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Imoen Incorporated
“I don’t know Aerrers,” Imoen shrugged helplessly as she sat cross legged on the fallen pillar. “Now that I’m not a Bhaalspawn anymore… I just don’t know what it is I should be doing.”
The Avariel, Aerie, was initially surprised to see her best friend teleport into the temple, but it wasn’t the first time she’d done that. What was new was that Imoen hadn’t appeared just to tell her a new prank or joke she’d probably been up all night working on. “Your sister kicked you out?” The blonde haired Elf blinked.
“Can you believe it?” The redhead turned red faced, glaring daggers at the wall. “’tupidungratefulbufflehead… I’ve spent all my life looking out for that scamp, and then she says I’ve got to go because she wants to raise her own family. I’m her family, right? Sooner or later she’ll realise she needs me. You just wait and see.”
“Of course,” the Elf sighed and closed her eyes. “How can anyone expect to get through a day without their purses going missing, or the sugar and salt mysteriously switching jars, or crates filled with clock faces, playing cards and hieroglyphs appearing on your front door.”
“Now, that was all paid for with her own money…”
“Which you stole.”
“She said she wanted some extra hands around the place,” the redhead shrugged. “She should have been more clear what she really meant…”
“It was an awful lot of money to spend on an awful joke.”
“It’s just money, Aerrers. People don’t need money to be happy; they need jokes. Good and bad ones.”
“Oh, that’s wise. That’s very wise. Maybe what you should do is just stay sat there like that, and I can build a little fence around you and pilgrims can come from miles around to touch your toes.”
“Listen kiddo, I’m feeling pretty vulnerable right now what with the whole being made homeless thing. I came to see you because I wanted some sympathy, but if you’re just intent on making fun of me, then I guess I’ll just have to drown my sorrows elsewhere.”
“Sorry,” Aerie smirked. “Seriously; you know if you ever want to talk about anything, or mope around feeling sorry for yourself, or even just have a good long whine, then I’m here, and I’ll listen…” the Elf turned her head as the huge temple doors were smashed and crumbled. A red skinned humanoid taller than a house, with flame erupting from his eyes and beard pointed his enormous at her as minions, mostly orc mercenaries, poured around his feet into the hall.
“WITCH!!!” The monster roared with rage.
“… maybe not just this minute though,” the Avariel sighed, lifting her mace and shield. The mace glowed red as swung it, even though it was still well of range of the monsters. But they weren’t out of range of the fireball launched from the weapon. It had no effect on the fire giant, obviously, but the orcs were blasted and scattered. “Can you give me a few?”
“Yeah, sure,” the redhead remained sitting, waving the Elf on to go and do whatever it was she needed to do. With the remaining orcs charging at her while the giant barked orders, Aerie’s skin greyed and turned to stone as she rushed out to meet the snarling, angry beasts.
Imoen took a moment to reflect on her life, and where it had gone wrong. The first ten years were the best. The second ten years… they were the best as well. She’d lived in Candlekeep, got up to mischief. Annoyed and even angered some people, sometimes, but in the end everyone just regarded her a lovable little rascal. A creative brat. The last ten years had been a few ups and downs, but she had her friends with her, and her sister. And she was still a creative brat. Why had things changed now? Was it Anomen? She always knew he’d get between them one day… should have poisoned him when she had the chance.
But, no. Even if she really wanted to, she couldn’t blame Anomen. Raven had just changed over the years. Everything had changed. Only Imoen had stayed the same. And now her sister was telling her that she needed to change as well, find her own place… where? Aside from being an extremely cute, albeit sometimes annoying little sister, what else was she really good at? Magic, stealing, spreading joy and comfort throughout the world? And what did she really want to do?
She had nothing. When it came down to it, being a little sister… that had been her whole life. If she couldn’t do that, there was nothing. She might as well go and just lie down in the snow somewhere until she turned into an icicle. But then someone might take the trouble to thaw her out years later, and she’d still feel the same way. Alone, rejected… a volcano. That was the way to go. Yes, she would sacrifice herself to some island God. At least then her death would have some purpose.
