Late due to various personal issues. Hope it will be enjoyed all the same. 
Throne of Cards 16 – Dark Paths
They say that cats can go wherever they please, appearing as if by magic in spaces they shouldn’t possibly be able to get into. Of course, if you ask them, a cat will tell you there is no such thing as a place where a cat shouldn’t be.
Excerpt from ‘Ruminations Of A Master Bard’
”Noooooo! Gromnir, NOOOOOOO!” Melissan crumpled to the floor, the pile of dust that had been Gromnir Il-Khan running through her fingers in a steady stream. ”I see that I am too late to stop this wanton bloodshed,” Melissan said, tears trickling down her cheeks. ”Oh Gromnir, woe!”
”Er, sorry?” Zaerini said with an apologetic grin. ”But he did mean to kill us, you know. He wasn’t exactly reasonable about it.”
”Oh, I understand, I quite understand,” Melissan said. She swiftly wiped her tears away with one hand, leaving little smudges of Gromnir on her face and then stood, decisively smoothing her blue dress. ”As tragical as this is, I understand you had no choice. I’m sure the people of Saradush won’t blame you too much as they are all slaughtered without the heroic Gromnir Il-Khan to protect them either.”
”Oh, please,” Viconia scoffed. ”The man was clearly delusional. Even had he cared to protect anything other than his own skin, he was so far gone into la-la land that he’d been a liability rather than an asset on a battlefield.” Viconia’s red eyes narrowed. ”I cannot imagine how you failed to spot that.”
”Well,” Melissan said, smiling a brittle smile which didn’t quite reach her eyes. She adjusted her neat coils of red hair. ”We’d been out of touch.”
”Speaking of that,” Edwin said. ”How exactly is it that you are here? Didn’t you say you needed us to access this place and speak to Gromnir? (If it turns out she could just have waltzed in here all along, I’ll reunite her with her beloved Gromnir by way of hellfire.)”
”Ah, yes,” Melissan said, the smile never leaving her face. ”Gromnir had taken me prisoner. As you say, he’d grown delusional enough to mistrust even me.”
”So…if he took you prisoner, then how come you’re not in a cell somewhere?” Imoen said, scratching her head. ”That’s what’s usually happens when you’re a prisoner. I should know.”
”Oh, I escaped.” Melissan nodded. ”There was this dog in the prison area, with the key to my cell hanging around his neck. I found a bone, a sad and lonely bone, in my cell, and I flicked it over to entice the dog closer. Then, using a cunning mechanism of wires put together from old coathangers, combined with a fishhook, a tailfeather from a talking parrot, and a rubber chicken on a pulley, I picked the lock and made my daring escape!” She paused, observing the adventurers. ”Fine, fine. I told the guard I’d sleep with him and kneed him in the groin when he opened the celldoor. Happy now?”
The first story sounded more plausible, Rini thought. Then again, who knows.
”Hey, none of our business,” She simply said, shrugging. ”But what is our business, is that we still need to leave this place. I know we didn’t manage to draft Gromnir for your army, but we tried our best, and now we really need those shields down so we can get out of here.” And I hope I can manage the teleport trick without messing something up.
Melissan frowned briefly, and for a moment Rini was sure she would refuse. Then the older woman nodded, as if she’d made a difficult decision. ”Very well. There is little reason to keep you confined to the city now. You will be able to be of far more aid to Saradush if allowed to leave.”
”Saradush?” Edwin scoffed. ”This miserable dustbowl, this insignificant fleck of dirt on a best forgotten map? Why should...ow!”
”Right you are!” Rini said, hoping Melissan hadn’t seen her pinch her lover. ”Just let us leave and we’ll get right on to that.”
”Boo approves, helping people is important! Can we charge into battle and lay waste to all the evil giants now?”
”Um, maybe later.”
