Elminster in Hell

Chapter Twenty-Three

Echoing darkness, the labyrinth empty…

I am afraid. I… cannot think. Where are my wits… where are my memories? Where am-I? There is nothing left. Nothing but fear. I am afraid. I am so alone. Dark, drifting… cold, all the brightness fled away. I am afraid.

Aha! Silver fire at last! But is this all? Has your goddess snatched away from you every… last… little secret I craved? I'll smash you into bone shards and powder! I'll make you scream for an eon, kept alive in torment, blind and writhing, as lemures feed on you and then vomit you forth for the next to gnaw on! I'll-gaahh! humans.'

Here I am. Over here, in Nergal. Back in my bones, nothing is left. Nothing at all. He has won.

Indeed, puny human wizard, how could it be otherwise? [gloating] Your meddling goddess may have stolen her silver fire from me, and her true secrets, too, but I have your memories-centuries and centuries of where this enchantment is hidden and how to awaken that magic, and all those. Gates, too….

I dare not stride into Faerun and amuse myseif properly- but oh, how many dupes I can command among your cringing humans, armed with what you know and the favors owed you to raid your toril at will and bring back ever more magic tome… Ah, but hell will tremble at last!

[whirling images of Avernus, awareness flung far]

And let rr begin now, with the smashing and humbling or your little plaything, come calling to save her Elminster!

[magic rushing out of Nergal like a mad torrent, rolling diabolic laughter, rock pinnacles topple onto a lone human figure]

haha!

[Head snaps up. Silver hair writhes. Lightning crackles, bursting rock into dust and rubble, hurled far away. Two eyes glow like flames within the tumult of roiling dust. A low, soft hiss somehow comes across half Avernus to their ears.]

"So, devil. There you are. Taste you now what I give to Thay."

[Art rushes, so quick and bright that Nergal grunts in amazement. His bat wings beat in sudden urgency, arching and twisting and-Hell explodes in bright fury. The arch-devil spins helpless through shrieking air, a broken human in one fist.]

Fires op the pit, but she's strong! Well, we'll just have to…

Gaze upon her longer. Such grace, even in fury. Fascinating…

Aye, aye, such- what are you doing, human? Whispering in my head when I should be-

[bright inferno, roar of diabolic pain, bodies hurled helpless once more, two blazing eyes following amid silver flame]

Enough! Elsewhere, and let her fight across half hell to find us!

Red lightning wreathed them. It died, leaving them elsewhere in Avernus. Nergal's taloned hand came down on Elminster's shoulder and spun a chain and collar out of nothing.

Red lightning came again.

"Right behind us," Nergal growled, "blasting everything that stands against her. From lair to lair of my rivals we go, and let Avernus be laid waste!"

He roared with laughter-and they were elsewhere again. Red smoke and lightning rolled around their feet.

The outcast devil looked back and shook his head in what might have been admiration-or might have been fear.

"Devils tumbling down broken out of the skies," he murmured. "It won't be long before He of Nessus is alerted. I'd not want to be your little lady-love then!"

Lightning again, and darkness. A pit of offal, Elminster chin-deep and strangling on his collar as the firm-held chain kept him from drowning

— Comfortable again at last. Now, where were we?

Ho. Yes. From one spell duel to another. Still, 'tis better than the last memory we shared: seducing apprentices seems a mite hollow after Hell-harrowing at the hands of persistent goddesses.

Hmm. I fear ye require more refined judgment than ye presently possess.

[snort of dismissal, single mind lash] Cleverness later, wizard. Show time now.

[image proffered]

Why, that's stirring in me! Where are your-

Deep within ye, devil. Ye have it all, now. Elminster in thy head.

I–I-

See her, devil Such magnificence, as she throws back her head and glares fearlessly around Hell, seeking us. See her as I do. How can one break or bend such a bright blade? She could be everything to ye! She could be thy warrior-scourge of Hell, smiting all who stand against tbee, loving thee as fiercely and hungrily as she now slays…

Tongue of asmodeus, human! You almost make me want to-

Remember her lips, her silver hair lashing and then caressing…

Yes. Ohhh, yes.

Recall her embrace, her murmured promises, her-

Yes. Yes! This is the one for me!

Aye, see that memory again, as we-

Are hurled back again, Hell crashing and quaking around us, as the scepters that the Simbul had plunged into her own flesh like daggers boil away with the last of their power exhausted and are gone. She shudders, going to her knees amid the flames of strewn devil-corpses and shattered stone citadels, and we want to reach out to her, to draw her close and comfort her, to heal…

Eyes look up and catch flame once more. "Your Her growl rises into a scream that spits raw, snarling power out of her. Nergal knows pain.

Aarghh! Nessus twist you, bitch! I–I-

Love thee. Love thee more than all the fires of Hell.

Yes! [slaying bolt hurled wide] Ye.-no! Fangs, human, what are you doing to me? Get out of my head.'

The Simbul's next spell rains bright knives of flame down in a hissing cascade of death upon rippling diabolic thews. She spins like a dancer to send the same fury down the throats of the devils now converging on her across the broken rocks of Avernus.

Black and red flesh convulses. Screams rise in a ragged chorus of woe.

Nergal shudders and catches hold of a nearby horn of rock to steady himself, gasping at the pain.

I cannot smite her! She's so bright, so beautiful' i must have her, i must-alassra, here i am.' here!

The Lord to Come of All Deep Hell bounds into the air, tentacles become mighty wings, arms spread in welcome.

Queen of me, here I-

The bolt that shocks out of the Simbul is so fierce that it plucks her from her feet and hurls her backward. As she falls, she sends her will riding along the beam, to pierce the mind of her foe even as the bright lance of her silver fire stabs him.

