A Lot Bit of Normal

[Vahene]

(being spoken out loud:)

Everything started with those damn stones.

Afterwards, everything had gone to hell. Haxley had left on personal 'business', she had taken up an apprenticeship with Kell of all people (was she really that stupid in retrospect?--yes, the answer she repeatedly got was yes), and had become friends with his wife, Celadrith, who she knew now to be quite not what she seemed to be, quite the contrary in fact, and now she perhaps was in the most trouble she had ever been in .. in her entire short eighteen year old human life.

She ticked off her fingers. She betrayed the Ansharians, she betrayed Kell and Maelstrom to Raeflyn and the Redboots of all people, and if that wasn't enough.. she didn't intend to ever be loyal again to any of them. Those stones were what made her do everything she did. It was funny actually--Kell and Celadrith suggested the very thing--they suggested saying that it was the stones to get out of being in trouble, but when it ended up being the actual truth, well, wasn't that rather odd?

.

Heaven felt one of the nurses poke at her head again.

"You seem to be completely free of your previous ailment dear, how grand," the nurse smiled brightly. "As for what you were just telling me, I think you need to be very careful if you come across any of those Ansharians, or that drow. It isn't very likely they'll take your betrayal lightly."

Heaven sighed heavily. "No, I don't think they will either. I have something important to do first--I need to find Lone, but I also need to work on my control. Kell's "training" left my power scattered all over the place, and now I can see why Falson was so damn concerned. Even now, I can sense no shadows, no darkness--but well, it's hard to explain, there's only weakness and emptyness now, that needs to be strengthened and filled."

"My sister was a wizard dear, I understand," the nurse patted her shoulder, surprising her. "My dear, you were in here before, don't you remember, for a common ailment, you burnt out your magic when you first came to the village, and you were the sweetest thing that I ever saw. But, recently, walking along, you had a darkness to you that made even the staunchest Redboot afraid. We are all glad to see you smiling and laughing again, dear."

Heaven smiled, appropriately. "Thank you."

The nurse nodded once. "Now then, no effects seem to be there from that poison, and you also seem to have no effects from magical burn out, or from any other domination spells, or other mind control--you appear quite healthy in fact. I would, however, recommend, that you practice your control in that area a bit better."

Heaven laughed lightly and nodded. "All right, thank you." She walked towards the half open door slowly..

[lankycheese]

Huray! She's free! Now Til can talk to her without getting all grumpy.

[Vahene]

"Pardon me?" Heaven was stunned.

Morin didn't waver. "I want you to leave. Your presence makes the other patrons nervous."

Heaven felt jolted to her very core. She stumbled back towards the stairs to the second floor, where her things still lay in the bed she once shared with -- her eyes narrowed as a thought crossed her mind.

"If he were here with me, you would have no complaints would you?" Heaven said sadly, thinking of her missing lover.

Morin didn't reply, and truthfully, Heaven didn't need one. People would be distrustful of her likely for the rest of her days in some cases, simply because she associated with Kell. It was a mistake she would take to her grave, and not one she liked having done, in retrospect. She knew her actions were not fully her own, or her choices not fully ones she normally would have made, however, with that, she admitted fully to screwing up. She walked slowly to the second floor, her mind elsewhere, and her thoughts focusing on the exact place she needed to go. North.

.

"Please give this to Falson from Dragonswatch if he comes by," Heaven asked, handing a sealed letter to Morin. She merely accepted it with a shrug, slipping it behind the bar with other things. Morin looked at her with piercing eyes, watching and following her as she left, even out the door and down the road a bit.

"You're leaving?" Heaven turned to another voice, facing Captain Notter. She shrugged and slipped the pack over her shoulder. "I was going to leave regardless. I had the decision made sooner than I wished."

Notter frowned. "Where to, if anyone asks?" The sorceress quite simply had an aura of sadness and lonliness around her that could be dangerous if she crossed the wrong person.

"North." Was the only reply.

.
.
.

Dear Falson,

If you are reading this, it means that Morin actually did her duty and delivered this letter to you. She asked me to leave the Boar, so I have travelled north, north of Dasar, to the lands of the barbarians, into the mountains. I am aware it is where it ended with the stones, as Den advised me of everything that occured last eve.. but as that is where it ended, perhaps that is where it should begin anew for me.

I thank you once again for your help.. and your willingness to slay me, if it would have come to that. I am glad, as I am sure you and Jae both are, that it did not come to that.

When you need me for the scrying, please send me a missive, and I shall run to your aid. If you need me for anything at all, please advise me.. I shall be there. I owe you, Falson. I perhaps owe you my life. If it hadn't been for your constant advice, threads of which I barely even remember in my mind, which I repeated over and over trying to recall.. I never would have came to the realization that I did, that the stones were controlling me, the entire time, from start to finish.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Heaven, A simple sorceress.. and a friend.

