In a deep, dark place, far away from prying eyes magical or mundane, a raven-haired woman sat quietly on the floor of a dungeon. She would come and go with the days, as if the place were a kind of vigil for her, as if necessity brought her there. If its cold hard stones could tell a story, this is what they would say. "I wish you had let me talk to you properly,"the female voice said to the golden-armoured man as he writhed and sputtered on the floor of his cell. "I had so much more to tell you, so much more to reveal to you, so much more for you to understand..."
Her eyes turned aside and gazed upon the horrific scene with heartless impassivity. His body was so clearly wracked with unimaginable pain after the vision she had given him, his limbs thrashing about in helpless debilitating seizures. The brown hair of his head had begun to flake away, littering the cell in splotches and thrown about by the endless furious spasms.
"But you never were the smartest of them. Stern, rigid, held firmly to your oaths. You were... easy? Much easier than the others. You never questioned. You never doubted. You simply trusted. And that is the greatest terror of them all, isn't it?"
His eyelids were fused shut by a power of their own, although his two bulbous orbs threatened to erupt through the skin but never did, roaming about the surface of his face as if they had a life of their own, his ravaged mind ticking over the vision of the beyond he had been given in the hours before. His frame had begun to emaciate as the supernatural infection began to spread to the rest of his body.
"Without trust, your society crumbles. Chaos rises to fill its empty void. Then it is every man for himself. That is just about as intolerable as the pretensions of law and order those dull-minded Dukes deceive themselves into believing. And yet, trusting so freely as you do, evil crawls so easily between the gaps. You can never purge it. You can never be rid of it. It is just there, waiting, opportunistic, and taking full advantage of your greatest strength, your greatest weakness. With trust, you are betrayed. Without it, you are destroyed. Paradoxical? I think so."
She sighed and looked at her hands, palms turned upwards towards herself.
"I never wanted to kill you, Anthem. You were a friend to me, of that I do not doubt, certainly far more sincere than the others. You had fire, you had zeal, you had purpose: oh what purpose! And how powerful it would have been if it had been redirected towards the true cause of the ages. But you were not willing..."
"I hope you will understand one day, Anthem,"she concluded for today, rising to her feet and turning her gaze on him once again."One day I will join you where you are now. It is the only place I want to be. It is where the pain of this world is finally gone. Everything they did to me all those years... gone. Law and chaos will once again cease their eternal struggle. Good and evil will be no more. It will be as the world was meant to be before it was irreparably disturbed so long ago. Void. Empty. Eternal oblivion."
Footsteps clapped on the cold stone. A hand caressed the dungeon's iron door handle and it turned with an unoiled creak. A pair of stern, grey-blue eyes glanced back at the miserable soul in his new home. The door closed after that innocuous moment and the footsteps receded into the darkness of the eternal night which filled the place.
Delicate fingers caressed the latch of the dungeon and footsteps soon after approached the cage. A frothing mouth spurted such a vile string of insults and curses it would blind the eyes just to read them. She grinned placidly, staring into his deep, smoking black pits he had for eyes.
"Oh you're awake! How do you feel, Anthem?"she asked the former knight in a jovial tone, only to recieve another verbal ear-bashing."Yes, I know you're hungry. Here."She tossed a piece of some humanoid's lower limb into the cage and watched intently as he devoured it, his hunger not sated. Those dreadful black orbs returned upon her and she slumped down against the wall amidst his scrapings and screams for denied access to her warm, living flesh.
"The hunger never ceases. You are like me now, hungry for revenge upon those who wronged you, yet never satisfied. The only thing that will quench it for but a moment is to grant a glimpse of oblivion to those for whom your rage and anger burns."She looked over at him for a moment."Oh don't look at me like that, Anthem. Isn't it better now? You no longer have to worry about all those restrictions and oaths and laws... you can just be... you!"
"It wasn't always this way, you know. But can you blame them for pushing me over the precipice of destruction? You know, not everything I told you was a lie. That's why they were so convincing. Truth and lies, mingled together into one single, lethal, irresistible dose."She paused in a moment of self reflection.
"The simple truth I told you: I don't remember my family. I don't remember sensations of love, or goodness, or truth, or kindness, or generosity, or justice, or peace. You know why. I told you. The things they did to me. Over. And over. And over. Some of them men of 'faith', just like you,"she trailed off again before daring to continue.
"Every day I cried out for release, and no-one heard me. Every day I sought it to end, but it was taken away from me. They never stopped. They never listened. No heart ever inclined towards me, to show me kindness, to show me family, to show me love. Until him. He did hear me, in the end. The only voice who cared enough to save me. And he spoke words to me that I will never forget. The eyes that watch every dark place, that know every deed performed in secret, that sate a heart thirsty for vengeance, overcome with bitterness, fuelled by unbridled hatred. She had always been with me in my pain, in my darkness, in my bitterness and loss."She stopped and looked up and him once more, her gaze of stern, cold indifference meeting his darkened orbs of nihilistic fury.
"Can you really blame me for embracing that? No. I didn't think so..."
"Hello Anthem,"came her cold, emotionless greeting as black leather heels click-clacked over the colourless stone floor. He emitted a dreadful, horrific wail of anger, followed by a lengthy, non-nonsensical diatribe filled with cursing, swearing, abuse and threats. She only returned a sardonic grin.
"I've been thinking again about what you said the last time we spoke together. You were right, of course. I did murder your love for me."She paused dramatically and looked, entirely unperturbed, into his smoldering dark pits for eyes."Would you be shocked if I further confessed that I enjoyed so doing? That my heart jumped when you uttered the words, my body swooned with pleasure and I was at peace?"
