• 1-Children of Bhaal
• 2-Children of Bhaal - Part 2
• 3-Children of Bhaal - Part 3
• 4-Children of Bhaal - Part 4
• 5-Children of Bhaal - Part 5
• 6-Children of Bhaal - Part 6
• 7-Children of Bhaal - Part 7

Fifth
Interlude: A son of Bhaal, a daughter of Bhaal, a monk, Jaheira and someone
else

We had been in Candlekeep for months now,
looking through ancient books without end, but also without success. Jaheira
had stayed with us, wanting to keep an eye on us, and Arkul Sazzari had stayed, because he was
fascinated by the subject of this Power.

One day I was standing in front of a bookshelf,
reading another ancient book and it already seemed that it wouldn’t be much
use, when suddenly the “real” figure of Lilacor appeared beside me. Well, he wasn’t really
there, I just saw him. In reality Lilacor was probably somewhere in Rashemen
together and Minsc and Aerie.

“You are near the solution, Darnoc. But first, let me show you
something.”

Suddenly darkness was around us and a little away from us I
saw a small, unborn child floating in mid-air. I looked closer at it and
somehow I was able to feel it.

“It’s a girl…” I said.

“Yeah, but there’s more to it” Lilacor replied.

Again I reached for it with my senses and felt
it. And then I realized it.

“Now wait, it can’t be…”

“But it is, Darnoc, it is. Best is to accept it and
plan ahead.”

“So Im is pregnant and she didn’t tell me.”

“She wants to tell you and she will soon. But
now you must look ahead and search for the best path in the future.”

This was something I hadn’t planned, something
I hadn’t seen. I didn’t like things, which I couldn’t see ahead. This would
change everything. So I dived into the streams of time, possibilities and
probabilities, looking at different futures and searching for the best way.

I saw futures where Im was training our
daughter thieving skills and our daughter surprised me by sneaking behind me.
When I saw this I smiled. I saw our daughter grow and become adult, while Im
grew old. Our daughter married a thief and together they traveled the
lands, losing contact with me and Im. And then Im died and I buried her,
leaving me behind for eternity.

“No, that will not happen!” I screamed, pushing
away that future.

“You must choose, I can’t help you” Lilacor
said and vanished.

The room changed back to normal and I saw Im
standing next to me and looking into my eyes.

“Is somethin’ wrong,
Darn?” she asked me, worry in her
voice.

“No, it’s all right, just another of those
visions” I replied.

She sighed and took my hand.

“There’s somethin’ I
must tell ya. Somethin’
wonderful, Darn.”

“I know, you’re pregnant. It’s a girl. Already have a name
for her?”

Astonished she looked at me.

“How did ya know?”

Shrugging my shoulders I replied: “I saw it.”

Then I embraced her closely and kissed her
gently.

“I’m happy, Im, it’ll be wonderful, having a
child and all.”

She smiled and replied: “I wanna
name her ‘Ceinwyn’.”

“That means ‘star’” I explained.

“How d’ya
know that?”

“It’s a name from the language my clan speaks,
you know.”

“Really? I just heard it somewhere…”

“Remember that we once talked about that? How
we would raise our child?”

“Oh, yes, I do… I’m gonna
teach ‘er t’ be a thief an’ mage, Darn.”

“And I am going to show her my laboratory, my
inventions, the wonders of technology… But do you think she will inherit my…
abilities?”

“Hm, hard t’ say… Perhaps she’ll really
inherit ‘em, who knows… But It’ll be great nevertheless”
she said, smiling happily.

She grabbed the book she had just read before
and handed it over to me.

“Read that, I think it’ll interest ya.”

I looked at the passage she had pointed out to
me and it read: “The child of Bhaal, who became a god, will come to seek for
power, driven by the greatest force of the multiverse. He will search for it and he will find it, for I
guard it and he is the key. But what he
will find, no one can tell.”

It was Alaundo the Wise who had written those
words down. The whole thing was a riddle. How could someone guard something when he was already
dead? Of course with his body! We had to search for his grave and we would find
what we came looking for. I didn’t pay much heed to the cryptic message about
not knowing what I would find.

I showed the passage to Jaheira and Arkul and
they both agreed on my solution.

“We need to enter the catacombs once again”
Jaheira remarked.

I remembered we had once already traveled
through the catacombs when we had tried to escape from Candlekeep after we had
killed the leaders of the Iron Throne.

Jaheira led the way down to the catacombs; we
lighted some torches and entered them. Rows of tombs we passed halls and
corridors for the dead. I began to remember the way as we went on and so we
finally reached the tomb of Alaundo, deep down in the catacombs.

It was a huge block of stone and the figure of
Alaundo was carved into it, as if he was lying on the stone.

“Now, where is your secret, old man?” I asked
and stepped to the tomb.

Slowly I looked at everything, but without
success.

“Can’t you reveal your secret, Alaundo? I need
to find the Power! I am the son of Bhaal, who became a god and I am here!
Reveal your secret!”

And suddenly, as if I had spoken a spell, the
wall behind the tomb slid away and revealed a new corridor.

“My god, he must have put a spell on it that
would recognize your voice…” Arkul whispered.

Following the corridor we finally we came to a
hall, where locked gates blocked our way.

Suddenly a deep voice, seeming to come from all
around us, spoke: “So you have arrived. Finally! I have waited long,
Darnoc. And why have you come?”

“You have consciousness? We thought you were a
mere power, without any consciousness!” Jaheira exclaimed.

“Oh, I just wanted to appear unconscious in order to fulfill my
plan. But the next phase is at hand. So, tell me, Darnoc.”

“I want immortality for Imoen. And I guess you
know this already.”

“Yes, I know. But I wanted to hear it from your own mouth.”

There was silence for some time, but then the
voice continued: “I guess you two must have already thought that someone
created you and bound you together for a purpose. Your guess was right, for I
was who did this.”

“Ya did it? But why?” Im asked.

“Because the multiverse must evolve and you
will be my tools to do so.”

Again there was silence, until the voice continued:
“Your cause is noble, but it would have been better if you never came here. I
cannot fulfill your wish, Darnoc. What you seek I will not give to you, my
power may not be used for such a purpose.”

“I will do whatever I can to make Im immortal!”
I shouted determined.

“Yes, I know, the love between you is
extraordinarily strong. Just as I planned it. You will not
stop for everything to reach your goal, I can feel it. Therefore you leave me
no other choice than to remove what gives you determination. Imoen will cease
to exist.”

Im opened her mouth, her face grew pale and she
turned to me.

“Darn… I… my daughter!” she whispered.

She tried to reach for my hand, but suddenly
vanished, as if she never had existed.

I just starred at the point where she just had
been standing before, not believing what I saw. I fell on my knees, still starring at the emptiness that once had
been Imoen, still not believing it.

“No, no, no, no…” I whispered and fell on my
face, sobbing.

The world began to fade before my eyes, I heard my companions shout and rush towards me, but then all went dark.

In the darkness Im stood before me, smiling at
me. But she didn’t look real, she looked somewhat ethereal. Slowly she bent
down and took my hand, helping me up. I embraced her, pressed her against my
body and kissed her, never wanting to let her go again.

“I want to stay here; I can’t lose you, Im…” I
whispered.

“Darn, I’m sorry for what happened; there was
nothing I could do… Ah, it’s no use tellin’ ya that, I know. But ya ‘ave t’ let go o’ me an’ live on. Promise me, Darn!”

Tears streamed from my eyes as I replied: “But I
can’t let you go, I can’t continue on without you. But I must, because I am
immortal! I want to die, Im…”

“I’ll be with ya, Darn, somehow. But ya
‘ave t’ let go.”

“No, I won’t! I’ll find a way to bring you
back, Im, I promise you that!”

“Don’t go down that path, Darn, it’ll only lead t’ many evil thin’s an’ lots o’ sufferin’, I
can see it.”

And with that I awoke again in the hall.
Jaheira and Arkul looked at me, their faces showing their shock.

“By the gods, Darnoc, I never would have thought…”
Jaheira whispered.

I felt her absence, something was missing and
the bondage was gone. Our souls and spirits, tied together by an invisible
rope, had been ripped apart brutally. So I sat long there, weeping, and
in my heart I swore that I would bring Imoen
back. I wouldn’t care, how long it took, I would manage it. We would be reunited and we
would live together for all eternity as god and goddess. And then I would get
my revenge at the Power.

My hate grew and grew and I let it happen, I no
longer had the power to resist it anymore. Im had given me strength to hold
back the evil, but she was gone and now and I was left alone with my inner
demons.

Suddenly it burst out,
I howled in agony, hate and anger and began to change into the slayer-beast.

“I will destroy them all, I will be the only
one left and I will rule them all! No one will stand before my power! I will
have all the power in the multiverse and then I will bring her back! No one
will stop me and anyone who tries will die!”

Arkul and Jaheira stumbled to their feet, starring frightened at me.

“By the gods, what is happening, Darnoc?” Jaheira shouted.

Something was different than before. I was in
control of myself, not under the control of the beast. And I realized that I
could use the energy of my hate to achieve anything, to even vanquish the gods
themselves.

“Behold, for I am here to show you a new way, a
golden way to a glorious future! The gods are the past, I am the future! My
technology will conquer the world and then the multiverse itself! Look upon me,
for I am the only true god, the rest of them are false gods, trickster, liars and I will punish them for their arrogance!”

Arkul starred at me and came nearer.

“Is this your divine form?” he asked, almost
whispering.

“I can take on this form, if it suits me. This
is the expression of my divine and just wrath, with which I will vanquish all
the infidels. Follow me and your reward shall be great, Arkul Sazzari!”

He fell to his knees, bowing deep.

“I submit to you, my Lord and God!” he cried.

“Then rise, my prophet and messenger! Bring my
words to the people, teach them the true way!”

“I will do as you command, my Lord and God!
What shall be done?”

“Let us leave this place and the fools in it.
But for this I will have to take on my disguise again.”

And with this I changed back into my human
form.

Jaheira stepped in front of me, clutching her
staff tightly.

“Stop this madness, Darnoc!” she demanded.

I glared at her, anger and hate rising in me. Then I
grabbed her at the throat, while changing back into the slaver-form.

“You are an infidel, Jaheira, and therefore you must
die! Watch, Arkul, for thus shall the unfaithful be punished!”

Jaheira tried to struggle from my grip, but in
my slayer-form I was far too strong for her. I raised my claws and ripper her head away with
them.

“The New Era has begun and all who stand in our
way shall be destroyed. This is a Holy War and there are no innocents! There are only those who are for us and those who are against us! Listen, my prophet,
and learn!”

And that is how the change began, which
eventually would engulf the whole multiverse.

Part Six: Weapons

Imoen:
Connected

On the surface, we were greeted by elves, which
were just battling against the Drow. Irenicus had succeeded in his plans at
least partially, the city of Suldanessalar, capitol of the elves in Tethir,
had vanished and he had entered it. We were questioned by General Sovalidas and
then by Lord Elhan, until he was finally content and believed that we were
indeed enemies of Irenicus. In order to enter the city again, Elhan needed the
so called Rynn Lathorne, a magical artifact. But that was exactly the problem: Bodhi
had stolen it. We agreed to bring the Rynn Lathorne back. Finally I would be
able to kill that bitch and get my soul back! And then we would go after
Irenicus, returning Darnoc his soul.

After all that darkness I was glad to be back in the
open, under the sun and moon. It was a nice spot, a quiet, peaceful forest, a
small lake next to us. So I suggested that we camped
her and rested for a while, which all agreed to.

Long I had wanted to tell Darnoc that I had a gift for music,
which I wanted to share with him. Never had I had the chance, though. I had wanted to do it
back in Baldur’s Gate, but never had summoned enough courage to do so. But now,
after all we had gone through, I knew that I could do it.

Darnoc looked surprised at me, as I took out the
guitar. They looked puzzled at me and
Minsc asked me, what it was. So I explained it to them. Darnoc was quite surprised to hear that, he never would have thought
that I had a musical talent. It was a joy to watch his surprised face and I
smiled at him, feeling happy. I couldn’t really recall when I had felt that
last time.

I began to play for them and they listened,
totally captured by my music. Earlier I always had had problems with playing in
front of people, but somehow it had vanished, together with my older self. This
new Imoen had inner strength and courage unknown to me until then. I was
surprised by myself.

They all praised my talent, what of course
increased my happiness. I guess my eyes shone from pride and joy that night.
But I still had a surprise left for them…

I began to sing and that totally stunned them.
Darnoc was staring at me in total awe, he never
would have thought. He was a good singer himself, with a beautiful bass. But it
almost seemed now that he was even more impressed by my soprano.

Silence followed my performance, nobody wanted
to break the spell, which had all enchanted them. I finally took Darnoc’s hand and told him that we
should sing together. He suggested a ballad, the song of Wulfgard and Wulflinde,
one of his favorites.

It was indeed a beautiful song, also a very
difficult one. Together with Keldorn, who sung tenor, we managed it and were
surprised by how well it all went. Even the elves came listening to us.

After our astonishing performance, we sat down around the campfire and chatted about
this and that, nothing serious. For a while it seemed as if our worries had
gone. But I and Darnoc didn’t speak; we just looked into each others eyes, feeling our
connection. He seemed to be happy now, which also filled my heart with gladness, although we both
still hadn’t reclaimed our souls.

I fell asleep, but cannot recall, when. At
sunrise I awoke again, yawned and stretched, then got up and walked towards the lake, washing my face. I
looked around and saw Darnoc sleeping beside my bedroll.

Suddenly this idea occurred to me, to give him
a good wake with a little lake water. Smiling mischievously, I took a bucket,
went to the lake and filled it. Then I sneaked back, looked for a second at Darnoc’s sleeping figure and threw the
whole water over him.

He jumped up and looked around puzzled, until he saw me,
trembling all over from the cold water. It was just hilarious, I just couldn’t help but laugh
at him standing there, trembling and looking confused.

He seemed to be a little grumpy and asked me:
“Now why did you do that?”

I was still laughing and replied: “T’ clear yar mind o’ course. Nothin’ better than a little water
in the mornin’.”

He looked at me, disappointment and a little
angry and said: “That wasn’t very nice of you, you know?”

Couldn’t he just understand that it was fun? I
stepped closer to him, but he didn’t change his face, still looking a little
sad.

“I never would have thought that you would do
such a thing to me, Im.”

He really took the whole thing a little bit too
serious! But hell, not everybody got the same sense of humor. So I apologized
to him.

But then he laughed and his whole face changed,
his eyes glittering jokingly and he grabbed my hand.

“Gotcha! You really believed I would be
angry at you because of a little mischief?”

Hah, he had only acted! I felt relieved and
laughed also, withdrawing my hand. Suddenly I had the odd urge to play a little
with him, to have some fun and happiness, as we had done back in Candlekeep.
The child in me seemed to surface again.

“Ya never catch me, ya ol’ fossil!”

He changed his voice into a faked, angry tone
and replied: “Now you’re going to get it!”

This made me even more laugh and I countered:
“But first ya’ve gotta get
me!”

And then I turned and ran, he behind me, trying
to catch me. I knew exactly that he was the better runner and if I kept a
straight line, he would certainly get me. There was only one choice: into the
woods and then confuse him with quick turns and changes of directions.

I heard him shout behind me: “You just wait, Im, I’ll
get you in the end!”

Laughing, I replied: “In yar dreams, ya
clumsy ol’ bear!”

The next comment of his was just hilarious, it made me giggle and laugh
even more: “Bears can be quite fast, you know. And besides, I’m a wolf, not a bear!”

It was an old joke of mine; I had often called
him “Wolf”, because of his “fur” and his “wolfish grin”. Of course, back then
in Candlekeep I hadn’t known that his mother indeed was a werewolf.

I ran on and while running, glanced quickly
back. Bad idea, for I stumbled over a root. He quickly caught up and grabbed my
arm. Of course, I tried to wrestle
from his grip and with one forceful pull backwards tried to get free, but only
managed to stumble over another root, trip over and drag Darnoc with me on the ground. I landed
on my back and Darnoc right on me, not a really comfortable situation. Still, I just
couldn’t stop laughing and giggling, not in a long time I had had so much fun.

Suddenly I noticed that he was completely
silent and just looking at me, somewhat sadly, but at the same time happily. It
was strange and when I stopped laughing and starred back into his eyes, I felt… It
reminded me of the third dream I had had. But this here was real, not just a
dream; I couldn’t just tell myself that this was all just imagination or the
result of too much torture. I knew that we were connected, I felt this
connection and somehow I felt that it would only become complete, if we were
fully connected. Right now we were just spirit and soul, but also our bodies needed
to be united in order to truly be one.

Slowly Darnoc bent down, coming closer and
closer, until I felt his warm breath on my skin, while I kept looking into
his eyes, almost sinking into them. And then his lips touched mine, warm and soft, his breath floating into
my mouth. For a moment I shivered and in me the longing awoke, a deep wanting.
I closed my eyes and just felt him, as he kissed me passionately, as I let go
of all my worries and useless denials, for I knew that I wanted this, I needed
this and all my clumsy attempts to hide this fact were now breaking away,
vanishing.

We began to kiss each other all over the face,
my heartbeat went faster and faster, as did
my breath and I began to feel warmer and warmer and at the same time strangely
cold, as shivers went down my back and everything but my desire vanished into
nothingness, everything but him was now gone.

But then, suddenly something interrupted
everything, exploding in my head: No, this was wrong, we couldn’t do that, we
couldn’t go down that path, I needed to stop this, before it was too late,
before I couldn’t stop myself anymore, before I forgot everything completely! I
was afraid, worried, I was unsure; in my mind I had those horrible pictures,
where they burned us on a pyre and yelled “incest” and many other things at us.

So I pushed Darn slowly away and looked deep into
his eyes.

“Look… this isn’t right. We’re siblings, Darn! We shouldn’t feel like that!”

He stroked my cheek gently, again his touch
sent shivers through my body. Oh, I wanted him, but I needed to focus, I
couldn’t let this happen. Focus, Imoen, get a grip!

But then he said: “I don’t care for me, whatever you decide I will
accept.”

Why did he say that, why did he leave the
decision to me, it was so unfair! I knew exactly that I my resistance was
useless and that I couldn’t fight, what I wanted, deep down in my heart. Why didn’t he just say “you’re
right, let’s stop”? Perhaps he knew exactly that I hadn’t the strength to deny
him, because I didn’t want at all.

So I struggled with myself, trying to tell
myself that we couldn’t do that. But more and more I realized that I had
already lost the battle long ago, the decision had been made and was now
irreversible. I simply had to let go of my worries, it was so easy, so easy to
simply let it happen. Still, there were worries, there was fear and I needed Darnoc to assure me that I needn’t
worry about it.