[Vahene]

The Telkhmar lands were cold. Bitter cold. Even as Heaven entered the borders, she had forgotten the chill, even though it hadn't been that long since she braved the caves of the demon, merely days, with Lone himself. The very thought of the cleric brought tears to her eyes. Why did he have to be taken? Was this punishment for her own betrayals?

Had the Ansharians found out she betrayed them so soon? Had Anshar himself told them? Or had Maelstrom found out about her betraying him, and Kell? If the latter was the case, she was in just as much, if not more trouble.

She drew the line at endangering children, and Heaven knew full well Azrael had a child. When Kell told her he could get into the barracks, it didn't sink in at first .. the implication. But, as time moved on, it finally did.. what the drow must have been planning. She couldn't, and wouldn't ever hurt a child. Not to mention, what Kell had asked of her during that meeting--that wasn't something she could ever do.

That was why she told Rum, and gambled pretty high with telling her. She blurted it all out to her.. but told her she didn't want anyone to know it had been her. Rum told her it might help if people knew she was trying to do a good thing, but Heaven hadn't been convinced. She didn't want to be declared an enemy of the state merely for crossing paths, unwantingly, with Kell. Even though, she didn't remember part of the conversation, she didn't want to worry Rum by mentioning that little detail. In her mind, not remembering during the times the stones had control.. well, that was probably best.

A flash of gold startled her out of her thoughts, and Heaven jerked her eyes up and met Tilirinn Showra's eyes, of all people's. The conversation, for once in several weeks, was absolutely pleasant, and not tense at all.

"I trained up here, at one time," Tilirinn said.

Heaven took that in, seeming to digest it. It sealed a decision in her mind.

"I think I will stay here, for a while." Heaven decided. Her magic was still weak, and uncertain in the weave. And it wasn't stable enough to protect her, she was certain if anyone decided to attack her, especially if it was Kell. That drow, above all others, knew her quite well. Maelstrom, due to his association with Kell, probably knew her even better.

.

The sun set through the trees, and as the very last drop of sun sat Heaven looked across the flat stone surface, the very area that she still felt residual magic from. Lone was taken from this very spot, Heaven thought to herself.. as she walked to a specific point. She knelt on the ground and slid a Nyar forged hammer from a leather cord which had strapped it to her back.

A black pearl necklace slid softly from a pocket in her cloak. She placed it on the ground, in the exact spot she figured Lone disappeared from. Setting the pearl on the ground, she lifted the hammer and struck the pearl with the hammer, shattering it. Black dust littered the ground.

She left the hammer where it was. It was no longer needed.

The Ansharians would have felt what she just did. And they would be angry. Heaven would be waiting for them if they tried to find her. She knew her betrayal would not be dealt with lightly, but she wouldn't run from it. If they came, she would deal with them.

-H.

[Vahene]

The black pearl pendant, given to her by Celadrith, signified her loyalty to the Shadow Mages. Shadow Mages, the words thumped in Heaven's mind again. Somehow, not a group she was overly worried about after speaking with Chra'Noa only hours after destroying said pendant. Though every Ansharian would know, and every Shadow Mage would now know what she had done, especially since she confirmed it with Chra'Noa himself, it wasn't as if Heaven cared.

She cared more about what the other mage said to her when they stood up in the mountains. He spoke of her destiny, still unfulfilled.

"You were never really a Shadow Mage," Chra'Noa said to her.

Heaven smirked, "No, I guess I wasn't."

Her spirit never let her fully absorb what being one meant. But her soul, because of the stones, was now tainted. The creatures she summoned were evil, and she demonstrated it to Den, when he came calling even hours later after her interaction with Chra'Noa. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

"I came back to look for clues," Den told her.

Heaven had only shook her head and they kept walking, killing bears, mountain lions, and Ghen hounds, as was her habit now, preventing them from getting too close to the Telkhmar settlement. The demon was warping them, making them hostile. She had a Ghen hound's tear in her pack from one weak, friendly hound, and she kept it safe, for the time in which she might need it, but the rest of that hound's pack were violent and harsh.

Finally Den moved to leave. "You need to think about things." He told her when she confessed why she left. The words flicked through her mind quickly.. and then slowly they spread. She fell back on what Chra'Noa told her earlier.

He said that her destiny was unfulfilled, that she was chaos. Was she? She was chaotic, that was true, but she wanted to do good things, not necessarily bad. A balance had to be wrought, didn't it? Not necessarily good, not necessarily bad. For instance, killing someone wasn't bad, necessarily, if they were starving people out of spite. The action is chaotic, but also maintains both a good and evil action within it. The people aren't starving any longer, that is good, but the death itself, the slaying, is evil.

Heaven almost slapped herself, she sounded like a druid.

But, it was the truth, that is how she used to feel, before the stones corrupted her. She wouldn't have hesitated to kill a Varanite, because they disrupted her solitude, and everyone else's in the town. They attacked spitefully, and it wasn't necessarily the 'good' thing to do, but it was a balancing thing to do, and the killing was a chaotic action. Chra'No was right. She has always been attracted to the chaotic. She just simply did it, and it was there. She tried to do the right thing, enjoying things, and going with the flow, and mostly 'If it didn't bother her, she didn't care'.

