Cards Reshuffled

Being in terrible danger is bad enough, of course. But knowing that people you love are in terrible danger, and that you can do nothing about it, that’s even worse. It’s enough to make even the most mild-mannered person a little tense, I guess.

Excerpt from ‘Ruminations Of A Master Bard’

“TAKE THAT, YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF PORK DRIPPINGS!” The fireball made a humming sound as it flew through the air, and then exploded against the far wall in a roaring inferno, reducing the sparring dummy that stood there to a small pile of charcoal. The wizardess standing in the middle of the practice hall gave a small and satisfied smile, then snapped her fingers. Another sparring dummy emerged from a hatch in the floor, this one more strongly enchanted than the previous one. As it strode towards her, waving a sword, she made a sweeping gesture with her hand, there was a loud rumbling noise, and the ground shook as a huge clumps of ice fell out of empty air, crushing the automaton to little bits. “Again,” Elvira Odesseiron snarled, her black hair giving off small purple sparks of latent magic as she ran her fingers through it. “And this time…top level of danger. No precautions.”

“Mistress?” The neutral female voice came out of nowhere, or perhaps out of the walls themselves. It had been designed to be emotionless, but at the moment it still somehow managed to sound skeptical. “Are you certain?”

“Of course I’m certain! Now do it, or I’ll dismantle you with my bare hands! I WANT DESTRUCTION!”

“Very well,” the voice said. “All safety measures are now disabled. The room is sealed until all enemies have been destroyed. Top level of danger…engaged.”

Oh yes, Elvira thought, flexing her fingers. This is exactly what I need. Several magical shields sprang up around her, just in time to repel the attack when it came. This time the constructs weren’t all warriors; several of them had been built to have innate magical abilities. They were larger too; towering over her like giants, blank faces turning towards her. Rapidly, she chanted her first spell, and a human skull whirred through the air towards the first few constructs, its eyes glowing an ominous blue. It exploded as it struck them, shattering with an ear-splitting boom, and one of the constructs collapsed to the ground, its head blown away. The others were still coming for her though.

“Let’s see how you like this…” Elvira hissed, and raised her hands. Several blue-white lightning bolts arced from her fingertips, leaping between the constructs like a bee flitting from one flower to the next. The constructs faltered in their steps, staggering, and two more of them fell, with sparks still crackling along their bodies. Now the wizardess was forced to retreat though, and she narrowly dodged a blow from a fist the size of her own head. Another struck her shields, catching fire as the magical protections were engaged. Yet they wouldn’t hold forever, she knew that much. Right. Time to end this, here and now. Her voice rose to an ominous crescendo as she recited her next spell, and she felt the magic raging through her body, running wild like the storm. Oh yes…this is it. This is what it is to be truly alive. Then she released the spell, and several tons of burning rocks screamed out of the air above the constructs. The noise of shattering metal and pottery was deafening, and the heat was almost enough to make her stagger, but she made herself stand in place, her hair streaming out behind her in the force of the infernal wind that wailed at her.

When it was over, Elvira smiled contentedly, surveying the battlefield. The constructs had all been smashed to bits; several of them set ablaze by fire hot enough to make rocks crack and metal melt. There were scorch marks all over the walls, the floor had melted in one spot, and one of the walls had been transformed into liquid mud while another had inexplicably spouted about five hundred very pink and very nervous eyes. “What are you looking at?” she snapped, glaring back at the eyes, and with a small and terrified squelching sound they all pinched themselves shut in order not to anger her further. There was a large pool of acid covering part of the floor, and about to eat through it. Fortunately this was the basement level of the Odesseiron Mansion though, and there were no floors beneath them. Oh yes…and there was the mummified corpse of that creature that had released the acid, the one she had thought would be a challenge as she conjured it up. It had spindly legs, an ugly insectile head and acid dripped from the body, especially from the toothy mouth. It had died very quickly though, no fun at all. Just one Horrid Wilting and it had collapsed in on itself, a dried husk. I suppose I shall have to send some servants down here to clean up a bit. It looks like I caused a bit of a mess. Elvira smoothed her black hair back, then adjusted her robe. But it was very relaxing.