Melissan cleared her throat. ”I am not blind,” She calmly stated. ”I know that once I have let you go, you may think you have no reason to do as I ask. This is, however, quite wrong. Yaga-Shura intends to slay all Children of Bhaal, leaving himself as the sole surviving heir to Bhaal’s power. I’m sure I needn’t point out to you that if you don’t go after him he will eventually come after you.”
”Hmpf,” Sarevok scoffed. ”No imagination at all. Just throwing himself randomly at a city like that. At least I was subtle with my schemes. Does this Yaga-Shura even bother to hire any assassins, I ask you?”
”Well there was this woman in the woods who tried to kill me,” Rini admitted. ”No idea who she was working for though.”
”Fine, but he still doesn’t have anything as ingenious as my iron-poisoning scheme up his sleeve, does he? Just a huge army of firegiants. Not that I’d have said no to a huge army of firegiants at the time.”
”Let’s say I agree with you,” Rini said, turning to Melissan again. ”How am I supposed to kill Yaga-Shura? He’s a giant in the middle of an army of giants. How am I supposed to get to him?”
Melissan smiled pleasantly. ”I’m afraid getting to him will be the easy part. You see, Yaga-Shura is invulnerable.”
”Oh is that all,” Edwin sneered. ”Any other joyous news? Would you like us to attempt finding dry water perhaps, or bring you the legs of a snake or an honest politician?”
”More importantly,” Viconia commented, ”Does he have any nice treasure?”
”I cannot say how to defeat him,” Melissan solemnly said, clasping her hands in front of her. ”What I do know, however, is that Yaga-Shura wasn’t always invulnerable. He was raised not amongst his own kin, but in the Forest of Mir, not far from here. Something…happened to him, there. Perhaps there, you may find an answer. Will you at least agree to try?”
”I’ve got something else I need to find as well,” Rini said. ”But I also don’t want to get killed, so…”
”Where you choose to go first is your choice,” Melissan said. ”I will ask no more than that you try. Now, I will raise the shield protecting the city in exactly an hour’s time, and for five minutes only. If you intend to leave through magical means that will be the time to do it.” She nodded to them all, her blue eyes cool and calm. ”I will see you again. I pray you succeed and return triumphant.” Then she swept out of the room, head held high.
”Don’t tell me you trust her,” Imoen said, putting her hand on her sister’s arm.
”No,” Rini said with a sigh. ”I don’t. She’s definitely got some sort of agenda of her own. But I don’t think she’s lying about Yaga-Shura, at least. Still, before we go chasing off after the giant, we’ve got other things to do. Right, Eddie?”
Edwin smiled at her.
-*-
One hour later, Zaerini was coming to the conclusion that focusing mysterious inherited divine powers of teleportation would be a whole lot easier if there wasn’t the constant distraction of fireballs crashing down into the street outside the inn. Knowing that her time was limited didn’t exactly help either.
You worry too much, Softpaws told her, her silky head butting against the half-elf’s hand. Rini had closed her eyes in order to help concentrate, and also in order not to have to see the anxious faces of her companions. You know what to do, you’ve done it before. Just pull yourself together, and we will be there.
Oh yes? And since when are cats experts on dimensionjumping?
Pfft. All cats know how to be where they want to be. So do you, Kitten. That other place is as real as this one. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be there rather than here, is there?
Huh. I suppose so…
She could feel shadows, swirling around her, higher and higher, dancing lazily like rising smoke. She pulled them closer, inside, and she could see the place she wanted to be in her mind’s eye now, the darkness of her own pocketplane reaching out to greet her. Then again…the way it’s set up is pretty dull and boring, isn’t it? I’m sure I could do better…
That thought stuck with her even as she felt a peculiar twisting sensation in her stomach, and when she opened her eyes again she saw that she’d been right. It was the pocketplane, she could feel Bhaal’s power surrounding it, enclosing it from all sides. However, it didn’t look the way it had before. Gone were the stone platforms and the echoing emptiness. Instead, she was standing in a glade within a dark forest. There was a campsite here, with covered wagons painted in all the colours of the rainbow, and decorated with grinning faces, winking stars and esoteric runes. The fire in the middle of the glade was warm and inviting, but with an odd purple tinge to it. Faint, tinkling music hung in the air, a melody both mirthful and vaguely sinister, and though the musicians were nowhere to be seen she could also hear the occasional muffled giggle from within the tall trees and glimpse quick flashes of shining eyes.
