Pathway

Chang Chang squinted through the smoke of a dozen fires that raged on this side of the riverbank. The battle had begun to shift, the dwarves pouring across the river at the sound of a horn. Abron and Obarn  stood at the bridges, shouting to anyone within earshot to fall back. The yaomo forces seemed confused by the sudden exodus and did not immediately follow. Perhaps they sensed a retreat and wanted to take advantage of the lull in the fighting to regroup and hit the dwarves while they fell back to more secure ground.

Chang Chang saw this from her vantage on the ledge at the edge of the cavern, the same spot where she and Ju Fenghad watched Ongara and Arngam's wedding. It felt like many days ago.

"He'll do it now." 

Chang Chang said as she levitated to the ground. Sull and Ju Fengstood waiting for her. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

"Heavens tears, the power—I can feel it in the air, as if the whole city is one huge conduit for magical essence." 

"He's calling upon the runes," 

Abron said, pushing through the stream of dwarves flowing into the plaza. 

"Protective energy and symbols placed all over the city—they react to the king's will, and he can use them—or destroy them—as he wishes."

"The same thing you did to the bridge on our way down here," Ju Feng said.

Chang Chang remembered the look of sorrow and loss she'd seen etched on Abron's face when he'd destroyed the ancient piece of architecture. Her heart ached for what the king was about to do. She asked.

"Is this the only way?" 

Abron nodded once. His expression softened somewhat as Druya and Ongara came through the crowd, looking pale and weary. 

"W here have you been? We were worried."

"At the temple. I asked Druya to tend to Arngam."

Ongara replied.

"Is he all right?" Chang Chang asked.

"I think so—took in too much smoke. He's unconscious. Are you ready?"

Druya nodded. "We should hurry."

"Where are you going?" 

Abron demanded as the two women headed for the bridges. He continued.

"The king ordered us to fall back."

"There are wounded on the other side of the river. I'll get as many of them up and moving as possible."

"It's too late for that." 

Abron said, looking at Druya, 

"And even if you got there in time, the yaomo will tear you apart as soon as they see you."

"They'll be too distracted by the king. I can't abandon the wounded." 

She put her hand on her father's shoulder and said something in Dwarvish. Abron's expression hardened, and he shook his head. But Druya was equally stubborn. She took her father's face between her hands, kissed the runes on his face, and then she pressed her forehead against his. A breath passed, and Druya pulled away. Ongara took her place and repeated the gesture. Then the women headed for the bridge.

"Wait, Druyaya!" Chang Chang cried.

Druya turned to look at her, but Chang Chang found herself at a loss for words. She didn't know why she'd called out to the cleric. A lump rose in her throat. Druya smiled and nodded. Then they were gone, passing through the smoke and hidden from sight. Chang Chang turned to Ju feng, but before she could speak, a tremor shook the cavern, raising dust clouds from the stone. Awareness surged in Chang Chang's blood, a massive buildup of power, pulsing, raging …

As if in a dream, Chang Chang looked up, and for an instant, all the magical runes in the city flashed with brilliant, blue-white radiance. In the heart of the magical storm, the white-silver dragon pulled up, wings beating the air, and released a breath of gas in a line along the opposite side of the river. The yaomo caught in the blast collapsed, paralyzed. The dragon flew higher, and the runes continued to pulse until Chang Chang raised her hands to her head as if she could ward off the surge in magic. Frantically, she turned to Ju Feng.

"Get down!" 

She cried, but the words were lost in an explosion that deafened her. All around her, yaomo and dwarf eyes turned to the sky, their expressions reflecting fear and awe. Chang Chang looked with them, but she could barely see King Laggarma beyond the glow of the magical light. The runes burst apart before her eyes, and the cavern ceiling above the dragon collapsed. A roaring filled Chang Chang's ears, and the tremors became a shuddering that threw her to the ground. Ju Feng,crawled to her, and the three of them huddled close as the world came crashing down around them.

She floated in darkness, broken only by surges of arcane light—magic that burned where it touched her skin. Chang Chang flinched in pain, but there was nowhere to go.

