A/N: (Cracks knuckles) Alrighty then! I hope you got a kick out of my fight against The Block! Now, back to the story. You don't mind if I skip all the walking etc. to the lab, do you? (Waits a second) Nah didn't think so! Haha, i just realized how apt the chapter name actually is just as i'm posting this...
Peninsula District, Mage Labs…
"This is it?" Majandra asked skeptically, crossing her arms and leaning back against a wall opposite that which Sharwyn was standing. "I thought mages liked things flashy?" Sharwyn shot her a withering glance but refused to reply, choosing instead to devote her attention to the puzzling door.
"Magic, magic, magic," Boddyknock sang quietly to himself off to the side, apparently forgetting the gravity of the situation he and his companions were in. "Leaven bread, bread, bread…"
And THAT is a perfect reason gnome's shouldn't be sorcerers. Majandra thought sarcastically as she stood up straight and stretched. That fight earlier was still weighing on her mind; the way she and Rekkei had shared thoughts and feelings; how each blow seemed slower than the last until she could avoid them without effort; how here emotions, usually her guiding light during battle were strangely absent.
Rekkei? She thought hesitantly, both hoping and fearing her other half would answer. She didn't even attempt to contact Tekkei anymore, knowing the good entity had been long since absorbed into her psyche due to the influence of the plague. She was still there, Majandra knew, but only present in the capacity of night light in her blade and conscience in her mind. Rekkei? She called again. Answer me!
Yes? Came the bored reply a moment later. Rekkei's avatar appeared on the wall beside Majandra, leaning back so she was in the same sullen looking position. The fey'ri had quickly gotten used to seeing Rekkei outside of her head, and was even beginning to appreciate her –or was it their? - sense of humor. What, bored already? Poor Maggie-poo, need something to slay?
Shut up, Majandra cast a scathing glare at her demonic twin. I just want to ask you a question.
No killing then? Come on! Rekkei whined, wings and tail twitching with agitation. Oh fine, ask your damn question.
What was I like, Majandra began hesitantly, gaze fixed determinedly on the door Sharwyn was fiddling with. Back before Father split us apart? I only remember being as I am now, nothing more.
There was a slight pause, and then, shocking both Rekkei and Majandra, a third twin, this one angelic, appeared on the wall beside them. Tekkei's blue eyes rose slowly, wearily, to meet those of her doubles. We were happy. Her voice was weak, so soft that Majandra was thankful for the telepathic link between them. The darkness in us appeared sporadically, but always uncontrollably. Father would knock us unconscious in most cases, using his magic time after time to save us from ourselves. But his strength began to wane as his condition grew worse, and he no longer had the power to detain us whenever the demon broke free.
And so, Rekkei picked up as Tekkei's weak voice trailed off and she brought a trembling hand to her forehead. Father decided that splitting us into three entities would dispel the demon somewhat and loosen its hold.
You mean you aren't the darkness he was trying to protect me –us? - from? Majandra demanded, shock warring with disbelief at what the Marus had told her. Answer me! I have to know!
"Majandra!" a rough hand shaking her shoulders brought the fey'ri out of the light trance she had fallen into. "Majandra, pay attention!"
"What is it?" Majandra snapped as her attacker faded into view. "What do you want, Sharwyn?"
The bard glared in response and pointed towards the door. "It's open."
"And?" Majandra arched an eyebrow skeptically; not quite understanding the merit of the statement after receiving nothing but frosty silence from the bard during the hour and a half it took to get to this point. "That's what doors do. What's your problem?"
"That is the problem!" Sharwyn snapped, flipping her auburn hair over her shoulder irritably. "The password wasn't working because someone got here before us and didn't close the door all the way!"
"Are they still here?" Majandra set her hostility aside for a moment and split her attention between the indignant bard and straining her remaining senses as far as possible into the room in search of any hint of dark magic.
