"Maker help us, I really hope the others aren't having as much trouble as we are!" I swore heatedly.
I didn't know if the Netherbrain had anticipated our attempting to use it or if it was just trying to get its own sally force through the tunnel and out behind the attackers, but the result had been the same either way. The tunnel had been practically flooded with enemies, and not just cultists. Intellect devourers, several larger charmed monsters, and even our fair share of illithids and more - it had felt like we were trying to swim up a waterfall full of hatred, claws, tentacles, spells, and swords.
I had the lead, the combination of my adamantine armor and the regeneration provided by the Helm of Balduran turning me into a nigh-invulnerable juggernaut. The armor reduced virtually every wound to bruising force only, requiring attackers to defeat me by slowly depleting my endurance with the cumulative effect of shock and pain – but the helm's regeneration wiped away such accumulated damage almost as fast as I could accumulate it. And the Giantslayer sword doubled the force of my already prodigious strength, allowing me to cleave through virtually anything smaller than an ogre with a single hit. If he'd had armor even half as good as mine, it was no wonder that the legends had spoken of Balduran as such an undefeatable champion.
Karlach's own adamantine weapon cleaved through even the toughest flesh as if it were air, and while she had no nigh-invulnerable armor or regeneration of his own she didn't need it so long as she operated in tandem with me. As long as I could tank the majority of the damage her own wounds never accumulated beyond what a veteran warrior was already accustomed to withstanding in battle despite the unrelenting odds, and with her sword to flank and augment mine the enemy never got a chance to surround us and overwhelm us from our sides or rear. Shadowheart remained a pace to my left throughout just as Karlach anchored my right, her Spirit Guardians spell blazing forth and incinerating all the smaller vermin and scuttlers with the sheer force of its radiance just as the Spear of Night did its own work covering my flank and impaling the bigger ones. Gale remained behind us, having used up a good half of his spells keeping us from being swarmed under by clumps of enemies so numerous that even the Spirit Guardians couldn't stop them all before they drowned us underneath the weight of their bodies.
"Rotate out." Prelate Lir'ic commanded evenly, and we fell back as the Honor Guard advanced to the front. Our underground team had been fighting through an almost solid mass of enemies the entire way up the drainage tunnel, and the ability to have two squads rotate in and out of the line to catch our breath and refresh for their next rotation in the vanguard had been the only thing that made our advance possible.
"I can see the exit point ahead!" Shadowheart gasped relievedly, after the Honor Guard finished fighting their way through the last surge of enemies. "At last!"
"Take your potions." I ordered everyone, and we all drew out several of the vials that Gale had painstakingly brewed for us. We'd originally had these and several other buffing potions – all of which we'd already drank – prepared as a contingency for the assault on the Temple of Bhaal if our first plan for Orin hadn't worked, but fortunately we hadn't needed them then.
"It's fortunate I had free rein amongst Sorcerous Sundries' stock or else I wouldn't been able to afford to make these." Gale commented as all of our spellcasters drank. "Have you the slightest idea of what the ingredients for a Potion of Angelic Slumber cost?"
Our melee fighters stood watch over our comatose selves as those of us who needed their spells replenished were unconscious for the minute or two that it took the potion to work. They were a near-miraculous substance that allowed the user to compress an entire night's worth of rest and regaining spells and energy into virtually no time at all, and they were as expensive as you'd imagine.
"One thing I still don't understand." Shadowheart asked as we resumed the advance. "Why is the Netherbrain staying here at all? Couldn't it just travel away into the planes and slowly build up its forces somewhere else that we could never hope to find it? It's not like it needs Baldur's Gate specifically, does it?"
"Preventing that precise thing from happening is one of the reasons we've been trying to sneak up on it." Orpheus acknowledged. "For now, the Netherbrain will remain in place so long as the probable risks of doing so are outweighed by the benefits. Since the bulk of its already-prepared forces are here, there is a finite cost in time and effort to replace those forces if it abandons them all. It would not be logical to do that unless it is under a significant threat – which to its current perception, it is not."
"Plus there's the fact that it wants to make sure Orpheus' bloodline or the Netherstones don't remain around to threaten its illithid empire in the future, and if it flees off into the trackless planar expanse then so might we." I agreed. "So for as long as it thinks the odds are still in its favor, it'll stay here and try to finish it all today."
"You make it sound like it's still one step ahead of us." Karlach said.
"It is one step ahead of all of us." Orpheus replied grimly, frustrated with how his unique value as the only anti-psionic defense capable of keeping the Netherbrain from winning a near-instant victory by sheer force of mind had denied him the opportunity to actually strike any blows against the enemy personally. "Do you have the slightest idea of what kind of intellect it possesses? It is not only far more intelligent than any single humanoid, it can execute many intellectual tasks in parallel. Trying to outwit an elder brain is like trying to contend against an entire community of geniuses, only all acting with perfect unity and full awareness of each other's thoughts. We will not outsmart it simply by imagining something that it does not. Victory is only possible against an elder brain if its own strategies are incomplete due to its lacking essential data."
"Well, I'm pretty sure it doesn't know that we actually can make the Netherstones work with Aylin's help – and hopefully it doesn't know about the Orb of Karsus' existence either - or else it would have already left." I agreed. "As is, it's not only still here but still near enough to the ground that we can climb onto it."
"The elder brain's brainstem is still reaching down through the earth and into the spawning pool it just left, so as to give it continued access to nutrients." Prelate Lir'i'c explained. "It is, after all, exerting itself considerably with all of the psionic energy it is expending even through our Prince's jamming."
"Right, this is it." I said. "Everybody get ready. No guarantees on what we're about to jump into."
"I am in mental contact with Lae'zel. Our allies have-" Orpheus began.
"There you are!" Lae'zel swore frustratedly, her head sticking down out of the hatch that we were about to climb up through. "With the greatest of respect, Your Radiance, did you and Hawke stop for lunch?"
Orpheus actually laughed out loud as we all climbed up to rejoin the others. The plan had worked, both columns had finished their advance and relinked up, and we now had control of the High Hall.
"Everyone to the roof, double-time!" I said as we ran. "Even with Orpheus' jamming the Netherbrain can't miss the fact that all of the people supposed to be defending this building are now dead, not for much-"
The ground shook underneath our feet as the Netherbrain began the process of extracting its brainstem from where it had been solidly rooted down into the earth… in preparation for flight.
"I am really starting to hate that thing's sense of timing." Shadowheart agreed wearily as we all piled frantically out onto the roof. We got there just in time to see the brainstem detach from the ground. Its tip slowly, insolently traveled up past our eyes as the Netherbrain began to levitate up to altitude.
"Voss! Aylin! We need airlift immediately!" Orpheus mentally broadcast-
-and as if it had simply been waiting for Orpheus' position fix, planar portals erupted in the sky as a trio of fresh nautiloids jumped in.
"Where the hells did those even come from?!?" Wyll swore. "Every nautiloid we saw at Moonrise has been accounted for already?"
"The Netherbrain wasn't just waiting here to finish its conquest of Baldur's Gate!" I realized in horror. "From the moment it was freed, it's been psionically broadcasting across the planes to other illithid colonies! That's where the bulk of its attention and power has been going during the battle! These must be just the first to arrive!"
"The rebirth of the Grand Design indeed!" Orpheus agreed.
