The Fortune's Bosom Inn

"This is not some lightsome joke!" Nax snapped, irritated at the metal-man's lack of concern. He looked to Alastia and Bren, desperate for someone to realise the implications. "You have it right... self-fulfilling... a prophecy within a prophecy almost... The leader of the Red Wizards of Thay is sitting here, enslaved, and the Red Wizards are going to think it was me! They knew the prophecy the whole time... that's why it was a Red Wizard who told me in the first place..."

Only Ol'kans responded, nodding vaguely; eyes still glazed and cloudy, staring at nothing.

Alastia looked over the group; Nalkasi smug and haughty, his 'bells' ringing in her head as he spoke. Nax, sounding irritated and mildly ill, perhaps fearful. And Ol'kans, blank as a sheet of unused parchment. Then she stood and began to pace, flexing her hands so as to avoid hitting something.

"So, let me clarify," she said, spinning about to point at Ol'kans. "You, you hear some prophecy about a man. And you decide the best method of dealing with it, the threat of it, is to announce yourself several years before, lure him to an inn, announce yourself once in the inn, despite being in the presence of others who might be dangerous, and then you decide to kill him." She waved her hands about in a flurry, clearly losing her temper.

"And you're the leader of the Red Wizards?" She roared. "Why didn't you kill him from the shadows? Hire an assassin? Send an underling? You sodding idiot." She slammed her foot into the ground before whirling to face Nax. "And you!" She clenched her hands into fists, breathing heavily.

"Some bizarre man approaches you and tells you to come meet him in an inn! And you just- you go! You go and you went and now you're in this mess because everyone around me a fool!" And finally she turned to Nalkasi.

"And I suppose the chances of you- of you taking responsibility for this enthrallment, foul as it is, are next to nothing?" She hissed. "You'll just let the wizards chase after Nax without a thought? Even though they said they'd wage war and-" She stopped and turned to look at Nax and Ol'kans again.

"War!?" She exclaimed. "Against what? A single man? You can't wage war against a single man? Which group of people would you hold responsible for the actions of one man! One man that the Red Wizards apparently considered a threat to their leader, and therefore would, if at all sensible, which they are obviously not, be incredibly difficult for any one person, or a group even, to stop!"

She inhaled deeply after that, out of breath and frustrated. She wondered if she'd start spewing fire and steam in her rage. She wondered if that would make yelling at those before her slightly more satisfying.

'Probably,' she thought, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You stupid, inbred cows!" She had no patience left for any of them. Not the faceless one who thought it funny, not the Red Wizard of Thay, and not the one who had walked so foolishly into a tavern on the word of prophecy.

"This isn't fate at all. This is stupidity. All dressed in your finery with your talents and powers and you make a gutter rat ex-mercenary covered in stinking owlbear feathers look like the pinnacle of wisdom!" She sat down on her seat and buried her face in her hands, her head pounding.

"But nay, I'm a fool too." She looked up at Nax. 'A fool for helping. Now, if we want to stop this thing before it goes any further, we're going to need to think, and think fast."

Nax sat there stunned, but angry. How can this woman sit here and criticise, without even knowing the full story!

"How was I supposed to know that world-ending disaster awaited if I came here? Prophecies aren't always bad, you know?!" he shouted back.

"Oh, what? You were hoping this propechy would lead to fame and glory?" Alastia scowled fiercely. "Or was it riches and treasures? Friendships and romance? Knowledge? Wisdom? Wishes?" She thumped her fist against the table. "Were you hoping the messenger would tell you the secrets of all the world's histories, or give you a glimpse of the future?"

She glared at Nax, her dark eyes aflame. "What were you hoping for? And why didn't you go out there and grasp it for yourself, rather than hope that some creepy red-robed man and his prophecy would just give it to you?" She was shaking, her hand clenched into a tight fist. "That doesn't happen Nax."

She stood again and turned away, breathing deeply. She was too drunk now to be calm, but she could restrain herself a little better. She didn't want to hit anything, or rather, she did, but no one in the tavern seemed like a target she could justify slapping in their current state.

"Was it just curiosity?" She asked finally. 'Because I don't understand. I can't. Prophecies are never good. There's always a price. Always.'

She turned to look back at Nax; they were getting off topic. If they wanted to stop this from getting out of hand, they would need to find a way to stop the Red Wizards. But how, she didn't know, nor could she think clearly of any ideas while she was still arguing with the other.

Nax went still for a moment, looking down. "I can answer one of your questions", he said calmly, still looking down at his hands. "Why wage war against me? Against one man? Because I am not who you think I am.

He stood up abruptly. "I am Nax of the Plains. I am the leader of an organisation called the Starspell Knights. We are dedicated to ridding the world of the Red Wizards of Thay. This is why they have come after me. I am the largest threat they have known in this age. By coming here tonight, I have successfully started a war that will lead to the inevitable fall of the Red Wizards. This is also why they sent their own leader, as they were anticipating a challenge."

