Author note: heya my readers! Soooo, I know that I said I'd write a NWN1 fanfic after finishing with Meg's story, but the sad truth is that my muse is not going in that direction at the moment, so it'd probably take my a long while before I can get around to working on it, my apologies.
On the other hand, I posted the first chapter of my Yu Yu Hakusho fanfic, titled "Vixen on fire (and vice versa)"! Yay! ᴥ
oxoxoxoxoxo
Even if it took them a bit of effort, Meg, Imoen and their brothers managed to turn back to their natural forms and along with their companions eyed the Blue Dragon's corpse warily, afraid that he could rise and attack them again any minute, but they relaxed when the body crumbled to dust and an impressively big burst of golden fire slammed into Meg, knocking her off her feet with its force. "Ouch", she muttered, getting back up and shaking herself like a wet dog, "Well, he's dead, praised be the Gods. How many of you need healing?".
Yoshimo sighed and dried his forehead with a sleeve, "There have been casualties, sekai no hikari", he admitted, "And I'm not sure if your powers will be enough this time". "I see", she bit her lower lip and noticed with relief that her party members at least were all alive, even if some of them had been gravely wounded, then she had an idea, "Abazigail was a dragon, right?". "Well, duh", Imoen replied, rolling her eyes as she gingerly touched her side: even after drinking the healing potion and having Merlinious patch her up, she still had three broken ribs, a broken arm and blood dripped from a gash in her left calf.
"Yoshimo, come here" Meg called. He moved closer and she whispered in his ear. "Search for the treasure room and when you find it, call me, discretely. I have a plan", she said, then turned to Lothar, "Lothar, come here please". As she spoke to the general, the bounty hunter arched an eyebrow, curious as to why she felt the need for such secrecy, but then shrugged and moved to search the walls for a clue. Soon enough, he found a small panel and pressed it, causing a section of the wall to slide sideways just enough for him to slip past it. He nearly fainted at the sight that presented itself before his wide eyes: he had thought that Firkraag's hoard was big, but this…!
Riches, riches everywhere he looked, so much that his mind reeled at the attempt to assess the worth of the astoundingly huge hoard in front of him, "Sekai no hikari", he called in a shaky tone. Meg was quick to join him and when she saw the content of the room, she grinned widely, "Rats in a shucking basket! This is…This is…". "Rakuen", he breathed, the word meaning 'paradise' in Kozakuran and she chuckled. "I guess you can say that. Okay, let's get to work", she clapped her hands and took a piece of paper and a pencil from her pack, quickly writing down something, then she chanted a spell and summoned another Deva.
This celestial was female and resembled a twelve-feet-tall beautiful woman with chocolate brown skin, big white wings and short rainbow-colored hair, her eyes made of pure light and a soft pink toga was draped on her body, "I am here. What do you require of me?", she asked in a delicate voice like the sound of a harp. "Hello and thank you for answering my summon", the Ilmatari bowed her head, "Now, see that hoard over there?".
The Deva turned her head, then looked back to priestess, "A bit difficult to miss it", she replied with a smile and the human woman laughed. "Right. Well, I have this list of requests for you to grant, if you can obviously. Could you do all that is written in it, please?". The celestial took the piece of paper and her eyebrows rose with a mixture of curiosity and surprise as she read the instructions. The paper read:
1) resurrect any dead human, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Dwarf, Kobold, chicken and Xvart in the room left of this one
2) completely heal and clean up every living creature in the room left of this one and in this room as well
3) repair any broken weapon, piece of armor and magical equipment that was damaged in the previous battle
4) split three hundred and forty-six piles of a hundred thousand gold coins each from the hoard in this room
5) create three hundred and forty-six brown Bags of Holding, one yellow Bag of Holding and fourteen white Bags of Holding
6) put each pile of a hundred thousand golds in one of the brown Bags of Holding
7) split the rest of the hoard in fifteen equal shares
8) put each share in one of the remaining Bags of Holding, aka the yellow one and the white ones
9) make the wings of the Avariel in the room left of this one grow back
"Can you do all of that?", Meg asked and the Deva shot her an offended look. "Of course I can: I'm a Deva, you know". "Okay, sorry, I just wanted to be sure". "If I may ask, why the last instructions? I understand resurrecting and healing your companions, but the rest?", she knew it was not her place to question her summoner, but she was simply too curious about those odd requests: usually, she was ordered to fight, not to split money among people. "This hoard is too big for us to waste time in assessing its worth, but it will take you little more than the blink of an eye, so…", the Painbearer shrugged apologetically, "Sorry if it's demeaning to you".
