I know I know. I shouldn't be starting -ANOTHER- fiction when I have so much I need to work on otherwise. However, my fan girl-dom has possessed me and I can't help it. I just finished NWN2 early yesterday and the more I thought about it the more I wanted something else from it. I adored Sand in the game and I wish that there'd of been more options of a romantic nature than the paladin. With that in mind I fought with myself for a while before deciding I had to do SOMETHING.

Disclaimer: I don't own NWN2 - I wish I did. I do own my character concepts and the like. They're mine…if for some crazy reason you want to use them please let me know.

Chapter One: Solitude

"A million faces, each a million lies. For each and all a chrome disguise."

Solitude.

It was something that Sand had been well adjusted toward.

That is until his wayward adventures with the Shard Bearer and her sideshow of circus freaks had begun, and passed him by. After they had defeated the Lord of Shadows and the ensuing chaos engulfed his once safe haven he'd only barely managed to escape with a handful of the people with which they had entered. If he hadn't prepared that quickened teleport spell likely they wouldn't have survived at all, a close call by anyone's standards.

Khelgar and Casavir he had meant to save. That half-breed demon traitor and the raving lunatic gnome had grabbed on before he'd realized it…not that he would have stopped his casting if a Balor itself had clutched it's claws to his robes. If it hadn't been for the paladin and warrior holding him back after the casting he likely would have sent that witch tiefling to join the Lord of Shadows. She claimed she hadn't switched sides to work with the Lord on purpose but that hardly mattered to Sand.

She had been wise in avoiding his company after the events. As wise an absence as Bishop's had been after his ditching them at the final battle.

The Shard-Bearer had been lost to them, they were lucky to have survived with the members of the haphazard band they did. It was likely better for all involved that Ammon hadn't seemed to have escaped the destruction. Casavir and Khelgar had taken up positions in helping one of her childhood friends run Crossroad Keep, as far as he knew Grobnar had joined them and was using that pile of rusty metal as cheap labor as they continued to build.

He had opted to return to his shop in Neverwinter, there was some damage that had been done during the evacuation and people thinking they would loot the stores during the chaos. However, a well placed explosive runes spell had finished one would be thief. Likely the corpse that he'd discovered upon his return had kept away any others that had considered targeting his place of business. Duncan hadn't approved of the way he kept his shop secure, but he'd never cared what the daft innkeeper thought of him to begin with.

Now he'd found himself frequenting the man's common room more than he cared to. The excuse that he didn't care to make meals himself worked well enough. In truth he never minded cooking for himself, he needed some form of social interaction, however cave like it usually ended up being. The bards that came though were often better than Grobnar, not that it was a difficult thing to sing better than the crazed gnome.

However, he tended to avoid the overbearing crowds that came during the end of the week and as it was a Sunday evening he was instead settled in isolation in his shop. He'd already inventoried his wares twice and cleaned the place. He didn't have any new books to pursue so he was just settled behind his counter frowning as he thought about how his adventure's with the Shard Bearer had come in and tossed his neat life into disarray.

It wasn't until Jaral, the cat that doubled as his familiar, hopped into his lap, that he realized the sun had begun to set. He was past due on closing up shop for the day, and the feline was searching for the dinner that tended to come after he'd locked the doors.

"Right." He spoke aloud more to break the silence than the need to do so for the animal watching him. He had a connection to the creature that ran deeper than such things. "I'll get you your dinner and take a walk on the pier I think."

He got up but the door opened as he was heading toward it, a girl heading into his shop that made him pause a moment.

The girl was definitely not a normal humanoid, she was exceptionally pale but not in a deathly way, her skin was simply a milky white. She didn't appear sickly, in fact her skin was smooth and likely was healthy for whatever race to which her odd features owed their ancestry. She had a figure most artists would die to sculpt, features that were very similar to many half-elf's he had seen in his years. Her ears were a little more pointed than most but the rest of her face was more heart-shaped and large snowy eyes stared at him in a mixture of curiosity and fear. Her dark hair held a tint of midnight blue when it caught the starlight in the right angle and at times her skin seemed to shimmer like crystal. The dirty clothes she wore showed signs of recent travel, a lot of mud on her boots and the ends of frayed robes were stained. She had a pouch at her waste on a sash and a pack on her back that appeared to be a Heward's Handy Haversack to his trained eye.

"You are Sand?" She asked, her voice seemed to have a wispy nature to it, slightly soft-spoken but also somehow direct.

