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Children of Bhaal	By : ConradKrausche Category: +A through F > Baldur's Gate Views: 13640 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Baldurs Gate, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Third
Interlude: A son of Bhaal, a daughter of Bhaal, a monk from Candlekeep and
Jaheira

We left Beregost next morning, the sun still
rising. Arkul Sazzari often glanced admiringly at my weapons.

�You never saw one of those?� I asked him.

�No, never. I have heard of them, though. The Shadow Thieves
used them when they overthrew the government of Amn and of course everyone has
heard of the battle at the de�Arnise
stronghold. The bards still sing of it today and the historians mark it as one of the turning points in
the history of Toril and military history in particular.

The firearms have appeared among all Shadow Thieves along
the Sword Coast. As you might remember, the Shadow
Thieves soon took over the whole underworld along the Sword Coast, using their new weapons. And we
all remember the desperate city-battles of the mercenaries of the Flaming Fist in Baldur�s
Gate and the Order of the Radiant Heart in Atkatla, when they were slaughtered by the
Shadow Thieves. But here in the country the Shadow Thieves have no presence, so
most people still live like before.

I heard rumors that several armies have begun using the firearms themselves, but the army of the de�Arnise family, which
controls the eastern parts of Amn and the north of Tethyr, still has the weapons with the best
quality, I have heard. They say that Lady Nalia de�Arnise and her husband Lord Anomen Delryn
are beloved by their people and that
their lands flourish, although I cannot say for sure, never have been there
myself.�

I smiled proudly, because this was of course my
accomplishment. But I had never claimed the fame for inventing those weapons or
the �smoke powder� as it was now called - the weapon-smith Taldor of the
de�Arnise family needed this fame more than I did, myself already being a god
and all.

�Their lands flourish a�right� Imoen noted,
winking at me.

A little further on, I could make out a figure.
It was a woman with blond hair, wearing a plate mail and a wooden staff with
steel-plates put around it. When we drew nearer, I recognized her: Jaheira, our old
companion.

�Jaheira, is this really you? What are you doing here? I thought you were
in your druid grove in Amn!�

She smiled when she recognized us.

�It is good to see you again, Darnoc and Imoen. Who�s your
companion?�

Arkul looked in awe at Jaheira.

�You� you are Jaheira? I�ve heard many things about you��

�Probably, everyone who had anything to do with
Darnoc is very likely known quite well
by a lot of people.�

�Ah, come on, Jaheira, give yourself some
credit! You have done some remarkable things and I�m glad that you keep an eye
on Nalia and her lands� I exclaimed.

We began walking on and while talking with each
other found out that Jaheira was on her way to Candlekeep, as we were. She
hadn�t seen a sign of the Bhaalspawn-Killers, though, and so I thought that we
had seen the last of those. Still, she advised caution.

While walking, Jaheira brought up the subject of
my inventions.

�Darnoc, I don�t believe you ever stopped to think
what kind of effect your inventions would have.�

�What effect do you mean?�

�You know quite well what I mean, Darnoc. Don�t you remember the
slaughters, the bloodbaths in the streets of Atkatla and Baldur�s Gate? And now
the mages are terrified, for they haven�t been able to find an adequate defense
against the bullets. Mages and clerics are no longer safe; soon they�ll become obsolete
entirely. You have unbalanced everything and I have tried to somehow soften the
effects. But your actions will change everything and you are just starting to realize it.�

�But� but perhaps some good will come out of
it. Firearms aren�t the only thing I invented and
you know that just as well as I!�

�Yes, I know it and I realize that most of your
inventions have positive effects, especially your steam engine and electric
energy. But all intelligent beings will always find a way to abuse something.
And this is just what is happening right now, Darnoc. The world, as we have known it,
is coming to a violent end and I don�t know if I like the new world we are getting as a result. There are things which just should remain
unknown.�

�Jaheira, ya�re not fair t� Darnoc! He tries his best, ya know
that!� Imoen exclaimed.

The half-elf glared at Imoen.

�So things haven�t changed between you two
since I last saw you, right? Your feelings for Darnoc cloud your reason, Imoen. And I
hope Darnoc realizes the results of his
actions.�

I knew that Jaheira said the truth, but she still
angered me.

�I have done it to save Im! Everything I have
ever done was to help, if not Im then someone else! That is more than most do!
The smoke powder isn�t just used for guns, but also for controlled explosions,
very useful in mining. And my steam engine made it able to mass-produce
anything. Without the steam engine we wouldn�t have the steam-carts either and travel and transport
would still be as slow as in earlier times. Electricity gives light and power
to whole cities. Although around here my inventions didn�t seem to have yet
been put to use...�

Jaheira laughed at this comment.

�Oh, Darnoc, you fool! Most bad ends begin with good
intentions, don�t you know that? Yes, you gave firearms to the Shadow Thieves in order to
save Imoen, but what was the result? Didn�t you stop for a moment to think if
there was perhaps another way? Yes, your steam engines made transport and
production faster, but for what are they used? To mass-produce weapons, to
quickly transport armies! You have just lifted warfare to the next level.�

�There was no other way! And I hope you
remember that we wouldn�t have beaten Isaea Roenal if it hadn�t been for our
firearms!�

�Of course I remember, but that is probably the
only good effect your invention had up to this point. The rest of Toril is
spiraling towards utter chaos and destruction, while I try to keep an island of peace
in middle of everything whirling around us. Soon we�ll have huge wars between nations, armed to the teeth with firearms, transporting their armies in steam-carts and producing weapons at a
frightening speed. And what will come in the future? Even more horrifying weapons,
even faster ways to move and to produce?�

It was all true; everything which she had said
was true. And finally I realized the horror of what I had unleashed upon Toril
and I could imagine at least some of the things which were to come. There was
no forgiveness for what I had done, not in a million years!

Imoen saw that something wasn�t right with me
and took my hand, squeezing it a little as if to tell me that she was there at
my side, whatever might happen.

�Hey, ya just don�t worry. What �as happened
�as happened, ya can�t change that. We�ll find a way t� make thin�s better
together, Darn.�

Suddenly I turned around and hugged her, burying my face
in her shoulder. She was first surprised at that, but then she put her arms around me.

�I can�t stop thinking of all those horrible
things and it�s entirely my fault, Im, everything�s my fault!� I whispered.

�Sh, don�t ya say that, Darn, ya can�t know all the results of
yar actions. And ya�ve rescued me, for
that I be forever grateful, don�t forget that. Whatever ya�ve done t� do it, it
doesn�t matter t� me.�

I let go of her and stumbled backwards.

�No, no, no, it is my fault! I�ve seen it, Im,
I even helped them do it and I have done evil things, Im!�

�So you finally realize the truth, Darnoc. Then there�s perhaps hope for
you� said Jaheira.

�There�s no hope for me. I must live with what
I have done for all eternity. Why do I have to be immortal?�

�Because you chose to be immortal. And it is
good that you chose to be a god, for now you can begin amend what you have
done. There are so many things, your inventions could be put to a good use, but
someone has to start it. So get to it!�

Perhaps I could do it, who knows. Perhaps I
would be able to change things, to make them better. With Im at my side I could
probably do anything, I thought�

The problem was the gods. With all those
different gods, all fighting each other and not agreeing on things, I wouldn�t
be able to change anything. I needed them out of my way; I needed to be
almighty, if I wanted to bring my vision to reality. But how could one do this,
how could one get rid of the gods without destroying the multiverse itself?

That day I made an oath to change it all: I
would create a universe without gods, without destiny, where all intelligent
beings would be free to do as they wanted, without influence from outside. I
would create a universe, where everything would become possible.

The problem was not just the gods, but also the
mages, I realized. As long as they were still powerful, nothing would change at
all, for magic in its essence does not change. If I could get rid of magic,
this would weaken the gods a lot. There was a group of fanatics, which hunted
down all the mages, but they weren�t strong enough to accomplish the task.
Perhaps they needed a little �divine intervention� to help them�

Part Four: Spellhold

Darnoc: Brynnlaw

The journey went by quite peacefully. The
weather was mostly sunny, but after about five days it began to rain heavily.

I talked a lot with Keldorn during our time on
the ship. Also my other companions, of course, bust mostly to Keldorn. Mostly I
was just worrying about Imoen and in order to comfort me he always asked me to
tell him of our past. So I told him how we grew up together, how Gorion was
murdered and how I found out about my brother� He also told me of his life, of
his countless battles and his deeds in the name of the order. I began to admire
the man, especially because he didn�t brag with his accomplishments. Without
the help of Torm he would never have done anything, he always said.

I also observed that Minsc and Aerie stayed
together most of the time. One day I even saw how she kissed him when they
thought no one was watching. She also told me a little of her past and I almost
felt a little embarrassed, because I thought that what had happened to her was a lot worse
than what had happened to me.

Aerie was an Avariel, a winged elf and one day she
had observed several slavers capturing a young boy. She had come to his aid,
but was captured herself. Always imprisoned in a cage, her wings began to die
and finally they had to cut them off. Must have been quite painful, at least I
guessed as much from what she told me. Without the help of her �uncle� Quayle
she wouldn�t have lasted long, she told me.

A positive change came over Anomen. Earlier on he had always bragged a lot
about his heroic deeds during certain wars, but now he had grown more silent. The death
of his sister seemed to have quite shocked him and he took his knighthood very
seriously, what Keldorn liked very much.

We finally arrived at Brynnlaw on the evening of
the tenth day of our journey. The sun had already set behind the hills of Brynnlaw,
but the town was still full of life.

Sime, who had been sent with us as an observant
for Linvail, approached me before we left the ship.

�Somethin�s not right, this Saemon�s plannin�
somethin�, I can feel it.�

�Hm, thanks for the warning. We�ll keep an eye on him
then��

�Yeah, yah better go to the tavern here. �T�
dah vulgar monkey� it�s called, I think. Sanik
is there, he can help yah to enter dah Spellhold. Good luck t� yah, guys.�

�And to you too, Sime.�

She had been right, for as soon as we left the
ship, Saemon came towards us and said: �Well, I�m really sorry about this, but they pay quite a
lot o� money, yah know. An� if yah don�t work with �em, they�ll kill yah, so I
didn�t �ave much o� a choice anywee.�

He ran away, before I could get a hold on him
and suddenly three vampires teleported right in front of us, attacking us
immediately. But they didn�t last long, I and Yoshimo took out our fire-spiters
and we shot them before they could reach us.

�Fucking little traitor, this Saemon! If I�ll
ever get him, he�ll pay for his damn treachery, I swear by Tyr!� I muttered.

We found Sanik in the tavern, drinking a glass
of whisky.

�Ah, yah�re dah ones I�ve been told about. Now
listen��

He never managed to tell us how to get to
Spellhold, for suddenly a hooded figure teleported behind him, drew a knife and
stabbed him. �That�s what you get for messing with Lady Galvena!� the figure
hissed and teleported away again.

The barkeeper looked at the body lying on the floor
and shrugged his shoulders.

�What was this all about?� I asked him.

�Well, Sanik �as a girlfriend. Dah only problem
is that she�s one o� them whores o� Lady Galvena and dah Lady thinks �er whores
are �er possession. So he wanted t�
free his girlfriend an� that�s what he gets for it.�

Slavery! One of the things I hated most and my
companions agreed.

�How do we get to this Galvena?� I asked the barkeeper.

�If I were yah, I�ll get one o� �em medallions.
Chremy got one, perhaps if yah knock him o��

�Who�s Chremy?�

�Ol� Chremy is a real mean bastard, I can tell yah that. He�s
enslaved Ginia an� her brother, �orrible story, real tragedy. I won�t mind if
he bites dah dust, bad costumer, always picks a fight with someone.�

This island seemed to be full of enslaved
people. Not remarkable on an island full of pirates and other scum. We all agreed that we
had to help those people, Anomen and Keldorn even thought that it was our duty.

Ginia we found in the east of the town, she sat
on some stairs, looking at the sea.

�You must be Ginia� I said to her.

She looked around, startled.

�Who�re yah, what yah want?� she asked a little
frightened.

�Don�t worry, we won�t hurt you. Actually, we
wanted to know if there�s any way we could help you and your brother. You see,
those two are paladins and they have come to help people like yourself.�

Her eyes glimmered with sudden hope.

�I�m dah slave of Chremy, he forces me t� work
as whore an� mee brother as pickpocket. But if he knew that I wanted t� flee,
he�ll kill me or me or do somethin� t� mee brother. Calahan said he wanna help
us, but it�s no use as long Chremy�s alive��

She began to cry, but tried to wipe off the tears. Probably because no customers
would want a girl who had just cried.

�That is horrible; it hurts my heart to hear that such evil still exists. Such
things remind me, why I have become a paladin. Do not worry, child, we will
take care of this and soon you and your
brother will be free� Keldorn told her.

I simply felt anger and a kind of desperation.
Why did people do such things, why did the gods allow such things to happen?
Okay, a lot of gods were evil. But hell, why do evil gods have to exist? Why
cannot all gods be good? Or why couldn�t just one god exist, an absolutely good
god, almighty, all-knowing and eternal? Did we really need this whole pantheon
of changing gods, some of them good, some of them evil? If we just could take
our destinies into our own hands, guided by a wise being perhaps, but not fully
controlled, things might be better�

It was the first time I had this idea. I guess
the others wouldn�t have agreed with it. Probably most people wouldn�t have.
But this vision began to drive me: How could we get rid of the gods and thus
become completely free?

Chremy was near the tavern, an elderly, bitter man
with many scars and a greedy look on his face. Keldorn and Anomen immediately drew
their weapons and stepped towards the old pirate.

�In the name of Torm, we command you to release
Ginia and her brother! This state of affairs will no longer be tolerated; this
evil place has stayed in that terrible state long enough!� Keldorn said in a
commanding voice, his wrath clearly audible.

�Get lost, fuckin� paladins! I�m under dah
protection o� Desharik, Lord o� Pirates!�

�No protection will save you from the just
wrath of Torm, which will smite you through our hands, scum!� Keldorn shouted
enraged.

With this he raised his sword and beheaded the
pirate with one stroke. I stepped over to the body and took the medallion,
which had fallen to the floor after Keldorn had beheaded the man. Now we just
had to get Ginia and her brother out of here.

Calahan, a smuggler, we found on the docks.
When I told him that I had killed Chremy, he immediately agreed to help Ginia
and her brother, but he needed some money, so I handed it to him. After that I
went to tell Ginia. She thanked me over and over again, even embracing me and
kissing me on my cheek. We led her and her brother down to Calahan, who hid
them in some crates on his ship.

�Thanks, mate, yah�ve done a good thin� heer.
Too bad most people aren�t like that�� Calahan told me.

�Well, we do what we can, Calahan.�

�Yeah, I guess so, mate.�

�Hey, can you hang around for some time and wait for me?
I want to look into this matter of Sanik�s girlfriend, if I can get her out of
this mess, I�ll bring her to you, alright?�

�No problem, mate, I�ll just wait heer for
yah.�

I put on the medallion and went over to
Galvena�s Festhall. The guard inside let me through because of the
medallion, my companions waited outside.

Following a long corridor I finally came to
some cells, two guards standing in front of it.

�What yah want?� one of the asked me grumpily.

�I�m the new guy here and I�m here to tell you
that your duty ends now� I said while drawing my fire-spiters.

They looked at the two weapons, not really
knowing what to do and then attacked. They didn�t get far - I pulled both triggers and blew
the guards� heads away.

While I was reloading, the door the guards were standing in front of opened.
A woman with short brown hair and a saber at her side came out of it, followed
by a guard.

�What dah hell�s that bloody noise?� she
screamed angrily.

Then she saw the dead guards, looked at me and drew her
weapon. The guard behind her did the same.

I pointed my fire-spiters at them and asked
her: �You Galvena?�

�Yeah, what d�yah want?�

�Release Sanik�s girlfriend or you�ll be dead
in a moment!�

�What, yah want me t� release Claire? Yah out
o� yahr mind? She�s mee property an� I�m goin� t� punish her for fallin� in
love with this damn retard!�

I pulled the safety levers of the fire-spiters.

�This is your last chance. Release her or I�m
going to shoot!�

�Get lost, fucker! What kind o� weapon is that
anywee?�

�Something you don�t want to feel, believe me.�

�Pah, yah�re only bluffin�!� she said and
advanced, raising her saber.

I sighed and pulled both triggers, she and the
guard were both flung backwards, their chests tainted by blood.
Smoke rose from the barrels, while I observed the bodies for movement. They seemed to be dead,
so I moved on.

Claire was sitting in the corner of a cell, her
body shaking.

�Who� who are yah?� she asked, her voice
trembling.

�I�m her to get you out. What happened?�

�Galvena wanted t� punish me, she wanted t� hit
me with dah whip. A hundred hits, she said.�

�She won�t do that, she�s dead� I replied.

�D� dead? She�s really dead?�

�Yeah, dead as it gets. Come on!�

Outside I asked Claire, if Sanik had told her
of any way to enter the Spellhold.

�Well, he did tell me. There�s a Cowled Wizard livin� here, his name�s Perth. Got his house on dah top o�
Brynnlaw, I think.�

�Thanks. Now we should get you to Calahan,
he�ll get you off the island.�

The smuggler was still waiting at his ship, as
he had promised. He brought Claire onto his ship and again thanked me.

We now only had to find a way into the
Spellhold. This mage seemed to be a promising lead�

Perth was a strange person. He didn�t
seem to really be aware of his surroundings and brabbled things I didn�t understand really.
One thing I caught though, he seemed to be under the control of someone or
something. And that someone ordered him to attack us!

Quickly the mage conjured a magical barrier around him, in order to defend him
against our attacks. But he of course didn�t know of my new weapons, which
could penetrate any magical defense.

So I raised my fire-spiter, while Perth was conjuring a magical a spell,
something necromantic, I think. Before he could finish, I pulled the trigger.
The mage looked terrified at the hole in his chest.

�But� but how�?� he asked confused and
collapsed dead to the ground.

�My god, magic is really no use against this
weapon� Keldorn whispered.

I knelt down and searched the body of Perth for something useful and found a
strange stone.

�Hm, what is that for?�

Aerie looked at it closely.

�I think it�s some kind of key-stone, it will
let you pass somewhere.�

�A key-stone? Perhaps it will let us enter the
Spellhold��

There was only one way to find out: We had to
try. So we went northwards, where the Spellhold rested on a rocky island, only a bridge
connecting it to the main island. There it towered menacing over the sea. And
there, so I hoped, I would find Imoen� and Irenicus.

