Fate
The first thing Ciriane saw coming out from her trance was Cydr wiping the magic circle she spent hours drawing, with fury of a startled pigeon. She raised an eyebrow. Strange. She was lying on the ground in the middle of the circle. She didn't remember how she got to that position.
Ciriane squeaked when the acolyte leaped at her with open arms smothering her in a bear hug.
"Never disappear like that again…!" the boy squeaked out, trying to control his voice.
She smiled triumphantly, patting his back.
"I won't have to. I succeeded."
„I don't understand, why do you need to go?" Only yesterday Daria opened her eyes and now she was already making plans to leave the palace, not even waiting for Imoen or Jaheira to return from their latest escapade. That made no sense! What she could have heard? It was true that there was a lot of restlessness in the surrounding areas, stirred up with wild gossip, but nothing bad enough to force her to leave so soon…
The Queen and the diviner talked long behind the closed doors, but Xan was not invited into the meeting. But it didn't matter, he managed to convince himself, circling like a hungry vulture just outside the door. He wasn't going to let her go anywhere without him.
"A storm is approaching" Daria answered his question, when she came back. She was deep in thought from the moment she left the palace, and he saw the lines worry was drawing on her face. Whatever she heard must have been bad news.
"There always is. Though given the events of the past two years the storm's been upon as for quite some time and now is only gathering strength to strike us again, this time fatally" Xan commented. The Queen left him out, but since they were going to travel together, Daria wouldn't keep silent about their destination. "At that point a nice weather… keeping to the metaphor… would be much more surprising."
"The war Sarevok wanted is coming."
"That's impossible. The situation between Baldur's Gate and Amn is still tense, but not nearly bad enough to spark an outright war. With the current economic situation and two positions of Grand Dukes…"
"No, Xan. A war between Bhaalspawn" she looked into his eyes and he could see two tiny sparks of silver in them, the sign that her spirit was safe. This light in her eyes threatened to pull him in, wipe all words from his mind in a matter of seconds and truth to be told he wanted it to. But not now. For now he had to find out how he could best protect the fragile owner of those eyes.
"No matter what happens I'm going with you." Yes, maybe he was thrown off balance only for a second, his eyes widening at the thought of a catastrophe that was coming, but Xan immediately gathered back his resolve. He promised he wouldn't leave her again. Do whatever she needed him to do, no matter what hopeless situation she would lead him into he would be there, obey her every wish. That he promised.
"I must go alone." The sun elf seemed adamant. Was it the queen's advice to leave everybody behind?
"No, you mustn't, I…" He was beginning to get tangled up in his words again, so he took a deep breath and paused.
"Xan?" she asked, stopping for a moment. Shadows of the leaves above their heads fell still on her face. She was beautiful. She always have been.
That was it. No more stalling. After she woke up there was a lot of fuss – healers checking on her, the Queen coming to thank her, messengers sent to find Imoen and Jaheira. But there was one thing he needed to tell her and that was the reason why he wouldn't let her go alone.
"Daria, I love you" he looked her straight in the eye and his voice was firm, without a slightest shiver. He tried to step closer to make up for the fact that he wasn't holding her hands. That was what he promised himself he would tell her. He tried to silence the voice in his head that kept telling him that he was lying again.
"Xan, you… you don't" she averted her eyes.
"I do" he tried to convey all that was in his heart into the worlds, but that was impossible. It was hopeless, but for once he tried.
"No, you… never did." He tried to interrupt her, but she put her slender finger on his lips effectively silencing him before he could make her understand. "I knew from the start… I… When we kissed in the Sphere, back in Athkatla, I knew you won't stop me, because you care for me. But that's not that kind of care, it never was and never will be. It was loyalty, but not love that made you protect me, spare my heart. It was enough for me then, but it's not enough now."
"I love you now, I do!" No, she didn't understand. He was certain now. "I made mistakes, I know, but if you give me a chance I will spend the rest of my life, no matter how short, to make up for them." He had a lot of time to think his feelings true and now he was as certain of them as of the ground he was standing on. Too much time he spent already lamenting their deaths and still being alive. She survived it all, they both did. And now there was a chance, a real chance that he could hold her hands today, kiss her lips. Maybe that wasn't any future, maybe tomorrow would be drowned in blood, but this moment… This moment he was certain of. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness and I failed you so many times…"
"No, you don't!" He felt her nails dig into his arms when her calm appearance crumbled in one second. "You don't know anything." The sun elf looked at him like she never looked at him, not even when he deserved it. Hostile and hurt. He felt the ground running away from under his feet. "I don't want you to come with me. I don't want to be with you again. And I don't want you to change your mind again and leave me, break me like the last time!" she was shouting now, unburdening her heart. "You have your duties! Your home! Future! Leave me alone!" Screaming out the last word she pushed him away with all her strength.
"No..." He wanted to stop her as she turned around and run away, but what more could he say?
It was hopeless.
He returned to his chamber feeling as if he left his heart somewhere along the way. She wanted to let go of him, carry on without. The wound he forcefully tried to keep open, she decided to let close and heal. Now all that was left was a scar. That's what he felt like. A scar on her heart. A mark of past pain. And he… he… deserved it. Every bit. He abandoned her and he wasn't that foolishly cruel to blame her for wanting to have nothing to do with him. She didn't want to suffer anymore. It was healthy for her.
