A/N: Apologies for the long, long wait. My headspace hasn't been the greatest lately – between starting class again and getting back ON anti-anxieties, I've been focusing on real life. For example: a knitting project for a friend that I desperately wanted to finish, or making sure I cook more than once a blue moon and get my grading done. Added to this, I've been rather self-conscious of my writing style lately so this kept getting pushed aside, and the slow crawl that is Irenicus' dungeon makes it easy to quickly lose steam. Here is the (hopefully!) long-awaited continuation, though! Unlike past attempts at fanfics, I want to finish what I've started. Thanks, as always, to Blue-Inked Frost for the kind and consistent feedback, and to those of you who have liked and followed the story as it's unfolded!

'Rielev' – the mysterious entity the foursome had been told to see out – was nowhere to be seen. They'd searched every nook and cranny, up and down corridors, and even spent some time trying to break through the door in the room that contained their cages to no avail. It was after a close call that they decided to take a break in their search – Khalid had picked up on voices in the distance and, fearing recapture, they'd made it into Aataqah's chamber and hid among the pegmatites and humongous crystal formations until the threat had passed.

Curiously, what went by wasn't a mephit or a small band of goblins or kobolds. Instead, they saw a pair of hooded humanoids clad in black raiment enter the cavern chamber from the end near the holding tanks. The duo was cautious as they went by – the one in front signaled to its friend with their hands instead of speaking out loud, waited for the response, then progressed forward. Imoen watched their exchanges with interest – 2 fingers and a knuckle up, with palm facing back; a thumbs up in return. Exit southeast; noted. The first thief's hands came together, thumb and forefinger touching, then moved apart while the fingers splayed out; the second ran its thumb across its hood, brought their hands down in a wavy motion, and then placed one hand under the other. There's light ahead; noted, stick to the shadows and hide. She racked her brain, trying to figure out why the gestures were so familiar -

Oh! Right. Thieves' cant.

Imoen looked across the way to where Eli and Khalid were hiding – the giant red crystals obscured her view of the half-elves, which was good. If she couldn't see them, neither could the black-clad newcomers on patrol. She let them pass and then gave the duo several extra minutes lead before coming out; Dynaheir followed her lead, and the women then retrieved the two men. They briefly regrouped in the center of the cave, listening for any more voices in the stillness of the cave before hastened onward, to the last room they hadn't encountered.

Their new break room was a small chamber across from the preservation room, with a dead radiant mephit adorning entrance, stuck to the wooden door with cheap throwing daggers. They'd seen the door before but hadn't gone in, fearing it would be trapped, or magically locked. It WAS locked, as it turned out, but there was nothing magical about this one - just a relatively simple mechanism that Eli probably could have picked. They opened it with little difficulty and latched the door behind them, then look a look at their new surroundings.

This one was spare, save for an old work table and a pile of pallets and wooden scraps stacked against the west wall. There, they had the last sips from their canteens and the remainder of the stolen meal, and sat in uncomfortable silence in the dark. No one wanted to mention the corner they'd found themselves in, yet it was forefront in the minds of all four captives.

"So… what was with the sneaky duo?" Eli ventured, breaking up the awkward moment and keeping anyone from voicing their sure doom. "This is the first we've seen of them alive."

"T-they certainly looked l-like they knew the layout of the place," Khalid agreed.

Imoen had been staring off into the darkness in her own headspace, and was only half-listening to the two men. "They didn't, actually," she said, coming out of her thoughts to address Khalid. "It looked like they were mapping a path out."

"How c-could you tell?" Both half elves turned their attention to the formerly pink-haired thief, who cracked a grin. How had the others not noticed, especially the two with elven blood and their low-light vision?

"Um, well," she began, "For one, they were using thieves' cant. The signed portion of it, anyway… the fella in front was making gestures to the one in back every so often, telling him where the exits and light sources were."

Khalid looked genuinely impressed by the thief's display of knowledge. "I d-didn't know you knew hand signing."

Imoen blushed in the dim light. "I don't know it well. I just picked up on some of it back in Baldur's Gate… I took a few side… um, excursions…. before we left to go south. You probably shouldn't ask about anything more specific." Khalid nodded, not sure he did want to know after all. "Anyway," she continued, "It's a handy way to communicate quietly, since the language is supposed to be the same from Luskan down to Calimport."

"Huh." Eli stroked his hairless chin. "So then the hooded people are thieves?"

"Probably safe to assume so. At the very least, they're associated with them."

