All That Glitters...10

Chapter Ten

Kal's left hand slammed the Harper assassin against the wall in the Docks as his right drew Cel explosively out of her scabbard. Behind him, Xzar lay dead in a pile of bloody red-and-gold robes.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kal snarled, Celestis burning at the assassin's throat.

"He was a spy!" she snapped back, though warily eyeing the cold flame of the blade. "He was spying on the Harpers, an act that should make you question his alliances. You may not have known what he was, but we did. He was an agent of the Black Network, creating horrid abominations for sale to the highest bidder."

"A spy? Xzar stood in direct view of your headquarters in the most flamboyant set of mage robes I have ever seen on Toril! Where is your evidence?" Kal demanded.

"That we knew was evidence enough! Now begone! Hopefully your next dealings with the Harpers will be more pleasant."

"It is not evidence enough for me! You committed murder, Harper, and do not forget it! And do not presume to tell me to begone!" There was a sudden, strange echo Kal heard as he said those words. The dark red presence within him stirred, and roared in a voice only Kal could hear, in a voice Kal knew undeniably to be Bhaal's. An image came unbidden to his mind, and the streets of Athkatla dissolved away.

In his mind, he saw a man, dressed in red and black, approaching an open gate guarded by two soldiers. He somehow recognized the terrain, even though he had never been there before. Cormyr, during the Time of Troubles. At the same time as he was watching from far away, he also somehow felt with the senses of the man walking along the road.

"Halt, traveler!" one of the guards told the man. "By order of the King, this pass is sealed to anyone but the Royal Army! Turn back!"

The man, paying no heed, kept walking up to the gate.

"Did you not hear me, traveler?" the guard said. "You are not to pass!"

The man continued to ignore them, still heading for the open gate.

At that point, both guards stepped in front of him, lowering spears. "Traveler, this is your last warning," the same guard said. "You are not to pass. Begone!"

The man smiled, a frighteningly cold grin. "I am the Lord of Murder, mortal," he said in a voice both quiet and yet eerily powerful. "I am the Lord of Murder," he repeated, "And do not presume to tell me to begone!"

With those words the man's hands shot forward, grasping the spears just below their points. He pulled with sudden force, and the two guards stumbled forward. As they stumbled, Bhaal's avatar released the spears and stepped forward, spinning a half-circle as he did so. Two daggers slid neatly out of his sleeves as he spun, and as he finished the spin he grasped them both and plunged them into the necks of the guards. Both guards choked and spat blood as the tips of daggers emerged from the front of their throats. As they coughed their lifeblood out upon the ground, writhing in agony, with only seconds left to live, Bhaal's avatar calmly walked through the gate.

"Kal? KAL!"

Kalvorin shook himself back to reality at the sound of Jaheira's voice. He was surprised to see that he had let Cel slip forward during his vision and she had drawn the tiniest drop of blood from the Harper's neck. The inner darkness shrieked at Kal to finish the job, just a push, and slit the woman's throat. Kal fought it down and pulled the sword back, but only slightly. "Remember this, Harper," he said, with some of the inner fury leaking into his words, "I am not your assassin, nor anyone's, and I will not be used as such! Go back to your masters. Let them know that I am no one's tool!" With that, he released her. She stumbled slightly, hand rubbing at her throat, and walked quickly to the door of the Harper building.

Kal turned to face his comrades. Minsc did not seem disturbed at all, and was petting Boo. Yoshimo looked as if he had been holding his breath, and Viconia had a rare look of respect in her eyes. Aerie's eyes were wider than usual, and Jaheira was frozen with one hand forward as if to grab his shoulder and stop him. Her shoulders then relaxed, and her hand dropped.

"It...it looked as if you were about to kill her," Jaheira said.

"Nonsense," Kal scoffed, but it sounded weak even to himself. "I would never have done such a thing. I just thought she needed a more vivid message to take back to the Harper leaders."

Jaheira nodded, but she did not seem convinced. "Very well, then."

"I meant what I said, though. I do not like being an accomplice to murder."

"If he was doing what she said, though, he - he certainly deserved his fate," Jaheira said.

"That's if Xzar was actually doing anything wrong at all! She had no evidence to show, nothing but sheer arrogance to prove her ‘point'!"

