(A/N: Sorry for the long pause between writing, but here it is, the final chapter. The reason it took so long, other than my Internet being down, was that I had an entirely different ending in mind, but by the time I got to the end, I just couldn't get it to fit. I gave up on Dependence for a while, when the idea for this ending occured to me. I like it a lot better; I hope you do, too. Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed in the year and longer that I've been working on this story, I couldn't have done it without you! Especially you, WitchWolf.
Disclaimer: If you see it here, odds are, I don't own it.)
Chapter the Last
It was cold. So, so, so very cold. Colder than the Silver Marches had ever been. Deekin's fingers were almost entirely numb as they gripped the quill and he wrote. But he had to write, because the epic tale had to be finished, and he was so sadly behind. Still, most of the events of the past hour were fresh in his mind (and he suspected they always would be) and he recorded them without much trouble, numb fingers aside. Tucking the quill into the book, Deekin shivered violently, returned the book to his pack and stood up, hugging himself in a feeble attempt gather warmth. This was, without a doubt, Cania - the Eighth hell, frozen prison of dead traitors. But Deekin had not betrayed anyone, it was matter of loyally following his Boss that he was even here; and the mortal pains of his body frequently reminded him he was not dead.
Frigid white stretched out in every direction. There were no snowflakes raining down, no sleet; the skies, pale as the snow itself, were clear. A dark thing like Umbra should have stood out immediately. Deekin forced himself to look for a shadow monster, but kept forgetting and found himself searching for a cowled figure nonetheless. There was too much to take in, too much had happened, and while it made the epic tale exciting, it made Deekin feel like lying down in the snow. He loved Umbra deeply, and yet it occured to him that he knew so very little about her. He had not known she was an undead wraith of darkness, for example... what else didn't he know? Trudging through the snow grimly, Deekin could only wonder. Not to mention, what had likely become of Lith My'athar, the Underdark, and maybe even the rest of Toril by now, with Mephistopheles loose on it. Some epic tale, some happy ending. If he could find Umbra, though, she could make everything right... shadow or no, she was the hero. And even if his hopes were useless, if she couldn't do anything, he had to find her anyway. He'd gone without her once before, and he knew he could never live like that again.
"Boss?" The kobold's voice was weak, but he called anyway. "Boss? Where you be? Boss?" He rubbed his hands nervously, trying and failing to bring feeling back into them. "Boss?" All five senses were shutting down, and Deekin's grip on the waking world began to wane. His tail waved to keep him balanced as his legs began to buckle. "Boss..." The world was pale and fuzzy, and his eyelids began to droop over it. He could see, however, that he was not alone.
Tens of mostly invisible humanoid shapes, rendered visible only by the icicles and frost clinging to their incorporeal forms, surrounded him. These were the inhabitants of Cania, bodiless souls, the traitorous damned. Deekin's eyes shot open long enough for him to get a better look at their faces - empty sockets, empty mouths, gaping open and twisted in horrifying moans of defeat as their icy claws reached for him, hungry for his warmth. Deekin shuddered with cold and fear as his eyelids gave up and shut closed, bracing himself for a terrifying death at last.
But something prompted him to open his eyes again, long enough to see something he was finally glad to. Amongst all this white there was welcoming blackness, a fleeting form of dark and shadows which chased the hungry spirits away. "Boss," he smiled knowingly. "You comes back for Deekin."
"Always, Deekin," Umbra assured him. Then the white left his sight, and wondrous blackness took him over completely.
Deekin awoke to delicious warmth. Creaking open his eyes, he saw brilliant orange flames leaping and crackling before him. Pulling himself into a sitting position, Deekin yawned and looked around. There was, as stated, a beautiful roaring fire situated before him, bright and hot; but beyond that on all sides was a black void. It took Deekin a few seconds of taking this in to realize where he was: the Shadow Plane.
"Boss?" he questioned, noticing she was nowhere to be found. In response, a pair of violet eyes flickered open, a safe distance from the fire; Deekin relaxed visibly. "There you be. Thanks for saving Deekin... again, Boss." He scooted farther from the fire and closer to Umbra's eyes, straining his eyes to make out her form, but her own darkness was blended smoothly with the Plane's.
