'It's magic, Sungar,' I said. 'Your battle-axe is enchanted, a magical weapon. That's why it hurt you when you struck the naga. You may not approve of magic, tat whoever forged that axe certainly did.'
'What have you done, mage?' threatened Sungar. 'Nothing. I've done nothing. I've changed nothing. I've merely revealed what was always there. You have always used magic. You just didn't realize it. Don't you see, chieftain? That battle was not the first time magic saved your tribe. It probably has hundreds of times before.'
Sungar's face gradually turned from anger to resignation. 'You have done us a service, mage. We know what needs to be done.'
He stood, taking his axe in hand. He walked away from the camp, raised it above his head, and with impossible strength, hurled it far away onto the barren earth of the Fallen Lands.
One by one, the others followed suit. This is an image that will never leave me. They took their swords, axes, spears, hammers, their helmets and their armor, anything that radiated magic, and threw them all away, Soon, a veritable treasure trove of magical items lay in the dirt. Thluna was among the last to go up. He flashed a sad but nevertheless quite determined glance at me before removing his father's helmet and hurling it to join the rest.
I never shared another word with Sungar, but the next morning, Thluna gave me a horse and escorted me to the edge of the High Gap. From there, I could travel on down the banks of the Delimbiyr River to Loudwater, if such a place existed any longer. Perhaps there I could join another adventuring company. Perhaps I would end up at Evereska after all.
'Our people have a story,' Thluna told me. 'It is that this region you call the Fallen Lands was once a kingdom of magicians who lived in shining cities. They grew in power till they no longer did anything for themselves. Instead, they would have magic do it for them. They were proud and thought themselves capable of anything. Then one day, the well that they drew their magic from went dry. Their civilization crumbled overnight, and those who survived were set upon by orcs and other foul creatures. All that was once their shining cities has vanished beneath the dirt.
'I cannot tell you if that story is true, mage, but I do know this: Uthgar commands us to resist civilization wherever we find it. Civilization breeds leisure and decadence and magic, all of which seem like strengths but will eventually prove weaknesses. We Uthgardt will outlive all civilization. All civilizeds will eventually become like us.'
I sat in silence for a long time, pondering what he had told me, and what I had done. I wanted to tell him everything I knew about Netheril and about the creation of Anauroch, that possibly his ancestors, and very likely mine as well, were survivors of a civilization dead from magic.
Somehow I said nothing.
As I rode away from Thluna, I felt my spellbook under my robes. For a brief moment, I wondered if I would ever take it out again.
Oh, Lady Mystra! Command me. How could you grant us a gift so destructive, a gift we so rarely use properly? For Thluna was right. It is magic that might some day turn all of Faerun into the Fallen Lands.
When Shadows Come Seeking A Throne
1 Kythorn, the Year of Wild Magic
A hundred tiny stars flashed and sparkled, their reflections crawling silently along bright-polished silver all around the room.
The Queen of Cormyr set down her tallglass, plucked aside the dark shimmerweave cover even before the Lady Laspeera could ready a royal spellshield, leaned forward, and asked gently, 'Yes, Mreen? Are you well?'
The Lady Lord of Arabel looked haggard in the depths of the crystal ball. The dark, ragged line of a recent sword-cut across her cheek was all Queen Filfaeril and the senior war wizard needed to see to know the truth.
Myrmeen Lhal shrugged, smiled, and replied simply, 'Highness, I live.'
Myrmeen was still in full armor, and they could see the large, well-worn hilt of her warsword where it lay on the table within easy reach.
Filfaeril shook her head at the grim jest. 'Not good enough, Mreen-and lay aside my titles. It's me, lass, Fee. Your old friend, remember?'
'Highness,' the Lady Lord of Arabel said stiffly, 'I perceive that you're not alone.'
It was Laspeera's turn to sigh. 'Myrmeen,' she said with just a hint of weariness, 'it's just the two of us. Put your boots up on the table, fill your goblet, and tell us: how fares Arabel?'
There was a muffled thud as two mud-caked boot heels crashed into their field of view, daintily crossing at the ankles, and swiftly-moving gold flashed back candlelight as a man-sized goblet was plucked up from out of sight beneath a table edge.
'Very well,' Myrmeen said flatly, saluting them both with the drink in her hand. 'As you command.'
The Queen of Cormyr chuckled in the same soft, deep way her husband had so often done. The Lady Lord of Arabel almost shivered at the sound. Azoun was dead and buried, yet any moment she expected him to stride around the corner, laughter in his eyes, and 'Mreen,' Filfaeril said softly, as if she could read minds, 'I miss him too. More than anyone, though I know full well how much I shared him. For his sake, I go on, day after day, to keep Cormyr strong. How fares Arabel?' 'My Queen, I'm so sorr-Fee.' The Lady Lord of Arabel slapped the table in anger at herself, took a quid sip-no, a warrior's gulp-of wine, and said crisply, 'The city's retaken. Steady patrols remounted, Crown law restored, we're done fixing roads and bridges, and most of your troops are now out among the crofters, with barn-raisings well underway and folk lifting their voices in thanks for your generosity. Now the real rebuilding can begin.'
Filfaeril smiled, and Laspeera sat back, nodding in satisfaction. 'Ah, Mreen, it's such a pleasure to talk with someone who thinks, sees, and speaks directly. You've no idea… these courtiers…'
'Oh, yes, I do,' Myrmeen Lhal replied fervently. 'Were it not for the peril their recklessness and treasonous ambitions would bring down upon us, with the Stone-lands so close and this new dark magic outdoing the Zhents, I'd press you to agree to my old pet plan.'
It was Laspeera's turn to chuckle. 'Clap all our courtiers in armor and ship them out to you, to work their hands dirty and face war-fear and hear a few harsh orders? Don't think we haven't been tempted.'
'So do it,' the commander of Arabel said. 'If I make loyal and useful men out of half a dozen courtiers and die in the doing, that's six replacements for one down-and a lesson that might just cow the rest into keeping mute and out of the way, lest they be Volunteered' to follow.'
'And lose Arabel again?' Filfaeril asked gently. 'How many good men would pay the price of winning it back even one more time?'
Myrmeen nodded, took a long drink from her goblet, and said, 'Right enough, your-Fee. Gods damn, Filfaeril, but I just can't call у-'
'Oh, yes, you can,' Filfaeril said, sudden iron in her voice. 'Courtiers down here call me 'the Whore of Ice' behind my back, just loud enough to make sure I hear, and I was 'Lonelybed Longtresses' for years to throw Azoun's amours in my face, and I'll be flayed on the altars of Loviatar before one of my few true friends can't call me by my own пате.'
'Don't let the lords who linger at Court hear you use that expression,' Laspeera said with another chuckle. 'So few ideas fall into their heads as it is.'
Filfaeril rolled her eyes. 'So true. I've tried dropping choice phrases where their spies can overhear, to start them thinking, and all they do is wonder what I meant-aloud and over drink after drink, until they get the words all wrong and twist what they thought I meant all around-and I have to watch Lous fight down the urge to strangle them barehanded, one more time.'
It was Myrmeen's turn to chuckle. 'Doth the Steel Regent's temper grow… more tempered?'
The queen sighed. 'Yes, more credit to her, yet being away from the saddle and the sword and her young lords to fence with smiling lies every day… I can see it building in her. Someone, someday soon, is going to say one wrong word or do something small and only slightly offensive-and the storm inside Lous is going to break.' 'It won't be the only thing in the realm to break that day, I doubt not,' the commander of Arabel agreed. 'But I fear I waste
