„Roaming the Spheres"
„You see? These skirmishes are nothing that would pose a problem for experienced and careful group of adventurers" Jaheira began a rant. "Your divinations should be spared only for special occasions. There's no need to use them in every battle."
The surroundings were calm, the only inhabitants of round chambers behind a dark tunnel leading inside the giant construction were already dead. A small swarm of mephits wasn't much more than a minor annoyance and a single half-crumbled clay golem fell under the blows of Jaheira's new enchanted quarterstaff quickly enough, but Daria was far from agreeing with her guardian's sentiments. She felt something was going to happen, she just knew it. Every nerve of her body was screaming at her to find out what was it, but she obeyed the druidess. It was terrifying what Daria was able to endure, just to be able to say 'I told you so'.
It was too quiet for the sun elf's liking. The first few chambers were cleared from anything that would produce any noises and the passage further was sealed by the door possibly opened with the key the golem guarded. There was no reason for any specific sound to be heard, but still… There was nothing unexpected so far, apart from a tall elf with strange golden skin, who they met while entering the first hall. He didn't pay them any heed, departing immediately after seeing that the doors were opened and the party didn't bother him either. It couldn't be Lavoc, due to the difference in race and thus he was most likely one more unfortunate soul imprisoned inside or just a planar traveler. Now it was only them there.
"We will probably need your divinations when we face Lavoc, but before that we can count on our skills to keep us far from any harm" Jaheira's sermon was continuing in a dead silence of the Sphere. "The other rooms shouldn't be any more dangerous than these" she said turning the complex key in a hole in the middle of the seal.
"Planar travel initiated. Sphere defense systems activated. All exits are sealed and can only be directed from control room." A loud dead voice echoed. If someone constructed a talking iron golem it would sound exactly like that.
A sudden tremor caused them to fall on the ground. The Sphere shook, making even Yoshimo lose his balance and fall on the ground, which seemed as if it was about to fall apart any moment, but before it had the chance the balance returned. The floor gave one last quake and it all became still. The party members slowly got to their feet. Daria didn't say a word, but her silence was as precise as a surgeon's blade.
"What happened?" Anomen asked the first, getting his armored reverse from the ground with difficulty.
"I can check, can't I?" the acid in the diviner's voice could eat through the surface of the Sphere's floor should she wish to waste it. She didn't, directing sarcasm precisely to Jaheira. "We're in semi-plane of Abyss" a quick flesh of silver in her pupils looked as a small lightning locked under her eyelids. "The Sphere was programmed to jump back to its previous location at an attempt of intrusion. Repeating the same trick with the key won't work, so our only way out is most likely through the control room, where all the magic of the Sphere is administered, because the way outside is blocked as well. From there we only have to find a way to target Athkatla once more and we're home. Easy."
"Abyss? This is the end. We're doomed…" Xan sighed heavily.
"And Lavoc?" Valygar had the same gloom expression on his face as the time they entered his cabin the first time, but he wasn't even near Xan's level of depression.
"He's in the control room. I'll lead the way. With my divinations. Any objections?"
If scowls counted as objections then Jaheira objected wholeheartedly. Daria decided they didn't count.
***
She wiped smeared remains of a strange aquatic creature from her gloves, wrinkling her nose at a smell of a burned fish. It was close, too close for her liking, and firing a Burning Hands spell from the distance from which she could feel the monster's stinky breath wasn't exactly safe or enjoyable. The effects were even worse. Valygar was being patched up in the corner by both healers after receiving a slash that would sever the arm from his body were it not for his enchanted armor. It was passed in his family for generations, just as his katana, as he told her. It was surprising how talkative he could become and where the conversation would lead after beginning it with a question 'So why exactly do you hate magic that much?' The brooding ranger lost a lot of blood and though the wound was already disappearing under the glow of Jaheira's and Anomen's spells, they'd had to find a safe spot to rest sometime soon.
They were already through a long, cavern-like chamber, inhibited by strange blood-thirsty creatures, surprisingly resembling halflings, a fake forest made of various fungi, including walking on two… let's say feet, people-eating type, a metallic cave with lizard-men and now a sea-smelling round room, with wet spongy floor sinking in on every step. It seemed to be the necromancer's menagerie, but it was surprisingly alive for that. Daria had to admit it was hostile enough, though.