"This one only wishes she could have rescued you sooner," the shadow mourned apologetically. "Are you feeling well?"
"Very well," Deekin nodded, his own eyes set on hers. "Is you okays, Boss?"
"This one has no complaints."
"That good... umm..." Deekin paused, looking around some more. "How we gets here? Relic be all used up, Deekin thinks. Deekin sorry abouts that," he added apologetically.
"As a shadow, of course, this one can always return to the Plane of Shadow. As for how this one got you here... The shadow lich, this one's former master, had many artifacts, more than a few of a teleporting nature. The Relic of the Reaper was but one of them," Umbra explained. "This one... lied to you, Deekin. No mysterious shadow being gave her the Relic. The Relic came from the lich's estate, which this one took ownership of after his destruction."
"You lies? Why you lies?" Deekin was astonished. The reason was astoundingly simple:
"This one thought such a tale would make your story more exciting. Owning an estate hardly seemed epic."
"Oh..." Suddenly, a horrible thought occured to Deekin. "Boss! What about Toril? Mephistopheles still be loose and - "
"You need not worry, Deekin. The gods care for Toril."
"Huh? Deekin not knows what you means." The shadow was hesitant. The eyes faded out of sight. "Boss!" Deekin cried, panicking; he didn't want to be left alone in this place. Fortunately, Umbra was quick to return.
"Fear not, no strange shadows may lurk this one's estate," she told him. Deekin could vaguely make out Umbra's sharp, twisted shadow form coming toward him, a milky crystal held in one clawlike hand. "Here, take this." Umbra gave the crystal to him. "Now... look inside." Deekin did so, and at first saw nothing. Then, the crystal's faceted surface gleamed, and a picture came into view; instantly intrigued, Deekin leaned in to get a better look.
"This crystal, yet another of the shadow lich's artifacts, relates a view of Mephistopheles's actions on Toril," Umbra explained. Sure enough, Deekin could see the devil himself, red and brawny and howling in triumph as he stood on a building in Waterdeep, newly sprouted wings great and arched. An army of the Valsharess's soldiers, killed and raised again as undead, spread out around him. Waterdeep civilizations fled in terror, but while some destruction had been done, Mephistopheles was not lent to the chaotic nature of demons; he was more content with bragging.
"Who dares to face me now?" Mephistopheles crowed. And suddenly, a voice that made Deekin cringe rose to the challenge and declared: "I dare!"
"No..." Deekin whispered. On the crystal's surface, a human in shiny silver armor with even shinier golden hair looked up at the devil with a smirk more egotistical than the devil's own.
"Because I am Nars Sater, and I'm here to stop you, fiendish fiend!" Nars grinned, posing dramatically with his greatsword pointed approximately at the huge devil's chest.
"Fiendish fiend... fiendish FIEND! That... so... bad!" Deekin groaned, his bardic side shuddering at the lameness of it all.
"Oh, really? And how do you propose to do THAT, mortal?" Mephistopheles chuckled, stepping down off the building and onto one of his own undead drow soldiers.
"With... THIS PENGUIN!" Nars whipped out a penguin. The penguin looked as confused as you do. Deekin decided to clutch his head and mutter to himself at this point, as a dramatic battle ensued in which Nars somehow banished Mephistopheles to Cania with said penguin.
"No... no... no..." Deekin moaned, the crystal displaying Nars and the penguin surrounded by adoring civilians. Deciding he'd seen enough, Umbra took the crystal and disappeared with it, returning a few moments to comfort the kobold as best she could.
"You see, Deekin," she explained, "The gods have their plans, and Nars was meant to defeat Mephistopheles all along, not this one."
"But... the PENGUIN..."
"The gods gets bored sometimes," Umbra said helplessly with a shrug of her spiked shoulders. Softly, she added, "You were also meant to travel with Nars. This one... could not bear to see that. That is why she returned." Deekin looked at her, eyes wide.
"You able to return all along," he realized, growing hurt. "Why you not returns, Boss? Why?" Umbra looked equally pained.
"This one wanted you to have a good life," she told him. "Not spend it worshipping something long dead." Before Deekin could speak, she went on. "This one is very old, Deekin. This is how she knows the things she does. But even old things can be selfish, even old things can be childish. That is why this one abandoned the shadow lich; that is why this one played the hero and traveled with you; that is why this one... grew to love you." Deekin smiled.