"Huh," he repeated. "Then they had to have found a way to bypass the wards and magical locks on those doors. I wonder if we can catch up to them or maybe follow them out… since there's no sign of this "Rielev" anywhere."

"But what would Aataqah get out of tricking us?" Imoen asked, turning to him. "He himself said he doesn't have much love for our, um, host. Why tell us to find someone who doesn't exist?"

"Trickery." As she had done before, Dynaheir came out of her silence with single, straight-to-the-point words. "The elemental ilk… they are fickle, far from trustworthy in my experience."

"Not djinn," Khalid said quickly, shaking his head. "No, I r-remember them from C-Calimshan, t-they're a good sort."

Dynaheir's voice quavered somewhat in her rebuttal. "We have been dealt naught but lies and trickery since arriving; why should a convenient djinn in a bottle prove to be any different?"

That silenced everyone. Khalid attempted to put an arm around the Wychlaran but she shied away from his touch, wrapping her arms around herself tightly to ward off the chill of the dungeon.

"I wish I had matches or something," Imoen muttered to herself, looking around the dim room. "All right, so… we've gone into every open room between the cages and here, right? The genie told us to find Rielev, so unless he's been hiding somewhere we've missed – unlikely between the half-elves and my awesomeness – he's in here. Or he's not 'here' at all."

"Then I guess we have to assume Rielev doesn't exist…" Eli sighed.

"Wait." Khalid frowned at the pile, his eyebrows creasing in the middle as he studied the area intently. "W-we should search that corner."

"It's a bunch of rubble," Imoen complained, holding back her full thoughts on the matter. Luckily, Khalid had always been a patient man, and he looked at Imoen and Eli as if they were silly children.

"F-first rule of adventuring," he began, bracing to stand and investgate. "Remember? The f-first rule was t-to *always* search your rooms b-before you open anything or leave. Y-you both had to learn the hard w-way…"

Their first real encounter they'd ever had as a group rushed back into Imoen's head – it was raining hard the night after they'd left the Friendly Arm Inn. There were four of them – Khalid, Jaheira, Elioth, and Imoen. They'd made good time but the road was wet and slippery; lightning and thunder raged overhead, making everyone nervous to be out and about. Just south of the road was a small ridge, and Jaheira suggested they seek out shelter for the night. They found it in a small cave on the south side of a ridge. It wasn't exactly dry, but was better than being outside – relieved, the group bedded down for the night, and divided the night into watches.

In their haste to make camp and weather out the storm, they'd neglected to fully search the cave. What looked like a solid back was, in fact, not; a swarm of gibberlings had found them that night, en route to their subterranean home - which was conveniently accessed via their temporary lodgings. They were real gibberlings too, not the peaky, diseased specimens that roamed close to Candlekeep. That encounter had given Eli the first real wound he'd ever sustained; it was also the first time Imoen had truly wondered whether they'd survive the journey.

She shuddered, then looked to Eli; from the young half-elf's expression, it was clear he was revisiting the same memory. They joined Khalid at the pile, and the two youngest members of their group began clearing away the wooden debris that had been stacked high. Dynaheir joined them shortly thereafter, gliding over quietly and forming a neat pile with the discarded wood.

It took several minutes, but ultimately, Eli held up the last pallet to show an overlooked tube underneath, still flickering with power. The foursome stared at the crumpled, wrinkled figure inside for a few seconds before Khalid quietly interrupted: "B-bubbles. Robust bubbles! H-he's alive!"

Imoen was frowning at the sight of the creature, placidly floating in his forgotten tube. "I don't understand. Why… why would you go through the trouble of preserving someone, and then just bury them behind all that trash?"

"Mayhap he was forgotten." Dynaheir gently touched the glass of the tube, her face inscrutable – none of the other three knew quite what to say to her expression. It was halfway between grief, understanding, and stone-cold nothingness. "Mayhap he was buried on purpose, and supposed to have been forgotten."

"… something worse than death," Imoen said, understanding the gist of what the Rashemi woman was trying to say. "Being kept at the brink and put somewhere so that no one could help you, and no one would find you, just… floating. Eternally." The thought brought a shudder to her; Eli laid a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Is this Rielev, do you think?"

Imoen looked at his smooth hand for a second before answering Eli's question. "I dunno. His tank's on, ask him."

"A- all right." The wizard looked unsure about the entire matter, but approached the tank and lightly rapped against the glass. Dynaheir, Khalid, and Imoen stepped back to give him some room.

