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Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	aribeth, fanfiction, neverwinter nights

The Aribeth I Know (Part Four)

"I suppose we can start with the siege of Neverwinter," Fred said. "Other than the Elk Tribe, I didn't really run into anyone working for Aribeth between Luskan and the siege."

"And the Elk Tribe wasn't really working for me," Aribeth said. "They were just desperate for a cure for the Plague Commander Damas had inflicted on them."

"The Plague Commander Damas had inflicted on them?" Azalar asked. "What do you mean?"

"There's another one I'd like to see on the gallows," Fred growled. "The commander of the Alliance fort, Fort Ilkard, was one of those pigs who thought the Uthgart were subhuman beasts. So, as a form of 'pest control', he managed to acquire several crates of blankets that were infected with the Plague, and delivered them to the Elk Tribe as a gift from the Alliance."

"Needless to say, as soon as they realized what was causing the deaths of their people, the Elk Tribe declared war on the Alliance." Aribeth sighed heavily. "Maugrim believed it was the perfect opportunity to bring one of the Uthgart tribes under Morag's control, and it had been handed to him on a silver platter by the Alliance. When he promised them he could deliver a cure for the Plague, they were willing to do anything he wanted."

"What happened to Damas?" Azalar asked.

"Good question," Fred said. "Unfortunately, I couldn't kill him, because that would have forced me to fight most of the surviving members of his command – and most of them were innocent farmers who'd been drafted by Damas to fill his ranks as the Uthgart killed his soldiers. It would have been a slaughter, and they were innocent, unlike Damas." He sighed heavily. "All I was able to do was report his actions to High Priest Neurik and Aarin Gend. What actions they took, I don't know."

"Luckily for everyone concerned," Aribeth said, smiling lovingly at Fred, "Fred was able to find a solution to the problem that delivered a cure to the Uthgart without their tribe submitting to Morag."

"Oh, that was easy," Fred said, blushing. "I just threatened to deliver the plague blankets to Neurik if Damas didn't hand over his copy of the cure. At the time, I was just concerned with helping the Elk Tribe. I figured I could go back and deal with Damas later."

"So, that was the last time the two of you were involved in the same thing until the siege of Neverwinter?" Storm asked.

"That's right," Aribeth said. "Even then, Fred was mostly active in smashing the tools of the siege – the war golems, siege engines, and wizards Maugrim had acquired in his months of planning before I became part of their plans."

"That was the easy part," Fred said, shrugging. "The hard part was finding you. If not for Maugrim's habit of sending his people written orders, in plain text, rather than code, I might never have stumbled across the portal that led to your command center. Once I found it, going through the guards was easy."

"Even the Guardian?" Aribeth asked, a surprised look on her face. "Maugrim claimed that the Guardian was the most powerful protector he could conjure up."

"That thing at the portal?" Fred asked. "I went through that like a cat through a demon."

"Like a cat through a demon?" Elminster asked. "Even I don't recognize that phrase. Care to explain?"

"Oh! Sure," Fred said. "Bast – Sharess on Toril – is, in the church I was a member of on Earth, not merely the Goddess of pleasure. She was, first and foremost, the Goddess of shredding demons. In fact, one of Her most popular images was an image of Her, in the shape of a house cat, standing on the prow of Ra's sun barque and carving up Apep with a dagger. She did this every morning, so that Ra could exit the underworld and sail through the heavens. Of course, on Earth, Set was also one of Ra's protectors. He stood on the bow of the sun barque and used His spear to ward off Apep while Ra traveled through the underworld every night. Needless to say, their copies on Toril are quite a bit different from their Earthly originals."

"Sharess? Shredding demons?" Storm asked, a look of disbelief on her face.

"Absolutely," Fred said. "So, 'like a cat through a demon' was a phrase a lot of us who knew Her on Earth used to describe something that was as easy – but potentially violent – as a cat shredding a demon."

"Well, if it was that easy, that explains why Fred wasn't even breathing hard when he came through the portal," Aribeth said. "By that time, I had recovered enough of my own self that I didn't want to fight him, but Morag would not let me simply surrender. At least, not until he had beaten me so thoroughly that she was convinced he was going to kill me, and simply abandoned me. When she did that, I was myself again, and able to surrender to him."

