In The Cards

For any person, it is very important to know whom to listen to and take advice from, and whom to ignore. That is especially crucial for the Children of Bhaal. Listen to the wrong voice, and you may end up a ravening lunatic slaughtering everybody around you, something that is not good for relationships.

Excerpt from ‘Ruminations Of A Master Bard’

“Oh look!” Zaerini said, smiling. “There’s that big oak we used to climb when we were little, Immy, do you remember? The one that was the home of our secret club?”

Imoen smiled at the tree and patted its gnarled and mossy trunk tenderly. “Good old Mr Fuzzy…I’ve sort of missed him.”

“Mr Fuzzy?” Edwin said, sounding both incredulous and nauseated.

“That was Immy’s idea,” Rini hastily added. “She nagged me until I agreed.”

The pink-haired thief winked at her best friend. “Nope, you agreed because you knew I was right. He is a big old Fuzzy! Aren’t you, Mr Fuzzy?”

Edwin sighed. “As if the druid wasn’t all the tree-talking person we ever needed. (If she starts spouting nonsense about ‘balance’ I may just open up the trunk of this monster and seal her inside.)” At his words, the tree shuddered threateningly and a shower of acorns painfully struck his head. “All right, all right!” the wizard hastily added. “I realize you have your limits too.”

“Actually,” Jaheira said with a small smirk, “this tree happens to be unusually sentient. Probably the result of some long ago battle between reckless wizards.”

The party had made their way out of the Candlekeep catacombs without much difficulty, the long and boring tunnels getting on their nerves but doing no real harm. Even the basilisks they had encountered in a cave hadn’t proved too troublesome once Edwin sent a cloud of poison gas inside to choke them off and force them into attacking directly rather than from a distance with their lethal gaze.

Then, they had encountered a lost bounty hunter near the exit, still searching for some of his missing comrades and mistaking Rini and her friends for them. How he could do that, given that the half-elf’s description must have been spread to most of Sarevok’s employees, she really didn’t understand. She guessed her brother simply was unlucky when it came to hiring the right sort of people. The bounty hunter’s mistake provided her with some information though. Sarevok was going north again, back to Baldur’s Gate. She would have to go after him of course. She knew that much.

What will I do when I do catch up with him though? She still didn’t have the answer to that question, as much as she had pondered it. And was it a wise move to go directly to Baldur’s Gate? The Flaming Fist would no doubt be looking for her, seeking to arrest her for Reiltar’s murder. These questions and many more kept running through her mind as she walked through the woods where she had played as a child, and the familiar tree had been a very pleasant distraction indeed.

“What was the club named, anyway?” Edwin said, giving the oak a very suspicious look across his shoulder.

Rini felt her cheeks coloring a little. “Ah…that’s not important.”

Go on, kitten, Softpaws said. Tell him. Or do you want me to do it?

All right, all right! I’ll tell him. “It was called…er…’Fiery Females’. See, we had this period when we wanted to pretend we were drow, and we tried to make a tentacle rod to use on Abduh and…” She blushed further at the amused faces meeting her. “Gorion caught us trying to convince Lloth the Spider Queen to turn Abduh into a drider. He forbade us to play stuff like that. So naturally…”

“…you decided to do it out here instead,” Edwin said, his dark eyes sparkling with amusement and affection. “That would seem to be the logical course of action.” He paused. “I actually had a secret club myself. With secret language, and secret handshakes and secret anthem.”

“Oh? What was your secret club called then?”

“The ‘Edwin Odesseiron Society of Admiration, Devotion and Worship of his utter Brilliance and Magnificence’,” Edwin said. “I was Chairman, High Overleader and Supreme Being of it.”

“And did you have many other members?” Yeslick asked.

“No, just me. But that was all right, otherwise I would have had to share the power after all.”

That is so typical Eddie, Zaerini thought, smiling. She felt happier than she had in days. And…it’s absolutely and totally adorable. “Actually,” she said, smiling up at Edwin and patting his cheek, “you may count me in as your second member.”

