Forgotten Realms Fan Fiction ❯ The Cat and the Spider ❯ Two Goddesses under One Roof ( Chapter 1 )

THE CAT AND THE SPIDER

 

 

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

 

Notes: This story is an old project. It was also a dream of mine to have a RPG character from a modern setting founding himself in the Forgotten Realms. I have not found a master willing to do it except during a convention. The game was very good and fun. I took great pleasure in playing the numerous problems encountered by a modern person in a medieval setting. The concept of the extra-dimensional exiled is a staple of Asian animation. Read and dream…

 

 

Chapter 1: Two goddesses under one roof …

 

 

It was the classic standard school-travel organized countless of times in countless countries. It was a however something of a treat for Shan Mao: a demonstration of Shaolin style Kung-Fu in the central court of a temple. Three masters and about a dozen of disciples were `performing' for the mass of tourists and schools.

 

Of course they were `showing off' but it was not a problem for the `ghost-girl' who was observing the katas with almost an obsessive streak. Such demonstrations were, in fact very cleverly disguised means of giving the knowledge of the Art to a maximum of people in plain sight of the government.

 

Most of the principles of the Art were based on the `Chi'. Chi was the expression of the living force or energy that exists in anything. The martial artist was capable of controlling and using this force to do legendary feats. The `Wire-Fu' films contained exaggerated examples of such feats. But of course, for the government the existence of Chi was merely a superstition and so was ignored.

 

For Shan Mao and a bunch of special people it was a grandiose spectacle. Few can say that they are chi-sensitive but she was one of them. The feat needs normally years of study but she has always been a quick study.

 

Shan Mao was a rather curious sight. Her pale skin was contrasted by the severe grey uniform of her school, her sunglasses and the open sun-umbrella in her hand marked her as an anomaly. It was a rather strange thing to see a young modern Chinese schoolgirl contrasted by the solemn and formal exercise of the Shaolin monks.

 

The rest of the visit was normal for the entire class. The traditional picnic, the taking of photography by the classmates and the ever presence of the teachers making sure that everything was all right. It was in one of the pagoda that Shan Mao met her destiny.

 

This particular pagoda was the result of hundred of years of traditions and uses of Feng-Shui, the art of placement of living structures within the natural path of Chi that lined the Earth. Linked to the natural cycle of the Universe, the lines ebbed and flew in the time. The pagoda was built on a natural convergence of multiples lines: a nexus of Chi. Fate or Destiny, the flow of energy spiked as the sun set in the zenith and a young girl sensible to the presence of Chi entered the nexus.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

 

At the same time, an unbelievably powerful entity residing in a total vacuum took note of the spike and how it interacted with the reality in his charge. Frowning, he rapidly checked the lines of the foreign destiny about to intertwine with some of his own and smiled. It was not in his mandate to interfere with a natural event but he could always take action in an indirect fashion. His Guardians of Balance were about to be tested again. He just has to make sure that no one stopped the ball for the Forgotten Realms.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

 

She immediately felt something strange as she entered the structure. Her skin tingled and she felt light-headed. The pagoda was empty to her eyes and yet she felt an immense presence. It was something quite remarkable since she should have sensed it before entering the temple. It was not hostile but it makes her feel anxious. She felt herself drawn to the centre of the pagoda and then it happened.

 

The nexus reach his threshold and explode around the Chinese teenager. Chi amplified by the convergence of many lines, the presence of practitioners of martial arts and the natural energy of the zenith sun flow into the living receptacle available in the pagoda instead of dissipating in the nature.

 

Taken by surprise, incapable to use or control such a massive quantity of energy, the `ghost-girl' was swapped by the current of Chi and brought along the path. She purely and simply disappeared from the pagoda and the world in general. No one found a trace of her and for the government she simply became another number in the numbers of missing people. Her parents did everything in their power to at least confirm if she was alive but mourned her after many years. Only her grand-mother never believed that she died and until her last breath prayed for her safety wherever she was.

 

She was in an immense and total pain. That was the first thing that imposed itself on Shan Mao. Even the kaleidoscope of lights around her was not perceived in the beginning. The pain was so intense that she could not even scream. She was falling, falling between the worlds, falling in the interstice of reality. Foreign energies were trying to unravel her very existence but since she was protected by the overcharge of Chi of her native home world, they were mixing in the material and spiritual structure of her being. Then after an infinitesimal moment of an eternity of torture, a rift in the barrier of another reality drew her like iron dust is drawn to a magnet.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

 

The three entities were having one the few moment of peace that three goddesses can have in their reality. Mystra had invited Eilistraee to dance within the stars under the full moon and Séluné choose to come as well. The Goddess of Magic was firing streams of shooting stars, building a lane for her dance-partners. Eilistraee, the Dark Maiden of the good Drow was dancing an antique rhythm, already old when Faerûn was young. Séluné was using her soft lunar light and the merriment of her laugh to the enjoyment of her peers. Then Mystra felt it …

 

The Goddess of Magic stopped her divine fireworks and turned her full attention on the Weave of the mystical energies in her charge. There was something there.

