4. Silvershield Estate

Stella gets up slightly late, still weary and a bit disheveled when she leaves her room, She walks down the hall towards the dining hall. She stops when she hears the friendly banter and the cheerful strumming of Aiwë's lyre.

Should...she go in? Or would her presence simply remind them all of what she did yesterday? Aiwë and Aldous said they were glad she was staying, but there was obviously still tension and hurt.

When Aiwë starts playing and singing, each thrum of the instrument creates a thrum of longing in Stella's chest. She'd heard Aiwë sing this one on hunting expeditions. She had always hated being woken by it, but now it made her wish she were back in the Icewind Dale doing just that.

Best not to ruin the mood, she decides. She turns around and starts back to her room where she left her tomes, planning to start copying her wizard spells into the new book Aiwë bought for her.

Fear, she realizes, stopping.

That was what she was feeling, wasn't it? There was a logic to those thoughts, but also a lot of assumptions, and they were rooted in fear. If she wanted to show she cared, she couldn't just hide. But this was agonizing.

Dragon of Dawn, help me...

She slowly turns around and makes her way back into the dining hall, heart pounding, bracing herself as she enters and finds a seat. "Morning. Definitely awake," she says, forcing a weak smile as she looks at Aiwë and her lyre.

Aiwë smiles at Stella as she enters. "Good morning." Her greeting is cheerful and unburdened, just like one she would give the boys. But... it is just like one she would give the boys. There is a special quality in her voice usually reserved for Stella and Wirrow that is missing.

"Well, now that we're all here," her face becomes considerably more solemn, "I get to tell you what else I learned when I talked to Duke Jannath and Xan yesterday."

Koveras grins as Aiwë begins her song, and even slaps the dining table along with the beat. The clatter of silverware has the servants looking concerned, but none of them say anything.

The half-orc gives Stella a neutral nod as she enters. Not hostile or friendly, just a simple greeting.

He looks up sharply at Aiwë's words. "More happened yesterday?"

Aldous smiles vaguely at Stella, then suddenly becomes concerned with the splatters of iced cream on his front. He tries unsuccessfully to clean them off with a napkin.

When Aiwë speaks, he tilts his head and frowns. "Something you learned? I hope it's something beneficial to our cause..."

Aiwë leans over and gently smacks Aldous' chest with the back of her hand, removing the ice cream.

"Two nights ago I noticed there are... holes in my memory. There's a lot of things just missing from the last couple months." She sits back in her chair, frowning with discomfort. "I didn't say anything then because I thought it might be a side effect of Stella's magic, and I was worried she would... well..." Spiral into unmanageable terror like she did yesterday.

"I needed more information first, so I talked to Duke Jannath as soon as I could, which was after the Wyrms Rock meeting, and after Stella's revelation. Duke Belt tried to restore my memories but I only got one." She folds her arms.

"It was Viconia." Aiwë recounts the memory in its entirety, her description of the events pulling the party into the story as only a bard can.

"For my own reasons I am sealing this and other memories away, but one day you will remember them. I am counting on it."

She takes a deep breath. "I am geased. I underwent the process willingly, as a proof of loyalty." A spasm of pain crosses the priestess' face, and Aiwe feels her hand tremble. "Shar take my sight, but I was fooled. The man cares only for his divine purpose and the tools available to achieve it. But I will be his tool no longer."

Viconia's grimaces through the pain, choosing her words carefully. "You and your friends have also been made his tools. You can defeat him. I have given you the means... as much as I can. I pray it is of use. And I ask you forgive my intrusions, for I fight in the only way left to me..."

Aldous mumbles a quick 'thank you' to Aiwe for his shirt, but then is caught up in what she says. "Holes in your memory? That sounds awful. Although... some things might be worth forgetting."

He takes another spoonful of iced cream. "I'm afraid I'm a bit lost. What is a geas? Some kind of... mind control?"

Koveras folds his arms over his chest as he listens. "Viconia DeVir. I never actually met her, but she is perhaps my father's most highly-prized asset. Or was. She's a very powerful spellcaster. If anyone would know why Rieltar wanted Keggruk slain, it would be her."

He turns to Aldous. "A geas is a special kind of long-lasting enchantment that ensures the victim will do its best to obey a command."

(Insight: Koveras' face darkens. Yes, he's familiar with this kind of magic. What sorts of things might Rieltar have forced his adopted son to do?)

"Forgetting something doesn't take it or it's consequences away, it just removes your ability to do anything about it." Aiwë's fingers drum on the table in irritation. "What's in the holes? Have I been having weird conversations with you all? Repeating things I should know I've already said or asked about?" She shakes her head.

"One of you has to remember what I've forgotten, since I've rarely been on my own this whole time." She tosses up her hands. "Or have I?"

