(A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update. I know it's been forever. I have up to like chapter sixteen written, but I'm more focused on my DBZ fic right now. Well, anyway, I hope you like it, and I'll try to update on a more regular basis. Please R&R.)
"I should have known!" Tanis cried, pacing furiously back and forth across the common room. The others followed his path helplessly, not knowing what to do. "Curse that sly, conniving, sunnuva--" With a sharp yell, Tanis drew his sword and started to charge after the Black Robe, only to be thrown back by a spell of warning. He crashed heavily at Laurana's feet. She sighed and helped him up.
"What can we do? Why is he here?" Tika demanded, green eyes flashing dangerously.
"You don't know, then…?" Crysania asked wonderingly.
"Know what?" came the simultaneous response.
Though she could not see it, Crysania could sense that all eyes were on her. "Fistandantilus, the wizard who inhabited Raistlin's body when he completed his Test, was freed upon the archmage's death; and he took Raistlin's power with him. Now he seeks to enter the world again, this time in the body his former host's twin brother. That's why Raistlin came back. He came back to save his brother!"
"Somehow I find that hard to believe," Tanis muttered, rubbing a growing knot forming just above his left eyebrow. "Raistlin would never lift a finger for someone else unless it had something to do with his own plan of action." Gently pushing away his wife's worried touch, he began to once more pace the room.
" Of what plan of action do you speak, Half Elven?" Crysania demanded. "Raistlin was at rest, held to peace by his brother's essence. Now that the bond to eternal sleep has been severed and his brother is in danger, he wants nothing more than to save his brother's life!"
"How do we know that?" the half elf argued, kicking a pail across the floor in frustration. "For all we know, Raistlin could be in allegiance with the Dark Queen, and they could have been planning this from the very moment he was sealed into the Abyss!"
"It was he who kept her from entering this world in the first place, Tanis," Goldmoon pointed out gently. "There is no way that she would form any such alliance with her most hated adversary."
"Plus, the moment he completes his mission, he will be taken back to the Abyss, never to return," Crysania added quietly, almost to herself. The group turned once more to stare at her, this time in disbelief. She drew herself up defiantly under their scrutinizing gaze. "Perhaps you have always misjudged Raistlin, and perhaps that is why you have always distanced yourself from him."
"But it was he who distanced himself from us!" Tanis said halfheartedly, knowing that she spoke the truth.
Crysania shook her head. "No. He always strove for your approval, wanted nothing more than to be, for once, looked upon with the same respect that is given his brother. And when he could not achieve this, when he received only bitter rebuke for his attempts, he withdrew from the world. He hid beneath a mask of defiance, pride, and a lashing tongue. He turned completely to the magic, which consumed him like wildfire. I know you scorn this course, condemn his actions as heinous sins that can never be redeemed. But you know what? That was all he had left."
Raistlin heard Crysania's bold speech from his place by his brother's bedside. He smiled bitterly.
"How well you describe me, Lady Crysania," he muttered. "It seems you know me better than I know myself. But there is one thing you have wrong. I care nothing for the world's approval. I care nothing for the praise of that fool of a half-elf. No. All I want…" he reached out a trembling hand and laid it upon his brother's cold forehead. His twin's skin was like ice beneath the burning touch. Raistlin smoothed back the wavy brown locks, hair that had been so much like his own before the wretched wizard had shattered his health and cast him into the shadows. "All I want is for it to end," he whispered. "I am tired…so very tired. I just want to lay my head upon your strong arm once more, my brother…and let the cool darkness take me. This world holds nothing for me. But for you, my brother…for you, the future promises many great things. Joy, fertility…children…love." The archmage's unnaturally green eyes flicked over to the gem his brother held in a crushing grip; a grip that would have shattered any normal piece of jewelry. The bloodstone that was all too familiar pulsed, with the regularity of a human heartbeat, a malicious red under his brother's pale fingers. He smirked. "So we meet again, you little parasite," he sneered. Placing a hand that no longer shook over his brother's, he held it fast. "Be strong, Caramon," he murmured. "This time, I will save you." Closing his eyes, he willed his mind into the jewel.
Senan awoke in her feather-down bed with the curtains drawn shut, a porcelain face with flowing black hair still vivid in her mind. Trying in vain to push the picture to the back of her mind, she wondered vaguely how long she had been asleep. Turning stiffly onto her side, she opened the gossamer bedhangings and peered out the window.