"That was my happiest day in months," Fred said. "When Ari lay down her arms and surrendered to me, I knew she was beginning to escape from Morag's hold on her. Still, she was wise enough to know that she was still vulnerable, after having been under Morag's spell for all that time, so rather than join me in killing Maugrim, she went to the palace and turned herself in. Honestly, I was terrified when she did that. Between the chance that a random soldier would see her and try to claim the price on her head before she got to the palace, and the chance that Nasher would decide to kill her on the spot, I was about ninety percent certain that I would not see her again – at least, not alive."

"Still, you killed Maugrim and came to the palace," Aribeth said.

"Yeah, I did," Fred said. "Maugrim wasn't nearly as easy as his guardian, what with the tricks he'd pulled to avoid death, but Linu and I still managed to finish him off. I wasn't nearly as stressed by that as I was by the fear that I'd find Ari dead. So when I got to the palace and discovered that she had made it, and was being kept in a cell in the dungeon, I could have walked on air."

"You were happy?" Sylune whispered.

"Ecstatic," Fred said. "Ari was alive, she was safe – for the moment, at least, and I had a chance to ensure that she was freed from Morag for good. Compared with the situation the day before, circumstances were so much better, I couldn't help but be happy."

"Yes, I can understand that," Sylune agreed.

"I'm not sure I can claim I was as happy as Fred," Aribeth said, "but I was relieved that I hadn't been executed on the spot, that I was free of Morag, even if only provisionally, and that Fred had not simply given up on me. Until that day, I had not realized just how deeply he loved me, nor how much I had been counting on his love to pull me through. Even as Morag's slave, my true self, buried deep beneath her control, was focused on Fred as my salvation. I suppose I should be ashamed that, as a former paladin of Tyr, my hopes were not invested in Him, but I find that I can not muster up any feeling of shame for that. I love Fred. I loved Fred, even through the power of Morag's sorcery. And I relied on that love as my sanity, my hope, everything it took to remain myself under that creature's domination."

"Much the way I relied on my love to guide me to you, ne?" Fred said.

"Fred," Azalar said, "I've noticed you using that word a lot. What does 'ne' mean?"

"Huh?" Fred asked, then laughed, blushing. "Oh! It's a word from the language spoken in a country on Earth called Japan. I'm not sure what the exact meaning of the word is, but it's used by Japanese people, and by a lot of the people I knew on Earth, to include concepts like 'isn't that right' or 'wouldn't you agree'. One of the funniest things you can see on Earth is a conversation between two Japanese girls, noticing an attractive man. It usually goes something like this: girl one looks the man over, then glances at her friend and says, 'Ne?' Then her friend looks the man over, glances back at the first, and says, 'Ne, ne!' Unless you noticed them undressing the man with their eyes, it wouldn't make any sense at all."

"Nice to know girls are the same no matter what world," Storm laughed.

Elminster humphed and lit his pipe.

Azalar rubbed his horns and muttered, "It's things like this that give me a headache."

"He does things like that all the time," Aribeth said, while smiling fondly at Fred. "It was part of how I knew it was really him when he came to me and insisted we needed to escape from Neverwinter. I knew, no matter how good a copy anyone else might make, they couldn't copy his otherworldly habits and ways of speaking."

Aribeth looked up from where she knelt in prayer on the floor of her cell. It had been days since the destruction of the Source Stone – an event that had nearly brought the palace down on her head – and she had discovered two things in that time: first, that Fred kept his promise to always be at her side – at least, when Lord Nasher did not demand his presence as part of Neverwinter's rebuilding effort, and second, that her prayers to Tyr were receiving no more reply than they had in Port Llast. Even when Oleff had come and prayed with her, adding his voice to hers in asking what form her atonement should take, no reply was forthcoming. It had puzzled and disturbed Oleff, while confirming to her that she had sinned so greatly that Tyr wanted nothing more to do with her. Still, as long as Fred was with her, she could endure.

Through the door of her cell, one of the guards leered at her. She shuddered and lowered her head, focusing on her prayers and doing her best to push the image of the guard's evil leer out of her mind.

"Oh, look," the guard sneered. "The treasonous bitch is pretending to pray. Maybe we should give her something to worship she's more deserving of. What do you think, Ander?"

Another guard, out of sight beyond the walls of her cell, answered the first, "Leave me out of it, Bran. I have no desire to explain anything to her lover."