"I should like to say I can imagine what it felt like for you to be betrayed thus, but we aren't really the same, are we? You had this vain hope in me that I was something more, something special, something you could rely on, trust, relate to, and be encouraged by."A metal chain clanked in her hand as something scraped along the floor in her wake as she approached the iron bars of the bodak's prison."Which is exactly what your ilk did to me. They told me I was something more. Something special. They tried to make me feel safe, they pretended that they had my best interests in mind as they explored with me every vestige of 'love'."
"They made the same mistake you did, in the end. They loved me. They trusted I wouldn't abuse their secrets, twisting them around and turning them on their own heads. They thought me submissive. Obedient. Simply a tool for them to use and abuse. And of course I was. To them. Until the day of vengeance arrived. Until the day I was finally given true release, a place deep in the darkness in which to bury my pains and my losses forever. The day I first spilled blood in Shar's name and it tasted so, so sweet."
"Do you know how much perverted Ilmateri priests will beg for their lives, their reputations, when one is about to crush them in a vice-like grip? Their god was supposed to teach them to bear the pains of others, to carry their burdens, to protect the weak and aid the sickly. Perhaps, had their lusts been bridled more than is fitting for supposed disciples of St. Sollars, I might have been something different than I am. But we will never know that now. No, that opportunity was taken from me so very long ago. There is no going back. Not now. Not ever."
"I wish I had more time to talk like this with you, but you never wanted to listen. I don't think you would have ever sat by the fire with me to hear how this ever came to be. Just like them. I talked to them for hours and hours and hours as they roasted slowly over mild coals. I promised them they would all have their last meal together. But I didn't tell them they would be eating one another, no! That would have quite spoiled the horror on their faces when I whispered the final, inevitable truth in their ears. Just as I did for you in the shadow of the Sunset Mountains."
She yanked hard on the chain, and the unconscious goblin she had dragged inside after her was pushed to the edge of the barred prison with her leather boot.
"So,"she remarked in tones of mild excitement as she slid to the floor next to Anthem's iron cage. The inevitable screams and shrieks heightened as her warm, blood-filled flesh remained agonisingly out of his reach.
"I've been thinking,"she droned slowly as she held a mirror up and analysed the finer features of her pale-skinned face."What would you say if I wanted to bring you a friend or two? You must be feeling awfully lonely in there."Her weight shifted and she put the mirror down and took out something else. A black skull.
"Do you recognise him?"she remarked as she turned the skull around in her hand and lifted it up to show him."You should."She grinned malevolently."Still don't know?"
"Anthem, meet Lelande. Lelande, meet Anthem. Oh, I know you two were friends. That's why I've decided to reunite you together again. He's not as vocal as you are though,"she mused, placing a finger on her own lips as they slowly creased upwards."Never was, I suppose. Pity. He would have had so much to say. He was so trusting, just like you. He never questioned me, just like you. He was wholly caught in my snare. Just. Like. You."
"Did you know he willingly teleported me away from Baldur's Gate to Corm Orp? He thoroughly believed my life to be in danger and was all too willing to help me. Sound familiar?"she cackled in laughter fit for a mental asylum."So I marked him for destruction. He knew too much, even if he was unwilling to share it. Nevertheless, he was too close to the rest of your 'friends'," she then scowled as thoughts of various members of the Order of the Radiant Heart came to her mind."And just like you, he never saw his own end until it had spread before his eyes. Unstoppable. Complete. Irreversible."
"They miss you. They still wonder what happened to you. Lelande... no-one will miss him. As far as anyone else is concerned, he went back home to be reunited with his wife. What a delusion you all share. Trust. Love. Kindness. All wholly consumed by the darkness. Fools. Will you never learn?"
With a single snort of disgust, she rose to her feet and left the dungeon. Lelande's blackened skull she lifted high in the palm of her hand like the trophy prize it was, hips swaying in haughty arrogance as her black, ankle-length chemise slithered over skin hardly touched by the light of the sun.
A heavy thud clattered on the floor as a dishevelled figure was kicked through the portal she had opened directly into the cells. Anthem, as usual, began to shriek and scream, uttering a mostly nonsensical chain of blasphemies together and hurling it in their direction as his darkened feet shuffled slowly towards the iron bars that contained him. He was hungry.
"Sir Anthem! Look! I brought you a friend!"
The former farm-boy clad in Ilmateri priestly garments would step back against the wall in terror at the sight of the bodak eager for a meal. She grinned fiendishly as the creature would have surely ranted and raved, eager to get his claws into Ardem's ripe flesh, and hers. She turned back to Ardem after savouring his apparent hopelessness. Her voice changed, and her gaze was one of unimaginable malice.
"Beautiful, isn't he? A being of pure good, perverted and corrupted beyond all possible redemption..."she remarked proudly to her living prisoner, revelling in her position of ultimate authority."You have no idea why you are here, do you, Ilmateri?"
"N-no, I do not..."
She cackled wickedly.
"You're going to make me into one of those?.... aren't you?"he guessed. Incorrectly.
"Let's just say I have rather unfinished business with your kind,"she replied soothingly, right up to the last word, at which point her tone dropped to one of nihilistic sadism. She pointed a finger at him and blasted him with necrotic energy. Tendrils of shadow crawled up his legs from the floor and penetrated his body with immediate effect. All his surface blood vessels ruptured, paralysing the already cursed cripple as he was wracked with pain. His eyes filled with blood until crimson tears streaked down his cheeks.
