A Guiding Hand

For the longest time there was nothing. But not the cold black abyss, where even the bravest of the damned souls couldn't find the courage to cry out in despair, nor was it a white infinite void that tore at one's mind until there was nothing but a scream desperately trying to fill the emptiness. This oblivion was soothing, like a rest after a long day, calm after a brutal battle, loving embrace after a heart-break. There was no duty, no work, nothing to do anymore, only empty nothings and a vague unformed promise, that time would come to leave this place, that it was not abandoned completely. Even the darkness whispered comforting lies of dark grays and night blues, to hide its terrifying nature.

And he believed. For decades he served the powerful and ambitious, giving up on his own will and desires, such luxuries rarely allowed to men where he came from. Time took away the illusion that his strength would allow him a comfortable life and his endurance would persist over any wound or trial. He discovered that some wounds never healed, leaving marks not on the body, but on one's purpose, the will to live. He learned that, when his only love was taken from him and changed into a complete stranger, intent only on making him suffer. It was a mortal injury that took unbearably long to kill him, but death was imminent.

Or so he thought, until he met her.

Veldrin. At first he thought she was just as cruel and ambitious as any drow that hoped to accomplish anything in Ust Natha or any other city below the surface. Though perhaps a little more wild, her manners vanishing every now and then to reveal intense bloodlust, thirst for knowledge or simple curiosity. She was also unpredictable – he could never truly influence her, manipulate her one way or the other. She killed everything that entered arena with her, be it a senior mage or a foolish apprentice, despite his disdaining comments, but agreed with him the moment he suggested that deep gnomes were hardly worth the time it took to slaughter them and left the job to her mercenaries. Only at a first glance she treated Phaere as she should someone who was her only chance to succeed in the city – that being a reasonable motive to serve and respect a female. On a closer look, he could see how little his former love meant to the newcomer – as a stepping stone, an impressive figure or a reason for jealousy. Nothing in Ust Natha seemed to have much value to her, to Veldrin, a person so different from any other drow he met.

The little value she seemed to give to his life or death was what made him careless – a mistake that should have been fatal, on the day she came to his room to assassinate him. He was caught completely unprepared, unarmed and inattentive, while she walked up to him drawing her knife and easily thwarted all his lumbering attempts of defending his life. Even if a young servant didn't come in the moment he did, he would have no chance of leaving that room alive. As it was, seeing she was about to murder the witness, as any assassin in her place would, he finally yielded to the poison that run in his veins, since the moment Phaere returned from the temple after her tortures and spat in his face. Knowing that he had no power or influence over her and no way to save the child's life, he gave up, leaving himself only insignificant hope, that he would die before having to witness one more senseless death of an innocent.

That was when the impossible happened. He barely believed his own eyes seeing the young servant running out of the room, unharmed in any way, but dead hope was not so easy to resurrect. He knew he was going to die today and this little act of – what? kindness? pity? – couldn't change it. And yet when he looked at her, so completely at her mercy as he was, when any deception from her no longer held any purpose, the only thing he noticed when her mask finally slipped, was… care.

For the first time he saw a genuine compassion on her features and its gentleness was utterly at odds with the facade of a wild and ambitious woman she wore every day. He didn't know it yet, but that was the moment he was saved, a second that defined the rest of his life. The fact that she wasn't a drow had no meaning, when faced with that.

Having waited so long for a chance to do something good in his life, to follow someone worth it beyond doubt, having lived through the end of a true love and all hope... The wait he had to go through now, the moments that passed with promise of a reunion, weren't even close to unbearable.

When the time came, he recognized her call to arms immediately and answered it happily. Colbauth areion oloth – his path through the darkness, his second chance for life and more… He followed her voice as she called him to the surface, urging him to join her once more.

Awakening was not as pleasant as expected. His body exploded as half of eternity in quiet darkness ended, assaulting him, all his senses reacting at once to the all too real world around him. He felt stretched to his limits and then imploded into one dark elven form, when his body was recreated from the vampiric dust contained inside a simple pearl. Solaufein choked on the air, finally alive again, finally complete again, but not yet enjoying it.