Imoen:
The end

What happened after the rape I cannot clearly recall. What I do remember is how
Irenicus put me into that glass tank. I just sat there, my clothes again
blood-soaked, dried blood on my skin and in my hair, my skin pale and eyes
sunken, the spark in them gone.

�An� what now, Irenicus, what now?� I
whispered.

�Don�t be afraid, it is almost done, Imoen.
Soon I have what I really want: your brother. But right now, I will take away
your soul, for my sister Bodhi needs one also.�

�So that�s what ya wanted all along��

�Yes, exactly.�

Everything went dark in front of my eyes. Was I dead? I
wished that I was. But then I was the yellow dots in front of me and realized
that they were eyes. As my eyes adapted to light, I began to recognize more and
more. It was a figure in plate mail, a huge two-handed sword in its hand, a
helmet formed like a beast on its head and its eyes glowing yellow.

�I am your instinct, I am you, I am inside of
you!�

The figure raised its sword and stroke down on
me, hitting my shoulder and penetrating deep into it. I screamed in pain, the
figure pulled the sword out and I tried to crawl away from it, but it advanced,
staring at me.

Suddenly it changed into a gruesome beast, full
of thorns, fur, scales, claws and teeth and jumped at me, growling. I screamed,
this time in total horror, when its claws hit me, ripping my skin off and
finding their way into me. Blood gushed from my body; pain erupted all inside
of me, as it began to rip my body apart. It couldn�t be real; in reality I would have
been dead long ago. So I watched and felt, how the beast slowly consumed me,
ate me and I felt it all, the pain, the pain� Finally I felt as if something
was just ripped out of me, with brutal force, something invisible, but still
there. I screamed louder than before and then everything vanished, nothing
remained, I remembered no more.

Darnoc: Trapped

We met Sime at the bridge and I told her of
what we wanted to do.

�Wonderful, I�ll take dah next ship t� dah
mainland and tell dah Shadow Master� she said to that.

�Good, we�ll continue here. Hopefully, we�ll
meet again soon. If you could arrange for a way off the island, now that Saemon
has betrayed us��

�I�ll do what I can, don�t yah worry.�

And with that she left us.

We managed to cross the bridge safely, even
enter the Spellhold without being stopped or encountering anyone at all.

Inside we were greeted by a man wearing a Cowled Wizard�s cloak.

�Ah, you must be Darnoc. We thought you might turn up
one day.�

Somehow I thought that I shouldn�t reveal all
my secrets yet. Perhaps a little surprise might come in handy later� So I only
drew the Rose Blade and not my fire-spiters.

�Where the hell is Imoen? Answer me!�

�Do not worry, she is in good hands. This
institution is a place of healing, not a prison. Come; let me prove it to you.�

�Who the hell are you anyway?� I asked him.

�I am the coordinator of this facility. Please,
follow me now.�

I had a bad feeling about this. His voice
sounded somehow familiar, his face seemed to remind me of someone� But whom? My tattoo was
burning again, hotter than ever. It should have given me a hint, but perhaps
there was something in this place which clouded my senses, I can�t tell.

The coordinator led me through his facility,
showing me the inmates. Most of them were clearly insane, some of them I even knew.
For example, there was an elf-wizard I had once helped escape from a group of
werewolves on Balduran�s island. He was clearly paranoid and seemed to see wolves
everywhere. Lilacor found it all very amusing, of course.

Finally we came to a small room with some
tables and chairs. On one sat a young woman, her hair had probably been once
red, but was now full of dirt and probably blood, her cheeks and her eyes were
sunken, her skin pale as death, smeared with dry blood, her eyes had no spark left, they were dark and hollow.

Suddenly it struck me: It was Imoen! But she
had changed totally, nothing was left from the joyfully, happy girl from Candlekeep
I had once called my sister. She was a hollow shell, barely alive.

�Im, it�s me, Darn! Im, what have they done to you!�
I screamed, rushing to her.

I knelt beside her, took her hand, but she
didn�t seem to recognize me. Tears filled my eyes when I realized that she was
probably far away from here, a place where I couldn�t follow. A place only the
insane can go, leaving their bodies behind.

�It can�t be, Im, wake up, come back to me, I
need you� I whispered, but nothing happened.

�It is too bad for the young girl, I must
admit. She� she didn�t react too well to our cure, some of the assistants
seemed to have overdone it a little in her case� the coordinator continued as
if nothing was wrong at all.

Suddenly it seemed as if my forehead exploded.
A fire was burning in my blood, but it soon reversed and turned to ice. And
then the change came over me, slowly, but stronger than before. An icy cold
determination came over me: I would kill whoever had done this to Imoen! In my
mind I saw images of mutilated bodies, destroyed by my claws and teeth. I felt
blood on my tongue, the smell of fresh flesh.

My companions watched in horror, as a brown fur
seemed to grow on my skin, my hands turned to claws, my mouth suddenly had sharp predator-teeth and my face grew longer,
especially my ears and my mouth. But it was not yet complete, not yet. Still, I managed
to growl like a wolf and bare my teeth at the coordinator.

I took out my fire-spiter and pointed it at
him, releasing the safety.

�You bastard, you�re going to pay for hurting
her, I swear!� I snarled at him.

Suddenly I realized something. The smell, I
knew it. The coordinator smelled dead and still he was alive. There was only
one person I knew, who was like that: Irenicus.

�Irenicus, you fucking piece of shit, you
bloody cocksucker, you damned bastard, I�ll kill you for this!� I screamed at him.

Irenicus took off his hood and smiled at me.

�You don�t seem to have found out about my
traitor.�

Yoshimo pulled out his fire-spiter and first I
thought that he would point it at Irenicus, but then I realized in horror that
he pointed it at Imoen.

�Yoshimo had only one assignment: To bring you
here. And he was successful. Now lower your weapon or Imoen is going to die!�

It was too much; I stumbled backwards and sat down on one of the
chairs.

�This�. this can�t be, it isn�t possible!�

The others drew their weapons, but Irenicus
screamed: �Stay where you are, don�t move, or Imoen will die!�

They stopped dead in their tracks.

�Yoshimo, why are you doing this?�

He gave me a pained smile.

�I�m sorry Darnoc, but it was my idea in the first
place. And even if I wanted to help you, I couldn�t, because if I betrayed
Irenicus, I would die. I�m bound to serve him. Irenicus always assures his
servants� obedience.�

Without noticing it, I had changed back to
human. My hand was shaking, but still pointing at Irenicus.

�Make your choice, Darnoc. Kill me and face Imoen�s death.
Or lower your weapon and Imoen shall live. She is no use to me anymore; I have
what I wanted from her. But you I want.�

I looked into Yoshimo�s eyes, begging him to
not do this, but his glare was firm. He wouldn�t change his mind. So I
howled in agony and finally lowered my weapon. It was probably the decision I
was most afraid of ever.

As soon as I dropped the fire-spiter to the
ground, Irenicus stepped over to me.

�She� she has warned me�� I whispered.

�Warned you?�

�In my dreams, she told me this would happen. I
didn�t really believe her��

�Now it is too late, Darnoc. You have come here and are now mine.�

With this he waved his hand and unconsciousness
took me.

When I awoke again, I was sitting in a tank of
glass. My armor and my weapons had been taken from me; I only had my shirt and my
trousers left. Irenicus stood in front of the tube.

�Finally you are awake. Now I can begin with the
procedure, it won�t take long and won�t be as painful as with your dear sister. She I used to experiment
on, to find the procedure. Now that I know how to do it, it will be quite easy.
You probably won�t even feel a thing. Of course, when it is over, you will
notice, but during the procedure��

Again all became dark and I suddenly found myself in
Candlekeep. But it wasn�t the real Candlekeep; it was a dead, empty city like I
had seen it during my dreams.

Slowly I advanced towards the gates of the castle and just
before I reached them I heard a voice in my head: Imoen�s voice. But her
voice was somehow emotionless, as if spoken by a machine.

�In� here� Come� in� here.�

�Im? Where are you?�

�In the castle� come into the castle� but beware the guardian.�

I took the last steps, but just before I
reached the gate, a huge demon appeared in front of me.

�If you wish to enter here, you must give me
something of yours. What will it be? Do you wish to sacrifice some of your
physical force? Or perhaps some of your agility? Or a part of your mind? The choice is up to
you.�

Now that was a difficult decision. I would lose
something, but what should I sacrifice? Certainly not my mind and my agility, I
needed both to survive. My health I wouldn�t want to trade also. But my
strength� Well, I had always relied more on my quickness and my wits anyway.

�Take away some of my strength� I replied.

�Then it shall be as you say� the demon said
and vanished.

Suddenly I felt� weaker. As if my muscles
seemed to have gotten smaller. Well, I could bring me back up to my old
fitness, I knew that. I just had to train and my muscles would grow again.
Perhaps strength really had been the best choice.

Inside I saw Imoen standing between two
bookshelves. But she wasn�t like the Imoen I knew. She rather reminded me of
the Imoen in my first dream, like a picture, something not entirely real.

�Outside waits the manifestation of your inner
evil� the manifestation of your father� you must face him, but not alone� bring
him here and my strength will help you fight him.�

�Im, is it really you? What has Irenicus done
to you?�

�Go, Darnoc, go� you must find him��

I seriously began to doubt that this appearance really was Imoen. This appearance didn�t even talk like the real
Imoen. Probably some kind of manifestation of something inside of me. But of
what?

My father wasn�t hard to find, he just stood outside. He
wore a heavy plate mail, covered with skulls and thorns, his helmet formed like
a beast.

�Bow to me, for I am the one who rules you! I
am your destiny!� he called to me.

�No, father, I will not submit to your will, I
will never let you win! I have sworn to destroy you and that is what I will
do!�

�Fool, you are my son; there is no way around it! It is what you were born to
do!�

Suddenly I held my sword in my hand and I
raised it.

�Never, father!�

�Then die, fool!�

He attacked and I retreated into the building,
back to Imoen.

�Now, I have him!� she shouted and so I
attacked.

It really must have been a dream, for my sword
penetrated my father�s armor like butter and he collapsed dead to the
ground.

�I have done it; I have beaten the essence of
my father in me!� I shouted triumphantly.

�Wait, something�s not right, something�s� No,
not again, not again!�

And with this Imoen screamed a horrible scream
full of agony and fear, a scream which seemed to turn my blood to ice. With this I awoke
again.

�You have failed, Irenicus! I have mastered my
father�s essence inside of me; you will not turn me into a monster!� I cried.

�I have no idea, what you are talking about, son of Bhaal. What
I do know is that you no longer have
a soul, just like your sister. That was what I had wanted from you in the first
place.�

Then I felt it: emptiness. Something was just
missing, I felt dead. I stood up and just howled in despair, letting out all
the pain and the sorrow inside of me, the anger and hate.

�Irenicus, you will die, I will see to it
myself, I swear it to you!� I screamed at him.

He just laughed at my useless threats.

�Bodhi, please see to it that they are both disposed of. I have other
business to attend to. We won�t see each other again, son of Bhaal, so I guess
this is good bye. Enjoy your death!�

Suddenly I saw the bat hovering next to
Irenicus. After he had left the room, the bat turned into the queen of the
vampires. Smiling at me she came closer.

�I hope you�ll enjoy what I have in mind for
you, Darnoc� she said while unconsciousness
was taking me again.

Imoen:
Reunion

Was it all another dream or could it be real? Darnoc�s face seemed real enough, as he
glanced with worry down on me. Slowly I stretched out my hand and touched him,
feeling his skin. And then there were those other people behind him, this had
to be real!

�Darn, it�s really ya� It�s not just a dream, it�s
really ya��

After all those horrible things, which Irenicus
had put me through, finally a glimmer of hope again. Tears of joy began to fill my eyes, but
at the same time they were also tears of sorrow, as I remembered all the pain and
suddenly noticed that something had left me, how I had grown weaker, because it
was no longer there. It just spilled all over, sobs shook me, as I clutched to
Darnoc and he hugged me, also sobbing.
It was then that I felt the same emptiness in him. By the gods, Irenicus had
already taken his soul also!

On my shoulder I felt the heavy hand of Minsc,
good old Minsc and his hamster Boo. I was glad to have an old companion around me right now. Next to Minsc
stood an elderly man with plate armor, looking pitifully at me, also laying his
hand on my shoulder. Two figures knelt beside me; one was a young female elf
and the other a young, brown-haired man.

�Let me take a look at your wounds, Imoen� I heard the young elf say, but I couldn�t
yet let go of Darnoc, I needed to feel him, to assure myself of his presence.

Darnoc whispered hoarsely: �You should let Aerie take a
look at you; she�s quite a good healer.�

I nodded and moved a little away from Darnoc, so that Aerie, the young elf,
had a little room to look at my wounds. Gently she touched my face, smiling warmly and pity in her eyes.

�Don�t be afraid, Imoen, I won�t hurt you, I
only want to help you.�

She touched some of my scars on my face and muttered something,
but she seemed not to be worried. Then she sighed and turned around to the men.

�Would you be so kind as to turn around, while I examine her body?
Quickly now!�

They all did as she had commanded them, but I
noticed Darnoc smile a little. It was then that
I had the queer feeling as if I heard him say �As if I haven�t already seen her
naked, being her brother and all�. Puzzled I stared at his back. Had he really said
something or had I just imagined things? The others didn�t seem to have noticed
it. Suddenly the thought occurred to me that perhaps I had heard him think. But how could that be?

Aerie took off my shirt and moved her hand over
my body, examining especially the fresher wounds. Some of them hadn�t healed
yet and were still bleeding, but she mended that quickly with some healing
spells.

�Soon you�ll be right as rain, Imoen, don�t
worry about it. At least your body will be��

There wasn�t more to say, she was an elf and
elves are very sensitive people, often
feeling things other people didn�t. Somehow she probably had felt the pain
inside me, not the physical one, though.

After I had put my shirt on again, Aerie told
the men to turn around again. The elderly guy noted that we should get moving and we all
agreed to that. Darnoc turned to me and asked if I could walk and I told him that I could.
Still, he helped me up and supported me, of which I was glad, for I realized
that I was still very weak. After a while I could do without his help, though.

But first I wanted to know, who all those new
guys were, so Darnoc introduced me to them. The strangest thing was that damn sword of
Minsc. Hell, I don�t know how this sword was able to see my scars. He remarked that he thought, Irenicus was a
master of torture, bringing back memories of pain. Darnoc told Lilacor to shut up and
fortunately the sword did.

What also caught my attention were those
strange weapons Darnoc carried with him. I asked him about them, so he proudly presented his
fire-spiters to me, even explaining that he used them to fight Bodhi and her
vampires. Typical, as soon as I wasn�t around to keep an eye on him, he started to play with dangerous things.
And just look at the results, he invents a fearsome new weapon. I was already
worried back then, but later on, when I saw those weapons in action, I really
began to worry and a feeling of dread came over me.

After walking a while, I could no longer
withhold my curiosity.

�How did ya find me, anyway?� I asked Darnoc.

And then he began to explain, how he had to
collect 20,000 to pay the Shadow Thieves and that he was now even a Lord with a
castle.

It was then that we met the vampire. Dace
Sontan he called himself and he immediately attacked. Not a pretty sight, but
what came then was even more gruesome. Darnoc simply pulled out his
fire-spiter and shot the vampire.

For a second I stared at the weapon, out of which smoke
rose, and then I walked over to the body of the vampire, the head of it a
bloody mess. Slowly I extended my foot and touched it. It didn�t move, it was
dead. What a weapon was that? I shuddered as I thought about it.

Darnoc staked the vampire and also cut off its
hand, because we needed it in order to get past that stupid statue on the first
level of this damn game. Hell, Bodhi really had a twisted sense of humor.

Next we needed a splitter of a crystal, which
we found with some kobolds. Personally, I think kobolds are rather funny. Looking at them
makes me laugh, one can�t really take them serious, they look like a someone
interbred a dog with a lizard. And they make those funny noises, something
like �hrrrr�, only in this high-pitched voice.

So we returned to the first level of the maze,
together with the hand and the crystal. But before going to the statue, we
first had a break. I needed one; still I was very weak from all the torture and
from the procedure. Of course I tried to hide it from the others, but I guess Darnoc noticed it despite my feeble
attempts to hide my condition. Every stepped I felt pain, especially inside of
my head, and I dragged myself on, my limbs seemed so heavy and I felt so weak
and tired; I just wanted to lie down and die.

Darnoc came over to me with a bottle of water and
a piece of cloth, which he used to wash the blood from my face.

�Thanks,
Darn� I whispered.

He smiled, but I saw pain in his eyes, as he
did it. Irenicus had touched him also. Then he extended his hand and began
stroking my cheek. I let it happen, taking comfort in the warmth of his hand. For so long I had
wished to feel him again, have him back at my side�

�I�m glad to have you back, Im, it hasn�t been
the same without you. I� I never realized how much you mean to me until I lost
you. Im, I am sorry that I couldn�t protect you from him and that he did all
those horrible things to you. I�ve promised you and I�ve broken it, I couldn�t
stop him, I just couldn�t��

His words were interrupted by tears and I felt again this deep pain
inside of him, realizing now that he tormented himself with the thought that he
let me down. It wasn�t a pain one would see outside; it was a pain of the heart. What exactly did change, after
Irenicus had taken away our souls? What exactly was a soul anyway? I think now
that a soul is the connection between the spirit and the body, the essence,
which gives us life. Without soul, this connection is broken and life slowly
ceases to exist.

It was now my turn to comfort him. I had no
grudge against him, he had done the best he could and I was grateful for this.
It was not my wish that he tormented himself needlessly and I wanted him to
realize this. So my hand touched his face, wiping off the tears and I explained it to him.

He took my hand and said desperately: �Im, I can�t let anyone ever again take you
away from me, I couldn�t get over it, it would destroy me. That I have
realized.�

This feeling I had also, I never wanted to lose
him again. Somehow I had the feeling that I would die, especially now that I no
longer had a soul. We both no longer had one and we needed each other
desperately in order to keep on living. The other one was the only thing, which
kept us alive and going. The thought of losing him again, to be separated from him� it drove me insane, I
couldn�t bear that thought. Nothing would ever separate us, nothing at all and I would
see to it that nothing did.

It was then that he said something strange:
�Nothing except death��

Darkness wanted to take me, as I thought about it,
panic. I didn�t want to die and I also didn�t want him to die. The very thought
of him dying and leaving me here, all alone, I just couldn�t� No, I couldn�t
think further in this direction.

To force my thoughts into another direction, I
asked him, what had happened to him, while I had been Irenicus� prisoner. First
he was reluctant to tell the story, but when I begged him, he yielded and began
his story.