"That is what the sign outside says." He offered with his usual dry wit, considering the woman before him as he tried to consider just what it was that had walked into his store. "I was about to close for the evening."

"Then my timing is good." She smiled toward him and stepped further inside, looking at the shelves as if browsing the selection of potions. "I was told you were someone that might be able to identify a magical orb."

"Assuming you have the money to pay for the divination yes." He replied, locking the door before heading back toward his counter, no reason to have anyone else disturb them as the store should have been closed already.

"Yeah, it was mentioned you'd try to drain my resources." She picked up a healing potion and considered it before bringing it with her to the counter. "The innkeeper of the Flagon didn't speak very well of you to be honest."

"Are you attempting to have a reason to drive my prices up further?" He asked before gesturing toward the counter. "Care to show me this orb of yours?"

She dug in her bag and withdrew a fist sized silvery orb with a gentle glow, holding it toward him and not losing that small smile that lingered on her face. "Just amusing to hear the tales of another practitioner of the arts. Did you really knock yourself over with a scrying spell?"

"So you are hoping to donate some extra gold to my coffers." He observed at the continued comments, though he was already looking over the orb she'd handed him curiously. It was cool to the touch but not uncomfortably so. He could sense magic in it without the aid of spells, though nothing in specific. "If you are a caster as well, certainly you should be able to identify this without my help."

"I'm not a wizard." Her smile was almost annoying after that statement. "I never developed the spells that would allow me to do that."

"You are a sorcerer." His tone deadpanned at the observation, bias never went away easily, even less so for members of his race. Qara's betrayal was still a recent event in the wizard's mind.

"Yeah, though sometimes I think it would have been better to have to study." She apparently hadn't noticed the dark glare she'd been sent, looking over some of the enchanted jewelry he kept at the counter. "Wizard's get to be so much more versatile. I dunno though, not sure if I'd of had the mental capacity to do all that studying."

The comments were ones he hadn't expected, he had never met a humble sorcerer and had never expected to. "Wise observations."

"I guess." she shrugged some, still smiling when she glanced at him and back at the rings he offered. "My grandfather was a wizard. I think he was a little disappointed when I developed magic without the need to study for it. But I always was a little jealous that he could just study to do whatever spells he liked and I was so much more limited by whatever spells I happened to develop."

"A sorcerer envious of wizards? I've heard everything now." Sand thought, a little less bristled after she explained herself. "It will take some time to look this over, such spells are time consuming."

"I figured." She seemed torn as to picking up one of the rings she was looking at, one that created a magical area of protection around the wearer. "How much for the potion and the spell?"

"Eight hundred gold in total." He replied, not even taking time to add things up, he had been running his shop long enough that he didn't need to consult his books any longer.

"Hmm." Her smile faltered a little and she looked away from the rings. "I think I can manage that. I'll give you six hundred now and two hundred when I come back for the orb."

"An acceptable compromise." He agreed, normally he required full payment up front but this girl seemed respectful enough and he was curious as to just what this orb was that had brought her in. "Are you staying at the Flagon?"

"Yeah." She shrugged some. "It's sorta loud I guess but I don't wanna wander around Neverwinter this late."

"Then I shall seek you out there once I have finished my research." He commented, counting out the money she offered for his services. "Who will I be asking for."

"Oh, that's so rude of me, I'm sorry." She blushed a little, which was immediately obvious given her paleness. "I'm Nalia Ash. It was nice meeting you."

She waved and unlocked the bolt on his door before leaving. The wizard moving to lock it again after her, glancing toward where she was disappearing back across the street to the Flagon. He shook his head, locking the extra bolts and setting his wards in place before moving back to his counter and eyeing the pale orb she'd left with him.

It wasn't out of the ordinary really as far as business went, generally he didn't like to work with her sort but her attitude had been the best he'd seen from one of her member. Perhaps her race had something to do with it.

"Not relevant though." He reminded himself as he opened a drawer for the pearl he would need in his casting. It would take him at least an hour of meditation to discover what the spell was capable of deciphering for him. He took the components with him and moved to a chamber of the building he'd set aside for such spells, the walls were reinforced to help keep sound from filtering in.

He settled on the floor and placed the orb in his hands in front of him, looking over every detail of the silver ball before closing his eyes and speaking the incantation that would begin the spell.

Almost immediately he found his mind drawn into the orb itself, opening his eyes to instead see a series of crystalline hallways around him, beyond the clear walls an eternal night sky stretched out, there was a silver path beneath his feet but even it was slightly translucent and the change was disorienting.