He… He should leave. After all he swore to himself to do whatever she wished him to. He should have left a long time ago. There were many more now to help her, Imoen was certainly talented enough to fill in after he left and he had not a doubt that the pinkhead would catch up to her sister in no time, in terms of battle magic at least. The only thing he could do, would be reminding Daria of her past miseries. Yes. The Council of Evereska probably wasn't happy with his report either, he should explain himself and describe what transpired in the crypts in more detail. Besides it's been too long since he visited the estate.
He stopped, fell on his bed and hid his face in palms. Once again he seemed to have been the naive fool. She woke up – he had his one miracle. It was foolish to beg for another.
Not many people came to see him off as he walked out of his quarters just after dawn. It was sad, that after months in the city, he needed only one day to pack all his belonging and prepare for the journey. Priestess Dermin came as a representative of the Queen, there was Ricar and the healer that took care of Daria recently. Come to think about it she was one of the few citizens of Suldanessellar that saw him. Most of his time he spent by Daria's side, coming out only to eat something or rarely, visiting the library, in search of some enchantment that would wake her. He never noticed this solitude.
The diviner didn't come. Even many excuses his mind immediately came up with to explain her absence, didn't ease the hurt.
The healer, he didn't even remember her name, came up to him and bowed respectfully.
"May your path be bright and green" she blessed him as a Tel'Quessir would. And then to his surprise she kissed him on a cheek. He felt his heart clenching at the thought that it were Daria's lips he wanted to feel on his face at least once more. No, more than once. He would never have enough.
He turned around to leave, half-hoping she would still appear, to tell him not to leave. But it was hopeless, foolish, more – cruel. Did he change his mind about leaving for Evereska after she asked… begged him not to go? He didn't deserve any better, after what he did. The story of her heroic deeds would grow still, but it was time for him to disappear from it.
At last tree branches covered his departing form. Daria stepped away from the window.
Since the moment the monster woke up, Alveola didn't leave her chambers without a dagger concealed in her robes. The city among the leaves suddenly didn't feel safe and protected anymore, when a Bhaalspawn was walking among the People. It woke and that was the second tragedy that befell Suldanessellar, after the return of the Exiles.
The priestess saw it only once after the day it woke and she was forced to examine the Bhaalspawn and make sure it was healthy. In one of the corridors she stopped suddenly, seeing it coming from the other end. The monster's piercing silver eyes looked straight into hers and somehow it knew. About the dagger in the long sleeve of her robe, about the boy she couldn't heal as an acolyte, but was too ashamed to tell the priest, about her hiding like a coward during the attack on the city, about the cult that held her captive for years and what they did to her. About all the hate she felt, her every sin.
About how she wanted it to die.
Alveola was shivering long after the monster was gone, passing her in the corridor without a word. How was such a horrible creature allowed to mar the safety of her home, was unfathomable to guess. If only the Queen could banish it… But the elves were still weakened and the Bhaalspawn – powerful. They should have acted when it was asleep… Now it was too late.
The priestess prayed for power, prayed to be able to banish creatures like that. Banish – that was a safe word she knew would be allowed, when asking her superiors about the monster. But there was another word she wanted to use much more. Until now, she thought that her natural talent for healing magic was all she needed, but it changed. For once she wanted to be able to stand up to protect her home. She wanted to kill what threatened it.
The day the Moonblade Wielder, Xan, left, she stumbled upon it again and that was meant to be their last meeting. The Bhaalspawn was the reason Xan was gone, it cast him out from a place it should have no control over. Because of it, the Exile gained an immortal spirit and was able to attack the city. It was the source of all the trouble, every tragedy in the sacred land. Alveola drew her dagger.
The Bhaalspawn turned around as the priestess approached, she saw a glint of silver in her eyes, her lips forming words, a scream?!
Something hit Alveola on her back. She felt something warm in her lips when she coughed, something else holding her in place. A tip of a blade was coming out of her chest. A blade? A stain of red was growing on her robes.
"You… killed me?" she asked the Bhaalspawn, but only saw the monster circle her arms around her to hold her, its eyes screaming for help. Her lips must have been screaming as well, but she couldn't hear, couldn't stand…
Daria caught the woman before she fell, the assassin that drove a sword into her back quickly jumping away, still holding the bloodied weapon.
"NO!" The elf screamed after him, sending a volley of magic missiles, but the cloaked figure jumped through the window, the impact of her magic tossing him through the glass. The elves began to gather, one of the warriors checking, where the attacker fell.
The woman was more important. The priestess was bleeding out in her arms and Daria pressed her palms to the wound, trying to stop the flow of blood. The small gift of healing magic was gone, since the time she lost her spirit and even now she couldn't feel it. The woman was dying!
"She's gone." One of the warriors put a hand on her shoulder and Daria raised her eyes at him, not understanding. "The blade went through her heart" the man tried again, but that made even less sense to her. It was no ordinary woman she was holding in her arms. It was her friend's future. The woman that held Xan in her arms in the Trademeet's druid grove, his love, his happiness.
Tears began to gather under her eyelids. Gods, please, no. Did she… fail again? This wasn't supposed to happen! All was wrong! There was no way she could be dead!
"I-I…" Something bright caught her eye, stopping whatever was the sun elf about to say. A speck of light, a bright dust, danced on the wind before her face. A second one joined it the next moment flowing up from the ground. No, not from the ground. From the body of a woman she was holding tightly. Another, and one more… in few seconds Daria was surrounded by gold specks circling her lazily in the lit library of Suldanessellar, the body she held disappearing into bright dust, flowing unhurriedly to the Tree of Life, soon vanishing in the wind.
A child of Bhaal. Her sister.