"Away from the Light"
The party of adventurers entered the shade two hours after noon. Ahead of the darkened area the sky was bright and sunny, a perfect summer day, but as soon as they crossed the line of shade a winter-cold wind blew straight in their faces, like a white dragon's breath. It seemed as if something was sucking warmth from the very air along with the light, something that could change a sunny day into what felt like a chilly tomb. After half an hour of walking they completely lost any sign of sunshine from their sight, only dim twilight remaining. The shadows around every stone and tree seemed leaping at the group every time they averted their eyes, only withdrawing when someone looked directly at them. They subconsciously clenched in a small group, slowly moving forward. Daria couldn't help the feeling of icy shiver going down her spine, telling her that someone was watching them from the darkness. She silently turned her eyes silver in attempt to discover the presence.
She caught her breath at the sight and lost balance, landing awkwardly on her knees and regaining proper vision. Her fall alarmed her companions – they hastily, if a bit clumsily created a circle around her covering her from an unknown enemy. Jaheira hurried to her side checking for wounds.
"Shadow fiends… a lot of them" Daria managed to stammer out. She stood up with Jaheira's help. "Xan, Nalia we need Light spells." She began casting herself, but her hands picked the moment to rebel again and she wasted a spell. Her friends' magic illuminations sparkled and hovered above their heads dispersing the shades. She bit her lip and began the incantation again, more carefully. This time she succeeded and the third glow joined up the two above, creating a triangle around the team.
"We're surrounded by the shadows, a type of ghostly undead. I think they are waiting for the dusk to attack." Daria shuddered at the thought. It was dark already, black shadows inside the aura of dimness. Only little light filtered through the dark shroud covering the sky. And it could be darker still… Even elven infravision was too weak to penetrate the ever-present chilly veil. The sun elf could see only as far as the light evoking spells extended.
"We should turn back and find another road" Nalia didn't feel adventurous anymore. The darkness was making her shiver. She could feel the cold through her light cloak.
"These creatures are unnatural. We should find the source of this aberration and remove it." Jaheira pointed at leafless and crooked trees covered with the dark mist. Whether they suffered from the lack of sun or something was draining their life energy, they looked as if they were turning into shadows themselves.
"There is no other way – to avoid the cloud we would have to circle the hills from the south. It would take us many days. And we have to check the village. The villagers probably need help..." Daria stopped in mid-sentence, before saying calmly: "We're going to be attacked in few seconds. Anomen – we need a blessing."
The priest looked at her as if he was expecting a very bad joke. Before he realized she wasn't jesting, the shadows on one side of the road already rose to spawn crimson-eyed monsters, surrounded with freezing auras. Jaheira however used the time to create a flaming sword, which burst into life, blazing in her two-handed grip. Yoshimo switched the arrows in his quiver with the ones enchanted with fire, which they scavenged from the de'Arnise Keep. The magical Lights blinked and faded.
"Will they attack from the other side too?" the druid asked loudly hesitating to join Minsc already cleaving through the first shadow. She was worried to leave the spellcasters uncovered.
"No!" she heard Daria answering. Anomen already got into the fray. He wasn't used to his new flail, but the enchanted shield was resisting the cold touch of the undead. Minsc and Jaheira didn't have that advantage. Their metal armors were only a useless weight against the chilling touch of the undead and every time a shadowy limb slipped through their defenses they visibly weakened.
Three magic bolts scorching with enchanted fire flew in the direction of the mass of darkness. In split second three shadows came to nonexistence and the mages began to repeat the verses of the spell once more. Yoshimo was already out of enchanted arrows. He drew his katana and progressed ahead looking for a best place to strike.
Jaheira's arms seemed heavier with every blow. The burning weapon was devastating for the closest enemies, but there were more of them to come. She heard Minsc battle cry as he entered his berserk's rage, Anomen to his right making use of his holy symbol of Helm every time he got a break from the shadows surrounding him. Jaheira braced herself for a long battle.
Another burst of fire arrows broke through the line of the tide of blackness, only few shadow fiends surviving the blaze. Daria felt a spasm of pain in her hand. She only managed to send flashing Magic Missiles, when Nalia and Xan began the third round of the spells. She saw Jaheira falling under the weight of her breastplate, drained completely of her strength. The fiery weapon fell to the dark grass extinguishing quickly. The bounty hunter fighting arm in arm with her was paralyzed by the shadow's touch.