"Your Radiance!" Voss cried, his dragon landing heavily alongside us, as Aylin herself touched down adjacent to him. "The bulk of our own reinforcements still have yet to arrive... and now we know why, if the near astral has been full of that! We are ready to try flying your party up to the Netherbrain, but-"
"You don't remotely have enough dragons left, not even with Aylin and her cohort covering you. Not against three of them." I said. "Orpheus, contact Ansur. If he's got anything left-"
Ansur! Orpheus broadcast. We need your aid! The Netherbrain is escaping, and the skies are blocked to us!
I… cannot… the dragon thought wearily back to us, audible to all of us with tadpoles through our link to Orpheus. I have been dead too long… my anchors to this plane are all gone… and hatred… vengeance… they are not enough…
The world seemed to hold its breath as we all slumped in despair. We'd come so close… but we'd missed our shot by a single unforgiving minute. The Netherbrain's ascent through the sky was slow, lazy, as if it arrogantly taunted us in our impotence – just as the descending nautiloids also advanced deliberately, allowing us the maximum amount of time to see our doom coming before it arrived.
"They never are, Ansur." Shadowheart agreed, as we all turned to gape at her in surprise at how bright and calm her voice still was. "But they don't need to be."
Shadowheart closed her eyes and lowered her head in prayer, her lips murmuring, and I wondered what the hell she thought she could even do – until my memory suddenly prompted me of something Isobel had told us barely two days before-
"The Moonmaiden will answer a senior priestess' call for as much direct intervention as Ao will allow her to provide... but virtually no priestess has that call answered more than once in a lifetime. I have already used my one guaranteed boon - to provide the shield over Last Light Inn, as it happens. But Shadowheart has not."
"Selune, blessed Lady of Silver, patron of those who quest-" she began.
"Lathander, our Morninglord, patron of renewal-" Dawnmaster Arkhold began, immediately catching on to their intent. The Blood of Lathander blazed forth even more brilliantly than usual as he used the divine weapon as the focus for his own calling-
"As the silver moon waxes and wanes-" she continued, and Isobel joined in alongside her-
"As all those who languish in darkness will inevitably know the dawn-" he continued.
"I implore thee, answer thy humble servant's call. Ansur the dragon, heart and spirit of Baldur's Gate, lays stricken by treachery as his beloved home is threatened yet again by his betrayers. Grant him your grace. Lend him your strength. Allow the city's heart to fly free once more, in whatever form the laws and the grace of the spheres may permit." our two priestesses finished.
"And let the virtuous triumph over the wicked upon this day." Arkhold affirmed.
It seemed as if an entire city held its breath for a moment… and then the brilliant sun beamed more brightly through the clouds, as an impossible daytime moon flickered briefly into visibility to accompany it. Every living soul within the city walls suddenly felt a brief impression – one moment where they knew the warm regard of a goddess. The same regard that several of us had felt before attending the death of Ketheric Thorm underneath Moonrise Towers, only this time accompanied by a more distant and lofty presence that we could feel 'behind' it as well.
And with a glorious roar that they likely heard in Waterdeep, the great bronze wyrm flew once more.
All of Baldur's Gate saw their mythical defender arise again, shining with a brilliant celestial aura as the dragon – no, the spirit dragon, I saw, as Ansur was now a reborn soul sent back to the material plane by the gods to fight evil just as the Moonlight Slivers themselves were – took wing from Wyrm's Rock Fortress and soared majestically to the attack.
The descending nautiloids paused in shock before hurriedly redeploying to meet this new threat, but Ansur was at least twice as large as any of the githyanki steeds and breathed lightning instead of fire. His first attack shorted out every system on the nautiloid he struck, its hulled carcass falling helplessly out of the sky as electrical arcs writhed over every inch of it. The Netherbrain's flight speed suddenly doubled as it decided that more than anything else it just wanted to get the hell out of here.
We held our breaths as the Netherbrain visibly charged up energy for a teleport, but then Ansur's electric breath lashed out over the exposed brain's lobes and broke its concentration. A psionic backlash that echoed like a thunderclap sent the dragon reeling away, but then it flew right back into the fight without a visible mark on it. The Netherbrain redoubled its aerial flight, calculating that so long as Ansur was available to harry it then it could never hope to finish a psionic teleport before he simply disrupted it again-
"Let's go!" I shouted as we all leapt into the available dragon-saddles. Prelate Lir'i'c raged helplessly at Orpheus' command for the Honor Guard to stay behind, but after the casualties the dragon-riders had already taken there was only barely enough room for the six of us and Prince Orpheus and even that was accomplished by having most of the githyanki knights dismount and let us take their dragons up under their own guidance. Voss was the only one who remained mounted so as to lead our dragonflight, and the Moonlight Slivers streaked ahead of us to clear our path while Aylin herself peeled off and headed towards Ramazith's Tower. The High Hall fell away from beneath our feet with dizzying speed as we soared upwards into the sky.
"It's heading out over the ocean!" Gale called joyously. "Even our backup plan won't have any collateral now!"
"It'll still cost you, so let's not change the program just yet!" I yelled back cheerfully. "But you're right, it's panicking! It didn't see this coming!"
"Who could have?" Shadowheart giggled helplessly as she hugged me tight from where she rode behind me in the saddle. "I'm at least as shocked as anyone else, and I did it!"
The Netherbrain desperately tried to fend us off from landing on top of it as both tentacles and summoned psychic constructs flooded the zone, but we had several dragons to just breathe on them all and vaporize them. Its attempt to dominate one of the dragons was contemptuously fended off by Orpheus, and the two remaining nautiloids were torn apart by a triumphant Ansur before they could catch up to us and intervene. A second wave of tentacles was torn to shreds by our combined powers and spells and the Netherbrain finally relented, its immediate defensive resources apparently expended for the moment. The spirit-dragon then faded away, as if to say My work here is done. I trust you to finish this without me. I hoped that wherever he was now, he'd at least get a good view.
The Crown of Karsus blazed with power as we walked across the exposed upper lobe of the Netherbrain to confront it at point blank range. Every remaining gem on the Crown blazed forth with arcane power as if it they were hateful, red-filled eyes. The most powerful and wicked creature currently extant on all Toril had eight insignificant mortals standing on top of it, mortals that under normal circumstances it could have crushed with an errant thought.
But this time, we weren't the ones who were afraid.
-Insolent-
-FLYSPECKS!-
-You dare-
-CONTEND?-
-Already-
-FAILED-
-You are-
-INSUFFICIENT-
-Weakling-
-FOOLS!-
"Hold that thought." I smirked at it insolently… and then between one breath and the next I felt the ritual link establish. Aylin was in position, and the soulcage bond was now sustaining the immortality of the three of us who would wield the Netherstones. Shadowheart stood on my left and Gale on my right as we raised the Netherstones high and lashed out against the Crown one last time.
A brilliant triple beam of energy leapt forth from our stones, coiling around each other in an elaborate braid as it connected directly to the center of the Crown. We gritted our teeth in pain as the impossible mental effort resumed… but this time, we could keep going. We pushed past the point where normally the cerebral hemorrhage would have killed us, the very tissue of our nervous system instantly reknitting again and again even as the effort we were sustaining drove it apart.
Don't stop! Aylin's thought came to us via the ritual link. I can do this! We can do this!