The creature's eyes flew open and Eli yelped in surprise, jumping back a step – he stumbled on a few stray pieces of pallet that had been left behind. Bloodshot and pale, Rielev's eyes looked like specks of pupil in a sea of rheumy white and blood vessels. They fixed upon the young half-elf.

"Aaaa…." He croaked a few times. His voice was high and hoarse with disuse. He made some more incoherent noises, then finally asked quietly, "Who… be thee…? Servants of my master…?"

"I'm servant to no one, but… good gods, man," Eli said, coming closer to him once more to better be able to speak to him. He seemed to have gotten over his initial fright of the man now that he was alert and speaking. "What happened to you?"

Rielev stared out into the space that Eli was occupying, but didn't seem to be looking *at* him. "Truly… I remember not much anymore," he croaked, turning his eyes onto the others behind the glass. "W- where is master? He is… not among you."

"Who are you?" Elioth pressed, sensing the urgency behind the man in the tank's voice.

"Ah… it is difficult to... to remember. To speak as well. I was Rielev... 'was' because… I am now dead, I think. Or dying."

Rielev said it as if it was an unarguable fact, with no trace of sadness or anger behind the words. The half-elf turned back to consult the rest of his party. Dynaheir looked torn, her dark eyes averted away from the sight of the man. Khalid wasn't looking at Rielev directly; he was obviously uncomfortable. Imoen's face, however, was impassive – she shrugged at Eli, in a sort of 'you're on your own' gesture to her friend.

"I'm… not sure I'm entirely following what you're saying, Rielev," he pressed. "Are you living or dead?"

"Neither, neither," the other man said, attempting to explain. "I am... between the two. My master has left and forgotten me... he has not killed me."

"Wh –uh. Is it death that you want?" Eli asked slowly, cocking his head to the side while he thought and spoke at the same time. "Do you… um, wish us to release you from this state?"

Rielev's clouded eyes widened – he looked like he could have jumped out of the glass at them had he been able. "Release, yes...! I-I no longer wish to be here!" His excitement caused the fragile, soft voice to break somewhat. He coughed feebly for several seconds, continuing in a softer tone with, "Let me… let me slip into the oblivion that… I have been denied!"

"All right, okay. Just –"

"Y-you're going to let him die?" Khalid asked, looking at Eli with an odd expression on his face. "This is a ch-chance to s-save a life, Elioth…"

"Rielev hasn't been alive in a long time," Imoen rebutted sharply. "Look at him, Khalid, he wouldn't survive out of the tank. Unhooking him *would* be saving him…"

While the two of them hashed it out, Eli looked back to Rielev, a tired expression in his pale eyes. "How can we help?"

"This unit… chamber… is powered by cells, crystals. Take them and I can die at last."

He brushed some of the wires behind him and moved closer to the edge of the tank, splaying his hands against the inside of the glass and setting his intense gaze in the general direction of Eli. "I know you are a prisoner. You ask too much to be one of Master's… alas, it seems some things do not change."

"What does—" Imoen began, halting her argument with Khalid temporarily, but Rielev started up again. She instantly closed her mouth, the words getting filed for later. "You… all of you… must escape this place… escape his experiments. There are others… others like me but more fresh... They may know how to exit this complex."

"You mean the room across the hall," Eli realized aloud, which caused Rielev to nod emphatically.

"Yes! Will you take these cells… revive the others…? To learn what you can to find your freedom?"

Khalid and Imoen had stopped their bickering over what was moral and right and what wasn't; both they and Dynaheir watched the half-elf to see what he would do.

Elioth was a good person at heart. That he would choose to end Rielev's suffering was never in question even though he didn't like taking lives. The ethical struggle over what to do with the frail man in the tube was easy to overcome in his head; Rielev had absolutely gotten a lion's share of pain in his artificially long life. "I'll take the cells. We'll try to revive the other servants and… um, see what we can do." He knocked softly on the glass, ultimately resting his palm near the pickled man's own hand. "Have peace at last, Rielev."

"Thank ye... go and leave me to oblivion." He matched his palm to Eli's.

Dynaheir was closest to the back of the cell – she nodded at Eli, understanding what they'd been asked to do. Grasping the power cell, she gave it a hard yank. It came free in her hands and she looked down at it for a second before bringing her gaze up to Rielev's face. "Find thy peace at last," she repeated, watching the chamber start to darken.

"At last!" he whispered.

The foursome watched him fade out, a beatific smile on his wizened face.