With this, you are as far along as I.
The structure is again a little confusing, part 5 actually occurs in the middle of the part 6 timeline.
*******************
Tithana stood still and drove the tip of her staff into the dust, once, twice, three times, four times. She hit harder and harder until she could hear the dull thudding.
She crossed her arms and drove her fingernails into her skin, just short of drawing blood. Her face was set as she stood, shivering with the effort of trying to be still. Her fingernails began to compulsively scratch at her arms.
She forced calm on herself and closed her eyes. Opening them, she grunted in exasperation, and threw her staff as far as she was capable, and walked at a measured pace to go and pick it up.
"Damn him, damn his order, damn his good works," she began to repeat softly to herself.
The palms of her hands bore faint scars of her captivity in Irenicus's cages. Thin lines of red, they were more an etched reminder, an abstract of blood rather than anything that had actually bled. She supposed she knew enough of Irenicus's purpose from the dreams to know what he thought when he put them there, or perhaps what he wanted her to think.
Absentmindedly, she continued scratching her arms.
She supposed she knew enough of blood to be capable of forming her own opinion of it and the use of shedding it. Contrary to the opinion of certain young acolytes, who apparently saw nothing as good unless it directly served the interests of the Order of the Radiant Heart. Contrary to the opinions of... others... who saw... power...
Her breath condensed in the night air of Waukeen's Promenade. One of the caged cats was curled up awkwardly in the middle of its cage, having no dark corner in which to retreat. Another relentlessly paced the three or four steps that constituted its world.
The night air chilled Tithana's arms. Dropping her staff, she pulled her hair out of its plait and sprinted the length of the Promenade, and back. When she returned, she rubbed at her arms with her knuckles until they were warm.
She walked over to the rubble in the corner of the Promenade and climbed.
...
Imoen's hands shook as they moved through the rapid motions of releasing the magic missiles. She was looking down at her own hands, Tithana saw, as if she were learning, as if it were the night by the campfire when she and Dynaheir carefully stitched together her first spell book.
Imoen completed the motion, and lifted her eyes to watch the missiles strike Irenicus. She did not look happy, she looked desperate, and angry, and, to Tithana, far more alive than she had been since their capture. She cried out with manic satisfaction when the last missile struck home.
Irenicus was laughing too, smiling at her with contempt. Not with the contempt of an adult towards a petulant child, nor with the detachment of the experimenter, but with hunger. Hunger and the knowledge of victory.
He tapped his long fingers together absently, as his gaze withdrew in thought. Up sprang protections Tithana was unfamiliar with. Imoen screamed in anger and prepared a second spell.
Tithana stepped forward cautiously, trying to determine the nature of these magical protections. She could almost see how it might be possible to...
Irenicus completely ignored Imoen's second attack, and turned his head to look at Tithana. He had a smile for her too, but no longer was it purely the smile of the hunter. Still there was hunger in his gaze, but also understanding. He glanced at her, and then at his spell protections. He knew what she was doing, and she sensed his approval.
Tithana recoiled from the expression in his eyes, and turned away. Sick with horror, she realised that while she had been coolly investigating Irenicus's spells, two wizards had appeared, armed with similar protections, very serious faces and words.
After momentary relief Tithana felt like crying. Despite their arrogance, their power was nothing like Irenicus's. She felt herself freeze in shock as Irenicus, calm and smiling, agreed to go, as long as they took the girl.
Imoen's lips were open, and her face was white. She was shaking badly as she protested her innocence. Jaheira's and Minsc's faces were hard as they reached for their weapons, but Tithana, like Imoen, sensed Irenicus's fait accompli. She met Imoen's eyes and they stared at each other, and then Imoen was gone.
...
Tithana perched on the rubble, and began to crawl over it, feeling it with her hands. It was glassy to the touch, as if it had melted and reformed.
Tithana found a relatively flat portion and sat for some time, her legs crossed and her staff balanced on her knees, staring blankly at a spot in front of her.
As the moon rose over the wall of the Promenade, she stood and picked her way down the rubble, and retreated to the Inn, looking at her feet as she walked, hiding her tears from people who weren't there anyway. As she reached the door of the inn, she paused and turned towards the rubble again.
"Damn him, damn his order, damn his good works," she reminded herself firmly and went inside.
***************
Tithana was reaching to unplait her hair when Anomen knocked at her door. The priest ducked his head to enter the room. Tithana greeted him with half a smile and perched on the tabletop.
Anomen was dressed more formally than was their party's habit at night, Tithana observed semi-consciously. She wondered if he intended on dropping into the Mithrest Inn as he had the last time they were in the Promenade.
She felt disappointed. "Are you not going to learn this game of Yoshi's?" she asked him. In truth, she had rather looked forward the opportunity to show her skill at such games. One quick lesson before making camp, and hours of running over the game in her head as they marched had led to her defeating Yoshi in her very first game.
The game was like to games that had been played at Candlekeep. Tithana had had little to do with many of the residents, fuelled by her disdain for their careful cautious approach to life, and their disdain for her temper, and knowledge of her blood. However, Gorion's attempts to teach her magic had involved tuition by Tethoril, who had taught her a similar game as part of her training in logic. He had often let her win a game or two in order to break a dark spell of frustration. Tithana still remembered the day that Tethoril had found out that there was no need to let her win anymore.
Anomen was standing before her seriously, waiting for her attention. She frowned.
Anomen coughed. "My lady, I am concerned about our direction as a party," he said stiffly. "I am beginning to feel that my joining you was a mistake. I sought companions in the service of right..."