 

“What is it Daughter?” asked the Moon-Goddess. Even if she was the third incarnation of the Goddess of Magic, Séluné has always considered the new Mystra like her daughter as was Mystril, the first goddess of Magic.

 

“I'm not sure. It's the first time that I sense such an event.” The mighty Goddess focused on the material structure of reality itself. “It's a … rift. It's a goddamned rift between our universe and another and … Oh! No! There's a living being trapped in the transit. We have an outsider in our realm!”

 

“So? What is the problem?” The drow Goddess looked at the worried face of her ally and summoned her own power of observation to scry the event. “She is only a mortal, and young at that. She can not be a huge potential problem.”

 

“You are correct on a relative scale, but for her it is a huge problem. Due to Ao edicts, I can not help her to go back to her home world. Any outsider of our reality must be left alone without direct intervention on our part until Ao integrates them to the Fates and Destinies of our world. This rift is endangering the Weave, although only on a local point and so I must act.” Mystra was manifesting anxiety. “I must close the passage after she crosses it.”

 

“And so, she will be trapped in our reality. Can she not use some of the magic of our world to open a gate to her own home world?” The Dancing Maiden was curious. There was something about the mortal girl that intrigued her or more exactly the direction of her path.

 

“Not without a direct divine intervention. No current mortal mage has the power to open a path to the others realities.” Séluné understood the problem of her daughter. Mystra has still retained the humanity of the mortal Midnight after the Time of Troubles but she has matured into her role of Goddess and she will not defy Ao now.

 

“By Ao's blood! Her astral path is taking her directly into a portal of the middle Underdark!” Eilistraee was alarmed. A young human mortal like this girl was completely unprepared to survive the rigors of the Underdark, especially so near a concentration of her people under the control of her accursed mother, Lolth, the Spider queen.

 

As she prepared to use her power to close the wound between realities, Mystra noted that her friend was right. The mortal was on a direct course with an ancient and malfunctioning portal that was leaking dimensional energy in the Middledark. “If you want to do something, do it now, before she crosses the interface. We can still do something directly to her since she is not yet in our reality.”

 

Séluné retired her consciousness of her scrying, having dived deeply into the soul of the young girl and taken her decision. “My daughter is correct. I will support you in your action, Dark Maiden. This mortal merits our pity and all the help we can give to her. By my power, so be it!”

 

Eilistraee considered carefully her options. She wanted to help Shan Mao as her scrying has revealed the name of the outsider but she could not be too obvious. Discretion and adaptation were the key words in this situation. She felt a tug on her bare ankle and lowered her gaze.

 

“Please, Mistrrrrress, let me help herrrr.” The small silver-stripped tabby cat was floating alongside her Goddess. Sacred beasts used by the Dancing Maiden as messengers or helpers for her faithful, the female feline was much older than her appearance.

 

“Helping her? How? Filfaere, if I sent you to her as you are you'll be mere meat for the followers of my Mother.” The drow Goddess was seizing her servant, searching in her wise and tranquil feline gaze why she was making such a suggestion.

 

“In my currrrent forrrrm, you arrre rrright. You need to initiate a soul-merrrging rrritual with herrr.” It was rare for a goddess to be flabbergasted by one of her servitors but that was the case now.

 

“A soul-merging? Filfaere, you will cease to exist as you are now. Even this young girl will be altered for all eternity. Don't forget that you have been touched by the divine. I can not now seize all the consequences of such an act.”

 

“I know. But I can sense something feline in this merrre kitten. Something to be prrreserrrved at all cost. Beside, I think it will be grrreat to experrriment the materrrial plane thrrrough the body of this one.” The female cat was calmly observing the approaching outsider.

 

“Well, it's your decision. And you are right. There is something feline in her.” The Dark Maiden smiled. “This is something that will be augmented when your nature merges with her. Are you prepared?”

 

The divine cat nodded and released her hold on her material form. A pure silvery whirlwind of moon fire manifested in her place and Eilistraee began to dance around it in complexes circumvolutions, drawing energy from the Weave and further refining it with the soft light of Séluné.

 

The ritual dance was akin to a formal adoption of a non-drow into the Dark Race. In effect, Eilistraee was taking Shan Mao as an elf-friend among her children with the blessing of the Moon Goddess. The spiral of the dance grew tighter and tighter and Filfaere essence was reduced to a mere speck but very brilliant. The voice of the Dancing Maiden grew crescendo and the antique elf magic captured two souls in its grasp.

