'*Well, finally I'm out of the scabbard again. *sigh* It's about time, you know?! I felt like I was gathering dust in that umbrella-stand too! You don't use me often enough, Laska. I'm a SWORD, not a toothpick! I have to be wielded or I atrophy! And I don't think you respect me well enough. I am a Lady, you know?! And a moonblade who was travelling the world while your mother was just a lustful glint in your grandfather's eye!! And yet you subject me to an extended stay in the umbrella-stand right next to that braggart Lilarcor!*' Ipsiya voiced loudly.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Laska grinned as she and her friends made their ways through the narrow and winding hallways of the inner-sphere. The clanks of metal, and sounds of hissing pipes gave the sphere a very claustrophobic atmosphere... and the fact that Ipsiya's voice echoed back and forth through the corridors.

"Hey, baby," Lilarcor grinned while Minsc held him high. "You wanna light my fire? Rrrrowwwwllll."

'*If I had hands, I would choke you do death! But now, I just settle for calling you a wooden toy sword not even suitable to be used for mending a fence!*' Ipsiya retorted.

"Oh, yeah," Lilarcor sighed contently. "She loves me..."

'*HAH*'

"Wilt ye two morons be quiet?" Dynaheir, who was the one directly following Laska through the corridor. "We have no idea what is in this object, nor what danger it poses."

"Do not worry!" Minsc shouted and almost looked ready to bang his fists on his chest. "Minsc shall protect his witch! I shall not fail a second time! Boo shall see to it."

"I would be content with thy discretion now, dear friend," Dynaheir smiled. "Save thy powerful voice for thy trembling enemies."

"Did you hear that, Boo? Dynaheir called me 'dear friend'!" Minsc smiled as he petted his hamster. "Oh, yes, yes, Minsc shall be quiet," he whispered. "Quiet as a mouse pretending to be a noble hamster."

Dynaheir shook her head and smiled. She had missed Minsc during her ordeal. Still, she felt the eyes of that ranger in her back. What was his name again? Valgar? Vlagyr? He had been scowling her, and she felt he would do harm to her if her friends were not here to shield her from his ire. Still, she could understand his feelings after he had seen magic corrupt and destroy his family, but, to her, Valygar simply could not realize that it was not magic that corrupted her mother. Magic was merely a tool, it was the way it was used that determined the morality-factor assigned to it... Then again, power inherently corrupts, that was well known. Dynaheir decided she would ponder it, when they were in safety and back home on Toril.

"Strange," Dynaheir said. "I have yet to detect magic of any kind in this sphere. I would expect this to be a magical artifact."

"Perhaps you lying and there is magical all around us," Valygar spat. "Perhaps you are trying to mislead us so that you can take this sphere for yourself?"

Dynaheir's eyes narrowed as she turned to face the dark ranger. "Dost thou have a problem with my presence?"

"You are a mage," Valygar sighed. "I should never have allowed you to join us, witch... You will bring nothing but trouble."

Suddenly, a huge, beefy hand clasped around Valygar's shoulder. He cringed as he felt a subtle, yet impressive pressure, making the bones in his shoulder scream in protest. Also, he seemed to be facing a second huge fist, currently hovering in front of his nose. "Go ahead, make Minsc's day!" was roared, followed by an angry little squeak.

"Har, Har!" Korgan roared. "I be bettin' that Valygar's knocked-off head will roll at least twenty yards!"

"Please," Mazzy said, looking more than a little nervous wandering these sterile hallways. "Please stop messing about. There could be danger around every corner.

"Hold it," the tattooed elf spoke when they came to a door at the end of the corridor. The door was a huge slab of two piece of metal with no visible doorhandle or other way of opening it. "I don't think we can open this one by force."

"Hmmm," Dynaheir said, running her fingers over a smooth keypad by the side of the metal door. Immediately, several primary colors lit up behind the keys, awaiting instruction. "Maybe if we find the right combination. 'Twill take time, I fear."

Without warning Minsc's fist rang out, instantly smashing the defenseless keypad. Fortunately, it had the desired effect. With a hiss, the door slowly separated... revealing a single goblin being flanked by three humans wearing platemail.