Hawke! Lae'zel's mind-voice came through, as she linked her tadpole to ours. Let us help you!
Don't connect too deeply! I warned her as Wyll and Karlach also joined our link. You don't have Aylin protecting your nervous systems from overload!
We can still provide secondary support. Orpheus' own mind-voice came through calmly, as him and Voss also came in. And we can distract the brain. It could overwhelm any single mortal mind by calculating its moves ahead of time, but the possible neural permutations of nine minds in concert are enormously more complex than a simple ninefold multiplication!
-Must-
-RESIST!-
-Cannot-be-
-DEFEATED-
-Not-by-
-slaves-
-Not-by-
-YOU!-
"I propose that we test that theory!" Gale mocked it, and we drove in for the kill.
-impossible-
-CEASE-
"How's about no?" Shadowheart scoffed.
-refuse-
-REFUSE!-
-my-will-
-is-
-INFINITE-
-you-must-
-you-
-must…-
"It's weakening!" I cried triumphantly. By now it felt like a sun was exploding in my mind… but just a little further… just a little-
-i-impossible-
-PAIN-
-FEAR-
-TERROR-
-reconsider-
-assess-
"Push!" we all cried mentally as one.
-implore-
-SURRENDER-
-spare-me-
-JOIN-me-
-WIELD-me-
-BECOME-
-ABSOLUTE-
The temptation of literally godlike power flickered before all our eyes. A world where the Netherbrain was our helpless broken slave, incapable of ever resisting… and where its power could allow us to enslave everyone else-
"Eugh, don't make me hurl." Karlach spoke for us all.
"The Grand Design is over." Orpheus declaimed triumphantly. "The children of Gith will never submit to you again! One Sky!"
"No more tadpoles." I commanded. "No more Absolute. No more you!" I roared. "You want to obey my commands? Then here they are! Safely deactivate everything you've got left… and then JUST FUCKING DIE!"
-M-master-
-I must-
-OBEY-
-I must-
-…-
-END-
The screams of legions of unborn illithids echoed faintly in our ears and then faded away as our tadpoles went silent. Every person on Toril with one of the modified tadpoles in them would now be free to live out their normal lives, just as we would be. Even the tadpoles in our bodies would be harmlessly absorbed by our metabolisms and then eventually excreted. Every unimplanted tadpole was now floating dead and inert in whatever spawning pool they might have been bred in. Every illithid, intellect devourer, nautiloid, and illithid bio-construct that had linked itself to the Netherbrain's hive mind was now dead, their minds mercilessly snuffed out by their master's will. What fate the Absolute cultists we hadn't killed yet might be undergoing was unknown to us – hopefully they'd still retain functioning minds of their own to go on once the Absolute's voice was forever removed from their psyches – but we'd done everything for them that we could.
And when that was all complete the life faded away from the Netherbrain, quietly and without incident. The Crown of Karsus ceased glowing and went dull and dark, shrinking down from its giant size back to a form originally sized for a human wielder as soon as its current wearer was dead. I reached out and plucked the crown from the air, cheerfully tossing it to Gale…
… and then the surface underneath us lurched and we all went into free-fall as the now-dead brain began to plummet thousands of feet down towards the merciless ocean.
"Feather Fall." Gale incanted calmly, and our precipitous descent was arrested for long enough for us to remount our dragon allies and begin the flight of several miles back to Baldur's Gate.
"We did it." Lae'zel sighed, blushing furiously from where her and Prince Orpheus had ended up riding double-saddle. Fortunately for her she was the one riding behind, so he couldn't see.
"Indeed." the Prince reflected calmly. "One Sky…" he murmured after a thoughtful pause. "To Mother Gith, that was a proclamation that all skies should ultimately belong to the gith, a call to conquest. To my younger self, it was merely a battle-cry – I was not inclined much to philosophical thought then, caring only about surmounting whatever challenge lay before me and proving myself thereby. Voss can certainly testify to that. And during my long imprisonment… well, you can imagine what my thoughts were occupied by."
"And now?" I asked him from where we flew alongside.
"And now I see that my mother was wrong. She believed that the gith would never be safe until we had no enemies remaining, and that we should make ceaseless war until that was true. And for the longest time that was true, for our chief enemy was of course the ghaik and absolutely no peace or coexistence is possible with their horrid ilk. But for the rest of the universe?" He shook his head. "To respond to a legitimate threat is one thing, but to make ceaseless war against all possible enemies? That only means that all others will be your enemies, forever and without respite. Peace is only possible when you can work with others, and they with you… what just happened to us is proof of that!"
He laughed and continued. "Our victory today – my freedom – whatever remaining hope the gith will ever have to be free of the soul-devouring parasite that is Vlaakith – none of that would have been possible without you. And our alliance with you would never have existed without your initial act of trust in us… and in Lae'zel in particular."
"It would also have been impossible without your decision to trust us even when your Honor Guard was advising that the safer course of action was to kill us." Gale complimented him.
"True. But it is equally true that if Vlaakith had simply dealt with you in good faith when you'd first met her, I would now be dead before myself or any of my Honor Guard had even awoken." Orpheus nodded matter-of-factly. "And yet thanks to the selfish treachery of the Usurper and Lae'zel's integrity and honor, we did ally. And your party fought on our behalf even unto the depths of the very hells themselves. All to our tremendous benefit and all when we were strangers to you. And you never asked for anything in return."
"We asked for quite a bit in return, honestly." Shadowheart retorted.
"Asking the gith to help defeat ghaik is like asking a star to shine or wind to blow." Voss chimed in amusedly.
"Valid point." I conceded. "You know… on Thedas, we have a people – a religion, actually – called the Qun. And on my first contact with your people, githyanki ways reminded me much of them. That's actually how I knew how to talk to you so well, Lae'zel – I'd had experience negotiating with qunari."
"You said 'on first contact' with us. You now have a different opinion?" Lae'zel asked.
"Very much so." I agreed. "The Qun… all of their discipline, their faith, their regard, is only for themselves. They have a word – basra – and it means much the same thing as istik, only worse. Even Vlaakith's people will usually pay an istik mercenary what they owe them."
"That is only prudent. To gain a reputation for cheating those who trade with you means only that you will receive less opportunities for trade - and at greater cost." Voss agreed.
"But while the qunari make a great show of keeping promises to those they respect, "respect" is a highly flexible – and transient – quality. Which means a qunari treaty with basra is ultimately worth nothing if they find it more profitable to break it than keep it. And that makes dealing with them - you can imagine." I shook my head. "I got sidetracked. What I'm trying to say is that I agree with what you're saying. No matter how different someone else is from you, you have to at least try to deal with them fairly until after you catch them cheating you – because when push comes to shove, some day you might need each other's help. Or at least a reason to not kick the other while they're down."
"Case in point, Gortash fucking me over and having that catch up to him a decade later just when he thought he was about to win it all." Karlach agreed cheerfully.
"Or what happened to Mizora - and why." Wyll agreed with equal amusement.
"Even though our separate interests and our struggles may be unrelated, we must all respect common ground when we find it." Orpheus nodded. "That is what the term 'One Sky' means to me now – however different one people's land and culture may be from another's, ultimately we are all beneath the same heavens. When we reach out to the gith at large, kith'raks, and begin to rally them away from the Usurper - this is what we must teach them."