"I live! Flesh and blood and bone! I am alive! Ha ha! I swore I would scratch up and crawl my way back into the world of the living… and I have done it!" A mad, loud laughter exploded somewhere around him and the dark elf finally gathered enough resolve to sit up. The first thing he saw was a large, tanned human in a set of heavy armor shaking in an uncontrolled mirth, grasping at the dirt around him, as if it was the first time in his life he touched the ground. The second was a group of yellow, green and red eyes, curiously staring back at him… from the wall. He stared back at them for a lasting moment, before realizing that they were not able to blink or look away. That led him to look around and notice the third thing – his friend and rescuer, Daria, on her hands and knees, breathing shallowly with apparent struggle. With sharp movement he got on his legs, barely avoiding landing back on the ground as the world took an impressive whirl around him, and hurried to her side.

The sun elf wasn't injured – he was completely sure, though how he knew, he couldn't fathom. The pain she felt wasn't a physical one, it was deep and dark, but as he held his palms on her shoulders trying to call her name though hoarse with disuse throat, he felt the wound inside her close up – again with no idea how he could perceive such a thing. After a few seconds the elven woman began to breathe easier and at last her eyes rose from the ground to meet his worried gaze. There was a smile of a profound triumph gracing her face.

"It's alright… 'm alright now…" she heavily sat and he believed her, feeling the last echo of the pain he shared recede. "Are you…?"

"I am unhurt. Though…" The memories slowly returned to him. The graveyard, their team joining a small army preparing as assault of the vampires' lair, finally Bodhi… Her sharp fangs biting into his neck, were the last thing he remembered. "How did I get here? And what is this place?"

"You died…" she whispered, her violet eyes once downcast. That… made sense, as much as it could at least. This seemed to be a sort of Hell or a part of the Abyss. But what was she doing in a place like this? Could it be that she came here to save him?

"And she resurrected you using…" the stranger behind her started to say something but…

"Enough!" His commander rose to her feet and stepped before the dark human. The difference in height was unsettling – the large warrior towered over a petite elf. Solaufein's hand automatically reached to his weapon, before he noticed that his sword and his spell components were gone. He had no shirt to his name.

"You got what you wanted, Sarevok. What now?" Solaufein recognized the name instantly. Now he was certain this was no land where living roamed. He prayed to his goddess for at least Daria to be alive in this hell. He would protect her. That was what he was called here to do, wasn't it?

"This is not all I can teach you, sister. Much more can be found here – more power, more knowledge. You will need it in the upcoming days. You will need me, if you decide you can trust me." The tension between the two siblings was almost palpable for a second, like a battle they fought over and over again.

"Tomoko… She trusted you." Daria said at last, her voice completely calm.

Sarevok flinched at the words, his relaxed dominance shattering in one second, finally unmasking a trace of old anger. "Do whatever you wish, fool! I will not stand in the way, if you wish to get yourself butchered by our siblings like cattle!"

Daria looked into his eyes, as if trying to read his very soul, the very elements it was built of now.

"I will trust you… brother. You will get this one chance. Don't make me regret it."

"If you want I can swear. In this place you have the power to enforce such an oath."

A face of a friend twisted in madness as he came closer with his angled blade drawn – a katana, a battle cry or just a desperate shriek on his lips – a vision was like nothing he had ever seen, appearing around him with all its sights and smells and sounds, like a piece of the past that didn't want to leave. Then the world he was in returned just as suddenly, acting as if nothing had happened. The drow felt his head spin. What was that? Did Daria see it as well? She gave no indication that anything was out of ordinary, replying to the human standing before her.

"No. You have your one chance, do with it what you wish. No oath is needed." Her choice seemed to have something to do with the vision he shared. Was it this place that influenced him so? Or was it something else?