“I… I don’t care ‘bout what they’ll call us, a’right? We love each other, right? An’ nothin’ else counts, t’ hell with them others!”

What the hell was I trying to tell myself? I
guess I was trying to make myself believe that nothing would happen that all
was alright and we could just go on like that. Not really successfully right
now, so I simply blocked the worries out, at least for the moment.

But he insisted on bringing them back, just
when I had convinced myself that there was nothing to worry about: “They will
accuse of incest, some will perhaps even try to kill us for it. Are you sure,
Im?”

So, it came down to make a real decision. If I
stepped onto this path now, there was no going back. Either I did step onto it
or not. And I knew that there was only one thing I wanted. I nodded firmly.

“I don’t care ‘bout their opinion any longer.
Look, I realized that what we ‘ave’s somethin’ special that no one else ‘as. We’re one an’ we’re
meant t’ be t’gether,
whatever they say.”

I tried to assure him that I meant it earnestly and hugged him, kissing him
with all possible passion. He lowered me back on the grass, kissing me softly.
I began touching his shirt, I wanted it off, if I was going to do it, I wanted
to do it right now and get it over with, no hesitations anymore. He helped me
with the shirt and thus revealed the hair on his body, which had grown since I
had last seen him like that.

Touching it, I remarked, smiling: “Like a wolf, I’ve
always said it.”

He gave me right and kissed me again, while his
hands touched my breast, which hardened, as my body began to feel warm again. His hand moved down,
touching my body and I trembled at the touch, my desire growing and growing, as
he pulled my shirt upwards and began touching my bare skin.

Finally, as he had taken it off, he starred at me in awe and remarked: “Im, you’re absolutely
stunning…”

This made me smile and reply to him, kissing
him on the cheek, that he wasn’t so bad himself, if he would just stop looking
always so sinister. He then said to this that it was impossible to make a
sinister face around me, what made me smile even more. I touched his thick, brown hair
and again he kissed me, while he reached down with one hand and pulled of my
boots. I, on the other hand, was just trying to get his trousers open. After
some trying I managed to open his belt and strip them down. He tried the same
with me, while kissing my breasts, but didn’t manage so well, so I helped him
with them. After my experiences in Spellhold I had given up wearing skirts, for obvious reasons.

His hand moved down, over my bare skin, touching my legs, then my
thighs and then… My whole body seemed to tremble from delight and desire, I
wanted him right now! Never had I felt something as strong before, but at that
moment I hadn’t in mind to reflect upon my feelings, I just wanted to fulfill
them. I needed to fulfill them!

Suddenly the memories appeared again, just popping up in my
head. Pain, blood, sweat and grunts, something inside of me, hurting me,
without me being able to stop it. Again I trembled, but this time of fear, a cold fear taking hold of me, everything else
vanishing.

Darnoc seemed to feel it too, for he smiled gently
at me and then kissed me softly.

“It won’t hurt, Im, it’ll be just fine, don’t
worry” he whispered into my ear.

The wave of cold passed, I nodded and then he
slowly pushed apart my legs. I felt him enter me, not like… the other guy, not forcefully,
not painfully. Again my desire awoke, this time slower and softer than before.

“Ya never did this, I
know, but ya’re doin’ a’right for a first-timer” I managed to whisper, trying to
push all fear away.

He starred at me in surprise and asked: “What, how do
you know that I never…?”

You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you? But I
think I’ll keep some secrets for myself…

He began to push into me, but only slowly
first, while he bent down and again, kissing me passionately. I felt it come, I
felt my body getting warm, my feelings rise and suddenly I grabbed his hands and pressed them,
trying to stop myself from a moan, which just had wanted to leave my lips. He
began to push faster and faster into me and I moved against him with my thighs,
pressing them against him in the same rhythm, without thinking about it, just
doing it.

He put his hands into my hair, kissing my
throat and keeping on going. And then I just couldn’t stop myself any longer, a
soft moan exited my mouth and then more came, louder and louder. I stopped
thinking, I only felt and it felt wonderful. I felt him, I felt him as a whole,
as a part of myself, with everything inside
of him and we became one being, everything connected and locked forever.

Finally everything seemed to explode inside of
me, a joy and exaltedness so great that it almost became unbearable, sending my body into
uncontrolled spasms, as I screamed, but not from pain or fear, something just had to make its way
out of me, or else I would have really exploded, something of these feelings.
At least that is how it felt like.

It was over and he lay on me, we both panted
heavily and sweated, our skins wet. He moved off from me and then put his arms around me, pressing my body against
his. And like that we slept there on the grass and in the sunlight, the wind
blowing over us.

I awoke some time later, still feeling
wonderful and totally relaxed. But then my worries and fears reappeared, when I looked at him, sleeping
peacefully next to me, undisturbed. But my thoughts no longer were undisturbed.
If we’d continue like this, they would eventually find out and then… No, I
couldn’t let him come to harm. It was hard, for me and for him, but it was,
what I needed to do, for both of us.

So I stood up and put my clothes back on,
moving a little away of him and staring into nothingness, consumed by my thoughts.
It was like this that he found him and I realized that he didn’t understand.

“I… I can’t, Darn… I just can’t” I whispered to him
and began walking away, tears beginning to fill my eyes.

And then I felt, how a determination began to
appear inside of him. More than that, I
actually was able to hear his thoughts. He wanted to find a place, even
create a place, where our love could be safe and we could live together
undisturbed and in peace. How I longed for such a place, but I didn’t believe
that it was possible. And so I needed to walk away from him in order to save
him.

Darnoc:
Back on the surface

The elves led us to a group of silvery tents,
where an elf with richly decorated armor stood.

“General Sovalidas, we bring before you some
humans and an elf we have found at the entrance to the Underdark. What shall be done with them?”

“I will speak with them and determine, if their
intentions are of good or evil nature. You may leave, lieutenant.”

“As you command, General” the lieutenant said,
bowed and left us with Sovalidas.

“The inhabitants of the deep are our enemies and normally we
wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone and anything that ascends from the Underdark. So speak quickly or feel our
blades. Who is the leader of your group?”

I stepped forward and bowed before the General of
the elven army.

“My name is Darnoc and I lead this group. What is
it you wish to know?”

“What did you seek in the Underdark, Darnoc?”

“We are hunting a man called Irenicus. But it seems
as if he has already escaped to the surface.”

“Jon Irenicus? You hunt him? From what I know
you could be his allies and only acting as if you were his enemies.”

I sighed and asked: “Then how can we prove that
we speak the truth?”

Sovalidas shook his head and answered: “There
is nothing I can do to determine this. Lord Elhan will have the means to do
so.”

He waved to one of the elven warriors, who then left and soon came
back with another elf, who wore an armor decorated with gold and a sword with
emeralds on its hilt.

“Lord Elhan, we have found these here in the
Underdark. They claim to be enemies of Jon,
but I have not the means to determine whether they speak the truth or not.”

“It is good that you sent for me, Sovalidas.
You may go, I will speak with them.”

“As you command, Lord” Sovalidas answered and
left.

Lord Elhan now turned to us: “You claim to be
enemies of Jon Irenicus. Why are you his enemies? What has he done to you?”

I and Im looked at each other and we both
stepped forward.

“He’s stolen our souls, the bastard!” Im said with anger in her voice.

“And we will reclaim them with whatever means
necessary” I added.

A mage standing next to Elhan commented: “They
speak the truth, Lord.”

“I see. Clearly a reason to hate someone, I would
say. Now, are you allies or enemies of the Drow?”

“We are not their friends, they are allies of Irenicus” I replied.

“Again the truth, my Lord” the mage said.

“Look, can ya stop questionin’ us? Can’t ya start trustin’
us?”

Elhan shook his head.

“However sorry I am for the loss of your soul,
woman, we do not trust humans lightly.”

“This will lead us nowhere, Elhan” I commented.

Elhan thought for a while before he answered:
“Alright, I will try to trust you. Irenicus has entered our city and is
probably right now slaughtering its inhabitants. But there is nothing we can
do; somehow he has made the city invisible. We need the Rynn Lathorne; its
magic will reveal the city. But there is another problem: The Rynn Lathorne has
been stolen by an ally of Irenicus.”

“Bodhi” Im whispered.

“Irenicus’ sister? That explains some things. Now I
suggest this to you: Kill Bodhi and bring back the Rynn Lathorne and I will
believe you fully.”

“That’s a’right with
me, I wanna kill that bitch anyway” Im replied.

“I agree with these terms, Elhan” I added.

“Excellent, then thus it shall be. You may camp
here, if you wish to rest. Bodhi has fled to the north, so I suggest you use
the pass of the sharp teeth.”

We left Elhan and went over to a lake nearby. There Aerie and Anomen took a
look at Keldorn’s wound. They put a short sword into a fire, used it to take
out the bolt and then closed the wound with magic. When they had finished, it
was already growing dark.

“Look, can we camp right here? It’s a nice
spot” Im suggested.

“Yeah, alright” I replied and took out my
bedroll.

“Hey, wait, not like that!” she exclaimed.

Puzzled I asked her: “What do you mean?”

“Well, I thought we could sit ‘round the fire
an’ talk a little, ya know, such thin’s.”

Smiling, I replied: “Suits me alright, it’s
been a time since I actually sat around a fire with my companions.”

We sat around the fire we had already lighted and looked
at our provisions. There was not much left, so we asked Elhan, who sent some
bread, meat and wine over to us.

As we were eating and drinking, Im took
something out of her backpack. It looked like an instrument with strings on it,
but was far too small to be played. But after
she spoke an unknown spell, the instrument suddenly expanded and grew to a size
one could use.

“What’s that?” Minsc asked her.

“They call it ‘guitar’. Our father gave it t’ me back in
Candlekeep, ya know. Winthrop knew how t’ play it an’ he tried t’
teach me.”

That was new to me.

“Hey, you never told me that!”

Smiling, Im replied: “Well, I never came ‘round
t’ it. Wanted t’ tell ya in Baldur’s Gate, but then
we were caught by Irenicus…”

She began to move her fingers over the strings
and as she pulled them lightly, they began to sound. Faster and faster she
played, playing a music that almost invited us to dance. Minsc and Aerie
actually did so, but we others just sat closely to Im and listened to the
beautiful music Im conjured out of this guitar.

When she had finished her piece, I commented:
“Im that was just… absolutely amazing!”

She laughed joyfully and explained: “Well,
didn’t believe I’d ‘ave it in me, eh? Winthrop an’
father didn’t think so too, first. I was a horrible student, ya know. I practiced, a’right,
but every time I wanted t’ play in front o’ other people; I couldn’t bring out
a straight tune. But I kept on practicin’ an’ now I ‘ave no problem playin’ here.”

Then she put her fingers onto the strings again
and played another piece, as beautiful as the one before. I just sat there and
watched her play, forgetting everything around me. Her music was almost a
magic itself.

When she stopped she glanced around and asked: “What d’ya think now?”

Keldorn smiled warmly and said: “I never heard music thus beautiful, Imoen, and I
thank you from the depths of my heart for sharing your gift with us. You are indeed a gifted woman.”

“Even Boo likes it and normally he isn’t the
one who appreciates music” Minsc commented.

“Squeak!” Boo made, when Im petted him
softly.

“Yeah, he got it a’right,
smart hamster, this Boo.”

“Can you play another one, please?” Aerie
begged.

“Yes, I would like to hear more too” Anomen added.

I just looked at Im and smiled happily. It was
enough; she understood and showed it by smiling back at me, her eyes glittering
in the light of the fire.

“A’right, here it
comes…” she said.

First she began to play and the melody itself
was already more beautiful than anything I had ever heard before. It was very sad and
touched something deep in my heart. But then she began to sing and her voice
struck me with awe. She had a beautiful, rich soprano, which even made the
elves turn around and watch her.

Never before had I heard her sing. I was the one who always
sung and before I had heard her I had thought that my voice was a good
voice. My voice was a deep bass; I could fill a whole hall with my voice and
make a chatting crowd silent with a voice that sounded like it came out of the
depths of the earth itself, ascending from deep, rocky and earthy caves and bursting out into the
light of the surface. My voice was wild and strong, but hers was soft and
gentle, like a spring breeze in a forest, making the trees whisper softly. But
it wasn’t weak at all; it carried far and wide and still kept this soft quality.

I never remembered the exact words of her song,
but I do remember that it was a story that touched my heart and brought tears into my eyes. When she finished,
all was silent for a long time.

“By the gods, I never heard something like that before!”
Keldorn exclaimed.

The looks of us others said the same thing and
Im saw it and smiled happily at the appreciation.

“Come, Darn, let us sing t’gether”
she said, stretching out her hand.

I took her hand and stood up.

“The song of Wulfgard and Wulflinde”
I whispered.

It was an ancient song of a male and a female
werewolf, who tried to live together in peace, but were always hunted by others
and so had to wander from place to place. Finally they settled down and managed
to hide their other nature, but the chieftain Adalbert
of the nearby village wanted Wulflinde for himself and by accident uncovered her and Wulfgard’s true nature. In his madness he
thought that he could kill Wulfgard and take Wulflinde
for himself, somehow hiding her other side from the other villagers. Together with
his warriors he came for the two and tried
to kill Wulfgard, but Wulflinde
changed into a werewolf and attacked Adalbert. Adalbert killed Wulflinde and as
she lay slain before him, she turned back into her human form; it was then that
Adalbert realized that he had killed the one he had
loved. Wulfgard was able to flee the scene, but
swore to kill the villagers for what Adalbert had
done. The next night Wulfgard sneaked from house to house and
murdered the villagers in their sleep, the hate driving him. Adalbert awaited him and threw his sword at Wulfgard’s feet, telling him that he deserved
to die for killing Wulflinde. But Wulfgard laughed at him and told him that he
would let him live as the sole survivor of the village and that he wanted Adalbert to always remember what had happened there. With
that Wulfgard vanished into the night and was
never seen again, but Adalbert took up his sword and
killed himself.

“We need another singer, a tenor” Im replied.

“I know the song and I am tenor” Keldorn
replied.

“Very well, then this should work” I commented.

One needed three voices: a soprano, who
represented Wulflinde; a bass, who represented Wulfgard and a tenor, who represented Adalbert.

Using her guitar, Im played the melody of the song,
a sad and solemn tune, which changed into a fierce and sinister melody during
the fight and also the end. There wasn’t a fixed melody one had to play, the
player had to improvise and follow the voices of the singers, which made
playing that particular song very difficult, especially since it was a very long song.

I won’t write down the whole song, it would
fill pages to do so. Therefore I only mention that the whole elven army was listening in the end to our
trio and at the end everything was perfectly still, as if they all were under a
spell.

After a while the elves went away again and we
all sat around the fire, starring into it, not yet wanting to
talk.

“I will never forget this” Aerie finally
whispered.

We all nodded. This night would stay with us
forever, it was clearly special. Slowly we began to talk again, about this and that. And as I
listened I realized that the subject of our quest never came up even once. I
felt that we all had cheered up a little and smiled.

Then I looked at Im and saw that we were the
only two who were silent. We looked into the other’s eyes and felt the
connection between us again. Although there was emptiness, where Im’s soul
should have been, I felt happiness in her heart. Something she hadn’t felt in a
long time and me either.

I must have dozed off, for the next thing I
felt was icy cold water all over my body. Immediately I got up, trembling all
over and saw Im standing next to me, a bucket in her hand and laughing as she
watched me, all my clothes soaked.

“Now why did you do that?” I asked a little
grumpily.

“T’ clear yar mind o’ course. Nothin’
better than a little water in the mornin’” she
replied.

“That wasn’t very nice of you, you know?”

“But… but I thought… It was just a bit o’ fun!”

She stepped closer and looked at me, while I
made an expression of hurt feelings and disappointment.

“I never would have thought that you would do
such a thing to me, Im” I whispered sadly.

Now she stood right in front of me and looked
directly into my eyes.

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean t’ hurt ya” she whispered, clearly meaning it.

Suddenly I laughed and grabbed her hand.

“Gotcha! You really believed I would be
angry at you because of a little mischief?”

She laughed also and quickly withdrew her hand.

“Ya never catch me, ya ol’ fossil!” she shouted
mockingly.

“Now you’re going to get it!” I grumbled in a
faked angry voice.

“But first ya’ve gotta get me!” she replied and dashed off.

Bad idea, because I had always been
good when it came to running. She ran towards the nearby forest and I went after her, gaining more and more. Glancing back she
realized it and quickly dashed off sideward. I almost stumbled into a bush
before I could turn around.

“You just wait, Im, I’ll get you in the end!” I
shouted at her.

“In yar dreams, ya clumsy ol’ bear!”

“Bears can be quite fast, you know. And besides, I’m
a wolf, not a bear!” I replied while running, but she just giggled and ran on.

For a moment she glanced back, didn’t look
where she was walking and stumbled over a root. It was all I needed, in a quick
sprint I caught up with her and grabbed her arm. She tried to wrestle from my
grip, stepped backwards and stumbled over another root, dragging me with her so that I fell
right on her.

“Oh, darn, that didn’t go so well…” she muttered while
laughing.

“What?”

“Not ya, the root,
stupid!”

She still giggled, but I grew silent and just
starred at her. I couldn’t get my eyes
off her, so I watched how the sunlight made her red hair and her cheeks
glitter. Although I had known it somehow, I realized it now with clarity like never before: she was
beautiful and I loved her. Not just her body, but everything about her and I
mourned for the loss of her soul like it was my own.

Finally she stopped giggling and all went
silent, there was only the wind in the trees. And as we looked into each
other’s eyes, I realized that she felt exactly what I felt. I bent down, closer
and closer to her face, and I felt as if I was sinking into her eyes as if they
were deep wells. Our lips touched and I felt her warm breath meet with mine, smelled the
sweat on her skin, the odor of her hair. My fingers touched her hair, feeling
their softness and slowly I extended my tongue and met hers. As I pressed my
lips onto hers I felt that she wanted it and she responded. We were locked into
a passionate kiss for a long time, but it didn’t stop there, I moved over her
cheek, her eyebrows, her forehead, her throat.

Then she pushed me softly away and said
panting: “Look… this isn’t right. We’re siblings, Darn! We shouldn’t feel like that!”

Gently I stroked her cheek and replied: “I
don’t care for me, whatever you decide I will
accept.”

Long she was silent, looking at me, her lips
trembling slightly. But then I saw determination coming into her eyes.

“I… I don’t care ‘bout what they’ll call us, a’right? We love each other, right? An’ nothin’ else counts, t’ hell with them others!”

“They will accuse of incest, some will perhaps
even try to kill us for it. Are you sure, Im?”

She nodded firmly.

“I don’t care ‘bout their opinion any longer. Look,
I realized that what we ‘ave’s somethin’
special that no one else ‘as. We’re one an’ we’re meant t’ be
t’gether, whatever they say.”