"As you will, Your Radiance." Voss agreed and Lae'zel echoed.
"The Crown of Karsus." We all turned to see Gale turning it over in his hands as he stared down at it enraptured. "I could still take this, you know… reforge the Crown… master its power…"
"Gale, you are not being even remotely convincing." I mocked him.
"And two of the Netherstones you'd need are still in Hawke's and my pockets." Shadowheart chimed in sweetly.
"Oh come on, I had to try!" he grinned back. "When else would I ever get the opportunity for that kind of practical joke?"
"Just don't try that joke with her when you go to turn it in." Wyll chuckled.
"Certainly not." Gale agreed quickly.
"We are approaching the city." Voss broke in, and sure enough the High Hall was visible in the distance. A brilliant flash in the sky swiftly resolved into Aylin's shining wings, as she flew out to greet us.
"Are you all right?" was my first question to her.
"I never want to experience that again." she replied in a voice that still shook slightly, her face even paler than usual from her ordeal. "But at least this time it was for a just cause. And yes, I will be fine. Thank you for your concern."
We descended to land in the same courtyard that we'd originally mustered the troops in at the start of the battle, and Isobel leapt forward to be caught in Aylin's arms. The two of them reassured each other that they were alive as the Grand Duke and the other commanders came forward to greet us.
"Hail the triumphant heroes!" Wyll's father cried out, and Wyll blushed as deeply as a man with his skin color could. "They have returned, and we are victorious!"
"HAIL!" the crowd echoed.
"I thank you for your plaudits, Grand Duke, and I will soon send my emissary to you to clarify any further details that may need resolving." Prince Orpheus greeted him regally from the saddle. "But for now my people must swiftly withdraw from this city. All the ghaik that directly served the elder brain are now dead along with it, but before it died it was attempting to summon allies. I must muster my forces – including those I summoned but have yet to arrive – and ensure that none remain in the near astral or arrive here. Furthermore, with the elder brain now gone Vlaakith will soon dispatch her own githyanki hither to find and slay me – I would be a poor ally indeed if I remained here and drew that trouble down upon you."
"I regret to hear that, Prince Orpheus. We would be poor allies if we did not render you the hospitality and honors that your selfless aid to us has earned. Still, the necessities of war are what they are. I wish you good fortune with your rebellion, Your Radiance." the Grand Duke acknowledged.
"And I wish you good fortune rebuilding your city, Your Grace." Orpheus nodded to him. "Lae'zel, say your farewells to your friends swiftly – you shall return here later as my emissary, but for now we must travel with dispatch."
"Until we meet again, Hawke." Lae'zel shook my hand, then submitted to hugs from Shadowheart and Karlach and further handshakes with Wyll and Gale. "And we will meet again."
"Of a certainty, Kith'rak Lae'zel." I gave her a githyanki salute, and we both smiled widely as she saluted me back.
"There you are!" Minsc shoved his way through the crowd as Jaheira slipstreamed right behind him. "Boo was worried about you, but I assured him not to trouble his whiskered little head. And hah, it turns out that Minsc was right!"
"Welcome back, friends." Jaheira said simply.
Isobel and Aylin finished their reunion and stepped up alongside us as Orpheus turned and bowed his head to the remainder of our party. "I owe you all a debt that I can never repay. The defeat of the Netherbrain and the Grand Design… my life and freedom… my people's only chance to cast off the chains of Vlaakith… none of this would have been possible without you. And most of all, none of it would have been possible without Hawke's leadership throughout this crisis. He will be forever recorded in our slates as Mla'ghir – liberator. And should you ever need our aid, Saer, we shall answer your call."
"Quulos! Quuthos!" Voss cried, and two dragons we hadn't seen yet swooped down out of the sky.
"Kith'rak Lae'zel, this is Quuthos." he introduced the second dragon to her. "His rider fell in the battle today, and by our customs he is free to seek another worthy gith to partner with him in battle."
Lae'zel and Orpheus had a wordless psionic communication with the two dragons, and then Lae'zel mounted her new dragon with tears in her eyes and beamed proudly down at us. Orpheus mounted the other dragon, who had apparently been chosen as his new steed by whatever customs the githyanki used, and Voss and the other surviving gith knights remounted their own. We traded final farewells with the Prince and Voss, and all the githyanki knights soared into the sky on dragon wings. Orpheus opened a planar portal for the dragon-riders, just as the Honor Guard and other githyanki stragglers had a portal opened for them by their own gatemaker, and they were gone.
"Shadowheart." Isobel turned and hugged her. "I know I taught you about invoking Her, but I never would have thought to try and channel it to help Ansur – let alone imagine the level of response you would draw! The whole city saw that miracle! You were amazing."
"I was amazing? I seem to recall you were right there with me, along with the Dawnmaster!" Shadowheart replied.
"True… but we merely followed where you led us, young priestess." Dawnmaster Arkhold bowed respectfully to her. "You must be one of the Moonmaiden's most blessed indeed."
"Say that again after you hear where I started." Shadowheart blushed furiously.
"Where's Astarion?" I looked around, not seeing him. Not that I really knew him, but it would be sad if he'd died while so close to freedom-
"Indoors. When you deactivated the illithid parasites, his vulnerability to the sun returned." the Dawnmaster said embarrassedly. "Fortunately he was already under cover at the time."
Councilor Florrick approached us, her expression grave. "Sir. I have the preliminary casualty report that you asked for…"
And with that sobering reminder we all took a deep breath and got back to work. The battle was won and all the illithids and cultists attacking both down in the city and up here were dead, but we still had wounded to treat, missing people to recover, fires to put out, and our dead to bury.
But as wounded as the city was, it had survived.
The attacks down in the city had not been negligible but neither had they seriously been pursued – the main reason the Netherbrain had left any 'sleepers' down in the Lower City to start rampaging as mind flayers was to delay and confuse any counterattack by making its own attack seem to be everywhere. So the illithids down there had all been newborns, expecting nothing but easy pickings against unarmed and panicking civilians – and while there'd definitely been a lot of those, there had also been armed refugees, apprentice thieves, beginning adventurers, tavern bouncers, hired guards, and all the other cityfolk that our rumormongering campaign had primed with the very basics of how to survive the upcoming attack. Such as fighting illithids from outside range of their mindblasts with crossbows, and taking advantage of the fact that they were vulnerable to ambushes while being lured indoors. Several hundred people had died in the city but our preparations had saved hundreds more, and while the casualties in the Battle of the High Hall had not been light neither had they been anywhere near as bad as they could have been if we'd been even a little bit less prepared or more disorganized.
We'd escorted Gale back to the Stormshore Tabernacle to drop off the Crown and the Netherstones with Mystra as soon as we could find a moment to do so that afternoon – after all, it was perhaps the single most desired artifact on Toril and even if Yurgir wasn't going to try and steal it we were like hell going to hang on to that hot potato long enough to meet whoever the hell else Mephistopheles might send to come looking for it. Let alone what any one of a hundred other evil bastards across the planes might try to get their hands on that thing. Mystra had honored her promise to Gale and removed the Orb from him as soon as he'd returned Karsus' other artifact to her keeping. She still didn't apologize to him for having been wrong, though – not that Gale had expected her to, or was any further disappointed by her living down to expectations than he already had been.
