Everything you recognise does not belong to me, it's the property of Black isle and associates. Everything you don't is mine, and I object strongly to abuctions!
Now, Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin ...
Cruel Twist of Fate
The Goddess Duran stepped out into the Abyss of her father, looking out at the stars with something akin to disgust. Despite all she had been through to see Bhaal and his evil perish, somehow her victory was incomplete. The taint still dwelt within her, poisoning her every action, her every thought. She dared not touch the mortal plane for fear her touch would hurt those she wished to help, as it had twisted her intention here in the planes of the gods. She had never intended for Cyric to be destroyed when he attacked her, but the power that left her had crumbled before the taint, and a binding spell had become a death spell, one powerful enough to murder a god.
The reverberations had echoed about the planes for years, reflecting in the greyness of the skies, the sickness of the animals, the failing crops ... the universe was mourning the awakening of a power thought dead, a force that hadthe power to kill even the divine. Her heart lay heavy within her breast, grieving for the life she had given up in the hope of making right what was wronged. Even the Solar had abandoned her in the days following Cyric's death, terrified of how little control her once favourite mortal had over the essences flowing through her veins. The other gods shied away, unwilling to challenge her for fear of being blasted from the planes as the once usurping God of Murder had been.
She had never been so lonely. In mortal life, there had always been people, friends, people she considered family ... her lips twisted in a bitter smile. What would Anomen say if he knew his beloved Duran had become a cold-hearted killer? It would destroy him, she knew, seeking to remember the love she had once held for the priest, the love that had almost broken her heart when she first embraced divinity. The memory of molten brown eyes, wet wth unshed tears, haunted her dreams, but the sorrow that had once filled her was gone, evaporated in the face of the struggle against her darker nature. She could ill afford to dwell on that which she could never have again, not with such a monumental task ahead of her, one that would consume her days, and perhaps destroy her in the end.
But what of the others, the companions who had shared her life, who had made her the formidable woman she had been as a mortal? What of Jaheira, who had lost so much to see her safe? Or Minsc, whose honour had been tarnished by his associaton with her? What of Sarevok, the brother she had saved from darkness, only to fall prey to that same darkness with devastating effect? And Imoen ... what would her sister have to say about the depths she had sunk to in an attempt to protect everything she had once held dear?
The taint pulsed within her, filling every pore with the evil power of Bhaal and all who had followed him, colouring her mood and image. Her once fair skin had darkened turning a sickly grey as her eyes sank into her face, losing the woodland green glow they had always had in mortality to a dusky sallow hazel that would have told anyone of her inner struggle. Once raven black hair had hung in thick curls to her shoulders, but now thin, greasy strands of grey were all that adorned her head, coiling lankly down her back as she swept through the Abyss.
Bhaal's evil had almost destroyed every part of her, but she had not given up. Duran knew there was one place she could go to escape the taint, to prevent Bhaal's evil taking root ever again. She reached out, across time and space, and felt a small swell of triumph as a familiar pocket plane appeared in her sight, echoing with the voices of adventurers as they settled down to sleep in safety. She floated towards it, careful not to disturb the slumbering inhabitants as she crossed into the little reality.
Weary eyes swept over the sleepers, awakening memories of comradeship, of laughter and love. Here was Sarevok, face grim even in sleep, and there lay Imoen, flat on her back, her snores echoing through the chamber. Close by lay Jaheira, tears glistening on her cheeks as she grieved for the loss of her husband even in repose, and at her back, Minsc, one hand wrapped with infinte gentleness about his pet rodent. And further on, almost hidden in the shadows of the chamber, a face she had almost forgotten.
The Goddess Duran knelt beside Anomen, ignoring the bittersweet pain in her heart as she took in how possessively he held his companion, how lovingly she laid her head on his shoulder ... the Bhaalspawn Duran, finding peace in dreams in the arms of her lover knight. She only vaguely remembered this night, so long ago, before she took on the third of the Plane's challenges, after defeating yet another of her siblings in a deadly battle. But it was this challenge the Goddess had come to take, she reminded herself, rising with one final look at the blissfully ignorant lovers.
The avatar coalesced into solidity as she stepped into the challenge chamber, meeting her dark gaze with one of such purity and innocence she recoiled in sudden fear of corrupting what stood before her.
The avatar's eyes narrowed.
'Who are you?' she asked, all authority in this place that was hers, and hers alone.
The Goddess Duran stepped forward, relying on the powers that swirled in the air around her to tell the avatar all she needed to know. She did not trust herself to speak, not with the Slayer screaming in her ears.
