Intervention

A Chapter by Eddie Davis

Freed from their restrictions as Watchers, Sophia, Khord and Deborah set out to rescue Aaron and Lysa.

24.

Intervention

“They’ve all left!” Deborah exclaimed as she rushed back into the grand hall of the ducal keep.

“By airship?” Sophia asked as she finished her survey of the personal items Yesh had allowed them to keep. She proudly clutched her duplicating case to her chest, relieved that her greatly loved Dart’loxinchu cigarettes would comfort her in her new home.

“The King ordered two of them to sail west. The Red Dragon and The Dark Queen left yesterday afternoon. Apparently while we met with Yesh, a full day passed here.”

“They haven’t reached the Hutcaiah capital yet.” Khord told the two ladies, “That should be tomorrow afternoon. So we still have time to stop them.”

Sophia nervously ran a finger over her Dart’loxinchu case, “I wonder if we are allowed to do that now that we no longer are employed as Watchers?”

Deborah shrugged, “I don’t see why not. We have no restrictions. I received a tour of the inside of The Red Dragon last week, so I should be able to teleport to that ship’s bridge. But more importantly, we need to bring back Aaron and Lysa.”

“I saw the cave last night with my computer scrying program… which I guess I won’t ever get to use again.” Sophia frowned, saddened at the loss of technology.

“You’ll have to go back to crystal balls, I guess.” Her husband teased, “So you think you can teleport to the cave accurately, since you saw the layout?”

“Yes, but our teleportation abilities are now limited to conventional spells, so I’ll use a wand that I just found when I was checking to see how many of our things were brought here. It only has a handful of charges left, but I think I’ll just use it instead.” The pregnant Drow went over to a wooden case that sat on the floor. On top of the case was the wand that she needed, and she paused a moment, debating something, then picked up a rather ornate staff as well.

“This staff was actually my mother’s. Khord, do you recognize it? It is her first Bishop’s staff.”

“Really?” Khord grinned, “How in the world did you get it?”

“I’ve had it for years. She received a new one from her fellow bishops, some years ago, and the new one held greater enchantments, so she gave the old one to me. I think she was hoping that it would inspire me to follow her footsteps into the Clerical studies. That was before she had any idea that we were working for Drake and Lady Kinzer in Flux, but I kept it for sentimental reasons. It’s been in our closet back in Flux for years.”

“Well why take it now, if we’re just going to retrieve Aaron and Lysa?” Khord asked.

“The staff has a very useful spell - or rather spells- that might help them. I’ll show you when we find them.”

“I’ll teleport to the Red Dragon and tell them that you are bringing the two back to Westmark and to turn the ship around.” Deborah told the two Drow. Sophia nodded and immediately Deborah began chanting a teleportation spell.

Sophia took her husband’s hand, giving him the clerical staff to hold as she waved the teleportation wand while visualizing the cave image that she had seen on the scrying program the previous day.

Moments later the two vanished in a flash of blue light, followed, a few minutes later, by Deborah as she completed casting her own teleportation spell.

***

“Here it is.” Sophia called to Khord as they trudged through the mud and rain, “I think they’re here - there’s a fire by the entrance.”

“But it could be someone else - we’d best be careful, we don’t know who is in there.”

Sophia smiled and pulled out a small lead box from her cloak’s pocket.

“Silence stone.” She explained to her husband and he knew exactly what it was, for it was a common Drow strategic device - a silence spell cast on a stone, so that it could be thrown into an unknown place and sound would be cancelled out in the area of effect. A darkness spell cast upon a stone had a similar effect by blocking all light, and sometimes both stones would be thrown into a room to deprive an enemy of light and sound.

Without saying anything else, Sophia opened the lead box and immediately everything fell silent in a 10 foot radius around them.

Motioning for her husband to follow her, the Drow lady walked cautiously into the cave. Khord trailed behind her and as soon as they passed the campfire, they stopped, for their dark elven eyesight could quickly see it was just a shallow cave.

But the main reason that they stopped was upon seeing Aaron and Lysa asleep in each other’s arms on the Hutcaiah reed mat.

Khord looked at his wife and Sophia arched her eyebrows with a smirk on her face. She went near to the bed and sat the silence stone on the ground next to it, then took Khord’s hand and led him out of the zone of effect of the magic stone.

“Well, that puts us into an awkward situation.” Khord said as they left the silence zone.

“They’re clothed, so we can’t jump to conclusions. Their embrace seemed rather intimate, however.” Sophia grinned, always a fan of romance.

“So what do we do? Wake them up? They’ll probably be rather embarrassed.”

“I have an idea - sort of a benign prank, now that we can get involved.”

“What are you going to do?” Khord demanded, seeing the mischievous look in Sophia’s eyes.

“Nothing that will directly embarrass them, just confuse them.”

“Sophie-“

“It will actually help them, Khord, don’t worry!”

“How?”

“Well, the staff of Mom’s - one of the spells it holds is a very useful spell called “Sacrament”. It is an unusual spell, because it has a handful of sub-spells that are cast to prepare a person - or people- for a sacramental ceremony in church.”

