dark mesa. Even other Red Wizards!
The memory of the day she lost everything ambushed her.
They'd been at the zenith of a mountain pass in the Earthfasts, making for Impiltur. The caravan she hired stretched out behind her own wagon, horse-drawn boxes growing progressively smaller down the switchback trail. Each was filled with a portion of the gold taken from the disbanded Red Wizard enclave of Raven's Bluff.
The day was clear but cold. At the top of the pass, she could see for what seemed forever. She imagined the shadowed ridges to the east might be the ramparts of Thay, calling her to a new phase of service.
She was uneasy with her decision, despite her bold pledge and subsequent vicious actions commandeering the treasury. She'd betrayed more than a few acquaintances. Some of them saw Seren's actions as treachery and swore vengeance. All that, and Szass Tam was her new master. He had been Seren's least favor ite zulkir, as she was repulsed by necromancy. But when he seized power in Thay, what choice had she? Become a fugitive like so many others? Give up all she had worked for and achieved?
No.
She had pledged herself to the new order. It was onward, to Thay and hopefully to- The sky flashed.
Seren shaded her eyes and looked up. The sun's normally yellow face was frosted behind a steely sheen. Flares of blue fire ringed it, growing longer every moment Seren watched. The filaments of fire reached toward Faerun, as if eager to embrace the world at long last.
Something slipped effortlessly into Seren's mind and squeezed. She uttered a curse and fell from the seat of her wagon. The impact with the ground wasn't as bad as the pain in her mind.
The Earthfasts shook and the horses reared. Seren rolled into a gully to escape the flashing hooves. But she couldn't escape seeing the wagons lower on the trail pitch over the edge of the trembling precipice.
She blacked out.
When awareness returned, the pain was gone, but so was the treasury-and her magic.
Seren blinked, and she was back in her cabin on Green Siren. The red robe she hadn't worn in eleven years hung before her. She ran her hand down its side, feeling its wellmade weave.
Her past had found her. Red Wizard rebels and probably Thay knew she lived. Morgenthel or other bounty hunters would try to pick up her trail once more. Red Wizards who had a bone to pick with Seren would keep an eye out for her, desiring some measure of payback.
Her plan of remaining beneath her enemies' notice while she recovered a treasure equal to what she'd lost was compromised. At least she'd regained her spells, and then some, in the decade since the catastrophe. And she'd accumulated a tidy sum during that time too. If Raidon was true to his word, the remainder of what she required might finally be hers.
Which meant it was in her interest to see to it the monk's crazy quest was completed successfully. Seren closed her wardrobe door.
She'd done all she could for the time being to assure the success of their voyage. By anyone's standards, that was a lot. But worry wormed through her gut anyway. Something wasn't right with Thoster.
She didn't trust the pirate. Raidon was a fool if he believed anything that fell from that man's lips.
It wasn't merely that the captain was criminal, out only for his own gain. Far more worrisome was the captain's strange behavior under Gethshemeth's isle. The man was unstable. Who knew when he'd crack next?
Seren quit her cabin and stalked across the deck toward the captain's cabin at the opposite end.
Green Siren was lit by the lantern light reflecting off the gleamtail jacks swarming around the craft. Beyond their protective embrace, the solid rock fell away on both sides, allowing the ship to sail seams of mineral and stone into the depths.
Raidon remained in the ritual circle, one hand across his chest where the Cerulean Sign burned.
Seren paused to watch the half-elf. The monk was oblivious. His wide eyes saw something beyond the deck, they reflected what the gleamtail jacks could sense. Thus Seren had crafted the ritual.
'You're doing well, monk,' she murmured.
She moved on to the aftcastle that was built over the captain's quarters. Light gleamed through the porthole in the narrow door to the captain's mess where Thoster took his meals, planned raids, and smoked his odiferous weed.
She pushed into the chamber.
A miniature chandelier gleaming with magical flames provided a warm glow. Thoster was seated at a heavy table almost too big for the space. A pot of stew steamed at the table's center.
The captain looked up. 'Seren! It's been some time since you joined me for supper.' The captain ladled himself another serving of stew, then motioned to an empty setting.
Seren sat and allowed the captain to serve her, first a portion of stew, then a finger of rum from a glass bottle.
'So, what news?' said the captain. He motioned to the fine windows installed in the chamber. 'I see we're still descending. Does Raidon require something? A rest perhaps?'
'No, the monk seems tireless. Probably drawing energy from his spellscar.'
'A handy trick.'
'I suppose.'
Silence stretched, broken only by the sound of Thoster slurping stew. Finally the captain said, 'What's on your mind, Seren?'
'You.'
'Oh?' The captain winked. 'After all this time, I'm flattered.'
'Fm worried that you're a liability.'
'Ho! You think I can't handle myself in-'
'I think you're hiding something, something to do with your past. Something that will compromise Raidon's plan to eradicate this threat we face.'
Thoster frowned.
Seren said, 'Remember when we fought Gethshemeth and its kuo-toa beneath the island? Of course you do. But do you recall when you started blubbering about the eidolon we found there?'
'I'm not sure-'
'You demanded that the monk not hurt it, despite that it nearly proved our end.'
The captain put down his mug and spoon. He dropped his head. 'I can't explain it.'
'Try.'
The man squared his shoulders as if coming to some decision. Seren tensed, readying hersel f in case the captain made to draw his venomous blade.
Thoster rolled back one sleeve. Tiny scales tiled his arm. Seren's stomach dropped.
'What does this mean?' she said.
'I'm changing, Seren. I don't know why. Something to do with the kuo-toa is my guess. These are growing all over me. Can you… can you stop it?' The man's face looked more vulnerable than the wizard had ever seen it.
Seren examined the scales, searching for arcane telltales of a curse or transformative magic. If this was the result of a spell or ritual, she might be able to reverse it… but no. Whatever this was, it wasn't magic's handiwork- or at least not recent magic.
'Thoster,' she said, 'whatever's afflicting you, it is fundamental to your nature. I can't remove it.' The captain sighed.
'But I might be able to slow it down.'
'Aye, that I'd welcome, Seren. How?'
She said, 'Tell me everything you know about it.'
'I don't know anything!'
She frowned her annoyance. 'Don't be an idiot, Thoster. I've heard you talk about your 'polluted blood' on more than one occasion. You must know something.'
Thoster helped himself to more rum, then said, 'Well, my auntie raised me-I never knew my mother. Auntie was one for the drink, and we weren't close. She always screamed at me when she finished off her liquor, that I was 'an ungrateful little monster with unclean blood.' Never knew what she meant, but it helped my reputation when I was older. I took it as a badge of honor 'cause it made me special, especially in the rough crowd I ran with.