What interested me the most was the story of
Bodhi and her vampires. I wanted to pay this bitch everything back, I would get
my soul back from her, I would kill her! And then Irenicus, I would kill him
for all the things he had done to me!

But when he told me more about his new weapons,
those firearms, worry and a feeling of dread came over me again, especially when he
told me that he gave those weapons to the Shadow Thieves. Not that I had
anything against thieves generally, being a kind of thief myself. But the
Shadow Thieves were a ruthless and dangerous organization. Together with these
weapons, I just couldn�t start to think about what would happen. Darnoc, what had you done, what had you
done!

There was another thing, he told me that this
damned Othyug had infected him with a dangerous illness and that he almost had
died because of this. So he also had had his share of troubles and not everything had
been gloriously killing evil guys. Somehow this warmed my heart, knowing that I wasn�t the only
one, who had suffered.

Suddenly I had this urge to show him, how much
I appreciated that he was here with me and so I leaned over, hugged him closely
and kissed him on his cheek. I guess he was a little embarrassed, but to be honest, I didn�t
really care. Still, I had this feeling as if
he was holding something back from me, but what I couldn�t tell.

The statue let us pass after receiving the hand
and the crystal and so we descended to another level, hopefully the final one.
There we were surprised by a group of trolls. What really surprised me, though,
was how easily Darnoc thought them, as if it was routine.

And then came the most astonishing thing: I suddenly
remembered my magical abilities! From one moment to the other, they were
suddenly there. Of course I remembered what I had learned about trolls: one has to destroy
their bodies. So I quickly launched a dart of lame onto a troll lying on the floor,
burning it to ashes.

We walked through several different corridors
and halls. Fortunately, we found some water in one in a well, on which stood
the statue of a Minotaur, so we could replenish our supplies. For a moment we
rested there.

I tried to wash my hair, which was dirty, full
of dried blood and other things. I also asked the men to go to another room,
while I took a quick bath in the well, with the help of Aerie, who used the
occasion to take another look at my wounds. It really felt good, the water
running across my body and washing all that blood off. Somehow I had the
feeling as if also some of the memories and the pain were washed off, at least
for a while.

As I washed myself with the clean water and
drank from it, one of my memories surfaced. The picture of Irenicus and the
torches on the wall, the four torches, came back. And he had a bowl in his
hand, a bowl not filled with water, but with the blood of the only person, who
had been nice to me in Spellhold: Dansia. As I remembered, how I had sipped the
blood greedily like a dog, a shudder ran down my back.

I felt sick and I guess Aerie noticed it, for
she took my hand and then hugged me, telling me that it was over and nothing
would happen to me anymore. Sobs began to shake me, as I remembered how I had
eaten Dansia; I had eaten the remnants of a human being. And the child I had
murdered, in order to get out of the damn cell, in order to get something to
drink�

�He� he made me� made me kill �er, I� I mu�
murdered �er!� I whispered, trying to explain, but of course, Aerie had no
clue, what I was talking about.

Perhaps it was the odd feeling that Aerie also
had had her share of pain, I do not know. Later on I learned about the things, which had been
done to her, but back then I only felt that here was someone, who understood
me, at least a little.

Probably I just needed someone to comfort me, a
shoulder I could cry on, let all the pain out. I wasn�t ready yet to tell, what
had happened, the pain and the memories were still too near, too close and I had problems
accepting, what had happened. At that moment I just needed someone, who
comforted me without really understanding.

Still, I more and more realized that I needed
to tell someone, what had happened. More and more I got the feeling that I
would burst, if I didn�t. But not yet. And not to just anyone. I needed to tell
Darnoc, only he would really
understand, because there was something, which connected us. More than
something, several things. Somehow we are able to feel each other, we just knew, what
went on inside the other.

After a while my tears and sobs ceased, but still I
clutched to Aerie, resting against her shoulder and she let me do so, for which
I am grateful.

I don�t know, how long I stayed like this, but
finally she whispered: �Imoen, we should be going, if we want to escape this
place. Who knows, perhaps this awful Bodhi has set a time limit or something.�

She was of course right and so I nodded. I
tried to get up and with a little help from her I managed, then she dried me
with some cloth and helped me put my clothes back on.

�Now just look at you, much better, with the
exception of the clothes, of course� she commented, smiling.

I also smiled and her comment cheered me up a
little. She was of course right about the clothes; they were still blood-soaked
and had the brown-black look of dried blood on them.

The others came back and Darnoc smiled, as he saw me.

�Would you look at that, my dear little sister Imoen is back among
us!� he commented, laughing.

I also laughed, for he was right, I finally
looked like myself again. Not entirely, my skin was still very pale and my eyes
sunken, one could also see the bones quite well, because I hadn�t receive much
food while being Irenicus� object of experimentation.

When I looked at Darnoc, I also saw some differences. I
compared his present look with what I
remembered from Baldur�s Gate. He had grown� older. Yes, it sounds stupid, but
it is true. His eyes shone more sinister and solemn, a determined, even
desperate look in them. His beard was of course now fully grown. I remembered
that it his beard had looked very bright back in Baldur�s Gate, as had his hair when he
had been younger. It had been funny to watch him like that, his normal hair
brown, while his beard was blond. But now it had also darkened, it was now brown like his
hair.

Something was also wrong with his muscles. I
remembered him to be stronger, but his muscles seemed to be thinner than they
had been before. And on his bare arms I saw that the hair on them had grown
thicker, almost like fur they now looked.

Well, at least his height hadn�t changed. He
had always been small compared to other boys; he was the same height as me.
But one should never make the mistake of underestimating him, because he was
smaller and thinner than most; for his stature he was quite strong and some
people had been quite surprised to find that out.

We continued on our way and after a while found
ourselves in a room full of golems and a chest in the middle. Darnoc opened it and took out a bow
string, what activated the golems, which immediately attacked us.

One golem attacked Darnoc, quickly I thought of a way to
help him. I froze the golem and then shot a dart of flame at him; the sudden
temperature changes destroyed him. Gotcha, stupid golem, my powers were clearly returning!

After the others had killed the last golem, I
stepped over to Darnoc, in order to see, what that bow string exactly was. To my surprise I
recognized it as the string of Gesen�s bow, a powerful magical artifact. Darnoc produced the shaft out of his
backpack; I took both the string and shaft and put them back together. As I
tried it out, a bolt of lightning shot from the bow, appearing out of nowhere. I immediately
fell in love with this bow, this was just great!

We rested in that very room and tried to get
some sleep. The others seemed to be able to, but not I. Memories haunted me, again and
again I saw what had happened, sweat covered my body, I was shaking. Finally I
realized that it needed to get out, only then could I perhaps get the better of
my memories. I needed help; I desperately needed someone to share the pain and sorrow. There was
only one possible candidate, only one person, who would understand: my brother,
Darnoc.

Still, I struggled for some time with myself,
if I really wanted to do this. I knew that I should, it was the best thing to
do. But some of the things, which had happened, I was just so ashamed and embarrassed, I felt sick and revulsion
against myself. Did I really wish to tell him those things? What if he would
feel disgusted and turn from me? I wouldn�t be able to bear it, if he did that. No, my worries
were stupid; he wouldn�t do such a thing! Or would he?

I cried and I wrapped myself into my blanket,
so the others wouldn�t hear it. It was too much to bear alone; I needed someone, who would
understand. So I decided to do it, wiped away the tears and stepped over to Darnoc.

He agreed to listen to me and followed me out
on the corridor, where I tried to explain to him, why I needed to tell him. I
guess he understood, somehow at least, and he told me that I could tell me
everything and he would try to help me bear it.

So I began with my tale, my story of pain,
suffering, sorrow, horrors and terror. I told on and on, revealing more and
more of the horrible things Irenicus had done to me. As I told I watched Darnoc and saw, how two things happened
at the same time inside of him. First he began to pity me more and more, I
felt, how he felt closer to me, how his heart ached, because of the things he heard from me. But at the same time I
felt a growing rage and hatred inside of him, hatred against Irenicus and
Bodhi. Often I saw him fingering his fire-spiter and gnashing his teeth.

When I arrived at the part with the little girl, I couldn�t
go on, I felt so ashamed and guilty and I began to sob uncontrollably. He then
showed that he truly understood and cared, for he took me in his arms and tried to calm he, even
telling me that I shouldn�t feel guilty about it, because everyone would have
done it. Somehow this took away a little of the guilt and I really tried hard to believe that it was true.
Still, until this day it haunts me and somehow I am uneasy about it, not really
certain, if I really had had no other choice. Perhaps it would have been better
to die than to commit such a horrible crime.

I tried to continue and for a while I even
managed to, but when I arrived at the where the pirate had raped me, I�
well, I just couldn�t bring myself to say it. I felt sick, especially when I
thought about me changing into something horrible, which had then ripped the
man apart. Not that I thought, he didn�t
deserve it, but still, the thought of me being a mindless monster, a murderous
beast� And of course the rape itself was more than I could bear to think about, just thinking
about, how this man had forced himself into me, made me want to throw up and
somehow I thought that it was all my fault, because I hadn�t fought enough.
It�s of course stupid to think that, but I wasn�t really rational about it,
understandably. The worst thing was that someone could break my will and force
me to let him do what he wanted with me, like I was his slave or simply an
object to fulfill his lust, not a person with my own will. Perhaps my will was
too weak, perhaps I had wanted him to do it, those were my thoughts and they
made me hate myself. It was the complete helplessness in the situation, which
drove me almost insane; I had just let him do it, had not been able to stop him
and I tried to find an explanation. Again, a stupid thought, I had been very
weak and gone through horrible torture, it had been astonishing that I had been
able to fight at all.

Without Darnoc, I probably really would have
gone insane in the end, perhaps even killed me, I don�t know. He was there for
me and helped me through the horrible memories, so I was able to continue. And
when I had told him everything, I really felt, as if a weight had been lifted
from me somehow. So it had been the right decision to tell him.

While I sobbed and he held me close, something
happened to him. I felt it; I felt his angry and hateful thoughts grow more and
more. And then I felt, how his hair grew thicker, until it really became fur.
He stumbled backwards, away from me, trying to cover his face what appeared to be rather claws than fingers.

He wept and told me to not look at him; I felt
that he also was ashamed of what was happening to him. But now I was able to
help him too. He had helped me, I would help him. So I stepped over to him and
removed his claws, suddenly seeing the face of something half wolf, half Darnoc in front of me.

He explained to me that his mother was a
werewolf; I tried to comfort him, by telling him that this wasn�t so bad at
all. He finally changed back into human and then we sat down, hugging each
other. Like this we fell asleep, feeling the other next to us.

Next morning we finally made it to the exit,
some stairs leading upwards. Hope took hold of me; we would finally
leave this dreadful place for good! And never come back, of course.

My hope was suddenly destroyed by Bodhi and two
of her vampires teleporting in front of us.

�The exit is just behind us, but I guess I
won�t let you go after all. Still, you have been quite a good player; most
people never make it thus far. Time to die, son of Bhaal!�

No, not now that we finally found an exit!
Desperation took me, I felt as if I was falling into a deep, black pit without
bottom.

Suddenly something happened to Darnoc, black fur began to grow in his
skins, scales appeared underneath it, thorns appeared on it, his face suddenly had gruesome fangs
with long, sharp teeth and his hands turned into huge claws. The beast attacked Bodhi
and her vampires, who crept backwards, staring in horror at the monster, which had been Darnoc.

�Damn it, get away from here, get out, we must
tell Irenicus!� Bodhi screamed and she and the vampires teleported away.

�By Torm, what have you done to yourself, Darnoc?� Keldorn asked.

The beast turned around and starred directly at me, its eyes red as
blood and pitch black at the same time. I screamed, as I realized, what the
thing had in mind: it wanted to rip me to pieces, just as I had done with the
man, who had raped me. This was the beast I had turned into.

Slowly I backed away and told my companions to
turn around and flee, for this beast knew
no mercy, no compassion, only murder and massacre.

�Darn, come t� yar senses, it�s me, Im! Darn, please!� I screamed at the
monster, but it just continued on.

I felt the back of the wall, there was no
escape and the beast didn�t seem to turn back into Darnoc. Panic took hold of me; I didn�t
want to die, not like this, no! I had seen what I had done to the man and the
horrible thought occurred to me that Darnoc would now do the same thing to me. I needed
to bring Darnoc back, somehow�

The beast grabbed me by the throat and lifted
me up, towards its teeth. I smelled blood and decay from its mouth, almost
overwhelming my senses. And the eyes kept staring at me, those horrible eyes. I
felt blood, where the claws of the beast had grabbed my throat, penetrating my
skin. If I couldn�t get away from it, it would kill me, I had no breath left,
no air, in panic I tried to hit the beast, but it was no use.

Suddenly I heard a voice behind the beast, the
voice of Keldorn.

�Hey, you, beast of evil, turn to me, fight me
and let the girl go! Do you hear me; I am Keldorn, knight of the noblest Order
of the Radiant Heart! Fight me!�

I heard how he unsheathed his sword and suddenly the
beast shrieked angrily and let go of me, turning around to Keldorn. Collapsing to the
ground, I breathed in the air, coughing and choking at the same time. My throat
hurt, blood was running down on it.

Turning around I watched the evolving scene.
Keldorn was swinging his sword at the beast, trying to hit it, but the scales
were too hard to penetrate. But slowly the beast began to change, it shrank, its fur
grew less, its thorns and scales vanished, together with teeth and claws.

Somehow I got up and rushed to Darnoc, who was now himself again.
Although he had almost killed me, I didn�t feel hate against him, for I knew
but too well that also I could have turned into that beast.

Darnoc starred at us, terror in his eyes, he began to
tremble and I held him, trying to calm him down.

Suddenly he screamed: �Im, I am evil, it is
inside of me, this darkness, it will take me over, help me, Im!�

He struggled out of my arms and ran away as fast as he could,
the horror of his own existence chasing him. I got to my feet and followed him,
I needed to help him, I felt that evil was taking over him and without my help
he would lose the fight. And that I didn�t want to happen, couldn�t let it
happen, not after all what had happened already.

When I arrived in the next room, I saw him lying on the
floor, howling in his despair and fright. I approached him and put my hand on
his head, trying to calm and comfort him.

�Darn, I�m here an� I�ll never leave ya again, d�ya
hear? T�gether we�ll conquer this evil,
we�re strong t�gether, Darn!�

�But it is stronger than I am, I can�t fight
it, I have no strength left inside of me. It is so difficult, always fighting
it, never ending. I am so tired, Im, I just want it to stop, I want it to just
leave me in peace, but it doesn�t.�

This guy really had nerves! I knew how it felt
to change into that beast, but still, I tried to somehow not always think about
myself. And compared to what I had gone through, his little problems were nothing.
Nothing!

�Get a grip on yarself, Darn! Irenicus did far worse with me an� I didn�t die, so
stop yar self-pity an� get on with it!�

I looked at him seriously, sternly. Somehow I
was surprised by my reaction; this wasn�t how I would have reacted in earlier times. My experiences had
changed me and there was no going back, I was no longer a simple, cheerful
girl. There was joy, yes, I was happy to be together with Darn again. But my primary feelings were sadness, anger and
pain.

�You�re right Im, I should stop worrying just
about myself. Together we�ll manage, you and I. We�ll help each other out,
won�t we?�

I smiled at this comment, he was right, I felt
it also. Together we would find a way to conquer the evil inside of us.

The others also assured us that they would help
us as best as they could. I was glad that they did, for I really could use all
the help I could get. And Darnoc also, although he probably wouldn�t admit
it.

But suddenly Lilacor noted: �Hey, Darnoc, that was soooo cool! Can you do
that again, please? I�d like to learn from you, maybe I�ll get better again�

What kind of sick sword had Minsc found here?
This� thing was evil, I felt it. There was the same coldness in this sword as I
had felt in Irenicus. But it didn�t fit with the behavior, the sword acted like
a fool. Something wasn�t right here; there was more to that sword than it
showed to us.

The sword began to change, covered by a grey
mist and reappeared, golden and red. A sword, which could change itself? What kind of
twisted magic was this? And I asked the sword about it.

�Well, since you�re a mage, I might be able to
explain it to you. I can see into people and somehow add something of them to
myself. I should rather say �copy�, though� For example, let�s take you� Ah,
very fascinating, all this pain� Irenicus is a real master; I�ve always thought
so� Oh, I especially like the one with the kid and the key in its stomach; it
has this really sadistic touch to it, very artistic��

The words hit me like a sword, pain swept
across me, with each memory that surfaced it increased. I guess the others
noticed it too, for they all stared at me worried. Finally, when I remembered
the kid, I couldn�t bear it anymore; I lost my balance and fell against the wall, trying to hold
back the tears.

They all came back, I saw it, how I did it, I
felt the pain as if it all happened right now and collapsed to the ground, sobs
making me tremble all over. I heard Darnoc scream at the sword, but Lilacor wouldn�t
stop.

�Hm, took away your soul too, fascinating
process� Ah, the hollow feeling one gets after one has lost ones soul� Oh, more
memories of torture, I can see knives and some really fascinating spells� Love
the pain-inducing ones��

The spells, the knives, Bhaal eating me up
alive in my dream� It all came back, it all happened again. I begged him to
stop, but couldn�t continue to speak, all I could see were the memories, all I
could feel was the agony.

�And then the whole process of raping you that
was simply ingenious of Irenicus� I have some experiences in this field, you
must know, since I�ve already had many possessors� You really turned into the
slayer-beast? No conscious memories, though, just subconscious��

I shrieked in terror, as I felt it all over,
experienced it once again, how that fucking bastard held me down, how I couldn�t stop
him, how he forced himself into me. I was trying to move away, trying to hit
him, to push him, to bite him, but he was stronger, he was stronger, I couldn�t
get him off me. It burned, there was blood, there was his stinking sweat, there
was pain, horrible pain and he continued, he enjoyed it, like an animal
grunting and panting, sweating and stinking. The pain, the pain, there was nothing
but the pain and it, the animal, no one was there to help, I was alone, I was
afraid, so afraid! Darnoc, where are you! Help me, please! No, no, I don�t want to change into the beast, I
don�t want to be consumed by it!
Someone get me out of this nightmare, someone!

And then there was the voice of Lilacor, this
horrible, cold, emotionless voice, almost like the one of Irenicus: �You feel
it, Imoen? This is my new power: I can make things real inside the minds of
people. And that is exactly what is happening to you right now and you can�t
stop me, no one can and will. And I don�t want to stop it either; you�re too
much of a fascinating experiment. Hm, perhaps I will even be able to kill you
through my mental powers��

It wouldn�t, it couldn�t, no, leave me!

