„Opening Hearts"
Getting a demon's heart in a brimstone-smelling, smoke-filled dark plane of Abyss was both easy and difficult. Easy, because finding a demon in Abyss was as hard as finding hay in a haystack, and difficult because convincing a gigantic size demon, fully armed with spiky scales, horns and teeth, to willingly give up his heart… surprisingly easy was not.
Though persuasion had to wait until a demon was found in the first place. The atmosphere in the semi-plane was so dense, that made Lavoc's Sphere resemble a perfume factory in comparison. It was predictable that the demons would savor the smell of sulfur, but what was happening in there was a bit of an exaggeration. On the other side from the first step no one had any doubts that it was no heaven.
The first attempt of leaving the safe shelter of the Sphere turned out to be a complete failure, and after a minute the party had to withdraw, defeated by the smell alone. The second try, which they took with their faces covered in a pieces of blanket, was a partial success, since they only had to take few steps in the alien landscape, consisting of reddish rocks and strange shards seemingly growing from the ground, to notice the first demon. Partial, because the demon noticed them as well.
***
The silence lingered.
Jaheira put the dying necromancer under a sleeping enchantment, to preserve what was left of his strength until the party would arrive with a demon's heart. Now even his labored breathing was barely audible and hopefully it would remain so until the rest of the group returned. From what the druidess knew no one from the group ever faced a demon before, but she believed they would keep each other safe. Her ward's resourcefulness ceased to amaze her from the time she stopped to doubt it.
Xan didn't appear to share her certainty. He took out his spellbook and tried to go through his enchantments the second time this day, but eventually gave up, unable to concentrate while his thoughts were being drawn away by the rest of the group, facing demons somewhere outside. He was watching the entrance to the control room with uneasiness. And the silence lingered.
"What happened then?" Xan jumped at the sound of Jaheira's voice creating an echo in the deaf silence of the room. The druidess stood up from her seat by the necromancer and walked up to him. The enchanter threw her as neutral look of ignorance as he managed.
"You know what I'm asking about." There was no trace of irritation from Jaheira when she stated the fact, which was at least surprising. "What happened that night in Imnesvale? And don't even try to tell me that nothing. You may think that it is none of my business, but remember that Daria is my ward and all that concerns her is my business." There was no harshness where it should be. The realization that Jaheira was easier to deal with when she was irritated and domineering was even stranger than her current behavior.
"I…" he began. '…don't know what you are talking about' remained unsaid. The silence lingered once more.
"We may not see eye to eye in many matters Xan, but I consider you my friend, as I hope you consider me yours." Jaheira's declaration was even more stunning than the druidess' calm manner. It wasn't that he didn't consider her a friend, or at least a close ally, but he never expected her to say it just like that. For a moment Xan considered if she wasn't under Lavoc's influence, making her act so bizarrely. Or he rather wanted her to be, so he wouldn't have to answer the question, but he sincerely doubted the dying necromancer had any interest in his emotional state.
"I… kissed her" he muttered only barely audible enough for Jaheira to hear. It was a poor description of what happened, of what he felt, of the pointless madness that took him for a moment, but it would have to do. He shifted his eyes to the ground not to see Jaheira's expression.
There was a surprise at first, and then suspicion that he was lying, shock at the realization that he wasn't and at last, consideration. All emotions the elf didn't see played on the druidess' face.
And the silence lingered.
***
"Now that we're done with the hard part, who's going to…?" Daria let the question remain unfinished, as she pointed at the torn and smelly carcass of a demon.
"Minsc is too strong for such a subtle job, so says Boo! He could destroy the heart!"
"I'm not sure I know where a demon's heart is located" Valygar took few steps back.
"Me neither!" Yoshimo quickly added.
"Priest's ethos forbids me from using cutting weapons!" 'But you do use butter knife' Daria thought sarcastically when Anomen, her last chance for keeping relatively clean robes, backed away from the dead demon.
"Men!" she pouted, drawing a dagger from her boot. And then she sighed and let her divinations lead her hands inside a dead fiend.
***
"Does she know you...?" Jaheira asked after few minutes that felt like a heavy age. Out of all the possibilities this she did not expect. She suspected that maybe Daria got too 'expressive' with her friendship while intoxicated, or she said something embarrassing again, but not this… The pair of elves never appeared to see each other this way, at least to her. And Xan was the last member of this party she would suspect of doing something unpredictable.
"She doesn't remember and I didn't tell her. She thinks she said something again and I… I don't want to lose her friendship".
"Do you love her?" Jaheira's tone was gentle as if she was afraid to ask.
"No. There must be some other explanation. I can't…" 'I can't love her' Xan ended mutely. He felt Jaheira's hand on his shoulder.
"If you ever need somebody to talk to…"
He simply nodded.