"Twelve years, the subject of your iniquities!"she began to scream at him in wanton fury."Twelve years your kind subjected me to their abuses!"She heightened the pain with another necrotic spell, slithering coils of tangible darkness lashing out at him. The bones in his legs snapped with a disgusting crack. He fell to the ground under his own weight.
"Twelve years I suffered! And did you ease my suffering?! Disciples of St. Sollars they were not! And do you truly expect me to forgive you now?!"she continued her berating of the innocent man, caught simply by circumstantial opportunity.
"Oh, Ardem! When I first saw you my heart jumped!"she said, imitating the shrill, excited voice of a young lady struck by love at first sight and placing her right hand tenderly over the vacuous space where her heart ought to have been inside her breast. Her tone took an immediate sinister turn."Vengeance would be mine. Again. My vendetta will never cease. I will make sure that every Ilmateri I see will know the true bounds of loss and suffering. A quick death is too good for your kind... oh no...you will pay for what they did to me!"
"What are you going to do to me?"he asked in an agonized voice.
"The same thing they never did to me,"she replied with a dramatic pause."Show true kindness, pity, remorse, or compassion."She lifted both her hands, pointing all fingers on both hands at him in ominous preparation for another spell."Love is a lie. Only hatred endures!" Many hours later, a footsteps followed by a scraping noise approached the cells. Only the bodak was in there, clamouring for the escape that was only ever denied. He immediately shrieked when she entered. Mother Night's hands were dripping crimson as she dragged the naked body back into the cells. His life was no more, a single, ritual slit across his throat presumably ending what was an unmentionable, tortured demise. She stopped by the torture rack, stained with drying blood, and removed two items. A pair of sheet-metal snips, and a surgical saw. She slumped down to the floor next to the corpse.
"Do you understand yet, Anthem?"she asked him, not at all expecting a response. She took the snips in her hand, leaned towards Ardem's corpse and snipped off a single toe. Tossing it in Sir Anthem's direction without looking, she closed her eyes and rested her head back against the stone column behind her. She began to cry.
"Weak. I was weak. Mistress of the Night, overlook this grevious error of mine; let me repay tenfold what is due, if just to sate your anger against me for a moment,"she was muttering aloud as the dungeon opened once more and her slender form slithered to her place by Anthem's iron cage. He gave his usual reception, one which she was more than used to by now.
"You witnessed a rare thing, Anthem,"she began to say to him, barely cognisant of his endless moans and shrieks and cursing."Few have ever seen me cry. Some might even think that it still makes me somewhat human. And Shar help me! It must be purged!"
She craned her head back and let out a high-pitched shriek of her own, the horror of loneliness mingled with a heart abandoned by everything that was good or holy. Hands clawed at the stone floor until blood seeped from beneath her purple-painted nails.
"I am weak! Mistress, please! Thy darkness is my only comfort, thy darkness is my only solace; thy darkness is my only home. Mistress of the Night! I beg thee, inculcate me! The memories are before me again, his kiss stirred everything that made me what I am; as much as mine was a lie, his was not, no! His was genuine! Sincere! A heart to be taken, shaped and then..."
She screamed out again, smears of blood streaking across the stone as her fingers attempted to puncture them as flesh. Another scream, competing again with Sir Anthem, and she tore at her cheeks and beat her own breast rather forcefully.
"My Dark Lady, my Eternal Mother... I have been weak,"she confessed, head hung as fingers and face bled freely."I have been afraid to praise you openly, so that others would fear the dark and pay their dues. And your dues must be paid, yes... they must be paid. In full."
A deep sigh emerged amidst a puff of cold breath. Twin orbs, filled with hate and unholy fury looked up. Sir Anthem's were the same, demented and distorted in his endless torment of the eternal void. Only her protective wardings kept her safe from them, though. She was not that foolish.
"I envy you, Anthem..."she said as she arose."Forever you see the truth, no longer fighting against your baser urges. If I let you go, all would see what it is you are. There is no need for you to hide behind a facade of revolting goodness, pretending to be kind, charitable, interested."Her eyes gazed up at the emptiness above. Her expression turned severe.
"Blood must run from this altar. Shar's anger with us must be appeased. We are failing her. She has not spoken. Her will is withheld; Shar! Have you no thoughts of this city of thousands? Have you no desire to incline hearts to your worship? Are you unhappy that we have known of your enemy and have not struck out against her? Shar! I invoke your name! Do you not hear me?! Mistress of the Night, my heart belongs to no other! Only our cause! Help us! Hear us! Guide us! We are the vessels of your oblivion..."
"Loss,"came her emotionless murmur,"is a doctrine with universal application."
Her eyes gazed over at Sir Anthem's iron cage. There was no remorse in them. There was no pity in them. There was no kindness in them. There was only that cruel sense of satisfaction, bordering on gloating, as she once again settled to admire her greatest creation to date.
"Tamzim perished at the hands of our enemy. Many will feel the pangs of his loss,"she began to say as she raised her pale hands before her face. Rummaging in a belt pouch, she took out a vial of purple liquid and took the stopper out of it. "But not because they loved him. Not because they miss him. No, because they hated him. Because they wanted to use him for what he could bring them, and then toss him aside like a piece of worthless trash. Now he is gone, they will have to do all his work themselves."
Mother Night took out a small brush, tainted with the same colour, made of fine goat hair and dipped it into the flask. She then proceeded to start painting her fingernails.