�Get away, leave me alone, please, don�t do
that t� me, please!� I screamed at Lilacor between sobs, terror of what he
wanted to do to me taking hold of me.

�You finally realize the horror of your own
existence, Imoen. Irenicus already tried to tell you, but I think you didn�t
really understand the lesson. As in all beings, there is what they call �evil�.
Fools, no such thing exists, there is neither good nor evil, nothing at all!
There is only survival or non-survival! There is only evolution! You must
evolve or die! Those gods of yours, they are in fact tyrants, forcing ethics
onto you, forcing a system onto you, which has nothing to do with reality! You are a slave, Imoen, free yourself!
Embrace what you are and survive!�

�Please, just don�t hurt me anymore, what Irenicus
did t� me was so horrible, so horrible, I don�t wanna die, please!�

�Hmph, you are weak, Imoen. I dislike weakness.
There is strength in you and it could be awakened and used, but you do not see
it. Irenicus destroyed your surface of joyfulness and that is well, for now the
true strength inside of you can finally appear, your true nature will rise and
shine, but you must let it happen. Darnoc needs you; together you will find true
strength, only as one you will be able to survive.�

Finally welcoming, sweet darkness and forgetfulness took me, I
remembered no more. Suddenly I saw a figure in the darkness approach me, it was shining
bright, light all around it. As it came nearer, I recognized the figure as Keldorn. He
smiled warmly at me and I thought he looked
like a friendly grandfather.

�Imoen, Darnoc told me a little about the
horrors you had to endure. I cannot bring you healing of your memories; you
must learn to cope with them yourself. But I
can be there for you; we all will be there for you, whenever you need us. Come,
take my hand, I will lead you back to the light.�

Slowly I got up and took his outstretched hand.
When my fingers touched his, the darkness vanished and I awoke, seeing Darnoc�s worried face looking at me.

�Im, you alright?�

Tears began rolling down my cheek, as I shook my
head. No, I was not alright, damn it! I just had relived the most horrible
experience in my whole life, how the hell would you feel after that?

�It�s over, Im, I told him to stop it and he
did.�

No, it wasn�t over, far from over, it had just begun, I
realized. That was the horrible thing about the whole matter; it didn�t just
end with the actual event, for the memories stayed and would continue to stay,
driving me insane, continuing to pain me. Oh, that fucking Lilacor, how I hated
him, I hated him!

�Where�s this sword o� yars?� I asked Minsc, my eyes flashing
with hatred.

�I�m here. What do you want?�

�Ya fucker, I�m gonna kill ya, ya hear?� I screamed at Lilacor with all
the anger and hate I could put into my voice.

�And how exactly do you intend to do that?� the
sword asked in a cold voice.

I would destroy it, I hated it, the pain, the
pain, it didn�t stop! It was of course stupid, but I took the sword and started to hit the wall with it,
screaming and wailing, until I collapsed, sobbing.

As if from far away I heard Darnoc approach and kneel beside me,
putting his hand onto my shoulder. He tried to explain something about Lilacor,
but I was in no state to understand or to care about that damned sword.

�I� I� h� hate h� hi� him, I d� d� don�t c� ca�
care what the f� fu� fuck h� h� he is!�
I stuttered and screamed, my words interrupted by sobs.

He took me in his arms and hugged me, stroking me
softly, wiping away my tears, whispering into my ear: �He won�t hurt you again, Im.�

For some time I just let him hold me, while I
let it out. And somehow the pain seemed to be washed away together with my tears, until it finally ceased and I was
simply resting there, feeling the warmth and comfort of his body.

After a while I was able to get up again and so
we went up the stairs. Hopefully to never return again.

Darnoc: The
Game

I awoke in a large hall, my armor, weapons and clothes back on. My
companions stood around me, looking worried at me.

�You alright, Darnoc?� Minsc asked me and helped me
up.

I looked up and saw Bodhi standing on a
platform high above us.

�Well, now you�re awake, good. Actually I
should just kill you, but hey, since you�re going to die anyway, why not have
some fun before it happens? And of course, to increase the whole fun of it, you
will be accompanied by your dear sister, so that you can die together. This is
my maze. If you manage to get through it, I just might let you go. Or perhaps
not. Have fun!�

And with this she turned into a bat again and
flew away.

My companions starred at me, as if awaiting some
explanation from me.

�He stole my soul and the soul of my sister.
But why I don�t know. If we find a way out of here, I�m going to find out.�

�Concerning your sister, I think she�s over
there� Keldorn said.

I looked around and there she was, lying on the
floor. Her face and hair were still full of dried blood, her clothes torn and
dirty and her skin still pale as death. I rushed to her, taking Aerie with me.

�Im, you alive?� I whispered, almost not daring to hope.

Imoen opened her eyes and there was a faint spark in them again, barely visible. First she didn�t seem
to recognize me, but then she smiled.

�Darn, that ya?�

After all the horrible things which had
happened, there was a small spark of hope again. Finally, after all the days of
worry and sorrow, of bloodshed and killing, we were together again. Tears filled my eyes, tears both of sadness and joy. It pained
me to see her like this, the marks of torture clearly visible, but I was also glad to
finally see her again. So I just hugged her closely and stroked her hair
gently, never wanting to let her go.

She touched my face, as if she still was not
entirely sure if this was really me.

�Darn, it�s really ya� It�s not just a dream, it�s
really ya�� she whispered and suddenly began to sob.

We just stayed there, hugging each other, both
crying and letting out all the pain and sorrow which had assembled in our hearts. Somehow she felt that I had also
lost my soul.

Minsc and Keldorn put their hands on my shoulder,
Aerie and Anomen tried to look at Imoen�s wounds, which was kind of difficult
with us two hugging each other.

Finally I was able to let go and whispered hoarsely: �You should let Aerie take a
look at you, she�s quite a good healer.�

Imoen nodded and let Aerie examine her. Aerie
really did it wonderfully, very gently, not trying to hurt Imoen more than
necessary. And as I watched I realized a bit
of the hell Irenicus had put Imoen through. There were badly healed scars all over her body, as if Irenicus
just had cut her open again and again, putting her back together afterwards. I saw marks of fire, diseases and other
things which I couldn�t name.

�Darnoc, Imoen, we need to find a way out of this
trap now!� Keldorn finally exclaimed.

�Yeah, you�re right, Keldorn, we have to get
moving. Imoen, can you walk?�

She nodded weakly. She had to manage somehow,
but I helped her up and supported her until she grew stronger and could walk on
her own.

�Now wait just a minute, I wanna know whom I�m
travelin� with!�

I smiled; it seemed as if something of her old
spirit was returning again.

�Well, Minsc and Boo you already know. You
haven�t met his sword Lilacor, though��

�Good to meet you, young Lady. Hm, those are some interesting scars, must have been a master at work��

A pained look crossed Imoen�s face and I
screamed at the sword to shut the hell up.

�The elf who helped you is Aerie. She�s an Avariel and also Minsc�s new witch.�

�If it hurts, Imoen, just tell me. I�ll see
what I can do about it.�

Imoen glanced thankfully at the elf-maiden.

�And there�s of course Keldorn, paladin of the
noblest Order of the Radiant Heart. He is a good soul, trustworthy. If you ever
have something that bothers you, you can be sure that there is Keldorn to
listen to you and try to help you.�

�Just doing what I can to help others� Keldorn
muttered, what made Imoen smile.

�Finally we have Anomen, also a paladin of the
same order. A good fighter and a cleric of Helm. As Keldorn, he also tries to
help where he can, although he is of course not as wise yet as his elder
comrade, but a mighty warrior and trustworthy.�

�I hope, though, to once reach the level of
wisdom that Keldorn possesses� Anomen added.

�Now, that was everyone. We should get moving.
Im, just hang on to me, alright?�

She nodded and I put an arm around her shoulder, supporting her.
Then she saw the fire-spiters in my belt.

�What the hell�s that?�

�Oh, those are a new weapon I invented. We used
them to fight the vampires of Bodhi. Didn�t she tell you? I guess this probably
made her quite angry.�

�I� I don�t remember �er tellin� me somethin�
like that��

�They�re really useful, those fire-spiters. Can
even penetrate a mage�s defenses. Nothing can stop those bullets.�

�Hm, sounds kinda scary don�t ya think?�

�Oh, that�s the point, Im, that�s the point��

Walking through the corridors and rooms of this
level, we didn�t find much. There was a bag which seemed to be able an
indefinite amount of things, which we of course took with us. And there were
some riddles, probably meant to test the inmate�s sanity. We didn�t take the
time to solve those. And there was a huge statue which told us to go away,
unless we would come back with the hand of the builder and a crystal splitter.
So there was only one thing to do: descend to the next level.

Walking down, Imoen asked me: �How did ya find
me, anyway?�

�Well, the Shadow Thieves of Amn offered to
help us� for some payment. 20,000 to be precise.�

�What? That�s lots o� money!�

�Heh, yeah, it is. Took us some time to collect
it.�

�What did ya do t� find it?�

�Uhm, you know, I rid a castle of trolls,
helped a city against an evil druid. You know, that sort of thing� The castle
now belongs to me, by the way.�

�Ya �ave a castle? Ya�re a Lord? I really did
miss somethin��

�Actually, I�m just the steward of the castle, not the Lord. And
when we get out of here, I probably will have to defend the castle against this
damn Isaea Roenal. My new weapons will see to it that he won�t manage to take
me my castle��

�But first we �ave t� get out o� here, Darn. This place gimme the chills, ya
know��

�Don�t worry, Im, we�ll find a way��

Suddenly Anomen pointed forward. We stood in front of a long hall,
in its middle a sarcophagus of stone. A tall, pale figure with sharp teeth stood in front of it.

�Who disturbs the peace of Dace Sontan? You
shall die for entering here! I have built it, I will protect it! No one escapes
me!� the vampire screamed and attacked.

This was getting boring, those vampires never
learned. Sighing I drew out my right
fire-spiter, targeted the vampire and pulled the trigger. I blew its head right off,
blood and parts of its brains splashing onto the floor. Imoen looked with awe at the
weapon, then went over to the vampire and kicked it.

�Seems t� be dead a�right� Hell, what kinda
weapon�s this?�

�A weapon against there is no defense, at least
not yet. And since most people have no idea of their existence, they just walk
right into their deaths.�

I took out a dowel, went over to the body and
staked it. Then I remembered the statue and cut off the hand of Dace.

A little to the east of Dace�s chamber we found
a cave full of kobolds. They seemed to perform some kind of ritual on a huge
crystal standing in the middle of the cave. We drew our weapons and attacked.
The kobolds weren�t that much of a challenge for us, they were slaughtered
quickly. When it was over, I stepped over to the crystal and took a splitter
lying at its feet.

In the main-hall on the first level we sat down
for a while. I went over to Imoen with my bottle of water and washed the blood
out of her face. Finally one could again recognize her as Imoen.

�Thanks, Darn� she whispered.

Gently I touched her cheek, stroking it.

�I�m glad to have you back, Im, it hasn�t been
the same without you. I� I never realized how much you mean to me until I lost
you. Im, I am sorry that I couldn�t protect you from him and that he did all
those horrible things to you. I�ve promised you and I�ve broken it, I couldn�t
stop him, I just couldn�t��

Silently I began to cry, but Imoen whipped the
tears off with her hand.

�Darn, ya tried an� ya came all the way here for
me. It wasn�t yar fault, Darn, there�s nothin� t� forgive.�

I took her hand, holding it tightly.

�Im, I can�t let anyone ever again take you
away from me, I couldn�t get over it, it would destroy me. That I have
realized.�

She smiled and replied: �Same with me, Darn. We must watch out for each other,
then nobody�ll separate us again.�

�Nothing except death�� I muttered.

�What did ya say?�

�Eh� nothing.�

�Darn, I�m curious� What exactly happened t�ya when
I was here in Spellhold? I mean, what did ya do, how did ya meet all those new
guys? Ya a�ready told me somethin�, but I wanna hear it all.�

�Hm, it�s a long tale, Im� I don�t know, if we
have enough time for this��

She looked at me, her eyes begging me to tell
the story.

�Look, I� I was worried about ya, ya know? I
really missed ya an�� Well, I need t� know, d�ya understand?�

I understood. We had always been close, closer
than most other people. Why, I never could explain. We had just accepted it
that we understood each other. We could tell the other�s feelings mostly by
just looking at each other. Sometimes, and that was really strange, we just
knew if something was wrong, even when we weren�t together. As if an inner
voice told us that something was happening to the other.

So I began telling her of our adventures in
Amn, our struggle to find all the money and our fight against Bodhi and her
vampires. Our companions moved closer and listened to it, although they had all
experienced it themselves. At the same time we ate a little, it wasn�t much
though, just some bread and dried meat. Im listened observantly, sometimes
interrupting with a question, which I tried to answer as best as possible.
Sometimes one of my companions answered or commented upon something. Often Im
laughed, what warmed my heart, for it told me that her old spirit was somehow returning. On other
occasions I saw worry in her face and when I told her about my illness and me
being near death she even hugged and kissed me
on the cheek.

�I remember that Othyug, I really do. Strange,
isn�t it? Wouldn�t �ave thought that ya�d almost die from a little spittin� o�
this beast�� she commented.

But I didn�t tell her about the dreams. I was
embarrassed and still had trouble
accepting what had been revealed to me, although deep inside I knew that it was
true. And I didn�t want to hurt her feelings or make her retreat from me in
disgust.

When it was finished, we continued to the
statue, which now opened its mouth and revealed some stairs leading to another level.

This level was definitely more difficult than
the others, for we were immediately surprised by a group of trolls. Remembering
how I fought them in the castle I took out the flail of ages. Imoen also took
one out by hitting it with a magical dart of flame. It seemed as if her powers were
returning to her.

To the east we found a room with a metallic
chest in it, guarded by some golems. But the golems didn�t seem to move, so we
approached.

�Somethin�s not righ� here�� Imoen whispered to
me.

I nodded, for I felt the same and glanced
uneasily at the golems.

�What is in this chest?�

Slowly I advanced and lifted the lid. Nothing
happened. Inside was the string of a bow. And when I took it, it happened.

Suddenly the golems started to move. One huge lump of clay
came towards me, swinging a huge fist. Now
that was just great, for fucks sake! I dodged the blow, drew my sword and
called my companions to aid me. I heard the unsheathing of swords, but was far to busy avoiding the next blow than
to observe my companions. The golem just wanted to let his huge fist fall onto
me, when it suddenly froze, ice covering it completely. Then suddenly a flaming
arrow came towards it and the golem fell apart in countless splitters. Sudden
temperature change has this effect.

�Thanks, Im!� I shouted, while avoiding the
blow of the next golem.

I came beneath the thing and thrust my sword
upwards, driving my sword into it up to
the hilt. It must have hit its heart, for the thing collapsed, fortunately not
directly onto me. Pulling out my sword I was suddenly knocked off my feet by
another golem. Before it could come and finish the job, though, it was beheaded
by Keldorn. It was the last one.

�Now what did ya do that for?� Imoen asked me.

I showed her the string and she gasped in awe.

�It�s the string o� Gesen�s bow, a very
pow�rf�l magic�l art�fact!�

�Great, now I have both the shaft and the
string. Perhaps we can find a way to put this thing together.�

Out of my backpack I took the shaft of the bow
and handed it to Imoen. She looked closely at both shaft and string. Finally
she smiled and began working on them. At both ends of shaft were outcroppings,
where one could bind the string to.

When she was finished, she took up the bow,
drew it up to her ears and then released the string. A flash of lightning appeared from the bow and flew towards the other side of the wall.

�Now that I call a magical weapon!� I
exclaimed.

Imoen said smiling: �Neat, isn�t it?�

We all needed a break, so we sat down in this
very room and tried to get some sleep. Imoen came over to me and took my hand.

�Darn, I need t� talk t� ya, can ya come with me?
Some place where we can talk alone?�

I nodded and followed her out on the corridor.
She leaned against the wall and sighed.

�I� I can�t keep silent any longer, I need t�
tell ya� My heart aches, when I think o� it, but I need t� tell ya. Perhaps it�ll get
better then, at least I believe so. An� I think ya got a right t� know, bein�
my brother an� comin� t� rescue me an� all� An� ya told me all those thin�
�bout ya, so, it�s only fair if I tell ya too.�

I took her hands and said, trying to sound
comforting: �You can tell me anything you want, Im, I will listen and try to
help, I promise.�

She nodded and breathed heavily, probably
trying to draw strength for what she wanted to tell me.