Dieter sits back in his chair having forgotten about his polishing

Dieter’s eyes stare intensely at the back of koveras’ head for a moment before he purposefully looks away. People can always tell when you are looking at them.

Stella relaxes slightly as she sees that nobody in the room seems offended by her presence.

She puffs a silent laugh at Aiwë's cleaning smack.
Stella closes her eyes in embarrassment, cheeks flushing pink. No wonder Aiwë reacted so sharply to Stella mentioning Viconia. Well, they got here either way.

Stella's brow furrows as Aiwë recounts her resurfaced memory.

Sealed away...
Other memories...
One day you will remember them...
Counting on it...
Divine purpose...
You and your friends have also been made his tools...
I have given you the means...

Why would Viconia seal away the memories? Timing, perhaps? It would be suspicious and dangerous for her if the party pursued some method of defeating Reiltar if they suddenly knew it after Viconia was near the mine with their party.

But they were made into tools...had they already been used to help Reiltar? Or were some of them simply primed or set up to do so? Did he know about Stella's gift? Was he somehow responsible?

Would the 'means to defeat him' be revealed in Aiwe's other memories?

She opens her eyes, green and calculating.

"So...does that mean we just have to wait for your memories to unseal? Or can we ask Duke Belt to try again to possibly reveal more?" Stella looks at Aldous and Koveras. "Aiwë wasn't the only one who spent time with Viconia. I did too while in the Cloakwood, and you might have as well, when you were captured. Perhaps we should all see Duke Belt to see if she sealed away any key memories in each of us as well?"

She looks back to Aiwë. "Also, did Duke Jannath say anything about Kossuth, Uluemyn, the red planet?"

Aiwë shrugs. "I don't know what it means. Duke Belt might be able to try stronger magic. I had to get back to you so I didn't have a chance to ask him yesterday."

She plucks idly at the lyre. "No, she didnt say anything about Uluemyn. I wasn't sure why you left without hearing it yourself, so I took advantage of the moment alone to ask about my head instead."

Stella draws her lips to a line and nods. She had been overwhelmed. She figured if it meant something even more dangerous than she already thought, Aiwë could hold onto it. But unloading the responsibility onto Aiwë hadn't been fair or right.

"I'll go ask her then. Either way, I think it'd be worth us giving Duke Belt a visit," she says. She tenses slightly then looks around. "If...you all agree and it doesn't interrupt other plans, of course."

Koveras practically flinches. "You said Kossuth?"

He speaks, and Aiwe's instincts kick in. She knows what he's going to say. How she didn't realize it before...? Well. A lot has happened in the last couple of days.

"The orcs know that planet as 'The Eye of Gruumsh'. It's seen as a herald of fire and retribution." He looks at Stella. "You had a vision about it?"

Dieter drops his polishing rag.

Aiwë laughs, loud and forced. "I'm so stupid! Kossuth, I know a song about it! And it's appearance, of course—The Triad kills a god of carnage. That's a message. Who better to take retribution than Bhaal? I knew the Mark of Gruumsh wasn't a coincidence. I knew it was intentional." Her words become more and more guttural in her anger.

Aldous looks back and forth between the party members. "I'm sorry, I'm not following. Your parents killed Gruumsh. And now, twenty years later Rieltar's starting a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn?" He shakes his head. "And besides, isn't Bhaal dead, too?"

"I was dead too, if a mortal can come back then why not one of these ‘gods’" Dieter speaks up.

"They can." Aiwë's voice is grim. "Myrkul was dead and has arisen. Besides, gods have friends, and you can't kill an idea. Gruumsh still has many followers. Some of them just keep doing what he would have wanted, and some of them are guided by Luthic and the rest of the pantheon. Me and mine have been warring against them my entire life. You think I know these war chants and funeral dirges for fun?" She stands up roughly and begins to pace.

"Maybe Rieltar is working on his own, doing what he thinks his god would want. Maybe he's hearing whispers like the person who helped Myrkul rise again. Maybe he's just spun a grand tale to gather followers to his side. He's got a lot of money to make. A lot of death to glory in."

Aiwë turns to the party, a rage in her eyes like they've never seen. "It doesn't matter. There will be no retribution for Gruumsh's death. His death was our retribution!" She draws her clawed hand across her throat, miming a violent tearing.

Koveras slams his hands down on the table, and not in a musical way. The wood beneath his fists creaks. Plate and cutlery go flying with an enraged sweep of his arm.

He whirls toward Aiwe. "Make me a paladin."

Despite the anger in his movements, his voice is ice cold. "What oaths do I swear?"

Koveras' demand shocks Aiwë from her anger. She looks at him as though he's grown two heads. "What?"