She hugged me and kissed me again as if to show
me that she really meant it. Gently I lowered her back to the floor, while
still kissing her. She fingered at my shirt, trying to take it off, so I took
her hands, led them and we took it off together. Smiling she touched my skin
and moved over the hair on my body.

“Like a wolf, I’ve always said it.”

“You’re absolutely right, Im” I said and kissed
her onto her cheek.

My hand moved down and touched her breasts
softly, then I moved it further down and began to lift
off her shirt, uncovering more of her slightly bronze skin, kissing it as I
took off the shirt.

“Im, you’re absolutely stunning…” I whispered.

She kissed me and replied: “Of course I am an’
if ya wouldn’t always make such a sinister face ya wouldn’t be that bad yarself.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, around you it’s difficult to make a
sinister face.”

She touched my hair and I bent down and kissed
her again, inhaling her breath. With one hand I reached down and pulled off her
boots, while she was fumbling at my trousers, finally managing to open the belt
and stripping them down. I kissed her breasts while trying to open hers, which
proved quite difficult, so she helped me a little.

Slowly I touched her between her legs and felt
her tremble. It was then that I remembered that her only sexual experience had
been rape. I felt memories of pain from Im and so I gently kissed her.

“It won’t hurt, Im, it’ll be just fine, don’t
worry” I whispered.

She nodded, still a little uncertain, though,
and I gently parted her legs and entered her, not forcefully, but softly.

“Ya never did this, I
know, but ya’re doin’ a’right for a first-timer” she whispered.

“What, how do you know that I never…?”

“I know more than ya
can guess” came her reply while she panted.

I began to push slowly and kissed her
passionately at the same time, while she began moving against me with her hips.
Then she grabbed my hands and pressed them hard, while we began to move faster and
faster. I felt totally exalted as we both found our rhythm, our breaths going
faster and faster.

It was then that I felt it the first time: The
absolute oneness of us. We seemed to melt into each other not only on the
physical level, but also on the spiritual. And it felt absolutely extraordinary. As I began to pant heavier and
she began to moan, our spirits melted more and more and I felt as if I was Im
and she was me. There was no difference between us, we had always been one and
would always be. And as she screamed in total ecstasy, our spirits seemed to
explode in a bright light, making the connection complete and eternal. They
were now locked together, for the better or worse and would stay that way.
Somehow the sexual act had been the final step in uniting us completely, we
were now one flesh and one spirit (as a cleric would put it) and soon we would
be one soul also.

We kept lying there, listening to the wind and
our breaths, feeling the warmth of our bodies and the other’s spirit.

When I awoke again, Im was standing next to a
tree, her clothes on again. I could feel that something was troubling her mind
and she seemed to feel that I didn’t understand. So I put my clothes on again
and stepped over to her. She turned around and starred at me, a deep sadness in her
eyes.

“I… I can’t, Darn… I just can’t” she whispered and
walked away.

I felt a deep confusion, anger at herself, worry for me and sadness. And suddenly I realized
what was wrong: She thought that we would be made outcasts or even killed if we
stayed together and she didn’t want any harm to come to me.

A determination grew inside of me: I would make
it possible that we could live together; somehow I would find a way that we
needn’t worry about such things anymore. And then nothing would stand between
us and our union, everything would be as it should have been from the beginning.

Imoen:
Preparing for the fight

After this we traveled northwards to Atkatla. On our journey there
we had two encounters. First we met a Githyanki, who tried to take away the
silver blade, but Darnoc killed him and took the silver hilt from his body. The other
encounter was Drizzt, the famous Drow hero. He promised to help us fight Bodhi.

During our journey, a thought was bothering me
more and more: What if I had gotten pregnant? I had never thought of that
before, but now it was beginning to worry me more and more.

I went over to Aerie, taking her aside a
little, so the others wouldn’t hear what I wanted to tell her.

“Ehm, Aerie, there’s somethin’ I gotta tell ya…”

I stared to the ground, avoiding her gaze, my face
reddening.

“It’s alright, Imoen, you can tell me, I won’t
tell anyone, if you wish.”

“Well, what if I told ya
that I’ve fallen in love with someone an’ that… Well, we slept with each other?
It’s just that… well, what if I’m pregnant now? I’m worried, Aerie, I really
am…”

She took my hand and smiled at me.

“If it has happened, there is not much I can
do. But look, take this, if you ever… you know.”

She handed a bottle over to me and I looked at
it, not entirely sure.

“And this should work?”

“Yes, listen, I’ve got the recipe somewhere,
wait just a minute…”

She looked through her backpack and finally
handed me a piece of paper.

“Here, I think, you need it more than I do. And
good luck with your relationship.”

“Ehm, yes, thanks,
Aerie. But please, don’t tell anyone!”

“I won’t Imoen, I promise.”

Atkatla proved to be quite a fascinating city.
I hadn’t seen much of it before, only Waukeen’s promenade and at that time I
hadn’t had the time to take a look around, my focus had been completely on Irenicus.
Atkatla was a city ruled by money. There were lots of different traders and one
could meet people from all possible places. And of course, also crime thrived
in such a place, what I soon found out. But first we went to the Order of the
Radiant Heart, the order, to which Keldorn and Anomen belonged, and the knights of
the order also agreed to help us fight the vampires.

Finally we went down to the slums. I liked it
there; it was lively and full of noise, smells and colors, although there was a
lot of decay and stench also. And crime was omnipresent; I saw many thieves and
robbers lurking around in the shadows.

Darnoc led us to a tavern called the Copper
Coronet and I immediately fell in love with it. The owner was a nice person, a
former gladiator called Hendak (Darnoc told me that he had helped Hendak free some
slaves) and Bernard, who mostly ran the tavern, was a jolly old fellow.

Hendak talked to Darnoc for a moment and when Darnoc returned, I of course asked him,
what it all had been about.

“It seems as if I haven’t destroyed the slavers
entirely. The heads of the organization are still around, but I will amend this soon
enough” he explained.

“Right, I’m gonna
help ya with it, Darn, we can’t let those bastards enslave innocent people!”

He smiled and commented: “Glad you agree with
me, Im. I guess the others will also help.”

Then he went over to Bernard and talked silently with him for a
while, I couldn’t understand what exactly. Bernard vanished for a moment in a
backroom and returned with a book, but I couldn’t see, what it was.

After that Darnoc wanted to visit a temple of Ilmater, in order to fulfill the last wish
of Yoshimo. He handed the heart of Yoshimo to the priest, a sad and solemn
expression on his face. I also felt a sadness, remembering, how Yoshimo had
killed himself.

Finally we went down to the docks, an even more
interesting place than the slums. Hm, although I
couldn’t make much distinction, in my opinion, the docks were a part of the slums anyway. Only that in
the docks the reign of crime was even more obvious than in the slums, the
headquarters of the Shadow Thieves was of
course also there.

We immediately went to the heart of this organization, to the
personal room of Aran Linvail, who had helped Darnoc to travel to Spellhold. Aran
seemed to be a not too bad a fellow, he was quite friendly and even
understanding, when I told him about losing my soul. He immediately agreed to
help us, probably also, because he wanted to destroy Bodhi once and for all,
since she was working against him. His daughter, this Mocilia, on the other
hand, seemed to be a totally different person. She had a cruel and power-hungry
look in her eyes, something very cold and at the same time full of hate.

I was just staring at her, when something horrible
happened: A figure leaped from the shadows, murdered Linvail and disappeared again. An assassin hired by
Bodhi!

Mocilia immediately began sending out her
thieves to find the assassin. She began reveal more and more of her true
nature, now I saw that she was very dominant and a strong leader, she was able
to hide her feelings and pursue a course. Still, coupled with her cruel and
cold nature, I didn’t want to imagine, what she was able to do.

I saw it soon enough, though. Her thieves
proved to be quite efficient and found the assassin. Mocilia told us then to
follow her, together with three of her thieves. She had armed herself with fire-spiters and put on the black armor of her father, the symbol of the
Shadow Master. It was clear that she intended to hold her position.

She led us to a house in the slums, where we
indeed found the assassin, who was just screwing with a whore, when we entered.
What followed… I don’t like to think about it,
especially since it brings back memories I am trying hard to cope with. I guess it suffices
to say that Mocilia tortured and killed the assassin, while her thieves raped
the woman. It proved my earlier assumptions about Mocilia right, though.

Mocilia told us that we should meet her later
on down in the catacombs; she went to prepare her “army”. We went back to the Copper
Coronet in order to sleep for some hours. But I couldn’t sleep for a long time,
memories resurfacing again. And when I finally slept, it was full of nightmares, horrible nightmares.

Darnoc woke me once during the night; he had noticed
that something was wrong. But since I had decided to bring a halt to our
intimate relationship, I told him that it was nothing. I couldn’t encourage the
relationship, if I wanted to break it. And he feeling sorry for me and trying
to help me would certainly bring us closer again. I needed to focus on the
problems at hand, although deep inside I knew that I wanted to have him at my
side and help me. I just couldn’t get it out of my mind, how hard I tried. So I kept thinking of
Bodhi and how I would kill that bitch and reclaim my soul.

Next morning Keldorn invited us to his home,
where I met his wife Maria and his two daughters. Maria approached me after dinner; I am not sure,
why. Perhaps she felt that something was wrong with me and that I felt pain
inside.

“Is everything alright with you?” she asked me
in a kind voice.

“No, nothing’s right. I’ve got no soul, ya see, they stole the souls of me an’ my brother. But
today I’m gonna kill Bodhi an’ then I’ll have back,
what’s mine.”

The last words I had said in a grim
determination.

“I… I didn’t know that. When Keldorn had been
here last time, he had told me that he had promised to Darnoc to help rescue you. But of
course, I didn’t know that such a horrible thing had happened to you two. I
didn’t even know that such a thing was possible…”

I sat down onto a chair and stared at the wall.

“It’s possible, believe me. I feel… hollow an’
I know that if I don’t get my soul back, I’m gonna
die eventually. The worst ‘bout the whole matter are the thin’s
he did t’ take it away. Ya know,
I can’t sleep without havin’ nightmares. Sometimes I can’t sleep at all,
‘cause everythin’s comin’ back…”

I needed to focus, I needed to control myself,
I couldn’t make scene here! Somehow I was able to swallow the upcoming tears, my look was blank, my voice flat.

Maria put her hand onto my shoulder and smiled
softly, without saying anything for a while.

“There’s a deep pain inside of you, I can see
that. If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. Some things are just too hard in order to talk about them, I
understand that. In time you will learn to live with it and learn from it. You can learn from all experiences and if you
choose so, you can even use them for something good. Because you have
experienced pain and suffering, you are now able to understand others, who had it
also. This leads to true compassion, you can begin to help others.”

I knew that her words were true and until this
day I remember them, for then I began to have a new goal in life. Her words
gave my life a new meaning, a new direction, and I guess this is why I was in
the end able to live on.

I appreciate it also deeply that Maria then told Keldorn to keep his
promise, unless he wanted to awaken her anger.

After that we went to the graveyard. Finally we would face Bodhi and I
would get back, what was mine!

Darnoc:
Allies

We didn’t tell the others what had happened
between me and Im and nobody asked, although we had been away for hours. We
just packed our things and began marching northwards. After a day we reached the pass
and crossed it into Amn. Now we had just to continue north and thus reach
Atkatla.

At the feet of the mountain a figure awaited
us. As we drew nearer I recognized it as a Githyanki.

“Ah, yoo ahre the ohnes whoo hahve the seelver blahde. Hahnd eet ohver right now!” he
screamed, when we approached.

“Oh, why should I do that?”

“Stoopeed hoomahns, I weell tahke eet ahnyway!”
he said and attacked.

He didn’t get far, of course. A bullet from my fire-spiter penetrating his head killed him instantly. And on
his body I found the hilt of the silver sword. Now I only needed a smith who
could put the thing together.

On our march towards Atkatla we met a group of
adventurers on the road. To my surprise I realized that they were led by a
Drow. And then I remembered: Drizzt Do’Urden!

“Halt, strangers, who are you and where do you go?” Drizzt
asked us.

“Drizzt, don’t you remember? I’m Darnoc and we met a little west of
Beregost. We helped you against a gang of Gnolls.”

He stepped closer and looked at me critically.
Then he remembered and his face brightened up.

“Indeed, it is you! And there’s your sister,
Imoen, and this must be Minsc and Boo. But where are Dynaheir, Jaheira and Khalid?”

“Dynaheir an’ Khalid ‘re
dead” Im replied.

“And Jaheira is now the leader of the druids of
Amn” I added.

“Oh, I am sorry to hear of their deaths. Now, what leads
you this way, Darnoc?”

“My and Im’s souls have been stolen and we are on our way to reclaim them. At least one soul, the one of Im. Hers has been stolen by
the queen of vampires, Bodhi, who has her lair in Atkatla.”

“Stolen souls? That is terrible! You have
helped me once and I feel obliged to help you now. Don’t worry, Imoen, we will
get you your soul.”

Im smiled at this, I felt a glimmer of hope
inside of her.

“Now, where might we find this Bodhi?”

“She has her lair beneath the graveyard district in Atkatla” I explained.

“Then we shall travel to Atkatla and kill this
beast together.”

And so we did. When we reached the gates of
Atkatla, we split. I wanted to find more allies, Drizzt and his companions
would already head to the graveyard.

Keldorn and Anomen both suggested that we ask
the Order of the Radiant Heart for help, since it was the duty of the order
to vanquish evil in all its forms. It was a good advice, for Wessalen, prelate
of the order, was more than ready to help us out.

We headed to the Copper Coronet in order to get
the news of the city and then to go and ask the Shadow Thieves for help. Bernard and Hendak were glad to see us
return.

“Hello Darnoc, wonderful to have you back!
Might I have a word with you?” Hendak called when we entered.

“Certainly, whatever you want,
Hendak.”

We went over to a corner, where Hendak turned
and looked gravely at me.

“I have finally found the heads behind the
slaver-organization. They live in the temple district, just north of the order’s
headquarters.”

“Then don’t worry, Hendak, they will get their
just reward.”

He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder.

“I knew I could count on you, Darnoc. We will never forget what you
have done to help us slaves. If there is ever anything you need us for, just
say the word.”

A question had been on my mind lately and I
wanted some answers. I asked Bernard if he knew of any books concerning the doings
of Bhaal on Toril. He didn’t know of any book, which concerned itself particularly with that question, but he handed
me one, which had information on the gods, including Bhaal.

Next to the Copper Coronet there was temple of Ilmater. I handed Yoshimo’s heart to the priest as my former
companion had requested before his death.

“I hope he finds peace in death” I noted to Im.

“Yeah, me too… It was… sad, seein’
‘im killin’ ‘imself like that” she whispered.

After this we headed to the docks and entered
the Shadow Thieves’ headquarters. Aran Linvail awaited us in his room, his
“daughter” Mocilia standing beside him.

“Ah, you finally return! Sime had told me that
you entered the Spellhold, but when I sent a ship there was a hell of a mess in
Brynnlaw, Desharik was furious. Saemon Havarian has stolen Desharik’s ship, can you believe it? But I
guess you know this, for I also guessed that you helped Saemon commandeering
it.”

“That is indeed so, Aran. But we didn’t get far, some Githyanki caught up with us.
They wanted to have a magical blade from Saemon. Here, I’ve got both the blade
and the hilt.”

He looked closely at it, admiring it.

“Best is to ask Cromwell, the master smith here
in the docks. He might be able to put it together again. But please, continue
your story!”

“While we were fighting the Githyanki, the
Sahuagin attacked and kidnapped us, bringing us to their city. There they
forced us to help them in some problem of theirs. After that we traveled the
Underdark and came back to the surface in
the south.”

“My god, what a story! But look at this, it must be
Imoen!”

He took Im’s hand and kissed it gently.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,
Imoen. I hope
all is well with you.”

Imoen and I both shook our heads.

“What has happened to you two? Something is
wrong here…”

“Irenicus… he… he stole our souls!” Im
exclaimed.

Aran was shocked at this news.

“By the gods, what a horrible fate! Is there a way to mend this?”

“Yes! I ‘ave t’ kill
Bodhi then I’ll get back my soul!”

“Then I will help you with it, Imoen. This
Bodhi is a very annoying person and she messes around with my plans for this city. Mocilia,
as she now wants to be called, will of course accompany you. She hasn’t
forgotten the vampires yet.”

“Yah bet I didn’t!” Mocilia exclaimed.

Suddenly a black-hooded figure appeared out of the shadows behind Aran,
raised a dagger and stabbed the Shadow Master right into his heart from behind.

“Bodhi sends her greetings, Shadow Master!” the
figure hissed and disappeared again.

Mocilia screamed and rushed to her father, but
it was too late, Aran Linvail, Shadow Master, was dead. Weeping she bent over
her father’s body and we all stood around her in silence. Finally she stood up, grim
determination on her face.

“Find that assassin, but just observe ‘im for now. I’ll take care o’ ‘im meeself” she commanded one of the nearby Shadow Thieves.

“Now, ‘bout this Bodhi. First I’ll kill dah
assassin, but then we’ll take care o’ ‘er too.”

She put on the black armor of her father, pushed two fire-spiters into her belt and hung also a sack with bullets and
another with smoke powder on it. On her side she hung her short sword. Then she
sat down and waited.

It took about two hours. A Shadow Thief appeared and whispered something in
Mocilia’s ears. She grinned and stood up.

“Come, follow me” she said and follow we did.

With us came three Shadow Thieves, she led us
into the slums and there to a grey, old building with several floors. The door
was no problem for the Shadow Thieves and we entered, taking the stairs up to
the third floor.

There were several doors there and Mocilia
stopped in front of the third. Behind it we could here noises. I heard a woman moan and a man grunt.
Mocilia listening, smiling coldly, then she stepped back and kicked the door
open, took out her fire-spiter and entered.

The room was quite dirty, there was a table
with a chair and a bed next to it, more wouldn’t have fitted in. On the bed we
saw a naked woman, her legs parted, and a naked man lying on top of her. When
the door was kicked open, they had turned around and were now looking in horror
at the entering Shadow Thieves, their weapons drawn. I followed them, drawing
my fire-spiters.

“Bind ‘im t’ dah chair an’ stuff somethin’ int’ ‘is mouth. We don’t want unwelcome visitors.”

The three Shadow Thieves grabbed the man and
pulled him away. When he protested, one of them hit him on the head. Then they
bound him onto the chair and stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth.

“Yah can ‘ave ‘er, I’ll occupy meeself with him”
Mocilia said and turned to the man on the chair.

The Shadow Thieves looked at each other and
grinned. The woman on the bed watched them, panic grew in her eyes. Suddenly
she tried to dash away, but one of the Shadow Thieves grabbed her and threw her
back onto the bed.