"Even I feel the loss. A lost opportunity to declare the glories of Shar, to exult in the darkness and exact revenge upon a treacherous meddler."Brush strokes were continuous and determined."And yet, a chance still presents itself. Two, in fact. Loss gives birth to loss, and so the cycle is endless."
One by one the nails were painted with careful attention to detail, perfecting each individual stroke. She paused a moment to admire them and splayed her fingers while holding those pale hands in the air.
"Should I give him one more chance to prove he truly wishes no enemies of this church?"she asked Anthem, although quite clearly did not accept his cacophony of rambling profanities for an answer. She wagged a freshly painted finger at him."Sir Anthem! That tongue of yours! You should speak nicely to your mistress."She arose to her feet after capping the purple flask and putting it away.
"Ah, Vesche. You knew what it meant when I told you to kill him. But you hesitated. You knew you would feel the loss, and you were not prepared to accept it. And this will be your undoing. Yours it but lip-service, and that is worse than anything you might have lost by seeking the favour of the Mistress as I instructed you. Reject the doctrine, and you reject us."
The other with her offered a head nod while reading it nodding her head reading it. They then went inside. The visitor's eyes scanned the dungeon, searching for this blasphemous creation. Sure enough in the distant corner was a gaunt, hairless creature with eyes black as pits of the void itself. It still wore a suit of golden platemail. The visitor dared not to speak. She only smiled at her host. The creature instinctively turned at the presence of living flesh and begin a horrendous tirade of cursing, blasphemies and vile insults. His most frequent curse word, apparently his favourite, was MACHSHIKHAH.
"You may keep any prisoner here for 'interrogation',"Mother Night commented to her guest."Do keep in mind that they will turn into that if he stares at them for too long."
"Machshikhah?...is that a curse word around these lands?"
"The name of the woman who betrayed him to me, so I could perfect his conversion to our cause."
"Ahh...a helpful woman she is. Another...creative way to destroy blasphemers,"said the visitor."What...may I ask...do they feel as they are watched by it?"
"You have never witnessed the transformation?"
"No Mother Night."
"Bring me an object of your vengeance, and I will show you in person."
"I will bring you the brightest, most beautiful fool I come to become 'friends' with here in these lands."
"Love is a lie. Only hatred endures."She stared at Sir Anthem for a moment longer, the creature clawing futilely against the iron bars to get at them, screeching in dismay at his constant denial of food. She then turned her back on him and left the dungeon.
"It has been a while since you fled, after you took Anthem. Do you still hide or are you ready to turn Anthem's body over?"
She immediately snorted a chuckle of contempt amidst Sir Anthem's usual tirade of cursing and blasphemies as she directed her gaze in his direction. The sending has been somewhat of a surprise, but she suspected Wren would spread the word that 'Mae yr Machshikhah' was still alive and well.
"What do you think, Sir Anthem? Shall I let your spiritual mentor and friend, Simon, know where you are, or what has happened to you?"
There was anguish in his tormented voice, ever denied the opportunity to spread the oblivion with which he had been afflicted. There was no differential between his irises and sclera; it was all an empty pit born of the primeval void, hungering with insatiable vengeance and hatred, not just towards his maker but any living thing upon which those dreadful orbs fell upon. Her Death Ward was still functioning fully, protecting her from what was now his best asset.
"I didn't think so either. In time, my friend. In time. I want to see their faces when they put you down for good, to end your misery and suffering. Alas, it is all but too late for that. You are lost to the darkness and always will be."
She looked around and saw no one, so she stood in front of the altar for a few brief moments.
"Tell me what you know of the Void,"her commanding voice boomed from an unseen position within the temple sanctum.
"The void existed before anything existed, and will exist after everything is gone,"she said after looking around, trying to locate the location of the voice.
"The Void... never... existed. It is the quintessence of our doctrine. Nothing should exist."
"That's... what I meant,"she sighed in consternation.
"Have you ever seen the Void, sister?"
"I did not. It does not exist."
"Have you ever reached out and touched its form? Have you ever really plunged off its precipice and fallen deep into its embrace?"
"I... have not,"she said with a low voice.
"Would you like to?"came a potentially spine-tingling whisper of a dangerously close presence.
"I would,"she replied without moving.
The room immediately flooded with an unbelievable amount of divine energy. Something gripped at the woman's heart, threatening to tear her away from everything and anything she thought was real. She opened her eyes far and wide, giving Mother Night a surprised look as she materialised from the shadows, deep in the midst of a Dark Ritual which was just finding its crescendo. The rawest essence of nothingness assaulted her mind, threatening to tear her forcefully away from reality.
She placed her hand on her chest. "Yes, SHOW ME!"she demanded greedily, almost yelling. Her eyes went foggy, her mind being invaded by the essence of nothingness; she was lost in her head for a few moments that seem like an eternity to her until she collapsed to the side, as if she suddenly went unconscious. Moments later she opened her eyes and looked back up.
"You survived. Impressive,"Mother Night answered, merely watching and observing quietly.
"The nothingness, clarity..."she answered while staring up at Mother Night.
"Jumping off the precipice..."
"I think I may understand now what you meant. Why do I know so little?" she asked with a frown under her mask.
"As I said. You are but a child. Your body is strong, yes... a fit and suitable vessel for the Lady. But you will get no-where when you keep thinking and acting like a child that must be constantly nursed at her mother's breast."There was a deliberate pause and a tilt of her head. "You are the first to have survived for many years. Most of the others succumb at The Revelation. Drawn into its vortex and forever lost to the Void."
She got back to her feet."Perhaps it was luck. I do not possess the wisdom you have, even though I am starving for it."