"I would have asked you to do it, if I were on you place. But it's your choice." The pact was made. The man still stood before the sun elf, but the threat was gone like a vague memory. Solaufein couldn't help but notice that Daria's posture remained the same, as if she never accepted her freshly raised brother to be any danger in here.

"Then I suppose we should start looking for a way out." She turned to him. He saw a smile that reached her eyes make her entire face glow. Her spirit was back, he was more certain of it, than of the ground beneath his feet. She was whole again and he never saw her this happy before. The change was sharper than her transformation from a drow. She blushed just as quickly as she looked at him. She handed him her cloak looking far above his shoulder.

"Not just yet" Sarevok stepped before a dark statue of various figures, that seemed intertwined into a single being. "I think you will find this spirit useful."

"Daria!" Xan and Anomen shouted in surprise.

"Sarevok!?" Minsc and Jaheira called out even louder, unsheathing their weapons.

"Solaufein?" Imoen settled on the last of the three that appeared so suddenly before her eyes.

"Don't worry, he's harmless!" the diviner quickly stepped in front of the half-brother she put so much effort into bringing back, before Jaheira had a chance to clubber him into a pulp. Solaufein moved instinctively, shielding her, the movement faster than a thought behind it.

"Are those Hells again? Did I die of boredom or something?" Imoen ignored the tense atmosphere and stepped between the bristling druidess and their ex-nemesis, now shielded by the same person he unsuccessfully tried to assassinate for months. The pink-head raised an eyebrow at the new demonic statues more visible under the vibrant green sky.

"No, we're here materially this time." Daria sighed with relief. Sarevok's hand slid from the handle of his greatsword.

"It's a different plane of existence, isn't it? You teleported us here." Xan looked around with wry curiosity. He looked tired, road dust still covering his robes and yet a smile was tucked safely in the corners of his lips, as if being magically transported from halfway to his home, back into the madness that was her life, was his idea of luck.

"I can explain everything, just put down the weapons. I… I'm glad to see you all again."

"You are still a child, you know that?" Jaheira sheathed her acidic club and moved to hug her, Imoen immediately joining in. Minsc went on top of the group hug, closing all three women in a mighty squeeze.

"My lady, it would be my honor to accompany you again" Anomen bowed all knightly and proud, but smiled when Daria hugged him too, as she should a long lost friend. When she moved to Xan a brief look of panic flitted through his face.

"I'm sorry" the sun elf whispered in his ear holding him briefly, not prolonging the embrace even a second. He lost so much… And he didn't even know. A lifetime of love and happiness with that never truly began. Should she tell him who Alveola could have been to him? Would it be sincerity or cruelty at this point?

He looked at her with the exact expression of sadness that used to scare her into near immobility whenever she considered confessing to him in the past. How good a diviner she was – she foresaw the future exactly.

It was a long tale. A lot has happened since the moment he died – months ago as he learned, startled. Daria's account of what passed since Bodhi captured him was dry and factual, she had problem fitting any emotion into her story, struggling with recalling any while she had no soul. Finally, when her tremble was noticed by others – he saw them the second she fumbled with her first word – Jaheira took over, describing the assault on Irenicus' forces in Suldanesselar. That account was cut short as well, when the druidess got to the part where a branch of Tree of Life broke underneath them, apparently sending them to their deaths. Things got a bit complicated after that.

"We were on the fields of Rashemen! Minsc remembers clearly!" the berserker shouted, Boo's squeaks accenting every other word.

"I was by Helm's side, a rightful place for his priest to take after death!" Anomen proclaimed as loudly as he could.

"No, no, no. We couldn't have been really dead. If I were dead I would end up with Daria!" Imoen argued.

"This place…" Daria picked up the story, but her voice got lost in the collective argument.

"Silence, fools!" Sarevok got up, his booming voice cutting all conversation short. Apparently this was his idea of being helpful to his sister. That would never work among the drow, not to mention the surfacers.

