Tymora's luck

ACT THREE SCENE 5

Emilo hurried after the four yugoloths who were carrying off Jas. The creatures marched down twisting corridors through the fortress walls, then down a staircase that led into a swelteringly hot, humid dungeon. During the entire time, Jas never ceased screeching. The yugoloths entered a large room filled with vile implements of torture. As one lit the torches in the wall sconces, the others strapped the winged woman down on a huge table. Jas's screeching turned to a pitiable keening. The yugoloths pulled a sack over her head, and Jas grew instantly quiet. Her body became completely rigid. The yugoloths began searching her person, removing weapons and valuables and setting them on a tray.

One of the yugoloths spent a long time examining Jas's star-filled paperweight, until one of the others smacked him, grabbed the paperweight from his hands, and set it down on the tray. Alongside the paperweight, Jas's daggers, her ring of fire protection, and her water bottle, the yugoloths set the little wooden harp that could transport Jas back to the safety of Fermata. While the yugoloths were intent on dumping out the contents of Jas's backpack, the kender palmed the harp and the paperweight.

Winnie's gold spilled across the table, and a number of pieces rolled to the floor. That was Emilo's first experience with yugoloth greed. The creatures scurried frantically after the gold, each clawing at the others in order to gather up the most coins. Finally they returned to the tray. Although they only spoke to one another telepathically, it was obvious to Emilo from their gestures that they noticed the missing paperweight. They started to argue over its absence.

Another yugoloth, half as tall as the others, whose shape reminded Emilo of a crayfish, came into the room. The little yugoloth must have been a boss, because he got the big yugoloths to stop fighting and ordered them to leave the room. Then the little yugoloth looked over Jas's possessions for himself. He snatched up the ring of fire protection and scowled at the meager remains. After a more thorough search, he discovered a hidden pocket in Jas's backpack that held a small sack of gems and jewelry. He tied the sack to his weapons belt. For good measure, he took Jas's dagger. The silvered blade must be worth something, Emilo conjectured.

As the little yugoloth turned to go, Emilo gently slit the sack of gems and jewelry with his dagger, creating a hole in the bag from which a tiny gem spilled forth. In time, the hole would grow. Once the yugoloth left the room, Emilo hurried back to the table where Jas was bound and patted the winged woman's shoulder.

"They're gone, Jas. It's going to be all right now," the kender assured her in a soft voice. Very gently he pulled the hood from Jas's head. The winged woman turned her head and blinked in the light of the torch on the wall, but she didn't seem to see Emilo.

The kender unbuckled the leather straps that held Jas to the table.

Freed from her bonds, Jas suddenly sprang up and flew to the ceiling. She fluttered in a dark corner like a moth caught in ajar.

"Jas, come down," Emilo whispered. "What are you doing up there?"

Jas hissed at the kender.

Emilo sighed. Then an idea occurred to him. He pulled out Jas's star-filled paperweight and held it up to the light. "See what I have?" he asked softly. "Come down and look at the stars, Jas."

Jas's eyes followed the paperweight, entranced by the sparkles inside. Suddenly she swooped down and grabbed the ornament in her talons. As she crouched beside the kender and stared down at the flecks of glitter within the paperweight, her eyes ceased to glow. In another few moments, she took on human shape. Finally Jas collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

The kender stroked Jas's hair while she cried. She still said nothing, but the sobbing was definitely a human sound. After a few minutes, her crying grew less violent, and Emilo pulled out a purple handkerchief and pressed it into one of her talons. Jas looked up at the kender.

"You've got to go find Joel, Emilo," Jas said. "Leave me behind."

"I can't," Emilo replied. "Joel wouldn't want me to, and I don't want to. It's two to one. You're outvoted."

"Emilo, the dark stalker could take over again at any moment," Jas growled. "I could end up hunting you for Xvim's people. I could betray you and Joel. I don't deserve to live."

Emilo put his hands on Jas's cheeks and leaned his face very close to hers. "Jas, listen to me very carefully," he said. "There is no dark stalker in you. It's your heart playing tricks on your mind."

Jas drew away from the kender and glared at him angrily. "You don't know what you're talking about," she snapped.

"Maybe not," the kender said, "but Finder and Tymora seemed to think they did. When you and Joel were sampling the wine in Tymora's garden, I followed Finder and Tymora and Winnie to find out what they were talking about."

"So? What did they say?" Jas demanded.

"Finder said that the crazy Xvimlar wizard had cast an ordinary spell on you. The priests told you it would make you into a dark stalker, so you believed them. But all the spell really did was change your shape. When Finder changed you back to your true form, though, he couldn't make you believe you weren't a dark stalker. He told Tymora that your belief was too strong to overcome, but if Tymora cast a spell on you and made it look like it was very powerful, you would believe she had removed the dark stalker because she was so powerful."

"That's ridiculous," Jas hissed. "If the dark stalker wasn't inside me, I never would have changed back." "Well, Finder had an explanation for that, too. He said the spell the Xvimlar cast on you unbalanced the magic in the wings that Tymora gave you. The magic in your wings is very powerful. So when the magic kind of leaked out into your whole body, your body changed to match your emotions. Kind of like the way your wings change when you go to a different place so that you always fit in. Anyway, there's really no such thing as a spell to make a person into a dark stalker."

"Bear was a dark stalker," Jas argued. "He hunted Finder all the way through Daggerdale."

"Finder was confused by that, too, but Tymora said Bear may have been driven mad by the wizard, and those who are driven mad can sometimes sense power intuitively."

"You're making all this up," Jas shouted. "There's no way I am wrong about the dark stalker. I can feel it inside me."

Emilo sighed. "That's because your heart is stronger than your reason. Winnie said it's quite common in cases like yours where you've not only suffered a recent tragedy, but you still haven't recovered from a childhood tragedy. Winnie said what you're feeling inside you isn't a dark stalker, Jas. It's your own guilt and bottled-up grief. You can't let go of them, so they've made a darkness on your soul, which you confused with the lie that the priests of Xvim told you. Winnie didn't think Tymora should go along with Finder's plan to try to fool you. She thought the only thing that could heal you was if you grieved for your parents and your friends and accepted the fact that it wasn't your fault that they died."

"How can I grieve when that murderess is walking around free?" Jas snarled angrily. "It's just like when my parents died. I couldn't do anything to avenge their deaths. My friends' deaths were even worse. Every time I tried to kill their murderer, I failed. I'm useless… worse than useless, in fact. I'm helping that bitch just so Tymora doesn't die."

A sudden realization came over the kender. "You mean it was Walinda who murdered your friends?" Emilo asked.

"Walinda tortured them to death," Jas keened. "She made me watch." The winged woman began sobbing once more.

Emilo stroked her hair some more. After several minutes, Jas grew calm again.

"I thought the only way I was going to fight the dark stalker was to give up hating Walinda," Jas said. "I can't do that. And not just because we're so close to the Bastion of Hate."

"I can understand that," Emilo said. "You don't have to. You just have to accept that Walinda isn't dead yet."

"You tell me how to do that," Jas demanded angrily.

The kender squeezed Jas's shoulders and said fiercely, "Just focus on that word yet."