For hours, Rai-guy stayed alone, praying, sending away any who knocked at his door-Berg'inyon and Kimmuriel among them-with a gruff and definitive retort.
Then, when he believed he'd caught the attention of his dark Spider Queen, or at least the ear of one of her minions, the wizard fell into powerful spellcasting, opening an extra-planar gate.
As always with such a spell, Rai-guy had to take care that no unwanted or overly powerful planar denizens walked through that gate. His suspicions were correct, though, and indeed, the creature that came through the portal was one of the yochlol. These were the handmaidens of Lolth, beasts that more resembled half-melted candles with longer appendages than the Spider Queen herself.
Rai-guy held his breath, wondering suddenly and fearfully if he had erred in letting on about the artifact. Might Lolth desire the artifact herself and instruct Rai-guy to deliver it to her?
"You have called for help from the Lady," the yochlol said, its voice watery and guttural all at once, a dual- toned and horrible sound.
"I wish to return to Menzoberranzan," Rai-guy admitted, "and yet I cannot at this time. An instrument of chaos is about to be destroyed…."
"Lady Lolth knows of the artifact, Crenshinibon, Rai-guy of House Teyachumet," the yochlol replied, and the title the creature bestowed upon him surprised the drow wizard-cleric.
He had indeed been a son of House Teyachumet-but that house of Ched Nasad had been obliterated more than a century before. A subtle reminder, the drow realized, that the memory of Lolth and her minions was long indeed.
And a warning, perhaps, that he should take great care about how he planned to put the mighty artifact to use in the city of Lolth's greatest priestesses.
Rai-guy saw his dreams of domination over Menzober- ranzan melt then and there.
"Where will you retrieve this item?" the handmaiden asked.
Rai-guy stammered a reply, his thoughts elsewhere for the moment. "Hephaestus's lair… a red dragon," he said. "I know not where…"
"Your answer will be given," the handmaiden promised.
It turned around and walked through Rai-guy's gate, and the portal closed immediately, though the drow wizard had done nothing to dispel it.
Had Lolth herself been watching the exchange? Rai-guy had to wonder and to fear. Again he understood the futility of his dreams of conquest over Menzoberranzan. The Crystal Shard was powerful indeed, perhaps powerful enough for Rai- guy to manipulate or otherwise unseat enough of the Matron Mothers for him to achieve a position of tremendous power, but something about the way the yochlol had spoken his full name told him he should be careful indeed. Lady Lolth would not permit such a change in the balance of Menzoberranzan's power structure.
For just a brief moment, Rai-guy considered abandoning his quest to retrieve the Crystal Shard, considered taking his remaining allies and his gains and retreating to Menzoberranzan as the coleader, along with his friend, Kimmuriel, of Bregan D'aerthe.
A brief moment it was, for the call of the Crystal Shard came rushing back to him then, whispering its promises of power and glory, showing Rai-guy that the surface was not so forbidding a place as he believed. With Crenshinibon, the dark elf could carry on Jarlaxle's designs, but in more appropriate regions-a mountainous area teeming with goblins, perhaps-and build a magnificent and undyingly loyal legion of minions, of slaves.
The drow wizard rubbed his slender black fingers together, waiting anxiously for the answer the yochlol had promised him.
"You cannot deny the beauty," Jarlaxle remarked, he and Entreri again sitting outside of the cathedral, relaxing before their journey. Both were well aware that many wary gazes were focused upon them from many vantage points.
"Its very purpose denies that beauty," Entreri replied, his tone showing that he had little desire to replay this conversation yet again.
Jarlaxle studied the man closely, as if hoping that physical scrutiny alone would unlock this apparently dark episode in Artemis Entreri's past. The drow wasn't surprised by Entreri's dislike of «hypocritical» priests. In many ways, Jarlaxle agreed with him. The dark elf had been alive for a long, long time, and had often ventured out of Menzoberranzan-and had known the movements of practically every visitor to that dark city-and he had seen enough of the many varied religious sects of Toril to understand the hypocritical nature of many so-called priests. There was something far deeper than that looming here within Artemis Entreri, though, something visceral.
It had to be an event in Entreri's past, a deeply disturbing episode involving a priest. Perhaps he had been wrongly accused of some crime and tortured by a priest, who often served as jailers for the smaller communities of the surface. Perhaps he had known love once, and that woman had been stolen from him or had been murdered by a priest.
Whatever it was, Jarlaxle could clearly see the hatred in Entreri's dark eyes as the man looked upon the magnificent-and it was magnificent, by any standards- Spirit Soaring. Even for Jarlaxle, a creature of the Under-dark, the place lived up to its name, for when he gazed upon those soaring towers, his very soul was lifted, his spirit enlightened and elevated.
Not so for his companion, obviously, and yet another mystery of Artemis Entreri for Jarlaxle to unravel. He did indeed find this man interesting.
"Where will you go after the artifact is destroyed?" Entreri asked unexpectedly.
Jarlaxle had to pause, both fully to digest the question and to consider his answer-for in truth, he really had no answer. "If we destroy it, you mean," he corrected. "Have you ever dealt with the likes of a red dragon, my friend?"
"Cadderly has, as I'm sure have you," Entreri replied.
"Only once, and I truly have little desire ever to speak with such a beast again," Jarlaxle said. "One cannot reason with a red dragon beyond a certain level, because they are not creatures with any definitive goals for personal gain. They see, they destroy, and take what is left over. A simple existence, really, and one that makes them all the more dangerous."
"Then let it see the Crystal Shard and destroy it," Entreri remarked, and he felt a twinge then as Crenshini-bon cried out.
"Why?" Jarlaxle asked suddenly, and Entreri recognized that his ever-opportunistic friend had heard that silent call.
"Why?" the assassin echoed, turning to regard Jarlaxle fully.
"Perhaps we are being premature in our planning," Jarlaxle explained. "We know how to destroy the Crystal
Shard now-likely that will be enough for us to use against the artifact to bend it continually to our will."
Entreri started to laugh.
"There is truth in what I say, and a gain to be had in following my reasoning," Jarlaxle insisted. "Crenshinibon began to manipulate me, no doubt, but now that we have determined that you, and not the artifact, are truly the master of your relationship, why must we rush ahead to destroy it? Why not determine first if you might control the item enough for our own gain?"
"Because if you know, beyond doubt, that you can destroy it, and the Crystal Shard knows that, as well, there may well be no need to destroy it," Entreri played along.
"Exactly!" said the now-excited dark elf.
"Because if you know you can destroy the crystalline tower, then there is no possible way that you will wind up with two crystalline towers," Entreri replied sarcastically, and the eager grin disappeared from Jarlaxle's black-skinned face in the blink of an astonished eye.
"It did it again," the drow remarked dryly.
"Same bait on the hook, and the Jarlaxle fish chomps even harder," Entreri replied.
"The cathedral is beautiful, I say," Jarlaxle remarked, looking away and pointedly changing the subject.