***
It was beating in her pack, she could feel it clearly, despite three layers of what was left from the torn blanket covering it tightly. Hearts were supposed to stop working after their owner's death, weren't they? Demon's hearts turned out to be an exception from the rule, and a very unpleasant one. Gooseberry wasn't overjoyed with the revelation either and decided to change his current dwelling to his mistress' shoulder, a location with perspective. They once again marched through the spiral leading down to tighter corridors and chambers with corpses of various creatures stacked in the corners. As the low and tight passages once more closed above their heads the diviner bit her lower lip until it bled, wishing Xan's fabulous enchantment hadn't extinguished already, but somehow she managed to reach the control room, located on the lowest level.
Jaheira immediately drew her quarterstaff as they entered, readying it to defend herself. Xan sitting nearby slowly put his spellbook down, loosing his hands for casting.
"Relax, it us" Daria weren't surprised they weren't recognized, covered in red dust and, in her case, sticky demon's blood, with their faces covered and smelling with odor de'Hells. She tried to uncover her face, but reconsidered, since after using hands which saw the inner side of a demon's chest she probably wouldn't be any more recognizable. It wasn't necessary however, as the druidess already put down her weapon, somehow recognizing her comrades through the stinky layers.
"Are you hurt?" Xan was already by Daria's side, ready to support her, should it be necessary.
"It's not mine" the diviner explained glancing with disgust at the sticky blood, drawing the beating heart from her pack. Thumping could be heard from inside the knotted material.
"I will wake him up." Jaheira eyed the beating pack and went back on the platform, where the necromancer slept.
"Anything happened while we were out?" the sun elf asked quietly, watching the druidess progressing with her magic.
"It was peaceful" the enchanter answered quietly, watching the druidess as well.
"You must hurry… I don't have much time left…" a pained moan announced that Lavoc is once more awake, if not for long.
***
'Why is it always me?' Daria thought with irritation, rising to her tip-toes on a shelf sixty feet above the ground, trying to touch the hole in the construction above her head, where the heart should be located. 'I'm the leader, I should be picking people to do the dirty work, instead of doing it myself' she sighed, before trying to concentrate on keeping herself on the ledge. The coordinates were already set according to the wounded necromancer's instructions and now all that was left to do was placing the source of the energy inside the engine. And she agreed to do it. Actually she forbidden anyone else to do it, but it didn't mean she wanted to be a volunteer. She sighed once more.
Her hand grasped a sharp tooth of one of the maw. She shivered. Who thought that giving an engine a shape of three demonic heads was an interesting and unique idea? She tried to find a safe spot to rely her weight on, but the shelf was wide enough only for one of her foot to stand. Apparently the golem previously assigned to this work had to be pretty slim as well. And probably had wheels which Daria in this particular moment pitied to be deprived of. Two levels of falling lower her party was watching her every move. 'Yoshimo should be doing this' the diviner nearly slipped looking at the bounty hunter limping after his meeting with demon's claws, standing on the firm ground below her. She sighed for the third time and made few inches further. Now she could sense two teeth in the maw under her fingers. The only thing left to do was place a beating demon's heart between them.
A vision bursting inside her head on this height almost sent her down very quickly, but she managed to hold on to a pointed tooth. It torn her glove, along with her skin, but saved her life. 'Come to think on it demonic-shaped architecture had a lot of advantages' she though regaining balance and trying to control her own racing heart. A simultaneous gasp of her party could be heard from the ground but Daria didn't take her chances to turn and look down once more. She was more absorbed with the little problem her vision showed. According to a quick, but very precise and dramatic glimpse, putting the energy source into the engine would result in a mild electrical wave being emitted, only strong enough to push a medium-weight elven female from a narrow ledge.
'Guess Lavoc forgot to mention this little detail' she frowned trying to figure out what to do. The necromancer most likely didn't count on her fall. It was more probable that he really forgot to mention it, since his golems were far too heavy to be harmed by the wave. 'If I fall I will end as a smeared stain on the ground. Unless…' Daria made a quick summary of the spells she had left prepared for this day. And a usual-unusual feeling told her to prepare a levitation spell during last rest. She smiled fugitively. She could always rely on her divinations, random as they were.
One quick whispered incantation, a bit of a manual labor with locating a piece of stinky, beating flesh inside the maw, a rapid jump downward to avoid a miniature electrical storm – and a show was ready. Another gasp was now accompanied with a her name being screamed quite loudly by Jaheira, but in split second the levitation spell kicked in, reducing her fall to slow and graceful floating.
"By Silvanus horns, you could have warned us!" the druidess seethed when Daria landed slowly just before her. Being caught on caring in public persistently annoyed Jaheira.
"It wouldn't be…" 'that fun' died out in the horrible roar, coming from the depths of the Sphere's engine, making the floor shake as if it was but a piece of paper in a hands of a hyperactive child. Daria was the only left standing, or at least floating straight, that is, until Anomen brought her down to the ground, shielding her from the bits of the great mechanism falling all around them.