"The sun's still up," she muttered, "but that can mean that I've slept for a few hours, a day, or even a week. I guess I'll have to go find out…wait!" She sat bolt upright, sending her red hair tumbling messily about her shoulders. "I almost forgot! Raistlin…and Lady Crysania…"
She betrayed you, young one.
"Huh?" Senan turned this way and that, but could not locate the speaker. "Hey…where are you?"
The High Cleric betrayed you. Against your wishes and mine, she used the truth-seek to fish information that was not for her to know out of your unwilling mind. She has once more submersed herself in darkness, and this time, there is nothing I can do to save her.
"Who are you?" the cleric asked, drawing her coverlet up around her chin.
Why, my child! I am the voice you have been following your entire life! Do you not recognize your god?
"P…Paladine…" she stammered. "My god…" she slid onto the floor, pressing her forehead to the cool marble. "Forgive me, I did not realize…"
Rise, my child. I have many things to tell you.
Shaking, Senan crawled once more under her silken coverlet. "I will listen with all my heart and soul."
Very good. Senan flushed with pleasure as she felt the god embrace her. You are familiar with Crysania's past, are you not?
"Yes," she answered. "The past concerning her and Raistlin?"
Then you are aware that she has tried and failed to bring the archmagus to the light?
The cleric bit her lip. "Unfortunately." She pictured the slender young man with his white hair and golden eyes, and she could not repress a shudder of delight.
You could succeed where she has failed, my child. You desire Raistlin Majere, do you not?
Senan clapped her hands over reddening cheeks, ducking her head in shame.
The god laughed. Do not be ashamed, my dear. It is true that Raistlin Majere walks in darkness, but the darkness is not that which you have been lead to believe. Senan thought she sensed a hint of anger in the god's voice, but she put it off that she had imagined it, for when Paladine spoke again, it was with the same gentle, loving calm that he always used. That particular mage fights on no side but his own. I want you to bring him to our side, dear one. With him walking with us, we could expel the other gods once and for all!
"But I thought balance must be maintained," Senan ventured hesitantly. "You have never before strove to get rid of the others--"
Oh, I do not intend to dispose of them all. Just the ones who oppose me. The gods of neutrality will remain, as will the gods of magic, so long as they do not interfere. The other force in this world grows too strong, and I seek to obliterate it.
"Then I was right, wasn't I?" Senan's eyes shone. "When I spoke with Lady Crysania that night, she told me that balance must be maintained, as were the teachings of Elistan. I told her all evil must be eradicated! Oh, I was right…"
The god smiled, but did not reply.
"What must I do, Great One?" Senan asked eagerly. "Tell me and I shall obey."
Bring me the Staff of Magius. With it, I will open the dread portal and draw Crysania to myself. I will purge her soul and make her worthy of me. In exchange for her soul, I will restore Raistlin to life. He will join us in our cause, and we will be unstoppable! You will have your lover, and I will have the world as it should be!
"Um…Great One, shouldn't we wait until Raistlin has defeated Fistandantilus? Only a mage of dark power can manage that…"
As you wish, young one. Fistandantilus will be destroyed within the day. In that time, you must go to the Tower of High Sorcery. I have granted you a charm that will allow you to pass unharmed through the Shoikan Grove.
"But there is a specter guarding the door to the room, and he is bound to never let anyone pass--"
The door will be opened from the inside. Do not worry.
"I…I have one more question."
Speak.
"Won't Raistlin…disappear after his duty to his brother is complete? Isn't that the deal he made?" Senan twisted the silk between her hands, her head bowed.
The god laughed. Silly girl. Raistlin Majere's work is far from finished, whether he knows it or not.
Senan raised her face to the heavens, eyes shining and defiant. "I am ready, Great One," she cried. "I will do all that you have asked."
When Raistlin opened his mental eyes, he was in a room fashioned completely out of ruby. There were no furnishings, no rugs, no windows. Just a plain, empty room.
"Raistlin Majere. So good of you to come."
Raistlin whirled around to face a crypt of a man. Decaying eyes stared out of sunken eyesockets that were more bone than flesh. The nose had rotted away, leaving two hideous holes in its place. Dry, blackened lips were pulled back from yellow teeth in a haunting leer. Skeletal hands were folded into the sleeves of black, moldy robes which hung in tatters from the ancient wizard's bony shoulders. Raistlin's lip curled in disgust.
"So you've opted to become a mummy," the young mage retorted, clenching his fists in his sleeves to keep from throwing up. Or could he have thrown up, being only a mental apparition? He wasn't sure, but he decided not to risk it. "Personally, I would rather have died than keep up that farce. Where is my brother?"