“Yah’re not goin’ anywhere, bitch, yah’re
ours” he shouted and hit her into the face.

The woman screamed and Mocilia turned around.

“Don’t make that much noise. Close dah door an’ stuff an’ bind her too. Yah know dah drill, boys.”

“Course we do, Mocilia” one of them replied.

I looked at my companions and I saw that we all
agreed. We needn’t to see what would happen here. So we left the room and
closed the door behind us. From the corridor we heard some screams, both from the caught
assassin and the woman. I also think that I heard the sharpening of a knife and then the
screams of the assassin grew to a climax and finally stopped abruptly.

The door opened and Mocilia came out, her face
a mask of anger and hate.

“Can someone wake dah
bastard up again? Anyone got healin’ powers?”

Although both Anomen and Aerie had healing
powers, we all shook our heads. We didn’t want any part in this, although the assassin
probably deserved it.

Mocilia turned to her thieves and shouted:
“Someone get me a bucket o’ water!”

One of the thieves rushed past us and down the
stairs, returning soon with a bucket full of cold water. I followed him into
the room, wanting to see what she had done to the assassin. The assassin was
covered in blood, his ears and nose cut off, parts of his skin too. The woman was
lying on the bed, her arms and legs bound to it and one of the thieves was just having his way
with her, while the other one watched, waiting for his turn.

The thief with the bucket threw the water over
the assassin, who awoke again. He shook his head, looked up and when he saw
Mocilia with her knife in her hand standing over him, he tried to scream again.

“As much as I enjoy this, there
‘re other thin’s I must take care o’. So yah’re
kinda lucky, ‘cause I’m gonna
make this short” she explained to him.

Then she grabbed him at his hair, pulled it
backwards, exposing his throat and cut it.

“Knife ‘er” she
commanded the thief with the bucket.

“But Mocilia, we thought we could ‘ave some fun with ‘er!” he
protested.

“No time an’ there ‘re
plenty o’ others yah can ‘ave yahr
fun with.”

The thief sighed and stepped over to the bed.

“Get off ‘er, Brat!”

Brat grunted and stepped up. The other thief
took out his knife, stepped over and cut the woman’s throat, who tried to
struggle free from the bonds, without success.

“Damn shame, was quite a fuck” Brat commented.

It was sickening to watch this whole scene. I
turned around and stumbled out of the room,
looking at my companions, who seemed to feel the same way. And suddenly I
realized that Mocilia would continue with this, even after killing Bodhi. Her
lust for power would drive her to do even more gruesome things and finally all
of the Sword Coast would be engulfed in her reign of
criminality.

The Shadow Thieves may have been our allies,
but I got more and more the feeling that we had made a pact with evil itself.

Imoen:
Getting my soul back

Bodhi stood there, smiling cruelly at us, at me
especially. Her eyes were no longer hollow, but in them was a spark and with a shudder I recognized
the same look, which I had seen, when looking into the mirror in earlier, happier times.

But before talking to me, she first turned to Darnoc: “I guessed that you’d come here
again, son of Bhaal”

And then she looked at me, her eyes piercing
me, revealing the hollowness inside of me.

“And Imoen is here too? Ah, what marvelous vampire you would make…”

Slowly she approached me, always her eyes fixed
on me, opening her mouth and revealing her fangs, hissing. I shuddered, my eyes
wide in fear, stumbling backwards, clutching my bow tightly. No, she wouldn’t,
Darn, help me!

To my relief she finally said: “But on the
other hand, I already have your soul, so why should I want your body?”

And with this she just teleported
away.

Anger and hate arose in my heart; I felt the slayer inside of me,
wanting to take control of me. But I was able to fight it.

Still, a little of the anger escaped me: “I’m gonna kill that bitch!”

Down in the catacombs we met the paladins and
Mocilia with her thieves, both groups looking at each other suspiciously.
Fortunately, Darnoc was able to restore the peace. Inside we also met Drizzt and his
companions, who were just fighting some vampires.

Bodhi wasn’t in the upper level and so we
descended all together down to the next level. There we finally found her,
inside of a locked room, pools of blood against the wall and one in the middle.

She just stood there, smiling cruelly and
wickedly at me, my anger appeared again, I wanted to kill her, to rip her body
to pieces!

She talked first to Darnoc, something about Elhan and the
elves, about her and Irenicus’ revenge, but hell, I didn’t care, I just wanted to kill her.

Finally I was no longer able to withhold my
anger and so I just screamed at her: “Gimme back my soul, ya fuckin’ bitch or I’ll tear yar heart out! I don’t give a damn ‘bout yar revenge, I just want what’s mine.
An’ I guess I also ‘ave some right t’ revenge myself
for what ya done t’ me, ya
bastards!”

My words angered Bodhi; I could see it and it
gave me satisfaction.

But what she finally said didn’t: “Be quiet!
You want to judge me for my crimes? What about you then? You are a thief and a mischievous whore!
You are also in love with your own
brother, a feeling also existing on the other side. Oh yes, I know about the
dirty, twisted thoughts creeping inside your mind. And you want to condemn me
for my crimes? Hypocrite!”

How could she, this damn bitch, I hated her, I
hated her with all my heart, with all the hate I could spare! I would kill her, slaughter her!

“Leave ‘er t’ me,
I’ll finish ‘er, I’ll kill ‘er!”

Without really thinking, what I was doing, I
just pulled out my katana and jumped at her, slashing and hacking wildly, while
Bodhi backed up more and more, trying to avoid my fast, angry blows. So I
didn’t even realize that she stunned Darnoc with a spell, I only saw Bodhi, I wanted to
kill her!

But then suddenly Bodhi used her claws and hit
me on the left arm. The pain burned like fire, I screamed and jumped backwards, trying to avoid further blows.
Still, my hate and rage drove me on, I attacked immediately. Finally I was able
to hit her, first into her right leg and then over her chest. How I loved the
sight of her blood flowing!

Now Bodhi got angry and conjured a bolt of
lightning. Before I realized, what she was doing, it hit me. The electricity
passed through me, pain exploded in my body, my sword fell from my hands,
because my whole body shook and I fell to the ground, twisting and shaking,
pain everywhere.

I heard Bodhi laugh at me and through mists of pain
saw her advance towards me. I needed to focus, I needed to fight back! Somehow I managed to
collect enough strength to conjure flaming hands and burn the bitch. She
screamed in agony and stumbled backwards, so I was able to grab my katana again and
stand up.

Again I attacked, but Bodhi was now prepared and dodged me. Instead of hitting
her, she hit me right into the leg, digging her claws deep into it and ripping
parts of the skin and flesh out of it.
The pain, the pain! I stumbled backwards, trying to find a balance and ignore the
pain in my leg.

But she was faster and drove her claws right
into my shoulders, increasing the pain. I couldn’t stop her, my strength had
left me, she bent down and bit me, I felt, how she sucked my blood, my life
away. I didn’t want to die; I didn’t want to end as vampire! Fear gave me new strength and while I
screamed in pain, I tried to hit Bodhi with my katana.

The vampire queen jumped out of reach and stared at me like I was a piece of meat.
The loss of blood had finally got the better of me, I was no longer able to do
much, I stumbled towards her, trying to raise my sword, but it was so heavy and I felt tired,
weary.

I couldn’t do much about it, she came in for
the kill, grabbed me from behind and drove her claws right into my chest. Pain
was the only thing, which seemed to exist, while she descended her fangs again,
this time to finish me off completely.

Suddenly she let go of me and I collapsed to
the ground, while I heard Darnoc scream and unsheathe sword. I tried to turn around and saw that she was now coming
from behind at Darnoc, thrusting her fangs into his body. No, she wouldn’t kill Darnoc, I wouldn’t let it happen, I had to kill her! With the last strength I got to my feet,
stepped towards her, raised my sword and let it descend onto her neck, beheading her
with the blow. Luckily for me, she had been so concentrated on trying to kill Darnoc that she had been oblivious to
everything else.

Darnoc collapsed to the floor and I knelt beside
him, asking him, how he was. I told him that I had killed her and then my
strength was wasted, I fell to the ground, everything went dark.

Soon I awoke again; Aerie and Anomen had healed
me. Immediately I got to my feet, I needed to finish off Bodhi; a vampire could
regenerate itself, if it is not staked. A paladin
handed me a stake and I stepped over to her sarcophagus, driving the stake into
Bodhi’s regenerating body.

Something strange happened then. There was no
sound and no vision, but I clearly felt, how something entered my body, filling
the void inside of me. My soul was back and I was filled with feelings of joy,
as I felt alive again, alive and whole.

“It feels great! I’ve got my soul again,
finally!” I exclaimed.

Darnoc smiled at me and stepped over to me,
telling me that he was happy for me.

It was then that I remembered that he had no
soul yet; I began to worry for him, telling him that I had been selfish,
showing off with my soul and how great it felt.

He said the strangest thing then: “It’s
alright, Im. As long as you got your soul, I can feel it too. And that is
enough for the moment.”

But I guess he was right. He could feel my
soul, as I could feel the hollowness inside of him. And so it was like I shared my soul with him. Strange.

After we finished Bodhi, Darnoc took the Rynn Lathorne out of
her sarcophagus. Drizzt and company, the
paladins and also Mocilia and her thieves left us, while Darnoc invited his companions to his
castle. I was of course also eager to see the domains of my “Lord Darnoc”.

Darnoc:
Bodhi’s end

Next morning Keldorn asked if we could visit
his family and I agreed gladly. Maria was pleased to see us again and greeted
Imoen warmly. She invited us for dinner and
we accepted. Keldorn’s wife turned out to be a marvelous cook and we all praised her
for her skills, what made her eyes shine proudly. Keldorn introduced us to his
two daughters and after the dinner showed us around the house. I noticed Imoen and
Maria talking to each other, but
couldn’t hear what about.

Finally Keldorn turned to his wife and
explained our situation.

“Keldorn, Imoen has told me about it. And if I
may so, I would be angry at you, if you wouldn’t help this young lady” she
replied.

“I’m glad you feel that way. And I promise you,
once Imoen has reclaimed her soul I am going to return to you and am going to
stay.”

After they had both kissed each other goodbye,
we left the house. I wanted to visit this Cromwell Aran Linvail had told me
about. Cromwell turned out to be a dwarf and when I handed him the parts of the Equalizer and the Silver
Sword, he was delighted to put them together again. After some hours of work,
he was finished and I gave him ten thousand. I took the Equalizer for myself, a
blue-shimmering, beautifully balanced sword, and gave the Silver Sword to
Keldorn. Then we headed on to the graveyard.

Bodhi already waited there for us, smiling
coldly at us.

“I guessed that you’d come here again, son of
Bhaal. And Imoen is here too? Ah, what marvelous vampire you would make…”

She came closer, revealing her fangs and
looking at Im, who drew back, clutching her bow.

“But on the other hand, I already have your
soul, so why should I want your body?” Bodhi continued and then teleported
away.

“I’m gonna kill that
bitch!” Im whispered angrily.

We descended into the catacombs, where we met a
group of paladins and Mocilia with several of her thieves. Both groups were glaring at each other suspiciously.

“What is the meaning of this, Darnoc? What are those criminals doing here?”
Prelate Wessalen asked me.

“They killed mee fathahr an’ I’m goin’ t’ avenge ‘im!” Mocilia replied.

“They are here on my request, Prelate Wessalen, and I
ask you to hold my accountable for anything they do here.”

Prelate Wessalen bowed and answered: “Then thus
it shall be, for you are a man of honor. I accept your terms, Darnoc.”

We stepped on into the great hall with the
great table. All was empty there; some torches gave a dim light. But from a
room to the west I heard noises. Quickly I waved to my companions and we went over there, only
to stumble upon Drizzt and his companions, who were just fighting a group of
vampires. Together we vanquished the enemy easily.

“And so we meet again, Darnoc. I haven’t seen any other
vampires around, so I suggest we descend to the
next level of this complex.”

“Yeah, I guess we might find Bodhi there.”

“I hope we do…” Im added, gnashing her teeth,
anger and hate sparkling in her eyes.

Some Shadow Thieves went before us in order to
find and disarm traps. When they gave us the signal we continued to the round room
with the pool of blood. Again its doors were closed and one of the Shadow
Thieves unlocked them quickly.

The doors seemed to stare at me, dark and menacing. Behind them Bodhi
waited, I knew it somehow. I felt Im’s soul there and she felt it too, judging
from the look on her face. Suddenly she grimaced, stepped forward, kicked the doors open and drew
her katana at the same time.

Bodhi indeed stood there, smiling at us.

“Quite a group you have brought here, children
of Bhaal. But it will be of no use to you, especially to you, Imoen, for I will
ensure once and for all that you won’t come back, trying to get your soul back.
But I guess this isn’t the only reason you came here, am I not right, Darnoc?”

I stepped forward, drawing my fire-spiter.

“You already seen these, didn’t you, Bodhi?
Now, hand over the Rynn Lathorne!”

She laughed and replied: “I knew it! But
perhaps I should tell you some things about your new friends. They banished us,
took away our souls, those hypocrites, those holier-than-thou fools! I and my
brother will get our revenge, Darnoc!”

The last words she had almost spitted out, so
great was her hate at the elves.

“Then why did you take our souls? We never did
anything to you!” I exclaimed.

“Sorry for that, it is nothing personal. But we
needed souls and yours are special. With their divine power and the
power of the tree of life we will gain more power than the gods themselves.”

“Gimme back my soul, ya fuckin’ bitch or I’ll tear yar heart out! I don’t give a damn ‘bout yar revenge, I just want what’s mine.
An’ I guess I also ‘ave some right t’ revenge myself
for what ya done t’ me, ya
bastards!” Im screamed at her, no longer
able to control her anger.

“Be quiet! You want to judge me for my crimes?
What about you then? You are a thief and a mischievous whore! You are also in love with your own
brother, a feeling also existing on the other side. Oh yes, I know about the
dirty, twisted thoughts creeping inside your mind. And you want to condemn me
for my crimes? Hypocrite!”

That had just about done it, Im screamed, her
voice full of hate: “Leave ‘er t’ me, I’ll finish ‘er, I’ll kill ‘er!”

She just jumped at Bodhi and stroke down on her
with her katana, again and again, Bodhi backing away further and further to the
opposite wall, dodging the fast blows from Im. I tried to shoot Bodhi, but they
were too close together, so I just drew my sword and rushed towards the two, wanting to help Im.

But Bodhi saw me coming and flung a holding
spell at me. I was no longer able to move, totally paralyzed and watched the fight between
the two women go on.

Bodhi clawed at Im and hit her across her left arm. Im screamed and jumped back, but
advanced immediately again, although blood dropped from her arm onto the ground. With a quick
slash she cut into Bodhi’s right leg and then with a second slash into her
chest, but nothing mortal.

This made Bodhi really angry, she stepped back
and conjured a bolt of lightning, which went right through Im. The lightning
made Im tremble all over her body, she fell to the ground and let go of her
sword. Bodhi laughed triumphantly and stepped over to Im, her claws outstretched.
But as Bodhi leaped, I heard Im mutter strange words and suddenly Bodhi
was hit by a wave of fire.

The vampire queen screamed in agony and backed
away, which gave Im time to grab her katana again and get to her feet. She
advanced quickly, raised her sword and stroke, but Bodhi had herself under
control again and dodged. At the same time she swung her claws and hit Im’s
left leg, ripping away parts of her trousers and skin. Im screamed and
stumbled backwards, Bodhi jumped at her, her fangs open, grabbed Im at her shoulders,
driving her claws deep into the shoulders and leaned over Im to bite her into
her throat.

Im grunted and tried to wrestle from the grip,
without success. In the meantime Bodhi had descended her fangs into Im’s throat
and bit. Blood splashed from the wound and Im screamed, at the same time swung
her katana and tried to hit Bodhi, but the vampire queen quickly jumped away.

Slowly Im stumbled towards Bodhi, dragging her katana along
the floor, blood gushing from her throat. Bodhi looked at her victim and
advanced again, almost casually, for the kill. She stepped behind Im, who
couldn’t react fast enough, put her hands around Im and drove her claws right
into Im’s chest, then lowered her mouth and bit again, this time even harder than before, wanting to suck Im
completely dry.

But then suddenly I could move again, I
screamed at Bodhi and thrust my sword at her. Quickly she let go of Im, dashed
to one side and suddenly was behind me. Before I realized, what was going on, I
felt a sharp pain in my right hand and let go
of my sword. Her claws drilled into my back, trying to rip out my heart. But when I just thought that it
would be over, I heard a swishing noise behind me and suddenly the claws were gone.

I collapsed to the ground and almost became
unconscious, but somehow I managed to keep away the darkness. A figure knelt beside me,
blood dropped onto my body. Turning around I looked into the face of Im, which was
pale from the loss of blood.

“Ya’re a’right?” she asked worried.

“What’s with Bodhi?” I asked weakly.

“I beheaded her, when she was busy with ya. Don’t know how I got the strength for that, but somehow
when I saw that she wanted t’ kill ya…”

And then she collapsed right to me, her last
strength gone. Several figures rushed towards us, I recognized Aerie and Anomen
among them. Someone tended to our wounds and used some healing spells, which
closed them quickly. Then Keldorn took my hand and dragged me up.

“Gimme a
stake!” Im
demanded and received one from the paladins.

Then she stepped over to a richly decorated sarcophagus, opened it and revealed
Bodhi’s regenerating body. I hadn’t noticed how her destroyed body had turned
into white mist and had fled. Grim determination on her face, Im bent down and
drove the stake deep into Bodhi’s heart.

When she rose again, she sighed and suddenly
smiled, finally even laughed joyfully.

“It feels great! I’ve got my soul again,
finally!”

I managed a smile and stepped over to her.

“So you really got it again? I’m happy for you,
I really am, Im…”

She looked at me, worry again entering her
eyes.

“But ya haven’t yar soul again. It was selfish o’ me t’
talk like that, forgimme.”

“It’s alright, Im. As long as you got your
soul, I can feel it too. And that is enough for the moment.”

When I looked closer at the sarcophagus, I saw something blue
glittering at the bottom. So I reached into it and brought out a blue,
shimmering box: the Rynn Lathorne.

Together we ascended again into the bright
sunlight. The paladins departed immediately, soon followed by Mocilia and
her Shadow Thieves.

Before she left, Mocilia turned around to me and said: “I ‘ave plans for this city… Soon they’ll be set in motion. If
yah wanna help me, be ready when I send yah mee messengahr.”

Drizzt left as last, but before that he went
over to Im.

“This was quite a fight you put up against this
vampire, Imoen. I am deeply impressed. And now you finally have your soul
again. I wish you and your companions the best of luck. Darnoc, hopefully you will have your
soul back soon too.”