The diviner stayed immobile, curled under a shield with Delryn family crest, for a lasting moment, waiting for the shaking to cease completely, announcing the end of planar travel.
"Is everyone alright?" she dusted her robes nonchalantly gathering her sorry self from the floor. Fully plated warriors had more problems with getting to their feet.
"It's just a scratch, my lady, nothing to be concerned about" Anomen answered the diviner looking at a cut on his temple, with a smile proud as if he just faced a battalion of hill giants.
'Heroic fool' Daria thought, not without indulgent sympathy. She brushed a curl of hair from his forehead, touching the cut with her fingers and letting her inherent healing abilities take care of it.
"What about Lavoc?" the sun elf turned to Jaheira, only to notice the strange look the druidess was giving her.
"I'm alive… but please hurry… these are… my last moments" the necromancer was kind enough to answer the question himself.
***
"Ah… The sky… I forgot… after all this time…"
Athkatla was beautiful. It couldn't be compared to peaceful Candlekeep, refined Evereska or the majestic splendor of wild forests, but despite the smell of the slums filling the air, despite the cursing and arguing heard from below and even despite the muck and dirt covering every free surface it was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. Daria once again couldn't stop to wonder how the sunlight could change the worst pit into a place she longed with all her heart to be in.
And the sky… Could it be truly a coincidence that not a smallest cloud was visible this gorgeous noon?
"I want to… thank you for… for your kindness… young wizardess" The sentence was directed to Daria, who with some difficulty shifted her gaze from the firmament to look at the necromancer. All she saw in the daylight was a pained old man, dying not only from his wounds. And despite what she heard about him and all that transpired in the Sphere, she couldn't help but pity him.
"I pass the Sphere to you, making you its new owner. May it serve you better than it served me." For a brief moment Lavoc's voice wasn't faltering anymore, sounding strong and confident. Only for a moment, because when he spoke again it became even weaker than before.
"My heir… Valygar… for what it's worth… I'm sorry." Those were his final words.
"He's dead." The ranger stood up, interrupting a moment of silence with his voice, strangely changed by the absence of hatred. "Necromancer Lavoc is finally dead" he said as if he couldn't decide whether it was good or bad news. "The vow of my family has been fulfilled at last, but I don't feel any satisfaction. I… I thought it would be different."
Daria was staring at her hands, Valygar's words passing her attention. She felt different. Something changed and not only that…
"Could he repent?" Valygar asked people around him, people he hardly knew. For the first time he didn't appear confident nor determined. For the first time he looked as lost and unknowing as they all were.
Daria looked back at him and suddenly fell to the ground, wild spasm shaking her arms and legs, radiating further. Something was about to happen! A horrible memory surfaced with a sound like if somebody was turning feather-weight pages of a large tome, a completely non-ominous and not sinister sound she heard many times just before waking up, last thing she remembered from her dreams. Many mornings she wondered what was making the sound and couldn't recall where she heard it. Many mornings she pushed it from her mind, concentrating on her quest to free Imoen.
Teleportation! Irenicus' spells bringing destruction to the Promenade and everything near, falling boulders, bricks and pieces of wood from the ruined shopping stands and running. Wild running without a direction as far from the chaos raging behind their backs as they could. And then the sound, many sounds of the Cowled Wizards appearing all around them.
She stirred to consciousness tender and hurting, but didn't waste time on lamenting over her bad condition.
"Get inside. Quickly!" she screamed. It didn't turn out as loudly as she planned, but she was being held by Minsc and Valygar close enough for them to hear her. The brooding human got startled for a moment, but Minsc was used to the visions and he immediately repeated the order, taking the shaken diviner into his arms as gently as he could in full plate armor.
"Little Daria says we need to enter the Sphere at once!" Minsc shouted already bending not to hit the entrance with his head.
The exact moment the large Rashemi finished the sentence, they all heard a sound, resembling the one made by slowly turned pages of an old book, making the diviner shiver like a leaf on a wind.
"Inside!" Jaheira hurried Valygar, still standing like a pole. She was the last one to disappear in magically evoked darkness.
"Jaheira!" someone called from inside the Sphere.
The druidess saw that the party stopped in the first chamber of the plane-traveling construction, almost a perfectly plain hemi-sphere.
"Jaheira!" another urging came from the side of the room, where the diviner was placed on the ground, surrounded by her companions. Anomen was already chanting a healing spell. "She's getting worse!"
Jaheira knew from the time they escaped the dungeon that it would happen sooner or later. Her ward was always impatient and stubborn, but at least she kept her divinations in check, never exerting herself beyond heavy sleepiness. Her talents were amazingly precise, but hearing her saying that she's too tired or that she couldn't concentrate enough was nothing unusual before. It changed after months of tortures in the dungeon, as if the girl crossed some border of pain she was able to suffer to see through the veil of time and space. Her capabilities as a diviner increased greatly, but for crossing the limits of what her body could take she had to pay greatly. And she paid, every time someone from her friends was in danger, every time she could make the situation better, every time her fear took the better of her.