And the traps. There were hundreds of them, just as if every corner was ready to spit acid, lighting or a spike, as if it was some foreign greeting custom. Yoshimo had a hard time noticing and disarming all of them on time, keeping six other people away from the walls, ceiling and unchecked floor. Daria helped a bit flinching every time she had another sudden vision of one of her friends being fried with a sudden burst of electricity, or hit with a blade hidden in one of the walls, though it was rather a subconscious aid. She didn't have to even say a thing, jumping back at another gruesome death or injury she witnessed, for the bounty hunter to start studying the surfaces of the place carefully. At the beginning of Daria's career as a diviner and an adventurer she had a hard time with visions such as these, but by now she got used to them enough not to panic about every trap or burst into tears without any apparent reason. Explaining her mind that it's all not real, at least yet, or never, if she had her say in it, helped a bit.
She didn't have much use of her precognition, otherwise than that. There were no split ways and if there were any secret corridors, then even the famous Yoshimo wasn't able to detect them. One room, one way in, one way out – a path was leading in a spiral from the borders to the middle of the construction, from what the elf was able to determine. The space wasn't all that vast, but murderous monsters waiting for them behind every next door did slow their progress considerably.
The next chamber was a welcomed change from the local exhibits of various elements and missed ideas of room decoration occupied by accustomed overgrown flora and fauna. It was a laboratory, calm and dusty, probably undisturbed for long years. The flasks and bottles didn't contain anything more horrifying than a snake drowned in alcohol - Lavoc was certainly few leagues behind Irenicus. A desk, some strange construction made of metal and glass pipes, jars and dust, piles of age-worn books, broken potions and the rest of ancient mystic equipment, all dimmed with faint green light, coming from unknown source. And what was the most important - the chamber was monster-free.
"Team, we take a rest" the diviner ordered throwing her pack on the ground, squashing a tiny spider to a pulp under its weight.
"Boo is hungry! Who has the food?" Minsc asked loudly. They all had. With the amount of free time they had before entering the Lavoc's creation they made provisions as if they were going to invade the hells. Abyss wasn't any better, but it lost some of its primary dread when faced on full stomach.
After sating their hunger, everybody went to take care of their rest. Weakened Valygar and both healers fell like clogs on their bedrolls, tired after the day's fights, the rest of the team spread attending their equipment and weapons. Yoshimo began to check the room for traps once more, slightly paranoiac after disarming hordes of spikes on springs, acid bottles on strings and twisted electric generators. Daria picked one of the brighter spots and drew a pack with runes she attached to her belt when the party took off from the Copper Coronet. Twenty-four round stones lighted in anticipation.
Basic rune-reading was one of the easier lessons in Candlekeep and one of the earlier ones she learned. Apart from the normal runic language she studied, there were basic spell runes, their many dialects, types used by elves and dwarves, forms used only on the north, only on the west or only underwater. And there were also the divination runes. Each of the symbols had a unique meaning, but depending on the other symbols it was close to, it had many interpretations. The diviners used them from early ages, but the true skill was rare and even with a great talent in school of divinations it took a lot of practice to be able to read all the implications of the pattern. Daria had a talent and knowledge, now she only needed experience.
"What are you getting yourself into this time?" she caught Xan's gloomy curiosity after a fifth attempt, announced by a flash of emerald light.
"I'm trying to make out the pattern" Daria answered with her eyes peeled to the ground where the stones lied, pouring remains of magic in form of tired olive light. "Funny thing… I tried to divine my future, I thought it would be the easiest as a practice. This stone here and this one here…" she pointed a configuration. "…it shows that… I will die giving birth to a child?" Xan paled. He couldn't read a death sentence for her in the set of stones, but he believed that with her skills. If she foresaw it then she couldn't be wrong, even though it seemed impossible that in her current situation she would have such an unsuitable death cause.
"…but moments before it showed I will live a long and happy life till my appointed time. Doesn't it contradict each other?" He couldn't help a sigh of relief at her words.
"Show me how you do it" he asked. It was a known superstition that only a diviner could read properly from a pattern made by his or her runes, but at least he could check if she read the incantation right.