Yurgir had departed back to the Nine Hells as soon as the battle was over, and for all that he'd been a reliable ally under the right circumstances and the sort of tough, straightforward bastard you could respect in a certain rough way we were still relieved to see him leave. He was a devil, after all, and a merciless and incredibly lethal one at that. I hadn't forgotten that he'd introduced himself to me by boasting about how he'd eaten a man's children in front of him. I of course had made sure to remain amiable whenever speaking to him – insulting him needlessly would have just been idiotic - but that didn't mean I was his friend. Things between us had ended not to our detriment and we could honestly thank him for his contributions. That was a good note to end it on, and hopefully that's where it would all stay.
Aylin's Moonlight Slivers had likewise returned to Selune's realm as soon as there was no further need for them. Aylin herself would of course be sticking around as long as Isobel was, and we'd be delighted to have her here.
So after spending hours that afternoon on casualty collection and damage control, we all met up in the Elfsong. It was going to be the acting headquarters of the Grand Duke for at least the next few days, after all. His official residence had just been partly dropped into a sinkhole and the rest of it set on fire, blown up, and otherwise ruined by our having a pitched battle in it and they were still cleaning Gortash's traps and mechanisms out of the headquarters level of Wyrm's Rock. So the Elfsong is where Ulder Ravengard treated us to a fine dinner while we brought each other up to speed on the status of the city.
The property damage in the Upper City had been extensive, but the Grand Duke anticipated that it would all be rebuilt as good as new in a few short months. The Upper City was where all the patriars lived, and a great deal of money and trade moved through Baldur's Gate and the people who controlled most of that trade would spend whatever it took to get their manor houses and fancy gardens and fine ornamental courtyards back. Even filling the hole in the ground that the Netherbrain had left would not be an insurmountable task, although the bill for hiring enough mages to cast an earthmoving ritual of that scope would be impressive even by Baldurian standards. I shook my head at how casually Faerunians could take magic workings of a size and scope I could barely even grasp… but then again, the only place on Thedas that mages still practiced an organized science of group ritual castings for large-scale effects was Tevinter, and I'd certainly never been there.
The property damage in the Lower City was less extensive, but would be far more costly to the people who lived there given that they'd be far less able to pay to fix it. I put a word in Duke Ravengard's and Councilor Florrick's ears about how they might want to try and be officially generous about disaster relief for the Lower City before Nine-Fingers moved in and saw an opportunity to even further increase her influence down there by being unofficially generous.
As far as more personal casualties, none of the people we personally knew had been among the dead – then again, that only made sense as we'd warned them all personally and they were among the most well-prepared. Jaheira got more than an earful from her three younger children about being 'dumped off at the temple in Rivington' while 'big brother and sister got to go with her and have all the fun', but a few crisp smacks on the butt sorted that nonsense out while the rest of us amusedly left her to keep her own house in order.
Our last memorable encounter of the day was at sunset. The five of us that remained had happened to all be near the docks – several of us had to attend a post-dinner meeting at the Counting House and the rest of us had been dealing with a minor problem over at what was left of the Steel Watch Foundry. So since we'd all happened to be in the vicinity at sunset, we'd stopped and taken a moment out to watch the glorious scarlet vista out over the water and feel the peace. And that's when someone else chose to visit us… whether it was because it happened to be the first opportune moment we were all alone or because he had a fine sense for a proper backdrop, we didn't know.
"And so it is done." Jergal greeted us softly as we stood in the fading sunlight. "And thou hast done well. Very well indeed."
"It's been one hell of a ride, hasn't it?" I agreed. "Thank you for your services. And your counsel."
"I did only what was necessary and permitted, Garrett Hawke." Jergal nodded gravely. "It was thou who went above and beyond. Many other possible champions could have also defeated the Absolute and foiled the plot of the Dead Three. But few could have done so in thy particular manner, and fewer yet would have. The deeds that thou hast done here will echo across the face of time and the differing planes in many ways both direct and indirect, and few of those ways will be for ill."
"It's a pity Lae'zel couldn't be here to see this." Wyll said.
"I shall make my farewells to her as well." Jergal stated calmly. "She is fairly owed that regard, fully as much as thou are."
"Regarding your statement about 'echoes'." I asked him. "You mean Orpheus being inspired the way he was, as well as being freed at all? God help the githyanki right now if we'd fallen for Vlaakith's lies – or the Emperor's."
"That, and far more." Jergal agreed. "Several possible outcomes involved a Bhaalspawn using the power of the Absolute to slay the entirety of Toril before destroying themself. In many more, the champion would choose to accept the Absolute's offer and enact a tyranny beyond the dreams of even Enver Gortash. In virtually all of them, the Absolute's defeat would require the transformation of at least one of thy company into illithid – or allowing the 'Emperor' to slay Orpheus and assimilate his brain so as to wield both the prince's power and the psionic prowess of an illithid to contend against the Absolute directly. And those few that did not require such a transformation instead required Gale Dekarios to sacrifice himself to encompass the Absolute's destruction. I do not think any of the other possible champions would have conceived of the unique solution that thou did, let alone have been able to implement it. But these and other details are not necessary for thy enlightenment, interesting though they might be. Simply know that thou – and all of thy boon companions – have very much to be proud of indeed. And that thou have legitimately earned my respect with thy accomplishments."
"Speaking of the Dead Three, I hope they're being suitably punished?" Shadowheart asked.
"The Dead Three." Jergal said scornfully. "The supplication of Bane. The whimper of Bhaal. The death mewl of Myrkul. Gods they may have been but fools they have proven themselves, each and every one." His dry laughter, the first any had ever heard from him in an age, echoed softly forth. "They linger on for the moment, but their destruction is nigh inevitable. Their gambit of remaining quasi-deities and yet becoming paramount by withering away all true divinities above them hath utterly failed, and the retribution they have earned shall be most unrelenting. And they no longer remotely have their power of old, to withstand such retribution."
He paused and continued more soberly. "I erred greatly in choosing to raise them to divinity, and I was recently charged by those I could not gainsay with taking action to rectify that error. And within the limitations of the Balance, and by the accomplishments of thy party, that has finally been accomplished. My station is not one that readily allows either the acknowledgement of debts or the paying of them, so I will not state that I owe thee any. But none of thou need fear the day that we must inevitably meet again. I anticipate that thy eventual passings from mortality shall not be particularly unpleasant. Call it a… surmise, if thou would."
"And now your services towards us are at an end?" Gale asked for the record.
"That they are." Jergal acknowledged. "Thy parasites are destroyed, thy foe is slain, and thy quest is done. The remainder of thy lives now await to be lived however thou wilt, just as my own renewed dedication to the Balance awaits me. Fare thee well, all of you."
"And you as well, sir." I replied, and with the final rays of the setting sun Jergal was gone.
The next month was full of more hard work than most people could imagine, but passed quickly enough all the same. There was a lot of putting things back together to do, after all. Not to mention restoring morale, reassuring the people that things were over, explaining just what exactly had happened – and dealing with opportunists attempting to turn things or spin things to their particular advantage even if that required them to revise history in ways that made Varric's trashiest novel look as dryly factual as a ledger book.
