"The Far Realm? The cursed place where mind flayers came from?" He asked his, head still spinning. "Yes, a place so far outside our cosmos that normal laws of the multiverse do not apply here. Aberrations can slide through time and space. You could not see the layers, that was why you were unable to see much beyond vague shapes." She helped him up and patted a bit of dust off. Her fiery eyes seemed to bore into him, he felt as if in the presence of something primordial. It took great effort to not lower his head. After a few moments she nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"You have reached the pinnacle of the arcane and even dabbled in some truly interesting magic."
At that she glared at him, as if he had personally offend her. "What exactly did I do wrong? You see, in my Home Plane there were not many others of my kind." He coughed a few times.
"I can sense a great destiny upon you. By Sardior, how many times was reality altered near you?" Argentarius had the decency to look ashamed. "You have two choices: First die." His eyes widened at that and he took a step back. "Well I am not going to kill you, so relax." He did and than stiffened again. "I probably should, it would be a great mercy. You would return to your clone and live anew. Except that the inevitables would start to hunt you. The Hall of Concordance and any lawful Plane has forbidden the use of this spell. The Marut are very stern on their principles such as 'Bargains should be kept', 'The guilty should be punished', or 'Everyone dies eventually'." Argentarius choked hard and only now recognized that breathing had become somewhat difficult. Marut were no joke, they could even drag an ancient dragon of against its will.
"Do you know why any necromancer would even bother with lichdom, when they could just clone themselves?" "Actually yes, I have my theory on that since a few moments ago." He said swiping the sweat of this face. The rot had expanded to his elbow and hurt like hell.
"Very good. I see you are a fast learner. Yes the gods went to great lengths to eliminate all traces of this foul magic. With the Clone Spell you could truly reach immortality, escaping the natural order of things and staying alive forever. But with a phylactery, well you are only the vain imitation of live. A mockery, nothing more. Although some liches were still hunted down because of other offenses, such as desecrating holy symbols or killing avatars." She gave the knights of Azuth a sharp look. They actually flinched.
"You mentioned another choice?" Argentarius said a little too fast. She once again gazed upon him. "Become my servant for 500 years." He blinked a few times. "Is this not blackmail? Are you telling me to serve or die?" It took all his willpower to not shrink under her gaze. He had already decided but knew how to drive a hard bargain.
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"Have I told you that our kind can communicate via our psionic powers?" She grinned at him. Argentarius slumped his shoulders, accepting his fate.
"Now onto the details before the corruption eats you hole. You are to serve as Toril's guardian against all Outsiders from the Far Realm. My travels should not take longer than 100 years, after that you will become my apprentice for 400 years. Then you will be my successor as I venture into the Far Realm for my last journey." The thoughts in his head raced as he tried to wrap his head around everything. Yet she just continued.
"I will search for the echoes and absorb them before my time is over. Even our race has not unlimited time. I will have you swear that you will do the same as me and choose a successor in a millennia." Finally, the most important question came to his fuzzy mind.
"What about my home world?" What would happen to earth if his entire collection of creations ran rampant there for 500 years? Wait, did he tell them to build or not to build the towers, if he never returned? Now she had an amused but also slightly worried look on her face.
"Maybe you should visit sooner rather then later." "So I am allowed to leave Toril?" Now she gave him the eye and snorted. "Obviously, how else would you protect an entire world?"
"Sorry, I am rather new to this hole thing." She patted his shoulder. "Do not worry Argentarius,
I shall teach you everything when I return. Until then focus on learning everything about the arcane, the Planes and yourself. Stay mostly away from earth as there are mighty beings there which you have not angered, yet." To ignore this kind of death flag he really would have to be stupid. She looked at his increasingly disfigured body and sighed. They proceeded to do a complicated reading of vows that promised him the swift visit from the inevitables should he not comply. He smiled bitterly at that and wondered if he jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
"Well my apprentice, now that all these pesky formalities are gone, open your mouth." Still thinking about how cruel fate was, he just obliged. That, he regretted instantly. She shoved a purple, fist sized crystal into his mouth and moved his jaw to chew forcibly. It tasted like tide pods. He gagged but she would not allow him to spew it out.
"I really enjoyed our little talk, I will now Plane Shift you into the Plane of Water. Do not worry your fate is very strong; a bit to strong you should stop casting Wish. I am sure you will wash up somewhere nice in Toril." By now his body was riving in pain, his limbs reformed, he wanted to scream, yet no sound came out. Apparently feeling a bit guilty, she looked away, took out a fork from her pouch and cast Plane Shift on him and his knights.