Trademeet

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Andra kept a hawkish eye on Dalamar, waiting for further instructions from either Galliel or Elwithral.

 

"Andra, I need you to go round the other side of the house and check for guards, or other ways of getting in. Tania, try looking in some of the windows. Dalamar, you're with me. And remember, stay in shadows." Elwithral said as both him and Dalamar vanished.

"Why are you so nice to them?" Dalamar asked when they were out of earshot.

"To who?"

"The others of course. Two of them are half-breeds, one a no-brained barbarian, and another is a lowly plane-walker. So again, why are you so nice to them?"

"If you have forgotten, and it seems you have, we are both half-breeds, as you so eloquently put it." Elwithral retorted, "And besides, why not be nice to them? We can use them for our advantage! You don't think I am being this nice to them for no reason, do you? You seem to have forgotten that I am the Light, and am not a goody-two shoes, I do things for our gain. No one else's. Keep that in mind."

Dalamar smiled and nodded, "I now remember why we are such good friends." He patted him on the back and they crouched behind some bushes to keep watch.

 

A guard walked by one of the windows inside and happened to spot a woman standing behind a bush, looking in another window. He studied her, and concluded that she was not from here. He opened a window and yelled at the woman, "Hey, you! Get out of there!" Her golden hair swished as she spun around in shock.

 

'Oh nuts,' she grumbled under her breath as the guard shouted at her. She rolled under the shrub and used her teleportation ability to escape. It carried her to the opposite side of the building and she found better concealment by climbing up a leafy tree.

She flattened herself along a stout branch, lifting several leaves out of her sight. The window was off to her left, hard to see into and harder to get open. There was a thin woman pacing in front of the window. The woman would appear for a few seconds, then turn and walk in the other direction. Andra shut her ears to everything but what was beyond that window.

 

Tania gathered the moisture from around her and gradually blurred into a mist. Floating over to the building she moved from window to window. From time to time she saw a guard pacing patrol or a man or woman moving about. She paused and concentrated on trying to sense beyond what she could see but all she found was a blank. There appeared to be a magical wall past which she could not penetrate.

 

Elwithral watched the main door for what seemed like hours, and then he saw a man slowly walk up to the door. He thought to Tania, "Go to the front door! There's a man coming in and we might be able to get in!" He let the others know as well.

 

Tania prayed up a little breeze and floated over to the door. She could of course follow the man in but was sure they would question a mist floating around inside. She shot a thought back to Elwithral, "I'm here. Now what?"

 

Kalab and Galliel were rounding the corner and saw the man approaching the door. Luckily, she was on the other side of Kalab, so the man probably hadn't yet seen her. "Just keep walking," she whispered in Kalab's ear. She pulled a small, crunchy thing out of her pocket. It was a candied flea. She popped it into her mouth, and as she swallowed, she polymorphed into a flea, and hopped on Kalab's shoulder. He kept walking, and as he passed the man, she hopped over, onto the man's hat. The man walked into the estate.

 

"Can you spread yourself out until you seem like a slight breeze?" Elwithral thought back to Tania. "Hurry, before the door closes!"

Dalamar changed into his Darkness form and teleported into the man's shadow, just as the door closed.

 

Tania did as Elwithral said and managed to slip through the closing door blowing the man's clothes slightly. She then slipped behind a large chair.

Thought to Elwithral "I'm in and not seen yet. Orders Boss?"

 

"Just lay low until Dalamar reports back." Elwithral joined himself with the little light that there was a drifted through a window. He wondered how Kalab was going to get in. He thought about it, then polymorphed him into a house fly. Kalab was shocked, but flew in to the house anyway.

 

Galliel crawled from the man's hat to the back of his neck. With her flea eyes it was hard to see exactly what was going on, but it appeared that the man had entered the house and was being searched by some guards. Then he went down some stairs into a large hall with strange lights in it. She was trying to focus on what the man was doing with some odd mechanical items, but then she got an irresistable urge to bite the man and suck his blood. It was one of the downsides of this particular polymorph charm.

She pierced his skin easily with her saw like jaws, then sucked up a drop of blood, but a sudden furious scratching from the man's hand sent her flying onto the stone floor.

 

Dalamar moved the shadow to catch Galliel, and she fell into it, not getting a scratch.

 

Andra could see part of the room through the window, but she could hear nothing. Taking a chance, she vanished and reappeared inside the room. The person who was there gasped in shock at the intruder elf and a greenish ray leapt from his fingertips. It hit her in the chest, her eyes growing wide. Seconds later, there was only a small pile of ashes where the intrepid ranger once stood.

 

The man in the aqua colored robe blew on his fingertips and smiled.

"You did good to get rid of that one, Master," the voice of the Servant sounded in his head. "With her plane shifting abilities and experience, she was the one we needed to worry about to foil all our plans. Now, with the others securely caught inside the trap, is the perfect time to make a field test of the powers of The Book. The Light and the Darkness are not as powerful as the intended ones, but they should give us a good indication of the efficacy of our planned procedures. I can't wait to see your genius at work in disposing of these interlopers, Master."

"Yes, my Servant," the robed man thought back. "I have just the thing in mind." He headed towards the cellar.

[ December 21, 2005, 23:23: Message edited by: Scot ]

 

[edit: The Light and the Dark, or the Light and the Darkness ]

Elwithral sensed the magic and froze. Andra's life force was gone. There was power here. "Galliel, who are we dealing with here?"