"So you actually care now, do you? But then, I suppose you always did. Ever the weakling, eh, Raistlin?"
Raistlin bit back a bitter remark. "If I am a weakling," he grated with forced calm, "then why do you fear me?"
"Because you were once…well…me." The mummy wizard's horrible smile widened. "So in reality, I am afraid of myself. Quite ironic, is it not?" He barked a laugh.
"Ironic isn't exactly the word I'd use," Raistlin muttered. "More suitable would be the term…pitiful."
The laughter ceased. "What did you say?" Fistandantilus hissed. "Pitiful? The only one who is 'pitiful' is you, my dear host. You and your frivolous attachments!"
"It was those 'frivolous attachments' that kept you from gaining control of my brother's body for so long, you wretch. He knew I would come to help him, and so he held on." Raistlin reached out to touch the ruby wall of the room with a slender hand. He caressed it, feeling the rotting mage's eyes widen in fear upon his back. Smirking, he curled his fingers into a fist. "And I will help him. By all the gods, I will free him from your parasitical hold if it rips my soul to shreds!"
"Touchingly noble, young whelp. But nobility wins admiration and foolish songs, not battles between men."
"Or what's left of them," Raistlin returned cynically. "In the words of a very wise man, 'Est Sularus oth Mithas'. My honor is my life. Though this phrase is long past applying to me, it has won many battles." Turning, he placed both hands upon the wall, which seemed to darken to the color of blood.
Fistandantilus chuckled disparagingly. "This should prove most entertaining," he chuckled, moldy breath rasping through his yellowed teeth. "A weakling like you trying to take control of the jewel."
"I've done it before, fool. What's to stop me from doing it again?" Raistlin gritted his teeth in concentration. He hastily called the words of the spell to mind, trying desperately to remember the right inflection of each.
Shuffling footsteps sounded behind him, and soon the ancient wizard's fleshless hand rested upon Raistlin's shoulder. The smell of death and decay stung the young mage's nose. "I will stop you, Raistlin Majere," he hissed into his former host's ear. "For this time I am prepared. I knew you would come, just as your brother did. Your brother's foolish hopes weren't what was keeping me at bay. No, of course not. I wanted a chance to get my revenge…upon you."
"I'm touched," the young mage said dryly. Turning suddenly, Raistlin tackled the illusion of Fistandantilus. The ruby room seemed to constrict around them, as if they were rushing to try to save their master. Soon the chamber was no taller than a toddler, and no wider than a man's armspan.
"Wh…what are you doing!" Fistandantilus raged, his skeletal fingers digging painfully into the young mage's wrists.
"What I should have done the first time you confronted me with your fool deal," Raistlin cried. "I'm going back to the Abyss; and I'm taking you with me!" Curling his own porcelain fists around the ancient bones, he held on tight. The words of the spell were quite clear in his mind, and he spoke them without hesitation.
Dust to dust, as humans are
Servants of time we all remain
Wrinkles of age, our eternal scar
Which proves that every life shall wane.
A pact with the dead, a deal with the gods
Save the ones who fear the grave
But time itself creates staggering odds
Of once more becoming to time a slave.
Dust to dust, for dust exchanged
A life for a life, a soul for a soul
For aging itself cannot be arranged
Only postponed by another's death knoll.
To Takhisis I offer the heart of this man
In return I expect his youth to be mine
And now I accept that I am what I am
A servant, a slave to the passage of time.
The ruby walls shuddered. Fistandantilus glared up at Raistlin with utter hatred burning in his hollow eyes.
"You condemn yourself," he spat. Already his skin was crumbling away, his bones decaying before Raistlin's very eyes. "You fool!"
"You are the fool, Fistandantilus," Raistlin breathed, feeling his strength fading fast. "You allowed yourself to be ruled by another."
The skull laughed in dying derision. "I was ruled by no one but myself."
"No, you weren't. You were ruled…by time." Raistlin's hourglass eyes flashed in the crimson light. Fistandantilus let out a horrible shriek that was cut short as his body crumbled away to nothing. Raistlin collapsed where his enemy had fallen, feeling his soul being drawn back…back to the Abyss…
"You made me the Master of Past and Present, the one thing you longed to be but could not!" he roared into the blackness. "And thus…were you defeated." Then he sank into oblivion, his last conscious thought being that he hoped Takhisis enjoyed the age-ripened soul…then choked on it.