I'd been named Champion of Baldur's Gate for my having passed the trials of Ansur and recovering the blade and helm of Balduran, a status I now bore in two cities. I'd already been told after I'd passed the trials that the artifacts were mine to keep however far away my adventures might take me, and Ansur had reaffirmed that after the battle. The wyrm's spirit had also communicated that he wished the truth about Balduran's death and the betrayals of the illithid that had dared to misuse his name afterwards to be made public knowledge, and had then withdrawn to the celestial realms. Although there were hints that if someone successfully passed through the trials of the Wyrmway again if the city were in great need at some point in the future, then the Heart of the Gate might be granted leave to return once more.
The Grand Duke had been pleased as punch to inform me that my having been Marshal of Baldur's Gate – even if only for a day – had automatically raised me to the social rank of patriar, a status that I would forever keep, and that this would entitle me to… well, a lot of complicated legal privileges and obligations I'd have Florrick and Wyll explain to me later if I needed to know them. But I'd been a nobleman of Kirkwall and now I was a nobleman of Baldur's Gate as well.
Wyll had formally been commander of the Flaming Fist throughout the battle, but in practice had largely acted as a banner-bearer – the visible leadership out in front to keep the men moving the right way even through a chaotic battlefield. His father had been next to him the whole time, keeping his visibility low but murmuring tactical advice to his son when needed. Being fair, for all his combat training this had been Wyll's first battle as an officer in command and it was a rite of passage we all had to go through… although usually the voice of experience advising the young lieutenant through his first battle was a sergeant, not a general. But Wyll's father was a vigorous man and anticipated having quite a few years left to finish training his son and heir after things had been interrupted for them by Mizora's machinations, and Wyll's dramatic reintroduction to the city in its darkest hour had certainly restored all of his reputation and far more.
And his experience as the Blade of Frontiers, as eclectic as it was, had proven invaluable in helping the city's reconstruction. Wyll's sojourn in exile had left him much more familiar with the needs and the limitations that the commonfolk labored under than ninety-nine percent of the Upper City's population ever would be, and he could get people all over the city to talk to him and trust him in ways that they'd never do for virtually any other patriar. So while the Grand Duke was firmly back in overall command of the city – after all, everyone in Baldur's Gate had seen every illithid drop dead along with the Netherbrain, so nobody was worried about any tadpoles still possibly being in anyone's heads – it was Wyll as his son and deputy that was the visible face of the city's reconstruction to most of the Lower and Outer Cities.
My advice to the Ravengards had proved prophetic, and the Guild had indeed been eagerly poised to take advantage of the expected indifference to the plight of the lower classes as the patriars concentrated first and foremost on restoring their own lost property and fortunes. His father's renewed priorities and Wyll's outreach efforts in the Lower City had entirely put a spike in that plan, and Nine-Fingers was simultaneously frustrated at the lost opportunities and honestly pleased that the ruling oligarchy of Baldur's Gate had finally given her someone to work with "who wasn't a complete sodding arsehole", as she'd put it.
I was amused to find out that Alfira's proposed bard school was now enjoying a positive explosion of new funding, to the point she'd actually been regifting the majority of it to refugee relief and reconstruction. This was partly because of her own minor glory as one of the tiefling refugees who'd so selflessly turned out to save the city that had barely even wanted to let them in and now couldn't quite praise them enough, but largely because as the one bard who'd actually been present throughout our entire quest from the Emerald Grove onward she was automatically presumed to be the authoritative source regarding exactly what the story of Baldur's Gate's latest heroes had been. And every other bard, chronicler, scholarly society, and the generally curious were gladly doing her whatever favors they could to convince her to share it. I had mercy on the poor young woman and spent two entire days giving her most of the details of our story from front to back, as unvarnished and factual as we could make it, so that she could handle the job of making sure it was written into history. Alfira gave me her most solemn oath not to Varric the whole thing up too much.
Jaheira and Minsc had already been through the whole 'heroes of Baldur's Gate' routine a century ago and gleefully ducked out on going through it again as soon as they possibly could, leaving the rest of us all to put up with the fuss and feathers while they were safely elsewhere. Minsc had made himself a self-appointed 'liason' of some type to the Guild to keep them on the relatively straighter and narrower, and Jaheira was back at home letting her kids drive her to distraction and enjoying every minute of it. As for her Harpers in general, they took their bows and then slinked back into the obscurity they preferred… to remain vigilant in the shadows for the next threat to Baldur's Gate. I wished them the best of luck.
As for Aylin and Isobel, they had a new challenge ahead of them. High Initiate Isobel Thorm was the only logical candidate to take charge of the rebuilding of Selune's temple and congregation in Baldur's Gate, now that the Sharrans who had originally withered the old temple away were gone and the worship of Selune surging to a never before seen level of popularity in the city given the aforementioned divine miracle that the entire city had recently marveled at. Not to to mention Aylin and the Moonlight Slivers having been such a prominent and morale-raising factor in the Battle of the High Hall. Other clerics of Selune, Initiates and mere acolytes both, were trickling in both from the outlying settlements and other places on Faerun to help the city's newest high priestess rebuild and staff a major temple of the Moonmaiden here.
The worship of Lathander was also hitting a new popularity, and the Dawnmaster was more than willing to provide what help he could to his newest colleague in helping her own temple get on its feet. And while the two denominations did not have any formal pacts between their respective divinities or between their churches in Faerun in general, in the city of Baldur's Gate the temples of the sun and moon were falling into a partnership as close and essential as the two respective celestial bodies in the sky had. Between the assistance of the Lathanderites and their personal guardian aasimar hanging around, the newest temple of the Moon would be more than kept safe and secure through its growing pains even if Shar did attempt something. Granted, Shar's attempt would require her to import some talent from out of town if she wanted to try that, because after what we'd done there wasn't a single living priest or acolyte of Shar in Baldur's Gate.
Even Nocturne didn't count anymore, seeing as how she was one of the very first postulants to seek a novitiate at the new temple of Selune. She was actually forming a very odd friendship with Astarion, who had also decided to start a new life for himself as a lay brother of the temple… at least until he could finish healing his mind and spirit from his past experiences and then decide what to do with the rest of his unlife. He'd likely have preferred to stay at the temple of Lathander and do that, but there had been a slight logistical difficulty regarding his renewed sunlight allergy and working in close proximity with the priests of the Morninglord. Fortunately for him, Selunite worship services often occurred at night.
Shadowheart could of course have had a very high position in this temple's hierarchy free for the asking, but neither her nor Isobel were asking. As far as Isobel was concerned Shadowheart had done more than enough for now, and had certainly been through more than enough changes in her life in what had after all been a very short time. So while Shadowheart readily volunteered her efforts alongside mine in helping the Grand Duke with rebuilding the city's government and resuming normal operations, nothing else was expected of her except to rest, begin her more formal studies of the Selunite liturgy, and finish reuniting with her family.
Gale and Karlach had also lent their talents to the reconstruction efforts, of course, but neither of them had any particular ambition to contend for rank or station in Baldur's Gate. Gale was already a well-respected member of Waterdeep's upper class, even if he hadn't been active in society for over a year due to the Orb debacle, and Karlach had outright laughed off any possible idea of being ennobled, promoted, commissioned, or anything similar even if she'd been entirely willing to bank her share of the generous rewards we'd all earned by our efforts.
