The Zenith

by Blackcross-Taylor

After their capture by the mysterious Irenicus, Fritha and her companions find themselves in the lands of Amn with a friend to rescue and a debt to repay. Completed

71. Hell is where the heart is

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Shadows of Amn', the 'Forgotten Realms' or any characters therein. Wizards of the Coast do, at my last check. Lucky them.
I do, however, own Fritha and certain other characters and plot points. Basically, if you don't recognise it from the game, it's probably mine.

Hell is where the heart is

Fritha felt the muscles in her arms tense, straining as she heaved herself up, twisting her body to take a seat in the open hatchway, Cernd, Anomen and Jaheira already crowded into the small room behind her, all jaundiced in that sickly yellow light. It had been a hurried albeit easy enough climb to get up there, the group rushing back towards the sphere to scale a stack of rotting crates at the farthest end of the warehouse before edging along what was left of the old wooden roof. Jaheira had gone first, the woman leaving her staff with Cernd as she had tripped lightly over to the open hatchway and peered over the rim, shouting back to them with the 'all clear' but moments later, before disappearing inside.

Fritha glanced down. Minsc was stood waiting on the roof below her, the last of their group to make the climb and she hastened to get out of his way, turning to swing her legs inside and taking Jaheira's offered hand to help her to her feet to find herself stood with the others in the small circular room. The walls were made from the same bronze plates as the outside of the sphere, three circular doorways leading from it, one open and two closed, the doors themselves just a smooth plate of the same bronze metal, a small panel of different coloured buttons situated next to the central one. There was a low hum to the air just on the edge of her hearing and Fritha had a feeling it was being emitted from the wan yellow lights above them, large panels of frosted glass that encircled the centre of the domed ceiling like the luminescent petals of some strange flower. Fritha blinked feverishly as she lowered her gaze; the all-pervading glare of yellow and bronze was making her eyes water.

Behind her, Minsc had finally heaved himself up from the roof to join them, the ranger starting his anxious shouts before he had even got to his feet.

'AERIE? AERIE?'

'Minsc!' Jaheira interrupted in a snap, 'I doubt she will be able to hear you, however loudly you bellow -all the doors are closed.'

'This one isn't,' offered Cernd mildly, stepping through the doorway to their right, his gasp enough to draw Fritha in after him, the others close behind her.

'What is-?' she began, though her query was lost to a sigh of her own as the girl stared down at a large oval basin, so large it almost filled the room, the bronze dish brimming not with water but a rippling image of the surrounding slums, the jumble of dark streets and houses a perfect match to the sprawl she knew was just outside, right down to the flickering lights of the windows and streetlamps.

'The detail…' Fritha breathed as she leaned closer, 'it's amazing –look, you can see the Coronet!'

'Is it some sort of map?' questioned Anomen somewhere behind her. Fritha tore her eyes from it in time to see Cernd shake his head, looking somewhat troubled.

'I am not sure. Look there -and there… people, and they're moving…'

A mechanical hiss sounded somewhere in the room behind them, Fritha whirling back at the noise.

'What was that?'

No one was given the chance to answer her though as an almightily jolt shook the room, the group thrown to the floor, helpless in the sudden darkness as their surroundings tremoured, the distant rumble of working machinery echoing about the metal room. And then it stopped, everything silent once more, the lights flickering back on though much more dimly that before.

Fritha could feel herself being helped to sit, the girl shaking her hair from her eyes to see Cernd, the man half-behind, half-underneath her where she had been thrown against him.

'Are you unharmed?' he asked kindly and she nodded, shifting herself from his lap and already glancing about them to check on the others. Jaheira was holding the edge of the map basin as she tried to slowly regain her feet, Minsc leaning back against the wall looking relieved, letting Boo run across his hands after spending a few frantic moments patting his pockets, stricken with the worry that he had fallen upon the hamster, while Anomen was sat next to him, fiercely rubbing his head where he had caught it against the door jam, looking like it was taking all his self-restraint not to curse fiercely too.

'Oh dear,' murmured Jaheira, suddenly transfixed by the map they had all been staring at just moments before and Fritha struggled to her feet to look as well, her breath catching in her throat as she gazed down on, not the slums, but a landscape of charred rock and steam, the miniature figures of creatures not native to anywhere on the Prime dotted sparingly across the surface. A moment to take it in and there was a scramble, everyone rushing back to the other room to now find the door they had entered through sealed, Fritha looking for a moment like she would collapse to her knees before it.

'We've plane shifted,' she breathed. 'Oh merciful Illmater, we've plane shifted!'

'We have left the city?' Minsc confirmed with a frown, not quite grasping the gravity of their situation, 'Then, Boo wonders, where have we gone?'

'From what I have seen in guides within the temple libraries, I would say some layer of the infernal planes,' offered Anomen grimly.

Fritha gave a miserable groan. 'I. Am. So. Stupid!' she cried, punctuating each word by knocking her head against the metal doorframe and only stopped when Anomen placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pulled her back from it, the girl whirling about to demand of no one in particular, 'Why do I keep doing this? Once again I've left Imoen on the Prime with no one who even knows of her, while we're here stuck on some gods-forsaken layer of the Hells!'

Jaheira stepped up, the calm voice of reason. 'Well, let us just focus on one thing at a time; we need to be reunited with Aerie and Valygar.' She moved to the door opposite, still sealed and looking just as unmoveable as before, 'How do we get in? Fritha?'

'Why are you asking me?'

Jaheira sighed tersely. 'Because you translated that diary.'

'No, I translated parts of that diary –did you see the size of that thing?'

'Well, have a read of it now!' Jaheira snapped; her air of calm was wavering.

'I can't,' Fritha sighed, looking intensely frustrated, 'Aerie has it.'

xxx

Aerie fought to untangle herself from her robes and find her feet, the man next to her already stood, his outline stooped as he searched for Lavok's diary in the limited glow of her werelight. The last thing she remembered was running, her lungs screaming for air as she willed her limbs to move faster, the others just ahead of her in that dark rain-slick street. And then nothing and she had been almost wild with panic when she had awoken in the pitch blackness, her discovery that she was not alone making her breathless with reverential gratitude, though it was only an instant later she felt her Lord, Baervar, might have been having a little fun at her expense as her werelight opened out the tall and scowling form of Valygar.

Though not the best suited pair, they were co-operating at least, Valygar pleased when she had produced Lavok's diary, the man showing her a section further back that opened out into an extensive plan of the sphere's innards. It had taken them long enough, though, to work out where they were, and they had just started to make their way out when the floor had begun to shake.

'What was that?' asked Aerie, glancing about her warily though even her eyes could only penetrate the darkness a short way.

Valygar sighed, no pause to his search.

'I do not know, but I doubt it was anything to our benefit,' he answered, his eyes finally falling upon the diary. 'Ah!' He dropped the book as soon as he had grasp it, forgetting the deep cut along his palm in his haste, straightening with scowl to readjust the handkerchief he had tied around it.

'Here,' said Aerie gently, making to take his hand, 'let me heal that.'

He snatched it back from her as though he expected to lose it. 'No, it is fine.'

'Oh, suit yourself then,' Aerie muttered sharply, stooping to retrieve the book herself and trying to find her place, finally coming to the thick sheaf of pages and carefully unfolding the large plan once more.

'Right, we are here in the lower level, second quarter -and the hatchway where the others must have entered is here, in the first quarter of the third level, so we need to carry on following these pipes until we reach a wall, then turn left and we should come to a service ladder to the first level.'

'You assume your friends made it outside the sphere –they could be trapped in here just as we,' Valygar offered.

'And would you have us search the whole sphere?' asked Aerie tartly, not wanting dwell on the wisdom of his words –after all, there was only one diary and they had it. 'Come on, we have to hurry, the others will be worrying -you have seen how Minsc can get when he believes one of his friends is threatened.'

Valygar raised a stern eyebrow, though he looked more surprised than angered. 'Are you trying to threaten me?'

She actually had been, experimenting with the feeling of it, though she realised immediately it did not suit her, however subtly it was borne.

'Of course not!' Aerie exclaimed with as much indignation as she could muster considering it was a lie and the pair set off, making a quick pace through the darkness. 'Anyway, why would I bother, since you already seem to feel so fearful of me.'

Aerie did not need to see the ranger's face to hear his frown.

'I am not fearful, merely wary. Understand, Aerie, I do not think you a danger now, neither you nor Fritha, despite her parentage. I only know that the power within you corrupts, and that if you will not be on constant guard against this evil, then I must, lest we all face another Lavok in but a few decades time.'

Aerie was tempted to point out that in a few decades time, Valygar's long dark braids would be more grey than black and he would in no position to stop her should she have decided to become the necromantic scourge of Amn. But she concluded that it would hardly help their relations and said only as she pointed to the metal wall that was looming out of the darkness, 'There, we turn left here.'

xxx

Fritha jumped back with a hiss as the open panel she had been leaning in to sparked, for an instant blinding and burning her both. They were still trapped in the cramped entrance chamber, her at the door while the others were behind her, some sat, while some, like Minsc, were stood, the man pacing anxiously as she worked. Fritha felt pretty certain that the panel next to the main door was supposed to have operated the thing, but no amount of button prodding had worked or indeed given any response and Fritha had a sinking feeling that whatever had dimmed the lights might have affected other mechanisms about the sphere as well.