"But...Kal! You know Xzar was...was evil, that he was insane! You remember...don't you? I am sure that...that there is excellent reason behind this. You must know that this is not altogether so very different from how he was before. And...don't paladins seek out and destroy evil? Does the means or reason really matter, if the result is good?" Jaheira asked.

"You know better than to lump me in with those moronic fanatics, Jaheira! Being a paladin isn't about single-mindedly answering murder with murder! Yes, Xzar was evil and yes, Xzar was insane, but Xzar was also a person and everyone has a right to justice - Xzar, Montaron, everyone! Where is the justice in this?"

"I am...I am sure the Harpers have a good reason for their actions. I...we will see. There must be a proper explanation for this."

"There had better be," Kal said. "I always thought of the Harpers as a good organization. Don't make me doubt it now."

A long silence followed. No one was quite sure what to say. Yoshimo eventually stepped forward. "Ahhh... perhaps this is a good time to tell you of something, Kal, seeing as we are in the Docks. This is Shadow Thief territory... and I have had a couple of run-ins with the Thieves over the past few months." He shuffled his feet a bit nervously. "I am not a Shadow Thief, nor have I any desire to be one. However, the Thieves look rather unkindly upon...independents, such as myself. And while I am skilled in avoidance, one cannot evade them forever. I have been caught more times than I would care to relate. The previous time, I was told either to report to the head of the guild in the Docks, Renal Bloodscalp, or suffer the consequences."

"Consequences?" Kal sighed. "Why do I get the feeling they won't be very nice things?"

"Shadow Thief consequences do tend to involve, uh, large numbers of assassins. As you can imagine, failure to report in...might be a bit messy. But from what I can tell, Renal needs an outsider to deal with a problem, and was willing to trade my punishment by the guild for a service. Now, I'm pretty safe with you, I'd think, but it's really your choice. We might even be able to talk Renal into a substantial reward, to pay off Bayle's price. And it would stave off...complications later on down the road."

"Complications?" Kal asked.

"Well...Shadow Thief complications also tend to involve large numbers of assassins. They aren't the most creative, perhaps, but effectiveness does not necessarily rely on creativity."

"Perhaps we should go talk to this Renal, then," Kal said. "If the reward is worth it, we should at least consider the job. And large numbers of assassins don't sound too tempting to me."

"Sh-shadow th-thieves?" Aerie asked. "No! D-don't, Kal! Th-thieves and m-murderers and assassins...you shouldn't help them!"

Kal saw Viconia and Jaheira both turning toward Aerie with identical expressions of disgust on their faces and stepped in quickly to prevent anything serious from happening. "Aerie, I owe it to Imoen to try everything to get her back...no matter who I deal with. If the job involves murder of innocents or some similarly vile act, I won't do it, but I have to consider it. I can't just throw away opportunities because of something that may or may not be right or wrong - I would never live with myself if that made it impossible for me to get her back. I would do the same for any of you."

"B-but...," Aerie began. "Th-there must be another way...can't we j-just stay away from the thieves?"

"Worry not, little one," Yoshimo said, "Most of them are no more frightening or vicious than I." He smiled one of his cheerful smiles again, but it did not have quite the comforting effect that he had probably been looking for.

"The opportunity may pass if we wait - and I would rather talk to them than have them chasing after us trying to kill Yoshimo," Kal told her.

"If any bad thieves try to hurt little Aerie, Minsc will chop them into little, little thief-bits!" Minsc said, in as comforting a manner as Minsc possibly could.

"I...I guess that's all right, then...." Aerie said in an uncertain tone.

"Tomorrow, though. I'm in no mood to talk with them right now. Let's go back to the Den." Kal turned quickly and set off.

"He's...he's really upset about that Harper thing, isn't he?" Aerie asked timidly.

"As he should be, wingless one," Viconia said. "He was being used. He made it clear he did not like it in the strongest way possible. This one has shed some of his weakness since the last time we met...." Viconia's voice trailed off as she eyed Kal's departing form with a long, speculative gaze. Then she began walking quickly to catch up.