"Why should he have all the pleasure?" Bran complained. "I think I'm going to get me a taste of elf bitch."

The sound of her door being unlocked drew Aribeth's attention back up, just in time to see the sneering guard enter her cell.

"So," Bran sneered as he walked around Aribeth, while she held herself very still and attempted to ignore his leers, "our very own traitor thinks she's too good for mere prison guards, does she? You're nothing, bitch. You'll get yours soon enough, and so will that traitor-loving 'hero' of yours."

Aribeth shuddered. She knew she deserved death, but could they really turn on Fred, as well? Suddenly, she felt pain in her scalp, as the guard grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. Bran glared into her eyes, and, while holding her hair with one hand, undid the fasteners of his pants with the other. She let out a whimper while trying to find a way to escape. She knew she couldn't fight back, because prisoners had no right to defend themselves against guards. When she had been Lord Nasher's agent, she had seen several cases where prisoners had been battered by the guards, and no matter how badly they were used, if they raised a hand against the guard, they were put to death. Bran's pants were around his ankles, and he began slapping her face with his phallus, while laughing evilly.

In desperation, Aribeth silently cried out, hoping with all her heart that Fred's God would grant her a small measure of the consideration Fred did. "Kelemvor, please help me! I know I don't deserve it, but I beg you, protect me against this vile man."

Aribeth felt herself falling back into her body, just in time to feel blood splash the side of her face and hear Fred's growl of rage. She opened her eyes, and saw Bran's hands – and phallus – laying on the floor of her cell. Bran was screaming in pain and stumbling around the cell, mindlessly flailing his arms in front of him.

"Time to go," Fred growled, grabbing Aribeth's arm and pulling her to her feet. As they left her cell, Aribeth noticed his favorite shield was strapped across his back, over his pack, and he was holding her with his shield hand, while his sword, still dripping with Bran's blood, was in his sword hand.

Ander was half-way across the dungeon by the time they cleared the door of Aribeth's cell. Fred fixed him with a glare that brought him up short.

"Don't," Fred growled. "If you try to stop us, you will die. Don't make me kill you."

"Hey," Ander said, holding up his hands, "I have a wife and kids to go home to. Do whatever you're going to do."

"Wise choice," Fred said. He lead Aribeth to a new door in the dungeon, in an area that had been a prison cell when she was Lord Nasher's agent. Without pausing, he held his sword crosswise in front of himself and barked a word she didn't recognize, that sounded vaguely like it was dwarven. A ram-shaped ball of force fired out of one of his rings and blew the door out of its frame. They stepped over the wreckage and into a tunnel she had never seen before – one that looked as if it were as old as some of the caverns she had once hunted orcs in. Lit by the glow of his sword, Fred stalked down the tunnel, around a corner, and into a chamber that had clearly been someone's laboratory not too long ago. The chamber exited with two archways to the left, both of which had once had doors but now had only splintered wood, and also opened directly ahead onto a much larger space, with water that stretched far enough away that the echoes of their footsteps faded into the distance.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Aribeth asked, eying the lake.

"Yes, we are," Fred said, stripping off his armor and storing it in one of his bags. This was her first clue that he had acquired a bag of holding while they had been apart. Once he was down to his breeches, he turned to her and said, "I'm sorry I couldn't rescue your armor and swords. I promise, we'll find you new ones, once we're far enough away that you won't be instantly recognized."

"But, I can't just run away from justice," Aribeth objected.

"You aren't," Fred said. "What Nasher and the high priest have planned for you is not justice, it's butchery."

"It's what I deserve, though."

"Not even demons deserve what they have planned. As for justice, if you want that, then we'll just have to come up with some way to spread as much good as Morag made you spread evil." Fred took the ring he had used on the door off and tucked it in the bag with his armor, then donned another ring and removed a matched pair of heavy platinum pendants from the bag. Putting one on and offering the other to her, he said, "Here. Put this on. If you hear anyone coming before I find what I'm looking for, dive into the lake."

Aribeth took the necklace and put it on. Immediately, the air around her seemed to be cleaner, as if it had been magically filtered. She crouched by the edge of the water and looked back the way they had come, with a sigh of relief when she realized that the light from Fred's sword was bright enough that she could see almost to the end of the tunnel. It wasn't long before she saw the flickering of torches, reflected off the wall at the corner of the tunnel.