Of course, even though this was now officially the second lowest point in her life, Imoen wasn’t seriously considering actually doing any of these things. If she had been, she wouldn’t have come all this way to see the one person she thought could help her. Aerie’s life paralleled her own in many ways. Like Imoen, Aerie had grown up in a safe, secure environment, blissfully unaware of how cruel the adult world outside could be. Like Imoen, Aerie had left her home because she had wanted to help someone else. Both women had been shut in a birdcage, tortured, beaten, almost broken. They had both lived in the past for a long time, even though there was no going back there for either of them.
And yet, as Imoen watched her friend unleashing chains from her hands, cooking and tearing at the group of Orcs around her, she could see Aerie was content, now. There had been the whole revenge and justice thing, hundreds of slavers slain… but the elf seemed to have worked that out of her system now. Now she was just beating up bad guys because she enjoyed it.
“Hey, Aerie,” Imoen called out.
“What?” The Elf dodged a blow, and then spun round caving in the skull of her attacker with her mace.
“Why’d you turn down Jaheira’s offer to join The Harpers?”
“Don’t want to be tied to any place, or any group. I have the freedom now to go wherever I want, and do whatever I want, whenever I want. I intend to enjoy that freedom for as long as elvenly possible,” she struck with her lightning again, ripping two Orcs in two. “You know… I don’t mind if you feel like lending a hand.”
“Don’t wanna cramp your style,” the redhead yawned, suddenly appearing to be very interested in her fingernails, looking at her thumb and forefinger pressed together. “Six o’clock.”
The Elf spun around a full hundred and eighty degrees, a whole rainbow of light shimmering forth from her shield, causing the Orcs to fall backwards as it struck them. “Thank you,” the Elf said, and quickly summoned a column of light down from the ceiling to incinerate another beast running at her. The giant was casting too, summoning more monsters to join the battle.
“Welcome,” Imoen said. Freedom… she supposed that was what she had now, too. But she still didn’t know where she wanted to go or what she wanted to do with it. She’d always just followed her sister everywhere. She’d never been anywhere on her own. “So, you really don’t miss your wings anymore?”
“Remember that old pirate we met? The one with a wooden leg and a hook for a hand?”
“Sure,” Imoen nodded. He wasn’t actually a pirate, but whatever.
“I told him I could heal him. Get his hand and his leg to grow again. He said no. He said he’d missed them at first, but now… now that rusty old hook and that leg were a part of him. Of who he was now. And this,” the Elf held up mace, uttering the trigger words she had prepared earlier. Ice crept up from her hand, solidifying into a solid block around her weapon. It was as if her whole aura changed in an instant, making her seem more powerful. Maybe it was her hair blowing back even though there was no wind, or the glowing eyes. “This is who I am.”
She ran, ten times as fast as she had been before. The orcs and summoned beasts could barely react, leaving a clear path between her and the giant. Firebeard, or whatever his name was, did see her coming and brought his hammer crashing down, smashing through the floor and causing the whole building to quake. But he was much too slow. Aerie jumped as it came down, landing on top of the hammer. She kept running, up the shaft and grip, onto the giants arm. And then she leapt, and the wingless Avariel appeared to actually be flying once again, at least to Imoen and the giant for whom time had slowed considerably in that moment. She was in the air only a few seconds, but a few seconds was all it took for the Elf to swing her mace, shattering the giant’s teeth, and swing it upwards again. Her speed, combined with the strength granted to her by her gods gave the blow enough momentum to knock the giant’s head almost clean off his shoulders. He fell backwards, another small tremor as a new crater formed around his unconscious body.
Aerie landed softly on her feet. The summoned creatures were banished, and the remaining orcs saw the warning lights in the elf’s eyes. The hapless mercenaries had had no idea who they were messing with; Aerie was the ultimate proof that you should never judge anyone on appearances. They had probably been led to believe she was just some goody, goody, would never hurt a fly types. While it was true Aerie did go through life trying to be good and nice to most of the people she met, she was quite prepared to use deadly force on any fly stupid enough to hang around after they had riled her. On this occasion, they didn’t.
