smirk at the scene. Minsc was still quietly talking to Boo, while Yoshimo had put his bleeding finger into his mouth and was obviously sulking now.

What she did not find very amusing, though, was that the noisy and crowded city really seemed to irritate Jaheira. But although she felt concerned for her friend, she did not worry about this too much - she would take care to get a job that brought them to the woods and wild land around the city for a couple of weeks, and everything would be alright.

At the moment they were making their way through a wide street leading down to the docks. When they came aroud a corner, there suddenly were no more houses by the left side of the street but just a small wall, over the brim of which a mignificent view over the quarter, the port and the bay unfolded. Taya was a little surprised by how beautiful all this looked to her - until this day she had not believed that there was anything about a big city like this one that could appeal to her. While she was still enjoying the view, especially on the sea that was glittering in the bright sunlight of the afternoon, Yoshimo closed up to her and cleared his throat.

"Ahm - Taya, would you have a second for me?"

Taya reluctantly turned her head to look at him. Although she had been travelling with the bounty-hunter for several weeks now, she knew practically nothing about him. She had asked him about his past when they first met, but he had somehow managed to tell her everything and nothing, and so she had just asumed that he liked his privacy and left it with that. That he wanted to talk to her now made her curious.

"Sure. Is there anything wrong?"

He smiled and shook his head, but he looked a little nervous, though.

"No, no, everything's fine. I just thought that... you know, now that we're going to the docs and... oh!"

He drew a dagger with enormous speed and leapt straight towards her, and for a second Taya seriously believed that he was going to kill her. But either he had aimed really badly or the stab had maybe not been meant to be for her after all, since he stopped the knife somewhere behind her back. Turning around slowly, she saw a small hooded man in black leathers, who was holding a few small gems and goldcoins in his hands, Yoshimo's dagger right in front of his throat.

"Amran. Nice to see you again," Yoshimo stated with a rather weak try of looking like it, "But please give this lady her money back, would you?"

The other thief growled but handed the shiny contents of his hands back to Taya, muttering something like 'only worthless stuff anyway' under his breath.

"Thank you," Yoshimo said and drew back the dagger.

The small man snorted and snarled "Renal wants to see you, bounty-hunter. And you'd better not let him wait."

With this, he turned around and vanished in the crowd. Jaheira, who had followed the whole scene silently, gave Yoshimo an especially icy glare.

"Don't tell us you've messed with the head of the Shadow-Thieves."

He grinned weakly.

"Well, no, not really messed. It's just the way that they... don't like people who ... work independently. We could make a profit of the situatioin, though. As far as I know, Renal needs someone not in his guild at the moment to solve some problems for him, and I suppose he might be willing to exchange my punishment for a little help. We could even talk him into a nice payment, I guess."

Now it was Jaheira who snorted.

"Oh, and what if he prefers to make a nice little trophy of your head? Do we have to fight our way out then? Against a guildhouse full of Shadow-Thieves?"

"Look," Yoshimo said, trying to calm her, "We can either talk to Renal now or wait until his assassins find us."

"Or we can leave you to your problems!"

She turned around.

"Taya, we should send him away. I've got a strange feeling about him. He's trouble, and we owe him nothing!"

"We cannot abandon a friend in need!" Minsc declared enthusiastically, but Jaheira just ignored him. Taya looked looked into her face.

"Jaheira, we don't even know if that Renal really is that mad at Yoshimo."

She looked down to her feet and continued, "And yes, I do owe him something. He has saved my life in combat a few days ago."

"Ha!", yelled Minsc, "Then it is a matter of honour to save his life now! Isn't it, Boo?"

Boo gave an approving sqeak.

"Fine," Jaheira spat, "Fine, then. I've warned you."

Taya reached out to lay a hand on her arm, a worried look in her eyes.

"Jaheira, please..."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not leaving." Jaheira snorted again. "I will stand by you, for you will get into serious trouble sooner or later if you remain that naive. You trust people too much, Taya, and you will regret it one day."

The bard could not hold back a small grin. The goddess arched an eyebrow.

"Is my story that amusing, poet?"

His grin did not fade the slightest bit.

"What an icy remark. I see my raven has lost some of her humor. But to answer your question - I was amused because I remembered my first impression of you... which was not that you were a person who trusted others easily..."

Haer'Dalis awoke in the twilight of a storeroom full of food gone bad, but scattered over the shelves there were also some perfectly intact looking magical instruments and ingrediences. He sat up but immediately regretted to have done so - his head hurt as if he had drunk at least a dozen of big mugs filled to the brim with dwarven beer. And he knew what he was talking about in that matter.