"It was not luck. The Blessing of Shar is upon you, fool!"
"I know. You are right."
"At my fingertips is an unlimited supply..."She wove her hands in another complex spell, and opened a portal above the altar. It's centre was pure darkness. Alluring. Void energies seeped into the sanctum. The other stared into the portal, her jaw slightly open. If one stared for long enough, there might have even be signs of movement? Something was alive in there.
She stared directly at it for the entire time."What's in there? I have never seen such thing before."
Mother Night clicked her fingers and the Void Rift disappeared."Something you will learn if you remain faithful."
"I'm always so busy with my foolish intrigues that lead nowhere, there's so many things I do not know, that I'm not aware of."
"Intrigues are important. Do not be dismayed, sister of the night. For Shar welcomes all into her embrace, that grieve or mourn or hate."
"I know, I just feel compelled to them at this point, which I always found an interesting trait of mine."
"Your better blood thirsts within you. Craving for place. Ambitious. Jealous. Zealous. And you keep feeding it your ignorance."There was another deliberate pause before she continued."As of this night, you are no longer ignorant. You have passed the tests. You are ready."
"And so I have no excuses. I will follow whatever path leads me to where I need to be.
"Kneel."
"As you say, Mother Night.
She extended her hand and placed it against her forehead. Her touch was unmistakable, exuding the nihilistic chill of the Void itself.
She let out a deep breath, closing her eyes.
"You are the Voice of the Mistress,"she announced firmly,"imbued with the very essence of her primeval power. Awaken, and fulfil her will."
Without even a word or a movement she surrounded them with a cloak of darkness, summoning the Form of the Goddess.
"Mistress of the Night! We enter your embrace willingly. Reveal your secrets to your Chosen. It is time. It is time for her to ascend to her rightful place,"she repeated.
Her facial expression seemed to indicate that she was struggling for a moment, she remained with her eyes closed. The divine touch manifested as a tentacle of pure darkness, wrapping itself around her form and suddenly plunging down her throat.
The woman started struggling, her eyes open wide while it gagged her. She yelled out, although her scream sounded more like a muffled sound. It eventually retracted, a great purple eye staring for a moment from the tentacle before it all vanished and the tangible gloom eased. Her eyes opened wide and rolled almost to the back of her head; she then stopped struggling and went numb.
Sensing the whole affair was entirely overwhelming for the woman, Mother Night picked her up and took her to the quarters. She lay her down on the closest bed and then simply waited. She would not leave until The Voice had awoken... After half an hour or so she would wake up completely full of sweat. She turned her head over to her dark sister.
"I passed out..." she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes with her hands.
"I know it is overwhelming for a single cycle, but it is necessary,"came the calm reply before another deliberate pause and her voice deliberately poised.
"For getting one to obey, without them realising it, is a true mastery of the Dark Arts."
Her smile was vicious. She knew exactly who she was talking about, but Mother Night still had no idea.
"It is time... time for you to see him, if you have not already, Mother."
"Him?"
She motioned far across the hall towards the dungeon."My greatest accomplishment to date."
"I have not. I have been waiting for the right moment. The time has come indeed. You pique my curiosity; show me."
She wove a spell together, protecting them from something. They crossed the floor of the sanctum and entered the prison. There, hunched over in the darkness was an armoured figure. It awoke as soon as it noticed the noise and the visitors, straining towards the iron bars which kept it perpetually imprisoned. While his visage is warped and completely alien, dreadful black orbs of horror staring out from his face, he still wore the armour he had on before the transformation began. It bears a heraldic shield, guilt in gold with a heart on it. Its horrid gaze would fall upon them and it would shuffle towards the bars, hungering, clawing, gnashing, screaming obscenities and curses. Those eyes, they were like twin pits of the void in and of themselves. Every now and then he would shriek out the same word, over and over and over.
"MACHSHIKHAH!"
"A knight of some sort?"she began to ask before interrupting herself, shaking her head."What an obnoxious creature."
"Mother Night, please meet Sir Anthem Arnemieger, paladin of the True."
She let out a brief amused laugh. "Truly, a good example of what a proper knight should look like."
"He was once a devout and loyal servant of the Order of the Radiant Heart. And I know for certain they would pay for any knowledge of his whereabouts. Their chaplain still sends to me on occasion, demanding to know. I never reply, of course."She approached the cage and the creature only increased in its hostility, particularly towards her. Who knows what other tortures she had subjected it to in the time it had been there.
"He had quite the relationship with a cleric of Helm, Pryat Mae yr Machshikhah. He believed every word she told him, of the sedition of the rulers of the city of Baldur's Gate, of their associations with drow... he preached it publicly in their streets of their treason, and how the drow ought to be destroyed. She collected a long list of collaborators with the drow, from the drow, including two secret Harper spies. And when the Dukes called them both to account for their 'treason', what do you think happened?"
"This knight would have attended it, no matter what.Did Sir knight ever attend?"
"They both vanished. Together. Never to be seen again."She cackled vile laughter."And the truth of the matter? She never wanted him."
She stared at the creature with a wicked grin under her mask."Of course."
"She wanted his squire. The Ilmateri, whom has now returned looking for his master."
"And why is that?"
"Does it matter?"she answered coldly.
"Not to me nor this one in the cage."
"Vengeance is not hasty. It can always wait for the perfect moment, the perfect plan. He refused to turn,"she nodded at the horrid abomination he had become."So I turned him anyway. This is the result of the light coming face to face with the darkness."
"I was about to say that killing someone is easy,"she nodded in approval.
