Opening her eyes, Laska was awakened at by the dimmed sunlight shining through the half-opened shutters of her bedroom windows. She groaned and rolled to her side, a response to the insipidly cheerful chirping birds and early risers walking towards the temples... as well as to the after-effects of last night's visit to the Five Flagons Inn.

It had been three days since they had exposed the tanner, Rejiek Hidesman, of the terrible murders plaguing the bridge section, and finally, Laska's right side, where she had been stabbed deeply, had stopped to sting. Hiring Lasalla had proven to be an excellent decision, seeing the was an excellent cook and indeed a master with the featherduster. Risa and Becky became good friends, not only with each other, but also with Keldorn's youngest daughter Vesper. The two girls,now acting much as sisters, even shared Risa's room, despite the short argument they had had over who would get the top-bunk. A conflict Korgan settled with a blindfolded axe-toss. Hitting the bare wall would have meant Becky would get the top bunk, while hitting a vase, lamp, painting, door or tapestry would have meant Risa would get the top bunk. A new problem ensued when the axe flew through the open door to Viconia's quarters and ended up with the three of them running from an irritated Drow hurling obsceneties at their backs. Technically, since the axe shattered one of Viconia's vases, Risa had won the toss and the top bunk.

Laying her hand across her forehead, Laska wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was still unused to the subtropical climate of Amn. The nights were particularly balmy this week, and even sleeping in the thinnest shift she owned and using a single sheet didn't help much either. Laska had discussed the situation with Lady Maria and Viconia, but both of them didn't have any problems with the warm nights. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she had spent twenty-three years Candlekeep, where the climate wasn't only colder, but she also slept in a keep where the walls were constantly cool and damp. A few weeks in Amn were not enough to negate that acclimatisation, it seemed.

A knock on the door interrupted her musings.

"Enter," she said after covering up sufficiently and rolling on her side to face the door. Little Becky entered the room, carrying a silver tray piled with foodstuffs. Becky herself was looking very spritely, and very happy to have a home again.

"Hello," she greeted. "Mom ask me to bring this to you before Risa and I go to school."

"That late already?" Laska asked while falling back on bed with a groan, also remembering having to twist Keldorn's arm for a second time to get Becky a place into school as well.

"Yeah," she smiled. "We've got writing-class today..."

"You like school?" Laska asked.

"It's okay," Becky replied. "But I don't like that the priest keeps calling me 'Rebecca'... I hate my full name..."

"Let me tell you a little secret," Laska grinned. "But you have to promise to NEVER, EVER, EVER tell anyone about it..."

"Okay," Becky said, put the tray on the nightstand and hopped on the bed.

"My full name," Laska whispered, "is Fey'Lasquillariq'uaiea Leafwalker..."

"Fey'La... Fey'Laskwari... Vey'aqkw..." Becky tried.

"Yeah," Laska chuckled. "Nobody at Candlekeep could pronounce it either, so everybody just called me Laska. Then again, I couldn't read or pronounce my own name either until I learned to read elvish..."

"Who gave you such a silly name?" Becky asked.

"Well, my foster father told me my mother had named me after my grandmother, who was some bigwig principal wizard in Myth Drannor. Her mother before that was a wizard too, and her mother before that. My own mom was a pretty powerful mage herself. I come from a long line of female wizards, but I don't have any magical talent at all, so I guess I'm kinda the black sheep of the family," she grinned. 'In more ways than one' she added mentally.

"Wow, and I thought my full name was stupid," Becky giggled.

"BECKY!" Risa yelled from the hall. "WE GOTTA GO TO SCHOOL!!!"

"Thanks a lot," Laska chuckled. "Now get your butt to school..."

Becky complied, waved and ran out the door closing it behind her. Immediately, silence entered the room once more, making Laska wish she had instead asked Becky to stay and chat for a while. During these times in the morning, her thoughts always drifted to the bad parts of her life and ever since her escape from the dungeon, those were centered on a single individual... Imoen.

Curling into a fetal position, she tried to banish the feelings of despair and guilt by clenching her eyes shut and thinking of cups of ale, bloody battles, dancing gnomes, singing ghost-pirates, travelling to all kinds of exotic locales and generally everything but the unknown fate of the girl she considered to be her sister... It did not help.

