Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [38]
Marrec followed the mage's gaze upward. A great globule of liquid hung in the void, the glints of distant lights reflected in its shimmering, fluctuating surface. He could actually hear the sounds of waves lapping on the surface of the globe. It was floating slowly toward contact with the stone path ahead of them. At first Marrec couldn't gauge the globule's size. As it continued to move closer and closer without actually touching, its size became clear. It was a few hundred yards in diameter.
"What's this?" asked Marrec.
Ususi said, "Just more random debris-probably collected humidity, but I don't want to get wet."
Finally the wavering globe of liquid intersected the disconnected stone path ahead with an audible slap. Marrec tensed, expecting the sphere to pop like a giant bubble, but nothing of the sort occurred. Instead, the liquid mass merely continued on its way, barely affected by the long stone column sweeping through its interior. Finally, over a minute later, contact fell away, and the globule continued its lonely journey through the void.
Marrec continued to watch. Behind the meniscus of water, a humanoid form showed itself to Marrec, its eyes flaring in the light of the Keystone. "Hey!" he yelled, but even as he gestured, it was gone.
"What?" sighed Ususi.
"I thought I saw something, a creature, inside that globule. It had big eyes, like plates."
Ususi shrugged, "Perhaps you did. Another reason to stay clear of the wandering lakes."
Ahead, the stone path was wet, and residual water pooled in shallow cavities of the rock. A few tiny forms flipped up and fell back to the stone with wet smacks. Fish. A few flipped themselves off the path. Without the floating water, they fell quickly into the emptiness.
Ususi studied the remaining creatures then said, "We can proceed. Careful; the stone will be slick until the water dries."
They moved on. Marrec studied the struggling fish as they edged across the damp portion of the path. They were eyeless, like some varieties of cave fish he'd heard about. They'd obviously been there a long time, through many generations.
He wanted to catch up to Ususi, but he had three mounts to see to, including Henri on which Ash rode. If he couldn't be discreet, he'd have to be crass.
"Come on, Ususi," he finally called ahead. "If we've got hours on this path, give a little. This place is amazing. Tell us more about it."
When the mage continued to walk quietly, he pressed, "At least tell me what I saw in that 'wandering lake.'"
Another sigh came from the wizard. "Very well. Keep in mind I do not know too terribly much more than you.
"The Imaskari, extremely powerful and haughty wizards who worked great wonders with magic and created portals to many worlds, established one of the earliest human empires in Faerun. They were eventually brought down by slaves they'd kidnapped from other worlds; those people are now the folk of Mulhorand and Unther."
"Portals… you mean like the Mucklestones?" wondered Marrec.
"Yes. They preferred a buffer between their portal end-points, just in case. The Celestial Nadir was created to be that buffer. Originally, it was a small space, but after its creation, it slowly grew over the centuries, becoming a demiplane in its own right."
Ususi continued speaking, warming to her topic, "More and more with the passage of time, the artificial plane served the Imaskari as a dumping ground for defeated enemies, objects stolen from other planes too dangerous to deal with immediately, and as a safehouse for valuables. However, even after the fall of the Imaskar empire, the Nadir continued to grow. It is my belief that in the thousands of years since then and now, the space has impinged upon other dimensions and demiplanes, enveloping them, and growing all the larger for it. Thus, the Nadir is more than it originally was intended to be. On the other hand, of the portals that once extended through its core to service the Imaskar empire, only the Mucklestones remain, at least as far as I have been able