"True darkness. The darkness of the Void."
"Was there ever any doubt that light would run short?"she looked over at her and waited for her reply.
"Wherever the light goes, it only finds the darkness got there first. And we will always be first."
"This creature learned it's lesson the hard way."
She closed her eyes, reminiscing."We could have done so much together, you and I, Anthem... but you were not willing. Such a waste. Four months."She ran her staff across the bars to rile him up."Four months it took, Mother."
"Did he ever suspect anything?"
"Not until it was too late. Not until he faced me and met his end."She paused in thoughtful deliberation."The irony was, he had a Lathanderite squire who saw through it all. She told him in my presence, 'You follow her blindly; she's leading you astray Sir Anthem!' He laughed at her and threw her out of the Order."
She let out a loud vile laugh."What a fool."
"No. A masterpiece."She returned her foul gaze upon Sir Anthem's."Four months of planning, careful manoeuvring, proving myself to be anything other than I really was. I missed my target in the end, but the substitute was just as prizeworthy. And far, far easier."
Shadows coalesced in the dungeon. Sir Anthem stirred, turning to behold the figure. It was one he knew well and his warped face began to part into a vicious snarl of cursing and profanities. She raised her hand, a black disc with a purple rim dangling there, draped from her middle finger. She said only one thing which cut him off mid-ramble.
"YIELD!" In the days to follow, the cell in which Sir Anthem's bodak had been contained was now empty.
"Mmm-hmm,"the drowess swirled, only to be restrained by three conjured shadows. She cracked her neck and reached for her dagger.
"Resist, and you will die. Drink, and you will live."The masked figure was dressed in black, her ghostly pale skin evident that she herself were not an ebony-skinned dark elf. She held forth a black onyx cup filled with an unknown liquid.
"What does it do?"
"YOU HAVE NO VOICE HERE UNTIL SHAR GRANTS YOU ONE!"her protest was met with a slap across the face."Drink it!!"
Oddly enough, she hardly reacts to the pain that the slap would have brought. She brought her head back to look at her and lowered her mask, then drank from the cup.
As the neurotoxin kicked in, shadows ripped them away to another place. The tall, pale figure forced her along through a swirling, winding path of shadows and darkness. All the time she was chanting and chiming some metallic instrument while the other grunted in nausea.
"She has imbibed the Elixir of Void! The Dark Goddess is in her! Hail to the mistress of the Night!"
The whole affair might have seemed rather nauseating. She forced her towards an old ruin that showed signs of recent activity. Chanting and chiming of a metallic instrument entered the ruin. The captive swayed somewhat as she walked along in the darkness.
"Hail to the Mistress of the Night!"
"Hail to the Mistress of the Night!"came a repeat. Another figure, shrouded in black and purple and masked accordingly in preparation for some cultic ritual.
They emerged into a pitch black room where an altar shrouded with a purple cloth was. A humanoid figure was evident, but whoever was upon it was humming through a gag. It stopped for a moment, the shrouded figure nodding to himself, then resumed. The female blinked and looked around instead, still disoriented.
The other looked over and gave her a positive nod of approval.
"Where am I . . .?"asked the disoriented one. She received a kick in the back of the knees and was forced down in front of the altar.
"YOU HAVE NO VOICE UNTIL SHAR GIVES YOU ONE!"she yelled again and struck her.
Again, she hardly reacts to the strike."That didn't hurt . . ."
A blast of pure dark energy struck her square in the back at the third outburst. The other cultist gave her a harsh look. Again, hardly a reaction other than a twitch. It's almost as if she cannot quite feel it. But she did go silent.
Recomposing herself, the taller one spoke and glanced aside at the second."A woman comes before Shar. She has drunk the Elixir of Void from the Cup of Night. Can we accept her?"
"Shar welcomes all into her embrace."
"Let all be welcome, who grieve or mourn or hate. Let all be welcome if they desire vengeance or know bitterness,"she continued, spreading her hands before the altar.
"Shar welcomes all,"came the refrain by rote.
The prospective initiate closed her eyes and slowly exhaled.
"The Lady of Loss welcomes you into her embrace. Do you welcome her? Shar grants you voice. Speak."
"Yes, much like how I will welcome the sweet irony of when I return a certain slight a thousandfold."She looks around, disoriented still. She frowns, not recognising the place.
"Stand."She turned and nodded at the other figure standing by.
"Is this an illusion, like when I killed all of those flaming corpses?"she asked while arising to her feet.
"Shar is a simple goddess. Other deities require long trials and tests of service. Shar requires one single act."
The cultist garbed in black and purple took two steps forward and handed a chakram to her whilst the masked woman whisked away the shoud, finally revealling a tortured Jak'alan bound and gagged there.
"Kill him. Now."
"What?"she protested in disbelief.
"Prove you are ready. Embrace your loss. Kill him."
"Embrace it by having more loss?"
"I will not ask another time. Do it."
The other cultist glared at Aunrae. Her eyes didn't move away from Aunrae, eyes that judged her.
Jak opened his eyes, looking up with a sad smile, and nodded at her, closing his eyes again.
The pale one glanced now at the other figure in purple, as if waiting for permission for something.
"Don't mess with my heart,"she cried out and gripped the chakram with one hand and stroked the feather around her neck with the other.
"That was your last chance, Aunrae."She looked over at Aunrae one last time before looking over at her fellow Nightbringer.
She pressed the blade to Jak's throat but threatened to pull it away if anyone tried to move her hand for her."Is this really what you want? I mean . . . Mother Night, there is surely a better sacrifice."