The diviner gathered the stones with some difficulty. Xan tried not to flinch when Gooseberry hurdled from the shadows and began to place the runes on his mistress' outstretched hand. Daria focused her attention on the thing she tried to uncover and threw the whole set in the air.
"Oroth uum whopei" she whispered as fast as she could. Emerald light flared moments before the set made contact with the ground.
"And now…" Daria bent over a new set of green lights. She only read the few central runes, not skilled enough yet to interpret the whole pattern. "…'conclusion' in element of fire, a wildfire perhaps. It can't be right."
"You're doing it the wrong way. The incantation should come before you throw the runes. It symbolizes an element of randomness and should be applied before. This way the runes are enchanted before they are thrown up, which represents the trails of destiny every mortal faces." Xan sighed deeply pausing in his explanation. "Only then a proper pattern will show."
"Ah…" Daria paused for a moment realizing her mistake. She raised her head back at Xan. "Let me divine something for you" she caught his arm to stop him, should he try to run away.
"I already know my future and there is nothing good or surprising in it" the enchanter sighed. "I will be dead within days, perhaps months, if I am lucky, which I doubt. My spirit will be trapped in Moonblade for centuries to come and the sword itself will be placed in hands of yet another unfortunate elf." He stopped complaining feeling her hand, without the protective covering of her glove, grasping his. Something in such a simple connection of their skin sent shivers up his spine.
"Oroth uum whopei" she recited solemnly, without the hurry this time, and threw all the stones up with her one hand. They blinked like true emeralds in the air and seemed to dance, twisting and whirling around each other before they fell. Daria immediately leaned to check the result.
"It is written here that… oh my! You will become a hero every elf will recognize. You will even have your own statue in Evereska! And you will get married, live in a house big as a palace and… have twelve children" she added a pause by the end for a dramatic effect.
"I… You're making it up" he asked incredulously. I took more than Daria's authority as a diviner to convince Xan that his life wasn't going to end tomorrow and he could settle down and find out that live was indeed worth living.
"Sorry… Couldn't stop myself." Ah well, she didn't expect him to believe in her little jest. "But it's here that you probably won't die any time soon and most likely succeed in your current endeavor."
"…only to be given another hopeless mission. But… thank you."
"No problem" a wistful smile was adorning her face. He took his spellbook sitting by her not to disturb her experiments and began to prepare his enchantments.
***
The lower levels of the Lavoc's Sphere were just as full of various monsters as the upper ones, which was bad, and were much smaller, which was worse. Apart from the obvious difficulties with fighting in tight corridors, where Minsc's new sword had a predicament to leaving marks on the ceiling, there were also new problems with finding fresh air in the passages. The atmosphere was stale before, the necromancers' hideouts rarely smelling with flowers for some mysterious reason, but now it became suffocating, with a smell of rot coming from the source no one truly wanted to detect. The heat coming from ahead wasn't improving the situation.
And the walls were coming closer. Daria never saw them move, but she could feel as they were clenching around them like a trap, aiming to crush their unsuspecting victims. She tried to keep an eye out on the surroundings, but as they descended further it didn't help. And the ceilings were becoming lower forcing her to watch out for them as well. Pearls of sweat were beginning to drop from her chin.
"Alright, what is going to happen?!" Jaheira was the first to break under the tension of group's diviner glancing around the corners like crazy, radiating with nervousness. Ironic that she was the one urging Daria not to use her foreseeing before.
"Um…" Daria's eyes turned silver for a second. "There are some fire mephits ahead" she said without looking at the druidess, her eyes fixed on the wall behind her. It wasn't the answer Jaheira expected.
"And that's why are you staring at the walls?" the half-elf placed both hands on her hips, stopping the march.
"Don't you see that they are getting closer?" The team answered her question with puzzled expressions. Only she noticed it? She was happy she did then, otherwise they might have been crushed unexpectedly. In a general moment of silence even Jaheira lost her confidence and looked at the rest of the party for support.
"Let me handle this" the elven enchanter stepped before the unnerved diviner. He began with a heavy sigh. "Daria, why didn't you tell us you are claustrophobic?"
"What?! I'm not…" she had to steal a look up, to check if the ceiling is still in the same place. "…I'm not claustrophobic!"