And so, after Minsc had finally grown tired and admitted defeat when it came to breaking the door down, Fritha had used the tip of her knife to pry off the panel itself and was now trying to decipher the inner workings, the small hatchway a jumble of glass cylinders and metal pipes that were linked intermittently with glowing blue crystals. It was powered by magic of that she was sure, though it seemed that since the sphere had plane shifted there was no longer enough energy to work the mechanism and Fritha had been trying to coax out some of her own magic as a substitute, though with little success.

'Oh, hurry, young Fritha,' Minsc fretted behind her, the man halting his pacing to stand wringing his large scarred hands, 'Aerie could be alone facing devils and demons and-'

'Well, it's going to be one or the other, Minsc,' said Jaheira curtly, approaching the girl to ask, 'How goes it, Fritha?'

'As well as it looks!' Fritha snapped, 'Ah!'

She bit back another curse as the panel sparked again and burnt her fingers, the girl sending a flare of magic back into it out of mere temper and across the chamber the leftmost door slid smoothly open.

'Oh,' said Fritha, instantly mollified, 'well, six and half a dozen, I suppose. Shall we investigate?'

Fritha had already straightened to draw her sword, the others about her readying their weapons as well as she approached. Through the circular doorway she could see the room beyond, unreal in the flickering yellow light, a large unlit furnace set against the back wall, while all about it were heaped collections of crudely formed limbs, heads and torsos in a variety of metals: Lavok had an interest in golems it seemed.

Jaheira was at the mouth now, the woman the first to step through the circular doorway, casting about her warily.

'It looks-'

Fritha's shriek cut her off as the door swept shut, Cernd leaping forward just in time to wedge his staff in the narrow gap still left, Anomen and Minsc already straining against the mechanism to pull the metal panel back. Jaheira was paying their efforts little heed though, whirling to face the room behind her as an inhuman roar echoed through the chamber, what had looked to be just another pile of golem parts slowly struggling to its feet.

'Hurry!' she pressed, lowering her staff at the construct for all the good it would do.

'Open the door!' shouted Cernd, Fritha dropping her sword to tear back to the panel, with no idea of what she would do when she got there, but, fortunately, she was not needed. Minsc gave the door an almighty heave, the metal plate grinding back a few more inches and Jaheira slipped awkwardly through the gap, everyone leaping back from the door as it finally snapped shut.

Jaheira was bent double, hands resting upon her knees, her staff on the floor at her feet as Cernd hovered over her, everyone panting like they had just sprinted a league.

'Jaheira, are-'

Everyone jumped, a loud thud sounding from the other side of the door, followed by another and another, the slow rhythmic pounding almost like a heartbeat echoing about the chamber as the golem trapped within hammered relentlessly on the metal. Fritha swallowed, turning back to the panel behind her; there could be no more mistakes now.

xxx

'So, you say that power corrupts, but we can all achieve power one way or another -a man may be able to wield a sword, it doesn't mean he will become evil.'

Valygar drew in a long slow breath as he struggled to keep the cool detachment for which he was reputed. The elf had been talking so since they had set off, the strangeness of their surroundings the only thing to provide the occasional, and welcome, respite. They had found their way from the bowels of the sphere some time ago and were now on the first level making their way through the labyrinth of dark narrow corridors as they headed for the core of the sphere. The way seemed simple enough on Lavok's plans, just lines and squares that gave no hint of the oddities they held, the pair passing room after room, each sealed, a numeral of old Loross embossed upon the metal with a small circular window of thick glass set above it.

Some had seemed empty while others were decidedly not. Already they had passed a room that was, for all intents and purposes, on fire, a fierce heat radiating from the metal door while flames licked and danced within. Another had been walled entirely with mirrors and strangest of all was the last room they had passed, the walls covered in what appeared to be the religious symbols of every good god he recognised -and many he did not- a dark shape huddled and laughing softly against the far wall.

Valygar had been curious enough to overcome his customary wariness and take a step closer to the glass, but Aerie had caught his arm, and it had been the sudden fear to her face more than anything that had made him heed her, the pair moving swiftly on. But even these curiosities served only to distract the elf for a short time before they inevitably came back to the subject of his 'unwarranted distrust of the arcane' -why could she not just accept his beliefs and have done with it?

'It is not the power that corrupts,' he clarified gruffly, 'but the actual magic itself.'

Aerie stared up at him with a curious surprise. 'So the magic of the Weave is the source of this evil? How can it be? Mystra is good.'

'So? She is a goddess; we are mere mortals.'

'But Jaheira, Cernd and Anomen all use magic, why don't you think they are going to be corrupted?'

Valygar sighed; he had been waiting for this one. 'Their magic comes from the gods.'

'So does mine, as we just established,' Aerie reminded promptly, 'it comes from Mystra.'

'No, that goddess may rule it, but magic is not a gift for your service and worship -any may make use of the power have they enough education and skill.'

'So, does that mean you're not worried about Fritha either then? Her magic comes from a god,' the elf pointed out slyly. Valygar rolled his eyes though he was saved from answering as they came to the end of the corridor, the room opening out to a large and unusually, rectangular room, the opposite side so far away as to be swathed in shadows.

On the map, it was easily the largest of all the rooms, a cavernous square that took up the whole lower centre of the sphere and now he could see why. Barring a narrow ledge that ran the perimeter, the floor was just water, a huge pool spanning the entire room and Valygar could tell from the plans that the little they could see was nothing compared to the size of the thing underneath the surface. Aerie had taken a step closer to peer down into the water, her werelight hovering just above her, opening the depths in a light green-blue before they was lost to blackness once more.

'This is amazing…' she breathed, 'what do you imagine it's for?'

'I don't,' he said bluntly, but she was ignoring him anyway.

'It could be the water supply for the sphere, but what spell would need so mu- Oh!' she gasped, starting back though her gaze was still riveted upon the water and Valygar could see it too, something staring back at her from just under the surface. It was humanoid in appearance, a flat round face of black pebble-bright eyes and pale green skin that was lightly mottled like shark's hide, though it was hard to make out many details under the rippling surface of the water. It watched the elf for a moment, seemingly as curious as she was, when a swish of fins and the creature was gone.

'We should keep moving,' said Valygar, already starting to edge along the narrow ledge, 'there is a ladder to the second level on the other side.'

Aerie nodded mutely, the elf remaining silent until they had climbed up and were walking along another dark cramped corridor, the circular light at the end indicating they may have finally reached the main body of the sphere, this lull clearly prompting the elf's return to their previous discussion.

'I just find it so strange that a reasonable man can hold such an irrational view of something most people would see as at least useful, if not a blessing.'

If Valygar had been a god-worshiping man, he would have cursed the lot of Them.

'If it bothers you so, perhaps we should refrain from speaking of it,' he offered tightly. But the elf just smiled.

'Oh, no, I actually find it quite interesting,' she said cheerfully. 'Most people always assume I am weak based on my appearance and manner, and here you are worrying about me becoming some arcane juggernaut of destruction. I wonder if this is how Fritha feels all the time,' she considered aloud, as she went back to the map in her hands, 'She is just a normal girl and everyone seems to expect her to rampage around like the embodiment of Bhaal Himself.' She laughed lightly, letting a finger trace over the plans as the doorway before them neared to allow a glimpse of the room beyond, a strange mix of chamber and cavern, the walls a rough stone that melded back into the familiar bronze plates as they reached the dome-like ceiling. Aerie was still reading over the plans as she made to step over the doorsill, 'Now this room looks to be the beginning to the central hub-'

The elf almost dropped the diary as Valygar seized her firmly about the shoulders and pulled her back into the darkness of the corridor, her eyes wide above the hand he had clamped over her mouth. He slowly shook his head, gently releasing her to point back to the room just beyond the shadows and the huge boiled pink floating sphere of leathery skin, the creature muttering away to itself, its many eyes seemingly focused on the large sealed hatchway behind it.

'Thinks to make me one of his test subjects -does he even realise with whom he is dealing? His magic is nothing compared to my own, why- GAAAHHH!' it suddenly roared, its frustrations getting the better of it as it released a barrage of spells against the unyielding metal, 'I HAVE ESCAPED YOUR PATHETIC CAGE! COME OUT HERE AND FACE ME, LAVOK! I WILL BE YOUR PRISONER NO LONGER!'

'A beholder!' Aerie breathed seemingly mesmerised in her horror, 'It's huge, at least as big as the one Gaal and the cult worshiped.'

'And it is in our path,' Valygar added pointedly. Aerie frowned.

'It does not appear to be on good terms with Lavok; perhaps we could reason with it?'

'Do you wish to try?' he asked with the hint of a smile. The elf returned it rather sheepishly.

'Perhaps not. Well, I suppose the only other way past it will be some sort of concealment spell.'

'What?'