"I don't know! Why don't you-" unbeknownst to the two women, the third member of their party was inching steadily closer to the open doorway, mumbling under his breath a series of completely unpronounceable words and phrases.
Gods, I wish that woman would bloody shut up! Majandra tuned out the bard and focused as hard as she could on the mage lab. Now, where are you… her brow furrowed in concentration as she fought through decades' worth of magical residue for the familiar taste of the Wailing Death. As her mind touched and discarded the debris of a thousand experiments, she began to get that sinking feeling that she was being watched.
"What are you doing?" Sharwyn demanded, loud voice shattering all remaining vestiges of Majandra's concentration just as she found what she was looking for.
"There's a desk in the furthest room to the back. What we're looking for is in there." Majandra managed to choke out as a coughing fit, possibly the worst as of yet, fell over her. Gasping for breath, she supported herself against the wall as her body shook with the force of the coughs exploding from her chest. Finally, the fit subsided.
This is getting ridiculous, Rekkei muttered darkly.
Just means I'll have to hurry, and that Kaerion better do his job right. Majandra replied as she waved off Sharwyn and downed half a healing potion to soothe her throat.
"If you're ready?" Sharwyn asked.
As Majandra nodded confirmation, Boddyknock took off without warning, scooting behind Sharwyn and dashing straight into the dimly lit lab squealing, "magiiiiic!" The two girls could hear him rustling about in spell books and scrolls, and put aside their mutual dislike to share a long suffering glance. With a dual sigh, the women entered the foyer and stared down the long hallway before them in search of the gnome.
"Well," Majandra bowed sarcastically to the redhead bard. "Ladies first then." Sharwyn responded with a sharp sniff and stalked off, boots clicking rapidly on the marble floor.
Suddenly, darkness flooded the hallway they were standing in, and an eerie silence settled around them. A loud, terrified shriek shattered the silence and then was abruptly cut off. "Boddyknock!" Sharwyn cried, throwing caution to the winds and sprinting blind into the next area.
Idiots! Majandra and Rekkei screamed in her head as she took off after the stupid woman. Do they WANT to get killed that badly?
You shoulda just let me do it. Rekkei remarked as she matched Majandra's pace and half-flew beside her. It would've been more fun than chasing them around like bloody chickens!
You're probably right, Majandra replied as she palmed two throwing daggers and slowed her steps to a stealthy pace. Up ahead the corridor widened out into a wide-open room. Even from this far back, Majandra could see flashes of magical energy flaring up and then dying down, lighting up the hallway somewhat.
When she reached the room, the pure chaos of the scene had her questioning her already doubtful sanity. Sprawled at an awkward angle in one corner was Boddyknock's broken body (A/N: muahahahahaha I killed Boddyknock! Lol that sentence is funny, alliterated and all…shrugs), burns and slashes mutilating his limbs as though he'd walked into a closet full of hot razors. Kneeling next to him was a rather stunned Sharwyn, a piece of paper clenched in her fist as she shook from either anger or sorrow.
If only that were the worst of it, Majandra thought wryly as the conflict spanning the centre of the room caught her attention. An epic battle was taking place in front of her, the combatants a giant grey slaad bedecked in spines and spikes all over his body, and a lightly armed cleric expertly wielding a staff.
"I won't let you harm any more people, Chorwal!" She cried as she ducked a huge sweep of the slaadi's claws. "This madness has gone on long enough! Return to your hell and plague some of your own kind!"
The slaad growled in reply and held his hands out. Energy began gathering between his fingers, growing larger and larger until the crimson ball illuminated every corner of the room. "Die!" he roared, casting the missile away from his body and towards, not the cleric, but Sharwyn's unsuspecting form.
"Sharwyn!" Majandra instinctively stepped forward, but she knew she was too far away to come to the bard's aid. The cleric's eyes locked with the fey'ri's for a split second -what passed between them remaining forever unknown- and then sprinted off in Sharwyn's direction.
