A Talk Between Master and Apprentice

[Charraj]

Charraj teleported into his apprentice's small laboratory. He looked around, but saw only dark corners and shadows.

"Elias?" he called out. "Elias, are you here? I need to speak with you."

"And here I'd heard you were gone for good." Elias's voice came from the darkness. Charraj imagined a sneer on his apprentice's face. "What can I do for you, 'master'?"

Charraj ignored Elias' tone and looked around again. "Why is it so dark? It must be impossible to work in here." The wizard muttered a Light spell and lit the area.

Elias was aiming a crossbow at Charraj.

Charraj frowned and removed his hood and mask. "Put that thing away, Elias. It's me."

Elias did not move. "No. Why don't you explain why you're here?" the boy asked flatly. He was, in fact, not sneering.

"Very well. I am here to clean up a mess." Charraj shook his head. "I ran into a dwarf named Toinus, Elias. Can you tell me how you know him?"

Elias's eyes did not leave Charraj. "Yes, I know him. He was a client of mine. I crafted two wands for him. And he paid me in gold and with slander."

"So you know what he said about you, then? He had quite a story to tell me," Charraj said.

"I know that you obviously believe him, else you would not be here. Such faith warms my heart, 'master.'"

"I am here because I do not know what to believe, and would like for you to tell me your side of the story, Elias. I am your teacher and your frie-"

Elias cut him off. "My side of the story is that Toinus is an insane naked dwarf who runs around looking for death, whose ears are filled with wax, and who would not know a prayer to Mystra if it slapped him in the face. My side of the story is that you have known me for over six years, and yet you take the word of a dwarf you have just met over my own."

Charraj shook his head. "When you went missing, you came back a changed person, Elias. You have not even bothered to hide it. I thi-"

Elias cut him off again. "And whose fault was it that I went missing in the first place, hm? I was what, twelve? And I was living under your roof. A fine guardian you turned out to be."

Charraj nodded somberly. "It was indeed my fault. And I am back to fix my mistakes. That includes this mistake, and all of its consequences. So tell me true, Elias, because I will ask you only once. Did you turn to Shar after you were kidnapped?"

"No."

Charraj watched Elias for a long moment. The young man, a boy, really, still had his crossbow trained on Charraj. Still regarded Charraj with a steady and even stare.

The wizard shook his head. "I wish I could believe you, Elias. I w-" Charraj's eyes flashed purple as the effects of Premonition allowed him a glimpse into the next few seconds of time. He sidestepped Elias's crossbow bolt as it flew through the space where he had just been.

Charraj looked up at Elias incredulously. He opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes flashed purple again as Elias began to cast a spell. Charraj froze in confusion as he glimpsed the immediate future, as he saw Elias cast the spell before he actually casted it. How can he even know that spell?! Unless . . .

And then the Hammer of the Gods hit, staggering Charraj. In his confused and bewildered state, the wizard was not prepared to resist the spell's effects on his mind. He collapsed onto the floor of Elias's laboratory in a magical daze.

His Light went out and the room went dark.

[Charraj]

The following night:

Elias stood in the dark room with his sickle poised over Charraj's throat. It was pitch black and he heard some bug or rat scurrying nearby, but it did not matter at the moment. With this sacrifice, this tenday's Nightfall would be complete.

Charraj tried to say something around the gag in his mouth. Elias wondered if it was a plea for him to stop, or an attempt to cast a spell. But Elias had crushed Charraj's fingers in addition to gagging him, so it couldn't be the latter. Or maybe it was. Charraj had always been sort of hapless that way.

Elias shrugged and brought his sickle down into Charraj's throat. The blade met no resistance on its way down. None at all. He frowned.

Elias explored the altar with his hands. He could feel nothing but the gag laying on the stone surface, where Charraj's head should have been. Then he heard a footstep behind him.

"You really tried it." Charraj's pained voice came from behind Elias. "You tried to kill me."

Elias whirled around, his eyes searching the darkness. "You're supposed to be gagged. I crushed your hands myself! How did you get out?"

"You don't remember my familiar, Elias?" Charraj asked in the darkness. Elias heard scurrying again, from the direction of Charraj's voice. "I taught you how to deliver touch spells through your own familiar, didn't I? But, then again, I suppose you never learned Etherealness. Lucky me."

Charraj gasped in pain and Elias heard bone scraping against bone. The apprentice grinned. "Your hands are still crushed. You should not have dropped your Etherealness so soon, Charraj. You should have run while you could." Elias muttered the words to another spell.

"Elias, don't. Don't do this," Charraj said, even as black tentacles whipped out of the ground to hold him fast. Elias approached Charraj, sickle in hand. The apprentice was determined that this tenday's Nightfall would see a sacrifice. "Don't make me do this!" Charraj shouted. Elias raised his sickle.

Charraj's shout turned into a scream. Elias smiled to himself, reveling in his former tutor's cowardice. Then the scream became a wail, and the wail made Elias stagger. The apprentice fell dead to the floor.

The black tentacles dissipated, and Charraj collapsed, weeping in the darkness.