"What?" Laska all but chuckled. "This is it? All this suspense just for a single goblin and some lackeys? This won't even make us break a sweat, right Korgan?!"

"HAR! One goblin pie, comin' up!" the dwarf grinned, swinging his axe about.

"Excuse me, madam!" the goblin seemed horrified. "But such an excessive display of gratuitous violence, aside from being utterly barbaric, is hardly necessary!"

"Whoa," Mazzy spoke.

"That was... wordy!" Minsc finished up.

"Hey, where'd you learn how to talk like that?" Laska asked the goblin.

"I might ask you the same question, madam," the goblin replied. "I gather you are from another universe, yes? Well, in my universe, elves are nothing more than ignorant savages."

"I don't believe you," Laska snarled resolutely.

"I didn't believe it either when I was told my race were meat-eating savages. But when the sphere only encountered universes where this was indeed so, I have resigned to it, though it still pains me greatly. In my world, the goblins have created a great society of artists, writers, explorers and philosophers... but on other words, my poor race seems to advance no further than 'Me crush, crush now?'. It's a very sobering thought," the goblin sighed. "My name is Avatrunay, by the way, Science Officer of this fine vessel. These three fellows next to me are the Solamnic knights Reyna, Ancan and Onvo, in charge of security. Tell me your tale, travellers?"

"Well, I can rarely recall someone actually requesting one of my excellent tales," Jan burst up front and started talking, "but you might be interested in the story of my Uncle Ungerick Jansen, a turnipsalesman of some importance. He was married to a fine strong Halfling lass called Enya Rainfall... Well, she had to be strong, because she insisted on pulling the turnip wagons for Uncle Ungerick. They both hated horses with a passion, you see? 'We don't need those long-nosed, metal-walking, hay-eating freaks!' was their mantra in life. But I digress... You see, my Uncle Ungerick was travelling along the Coastway, pulling the reigns, which meant also pulling the bit in Aunty Enya's mouth, a very uncomfortable experience, I might add. Anyway, they were riding along the Coastway and they came upon an old ruin where they decided to spend the night. But what Ungerick and Enya didn't know that at the time, was that the old hovel was owned by a ghost whose former human state of being came to an untimely end after slipping on the soap in the shower. Every night, the ghostly figure would appear to find himself a clean towel, and since the ruin was, well, a ruin, he was in for a long search. Anyway, to make a short story even longer, Uncle Ungerick went for a midnight turnip-snack and, of course, ran into the old ghost... So thus began the great chase-scene of Ungerick. He ran and ran and ran until came to the top of the tower, with the ghost closely following behind, hollering for Room service to bring him a clean towel. Then, being caught between a rock and a hard place (presumably a second rock) Ungerick held his nose and jumped down... Enya woke up the next morning and left for Amn. Later she would write, direct and star in her own play : 'Death of a Turnipsalesman.'."

The goblin blinked twice, then glanced at Laska, who merely smiled and shrugged.

"What happened?" Reyna, the solamic knight, spoke with a surprisingly light voice.

"Well, Uncle Ungerick's fall was broken by a briar patch. And after removing all the offending stingers, he just hid in the basement during the run of the play," Jan grinned.

"Don't look at me," Laska grinned. "We have to live with him all day. I'm Laska, by the way, a semi-civilized elf. The dwarf over there is Korgan. Next to him is Mazzy. The big guy is Minsc and the woman next to him his witch Dynaheir. And the man glowering at Dynaheir is Valygar Corthala..."

"Corthala!" Onvo smiled. "Are you, perchance, related to our noble captain?"

"Noble?" Valygar chuckled. "Noble? If you call a life-stealing, cursed half-lich noble like him noble, then you might have sniffed just a tiny bit too much of his foul necromancy, fool!"

"Hey!" Ancan glowered as he stepped forward. "I will not have you insult our captain!"

"Alright, alright!" Dynaheir broke in. "This is not getting us anywhere. Perhaps," Dynaheir said, looking at Laska, "we should meet with your captain?"