“So how is this going to help Aaron and Lysa?”

“Well, one of the Yeshian sacraments is baptism and you remember the ‘high ceremonial’ baptisms that they used to do a few times a year, don’t you?”

“Yeah - and the week-long preparations for it.”

“Yes, but I mean the actual ceremony. There was a ritual bathing ceremony where a priest would chant a spell and the candidate for baptism would be physically cleaned as if he had bathed.”

“So you want to give Aaron and Lysa baths?” Khord laughed.

“Let’s teleport them back to Westmark and I’ll show you what I have in mind. Gather their stuff close to that mat they are laying on and I’ll use the last charge of the wand to take us all back. But don’t disturb them or move the silence stone. The wand works without the need to hear the spell, so keep the stone in place.”

“I still don’t see what you have in mind, but now I’m really curious, so I’ll play along.” Khord went back into the cave and gathered up the items that Aaron and Lysa had pulled out of the Bag of Holding and placed them around their sleeping mat. Sophia waited until he was done, then waved the wand from the mouth of the cave.

A moment later they were back in Westmark, but Khord was puzzled why his wife hadn’t taken them back to the ducal grand hall. Instead they were in Aaron’s private quarters. He walked out of the silence zone and as soon as he did, she responded to his quizzing look.

“I took them back to his bedroom - for their privacy. Now, you were wondering about the sacrament spells. I’m going to use bits of spells from the sacraments for baptism, preparation of the dead and purification. Many of the spells are used in multiple sacraments, such as the sanctification spell.”

“Okay, I’ll just watch you and you can explain.”

Sophia nodded, “First, I’ll use the staff to remove their dirty clothing. There is a spell to ready dead bodies for burial - it was designed to prepare a large number of dead bodies at one time - such as the dead after a battle, so the priest would not have to physically handle each corpse, but it works on the living as well.”

The Drow lady took the staff, said a few arcane words while pointing it at the couple asleep on the reed mat. A grey mist seemed to appear over Aaron and Lysa and when it dissipated, the bedding and their clothes were gone.

“Uh… was that supposed to have happened?” Khord asked his wife.

“Yes, now I want you to go over to Aaron’s closet and select some suitable night clothing for him. I am going to find something for Lysa.”

“But-“

“Just do it, alright? I’ll be back in a moment.” She hurried out of the room, leaving Khord to complete his task.

A few minutes later, Sophia returned holding a very sheer, lace nightgown. “I can’t wear it for a while.” She explained to him as she patted her swollen belly, “So what did you find for Aaron?”

He held up a cotton night shirt.

“That’ll do.” Sophia answered, “Now I will cast another spell, for dressing a dead or unconscious body. This is also part of the Sacrament ceremony. But before I do that, I’ll use the staff to cast the “Sanctify” spell upon them. It is used in Baptism preparations, but for those, the person who has it cast upon them must be willing to have it cast. So I’m going to use the slightly different version used in the Burial ritual. This spell cleans up the bodies of those awaiting burial by purifying them. In effect, it washes them spiritually by washing them physically. A symbolic gesture, but it will suit our purpose today, as those being cleansed by this spell do not need to be conscious of it, as usually they are already dead.”

Sophia pointed the staff at Aaron and Lysa, and this time their bodies were wrapped in a shining, shimmering gentle light for a few moments. When the light faded from them, their skin and hair were clean and dried.

Immediately Sophia waved the staff and instantly the sleeping couple was dressed in the selected clothing, perfectly arranged.

“You’re having too much fun with this. It’s like you are playing with dolls. ” Khord wryly snipped, and the Drow sorceress smiled at his comment.

“This is much more fun. For the final use of the staff, I’ll use the ‘Placement' sub-spell that several sacraments use for various reasons. Don’t tell Mom about my use of the staff like this or she will probably be offended at my sacrilege.”

She pointed the staff once more at the sleeping duo and a moment later they levitated off of the reed sleeping mat and over to the bed in Aaron’s room.

“Pull back the bedcovers.” Sophia told her husband and he did as she commanded. Gently she lowered Aaron and Lysa onto the pillows of the bed and Khord covered them up.

“That’s done.” Sophia said as Khord joined her at the door of the room, “They’ll be somewhat stunned to find themselves back home, bathed and in different clothes, all while they slept.”

The Sorceress giggled mischievously and it was a sound that Khord had not heard his wife make much in a long time. Looking at her, then he understood - the weight of her position as leader of the Watchers had been removed from her shoulders and she was letting herself relax again.

It was a wonderful thing to see, and he watched her as she retrieved her silence stone, folded up the Hutcaiah sleeping mat, then crept back across the room with a sparkle in her eyes.

Never had she been more beautiful than at that moment, and he hugged her as they returned to the Great Hall to wait for Deborah’s return. Perhaps the loss of their jobs wasn’t such a bad thing after all, Khord mused as Sophia laughingly pondered how surprised Lysa and Aaron would be when they awoke.

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