Rush Of Blood To The Head, part 7.10.
The Leaflord has held his word and our path towards the palace is not hindered by any more pesky monsters. Rillifane’s summons have most likely used disintegration magic, as the streets are clean and we don’t see bodies of the slain monsters. The large gates of the palace are now opened and we step inside and make all haste towards the building itself.
Once inside, we have to waste valuable time with wandering through the luxurious halls, searching for the access to the Tree itself, as I suspect that to perform the ritual, Irenicus has to maintain a direct link with the Tree all the time. The palace is of truly grand proportions indeed and it takes us a fair amount of time to find a stairway, which leads downwards, seemingly into what I suspect to be the cellars. However, as I take a few steps downwards, a thick net of branches and leafs slowly appears in my view and I feel the flow of fresh air. I turn around to return to my friends upstairs.
“That’s it… I feel him… close, very close,” I say with tremor in my voice, “I suppose that I should offer you all the last chance to reconsider… but this is not the time for long speeches. You wouldn’t be here if our goals wouldn’t be joint… this is the case for the five us, but not for Nalia and Keldorn. You did not face Irenicus in Spellhold, you have no idea of the power he wields and how he might have used my soul to become even more powerful.”
“I thought we had this talk already, lad,” Keldorn speaks, “and I thought that I have made it clear that I intend to follow through on my promises. As for Nalia, I would feel much easier at heart if she was to stay here, in safety.”
“No! Keldorn, I am going with you, Theodur needs me!” Nalia protests vehemently.
“Nalia, listen to Keldorn, please,” I try to convince her, “Irenicus is a powerful mage… extremely powerful. He will protect himself with such complicated spells, they will be very difficult to dispel… Nalia, despite your best intentions, you will not be able to help us down there…”
“Listen to him, child,” Jaheira says gently, “nobody will think of you as a coward, if you agree to stay behind… however, most of us will think you a brash fool if you would choose to follow, despite the warning.”
“But… but I… I came here to help defeat him… what was the point of coming then, if you won’t allow me to go with you?” she asks, but I hear the doubts in her voice.
“Nalia, you’ve already done so much… you helped us with a ferocious black dragon and many other dangerous enemies,” I place a hand over her shoulder and lead her in the room next to us, so that my friends can’t overhear us talking.
“Nalia, let us be serious for a moment,” I tell her, “there is a great possibility that you will not see any of us again… and almost definitely you will not see all of us again… and that is why I want you to stay behind. Think of Keldorn, for example – if we were all to fall, his wife and daughters will die from anxiety, not knowing what happened to him. Would you wish your friend Leona to wonder for the rest of her life about what happened to her father?”
“N-no… if you put it that way…” Nalia sobs quietly, “I guess… I guess you’re right then…”
“Of course I am. We will leave all our money and our spare equipment here upstairs… around fifty thousand in gold. If… if we were not to return,” I hear my voice cracking as well, “buy yourself nice new life… just… just do whatever you wish.”
Nalia does not reply, too overwhelmed with emotions as tears stream down her face and she pulls up her hand to wipe them away with a sleeve of her robe as I continue, “Perhaps… perhaps you can somehow ensure that our names are not lost into the nothingness… and something that would show the love that Jaheira and I feel for each other…”
“How… how would I do that?” she sighs.
“I don’t know… but you are in the city of elves, an aesthetic, artistically talented race… ah, it was just a suggestion, I don’t think it will come to that…” I try to put on a brave smile, but do not succeed very well. I wait until she has wiped her eyes clean and then we return to our comrades and Nalia briefly wishes us good luck.
My friends pass by me to descend downstairs, Jaheira leading the way, Keldorn follows suit, both of them looking calmer than I could ever be in this situation. Viconia is the next to go, her eyes blazing in fiery anger, Imoen follows, her face pale as chalk… Edwin descends as the last, the almost casual expression on his face making me wonder if he actually understands the graveness of the situation… though, most likely it is just one of his coping mechanisms…
I turn to follow him, not before looking at Nalia for one last time, her eyes red from crying and too enthusiastic wiping of them, then I turn to run down the steps and join my friends as they stand on a large branch and watch… something approaching. An eerie looking vision, an apparition in a shape of an elven woman… and I realize that I know her, it is the same annoying person with the horrible voice from the dream I had in Esmeltaran…
“Who comes here?” the apparition speaks and I recognize the voice immediately, “You… you are the Child of Bhaal, aren't you? The one that Joneleth… Irenicus… boasted of stealing power from? But he claimed to have slain you!”
“And yet he made the same mistake that you did, Queen Ellesime,” I reply to the apparition, “He will suffer for allowing me to live, just as you and your city suffered for allowing him to return and take his revenge.”
“Please, Child of Bhaal… this is no time for debates! I am chained at the centre of the tree, within the cage created by his corruptive magic… I cannot maintain this illusionary spell for very long. Joneleth, the one you call Irenicus, he...is drawing power from the Tree of Life into himself. He uses… parasites on the Tree; they are draining it for him. They feed him the power and maintain the cage that holds me! Destroy them to release me and to make Irenicus vulnerable… then I will sever Jon’s connection with the Tree – and only then he can be killed, the essence of the Tree makes him invulnerable!”
“Yes, I suppose we can’t expect him to make it easy for us…” I chuckle dryly, “well, off we go then, to squish some parasites… whatever they may be.”
