Our escape from the necromancer's keep was rudely interrupted by a party of elven wizards, led by our aquaintance Icarus (cousin of Alerac). I tried to teleport the human captives to safety, but the keep's field suppressed all my teleportation spells. With the elves blocking our own exit, Ili and I charged towards them as a distraction, but they disabled us with rays of dizziness and searing blasts of eldritch fire. I surrended, but Ili would not. Her noble and stubborn bravery was for naught, as a final fell blast immolated her, leaving her lifeless on the floor. Ili, with her durability and deftness, once seemed the least likely of us to fall, but she now lay beyond even Malakar's aid.
After Ili's fall, the other soon surrendered. Taking our equipment, our captors marched us to the inactive teleportation circle and whisked us off to a cell in a fortress somewhere in the Elven capital city. After days of waiting in an anti-magic cell, we were taken before the High Queen Tephiroth and her court, denounced as murderers, and taken away to await execution. Apparently the Elven high council, consisting of the Kings and Queens of the seven houses (five for now, with Rowan in exile and Tansiq no more), were entitled to interrogate us individually if they wish.
Our first visitor was the Queen herself. Speaking through a second, she offered us a chance at life if we admitted to conspiring with Icarus of House Netheren against the dead Lord Dimethon of Dythanus. Later, Icarus himself came by with the opposite offer: name the Queen's own House Calix as our employers, her motivation fear of a Dythanus plot. Icarus offered us our freedom and our possessions if we served him in this, and admitted that it was he who send me the nightmares. Apparently, he hoped that we would arrive soon enough to stop Dimethon's raid, and he didn't expect the nightmares to so thoroughly disable my spellcasting. We argued for a time about which side to support in this matter; the truth of the Medusan Lords involvement was rendered irrelevant by the political maneuverings of the court. In the end, we agreed to support Icarus (on the basis that he may be less inclined towards continued war with the humans, and less inclined towards necromancy, and perhaps even non-evil), with Erson dissenting.
Our next appearance in court was brief; when I told the prepared storyof our employment by Calix and their subsequent betrayal, the Queen ordered silence and had us removed back to our cells, as the court erupted into furious debate. Later that evening, as we waited watchfully, guards (sent by Icarus, presumably) returned our equipment and used scrolls of ethereality to run us out of the cells and city. Strangely, they brought with them the semblance of Ili, returned to animation but clearly not to life. Hurried questioning revealed that she remained intelligent, and aware of her former life, and I can only imagine the torment her soul must be undergoing with her connection with life and Albrecht rudely and evilly severed.
When we reached the nominal safety of the forest outside the city, the guards turned on us and began to attack. Fortunately they were no match for the rested and re-equipped might of our party. One fool struck me with a sword, only to fall writhing with the backlash of spell energy from my Robe of Retaliation; another was crushed in midair by Ili's mighty fist, as the battering energy from my staff drove him backwards. I suspect that Icarus allowed them to attack us knowing full well that we would defeat them, and that in this way evidence of his deed would be obscured. (In hindsight, we could have done him a favor by hiding the bodies, but we were rather in a hurry to escape).
Finally free of suppression fields, I teleported a few of the human refugees back to Dragon Keep, and Ettor sent dwarven wizards back with me to assist in a final mass teleport. We had escaped from elven clutches, but at what profit and loss?
Borrow, Malakar and I set ourselves to removing the traps guarding the Dythanus's spellbooks. I knew they would hold great value for me, and great value too on the open market. First, I identified the kinds of spells involved. Then Malakar wove a rich net of protective spells around Borrow, and Borrow proceeded to carefully disarm the spelltraps. Perusing the books, I rejoiced at our fortune: many useful spells punctuated the distasteful necromantic rituals, and Dythanus' sheer volume of arcana dwarfs my current repertoire. It will be weeks before I can begin to utilize these spells, but the study will be well spent.
But what of Ili? I buried myself in my work, and I do not know what has become of her.
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