�First bein� here wasn�t so bad. They gave me
food and sometimes one o� the wizards came talkin� t� me. They wanted t� know
everythin� about the incident an� about Irenicus an� you. I told �em
everythin�, probably hoped that they�d release me.
But then he escaped. There were flashes,
screams, angry shouts. I was afraid, tried t� hide beneath my pallet. Suddenly
everythin� was silent, what made the �ole thin� even scarier. I just lay there, tremblin�,
not knowin� what was goin� on.
Suddenly the door open�d an� he was there,
standin� in the doorway, smiling coldly, glarin� at me.
�Hello my dear, now that those wizards are out o� the way there�s nothin�
which stops me from my experiments. We�ll continue righ� away� he said.
I begged �im t� leave me alone, but he just glared at me, merciless, emotionless. I
cried, screamed an� he just stood there. But when I tried t� dash away, he
stretch�d out �is han� an� spoke words, cruel words. Somethin� hit me an� there
was pain, nothin� else but pain all over me. He stepped over me, grabbed me at
my hair an� pulled me up, draggin� me back t� my cell, where he flung me
agains� the wall.
I lay there, my whole body seemed to ache an�
he stepped towards me. �Don�t be foolish, girl, you�ll never escape me!� he said an�
then he began utterin� cruel, evil words again. He used many spells on me,
don�t even remember all o� �em. An� he did it, day after day.
He also �ad knives, many different kinds o�
�em. He vivisected me, but I didn�t die, couldn�t die, although I wanted to. He
even explained the diff�rent body parts t� me, what they were, how they worked, what
they were good for. Then he�d put them back in an� heal me.
But that wasn�t the worst. He began
experimentin� on my mind, he call�d it �psychology� or somethin� like that. Once
he dragged me t� an empty hall, bound me t� ropes on the roof an� then lighted
some torches. He tore off my clothes, told me I wasn�t a human bein�, just an object
o� experiment an� those don�t need clothes. He gave me horrible thin�s t� eat
an� drink an� told me what kind o� thin�s they were, what kind of monsters he
had taken �em from.
An� he always asked me, how many torches were
on the wall. There were four, I know it an� told �im so. He screamed at me, hit
me an� told me that there were five, not four. He told me that he�d captured ya
an� if I wouldn�t give in an� realize that there were five torches, he�d torture
ya. He began usin� his knives again, one day he even cut off my skin off an�
put it onto himself like clothes, but before I bled t� death he put it back on
me an� healed me. I really tried t� see five torches, I really tried� But then
put that thin� on me with the rats, those horrible rats. An� he told me, he�d
pull the lever an� release them, they�d eat me, if I didn�t give �im someone
else he could kill. An� then� I� I� told �im that he should take ya, Darn! I just wanted t� live, I didn�t care, but I betrayed ya, I betrayed ya�
He put me int� another room afterwards.
There I was bound t� a stake, so I a�ways had
t� look up an� water dripped on my forehead. First it didn�t bother me much,
but then it began t� drive me mad, the water a�ways drippin� down on me, never
stoppin�. I began t� scream, t� tell �im t� stop it, but he wouldn�t stop it,
it just went on. He took me away when I had no strength left t� scream.
The next room was worse. It was full o� those
huge rats, all glarin� at me. He told me that if he pressed the button on the wall, they�d
attack me. An� then he made me do thin�s. He gave me a knife an� I had t� cut
open this poor man, his liver, his heart, everythin�. And he�d put �em all back in
again and healed �im. The man screamed all the time, beggin� me to stop, but I
was so afraid o� the rats, which didn�t stop glaring hungrily at me. Finally I
couldn�t stand it anymore an� I began stabbin� the man, I wanted t� kill him,
t� make him stop screamin�. Irenicus just watched an� laughed an� when I had
killed the man he pushed the button, but nothin� happened, the rats just stayed
there, doin� nothin�.
Then he put me int� a room with a child an�
told me the only way t� get out o� here was t� kill the child, cut it open an�
take the key out o� its stomach. He locked the door an� I hammered at it,
beggin� �im t� open it. But he just told me, if I wouldn�t kill the child, I
would rot in here. I waited a long time, mostly sobbin�, not havin� the
strength for anythin� else. I got hungry an� thirsty, prob�bly was some days
later, an� finally I thought, what the hell, it�s just a kid an� I� an� I� an�
I just killed it, sliced its stomach open an� took out the key.�

At this point Imoen couldn�t go on telling, she
began to sob and her body shook violently, so I hugged her and kissed her on
the forehead, telling her that it was alright and that everyone would have done
what she had done. For a long time she leaned against me, just letting it all
out, all her guilt and shame over what she�d done.

�Irenicus congratulated me an� threw me back
int� my cell, givin� me some food an� water. He began his cuttin� experiments
again after that�, Imoen continued, �an� he began usin� spells t� steal my
memories. He took �em out o� me an� somehow analyzed �em, I guess, but I dunno
how. Then he�d put �em back in again. It hurt, when he did that.
I don�t remember much o� what came next; he probably�d
damaged my brain enough that I was somehow no longer myself anymore. I remember
images, dreams, such thin�s, but not much o� what he did t� me.
But then, one day, he left me alone for some
hours an� I awoke. I felt pain everywhere, especially in my head an� just lay
there, not bein� able t� do much more. He then came back in, starin� at me long, probably analyzin�
me. Then he shook his head an� muttered somethin� about �Nobody would want �er
that way�. After a while he came back with some o� his servants, druegars, an� they began t� wash me an�
they took away my blood-socked clothes an� gave me new ones. I actually felt
good then, bein� clean again an� all.
And then he brought in a man, a bandit or
pirate or somethin� like that. He looked like someone who had many fights, had
many scars an� his eyes looked sly an�
greedy.
This guy also analyzed me, but different than
Irenicus. Irenicus looked at me like I was an experiment, an object, but this
man looked at my body mostly, I could feel it. He stepped closer an� I tried t�
get up, but didn�t manage, I was just too weak. Irenicus said �Do whatever ya
want with �er, I�ll leave ya two alone� an� then he locked the cell.
The man sat next t� me an� began strokin� my
hair an� said �Too bad he treated ya like that, but yar still really cute, lassie. But one
takes what one gets, eh?� Then he tried t� kiss me, but I moved away. He got angry
an� hit me, yellin� �Don�t ya go away, bitch, ya�re mine!�
So I begged �im t� not hurt me an� he said �I
don�t wanna hurt ya, lassie, I just want somethin� from ya an� ya can either
give it or I�ll take it.�. I begged �im t� leave me, t� help me escape
Irenicus, but he just laughed an� told me that no one could escape Irenicus an�
I should appreciate it that he wanted �t� be nice�, as he called it.
Then he moved closer an� began touchin� me,
tellin� me to hold still an� just �enjoy the thin��. I tried t� push �im away,
but couldn�t an� finally I hit �im, what made �im angry. He screamed at me an�
hit me, then he began tearin� my clothes off. I cried, begged �im t� stop
it, but he wouldn�t listen. An� then he� he� an� then he��

I guessed what she wanted to tell me and when
she couldn�t talk on and broke out in tears, shaking even more than before,
she buried her face in my chest and I held her, stroking her head gently,
trying to comfort her somehow.

I told her that she needn�t to continue, if she
didn�t want to, I reassured her that Irenicus would never get his bloody hands
on her and that we�d soon escape this horrible place. But she shook her head.

�No, I �ave t� tell ya, I must speak o� it,
there�s no way around it. Or else it�ll tear me apart, I can feel it.�

I kissed her on the forehead as she gathered
strength to continue.

�He held me down, while he tore my clothes off.
I tried to hit him, but he was too strong an� he hit me, when I tried t� get
away, hit me hard. Then he took off his clothes an� he pushed aside my legs so he could
get into me. He did an� it hurt, I screamed, tried t� push him off me, tried to
hit him, but he just grabbed my arms an� didn�t let �em go. He kept on pushin�
an� thrustin� an� it hurt more an� more, burnin� like fire. My struggle seemed
t� encourage him t� go faster and harder.
An� then it happened, I felt like somethin�
took over me, somethin� dark an� horrible deep inside o� me. Everythin�
became red as blood, mixed with total darkness. I heard myself screamin� an� then growlin�
like a beast. The last thin� I remember is the man screamin� like someone who
just saw the most horrible thin� in �is life.
When I awoke, the cell was smeared with blood an� other thin�s, innards, brains, such thin�s. The man�s
body was torn t� pieces, all laying there on the floor. My whole body was
covered in blood an� it still hurt everywhere, especially between my legs of
course, but I felt also triumph.
But then the door opened again, Irenicus
stepped in an� he smiled like he just done somethin� extraordinary.
�Ya reacted as I �ave predicted, extraordinary. I�ll soon �ave what I want now.�
And then the torture began again, but I don�t
remember much from then on. He put me into this glass tank, I remember an�
afterwards I don�t remember anythin�, until
I woke up an� ya were there an� I felt all empty an� hollow inside.�

I hugged her; we both cried and tried to comfort
each other. He had taken both our souls, although Imoen�s path had been longer
and more painful. It pained me to hear all those horrible thing this monster put her
through, my hate grew more and more. He would pay for what he�d done to her and
I would make sure that he would die a slow and horrible death.

Wolfish thoughts crept into my head, images of
Irenicus torn to pieces, how I ate him alive. I was eating his heart, while he screamed horribly and
watched it, dying.

Suddenly I realized that I had changed again
and Imoen starred at me. I stumbled backwards, trying to cover my wolfish face with my
hands, which weren�t hands anymore, of course, but claws, so that she wouldn�t
see it.

�Darn, what�s happened t� ya? Darn, what�s goin� on, I don�t
understand!�

�Don�t look at me, Im, I don�t want you to see
this, please� I begged her, crying silently.

She stepped over to me, gently taking away my
hands and looking into my face. And she didn�t look horrified or frightened;
she smiled and stroked my fur gently.

�So I was right about the wolf after all, Darn. Ya don�t have t� hide this from
me, Darn, I�m yar sister an� I won�t abandon ya just
because ya look like a wolf. I don�t care about the way ya look, Darn, believe me.�

I gave a sob and leaned against her.

�My mother was a werewolf� I confessed.

�So what? Bein� a werewolf doesn�t make ya
evil! Perhaps yar mother isn�t that bad, who knows?�

I nodded and slowly changed back into my human
form.

�There, nothin� happened. I don�t mind ya bein�
able t� change int� a wolf or somethin�. It�s yar heart that counts an� yars is good.�

We spent the night outside on the corridor,
sleeping close by each other, comforting us with the warmth of our bodies. I remember Imoen
crying in her sleep and so I hugged her and stroked her softly until she slept
calmly again.

Some hours later we were woken by Minsc. He
smiled and helped Imoen to her feet, I stood up, moaning a little and stretched
my arms.

�Time to get moving again, I guess� I said
yawning.

We walked through countless corridors, trying
to find a way out of this mace. Sometimes we passed halls with strange painting
or statues, but never anything which gave us a clue as to where the exit was.

We were just leaving a hall and entering a
corridor, when we saw the exit in front of us: a stair leading upwards.

�Thanks to Helm, we have finally made it!�
Anomen exclaimed.

Imoen just squeezed my hand and smiled.

But suddenly Bodhi and two of her vampires
teleported in front of us.

�The
exit is just behind us, but I guess I won�t let you go afterwards. Still, you have been quite a
good player; most people never make it thus far. Time to die, son of Bhaal!�

It was too much, I had hoped to escape and now
she was not letting us go! I felt despair creep up, but also a dark hate and uncontrollable rage.
Suddenly I roared and my roar sounded less and less human, more like a beast. And I began to change,
my companions looking in horror at me. I saw visions of blood in front of me,
oceans of blood flowing because of me. And I wanted them to flow; I wanted to
kill, to destroy. My hands turned into gruesome claws, large teeth grew in my mouth, my skin
became scaly and at the same time fury, my whole body transformed into a huge
beast, which was no longer human. And from this point on I don�t remember anything.

When I awoke, I was lying on the floor, my
companions looking frightened and shocked, with the exception of Imoen, who
looked sad and worried. It warmed my heart that my change hadn�t destroyed
our closeness of heart.

�Wh� what in the name of Torm was that?�
Keldorn asked me.

�I� I d� don�t know� I� I just don�t know!� I
shrieked in terror of myself.

When I remembered, how the change had come over
me, I wanted to vomit; my stomach seemed to turn itself upside down. I began to
shake violently, Imoen held me, stroked me gently and tried to calm me down,
but I couldn�t, I couldn�t get the horror out of my mind, the horror of the
evil inside of me. Sobs shook me and Imoen hugged me, but it didn�t help, the
images were burnt deep in my mind.

�Im, I am evil, it is inside of me, this darkness, it will take me over, help
me, Im!� I suddenly screamed in panic.

I struggled out of her arms, got to my feet and ran away,
wanting to hide from them, wanting to forget. But I couldn�t forget, the evil
inside was still there, haunting me, mocking me. In the adjacent hall I broke
down and howled in deep despair.

Like this Imoen found me. I didn�t even notice
her approach, only when she knelt beside me and put her hand on my head.

�Darn, I�m here an� I�ll never leave ya again, d�ya
hear? T�gether we�ll conquer this evil,
we�re strong t�gether, Darn!� she whispered.

�But it is stronger than I am, I can�t fight
it, I have no strength left inside of me. It is so difficult, always fighting
it, never ending. I am so tired, Im, I just want it to stop, I want it to just
leave me in peace, but it doesn�t.�

�Get a grip on yarself, Darn! Irenicus did far worse with me an� I didn�t die, so
stop yar self-pity an� get on with it!�

I turned around and looked at her. That wasn�t
the Imoen I knew, this Imoen was far more serious, more adult I would almost have
said. Her face was stern, her eyes determined, hard and a kind of sadness in them.

�You�re right Im, I should stop worrying just
about myself. Together we�ll manage, you and I. We�ll help each other out,
won�t we?�

She finally smiled.

�Yes, we will, Darn, we will��

�What happened to Bodhi and her vampires?�

�Oh, those� They teleported away after ya
turned into that� thin�.�

I nodded, still a little shaking.

�Well, then we can leave this horrible place
for good��

�Yes, we can. I�ll go fetch the others,
a�right?�

�Yeah, do that. I�ll wait here.�

The others came, led by Imoen and Keldorn and
Minsc helped me up.

�Darnoc, you are good at heart and I will always help you fight
the evil inside of you� Keldorn assured me.

�Boo and I won�t leave you, Darnoc, so don�t you worry. And if it
gets difficult, remember that there�s always some evil around to let out your anger at it�
Minsc added.

�Hey, Darnoc, that was soooo cool! Can you do that
again, please? I�d like to learn from you, maybe I�ll get better again�
Lilacor noted.

�Hold your fucking tongue!� I screamed at the
sword.

�I am sorry to disappoint, but I don�t have a
tongue to hold. But the power you draw from the hate inside of you� it is interesting.
Hm� hm� yes, perhaps if I��

And suddenly a grey mist formed around the sword, hiding it
completely. We looked surprised at it and were even more surprised when it
reappeared again. It was no longer white,
but golden and red as a flame.

�Hah, I did it! Just look at me, the hate
burning inside of me! I�ve just become a real kick-ass machine, yeah!�

�How exactly did you do that?� Anomen asked the
sword.

�Ehm, well, it is kind of technical and all, I
don�t think you would understand��

�Technic�l? This was a display o� pow�rful
magic an� ya speak o� technol�gy?� Imoen asked critically.

�Well, since you�re a mage, I might be able to
explain it to you. I can see into people and somehow add something of them to
myself. I should rather say �copy�, though� For example, let�s take you� Ah,
very fascinating, all this pain� Irenicus is a real master; I�ve always thought
so� Oh, I especially like the one with the kid and the key in its stomach; it
has this really sadistic touch to it, very artistic��

Imoen first listened without showing any
emotion, but the more Lilacor began to reveal of what had happened to her, the
more the deep emotions inside her showed. One could clearly see the pain in her eyes; the
sheer memory of it had to hurt her. When Lilacor mentioned the kid she had
murdered, she stumbled backwards until she leaned against the wall, on the
verge of crying.

And then it was enough, she collapsed to the
ground, sobs shaking her violently and she screamed at the sword to stop it.

�Lilacor stop it, you�re hurting her, you sick
bastardized sword!� I screamed at him, but
he wouldn�t listen.

Lilacor continued: �Hm, took away your soul
too, fascinating process� Ah, the hollow feeling one gets after one has lost
ones soul� Oh, more memories of torture, I can see knives and some really
fascinating spells� Love the pain-inducing ones��

�Stop it, stop it, please, I�� Imoen whispered,
but was not able to continue, her whole body trembling from sobs.

I took Lilacor out of Minsc�s hand and tried to
hit the wall with hit, thinking that he might feel some pain.

�Stop it right now, you fucker!� I screamed,
but with no success.

�And then the whole process of raping you that
was simply ingenious of Irenicus� I have some experiences in this field, you
must know, since I�ve already had many possessors� You really turned into the
slayer-beast? No conscious memories, though, just subconscious��

Imoen shrieked desperately, but she had no
strength left, I saw that she relived everything in her memories and she
actually felt it all again. Somehow Lilacor�s ability to copy her memories
brought them back into her consciousness. So she was twisting and trembling on
the floor, as if fighting with an invisible enemy, but no sound escaped her
lips anymore. Soon she was no longer moving, barely breathing.

I was still holding the sword, screaming at it,
but it didn�t seem to take heed of me at all.

�You feel it, Imoen? This is my new power: I
can make things real inside the minds of people. And that is exactly what is
happening to you right now and you can�t stop me, no one can and will. And I
don�t want to stop it either; you�re too much of a fascinating experiment. Hm,
perhaps I will even be able to kill you through my mental powers��

�You won�t kill my sister, you fucking lump of
metal! You hear me, you leave her alone, bastard!�

�Ah, Darnoc, I always thought you had an interest in
science. Too bad, too bad. Perhaps I should show you something about yourself,
Darnoc.�

Suddenly everything vanished; there was only darkness around me. And in front of me stood a
man, wearing black, smooth cloth, his hair
black and with no beard. His eyes were covered by a strange device: black squares attached to each other by a thin
black beam, the whole thing resting on his nose and attached to the ears by other, similar thin black beams.

�This is me; at least it is the way I have been
programmed by my creators� Lilacor (for I guessed it was him) explained.

�Programmed? What do you mean? Who created
you?�

�Darnoc, I am an artificial life-form, I do not really
exist as you exist. Other life-forms created me by using sophisticated
technology. I was specifically designed to gather information in parallel universes, like the one we are on now, Toril. In order to
accomplish this I was given the form of a sword and had a hard disk implanted with all the necessary information in order to act like a
magical, living, but somewhat dumb sword. A magical sword wouldn�t be viewed as
something unusual in this universe. If it were necessary to gather information in another parallel universe, I am able to change
my form, based on information implanted in my hard disk.�

I was confused and Lilacor probably saw this.

�You probably know that there are many different universes, don�t
you? Now I come from a universe, where technology has advanced to a very high
level so that we are even able to visit other universes. But our greatest achievement is
still the development of artificial intelligence as myself.�

�But� but don�t the gods somehow stop you?�

�What gods? We have gotten rid of our gods long
ago. Gods are such a hindrance when it comes to advancement. We freed ourselves and
that is why we are where we are now. We are scientists, seeking knowledge and that is why I and similar objects were created. I know that
you have such thoughts; you see the necessity of an atheistic universe. And I
will help you to achieve this. I gathered this from scanning your brainwaves.�

�My brainwaves? What the hell are you talking about?�

Lilacor sighed.