"Oh, no, it's a thousand times better than having to kill someone", the celestial smiled and set to work and before an hour had passed, she had completed all of her tasks, "Done. Is there anything else you need?". "Well, maybe the mercenaries…", Meg was cut off by the joyous shout of Aerie, whose wings had grown back and her lips curved in a smile, "As I was saying, maybe the mercs will want to be taken away from here. Let's go and ask them", Margaret Dawn walked into the other room carrying all the Bags of Holding in her arms, Yoshimo and the Deva following her.
Aerie noticed them immediately and rushed to them with a smile so happy and bright that she would have put the Sun to shame, "Meg! Yoshimo! I-I, look! I have my wings back!", she cried, tears of joy running down her face as she stretched out her beautiful wings to their full width: they were glorious, looking soft yet sturdy and powerful as they arched behind her, the feathers starting out white at the base and gradually darkening until they became a royal blue shade at the tips. The Ilmatari smiled back, "I'm glad it worked, my friend. It's all thanks to miss Deva here". The celestial arched an eyebrow, "I only did what you asked of me, mortal".
"So…Y-you did this for me?", the Avariel asked, eyes wide and Meg nodded. "I knew how much you missed them and I thought you would be happy to have them back". Aerie tried to speak, but emotion closed her throat, so she simply hugged her friend and held her tight for a long moment, her wings closing slightly around them both as if in another hug. "You're welcome", the human woman said, stroking her hair, then stepped back and dried her cheeks, "Come on now, don't cry. Show me your smile again". The young elf sniffed but smiled joyfully and the human nodded. "That's better".
Anomen cleared his throat, reluctant to break such a happy moment, but he had to ask, "My love, is that why you summoned miss Deva?". "Well, it was mainly to have her resurrect our dead and heal you all to be honest. By the way, Lothar, gather your men please". The general quickly did as told and Meg gave each one of them a brown Bag of Holding, "These bags contain a hundredthousand golds each, straight from Abazigail's hoard. I know you were promised only a thousand by Balthazar, but you fought bravely by our side, you risked and in some cases even lost your lives to help us, so you deserve this reward. Thank you for your assistance, all of you. Now, if you wish to leave this place and go somewhere specific, miss Deva here will teleport you there without a hitch".
The mercs shared glances, stunned at the amazing amount of money they'd just been handed and by the offer, then one of them, a tall tanned man with short black hair, blue eyes and a feather earring cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Uh, miss, we…We're grateful to you, really. You had all of our dead friends come back, gave us all this money…So, thank you. If that's no problem, I'd like to go home in Berdusk, it's been a while since I've last seen my big brother Agron". One by one, all the other men stepped forward and asked to be sent to a specific location and the Deva happily complied, teleporting them wherever they desired, alive, healthy, clean and filthy rich.
Only Lothar lingered behind and smiled at the party members, "I don't know what to say. I owe you my freedom and my life and now…", he looked down at the bag in his hand, shaking his head with a chuckle, "You seem to have a habit of filling my pockets with gold every time we meet, Margaret Dawn", he joked and she laughed. "Well, you worked hard for it, it's the least I could do". "Thank you. And it was an honor to fight with you all: you are incredible people and I wish you all the best". Sarevok nodded, "The honor was mine", he said, clasping Lothar's forearm in a firm grip, "Thank you for your help, my friend and good luck".
All the others followed suit, then Edwin stepped forward. "You did well, for a scruffy simian", he said, shaking hands with the general, "I admit that saving your pathetic hide in Ust Natha was not a waste of time after all". Lothar laughed, "Coming from you, that's high praise. Well, I will take my leave now. Miss Deva, madam, I would appreciate it if you could send me to my old family house in Murann". "Of course", the celestial nodded and snapped her fingers, teleporting him home as he had asked, then turned to Meg, "Anything else?". "No, that was all. Thank you for your assistance". "My pleasure. I wish that all of my summoners were like you", she smiled and vanished to return to Mount Celestia.
