R. Salvatore - Archmage

“But I feel as if I can readily answer the call.”

“You can.”

Both demons turned to the Spider Queen with surprise.

“A hundred years,” Errtu said. “The banishment is. .”

“How do you so break the rules of the cosmos?” Marilith asked. “I was banished by the trident of Malagdorl Armgo. I cannot return to the Prime Material Plane until a century has passed, with rare exception.”

“You weren’t defeated,” Lolth explained. “You did as I instructed. You were sent to lose, and did as you were ordered, so there was no loss. But yes, the Faerzress thins, the boundary between the Underdark of Faerûn and the Abyss is less a barrier, and soon a facilitator.”

“And Bilwhr, whom Gromph obliterated?” Errtu said.

“Eagerly awaiting a call to return,” said Lolth.

“But I remain banished, by the hand of Tiago Baenre?” From his tone, the balor seemed as if he was about leap upon Lolth in rage. He would not, of course, for she would make short work of him, and would take from him much more than a few decades of freedom.

“You were defeated,” Lolth reminded him. “But fear not, for the barrier protecting the Faerzress will continue to diminish, and you will find your way, and perhaps find your vengeance.”

Errtu growled. “Tiago Baenre, and then Drizzt Do’Urden.”

Lolth laughed again, and she was laughing at him and not with him, though he missed the point of her mirth. Lolth’s mockery was one of disbelief as much as anything else. She could not fathom a creature as mighty and intelligent as Errtu wasting so much of his energy plotting vengeance upon a pair of inconsequential mortals.

“My dear Errtu, if a field mouse bit the ankle of Drizzt Do’Urden, do you think he would spend the next century hunting the creature?”

“I will slay Malagdorl before this is through,” Marilith said, clearly in support of the balor.

“You will do as you are told,” Lady Lolth corrected. “I will grant you much freedom, both of you, and perhaps you will find the opportunity to carry out your desperate revenge. But only, I warn, if it does not interfere with that which I need.”

“I have waited. .” Errtu began to growl.

“And you will wait until I agree with your path,” the Spider Queen shot back with equal threat in her tone. “Drizzt has beaten you twice, fool.”

“He was not alone!”

“Do you believe he will be alone now? Or that you will find Tiago of House Baenre in solitary combat? A noble son of House Baenre?” She turned to Marilith. “Or that you will similarly find such an opportunity against Malagdorl of House Barrison Del’Armgo? The presence of so many of our Abyssal kin has put the city on its highest guard. You will not likely catch any of your prey alone.”

“Drizzt is not in the city,” Errtu pointed out.

“On the surface of Abeir-Toril, likely,” said Lolth. “And there, you cannot go.”

That brought curious expressions to the demons. They looked to each other, Marilith shaking her head, Errtu offering a shrug in return.

“You promised that I would be summoned! I gave you K’yorl, and aided in your plot with Kimmuriel Oblodra-”

“Silence!” Lolth demanded. “The Faerzress will be thinned, and yes, you will be able to pass through to the Underdark -whose life and energy is controlled by the Faerzress. Abeir-Toril’s sun will not abide you until your century of banishment has passed.”

“Never before were such restrictions imposed,” Marilith protested. “I have passed between the two, surface and Underdark, on a single summons from a drow wizard, or from a human above! Are you separating the powers, Underdark and World Above?”

“The Faerzress is attuned to the lower planes, which is where it draws its power,” Lolth explained. “The barrier of the Faerzress draws its strength from the sunlit lands, and so keeps us at bay.”

“And so kept us at bay,” said Errtu.

“Soon,” the Spider Queen promised.

Marilith closed her eyes then and tilted her head back, as if in ecstasy. “The archmage’s ceremony nears its end,” she explained. “I am called!”

“Go,” Lolth bade her. “Go and play. Tell him nothing that will warn him or help him. You remain fully confused that he was able to bring you back after such a defeat. Do you understand?”

“Of course,” she said, her voice thinning as her corporeal form thinned, as she melted away to the call of the archmage.

“The stooge Kimmuriel performs admirably,” Errtu said when they were alone.

“And Gromph is so eager to bite at Quenthel that he readily accepts this as his own doing.”

Errtu nodded, his growl sounding more like a purr then. “When, Lady of Spiders, will the demon lords walk freely in the Underdark?”

“Soon, my pet. Before the turn of Abeir-Toril’s year, if Gromph is properly teased.”

“He is hungry,” Errtu said. He nodded, and Lolth smiled, both confident that their plans were playing out perfectly.

“It cannot be,” Gromph whispered in amazement when the nine-foot tall, six-armed creature materialized within his summoning circle. He knew all of these particular type of demon, called generically “marilith,” after the strongest of their kind, as was the custom, and he surely knew this particular specimen as Marilith herself.

But that could not be!

Gromph’s thin lips curled in a wicked smile and a chuckle escaped him. “So Malagdorl Del’Armgo lied,” he said, and all the possibilities of embarrassment he might now inflict on House Barrison Del’Armgo began to dance in front of him. Perhaps he would parade Marilith into the chamber of the Ruling Council when they were in session, just to watch the blood drain from the face of Matron Mother Mez’Barris.

“How am I here?” Marilith asked, playing the role Lolth had determined for her.

“You are here by my call.”

“You cannot. . but you have,” the demon said, appearing quite confused and disoriented.

“Why? What do you know?”

“I was defeated,” Marilith explained, “by the weapons master of the Second House and his cohorts. I am banished from Abeir-Toril for a century, and yet barely a tenday has passed! How can this be?”

Gromph’s eyes sparkled with astonishment at the possibilities that suddenly danced in front of him.

“Ah, but now I might exact my revenge upon the fork-wielding fool!” Marilith said, her eyes turned to the distance as she played her part flawlessly.

“Malagdorl defeated you, just recently, in a tavern in the Stenchstreets?” Gromph asked.

“Did I not just say as much, Archmage Gromph?” the demon answered curtly. “Though the location is not important, for surely it was on this foul plane full of inconsequential beings.” She looked Gromph up and down, scrutinizing him, and seeming not to be much impressed with what she saw. “Why have you disturbed me?” she demanded.

“Did you not just express your elation at being here?”

“Of my own accord and for my own purpose, mortal,” Marilith replied. “Unless you tell me that you brought me here to exact my revenge upon weapons master Malagdorl Del’Armgo.”

Gromph thought it over for a bit. He had no idea how he had captured Marilith in his summoning, since she just admitted that Malagdorl had defeated her. He had only sought her in the spell on a whim, to test the veracity of Malagdorl’s claim. Since that claim was apparently true, there was no way he should have been able to bring Marilith forth.

It was the psionics. He truly was finding the enhancement to the summoning spell through the combination of arcane magic and psionics!

His breath came in short gasps as he pondered just how limitless his powers might soon become. Perhaps he could open half the Abyss to his call, create an army of his own demons and so take power in Menzoberranzan. It seemed a crazy leap, of course, but so, too, did the six-armed demon slithering in front of him here in Menzoberranzan after being so recently banished from the Prime Material Plane. If Gromph could replicate this achievement, he would be revered by the demons and devils weary of their century-long banishments.