Extinction

After another length of measureless time had gone by, Gromph felt the tickle in his mind return. It felt closer, more insistent.

As before, it took an excruciating effort for Gromph to concentrate his will.

Kyorli? he sent. Help!

The mind-tickle disappeared. Had his body been capable of it, Gromph's shoulders would have slumped.

All at once the world spun in a crazy arc. The vein of quartz disappeared and Gromph found the position of his head and feet reversed?though in his state, up and down were concepts that had little meaning. He round himself staring into the eyes or an enormous brown rat twice the size of the sphere, its face distorted by the curvature of the glass. Pink paws rested lightly on the top of the sphere, and whiskers twitched as the rat sniffed the cold glass.

After a sluggish moment, Gromph realized his error in perception. The rat wasn't enormous, the sphere was tiny. The spell had shrunk him to less than rat size. His thoughts still sluggish, he at last noticed the kink at the end of the rat's hairless tail.

Kyorli! Help me. Take me home.

Go? the rat replied, more of a feeling than a word.

Yes, go. To the city. Go.

The world spun crazily by. Gromph could see stone walls spi

No, not a tu

The walls continued to spin past. For a moment, the world opened up into looming darkness as Kyorli rolled the sphere across the floor of an enormous cavern. In the distance, Gromph saw a flash of lavender light: the visible spectrum of a faerzress. Then the patch of magical radiation was behind them, swallowed by darkness.

The sphere rattled on, Gromph suspended unmoving at its center, enclosed in absolute silence.

A short time later, the sphere bounced to a stop against a wall.

What's wrong? Gromph asked.

Kyorli's paws scrabbled against the sphere, turning it. Gromph found himself looking up at the wall of the cavern, where?several paces overhead?the tu

Up! Kyorli "said." City.

The rat scurried up the wall, then down it again. Gromph's world tilted wildly as paws scrabbled uselessly against the outside of the sphere, spi

Gromph realized he'd been overestimating his familiar. Kyorli was only a rat?with no more than a rat's intelligence.

Try a different way, he suggested.

Kyorli stared at him, whiskers twitching. Then, bobbing her head in a rat's equivalent of a nod, she began moving the sphere again. Gromph found himself rolled back down the tu

When the sphere stopped rolling again, Gromph found himself staring at a river. Only a dozen paces wide but swiftly flowing. Gromph's hopes rose as he recognized it. He'd traveled through that tu

But it flowed through an airless tu

He considered the problem, though slowly. His thoughts were still a near-stagnant puddle. After several long moments, during which Kyorli disappeared from sight and reappeared again half a dozen times, a thought came to him.

The faerzress. The magical energies emitted by a faerzress were unstable, unpredictable in their effect. They might do strange things to Gromph, even kill him. But perhaps, if luck was with him, they might first mutate the effects of the spell that bound him.

Take me back to the cavern. The one with the glow.

The world spun around him as Kyorli complied. The glow reappeared, and the sphere rolled to a stop.

Closer.

The lavender glow grew larger, brighter.

Closer.

The glow expanded until it filled Gromph's peripheral vision.

Closer.

Kyorli hesitated, nose twitching.

Danger, she sent. Too bright. Hurts.

Yes, Gromph answered. I know. Then, giving his thought all of the authority of his will, he added one word more: Closer.

Kyorli gave the sphere a final shove, then scampered away, terrified.

As the sphere rolled and bumped along the uneven cavern floor, the glow spun closer. When the sphere came to rest, the glow surrounded it on every side. Still rigid, Gromph basked in the wash of magical radiation. The faerzress would either kill him or …

His muscles exploded with agony as sensation and movement returned. Chuckling with delight, he rose to his feet. The sphere rocked beneath him, forcing him to catch his balance. He reached into the pocket of his piwafwi and pulled out a small chip of mica. Tossing it casually at his feet, he spoke the word that should have activated a shattering spell. Nothing happened. He might be able to move and speak, but spellcasting was impossible while he was trapped within the sphere. He'd have to rely upon brute force to get to where he needed to be.

Experimenting, he threw his weight forward against the smooth surface?and wound up tumbling in a clumsy somersault as the sphere rolled in that direction.

It took some doing, but at last Gromph figured out how to coordinate his hands and feet, scrambling forward like a rat and maintaining his balance as the sphere rolled across the floor. More than once, a bump or crack in the floor sent him spi

Kyorli, having overcome her fear now that her master was no longer inside the bright wash of the faerzress, scampered along behind, from time to time correcting the course of the sphere with a nudge of her nose or paws. When they reached the swiftly flowing river, she fretted, ru

Master. Deep water. Swim?

No, Kyorli. Only I will swim. You return to Menzoberranzan the way you came, through the tu

The rat thought about that a moment, whiskers twitching. Gromph raised his hand, pressing his palm lightly against the i

Gromph drew a deep breath, preparing for the plunge into the river. Then he chuckled. No need to hold his breath?the magic of the sphere was obviously still sustaining him, or he'd have suffocated long ago in the tiny, confined space. Rocking the sphere forward, he plunged into the river.

Once again the world spun around him, then there was water, the bump of stone walls that sent him reeling, and the occasional flash of a luminescent fish. After some time underwater?how long, Gromph still had no way of measuring, but several miles of tu

He'd done it! He'd reached Donigarten!

Righting himself, Gromph attempted to continue as he had before, by rolling the sphere across the surface of the lake. But the sphere only spun in place. Realizing that he'd made a potentially fatal error, Gromph cursed. Unless Kyorli made it back to Menzoberranzan in time and swam out into the lake to help him, he would be at the mercy of the current. Gromph sent out a silent call but heard no answering voice. With a heavy sigh, he braced himself inside the rocking sphere, waiting to see where the current would carry him.