from dusk to Dawn

“My son, I sent you to this plane, to this island, to be the hope that banishes fear as sure as the sun does darkness, to be the break of dawn to end the night that befell it, but you can’t illuminate a kingdom that fears the sun and craves the shadows. Since the beginning people here from all races have denied you and therefore me, tarnished my name and made it a mockery, the very people that claim to follow my doctrine have twisted and corrupted it. I solemnly forsake Heeratat may it forever dwell in darkness and never see the light of day, return to me my son”
 
The words of my mother still resonated in my mind while I opened my eyes once more after being healed by Moonie. I can barely stand up. When I finally look up I see the wounded red dragon fiercely fighting the bronze dragon, Vasuki.
Samay and Milerion are gone, everyone else seems panicked, is this it? Has Samay gone through a portal?
The “fleau” rises ever higher, and I can’t help but feel relieved that it is almost over, this was never my fight nor my story, I had been sent here for a purpose that now was meaningless.
 
We all witness as the fleau envelopes Vasuki and now he stands with his father, this is it.
 
But something happens…
Seems like Anantakal recognizes something in my friend, Amellys, but what?
And suddenly it's revealed, she raises her hand, takes off her glove and my eyes can’t believe what I see, there it is, after all this time thinking it had been stolen, The hand of vecna.
Had I been too trusting, too naive, too blind? There were signs all along, but she’s my friend, how could she? All of this? For what?
My mother was right, this land doesn’t deserve saving, these people don’t deserve saving.
Time seems to move in slowly, it’s just a matter of seconds till they decide to finish us all.
 
Anantakal addresses Amellys and offers her a pact. He knows she holds great power with the hand of Vecna attached to her and so he wants to rule, with Amellys to his side.
Together they will be unstoppable. I can’t help thinking how fitting.
 
And so, unsurprisingly, Amellys, my childhood “friend”, accepts the deal.
Can’t say I’m shocked at this point, I wasn’t sure she coveted the throne and to rule, at first but it became clear as time went on. She had always desired power and rulership.
But, I don’t feel betrayed, my heart is incapable of harboring hatred, so I don’t. I don’t blame her. She had felt weak in the past, so she craved power, to not have those feelings anymore, she was just a scared little girl on the inside. I pity her. But she is my friend after all, and even now I stand by her side.
 
Then what I have been waiting for, comes. The dragons start tearing everyone apart.
Killing them in horrible ways, when it finally comes to the paladin, Amellys stops Anantakal.
 
“I want to do it myself” - she tells the dragon
“Very well, put up a show for us and your friends, my queen” - the dragon says with wicked delight
 
Amellys approaches the wounded paladin, forsaken by his own goddess, left to die alone, such is the will of nature after all. She raises her devilish hand and points a finger at him, and… I avert my eyes, the sight is too gruesome, I just hear the screams of pain, utter pain.
It goes for what seems forever, she’s killing him slowly, relishing in his agony, I can hear the demonic laughter of Anantakal as he watches, pleased. So much evil around me.
Then it suddenly stops. It’s over.
 
“Behold Lucens. Behold my new servant” - Amellys tells me, satisfied with her deed.
 
I finally dare to look, abomination, what once was a young paladin, now reduced to an undead corpse cursed to serve his evil queen, for eternity.
And I take a look around me, I see the slaughtered bodies of Pangur Ban, Kethot, Kath.
Only Moonie and Edras are still standing, terrified, awaiting their turn.
 
I turn to Amellys. “What now?” -I ask her, numb.
“And now we celebrate, for a new King has risen, and with him a queen” - She laughs
 
Anantakal lands in front of us, still bleeding from his wounds. He looks at me
“You were a nuisance, I thought I killed you at least 3 times, I wanted you dead and yet still you stand here in front of me. I should burn you to ashes. But I won’t, you are very powerful, I will admit that, you’re lucky my queen sees you as a friend, otherwise I would enjoy killing you myself.” - He lowers his massive head closer to me, I can feel his hot breath. I can smell the blood.
 
“Lucens proved to be a powerful ally, he can be useful in the future.” - Amellys says as she puts an arm around my shoulders, suddenly she turns me around to face her.
“I haven’t forgotten what you did back in the orc mine, that was MY POTION, MINE, you took it away from me. But I recognized it was to save a friend, so I decided to let it go.”
 
She grabs my arm, strongly, with the demonic hand, I can feel its chill touch, almost trying to absorb my life essence. She leans closer and says: “May it be the last time or I won’t prove as graceful as today” She lets go.
 
“As to these two” She says as she motions to Edras and Moonie - “spare them, I need servants after all.”
 