Perhaps it was time to move south, towards Dasar. She couldn't promise herself going back to Daris anytime soon, but.. if that's where her feet took her, so be it. No doubt in her mind, however, that Chra'Noa was correct, she had to figure out her destiny before someone else did. Especially if it was the wrong someone.

At the very least, Heaven mused to herself, perhaps it was time for another visit to Falson. She surely trusted him a great deal at that moment, and quite bluntly, he was one of the ones she owed her life to. Maybe he could look inside the weave and see .. if anything was wrong, see if she missed anything. At one time she thought Alinkahar gave her her sorcerous magic, but if it wasn't him, then who was it?

-H.

[Vahene]

Heaven missed Dragonswatch by quite a bit.. and ended up in Daris somehow. She wasn't quite sure how but her feet led her to that wry, and shifty gnome in the Blue Boar, who wanted those moonstones so badly.

"I don't have to tell you who my employer is!" The gnome wailed. "I was chartered to get the stones, and I'm not going to dirty my fingers to do it."

"Tell you what, gnome, why don't I check things out on that Island for you?" Heaven insisted. It gave her a damn good excuse to go look for Lone, now that the gnome insisted he still wanted the stones. Lone destroyed them, but she could surely find -something- to replace them with, couldn't she?

"Yes, yes!" The gnome was happy. "You're powerful, you can do that."

Heaven turned to leave and immediately bumped into Morin, who had a rather upset looking Baeris beside her. Morin looked away, not at Heaven, as Heaven simply sighed.

"I'm leaving, I promise," Heaven said.

"No, you aren't," the Baron said. "Dear?"

"We don't want you to leave, Heaven." Morin mumbled. "Please, stay a while?"

Heaven was a bit surprised. "Very well. I'm off to Palemoon, however, but.. sure, I'll get a room when I return." She swiftly moved around the odd pair, overhearing something about 'good patron' and 'always pays on time' in regards to her from the Baron's lips. Well, true enough, she supposed.

Then she heard from Morin 'suspicious', and 'hanging around that drow' and her heart fell. Some people would always associate her with Kell. She had damned herself with that, and it was her own fault.

Exiting the Blue Boar, she broke out of her thoughts, and was shocked once again to look into the eyes and face of the one person she seemed to be running into an awful lot lately.

"Do you feel up to a trip to Palemoon, Den?" Heaven asked with a slight, ironic smile.

.

Palemoon was as horrible as she remembered the other times she was there. Both Heaven and Den decided it was a really wicked trick to get the money from the gnome and sell illusionary stones, since illusions of the stones were all that was left now on Palemoon. He still didn't reveal who he worked for, but Heaven would work on that at a later time.

She walked straight past the theatre, and felt a set of eyes on her. Walking slowly, and praying silently to whatever -good- god would hear her, she walked towards the farmlands, and didn't get so far as the gate, before she heard the one voice she damn well was hoping to avoid.

Isioviel's.

The conversation was tense. After insisting that she had nothing to do with it, and even advising her that she went to Palemoon with Den to try to search for Lone--she told the Redboot the only other spot she could think of they might hide him. The Temple of Alinkahar where Jenna died. It was a place she herself wanted to search, but Falson stopped her when she heard of Lone's disappearance, telling her such an action at that time would have been foolish, and they needed more people to attempt such a thing.

She supposed, now, looking back, Falson was correct. Storming the God of Destruction's temple would be a bit idiotic. Not to mention, suicidal. Speaking of suicidal things, she turned her eyes to Syndir. She had a confession to make, regarding the information she had given to Rum.. and then, she still had to find Falson.

.

[Vahene]

Heaven still couldn't believe it. She let her feet dangle into the waterfall and simply smiled. The smile would have made even the most sane person wonder if she was all right in the head, she looked so incredibly happy. She found Falson, but more than that. Haxley.

Her first thought actually had run along the lines of strangling the rogue, but it was quickly quenched when Falson reminded her of the rule he established with Kell and Celadrith--no romantic quarrels within Dragonwatch's walls. As Haxley quickly assured him, they didn't quarrel. Heaven bit back a laugh. No, they simply tore each other to pieces slowly, for the pleasure of it, and kissed and made up.

She caught up Haxley on as much as she could, quickly, but she was sure she missed some things. No doubt the rogue would find out about something and stomp back to her accusingly later. She'd get in trouble, its what she did. But, her spirit filled with a wholeness it didn't have there before, simply by seeing him again.

Heaven felt happy again. But, the rogue did mange to get himself into mischief quite a bit. And he said she got into trouble?

"More for us to take care of," He had said last night, when she commented who was likely out to kill her. Just about everyone that wasn't good, truthfully.

"Us?" Heaven repeated, hopefully. He simply looked at her and she melted.

-H.