Heaven's tears, make it stop, she cried silently. I can't bear any more. 

Let go.

The feminine voice came from the darkness, and again Chang Chang had the sensation of hands encircling her from behind. The same soothing coolness and sense of calm she'd felt in the library when she'd been connected to Gallazza's mind reached out to her now.

She'd heard the woman's voice before, in her dreams.

Who are you? Chang Chang asked.

"Let go." 

The voice repeated. Don't fight the storm. All will be well.

I'm afraid. Chang Chang let the invisible hands draw her through the darkness, as if she floated on her back in a pool of deep water. She was terrified of sinking, but she wanted to relax into the arms that held her. Warm hands they were, like a mother's touch.

""That's better. The more you fight, the more the magic will bind and drag you down into the abyss."

"Who are you?" 

Chang Chang repeated, desperate. Please tell me.

"You know." 

Humor touched the woman's voice. We haven't been formally introduced, but I think we'll get on well. Mystra? The memory of the divine, speaking to her through the Arcane Script Sphere? Had the artifact been speaking to her through her dreams all along? All this time she'd been connected to the divine and hadn't known it. Chang Chang's fear evaporated. She floated in the dark, but she no longer felt alone.

"Lady, she called out in her mind, I am very, very glad to know you."

The next several hours were largelyblurfor Chang Chang. She remembered waking, her head jostling against's shoulder. He carried her, stumbling, across the rubble-strewn plaza. Staring up at the smoke-filled sky, Chang Chang saw that half the temple of Haela Brightaxe had been blown away by the explosion. The stone garden lay in ruins. The king's hall and the temple of Moradin had both sustained damage, but they and most of the other buildings in the plaza still stood. Ju Fengcarried her in the direction of Moradin's temple.

"I'm all … all right." 

Coughing, Chang Chang tried to slip from Ju Feng's arms, but he held on to her.

"Try not to move. You hit your head. You need healing. Others already at the temple."

"Druya." 

Chang Chang said faintly. 

"She can … heal me."

"She's missing." 

Ju Feng's arms tightened around her. A weight settled in Chang Chang's stomach. Hane's tears, I'm so weary, she thought. Fires still burned throughout the city, and soldiers moved through the plaza, but she saw no sign of the yaomo.

"Is it over?" Chang Chang asked.

"The yaomo fled in the wake of the explosion. The soldiers are dealing with the stragglers. From what I hear, there's no sign of the mistress mother or any of their other leaders."

"What about the king?" 

Chang Chang asked. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. Her mouth tasted like smoke.

"He's alive. I don't know any more than that." 

He looked down at her. The lines at his eyes and mouth had deepened. He looked aged, and as weary as Chang Chang felt. Yet he refused to put her down. 

"Questions can wait. Sleep now."

"But I have to tell you … Mystra … she …" 

But Chang Chang's strength failed her. Her eyes drifted closed. She wanted so badly to tell him about the woman's voice, the arms that had comforted her. Instead, she let go, and relaxed into the warmth of Ruen's arms.

When she woke again, she was in Moradin's temple. Lying on her back, she looked up at a carving of Moradin's symbol on the far wall. Veins of mithral ran through the stone grooves, which created a soft, liquid glow in the dim light from bunches of lichen arranged low along the walls. 

Slowly, Chang Chang sat up. The temple was full of wounded, and dozens of soldiers milled around, offering aid, but there was a noticeable hush in the air. Chang Chang looked for familiar faces and found Ongara standing on the other side of the room, talking in low voices. Chang Chang made her way over to them. Her body felt emptied out, hollow inside from all the magic she'd used in the past days.

There would be a price for what she'd done. Chang Chang had accepted that going into the battle. She couldn't bring herself to feel regret, but for Ju Feng's sake, and for the sake of the life they had ahead of them, she wondered how much more of her longevity she'd given up, hoping the price hadn't been too high.

Let go, she told herself, echoing the voice she'd heard whispering to her in the darkness. The future would take care of itself, and no matter what happened, she would not have to face it alone.