[In a brief glimpse across Avernus, a lone human female rises into the air like a beacon, her hair a halo of flame around her. Devils everywhere wince and roar and cringe. Distant mountains erupt in smoke and flame.]

Silver fire crashes into hot darkness, roiling…

*El, I am come.*

I live, and love thee. I am in this devil, all of me. Mystra, but ye are magnificent!

[amusement] *But of course.*

Nergal, roaring in torment at the fire raging in him, the Simbul ruthless in her scorching and searing, leaving him a broken as Hell that lives only because her Elminster is trapped within it, only to fade as her fire does, fade away…

No, leave me not!

No, leave me not! Fade not from- what am I saying? Out, human worm. Out of my mind. you infect me, you- get you gone!

[Nergal summons all of his power, a black-and-red wave, dark and swift enough to shatter even the Simbul's fury. He thrusts. Images whirl in insane chaos, brightness like shards of shattering glass, memories and tears and laughter all together, into the thing in the offal pit. A naked human retches and squirms as Hell is torn apart around him.]

Now, witch, it's your turn!

[Red-and-black bolts howl out of the great winged devil, cleaving the blood-red sky like reaching fingers.]

Crash, stagger, bright beauty still standing…

Bloody lips twist. "Is that the best you can do, devil?" Slender fingers point, and fire surges forth, a little wearily now…

Burst of blue-white fire, Nergal screaming…

[frantic red lightning, and flight]

This has gotten out of hand! where is Asmodeus? Where are the hosts of Hell? Is she going to be allowed to kill us all?

Fires of the pit, she can strike at me through you!

[mind bolt, dark and huge, sent to slay, roaring through the vaults…]

[… and rebounding back through the darkness to slap down Nergal]

Sobbing and convulsing, the tentacled devil rolled in darkness, his chain melting away.

"Sorry," said the naked, filthy man beside him. He waved stumps that were his arms. "We're too closely linked now, devil, for that to work."

With a sudden, furtive movement, Elminster raised one arm to touch what was tangled in his hair. He said in his mind, cold and crisp and hard, By the will ofTanthul and my need, let it be my bone shards, yonder-and let it be now.

Nergal had just time to dart a look at his mind-slave before the bone fragments in him expanded into duplicates of the larger bones they'd been a part of-and the archdevil's body burst apart with a deep, wet roar.

[song, mad music wild and screaming, red fire and staring, disbelieving diabolic eyes, fading to darkness… oblivion]

Alone and maimed in a cavern deep in Avemus, Elminster went to his knees and sobbed bitterly. The mind that had ridden his for a seeming eternity was stilled and gone…

It's a dark thing to lose any being one knows so well.

[red, writhing pain, drifting back so slowly through torment, at last to the light…]

"Fires take all," Nergal muttered, as weak and sick as he always was when coalescing back from tattered smoke and essence to solidity once more. He glared around blearily at the offal-choked cavern and the small, round black stone that was always there when he cheated death. More mighty contingency magic spent, wasted because of carelessness.

"That was a near one," he whispered, not yet strong enough to growl. "I'll never reign in Hell if I go on underestimating humans."

"Too true," a voice said sweedy, from behind him.

Nergal, rightful Prince of Hell, whirled around as quickly as he could on rubbery limbs. He stared into the smiling face of the Witch-Queen of Aglarond, who floated less than an arm's-reach away.

Her smile was as wide as that of a wolf, and her eyes were two dark flames.

"Go down forever, devil," she hissed-and spread her hands. Holy water that was afire with blue-white and silver flames burst over him in a torrent. The last thing Nergal ever heard was the Simbul snarling,"For what you did to the one I love, I just wish I could slay you again and again!"

A dark, scaled hand set down a goblet that smoked and bubbled green in the gloom. "How amusing," Asmodeus observed from his throne of linked, living she-devils, and meant it.

Idly the Lord of Nessus reached out. Slaying magic built and snarled darkly up his arm and filled his cupped hand. When his palm was full, he'd flick his wrist and sent it to Avernus.There it would slay the exhausted, sobbing human sorceress whose image floated above him. She even now embraced the ruined, armless body of a man in a hidden cavern, all her attention bent to pouring her vitality into him.

Asmodeus started to smile. Ah, sweet irony…

***

In a void of drifting stars, Mystra drew the howling man from her breast. She held Halaster out to face a whirling vision-the greatest devil of all smiling as dark fire filled, his hand. She whispered urgently,"Now!"

Halaster Blackcloak broke off a slobbering sound that was half-howl and half-giggle, drew himself up with dark eyes blazing, and snapped, "Asmodeus! Bow down!”

The Lord of Hell turned his head in astonishment- and across the voids and spheres and drifting chaos, their eyes met.

With a crooked smile Halaster Blackcloak said the word of the spell Mystra had taught him. All his raving madness roared out into Asmodeus, jolting that elegant body.

Those amused and sinister eyes rolled up and leaked golden fire. That quirked mouth parted in a cry of astonished agony.The fire of that titanic spell raged through the devil's mind.

As Mystra firmly dosed the link between void and Nessus Asmodeus blinked at the gloom all around and took another sip from his goblet. Now, what was it he'd been going to do? Something amusing…

***

Mystra laid down the black-robed wizard like a little doll on his own bed deep in Undermountain, patted the heads of his guardian deep dragons, and turned back to the void and the waiting arms of Azuth.

As they floated together, she sighed, smiled, and said, "I do love happy endings."

Before he kissed her, Azuth frowned and said gently, "That might well prove a problem in the future."

***

In Avernus, the black flames that had been Nergal died down.A lemure sniffed and flowed hungrily toward the smell.The fury that had blazed here, scorching rocks that had been scorched so many times before, was spent. For now.