The other party members were finding they had to run a little to catch up, and assumed that Kal was moving quickly because he was angry. He knew better. He had felt every sensation of his vision, felt how Bhaal's avatar had moved, felt the experience of killing two men as easily as kicking two pebbles along the street. He had felt memories - countless memories about killings just like it, killings he knew he had never done - but Bhaal had. The memories had given him another gift - or another curse - and he knew, just like with Sarevok's sword, that if he only picked up a dagger he would be able to kill with it like no master of the dagger ever had before. He needed to rest - get away from the urges to kill.

---

Aerie hurried through the streets of Athkatla with a slight frown on her face. Kal wasn't supposed to have actually cut the Harper, and it worried her - but only a little.

She shook it off. I just don't understand yet, she decided. After all, Kal was a paladin, a hero, a perfect hero. He couldn't be - he was not - any less than the kind of person she thought he was. A few doubts flitted about in her mind, but her thoughts shied away like a hand touching a red-hot iron. With a firm mental strength that would have surprised even those who knew her best, she suppressed her doubts ruthlessly, erasing them from her thoughts completely. Her mind snapped closed with an almost visible motion.

A placid look crossed her face as her steely conviction that things are going just as they should reasserted its dominance. She determined - not quite "decided" - that she would prove it later on.

On the opposite side of the group, Viconia was also experiencing mixed feelings. While she had made sure to outwardly express delight at Kal's expression of strength, she herself was not so sure. For all of Viconia's instincts and upbringing, Kal's words of the night before had made quite an impression, and had driven her, almost unwillingly, into thinking about behavior that had long since become virtually automatic. She did not like the idea that she might not be properly devoted to the ideals of strength making right, but the same differences that had led her to flee the Underdark now led her to think about it, despite what she liked. It was a show of force that she should be pleased with, according to the way she had been raised. But now that she had seen it, she was...disappointed? A slight frown creased her face as her thoughts led her to territory with which she was distinctly uncomfortable.

Trailing the group at a small distance, Jaheira was hardly in a position to notice, having been the most affected by Kal's little display. She had been too eager to defend the Harpers, she thought, and realized why a second later. I'm not particularly happy with Xzar's assassination either, she admitted to herself. She simply hadn't had a better excuse ready. Never being the best at hiding her thoughts, Jaheira also frowned as she wondered why she had to make excuses for the Harpers. When this is all over, I will find out what is going on. That, however, was less of a priority at the moment. Her stupid comment would likely not do wonders for her relationship with Kal, and that was what she was most worried about. Why that was, however, was something she avoided. We are friends, and should not let something like this divide us, she thought, and concentrated on being satisfied with just that explanation.

---

Kal was sitting alone at a table in the Den taproom, sipping distractedly at a tankard of ale. He was trying to get his mind off the images he'd seen, but failing. The images of the men collapsing on the ground with daggers in their throats played over and over again in his vision.

"Are...are you still angry?" Jaheira interrupted Kal's reverie in an almost soft tone that he'd never heard from Jaheira before.

"Huh? No, I...I wasn't really angry after the assassin left. You were a Harper, and handy. Sorry about that."

"You looked rather pensive. Care to share what you were thinking?"

Kal barked a short, mirthless laugh. "Thinking is hardly the word." Worrying is more like it, he added silently.

Jaheira looked at him suspiciously. "Has this something to do with your bizarre convulsions after touching Sarevok's sword?"

"No, not really. That was something...different."

"What really happened, Kal? I deserve to know, do I not?"

Kal shrugged uneasily and leaned back. "In essence, the explanation I gave Minsc was exactly what happened - a piece of Sarevok, or a piece of Bhaal's essence that was Sarevok's, was still in the sword. It jumped into me as soon as I touched the blade. I reacted badly to its evil, and fought it until I defeated it."

"By Silvanus, Kal! Why didn't you tell us?"

"And what, exactly, do you think you could have done? It's gone now, otherwise I'd still be curled up on that floor. And the sword's safe enough. It's done with. The only thing is that...well, I had a vision while I was battling with the dark essence, and it was disturbing."

"Vision?" Jaheira asked.

"Well...I saw myself in Sarevok's armor, wielding Sarevok's sword. Somehow I think it was trying to tempt me."

"Were...were you?"