No, Jaheira wasn't surprised, seeing Daria on the ground, trying to say something despite the blood pouring from her mouth. She wasn't shocked by the fact that despite that her movements were barely coordinated and terribly slow, the girl tried to get up and prepare to cast. And it didn't stun her that even though Anomen and Minsc were trying to gently keep her on the ground she succeeded, standing on her own.
"Tolgieras… coming…" Daria choked.
"Daria, please sit down" Xan was by her side of course, pale and shivering. He tried to support her, the best he could. And Jaheira could see that no matter what he said earlier he did care for her more than a friend would.
"Your escape ends here traitors." It was Tolgieras, entering the chamber with a squadron of Cowled Wizards, their long office attires replaced by battle mages' robes. "Allying yourself with a murderer…" he was too refined to spit, but he used all the variety of tones to display his disgust in every possible way. "You should have known better than to stand against the Cowled Wizards".
"All we want is to free Imoen. I will pass the Sphere to you in exchange for releasing her." Daria stepped forward, swaying badly, clutching to Xan as to her lifeline.
"Are you truly that naïve to think we would bother with your unimportant plight? We would let you live as a reward. Of course after this betrayal it isn't possible. We will take the Sphere over your dead body. For securing the Sphere on my own, without any official help from outside my department I will be most certainly promoted." Everybody could be confident surrounded with a whole squad of battle trained mages, ready at his every whim, but the smugness in Tolgieras' voice was worked out in many years of practice.
"Activate the defense systems" the battered elf whispered as an answer. A low roar could be heard in the distance. The Cowled Wizards hesitated uncertain if it wasn't their imagination, playing tricks on them.
"What?!" Tolgieras only needed a second to understand what was happening before beginning to wildly cast shielding enchantments on himself. Daria could say that this moment of indecision cost him his life, but in fact he stood no chance of surviving from the moment he decided to follow them inside the opened entrance of the Sphere.
"Release the golems" Daria's eyes silvered for a second just before she said that.
They came instantly, without a theatrical moment of uncertainty, without suspicious shuffling sounds. They came from alcoves, where they stood inactive for years, covered in dust concealing their shapes, from the chambers where they were being created and from the rooms where they were nearly destroyed by their unrelenting enemy – time. They came crumbled, broken, some missing limbs, some even heads, other falling to pieces at their first steps. They came with a rumbling noise of tens of mechanical feet made of clay, stone and flesh, falling like an avalanche at the squadron, which suddenly didn't look that numerous anymore. And they began to crush.
Funny thing how even a crumbled golem, a wizard's creation, was also it's worse enemy, completely immune to any magic.
"For the fallen!" Jaheira joined the fray, Minsc and Valygar at her heels.
"Go for the eyes Boo!" Minsc battlecry made it through the thunder of unfeeling fists hitting magical barriers.
The diviner slipped from Xan's grasp. She fainted softly, noiselessly gliding to the ground. As an expert of sudden losses of consciousness her muscles tensed without the control of her will, softening her landing and then relaxing upon resting on the ground.
She felt as if she was closed in a pillow, soft and tickling feathers dancing around her, only barely brushing her skin. Celestial light was pouring from above, bathing the feathers in warm glow – each time a heavenly spark touched a feather, it began to gain its own inner light, turning into a flawless diamond. Myriads of gems were falling under her feet, into a light endless depth of sparkling whiteness. But then the celestial light finally fell on her making her limbs stiffen painfully. She watched as her palms began to turn into ugly shapeless gray stone, marring the ethereal beauty of the place. The gray layer began to crawl up her hands and legs, but she did nothing to resist it. She only wished she could crumble to dust, leaving the charm surrounding her undamaged. She woke up the exact moment the stone covered her completely. And groaned smitten with a headache.
"Jaheira will come in a moment. She only has to defeat the invaders" Xan's voice sounded to her right, as if the elf was ensuring himself even more than her. He placed his former student on a table, in an adjacent room, relieving her of her cloak and hood. All he could do was loose the collar of her robes, wipe the blood from her face and wait for the healers to come. He stroked her hair in what meant to be a soothing gesture. It was soothing him a bit.
"They wouldn't release her. It was all in vain" Daria explained barely conscious, fighting the dull pounding in her skull.
"Please try to rest. They will come soon" the sounds of a raging battle outside the room were telling otherwise. "You will find a way to free Imoen. You always find a way." That was actually the first time she heard Xan having faith in someone. In her.
Pity she couldn't hold the same confidence in her heart anymore.
The world fell to blackness.