The haste spell enhancing her speed made her fast enough to out pace the energy beam and throw herself in front of Sharwyn and Boddyknock moments before the blast struck. All three were thrown against the wall from the magnitude of the spell, the staff bearing cleric screaming in pain before collapsing onto Sharwyn's back, shielding them from rubble falling from the wall.
All of this happened in a split second, and, before Majandra could react, the slaad's tail walloped her in the gut, forcefully propelling her through a pair of lab tables and into a wall. "Majandra!" Sharwyn cried, trying to rouse the dazed fey'ri as the demon stomped closer and closer to where she had fallen. "You've got to get out of there! Get up!" Majandra moaned and then yelped as a clawed hand closed around her waist, squeezing painfully as it lifted her off the ground.
"Well, well, well." A wall of fetid breath washed over Majandra's face, causing her to gag as she glared up into the ugly face of her captor. "If it isn't Mistress Indara's whelp! She'll be so happy to see how much her little girl has grown."
"What're you talking about?" Majandra snarled as she fought to free herself from Chorwal's heavy grasp. "I left that bitch in Sigil centuries ago!"
Meanwhile, Sharwyn had circled the escalating drama towards a desk set against the far wall of the lab. With a quick twirl of her lock picks, the drawer popped open, revealing a single piece of parchment with a string of incomprehensible writing scrawled across it. This has to be it! The bard thought as she quickly pocketed the document. This is no mortal language, and I can only think of one woman who might know what it means!
Quietly, Sharwyn snuck back to the cleric's side and gently turned the woman onto her back. The woman's helm had been blown off from the force of the magical attack, revealing a gaunt faced woman with shoulder length brown hair and the slightly pointed ears that bespoke of elven heritage. She was a pretty thing, actually, but the kind that stemmed from her personality more so than physical features.
Just as Sharwyn was about to attempt a healing spell, the woman groaned and clutched her head. "Ugh, and THAT'S why I hate slaadi," she grumbled under her breath as she patted blindly about for her staff. "Bloody things and their bloody negative magic!" her eyes opened, revealing hazel green eyes that shone with intelligence and laughter. "You must be the woman I saved! Nice to meet you, I'm Saria Cloudwalker."
"Uh, Sharwyn." The bard replied dumbly, put out a bit by the cheeriness of this cleric in the face of danger. "Wait, you're a cleric?"
"Yes," Saria drawled, hissing as she felt the large burn splashed across her back. "How'd ya know? It was the staff, wasn't it?"
"Be serious for a moment!" Sharwyn glared at the smiling half-elf and pointed a finger at Boddyknock. "Tell me you can heal him!"
"Well," Saria replied, forehead furrowed in thought as she inspected the dead gnome. "I guess I could attempt resurrecting him, but it'll take more energy than I have right now to do both that AND heal his wounds."
"Just do something!" Sharwyn grasped the woman by the collar and stared deep into her glimmering eyes. "Or gods help you, I'll…"
Across the room, Majandra and Chorwal were locked in a heated argument, one that probably looked rather comical to a person with the right kind of humor. Held in the grasp of a slaad many times her side, the tiny in comparison fey'ri gave as good as she got. The next words out of Chorwal's mouth, however, made all thoughts of retribution fly from Majandra's head.
"Indara is in Neverwinter?" Majandra exclaimed. "Why? For what purpose did she follow me here?
"Not everything is about you, half-breed," the slaad sneered in reply. "This time, the Mistress has a terrible new ally, one who will aid us in bringing ruin to this world once and for all!" His lizard like tongue flickered out and licked Majandra, traveling from the dip in her neck to the tips of her pointed ears. She shuddered and twisted away, the unwanted contact bringing back horrible memories of the past. "But wait," Chorwal lowered his head so he was hissing directly in the fey'ri's face. "You haven't even heard the best part yet! I heard what a little whore you were, even as a child, and requested that I be the one to return you to the fold. You are mine, child of Indara!"