'Fine,' she snapped, seemingly losing patience with him, 'you go out there and talk to it then, and while it's distracted eating you, I'll sneak past. Look,' she reasoned, 'I can't see any other way around on the plans.'

Valygar frowned. He did not like relying on magic, but he had done so in the past and, in joining this group, he had known he would likely have to do so in the future too, at least for the duration he was with them.

'All right,' he sighed, moving to take the diary from her and free her hands, 'just make it quick.'

xxx

Fritha danced to the side, making very sure Minsc was still at her back as the throng pressed in about her legs, their assailants what she would have described as halflings -if halflings were feral bloodthirsty little monsters; all quick hands and gnashing teeth. She stepped back, dodging a sweep from a vicious bone dagger and blocking a stab from another to bring her sword around, the halfling's cured leather armour providing little protection as she made the quick thrust through his torso, his fellows trampling him underfoot as they fought to fill the gap in their ranks.

After a lot of tweaking and some very nervous experimentation, Fritha had finally managed to open the main door and their group had begun a slow advance into the sphere. It had seemed empty for the most part, silent as a tomb and just as eerie, the only noise the constant drone of the flickering yellow lights that hung in strips above them. Most of the doors they had come to could not be opened (and after the success of last time, Fritha was not attempting to force them), but some seemed to have retained enough power to function, the group making their way along narrow corridors that occasionally opened out into rooms.

The majority were just as plain and empty as the entrance chamber, though some were furnished, one lined with shelves of empty glass jars, another room bare but for what looked to be a tall oval mirror, though it showed no reflection and, most sinister of all, one room that looked similar to the parlour of some quaintly rustic house, right down to the neat stone walls and freshly scrubbed floorboards. The image her mind had conjured for her of Lavok sitting himself down by the hearth of an evening, a cup of ale resting on his gingham be-deck table was too disturbing to be amusing, even for Fritha. Two more doorways had led from there, though one did not look as though it could be opened from that side, Fritha translating a panel next to it that said something concerning a "vacuumed airlock" and a warning about "bubble charms being in place before depressurisation" that no one much liked the sound of, though, as it turned out, the other door had lead to somewhere just as unpleasant.

Fritha glanced about her, the room nothing like what they had come upon yet and they could easily be back upon the Prime in some small cave. Well almost, she conceded, the rough stone walls bathed in the same flickering yellow light as the rest of the sphere, circular metal hatchways at each end of the long wide bridge of natural rock that seemed to just hang in the void of the chamber, the edges just falling away to an impenetrable blackness.

Fritha took another step to the side as, behind her, Minsc made huge swing with his greatsword, scattering the halflings before him, the small head that bounced past her indicating at least one had not been fast enough. The room had seemed as empty as the rest of the sphere when they had first arrived, but then hatchway had closed behind them, a shrill warbling chorus of cries rising up from the grouping of rough dwellings at the other end of the stone spur. And suddenly they were swarming down the slight slope, a band of halflings at least a score in number, all clad in simple skins and leather armour decorated with strings of bones and teeth though it was hard to see more under the wild tangle of hair, and they had had only enough time to ready their own weapons before they were surrounded.

Anomen, Jaheira and Cernd were further down the slope and doing well, the ground about them littered with dead, the two druids fighting the creatures at a distance, while the knight was most assuredly on the attack, his shield before him as he weighed each swing, those halfling who could not dodge his mace not surviving to regret it.

Fritha whirled to block a blow to her stomach, the heavy thigh bone the halfling was wielding as a club impacting on the edge of her blade only to shatter, Fritha squinting as she was showered in the sharp splinters. The jagged bone shard the halfling had been left with was already being thrust at her thigh and she stepped back to parry it, another of her assailants taking advantage of this and diving for her legs as well.

Fritha shrieked, hastening to dodge but Minsc was already there before her, a heavy boot sending him flying, and for a moment even his fellows seemed to pause to watch his descent, the halfling's shrill cry fading as it disappeared over the edge of the spar. Fritha pressed the advantage of this momentary distraction, stepping back, her sword in both hands as she took a wide swing at those before her, her blade passing through the neck of the first and well into the face of the second, Minsc impaling another as the halfling turned to run, while at the next group Anomen was pressing forward with his shield to sweep the final pair off the edge of the outcrop, their cries echoing away to leave the room silent.

'What on Toril were they?' gasped Fritha, the girl still brushing fragments of bone from her hair she sheathed her sword.

'Well, we are no longer on Toril, so take your guess,' said Jaheira mordantly. Fritha sent her a sarcastic grimace and turned to walk up to the next circular doorway, the room beyond walled with the familiar metal panels that Fritha had never before thought she would be happy to see. It was similar to many of the rooms they had come across, just plain and empty, three doors leading from it, two with small viewing portals, while the other was just the usual metal plate. Fritha moved over to the nearest, leaning up to peer through the small window.

'Can you see anything?' asked Anomen, stepping up behind her too look himself. Fritha shook her head, still straining to see through the darkness beyond.

'No. No way through at least, it's just dark and empt- Oh!'

She jumped back, her chain-covered shoulders meeting Anomen's breastplate in clatter of metal as a shadowy face was suddenly pressed up against the glass, the creature hissing at her through a tattered amorphous mouth before it twisted away as though in water to merge again with the darkness. Fritha sent the knight a frown in her embarrassment, not pleased to suddenly find him so close, the girl brushing past him to join Cernd at the window of the door opposite.

'What about that one?'

xxx

Aerie only just kept her balance as she was no less than thrown through the open doorway, Valygar diving in behind her to slam a hand on the control panel next to it, the featureless metal door sweeping shut, only to tremble as the magic blast impacted with the other side.

'PATHETIC SERVANTS, I WILL DESTROY YOUR MASTER AND THEN TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB! I WILL-'

Aerie glanced to Valygar to offer him a weak smile, the pair of them still panting heavily from their mad sprint across the chamber. Her plan of sneaking past the beholder under the cloak of her concealment spell had failed at about halfway across, when it had turned and it seemed not all of its eyes were fooled, the creature giving an outraged roar, the only thing which had prevented it from calling its magics straight away and killing them both. And Valygar had taken this advantage; the ranger instantly grabbed her to tear the rest of the way, the chamber for which they had been heading too small for the beholder even if it had managed to blast the door away.

Aerie swallowed as the creature's roars finally faded, the girl turning to the man next to her to venture, 'What do you-?'

A mechanical hiss behind them, the pair whirling, weapons readied as the door slid aside and for a moment the two groups just stared at each other, when relieved laughter exploded from both sides, Minsc rushing forward to lift Aerie clear off her feet as he caught her in a crushing embrace.

'Ah, you made it through,' cried Aerie once the Rashemi had finally released her, 'I was so worried.'

'You were worried,' laughed Fritha, 'Minsc here was beside himself.'

'Did you know we've plane shifted?' asked Jaheira and the elf shrugged, glancing to the man next to her.

'We did suspect something like that. Where are we now?'

'Well, we've a choice of either the Abyss or the Nine Hells,' offered Fritha resignedly, 'so take your pick.'

'Does the diary give any indication of where Lavok might be found?' asked Anomen. Aerie frowned.

'Well, there's a map that shows a central control room -he would likely be there if anywhere and in any case that is where the controls would be for us to plane shift back to the Prime. It's just back through that doorway only –only, well, one of Lavok's test subjects appears to have freed itself and is now through there attacking anything it can find.'

'It's a beholder,' explained Valygar, 'an Elder Orb by its size and power.'

A grim silence met this revelation.

'Can we reason with it?' offered Cernd after a moment. Aerie did not look hopeful.

'It's very angry -I don't think anyone would last long enough to open talks.'

Jaheira sighed tersely. 'By Silvanus! Well, is there some other way into the central chamber?'

Valygar shrugged indifferently. 'There may be through the ducts or pipe work, but if there is, it is not shown on this plan.'

'What about sneaking past it?'

'Well, it can see through concealment spells.'

'Besheba's horns! What about-?'

'Wait,' cut in Minsc, Aerie glancing to her to find the man looking not at them, but back through the doorway they had just come through, his eyes focused on something much further away, 'wait, Boo has a plan…'

xxx

'The plan is sound enough; I just do not understand why it has to be you.'

Fritha rolled her eyes and sighed deeply, no pause to her march. They had been discussing this ever since Minsc's plan was agreed, albeit with her one minor alteration, and she knew very well that Anomen understood why it had to be her –he just did not like it.

'Because I can work the door -well, mostly,' she explained again as they made their way through the maze of corridors back to the entrance chamber, 'and I can run the fastest. I was the fastest thing in Candlekeep -which I know doesn't sound impressive since the average age there was fifty, but I am very fast.'

Anomen frowned, not looking at all reassured. 'But without your armour-'

'I will be even faster,' Fritha cut in firmly, as they finally stepped into the entrance chamber, 'You liked the plan well enough when Minsc was the one doing all the running about, what is this sudden fuss you're making? Is this because you like me now, or something? You were never bothered about me doing dangerous things before.'

Anomen drew back looking hurt.

'I was always concerned for you, Fritha, I merely never voiced it.'