 

Galliel moved into the shadows of a corner and changed back to her normal self, it was too difficult to speak with flea mouth parts. Once there, and hidden from the man she had bitten, who was now manipulating the strange mechanical devices in the room, she whispered to Elwithral. "I never was able to find out. It is some type of secret organization. Try as I might, I could never discover their name. Lots of wizards in it, others too, mermen, sailors, some pirates."

Just then, some beeping sounds came from the machines the man was looking at.

"Oooh, this is interesting. They're moving the package, much earlier than anticipated. The master will want to know about this." The man started to go to a door at the top of some stairs, but before he got far, the door opened and another man, wearing an aqua colored robe and carrying a large metal bound book, came into the room.

"Master," the first man started to say.

"Yes, yes, I know. That's why I'm here. We're going to do a field test immediately. I know not all of the prescribed preliminary tests have been completed, but we have to strike when the iron's hot," the second man interupted. He opened the book. "Here we are, common mortals... Faerun..."

"No, you don't seem to realize..." the other man tried to get the attention of his master.

"Would you please shut up? Now!" the one with the book said. "How do you expect me to find the right names with you constantly interupting?" He made a quick motion with his fingers and the other man's mouth clamped shut.

"Okay, here we are. Princess Galliel d'Ellestrathe Magerial," the man intoned with an aire of command, "I call you by name. Come out of the shadows and into the light, where I can get a good look at you."

Though she tried to resist, Galliel was pulled as if by strings. She stood and did as the man commanded. "Hmmn, very pretty," the man said. "I could put you to good use, after a thourough mind sweep of course. Very well, stand over there by the wall, and stay still."

He flipped a few pages in his book. "Now, Kalab Detrius, please resume your human form." With a crash, Kalab fell from the ceiling, where he had been resting as a fly. "Yes, you are most appropriately named. Mr. Detrius. Lots of meat though, Kaylee will surely like you well enough. Why don't you stand on your head until I say, 'stupid barbarian' again." Kalab quickly did so.

He flipped some pages again. "Okay, crossbreeds, aquaphilial, here we are. Tania of Lethander. Please resume your human form, here by your friends." Tania suddenly coalesced out of the mist. "Too bad you know too much, in a different thread of the weave you might have been one of us. Such is life. Stand on one leg until I say, 'sharkbait' again." She also did so.

"Well, mortals seem to pose no problem. Now for the real test. You two," the man turned to where Elwithral and Dalamar were hiding. "I'm sure you're wracking your brains trying to figure out just what it is I have, and how you're going to stop me, well, you might as well know. I have 'The Book of Names'. Yes, it does indeed exist, though it was next to impossible to actually find, and even harder to attain. But I'm sure it will be worth every ounce of blood shed for it. So, who would like to be the first immortal to have the honor of feeling its chains? Darkness came before the Light, so we'll go that way."

"Dalamar Kerratui Fiatè Maximus, I call you by name. Appear before me here and await my commands." Dalamar stood up and glared with hate at the man, who seemed totally unperturbed by the menacing stare.

"And finally, Elwithral Mingâno Irenicus, I call you by name. Appear before me here and await my command." Elwithral also stood, next to Dalamar. It was hard to read the expression on his face.

"Now, all the pieces are in place, I'm ready to begin." The man in the aqua robe looked at the first man. "I'd been thinking to have the Light kill all of his companions here, while the Darkness only gets to watch, and not even participate, then the two of them annihilate eachother, but it lacks a certain pannache. What do you suggest, Vizgea? You always have such an exurberence for torture ideas."

The first man said nothing, but motioned to his clamped mouth. The man in aqua snapped his fingers, "Sorry about that, now..."

"Master!" the first man shouted. "The package is being sent. Even now it is on the way, we don't have much time before interception becomes inconceivable."

"You idiot!" the man in aqua shot a ray of force at the first man that knocked him into the wall. "Why didn't you tell me at once?"

"I tried, Master, but.."

"Never mind, we've got to move at once, luckily the strike team is awaiting this moment in stasis. We'll deal with these clowns when we return." He started to move towards the door, then stopped and appeared to be listening to someone in his mind.

"I said, I'll deal with them when I return, I want to enjoy it, and that takes preparation. As you know, the package is of utmost urgency and takes precedence." He scratched his head. "Sometimes, I think that you forget who is the Servant and who is the Master. ... Okay, Vizgea will get rid of them, he can at least do that." He turned to the group, Kalab still standing on his head, Tania still standing on one leg, the others standing, still awaiting their commands. "All of you, do what Vizgea here orders you to. Vizgea, get rid of them, make it quick. I'll see you when I return." He left through the upper door.

"Oh sure," Vizgea said, "He gets to enjoy it and take preparation. I have to 'make it quick'. Well, I can think of something to do with you that will be most pleasing, to me at least, and won't last that long either," he said, leering at Galliel. He smiled a lecherous smile and moved towards her.

 

Kalab watched the man move towards Galliel. His barbarian rage was growing. Even upside down he could tell what was happening. Between dealing with foolish Dalamar and seeing what had happend to Andra, watching another friend be harmed would be to much. Try as he might though the barbarian couldn't move a muscle.

 

The man was one foot away from Galliel and stopped short. He looked quizzical, then put out his hand. Something stopped it. He punched the force, and Light and Darkness erupted and blew him backwards. He landed on his backside and he looked at Elwithral and Dalamar. Both of their eyes were crackling and pulsating with energy.

"Oh, well then.."

 

Elwithral thought to Kalab, Calm, young one, rage and fear is what they want. Do not give them what they want.