The man closed his eyes. In the instant that he re-opened them, a shimmering light appeared at the crown of his head, and began to move its way down his body in rippling waves of silver. As it did, Nax changed. First his hair became short and bristly grey; his face harder and more lined; his eyes the brightest blue; his clothes turned pure white, and his hands became gloved in silver. At his waist his silver, moonlit sword brightened even more, and the room was filled with a blinding light that subsided after a few seconds. Finally, the shimmer reached Nax's boots, which became white leather, each embossed with a nine-pointed star.

"I have been dishonest to all of you here, as I was not sure if the wizard" he gestured towards Ol'kans, "would arrive disguised or not, and my usual appearance attracts great attention on a dark night such as this. I apologise for the deception. Even my thoughts had to be guarded.

"I also apoligise for all the action I have brought to your fine establishment, this evening" he then said to Bren, who was still standing behind the counter, mouth gaping slightly in awe of what he'd just seen."

Alastia stared for a long moment, then her eyes turned hard and harsh. If anything, her face appeared even less sympathetic than before, lips twisted and scars stretched, teeth bared.

"So then, no prophecy? That was a lie?" She asked, her voice eerily low. "But a plan? Is that what it was? A plan to start a war?" Her hand dropped to her sword, laid against the hilt. The entire tavern seemed uncomfortably quiet, at least to her. She could hear her heart beat, feel it in her chest faster and faster.

Then she spat on the floor.

"You know who dies in wars?" She hissed. "Not you, not men like you. Men like him." She nodded toward Bren. "Women like his wife. You never have a war in which people like them don't die." Then she smiled, a foul, fierce thing. "I felt sympathy for you, before. Would've if you were simple. A simple, stupid, fancy lad who'd hoped on a prophecy. I would've thought you a fool, but I..." She shook her head, her voice trailing away. Then she laughed.

"Well then, to your war then." She reached over and took up her ale mug, and raised it high, still cackling away. But it was a hollow sound, like anger and rage faded to dull misery. "No doubt by the end you won't be able to tell yourself from the Wizards of Thay! Cloth of such white keeps the red after all!"

Then she sat down, falling into her seat with her head and back bowed low and her hands on her knees. And she kept on laughing, all the while dark things flashing through her mind. No fiends or demons, or infernal creatures. Simply the memories of a mercenary and the shadows of what she'd seen.

"There is no cause for concern" Nax said, looking at Alastia blankly.

He turned to face the Red Wizard. "The Red Wizards of Thay have forever been a scourge on this world. That will stop now, once and for all. No longer will the wizards' wrath cause harm and suffering to the innocent."

He looked back at Alastia, a mad gleam in his eyes. "This will be no normal war. Not one that you've known, dear Alastia. We have their leader, the Wizards have no hope, and the Knights will ensure that it is quick and bloodless. There will be no death of innocents, or needless pain. The Wizards will be extinguished, finally ridding the world of their destructive presence.

"You will not be harmed, neither will Bren, or his family, or anyone here in Fareach."

Despite his words, Alastia remained unappeased. Her mad laughter ceased, but there was vicious gleam in her eyes. Her smile was feral as she looked up at Nax of the Plains, of the Starspell Knights. All white and shining like a star, like every illusion of greatness and glory she'd seen.

Then she held up her tankard. There wasn't much left, but she raised it with such force some of the brew still sloshed over the sides.

"Then to your imaginary, deathless war, Nax," she said roughly, wildly. "The stuff of daydreams and fancies, 'cause that's what it is. But hey!" She tossed back her drink then slammed the tankard down, shoved it aside. "I'll give you all the gold I've got if you do. But you won't."

She stood and sent her stool clattering, ignored it. She'd fetch it later, apologise to Bren. She was uncouth, ill-mannered, undignified, but she'd apologise none the less.

'But not to this madman,' she thought, glaring at Nax. 'I can sympathise with simple fools, but not with men like you, with too much power and not enough sense.'

"There's no such thing as a war in which innocents don't die," she said. "No such thing. You can keep on daydreaming that there is, but not even the damn Gods can hold a war in which the little folk aren't broken. Not even the damn Gods. Yet they do it anyway, because why not? It's all for the good, after all. All for the good."

She scowled. "Tell that to everyone who gets caught in the middle. Because the Red Wizards are scourges, true enough, but if you think you can do this without people getting killed, you're a sodding fool. A damn, sodding fool, and you'll have no one to blame when you're as red as those Thayan bastards."

She rubbed a hand across her face, pinched the bridge of her nose. It was hard, hard to calm down. Maybe she'd had more drinks than she could handle. Maybe she'd seen more blood than she could deal with. 'No. I can deal with blood and death. I just can't deal with sots who think it won't happen.'

"If you can make your deathless war a reality, Nax, I'll give you all the gold I've got," she repeated. "All I'll ever have. But you can't. I don't believe it, not because I don't want to, but because I don't think you can. Someone innocent's always going to die."

She wished it were otherwise, but that was the truth. She had enough blood on her hands to know.