'Yes, well, I much preferred it that way,' Fritha muttered under her breath as she bent double to shrug her chainmail into a gleaming pool at her feet.

'Here,' she huffed, straightening to hand it to the man still at her side, 'take that back, will you? And tell the others to be ready; this cannot go wrong or we could end up fighting both of them.'

Anomen was still frowning, moving a hand up though he stopped just short of gripping her shoulder.

'Please, Fritha, just be careful.'

She sent him a grin.

'I always am!'

The man sighed and turned on his heel to sweep off, Fritha listening to his footsteps fade, counting them absently in her head, imagining where they would be were she walking with him until she was sure he had reached the others in the final chamber.

Right, this is it.

The front of the control panel was still off, resting on the floor where she had left it, the blue glow of the crystals within the open hatchway a welcome respite for her eyes in the yellow glare. She moved over to it, feeling light and slightly vulnerable without the familiar weight of her chainmail, the girl jogging where she stood a moment, a nervous energy running through her as her heartbeat began to quicken.

Ready… ready… NOW!

The spark left her fingers almost unconsciously, the girl opening her eyes to see the door to her left slide back, the golem still stood behind it seeing her to unleash an inhuman roar and suddenly she was tearing down corridors willing herself ever faster, the metal floor trembling under her feet as the construct pounded tirelessly after her.

…

Aerie nodded to Jaheira, the woman returning the gesture before retreating back into the darkness with the others. They had been fortunate the second of the specimen rooms was empty; the plan required timing and precision and even discounting the fact Aerie was less confident of her abilities over a wider area, having everyone crammed into the adjoining room was a sure recipe for disaster –the fewer people involved in this, the better.

Of course, it had taken a lot for Aerie to convince Minsc that she would be fine alone, the ranger reluctant to leave her side again so soon after losing her, though he had agreed in the end.

Aerie walked into the adjoining room and over to the sealed door she had only just leapt through, the idea it would soon be opened again stirring an unpleasant fear within her, though she quelled it fiercely, moving backwards into the corner to find her centre and wait for her signal.

And there it was in the distance and growing ever louder, breathless and shrill.

'Aerieeeee! Now, Aerie, now!'

The elf straightened, hands already moving in the complex patterns as she began to intone the concealment spell. Fritha appeared in the doorway opposite an instant later, crossing the doorsill with a leap that took her practically across the chamber, the golem thundering into the room behind her as she slammed a hand against the control panel. The door slid back, the roar from the chamber beyond indicating this had not gone unnoticed.

'WHAT! LAVOK'S SERVANTS FINALLY DARE TO FACE ME?'

The golem roared, ignoring Aerie, no halt to its pursuit as it charged at Fritha, the girl pressed back against the door frame when Aerie's spell finally released and the pair suddenly vanished. The golem redirected its ire instantly, charging through the hatchway to face the beholder who was bearing down upon the open door, Fritha suddenly reappearing as she slammed a hand against the panel and the door swept shut on them both. The girl staggered back, turning to slide down the wall and sit on the floor, the roars and curses that echoed from the other room punctuated by the occasional explosion of magic and nearly drowning her out as Aerie reappeared as well to venture, 'Are you all right?'

Fritha just nodded, still trying to catch her breath, the elf's words echoed by Cernd as the druid stepped into the chamber, the others at his back.

'Are you both unharmed?'

'Yes, we're fine, Fritha's just a little short of breath.'

'I'm getting to old for this,' Fritha puffed, leaning her head against the curved doorframe next to her and instantly removing it as the tremor of a magic blast shook the entire door, the golem's roar resonating about the chamber. Valygar sighed and sank down to sit on the floor opposite.

'And now we wait.'

xxx

It was a good half and hour later when the roars and blasts on the other side of the door finally faded and died, the group sharing a look in the silence that followed before Fritha decided they could risk a peek. Everyone moved back as she reached up to the door controls, the metal sliding aside to reveal the rocky chamber, still intact thought bearing the charred scars of the struggle. The beholder was laid dead in a bloody pool, a few of its eye stalks strewn about it where they had been torn off while the golem lay next to it, metal limbs twitching fitfully as they passed, though it could do little more and Fritha doubted even Lavok would have been able to repair it.

The great silver hatchway was before them now, thick and solid looking with no control panel to be found, though it seemed they did not need one. Valygar, either from his work on the diary or just plain instinct stepped forward to lay his wounded hand upon the cold metal and the two panels slid silently apart.

The room beyond was dimly lit, even more so once the hatchway closed behind them, the group finding themselves on a set of wide metal steps which led down into a large circular chamber, various hatchways leading from it while in the centre another curved set of metal stairs coiled about a raised control platform. An arrangement of huge glass pipes of glowing blue liquid ran from floor to ceiling behind it, the source of illumination for the rest of the chamber, while on the opposite wall another of the living maps hung. It was showing the same infernal scene as the one in the entrance chamber only four times the size, the vast plains and the edge of some demonic city rippling upon its surface.

'So it is you,' a voice rasped and Fritha started back to the control panel, a dark shape suddenly coalescing upon it to form a stooped wizened old man, his robe as black and tatty as the hair that hung in a limp crest around his balding head. He was so old he looked already dead, dark skin like leather and stretched over his skull, the only life to his face: the hatred that burned in his fiery orange eyes.

'You are the ones who have caused the sphere to travel again. You fools! I was so close to escaping and you shall suffer for it!'

The stairs they were on suddenly exploded as the spell released from his hands, everyone diving from its path, Valygar already charging across the chamber, taking the curved stairs two at a time, his sword aloft as he roared.

'DEATH COMES FOR YOU, NECROMANCER!'

Lavok's face twisted with a smile, the ranger's blade passing harmlessly through his form as though for that instant he was no more than smoke, the mage taking just a moment to enjoy Valygar's look of horrified surprised before he swept an arm up, the man sent flying from the platform to land in amongst his companions on the hard metal flooring.

Another blast of magic, this time centred on the sprawled form of the ranger, , Aerie dashing to the Valygar's side to call up a shield of her own, Jaheira, Cernd and Minsc all throwing themselves to the floor to escape the reflected energies, while Anomen pulled Fritha under his shield, the girl less concerned about intimate proximity when it was saving her life.

Lavok frowned, spitting a harsh guttural word in his anger, a mere curse of frustration, or so Fritha had thought until the metal floor around them began to buckle and split, the group struggling to their feet as a host of skeletons rose up from the glowing fissures, already armed and closing in about them, the floor from which they had sprouted unmarked once more.

They were surrounded, slowly being backed together into the corner of the stairs as they fought against the overwhelming numbers, Minsc taking one down with a great sweep of his sword, Anomen holding back their advance with shield and holy symbol both, while Aerie stood behind them all, gathering one last spell.

Lavok was laughing manically, his arms aloft as the powers gather between them, Aerie's spell doing nothing as it was deflected around his glittering yellow shield -but it had not been for him that she was aiming. His laughter ended abruptly as the blast impacted on glass pipes behind him, a long crack suddenly running up the farthest one, not liquid as Fritha had first thought, but a bright blue gas seeping through the fracture, hanging innocuously in the air a moment before it caught on the energies still gathering between his outstretched hands and ignited in a blast that floored them all, the shield of skeletons likely the only thing that had saved them, the undead evaporated in the explosion.

Fritha struggled to her feet. Lavok was at the bottom of the stairs now, a groaning heap of tattered robes and fragments of bone, Valygar suddenly stood over him, a katana poised above his chest.

'Look upon me, necromancer, and know your death frees my family!'

But it was not the creature who had fought them that stared up at him. He was still crumpled and old, but there was a frailty to him now, his eyes a watery grey as he cast about him wildly.

'Where am I? I am still in the sphere?' He sighed, finally relaxing back as he confirmed this for himself. 'Oh, thank you, thank you,' he rasped, and Fritha was given the impression this gratitude not for them but for multiverse at large, the mage opening his eyes to regard the man still above him. 'And my thanks to you, strangers, I have been a prisoner in my own mind for longer than I can remember.'

'What do you speak of?' demanded Valygar, looking highly disturbed at finding his family's nemesis so frail and peaceable, 'Answer me!'

Lavok sighed, wincing slightly as he shifted, hardly seeming to notice the sword that was being held to his chest as he explained regretfully, 'I was possessed, have been for ah, probably over a century now. I was in the plane of shadow in my quest for ever more interesting specimens, but one escaped and then I was the prisoner –a fitting torment for one who held so many others captive. It desired release, though not back upon its indigenous plane but the Prime.' Lavok closed his eyes, 'The power it would have held there had it my body and powers at its disposal would have decimated our plane –I could not allow it. I fought him in my mind, struggled with him for decades to thwart his efforts to pry the secrets of the sphere from me and now release…'

He sighed again, and deeply and Fritha feared he had passed on right before their eyes. Valygar was looking a strange combination of astounded and angry, the vengeance of this much sort meeting rather lost now he had discovered his adversary had spent the last hundred years in a noble struggle against the Prime's destruction.

'Can it be? This is Lavok? The necromancer who terrorised my family for centuries?'

The mage's eyes snapped open, seeming for the first time to notice the furious man stood over him.