As the wizardess ascended the winding stone staircase that led from the subterranean practice hall, she felt at least a little better than she had before. Briefly, she contemplated heading for her lab, in order to do some work. No. I need to take a bath first, I think. I got quite worked up there for a while. Yes, a bath will be nice, with that new scent mixture I bought, and then something to eat perhaps. She passed by a window, and noticed that the sky was already darkening from deep purple to velvet black. Hm…I must have been down there longer than I thought. It will soon be time to go to bed. Her soft, comfortable, spacious, and above all lonely bed.

Where is he? What could possibly have happened? Now she had entered her own chambers, and she shut the door behind her with a very satisfying bang that made the walls tremble. Plaster floated down from the ceiling, settling like snowflakes in her dark hair. Elvira ignored that though, she had more important things to worry about, and she meant to take that bath anyway. She disrobed as she went, leaving a messy trail of elegant and expensive little bits of cloth behind her, and then entered the bathroom. The bath was already awaiting her in the round green marble tub, large enough to accommodate two people easily. Hot water, steaming in the air, with inviting bubbles floating on top, and with a pleasant scent of jasmine, vanilla and roses in the air. A small spell set on the tub had kept her bath at perfect temperature while she worked out, and now she gratefully slipped into it, her long hair floating out around her like an exotic plant. She sighed deeply, trying to relax. It wasn’t an easy task though. She kept longing for somebody else to be there with her. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

She had been torn from the start about Edwin going on that mission, so far away from home. Her baby had never been away for that long, nor had he traveled that far. She had worried about him not eating or sleeping properly, about him catching cold from not wearing warm enough robes, and even about her poor child being led astray by some manipulative little hussy who wanted to take advantage of his sweet and generous nature. No, she really hadn’t wanted him to go, but on the other hand it had been such a great opportunity for him to prove himself, and to advance in the ranks of the Red Wizards. She had known that sooner or later he would have to prove himself in one way or another, just as she had done at that age, and that meant taking risks, no matter how much she hated that thought. And he had nagged her so about it, telling her that he was old enough and could handle himself, and besides he wouldn’t be alone, would he? His teacher had agreed to come with him, after all, and surely she trusted him? And of course she did. She would trust her beloved with her life, and more, with the life of their only child. There was nobody else in the world she would trust with that. And so she had agreed, and they had gone, and there was a great gaping hole in the world where her two loved ones ought to be.

She had waited, and worried, and waited some more, and her temper had deteriorated steadily. Even her normally so oblivious husband had finally noticed it. Good thing he was so preoccupied with his latest hobby, planar research, or she might not have been able to keep from actually harming him. Before he got into that he had told her about twenty times a day that she should ‘cheer up’, and it had reached the point where she contemplated cheerfully killing him. Cheer up? How can I possibly cheer up when my baby…when they both could be in hideous danger? And then, disaster had struck. Complete and utter disaster, and she still hadn’t recovered from the blow. The details had been extremely fuzzy, but the bare bones of it was that her son, for some reason known only to him, had killed the Red Wizard supervising his mission. Of course slaying a superior was a very common and natural way of advancing your career, but not like that. Not while on alien ground, trying to carry out some sensitive and delicate mission. Zulkir Nevron had been enraged, and he had decided that an example needed to be made.

My baby…my poor little Edwin. The Zulkir had decreed that her son was an exile, a rogue wizard to be hunted down and killed like an animal. She shuddered with rage as she remembered the day when she had been informed of this fact by that little strumpet Zabina Ravonar, the daughter of her old arch nemesis Rory Ravonar. Rory ‘the Roarer’ himself she hadn’t been forced to deal with for a very long time, but his snide daughter had been only too happy to take up the family feud again. Elvira took a deep breath, deep enough that the bubbles jumped like the foam of a mountain river. She could well remember how pleasant it had been to watch the snide little smirk freeze on the girl’s face as a lumbering skeleton warrior stepped up behind her and laid a skeletal hand on her shoulder. After the floor of the Tharchion’s council chambers had been cleaned, nobody else had seen fit to say anything derogatory about Edwin, at least not when she was around to hear it.