"You're asking for a beating, brute!" Jaheira freed her club from the strap on her belt, ready for a brawl.

"This is the Throne of Bhaal." Daria's voice was finally heard in the silence.

"What?!" They all expressed various combinations of surprise, dread and disbelief. Jaheira immediately forgot about Sarevok.

"At least my part of it. And a stepping stone… should I choose" Daria looked around seeing no one was about to make a comment. She continued in the dead silence. "I made it a threshold between the world of living and dead the last time I was here. Accidentally, I might add. When I killed Irenicus part of my spirit was living and part dead. That's why I could pull your souls from one side to the other then, and that's why Solaufein and Sarevok are alive again."

"So we owe you our lives" Solaufein spoke. He was alive again… It seemed like a miracle. Things like that never happened in Ust Natha. At least not without a steep price.

"Well… given the fact that it was my fault you were dragged into this… 'adventure' in the first place, I'd say we're even." She smiled again. He decided he loved seeing her smile.

The trials Daria faced in here before weren't pleasant, but Jaheira insisted on knowing every little detail and Solaufein watched as his friend over-shared, trying to prove her demons wrong. She only stopped when she got to the part when a solar – celestial messenger, asked for her wish. The entire group – including Sarevok – listened intently, though obviously they must have known what happened next.

"I-I-I…" Daria stuttered, seeing Jaheira's eyes boring a hole in her head.

"What did you ask for?" Something must have gone very wrong for the druidess to sound so angry, but whatever it was that lead to Daria separating from her friends Solaufein had no idea.

"I asked for my freedom" the diviner finally admitted with a defeated sigh.

"Freedom from what?" Imoen asked.

"Everything. Death, destiny, pain, duty… I just wanted to feel free again."

"You clearly must have phrased it wrong, because you got more than you bargained for. Child, how could you be so careless? You know that wishes such as these never end well." Jaheira was irritated and made no effort to hide it. Consciously or not, she suggested that her ward made a mistake asking for what she did, that she was used or tricked. Solaufein wasn't so certain that was the case.

"No, I think… I think I got exactly what I wanted" Daria confirmed his suspicions, still avoiding Jaheira's stern gaze. "I don't remember much from those months, but… it was easy. Whatever was happening, my life was easy then."

"I don't think you understand, Daria" Jaheira said, eerily calm. "The priests at the temple told us you were gone. That you were just an empty shell. That you were never going to wake up. How, for nature's infinite patience, could that be what you wanted?" the druidess kept her voice steady, but her knuckles were white on the handle of her weapon.

"To want to rest, to be unburdened, to feel clean again – inside. Can you understand it, Jaheira? I just wanted to rest after all that happened and knowing that it wouldn't stop… That the world wouldn't kindly give my a pause… This wish kind of… outgrew anything else. I thought that everything would be better without me." Daria looked up at her mother figure, trying to look as apologetic as she could. Needless to say the half-elf wasn't moved.

"Then why did you come back, if you were so happy?!"

"For you. All of you. I don't remember much, as I said, but through every second of every day I knew I was missed. And I couldn't leave my family behind."

Jaheira jumped to her sharply and for a split second Daria flinched as if she was going to punch her. Then the druidess hugged her fiercely and that was perhaps even more surprising.

"You are never – never! - doing anything like that again! Do you hear me?!"

"So let me get this straight" Sarevok picked the moving moment to cut in. "You vanquished a powerful enemy and instead of bathing in victory, you threw away the life you fought so hard to regain in exchange for nothing at all. You are even weaker than I imagined. Who could such a whelp defeat me?"

"Yep, that does make you look kinda pathetic" Imoen quipped.

"At least I don't cling to my sister's skirt, waiting for her rescue!" Sarevok was not the one to let an insult go. He raised his voice, as if trying to prove that he's intimidation would work on the younger of his siblings.

"Oh, you don't? Well, you fooled me!" Imoen easily outshouted him, not scared in the slightest.