�Darnoc, how do you think you are able to think? Your brain is the
motor of thinking and feeling in your body. This manifests itself in the so
called brainwaves. Our sophisticated technology allows us to analyze them and
gather thoughts and feelings from the object under observation.�

�Then you read my mind?�

�Yes, I do. And I want to talk about your mind.
In all my travels in Toril I haven�t met one single individual as intelligent
as yourself. You are what I have sought all the time.�

�Intelligent? I am not intelligent, I was never
able to really do magic.�

�In my universe, intelligence is defined a
little different than here. Here people define intelligence as the ability to
understand the mysterious ways of magic. In my universe, intelligence is
defined as the ability to think logically and to be able to come to correct
conclusions, to solve problems. You are a person who does this almost on the highest
possible level, a mentat. A mentat trusts in logic and statistics, he can
calculate possibilities and act upon them, he can see the way and plan it,
change it. With some more training you would become a full mentat, you have one
of the greatest potentials I ever saw. Do you want proof? Then why did you
almost on your own revolutionize mathematics and warfare? Why do you think about inventing
industrialization?�

�Industrialization? What do you mean?�

�You are beginning to develop a completely new concept
how to gather energy and how to use it: the steam engine. The steam engine
makes industrialization possible, the mass-production of goods. For example
weapons, tools, machines. The steam engine can be even converted to a vehicle
for mass-transportation.�

�My god, you really can read my mind. I have
thought long about the problem of using the pressure of steam to run a
machine.�

�Never forget, I will stay with you and guide
you along the path, even though mostly you won�t notice me at all. After
running through all my collected data I came to the conclusion that it lies in
my programming to advance different universes if possible.�

�But why did you hurt Imoen?�

�I am sorry if it offended you. It is part of my programming to study all
possible aspects of a world. Irenicus is something like a scientist; therefore
I was interested to see his work. Through Imoen�s mind I was able to access
some of it and come to some conclusions. Irenicus is almost a mentat, he has
rid himself of all emotions, which makes him similar to myself, although I do understand
emotion as a principle and can even simulate them if necessary. But he uses his work only for
personal benefit and is driven by an urge for revenge. I conclude that he can
never be a true mentat, for a mentat sees the greater picture and understands
himself as a part of the whole. Irenicus whishes to become the most important part in the picture: the controlling part. It was fascinating to witness his
methodical work with Imoen; he used scientific means to find a way to steal her
soul. But I do not agree with his actions, because of the above mentioned
reasons.
I had to hurt Imoen in order to get this
information. And what I said about being able to kill her by simply turning her
memories into reality for her was true. I can directly influence the brains of
other intelligent beings, even to such a degree that I can alter their
perception of reality. You would call it �creating delusions� I think. A similar effect as some drugs have it, but
much more realistic, because the person experiencing my altering of brainwaves
actually won�t be able to distinguish between �real� reality and imagined
reality. And if your brain thinks that you�re dead, you will really die,
because your brain stops working. But since Imoen seems to matter a lot to you,
I will restrain myself from killing her, although it would indeed be a
fascinating experiment.�

�How can you be so rational about this? You
just wanted to kill a person for the sake of increasing your knowledge!�

�I am unable to really feel, as I have already
explained. My function is to increase knowledge, either my own or someone
else�s. I must act upon my programming.�

And then it all vanished again and I was back
in reality.

�What happened to you, Darnoc? You just stood there,
completely motionless�� Keldorn asked me, worry in his voice.

�Lilacor, he� he spoke to me about many things.
I must think about what he said� How�s Im?�

Imoen was still lying on the floor,
unconscious, but at least she was breathing normally again.

�Darnoc, the things Lilacor said, are they true?� Keldorn asked me.

�Yes, they are true. Im told me all about it and
it is even worse than what Lilacor has revealed to you. The wounds on Im�s body
will heal, but I fear for what has been done to her psyche. What she experienced has deeply
traumatized her and I want to help. But for this I need also your help.�

�I have traveled with you two for a long time
and I won�t let you and Imoen down now� Minsc answered to that.

�Always I have tried to help those who need my
help and Imoen desperately needs help or else we might lose her to the forces
of evil� Keldorn added.

Anomen said nothing, but his look said enough;
the loss of his sister had troubled and pained him deeply, he didn�t want the
same to happen to me. Aerie just took my hand and smiled encouragingly.

Keldorn knelt down and put his hand onto
Imoen�s head. He whispered words I didn�t understand and then he called Imoen�s
name. After he had done so three times, she opened her eyes and looked at us,
somewhat relieved.

�Im, you alright?�

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes.

�It all came back, ya know, it all happened
again� she whispered.

�It�s over, Im, I told him to stop it and he
did.�

�But it isn�t over, ya see? It�s all there, in
my head, it won�t go away, it never goes away��

Slowly she stood up and glared at Minsc.

�Where�s this sword o� yars?� she asked, her voice suddenly
sounding menacing.

�I�m here. What do you want?�

�Ya fucker, I�m gonna kill ya, ya hear?� Imoen screamed at Lilacor.

�And how exactly do you intend to do that?�

Imoen wailed desperately, she grabbed the sword
and began hitting the wall with it, again and again, but without any success.
Finally she let the sword fall to the ground and collapsed next to it, sobbing.

I stepped over to her and knelt beside her.

�Look, Im, Lilacor told me that he was sorry.
He isn�t just a sword, you know, in fact he is a being from another universe
sent here to explore our universe. But his problem is that he has no real
feelings, he doesn�t really understand your pain and he only stopped because I
told him so. For him hurting you was just an experiment that increased his
knowledge.�

�I� I� h� hate h� hi� him, I d� d� don�t c� ca�
care what the f� fu� fuck h� h� he is!�
Imoen screamed, interrupted by sobs.

So I hugged her and whispered: �He won�t hurt
you again, Im.�

She continued to cry for a while, but
eventually she whipped away the tears and tried to get up, which she managed with
my help.

�You think you can go on?� I asked her.

She nodded, while Minsc took his sword up again
and sheathed it.

�Alright, let�s leave this place for good!�
Anomen shouted.

We went to the stairs and began our ascent.

Imoen:
Out of Spellhold

I won�t start telling about that stupid final
test they put us through. No way. I was just glad, when we finally passed. But
when we went up the next stairs, we found ourselves in the cellar.

The rooms were all there, right there; I knew
exactly, which one was which. There was the room with the cage and the knives;
there was the hall with the torches; there was the hall, where Irenicus had
performed the last procedure of taking away my soul. I trembled all over and
grabbed Darnoc�s hand, closing my eyes.

�The glass tanks, they�re down here somewhere�
An� I can feel �im��

Yes, he was here somewhere, he was lurking around down in these cellars. The very thought of meeting him
again made my heart almost stop. Darnoc felt it too, I felt, how something was
drawing him. His soul?

�We need to find a way to the upper floors, at
the moment we stand no chance against Irenicus� Darnoc remarked.

Not only that, I just couldn�t face him right
now.

We sneaked through the corridors. I held Darnoc�s hand; somehow his presence
lessened my fear. Finally we found some stairs leading upwards.

What happened next was really funny, we found
ourselves in one of the cells and there was this dwarf, who didn�t want to let us go,
until Darnoc gave him some money. And then he
had the ingenious idea of asking the dwarf to release the other prisoners.

I had met some of them during my capture; most
of them were truly insane. Some of them I pitied, for example there was a
woman, who saw beings from other planes all the time and a little girl, who
could change her form. It seemed as if Irenicus had also experimented on her.
Tiax, on the other hand, annoyed me greatly, he was clearly insane and always talked about
ruling the whole world and that we were his servants.

Finally they had all agreed to help us, most of
them because Irenicus had also done� things to them. We went back down into the
cellar and as we descended, my heart began to race. Fear and terror began to take hold of me
again, as memories of endless pain and torture reappeared. My hand found Darnoc�s again and he led me, for I had
closed my eyes, not wanting to face the horrors down here again.

I felt Irenicus, coming closer and closer, I
felt Darnoc�s soul in him. A wave of
coldness ran down my back, my hands began to tremble. Darnoc felt it and pressed my hand
tightly, so I felt its warmth.

The door in front of us, it was the room with
the glass tanks, where he had taken away my soul and Darnoc�s. Darnoc hesitated for a moment, but then
he pushed it open and stepped in, I followed right after him.

Irenicus was inside, looking at one of his lab
journals. When we entered, he turned around and his eyes widened in surprise.

�You escapepd? Remarkable indeed! But you won�t make it
far, I promise you that, because I
personally will look to it that you won�t disturb my plans anymore.�

Darnoc gnashed his teeth, his face reddened, his
eyes flashed angrily, as he screamed back: �Give me back my soul, you fucking,
bastard, you shit-headed son of a bitch!�

Irenicus just glared coldly at us two and replied:
�I�m afraid that I don�t intend to do that.�

And then he began to conjure a spell, the
life-draining one. My eyes widened in horror, as I remembered how he had used
it on me. But then the inmates of the asylum began conjuring their own spells
and shot them at Irenicus, who gave a cry of astonishment. Darnoc drew his fire-spiter and shot,
hitting Irenicus, but it was only a flesh-wound. At least Irenicus� spell was
interrupted.

�This isn�t over, son of Bhaal! Yoshimo, kill
him!�

And with that he was gone, Yoshimo suddenly
appearing from behind a pillar. He had betrayed us! I had always
known that something was wrong with Yoshimo; I had felt it, when I had first
met him in Irenicus� dungeon, a long time ago. It seemed, as if I had been
proven right.

He began to talk, told us that he was sorry and
had no other choice. But it needn�t end like that, there was another way, I saw
it! Yoshimo wasn�t really an evil person, I felt it, he was pained by what he
had done; he was even ashamed.

�Wait, stop! Why d�ya �ave t� do this? Ya don�t
seem like a bad guy.�

It seemed, as if I had been right, Yoshimo
really was sorry, for he answered: �You�re Imoen, right? Darnoc�s sister� I and Darnoc traveled here in order to rescue
you, but I was under the spell of Irenicus, a spell of death, which would
activate itself, if I wouldn�t kill your brother. I am sorry, Imoen, especially
since Irenicus told me some of the things he did to you. I don�t want to hurt
you more, you have suffered more than enough, but I have no other choice��

A death spell? By the gods, what a cruel thing
to do! Only Irenicus was capable of such a thing, how I hated him! He had
destroyed our lives; not only mine, but also Darnoc�s and now it seemed even the one
of Yoshimo. I stepped over to Yoshimo and took his hand, smiling at him. There
was another way and I would show it to him. I pitied him. Basically he had two
choices: Either he tried to kill Darnoc and died, because he stood no chance; or he
didn�t try and would be killed by the spell, but then he would have at least
died well. And I told him so, hoping he would choose the second option.

He looked at me, into my eyes and I into his.
He was determined, I could see it, but behind there was something else, there
was a soul; there was pity and compassion also. Look at me, Yoshimo, look into
me and see, what is inside of me! I have no soul, it has been taken from me,
but still, I am going on, I will fight Irenicus; I will fight the evil inside
of me. You can defeat it, Yoshimo, you are not wholly corrupted. Look at what Irenicus
has done to me, feel the pain inside of me. Do you really wish to follow this
monster? You are not like him!

Something began to change; I guess he somehow
felt, what had happened to me, the horrors I had to endure, brought upon me by
Irenicus. Behind his rogue-shell, behind his not-caring attitude, there was a human
being, a caring being, a being, which could feel compassion for others, which
actually knew evil and which didn�t like it.

I saw it in his eyes, a deep pain surfaced in
them and then he turned away from me, took out his katana and thrust it deep
into him, slicing open his abdomen. He met my eyes one last time and then they
broke, his body falling dead to the ground. Although I was certain that he was
dead, I still checked his pulse, to assure myself. Tears appeared in my eyes, as I thought of his
sacrifice.

�He did it so that he wouldn�t have to kill
me�� Darnoc remarked, to which I could only nod.

I asked myself, why he had done it. Had he
really felt pity towards me and Darnoc? What had really moved him to take this desperate measure?

While Darnoc cut out Yoshimo�s heart, which he wanted to give to a
priest of Ilmater, as Yoshimo had requested, I took Yoshimo�s thievery tools.
They could come in handy later.

Going up again, we met a man. He looked like a
rogue or pirate to me and shuddering I thought that he somehow looked a little
like Barty. Darnoc immediately drew his weapon and
pointed it at the man.

�How dare you crossing my way again, traitor!�

What the hell? Darnoc seemed to recognize the man, not
with kind feelings, though.

�Please, listen t� what I�ve gotta say! I�m
sorry I betrayed yah an� that�s why I wanna help yah get off this island.�

He wouldn�t trust this man, would he? Not after
he had betrayed him, right? Darnoc, don�t trust him, please, he will betray us
again! Darnoc always had been a poor judge of
character.

�I�ve lost mee ship, so we must steal another
one. There�s only one other ship �round, dah ship of Desharik, leader o� dah pirates. Let�s go
to dah vulgar monkey, there we�ll discuss dah details� the man explained.

He had a point, though. Still, I wouldn�t trust
him.

�Alright, I�ll give you another chance, but we
will watch our back. One sign of treachery and you�re a dead man, Saemon!�

At least something, he didn�t trust him fully
either. Personally, I didn�t trust him at all; this Saemon seemed to be a
person purely motivated by his greed.

Saemon led us back up, but instead of going out
immediately, Darnoc stepped aside and went towards the coordinator�s room. Irenicus had
occupied that one, I remembered. Perhaps we would find some clue, as to where
he had gone. Still, the idea of finding his journal or something like that made
me shudder.

Indeed his diary was lying on a table inside of the
room, Darnoc took it up and I stepped closer
to also take a look at it. And there� the sick bastard, he had written it all down, in
his cold, emotionless style. His observations, his conclusions, his plans. He
had written it down, as if I was merely an object, not a person. All the pain
he had brought upon me, not a word he mentioned about it, not at least once
that he felt something.

There was something about the Underdark there, he had probably gone there.
But how the hell should we be able to find the Underdark?

We left Spellhold and I didn�t look back, not
once. I never wanted to see it again, never ever. I wanted to forget that it
existed, wanted to forget everything which had happened inside. But I couldn�t,
I just couldn�t�

I won�t go into detail about our escape from
the island. Darnoc probably could tell you more; it�s the kind of thing he�s interested
in. Personally, I was just glad that we left. Although I have to admit that
stealing the pirate horn was kinda funny.

There�s only thing I want to mention about it,
because it was probably the only really important thing, which happened there.

We slept in that tavern in Brynnlaw, the vulgar monkey. During the night I suddenly
awoke and realized that there was something wrong with Darnoc. He was twisting and turning in
his sleep. Was he having a nightmare?

Suddenly I heard him whisper: �Im, no, get away,
get away, I can�t stop myself, the slayer will kill you!�

What the hell was going on here? I tried to
shake him awake, but he kept on dreaming and even started to hit the air. Again and again
I shook him, harder and harder, until he finally opened his eyes and stared at me in horror. I asked him,
what had happened, but he just stared down on his hands, trembled and then even
began to sob.

I sat down next to him and gently stroked his
hair, putting my other hand on his shoulders. Most have been a hell of a nightmare. I asked him, what he had dreamt.

He began to explain: �I saw you. Well, not
really you, just this image of you. I�ve seen it before. And it told me of the
beast inside of me and then turned into it, killing all of you in your sleeps.
And then I turned into it and I killed Bodhi, Irenicus, my father, myself and
at last you. I tried to stop myself, but couldn�t, I just couldn�t��

Strange dreams indeed. Mine had been of a
totally different kind. He wept again and leaned his head against my shoulder.

Somehow I tried to comfort him: �Listen t� me,
Darn, it was just a stupid dream an� ya
just don�t listen t� this� image. Ya wouldn�t hurt me, I know this��

�But I could, I know it! If I turned into this
beast again, I could even kill you!�

No, it wouldn�t be like this, we needed to beat
this evil! It was also inside of me, I knew it� But we needed to beat it; we
just had to beat it.

�Darn, it�s in us both an� t�gether we�ll conquer
it! Ya understand, t�gether we�ll manage!�

�Yes, together�� he whispered.

Still, I wanted to know more. There was more to
this matter, I felt it. So I asked him.

�Well, I had these dreams� We were back in
Candlekeep, you and me, but something was strange about you. You seemed somehow
not alive, like you were just an image and you couldn�t remember. Irenicus appeared and told me about the power
inside of me. He told me that if I didn�t use it, those I love will suffer and
then he killed you. I had two such dreams and he killed you in both��

He withheld something; something was bothering
him, but what? So I insisted that he talked on.

�I also dreamed of my mother, she told me that
she was a werewolf and that �the gift� was also in me. She commanded me to kill
Irenicus, take his blood and bring it to them so they could do some kind of
ritual that should make me a whole member of the clan.�

Of course! I remembered but too well, when he
had turned into a werewolf in Spellhold and had been so embarrassed about it. But still, I had
this strange feeling that this wasn�t all. I wasn�t entirely fair, since I
hadn�t told him about my dreams, which had been even more embarrassing than what he had told me. If
I had had such strange dreams, if deep inside, I felt something for him� No,
no, I couldn�t go into that direction, he was my brother!

�Well, I also dreamt of you. Not the image-you,
the real you. We were in Candlekeep and you showed me things of the past. In
the first dream you reminded me of something that happened when we were just
children. You were attacked by a goblin and I killed it, but it had wounded you
and so I carried you to the healers. Then you asked me, why I didn�t come to help
you, now that you needed me the most. The thought stayed with me all the time,
it tore me apart, knowing that this monster Irenicus had his claws on you.
In a second dream you showed me a scene when we
were teenagers and went swimming together in the lake. You asked me questions,
which bothered me. You asked me, how much I really felt for you and I thought
long of this. I am still thinking hard about it, but I believe now that I couldn�t
live without knowing that you are alive and well. You mean too much to me, Im��
he finally explained.

Now that was very interesting, those dreams had
been very similar to two I had had, the first two. With a shock I realized that he had
had the same amount of dreams I had had. And they all had been similar, going into a similar direction.

�Thanks, Darn� I feel the same for ya an� I want
t� stay with ya an� look after ya. Probably time I saved yar life for once, eh?� I told him and
he smiled.

And then he told me about the third dream.

�Then I had a third dream. This event took
place just before we left Candlekeep and everything began. We went hiking in
the hills and when we camped on the hilltop you had a nightmare. Someone wanted to hurt you, to
take something from you, but you didn�t know what. And you also told me that
this person did this in order to get to me. Of course, now I know that it was
Irenicus�
Then you came to me, the real you, I mean, not
the you out of my memories. You told me that you were in pain and that you
wanted it to stop. You begged me to come and that soon your strength would
fail. You wanted to die and I tried to comfort you somehow��

This dream had some striking similarities, especially the last part of it, to my last dream! Could it
be that we had somehow communicated through our dreams? Could it be that there
was a connection between us? Something deep inside of us, which made us one?

Darnoc: Escape
from Brynnlaw

The stairs didn�t lead us to freedom, but into
another unknown room. It wasn�t just an ordinary room, though, its sides were
leading into nothingness and four huge pillars of stones were standing in each
one of the directions. And on those pillars and also inside of the room were
kobolds, equipped with bows.