"Someone's coming," Aribeth said.

"Damn it!" Fred cursed, and closed his bag. Once it was in his pack, he took Aribeth's hand and leaped into the water, pulling her in with him.

"I'm surprised," Elminster said. "You honestly didn't understand why Tyr did not answer either you or Oleff?"

"No," Aribeth said. "I still don't understand. Oleff was so devout that he should have been high priest in Neverwinter, but the highest rank he ever achieved was Judge."

"And did Oleff ever accept a blessing from the false Helmites?"

"No...."

"And Nasher and the High Priest?"

"Both of them did," Aribeth said. "In fact, they were the first people in the city to receive the blessings, from Desther, personally."

"Oh my," Fred said softly. "What are the odds their blessings were...special?"

"I don't think we even need to guess," Aribeth said, a horrified look on her face. "It explains so much!"

"And we missed it entirely," Fred said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I am such an idiot!"

"That goes without saying," Elminster said blandly. Sylune shot a book from a nearby bookcase at him, while Storm reached out to slap the back of his head. Elminster plucked the book out of the air, glanced at it while ignoring Storm's slap, and commented, "Thanks, but I've read this one already."

"Do you think it's possible they can be exorcised after all this time?" Aribeth asked thoughtfully.

"Do you think we can get close enough to try?" Fred replied. They looked at each other with a blaze of determination in their eyes.

Aribeth turned to Storm and opened her mouth to speak, just as the house was rocked by the sound of thunder. Sylune winced in pain, whispered, "The Portal!" and vanished.

"Damn it!" Storm cursed, rising to her feet. "That portal was destroyed!"

"You, of all people, know a portal is never truly destroyed," Elminster said. "We'd better investigate."

"Since you're inheriting the castle, you'll need to see this," Storm said. "Azalar?"

"Yes," Azalar said, rising to his feet. "The grove is the quickest route. Follow me."

Elminster humphed, then rose to his feet to follow, while Storm herded Aribeth and Fred out, in Azalar's wake.

Azalar led them out to the road, then north. Just before he reached the earthworks that blocked the ground between the road and the Ashaba, he turned into the woods, and along a trail that led to a clearing that looked, even to Fred, like an abandoned druid grove. Just within the boundary of the grove, Azalar called out in a language that sounded to Fred somewhat like Elven, but not quite enough for him to understand clearly. After a minute, a portal appeared in mid-air, with no visible containing structure.

"Not many people know about the backroads, much less have a chance to use them," Storm said, while grinning. "Just stay close and you won't get lost." With that, she followed Azalar through the portal. Aribeth smiled and led Fred through the portal.

On the other side, Fred saw a network of trails, all converging at this spot, then running off through the woods, which glimmered with an inner light of their own, almost like they were made of moonlight. In the brush and trees were creatures, not quite visible, yet detectable enough that Fred could tell they were watching the group.

Azalar picked one of the trails and started down it. The group reached its destination – a spot that looked and felt like a hole in the path – in a matter of just a few seconds.

Storm indicated the hole and said, "This is part of what you need to rebuild. It won't be as easy as the physical castle, but it's just as important."

Azalar chanted again, for a longer time, while appearing as if the effort was much greater at this location. Once the portal opened, it looked ragged and unstable. Storm pushed Fred and Aribeth toward it, then moved to Azalar's side. She placed a hand on his shoulder, and silver fire flowed from her into him. As the fire flowed, the portal stabilized, just enough that Aribeth and Fred were able to leap through it without risk of contact with the edges.

On the other side, Elminster waited in the courtyard of a ruined castle. The west end of the courtyard was bound by a tower made of rough stone blocks and a stables that looked as if they had been made of concrete. The east end of the courtyard was rubble and unfinished foundations. Fred groaned when he saw the condition of the place.

"We might as well tear it down and start from the ground up," Aribeth whispered to Fred.

"You think so, too?" Fred asked softly.

"It's obvious, don't you think? I like the idea of using Stoneshape to make the walls, though. We'll have to see if we can find a wizard willing to work for us when it's time to rebuild." Aribeth smiled and squeezed Fred's hand gently.

Fred drew his sword and held it up, shining light over the courtyard and revealing the stable and tower doors, as well as the thresholds where doors would have gone in the ruined parts of the structure. Elminster led the way into the tower, down the stairs to the basement. After several minutes of following him down a wide hallway that led into a space that still contained lingering essence of evil, Aribeth and Fred waited while Elminster opened a concealed door near an altar at the end of the hallway.