"I'm afraid that is not possible," Avatrunay sighed. "Let me tell you what happened, and let me just tell you that your actions in auxiliary control might just have saved a lot of lives."

"Our bumbling in there saved lives?" Mazzy shook her head. "That's surprising."

"Let me give you a bit of background," Avatrunay spoke, "to ease your minds. First of all, magic is something you won't mind here. All phenomena are explained in this sphere. There is nothing but pure science and technology, Valygar, so please check in your backwards superstitions at the door. We are a small, but dedicated crew of travellers, wanting to expand our own horizon by travelling the multiverse, touching the very edges of the planes."

"Thy words sound very compelling," Dynaheir spoke.

"Boo is positively itching with mirth!" Minsc grinned.

"Unfortunately, we hit a bit of trouble last month. Apparently, during a trip to a demon dimension, our captain was possessed by a creature trapped there, and attempted to gain access to Lavok's home plane for reasons as of yet unknown," Avatrunay spoke. "We eventually caught on, but Lavok managed to block us by transporting several feral halflings aboard. Then, the creature in charge of Lavok initiated a travel to the point of origin : Toril. Your actions in auxiliary control returned the sphere to the creature's home before it got loose."

"I be thinkin' I be looking at one o'them feral 'alflings right now," Korgan grinned while looking at Mazzy, who immediately glared back.

"Oh, no, your friend is definitely not a feral halfling. Believe me, you would have noticed," Reyna sighed.

"The halflings smashed up the bridge and locked us into this section of the sphere while Lavok has holed up in the Engineering Section," Ancan added.

"Then that is where we will confront Lavok!" Valygar said, an eager glint appearing in his eye. "For what he and his curse have done to my family, he will pay!"

"You are welcome to try," Avatrunay snorted, "but the only access-port to Engineering is blocked by a Thorium-leak. Thorium will dissolve organic tissue at contact. Our chief engineer was damaged during the assault, and she is the only one who can repair the leak without, well, dissolving."

"Damaged'?" Laska asked.

Avatrunay nodded and beckoned them to follow him to the crew quarters. There, on a throne, sat a strange-looking woman, made completely out of shiny metal.

"Is that a golem?" Laska asked.

"Aye, can I break it?" Korgan grinned.

"This is our chief engineer, Maria," Avatrunay nodded.

"Wait there's a label here," Dynaheir said and bent forward to read it aloud. "Made in Metropolis. Property of Fritz Lang, Hollywood 1926."

Meanwhile, Laska gave the robot a rather suspicious look from head to toe.

"What is it?" Korgan asked.

"Metal-gal has bigger boobs than I have," Laska muttered. "I don't trust that."

"Unfortunately," Avatrunay sighed, "I cannot repair her without a last key component... which the halflings took with them when they retreated to the lower decks."

"Let me guess," Laska grinned, "you want us to retrieve the parts?"

Retrieving the part, which was a strange cylindrical object the size of a fist, was surprisingly easy. Over a score of halfling were scattered about the cargo-holds of the Sphere. Apparently, the leading halfling wore the item around his neck. Mazzy had surprisingly little trouble dealing with the halflings as well. With all the zest of a true holy warrior, she had 'slain the evil fiends' decisively... of course, the evidence that the halflings were cannibals had something to do with her rage.

After the item had been returned and Maria had been repaired, the clever chief engineer headed into the engineering section to repair the leak and drain the hazardous material from the corridor. Then came the time for confrontation. Valygar was almost trembling with anticipation : this was a moment he had been preparing for his whole life and he could scarcely believe this was happening.

"Right," Laska grinned. "On three... we'll storm in and surround Lavok. One..." Laska didn't hesitate and ran through the sliding door immediately.

"She be the impatient type," Korgan told Valygar as the rest of the party followed her. There they found Lavok, who very much looked to be an older version of Valygar, dressed in a strange one-piece jumpsuit. However, Lavok's expression was anything but human while he regarded the cheeky elf, who had apparently tripped over a pipe when she had entered Engineering, and jumped to her feet, raising her blades.

"LAVOK!" Valygar shouted. Immediately, the creature turned towards his younger version.

