T Lain: The Bloody Eye

Righteous indignation rose up in Jozan and he couldn’t hold back the castigation, “Do you have any idea how many lives you’ve ruined? How much agony you’ve caused?”

“To be honest,” answered the heretic, “I don’t. To care about such things would have been weak in the eye of Gruumsh.”

Jozan ordered Qorrg to watch Calmet, then he bent down and opened another scroll case. As Calmet heard his pupil reading the scroll aloud, he watched healing course over the half-orc’s body. His former charge invoked more healing, beyond the power of the scroll. The barbarian was not completely healed, but his wounds were no longer life-threatening.

As Calmet watched, the barbarian rose up and walked to the one-eyed woman, placing his arm around her as she whimpered that she might have destroyed them all. As if realizing simultaneously that they had forgotten someone, they looked back up the tunnel toward the courageous figure of the paladin. Jozan whispered a prayer for her soul, but his muttering was interrupted by Calmet’s touch.

“There are many evils I cannot undo,” suggested Calmet, “but this is not one of them. Take me to my sanctum. I have a scroll there that enables me to turn stone to flesh.”

“You must have,” responded Jozan. “I saw it happen to your heart, today.”

In Calmet’s inner sanctum, the heretic rummaged quickly through his scroll cases. As he did so, his mind sifted rapidly through a number of options. Was it possible that Jozan really did not intend to kill him? Might he really be able to re-enter the service of Pelor? He sincerely doubted it. Pelor was forgiving, but his people were far less so. Calmet grabbed one scroll case and looked up.

“I just need one more,” he told Jozan and Qorrg, who scrutinized every action.

The statue of the paladin Alhandra was propped behind the two observers, while the half-orc and the one-eyed woman—Krusk and Yddith—their heads pressed together like two lovers, spoke softly in the corner.

Will they ever admit their feelings to each other? wondered Calmet. What a pair of misfits they would make, he observed, but misfits often need each other.

Such thoughts were leading him down a path he didn’t want to pursue. He was a misfit himself. He no longer believed in the power of evil, but he wasn’t certain that he could serve Pelor with a calling as clear as Jozan’s. It was clear in his mind that no matter what he tried to do, every action would be scrutinized and second-guessed. That would be worse than being enslaved to laud’s designs.

His fingertips brushed across a familiar symbol and he lifted the scroll case off the table.

“This is the one,” he said to reassure his captors. “I’ll need both of these to restore your comrade.”

Calmet carried the two scroll cases close to Alhandra’s stony form. As he neared her, Jozan and Qorrg moved to flank him. Their suspicion, though well-placed, still annoyed Calmet. He wondered why they didn’t show a trifle more gratitude for his helping their companion.

“You’ll need to stand on each side of her,” cautioned Calmet. “She may be weak when she returns to her natural body. These transmutations take a lot out of a person.”

Calmet hoped that he had the right amount of concern and sincerity in his voice as he urged his two guardians to take their positions at Alhandra’s side. Krusk and Yddith looked up and were watching his preparations with great interest, so he opened the scroll case and prepared to read it with exaggerated fanfare.

“This is the basic spell to restore her,” he announced aloud. “Then, we’ll cure her wounds.”

The four adventurers nodded in agreement, and Calmet firmly proclaimed, “ Lapis ad corpo !”

The words of the spell were no sooner read than the scroll disintegrated and the gray stone itself turned to sand, chalk, and finally, chalky flesh. Alhandra and Jozan embraced. Krusk and Yddith ran to greet her as Calmet hastened to read the second scroll.

“ Abscindo !” was the word that echoed through the cave as the five adventurers savored their reunion. When they heard the power word and looked up, they realized that Calmet had disappeared.

Calmet found himself surrounded by ashes. His scroll had teleported him to the spot where his fall from Pelor began. There were the ashes of the mission house that Laud burned to the ground after Calmet’s eye was sacrificed. There was the stairway that opened into Calmet’s underground sanctuary. So much had happened since the last time he stood on that spot.

The heretic smiled as he thought of Jozan’s courage. In spite of having to trick the boy and escape, he was proud of his former pupil. And, in spite of being on the run and having to hide, he was delighted to be free—free of both Laud and Jozan. From now on, Calmet vowed, no man would be his master.