The way that the wizard blushed as red as his robe was really quite sweet, she thought.

As the adventurers settled down to camp that night Zaerini sat down on the ground, her legs crossed beneath her. It had been a while since she last consulted her cards, and she had the feeling that now was a good time to do so. I must prepare for my brother. In any way that I can.

Her friends watched quietly as she shuffled the deck, their faces worried. Then she focused, concentrating on the cards as she drew them out of the deck. Show me what I need to know, and what is to come. I want to know what will be in my close future, and also what to do about it, if possible.

Then she turned the cards over and watched them closely.

The Ace of Swords came first.

Then there was the Knight of Swords, flanked by the Wizard of Swords and the Queen of Swords.

Then the Knight of Swords again, and the Bard, with Death between them and the Archmage nearby.

The Wizard of Coin, alone.

And then, the final card of the reading. The Void.

Not blinking, the half-elf’s golden eyes stared intently at the cards. Focus. Focus… She could feel them growing inside her mind now, taking on life and form. Then, the forest glade she had been sitting in was gone, and she was somewhere else entirely.

She was once again on a dark and empty plain, the sky an endless black void above her, without the slightest stirring of wind.

The Ace of Swords hung before her, but it was not exactly a sword. It was a dagger, spinning slowly in mid air, light gleaming off its sharp blade, the dark pommel gem pulsating and beating like a diseased heart.

I…I recognize that dagger, Zaerini thought. In fact, it was stuffed inside her pack at this very moment, as it had been since she had found it in Durlag’s Tower, deep in the Death Knight’s lair. Though she hadn’t used it yet, she had hung onto it for some reason, being unwilling to part with it. There was something about the black light of that gem…almost like a living presence. She hadn’t been able to discover any enchantments on the blade, but kept thinking that there was still something to be found, something lurking beneath the surface, and so she didn’t want to give it up.

“My time has come,” spoke a faint, metallic and whispering voice, and somehow the bard knew that it was the blade that had spoken. “I must be brought home. Do it, and you shall be rewarded.”

“Rewarded? How?”

“You will be made to discover what you need to know, something of great importance. I am the key to unlocking that secret. But first, you must bring me home.”

“Hmm,” Rini said, pulling her hand through her flame-red hair. “All right. I’ll think about it. Where is your home?”

The dagger started spinning faster and faster. Then it hurled through the air, and impaled itself into the ground at her feet. As the half-elf jumped backwards, startled, she noticed that the ground had changed from the surrounding black and dry sand into a finely detailed map of the Sword Coast. Every tiny village and hamlet, every road and path was visible. She could see little treetops swaying in the wind at her feet, as if seen from a great height, and what looked like a toy ship out at sea. The dagger was stuck in the middle of a village to the north-east of Baldur’s Gate. Next to it, the name ‘Ulgoth’s Beard’ was neatly written in bold black letters.

“Bring me home, Child of Bhaal,” the dagger repeated, its voice growing fainter. “You will not regret it.”

Zaerini did not answer, instead bending to pick the weapon up. Then she yanked her fingers back with a surprised curse. The hilt was hot to the touch, so hot that it burned her. Then, even as she was blowing on her fingers, she saw the weapon dissolve into an inky shadow that rose into the air and disappeared from sight.

Now, she moved. The next three Cards were before her, in a motionless tableau. The Knight of Swords stood there, Sarevok in his familiar dark and spiky armor, a towering shape of unadulterated menace, sword raised in a threatening gesture. He wasn’t alone though.

To his right stood a wizard, a man in a dark robe, who was watching him apprehensively. His face was gaunt, and etched with lines of pain, his eyes hollow as if all joy had long since passed from his world. Wizard of Swords. I’ve seen him before – I wonder who he is?