"DO. IT,"she yelled out; it was clear she was quite angry.
"Mother Night, is there no better sacrifice? Something that I cannot easily replace?"
A nod was given. The tall one moved her head, stooping over Jak. She uttered a foul and dark spell and her eyes turned into twin orbs of darkness deeper than any pit of hell.
"WAIT! Let me do it..."she pleaded, but it was too late. The magic took hold and the transformation had begun. Jak choked out his final breath, his body fell limp and his eyes, darkened into pure black orbs of hatred, began to twitch and squirm beneath half-closed lids as if they possessed an unholy life of their own.
"She could not do it."
"Vith, vith, vith, vith, VITH!"She brings her hands to the sides of her head."I was going to do it!"
"That is not how this works, Aunrae. You have proven your intention with your lack of devotion."She glanced aside at the other."Put her in the prison. She can watch until the process is complete."
Footsteps halted. Her hair swooshed as she turned, motioning with an expansive gesture to the meadow spreading before them. It would have been a picturesque scene: gently flowing hills, a cool breeze blowing against tall grass, and the gentle dribble of some distant source of water. She gazed intently up at him and resisted every urge to smile.
"Yes, yes, I know. It would have been a perfect spot for our first date instead of our last. And you know what? It's not even a pity. Go down. Have a drink."
His armour creaked as he shuffled over, stooping to cup a withered hand into the oozing black liquid. The glint of gold filigree and the holy symbol of Torm emblazoned into his armour would have been a spectacular sight anywhere else, but the Plane of Shadow had already stolen it away. He spluttered and choked upon the liquid shadowstuff, being far more viscous than the water he thought it might have been. The rolling hills whistled as the freezing wind blasted against their flesh, all the grass but wilted and perverted husks of the true. Very little was alive here, and what did move skittered rapaciously to grasp at the life so elegantly denied by her dangling holy symbol and accompanying divine command.
"You little ferals! Begone! The darkness compels you!"she yelled at them, waving the black disc flanged with a purple rim. The shadows scattered, leaving them alone for a time.
"Anthem, they want to find you. Everyone is talking about you. How about I let them, hm? How about I give them a chance, raise their hopes, let their pathetic minds fill to the brim with possibilities? Would you like that? Would you like a chance to see them again? Would you like to have the warmth of the sun shining once again on your skin, the rustle of grass beneath your sabatons and a world of hopes and dreams once again open before your eyes?"
As usual, he only unleashed a torrent of abuse and cursing, cut off immediately by her command and the wave of her hand.
"Enough of your attitude, Anthem. But I can see it in your eyes, oh yes. It is time for you to feast on flesh and blood. It is time for you to impart The Revelation to others. It is time for you to dash all of their pitiful hopes and dreams with the truth that you can never, ever be saved. Now, be a good boy and heel."
He couldn't help but follow as she opened yet another portal...
"Mother Night,"she bowed herself reverently. Her hair splayed everywhere and she spent a quick second to readjust it. "I know you wouldn't call me if it weren't important. Should we take a sit and discuss whatever concerns you?"
"I do not need to sit, Mother. This concerns the worship of Shar herself."
She tilted her head curiously."The worship of Shar herself?" She then aproached.
"Here, in her presence, all my pains are eased. I forget what I would otherwise need to remember. Morality itself is stripped away, and I lay bare, naked, exposed, before the will of the Goddess. The Will I look to you for, Mother."
"I have been busy as of late, but I have been doing my best. It's an honor to be in the position you placed me in."
"Doubts have been creeping into my mind, Mother. I want to know the truth."
"The truth? About what?"
"Is love really a lie? Is hatred all that endures?"
"What kind of question is that? Love is a lie, it's an illusion that fades away and only hatred remains. Why would you ask such thing?"
"I... I meet people, Mother. I act in the night, waiting to hear your voice. But it never comes to me."She paused deliberately before continuing. "I hear... things... things that stretch what I believe to the verge of breaking. And I have no-one to come to, except you."
"We should meet more often then. Are you saying your faith has been lacking as of late? What troubles you?"
"Did you never feel my pains? Did you never wish to extend your hand of nihilism towards me and take them away? Does Shar not hear the prayers that I pray, night after night?"
"What nonsense is this? Do you not know where you are?"
"I know very well where I am, Mother. Do you?"she asked, now craning her undivided attention upon the Voice of the Mistress."Our brothers and sisters in Sshamath are in danger. Grave danger. I did not wish to act without your consent."
"What are you implying? I've dedicated my life to Shar, that is all I have done these past years. I would die for The Dark Lady. Danger? Why have you not told me this before? Why do I feel like there's more you aren't telling me?"
"Because you were not here, Mother. And I am being tailed wherever I go. Using my magic is fraught with danger."Another pause."Of course there is more. There is always more, Mother... what did you do to Aunrae?"
"I assumed you could handle yourself. You're the more resorceful of our faithful. Hmm? Aunrae?"
"She remembers. Not names or faces. But places. Motions. Sayings."
"No she doesn't, I personaly made sure she didn't."
"Then you failed, Mother."
"Nonsense. That's not possible. She's but one of many tools and when her usefulness expires, I will end her myself. There's much you don't know Sister.
"There is always much I do not know. That is the nature of our faith. Secrets are there to be hidden."
"Spare me the obvious. Why did you summon me here?"
"You already know that, don't you?"
"So this is about that night when Aunrae was left to die? As I said, she is simply a pawn. I will dispose of her when the time comes."