"You really loves Deekin, Boss?"
"Yes." Her eyes smiled solemnly. "A wise thing understands that sometimes, we must let go of our loved ones in their best interest."
"But it not in Deekin's best interest!" Deekin cried. "Deekin MISERABLE without you! Every year you not there, Deekin feel like he dying inside! Deekin looks at epic tale and reads it again and again, and always hopes you come back, but you never does! Deekin loves you so much Boss, you not sees that? Deekin NEVER be happy without you!"
"You say that," the shadow said sadly. "And you even accept this one for what she is, for which this one thanks you. But this one cannot return your love as you would want her to, Deekin." Umbra's hand reached out to him, long and clawed, caressing his head as she had done many times. Without the robe's magic to cloak the shadow, however, the effect was dire; Deekin could feel his warmth and life being drained out where she touched him, could feel that part of his head growing colder than Cania itself. Umbra quickly withdrew, while Deekin massaged his head until it grew warm again, though not as warm as before.
"That is the chill of undeath," Umbra said sadly. "Do you see? This one cannot give you the warmth and light you give her. This one can only take it... that is why she must let you go." Deekin laughed, to her surprise.
"But don't you sees?" he cried, stepping closer to her across the shadows. "You DOES give Deekin warmth and light, in a different way. You saves Deekin again and again, you takes him away from bad places and makes him happy and takes him on adventure he always wants to goes on. Even epic tales Deekin writes, they not really abouts snake ladies and desert and crystals and caves and mind flayers and devils and drows... they about you, Boss. Everything Deekin loves is abouts yous. Deekin loves you, no matter what." And finding the darkness which comprised Umbra's being, his snout found the place beneath the two violet eye-lights where a mouth would have been and kissed her as best he knew how. It was cold, unbelievably cold; but at the same time, he was warmed. Umbra must have been, too, for he could sense the kiss being returned. When they parted, her eyes looked as happy and content as he had ever seen them.
"...thank-you," she whispered. "This one... is sorry your epic tale did not get a proper ending." Deekin grinned.
"It not over yet, Umbra!" he said, calling her by her name. "But whatever ending it has, just so long as you be there, it be best ending there ever is!"
This was one epic tale that had no climactic good-against-evil ending. For this, no publisher would take it, but that was fine by Deekin; because in the years to come, he wrote many epic tales that not only were published, but were some of the most popular books in all Faerun. He went on the most exciting adventures, with some of the most renowned adventurers in all the land. He left a legacy that inspired many kobolds to leave their caves and venture out into the human world, friendly and unafraid. And he was never alone - wherever he went, his shadow was right there with him. Umbra, that is.
At the end of his epic adventuring career, Deekin returned to the cave in the Nether Mountains. The other kobolds greeted him as a hero, which he was; even Tymofarrar bowed before him in respect for his many accomplishments. He was made chief of the kobold clan, and Umbra ruled alongside him. Together, they formed a pact with the humanoids in the neighboring towns of Blumberg (which had been rebuilt) and Hilltop, and in time the kobolds got along with the humanoids as well as they got along with each other (it's better than nothing). Drogan and the other students (who had since graduated, but visited from time to time) weren't too surprised when they learned of Umbra's true identity. Xanos reluctantly noted his respect for the shadow's achievements, Dorna congratulated her, and Mischa apologized for those many times she'd tried to banish Umbra to another realm, while Drogan announced that he couldn't have been prouder of his former pupil. All of these, Umbra was glad to hear.
Because Deekin was never unfaithful to his undead love, he never bred; but instead took in abandoned children, a few of which weren't even kobolds, and raised them with Umbra. Years after Deekin's death, though greatly mournful of his passing, Umbra protected the kobolds of the Nether Mountains as Deekin would have wanted. One day, however, she vanished; to wherever Deekin's soul went, she followed, it is hoped.
Deekin and Umbra's children had children, who had children; and it is one of they who finishes this story now, with hopes that you who have read it enjoyed it and perhaps, were even inspired by it. After all, if a shadow and kobold can live happily ever after, who's to say you can't?
The End.