'You know of me? Has word of my foul existence lasted even to this day?'

'Not quite, but some made it their duty to remember. I am the last of House Corthala, Lavok, and our vow ends when you do.'

'House Corthala …' he repeated, an absent look crossing his wizened face as though he was trying to remember a dream he had had long ago, 'You are of my family? Yes, I remember now. Yes,' he continued, the ghost of a smile creeping in as he gazed about them all, 'I am everything he has told you and worse. I was the scourge of the living before I left your plane. I terrorised my own blood and tampered with the laws of life and death. Evil and arrogant I was.' He sighed, tired and regretful. 'I have had an age or more to consider my sins. If I could call it all back… if I could call back my brother and my son… my grandchildren… If I could go back and convince the man I was that this sphere was a mission of pride doomed to failure… But I cannot change what has been,' he rasped firmly, 'I can only move forward now. I can feel my last breaths coming upon me, but I have some time yet and with it I will help you.'

Valygar was unmoved. 'And why would you do this?'

The mage looked as though he would of shrugged had he the strength for the gesture. 'Perhaps because I feel after such torment I owe you, my only family. Perhaps because I would like my final act to be one of redemption- or perhaps merely because I can. My only request is that when we return to the Prime you take me with you and let me look upon it one last time; I was once born under than sky and I would die under it too.'

'Agreed,' said Fritha emphatically, 'because we really need to get back to the Prime Material.'

'Yes,' said Lavok, struggling to straighten, Jaheira crouching to help him, 'we plane shifted shortly after you entered, did we not? There is a failsafe built into the sphere: once the last of the energy is drained, the sphere automatically shifts to a plane where we can replenish the power source. '

'But what powers the sphere?' asked Aerie. Lavok looked grave.

'A great evil, elf-child, it is powered by hearts.'

'Hearts?' she exclaimed, the mage lifting a trembling arm to point to the huge map behind them.

'Out there, is the Nine Hells - the first layer, Avernus, by its look. You must fetch a heart from there. One should be enough for what we will need.'

'From out there? From a devil?' cried Fritha, the horror to her tone reflected in every face in that room. Lavok's head trembled with a weak nod.

'Yes, though not an imp or erinyes, it must be one of the greater devils -a cornugon or pit fiend.'

Fritha dropped her head into a hand. 'Oh gods…'

'Do not be distressed, child,' the mage rasped in what could have almost been a laugh, 'I acquired a wand long ago that will help you in your task. It is old and has been used many times but there should still be just enough power left within it. It is through there in my workshop along with other treasures; take whatever you wish, I will need them no longer.'

Fritha nodded, making to rise. 'Thank you.'

She followed his hand to the hatchway behind them, moving down the short corridor to reach a small round chamber, deep benches almost lining the walls, a few shelves above each and crammed with a chaos of jars and books, a large tank of luminescent green liquid containing a half finished golem bubbling gently. The tables themselves were strewn with everything from ingots of adamantine and precious gems to scraps of wood and lead, a jumble of wands both whole and half finished scattered across them.

Fritha was beginning to realise she should have asked Lavok for some description of the wand he meant, when her eyes felt upon it and suddenly she knew, a long slender baton of flawless white that looked similar to marble though it was far too light to be so, Fritha suffused with a pleasant warmth as soon as her fingers brushed against it, the girl fastening it carefully to her belt before turning her attention back to the tables.

The unfinished wands were of little use to her, as were the books –most written in languages she could not even recognise let alone read, and she could not tell whether each was a priceless account of some rare experiment into the arcane or the worthless ramblings of some outer-planar apprentice. The few finished wands would fetch in a good price though and the gemstones and precious metals would be easy to sell on, and the girl was still trying make room for it all, sorting through her bag to make sure the more fragile items were cushioned, when a noise outside startled her.

'Hello?'

'Fritha?' came the familiar voice with that still unfamiliar title; it was Anomen.

'I'm in here,' she called back, glancing up in time to see him step over the doorsill and greet her with a smile. Fritha stared back up at him for a moment before she shook her head and just went back to her bag.

Anomen watched her, her coolness doing nothing to shake the bolstered feeling their situation had stirred in him. There was something about being closer to danger that always made him feel stronger, as though he was unconsciously reminded of other similar occasions when he had faced such troubles and fought to survive them. The girl beneath him sighed as she fought to repack her bag, heaving out a stack of books and trying to find room for them again one by one.

'Fritha, I wanted to talk to you about earlier.'

She glanced up for an instant before she was once more hunched over her bag. 'Earlier when we were arguing about my plan or earlier when we were arguing about my play?'

'Your play,' he answered shortly.

The girl sighed, straightening to sit back on her haunches.

'Well, then I owe you an apology. I was in a strop with Higgold and that damn playhouse -though I shouldn't have let it colour my temper.'

Anomen smiled, her repentance quite unexpected.

'It is quite all right, I more than understand. I am hardly the embodiment of temperance myself… Though it may sound strange, I find it pleasant that we are comfortable enough in each other's company that we can quarrel so and know it will not cause any lasting offence.'

'It is certainly useful…' Fritha agreed, the edge to her voice perhaps indicating that it was a good job considering the amount they did argue. Anomen remained undeterred though.

'To know that whichever petty quarrels may divide us, we still share a deeper understanding that will always bind us together…'

Fritha groaned, her face momentarily obscured as she lightly tapped her forehead with the book in her hand. 'Oh, we are not having this conversation now, Anomen.'

Anomen risked a smile. 'Well, it seems trapping you on some infernal plane is the only way I can get you to speak of it.'

'And what is there left to talk about?' The girl sighed, rising stiffly to send him a tired look, 'Anomen, it's not merely the fact that everyone seems to want me dead at the moment; I just don't think we'd be very well suited. You're a priest and a knight and the son of a lord -and what is so funny?' she demanded crossly as the knight began to laugh, Anomen sending her a fond smile.

'You truly are having to work at finding excuses if you think I will believe you care for any of that.'

'Fine then!' she snapped, more than ready with a few others, 'Because you're short-tempered and disagreeable and-'

'I am well aware of my faults, Fritha, though none of them have yet offended you enough to prevent you from being my friend.' He sighed, his look suddenly earnest, 'I am not asking you to marry me, just to consider that we might become so much more to each other than we are.'

'And I am saying no!' she shouted, striking the book she still held, unfortunately her journal, against the bench next to her, the cover flying open to scatter papers everywhere. Fritha immediately dropped to a crouch to gather up the jumble of bounty notices, letters and scraps of poems, Anomen kneeling slowly as his eyes caught on a bright blot of red in amongst the yellowing parchment and Fritha avoided his gaze as he straightened to hand back to her the small dried rhodelia.

'You kept it.'

'Of course,' she confirmed with an airiness she certainly did not feel, placing it back between the pages of her journal to close it with a sharp snap, 'it is not often I am given flowers.'

Anomen frowned, clearly listening to what she had not said to confirm, 'So this was not the first occasion you have received one.'

Fritha snorted, a slight bitterness creeping in. 'No, another beat you to that honour.'

'And what happened to that one?'

She stared up at him, suddenly grave. 'It died, Anomen. Why did you give me this?'

His answer was prompt. 'I saw it as a symbol of the affection that I feel burgeoning in my heart.'

Fritha smiled sweetly. 'That it also grew in such inhospitable climes?'

But Anomen just laughed. 'Oho, your tongue is sharper than any blade: a rapier's sting in every word. And I would gladly show you the fires of my heart, Fritha, you need only ask.'

Fritha turned away abruptly, flushed and sullen, any mention of fires, whichever part of his body he was pertaining them to, was a blow distinctly below the belt in her opinion.

'Fritha, are you ready?' called Jaheira, the druid in the doorway a moment later to add more quietly, 'I'm not sure Lavok will last much longer.'

'Yes, I'm coming now,' she answered, stalking past Anomen and catching up large glass jar from one of the benches as she went.

Back in the control room, Aerie was still knelt over the necromancer, her cloak folded under his head as she worked to ease him, the others stood about them and all turning to Fritha as she entered.

'Okay, Aerie stay with Lavok -Jaheira stay with her ' she added in an undertone to the woman at her side; whatever regrets Lavok may have now, he had clearly been a force for great evil at one point. 'Everyone else, make preparations because we're going outside.'

xxx

The blistering heat hit them as soon as the door slid back, a charred black landscape of rocky plains laid out before them shimmering in the haze and steam that rose from the deep crevices that zigzagged across the ground, the scorched land broken up by narrow rivers of what looked disturbingly like blood, slow flowing and viscous. The sphere had materialised in what appeared to be the foothills of a small mountain range, a slope of black scree dropping steeply down from the open hatchway.

Fritha stepped out on the unstable surface, finding it more solid that she would have expected, the heat of the rocks already warming through the soles of her boots. It hardly registered though, her chest suddenly tight as her head swam and throbbed, the men looking little better as they followed her.

'And I thought that prison was bad,' she groaned half-heartedly, 'I feel terrible.'