Beyond the concealed door was a room, about ten feet long by fifteen feet wide, with the floor covered with pulverized rock in a fan that spread from an archway in the center of the wall farthest to the left. The archway itself was large enough to drive a wagon through. Fred noted the archway in passing, for his attention was taken up by what he saw laying on the floor in front of the archway. There, curled up in a fetal position, was a naked woman. Fred and Aribeth ran to help her, and when they knelt on either side, both stopped, stunned into immobility by what they saw. The woman laying on the floor, with the exception of a few details, could have been Aribeth's twin. The only differences they could see between the woman on the floor and Aribeth as she knelt with Fred, was that the unconscious woman was human, and while Aribeth was fuller in her hips, the unconscious woman was fuller in her bust. Hanging from a chain around her neck was a golden pendant, in the shape of a cat holding a knife.

Fred shook his head as he looked at her and whispered, "It can't be."

"What can't be?" Aribeth asked, raising her eyes from the mystery woman to Fred.

"She looks like...," Fred raised his eyes and looked into Aribeth's eyes as he said softly, "She looks like you...and...Lada."

"Your Lada?" Aribeth asked. "The one you told me so many stories about?"

"Yes," Fred said, his voice shaking. "I never really made the connection before, but...."

"You first felt comfortable with me," Aribeth said gently, reaching out to touch Fred's cheek, "because I reminded you of someone you loved before you died. As we grew to know each other, you grew to love me for myself, not merely for who I reminded you of. Now...this woman has you shaken, because her presence brings that similarity to the forefront of your mind, and you are afraid that I will think less of you for it."

Fred nodded slowly, his eyes still fixed on Aribeth's.

"My love," Aribeth said, her voice still gentle and soothing, her fingers tracing Fred's cheek and jaw, "how could I think less of you for the love in your heart? If anything, I would think less of you if you had forgotten your love for her. Now, whoever this woman is, it is up to us to help her. Do you have a spare cloak in one of your bags?"

"I...I think so," Fred said, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it, and reaching for one of his belt pouches. He fumbled around inside it until he found and drew out a simple black cloak, which he draped over the unconscious woman.

As if the touch of the fabric was all it took to wake her, she stirred and blearily said, "Fred? Oh, good. You're in my dream, too." After speaking, she turned over, pulling the cloak with her as if it were a blanket.

Fred fell back and sat with a thud, staring at the woman in shock. "L...Lada? But...how?"

"How, indeed," Elminster grumbled. "Damnable idiots thought throwing up a wall of stone was enough to close the portal, but it's not an interplanar portal, so how did she come through it?" He began studying the archway intently, occasionally muttering as he cast spells to analyze the magic on it.

"Fred?" the woman said, sitting up suddenly. "But you're dead!"

"I'm sorry," Fred said. "Oh, wait. That's your line."

"Fred!" Aribeth chided. "Be nice!"

Lada began laughing, then stopped, a confused look on her face. "Wait...that didn't hurt. What the hell?"

Fred threw his arms around Lada and hugged her tight. "You're alive! You're here! How?"

Lada pushed Fred away and looked at him blearily, as if she couldn't fully focus on him, then said, uncertainly, "Bast said my favorite puppy did a half-assed job?"

Fred looked over at Aribeth, then began laughing. "Bast...said....talk about perfect timing!"

Aribeth smiled at Fred, then gently touched Lada's shoulder and said, "Your name is Lada, am I right? My name is Aribeth. I am Fred's other wife."

Lada turned her head toward Aribeth, tilted it, and blinked as she again tried unsuccessfully to focus on the face before her, as she stammered, "But, but....oh." After a pause, while she tilted her head the other way and turned her unfocused gaze from Aribeth to Fred, then back to Aribeth, she said, "But I'm not...I just...huh?"

"It's all right," Aribeth said gently. "Fred confuses me sometimes, too." She laughed softly and winked at Fred. "Why don't we get you out of here before you get bruises from all these rocks?"

Fred nodded and rose to his feet, then reached down and offered the women his hands. "I have boots in one of my bags, and I should have robes, too. But it'll be easier for you to put them on if you're not trying to avoid tripping on rubble at the same time."