Instead she stepped out of bed and walked to the footend to do some push-ups. She flexed the mostly invisible muscles in her arms, grabbed the wooden railing of the bed, placed her legs so she was in a thirty-degree angle from the floor and started the exercise, hoping the continuous physical effort and the counting of push-ups would help... Again it did not...

Pain... Misery... Despair... Loathing... Hate! Pure unadulterated HATE!

Those were the feelings the face of her Tormentor brought to the surface whenever He paid her a visit. Condemned to spending the past few days to sleep, eat and live in a way too small cage suspended over... a deep, seemingly bottomless pool of water.

Living in constant fear of sinking into that black abyss, combined with food and sleep deprivation, as well as the constant stream of painful experiments her Tormentor had subjected her to, had caused her to live the last months purely on instinct, instead of what little rationality she had before this damnable Tormentor had captured her. Her thoughts were comprised of a swirling miasma of base and extended emotions, nothing more... And she saw the face of her Tormentor in everything : Shadows on the wall. In the swinging chains facing her cage. In the golems regularly patrolling the hallways...

Laska gasped as her Tormentor's face was staring into her eyes once more, telling her to wake up. But... but... wasn't He just here? Didn't He just leave her? Thinking back to the many atrocities she had suffered at the hands and knives of the leathery-faced figure, she wanted nothing more than to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him... nice and slowly. She wanted to make Him feel pain for a change. She wanted Him to know fear...

The cage! It squeaks! It opens! Hope... Glee... RAGE!!

In mere seconds, she was upon her Tormentor. He looked upon her with surprise as she pushed Him to the ground and put all her strength to her upper arms as she squeezed...

"La.. Las... No... It's me..." her Tormentor wheezed.

Laska stiffened, and froze as she forced her blurred vision to focus. "I... Imoen?" she asked.

That was the first and only time she had hurt Imoen. The only one ever... She squeezed her eyes shut as she continued her push-ups, but she cringed at the memory. Imoen had told her that she understood and that the pain had subsided quickly, but it did not ease her own guilt.

"Minsc and Boo are still trapped," Minsc wailed. Having witnessed the death of Dynaheir and having been trapped in a tiny cage, labelled 'Control Specimen : For Later Dissection' did not do much to improve his mood. A powerful magical lock had been placed on the cage, one Laska and Minsc could never, ever break. That should not have been a problem, save for the fact that the key Imoen had found did open the lock, but the door still wouldn't open.

"Okay, I'll pull," Laska said as she put one of her feet to the cage for extra support, "you and Boo push!"

A display of wicked grunts and moans later, a few of the strong bars were pulled a bit looser. The cage groaned, but the door still not budged.

"I hate to interrupt all the sweat, moans and display of muscle-power," Imoen giggled, "but you're both buffleheaded..."

"What?" Minsc and Laska said at the same time, while Imoen stepped over to the cage.

Brushing Laska aside, she opened the door. "See?" Imoen smiled, "this door opens to the inside, not to the outside of the cage!"

"Ah," Laska said.

"Oh," Minsc replied. Boo just seemed to giggle.

Laska chuckled at the memory in spite of herself and continued her workout. 'Forty-three... Forty-four... Forty-five...'

"I thank you for my freedom," the Genie smiled as Imoen handed her the lamp. "But our captor will not be happy with you for doing this..."

"Yeah, well he can get stuffed," Laska said, wondering why bottomless water gave her instant fear, while a black bottomless abyss on the plane of air didn't bother her.

"As I promised I will give you the item of yours I possess. Excuse me, if I don't stay," the Genie said and poofed out of existence. A single sword clattered to the floor... And Laska recognized it immediately. Its form... its look... its color... its cold, cold steel bite as it slammed into her abdomen and cut its way through the soft tissue... the taste of copper in her mouth as blood dripped from her mouth, while she felt it slide through her body until certainly the half the length of the sword was sticking out of her back.

"Hey, hey," Imoen mused. "Isn't... isn't that?"

"Yes," Laska said, picking it up by the hilt "It is..."

With a cry of anger, she flung the sword into the black abyss, intending it to be lost forever. Looking down upon the patch of dark where she had tossed it, she felt a smile of satisfaction cross her face.

"LOOK OUT!" Imoen screeched, and Laska jumped aside just in time... to avoid the same sword she had flung into the depths, crashing tip-down into the wood where she was standing only seconds ago.

"Wow... neat," Imoen said. "Check this out..."