"Somehow I find it hard to believe" Jaheira raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry little Daria! The walls won't eat you!" The sun elf tried to chuckle at Minsc's comment, but sounded so forced, that she resigned, preferring to take a look at the surrounding corridor.
"Give us a moment alone" Xan took his former student by the arm, gesturing others to give them some breathing space.
There wasn't much space to be given for a moment alone, but they made few steps back in the corridor. The stench became stronger and Xan tried not to lower his eyes to the ground, in fear that he might be the one to finally discover what its source was.
"Close your eyes" Xan asked softly after they stopped. The spot was good enough for what he was about to do. He understood what she was going through only too well. Entering the mines hidden in the forests of Cloakwood was a memorable experience after being imprisoned by Mulahey for over two months, and a one prone to returning every time a gloomy darkness of a dungeon or a underground passage closed above their heads. And now Daria was entering a mad wizard's laboratories once more, damp and full of monsters, with small rooms no elf would ever live in with comfort. It wasn't that hard for him, since he got used to a feeling of inevitable doom weighting over their heads, but it was completely new thing for her. He could do something to make traveling through easier however.
She threw a last fleeting look around and shut her eyelids obediently. 'I trust you' Xan remembered her say. She was blind drunk then, but… He touched the side of her face. Physical contact wasn't necessary for the spell he wanted to use, but he managed to convince himself that it would make it easier to cast. And harder to concentrate.
Xan only hesitated a moment before choosing a right place. He knew where she would be happy to be. A complex muttered verse, one smooth gesture and an image of a glade surrounded by a forest, full flowers in every imaginable color emerged before her closed eyes. A gentle breeze was twiddling in the grass, but never touched the girl standing in their midst, as well as the sun, covering the peaceful clearing in the glow of the end of the day. It was an impossible idyll, alive only in dreams.
He didn't enjoy watching flowers as much as she did. They reminded him painfully about the fact that all beautiful must wither and die sooner or later. But the amazed and overjoyed look on her face, no longer grimaced in nervousness, some naïve admiration in her features… 'All beautiful must wither…' He broke his gaze.
"Try not to bump on anything, if you plan to walk with closed eyes." Her eyes opened again at his words, but the grim reality was much more unpleasant to be put before such a beautiful dream and she closed her eyes again allowing him to lead her. She could now take a brief respite from the pressure her memories provided, as easily as closing her eyes. It was only an enchantment, not true teleportation, but good enough for such a purpose. Unless she was going to lead them to their deaths, marching into battle with her eyes closed.
"Thank you" Daria whispered from her imaginary world.
***
"The control room begins on the other side of this door." It was a final council of war before facing Lavoc the necromancer. Everybody was gathered around Daria, listening as she described the appearance of a large gloomy chamber. Valygar lost his controlled façade the moment she said that his necromantic ancestor was on the other side of the doors, now more resembling alternately a raw adventurer, lost in a veteran group, and the next second a revenge-driven madman with murder shining in his eyes. Yoshimo, who was walking alongside with him by now, took a wide step back.
"And one last thing" Daria continued. "I'm going to divine throughout the fight, so to those of you who are new to this – you are going to do exactly what I say, immediately and without questions. So when I say jump you don't look at me puzzled or ask how high. You jump" the diviner stated sternly, preparing mentally for the fight. Keeping the concentration all the time, in a midst of a raving battle was more than she ever tried, but if they were to face a five centuries old necromancer and live through it, she didn't really consider any other option. She could rely on luck of course, but she wasn't going to. A vision of her standing in the middle of a bloodied battleground, among the bodies of her friends, was supported by her imagination, backed up with her worst fears, instead of foreseeing, but she was going to listen to it just the same. She stopped herself from taking a deeper breath, it could only end badly with the suffocating gas that might have been air once filling the place, and pressed the heavy seal, which served as door to the control room.
Minsc and Jaheira ran through the doorstep at once, in as much distance from themselves as they could. They were both experienced in fighting mages and knew that being hit with a fireball was an occurrence that lasted in a memory for a long time. Anomen and Valygar kept together marching forward, fast, but not running. Xan took a position in a corner away from Daria.
