"What?" Anusha whispered.
"Another chamber ahead, filled with some sort of growth I haven't seen before. I heard voices too. Speaking Common."
Japheth sidled up and leaned to gaze around the comer. The corridor spilled into a wider space that seemed, at least from his limited vantage, overgrown with creepers thick with murky liquid flowing in spastic pulses. Overlarge pears or oranges the color of blood dangled from the growth.
But his attention was riveted by the sound of conversation. He heard his own name!
"Someone's talking about me!" he whispered. The voice was familiar.
Flush in the confidence of his renewed power, Japheth proceeded around the bend despite Yeva's whispered protest.
He advanced into a large space that held a circular pool and a dozen or more exits around the periphery.
And as he'd half expected, Captain Thoster and the wizard Seren stood near the pool as if waiting for him. Near one exit, a woman slumped, obviously exhausted. She looked vaguely familiar—Japheth placed her as a crew member on Thoster's ship. The only one missing was the crazy monk.
Recalling their last meeting, he raised one arm, fingers arranged just so, ready to cast.
Thoster raised a hand too, but apparently in a friendly greeting. "Hoy, Japheth! We have to stop running into each other like this."
The warlock studied the man, who looked far the worse for wear. He seemed to be suffering from some sort of body-wide skin condition. Seren, on the other hand, looked as dour as ever, though at least she'd changed into clothing more suited to exploring a dangerous, city-sized relic.
"Indeed, Captain," Japheth finally said. "You seem to have the advantage of me. You have been waiting here to talk to me?"
"In a manner of speaking, my friend," the captain said. "We're here on account of Raidon Kane, the last Keeper of the Cerulean Sign. He's gone on to take care of things above. But when we noticed you traipsing up from below, he asked Seren and me to have a chat with you."
Japheth eyed the captain. The man obviously had more in mind than a mere chat. The warlock glanced back.
Anusha and Yeva moved to join him in the chamber, but kept quiet as ghosts.
Thoster and the wizard gave no sign they noticed the two dream images, though the woman by the exit drew her sword.
The warlock addressed Seren. "So, what do you want to talk about? I don't have much time. The Eldest is waking."
The wizard said, "Right. Your imbecilic experiments have caused Xxiphu to wake from centuries of sleep."
"Nogah's theft of the stone triggered the Abolethic Sovereignty's awakening, not me," he replied, feeling warm blood in his cheeks.
"Sure, the priestess started the ball rolling, but the damage could still have been contained," Seren said.
"Problem is, you took off with the Dreamheart! Since then, you've continued to tinker with the relic, haven't you? It's directly connected to Xxiphu, idiot. The more you tried to save your little friend, the more the servitors of the Eldest stirred. If you'd given up the stone, Xxiphu might have fallen back into somnolence. Now it's too late."
The woman's speech stirred him to anger. He said in a cold voice, "I don't have to explain myself to you. Now stand aside. I have an appointment with the Eldest."
"I'm afraid not," said Thoster. "At least, not without handing over the stone." The pirate pulled his clicking blade from its sheath. Metallic disks inset flush in the blade whirred with golemlike precision. Poison pulsed within hair-thin conduits running from hilt to tip, whetting the blade's edge with an emerald sheen.
Japheth eyed the captain's weapon, then looked to Seren. "You are against me too?"
The wizard drew her wand and said, "You may be a natural charmer, my dark-haired friend, but you're not bringing the Dreamheart upstairs. If you do, the aboleths will take it from you, and all we've suffered to reach this nightmarish place will be for nothing."
"Don't be too sure," the warlock said. "I've reached something of an accommodation with the creatures of this city." Which was technically true, though Japheth lied by omission. He had an accommodation with the denizens of Xxiphu only insofar as he shared something of the same power they called upon. That didn't make him and the Sovereignty allies any more than it made allies of opposing armies who brandished swords forged by the same dwarf clan.
In any event, his admission didn't allay Seren's concern, it enflamed it. She exclaimed, "You've become a pawn of the Dreamheart!" "No. Listen, none of us have time for this kind of squabble. Aboleths are waking and hatching below, and the Lord of Bats is loose somewhere in Xxiphu too, looking for me so he can have his vengeance. I've wasted too much time already. Stand aside."
Seren sighed, then hurled a magical orb of force toward his head. He turned sideways at the last moment. The orb struck his shoulder. It burst in a flurry of slashing shards.
His blood made tiny ribbons in the air, but the cut was superficial. A few of the force shards scattered behind him. One caught Yeva in the stomach. The strange woman doubled over in pain. He saw Anusha draw her dream blade even as her helm shimmered into place over her head.
Time to try out something more aggressive from his new pact. Even as Thoster charged around the limb of the pool, Japheth called on one of his new star-born powers.
He finished the spell just before the captain made it into sword range. Inky black, frigid tendrils seemed to burst from the freebooter's body. The captain cried out in surprise and pain. The tendrils curled and wound back around their host instantly, so tightly that the captain's headlong dash ended in a sliding sprawl.
That should hold the captain for a bit, Japheth thought. Long enough to deal with a lone wizard.
Anusha rushed past him with her blade high. Seren incanted another spell, continuing to give no indication she was aware of the threat the invisible dreams in the room posed. He hoped Anusha didn't hurt Seren badly—but that hope did not prompt him to deflect Anusha's charge.
Anusha swatted the wizard with the flat of her blade. On contact, Seren cried in astonishment. Her spell evaporated in a flash of harmless green fire.
"Remember me, war wizard?" Anusha asked the confused Seren. "I saved your life down in Gethshemeth's watery lair. Don't make me end you now. One more spell, and I run you through with my blade!" Anusha's voice wavered, but was resolute.
The wizard swallowed. She said, aIf Japheth the Stubborn would give up the Dreamheart, our quarrel would be done. If you care for the black-caped idiot, tell him to hand it over. For the world's sake!"
This last seemed to deflate Anusha's enthusiasm to batter Seren into unconsciousness or worse. She looked back and asked Japheth, "Is she right?"
The warlock frowned in exasperation. Based on his previous conversations with Seren, he doubted she cared much for Toril's fate. Time was too short for such distractions. "No, we must keep the stone. I need to use the Dreamheart to extract your soul from the Eldest's mind. It was the conduit that sucked you in, and it will serve the same function to pull you out. You and Yeva both."
As if waiting for her cue, Yeva said, "Then the world can look after itself!" She touched two fingers to her temple. A bolt of hazy force seemed to arc from her brow and burrow into the wizard's.
Seren threw her head back in shock. She dropped her wand and toppled backward, narrowly missing the pool.
She lay still, save for her ragged breath and darting eyes. She seemed to be watching images Japheth couldn't see. Mental phantasms?
Thoster yelled, "Godsdamn it, where did that come from?"
The crew woman hadn't moved throughout the entire conflict. When Japheth turned and frowned at her, the woman's resolve broke. She said, "Sorry, Captain, I'm heading back to the ship!" The woman spun and dashed down the tunnel.