No replies to this topic

[Weyoun]

 
A'mael Mellonamin part 8 : No turning back

"I've said it before and I'll say it again..." Daelan Red-Tiger sighed as he stood over the corpes of several imps. "Luskan is a rotten town..."

"Imagine that," Sharwyn muttered. "Calling up some Baatezu and some Tanar'ri to watch them duke it out on the side."

"Ha, you think Luskan is rotten?" Tomi grinned. "In Calimport, I've known wizards to call succubi just to clean the house..."

"So, Alris?" Linu asked. "Alris should we be going, dear?"

"Forget it, Linu," Sharwyn said. "He's too beat up... We'll have to go up this tower."

True enough, Alris had not been much of a leader the past hour, and he mostly just trailed along with the party. Ever since...

'I have met the elven woman once, myself. She is a fallen paladin... dark and terrible. She will be the wind that blows our blaze across the north!' the barbarian woman had told them... Alris didn't want to believe it, and had tried to convince himself that she was merely... posing as the enemy's leader, to bring them down from the inside.

But all hope of that was shot to the Abyss when... he found Aribeth's journal. Almost hidden, it was tucked away on the upper shelf of what had been her room at the bottom of the Luskan tower.

Unwilling to read her private thoughts, it had taken him some mental anguish to open the journal, but still, he only looked at the last entry.

Maugrim has assigned me quarters with the other ambassadors, though I don't know for how long. He tells me that he serves a greater power, and hints that I will come to revere this being far more than I ever did Tyr. He is a fool... a fanatic and blinded fool. I would kill him where he stood, if not for... I'm not sure what...

I am not sure of anything anymore except that I have Fallen. Fallen out of love with my lord, my people and my God. And strangely enough I do not care. I don't give a wit about Neverwinter, Tyr and especially not about Nasher! I am alone in a world where there is no justice and no hope and I cannot... I cannot get these thoughts out of my mind.

They burn my every waking moment and whisper to me in my dreams. I shall go mad, I think, if I am not mad already. To do the wrong thing seems far better, however, than to do nothing at all. I am on this path now, and it goes only forward... perhaps at its end I shall find my own justice and the dreams will stop.

I can only hope that they will one day stop... The very image of my family burning scars my mind. My dreams... will not leave me. Perhaps they only will with my death...

Alris' keen senses did notice the few salty stains on the paper... stains of tears as the woman he loved wrote this passage. The writing revealed the thoughts of an elf slowly being driven to madness by her rage. Elven rage, Alris knew, was a dangerous thing.

And to make matters worse, Alris knew from her words that these dreams were being induced, and this knowledge alone made the rage boil into Alris' being as well.

His thoughts were not of Neverwinter, nor of anything else but Aribeth. She needed help... help to deal with her intense and maddening rage before it destroyed her spirit... Help to save her from herself.

"Yo, fearless leader!" the voice of Tomi moved him out of his reveree.

"Alris," Boddyknock offered. "It is time to set your emotions aside for a moment, at least until this party is out of danger."

"No," Linu smiled. "Leave him be for a while. We'll manage..."

'Set my emotions aside?' Alris thought as he trailed after the party. He knew he couldn't... Not when all he could think about was Aribeth.

---

Rain poured down from the darkened sky, sometimes lit up by flashes of bright lightening. Cold wind blasted through her red long hair as Aribeth stood at the top of the Tower of the Arcane.

'Appropriate setting,' Aribeth thought with wry humor as she regarded the ones she shared the platform with. Lizards... disgusting lizard-men. Oh, how she loathed these creatures... but the most of her loathing was reserved for Maugrim and Morag.

Maugrim, the evil hellspawn which commanded the cult of the Old Ones... the one who had released the Wailing Death onto Neverwinter... the one who had tried to have Alris killed. Oh, how she wished to draw her sword and exact bloody vengeance on him. To take her sword and slice him into ribbons for all his evil deeds!

A sharp gaze from Morag, the stately dreadqueen, quenched her lust for vengeance... and redirected it.

Yes, Aribeth thought as the images were fed to her mind. Nasher is to blame... Neverwinter shall burn...

She could resist. She knew she could resist them if she wanted to. But what would be the point? It was too late to turn back. There was nothing for her now. Neverwinter had meant everything to her, but the city's betrayal in the end was simply too much to bare. Her hatred burned... more than the people of Neverwinter, it focused on Nasher. Her hatred burned brightly, just as it had burned for the orcs that had destroyed her family... her family...

The mental image of her family burning turned her towards Morag... Oh, how she hated Morag for sending her those dreams. Oh, how she wanted to kill both Morag and Maugrim...

She could never do so... Morag had her under control. Well, then she had to focus on the next best thing : Wiping Neverwinter off the face of Toril... Leading an army of deathbringers to do the devastation and destruction she had fought against only a few months ago. But what did it all matter? All hope was lost... all justice gone. What did it all matter?

One dire regret did cross her mind, however. 'Alris... I would have wanted so much to travel and see the world with you... We could have had a wonderful life together.'

"He will no longer keep me out of your mind, elfling," Morag told her in that raspy voice of hers, her muzzle forming a malicious grin. "You are lost, Aribeth de Tylmarande... You were lost from the start... Now, do you willingly defy against your liege-lord? Do you willingly renounce your god and the ideals he stands for?"

What does it matter?