"Neat, she says," Laska chuckled as she picked up the sword again.

"Yahoo!" she heard Imoen shout from the crowsnest of the airship. Looking up, she found Imoen waving to her. "No," Imoen called down, "don't look up, look down!"

Doing so, Laska noticed the unmistakable color of Imoen's pink hair, like a beacon in the night.

"Errr, Minsc is confused," the hulking ranger spoke. "How can little Imoen be in two places at once?"

Taking out a throwing dagger, she tossed it towards the front end of the ship. It disappeared into the darkness, only to end up lodged into the mast behind her.

"I don't get it," Laska said. "Where's this ship supposed to be going?"

"Boo thinks it's some kind of prison too..."

Laska pushed herself up with one hand, while she took the time to feel the scar just above her belly-button. Though neatly covered up with a tattoo of the elven symbol of longevity, she still felt the little slope of scar-tissue where the sword had entered her. The wicked magicks of Sarevok's sword didn't allow the wound to heal properly, even though the exit-wound did.

Thinking back of the final battle under Baldur's Gate, Laska closed her eyes again as to remember better, the dance she had with her brother Sarevok. Oh, he had brute force and strength on his side, but Laska definitely kept him on his toes with her speed and agility. Varscona and the Sword of Chaos clashed blades numerous times as the dance seemed to last an eternity until it suddenly ended... when Sarevok slammed his Sword into his foe, and Laska did the same. Exploiting a weakness in his ridiculous armor, she thrust forward Varscona as a piece of armor protecting his left shoulder and upper chest gave way under the strain. Before the pain in her own body became too much to bear, she could literally feel the gleeful spirit of the angry Sharran that was Varscona bite at Sarevok's heart with bitter cold.

They stood there for yet another eternity, simply staring at each other's eyes. There was no victory, no defeat... Only stalemate... They had killed each other...

Then, both brother and sister began sinking to their knees as fatigue and bloodloss took their toll. If not for Viconia ripping her from the jaws of death itself, both of them would have gone to their father that day.

Stalemate... Now Laska never knew if she could have done it. If she could have defeated Sarevok by herself. No stalemate, but a clear-cut victory...

She increased the pace of her push-ups once more. 'One hundred and twelve... One hundred and thirteen... One hundred and fourteen...'

"So, godchild, you have escaped..." her former tormentor told her. To Laska, the man Irenicus looked a lot... smaller in the daylight. But still, she wondered why his name sounded Elvish.

"You won't be so smug when I knock your teeth out!" Laska retorted, but Irenicus seemed to be unimpressed. Instead, he fired a force-bolt from his fingers which slammed at the foot of an outcropping of the collapsed side of Waukeen's Promenade. The rock, and the elf on it, crashed down, but before Laska slid down herself, she slammed her head against of the rocks.

What happened next was a complete haze to the tattooed elf. Before slipping into unconsciousness, she saw some strange wizards teleporting next to Irenicus, but he seemed unimpressed as he blasted them out of existence with single spells. More wizards came... and even more... And all of them perished at the hands of Irenicus. Until... for some reason, he surrendered... The last thing she saw was the fearful face of Imoen as the strange wizards took her as well.

Despite the fear in Imoen's eyes and her cries of help, Laska could not force her body to respond.

Dammit, how could she beat Irenicus?! Sarevok seemed like a frightened little schoolboy compared to him, and she couldn't even win against him!

Once more increasing the pace of her push-ups, 'Threehundred and forty-seven... Threehundred and forty-eight... Threehundred and forty-nine,' she decided she should train more... gain more experience and magic equipment... To prepare before going after Irenicus. So she could CRUSH him like the BUG he is! Rejoicing at the mental image, she almost smiled.

"I don't CARE if you are THE YOSHIMO!" Laska shouted at the Kara-Turan thief standing in front of her. "I have never heard of you, but if you don't leave now, no one will never hear of you again!!!"

"I wish you would reconsider," Yoshimo said uneasily, as if a lot was riding on Laska's decision. "I can be of use to you and..."

"I don't trust you..." Laska snarled. "You came to us in the dungeon at a very convenient moment... A bit too convenient I would think! Maybe you're to blame that Imoen was taken. I only travel with people I trust..."

"But, I could..."

"Listen to me, little man," Minsc boomed. "If Laska says you will go, then little man must go! Or do I have to help you leave with a mighty kick at the posterior! Ha, ha!"