Daria felt powerless without any weapon except her useless magic, looking at Jaheira unable to move from another attack. She was a diviner and she couldn't even use spells properly! She threw herself to shield her friend whispering the first incantation that came to her mind. A shocking spark that came from her fingers was far too weak to injure a shadow fiend - it wasn't even powerful enough to repel it. She felt a freezing chill as the ghostly hand went straight through her stomach. The world blacked around her and she fell back on the ground, diverting the creature's attention from Jaheira, lying not far away. On impulse Daria separated herself from her body just before losing consciousness. She watched helplessly as the monster loomed over her motionless form beginning to drain life from her. 'At least Jaheira is safe' she thought with sadness, feeling weaker with every bit of energy consumed by the dark creature.
"No!" she heard Anomen shout, running in her direction to fend off the attacker. He wouldn't make it on time, as the remaining shadows immediately moved to seize him. Daria watched his efforts to break through to her with melancholy. Last seconds of her life were becoming the past one by one. She looked at her own face. Her normally light brown skin was now gray and only a smallest glint of silver glowed in her half-open eyes. She never felt that cold in her whole life. The warriors would deal with three remaining shadows and stop the fiend before it hurts Jaheira, but for her it was too late…
A Fire Arrow hit her would-be killer in the chest dispersing it instantly into dark nothingness. Xan darted to her side and kneeled while Nalia finished of the last of the dark creatures firing a spell in its back. Anomen dodged a swing of the Sword of Chaos from the enraged berserker - it took few moments for Minsc to recognize his comrade. By this time the enchanter uncorked a bottle of a healing potion Daria carried by her belt – the last potion left they had after getting through the mad mage's dungeon. Daria could see sweat on his brow as he carefully lifted her head and poured the blue liquid into her mouth. She felt the effects of the healing magic through a link with the material world – a part of the warmth she lost returned to her numb body. The realization that she almost died hit her like a physical blow. A sudden rush of emotions washed over her and she threw her immaterial arms around Xan's lean frame. She knew he wouldn't feel her in the incorporeal form she took and she kissed him feeling tears streaming down her cheeks. She could feel him trembling, even though he couldn't feel her. He was shaking her 'material' shoulder frantically trying to rouse her, almost begging her to wake up. A pull, always present when she was apart from her physical body, was becoming stronger and she drew back. Without her anchor she couldn't resist it long. She touched Xan's cheek with her hand – slender and delicate in this form – and became one with her body again.
She felt tears on her face, though she was material again. She inhaled sharply, and it felt like first breath after long time. And she felt nauseous, her whole abdomen hurting. She pushed all her emotions into a back corner of her mind before slowly looking around. Jaheira was getting herself from the ground, trying to reach her. Anomen was already halfway through a healing spell kneeling by her other side, Nalia panicking in the background. The noblegirl did hold her ground in the fight, so she could panic all she wanted now. Yoshimo was still immobilized in his fighting stance, frozen uncomfortably. Daria's after-divination senses were sharpened as always, but everything close her was blurry and unreal. Someone's hands were holding her head. She squint her eyes and the purple patch merged into image of Xan. He gave her a shaky smile, but he looked as if he was about to faint. Another weave of heat warmed her when Anomen completed the incantation. She sighed and rose to sit pressing her hands to her hurting stomach. Jaheira was by her now.
"Never do that again! What were you thinking?!" the shadows might have drained Jaheira from her physical strength, but nothing could deprive her of the strength of her voice.
"It's nice to see you're feeling good Jaheira" Daria made an effort of sounding lighthearted. The result was rather pathetic.
"Good?! You know how I felt seeing this monster killing you in front of me, unable to move?" the druidess' voice broke at the end of the sentence. She recovered, steel coming back in her words. "You try something like that and I will murder you myself, do you understand?!"
"It's alright. Xan's Fire Arrow came just in time." Daria placed a hand on her mother's shoulder. In times like this she couldn't help but think about Jaheira as of her mother. Everybody looked at her stunned.
"What?" she asked subtly.
"How do you know who killed the shadow?" Anomen asked incredulously.
"Please…" she gave a mock sight of hurt pride. She flashed silver looking few moments back in time. They got the message.
"You did this on purpose?!" Jaheira shouted, before shaking her head with furious resignation and turning her attention to her own wounds.
"Next time you will rely on my speed to survive please inform me earlier" Xan looked pale. Paler, that is.