'Have you come to challenge?'
The Goddess Duran nodded, watching as the avatar stepped forward to meet her gaze.
'Know then, that I am the innocence you have lost, the ignorance you might have lived your life protected by,' she intoned. 'I am all you could have been, if only Bhaal's taint had not touched you. Look on me, and know what you have lost.'
The Goddess Duran's eyes flashed angrily.
'I do not need to look on you to know what I have lost!' she declared furiously. 'All I need do is look at myself, or at the woman I was, the girl sleeping only yards from us! I know which decisions led to this, with the knowledge that only comes with divinity. But that knowledge has a price, and I do not wish to live under the yolk of my father any longer. I thought that as a Goddess I could change things - I thought I was stronger than the taint ...'
She chuckled harshly, dashing furious tears from her dull eyes.
'I have only one question,' she said softly, and waited for the avatar's gesture before continuing. 'I don't care where I end up, or what fate lies in store for me ... but what of the taint? What will happen to Bhaal's evil if I take this step?'
The avatar opened her mouth to answer, and her eyes widened as points of blue light flashed about them, coming together in near deafening silence to form the Solar as she had once been. The divine being looked on the Goddess Duran with sympathetic pity.
'Your choice is one that cannot be reversed, godchild,' she said softly. 'Be sure before you make it.'
'What of the taint?' the Goddess Duran repeated, unwilling to be turned without good reason.
The Solar smiled faintly, in the infuriating manner that had always made the Goddess Duran look about for something to club her with.
'The taint will return to the Source, and hidden from the world of men, as it would have been had you chosen mortality,' she told the agitated deity. 'But what of yourself, godchild? You will lose any memory of anything you have achieved, any skills you have gained since the loss of any innocence you once held.'
The Goddess Duran smiled bitterly.
'I do not care,' she said, each word dripping with pain and defeat. 'I only know that I cannot remain in this state without causing untold damage to everything I ever fought to protect. I would give my life willingly if it meant an end to all the destruction.'
The Solar reached out with a luminous hand and stroked the young goddess's face gently.
'So be it, godchild,' she murmured sorrowfully, and stepped aside as the avatar came forward, green light pulsing through her skin as she reached out to take the Goddess Duran's hand ...
The laughter of children filled the air as the old knight's guests filed into the hall, colouring each greeting with joy and happiness. For some of them, it had been almost twenty years since they had last seen one another, and there may not be another meeting on this plane. A familiar voice called the old knight's attention to his son as the young man pushed his way to his father's side.
'Welcome home, my son,' he rasped fondly, enfolding the boy in a warm embrace. 'You've been away too long.'
Gorion grinned, glancing behind him with obvious pride.
'Well, I won't be going anywhere for a while,' he told the old man. 'Father ... I'd like you to meet my wife, Cadee.'
He drew a young woman out from behind him, wrapping a loving around about her obviously pregnant waist.
'Cadee, this is my father, Lord Anomen Delryn, Knight of the Order of the Most Radiant Heart,' he completed the introductions, oblivious to the look of heart-wrenching pain on his father's face.
Anomen stared, feeling his heart break all over again. It was Duran's face, her eyes, her smile ... and yet it wasn't. There was none of Duran's hardness, or any hint of darkness lurking about the child's features, no warrior's strength in the rounded arms and shapely legs, no recognition in those green eyes he remembered so well. It was not Duran, he thought with surprising bitterness, not the woman I loved so well I named my firstborn son for the foster father she lost.
'Father?'
Gorion was gripping his shoulder, looking into his face with concern. Beside him, Cadee was watching him with distressed eyes, clearly afraid she had done something wrong. Anomen forced himself to smile.
'Welcome to your new home, Cadee,' he managed. 'I hope your days here may be as blessed as my own.'
The young woman blushed faintly, ducking her head as she answered.
'Thank you, Lord Anomen,' she said softly, each syllable stiking deep into his heart.
Reassured by his father's return to good grace, Gorion drew his wife into the hall, unaware of the pain his bride's face and from had caused in the man who watched them go.
Even her voice is like Duran's, the heartbroken knight found himself thinking. But she is gone, my Duran, my beautiful bard, gone to her rightful place among the gods, to rule over the stars as she was born to do. But dear gods - he lifted his eyes to the heavens - why did her face have to return to haunt him, so many years later?
Okay, guys, this might be a one shot, might be more, I haven't decided yet. Anyone got any opinions on the matter?