"Errr," Yoshimo sighed. "Alright, then. I question your judgment, but it is your decision..."

"Damn, right..." Laska snarled. "Now SOD OFF!"

Thinking, that perhaps she was a little harsh on Yoshimo, she decided it was too late to change the past anyway. Besides, she really did not trust his shifty nature. Something about him reminded her of Edwin and the games the red wizard played back in Nashkell.

'Fivehundred and eighty-nine... Fivehundred and ninety... Fivehundred and ninty-one...' Suddenly, she felt a speck of pain in the side of her neck. Immediately, she felt her muscles and her body weaken. Unable to keep up the strain, she dropped down to the floor, banging her head on the end of bed in the process. Slowly recovering somewhat, she weakly rose and supported herself on a bedpost. Feeling her neck, she pulled out... a dart?

Still confused, but aware of sudden movement behind her, she put her hands together to form a single fist and slammed it towards the intruder with all her might.

'It's working,' Yoshimo noted with relief as his target supported herself on the bedpost, looking visibly weakened. 'She should fall any second...'

After weeks of observing, studying the target, and waiting for the right moment, Yoshimo was relieved to have finally captured the elf known as Laska. He mused it would have gone easier perhaps if she had taken him in her group, but it was not to be.

Waiting until most of her formidable party, and especially the Inquisitor, had left her house, he had donned a magical cloak to remain hidden from her elven senses. Now, the only thing he had to do was to get her to the docks, so that his contact could take her to Brynnlaw with the next shipment of captured Shadow Thieves and equipment. Then, like his mistress Bodhi had said, his employer would take over the asylum... He did not know why, he only knew how deeply he loathed his employer... But this was a do-or-die situation for him.

Approaching his target, he only noticed the swift movement of the elf when a mighty blow to his stomach knocked the very wind of him. The thought that he had severely underestimated his target only hit his mind after the elf hand grabbed his hair and slammed his head down on the wooden bed-post.

A sharp pain and the feeling of gushing blood alerted him to his broken nose. Still, Yoshimo recovered a lot faster than Laska did. He noticed she was scanning the room, and that her eyes were very unfocused. Seeing his chance, he fired another dart from his blowpipe, which landed squarely in her arm. But again, the elf did not fall. Instead she snarled ferally...

'Incredible!' Yoshimo thought. 'She's got enough diluted curare in her to stun an elephant!'

Yoshimo was just able to dodge a massive uppercut... but not the powerful kick to the groin that accompanied the strike. Falling on his knees, Yoshimo was suddenly pushed to the floor while an elven female gone berserk rained blow after blow on his face.

Once more, Laska seemed to weaken, giving Yoshimo the chance to recover and push the elf away from him. Loading his blowpipe again, he fired a third dart, which landed in her leg. For a moment, it seemed the elf would fall into another fit of rage, but then, her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fell to her stomach, this time, quite unconscious.

Sighing with relief, Yoshimo decided how he would carry the elf to the docks. Walking about town with a scantily clad elven female slung over his shoulder would be a bit conspicuous, after all. After taking a few moments to grimace at his battered face in a small mirror, he noticed a large carpet on the floor.

But them, a new problem occured. Laska seemed to be suddenly making more noise than a dozen sawmills.

Viconia was lazily nibbling on some bread, while she was sitting at the dinner-table. She wore a bathrobe, and her customary fuzzy slippers since she had just stepped out of a fine bath, and had eaten some of Lasalla's finely prepared breakfast. Taking out her party's journal, she decided to update the part describing the murder-case at the bridge-district, a task she had been putting off ever since she made a breakthrough in her own research.

Disturbed by the sudden noise coming from Laska's room, followed by the loud, loud snores, alerted Viconia's suspicion. 'Ah, she must be sleeping on her stomach again,' she thought, but then she considered that Laska only snored when she slept on her stomach... and only if she had emptied sufficient amount of cups. But not even Laska drank so early in morning.

Considering this was not simply a case of flipping the tattooed elf on the back, she decided to investigate and entered her friend's room just in time to see a hooded figure with a carpet slung over his shoulders about to jump out of the window.

Due to her quick reactions, she managed to make the intruder yelp as he was hit in the back with the necromantic energies of a 'Slay Living'-spell before he managed to escape

"ALERT!" Viconia shouted.