After they had all departed, I looked around at my companions.

“Well, we have done what we’ve come for. I all
invite you into my castle; there are some things I need to take care of there anyway.”

My companions accepted the invitation and so we
all headed out of Atkatla towards my castle, traveling all day. Bodhi had been
killed, but as I soon would learn, it just had been the beginning of our
problems.

Imoen:
The slaughter

Darnoc’s castle (not really his, he was only the
steward; but that’s a detail) was
wonderful. It was huge, it looked nice and the people living there were
friendly. For some time it became like a second home for me.

When we first went to the castle, Darnoc headed for the cellar, which he wanted to turn into a
laboratory. I followed him. Perhaps I need to explain myself first, why I did,
what I did afterwards. I had decided to bring our relationship to a halt, because I didn’t
want to endanger Darnoc. But after I had reclaimed my soul and especially when I saw Darnoc’s castle, I began thinking.
Didn’t this place, where we could be safe, already exist? Darnoc was a lord with a castle and an army. And he had weapons no one else
had. There was nothing and nobody, who could endanger us anymore. My worries
had become needless, I realized. And I also realized that I had not right to
treat Darnoc like that, he was a person with
his own will; I couldn’t just decide the course of his life, it wasn’t right of
me to do so.

Down there I finally got the courage to tell
him and we talked about it, making things right between us again. I was able to
finally let go of my worries and accept things, as they were. We both needed
each other and we would stay together, despite what would happen.

Next morning brought me cause for worry, though:
Isaea Roenal was approaching with his army. Darnoc didn’t seem to worry, though, and
immediately began setting up his plan. There were still several days, until the
army would arrive, and I used the time to take a
look at Darnoc’s land.

Most of the inhabitants of Darnoc’s domain were farmers. Although they didn’t seem to
bother much, most of them were poor. I walked through several villages, full of
dirt and misery and watched the people with their work. They were just bringing
in the harvest and there was a lot to do.

More and more I began to feel guilty, never had
I had to work like this. During my youth I had lived in Candlekeep, safe and
secure, nothing troubling me. And later I had traveled with Darnoc, although it was a hard life, I never had to complain
about food or money. Only lately I had finally met the real dark side of life. And now, when I
looked at those farmers, how they worked all their life, knowing that it wouldn’t improve,
I just couldn’t stand it anymore.

So I went over and helped them. The whole day
over and the next days I helped them harvesting their crops. It was hard work and in the evening I was
totally exhausted, but still, somehow it was satisfying.

Darnoc came down every evening and we talked for a
while, before I went to bed. During those days I didn’t go back to the castle
but stayed with the farmers. He told me of his battle plans and how his inventions were going,
while I listened and sometimes remarked something about the farmer’s life.

“Don’t worry about that, I’m working on this
problem. Soon their lives are going to change for the better…” he replied
to that, although he didn’t explain himself.

The physical work seemed to have a positive
effect on me, I couldn’t get enough of Darnoc during the nights and we loved
us over and over again. Slowly I felt my strengths return to me, my health
seemed to increase and I felt wonderful during this time. That is, until the army of Roenal appeared.

Darnoc had made his plans and let Roenal surround
the castle. I stayed inside the keep; sitting on the walls and watching the army of Roenal begin with their siege.
They set up camp and began building siege weapons. During the night I wasn’t
able to sleep because of all the noise this army produced.

In the morning it began. Smoke rose from the
woods, the signal to attack. I was on the roof of the keep, watching Darnoc’s soldiers handling the
fire-kegs. As soon as the signal appeared, they began firing. A loud “boom” could be
heard and smoke rose from the barrels. Soon I heard screams from Roenal’s army and when I looked down I saw
bodies laying there, their numbers increasing more and more. Now the soldiers
hiding in the wood appeared, surrounding Roenal’s army completely and massacring them.
It was a real slaughter, none escaped, while Darnoc’s soldiers kept firing and
firing into the defenseless attackers.

Once it was over, I went onto the field. There
were bodies everywhere, blood all over them, some ripped to pieces by the huge
iron balls of the fire-kegs, others with their body parts shot off or their innards hanging out of them. Some of them
still lived, but when I tried to tend to them, two soldiers of Darnoc came over me and told me to stop
it – and then they shot the wounded man.

I watched in increasing horror, as the soldiers
of Darnoc swept the field systematically,
killing every one of their enemies. Finally I just couldn’t stand it anymore
and left the field, running back inside the keep, hiding in my room, trembling.
How could Darnoc such a cruel thing? I didn’t understand him.

In the evening there was a huge victory feast.
I attended it, but not because I was glad, rather because I wanted to drink as
much alcohol as possible, to forget everything I’ve witnessed today. This I had
learned from the farmers, by the way, they told me about
the “drinking trick”, as they called it. Most of the farmers drank alcohol.

Far into the night I stumbled back to my bedroom,
supporting Darnoc, although, I have to admit, he probably also supported me a little.
And right now there was only one thing on my mind: I wanted him.

After we finally managed to get to the room, Darn just leaned against the wall and
hung his head. He felt sad and gloomy. He needed as much comfort as I did right
now. But that was the whole reason, why were here, right?

I simply hugged him close, feeling his warm body against mine, comforting me
and making me forget everything.

“I can see them, Im, the dead people…”

What was he talking about, was he growing
insane? I asked him, of course.

“I killed them, hundreds, I guess. A lot anyway. Some of them were still children, Im, just
children…”

I had seen it also. Those bastards, sending young boys to war, how could they be so cruel and heartless? There were a lot of things I
would never really understand and this was one of them.

So I tried to tell him that it wasn’t his
fault, without much success, feelings of guilt were nagging at him. He even
mentioned that he should simply have given the keep over to Roenal. Stupid, Darnoc, very stupid. And I told him so, I told him to
never say that again in a rather harsh tone. But he didn’t seem to grow angry at
me, instead he said that he loved me, because I was telling him such things. Hm, perhaps my dreams had had something true about them
after all; Darnoc needed me as his conscience…

I led him to the bed, gave him a push and he
landed on it, not able to hold his balance. Alcohol has this effect on you. He
probably had drunken more than I had. My memory is clouded about that particular night, though. I think I made love
to him, but am not entirely sure. Ehm, well, not
important anyway…

Darnoc:
The battle at the de’Arnise Keep

We reached the keep in the evening and were
greeted by Captain Cernick.

“It’s good t’ see yah
again mee Lord” he called at me.

“Yes, it’s good to be back. How are things going?”

“Oh, Taldor did some marvelous thin’s.
Come an’ take a look” he explained.

Cernick led us into the castle and then to the
smithy, where the dwarf Taldor was stilling working late.

“Oh, it’s yah, Lord” he commented, when he saw
us.

Along the wall I saw lines of fire-tubes and
fire-spiters and balls for the fire-kegs.

“I’ve trained all dah
lads, mee Lord” Cernick announced proudly.

“That’s good, Cernick, very good. Did you hear anything from Isaea Roenal?”

“No, nothing yet. But I guess he’ll show up soon”
Nalia said, entering the smithy.

“Let’s hope it stays that way…” I muttered.

Then I took out my notebook and showed my
sketches of the steam engine to Taldor, who was immediately fascinated by the
concept.

“Oh, Cernick, do you think I could turn the
cellar into a laboratory?” I asked my
captain.

“Shouldn’t be much o’ a problem, mee Lord.”

I ordered a meal for my companions, while I
headed to the cellar, only followed by Im.

When we were alone down there, she turned to
me: “Look, I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout thin’s, thinkin’ hard… ‘Bout us, ya
know…”

“Yes, what did you think, Im?”

She looked down on the ground, as if she was
ashamed of something.

“It wasn’t right of me t’ just treat ya like ya weren’t a person who couldn’t
decide for ‘imself. We need t’ talk ‘bout thin’s, I’ve got no right t’ just decide for ya.”

I raised her chin and kissed her softly.

“There’s nothing to forgive, Im, I know why you
did, what you did.”

And suddenly it broke out of her: “But what are we gonna
do, Darn? They’ll hunt us, cast us out an’
perhaps even kill us!”

“I don’t care about what the hell they think,
Im. And as long as it is in my power, I will try to create a place where we can
live together and in peace.”

She stepped closer and I hugged her.

“The only thing counting is us, Im, don’t
forget that” I whispered.

“I won’t Darn, I won’t…”

Suddenly everything vanished and was replaced
in front of my eyes. There was darkness and in its middle stood… Irenicus.

“Is this real?” I asked him.

“Oh, it is, because I can see you as well you
can me. Your powers have increased dramatically, it seems. What do you want of
me?”

I noticed that he was holding a fire-spiter in his hand.

“Enjoying yourself?”

“Oh, they are quite fascinating devices, I must
admit. Very useful weapons. Once I become the most
powerful being in this universe, I shall use them en masse.”

“Imoen got her soul back – your sister is dead”
I announced to him.

He showed no emotional reaction at all.

“She got what was coming to her. I have told
her to be not thus reckless, but she would never listen. So, your sister got
her soul back and now what? You will come after me, I guess.”

“Count on it, Irenicus. We will meet again.”

“Of that I am sure, son of Bhaal.”

The scene vanished and I was in the cellar again, still hugging Im tightly.

“Come, let’s get something to eat” I suggested.

In the night I dreamt again, a dream not unlike
the one I had had recently.

I stood in a huge hall with dim light. In front
of my stood a strange being. It had the face of a man, but its skin was brown,
wrinkled and had rings like a worm. The body behind the face was long and
wormlike shaped, although it had arms and even legs, but those were barely usable.

“Welcome, Darnoc! I am here to show you the way
out of the trap!” said the worm-man with a surprisingly normal voice.

“Who are you? What kind of thing are you?”

“They call me ‘The Tyrant’ and their naming
even has some truth in it. For about four thousand years I have ruled humanity with an iron
fist, but it was all for the plan, the Golden Path, the way out of the trap.
You must face a similar choice.”

“What choice are you speaking of?”

“You can choose to either become a god like all
the others, one among many. If this should be your choice, then the multiverse
will further stagnate and finally come to an end. Have you ever heard of the Second Law of
Thermodynamics?”

“No, what is it?”

“Something you will be interested in. In every
closed system, entropy increases constantly. By this I mean that the energy in
this closed system is dispersed equally inside the system and in the end there
will be no concentrations of energy left. The system dies. This is what is going
to happen with the multiverse, unless you choose otherwise. You can choose to
become the sole god, absorbing all the power of the multiverse and create it
anew, but different, so that it can recreate itself over and over again. This
is the only way to avoid the death of the multiverse. It is the choice you must
make.”

I awoke, still hearing the voice of The Tyrant in my
head. Cernick stood next to me, clearly wanting to say something.

“Lord, I’ve got some reports. An army’s on its way here.”

“Alright, I’ll get up immediately. I’ll meet
you in the great hall.”

Im was already there, looking worried.

“I heard an army’s comin’ here…”

“Yes, you heard right, Im. Cernick, tell me all
about it.”

“They’re approachin’
from dah west, Lord. A huge army an’ I guess it’s that bastard, Isaea.”

“Don’t worry about them, we have our weapons.
They’ll stand no chance against us. Now, listen carefully, this is what we’re going to
do…”

We waited for several days. When the enemy was
one day’s march away, I began setting up the trap. And Isaea would walk right into
it.

The enemy arrived in the evening and immediately
began to build a camp around the keep, encircling it completely. They lighted torches and
continued working, beginning to build siege weapons.

My plan would be set in motion the next day.
Together with the greatest part of my troops I was hiding in the woods near the keep. All fire-kegs on the
walls and towers were manned, Cernick commanded them.

In the morning I gave the signal, smoke rising
from the woods. The soldiers at the camp pointed at it, puzzled at what it
meant. They saw soon enough, suddenly the fire-kegs appeared on the walls and the battle
began.

A volley was fired; thunder and smoke came out
of the fire-kegs. Then the balls hit the enemy, ripping the defenseless
soldiers apart. This was the signal for our attack, I led it. Silently we left the
woods, raised our fire-tubes and shot. The enemy was surrounded and all who
tried to escape were shot down. I sat on the ground, reloaded and shot again,
reloaded, shot, reloaded, over and over again. Isaea
had brought some mages, but I had been prepared for that. Snipers on the walls
shot them down, before they could do any harm.

The enemy’s soldiers didn’t stand a chance;
soon the battlefield was covered by bodies, all lying in their blood, the
sweet, sickening smell of all battles rising into the air and covering the
battlefield like a blanket. Some soldiers still lived, screamed and moaned in
pain. Systematically we swept the field and killed them all. It was a sickening
job, but necessary. I wanted this battle to send a clear message to all: My new weapons are effective, so don’t you come messing
around with me!

Somehow Isaea had survived it all, I ordered
him to be brought into the great hall. He was wounded, but not unconscious.
Sitting on my chair I watched how some guards dragged him in.

“I have warned you not to come here again,
Isaea, but you wouldn’t listen. Now you pay the price for your actions. For
leading an assault on this keep, of which I am in charge, you are hereby condemned to death. The
execution will take place immediately.”

He didn’t speak a word, but starred me in the eye, still arrogant and proud. He wouldn’t lower
himself to beg for his life. I didn’t go out and watch the beheading.

This night we feasted, my soldiers deserved it.
We ate and drink until we could no more, feasting our enormous victory. We had
had no losses at all, while all our enemies had been killed, although the
enemies had come in greater numbers.

During the feast I witnessed Anomen talking
long with Nalia. Moving nearer I overheard some of their conversation. They
both talked about their losses, Nalia about her father and Anomen about his
sister. Anomen also told Nalia of his travels and adventures with me.

Aerie and Minsc were together, as usual. Boo
even tried some beer, but didn’t like it. He sneezed and looked unhappily at
me.

Probably drunk I stumbled back to my bedroom,
Im at my side, about as drunk as I was. We had put our arms around our shoulders and so supported
each other.

“So, my mighty soldier, are ya gonna make yar girl happy t’night?”
she whispered.

“Course I am, Im, not have anything else in
mind anyway.”

She laughed silently and I joined in. Today had
seen a lot of killing and I was glad to have Im beside me right now. In my mind
I saw images from the battle; I had tried to drink them away, without much
success.

One event stayed with me especially. A young
soldier had run at me, swinging his sword and screaming. Before he could reach
me, I had reloaded my fire-tube and shot, but had only hit him in the shoulder.
The young man had stumbled, but had caught his balance again. Feverishly I had
tried to reload, knowing that if he would reach me, I would be dead. Suddenly I
had heard a deafening noise right beside me
and the young man had collapsed dead right before my feet, a huge hole right in his chest. One of my soldiers had stood behind
me and had winked at me.

“Thanks!” I had been able to reply, but I had
kept looking at the young man.

He had been younger than I was, probably
sixteen or so, still clutching his sword. I had thought that he somehow had
looked a little accusingly at me. Blood had begun to form under his body, flowing
right at me and finally reaching my shoes. Shuddering I had turned away and the
battle had continued.

Those and many other scenes I was trying to
forget again. And Im’s presence was helping a lot do to so. We reached the door
and I fumbled at it, finally managing to open it.

Inside I leaned against the wall and hung my
head. Im stepped closer to me and hugged me.

“I can see them, Im, the dead people…” I
whispered.

“What dead people ‘re ya talkin’ about?”

“I killed them, hundreds, I guess. A lot anyway. Some of them were still children, Im, just
children…”

She kissed me and then leaned her head against
my chest.

“Ya ‘ad t’ do it, Darn, don’t blame yarself. It was Isaea’s fault, not yars.”

“But it is my fault, Im! If I would just have
handed the keep over to him, nothing would have happened!”

“Don’t ya ever say
that, Darn! D’ya
really believe, the people here’d
be happy with Isaea as Lord? O’ course they wouldn’t!”

I kissed her on the forehead and whispered:
“That’s why I love you, Im…”

“Good t’ know it” she
replied, smiling.

And that was the last thing we ever said this
night. I don’t remember much of it, probably due to the amount of alcohol I
already had drunk. But what I do remember is Im’s soul burning hot like fire
right next to me and sharing some of this fire with me. It made me
forget the terrible pictures of death and for some time I felt as if I had a
soul again myself.

Imoen:
Overthrow

I didn’t like it, when I heard about Mocilia calling us to
Atkatla. My life had continued to be rather happy, while I worked on the farms and enjoyed the company of Darnoc, although my sleep was still
disturbed by nightmares. But when her messenger arrived, I felt that something horrible had
happened.

As fast as possible we returned to Atkatla and
it was horrible. From afar we could already see smoke rise from the city
and I began to fear that my thoughts would be true after all. And when we entered the city…
There were bodies, countless bodies, all lying on the streets, houses burned or
had already burned down to the ground and the smell, this horrible smell of
death and decay… I wanted to throw up.

It was like in a nightmare and I walked through the streets
as if in trance, until we reached the government district. There the
destruction had been worst and as I saw Keldorn’s house, a terrible thought
occurred to me. His house was burnt all inside, smoke rose from the windows and
as we stepped inside… All was destroyed, smashed, burned and there was blood,
lots of blood. The first bodies we encountered were servants, but then I walked
into this room, Keldorn in front of me and…

There was a body on the floor, a woman, covered
in blood, her clothes torn away, wounds covering her body, her legs stretched
apart, her eyes staring broken to the ceiling, her
throat cut. As I stared onto her body, I realized that she had been raped, because some of
the wounds she had I also had had, especially… No, no, I can’t think of it.

It was Maria and Keldorn immediately realized
it, a scream of despair and pain exiting his mouth. Maria, who had given
me new hope. Now
she was raped, tortured and dead. I stepped into the room and looked around and on the beds, no, please,
gods, let this be only a nightmare! But it wasn’t, it was all true: lying on the
beds were the bodies of Keldorn’s two sweet, little daughters, now mutilated,
raped, tortured and as dead as their mother. How could anyone do such a thing, how?
Irenicus had had no feelings, but this had been done by humans, humans like me.

I sat down on the floor and sobbed, all this
pain, all this sorrow, all this horrible evil… And it was then that I realized
that evil was in all of us, every last one of us. Things aren’t as easy, as we always had been
told, there aren’t just good and evil persons, the categorization is plain wrong. We
all have the potential to become both.

It was Darn’s fault, I also realized this. If
he hadn’t given the firearms to the Shadow Thieves, this would never have
happened. He needed me, he needed me to tell him, where to stop, for he
couldn’t see the consequences of his actions. Just look at the results.

Keldorn swore to avenge their deaths and when I
looked into his face, I saw the deep pain in him. More and more people were
changing around me, affected by the evil, which
seems to consume our world. More and more people seemed to fall under the curse
of the Bhaalspawn, of me and Darnoc. And I realized that it would continue to
happen, never would we be able to escape it.