"No!" Majandra felt her fury burning hotter and hotter as Chorwal spoke, her eyes a deeper crimson than ever before. "I won't let you!" The slaad just laughed in response, running a clawed hand over her chest and body in a mockery of a caress that served to fuel her rage into an even tighter coil.
Just as she felt her body might explode from the rising demonic power burning like acid through her veins, Rekkei whispered in the back of her mind. Time for me to come out and play demon. She murmured, voice a seductive purr. Good night, Majandra…
No! Majandra shouted, No! Rekkei, don't! Rekkei! But it was too late. She felt her senses dimming, vision tunneling until she lost consciousness altogether.
Chorwal could feel the power rising in his captive, but could do little more than growl pathetically as the fey'ri in his hands began transforming.
A brisk whirlpool of energy exploded into being around a screaming Majandra, crimson fire burning within and without in complex symbols and patterns that any journeyman mage would recognize as a quasi-summoning spell. A demonic howl rose from her lips as the horns on her head curved back until the tips rested against her shoulders, razor sharp points puncturing the cloth and skin below until a steady stream of blood flowed down her back. Her tail tip shed it's slightly furry end and erupted into a scythe like blade, the convulsions her body was going through flaying the slaad's fingers until strips of flesh hung off the bone.
Chorwal's grip didn't loosen on the girl until two pitch black bird wings burst from Majandra's back with a snap and a shriek of pain. "W-what?" he stuttered as Majandra's eyes rose slowly, blood red cat's eyes glittering through her pitch black bangs. "What's going on? Y-you shouldn't be able to do this!"
"Majandra isn't in right now," Rekkei licked the sharp edge of her former prison seductively, eyes glimmering with cold amusement. "Would you like to play?" Before Chorwal could even attempt a response, Rekkei had slipped out of his grip with a graceful back flip. (A/N: whoa! That totally rhymed! and I did it without trying too. -Brushes shoulder off- oops! Back to the fic then…) She spun in the air just before reaching the ground, a handful of throwing knives flying from her fingers to imbed themselves in the slaad's tough skin.
"Planning on helping, bard?" the fey'ri hissed as she landed beside a stunned Sharwyn. "Or do I have to hurt you as well? Don't forget, you still owe me for that slap!"
"Uh, yeah!" Sharwyn shrank back until she was basically hiding behind the now alert cleric. "As you say, Majandra!" her fingers flew into the motions of Boddyknock's favorite spell, one of the few offensive magics she was familiar with. Magic missiles flew from her hands to strike the charging demon, stunning him in place as he tried to fight off the tiny irritants with idle slashes of his claws.
"And you," Rekkei turned her attention on the grim looking cleric staring at her. "As much as it pains me to say it, heal the gnome and keep out of my way!" just as she finished speaking, a piece of rubble came hurtling at the pair. Rekkei pushed the cleric roughly and then threw herself backwards, hissing as a jagged edge on the projectile clipped her side and sent her tumbling.
Sharwyn, seeing the fey'ri down for the moment, decided that the time had come for her to do something exceedingly stupid. "Hey you!" she shouted to the raging slaad as she came out of her hiding place. "Ugly! I want to have a word with you!"
Chorwal snorted contemptuously at the bard and raised a clawed hand. "This farce has gone on long enough," Sharwyn's spell shorted out abruptly; balls turning blood red as the slaad made her missiles his own. "Time to die, human!"
Just as he sent the missiles towards the defenseless bard, there was a low growl and a flutter of wings from behind his back. "Looks like playtime is over, big boy, and I win the game…" he felt a sharp pain in his spine, and then felt a lull come over his muscles, body slumping gently to the floor with a low moan. The last sight Chorwal saw of the mortal plane was a playful leer from Rekkei as she licked the blood from her blades, and then there was nothing.