When I'd very diplomatically brought up with her Gortash's onetime evaluation of her as someone who was psychologically a strict follower type and perhaps she might want to be aware of and possibly break out of that habit, she'd simply responded that of course she already knew that about herself and she didn't care. Without honest followers in the world then there couldn't be any leaders who were worth a damn, and since she was damn good at it and entirely fulfilled by the work then why not? And I had to admit, she entirely had a point. Besides, as it was me she'd apparently latched on to as her new liege lord, even if I wasn't really in charge of anything anymore except my own household, then if it ever started going bad for her later then I'd have every opportunity to bring up the topic again.
And as for my "household"… while I'd originally held off on formally betrothing Shadowheart as a recognition of the fact that as close as we were we had only known each for a few weeks, it had taken her – and the remainder of our friends – barely half a month to get me to reconsider that decision and acknowledge that sometimes there was such a thing as being too cautious. But my delay had at least postponed things long enough that we could have a proper celebration for the occasion with her family present and everything, so I still wasn't apologizing. So she was now formally my fiancée, and when things had had enough months to settle down and we could work out exactly how to invite everyone she'd be my wife, and neither of us wanted anything else.
As to more mundane concerns… well, to put it succinctly we were bidding fair to be set up for life. We had the wealth we'd won adventuring and from the rewards granted us by a grateful city council, my new noble rank, and the fact that I could have had essentially any position in the city government that Ulder Ravengard had the authority to grant me free for the asking and she'd have been deputy High Initiate of the Selunite temple of Baldur's Gate likewise. Plus there were all the commercial and other opportunities potentially available to someone whose prestige was so well and truly that of the hero of the hour. My and Shadowheart's material prospects were as favorable as anyone could expect, and we'd never have needed to delve into another dungeon again unless we felt like it. The Grand Duke would even have been willing to 'reorganize' a few property lines as part of the Upper City's reconstruction and grant us room for a generously-sized mansion and estate.
But that, of course, was not to be our fate.
We held the farewell party in the penthouse of the Elfsong. It was a private affair, friends and comrades only, which meant we'd still had to cram a couple dozen people into our old room.
Lae'zel had returned both to attend my departure and to help close out what official affairs remained unresolved between Orpheus' court and Baldur's Gate regarding their temporary alliance, just as Orpheus had promised. It was amusing to find out that Lae'zel, who had so legendarily scorned diplomacy when we'd first met, had effectively become the chief diplomatic envoy for the Prince of the Comet - he'd sworn not to claim the title of king of the githyanki until he could do so from the throne in Tu'narath itself. But Lae'zel was not only Orpheus' kith'rak with the most experience at living among non-githyanki but she was also one of his more mentally flexible lieutenants. Furthermore, as a githyanki of the current generation who had had no prior connection with Orpheus' followers prior to his return and yet still solidly within his innermost circle of advisors Lae'zel was effectively a symbol to the gith at large. She was living proof that Orpheus was not merely a political rival attempting to seize power for his own cronies at the expense of Vlaakith but a genuine reformer attempting to offer a new way of living for all gith, longtime Comet conspirators and newly converted alike.
Right now she was deep in conversation with Wyll and Jaheira about how her next mission after this would be as Orpheus' envoy to Shra'kt'lor – the planar capital of the githzerai in the chaotic realm of Limbo. The githzerai were apparently descendants of those gith who had disdained Gith's ambitions of conquest as soon as the original rebellion against the illithids had succeeded and who under the leadership of Gith's colleague Zerthimon had gone off to found their own society among the more chaotic of the Outer Planes, a society based on mysticism and contemplation rather than vengeance and war. The terms 'githyanki' and 'githzerai' dated back to that ancient primeval split – before then they had simply been the gith.
I was awestruck at the thought of how such an ancient separation, one that dated back to even before the usurping of Gith by the first Vlaakith and the githyanki civil war that Orpheus had lost, had even the slightest hope of coming to an end after so many eons of being apart. For even though this was an initial contact only, with no promises of anything to come, githzerai and githyanki had never had so much as an exchange of diplomatic notes throughout all the reigns of the various Vlaakiths and yet they had responded in the affirmative to Orpheus' request for a parley. She was simultaneously nervous to her marrow at the size of the responsibility she'd been burdened with and yet still eagerly looking forward to the challenge. I'd reassured her that Orpheus had chosen her as the best woman for the job not in the expectation that she'd spontaneously develop entirely new skills and abilities when the confrontation arrived but because he believed that she already had every aptitude necessary and was confident that her simply being herself and presenting her appeal as honestly and forthrightly as she'd done with us would be the best thing she could do.
I drifted away from their conclave and over to where Gale was exchanging his own farewells with Elminster. The old sage had come through after all. His analysis of the few clues I could give him about the mystic particularities of Thedas and the nature of the Fade, as well as the analytical magics he'd run on a Thedasian gem I'd given him from the signet ring I'd been wearing when I'd fallen to the Nightmare, had allowed him to calculate a rough estimate of what set of planar characteristics to look for. And when those planar characteristics had been combined with the planar maps painstakingly collated and compiled over the millennia by the githyanki, which Orpheus had given him access to at my request, that was everything we'd needed to get me back home. And so I'd regretfully declined all the offers to grant me a permanent estate here or suchlike, because I wouldn't be remaining here to use them and neither would Shadowheart. It had been almost two months since I'd departed Thedas by now, and it was about time I got back there or else I'd risk the Inquisitor and my older friends finishing killing Corypheus without me.
"And I would hope that you'd pay at least slightly more attention to-" the old archmage was pontificating, before Gale gently shushed him.
"I'll be fine, Elminster. Honestly." Gale grinned at him. "It's just a little planar exploration, any competent archmage can do that!"
"From Hawke's descriptions, magical use on Thedas is perilous indeed my boy." Elminster sighed. "After your narrow escape from one arcane catastrophe I could wish you'd be at least slightly less eager to risk another."
"We don't know why arcane magic on Thedas is so uniquely hazardous, Elminster, and that's precisely why I'm going there with Hawke to find out." Gale replied. "Thedasian mages of reasonably strong will and mental focus can survive it if suitably forewarned, after all, and after having had the Orb and then the tadpole to deal with I'd like to imagine my own mental focus was more than "reasonably" strong. And Hawke's idea of teaching their templars the ways of the paladin is certainly going to do a great deal to improve the lives of mages there, but the problem won't ever really be fixed unless we can figure out what exactly makes them so vulnerable to spirit possession and why their near astral or ethereal space is so aberrantly twisted. Besides, it's the opportunity for me to do something truly groundbreaking in the field of magic! And with magic that's evolved entirely independent of Mystra's regard, even! Can you name anybody on Toril better qualified than me to do that?"
"Of course I can. Myself!" Elminster and Gale shared a chuckle. "But you are quite correct that your breadth of studies both with Mystra's Weave and the divergent lore of Karsus gives you the best chance of analyzing yet a third and completely independent variant of a world's magical fabric than any other mage I know of." He smiled at Gale gently. "And it will give you a chance to achieve something of significance entirely independent of Her, which I think will do your heart a world of good."
"Sometimes you need a little separation before you're ready to get back in the swing of things. But don't worry, Elminster. When I've learned what I need to know there, and hopefully after I've had a chance to teach at least some of their mages safer methods, I will return. I promise you." Gale said with quiet assurance.