"Enough, children!" Jaheira had no problem in calling a giant of a man clad almost completely in steel a child, should the situation require it. "Let her finish. When I left for the Harper Stronghold Xan was with you in Suldanessellar…"

"He was there when I woke up, but I… yelled at him until he went away." Daria cast a remorseful glance at the enchanter. The elf kept his face expressionless.

"Good for you!" Imoen livened up.

"Ellesime told me of an ancient grove where gods spoke to the mortals, hidden deep in the forests of Tethyr. That's where I got the prophecy about the Bhaalspawn wars."

"That does sound useful. Can you remember it?" Jaheira tried to find a piece of empty scroll in what little she had with her, when she was whisked away from the Harper prison. Only Xan and Minsc were in their full equipment – Imoen had her robes and an enchanted bow, Anomen his shiny armor and Solaufein nothing but a borrowed cloak. They were sorely lacking in the tents and provisions department.

"A part" Daria tore an empty page from her spellbook and handed it to the druidess. She obediently recited four verses Sarevok jogged in her memory. "The rest is still in my head, somewhere. I think it will show as it starts to pass."

"Great. So we know nothing until it's too late."

"The usual. I'll try to mess a bit with the future on my own, Immy. Don't worry."

"And the assassin?" Xan asked calmly.

"What assassin?" Jaheira picked up a scent of her ward's omission like a hound. Solaufein saw the sun elf steeling herself to look as unaffected as she could, despite the storm of emotion that went through her heart. She didn't want anyone to know about the attempt on her life, that much was clear.

"I was attacked in Suldanessellar and then once more, in the forest. She killed… One of priestesses died protecting me." Her voice didn't break, but somehow the drow was entirely certain that her hands, hidden in the folds of her robes, were trembling. "The killer was my sister, half-sister, a daughter of Bhaal. The strong children hunt the weak to take their taint and become stronger. Illasera… wasn't as strong as she thought. When her essence passed to me, this place opened again and Sarevok was waiting." The sun elf smiled sarcastically at her half-brother. "He was kind enough to show me around and help me understand how this plane worked. In exchange, he asked to be brought to life again."

"And you agreed? Child, have you no sense at all in your head?"

"Jaheira. The part of prophecy I heard, foretells a lot of blood spilled, people dying in thousands. Sarevok is the only person I know, who studied the old scripts. Whether I like it or not, I need his help. The slaughter may be impossible to prevent, but there may be a chance to reduce the damage. I need all the help I can get. I plan to stop the prophecy from fulfilling, stop Bhaal's return – whether it is an old or a new one. That is why I called you here. I will not blame anyone who won't want to have anything to do with this war – I can't guarantee any of us surviving. The spirit that brought you here can also send you back. Just say the word."

"In Helm's name I pledge my services to you, my lady!" Anomen raised inappropriately quickly, eager to swear an oath before anyone else.

"Minsc and Boo will kick the butt of every evil that dares to stomp in our wake!" Minsc joined in at once.

"I'm not going to shout" Jaheira snorted. "But I'm with you, of course."

"Me too, sis!"

"Daria…" Solaufein kissed her palm gently.

"You don't have to decide right away…" Daria tried to speak to no one in particular, even though only one person hadn't answered her yet.

"I will help you for as long as you'll have me" Xan simply answered.

"G-good then! I guess we should look around if there's anything useful here. Don't mind the closed portals, they are unlikely to open any time soon. I already claimed one and it should lead us back to Faerun, though where specifically I can't say. So let's take an hour to prepare for everything…"

"I need more time. I have no spells prepared" Xan made an objection. After his rush to the elven city he was woefully unprepared for any more adventures.

"Neither do I" Solaufein realized.

"Two hours then. We'll talk things out and prepare. Does anybody have spare clothes for Solaufein? I'd rather not stay here any longer than necessary."

'Also, I'd pay not see this place again' Daria wished, knowing already it was in vain.