"Whew!" Sharwyn broke the silence with a long, drawn out sigh of relief, moving from the centre of the room to where she'd left Saria with Boddyknock. "That was close! How's it coming, Saria?"
"See for yourself," the half-elf replied, waving the bard over to see an alive, if unconscious Boddyknock. "He'll be ok once we get him proper medical attention. I'm afraid I'm all out spells, thanks to that lump of flesh over there!" she cocked her head in the direction of Chorwal's body.
"Thank goodness!" Sharwyn exclaimed, holding out the piece of paper she'd taken from the gnome. "He finally found the recipe to his leaven bread, and I wouldn't want him to miss enjoy-"
"Shut up." Rekkei growled. Her head was hung low, hiding her eyes, and her shoulders were shaking with something suspiciously close to rage. "I don't want to hear another word out of you, bard, unless it's screams!" She leapt across the room, and, in the blink of an eye, had the squirming bard's head grasped in her hands. "Now, Sharwyn," she purred, tongue flicking the bard's earlobe, eliciting a new set of shudders. "You've been rather mean lately, and Majandra and I have both agreed that you should be punished for it. Oh don't worry," she pressed a teasing kiss against the bard's cheek as she felt the woman freeze, "I won't kill you; Majandra won't let me. Rather," she pulled back so she was staring deep into Sharwyn's fear filled eyes, relaxing her mind as she accessed one of her favorite abilities. Oh, how good it felt to finally be free! "I'm going to make the next couple of months of your life a living hell!"
The fey'ri's cat's eyes widened, and Sharwyn began hearing a voice whispering to her in her mind. Hmm, she twitched in discomfort as Majandra began rifling through her memories, yet was unable to do anymore due to the hypnotizing influence of the fey'ri's eyes. My, my, Sharwyn. You've got quite the organized brain here, don't you? Must be all that memorizing you have to do to be a bard, eh? Well, let's get down to it, shall we?
Sharwyn moaned as the slight discomfort intensified until it felt as though Majandra was attempting a field amputation without a pitcher of whiskey for her patient. "Stop," she moaned, the intended scream coming out as a whisper. "Please, stop! I'm sorry!"
The voice laughed cruelly, saying, I could hear the sincerity in that one, and I must say that I'm impressed. Unfortunately, what would've worked on Majandra is useless against me! Now, let me see. What is your greatest fear?
"N-nothing!" Sharwyn stuttered, but the moment she said it, an image of her phobia flashed in Rekkei's mind.
Oh, I see, The demon replied thoughtfully, the big city, well-traveled bard girl is afraid of trees? Does this scare you? Sharwyn's screams rang loud and long as Rekkei projected images of the forest of Tethyr, one of the largest in all Faerûn. The fey'ri's eyes widened, if possible, even more, and Sharwyn heard her whispering the words of a spell. There. She said at last. You'll be seeing that wonderful example of nature nonstop for the next, oh, I don't know, five months? The rest was a jumble of psychotic laughter that made Sharwyn's head ring
Before she could get into real terrifying things, such as the Wooded Plane or even the Nurikabe of her childhood, Rekkei felt a hand grasp her shoulder tightly. "I'm afraid this is where your fun stops, demon!" Saria's almond shaped eyes glowed with eldritch light as she spoke, frightening Rekkei as she felt a familiar presence stirring in the back of her mind.
"Hey! Leave me alone if you know what's good for you, cleric!" she tried to wrench free of the cleric's iron grip and failed miserably, eyes wide with shock. "You don't have the right to do this!"
"No, but it is the right thing to do." The half-elf replied firmly. The glow intensified until Rekkei felt the light bathing her body flowing through her bloodstream as well, calming the fury that had allowed her to seize control.
"No!" she howled as she felt her control slipping. "I won't go back there! Grrr, no!" Oh, poor Rekkei. Majandra's voice was angry, understandably enough, but also surprisingly indulgent for a woman who's body had been snatched by her "evil twin". Little girl, do you need a nap? No one appreciates your tantrums!
