Trick's Dream with Kelemvor
// On a dream boat with the skeletal avatar of death. She's the boat, the lanterns, the water, the sand, the table.
"Hello, child."
The sight is not calming. A skeleton stands before her, clad in loose layers of black and dark purple-blue robes. White lights shine in her orbits, like flames from the lanterns. She holds a crooked staff, its curved end holding another such lantern- one much like the amulet on Trick's neck. The skeleton smiles, a movement that should be impossible without muscles. Trick knows. She sees the shadows, the surfaces where light strikes, and she knows. This shape standing before her is just that. The true Kelemvor is everywhere- the boat, the lanterns, the light they cast and the shade that opposes it. The Avatar circles Trick and the table, stopping at the opposite end. Fingers of pure bone clutch her staff as she looks into the Tabaxi's eyes.
"Speak."
"Why are you protecting me?"
"Because I want to."
"I desire Justice. It is one of my domains, after all, as I watch over beginnings and ends. I have decided you deserved better."
"I've done such terrible things. I did the worst thing."
"Maybe the two worst things."
"A mistake alone does not define you."
"You have not succumbed to them. You have fought back. That alone makes you worthy of aid."
"My brother deserved better too ..."
"Can you tell me ... more about where he is? What I can do to help him?"
"Yes. And thus, I have kept him safe. Waiting for you."
"Continue on your path. I see ends to your current journey... they may be satisfactory. For all of us."
"Do you know ... where the rest of my soul is? Who took it?"
The Avatar turns to face Trick once more, and the skeleton's face is one of... some measure of grief.
"It was not strictly taken. You gave it away, unknowing. But in that, there is weakness- it may yet be reclaimed from those hands, as can so many others. As can your brother."
Trick feels the boat quiver slightly, as if resisting crashing waves. The wood beneath her feet begins to rot, as if waterlogged.
"I do not ask anything from you, child. The only thing I want is for you to trust me. Keep going. Reach the end I wish to see. Balance the scales of Justice."
The ship cracks. Trick begins slipping into a whirlpool of bone-white sand. The Goddess' Avatar remains on a lone piece of scrap wood, perfectly balanced as though she were not being pulled into a pit.