“What about the monk?” - The dragon says, Loen is pulling himself out of the ravine he had fallen off earlier.
 
“Well. I found him in a cage, so maybe he belongs in a cage” - Amellys says, smiling psychotically as she does.
 
And so it was. All four, we were spared. But at what cost?
 
Things were never the same at the island, just like my mother had said to me, the Sun never shone in the skies of Heeratat, condemned to eternal darkness, what once was a flourishing land, had turned into a desolate landscape.
Anantakal and Amellys started to expand their kingdom, to conquer the continent and siphon their resources back here.
 
I was relegated to studying magic and learning ways to make them more powerful and eventually immortal. Their thirst was unquenchable.
I quickly grew in power, but I tried my best to conceal my new found strength, in vane, she knew me too well, she would send me to the battlefield, against the resistance that had grown against the evil tyrants, but they were no match. Amellys was ruthless, what once was a cheerful and reliable elf, now was a proud and evil queen, merciless. But she still held a semblance of tenderness towards me.
I would also secretly commune with my mother, asking her for guidance and advice, she was the only reason that kept me going. I witnessed so much despair and death.
 
A few years passed, I had made incredible discoveries, but so had Amellys, despite my efforts to conceal as much of my research as I could, she is a cunning creature, she always seemed to be one step ahead of me. She had also managed to get a hold of the eye of Vecna.
 
One day she came up to me and said - “I know what my “brother” she said with visible disgust - “Well, my adopted brother did. He took a portal to the future, thinking it would break the time loop. But he failed”
I remained silent.
“I won’t let him get away, I will take care of him myself” - She said sternly
“And how are you planning to do so?” - I questioned her
“Well my beloved friend, you will assist me in that” - She said to me with a smirk on her face.
 
Like I said I had acquired an important spell she was intending to take advantage of, just like that ring I had found all those years ago inside the cryptex. But this time, I was able to cast it myself, wish.
I, naturally, hadn’t said anything about this to Amellys, it had been thanks to my studies and the help of my mother, that I had acquired such strength, as a mean to eventually escape from her, but Amellys had become too powerful herself, since she acquired both the hand and the eye of Vecna, she had been unable to cast arcane magic, cut off from the weave by Mystra, she was relegated to the cursed magic her demonic artifacts bestowed on her. That’s why she kept me around, I was just a means to and end for her, nothing more.
 
“What do you need from me?” - I asked reluctantly
“You will use a spell to put us on stasis, a state of suspended animation, in a secure demi plane inside the palace, and so we will wait for my brother to appear in the future, whatever long that will take” - She says determinedly.
“But that could take hundreds of years. We haven’t yet determined how far in the future he went, are you willing to give all those years away, for revenge?” - I’m heartbroken
“Whatever it takes, Samay will perish by my hand” - She replied
“Anantakal is perfectly capable of taking care of the kingdom and with Vasuki with us, we will be able to fool my brother easily, the poor soul will think he is still in love with him and will come running” - she laughed
“It will be done” - I say
“Perfect, you’re always so helpful” - she kisses me on the cheek, it burns my skin.
I had given up on this land long ago, whatever she wanted to do with it, wasn’t a concern to me. She had won.
And so it goes, I used the spell, and for hundreds of years we waited, in stasis, our material bodies, frozen in time, ageless, our astral bodies projected, wondering the astral plane, for what felt as an eternity.
 
Until that fateful day, as our astral bodies are shunted back to our material bodies by the contingency I had set up.
Samay’s presence had been felt once more, he had arrived, just like she had hoped for.
Amellys' plan, one she had set in motion a lifetime ago, was finally coming to fruition. Her thirst for revenge had transcended time and space.
 
As she had predicted, Samay fell for the trap like bees to honey, she used Vasuki to trick him into coming with him to find the cube, where she awaited for her destiny to finally come true, she would be once and for all, the only true heir. To a long forgotten and forsaken kingdom.
But right before I could witness what would be the end of this tragic tale…
 
The sun seems to shine once more over Heeratat, if only once. I pull out the forked, metal rod attuned to Mount Celestia I was able to finally acquire all those years ago, and before I could be stopped by my childhood friend, before I could witness her doing to Samay what she did to that paladin, before she could realize I was finally escaping…
I wish to plane shift to “The Radiant Dawn” in the second layer, Mercuria, of Mount Celestia.
 
I’m writing these words, under the golden light of my new home, where, finally, I am free. Not to remember what happened to me. But as a cautionary tale, not every kingdom wants to be saved, not every kingdom deserves to be saved.
Some are doomed to eternal darkness, because they crave the shadows.
But even after the darkest night, the sun will always rise, and so I do, I rise once more, eager to see what lies ahead…