Someone was there, on a platform among various controls and gizmos giving strange noises and unexpected flashes of light, accompanied by bubbling coming from translucent tubes filled with dense liquids. The dark shape began to turn to face them, and for a brief moment Daria considered closing her eyes in fear she might see something she didn't want to keep in her memory. But when a dark figure was lit by another sudden flare only a human face of a man in his late forties emerged from the darkness. Lavoc looked surprisingly well for his four hundred years.
"You!" the man hissed with as much hate and disgust as one set of voice chords could generate. "Because of you the Sphere returned to the Abyss. Fools… I was so close…" The strange resonance of his voice was giving creeps even to Gooseberry and he didn't understand a word of what was said. The rat hid deeper in his mistress' pack.
"The vow of my family will be fulfilled. You will not cause any more evil to this world, or any other, mage" Daria silently praised Valygar for a good piece of heroic talk, giving her enough time to prepare to enter her trance.
The words accelerated as her perception shot forward in time like a missile, cutting through the present tense. She stopped it after ten seconds, which hadn't passed in the place where her body was. Jaheira and Minsc were already only few steps from the stairs leading to the platform with controls, where the necromancer stood. Valygar hasn't finished his speech yet.
One wide swing of brand new talking sword - it couldn't be that easy. Daria knew that such things happened only in Minsc's tales and not because of his bad sense of narration. It never worked because…
A set of defensive abjuration spells erupted from Lavoc like myriad of auras, piercing through one another in a mix of shades that made tears appear in eyes.
"Xan, Dispel him! Breach as many as you can!" Daria flinched when she didn't hear her voice. She probably said it when there were no magic shields visible yet. Her vision shifted, making the world she saw whirl before her eyes, but after a moment she got used to its movements enough to discern a magic-removing dispel consuming hungrily some of the necromancer's newly built defenses. If Xan started casting ten seconds ago than the effects could be visible now, like an upgrade made on her vision.
"Ano, block him with a curse" the diviner tried to navigate through another time shift. She squint her slanted eyes to focus solely on the platform. Her vision gained sharpness just in time for her to see Jaheira's hand burned almost to a crisp by a fire shield.
"Watch out for the back-fire, Jah!" once more her voice stayed in the past, beyond her ability to hear. And the control room whirled, now showing the druidess dodging the force of her own blow returned to her in fiery cash. Daria realized that from some time their opponent's eyes were turned towards her, as he was uttering some words of a spell in a demonic tongue that certainly weren't a herald of another defense to appear. How should she warn herself?
She didn't have to dwell long on that question as in one swift moment a gap opened in all sparkly defenses for a moment long enough for Valygar's katana to penetrate through, interrupting the incantation.
"You will pay thousand-fold for this, mortal" Lavoc's voice lost any resemblance to what a human could emit. His features twisted beyond a work of muscles, but she was spared most of the gruesome details due to the shadows, fortunately not in humanoid shapes, gathering to cover the dark mage, along with his opponents. The sun elf realized it was a fear enchantment a moment too late. No, wait… She still had ten seconds.
She saw nothing and barely felt a thing, but she cast this particular charm countless times and her fingers didn't need much encouragement to fall into the right rhythm. But synchronization the invisible movements with her voice she couldn't hear either was agonizingly difficult, like half of her head was stuck ten seconds later than the other. Another rapid change in reality when she succeeded didn't help, leaving her on her knees. She cursed and got back to her feet. And again she didn't hear the curse.
'Alright, everything is alright.' Daria counted seconds with her waning strength maintaining the precognitions. All the front lines warriors resisted the fear effect protected by her charm and the necromancer's shields were beginning to falter.
"One last breach, Xan" it wasn't a decided order, more like a weak plead. She was rewarded with one of the most complex breaching she ever saw, appearing in her view in another spin of time. Upon its contact with one last miserable Stoneskin protecting Lavoc's hide all blows finally found their aim. And then a ground shook one more time. 'I didn't do anything this time…' the diviner though, but then she realized that it's not the time changing, but her perception. To more 'groundly' to be precise. She was fainting again.
Moving back was the only thing she could do, now that she couldn't see the future. The scene once again played before her eyes, like a more literal sense of déjà vu. Xan was just finishing his Piercing Magic incantation, while the rest of the party was trying to hit into the gaps of the faltering abjurations, but something was missing…
'Ah, yes.' A surge of pain in her head drew a moan from her lips. All was on place.