"You! You are the ones who have caused the sphere to travel once again! You fools!! I was close to escaping!! So close!" Lavok replied in a strange, scratchy voice which couldn't possibly be human.

"You will not escape! I shall fulfill my family's vow and end your hideous life once and for all!" Valygar retorted.

"I have been denied the material plane! I will have my revenge by slowly killing you all!" the creature spoke... and attacked.

Unfortunately, it was not an attack anyone was prepared for : he clicked a switch on his belt, raising some kind of energy-shield. Valygar attacked like a possessed man, slamming his Katana into the energy-barrier... only to end up cradling his painful wrist as he hissed in pain.

Laska, Minsc, Mazzy and Korgan attempted the same, but they found it was like trying to punch through a ship's hull. Dynaheir attempted her magic, but the quartet of magic missiles, followed by fire and acid arrows had no effect either.

Feeling frustration as Lavok smirked at them from inside his bubble, Laska attempted a second attack, but not even Ipsiya could penetrate the barrier. While shaking her head as she twirled around her axis to give her third blow a little more power, she suddenly felt her own plait hitting her in the eye. Laska always wore her long dark hair in a thick plait when going into battle, but sometimes her long hair came back to haunt her... though this time it would turn out to come to her advantage.

Laska shook off the plait and it was shot forward, until the tip connected with the energy barrier. To her horror, she found that the very tip of her braid had been singed off! As the smell of burned hair reached her nostrils, something inside her snapped.

The angry elf roared, burning with infernal rage. Her eyes glowed bright red as she shot forward, raining blow after blow after blow into the energy shield, actually startling Lavok inside. "NEVER!!!" she shouted as the shield flared green. "EVER!!!" she shouted as the shield flared yellow. "TOUCH!!!" she shouted as the shield flared red. "MY HAIR!!!" the last blow shot through the shield and slashed straight through Lavok's chest.

Lavok unleashed a rather inhuman shriek, and immediately, a shapeless billow of smoke emerged from his mouth and dissipated in the air.

"Laska, no!" Minsc said as he caught the arm of the enraged elf just before she could deliver the killing blow. "He's him again!"

"Wh-where am I? The...the force that possessed me is...is gone?" Lavok gasped, barely being able to talk.

"What is this, some manner of trick?" Valygar regarded suspiciously, his hand ever on the hilt of his Katana. "I am your descendant, Lavok. I am Valygar Corthala, and I will not allow you to take my body to extend your life. Since you yet live, I shall end it now!"

"Hold it right there, Valygar," Dynaheir spoke. "Wouldst thee not hear him out first?"

"It figures a mage would side with a mage!" Valygar snarled.

"Corthala...yes, I remember this now. My family. Oh, I am dying, Valygar Corthala, of that you can be certain," Lavok half-smiled.

"Dammit," Laska sighed, "we should have brought Vico with us! There's no way we can heal him now."

"Why would you want to?" Valygar snarled. "So what's next Lavok? Some half-wit repentance on your deathbed? Some flowery speech about not really being evil at all? That you are not the sorcerer who preyed upon his own family as a ghoul would, whose legacy has haunted my family always?"

"No, I am Lavok," he sighed. "To my everlasting shame, I am Lavok Corthala. The man you speak off... But I have had years of pain and anguish to consider my sins, and I have left the ways of magic long behind me. I can offer to you nothing other than my sorrow, Valygar, if I have brought you pain."

"I..." Valygar replied, his image of the bogeyman shattered. He had expected a snarling, irredeemable fiend, but he found a repentant old man instead. And for the first time, he felt doubt.

"Do not regret your actions, young elf," Lavok gasped. "Death shall release me soon enough from my overlong life. But I will die a free man. An equitable trade."

"I would ask one thing of you, Valygar Corthala, although I know you have no reason to grant it to me," Lavok smiled.

There was a timidity in Valygar's voice as he spoke. "I...I don't...what would you ask of me?"

"I would wish to see the sky of my home world one final time. To be at peace, knowing that I have died in the place I was born so long ago."

"That's a good idea," Mazzy said. "We need to get home anyway."