"Oooh...I'm going to throw up," Lada moaned. "How can you manage two eyes without feeling sick?"

Aribeth took Fred's hand and rose to her feet, then put her hand on Lada's shoulder. "Just take my hand, Lada. You don't have to see it."

Lada closed her eyes and said, with a tone of deep relief, "Thank you." She took Aribeth's hand and rose to her feet, the cloak sliding off her in a heap at her feet.

Fred crouched, picked up the cloak, and put it on Lada, clasping it at her neck. "Here you go. Aribeth's right. You don't have to try to figure out two eyes right now, ok? Would it help if I used a scarf to cover one of your eyes?"

"I have to learn eventually, don't I?" Lada asked, clearly not relishing the thought, but facing it head-on. "Just...give me time, ok?"

"You'll have all the time you need," Aribeth said.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "As long as we don't get more of those damned bounty hunters."

"Who'd you piss off?" Lada asked Fred.

Aribeth shot Fred a look that clearly indicated, 'don't bother her with the details', then said gently, "Don't worry about it, hon. Right now, all you have to worry about is learning about your new home."

Fred looked at Elminster and asked, "You have lights of your own, Old Man? The sword's coming with us."

Elminster glanced over, grunted, and waved dismissively, then gestured and summoned several green glowing torches from the hallway. Once they settled into their brackets on the walls, the glow brightened until it was easily bright enough to read the finest of runes.

"OK," Fred said. "You need anything, give a yell."

"What I need," Elminster grumbled, "is some peace and quiet so I can study this portal."

Aribeth laughed and teasingly said, "He sounds like you, sweetheart."

Fred stuck his tongue out at Aribeth, then led the way into the hall and back upstairs. In the tower's entry at ground level, he stopped and dug into the belt pouch he had pulled the cloak from. After several minutes of searching, he pulled out a pair of black dancing slippers and a brightly-colored robe, and offered them, one at a time, to Lada. "Here we go. I knew I had something in here that would be useful."

"You've got the Doctor's pockets! Finally! You've always wanted them!" Lada shook her head, then asked, "Am I awake? You've got the Doctor's pockets."

"Yes, love," Fred said. "You're awake. We'll explain when we get you back to Storm's house."

"What are you going to do next?" Lada asked distractedly, while putting on the slippers and robe, "offer me a jelly-baby? Thank you for the clothes."

Aribeth stood back and chuckled, watching as Fred tried to manage this little situation. As much as she loved him, it was still fun watching what he did when his equilibrium was upset. Once Lada was dressed, and her robe began glowing as brightly as a strong light spell, Aribeth said, "We should hurry back to Azalar and Storm, so they can close that portal."

"Good point," Fred said. "Are you ok, Lada? Do you need to take my arm, or Aribeth's?"

"Yes," Lada said. "Yours." As she took Fred's offered arm, she asked, her voice shaking, "What did I do wrong? Why am I glowing?"

"Oh, you didn't do anything wrong," Fred said. "That's just a Robe of Scintillating Colors. It glows like that all the time. It has some other powers, too, if you know the commands to activate them. But for now, the most important thing is that it's a robe. And the slippers are Slippers of Spider Climbing. They'll let you walk on any surface – as long as it's not too slippery – just like a spider does, for about ten minutes a day."

"Umm...umm...oh...kay...," Lada said slowly, looking at Fred as if he had just grown a second head.

Aribeth's chuckles turned to laughter. "Let's see you get yourself out of this one, sweetheart!" she teased. "But while you're figuring that out, we need to get moving. I'm sorry, Lada, but two of our friends are holding a portal open for us, and we need to get through it so they don't exhaust themselves."

"Good point," Fred said, grateful for the distraction of something practical to do. He led Lada out of the tower, toward the ragged hole in the air that marked the portal to the backroads, directly over the center of the courtyard. "When we get to the portal, just step over it like you would over a curb, ok?"

"I guess this is payback for all the confusion I used to give you," Lada murmured, then said, "OK...I'll do my best." She bit her lip and clung tightly to Fred's arm.

Aribeth led the way through the portal, then turned back to take Lada's arm as Fred helped her through the opening. As soon as Fred was through, Azalar let the portal close, and sat down heavily.

"What did you find?" Storm asked, while looking Lada over.