"I must attract the attention of people with strange artifacts." He thought as he did his best to push the dizziness away.

"One who calls himself Sand." The voice was a gentle male voice, speaking in elvish. "What is it you seek?"

"What is this place?" He asked, still eyeing the many passages at his disposal without moving toward any of them.

"We are a library of information, condensed into a more portable form. Called a Gemtier in many areas of the realms amongst the People. Smaller versions are known to work as spell books for many high level arch magi of the courts. We access as needed and transfer the information to you as best as possible to offer an explanation that you will understand."

He paused to consider after that question, what an amazing find this item really was. He'd heard of Tear Gem's before, which likely was a bastardized version of what the thing had called itself. Many of the items were believed to be lost or in the possession of powerful wizards. Such a easy way of transferring information and holding it would be greatly coveted by anyone that sought knowledge. Though the actual intelligence of such artifacts was widely speculated he couldn't know without testing.

"How did you come to be in the possession of the girl named Nalia Ash that brought you to me?" He asked, figuring being as detailed as possible with his query's couldn't hurt the results.

"Unknown. Speculating possible answers." The voice rarely varied in tone and likely was the result of some sort of voice magic that was worked in. "Last known position was the city of Waterdeep, last known person of access was Khelben Arunsun. Otherwise known as Blackstaff, a former Lord of Waterdeep."

"That doesn't bode well." He thought idly, listening to the explanation. He recognized the name, few in his field hadn't heard of the famous arch wizard. "When was the last time you were accessed?"

"Unknown, we do not consider the passing of time like mortals. Cannot speculate." It was direct enough, if a bit crude in it's response design.

"Were you stolen from Blackstaff?" Sand already figured what the answer would be, but it seemed wise to exhaust the possible questions as opposed to assume the answers.

"Unknown." It repeated. "Unable to speculate."

"Are you able to take in more information than what you already have?" He had to admit he was curious, and regardless of if the artifact had been stolen from a lord of water deep there was no point in not indulging his curiosity when he had the chance.

"Yes, if you tell us what to access we will be able to hold the information."

"Can you give knowledge to those accessing faster than simply answering the questions as I ask them?" If he already had the item, he might as well make as much use of it as he could. This was the first interesting thing to come into his life in ages.

"Yes. The process may occur while you rest if you tell us what information to provide. Possibilities of mental issues exist for those unprepared for such a connection."

Well that didn't sound good. "What nature of problems exist?"

"Access tends to be temporary, memory loss of the accessed information will occur after several days time unless contact is maintained. The mind is left weak to all forms of mental access during the time that the link is maintained."

"No known permanent side effects then?" He had to admit that this was a grander find than he'd ever first considered it.

"No."

"Do you have spell books stored here?" It was going to come up sooner or later.

"Yes. Many spells are stored within us." The answer came with a visual change as well as the crystalline hallways shifted into a room instead with a single large book on a desk with a chair.

"Fascinating." He was impressed, if still hesitant to get too attached to the property of a Lord of Waterdeep. He settled himself at the desk and opened the book, blinking a few times as he felt dizzy a moment. The words of the book seemed filled with power and able to jump into his mind, lingering sharply for only a moment before being filed into memory. Spells that he'd already prepared that morning seemed almost instantly clear and representations of the spells in the form of sigils jumped out a little more on the page.

It was like he was picking out the magic he wanted off a menu at a restaurant and then his brain took in the information. When he touched a sigil an arrow of acid replaced the spell he'd spent on identifying the artifact moments before.

The implications of that sort of power were enough to make him push his curiosity down, he needed to find out where the girl had gotten this orb and make sure that no one was going to come after him before putting in anymore study.

"How do I leave this place?"

There was a moment of pause as he noted he was back in his divination room, the once cool orb was now warm in his hands, silent again as the mental connection had been broken. The sun was still setting outside, barely any time had passed sense he had first cast the spell that dropped him into the amazing find.

He picked it up and muttered an alarm spell over it before putting it snuggly in one of the many pockets of his robes. "Now to discover just where this Nalia got her hands on such a article."

He headed toward the doors of his shop, as much as he didn't like the Flagon on busy nights, this event put such discomfort aside. He wasn't expecting when he walked in to see the young girl that had visited his shop performing on the stage that Daeghaun had added to the inn recently.

End Chapter

I feel like this chapter is a little slow and I hope people will stick with me. I needed to establish a new plot and such, I hope I kept Sand in character. He really didn't have much of a chance to be biting toward anyone.

-Nera

P.S. Reviews float my boat.