“Hurry, Child of Bhaal! If Jon manages to drain the Tree of Life, all of Suldanessellar is doomed... and Jon will have the power he craves!” Ellesime shrieks, “Please, you must stop him!”
“But of course, Queen,” Viconia snarls, “we just cannot allow that Irenicus gain such power… that would make him as or even more powerful as a certain demigoddess…”
“When you have killed the last parasite, come quickly to the centre of the Tree, where Irenicus and I are!” the apparition ignores Viconia and concentrates all its attention on me, “Once I sever Jon's link to the Tree of Life you must be ready for anything… be cautious. The energy that he has stolen from the Tree will be torn from him. I know not what effects this will have… it may kill us all. But Jon will be weak and disoriented, so you must kill him quickly! Please hurry!”
The parasites, huge, bug-like critters, are easy to destroy, only the hordes of elementals that protect them, cause some minor inconveniences… but to find these parasites amongst the thick mass of leaves and tree-limbs is harder than the process of destroying them. Having dealt with the what we think is the last one, we are all subjected to the healing spells of our two priestesses and once they have done their job, we step onto a very large branch and walk towards the trunk of the Tree to find Irenicus and Ellesime.
And we arrive just in time to see the thick, swirling globes of energy that surround both of them being dispelled and whilst Irenicus is standing motionless as if in daze, Ellesime motions for us to stand back as she recites a spell which makes both Irenicus and the Tree glow in a sickly green light and as the time passes, we see that the aura surrounding Irenicus grows weaker and weaker, until it dissipates for good, while the light surrounding the Tree grows brighter as the energy from Irenicus is being drawn back into the Tree of Life.
“What… who…” Irenicus struggles to speak coherently, a very awkward position for him, no doubt, “WHO DARES!”
“Well, you should have known that I would seek to regain my soul, Irenicus,” I say icily, anxiously waiting for Ellesime to give a signal or confirmation on whether it is safe to attack him.
“You... you live yet? You have less than a fraction of your soul and yet somehow you continue to oppose me?” Irenicus sounds incredulous, “The power... the power of the Tree is gone from me. You have been successful in your little scheme, insect, but now it ends! I will take great pleasure in eradicating such a nuisance as you. And then I shall… re-establish my link, join with the Tree once again… I shall find a way and I shall have the power-“
“No, Joneleth. You shall not,” Ellesime’s voice is filled with conviction.
“Who…?” Irenicus whirls around to face her, “Ellesime?”
“Yes, it is I, your Queen,” she speaks with an air of superiority, “Twice you have attempted this sacrilege and nearly destroyed us all. You will not do this again, Joneleth.”
“Do not dare calling me that! I lost all right to that name when the Seldarine stripped me of everything that was elven, as you well know!” Irenicus exclaims in anger.
“And what shall I call you then? 'Irenicus'? 'Shattered One'? Yes… it was a terrible punishment,” Ellesime admits, but I fail to hear the regret, “But you violated everything we hold dear. You nearly destroyed us all! Why… for what… power? Is that all that you exist for now, Jon?”
“It is all I have now, Ellesime. There is nothing else beyond my revenge,” I can discern a trace of bitterness in the monster’s voice, “revenge for what you did to me, for what the Seldarine did to me! And the power will help me to accomplish it!”
“We have no time for this lovers quarrel!” Viconia snarls angrily.
“Well, yeah… this is pretty sad, ya know… but shouldn’t we be killing him?” Imoen asks.
“I dunno… I’d hate to interrupt… maybe Ellesime is buying us more time for the power to completely abandon him… let’s just wait until they are done with it,” I suggest.
“And your revenge has poisoned your heart. The Tree touched you once, long ago… do you remember nothing of it?” there is a trace of pain in Ellesime’s voice now, “Is there nothing in your heart that remembers love? Is there nothing within you that remembers our love? What we once shared before this obsession doomed you?”
“I... I do not remember your love, Ellesime. I have tried to. I have tried to recreate it, to spark it anew in my memory. But it is gone... a hollow, dead thing. For years, I clung to the memory of it… then the memory of the memory. And eventually there was nothing… The Seldarine took that from me, too,” Irenicus says words that make me shiver… not to remember your love… is there anything more awful than that?
“Remember the clones? Ugh, I’m starting to understand him better, but I still want to kill him…” Imoen whispers.
“And in a preferably painful way,” Edwin adds, sensing that he has been quiet for too long.
“I look upon you and I feel nothing. I remember nothing but you turning your back on me, along with all the others,” Irenicus speaks, “Once my thirst for power was everything. And now I hunger only for revenge. And... I... WILL... HAVE IT!”
“Then I pity you. Would that you had used your stolen mortal years to earn your return to this sacred place. I could have loved you anew, as I loved the man you once were,” Ellesime says wistfully, but still I am not fully convinced by her sincerity, “But I see nothing of the man I loved in you. You are Irenicus. And all that awaits you now is death.”
“We shall see, my former love,” Irenicus smirks as we watch Ellesime hurrying away through the branches, “We shall see…”
“So she goes to rouse her forces while I am still weak. So be it, I shall crush them all, if need be,” he snarls, looking at us, as we draw our weapons and surround him from all sides, “But know that I am still a powerful mage and your soul still courses through me. Come and make your attempt to reclaim it, if you like. I have power enough to deal with you!”
His boasting words are met only with a determined silence. There is nothing more that needs to be said… now is the time to reclaim my tainted soul.