Anomen nodded, pale as he groped for the holy symbol at his neck, Valygar shaking his head as though he was having trouble focusing, while Minsc was leaning heavily against the outside of the sphere. But by far, the druid looked the worst of them, Cernd gripping his staff tightly, eyes closed as he muttered under his breath.

'You all right there, Cernd?' asked Fritha. She had heard that enough stress could bring about a transformation in lycanthropes whether the moon was full or not –or indeed, non-existent, she considered with a glance to the milky red sky.

'I- it feels-' he faltered. The hand about his staff was trembling.

'Cernd?'

'Don't!' he snarled, Fritha snatching her hand back from where she had been reaching tentatively towards his shoulder.

'Right, back in the sphere, Cernd,' she ordered flatly. 'It all works out, because we needed someone to stay here and guard the door anyway. I was going to ask you, Minsc, since you can shout the loudest-' The ranger drew himself up proudly, '-But, I'm sure Cernd will serve just as well. If you see anything coming then give us a yell, hold it off if you think you can and, if it comes to it, then just retreat inside and shut the door, because we can't risk losing the sphere.'

The druid nodded, his eyes still closed though there was a definite air of relief to him now as he leaned against the doorframe. 'Do not worry, I will do as you ask.'

Fritha slapped his arm in farewell, drawing her sword as she started down the slope, the wand and jar both fastened at her belt for now. The blasted plains around them were devoid of life, but they had visited the map room before they had left and there was a small grouping of creatures surrounding something much larger gathered to the north east of them. And that was where they had decided to head, the group keeping to the shadow of the great bronze globe as they made their way. Fritha glanced to the man next to her. Valygar was blinking past the stinging sweat as he cast about them warily, the steam that was venting up through the narrow fissure that ran along side them both a help and a hindrance, providing cover for their passage –and for anything that may have been stalking them too.

'There,' he said finally bringing them to a halt, the ranger leaping the crack to crouch behind a cluster stalagmites, Fritha following him to peer between them and through the haze she could see the huge fiend they had been hunting but a score or so yards away. It stood at least nine feet tall, a pair of black horns adding another foot to its height, its well muscled body covered in bright scarlet scales, a pair of leathery wings as long as it was arcing from its powerful shoulders. It appeared to be occupied at least, amusing itself by tormenting the half dozen or so imps that were flapping around it, the fiend using its powers to dominate their wills and draw them closer only to lash out with the cruel whip it held grasped in its clawed hands, its thick tail sweeping back and forth in its amusement.

'It is a cornugon, I think,' came Anomen quietly behind her, he and Minsc having made the short dash to join them. 'Though I have only read descriptions of them before now.'

Fritha glanced about them all. 'Ideas anyone?'

'We strike quickly,' offered Valygar, his gaze still fixed on the fiend, 'Mages often use imps as familiars. They are cunning enough creatures but known for their cowardice, they will not stay to fight us if they can help it.'

Fritha nodded, sheathing her sword and unfastening the long slender wand from her belt, the warmth of it in her fingers comforting in that bleak place.

'Okay, put all your focus on the cornugon and do your best to keep it busy while I use the wand; Lavok said it should have enough power left but we all remember what happened in the beholder warrens, so be prepared for a fight. Ready, now!'

They sprang up, roars filling the air about her as the men charged into them, the imps scattering as Valygar had predicted while the fiend whirled about, a delighted smile curling back its lips to reveal a mouthful of sharp teeth as it was presented with this new diversion.

Its muscular arms were already drawn back, the huge whip snaking through the air with thunderous crack to strike out at Anomen, the knight catching the barbed tip on his shield though the force of the blow still sent him to his knees. The fiend raised the whip to finish him and Fritha drew the wand back in a mirror of its movement, the slender rod quivering in her grasp, the power swelling as she hurling it out towards the creature.

The effect was instantaneous, a column of white fire dropping from the sky above them to explode about the fiend in an impact that floored the men around it, the creature swaying almost comically in the black dust that clouded the air before keeling over backwards, dead before it hit the ground. Fritha glanced down to the wand still clutched in her trembling hand. The lustre seemed to have left its flawless surface now, the warmth it had suffused her with gone; it was dead. She shook herself, casting it aside and suddenly she was racing over the rocky ground to join them.

'Bloody hells! Are you all right?'

'Yes,' coughed Minsc, heaving himself upright, Valygar already on his feet, though just barely, the ranger reaching down a hand to help a dazed Anomen do the same.

'Right, you lot take up defensive positions,' Fritha ordered, moving to crouch over the charred body, setting the jar next to her to draw out the long dagger she had placed in her boot for that very purpose, the girl deftly rolling back her sleeves before making the first deep incision along the torso. Steam rose from the wound, Fritha moving to force it wider though she snatched her hands back with a curse.

'Fritha?' came Anomen quickly.

'Nothing, it just scalding hot,' she muttered, already pulling on her old leather gauntlets. 'The rib cage looks far too thick to break, I'll have to go in from underneath.'

'How ever you do it, do it soon,' growled Valygar, 'our presence here is beginning to attract attention.'

He was right too, the imps that had fled during the fight regrouping somewhat, hovering in twos and threes about them, though none ventured closer, clearly deciding that anyone who had destroyed a master of their race needed to be approached with caution, if at all. Back at the body, Fritha was working quickly, her arm already in to the elbow as she reached further up through the chest cavity, the girl singing blithely to herself, her song punctuated with the occasional curse as she caught her arm on the devil's scalding innards.

'Her hair was dark, her skin was -damn! – her eyes were bright and -ah! -and only once she smiled at me and stole my heart away.'

One last thrust, her face almost touching the bloody ribcage as the stretched up inside it, the girl's stifled cry reaching a shrill crescendo, her arm burning, when she jerked once, finally straightening, her small scarlet hand clutched about her dagger and an enormous black heart, the thick veins still pulsing grotesquely.

'There,' sighed Fritha proudly, dropping it into the open jar at her side and wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm, smearing it with blood, 'By, it's warm.'

'Come,' said Minsc ,stooping for the jar and helping the girl to stand, 'Boo says, we must hurry.'

They set off back to the sphere at furious pace, the imps scattering before them again and making no attempt to halt their passage though no one seemed to feel at ease until the impenetrable hatchway of the sphere was firmly shut behind them, Cernd welcoming them back gladly, the man much recovered, Jaheira already awaiting their return in the entrance chamber.

'Ah, you are back- Fritha!'

'What?' the girl exclaimed at her cry, a glance down to her bloodied tunic clarifying it for her. 'Oh, yes; don't fret, Jaheira, none of it's mine.'

The woman snorted, clearly thinking her concern was wasted and turning instantly to Minsc. 'You have the heart? Good, Lavok says it needs to be taken down to the engine room –here, hand it over, Cernd and I know the way.'

And the two were off, Fritha and the others following them part of the way back to the control room before their paths parted.

…

Fritha sighed, leaning over the bucket of saltwater Minsc had kindly collected from a room Valygar had shown him to, the girl sat next to the Rashemi on the bottom step washing the worst of the blood from her arms and face. Aerie had moved in their absence and now was stood at the top of the platform at the large bank of controls, Lavok propped up on the cluster of pipes and rasping instructions to her, Valygar stood watching the pair, his face unreadable under his frown, while Anomen was pretending to be engrossed in the necromancer's moving map.

Fritha hissed as she scooped another handful of water up over her arm, the salt stinging where the skin had been burnt, her washing revealing the shiny red patches dotted here and there. Anomen glanced back at her gasp, but returned directly to distracting himself with the map and Fritha did not blame him –she was hardly making any of this easy.

Next to her, Minsc sent her a lopsided smile which she returned weakly, the man reaching out a large hand to gently ruffled her hair, both whirling back at the sound of the door, Jaheira and Cernd clattering down the steps.

'It is done,' the woman announced, 'the heart was fed into your machine.'

'Literally,' added Cernd under his breath with a glance to her; Fritha pulled a face.

'Good, good,' gasped Lavok, straightening slightly as he pointed to the controls above him, 'now do as I told you, elf-child: pull back the farthest lever.' The unbroken glass cylinders behind them began to glow more fiercely. 'Yes, yes,' the mage rasped, 'now you've already re-entered the position of where you came from, so just unlock the release lever and compress the red switch.'

'Okay,' came Aerie, her hands flitting over the controls before her, 'everyone brace yourselves.'

Jaheira and Cernd both sat, their backs pressed against the wall, Anomen, Fritha and Minsc moving to follow their example, Fritha just keen to get away from the bucket; she had visions of it ending upon on her head. Valygar had sat directly onto the steps where he had been stood, wrapping an arm about the railing at his side as Aerie took a firm hold of the panel below her, her hand descending upon the glowing red switch.

The room was engulfed in bright blue light, just as blinding as any darkness, as the room tremoured and shook. And then it stopped, the lights fading and everyone whirled instantly to the map behind them, triumphant shouts and laughter pealing out to fill the chamber as they gazed up at the familiar image of the slums, a warm golden hue in the pale dawn light. Lavok was laid upon his side, a wistful smile upon his twisted face as he watched the map, his breathing ragged and shallow.