"You misunderstood me, Mother."
"Maybe I did. But you should know by now that I don't appreciate your word play."
"There's something I don't appreciate too."
"Oh really? Then say it."
Araphella clasped her hands together in a prayerful pose. As she spoke the word, she unleashed a powerful life-drain dweomer from quickly splayed fingertips. She already knew she had the advantage given their location. Mother Night had no magic here.
"Incompetence."
The hooded figure tilted her head with an intrigued look in her eyes... only to be caught off guard as the bolt of energy struck her fairly in the chest and drained away a portion of her life-force.
"Incompetence?! You're the one who gave me thought me most of what I know! How ironic!"
The spell was followed up with a gestureless and voiceless coil of writhing tentacles as darkness shot forth from the altar at her eyes, but the resilience of the Voice of the Mistress was more than enough to meet the magic with sheer determination of spirit. She, in turn, charged to grapple her assailant who immediately hissed in anger.
The purple hooded figure brought her arm to cover her eyes briefly."I NEVER ASKED FOR ANY OF THIS! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Upon the touch of the grapple, Araphella released another voiceless and gestureless spell as the darkness coiled once again at Lyth's eyes and face, trying to penetrate inside. She simultaneously fought back, attempting to resist the grapple and showed a surprising burst of strength and inner determination to overcome her adversary.
Shrugging off yet another spell she cried out, "You're insane! I never wished to take your place, I never asked for any of this!"she exclaimed and suddenly the hold was broken and the the other figure freed herself from the grapple.
"You failed her, Lyth'raina Ssambra! How many more times should I allow it! You were always weak. Indecisive. Unfit for leadership."
"And yet I did my best! What else do you want from me? I never asked for status or power, unlike you,"she scowled, pushing her away out of hatred.
"Then what is there need for?"she hissed, the spell halting upon her fingertips and waiting to be unleashed."ANSWER ME!" Her hostile stare glowered for what could have been a rather uncomfortable moment.
"You blame me for my failures and yet It was you who placed me in charge, it was you who I looked up to for guidance while I was still just an initiate. What an hypocrite!"
"You were the chosen one! You were supposed to usher us into an age of darkness and what have you done with the Dark Maiden's gifts?! What?! I endured a lifetime of suffering to become what I am; you were gifted it from birth. You don't deserve it! You don't even know what it means!"
"Hold on! I know you're upset, but you're blaming me for things I'm not responsible for. You do not know me, you have never been on my shoes. You can't blame me for everything! Let's work together instead sister, we shall do the will of the Nightsinger. We both have the same goal."
"Then why is Aunrae still alive? She has already compromised our Underdark operations thanks to your incompetence. Do you have any idea the web of lies that our Sister in the school of necromancy has had to weave simply to cover for that 'mishap of judgement'? You are no longer fit to lead this cell. I thrust you there because I believed in the Goddess. I still do. I no longer believe in you."
"She is alive because she is needed alive. I had no idea Aunrae still had memories. This was not supposed to happen. I shall dispose of her immediately. Do you really think so little of me? Or perhaps you're just blind with greed for status and power within the church?"she questioned, breathing out heavily from the intensity of the situation. "That's it, isn't it? Was I not in front of you when I took my vows and joined you?"
"Did I ask to become what I am?"Araphella retorted."I wasn't <I>sent</I> to start a cell of my own merits. I am obeying those who made me. And he is here. And he will demand an account. Are you ready to meet him?"
"The one who sent you? He?"she quizzed.
"My Father. Father Night."
"Yes I am ready,"came the bold reply."The thing with Aunrae was a simple setback. She will be dealt still today."
"She is not to be killed. That is no longer your perogative,"was the immediate overruling directive."You want to make atonement? Then you will do exactly as I say. I am testing your obedience, Sister."
"I am not at fault here! She still had uses and I thought she was without any memories. I do not see into the future."
"Obey, or leave. The choice is yours."
"Then speak Sister. I shall hear it."
"You will report to my contact in five cycles of the Skull and be issued your assignment. If you do not show up, I already know why..."
"Do you trully think so little of me?"she shook her head.
"Are you questioning me, Sister?"came the immediate interruption."Are you questioning my wisdom and decision-making?Well? Are you?"
"I believe that you, just like your contact, are too happy to chase after status and power. If you wish me to go to said meeting I will just to prove you wrong."
Araphella chortled amusedly."If I wanted status and power, then why am I here wasting my time with a nobody upstart like you? Why wouldn't I be reclining upon the finest Shou silk, Damaran crystal in my hand filled with the very best vintage of Mulhorand? All of these are already at my beck and call, yet here I am. I have my orders, and you have yours."
She looked to the side with an frustrated look on her eyes."Fine, I shall go to the meeting."
"Wrong,"she interrupted again. "You say, 'Yes, Mother Night.'" The implication of her words were immediately understood. She was unequivocally reasserting her command over the cell.
"So you can give and take away? Why did I have to go through all this then?"
"Because you haven't embraced the doctrine of loss,"she explained, unravelling the puzzle slowly."I gave to take away."
The other wanted to say something but did not in the end. She stopped to ponder for a moment.
"Embrace your loss. Content yourself in your place. It may be you will find favour with the Goddess. And once Father Night calls all of us in convocation, you are going to need every single ounce of it."
"Very well, Mother Night. As you wish."Her eyes still showed some doubt on if she should believe it or not, but she called her Mother Night nevertheless. She was then dismissed with a flick of Araphella's hand. The hooded figure nodded and turned around, departing silently into the darkness of the temple complex.