Viconia, who had changed to her armor, Khittix and Korgan stood in front of their house, getting ready for the chase.

"So they be takin' the lass?" Korgan grunted. "Aye, they 'ave been lookin' in at us, then..."

"Yes... I think so too..." Viconia mused. "Take a look at this cloak. I gather the intruder wore it to hide himself in plain sight. And this dart... Undoubtedly tipped in some kind of sedative."

"Aye, and Keldorn be 'ome with 'is lass. Minsc be to the market and Jan be visitin' some of 'is cousins..." Korgan rubbed his beard. "Ach, they be spyin' on us. Probably long gone by now..."

"Not for long," Viconia grinned and held the cloak before the leashed spider, who immediately rubbed his head against it. Khittix stepped over to the window and skittered about a little, until he turned towards the road, stood still and pointed his right-forward leg towards the archway leading to the bridge section.

"Follow that spider, HAR HAR!"

'Unbelievable,' Yoshimo thought. 'Not one of my jobs has gone as horribly wrong as much as this one has.'

The Drow and the dwarf were hot on his trail, as well as a really big pet spider. Diving into a niche in the wall, he decided to wait for the right moment, like he was used to doing.

"Ye sure yer spidey be knowin' 'is stuff?" he heard a gruff voice, no less than directly on the pathway above him.

"Yes," he heard another voice, deep and throaty this time, say. "He must be around here somewhere. I will try to divine Laska's location with a 'Farsight'-spell."

'This is not going well,' Yoshimo sighed. He had lost his magic cloak and was certain to be detected now. For a moment, he considered making a break for the ship, but they were certain to see him... And the ship wasn't fully loaded, and thus, not leaving yet.

'Good gods,' Yoshimo thought in horror. 'That spider is sniffing me out!' Indeed, Khittix was sniffing very dangerously near his location, but it seemed the salty air was throwing the spider off his track. In the meantime, he could hear the Drow was casting her spell already. Now was the time for quick action.

He stared at his dagger. It was his favorite, but he had to make a sacrifice. He flung it towards a rain-barrel a few meters left of his location. Immediately, the spider started chirping towards the barrel.

"THERE!" Korgan shouted, and interrupted the spell-casting Drow. The coast was clear! Now, if only Laska hadn't decided that was a good time to recover from her slumber...

Moving around in the carpet as she was, Yoshimo lost his grip on her. The carpet fell from his shoulder and rolled down the road, heading towards the harbor. Cursing to himself, he tried to chase after her, but by now it was apparent that the dwarf, the Drow and the spider had seen her as well. So instead, he sank back into the niche, contemplating a visit to a temple very soon to avoid further scarring.

In the meantime, the carpet was launched into the air after it rolled over a loose rock. In midair, the elf was released, landed on the road and rolled on further, right through the door of the Sea's Bounty.

After groggily getting to her feet, Laska rubbed her painful head. Forcing her eyes to focus, she finally saw she was standing in the middle of a tavern. 'Now how the hell did I get here?' Laska muttered to herself. Then, she noticed she was quite the center of attention... The tavern was filled with sailors, who had just come from a three-month trading tour to Maztica and hadn't seen a woman in at least as many months.

Glancing down to her thin nightshift, she chuckled uneasily as it revealed a little too much of her anatomy than was wise among this crowd.

Korgan and Viconia entered the tavern just as the first sailors went flying.

"You could have looked harder!" Laska muttered.

"Do you want to walk back all the way back to the Temple District naked?" Viconia asked.

"No, but... Well, couldn't you have brought my chainmail?"

"We dinnae 'ave the bloody time fer that, lassie," Korgan chuckled.

"Well, I am grateful Khittix found me, but.. come on, a RAINBARREL?" she said while holding up the barrel around her torso. "At least you could have found me an empty potato-sack."

"You 'eard the woman," Korgan said. "That would 'ave cost us two gold! The barrel only was one!"

"Didn't you get a look at your attacker?" Viconia asked.

"No," she said. "Everything was a haze. I think we'll have to ask Jan to enchant the windows. We have kids in the house now, and we need to keep them safe at least..."

"Har," Korgan laughed. "At least we be 'avin' a tale to tell our gnome fer a bloody change."

Chuckling, the party returned to the mansion, where Khittix was given a whole leg of lamb for a treat.