Rekkei tried to reply, but found her vocal cords wouldn't respond to her orders. Well, damn. She muttered from her usual place in Majandra's head. Just when the real fun was about to start… As her voice trailed away, so did the recent transformations Majandra's body had gone through. Her wings faded away like wisps of smoke, her horns receded with a snick much like her blades made when she pulled them from their sheaths, and her tail lost its razor sharpness in favor of a tuft of black fur. Her eyes, however, retained the crimson, oval slits instead of returning to the familiar golden orbs. Oh well, she sighed, already missing the comforts and advantages of her demonic body. There's always next time.
Majandra ignored her worser half's dark mutterings and instead turned her attention to the cleric swaying like a leaf in a breeze before her. "Saria, right?" she asked. "Thanks for bringing me back, or whatever the hell that was."
"No problem!" Saria replied brightly, smile slightly off kilter from fatigue. "It was all in a days wo-YAWN-rk." She covered her mouth as another jaw cracking yawn escaped her lips. "If you don't mind," she continued, green eyes closing as she spoke, "I think I'll take a short nap."
Before Majandra could even form a response to the brunette whirlwind's words, the cleric hit the ground with a crash, light snores punctuating the silence. "Well," the fey'ri said aloud, rather nonplussed about the events of the past hour. She glanced about her in bemusement, taking in the completely wrecked lab with something of a smile.
A hardly breathing Boddyknock lay on the ground a few paces away from a gently rocking Sharwyn. The woman was muttering non-stop in fear as she twitched, eyes rolling wildly in all directions at what Majandra could only guess was one of the most frightening forests she'd ever seen or heard of in her life. Clasped in her hand, the fey'ri noticed, was a piece of parchment paper with scrawling that she recognized as the written form of infernal, the language of demons and devils alike, as well as Planes travelers.
"Just what I was looking for," Majandra muttered as she bent carefully over the terrified bard, careful not to touch the woman in any fashion. "Jeeze Rekkei," she continued speaking aloud, if only to keep the silence at bay. "I know she deserves it, but did you have to scare her that badly?"
In a word? Rekkei snickered. Yes.
"Well and fine for you," Majandra muttered as she pocketed the paper after a quick scan. She'd reread it later and hope to the gods her suspicions were incorrect later. "You don't have to deal with her, and what ever Aribeth says about it!"
Yeah, yeah. Rekkei snorted. She appeared a moment later standing next to the quivering bard, an unfriendly smirk twisting her lips. Can we leave now? I can't wait to see what happens when the bard starts receiving get-well flowers!
Majandra just shook her head at the remark, half suppressing her own smirk at the notion, and pushed her friends close enough that they were all touching. "Next stop," she reached into one of the many pockets in her cloak and pulled out a tiny pebble of a stone. "Halls of Justice." She activated the stone with a thought, and the four of them disappeared from the room with a flash, hurtling through space and time to the exit portal in the temple of Tyr.
As soon as it was certain no one was around, the tiny winged lizard creature crept out of its hiding place in the cracks of the ceiling. It surveyed the damage to the room, pupil less eyes making it a perfect spy for the masters using it's orbs as windows to a world where they were very unwelcome. A moment later, the spying eye fluttered out of an open window high up in the ceiling, heading east to the Blacklake District.
A/N: Wow, sorry that took so long! A couple unexpected events happened to me this week, being drafted into the field hockey team (I made varsity! –Dances-) being one, and an impromptu birthday party thrown by my friends another. Anyways, this chapter gave me LOTS of problems towards the end, so the odds of me redoing maybe the last page or so at some point are reasonably high. Oh, and i will be at the beach for the next week, so don't even THINK of expecting something for maybe two or three times that amount of time! (i know, i'm sad too...) Thanks for reading, and I hope you review!
-Kaia