"This is Lada," Aribeth said. "Fred's Lada."

"She came through the portal?" Storm asked, surprised. "But that's not a planar portal. All it does is go to Zhentil Keep."

"Regardless," Fred said, "she came through it. And whoever opened the portal did it with so much power they blasted the wall of stone that someone had used to block it. Elminster's studying what's left right now."

"Bast," Aribeth said. "Not 'whoever', love. From what she said, it was Bast."

"Which is your world's version of Sharess," Storm said, "right?"

"Right," Fred said. "Lada said Bast sent her here because her favorite puppy – that would be me – had done a half-assed job. Which means She knew, even from Earth, that I had missed my chance to deal with the desecration of Neverwinter."

"Not our only chance," Aribeth said. "Just the easiest one. Now we have to figure out how to do it, while dealing with whatever they have managed to build up over the last five years."

"Yes," Lada stammered, "Bast...asked me...if I would help. And anyway...she wanted her image here...to get an image overhaul. And...she thought....maybe I could help?"

"Well," Storm said, taking firm control of the situation. "First, we'll go back to my house, and talk about this over dinner. Then, we'll decide what to do about the Neverwinter problem." She held up her hand. "I know, I know, you two want to rush back there and throw yourselves into the fray, but that would just be a nasty way to commit suicide." She looked at Fred. "You offered to help us, now let us help you."

"OK," Fred said, surrendering gracefully – and gratefully, if he admitted the truth to himself. He looked at Lada and asked, "Are you ok, love? It's not too much for you to take, is it?"

"Better than he is," Lada said, looking in Azalar's direction. "Not that that says a lot."

"I'll be ok," Azalar said. "Just give me a bit to rest."

"Wouldn't it be better for you to rest back at the grove?" Fred asked.

"Wait...grove?" Lada asked, confused. "Where am I, anyway?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Azalar said, pushing himself to his feet. "This way." He started down the path toward the grove, leading the way for the rest.

Aribeth touched Lada's shoulder and said gently, "You're with friends, hon. Fred and Azalar are right, though. We'll all do a lot better at the grove than right here. There's something about this place that feels...toxic."

"Given all that's happened here," Storm said, "I'm not surprised. You all follow Azalar. I'll cover our rear."

"Here you go, love," Fred said, as he offered Lada his arm. "We should get moving."

Once again, the trip from the castle to the grove took only a few seconds. At the grove, Azalar sat by the crossroads and breathed deeply for several breaths, before saying, "I should have remembered, that place truly is toxic. The Zhents deliberately cut the road there, and used their magic to desecrate the place so that it would not heal on its own."

Storm nodded, then looked from Aribeth to Lada and back again. She shook her head and muttered, "Definitely at home. I think I'm going to have to break out some of that wine Alassra brought me last Shieldmeet. We're going to need it."

Azalar rose to his feet and opened the portal, much more quickly from this side than from the other, and the group quickly crossed through and returned to Storm's house.

In the house, Storm conjured up another chair to add to the circle around the fireplace, and said cheerfully, "Welcome to my home, Lada. Please make yourself comfortable."

Lada rubbed her eyes and whimpered, "This seeing thing is confusing. I'd swear there wasn't a chair there a minute ago."

Fred took her arm and guided her to the chair. "It's ok, love. It wasn't there. Storm just conjured it up for you."

"OK..." Lada whimpered, then broke down into sobs, her head in her hands.

Fred knelt and wrapped his arms around her, and when Aribeth looked at him questioningly from the other side of Lada's chair, he nodded. Aribeth knelt and joined Fred in embracing Lada, while whispering soothingly to her, "It's ok, Lada. You're safe here, with people who love you and want the best for you."

Fred whispered to Lada, in agreement with Aribeth, "It's ok, love. Everything will be ok."

Storm crouched in front of Lada and pressed a mug into her hands. "Here, hon. This will help." The scents of chocolate and chamomile rose in the steam from the mug.

Lada took a sip and sputtered, then whimpered as she looked up with sad eyes.

Fred laughed softly and teased Storm with, "See? I told you. And I like my chocolate a lot stronger than she does." He gently kissed Lada's temple and said, "It's ok, love. It's not rude to ask for milk and honey. I promise." Then he looked at Storm and said, while taking the mug from Lada's hands, "Seriously, I think she could drink it more easily if it had about a half a mug of milk in it, and two or three tablespoons of that good honey your hives produce."