'Just a little longer,' murmured Aerie at his ear, Valygar surprising everyone as he rose and wordlessly lifted the mage into his arms, starting down the steps to head for the door.

The entrance chamber was crowded with everyone inside it but even then they all pressed back to give the ranger room, Valygar stooping to lay Lavok before the hatchway, Fritha leaning across to activate the control panel and the chamber was filled with a rush of fresh cold air, the whole of Athkatla suddenly stretching out before them, the city all golden peace in the cool dawn still.

The night's rains had departed to leave the sky clear, a mellow strata of pinks and ambers above the narrow arc of early morning sun. Lavok drew a shaky breath, his voice barely a whisper, the relieved sigh of a man who after a lifetime of struggles, for good or ill, had finally reached the end.

'The sky… so many colours… I had forgotten, I had…'

The necromancer trailed off and silence held the group as Valygar stared down at his motionless body.

'He is dead. Lavok is finally dead. My family's vow has been fulfilled and yet… I had no idea it would be like this.'

'Revenge,' sighed Jaheira, sounded rather bitter, 'the longer it is sought, the less fulfilment it brings; it is an empty triumph.'

The ranger just shrugged. 'But it is done now, at least. What will become of this sphere?'

'Lavok had me program it whilst you were out fetching the heart,' offered Aerie, 'It will plane shift once the hatchway is closed again. He did not say where it would go, only that it would be somewhere that none could abuse its power again.'

'And Lavok?' asked Cernd quietly. Valygar stooped to move the body further into the entrance chamber, removing his own brown wayworn cloak to lay it respectfully over him.

'This sphere can be his tomb, it is fitting, I think.'

Fritha nodded as the man straightened, turning back to the open hatchway, Aerie moving to stand next to her.

'Well, I for one can't wait to get my feet back on the Prime.'

'You climbed up here?' the elf confirmed, eyes taking in the crumbling roof below them with a frown. 'It looks a little unstable.'

An understatement if ever there was one. Half the timbers nearest the sphere had collapsed completely, the remaining ones hanging limply into the gloom of the dusty warehouse beneath, gaping holes dotted over the rest of the roof, the rotting roof beams visible where the tiles had been lost.

'Hmm,' murmured Fritha contemplatively, 'I must say, I was a lot surer of it when it was dark. I think more may have collapsed in our absence. Oh well, one at a time, I suppose,' she sighed, crouching down to sit in the open hatchway before dropping lightly off to land on the roof timbers below, the boards creaking threatening as Fritha bounced on the balls of her feet. 'Actually, it doesn't feel too bad, Aerie, just-'

'Not so fast, girl!'

Fritha whirled at the voice, Tolgerias, his apprentice, Madeen, and two others, a man and a woman, stepping from the shadow of the sphere that loomed over them all, the unconcerned way they crossed the half collapsed roof giving Fritha the distinct impression that some sort of levitation charm was in play.

'You betrayed me,' Tolgerias accused coldly, his face white in his outrage, though by this point, Fritha was too tired and frazzled to even care.

'Really?' she sneered, 'What gave it away -was it the hundred foot tall sphere appearing in the middle of the slums?'

'I have known of your treachery since Valygar set foot back in the city,' he spat contemptuously. 'Murdered your mentor did he? Indeed, at least I shall now have the pleasure of making that a reality.'

'You told him I was your mentor?' asked Jaheira, dropping from hatch to land lightly next to her. Fritha shrugged.

'Well, you kind of are and it made for a better story.'

Jaheira looked rather touched. Tolgerias, on the other hand, merely looked angry.

'Fools! Did you think you could betray me and live?'

'As if you're any better!' shouted Fritha, 'You had no intention of helping me retrieve Imoen, did you?'

The mage enjoyed a derisive smile. 'Since you are about to be killed, I am glad to inform you I did not. She will rot in Spellhold until the day she dies.'

'You wretch!'

'Fritha!'

And Anomen watched helpless from the hatchway as she lunged for Tolgerias, the man hurriedly bringing his hands up to release a barrage of fiery scarlet spheres that she only just managed to dodge, wooden tiles sent clattering off the rooftop by her scrabbling feet as she fought to regain her footing.

Madeen and the female mage were retreating back to the farthest end of the roof, their other companion stepping forward to join the fray, a tall man who was not dressed in the customary robes, favouring instead a simple tunic and leather breastplate, an iridescent blue scimitar in hand. He was squaring up to Jaheira, leaving his two companions free to concentrate on their casting, though it seemed Valygar had other ideas.

'Cowled filth!' he roared, pushing past Anomen to drop onto the failing rooftop with a grace that belied his size, showing no fear of it collapsing or perhaps his desire to see the mages who had hunted for so long dead outweighed his concerns. Cernd hesitated a moment before following him, the druid much more cautious and slightly less controlled in his landing, hurriedly staggering forward as the timbers beneath him creaked and cracked, more falling away into the warehouse below. Anomen immediately reconsidered following the pair, he and Minsc trapped by their own sheer weight, Minsc struggling to ready Nalia's old bow, while Aerie stood behind him wringing her sleeves, clearly concerned that using her magic would only call more wizards down upon them.

At the far end of the roof, the female mage had her eyes closed, clearly working on some complex magics, the boy Madeen protectively stood before her, his face screwed up and bright pink as was worked furiously on a spell of his own, his movements becoming more frantic as Jaheira closed upon him. She was there now, her staff drawn back ready, when, at the last moment, he abandoned his casting with a wail, the young apprentice leaping off the end of the roof on to the crates Anomen knew were below, his companion screaming insults after him even as she threw up a shimmering blue shield and engaged Jaheira herself.

Closer to the sphere, Valygar was already in a fierce battle with the armoured wizard, the mage wielding both blade and spell with an alarming speed, Valygar being kept constantly on the defensive as Cernd moved carefully over the groaning timbers to join him.

In the centre of the roof, Tolgerias was still in pursuit of Fritha, his next spell blowing a hole in the tiles where she had just been, the girl scrambling to get out the path of his next and disappearing over the apex of the roof. Perhaps she had hoped the mage would be tempted into following her, but he did not, whirling instantly to throw a blast of energy into the crowded hatchway.

Aerie threw her hands up with a shriek, instinctively countering with a spell of her own and Anomen could feel the crackle of energy in the air as the two spells collided over the roof in an explosion of burning sparks. Everyone ducked for cover, Cernd loosing his footing on the uneven rooftop to slide down the steep slope, his staff plummeting to the ground with a hail of tiles as he just caught the edge, a foot wedged awkwardly in the guttering and fingers splayed as he fought to claw his way back on to the roof.

'Cernd!' cried Aerie, powerless to help him.

At least Valygar was doing slightly better, a scarlet circle of blood blossoming from his opponent's shoulder, the mage keeping him at bay with bursts of green flame as he adjusted the blade in his other hand.

Another blast of magic into the hatchway, Anomen throwing his shield across their trio. Minsc finally had the bow strung, the arrow streaking past Anomen's ear as the ranger aimed for Tolgerias, the mage taking it out of the sky with but a contemptuous flick of his hand. He was left no chance to follow up on this though, Fritha suddenly behind him once more to make another vain sweep at him with her sword, the blade rebounding predictably off his glowing shield though she seemed to find this preferable to retreating only to have his attentions turn on the rest of them.

But for all that, she was not faring well, the girl narrowly dodging a striking lance of flame, just managing to duck under it with only a few singed curls though she hardly had time to regain her balance as Tolgerias followed it with another barrage of glowing spheres. Fritha leaned back, her feet slipping from under her and suddenly she was sprawled at his feet, her sword skating away down the tiles while the mage stood on the roof's apex looming above her.

Anomen felt his mace leave his hand without a thought, watching it arc through the air to bounce off Tolgerias's shield, the mage whirling in time to face Aerie's spell as the blast of energy engulfed him only to by deflected by Tolgerias's own hastily summoned spell. This snatched escape had unforeseen consequences though, the energies radiating outwards. Jaheira threw herself to the tiles though her mage opponent was not so agile. The blast unbalanced her, her shimmering blue shield flickering as her casting was disrupted and Jaheira saw her chance, taking the woman's feet out from under her with a sweep of her staff, the druid raising herself onto her knees, the mage now helpless beneath her. A jab to her skull with the butt of her stave and the woman was dead upon the tiles.

Suddenly, Tolgerias and his last remaining ally were stepping lightly over the tiles no longer, both mages struggling to find their feet as they dropped that vital half an inch onto the uneven tiles and Valygar saw his opening, cutting the mage before him down with a sweep that carved his leather breastplate in two, the ranger leaving him dying as he rushed to help Cernd.

Tolgerias was still stood on the apex of the roof, his arms aloft and look wild, the air about him crackling violently as he summoned his magics for one last vengeful attack upon the sphere that had been his downfall, the spell on the point of release when Fritha regained her feet to charge up the roof and tackle the mage about the middle. The pair hit the other side of the roof with force enough to shatter the already weakened structure, the tortured groan of splitting wood deafening as the timbers under them suddenly gave way and they were gone.

