"All right, that worked!" said Seren, gesturing with her wand at Anusha and Yeva. "I can finally see both of you, which means I won't accidentally catch one of you in a spell."
"I still can't," said Thoster.
Seren ignored the captain.
Anusha concentrated on her armor, imagining it even more impenetrable. She raised her sword, and imagined it so sharp it could cut a zephyr in two.
Then she ran to join the fray.
She sprinted across the changing floor. Quick as she was, a ball of wizard fire bloomed ahead of her, setting alight four aboleths at a single stroke. Good for Seren! She'd half expected the wizard to turn tail. But there were so many aboleths! At least the flying ones above hadn't yet engaged in the fight-not even the smallest, and thankfully not the largest. She was doubly glad, for among those chanting creatures, a few possessed a multitude of eyes like the aboleth able to see her in Xxiphu's depths.
Anusha made contact with the enemy. Her blade swept through a creature with only the slightest tug. The aboleth died unaware anything had even threatened it. As it lay quivering and oozing dark fluid, she moved to the next. And the next. She whirled her sword around, maintaining its bitter sharpness with determined concentration.
Pain pinched her temple. She was exerting her dream form. If she pushed herself, she would falter and perhaps fall. But if she did not give Raidon-and by extension Japheth-a chance to succeed the Eldest would wake, and nothing would hold back her mind from its concentrated consciousness.
She renewed her onslaught, laying about with her dream blade like an avatar of death itself, even as her head began to pound with the ache of her unrelenting exertion.
*****
Seren's breath was harsh in her own ears. She was terrified, and her hands, wand, and voice trembled with each spell she launched. Thankfully the creatures reacted to her magical lances as Japheth had predicted. The horde of aboleths were single-minded in their attempt to fall upon the blazing monk like a slime tsunami. None of her spells had so far piqued the interest of the attacking creatures, even those on the periphery.
Emboldened, she moved closer, until the rotting fish smell of the frantic aboleths became overwhelming.
Where had the warlock gone? Seren wondered if, despite all his brave words,the man hadn't just used the cloak to transport himself away from the entire enterprise. She believed that was unlikely, despite what she might consider in his place.
A bellow of triumph sounded in her left ear, and she flinched.
It was Thoster, slashing the posterior of an aboleth too busy trying to scramble over its siblings to guard its flank. The wound was deep, but the aboleth died from the poison before its organs could even react to the fluid spraying from it. More so than before, she was glad she'd decided to aid the captain instead of kill him when he'd revealed his strange condition to her.
Seren decided to expend a spell whose potency neared the height of her strength. She uttered the linchpin syllables and drew her wand around in the air just once. A fist-sized globe of white light hurtled into the mass of scrambling aboleths. Just before falling into their ranks, the globe detonated in a prismatic burst, spearing several at once.
The creatures squealed as their flanks were scorched. Better yet, they reeled around in confusion as the dazzling radiance blinded them.
A grim smile briefly touched Seren's lips.
She recited another incantation.
*****
Before Japheth stepped from his cloak, he called again upon the utter darkness between the stars, whose hollow nothingness ate the light of neighboring constellations. He shrouded himself in that same obscuring darkness, then stepped forward into the very center of the throne chamber, where the floor was stable. The petrified gaze of the Eldest was a palpable force overhead so potent it vibrated the air, creating deep tones like massive cemetery bells. The warlock was careful not to look straight up.
Japheth took a quick survey to see if any creature was aware of his sudden appearance.
The main fight still raged.
The monk continued to harvest aboleths with his blade and Sign. Anusha, Yeva, Thoster, and Seren whittled away at the mass's flanks. The oldest aboleths continued their chant of waking. Japheth hoped he could begin and finish his ritual before they concluded theirs.
From his cloak he removed a rod, a battered scroll, and a vial of powdered dragon scales. These were the same implements he'd earlier used in an attempt to free Anusha's mind from captivity, minus a tome that hadn't proved useful. And minus the ring wound with Anusha's hair. In the frenzy of their arrival and the breaking of his pact stone, he'd failed to retrieve it from the angel of exploration.
Japheth hoped that Anusha's dream form itself would prove a better guide than loose strands of her hair ever could. He'd failed the last time he'd tried to free her, but only because the Dreamheart was not where her soul was rooted, as he'd mistakenly assumed.
No, her consciousness was snared by the Eldest itself. If she should falter and wake even briefly, her mind would be pulled into the beast and be consumed in an instant, becoming part of it. His heart beat in his throat when he imagined it.
A spectacular flare of light snapped his gaze back to the fight. Through the press of squirming aboleths, sky blue light blazed. Raidon had triggered some sort of exceptionally bright pulse from his chest.
Ignore it, he told himself.
Japheth pulled out the last two things he needed-the Dreamheart and the silver compact filled with his personal bane.
He set the relic down, facing the half-lidded eye upward. The voices of the chanting aboleths circling overhead broke for the briefest of moments before resuming. Luckily, none swooped down to pierce the darkness and relieve him of their progenitor's prodigal eye. The creatures had felt the relic's sudden proximity, even if they couldn't yet see it. In some ways, the small orb at his feet was more vital than the entire bulk of the Eldest stretched overhead.
He took hold of the silver compact. Its touch dried his mouth with anticipation. Trying not to think about its contents, he popped it open and administered a dose of traveler's dust to one eye. It occurred to him this would be the first test of his new pact. How well would it protect him from the symptoms of his addiction when tested?
He blinked at the irritation. Too late now.
Before the red haze completely overtook his perception, he unstoppered the vial of crushed dragon scales and poured them over the stone orb. Its harsh odor burned his nostrils.
Even as the oceanic surge of the dust washed over Japheth, he unrolled the scroll, twin to the one he'd used last time, and laid it out on the cold floor. It tried to curl back into a cylinder, so he used the Dreamheart to weigh down the top and the toes of his boots the bottom. Its tip was broken off, but it was still serviceable. He picked up the jade rod blessed in a temple of Kelemvor. He bent forward, so he could both read the text and touch the end of the rod to the Dreamheart's mottled side.
The eye in the relic blinked. The sphere rotated until it aimed its gaze at him.
He shuddered, but spoke the words of the ritual, doing his best to ignore the distracting, blissful detachment the dust leaked into his blood. He judged the dust's ability to pierce veils was necessary, just in case his new spell that granted him the ability to see things unseen failed. He just had to make certain he wasn't borne away in the initial rush it produced.
Blasts, shouts, and explosions resounded through the chamber. He thought he heard a yell of victory, followed by a woman's shriek of pain. Not Anusha's, though, Japheth didn't stop chanting his ritual. He couldn't afford losing even another moment. There was no time to help his friends. Better not to even look.