...
Yoshimo and Jaheira were sitting at the table nearest to the fire, as Tithana ran down the stairs. Seeing her stride across the room with her staff in a battle position, they lent over the table in an effort to be inconspicuous. Viconia, sitting with her back to the fire, with her mace across her knees, only moved enough to watch her leave.
As Tithana left the inn, Yoshimo sat up and rested his chin on his hands staring at the board in front of him. He unfurled a fist under Jaheira's nose, revealing a small black stone, and waved it in a circle around the board. He feinted a drop on the side closest to her, snatched it back, and placed it carefully on his side of the board.
Jaheira laughed. "My dear Yoshimo, I was aware prior to that stunning maneuver that your skill in this game still exceeds mine. Such behaviour is unfitting in one who would be a teacher."
Yoshimo smiled, and waved a hand to invite Jaheira's move. Her fate was quickly sealed. Jaheira paid little attention to Yoshimo's post-mortem, instead, frowning towards the inn door.
Yoshimo noticed her inattention and glanced over his shoulder. "Ah, young love," he shrugged.
Jaheira closed her eyes and tapped her fingers on the table.
"You are worried?" Yoshimo raised his eyebrows.
"I am worried," Jaheira replied. "I do not understand what is going on. I had thought that Anomen was relatively serious in his attentions towards Tithana. Yet he appears to be unable to connect with her."
"Perhaps it is time that she connected with him," Yoshimo replied. His face grew serious and he held Jaheira's gaze for a moment.
"I do not know that she wants to," replied Jaheira. "I doubt she knows either, and certainly she has left Anomen in the dark."
"She bears his attentions with considerable patience," Yoshimo replied. "Is that not Tithana's equivalent of throwing herself at his feet? After all, my lady, I would consider such forbearance from you to be akin to a proposal of marriage."
Jaheira jumped slightly. "I remember one who did so," she murmured. Khalid's declaration of love for her had in fact been prefaced by a variation of just such words. Except they were, of course, expressed with more awkward earnestness than Yoshimo had ever summoned, she suspected, in his life.
Yoshi's smile grew more serious as he sensed he'd hit a mark. "Ah he must have been a good man, your Khalid," he said gently. "A good man who loved you and knew you well."
"I do not need you to tell me that," Jaheira snapped. "Do you think I did not know that more than any other? More than anyone will, now! I have no need of post-humus judgements of my husband! My memories, our memories, tell more of Khalid than anything you, who never knew him, could begin to comprehend."
Jaheira glared at Yoshimo.
Her voice attracted stares. Viconia rose languidly to her feet and walked over to their table. She smiled at Jaheira. Her smile contained much bitterness, and no sympathy.
"I can only hope, Jaheira, that you told him this while he lived, although my brief impression suggested otherwise," Viconia said. "There is no point in saying anything now, if you did not."
Viconia looked hard at the druid, and her face softened. "You have not yet had your revenge," she recalled. "You are fortunate the Darkstar has her own reasons to seek Irenicus. Have your revenge, and then you can seek forgetfulness, and an ending." She waved a hand in emphasis.
"I do not seek forgetfulness, Viconia." There were tears in Jaheira's eyes. "In fact, I ask nothing more of this life than to remember... to remember... Khalid."
Jaheira sobbed. Yoshimo stepped in front of Viconia and helped Jaheira up from her chair toward the stairs.
Viconia waited by their table for a moment, and silently followed.
...
Viconia was completing her prayers as Tithana entered. Viconia ended her ritual with the customary gesture of submission and belief. She completed it with her usual sincerity - Viconia never wished to be without power again. Jaheira lay on the bed in a charmed sleep, wrought as only a mistress of darkness could.
Tithana was watching her blankly. Viconia was sometimes unable to meet her stare, when the girl looked at her like that. As a priestess of the night, she saw darkness better than others, and Tithana's anger was so dark as to be...
'Unsettling,' she supposed was the word, although some part of her insisted on saying 'frightening'.
A priestess of the night shouldn't be afraid of the dark, her power reminded her. Viconia laughed. "Spurned by your lover again, child?" she taunted. "One would think, given a choice between being your lover, and a knight of the Order, Acolyte Anomen would choose the Order."
Viconia smiled as she hit the mark, but Tithana's discomfort was passing.
Tithana waved a hand at Viconia's holy symbol and asked "What is good?"
Viconia's face was as serious as her own now. "I," she said with emphasis, "do not serve good."
"In what way, Viconia, do you not serve good?" Tithana snapped. "They say that I serve good, and you stood by me as we killed those slavers. Jaheira says that she serves the balance, and you have healed her as she dealt the death blow to evil."
"I do all these things in the name of Shar," Viconia replied. She held her symbol in front of her. "And as you see, I serve Shar. It is with her power that I act." She reached up to a small cut on Tithana's cheek and cast an overly powerful healing spell. "In the name of Shar, and what Shar stands for. Otherwise I would not have the power."
"Ah," replied Tithana. "You serve that which gives you power. As do Anomen and Jaheira. As did Aerie." She paused for a second. "Or perhaps they serve their god for other reasons. In any case, the power is given in exchange for service."
"A gift of power is no trivial thing, child," smiled Viconia.
"I know that." Tithana raised her arms and drew power. Viconia blinked, recognising a spell very like the one she and Anomen used to draw upon the strength of their god.
"If power is given in exchange for service, I suppose one could say that I serve death," Tithana said.
Viconia found that she was unable to meet the Darkstar's eyes.
Darkstar
