When Aaron announced that he intended to make a trip to Baldur's Gate, the first reaction of Princess Regent Alusair, who was vacationing at the Obarskyr royal retreat in the Sunset Lands, was to object.
Are you kidding? Everything in your territory has only just gotten on track, and now you're telling me you want to leave? For what might be several months, at that?
Don't you know that the longer a lord stays away from his territory, the weaker his control over it becomes?
Alusair was the first to disapprove. Rather than issuing an administrative order forbidding Aaron from leaving, the princess gave him a series of examples to explain why this was the wrong time to go. He should wait another year or two, until everything was running smoothly.
The Realms differed from a conventional medieval world. This was a fantasy world, where lords often left their territories to pursue activities elsewhere. For legendary archmages like Blackstaff in particular, disappearing for decades at a time was perfectly normal, but they all had ways to contact their people.
Aaron thanked Alusair for the reminder. He would have taken her advice, if not for the fact that he had sensed Be'lakor's power.
The Original Daemon Prince had returned to the Realms. Last time, Be'lakor had been somewhat careless. He had neither prepared adequately nor accounted for the Realms' rejection of outsiders. Upon seeing Buer, whom Moander had left behind, he had been too eager to devour her. In the end, Aaron had only managed to defeat the Original Daemon Prince at great risk by using the portion of Be'lakor's true name that Annomyn had revealed.
Aaron knew the Chaos Gods had deliberately let Be'lakor out. The Four Gods wanted to watch Aaron duel Be'lakor, whether through strategy, tactics, cunning, or