To his left, there was a woman, a woman that Rini thought she recognized. She was slender, but seemed strong all the same, and wielded her slim sword with lethal grace, her black braid tossed over one shoulder. Dark and inscrutable eyes met those of the half-elf without blinking. That would be the Queen of Swords. I…I know her, don’t I? She’s the one I saw in that dream I had after Ulcaster. And…and she’s the one who was with Sarevok that day. The day when Gorion was killed.

“What have you come to tell me?” the half-elf said, hoping that she sounded bolder than she felt.

“He is slipping away from us,” the wizard said, his voice dull with pain. “Soon, he will be lost entirely, and that is weakening him, though he knows it not.”

“We have tried,” the swordswoman said, shaking her head. “He will not listen. He does not understand what is happening. In the end, he may slay us both rather than hear us out.”

“And yet we continue,” the wizard said. “We have no choice, as we love him.”

“It may help you to know,” the woman said, “that he, too, is capable of loving and of being loved.” Then a shadow of sadness crossed her face. “Or at least, he was. Also, remember what I told you before. There will come a day when he must be on your side, or you will surely perish. He may be lost – but he can still be redeemed. You must attempt that, for your sake as well as his.”

Sarevok didn’t seem to hear any of the comments being made. He simply kept staring emptily in front of him, as if listening to some inner voice. Rini had the uncomfortable feeling that she knew exactly what voice that was.

The wizard and the swordswoman faded away into the shadows, and now she was directly opposite her brother, taking the place of the Bard. Beside her was a misty shape, robed and hooded, wielding a staff. The Archmage. Between her and Sarevok was another presence, a dark and malevolent one, one stinking of open graves and drying blood crawling with flies. Death. Bhaal.

“Sarevok?” Zaerini tried. “Brother? I think we should talk.” She paused. “I…wanted to kill you before. But now…I’d rather not. Do we really have to do this? Is there no other way?”

Sarevok’s eyes were still empty, though glittering with golden fire.

HE CANNOT HEAR YOU. I AM WITH HIM EVERY MOMENT, DAY OR NIGHT. I FILL HIM ALMOST ENTIRELY. AS LONG AS I AM, YOU WILL NEVER REACH HIM.

Rini felt her face twisting into a snarl. “Leave him alone, ‘Father’. It is my brother I want to speak to. Not you.”

Bhaal’s laughter pounded like a thunderstorm in her ears. BUT HE IS I NOW. SAREVOK HIMSELF…IS LOCKED FAR INSIDE, UNABLE TO GET OUT. OBSERVE. OBSERVE WHOM HE WILL LISTEN TO.

Suddenly, Sarevok’s burning eyes noticed her, and he roared with rage, charging towards her. Reflexively, she raised her hand, feeling magic shoot out of it towards the armored figure in front of her. Beside her, the Archmage did the same, enveloping Sarevok with a nimbus of hazy light. That spell…what is it?

She hadn’t expected it to work. Not really. But Sarevok screamed with sudden pain, and then he was falling, crashing to the ground like a felled tree. Within seconds he was gone, a cloud of golden dust rising from his empty armor, drifting away into the darkness. No! There must be another way! There must be!

There was no answer, simply the next card of the reading. The Wizard of Coin was standing before her, a lone figure wearing red robes. Is that Edwin? What’s he doing? The wizard seemed to be walking down a road, staring morosely at the ground. He looks so sad…so lost.

Calling out, the half-elf tried to attract the wizard’s attention, but to no avail. Either he did not hear her, or he was pretending not to. Turning his back, he disappeared into the darkness. What…what does that mean? He cares about me, I know he does. He wouldn’t ignore me like that. He…he isn’t about to die is he?

Rini would have tried to run after the wizard, but it was too late. The final card was upon her, pressing in on her from all around. The Void, black and empty, as cold as the emptiness between the stars, and just as merciless. It was pulling at her, lashing her body with icy whips, tearing at her soul, making her scream with pain. “Child of Bhaal,” said a voice from the emptiness, a cultured and chillingly dispassionate voice. “I will be expecting you soon. It is time we began our experiments.”