Darnoc led me to the council hall, where Mocilia
awaited us. And there she revealed the wholeness of her doings to us, how she
had overthrown the government of Amn and taken control of Atkatla. It sounded
well, but I knew exactly that those were only hollow words, Mocilia wanted
power. Fortunately, also Darnoc seemed to see through her words, he didn’t
agree to her proposal for an alliance.

We buried the bodies of Keldorn’s family and
Anomen’s father, who also had been killed. Then we headed over to the Copper
Coronet, where Darnoc asked Bernard and Hendak about the situation.

They told us horrifying stories. A family just
across the street had been slaughtered by Mocilia’s soldiers, who now called
themselves “Revolutionary Guard”, because the father refused to give his gold to the soldiers. People
had been arrested on open street for no obvious
reasons, sometimes directly killed, just out of spite or because the guards wanted to rob them. There were
even whispered tales of more horrifying nature, of torture chambers, rapes in
the open street, mass execution of random targets.

But what really made me shudder, was what
happened in the morning. We witnessed a public execution, people were killed
for being “counter-revolutionists” or something and the crowd cheered. It just
made me sick and I begged Darn to leave, which fortunately we did.

Darnoc:
The Amnish Revolution

The following days I supervised the production
of the first steam engines. Taldor did everything as I wanted him to do it and
soon we had three working machines. Together with him I devised some plans to
use the power of the engines to mass-produce our new weapons. Right next to the
keep we began building a new building, where we would set up the machines.

It was about a week after the battle, when a
messenger from Mocilia arrived. She told me that she had killed all
members of the council and taken over the city. There had been some problems
with mobs, but in most parts it was under control now. Only in the temple
district did some paladins hold out.

Keldorn and Anomen were quite shocked when they
heard the news and begged me, to immediately
depart back to Atkatla. I agreed, for I
wanted to talk to Mocilia myself.

It was worse than I had thought. Smoke was
rising from several parts of the city and when we entered we soon found out that a lot of
houses had been burned or plundered; the whole city stunk of death, there were
bodies lying everywhere in the street. The destruction was worst in the government
district; almost all noble families of Amn had been either murdered by Mocilia’s
assassins or later on killed by the mob, which had immediately seized the
change to plunder anything which could be taken away.

Keldorn’s house still stood, but the inside was
plundered or destroyed, I saw blood on the floor. Searching through the house I suddenly
heard a terrible scream from Keldorn and
rushed to him. On the floor lay Maria, her body horribly mutilated, probably raped
before she had been killed. The girls we found in their rooms murdered and
raped in their beds.

Keldorn just knelt on the floor, hugging the
blood-covered body of his wife, sobbing and screaming. Finally he drew out a
dagger and tried to stab himself, but I quickly caught his hand.

“Don’t do it, please, Keldorn!” I begged him.

Slowly he lowered his hand and let the dagger
fall to the ground.

“How could those monsters…” he said and then
his voice broke and he began to sob again.

Suddenly he rose to his feet and drew his
sword, his face distorted by hate.

“I swear by Torm, I will kill Mocilia and every Shadow
Thief that ever crosses my path again!” he screamed.

Then he cut into his hand and let the blood
drip onto the body of his wife.

“I will do it for you, my beloved Maria” he whispered and then he buried
his head in his hands and wept again.

At the Delryn manor things weren’t better;
Anomen’s father had been killed brutally, his body torn to pieces by the
ravaging mob. Anomen wept silently for his father and told me that he was sorry
to not have seen him again.

Together with Im I walked over to the council
hall, which was guarded by several Shadow Thieves. Inside we found the bodies of several
councilors and guards on a pile. And Mocilia, standing right next to it.

“So, what happens now?” I asked her.

“Dah corrupt reign o’
dah nobles ends here. We won’t be called ‘Shadow
Thieves’ no more, we’ll be dah new army o’ Amn. An’ I’m dah president o’ dah People’s
Republic of Amn.”

“People’s Republic of Amn? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t yah know how dah Shadow Thieves work? The
Shadow Master’s elected from among dah Guild Masters
normally. I’m an exception, but mee claim was
accepted, because o’ what I’ve done for dah
organization. An’ now I’m gonna apply that system t’
Amn an’ later on t’ other regions. Everyone’ll get a
chance t’ become leader, if they’re good enough.”

“And how do you think this is going to work?”

“Well, every district will elect
representatives. Those’ll be sent t’ dah People’s Council of Amn. An’ out o’ those guys dah President ‘ll
be elected. At dah moment I’m dah
President, but that’s just because o’ dah special
circumstances.”

“So basically you’re saying that the people get
to decide for once what they want? Doesn’t sound too bad to
me. But why all the bloodshed?”

“Ah, that’s unfortunate, I know. My assassins
went an’ murdered all dah members o’ dah council. When it became known, dah
city went wild, dah people thought ‘Now’s a good
chance t’ get some payback at those rich bastards’ an’ that’s how it started. Most guards were slaughtered an’ everyone
noble too, but mee Shadow Thieves got dah situation under control after ‘bout a day. Now there are just dah
paladins left an’ they’ll be dead soon.”

“Alright, but why did you want to speak with
me?”

“I want an alliance between our two lands.
After dah battle on yahr
lands, dah regions in dah
east o’ Amn’ll try t’ ally themselves with yah,
believe me. We’re dah mightiest people in Amn, Darnoc.”

Suddenly I had one of my visions again. In
front of my eyes I saw the further development of this whole matter. Mocilia
didn’t care shit for the “will of the people”
or any other such concept. Those were just nice words to keep the people under
her fist. In fact she just wanted to increase her power further and further, like
a spider in a web. Because of her superior technology she would soon rule the
whole Sword Coast and then would begin to expand her
power even further.

“Let me think about everything, I’ll tell you,
what I decide.”

“Do that, but decide quickly.”

We left the council hall and went back to the
Firecam manor, where Keldorn still was. He had put his wife’s body onto the bed
and was washing the blood of her and his girls.

“I will go and help my brothers” he announced
to us.

“No, you mustn’t! You’d die!” Aerie cried out.

“Keldorn, I beg you, come with me! Soon we’ll
have to fight Mocilia and then I could use your help. Don’t throw your life
away like that” I said.

He sighed.

“You are right, Darnoc. Come, help me.”

Together we helped him wash the bodies of his
family, put them into some white cloth and then carry them over to the graveyard. There we dug a hole
and buried them, putting a wooden plate over it, their names scratched into it.

After we had done the same with Anomen’s
father, we went over to Waukeen’s promenade. Aerie wanted to look if her uncle
Quayle was alright. He was indeed and greeted us friendly. The circus had been
left alone by some lucky chance.

Our next stop was the Copper Coronet, which
also had been left untouched. Hendak was very glad to see me. He and Bernard told me some horrifying stories of
how the Shadow Thieves (they now called themselves “Revolutionary Guard”) patrolled the area and took whatever they wanted “in
the name of the people’s revolution”. If anyone resisted, they were killed.

Hendak also told me that the people behind the
slavers had been left alone. They had bribed off Mocilia for protection and
were continuing their business.

“I will take care of them as soon as I get the
chance, this I promise to you, Hendak!”

Hendak smiled and took my hand, pressing it
firmly.

“You are a true noble, although you aren’t noble-born. Please, come with
your army and free Atkatla!”

The next morning we watched how people were
publicly behead as “enemies of the revolution”. Most of them were nobles, but
there were also some commoners who had resisted the “Revolutionary Guard”.

“Let’s leave” Im whispered to me and I agreed.

Right now the commoners were cheering and
joining the “Revolutionary Guard” freely. But soon, as I foresaw, the
revolution would eat its own children. And Mocilia would show her true face.
This morning also came the message that the rest of the paladins in the temple
district had been slaughtered, what made the crowd even more cheer.

We left and went back to my keep. There were
preparations to make.

Imoen:
Prepare for war

Darn began making alliances. Actually, they wanted
to make alliances with him, but that’s a detail. Several representatives of the
different cities and villages in eastern Amn came to Darnoc’s keep; they were worried
because of Mocilia’s overthrow. And they wanted to make Darn “Lord Protector” or something. Darn didn’t really want this, but in
the end he agreed to command the army.

Jaheira was also among those representatives
and she came towards me and Darn, once the talks had been finished. I hadn’t seen her since Irenicus’
dungeon and was glad to finally meet her again. We talked for a while, about
what had happened. And then she remarked that she knew about me and Darn and told us to be careful. Was it so obvious?

Another thing, which took my thoughts off my
worries, was the oath of union between Aerie and Minsc. It cheered me up a
little, seeing them happy together. I hoped that one day I and Darn would be able to also not worry
about prosecution any longer. But perhaps this is the fate of all Bhaalspawn.

After those political talks, Darnoc went to build his new
“factories”, a place where he wanted to mass-produce weapons with the power of
his steam engine. No wonder that he was totally exhausted in the evening. I
again went to help the farmers on their fields and it took my mind off
certain worries I had.

In the evening Darn just lay down on the bed and I saw
that he had overdone it. Again. Once he was obsessed
with work, he just couldn’t see where to stop. Still, the work I had done had
had this stimulating effect on me, as always. And I immediately tried, if I
could rouse Darn’s longing. Normally it didn’t take much with him. I guess he was
really obsessed with me.

But that counted for both sides, once we had
decided that we would stop worrying and just follow our feelings, there had
been no stopping us anymore. Why, I cannot really tell. Somehow I felt that
being with Darn made me forget all those memories for some time. When our feelings
were awaken, like a fire inside of us, they were stronger than any memories of
past pain and that is probably the reason why I was with him as often as
possible. We both had had our share of pain and sorrow and being together made it
more bearable. During nights, when I had
really bad nightmares (and I often had them back then), I could count on him being there
beside of me, loving me, making me forget. I guess, without each other we would
have gone both insane, died or perhaps even killed ourselves.

I remember that particular night, because he told me about one
of his dreams then. One of those visions of what would happen
in the future. He told me that he saw war and bloodshed coming and that he
would be the cause of it. Of course it worried me, but I assured him that I
would never leave him, no matter what would happen. And I meant it.

Day after day Darn had his head full of work and I
kept working on the farms, not seeing much of Darn, because he stayed in his laboratory in the
nights. During the nights I was again plagued by nightmares and after two days I began to
drink in the evening, to make myself so drunk that I wouldn’t dream during the
night. It was then that my memories were brought back again, forced onto me.

I was already feeling dizzy from all the
alcohol, when one of the farm laborers, a young man, perhaps one or two years older than I, came over to me,
already filled with alcohol and clearly no longer fully under control of himself. He
stunk out of his mouth and just stared at me. I remembered seeing him on the field;
he had sometimes glanced over to me.

“Hey, yah wadn’t mind
givin’ a jolly lad suhm fun
t’night, aye? Yah’re such a
guhd-lookin’ lass, oh mee,
a yun fellow like me doesn’t get such a sight all
day, yah know?” he said with a heavy tongue, his eyes having this certain
glassy look of the drunk.

“Get out o’ my sight, yar drunk, boy” I told him in an
annoyed voice.

“Ah, cuhm on, duhn’t be like that, lass! Am me not a dashin’
yun guy, not good enough for yahr?
Stupid bitch, I’m gonna ‘ave
yah anywee, yah’ll see!”

He went away after that, but left me with a
feeling of dread, even a little fear. I continued to drink after that, until I
could barely stand and tried to walk out, to
my bed. It was more stumbling than walking, though.

I was stumbling through the dark towards the barn, where I usually slept in the
straw, when suddenly I was grabbed from behind, somebody smelling heavily of
alcohol.

And then I heard him whisper: “Cuhm
on, lass, cuhm with me, yah an’ I
‘re gonna ‘ave some
fun t’night, aye?”

The memories rushed back instantly, I was back
in my cell and this bastard was on me, forcing himself
into me and I couldn’t get him off. I felt, as if I was choking.

“Let go off me, let go or I’ll kill ya, I swear! I’m gonna…” I
screamed, but my words were broken off by this huge hand covering my mouth.

I bit into it and the guy let go of me, giving
a short scream. But he immediately seized me again, trying to drag me along,
while he muttered.

“I’m gonna enjoy yah,
if yah want or not, lass…”

Fear took hold of me and almost automatically the
words left my mouth, several magical missiles hitting him. He let go, screamed
and dropped to the ground. Still shaking, I bent down and hit him, but he
didn’t move. Was he dead? Had I killed him? No, I hadn’t meant to kill him, no!

I sat on the ground, next to the body of the
young laborer, while people began rushing out, trying to find out, what had
caused the screams. They found me sitting next to the body, unable to perceive
anything, which was going on, trembling and weeping, haunted by memories of
pain and fear.

Somebody told me later on that I had kept
saying things like “I didn’t mean t’ kill ‘im… I
didn’t mean t’ kill ‘im… Lemme
go, lemme go! No, please, lemme
go!”

I guess somebody carried me back inside, for when I
began to realize again, where I was, I was lying on a bed, surrounded by
several of the farm people.

A farmer’s wife was kneeling beside me, holding my
hand.

“Lassie, what happened out there? No need t’ fear, yah can tell me. Sh, child, it’s all a’right now…”

“He… he tried t’ rape me an’
I… an’ I… I killed ‘im!” I whispered.

“Nah, he ain’t dead,
lassie, but he got himself a good knockin’ o’er dah head, that’ll teach him tryin’
t’ rape a nice lass like yah.”

“But… but… I didn’t hit ‘im
o’er the head, I think I used magic on ‘im…”

“Yah can do magic? I didn’t know that… But he’s
alive an’ well, unconscious, though.”

I had been lucky that all had gone well. Still,
it taught me one thing: I was far from being able to cope with my experiences,
they haunted me and probably would haunt me all life.

Next evening I returned to the keep and went to
see after Darn. He was in his laboratory, deep in his studies and I asked him, what
he was doing. He then revealed to me that he was trying to find out, whether we
were true siblings or not. And he believed that we were not. I asked him, if it
troubled him and he said that he didn’t care, but if we ever had children…
Well, closely related people’s children had strange illnesses and such… I led
him up to our bedroom, away from his studies, where for some hours we forgot
our worries.

Next morning I went to watch his factories and
was surprised to see that new people had begun living around the keep, building themselves
houses. But their houses were more huts than anything and the families I saw
were poor, poorer than the farmers. Most of them were fugitives from Atkatla.
But that was of course only one of the many things, which happened in Mocilia’s
name…

Darnoc:
Armament

Representatives from all the eastern amnish
districts awaited me at the keep. There was High Merchant Logan from Trademeet,
Jaheira from the Druids, Minister Lloyd from the Umar Hills and Garren Windspear from the Windspear Hills. And they all wanted one
thing: To give me the title of “Lord Protector of Eastern Amn” and with this
the command over all the armies in those regions.

I told them that I simply would command their armies during the crisis, but then lay
down my power again, but they wanted to keep me as their ruler. After some
discussing we settled on a compromise. As Lord Protector I would stay in
command of the army and all the garrisons, but would actually only rule my own
lands around the de’Arnise keep. I also
demanded that all troops would be equipped and trained with the new weapons and
that I would have all right on my inventions.

After the treaty had been set up and signed by
all parties, I went over to Garren Windspear and handed him the tree-seeds of
the dryads.

“Those I received by some dryads, which are captives in Irenicus’ dungeons.
Hand those to the queen of the dryads in the Windspear Hills and they will be released.”

“I will do this gladly, Lord Darnoc” Garren Windspear replied.

When I had just finished talking to him,
Jaheira came over to me and Im.

“It’s good to see you again” she said.

“Yeah, ya too,
Jaheira” Im replied.

“I heard you reclaimed your soul, Imoen.”

“Yeah, killed that damn bitch Bodhi
an’ now I’ve got my soul back.”

“What about Irenicus?”

“We will take care of him. I also want my soul back,
you know. But right now there is more urgent matters to attend to” I answered.

Suddenly Jaheira looked very hard at me and Im and finally shook her
head.

“So, you two are in love with each other?”

I and Im looked at each other.

“Why d’ya
think?”

“It is obvious for anyone who has eyes to see.
I just want to warn you: However you may feel for each other, it is dangerous. Be careful, please. I wouldn’t like to see
you two come to harm because of this.”

“Look Jaheira” Im explained, “we’re bound t’each other deep down
in our very spirits an’ souls. Nothin’ ‘ll separate us!”

“I see. Still, be careful. Some might not like the idea
of two siblings being together like that.”

“We will be careful, Jaheira” I answered.

Together with the other representatives I began
to arrange our armies. Trademeet had its local guards and I would send some of my
officers to train them in the use of the newer weapons. The villages in the Umar Hills and Windspear Hills had only a militia and too
them I also would send two officers. With the help of our new steam engines we
would be able to produce more weapons and equip all soldiers with them. I also
ordered a general recruitment; every man able would be equipped and trained. We
had to be ready for Mocilia.

I saw Anomen and Nalia talk to each other and
moving closer realized that he was telling her of his father’s death. He was
crying, she embraced him and tried to comfort him.

Aerie and Minsc approached me.

“We want you and Im to be witnesses in our oath
of union” Aerie explained.

“Oath of union? What are you talking about?”

“I and Aerie will swear to each other to stay together for
our whole lives in front of at least two witnesses. That’s called ‘the oath of
union’. It’s a tradition in Rashemen” Minsc further explained.

“Ah, so it is something similar to our ‘marriage’.”

“Yes, something similar, but no priest is required in the
oath.”

“And when do you want to do this?”

“Right now, if it’s possible” Aerie answered.

I waved at Im, who came over to us.

“They want to swear an oath of union and need us as
witnesses” I explained to Im.

“What, they wanna marry?”

“No, it isn’t the same, although I don’t really
see any difference.”

Minsc took out a leather strip and tied his and
Aerie’s hand together. Boo crawled onto their hands and looked around, squeaking happily.

“As our hands are now tied together, so shall our
souls be, Aerie. I swear that no one will be able to rip apart the union of our souls!”

“And so do I, Minsc!”

After that I went out to the construction site
and helped in building of it. Minsc, Anomen and Keldorn joined me too, but I
told them that they should go and fetch some firearms and then go to Cernick, who would
train them in their use. Although they didn’t like the idea, they finally
submitted to my reasoning that without them they would stand no chance against
Mocilia and her “Revolutionary Guard”.

This evening I was very tired and Im helped me
into bed. I just lay there, my eyes closed, when Im lay
next to me and kissed me softly.

“Ya a’right, Darn?” she asked.

“It was just a very exhausting day, Im…”

“Hm, I could help
there, just let me handle this…”

She moved her body onto mine and kissed me
again. Gently she began to take my clothes off and then hers, kissing my body.
I felt how my blood began to run like fire and suddenly longed for her, so I
took her in my arms and kissed her passionately.