Kal snorted in disdain. "Of course not. The very concept appalled me, which may have been a part of what gave me the will to get rid of it. I haven't seen any more visions of me in Sarevok's place since," Kal added, choosing to be evasively truthful. "The piece of Bhaal that I have will stick to curing wounds and healing poison."

"That is good to hear. But if that was not what you were thinking about, what was it that occupied your attention so?"

"Musings on the path we take. I have to fight the desire to simply save all the money and try to save Imoen right away, to say objectively that yes, we are under-equipped and despite the fact that we have to get Immy back, we also have to be properly equipped. It almost feels like betrayal."

"In other words, you think merely on the usual burden of leading."

"I suppose so. You know, in the adventure books, the hero always knows what to do. I guess I figured that becoming a party leader would suddenly fill my head with inspirations and directives on the right course of action. If I knew I had to improvise the whole thing, I wouldn't have wanted it so much. There's so much doubt involved."

"You have done a fine job so far. All of us trust you to do the right thing."

Kal suddenly smiled. "You know, that's the first time you've ever given me a compliment. Thanks, Jaheira. It means a lot."

"It is...no more than you deserve." Jaheira got up. "And if I may excuse myself, it looks like someone wishes to speak with you very much."

Kal was about to ask her what she meant, but she was gone faster than he could speak, and in her place Aerie appeared, almost running.

"K-Kal?" she said, gasping for breath.

"Yes, Aerie? What is it?"

"I...I want your opinion on something. It is about...me. The stumps that were...that were once my wings. Do they...make me truly homely? Am I...am I ugly to you?"

Kal blinked. This of all things was a question he certainly hadn't expected.

"What do you expect him to say?" Viconia's voice teased from the top of the stairs, as she descended. "That he thinks your scars add character? What a pathetic, witless soul you are, girl."

"I...I wasn't talking to you! You...you already told me w-what you think!"

Viconia bored in mercilessly. "Did I...hurt your feelings? Is our crippled little hummingbird now scarred even more by my words?"

"Go...go away, Viconia!" Aerie shrieked at her.

Viconia held up her hands. "I, as any other, have a right to walk anywhere I please, wingless one. I think I will go get a drink." With that, she stepped off the staircase and headed for the bar.

Aerie turned away from Viconia dramatically, ignoring her. "M-maybe it is silly to ask, Kal, but...I value your opinion." She looked up at Kal, the longing for approval shining in her eyes.

"Aerie, I can't even see the scars unless I look for them. Of course they don't make you ugly," Kal said as gently as he could.

Aerie stared at her feet and shuffled them nervously. "It...is good to hear you say that, Kal. I suppose I must seem vain, but...I do miss my wings."

"You would the furthest thing from vain, Aerie. If I lost an arm, I certainly would not be vain to miss it, and it must be the same with you and your wings."

"You are...kind to say that, Kal. Th-thank you...." She then switched to a less important topic, and they talked for a while before Aerie decided to study a few more spells before turning in. Kal watched Aerie as she ascended the stairs and disappeared to the upper floor.

Almost instantly, Viconia appeared at his side. "What do you hope to gain by coddling that pathetically weak little girl? She would not last a day in the Underdark."

"But we're not in the Underdark, are we? There's no need to judge her by that standard."

"Oh, I see now," Viconia hissed. "You merely wish to gain her affections, don't you? I never pictured you as one to go for the clingy, needy type, Kalvorin."

Kal was surprised, having never considered anything of the sort, but still managed to shoot off what he felt was a suitably witty reply. "And so what if I am? Jealous, Viconia?"

He expected her to laugh it off, but instead she seemed to get even more angry, and a slight flush came to her face. "You presume too much!" she spat, then stomped off upstairs.

"Uh, Kal?" Cel said, the first words she had said that night.

"Yes?"

"You are in for a very interesting time, you know that?"

Kal blinked. "Care to explain?"

Cel's pommel ruby flickered. "No. And I wouldn't need to if you started using your eyes and your ears."

"Pardon?" Kal was very confused now.

"I can't believe that I'm the sword, and I'm the one who's seeing this."

"Seeing what?"

"Find out for yourself, Kal. Sooner or later, you will."