 

Filfaere silvery consciousness dissolved into the white-blue light of the young girl soul. Purposely she chose to submit her spirit to Shan Mao and merged deeply into her sub consciousness. Now Shan Mao will stay Shan Mao and only manifesting feline characteristics and a bit of her personality when the assimilation will be complete.

 

Séluné witnessed the merging with approval. The two souls have merged without difficulty or stress. In fact, the ritual had stabilized the emotional turmoil of the young girl. The only visible sign was the change of colour of the mortal hair. From an ivory-white, it has become pure silver colour identical to the awesome mane of the Dark Maiden.

 

Then Shan Mao crossed the interface between the two realities and Mystra abruptly began to cast a charm around the three goddesses in the same time that the rift was closed by her willpower.

 

“What is it Mystra? What is the problem now?” Eilistraee drew her bastard sword in the case of a sudden danger.

 

“Look.” The Moon Goddess pointed into another location on the divine realms. Protected from detection by the charm of Mystra, the three allies remarked that they were no longer the only witnesses of the crossing-over.

 

“Lolth.” The Dancing Maiden hissed the name with bitter venom.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

 

The Spider Queen was looking through a giant blood-red crystal ball in her giant mobile fortress shaped as an arachnid. “Very interesting…” The evil drow Goddess was smiling shark-like. She was analyzing the scene with her own powers of scrying and she was drooling at all the chaotic possibilities detected. Here was a mortal outsider of her reality. It was something almost unknown in Faerûn and something easily moulded by her.

 

She remembered the Edicts of Ao about Outsiders like this wisp of girl, but she was resourceful and cunning. She didn't have to intervene directly as the path taken by the mortal was near another settling of her followers.

 

Sheoloth was a city not unlike Menzoberranzan laden with strife and chaos. It was a relative long time since she has neglected this particular area. Her `problems' with the first Drow city of the Underdark have taken quite a bit of her time.

 

She looked upon the events of the Time of Troubles with a sceptical eye. She has been forced to concentrate what little she had on one city at that time. But, now, she seemed to have fallen to the other extreme. She has recovered her power but she was still focalized on one location.

 

It was time to change her focus `a little'. She laughed and insanity crept into those who could hear her. Well, since she couldn't directly intervene upon the helpless mortal, she could…help her…a little.

 

But how? So many delicious choices and so little time. She once again probed the young Chinese girl. Interesting, the transition has charged her essence with some powerful energies. She must have control of such energy.

 

Her gazed wandered around her as she pondered on her conundrum. She stopped on a black-glass bottle. This particular object held the soul of a former follower. She was being punished then since…

 

Yes! Oh yes! Here was a good idea. A wicked and cruel very good idea. She smirked as she reached the bottle. A pale violet glow was feebly dancing in it. It was the very soul of Vierna Do'Urden, the sister of Drizzt Do'Urden.

 

The priestess has faltered after being killed in self-defence by her brother. For one brief instant, she has been comforted by him and nearly slipped into the light of Goodness. Ha! As if she would let a traitor escaped her clutches.

 

Her tortures had almost broken the soul. The spider-Queen didn't want for her fun to finish so early. She intended to use this human girl to ensure her firm control of Sheoloth. Pain and suffering were simply icing on the cake.

 

She considered her options and nodded. It will do nicely. It will give the girl better chance of initial survival and open the road to her future control. At the same time, she will continue the torment of Vierna until the pale mortal die.

 

“Oops…How clumsy I am.” Lolth let the bottle fell into her scrying globe. The glass recipient hit the moving form in it and shattered. The pale violet glow mixed with the blue-white colour of the soul of Shan Mao.

 

Free for a moment but incapable of coherency due to her ordeal, the consciousness of Vierna did the best she could. She reached into the deep of the mortal soul and waited for her eventual awakening.

 

Unfortunately she was caught in the strings of the soul-merging spell of Eilistraee and the magical ritual began anew. Like with Filfaere, the soul of the Drow will become one with Shan Mao for all eternity, her personality submerged by the young girl and her racial capacities will appear over time.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

 

In the eternal night of the Underdark, an old portal misused and almost forgotten began to glow anew. A violent purple light erupted and scared the life-forms around the door. None too gently a humanoid form was thrown on the hard cold floor.

 

Her clothes in tatters, deep in unconsciousness and bleeding from a few cuts, the young Chinese girl has arrived in Toril. Energies of silvery and violet colours coursed her body until they seeped in it. The cold silence of the Underdark covered the displaced martial artist in her slumber and the laugh of Lolth echoed in the chamber.