“Ah, so ya like it…”
she whispered in my ear.

As a reply I kissed her again, first her warm and soft lips, then her breast,
then her eyebrows, her forehead, her cheek. I smelled her hair, her sweat and
my longing grew every second. Still kissing her passionately I moved my right
leg between her legs and parted them, rolled her over and entered her. She
moaned and I kissed her even more passionately, touching her hair, her arms, her breasts and then finally
clutching her hands tightly and beginning to push into her, faster and faster.
Our rhythm of breath increased more and more, I felt her hot breath in my face.
Suddenly she rolled me on my back and began to push, while I rested, her face
close to mine, her hair touching it even. I put my arms around her let her do it, feeling how
our passion began to reach a climax, our feelings reaching new heights of utter
joy. Her soul seemed to have entered my body and I felt all that she felt. When
she finally screamed in total ecstasy and my feelings seemed to explode in
total exaltedness, my vision suddenly changed.

In front of my eyes ages passed, universes came
into existence and died when their last stars had burned out, on planets life
developed and died again.

And then I suddenly stood in a room, in front
of me a gray-haired man with a noble, but grave face, clothed in black, but
elegant clothes.

“Welcome, Darnoc! I am Silkar Daukon, former General of the
Empire of Kuld. And I am here to tell you, what you must do and why.”

“What do you mean, I don’t understand?”

“I come from another universe. There I realized
that the only way to save my world was to destroy humanity. And thus I made the
hard choice and induced a brutal war, destroying almost everything. It
had to be done and you will face a similar choice. Do you have the strength to
make the right choice?”

“You killed the people of your own race? Why?”

“Because humanity, in the long run,
will destroy everything and in every universe. Humanity is a threat to all life and must be
controlled. It was the case in my universe and soon you’ll realize that it is
the case in yours.”

“So you mean that I many people will have to
die in order to reach a certain end?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I want to tell you.
Sometimes we have to make hard choices in order to do what is right. You
must choose the hard way or else all will be lost. You must choose bloodshed and
destruction for your world. You must lead your ‘holy war’ in order to achieve what must be
achieved. Many people call me ‘evil’ and I have to live with the fact that I
destroyed countless lives. We, who face those great tasks, must carry a terrible burden. So must you, Darnoc. But first I wish to introduce
somebody to you.”

Suddenly someone else stood next to him, a
person looking almost frighteningly similar as myself. He had the same height, the same built, the same color of hair, the same
color of eyes, the same face. He didn’t have my scars, but apart from that we almost looked like
twins.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked him.

“Don’t you know that everything in the
multiverse has its counterpart somewhere else? I am yours and my name is
Conrad.”

I immediately recognized the connection:
“Conrad” was “Darnoc” spelt backwards.

“And why do you show yourself to me?”

“Because I know that you will listen to me, Darnoc. I am your counterpart, you will listen to me. You must
choose what is right and you know what is right, despite the costs. Choose, Darnoc!”

I knew that Conrad spoke the truth, although I
didn’t like it.

And with that it all vanished; Im stared at me, worry in her face.

“What did ya see, Darn?” she whispered.

“I… this man spoke to me and told me that I
would have to choose to do terrible things in order to do what is right. And
then came my counterpart. He almost looked like me, but not
entirely. He told me the same as this other man and I know that he is right, I
felt it.”

“What terrible thin’s?”

“People will die. A lot of
people, Im. There will be war and bloodshed as it has never been seen
before. And I must do this.”

Gently she stroked my face and smiled.

“Know this, Darn: Whatever ya
‘ave t’ do, whatever ya’ll do, I’m
gonna stay with ya, understand?”

I took her hand and pressed it firmly.

“I know, Im, I know…”

The next morning I selected the officers, who
would go to the different districts and there equip and train my new soldiers.
They also took plans for the steam engines and weapon production facilities
with them, so that they could build such structures themselves. I intended to
give them two weeks for training and then I would assemble my army here.

In the meantime, the work with our own
facilities as the keep was advancing. Two days later we had finished the
machines and were able to use them. The speed of production was increased
tremendously and the next day I sent several cartloads of weapons to Trademeet and
the day after that to the Umar Hills and Windspear Hills.

Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen and Aerie were beginning
to get the hang of the weapons, although Aerie only used a fire-spiter and not a fire-tube. Im stayed with her bow and her
magic. I and Taldor began to work on improvements on our weapons, he was the
one who eventually came up with the principle of landmines and I invented the
principle of rounds and breech-loaders. Those were a lot more effective than
the older versions of the fire-tubes and fire-spiters.

We also realized that we could use the power of
steam for a many other things than just weapons-production. So we invented the
steam-cart, for example, and we realized that
we could produce many other goods with the power of steam. Thus I began to
build more and more factories around the castle, each with another function. I
sent some of my people to the slums of Atkatla, where more than enough
unemployed people lived, and they were able to hire some for my factories.

The first great task I set them to do was to
build rails for the steam-cart. I wanted a railroad, which would connect the
keep with Trademeet. More and more workers arrived with their families and soon
the keep was surrounded by a small, but steadily growing town of cheap houses.
When my new army arrived after two weeks, a hundred people already lived there.

During those two weeks I also put together my
laboratory down in the cellar. I had read the book concerning the gods and
in it stood that Bhaal had descended many times before the Times of Trouble,
taking on many different forms and producing his Spawn. It was then the thought
occurred to me that I and Im perhaps weren’t sibling at all, because it was
probably that Bhaal had used different bodies when he had produced us.

But I needed proof. In my lab I had begun
experimenting on myself, trying to find a way to determine my origins. If I
could find a way to determine relationships between different beings, then I
could find out the truth.

Im once descended when I was working late.

“What ya doin?”

“I’m trying to find out if we’re true siblings,
Im.”

“I thought ya didn’t
mind…”

I turned around and smiled at her.

“Oh, I don’t Im, never question that. But
others do and then there is the question of children. You know, I have heard that children, whose parents had been closely related had…
problems. Such things happen to nobles, I have heard, because nobles only marry among each other. They have
strange illnesses and such things. And I don’t want this to happen to us, you
know.”

Now she smiled and kissed me.

“It’ll be a’right, Darn, believe me. Now come, it’s
already late…”

Because of the general recruitment, I was now
in command of about two thousand soldiers, all equipped with breech-loaders and
throwable exploders. I had about a hundred soldiers
handling mobile fire-kegs. We were ready for Mocilia and her “Revolutionary Guard”.

Mocilia hadn’t been lazy. The Shadow Thieves of
Baldur’s Gate had also overthrown their local government and now Mocilia ruled
over the “People’s Republic of Atkatla and Baldur’s Gate”. Already an army was marching southwards.

It was then that I sent a declaration of war to Mocilia. Thus began the Amnish
Civil War.

Imoen:
Fighting Mocilia

Darnoc could probably tell you more details
concerning the Amnish Civil War, he was the mastermind behind it after all,
but I’m still going to tell you how I experienced the whole thing.

We marched westwards, towards Atkatla. I stayed with Darn and our companions from our
travels, which all came with us. I talked with Keldorn some, Darn was occupied talking to his
officers and planning for battle. Keldorn was not his old self anymore; there
was something very bitter about him, which I had never noticed before. He told
me that he meant to kill Mocilia personally, something which I now could
understand. But I saw him glance uneasy between me and Darn and I guessed why he did it.

He finally spoke about it and he said the words
I had been afraid of he would say: “I know what is going on between you and Darnoc.”

For a moment I was afraid that now he would start lecturing me or something even
worse, but then he just said: “Look, I am a paladin and actually I should be
telling you right now that you should stop, what you are doing. But I have a heart also and so I will just ask you:
Why?”

For a long time I thought about, what I should
answer him. Should I try to discuss this theologically with him? I certainly
would lose. So I finally decided to simply tell him the truth.

“Keldorn, would ya
believe me, if I told ya that I… simply loved ‘im?”

He sighed and didn’t say anything for some
time, looking to the ground and walking onward, deep in his thoughts.

“I… I thought you would say something like
that. And I believe you, Imoen. Still, I guess you must have realized the
consequences, if your relationship is revealed. You must realize the danger you
two are in.”

“Yes, I realize it, Keldorn. We both realize
it. And we both decided t’ still follow our hearts an’ not bother ‘bout what others
think o’ us.”

“Some weeks ago I would have told you to
immediately stop your relationship, despite your love for each other. But now… After I lost Maria and my girls, I finally realized,
how precious our love had been and what a great thing I had lost. I will never
again have something like this. Perhaps similar, but never the
same. And I am
also old now; the days of my life are growing lesser. But you, Imoen, have yet your
life before you. And if it is indeed the will of the gods that you love Darnoc and he loves you, then do so, do
not let go of it, never.”

The battle itself I didn’t attend, I was
together with Darn and watched it from the hill. It was short and victorious for our
side. I guess it was due to the fact that Mocilia’s Revolutionary Guards were no soldiers, had no
experience in fighting outside in the open and simply had less advanced
weapons. But ask Darn, if you really wish to know more details.

This night I slept next to Darn in his tent, his arms pulling me close to his body.
Suddenly I awoke and Darn also, he stood up, taking up his
weapon. Suddenly I saw a shadow leap up and hit Darn, I screamed and tried to attack
the shadow, hitting it with my fists. But he thrust a knife into my side; I
fell to the ground, pain erupting in my body. Poison! The knife had been
poisoned!

I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream, I only saw,
how two figures grabbed Darn and dragged him away. Was this the
end? No air came into my lungs; it seemed as if the poison had also paralyzed my heart and my respiration. Darkness slowly surrounded me, until
there was nothing left. It felt like falling into a dark, bottomless abyss.

Was this death? I never managed to see the
afterlife, though, for suddenly I felt life again, I coughed and sat up,
breathing air again.

“Imoen, you’re back, thank Baevar! I was so worried, Imoen, so
worried!” I heard Aerie say and then she hugged me closely, weeping.

“What… what happened?” I asked in a hoarse voice.

“You… you were dead and… and I resurrected you.
It was so horrible, they brought your lifeless body to me and…and… Somehow I
managed to say the words and then life came back into you.”

Breathing deep and slow, I gathered strength
again. It felt good, after that horrible feeling of suffocating.

“Where is Darn? Tell me, Aerie, where is he? Is
he alright?”

“No, we don’t know, he is gone. What happened,
Imoen, tell me!”

“These figures appeared an’ they took him an’ killed me.
It was so… No, no, I don’t want t’ think about it, I couldn’t breath, I just
couldn’t…”

Tears swelled in my eyes and Aerie patted me on the
back.

“It’s over, Imoen, it’s alright now…”

“Never tell Darn about it, promise me, Aerie!”

“If you want, I promise it, Imoen. I’m never
going to tell me, word of honor!”

I remembered my feelings, when I had tried to
think about Darn’s death. No, I didn’t want to expose him to the same experience, we
both couldn’t think about the other one dying. If it really would happen, the
other one would surely be destroyed.

Immediately after I was able to get up again, I
took control of the situation and sent out search parties. I followed the tracks of the
kidnappers, with the help of Minsc. We followed them into the woods, westwards.

After a while we saw lights ahead, torches.
Minsc motioned us to halt and we stood still, while the lights approached us
slowly.

“Draw your weapons, Boo doesn’t like the look
of this” Minsc whispered to us.

I took out Gesen’s bow and readied myself to
use it. But it never came to that. Minsc suddenly stared ahead and then shouted.

“Hey, you over there! Darnoc, is that you? Hah, it’s good to
see you again, I and Boo already thought we’d find you dead and I would have to
shove my sword down some evil guys’ throats to avenge you. But it’s good to see
you alive, old friend!”

Darn came towards us, laughing, and he embraced
Minsc.

“Good old Minsc, so you came after me! Tiris
here was faster, though. You remember Tiris, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes from Trademeet. How are you and Raissa, Tiris?”

The man called Tiris replied: “Oh, we’re both
happy t’gether, thanks for askin’.”

Now it was enough, when the hell would he lower
himself to greet me? For a moment I was really angry with Darn, but then my relief took over
again. So I rushed towards him and simply hugged him closely.

“I thought they’d kill ya…”
I whispered to him.

“I’m not so easily killed, Im, so don’t you
worry. Still, it’s nice to know that you do worry. Did Mocilia’s soldier do anything
to you, when they took me?”

“They tried, but only knocked me unconscious, nothin’ more.”

He sighed.

“Thanks the gods! I was also worried, you
know…”

We returned to the camp and immediately went
back into our tent, where we loved each other passionately. After our worries,
we probably had to reassure ourselves of the other’s presence and forget our
worries completely. Nobody would separate us and we would see to it!

Next morning brought new worries, though. Darn wanted to set an ambush to crush
Mocilia and her army completely. This time we all would fight. Darn moved his army deeper into the forests, making
sure that Mocilia was following him. And she did follow his army, walking right into the trap.
They were surrounded and then the slaughter began.

But not all did go as planned. First of all I
couldn’t fight at all, because I had to lie flat, as our enemies shot above us.
And then Mocilia came. Suddenly I felt somebody grab me from behind, drag me up
and then I felt the barrel of a fire-spiter against my head. As I
felt the cold, deadly metal against my head, fear arose in me, which I hard tried to control.

“Don’t move, Darnoc, or I’ll kill ‘er!” I heard Mocilia scream.

Keldorn, who had his own reason for killing
Mocilia, raised his fire-tube and pointed it at Mocilia.

“You will not get away with this, Mocilia!”

“I think I am
gettin’ away with it. Don’t yah follow me or she’s
dead!”

Couldn’t someone just shoot the bitch! Darn, Keldorn, someone, please? As I
looked at Darn, I saw it happening: He began to change into his wolf-form, anger and
hatred in his eyes. Yes, Darn, kill her, kill her! The last thing
saw, was Darn jumping, then something hit my head
and all went dark.

When I awoke, I was lying in the grass, my head
aching terribly. Moaning I turned it to the left. There was a body lying there,
it had long, black hair, but its face was full of blood and a huge hole was in
it. Suddenly I realized that it was Mocilia. She had finally met, what was
coming to her.

Darn was kneeling on the other side, looking
rather worried at me.

“You alright?” he asked, when he saw me awake.

“My head hurts like hell. But everythin’ else… I think so.”

He smiled, stretched out his hand and noted:
“Come, let’s get you on your feet again.”

The war was over; the last battle had destroyed
Mocilia’s army almost completely. After some negotiations, a peace treaty was signed
and we were able to return to the keep.

Darnoc:
The Amnish Civil War

I moved my army westwards the same day I had sent off my
messenger. It was my intention to lure Mocilia and her “Revolutionary Guard” out of Atkatla, where they would
be vulnerable.

She took the bait and advanced with her
“Revolutionary Guard” towards my position. I had positioned my army on a hill east of Atkatla, a field
in front of it, a forest behind it. Mocilia would move in from the west, across
the field, where I could bombard her with my fire-kegs. And indeed her army marched right where I had thought they
would.

My fire-kegs opened fire, creating havoc and
death among the enemy. But Mocilia’s officers were able to scatter their army so that the fire-kegs were no
longer able to do much harm. It was then that I ordered my army to move in from the sides, taking
the enemy at the flank.

The enemy wasn’t prepared for that. They shot back, but
were quickly overcome and soon the enemy general ordered a retreat. I didn’t
follow them, though.

We had won our first victory, but I wasn’t sure
if it had won us the war. Still, I sent a messenger to Mocilia. She sent back his head.

I ordered the army to camp on the hill, for I knew
perfectly well that we wouldn’t stand a chance against Mocilia inside the city.
But as long as she’d have to come out here, I could choose the battle grounds
and beat her.

But I had underestimated her. I was sleeping
peacefully in my tent, when I was woken by some noise. Immediately I took up my
fire-spiter and stood up, but then something hit me
from behind and I lost consciousness.

I awoke and starred into the angry face of Mocilia.

“Yah wouldn’t listen t’ mee
advice, now yah’re gonna
pay dah price, Darnoc” she announced to me.

Behind her several Shadow Thieves stood,
grinning at me. One of them had a set of torturing tools with him. It was then
that I realized we were not in the city but in a forest. I was bound to a tree.
Mocilia probably didn’t want to lose any time.

But suddenly I heard how someone loaded a fire-tube near me and then several of my soldiers
stepped into the light of the fire nearby.

“Release ‘im or we’ll
kill yah!” one of them screamed.

It was then that I recognized him as Tiris,
whose wife Raissa I had rescued.

“Tiris? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, mee
Lord. Gotta pay somethin’
back t’ yah for savin’ mee
Raissa, yah know.”

“Idiots! Didn’t yah watch out?” Mocilia
screamed at her Shadow Thieves.

One of the soldiers came over to me, cut my
bonds and handed a fire-tube to me.

“Drop your weapons!” I shouted.

The Shadow Thieves immediately followed my
command, but Mocilia starred at me, hate in her eyes. Suddenly she drew
her fire-spiter, pointed it at me and shot, but I had
reacted quickly and thrown myself to the ground. She cursed and quickly dashed
away into the woods.

“Thanks, Tiris.”

“Hey, as I said, I owe yah one, Lord” Tiris
replied.

We went back to the camp, taking the captured
Shadow-Thieves with us. Tiris told me that he had seen how the Shadow Thieves
had vanished out of the camp and had followed them with some of his comrades.

Next morning I ordered the soldiers to move
again and we marched to the south, further into the forest. Scouts reported that the
“Revolutionary Guard” was following. Exactly as I intended, for I wanted
to lay a trap for them.

There was a huge glade in the forest and I put
my troops in the woods encircling it. Soon the whole army of Mocilia marched in, I even saw Mocilia herself.
And when they were all there, I ordered the attack.

The breech-loader had one advantage over the
firearms we had used before: You could lie
on the ground and shoot from there. The Revolutionary Guard of course tried to shoot back, but
they just shot above our heads and didn’t hit anything, while we did. Only when
they threw some exploders there were people killed, but we also had those and
of course the fire-kegs.

Lying on the floor I aimed at a Guard advancing towards me, an exploder in his hand.
Before he could throw it I shot and hit him right into the head. The exploder
exploded right in his hand, killing his companions around him.

Minsc was shooting at another group left of us,
Anomen and Keldorn were aiding him. Behind me Im was lying on the ground,
probably cursing herself for not learning how to use the firearms, because she couldn’t stand up
and use her bow while the enemy was shooting at us. Aerie was also using her
fire-spiters and sometimes threw an exploder.

Keldorn was next to me and he was looking for
Mocilia. Mocilia was in the middle of the battlefield, shouting at her guards. Suddenly she cried out angrily,
drew her own weapons and advanced right towards my position. But I couldn’t take
care of her, because two guards were again attempting to attack
us. When I looked where she had been before, she was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly she stood behind us and grabbed Im, putting her fire-spiter at Im’s head.