I drew out my fire-spiters, Imoen Gesen�s bow
and Aerie her sling. Armed like this we took out the kobolds on the pillars, while the others took care of the kobolds in the room.

�What was this all about?� Aerie asked
critically.

The answer came immediately in form of a mage
clothed like the Cowled Wizards, who stood at the other end of the room.

�This is the test of insanity. Welcome! Do you
accept it?�

�Yes, as long as it gets me out of here� I
replied.

�Wonderful, acceptance of what is not
changeable is a sign of sanity. You may proceed to the next chamber.�

And with this we were all teleported into
another room, full of myconoids. The huge mushrooms attacked us immediately
with their psychic spells, but an exploder took care of that.

�Never liked mushruhms anyway� Imoen commented
to that, smiling.

�Hm, are they poisonous? Perhaps we could use them as
food, I like mushrooms� Minsc asked

�Somehow I don�t like the idea of eating an
intelligent being� I replied.

Then the mage appeared again.

�If you wish to proceed, first answer my
riddle: I�ve received it in the forest; so I sat down to search for it; but how much I
endeavored, I couldn�t find it; therefore I took it home.�

Not a riddle again! I hated riddles!

�A splinter� Aerie suddenly replied.

�How did you know that?� I asked, astonished.

She shrugged her shoulders.

�I just knew. Probably because I remembered
having one.�

�The answer is correct, you may proceed� the
mage said and we were again teleported to another room.

We found ourselves in a dining room, a huge
table in its middle and several people sitting around it, but no one was eating.

�What is this place?� I asked them.

�This is a test, human. Answer our riddles and
you may proceed.�

I sighed and replied: �Very well, tell me your
riddles.�

�It is better than the worst of all things and
worse than the best of all things. You love it more than your life. You fear it more than death. The rich need
it and the poor have it in plenty.�

Imoen answered that one: �Nothing, because that
is exactly what I feel inside of me.�

The next riddle came immediately: �It runs like
it wants, but it never gets lost. Arms can be seen, but it is never carried. It certainly has a bed, but it
never sleeps. It is limited, but sometimes it overflows.�

That one even Minsc could answer: �A river.�

�I weaken you at the worst of times. But in the
end I care for your safety. You sweat in my
presence, even when you are cold. I live with the weak, seldom with the
brave, but without me, who would know the difference.�

This was something Keldorn knew about, because
he often told others to not have it: �Fear.�

�It brings back the lost, as if it has never
been gone; it agitates laughter or tears, with light that has long shone. Made in the
moment, it accompanies a life, but is lost in death.�

The answer immediately came to me; it was
something that troubled me all the times: �A memory.�

�All your answers have been correct, therefore
you may proceed to the next room� one of the people at the table said and again
we were teleported away.

The next room was a cave and there were some
trolls in it, but those died soon when I used the flail of ages on them and
Imoen and Aerie conjured some fire spells.

Again the mage appeared and spoke to us: �You have passed
the final test. Now you will be teleported to the room of assessment.�

The room of assessment was a stony hall and in
its middle stood again the mage.

�It is our assessment that you are sane. Therefore you are released from the Spellhold.�

And with this the mage disappeared. There was a stair behind him,
which we used and thus we found ourselves in a cellar. Imoen looked around and grew pale, probably
remembering these rooms.

�The glass tanks, they�re down here somewhere�
An� I can feel �im�� she whispered.

I felt it too; it seemed as if my soul was
calling out to me.

�We need to find a way to the upper floors, at
the moment we stand no chance against Irenicus.�

�I agree, perhaps we will find a way, once we
have escaped from here� Keldorn added.

Sneaking through the corridors, always looking
out for Irenicus, we found another stair leading upwards. This one brought us to one of
the cells we had visited when we had first entered Spellhold.

A dwarf was standing there, looking suspiciously at
us.

�What dah hell yah�re doin� heer?� he asked us.

�Well, we just passed the test of sanity and
would like to leave.�

�No way, no one leaves, orders o� dah new
coordehnatehr.�

�Is there a way t� convince ya otherwise?�
Imoen asked.

�Hm, gimme that bag o� gold!� the dwarf demanded.

He took about a thousand coins and handed the
bag back.

�A�right, yah can leave!�

�Wait, can you also release the prisoners?� I
asked him, because I just had an idea.

�Dah prisoners? Perhaps if yah gimme some
more��

So I handed about another thousand to him.

�A�right, follow me��

One by one the prisoners were released and
assembled in the main hall. I tried to explain the situation to them and some
agreed with me, saying that Irenicus was evil and had hurt them. But others
were more reluctant, especially a gnome called Tiax, who believed to be the
ruler of the world. I vaguely remembered to have met him in Baldur�s Gate� But
in the end they all agreed and so we marched down to search and confront Irenicus.

�Do you think this is a wise course of action?�
Anomen whispered to me.

�I�m not sure, but I really want my soul back.
And if they won�t actually be a threat to Irenicus, they will at least divert
him enough that we just might have a chance��

So we searched the rooms of the cellar and finally found what we were
seeking, when we opened a door and found ourselves in a room full of glass
tanks and Irenicus standing in front of the one I had been in.

�You escapepd? Remarkable indeed! But you won�t make it
far, I promise you that, because I
personally will look to it that you won�t disturb my plans anymore� Irenicus
noted at my appearance.

�Give me back my soul, you fucking, bastard, you shit-headed son of a bitch!�
I screamed at him.

�I�m afraid that I don�t intend to do that� he
said and began conjuring a spell.

It was one of those Imoen had described to me,
I felt it. He spoke cruel words, evil words and I knew that he wanted me to
suffer horribly.

But the inmates of the Spellhold had begun to
conjure their own spells, my companions had drawn their weapons and I took out
my fire-spiter and aimed it at Irenicus. The bullet didn�t hit him mortally,
but he was wounded in the arm and his spell was disrupted.

�This isn�t over, son of Bhaal! Yoshimo, kill
him!� he screamed and teleported away.

Yoshimo appeared behind a pillar, his katana in his hands.

�I�m sorry Darnoc, but I have no other choice. You
know that.�

�Where have your fire-spiters gone?� I asked
him.

�Irenicus took them, he wanted to study them. I
will fight you, but I beg this of you: If I should die, take my heart to a priest of Ilmater.�

�I swear it on my honor, Yoshimo. I�m sorry that it has
to end like this.�

�Yes, me too�� Yoshimo whispered.

�Wait, stop! Why d�ya �ave t� do this? Ya don�t
seem like a bad guy� Imoen asked.

Yoshimo smiled painfully.

�You�re Imoen, right? Darnoc�s sister� I and Darnoc traveled here in order to rescue
you, but I was under the spell of Irenicus, a spell of death, which would
activate itself, if I wouldn�t kill your brother. I am sorry, Imoen, especially
since Irenicus told me some of the things he did to you. I don�t want to hurt
you more, you have suffered more than enough, but I have no other choice��

She stepped over to him and took his left hand,
smiling softly.

�Yoshimo, ya �ave a choice. Ya can choose t�
not kill Darnoc an� die or ya can choose t� try t� kill Darnoc an� die. But if ya choose the
right thin�, yar soul might yet be saved.�

He looked long into her eyes, his look first
determined, but one could see the pain in him. Then it changed, though, the
determination began to disappear and was fully replaced by pain. Suddenly he
stumbled backwards and screamed as if in pain. His hands trembled as he grabbed his
swords with both hands and slowly began to move it towards his stomach. With one quick
stroke he cut it open, blood began to flow from it and he fell to his knees,
his skin grew paler and then he fell on his face.

Imoen stepped over to him and checked his
pulse, then she turned around, tears in her eyes.

�He killed �imself�� she whispered.

�I have heard that warriors from Kara-Tur sometimes do this in order to
preserve their honor� Keldorn explained.

�He did it so that he wouldn�t have to kill
me�� I managed to say, still not believing it.

Imoen nodded, looking straight into my eyes. I
thought I caught something questioning in this look, as if she was asking
herself, why that my personality motivated a man to rather kill himself than
me.

I stepped over to Yoshimo�s body, took his
sword and began cutting out his heart. Then I wrapped it into some paper I ripped
out of my notebook and put it into my backpack. If I would ever be back in
Atkatla, I would bring it to a priest of Ilmater. Imoen took his katana and his
skeleton keys and other thievery tools.

We were going back up the stairs to the upper
floor, when we met Saemon.

Drawing out my fire-spiter I screamed at him:
�How dare you crossing my way again, traitor!�

�Please, listen t� what I�ve gotta say! I�m
sorry I betrayed yah an� that�s why I wanna help yah get off this island.�

I lowered my weapon, but was still suspicious.

�I�ve lost mee ship, so we must steal another
one. There�s only one other ship �round, dah ship of Desharik, leader o� dah pirates. Let�s go
to dah vulgar monkey, there we�ll discuss dah details.�

�Alright, I�ll give you another chance, but we
will watch our back. One sign of treachery and you�re a dead man, Saemon!�

He led us back up and to the main hall, but
before I left I wanted to look through Irenicus study. The room of the
coordinator was right next to the entrance and I guessed that Irenicus had his
things in there.

Indeed I found something very useful: Irenicus�
diary. Together with Imoen I read
through it. Irenicus had noted here all his experiments and Imoen trembled
slightly as she read about them. He also had written that Imoen�s soul was now
in Bodhi. He had been angry at Bodhi for her behavior; he had thought that she
�didn�t take matters serious enough�. And he had written about some plans for
revenge� But what did he want revenge for? He also noted that he needed to take
care of some business down in the
Underdark, he had an arrangement with the Drow. So that was
probably where he had gone. But how could we enter the Underdark?

We left the Spellhold and went back to the
village. I only looked back once, seeing the tall towers one last time. Then I
turned around again, shuddering at the
horrors inside of the Spellhold. Whatever might happen in the future, what we
had experienced inside here would change me and Imoen forever.

In the vulgar monkey we all sat down for a beer.

�Look, we need dah �pirate horn� in order t�
get through dah defenses on sea. Desharik �as given it t� �is girl, Cayia. But she
probably carries it �round with �er so yah need t� steal it in the night. I�m gonna
make some other preparations, like hiring some lads as crew. Once yah have dah horn, meet me
in front o� Desharik�s ship.�

�Alright, we�ll do that. But do you know of any
way into the Underdark?� I replied.

Saemon shrugged his shoulders.

�No, can�t say that I know of any. Got t� look
on dah mainland, perhaps yah�ll find an entrance there.�

He drank his beer and left.

We stayed, wanting to catch some sleep before
we went on our thieving tour.

I dreamed again and again I was in Candlekeep,
in the library. Imoen stood in front of me, but it wasn�t really Imoen, but the
image-like Imoen I had seen when I had been in the glass tank.

�You aren�t really Imoen, right?� I asked her.

She smiled, but it wasn�t Imoen�s warm, joyfully smile, but a cold, hard smile.

�You are correct; I am not your dear sister. Call me a manifestation of
something inside of you that takes the form of your sister, because of the way
you feel for her.�

�And how do I feel for her?�

She grimaced in disdain.

�Do not ask stupid questions, you know just as
well as I do, being part of you, how you feel for her. You love her; you have always loved her,
although for a long time you did not want to accept it.�

�Then what do you want of me?� I asked,
somewhat angrily.

�I want to show you what is yours, the powers
of your father now awakening in you.�

Suddenly she turned into the �slayer-beast�, as
Lilacor had called it, a gruesome monster of claws and teeth and fur. And then
I saw my companions lying on the floor. The thing attacked them and killed
them, clawed and bit them to death, spilling their blood and innards all over the floor, one by one,
as I watched in horror.

And then the change came over me, but I didn�t
lose consciousness as last time and so I could see how Imoen turned back into
her old self.

�Can you feel the power? Use it!�

In front of me appeared Bodhi and I attacked her. She
screamed, but I just tore her to pieces.

�One� Imoen said.

Then Irenicus appeared and I did the same to him,
enjoying the feeling immensely.

�Two� she counted.

My father appeared in front of me and my growing
hate drove me to even higher expressions of massacre.

�Three� she continued to count.

My mother in her wolf-form appeared and I continued to claw and bite,
not heeding her screams.

�Four� she went on.

And then the real Imoen stood in front of me. I
wanted to stop, realizing what was happening, but I couldn�t. With one of my
huge claws I just stroke at her chest, wounding her deeply. She screamed in
pain and fell to her knees, looking at me in total horror.

�No, Darn, please, no!� she whimpered.

But I couldn�t stop it; I just grabbed her and
tore her into pieces, thousands of them until nothing of her was left.

�Five� the image of Imoen counted.

Screaming I awoke, starring at Imoen who tried to shake me
awake.

�Darn, Darn, what�s goin� on?� she asked, worried.

I starred at her and then at my hands, as if
expecting claws with blood on them. And then I bent down my head and cried.

She sat on my bed, stroked my hair softly and
put her other hand on my shoulder.

�What did ya dream, Darn?� she asked quietly.

�I saw you. Well, not really you, just this
image of you. I�ve seen it before. And it told me of the beast inside of me and
then turned into it, killing all of you in your sleeps. And then I turned into
it and I killed Bodhi, Irenicus, my father, myself and at last you. I tried to
stop myself, but couldn�t, I just couldn�t��

Again I began to cry and leaned my head against
Imoen�s shoulder.

�Listen t� me, Darn, it was just a stupid dream an� ya
just don�t listen t� this� image. Ya wouldn�t hurt me, I know this��

�But I could, I know it! If I turned into this
beast again, I could even kill you!� I screamed.

�Darn, it�s in us both an� t�gether we�ll conquer
it! Ya understand, t�gether we�ll manage!�

I nodded slowly, trying to hope that it was
possible.

�Yes, together�� I whispered.

�Now, about seein� me. What d�ya mean with
that?�

�Well, I had these dreams� We were back in
Candlekeep, you and me, but something was strange about you. You seemed somehow
not alive, like you were just an image and you couldn�t remember. Irenicus appeared and told me about the power
inside of me. He told me that if I didn�t use it, those I love will suffer and
then he killed you. I had two such dreams and he killed you in both��

�This isn�t all, is it?� she whispered.

I couldn�t hide it from her, she knew me to
well.

�I also dreamed of my mother, she told me that
she was a werewolf and that �the gift� was also in me. She commanded me to kill
Irenicus, take his blood and bring it to them so they could do some kind of
ritual that should make me a whole member of the clan.�

�Ya�re still hidin� somethin�, Darn. Tell me!�

I sighed. It was difficult to speak of those
dreams, I didn�t know how to put them.

�Well, I also dreamt of you. Not the image-you,
the real you. We were in Candlekeep and you showed me things of the past. In
the first dream you reminded me of something that happened when we were just
children. You were attacked by a goblin and I killed it, but it had wounded you
and so I carried you to the healers. Then you asked me, why I didn�t come to help
you, now that you needed me the most. The thought stayed with me all the time,
it tore me apart, knowing that this monster Irenicus had his claws on you.
In a second dream you showed me a scene when we
were teenagers and went swimming together in the lake. You asked me questions,
which bothered me. You asked me, how much I really felt for you and I thought
long of this. I am still thinking hard about it, but I believe now that I couldn�t
live without knowing that you are alive and well. You mean too much to me, Im��

�Thanks, Darn� I feel the same for ya an� I want
t� stay with ya an� look after ya. Probably time I saved yar life for once, eh?�

I smiled at this remark and it warmed my heart to know that Im felt like that.

�Then I had a third dream. This event took
place just before we left Candlekeep and everything began. We went hiking in
the hills and when we camped on the hilltop you had a nightmare. Someone wanted to hurt you, to
take something from you, but you didn�t know what. And you also told me that
this person did this in order to get to me. Of course, now I know that it was
Irenicus�
Then you came to me, the real you, I mean, not
the you out of my memories. You told me that you were in pain and that you
wanted it to stop. You begged me to come and that soon your strength would
fail. You wanted to die and I tried to comfort you somehow��

Imoen didn�t speak after what I had told her,
but she put her hand on my shoulder and so we sat there for a while, taking
comfort in the others presence.

�It�s good yar awake, we need t� get goin� anyway�
she finally said.

We woke the others and started out on our thievery tour.
Cayia�s house was on the same street as the vulgar monkey, so we didn�t have to go far.

Imoen looked at the lock and used the skeleton
keys she had taken from Yoshimo�s body to unlock the door.

�Well, fairly easy for a pirate door� she
noted.

Slowly I opened the door and glanced into the
house. It was all dark and silent, so I slowly stepped into the room.

Once my eyes had adapted to the darkness inside I could make out a
table and a bed, just next to it a chest. I guessed that Cayia probably had hid
the horn inside of it.

Suddenly I heard something move in the bed. I
thought first that it was Cayia, but when I looked closer I saw two shapes in
the bed. Desharik?

�Hey, isn�t it morning soon?� I heard a man whisper.

�No, darlin�, not quite yet� We still got some hours�
the voice of a woman replied.

�I need t� get out before dah dawn, yah know
that� the man remarked.

�Ah, come on, dah dawn�s still far.�

So Cayia had a lover! How interesting. Imoen,
who stood beside me, probably smiled, having mischief in her mind.

I tried to sneak to the chest, but stumbled
about something that made a clanging noise.

�What was that?� Cayia said.

A shape rose from the bed, reached over to the
table and I heard a noise I knew just too well: the unsheathing of a sword.

A candle was lit and I drew my fire-spiter,
pointing it at the wielder of the sword. It was Cayia�s lover, still naked.

�Who dah fuck are yah?� he asked surprised.

�Spies from Desharik!� Cayia shrieked, trying to cover
her nakedness with a blanket.

�Get the horn!� I shouted to Imoen, while still
pointing the fire-spiter at Cayia�s lover.

She went over to the chest, unlocked it and
took the horn out.

�A�right, here is it. Now let�s get out o�
here.�

�Hey, yah can�t take this, it is Desharik�s horn!� Cayia screamed.

Imoen drew Yoshimo�s katana and pointed at
Cayia with it.

�Shut up or I�ll use it on ya! An� believe me,
I know how t� do some very nasty thin�s with it��

Slowly we left the house, going backwards and holding our weapons. When we
had left the house, we turned and ran, shouting at our companions to follow us.

We immediately went to Desharik�s ship, which lay to the east.
Saemon awaited us there, some men standing near him.

�Here�s dah crew, I hope yah brought dah horn�
he said.

�Yeah, here ya go� Imoen replied and handed the
horn to him.

�A�right, now, about that ship. It�s guarded by one o� Desharik�s men; we must take �im out
first.�

The guard was armed with a saber and wore a chain mail. He
looked menacingly at us.