"I... do," Aribeth said, feeling as empty as she might have looked. A red light descended on her. When it dissapated, she noticed her armor had turned into the color of the darkest night. She had finally become what she had feared she would become... Rage : The personification of elven vengeance, like she had been so many years ago, after orcs had killed her family.

I am lost...

"ARIBETH!" A familiar voice sounded.

"No," Aribeth whispered. "It can't be..."

"It is the demon that has plagued us!" Maugrim snarled.

"Alris..." Aribeth said. I... I don't want him to see me like this...

"He shall not save you now!" Morag snarled, and barked out some orders. That last thing Aribeth saw before she was whisked away by Morag's magic, was Alris frantically trying to reach her and slicing a lizardman to ribbons.

Destroy them, Alris... Destroy them all...

---

"What is the situation on your end, Aarin?" Lord Nasher asked as he and his spymaster talked through a magical link in their crystal balls. Currently, Aarin Gend had led the party through the Spine of the World, and were taking refuse in a cave.

"We managed to sneak away in the confusion and managed to evade the mounting armies by fleeing into the Crags," Aarin said. "I do not think we are being chased, but we should keep moving... What about you, Lord Nasher?"

The old adventurer sighed. "A massive army is gathering, led by Aribeth. She's... scoring victory after victory. It is said that she leads her troops at the front-lines herself, like a demon in battle. She has already taken Port Llast with minimal resistance... We are short of soldiers, short of supplies, short of... everything."

"At least Aribeth is enforcing a zero-tolerance position towards Luskan warcrimes," Aarin said. "I've heard she's adamant about leaving the civilians out of harm's way."

"Yes," Nasher sighed. "We have to be grateful for small mercies... How do our heroes fare?"

"They are taking Aribeth's betrayal very hard," Aarin sighed. "And Alris the most of all..."

"He is still in love with her?" Nasher asked.

"Very much so," Aarin replied with certainty. "Alris is only focused on Aribeth. He's told me that the rage in her heart is driving her mad. That is 'is an elven thing that humans can never understand'. The cleric Linu has only backed him up..."

Lord Nasher fell silent for a moment, as if he was deep in thought. "One foolish mistake..." he finally said. "One damn foolish mistake and it has doomed my city. I... I've driven Aribeth right into their hands. She was... our city's strongest, most charismatic leader, a paladin with no equal... And now she fights for the enemy."

"And to make matters worse, Alris is no longer interested in saving Neverwinter," Aarin said. "He's completely focused on Aribeth."

"Damn," Nasher sighed. "We... can't have that now. If the heroes of Neverwinter switch sides... or fall, it would completely cripple our morale. Or worse, if Alris gets killed trying to reach Aribeth at the front-lines..."

"As a tactic, I do not think we can break up Alris' party," Aarin said sincerely. "They are loyal to each other, not the city. The only person in the party originally from Neverwinter is the bard Sharwyn, but I am certain not even she would break away from the party."

"Loyalty..." Nasher sighed and a brief pang of pain crossed his features. "Loyalty to one's friends. I had forgotten that, Aarin. Fenthick was my friend... yet I chose to hang him to appease the mob. Aribeth was my friend... and I unwittingly betrayed her at every turn." He sighed briefly. "I hated people like me when I was still an adventurer!" he turned angry, more at himself than with anything else. "I've grown foolish, lazy and lax!"

"Lord Nasher," Aarin said. "What's done is sadly done," he offered.

"Yes, yes, of course," Nasher sighed. "But we must keep the heroes of Neverwinter away from the front-lines. If they are lost... I fear the city will be lost. These 'Words of Power' you mentioned must be found before the cult enforcers do."

"Aye," Aarin said. "And we are closest to their supposed location. But convincing Alris will be difficult."

---

"NO!" Alris shouted in Aarin's face. "We can't just leave Aribeth in the lurch like that!"

"Alris," Aarin tried as he paced through the cave. Outside, the snow was falling, but the cold was kept at bay by the warm fire burning, currently put to work to fry a rabbit, "we must stop the cult from gaining these Word of Power, whatever they are. If Neverwinter falls..."

"Aribeth is..."

"Errr, Alris, mate?" Tomi half-grinned. "Giant lizards are planning to take over the world, remember?"

"Alris, dear," Linu smiled encouragingly. "We cannot save Aribeth if the cult wins. I think it's wise to nip the cult's power in the bud while we still can. Saving Aribeth won't do her any good if the cult will destroy the world anyway."

"Aribeth," Alris said, finally releasing long overdue tears. "I love her... I HAVE to do something."

"Don't worry, matey!" Tomi offered a warm smile. "I promise you, we'll get your girlie back!"

"On my honor," Daelan Red Tiger promised, "I pledge that I shall do my utmost to aid you in the rescue of Aribeth."

"And that's a promise!" Sharwyn added.

"Count on me, dear!" Linu smiled, almost setting herself on fire by leaning her leg into the firepit.

"Far be it from me to fall into emotional reasoning," Boddyknock said. "But you can count on my support, my friend."

"Thank you," Alris said sincerely.

"Besides," Tomi grinned, "you still didn't get a shag of her, did you? It would be a shame if that never happened, now would it?"

"Tomi!" Sharwyn corrected as Alris grew bright red.

Aarin Gend looked on, being inspired by the loyalty this close group of friends showed to each other, and their friend Aribeth. Such loyalty was, after all, sadly rare.