“Good workout?” Imoen asked as the elf approached and rested on the pillar next to her. The divine magic had left the blonde and she was back to normal, if a little sweaty and out of breath.
“So-so, really,” Aerie yawned.
“Looks like you missed one, though,” one of the Orcs just regained consciousness and seeing the two women decided, most unwisely, to take it upon himself to finish the job he’d been hired for. He raised his axe and charged, shouting and snarling, at Imoen first since she was closest. “You wanted a word with me?” The redhead asked. She then flicked her finger. The Orc went flying upwards and backwards, making a nice new hole in the wall. “Oops… sorry,” the redhead shrugged innocently.
“Did you want a match?” Aerie offered with a friendly smile.
“Er… nah, Aerrers. I mean, you probably used up a lot of your power in the battle so it wouldn’t really be fair of me right now,” besides which, Imoen wasn’t contemplating suicide at all today. “I just… I need to know who I am, I guess.”
“What are you talking about?” The blonde laughed. “You know who you are. You… you’re Imoen.”
“But what does that even mean?” The redhead leant forward, cupping her face in her hands. “I know who the bards say I am. Imoen, Eternal Child, sidekick, sister… so what can I do when I don’t have a sister anym… owww!” Imoen wasn’t hurt by Aerie’s suddenly chop to the top of her head, but it was a bit of a surprise. “What,” she blinked, rubbing under her hair. “What did you do that for?”
“You’re… buffleheaded,” Aerie told her sternly.
“I should never have taught you that word,” the redhead grumbled.
“Look, you’ll always have your sister. But you’ve invested too much of yourself in her, just like I invested too much in my wings. You’ve built your whole life around her and you shouldn’t have, but you’re not useless just because she isn’taround.”
“But I’ve never done anything on my own. I’ve always needed her. I’d still be stuck in Spellhold with no fingernails and painting pictures of hamsters on the walls if she hadn’t come along and rescued me.”
“I remember when I first met you in… in that place. I mean, really met you, when you’d stopped drooling from all the drugs. Your sister was so scared and worried about what had been done to you, but you just smiled and insisted you were fine. I knew you were lying; no one goes into a place like that and comes out fine. But I didn’t think it was ego making you say you were. You just didn’t want your sister to worry, not with everything else going on. You knew she had to focus on getting out, and getting her soul back and not worry about you. At that moment, she needed you to be strong for her, and you were. I… I was right about all that, wasn’t I? I think I’d be pretty upset if the Imoen I thought I knew for the last ten years never really existed. I might have reconsider being your friend.”
“I don’t want that,” Imoen admitted. Aerie was invaluable to her; no one else ever knew what a hard time she’d really had after Spellhold. She guessed she thought she could confide in Aerie because of what the Elf had been through as well, and all the problems she’d been having. Of all people, she felt Aerie would understand and be trusted not to make light of anyone’s trauma and try to turn it into a joke. “So, suppose this liar did exist…. Well, that’s it, isn’t it? I’m a liar.”
“And a cheat,” Aerie nodded. “And a rapscallion, scoundrel… bit of a brat…”
“You don’t have to be so quick to agree with me, you know. Y’know, I could make a long list of your flaws as well… once I’ve had time to think about it.”
“Well, at least then you were lying for the right reasons. Because you were more worried about the rest of us than yourself. Because despite your very long list of flaws, that’s always been who you are. I looked up to you because of that.”
“So, deep down, I’m a really nice person,” Imoen shrugged her shoulders, “I can’t argue with that. Doesn’t explain why my sister kicked me out, or what I should do now that she has.”
“You know the thing about you I’ve always found the most irritating?”
“Erm… do I get a go at you afterwards?”
“If you like.”
“Okay then; shoot.”