"Someone catch me" she asked like if giving another order. The ground stopped before hitting her in a face.
"Hold on, I'm taking you to Jaheira" an elven voice whispered to her ear. The fight must have finished and from what she remembered no one got seriously hurt. Her first successful divined battle – she was proud.
"Wait. Wait a moment before the ground stops spinning" Daria asked. Not proud enough to be able to walk. After the series of shakes, trembles and minor quakes caused by the ever-changing future standing on a solid ground was like trying to step on a drunken mouse.
Xan stood motionless, supporting her, breathing possibly quietly. She could almost taste his worry.
"I-I think I'm going to be sick" she warned loyally. She felt as if she was being released from his arms and tried to stand on her own, but the enchanter only guided her to sit on the ground, picking a place beside her. 'If you don't watch out, I will ruin another robes of yours, my foolish love' she though with some unusual tenderness, taking deep gulps of air. Slender fingers, warm after the exertion of the battle, gathered her hair behind her pointy ears, tracing lines on her forehead. Calmness came.
"What's wrong?" Daria heard a series of metallic clinks accompanying Anomen's voice, making clear that the priest was kneeling by her now.
"She's nauseous" the enchanter answered, but she could hear his voice by her ear as if he was talking to her, instead of to the priest.
"Let me help" Anomen most likely drew his holy symbol of Helm.
"No, it's fine" Daria sat straight. "I'm better now. I think I can stand." Anomen moved to hold her as she tried to get up, but Xan got in his way supporting the diviner, allowing her to hold up to him. The priest threw the elf a strange look.
Jaheira was bandaging burn marks Yoshimo received from his daring if ineffective assaults at the mage's fiery barrier. Minsc was waiting in a queue to get a same treatment. Valygar stood still on the platform, looking down at his barely breathing ancestor. He really had it all planned.
"The times when your evil taints the worlds are over. My family will no longer live in your shadow." The hatred in Valygar's voice was a bit too fiery for a conventional hero-talk, but beside that the line was almost perfect. All the party members, beside Jaheira, busy with treating burns, were watching the scene.
"What…? The presence… which possessed me… it's gone?" Lavoc was barely stammering through his wounds. He was already beyond the help of even an expert healer.
"What is it? Some sort of trick?"
"I have no… tricks left… who…?"
"I'm Valygar Corthala, the last of Corthala family, your family Lavoc, family you thrived upon like a ghoul, prolonging your unnatural existence!"
"Yes… I remember… I am… all this things… and… something more".
Only a glare answered his barely muttered words.
"You banished the demon… demon I fought for so long… to our world… it wanted to reach…" Lavoc stopped, too weak to continue.
"I won't be fooled by your ploys".
"I can help you… to return to… to the Prime Material…"
"Why would we trust your good will, necromancer?" Jaheira joined Valygar on the platform after finishing treating her patients.
"You… have no choice… the Sphere listens only to its owner… I have a favor to… ask".
"He's saying the truth" Daria made her way on her shaking legs to the platform.
"I want to see the sky… of my homeland… I want to die on the plane… where I was born".
"We will take you outside if you show us how to return to Athkatla." Now it was Daria's turn to take the lead. Valygar was too distrustful and Jaheira too angry after almost being fried. And someone had to take them safely home.
"I swear, if this is some sort of deception…" Valygar drew his katana with the magic glowing on its edge menacingly.
"It's true… my descendant… just a favor… for an old man… who wants to finally rest…"
"How do we return?" The diviner cut the talk. The necromancer didn't look like he had enough time spare for wasting it on arguing about the trust. For her it was as simple as listening to her insights. Not that it was an infallible method.
"The Sphere needs energy… from a demon's heart. I will open the gates… outside".
"To the Abyss? We are doomed" Xan groaned.
"Jaheira, you will have to stay and keep Lavoc alive" Daria considered for a moment. She didn't relish the thought of leaving her step-mother alone with a formerly demon-possessed necromancer. She quickly evaluated her group. "Xan, you will stay with her. For safety reasons."
The druidess snorted. As if she needed protection. Xan took it with stoic resignation.
"We're taking a short break. The rest – we're in for a trip to the Abyss".