Summary: A poem/ journal entry from Entreri's point of view during Servant of the Shard as he makes his choice to join Jarlaxle as he muses on his interaction with Drizzt and how it has changed him.

Disclaimer: As per the usual, Entreri and Co. don't belong to me, that honour goes to RA Salvatore.

Shadows of the Past

Blades whirling in rhythm, a shadow in motion,

A challenge for I who has none,

Dual scimitars against saber and dirk,

Beware the deadly dance we have begun,

Mirrored images of dark and light,

Though ever deceitful those images are,

Foul Drow to paladin be,

Whilst human maintains the darkest of games,

Yet where do we stand we duelists two?

Each time we fought nothing was resolved,

Only more questions brought on the edge of your swords,

As I traveled to the darkest lands of the Underdark,

In search of the truth of your skills, your morals against mine,

And truth I found, though of a far different sort,

Dark Menzoberranzan was to be our battleground,

Yet though we fought once more,

Our destruction was not the ending that we wrought,

Of many times did you speak of my lack of emotion,

And here was I witness to the darkness of mine own craft,

In the land of lies fueled by dark chaos' cause,

I thought I knew who I was, where I was to be,

Now all that I know is nothing at all,

But who am I to believe in the nuances of fate in all her forms?

Still she watches me, her oppressant hand creeping over me,

Forcing us, the greatest of nemesis, to fight as allies,

Though reluctant be,

To survive our own damned ends in the Underdark,

Then returned to the surface, our escape from that end complete,

You turned scimitars raised, ready to fight,

But how could I fight you then?

You showed me the truth of what I was,

Turned the mirror onto me,

So that I might see the truth beneath my own skin,

There we parted ways to different directions,

With the confusion of my own mind laying heavily upon me,

I thought never to see you again,

I believed that our meetings were at an end,

Amongst the hopeless and weary did I wander,

Not knowing where my path traveled, I arrived at my beginning,

In the dusty streets of Calimport I became what I had been,

To search the truth of who I might be again,

I saw the remains of my old life wandering away from me,

Seeing Dondon, closest to a friend that I had then,

So changed from who he was before,

Taken by the weakness of such a glutinous lust that I could not bear to see him,

Yet as I saw what he had become I wondered if I might lose myself in such a way,

To be alive and yet not living is a far worse fate than death

For one such as I,

Never have I feared death,

Yet such an end as that I saw in him sent shivers through my mind,

Never will I allow despair to take me to that end,

Even as I found myself amongst the shadows of that past did another come to haunt me,

Damnable Drow that I had thought forever gone from me,

Jarlaxle the deceiver, he who would give me my choice,

He believed my will to be gone from me,

How close to truth he was I know not even now,

With the call of Crenshinibon he created the crystal tower,

My final dueling place with my foil, the light dark elf Drizzt,

There we fought, true-mirrored images,

Equal in all but our mortality,

We fought to a standstill and you laid your weapons down,

I could not kill you then, not with your moral victory still upon your lips,

Then we took up the fight again, then laid bare by outside interference,

Damn Kimmuriel with his force unasked upon me,

Reactively, reflexively I struck back against your blows,

In mere moments it was over, as fast as it had begun,

My hand sinking into your chest,

As thought came back to me,

At that moment all that I wanted was for you to live again,

This is not the end that I had imagined,

Not the finale to the tale of you and I,

Now I stand the lone victor, yet also the defeated,

That final moment a turning point,

The climax of this life that I have yet to live,

What happens now is my choice to make,

I serve no master; all that I am is by my own will,

Ashes of my old life drift away,

As the rising of the Calimshan sun heralds the new day.