“Don’t move, Darnoc, or I’ll kill ‘er!” she screamed.

Keldorn had raised his fire-tube and was
pointing it at her, anger and hate flashing in his eyes.

“You will not get away with this, Mocilia!”

“I think I am
gettin’ away with it. Don’t yah follow me or she’s
dead!”

The anger rose in me, I felt it coming. She
wouldn’t hurt Im, nobody would hurt Im! The change came over me, my hand turned
into claws, fur grew on my body and my mouth was stretched long, suddenly sharp teeth appearing in it. And then I jumped.

Mocilia shrieked and dodged my jump, hit Im
over the head with her fire-spiter and put her over
her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. She tried to run, but in my wolf-form I
was faster than she was. Looking back she tried to shoot me, but I quickly
jumped aside and then continued the chase.

Then I was at her, she let Im’s limp body fall
to the ground and ran, but I jumped and drove my claws into her shoulders,
pulling her down to the ground. She screamed in pain and drew out a dagger, but
I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, breaking her bones.

“Nobody hurts Im, you fucking bitch! I’m gonna kill you for this, you piece of shit!” I screamed at
her, while she whimpered in pain.

Then I heard how somebody loaded a fire-tube.

“I will do it, Darnoc, step back!” Keldorn said in a
determined voice.

I stood up and Mocilia tried to crawl away, but
quickly I grabbed her again and held her down.

Hate in his eyes, Keldorn stepped over to
Mocilia and put his fire-tube against her head.

“Please, let me live!” she begged.

But Keldorn was determined, put his finger
against the trigger and pulled it. A thundering sound could be heard; smoke rose from the barrel and what was left of Mocilia’s
head was a bloody mess. Keldorn had shot right into her face.

“This is for Maria and my children” he said,
spitting on Mocilia’s body.

When we returned to the battlefield, it was all
over. The remaining Revolutionary Guards had surrender, but most of them were dead. .
We took them captive and sent a messenger into the city to whoever was the new
“President” of the “People’s Republic of Atkatla and Baldur’s Gate”. Im wasn’t
hurt too badly, fortunately; she just had a headache after she woke up.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked, for the former
guild-masters of the Shadow Thieves couldn’t decide who would become their new
leader. But after two days a messenger came back and he had a peace offer with
him. Amn should be divided into two parts, Atkatla, Baldur’s Gate and the coastal
region in between belonging to the Republic, the rest belonging to me. I
accepted this offer and thus ended the civil war.

Imoen:
The dark side

After returning to Darn’s keep, I went to the factory workers
and their families. Their numbers had increased, not surprisingly, if things
were as I had heard in Atkatla. As with the farmers, I helped them with their work. And there
I realized that factory work was far more dangerous than field work. There were
still many things we didn’t know about those new machines and security was
practically not existent.

Once I witnessed how a worker cut off his hand
in one of those machines. If I hadn’t fetched Aerie immediately, the man would
have lost his hand forever. I thought that this was a singular incident first, until I had an
accident myself.

I was trying to clean the wheels of one of the
blasted machines; I had to crawl under it, in order to do that. And then some
idiot put the thing on, my shirt was clamped between the wheel and the floor, I
was dragged to it and as the wheel turned, it grinded against me. First it
wasn’t really of a problem, but then the wheel began to turn faster and faster,
the grinding began to take off my skin, blood was smeared now on the wheel, while I
screamed for help, but nobody came, because the machine was louder than my
screams.

And then my shirt got stuck on an outcropping of
the damn wheel, my body was dragged under the wheel and the wheel stopped
turning, because I was blocking its way. But the whole thing was stronger than
I was, slowly it began to crush me, I felt the weight increase and increase and
because my stomach side was turned towards the damn wheel, all air was pressed out of
my lungs. I felt my ribs break, as the wheel kept dragging and crushing slowly.
Of course I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get my shirt loose.

Finally someone stopped the machine and I heard somebody crawling towards me. A hand grabbed me at my
shoulder and began pulling me away from the wheel. Finally I got away from it
and then I was dragged out and laid on the floor. My vision was clouded, so I
couldn’t see, what was going on or who was there. But I felt somebody cutting
my shirt and then touching my body.

“Does this hurt?” a voice asked me sometimes.

My short screams were probably answer enough. Hell yes it hurt, how would you feel, if
you’d just been almost crushed by a fucking wheel?

“Broken ribs, abraded skin… Someone get a
healer, I think she’s passing out!”

Aerie finally healed me and as soon as I was
well again, I immediately went to Darnoc, who was in his laboratory, of course.

“D’ya know, I was just almost killed by one o’ yar fuckin’
machines!” I told him angrily.

“Almost killed by a machine? What are you talking about, Im?”

“Yar factories, they’re dangerous, Darn! People could die, if ya don’t do somethin’ ‘bout it!
Hell, I almost died just before! It’s just a matter o’ time, until someone
really dies!”

“But Im, I know so little yet about everything…
I may have invented the machines, but this doesn’t mean I know everything about
them. Of course I don’t want people dying and I’ll try my best to increase
security.”

I was still trembling from anger, my face red.
Darn stood up and came over to me,
embracing me and kissing me softly.

“I’m glad nothing happened to you, if you’d
die…”

“Yes, I know, what ya
mean, Darn, don’t say anythin’
further…”

Some days later we were invited by Minister
Lloyd of the Umar Hills and of course accepted. Apart from Mrs. Lloyd’s really good
food, something strange happened there. Darnoc bought a book about the Zentharim from a trader there, told the
trader that the trader’s real name was Darcin Cole and then killed him. Cole said
something about a “Twisted Rune”, before he died and Darn and our companions puzzled about
those words. I of course had no clue, until Darn finally explained to me the whole
business with Rejiek.

Finally Darn decided that he needed to return to
Atkatla, in secret of course. Keldorn suggested that we used the sewers and so
we did.

The sewers of Atkatla were dirty and wet, as I
had expected. What I didn’t expect was that mind flayers lived there, which of
course immediately attacked us. Darn was seized by one, but my quick reaction
saved his life: I shot a lightning from Gesen’s bow at the beast and it died.

“Ya a’right, Darn?” I said to him, he still lying on
the floor.

“Yeah, thanks for… you know.”

I kissed him to show him that I accepted.

It was then that I first said it: “Anytime for ya… my love…”

I don’t know, why I had said it. Somehow, it
just had slipped out. And it had sounded… odd. Not right, somehow. Still, it
was how I felt about him and still feel. In time I got used to say it to him
and him too, but back then, the first time I said it… Yes, the time had clearly passed, when we had only been
brother and sister. We were now two lovers, two adult persons, sharing their mutual love for each
other.

“It’s alright, Im, and I tell you, there’s just you.”

“I hope so or do I need t’ take out my katana
an’ go kill someone?”

We both laughed and Darn replied: “No, I mean it, Im.”

But also I had meant it seriously. I would
never let anyone take Darn from me. Not only in the sense that
I would let nobody kill him, but also that I would not
let somebody steal his love for me.

Oh, and Anomen found the famous hammer of
thunderbolts, one of the most powerful magical artifacts, which, I had once heard, could be transformed into the
even more powerful Crom Faeyr.

In the Copper Coronet Hendak and Bernard told us that things had gotten
worse in the city. The Guardians of the People were spying on everyone and
anyone who showed even a slight sign of discontent or rebellion was arrested and never seen again. Hendak
also revealed to us that the Twisted Rune could be found in the bridge district
and that one needed a rogue stone, which he gave to us, to enter their domain.

Disguised as commoners we went over to the
bridge district and indeed found the Twisted Rune, destroying this evil for
good. But there were still the slavers left…

The slavers turned out to be in possession of
firearms and of course immediately used
them on us. Fortunately, we reacted fast enough and threw ourselves onto the
floor, the shots passed over. And that was the end of the slavers, because our
shots hit them.

I wanted to leave the city, but Darn insisted on visiting Cromwell, the
master smith, to let him forge the Crom Faeyr. After some arguing I finally agreed, but still felt uneasy
about it. Cromwell was indeed able to forge the Crom Faeyr.

When we left Cromwell’s house, we were
intercepted by a patrol, which arrested us, because we didn’t have our “papers”
with us. We stood no chance, they were more and they had their firearms pointed at us.

They led us to the city prison and threw us
into a cell. While we waited, I remembered the things Hendak had told us. Would
torture be our fate? I trembled at the thought, I didn’t know if I’d survive it
again. Not so soon after Irenicus… Darn held me in his arms to comfort me, he felt my fear. My fear increased even more, as more and
more of our companions were taken away and didn’t return. Hendak had been
right. In my mind I imagined myself horrible things. Hell, I had experienced
for more than one lifetime; imagining torture wasn’t that difficult, after
being “experimented” on by Irenicus.

And then they came for me, my fear reached a climax, I clutched to Darn, but they grabbed me and they were
stronger. I tried to wrestle from their grip, screamed at them, but it was no
use.

They dragged me to a room and by the time I arrived there I was completely paralyzed by my fear. I was bound to a chair, but didn’t
notice much anymore. Suddenly I saw the knife. Images flashed inside my mind
and I saw Irenicus, glaring at me, as I lay on the table, bound to it and he held a knife in his
hands.

But it was not the cold, emotionless voice of
Irenicus, which finally spoke: “Now, yahr turn,
lassie. Hm, aren’t yah a cute uhn,
aye? Perhaps we’ll ‘ave some fun latahr
with yah, hehe, won’t we, boys?”

I heard several men laugh at this comment. And the
man with the knife stepped closer to me, finally kneeling in front of me,
showing me his knife.

“Yah see that, lassie? This thin’ can hurt yah
quite a bit, ‘cause I’m an expahrt
with it. Now, we don’t wanna harm such a charmin’, beautifahl
lady like yahrself, aye? That’s why
yah’re gonna be a nice lass
an’ tell us, what yah an’ yahr friends were doin’ on dah streets in such a
late hour. An’ don’t tell me no lies, I’d notice.”

“We were just goin’
home, please, really! We aren’t spies, I swear! We’re just commoners, nothing
else!”

“Then why d’yah ‘ave all those fancy weapons? Quickly now, lass, don’t tell
no lies or yah gonna feel mee
blade!”

I gave a desperate sob and screamed: “Leave me
alone, get away from me, I don’t want anythin’ from ya, I just wanna live, I just wanna be with Darn again, please, lemme
go!”

“Too bad, lassie, but that was dah wrong answahr…”

Suddenly his knife moved forward and buried itself in my thigh. I
screamed in pain, even more, when he turned around the blade to widen the wound.
Then he ripped the blade out again and thrust it into my side.

“Look at that scar, who did that? A master, I can
tell…” he said, looking at the scar over my eye.

“D’yah want tah lose yahr eye for real this
time, lassie?”

“No, please, don’t!” I begged him.

“Then tell us, whom yah’re
workin’ for!”

“Nobody, nobody, really, I swear!”

He sighed, turned to his colleagues and said:
“Whip her.”

They dragged me up and bound me to a block. One
of them began whipping my back, but I had almost passed out anyway out of fear and pain. Finally I was dragged to
the chair again and now I began feeling my back.

One of them opened my trousers and pulled them
off. I didn’t notice first, I was shaking and only feeling the pain. But then I
was grabbed and put onto the ground, someone forced my legs apart and some guy lay on me, thrusting
himself into me. No, not again, not again!

My focus came back to reality; feverishly I
began working on my bonds, trying to ignore the pain as the man thrust himself
into me again and again. Finally I had freed myself; my hands shot forward, grabbed the man’s dagger and
stabbed him right into his back.

The man groaned in pain and I pushed him off
me, got up, pulled the dagger out and turned to the other guards. But they had been quicker; I
felt a dagger penetrating my back, its blade being driven deep into me. I
thought I would die as everything became dark.

When I awoke, I was lying in some other room,
several bodies next to me. There was pain everywhere, my back hurt like hell,
also the dagger wounds and between my legs… It wasn’t as bad as the first time
it had happened to me, but still…

I took up my knees to my chin, just lying
there, tears running down my cheek, while I put
my fingers into my mouth and bit on them to stop me from making any sound.
Finally I took a look around and saw my trousers lying beside me; they had thrown them away
together with me. I put them on again and stood up, trying to ignore the pain
in my leg.

Then I stretched out and searched for Darn, finally finding him. He felt pain
and sorrow. What was happening?

I began searching the building and soon came to
a door and heard someone talk in there. It was the same room, I recognized the door.
And Darn was inside there, I could feel him.
Anger arose in me; they wouldn’t hurt him,
the bastards! I stretched out my soul to
comfort him. I am coming, my love, hold on!

I pushed the door open and stood on the
threshold. The guards stared me in total amazement, but they didn’t for long, for I used a
fireball on them, burning them to ashes. Then I stumbled towards Darn, taking a key from the floor and
unchaining him. When I had done that, my strength left me and I collapsed next
to him.

I was able to whisper my story to him and he
helped me up, together we managed to find our companions. Aerie and Anomen
healed us, we found our weapons in one of the rooms and then we left, fighting
our way out. Which was easy, the guards didn’t expect prisoners to escape as armed as we were. Through the sewers
we left the city. Hopefully to never return.

Darnoc:
Unfinished business

We returned to the keep, where we were greeted
in triumph. The representatives of the east-amnish districts wanted to crown me
as king, but I refused. I only accepted to keep my title as Lord Protector for
the time being. And they also insisted that I’d visit the different districts
and “honor them with my presence”.

I divided my army and set up several garrisons, the greatest being in the
keep and in Trademeet. Then we first went towards the Umar Hills.

Minister Lloyd greeted us warmly and invited me to dinner in his
house. His wife turned out to be quite a cook and we all praised her skill.

After the dinner we walked through the small
village and looked at it, while Minister Lloyd proudly explained everything to
me. Suddenly I remembered something: The note I had taken from the body of
Rejiek. There it had stood that if one solved the riddle one should go to the
Umar Hills and buy a book concerning the
history of the Zentharim. Quickly I took out the note and looked closely at it, showing it
also to my companions.

Im also took a look and then replied, smiling:
“His name’s Darcin Cole.”

“Is there a man called like that here?” I asked
the Minister.

“Not that I know of, no.”

We marched over to the market place and looked at the goods of
the traders. If I’d find a copy of this book somewhere, I would know…

Indeed did the trader Fael
possess such a book and I bought it.

“Ah, yah ‘ave interestin’ taste, Lord Darnoc… Perhaps yah also know mee other name?”

“It is ‘Darcin Cole’.”

“Ah, yah’re right,
Lord. What do yah want o’ me, then?”

I drew my sword and thrust it right into his
chest.

“Finally you receive your just reward, I haven’t forgotten Rejiek yet!”

“I curse yah, the Twisted Rune’ll
get yah!” he hissed and then died.

After pulling my sword out again, I turned to
my companions.

“What did he mean by that?”

“I have heard rumors of an evil organization
calling itself ‘The Rune’ and to my knowledge they
have their headquarters in Atkatla” Anomen explained.

“But there we can’t go anymore. What do we do?”
Aerie added.

“Hm, there might be
ways to enter Atkatla in secret…” Keldorn muttered.

“Explain yourself, Keldorn.”

“The sewers, you can enter them from outside
the city. There are drains that, which lead out of the city. We could use them.”

“And then we could also take care of those slavers Hendak told us
about. I want to crush those evil people!” Minsc shouted.

So we traveled all the way back to Atkatla, but
didn’t enter the gates. We followed the coastline until we reached a drain
leading into the sea. And there we entered, following the dirty and smelling
sewers into the city.

“Where the hell are we?” I suddenly asked.

“I’m sorry, but not even I know where we are” Keldorn replied.

It was then that I heard a strange noise in front of us.

“What was that?” Im asked.

“Draw your weapons, I don’t like the sound of
it” I replied.

Not a moment too late, for suddenly several
figures leaped at us out of the dark. First I was totally surprised and confused,
but when one of the things came nearer, I remembered: Mind Flayers, Illithids. The
beast came closer and tried to bend over me, probably wanting to suck out my
brains. But suddenly a lightning flew across the sewers and hit the beast,
burning it from the inside and leaving it a blackened corpse.

Im stepped over me and put her hand on my
shoulders.

“Ya a’right, Darn?”

“Yeah, thanks for… you know.”

She smiled and kissed me gently.

“Anytime for ya… my
love…”

It sounded somehow awkward, hearing this from her lips.

“Hm, I’ve got t’ work
on that one…” I heard her mutter.

“It’s alright, Im, and I tell you, there’s just you.”

“I hope so or do I need t’ take out my katana
an’ go kill someone?”

I laughed.

“No, I mean it, Im.”

The others had killed several other Illithids
and Anomen came over to me, a strange war-hammer in his hand.

“Look at this; I think it’s a very valuable artifact.”

“It’s the hammer o’ thunderbolts!” Im
exclaimed.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, a very powerful dwarvish weapon. If ya got
all the parts it can be turned into the Crom Faeyr, I’ve heard.”

We went on and finally came to the surface in
the slums, near the Copper Coronet. Hendak was glad to see us again.

“We search for an organization called ‘The Twisted
Rune’” I explained to him.

“Oh, I’ve heard of them. They have their headquarters in the bridge district, it is
rumored. And there’s some talk that you can only enter it, if you have a rogue
stone with it.

But I wouldn’t stay here in Atkatla, things
have gotten worse. Mocilia was bad enough; people were executed all day long
and there were lots of plundering, murdering, destroying, raping, whatever by
her ‘Revolutionary Guard’. But now things are even worse. Many people have died in the
civil war and now no one wants to help the
new rulers anymore, so they just kidnap young men and boys and force them into
their ‘Revolutionary Guard’. And they execute people on the basis of rumors; they have founded
these ‘Guardians of the People’, who spy on everyone.
I’ve heard that they have those dungeons
where they torture people and stuff.”

I thanked Hendak for his advice, but told him
that we would take care of the Twisted Rune and the slavers. He gave us some gray and brown
cloaks to disguise us as commoners, though, and also a rogue stone.

Disguised like that we sneaked to the bridge
districts and looked through all the empty houses there. At one in the
south-west something strange happened. The rogue stone suddenly began to glow
and where there had been a door before, suddenly a portal stood.

We entered through it and found ourselves in a
round, marble room. In its middle stood a large, round table and on it a man,
clothed in richly decorated robes. But there was something strange about him,
as if he was in the process of decaying.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

Drawing our weapons, I replied: “We are here to seek the Twisted Rune.”

He laughed and said: “And you have found it,
but you will not be able to enjoy it long. You shall die for your intrusion
here!”