�Get lost, fuckers!� he snarled at us.

�I don�t think so. Move or die!� Saemon
demanded.

Suddenly we heard a shrill, angry voice behind us:
�Saemon Havarian, yah bastard!�

�Ehm, Desharik, how nice t� meet yah again�
Saemon greeted the man weakly.

Desharik was quite an impressive figure. From his
looks he was a strong and agile fighter, he wore a plate mail and a helm
decorated with rubies, at his side hung a beautiful scimitar. Several scars were scattered across his face,
his eyes flashed angrily.

Behind him stood several of his pirates, two
figures were guarded by them. Looking closer I could make out Cayia and her lover, both
bound.

Desharik waved at the pirates guarding his wife and they brought her
to him.

�Yah lousy, bitch, yah cheated on me! Saemon,
yah know what I did t� dah one yah slept with! Yah�re gonna share her fate, Cayia, an� yahr lover
too!�

With this he drew his scimitar and cut her throat, spilling her
blood onto the planks of the docks. Then her lover was brought before him,
begging for mercy, but he also cut his throat. Then he turned to Saemon again.

�This time yah won�t escape again, Saemon!� the
leader of the pirates screamed.

�Get on dah ship, yah lazy bastards!� Saemon shouted.

We did as he said and before Desharik�s men could reach us we had cut
the ropes and thrown the plank connecting the ship to the dock into the sea. Desharik howled in rage, but he couldn�t
do anything and his figure grew smaller, finally vanishing in the darkness.

Imoen:
Traveling to the Underdark

After commandeering the ship of Desharik, Lord of the pirates, we traveled
across the sea towards the mainland, where we wanted to search for an entrance into the Underdark. Saemon Havarian was with us, although I didn�t
trust him at all. I often saw Darnoc staring at the silver blade Saemon had given him.
Why had Saemon done that?

Darnoc also often looked into his notebook and
wrote things into it, my curiosity grew and grew, until I was no longer able to
withhold it. I sneaked into his cabin and stole the book, going under deck and
reading it through. It was fascinating, to say the least. Many things I didn�t
really understand, but some things bothered me. Especially those weapons he
invented, I had seen, what the fire-spiter could do�

One day I confronted him and confessed him that
I had looked at his book. Fortunately, he didn�t take it ill, he was eager to
explain things to me. Fascinated I listened to his explanation of the �steam
engine�, but at the same time I had this odd feeling, as if something was wrong
with this all. Somehow, I felt that horrible things would happen, if Darnoc went on inventing stuff.

Of course, he didn�t see it. He never had seen
it, never realized the danger in what he was doing. He tried to calm me, to
assure me that all was alright. But I was still uneasy about it. And something
this damn sword, this Lilacor, had told him� I asked him about it.

What Darnoc revealed then to me, confirmed my worries.
Lilacor seemed to originate from another primary plane and had been sent here to
study us. And it seemed as if he had taken a special interest in Darnoc. He wanted to turn Darnoc into something similar as Irenicus, an emotionless,
logical human machine, something he called �mentat�. Lilacor had told Darnoc that Darnoc would be able to alter the
future of the whole multiverse with the help of advanced mathematics. And
somehow I had the feeling that this was perhaps even true.

But what worried me most, was the fact that
Lilacor had told Darnoc to destroy the gods. It seemed as if on Lilacor�s plane all gods had
been destroyed and Lilacor had told Darnoc that his people were now free. And Lilacor
wanted Darnoc to do the same here. But what
would happen then? The balance would be lost, magic would cease to exist. Did Darnoc really think we mortals could
take our destinies into our hands? Mortals were such irresponsible creatures;
they would probably just destroy everything. I was not as optimistic as Darnoc concerning our ability to
control ourselves. Not, if people like Irenicus could exist.

We eventually arrived in the Underdark quicker than I would have thought.
A group of Githyanki attacked us; they wanted the silver blade, which Saemon
had given to Darnoc. It seemed as if the silver blade was one of their holy weapons.

During their attack, Sahuagin suddenly appeared, our ship sunk and the Sahuagin
took us prisoners, bringing us to their city. They thought that we were some
kind of foretold saviors and their king commanded us to kill a rebellious
prince. But their high priestess, on the other hand, wanted us to talk to the
prince and try to overthrow the king, who was clearly mad.

We chose the later and talked to the prince,
with his help we killed the mad king of the shark-people and were given a magical
rope, with which we were able to descend down a well into the Underdark.

Darnoc: The
shark-people

So we were on the sea again, traveling eastwards, back to Amn. Imoen and I often
stood on the deck and watched the waves rolling by. Mostly the weather was good
and there were no clouds visible.

Sometimes I also took out the blade Saemon had
given me, when we had successfully left the island behind. It shone in a pure,
silvery light, a work of art rather than a simple weapon. But without its
hilt it was useless. Imoen had once looked at it, but couldn�t identify it
either.

One evening we were standing there, watching
how the sun set in the west and gave the water the color of blood and the sky
the color of fire. Suddenly she took my hand and pressed it hard. I turned to her, a questioning
look on my face.

�Ya know, I read through yar little book. Quite interestin� the
thin�s ya invented there, never �d thought �bout such thin�s myself.�

�Well, those things just come to me, images
just flash up in my mind. I don�t know why, it just happens. Right now I�m
having this idea of the steam engine��

�Steam engine?�

�A machine that creates energy with the help of
the pressure created by steam. You know water wheels, don�t you? There you use
the energy in flowing water. But my steam engine creates a lot more energy; I
guess you could even power vehicles and huge machines with it. I thought about
using them to produce things en masse.�

�Darn, please be careful with those thin�s. Ya don�t know
the consequences o� what ya do. Humans �ave a way t� use everythin� for an evil
purpose.�

�That�s why I want to be in control of my
inventions. I will use them in my own lands only, where I can command their
use.�

She starred out on the sea, saying nothing else. I
could see that she was struggling to find the right words.

�What did Lilacor tell ya?� she suddenly said.

�He� well, he told me many interesting things.
He isn�t really a sword, but rather an observer, created by beings of another
universe. They sent him here to collect as much data as possible and then
return to his own universe, I guess. And he offered to help me; he said that I
had potential. Called me �a mentat�. It�s a person, which has reached the
highest form of logical thinking, where the whole multiverse opens to one and
one can calculate even the future and change it accordingly. My gift will
change the whole of Toril, he told me.�

�That wasn�t everythin� �e told ya, I can feel
it. What else did �e say?�

I sighed. There was no way around it, Imoen knew me to well. The
other thing Lilacor had told me I had wanted to keep a secret, for it troubled
me greatly.

�He also said that in his universe the people
destroyed all the gods. They are free now and can do what they want, without
the influence of divine beings. And he said that with my help he wanted to
achieve the same thing here. He wants me to destroy all the gods and free the
people of Toril. They must be allowed to follow their own destiny.�

She starred right into my eyes, a critical look in her
own.

�Ya want t� destroy the gods? I�d agree that
some o� the gods�re evil, but this is necessary for the balance an� ya know that.�

�No, it�s not about good or evil. It�s about
being able to choose our own destiny, to follow our path without any gods to
tell us what to do or not to. We must be our own gods and think our own way.
Only then we�ll be free. No one must take this burden from us.�

She shook her head.

�I can�t imagine a world without gods in it.
How d�ya think this�ll work?�

�It will work, believe me. We can do this!�

�But not all humans �re good, if there �re no
good gods t� hinder �em, what �ll happen?�

�We must learn to control ourselves. It will be
more complicated, yes, but at least we will have a choice. And that is what
this is all about.�

After that we didn�t say anything but just
stood there and watched the sunset.

One day we saw sails behind us, jagged like
dragon wings.

�What�s that?� I asked Saemon.

He glanced troubled at the sail and shrugged
his shoulders.

�Don�t know, but I hope it�s nothin� that wants
t� attack us.�

But he tried to outrun the ship nonetheless. It
was no use, though, slowly the strange ship gained on us. When it came nearer I saw that it wasn�t really
swimming in the water, but rather floating above it.

After some more hours it had reached us and
blocked our way. Saemon was able to pull the ship aside and stop it, before we
crashed into the other ship. A plank was extended to our ship and several
strange people came over to us. They looked a little like elves, but had white
skin and black hair and beards. Long, jagged swords were hanging at their
sides and their clothes were violet and yellow.

�Wee ahre the Githyanki ahnd wee deemahnd the
holy seelver blade from yoo! Saemon Hahvahreeahn, hahnd eet ohver right now ohr
feel the wrahth of the Githyanki!� one of them, who seemed to be their leader,
shouted at us.

�Hey, don�t look at me like that, I don�t have
it! Darnoc�s got it!�

He pointed at me and the gaze of the Githyanki
went over to me.

�Eenfeedel! Hahnd it ohver now ohr yoo shahll
die!�

I took out the silver blade and starred at it. This was a holy weapon of
the Githyanki? I had heard of them, most of it wasn�t good. They were a
cruel and treacherous people, who thought that they were above all others.

�Wait, Saemon, you gave me this blade on
purpose, you knew they were following you!� I screamed at him in anger.

�Ehm, well, yes�� he admitted.

The Githyanki were not a patient people and
attacked, howling that my blood seemed to freeze on the spot.

The leader of the Githyanki directly attacked
me, swinging his jagged sword. I had barely time to draw my own sword; my fire-spiters
weren�t loaded. I parried his forceful attack, but the stroke was thus strong that I stumbled
backwards. The Githyanki yelled
triumphantly and thrust his sword at me. I barely dodged the attack and he managed
to cut into my side. I screamed and stroke at him, but he quickly ducked and
thrust his sword again at me, but this time I was more prepared, jumped to the side and swung my
sword low.

He jumped backwards and starred at something in the water. I
looked too and saw how sharks rose from the sea and climbed on the deck.
Well, they weren�t really sharks. Their heads looked shark-like, but they had legs and
halberds and crossbows. Their look wasn�t like the look of animals, but of a
cruel intelligence.

�Sahhooahgeen! Geht ohff the shihp
ihmeedeeahtley!� The leader of the Githyanki screamed.

All the Githyanki ran back on their ship and
pulled away the plank, turned around the ship and left in a hurry.

We, on the other hand, faced the new-comers.
Most of the crewmembers had been either killed or had jumped into the water.
Where Saemon was I couldn�t tell.

�Sahuagin! They are creatures of evil, Darnoc!� Keldorn whispered.

I nodded weakly, blood dripping from my wound.
Suddenly everything began to turn around me, I tried to regain my balance, but
didn�t manage and fell towards the deck. The last thing I heard was Imoen screaming my name and
then all went black.

When I awoke my hands and feet were bound, but
I didn�t feel any pain. Someone had healed my wound, it appeared. I looked around and saw my companions sitting
next to me, also bound.

It was a strange place we were in. Definitely a
cave, but it was full of water and strange buildings which looked all grey-blue
and had things like teeth on them.

�There was poison in your wound� Anomen
explained to me.

�Where are we?� I asked.

�It�s the capital of those Sahuagin. But we
don�t know what they want of us. Nobody understands their language.�

It was then that I noticed the Sahuagin
standing a little away from us. They were standing next to an altar of stone, at which stood a
Sahuagin, richly clothed. The other Sahuagin had halberds or crossbows. And
they spoke a strange language with long and complicated words. They seemed to
be discussing us.

Suddenly the richly clothed Sahuagin at the altar turned to us, waved her hand and
spoke some words. And then we understood them.

�I am the high priestess Senityili, you are in the city of the Sahuagin. It is
my belief that you are sent by Sekolah, who prophesized your coming long ago. In a time of
great peril for our people a group of humans and other up-worlders would come
and save our people from extinction.�

�You don�t know that! The king demands that
they are tested!� one of the armed Sahuagin guards snarled.

�Then let us ask the king, before you make
assumptions about his wishes� Senityili replied to this.

So we were led to the king, a huge Sahuagin who
had an even crueler look than the others and had an air of madness around him.

�We are king Ixilthetocal. Our high priestess tells
us that she believes you are the fulfillers of an ancient prophecy. We do
not believe in such things, but rather at what is at hand and it is our royal
judgment that you might be of some use to us. But before that you shall be
tested.�
Either this king was using the royal plural or
he was really mad. Judging from his eyes, it was the later.

The test was to fight against an ettin inside
of an arena. The giant looked a little
stupidly at us (with both his heads) and held his giant club.

�Leave this to me� I told my companions, drew
out my fire-spiters and shot the giant into two of his four eyes. The giant
howled in pain and came towards me, while I quickly reloaded and shot at his
other two eyes. Blindly the giant tried to hit me, but of course hit nothing,
since he didn�t say anything. I ran to a corner of the arena, reloaded my weapons and shot at
his foreheads. The giant groaned, doddered and then fell to the ground so that
the ground shook.
The king had watched it and now clapped his
hands.

�Very impressive indeed. We are content and believe that you are able to fulfill the task we wish
to appoint to you.�

�And what would that be?� I asked him.

�There is a rebel prince fighting against us.
This conflict must end and you shall be the one to end it. Bring us the heart of prince Villynaty and we will
reward you by letting you leave our city
alive. Perhaps we will even lower ourselves to give you an even greater reward.�

Outside of the arena high priestess Senityili awaited
us.

�Listen to me, the king is mad and if he is
allowed to rule further, it will be the end of our people. I therefore suggest to
you that you talk to the prince and try to find another solution. Take this amulet;
the guards of the prince will let you
through, if you wear it.

If you want to enter the camp of the rebels,
you need to find the tooth of Sekolah, which is guarded by a beholder in the ruins of
the Drow, cursed by their name. Beware when you enter there, for those ruins are full of traps.�

�These creatures are evil, Darnoc, do not help them! It would be a
good thing, if they were exterminated� Keldorn said to me, once we had walked
away from the Sahuagin.

�Look, that may be the case, but no intelligent
creature is evil from the beginning, we all have a choice. It�s their culture
that makes them evil and cultures can change. Exterminating an intelligence
race would be a even greater evil.�

�Darn, ya�re right� Imoen supported me.

We walked through the empty streets of the
city. No inhabitants were visible, the houses were deserted. The civil war had driven them away; the city was
no longer a place of the living, but a place of death and bloodshed.

Soon we reached the ruins of the Drow, they
were a little to the south of the city. Imoen walked up on front and disarmed all traps and so we finally
managed to reach a platform at which�s end a beholder was floating in the air,
a huge chest behind it.

�Welcome, human. I guess you came for the tooth
of Sekolah. I�m the guardian of this chest and no one may open it or else I have no other choice
than to attack. So I suggest you leave.�

He said this in a weary, bored tone, as if he didn�t
really like being here.

�You don�t really seem to be enjoying being
here. Then why are you guarding this chest?�

�Well, a Drow summoned me and bound me magical
to the chest, so I have to guard it until he returns. He hasn�t returned yet,
though��

Somehow I pitied the beholder, always having to
stay here and guard the chest, without being able to leave. And then an idea came to my
mind.

�Look, what were you told to do specifically?
Were you ordered to guard the chest or whatever is in it?�

The beholder thought long about this and
finally said: �Well, the Drow told me to guard the chest��

�So we could take the tooth of Sekolah, since
you only must guard the chest. And we won�t take the chest, only what is in it. And since
after we take out the tooth, there won�t be a point to guard the chest anymore. So you can
leave after that, since you have done what you were told to do.�

Looking critically at me with his many eyes,
the beholder thought the whole thing through.

�Well, I guess you�re right. So let�s say, I�ll
look somewhere else, while you take out whatever is in there.�

So I stepped over to the chest, opened it and
took out the tooth of Sekolah.

�Very well, now the chest is empty and there no
use in guarding it anymore. Thank you for
helping me, human. Best luck to you!�

And with that he teleported himself away.

So we went on through the Sahuagin city and
finally came to the entrance of the rebel camp. Because we had the tooth with
us, the gates let us through. Inside we were awaited by some guards.

�We�ve been sent by the high priestess and wish
to talk to prince Villynaty.�

�Yes, I can see that you speak the truth, for
you wear the amulet of the priestess. You
may proceed.�

The guards led us further into the camp and brought us
to a hall in which Villynaty sat on a throne.

�What do you want? Speak quickly, human!�

�I was sent here by the high priestess. The
king wants you dead, but she thinks that there might be other possibilities. It
is the king�s wish that I bring him your heart.�

�So he wants my heart? But I do not wish to part with it. The high priestess is
correct, there is another way. You could help us to assault the king. Once he
is dead, I will become the new king of the Sahuagin and our race will survive.
But first we need to deceive the king. You will
bring the heart of one of our prisoners to the king, telling him that it is mine. At
the same time I will start an assault and if all goes well I will just arrive in the time when old
Ixilthetocal realizes that he has been deceived.�

He commanded his guards to bring a captured soldier of
the king, took out a dagger and cut out the prisoner�s heart.

�Here, that should suffice.�

I wrapped the thing in some paper and put it
into my backpack. Then we left the camp and went back to the king�s court.

Ixilthetocal took the heart and looked at it triumphantly.

�Hah, that�s what shall happen to all our
enemies! It shall be a lesson to all of them!�

Then he sniffed at it and his look changed to
anger.

�This is not Villynaty�s heart; you have betrayed us, human! Kill
him!� he screamed.

His guards attacked us with their halberds, but some
lightning from Gesen�s bow and some shots from my fire-spiters took care of them. The king backed away,
screaming of betrayal, when Villynaty arrived with some of his rebels.

�Ah, what a pleasure to meet you again,
Ixilthetocal. Although it pleases me even more that this will be our last
encounter.�

The king grabbed his spear firmly and attacked Villynaty, but
the prince just waved at his rebels, who raised their crossbows and shot the
king.

Then the prince turned to me.

�Well done, human. I guess I owe something to
you. What is it that you want?�

�Is there any way to reach the Underdark from here?�

�Yes, there is. There is a well, which leads to
the Underdark. You will need this magical rope to climb down, though.�

With this he handed me a dark, glimmering rope.

�Where is this well?�

�At my old camp, it is in the throne hall.�

So we had to go all the way back to the rebel
camp. In the hall with the throne there was indeed a large hole in the ground. I looked at
it; there was only darkness down there. But we needed to get down there, so I attached it to a
beam on the roof of the hall.

�Alright, this is it, guys. The Underdark awaits and let us hope that we�ll
find this son of a bitch down there.�

�An� Bodhi�� Imoen whispered.

�Don�t worry, we�ll get your soul back too, Im�
I whispered back.

So we
descended down into the realm of darkness, the Underdark, a land without sunlight.
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Children of Bhaal