Lada turned beet red and looked down, trying to hide her face behind her hair, while saying, "I'm sorry I'm such a bother. I didn't mean to be bad. I'm sorry."

Fred sighed heavily. "Lada, you are not a bother. Seriously!"

Aribeth shot an annoyed look at Fred and gently spoke to Lada. "Lada, love, look at me. I promise, I won't yell at you."

Lada cringed away from Fred's voice, then looked at Aribeth, her eyes filled with confusion. Fred slowly, silently, banged his forehead against the back of Lada's chair.

"I know you don't know me," Aribeth said, "but Fred has told me many stories about you in our time together. So many, that I feel as if I almost know you. And now that I've seen you, I realize we could almost be sisters, parted only by the barriers of reality."

"Oh, no," Lada whimpered. "Great! So everybody already knows what a horrible person I am, and somehow I have...somehow I have to do what Bast wants me to do, and I'm so confused!"

"Horrible?" Aribeth asked. "What are you talking about? Fred loves you so much, I could feel his pain as he talked about you, about how much he missed you, about how much he worried about you. If there's anyone around here who deserves to be called horrible, it's not you, Lada." She looked up at Fred and grinned impishly as she added, "And he won't let me call myself horrible."

"That's right," Fred growled lovingly. "Because you aren't. Neither of you is. And if you continue to insist on calling yourself that, I may have to spank you."

Aribeth turned beet red and whispered, "Not here! Wait until we're home!"

"Wait...she said other wife!" Lada moaned. "But you've only been dead two weeks!"

"Huh?" Fred and Aribeth said, in stereo.

"Two weeks?" Fred said. "I arrived here in 1370...that makes it...almost eight years."

"Two weeks?" Aribeth said, simultaneously. "I met Fred in 1372...that was a little over six years ago."

Lada rubbed her temples and whimpered, "If I wasn't confused before, I really am now. I mean, where have I been? It's only been two weeks! Huh?"

"It looks like you died, just like I did," Fred said. Aribeth shot him a frustrated look, and he said, "I mean, look at yourself. You have a brand new body."

"New body?" Lada asked, confused. "Well, it doesn't hurt...at least, I think that's what this feeling is...not hurting, I mean...."

"Trust me," Fred said, kneeling beside Lada and Aribeth. "I was just as confused when I was resurrected. It took me weeks to figure out what pain is supposed to feel like, when you don't feel it all the time. And that's not even getting into having normal vision."

Azalar stood and said softly to Storm, "I think I should head home. They need time to sort things out, Elminster hasn't returned, and I need to rest after dealing with that broken backroad. Let me know when they're ready to discuss what they need to rebuild the castle, ok?"

"Sure thing, hon," Storm said, also speaking softly. "If they can pull themselves together enough to manage it, I'll send them home, too. I think they need to work things out in their own home, where they have all the time and space they need."

Azalar nodded and headed for the door, resting a hand on Fred's shoulder as he passed. Fred looked up and nodded, then returned his attention to Lada. Aribeth shot a grateful smile at Azalar, then returned her attention to Lada.

Lada looked up as Azalar passed, started, then stubbornly set her jaw and said to Fred, "I'm sorry. Apparently, I was sent here to do a job, but I'm in no condition to start on it tonight. I'm sorry, but I'm going to need a crash orientation on this world so I can do it. I'm sorry. I'll go and do what I was sent here to do as soon as I can."

Fred pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, soft sigh. "Lada, what you need right now is a good night's rest. Why don't we go home and we can talk about this job of yours tomorrow." He looked up at Storm and said, "I'm sorry things got weird tonight."

Storm laughed. "Are you kidding? I know weird, and this doesn't even rank! And besides, you should never apologize for the actions of gods, nor should you apologize for taking care of someone you love."

Fred snorted, and Aribeth laughed. They stood, and Aribeth reached down, offering Lada her hands, while Fred got their cloaks and swords.

"Fred has the right idea," Aribeth said. "Why don't we go home, and we can figure things out there?"

Lada opened her mouth, as if to speak, then closed it, while getting a stubborn look in her eyes. Fred handed Aribeth her cloak and swords, then helped Lada clasp her cloak, before putting his own on. Storm gave each a friendly hug as they prepared to exit her house.