“Well,” Viconia said, raising an eyebrow. “It is an improvement of sorts, I suppose. Did you remember to stock those wagons with food?”
“No idea,” Rini admitted, still taking everything in with wide eyes. “If I didn’t, I can probably fix that. I think in this place I can pretty much do what I want.”
“Just so, little sister,” Sarevok said with a thin smile. “You have learned much.”
“I hope the beds are good,” Imoen wistfully said. “Dibs on that pink wagon, by the way!”
“The beds can wait,” Edwin insisted. “We have places to go, remember?”
“Of course, Eddie,” Rini said, squeezing his hand. “Just…remember that I’m new to this, ok? I’m really improvising here.”
“I understand,” He admitted. “It is just...who knows how much time we have?”
“Heroic rescues wait for no man,” Minsc agreed. “Our poor lost friend may be suffering horribly in the clutches of the Evil Wizards even now, denied even the comfort of a friendly hamster to soothe his soul in his final hours. We must go at once, is that not so, friend Edwin?”
Edwin nodded faintly, his face a ghastly pale yellow.
“Right,” Rini said, inwardly wondering how to tell Minsc to avoid further attempts at encouragement. “Let’s see what I can do.”
It was easier this time around, she was more in control of the Bhaalpower by now and it all felt more natural. Was it stronger as well? It felt that way. Or is it me? Where will it end, I wonder? But, no, that was a distracting thought. Focus was the key here. Her will guided this tiny world, and she couldn’t afford to let it go astray, or bad things might happen. Vadrak Dekaras, where are you? There was something…a glimmer, a shift within the dark forest, rustling noises crying out to be heard. But she was blocked, there were barriers in her path, icy walls she kept slipping against. Powerful. Very powerful. But there are other ways. If she couldn’t go through the walls, she could find a way around them, surely. I can’t travel directly to him it seems. But a place where we can learn where to go next, yes. There will be a trail, and I will find it.
Just as she thought that, the thorny branches of the bushes parted, creaking as they twisted out of her way. There was a path before her where none had been before, narrow and winding, and the ground was glowing with a faint red light.
“Spooky,” Imoen said. She bent down to poke the ground. “What’s doing it?”
“Me, I think,” Rini said with an apologetic shrug. “It’ll make it easier to find the way. This path should take us closer, at least.”
“And if doesn’t?” Edwin said. He didn’t sound accusing. In a way, that would have been better.
“Then we try again,” She firmly stated. “And again, and again, if we have to, until we get it right.” She smiled at him, trying to make it look as confident as she could. “Race you there?” She didn’t wait for him to answer, but she took his hand again and pulled him along, pausing only to make sure that the others were with her. The branches closed in again behind her. It was pitch black here, only the red glow of the path to be seen, and the whispers and giggles in the forest grew louder.
…astray…?
…no…the path is clear…
…in the darkness, can there be clarity?
…sssh…
…dark ones are…
….and She…
…her? Or the other….
…lies, truth…beware!
…they are waiting.
Just as she thought she wouldn’t be able to stand it any longer, the path widened, and there was light ahead of her. Only faint light, but natural, the pale light of a starry sky and a gibbous moon, and as she took her next step she knew she was no longer within the pocketplane. There was a forest still, and it had a dark and oppressive feel to it, with low branches nearly blotting out the sky, but it was a natural forest all the same. She turned around, doing a quick headcount, and then sighed with relief that all of her friends were present and accounted for. Then she turned again, to get her bearings, and she felt a scream rising in her throat as the darkness rose out of the ground like a pillar of smoke and ashes, only to take on a horribly familiar shape.
