Disclaimer:
I don't own Baldur's Gate, the great masterpiece of role-playing.
The story on hand, ‚The revenge' is fan-fiction. I wrote it, because I love to write, but I will not use ‚The revenge' in any commercial way.
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Rating: 'M'. Some scenes may be a 'T', but I had the feeling that a few scenes should be rated as 'MA'. I think, in general it's OK, to give 'M'. If you don't like that or if you are too young, don't read!
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The revenge
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Chapter1
Nightal 12th, 1369
De'Arnise keep, Amn
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The landscape around the de'Arnise keep was completely snow-covered and was engulfed in a slight fog. There was no hope in seeing further than a hundred feet ahead.
After a period of intensive but short storms the fall had given way for the winter: The first snow had fallen in the end of Uktar and now, in the middle of Nightal, the country was in the claws of a hard and long coldness.
Time to rest, time to heal wounds.
And they had wounds to heal.
In the beginning of the year they had came from Baldur's Gate as the saviors of the sword coast where they had stopped a war. In the late spring and the summer they had stopped Bodhi and Irenicus, they had saved the elven city of Suldanessalar, and they had fought against dragons, demons and evil mages in reality, in their dreams and even in hell. And to take it to extremes, after that they had defeated the 'half-goddess' Amelyssan in Tethyr.
And now it was winter and even Imoen, who was always bursting with energy, wanted to take a rest.
She sighed and looked to the vague outline of the keep she could make out ahead, realizing it was at the bottom of the hill she was on now.
Imoen smiled.
In the background she heard a few wolves howling. The pack was close, but she wouldn't fear the wolves even when she would see the colors of their eyes. In contrast to human beings – or anything else on two feet – animals understood much faster that she was an archmage. She was absolutely sure that the wolves didn't want to make her angry… her, Imoen of Candledeep. A year ago she had been nothing more than a plain girl, but now she was a powerful wizard.
She ignored the howling and walked on the blanket of snow, her bags gliding next to her and followed the way she chose: It was one of the advantages of being an archmage, helping to make her journeys easier.
She walked down the hill, saw the outlines of the stronghold in the snowfall and after a short moment she reached the keep and pounded at the gate.
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Nalia shook with cold, when she heard the loud knock and looked into Cernick' confused eyes. All hells! It was too icy out there to wander and all paths and streets to the keep were closed because of the snow.
Not even she would do such madness: The noble mage just was in the yard of the keep to bring a warm soup to the guards. After that she would head back indoors immediately, to the warmth of the fireplace in her room.
She whispered a spell of finding an evil presence, but she couldn't feel anyone. Apparently the person at the other side of the gate didn't want to kill them. She looked to Cernick and nodded.
The captain of the guards rolled his eyes, sighed and looked to his men on the central tower, "Open the gate!"
When it opened, Nalia saw a person, who was masked with thick and warm clothes. Nalia stepped towards the person, "I'm Nalia de'Arnise, archmage and the owner of this keep. Identify yourself!"
Silence.
Nalia stared at the person… and felt something… powerful. This one was, like her, a powerful mage.
Suddenly she took down her hood and Nalia stared into a smirking face, "Nice place, Nali. Hope, I can treat it like home for some days."
"IMMY!" the face of the noble brightened.
Cernick looked at Nalia in disbelief, "That's Imoen of Candledeep?"
She nodded and the captain of the guards grinned amusedly, "All gods! Two archmages! I must be cursed!"
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Imoen stood close to the fire and warmed her hands. Nalia had been shocked, when she'd realized that her friend just had worn two extra layers of clothing while she had made the trip to the keep.
The noble took off her thick coat, her cape and her boots; she stood there in black trousers, a red shirt and sandals.
Suddenly Imoen smiled and sat on a chair in front of the fire, "That's good, Nali… I mean to be welcome."
"You're always welcome, Imoen."
"Thank ya, Nali."
The noble grinned. Although her friend had the power of an archmage she didn't speak a better language. Imoen was no one who attached importance to formalities like a good pronunciation.
Nalia gave her a plate with a soup and sat next to her.
The
brown haired woman smiled, took the soup and tasted… Then she
pulled a face, "Hey, you should punish your cook. Torture him to
death or something like that."
Nalia grinned, "Oh, thanks, I
made the soup."
"Oh,
eh…"
"Hm?"
"I just wanted to say… that perhaps the next time your cook should make the soup for poor wanderers."
Nalia giggled, "Yes, perhaps that's right. But I want to learn cooking. Just doing the things nobles are meant to do is boring."
"And what are noble doing?"
"Going to balls, listening to stupid stories of untalented bards, smiling when another noble makes a joke or give possible husbands the 'brushoff'."
Imoen grinned evilly, "Yeah, sounds terrible. Ya have my sympathy, gal."
"It was better in the first weeks after we drove the Roenalls away. We had so much to do. Helping and protecting the people in the lands of the keep…"
"Oh…" Imoen interrupted her.
"Yes?"
"I've forgotten to ask before now… I've heard that ya got your estate back from the Roenalls… I wanted to ask you what has happened?"
"Oh, that was fun," Nalia grinned. "When I came back back from Tethyr, I asked them to leave, but the Roenalls became violent and we had a short but intensive confrontation. I'm sure you can imagine how the thing ended."
"Did ya morphed Isaea into a rat?"
Nalia grinned, "Nice idea, but I was gracious. And as reward for my mercy he has sworn to destroy me and to discredit me in any possible way."
"I'd morphed him into a rat or something like this."
"I'm sure you had done this. But… sorry, let's change subjects. I'm not in the mood to talk about Isaea."
"See it. But at least that's an advantage of the winter: Creeps like him can't visit you. And if he uses a teleport you can send him back with another teleport."
"Hm, by the way, why you didn't come with such a spell?"
"Why should I d' that? It's a wonderful landscape and the weather's quite nice. And I like to take a walk," Imoen blinked.
Nalia smiled, "Protection from cold?"
Imoen laughed, "Yeah, for sure. I can tell you that's a really useful spell if you want to ramble in the winter and if I 'm in a snow flurry or when it's foggy I can use the infravision spell. That makes it easier to see."
"Oh? I didn't know it worked in a snow flurry… But you haven't told me, what is the reason of your visit? Even for you it's a bit mad to visit me in the winter without reason."
Imoen hesitated, and then she tried to smile, pointed with her hand to one of her bags, which glided to her. In the next moment she opened the bag and Nalia saw a sweet little bird.
The eyes of the noble brightened, "Oh, that's a nice one… What a bird it is?"
"Eh, a hummingbird…"
Silence.
Nalia's face lost its color and in the next moment she didn't know if she should laugh or cry.
"Oh Immy… What have you done?"
"Eh, it was a stupid mistake, believe me…"
Nalia managed a short smile. After they had defeated Amelyssan, Solar had sent them back to Tethyr, where they'd met Chloe, a female kensai and mercenary, the proud daughter of Arcadia, the goddess of the wind, who decided to join the group… and fell in love with Immy. Chloe's nickname for the archmage was 'nightingale'. In return for that, Imoen called Chloe 'hummingbird'.
"Oh, Imoen…"
"Hey, it's her mistake! We've argued… and she made me angry… So I've cursed her."
Nalia stared at Imoen, "You cursed your lover, because of an argument?!"
"She… I had the feeling that she had been unfaithful to me."
"And had she been?"
"Eh, no… After I had cursed her, I found out that she hadn't."
"I've always told you that you're too impulsive."
"Hm."
"And now?"
"I need your help. I can't remorph her alone. It was a special curse: I need the help of another powerful archmage."
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-tbc-