Rain and Brimstone
Lineth Raine sat in front of the small campfire, legs crossed, wooden spoon poised in the act of raising a mouthful of the steaming liquid to her mouth. She wasn't really hungry, but the soup was made from Velox Berries, and did much to soothe a cold body.
She finished off the last few scalding mouthfuls and set the bowl aside, looking around and up at the house.
It seemed more dismal than the last time she'd seen it, more devoid of life. Even with the thick blanket of snow covering everything, the house seemed darker than the whiteness around it. The atmosphere had gone away from it, ever since its previous occupant had...
Lineth frowned. It was still difficult for her to think of her old Master Drogan as dead. She'd escaped the collapsing temple before it had happened, and had not seen the old dwarf fall, but she knew he was dead. It was more of a...feeling than actual knowledge, really.
It seemed an age ago that she had trained in this house. She had been quite young - only one hundred years old, which was young for an elf - when she had travelled to Hilltop and to the huge house overlooking it. She'd trained, and she'd fought, and in the course of that training she had travelled across the Silver Marches and through the Great Wastes of Anarouch...
And after that, after Drogan's death and the defeat of the medusa Heurodis who sought to raise the flying city of Undrentide from the sands, she had escaped for a time into the Shadow Plane. A place of darkness, of everlasting night, she could barely remember what had transpired there, or how long she had spent there.
She shuddered as she thought of the small, round artefact she had found in that dark place. The Relic of the Reaper. Something that saved her from death, countless times. Later, she'd found out it was a piece of flesh from the arch-devil, Mephistopheles...
It had taken many days and many nights to travel from Waterdeep. The newly fortified city had been a safe haven once the Valsharess - leader of the drow armies that threatened it and summoner of Mephistopheles - had been defeated, but Lineth Raine had not been wont to remain there.
She'd been hailed as a hero, once she emerged from Undermountain, covered in blood and grime and dirt. She barely remembered the welcome she'd received; all she could recollect was collapsing in a nice, soft bed and then later being told she had slept for a week.
Lineth sighed and shook her head, feeling the warmth of the Velox Berry soup coursing through her. Yet it could not warm her heart, and the memories still plagued her mind.
It was bad enough, with all the fighting and the betrayal and the endless days without sleep, without adding love into the equation as well.
What an unlikely place to find such a thing! Love in the Underdark! It sounded like some cheap penny-bit romance novel. Lineth frowned at the course her thoughts were taking her, and looked back towards the house.
The big house was dark now. Lineth had knocked upon the door, but no one had been home. She could have used the lock picks in her pack to open the door, but it did not feel right to force her way into her old home. So she had elected to wait.
She had spoken to a few of the villagers, or tried to, as they kept falling to their knees and bowing most offensively at her. She smiled briefly. Finally, she had spoken to the druid in his old shop, and been told that Xanos Messarmos, Dorna Trapspringer and Mischa Waymeet still lived in Drogan's old house.
A human paladin, a half-orc sorcerer and a dwarven rogue. What a combination. She had no doubt they were all driving each other half-mad by now.
A crunching from the footpath brought her out of her amused reverie. Lineth raised herself to her feet and turned towards the direction of the sound, able to deduce from her training that two people - one large and one small - were approaching.
As they drew closer, the sound of arguing came with them.
"You didn't need to be so insistent about the prices, orc! They were fair enough, considering the coldness of the winter this year. It's awfully hard to get goods up here--"
"Dwarf - Dorna, he was charging us an inordinate amount! It was offensive. If you hadn't been present I would have-"
"Xanos, I would have thought you'd changed after all the business with Undrentide. But you haven't! You're still the same infuriating, pig-headed, stubborn--Here, who's that?"
The voices had rounded the crest of the hill and come into sight of Lineth. She was wearing her dark cloak, so no doubt was still wreathed in shadow to the two figures.
She strode forward briskly and watched in amusement as Xanos drew his daggers and Dorna her short sword. Lineth clucked her tongue and shook her head.
"Now, now. Dorna, Xanos, don't you recognize your old training partner?"
Dorna dropped her sword, and Xanos his jaw. Lineth laughed, something she had not done in many weeks.
"Lineth! Lineth Raine? Is that you?" Dorna said, forgetting about her sword and rushing forwards. For a rogue, she did make an awful lot of noise, Lineth thought.
"Yes, it's me," she said. "I've returned at last. And to find the house empty, no less. I've been camped out here for hours."
Dorna finally reached her, and in an unprecedented show of affection from a dwarf, embraced her around the waist. Lineth laughed, surprised, and hugged Dorna back. "It is good to see you too, old friend. Xanos? No hug from you?"
"Unlikely, Elf," he snapped, but he was smiling as he put away his daggers. "It has been a long time."
"It has," Lineth agreed as Dorna released her. "Let's go inside, shall we? There's only so many hours one can sit in front of a dwindling fire in the snow..."
"Of course!" Dorna said heartily. She slapped Lineth on the small of her back, and the Elf smiled as she bent and picked up her pack, slinging it over her shoulders.
Xanos led the way up to the front door and produced an ornate key, inserting it into the lock. The door sprang open, and the three entered the house. In wall brackets and on tables, candles sprang to life as the half-orc waved a lazy hand.
"You've gotten good," Lineth remarked as she shook the snow off her cloak. Xanos smiled briefly.
"A mere magician's trick. And what of you, Raine? What of your adventures after Undrentide? If you've had any, of course," he added placatingly.
"It's a long story," she sighed in response, sitting down on a large, comfy-looking chair. "And when I say long story, I mean long."
Dorna disappeared into the kitchens and reappeared a moment later with three flagons of beer. She pulled up a chair and sat down, dispensing the beer to all assembled. Xanos leaned against the wall, his dark eyes flashing.
"We have time," he said.