"Next time I will tell you to shoot it down before it as much as tries to get near us." It seemed that they thought Daria knew what she was doing. Ah, well… She didn't have to clear up every misunderstanding. She nodded to Anomen to give her another one of his healings.
They had to wait several minutes until Yoshimo's paralyze subdued, his muscles finally relaxing. Being touched by an undead certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling. Anomen and Jaheira made use of this time healing the effects of shadows' the weakening touch on the team. By the time the party was ready to move on, Daria was more or less in good shape.
***
The village, called Imnesvale as they learned, was located at the other side of the unnatural shroud, only few steps behind the edge of the darkened area. The sun still could penetrate through the cloud and the little town was bathed in warm glow of summer. At the first sight it looked like a safe haven after fighting through the black pits of Abyss. Nonetheless the first sight was ruined by the first person they met, a farmer, who pointed his finger at Daria, in her dark cloak and hood again, and screaming "Umar! Umar!" stormed off to the settlement.
When they reached the first line of houses they were greeted by a group of militia, armed with forks and scythes, though it looked as if its members were keener on running than fighting. A chubby mayor stood behind the front line.
"G-g-great witch Umar, w-we'd like to make p-p-peace with you" the mayor was barely stammering. The scythes didn't appear exactly peace-encouraging.
Daria looked at her companions, but she was rewarded only with shrugs. She made a step forward. The group of peasants made a step backward, one of them breaking into run back to the village. She showed her unarmed hands. The brave militia flinched simultaneously at the gesture.
"My name is Daria of Candlekeep. I came here with my friends in search of a noble named Valygar Corthala. Do you know where he might be?" she tried to look harmless and polite - the people looked terrified enough without her adding to it.
"Y-y-you're not Umar?" the mayor couldn't believe his ears it seemed.
"I don't even know what this 'Umar' is." It was against the diviners' code to admit that they didn't know everything, but somehow Daria managed.
"Thank gods! You almost gave me a heart-attack!" the mayor was almost pouring out relief. 'It seems this Umar thing can't lie', Daria thought. 'Or the mayor is far too naïve.' Most of the scythes were lowered. The mayor led them to the settlement.
The first thing Daria noticed, when they entered the small square located in the middle of Imnesvale, was that all windows and doors to the houses were tightly shut. The sun was slowly disappearing below the horizon, but it was still bright enough to make out shapes of various holy symbols, illegible runes and other paintings covering all doors and doorframes. The villagers most likely couldn't decide in their choice of deity and she watched with bizarre fascination a crooked resemblance of Malar's claw painted subsequently after Helm's armored palm. No wonder gods were 'indisposed' at the moment, and couldn't help the village.
The militiamen scattered, hurrying to reach their safe abodes before the sunset. The plump mayor knocked at the door leading to the biggest house. It had a piece of wood attached to its doorframe that might have been a sign of an inn once, but now was completely covered in paint.
"Please wait in the inn. I will go and tell my wife Aina where I am and then I will explain everything to you. Don't go out after nightfall under any circumstances." The village's leader disappeared into one of the nearby cabins.
The stench of the inn made Daria actually miss the Copper Coronet. It reeked with the smell of too many people crowded in one place for much too long time. There was a group of traveling merchants scowling over their drinks, refugees, probably from the settlements already covered in the black cloud, homeless beggars and drunks. Among the stench of unwashed bodies, spilled beer and rot, one smell was the most distinctive. The smell of fear.
When the mayor arrived, the doors were tightly sealed and barred. He pointed the adventurers to a last free table in the corner of the common room and began his tale. From what Daria gathered Imnesvale was suffering from the attacks of unknown enemy since about the time, when the dark cloud appeared on the north, a month ago. Few days later their only defender, a ranger named Merella, disappeared mysteriously. Since then the villagers were being slain in their own houses and their bodies were gone by the next day. Some suspected that it was a doing of an evil ogre mage, named Madulf, who came with his band of deserters to settle nearby. Others claimed it was a pack of wolves hunting close to the village. The last gossip was about Umar, a witch from the hills, returning after hundreds of years. The mayor declared loudly that nobody as much as believed the old myth anymore, but Daria dared to have a different opinion after what she saw today. After finishing the tale the mayor went to the bar to make use of the absence of his wife.
There weren't any rooms free for rent but the barkeep pointed them to a relatively dirt-free piece of floor, where they could place their bedrolls. Yoshimo hurried of to make some provisions – making deals with desperate merchants was an opportunity far too good for him to pass. The group gradually prepared for rest.