"I should certainly hope so, Mr. Dekarios!" the magical winged cat with the voice of a stuffy old matron sitting next to him on a stool chuffed. Tara the tressym was Gale's familiar… and also housekeeper, appointments secretary, and general minder… who had been left behind in Waterdeep when he'd been abducted by the Emperor's nautiloid. She'd shown up in Baldur's Gate shortly after our victory when Gale had sent her a letter to let her know he was still alive and where he was, and she was still annoyed with him for having been out of contact for so long. Even though Gale was entirely upfront about how he'd deliberately not wanted to have her anywhere in the same township as him so long as he was still a potential explosion risk, she was… well, as prideful as a cat. "I am not maintaining your residence all by myself without your at least making some attempt to keep to a more regular schedule!"
"Rest assured that I will be giving you as much assistance in that task as you require, my dear lady." Elminster gestured grandly.
"Hah! You mean stopping by to freeload and empty Mr. Dekarios' larder without so much as a by-your-leave, more like!" Tara glared fearlessly at him, and Elminster laughed even harder.
"But honestly, I really want to run some tests on this 'lyrium' substance Hawke described." Gale continued. "I've got a theory that it might just possibly be-"
The two archmages then fell deep down the academic rabbit hole and I discreetly circulated away from the ever-growing fountain of arcane erudition.
"You're sure about going with them?" Grand Duke Ravengard was asking Karlach as I circulated over towards them. "You know that I or Wyll would entirely be willing to give any respectable position here. And Baldur's Gate is your home, you would be entirely unfamiliar with Thedas."
"That's why exactly I'm going, sir." Karlach said cheerfully. "I spent my whole life in the Gate, then I spent ten years of it trapped in Hell, and then I spent a few weeks of it out on the long road with Hawke and company… and those few weeks were the happiest part of my whole life. Everything new, everything fresh, everything full of sights and sounds I'd never seen before, good fights in good company… and a commander that I could really, really trust. I definitely want some more of that before I think about settling down, and going with Hawke to an entirely new world and a new set of challenges sounds like the best idea ever to me!"
"Entirely understandable." Zevlor smiled at her, proudly dressed in his new uniform as one of the Flaming Fist's senior commanders. "Just remember that home is where, when you have to return there, they have to let you in."
"Karlach, it's almost time." I told her, and she hefted her backpack with an eager grin and followed me.
"It's not too late to take us up on our offer, big guy!" Lakrissa called out cheerfully, as her and Alfira both intercepted us and tackled me in a double hug. "We'd have to rush it a bit, but you can still know tiefling paradise!" Shadowheart looked up from where her and Isobel had been exchanging best wishes and mock-growled and clawed the air at them with her fingernails, and they both giggled back at her shamelessly. Mol, who'd been standing right behind them, laughed so loudly that she almost spilled her drink.
"I can't leave you alone for a minute, can I?" my betrothed mock-pouted at me.
"I just can't help if it I'm naturally irresistible, dear." I drawled back at her, and she completely lost her expression with helpless giggles.
"Naturally insufferable, perhaps." she replied... before grabbing me and kissing me so shamelessly that the two tiefling ladies began catcalling.
"Hawke." Wyll nodded to me as we all drew around for final handshakes. "I wish I could come with you-"
"But your place is now here." I nodded to him. "As Lae'zel's is now with Orpheus." I nodded to her. "We had one hell of a ride, though, didn't we?"
"Indeed we did." Lae'zel agreed cheerfully. "And perhaps one day we may again. Who can know where the tides of fate will steer them in the future?"
"Certainly not us." Shadowheart agreed.
"We wish you well, dear priestess." Aylin nodded to her. "The Moonmaiden will forever be with you, no matter what sphere you travel to."
"Just so long as her sister isn't." Shadowheart and Isobel traded sly grins.
"It's only a theory that her having had no part in the primordial creation of Thedas means that Shar's potential reach will not be twin-bound to Selune's there, as it is here." Isobel agreed. "But if that is true then your curse can be permanently broken there, with sufficient time and effort."
"If we're really fortunate I can start a whole new center of Selunite worship there, and tip the balance of power against her here." Shadowheart replied. "Which would just be the most ironic thing ever, if the pawn that Shar attempted to subvert and raise to become her Chosen instead ends up becoming her largest headache instead."
"That's an ambition you might want to keep on the back burner until we can see exactly what sort of political environment we'll be dropping into." I said. "The Chantry hasn't had to deal with religious competition in human lands since its founding, and almost certainly won't take to the idea very well. And while the Inquisition has the legal authority to decree otherwise within its own sphere of operation, there's sometimes a difference between what's legally sanctionable and what's practically possible."
"And we've got this Corypheus berk to help sort out first anyway, before we can do things like start working on more long-range projects or set up a nice place for you to invite your parents to come over to." Karlach agreed.
"Good-bye, dear." Shadowheart's mother stepped forward to give her daughter a hug, along with her father. "Do take care of yourself, would you?"
"Not good-bye, mother. Until we meet again." Shadowheart smiled sweetly at them, and then exchanged a last-minute hug with Nocturne as well.
"The parting of dear companions is so tragic! Boo weeps to see you go!" Minsc sniffled. "And yet go you must, for adventure awaits!"
"If this is to be our last meeting, Hawke, then go with our best wishes. And if it is not… then it is not." Jaheira quirked a smile at us.
We finished all our goodbyes and best wishes with everyone else, then picked up our packs and traveling cases and headed to the room where Elminster had set up preparations for the planar portal, with one of Orpheus' gatemakers there to witness exactly how he'd done it so that the githyanki could recreate the feat later. Gale was staggering underneath the weight of the trunk full of written reference materials he was bringing along as hopefully the start of his Torilian academic embassy to Thedasian magecraft, and so I reached out and picked it up for him.
"Is everyone ready?" Elminster asked, and at our affirming nods he raised his staff and the brilliant portal opened.
"All right, everyone." I said confidently. "Let's see what happens."
Author's Note: And so we finally reach the end. Our brave heroes have won the day, earned their hero's rewards, and yet the adventure continues.
For those wondering at the whiplash of Hawke returning to Thedas, here's the thing - from the very beginning of the story I had storyboarded out that this tale would end with him going back, only this time with renewed purpose and bringing the things Thedas needed to be saved where canonically it was screwed. Paladin-templars, the chance to crossover-mechanics with d20 magic and thus fix the fatal bugs of Thedasian magic, and a true cleric bringing actual divine spellcasting to a world that had languished without it for literally Maker only knows how long... the upcoming timetrack of Veilguard is now, by author ex cathedra, completely nuked in this continuity. And note that Hawke first brings up the topic of returning with Shadowheart at the start of chapter 38, so it's not even like he ambushed her with it.
Yes, those are indeed the canon endings of the CRPG that Jergal is outlining for the party. He's a greater god, he's allowed to be a bit meta.
Wyll and Lae'zel don't get to go to Thedas because he's got to be the Ravengard heir and she likewise is off as part of Orpheus' inner circle (although as a planar traveller, Lae'zel can conceivably show up later if you want to imagine that happening). So it's the other four that end up doing the grand Thedas adventure. This is both me acknowledging the canon character beats I'm inheriting from the game and the fact that my most commonly used party in BG3 is Tav, Shadowheart, Karlach, and Gale. The author is also licensed to be a bit meta if he wants. *g*
There will be a brief epilogue after this, but the tale is complete.