'Fritha!' Aerie screamed behind him, the shrill noise seeming loud enough to have split his head if Anomen had not felt so sundered already, Jaheira tearing up the rooftop to drop carefully to her knees at the hole and search the darkness below. And then there it was: Fritha's voice hoarse but audible in the charged silence that followed.

'I-I am all right… Tolgerias isn't though –he broke my fall.'

…

'Oh, Fritha,' Aerie scolded tremulously, the elf pressing back to give her more room as everyone bar Valygar gathered about the rotting warehouse doors, Minsc pulling one back for Fritha to limp from the gloom, looking dazed and grazed and very bedraggled. Her tunic, already covered in dried fiend blood was now ripped in several places, dust and splintered wood clinging to her clothes, the smell of burnt hair lingering about her. But for all that she was smiling, nodding her thanks to the elf as she handed over her sword.

'Gods, Fritha, what were you thinking?'

'Thinking,' Fritha repeated with an indifferent wave of her hand, 'Feh! I don't like to do that at the best of times.'

Jaheira shook her head, smiling grimly as though she could not quite decide whether she wanted to embrace the girl or throttle her. 'Just try to remember in future, Fritha, it is only the Harpers who want you alive.'

Fritha gave a laugh that was soon lost to coughing; the enthusiastic pat on the back from Minsc nearly flooring her in her dazed state, the small group leaving the shadow of the warehouse to stand and watch the scene above them. Valygar was leaning from the hatchway as he activate the panel within, jumping lightly down to the roof below as the door slid shut, the man running quickly to the end of the roof before turning back and they watched together as the sphere slowly faded from the sky.

'Well, another jaunt from the Prime is over,' Fritha sighed, Valygar back with them once again as the group turned to begin the slow walk back to the slums, 'You know, I'm getting rather fond of the planes.'

'Yes, and we always visit such pleasant places,' agreed Jaheira dryly.

'Quite so, but I think it's the people that really make the trips for me.'

'So, what do you plan for yourself now, Valygar?' asked Aerie, trying not to smile as she brought a semblance of seriousness back to the discussion, the ranger giving the elf and her question a contemplative frown.

'If Tolgerias knows we're in the city then the rest of the Cowled Wizards will likely be aware of it as well –especially after that battle. I will leave the city immediately, collect my tent from the forest's edge where we concealed it and return to hiding. And you should consider the same,' he added, turning to send the elf a grim frown, 'you are all as I now. You have taken the lives of their own and the Cowled Wizards do not look kindly on such actions.'

'But it was self-defence!' cried Aerie. Valygar snorted.

'A plea that has worked so very well for me so far -you will all need to be on guard from now on.'

Fritha sighed; like they hadn't been already. Beside, Tolgerias was dead -it seemed a bit late to be worrying about such now. 'Well,' she reasoned dully, 'they don't know for sure it was us and…'

The dismissal died on her lips as they rounded the corner of a large dilapidated warehouse and there they were at the next junction, stood in neat formation across the path, Madeen looking rather cowed as he lingered behind the five-strong group of robed figures.

'Oh bastard, bastard, bastard!' Fritha hissed through gritted teeth, drawing a deep breath to fix a sunny smile to her face as they drew closer. 'Morning,' she greeted cheerily as though she had just met a neighbour out on an early stroll. The tall robed woman at their centre stepped forward, her face just beginning to line at the mouth and eyes, dark hair streaked with grey.

'Good morning, Fritha, I am Archmage Odella. I understand you were working with Tolgerias on his investigations in to the ancient necromancer, Lavok.'

'Yes…' Fritha answered slowly, all the while glowering at Madeen, the gangly lad trying to shrink below the considerably shorter mage he was stood behind. 'In that we were hired to discover the whereabouts of the last surviving member of his family, Valygar Corthala.'

Odella seemed to take Fritha's evasiveness in her stride though, offering bluntly, 'I am aware of Tolgerias's actions, your hunt and your subsequent betrayal, Fritha, and I am here to inform you that Tolgerias acted alone without our knowledge or consent in all matters.'

'So, you are telling us you knew nothing of this?' demanded Valygar. The archmage sent him a quelling glare.

'That is exactly what I am telling you. The Cowled Wizards are devoted to the safety of this city and Amn as a whole and would never partake in any course which would put our citizens in jeopardy. The fact that Tolgerias and his associates did means he set himself apart from our number and, as such, we will be seeking no retribution for their deaths –any of the deaths,' she added, with a pointed look to Valygar. 'As far as we are concerned, this matter is at an end.'

'Wait!' Fritha shouted as they turned to leave, 'This matter is not at an end! I would not even be here were it not for the fact you've imprisoned my friend! Where is Spellhold? Where is Imoen?' she cried, a certain desperation creeping in, 'She hasn't done anything, why can't you just let her go?'

Odella had halted, staring back at the girl and for a moment she wore an expression that could have almost been described as pity, a frown creasing her brow as though she was unaccustomed to the sensation.

'I am… sorry. Decisions can be made in haste but they cannot always be resolved so quickly. It truly is a matter out of my hands. Good day.'

Odella turned away, the other mages following her a few paces before they each disappeared in a bright blue flash. Fritha gave a disheartened mix of sigh and groan, Jaheira sweeping in to gather an arm about her.

'Come now, that all could have gone much worse.'

'I suppose,' Fritha muttered, though she did not look particularly convinced.

'Yes,' said Aerie encouragingly, 'they aren't going to hold us responsible for Tolgerias and Valygar is free now too.'

Valygar might have been pleased about this but he was muttering something about 'Lying mage jackals' and was too occupied to comment. Jaheira sighed, raising her voice slightly so as to better ignore it as she turned back to Fritha.

'Imoen is a little closer, now, at least. Come, let us take your treasures to Gaelen.'

This seemed to rouse the girl slightly or perhaps she just remembered herself, her recent air of intense good-humour about her once more as Fritha led the march, albeit it slowly, the slums about them just beginning to stir with the dawn.

Gaelen's familiar residence was just at the end of the street now, all worn brick and solid wooden door, the majority of their group moving to wait by the wall on the other side of the narrow street as Jaheira stepped up with Fritha, the girl hammering on the peeling wood and roaring at the top of her lungs.

'Gaelen! GAELEN!'

It was clearly the sort of summons that garnered a prompt response, the door swinging wide barely moments later, the man himself stood in the mouth, barefoot with his shirt un-tucked and breaches buttoned-up all wrong, his face pale and drawn in his panic.

'Morning, Gaelen, did we wake you?' Fritha questioned cheerfully, not waiting for an answer as she barged past him to empty her haul of arcane loot onto his rickety parlour table next to his inkwell and ledgers, 'Right, I want all this lot fencing and I want good prices for it to, don't try giving me that 'Oh, magical items are harder to sell on' nonsense!'

Gaelen still seemed a little dazed but was catching up quickly, the man hastened to shut the door after Jaheira and hide the treasures from view.

'All right, all right, only keep your voice down, aye? Coo, that's quite the haul you've got there. Let's have a look…' for a moment there was silence as Gaelen examined each piece with a practised eye, 'Right, I'll write-off two thousand and five for the lot -that do you? Good, so another,' he picked up his stylus to make a few brisk calculations in his ledger, 'five thousand, two hundred and forty and we'll be straight.'

Fritha drew back with a frown. 'What do you mean, five thousand and we'll be straight? According to your ledger we've only paid just under ten. That's barely half the twenty thousand figure you gave me.'

'Well, yes,' the thief admitted looking surprised she was questioning it, 'I was told to let you know you need go no higher than fifteen now, m'lady.'

'Fifteen?' Fritha repeated shrilly, her frown deepening, 'What, and the Shadow Thieves have just suddenly decided to let me off the other five thousand out of the goodness of their hearts, have they? Do I look like I came down in the last shower? Why the Hells have they lowered the price?'

'You know why!' Gaelen burst out angrily, 'You told Renal you'd been offered less by that guild of bloodsuckers and would turn coat to work for them! What choice had he but to go to Master Linvail and get him to lower our offer.'

For an instant Fritha was stunned.

'He did… I mean, yes, I did,' she confirmed coolly, regaining her composure, 'You lot shouldn't have priced yourselves out the market, should you?'

And the rest of their meeting was concluded with the succinct civility of those who did not wish to be in each other's company, Fritha and Jaheira joining the others outside with no mention of what had transpired within, and they were a few streets away when Fritha seemed to feel free to voice her joy.

'Ahhhhh!' she squealed, grabbing hold of Minsc's sleeve and tugging it in her joy. 'Five thousand less to find! That means we're nearly there, we've only got another five thousand to raise and we'll have done it!'

The group had stopped around her, reactions ranging from bemused to alarmed, Aerie finally venturing, 'Did Gaelen give you a good price?'

Jaheira smiled slightly and shook her head 'No… Renal told the Shadowmaster Fritha was considering taking the vampires up on her offer so he lowered the price.'

Their reaction had been the same as Fritha's initial response, a stunned silence hanging over them before the smiles slowly began to emerge, Fritha still wild in her elation, the girl throwing her arms up to the pale dawn light.

'Renal Bloodscalp, I love you!'