"I'll have... Avatrunay set the controls to take us back to Toril," Lavok wheezed and coughed. "Magic has been banished from the sphere, mostly, but I still have an all-conversion drive installed next to the main engines which can jumpstart if injected with the magic of a demon-heart."

"So, all mumbo-jumbo aside," Laska grinned. "We need to get a demon-heart."

Laska felt very uneasy. Perhaps it was her connection to the land than made her feel so on edge, but she didn't much care. She stood on the red lavastone, surveying the ragged rocks in the endless landscape. The bloodred sky stretched into infinity above her, while the smell of sulphur stung her eyes and nostrils.

She was not having a good time.

She and Valygar has been sent outside the sphere to get the heart. Avatrunay had hoped that a small party would attract the least attention. 'Yeah,' Laska thought, 'as if a giant marble with a cut-in-half giant fish beside it blends into the decor.'

Glancing back to the eerily quiet metal fish, she noticed it was gigantic. And yellow... painfully yellow.

"Oh, hey, we're in luck!" Laska grinned as she spotted a demon... partially crushed by the metal fish.

"It looks like he was fused into the metal hull," Valygar said.

"Hey, beggars can't be choosers. And he looks dead enough," Laska replied with a grin.

"Are you sure this is safe?"

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Laska muttered and made the first incision with her dagger.

The familiar sights, smells and sounds of the Athkatlan slums greeted the party as they emerged from the sphere. After a bumpy ride, they once again stood on the wooden platform, while Valygar had carried Lavok outside.

"Well, I never thought I would be happy to see these slums again," Jan said. "But I said the same thing about Uncle Itchy and I still see him regularly. And that is rather difficult, seeing he's a ghost that has taken the form of an invisible stalker. Long story..."

"Please keep it to yourself," Laska snickered.

"The sun?" Lavok smiled. "Strange... I've been to so many places. But the sun shines the brightest right here."

"You are not the man I expected, Lavok," Valygar said while Lavok's crew gathered around them.

"Valygar," Lavok said. "This is my crew. They are my loyal friends. As my descendant... the sphere is yours, as are its secrets. Your actions tell me that... you will use it well. It can be yours, if you want it. Let my friends be your friends. See the multiverse..." That said, Lavok released his final breath.

Valygar regarded the sphere, and then, the crew. "Why not?" he finally whispered.

With one final burst of energy, the sphere left Athkatla for good, once again allowing the tenants to enter their homes again.

"Let's go home..." Laska muttered. "There's no machines there. But there is ale."

"Amen," Korgan muttered. "Who be the daft fool who got us into this job? We ain't got no reward and there be no gold aboard!"

"It was Jan," Dynaheir smiled.

"Jan," Minsc grinned.

"Jan," Mazzy added.

"Jan," Laska pointed.

"Laska!" Jan pointed to the tattooed elf. "It was her idea, she did it all!"

"Oh, thank you very much, Jan," Laska grinned.

The trip home was luckily uneventful. But as soon as the elf entered the door, she was greeted by the smell of mint. And then, the sight of mint... everywhere. The mint had overgrown the entire back of the room, making it even denser than the jungles of Chult.

"Hey, love," Rose said as she emerged from the bedroom and pecked the astonished elf on the cheek. Immediately, Rose brandished her machete and chopped through the mint-plant towards the door leading into her studio. "I'd like to get some painting done today, but the mint won't let me reach the door!"

"When did this happen?!" Laska said, wrapping her arms around Rose's waist as if to protect her from the jungle of mint. "And... I can't get to the ale!"

"Just after you left... the mint has conquered the backyard and has grown right into the kitchen," Rose replied. "Risa and Becky need to use a rope-ladder to climb onto the patio to get to their rooms!"

"We need the weedkiller," Laska said.

"Good luck," Rose chuckled. "It's in the toolshed, outside."

'*You're nuts if you think you can use me as a machete, Laska! I am a lady-blade not a garden tool, dammit!'* Ipsiya loudly announced.

"Okay," Laska grinned, "mind if I borrowed your machete, Rose?"