The situation was still precarious though, she mused as she stepped out of her bath, impatiently wrapping a thick bathrobe about herself. Edwin’s exile had of necessity made her position more precarious. Her old enemies were trying to take advantage of what they perceived as a weakness, and she had less support than she used to among the ranks of the Red Wizards. She should be able to regain it in time, but in the meantime she was blocked, and there was little she could do to help her son regain favor. My own Edwin, hunted like a wild beast, probably living in a cave eating roots and berries, and I can’t help him. It’s intolerable! The hot anger started simmering again, right beneath the surface of her thoughts, as it had done since she first learnt the news. She looked about herself in the bathroom. Bathtub…no use. Basin…also no good. Towel-rack…useless. Oh yes. Of course. Mirror. Just perfect. “AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!” Elvira screamed. Sizzling bolts of magical energy shot out from her outstretched palm as she snarled out the words of a spell and the mirror cracked from side to side, and then was pulverized. She only wished it could have been Nevron, Zulkir of Conjuration instead, for putting her baby in danger.

Crossing back into the bedroom again she carefully brushed out her hair, trying her best not to yank at it in frustration. It wouldn’t do to take her anger out on herself. Far better to take it out on other people. That, in turn, led her thoughts once more in the direction of her lover, whom she had always thought had a very worrying tendency to do the opposite. She had tried not to think about that too much, but it was hard not to. She knew her Wolf after all. He wouldn’t ever have let anything like this happen to Edwin if there was anything he could have done to prevent it. And worse, none of the reports about the Baldur’s Gate incident had mentioned him at all. It was as if the ground had opened up and swallowed him.

Closing her eyes briefly, Elvira fought to control the worry that once again threatened to overcome her. My Wolf…where are you? He had promised to return to her, that they both would, and she had never known him to break a promise. Where could he be? Why wasn’t he with Edwin? He is alive. He has to be. He simply has to be. She had tried to scry for them both, more than once, her lover and their child. But it was…difficult, more so than usual. Her beloved had always been difficult to pick up with a scrying spell, and now she couldn’t get a sense of him at all. Probably he was deliberately cloaking his presence. If he is alive. NO! He is! He has to be! I will not allow him to be dead! She forced her breathing to calm once more. Edwin she could get a vague impression of, far to the west, but she couldn’t pinpoint his location. She suspected she knew the reason for it too; the way his amulet functioned made it likely that it would masque his presence, at least partially. Hopefully it would also shield him against other, less benevolent eyes than hers.

The sheets were smooth and cool against her body as she slipped into bed, but relaxation was the last thing on her mind. She desperately longed for her beloved to be there. She tried to imagine him there, right next to her. Looking deeply into her eyes, stroking her skin, his body hot against hers. More than anything else, she longed for his presence, to hear his voice, to be able to share her worries over Edwin with him. We have always been forced to be apart – but never like this, never for so long. What if he will not return? What if…what if he is already dead, and I never even knew? No…no! He promised to return! He will! I know he will…he has to.

Elvira turned over in bed once more, irritably rearranging the soft sheets. If she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that she heard the voice she longed to hear, as silky as the sheets.

I told you, my love. I always keep my promises. Always. Lips against her own, then lightly kissing their way along her throat and downwards, lighting tender fires in her skin. Wherever I may wander, you know that I will always return to you. One hand cupping her breast, skillfully teasing it to make her gasp with pleasure, the other one equally busy elsewhere. Every day we are apart, I long for you, you know that. She was touching him too, kissing, stroking, nibbling, anything to convince herself that he was actually there, with her. Perfect. So perfect…

I love you, my Wolf. I love you so much. And I order you never to leave like that again.

He was paying attention to her ear now, nibbling it a little, and as she ran her hands down his back he trembled a little, telling her that he was enjoying himself just as much as she was. I love you too…more than anything. But you know I cannot promise that. You know why I left, after all.

I know. And…I know you aren’t here. Not really. Beloved, you will protect Edwin in any way you can, I know that. But…

Yes?

But please, my Wolf. Protect yourself as well. I want you to come back in one piece. Just please be careful.

Of course I will be. The man actually sounded amused at this, damn him. You know I will. I’m always careful. One final, tender kiss, and she was alone in bed once more, the dream fading beyond her reach no matter how she tried to recapture it.

“Yes…” Elvira whispered silently to the darkness. “I know you think so.” And as she clutched her pillow tightly, burying her face in it, she allowed the tears to come. Silently, with nobody there to dry them for her.