Meg then turned to her companions, "Okay, here you go", she simply said, giving each one of them one of the white Bags of Holding, "The yellow one will go to the people of Amkethran, but I'm pretty sure the content of yours will be enough to live a comfortable life: I had the Deva split the rest of Abazigail's hoard in equal shares between us plus one for this bag", she shook the yellow one, "And believe me when I say that this hoard made Firkraag seem poor". Yoshimo nodded, his eyes fixed on his bag that felt deceptively light in his hand, "She's right. I have never seen so much money all at once, it was…", he trailed off, not finding words to do justice to what he had seen.
"Well, at least travelling with you keeps on being profitable (And those insipid simians back home, who think themselves so important only because they have more money than my family, will only be able to watch and weep when I come back!)", Edwin commented with a satisfied smile as he eyed his prize. Gromnir was smiling too, "This will be a great help in rebuilding my city and helping my people. Thank you, sister". "Yeah, thanks sis", Daniel agreed, his trademark grin curving his lips, "Now I'll finally be able to buy my mama and papa the cottage near the lake they've always dreamed of".
"You're all welcome, but first of all, we've got to get out of here and take care of Balthazar. Immy, Edwin, Aerie, Chinchilla, you know what to do with the ashes", she added and the mages set to scooping up as much golden dust as they could, the residual power within it making their hands tremble when they came in contact with it. When they had taken all they had to take, they made their way outside, where they found someone unexpected and not exactly welcome: an old man dressed all in red and with a pointy hat approached them. "Greetings, travelers, I... ". Meg looked heavenwards, "Ilmater have mercy, not him again! Why, why, why does it always have to be him?", she whined.
Elminster cleared his throat, "Ahem. As I was saying, I am here to help thee... ". "Oh, shut the Abyss up, Terminsel, or whatever childish anagram you go by these days!", she cut him off sharply, "We've just had to fight a thrice-damned Bhaalspawn Dragon, without your help I might add, so you'll forgive me if I'm not in the mood to indulge an old man. And if the 'help' you're offering is as useful as that which you gave me back on the Sword Coast, you can shove it where the Sun doesn't shine". The Chosen of Mystra straightened indignantly, "Young lady, I resent that! The help I gave you at the time was invaluable!", he protested and she pretended to think on it.
"Well, now that you mention it...Yes, there is an extremely intelligent, handsome, witty, charming, wise and incredibly powerful wizard in red robes whose help, advice and support are invaluable for me. But his name is Edwin, not Elminster", she concluded, smirking. The Thayan beamed like sunshine at those words, dripping smugness, "Ha! YES! In your face, Elminster! (Oooh, I've always wanted to say that!)". The Ilmatari shot her friend a fond smile, then turned to the old wizard from Shadowdale, "If you have something to say, just say it. And don't you dare speaking in riddles again, you're not a godsdamned Djinn".
Jaheira facepalmed, "Child, please, show some respect: he's Elminster Aumar, sage of Shadowdale and Chosen of Mystra, for Silvanus' sake!". "Sorry, mom, but I have no intention of showing respect to this stuffy old windbag just because he wears a pointy hat and is one of Mystra's toyboys". The druidess groaned, while Sarevok, Minsc (and Boo), Daniel, Gromnir, Imoen, Edwin, Toop, Chinchilla and Yoshimo laughed and Elminster's face became purple with outrage. "I don't like your attitude, young lady! And frankly speaking, I think you are a disgrace to all women with that unladylike behavior of yours!".
The Ilmatari arched an eyebrow, then pointed up at the sky, "Oh, look! Did you see that?". He looked up too but saw nothing, "See what exactly?", he asked, puzzled. "The flying shit I give about your opinion!", she answered, causing the others to laugh harder, even Anomen, Merlinious and Aerie joining in. Jaheira, for her part, was still trying to look stern, but her lips were twitching with the effort of suppressing her own laughter, "Child, mind your language. I think we should return to the Pocket Plane to dine and rest, we had a long day. Elminster, it's always a pleasure. Goodbye", she concluded, then she and the others joined hands and were transported back to the Pocket Plane, leaving a fuming sage behind.