“I’ve always tried my best at everything I do,” Aerie sighed, “even though I know there will always be others who are stronger and faster and more powerful than me. It exhausts me, sometimes, trying to keep up with all of you. But I’ve always tried my best and got there, eventually. But you… you almost never have to try at all. Everything I can do, you can do easily. And better. If you only tried once in a while, I think you could do almost anything you wanted.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s it. I think your sister kicked you out because she wants you to realise that you don’t always need her,” Aerie finished, and then waited expectantly for Imoen to riposte like they’d arranged.
“You know what,” the redhead sighed, “you… get enough complete crap from people. Although I think you sell yourself a little short. I couldn’t the whole running up the giant’s arm and knock his teeth out with holy might thing that you did.”
“You’d just have to find a God who will accept you,” the Elf shrugged. “Bound to be a few out there; there’s a God for almost everything, and everyone. There’s even a god of sewers, now. And a God of cupcakes.”
“Still think you’re selling yourself short. I mean, you’re smart, Aerie. I can just remember lots of stuff, but you… you can look at something which is completely new and immediately begin to understand how it’s connected, how it fits with all the stuff you already know,” Imoen smiled encouragingly, “but yeah, enough about you; we were talking about me. And I still don’t know, Aerie; what should I do?”
“There must be something you’ve always wanted to do?”
“Yeah, but where will I find a dozen flying reindeers and a sleigh?”
“Something sensible.”
“Well,” Imoen thought. “There is… there is one thing…”
“What?” Aerie asked, her eyes sparking through curiosity.
Imoen flushed. “It… i-it’s still kind of silly, really…” she could see though, that was only making Aerie even more curious.
“Let me decide if I think it’s silly.”
“Well, see… I’m an orphan. Kind of. But I was lucky because Winthrop and Gorion rescued me and I got to grow up in a good place, with good learning. But there are lots of other kids like me who aren’t so lucky. I mean, good kids, inside, but they’re forced to fight and scrape to survive.”
“So… what do you want to do about it?”
“I was thinking, with all the money I’ve saved up now, I could maybe get a place and take some of them in and… and teach them stuff. Not just how to pick pockets or place buckets on top of doors, although having fun will be part of it, but other useful stuff as well. Reading, maths, magic. Mostly though, I can teach them how to use their powers for good.”
“And bake cookies?”
“If I can find a supplier for that ingredient that makes people’s tongues blue, then yeah. Anyway, what do you think?”
“Well, I… I’m surprised, but, I think it’s actually a really good idea.”
Imoen narrowed her eyes at the Elf. “Why is that surprising?”
“Um… no… no reason, really,” Aerie flashed her eyes innocently.
“So, you’ll help?”
“If you want me too,” the blonde’s blue eyes blinked in even more surprise, “I don’t really see what use I’d be, though.”
“You mean, aside from being one of the best spellslingers in the world, and all that other stuff I already said? Some of these kids will have lost a lot. You’ve a lost a lot. You can relate. Of course, you don’t have to be there all the time; you can still go gallivanting off to explore ruins, fight dragons, rescue knights, if that’s what you want to,” Imoen grinned. “Just… be nice to have a home to go back to afterwards, hm?”
“I suppose,” Aerie smiled back, and then she thought. “I… I know Nalia is always very busy these days, but she’d probably help you find a place. I think it’s the kind of thing she would approve of.”
“Great. I guess tomorrow we’ll be off to see Nals,” Imoen leant back, stretching herself as her face beamed. Aerie was right; she didn’t need her sister for everything. If she put her mind to it, she had all the knowledge and the contacts she needed to actually make this work. She could do good, and give herself and a whole load of others a purpose again. “Thanks Aerrers. You’ve helped me get a new leash on things,” she said, producing a small paper bag from her belt. “Want a cookie?”
“Okay… thank you,” the Elf said. The snack was almost at her lips, when Aerie remembered what Imoen had said about her ingredients. She withdrew her hand, staring suspiciously at the cookie. She sniffed. Yup; blue dye. “There’s going to be a lot more of this, isn’t there?” She sighed.
Imoen winked. “Oh, yeah.”
Edited by Coutelier, 22 July 2011 - 10:18 PM.