He had just managed to get to his feet somehow when he heard fighting-noises in the room next door. He looked around quickly and found that his weapons had not been taken away - surprising, but unfortunately he did not have the time to think about it. He cast a rather simple protective spell - his head still hurt too much to concentrate on a more complex one - and withdrew to a corner of the room to wait. While he stood there his memory of how he came to be in this place slowly came back to him. The wizard he had tried to steal from had caught him and then... well, what then? He could not remember, but obviously he had been kept in this place somehow.

While he still thought about it, two women entered the room; a tall blonde half-elf in in heavy armor who was having a vigilant look around, and a younger elf with brown hair, who looked small even considering the norms among her people. Haer'Dalis decided to come out of his corner - as their eyes were much better than those of humans, they would see him the next moment anyway and might think him to be hostile if he was hiding. So he resheathed one of his swords - not the second one, for who could know if these two were not worse than they looked - and took a step foreward.

"Good day, my friends...", he greeted them and wanted to add something else, but he did not get that far. The elf with the brown hair, who had started to look through the magical instruments with a kind of semi-interest, spun around and immediately cast a spell that knocked him off his feet. Before he had even realized what had happened, she was standing next to him, staring down at him coldly and holding a fireball in each of her hands, both of which were undoubtedly aiming at him. He smiled and made a calming gesture.

"My dear lady, there is no need for such hosti--"

"Shut it."

She cast another spell and he fell silent.

"What do you think, is that him?", she asked over her shoulder, without looking away from Haer'Dalis, though. The half-elf, at whom the question had obviously been directed, was standing behind her younger friend, her arms crossed over her chest. She eyed him critically, then nodded.

"I think so... at least he's a tiefling, like the rest of these actors."

The elf did not seem to be convinced. She let one of the fireballs vanish to make a gesture with her now free hand, and Haer'Dalis felt his voice come back.

"What's your name?"

It sounded like a command rather than a question. He cleared his throat to make sure his voice was restored to its full capacity before he answered.

"The name of this humble poet and bard is Haer'Dalis... and I assume you two--"

The brown-haired elf cast a silence-spell for the second time, and while her friend kept a sharp eye on him she turned away, walked towards the doorway and shouted "We've found him."

She shrugged one shoulder. It looked a little strange, because otherwise she was sitting in her armchair with all the dignity that suited a goddess.

"You're right, I didn't trust you at all when we first met. But I had my reasons."

The bard smiled and raised one eyebrow.

"Of that I am sure. But you would not care to tell me these reasons, would you?"

"Not yet," she said, "But... I am sorry for not trusting you."

A small smirk flickered over her face.

"...and for taking away your voice, which I suppose offended you much more."

He laughed.

"I most heartily agree. You could not have done anything to gain more mistrust and antipathy from my side, my suspicious raven."

She smiled, and he contently laid back his head to look at the celing of the room for a moment; it had attracted his attention from the second that he had arrived in this place. It illuminated the room somehow, but although he had spent several minutes just listening and staring at the celing already, he had still not managed to define what he saw. He asumed that it changed in color, but other than that he had found out nothing about it.

"What do you see up there?" she asked, following his eyes. He shifted in his seat to look at her again.

"Naught but colors that I cannot even name, my raven."

He smiled.

"Why do you ask? Do you see something else?"

"I see the past...", she said, looking at the celing herself now. He realized with a silent curse that the smile had already left her face again - he hated being unable to cheer people up. He only very rarely was. So he adressed her in a voice with a well-measured amount of cheerfulness to it, "Talking about the past, my raven, I interrupted your tale with my own little episode... forgive a bard, this is just what we are like. So would you like to continue now?"

She looked down from the celing again with an absent-mided expression in her eyes, then, after a moment, nodded.

When they left the Shadow-Thieves' guildhouse again, it was almost sunset-time. Things had turned out well, though - they had been assigned a task in the exchange of which Renal Bloodscalp had agreed to forget about his differences with Yoshimo.

Taya however was currently not thinking about the work that was ahead of them, but had burst into almost hysterical giggling the moment they had left the building. When she had regained her ability to speak, she whiped away her tears and hit one hand onto Yoshimo's back, who for his part was looking rather humiliated.

"'Yoshi', huh?"

The bounty-hunter stared at the ground.

"You don't know him, he's always like that. Especially with people he considers to be beneath him."

Taya was still laughing. Yoshimo took a last, rather poor attempt to save his dignity.

"Really, fail in this task he gave us and he'll call you 'Tay-Tay'!"

In her current state, the stupid name made Taya just laugh even more. Yoshimo shook his head and gave up, a grin spreading across his face, though.

"Fine, laugh, but don't you ever call me that name!"

"Aww, don't be angry with me, Yoshi!"