All recongnizable characters belong to RAS. The world belongs to WotC. I do not intend and infingement nor copyright on these things. I use them here for entertainment purposes only.
This story came to me while my husband and I discussed RotP and what we didn't like about it. It does have some minor spoilers, but nothing serious. I am and will always be one of the people that believe Jarlaxle and Artemis will remain friends. Please leave a review if you did or didn't like the story. If you didn't let me know why please. I hope you enjoy it.
A Favor/Lost Enemy
The elderly man sat in the comfortable chair in a room with no windows. He watched as his daughter busied herself about the room, every so often glancing at him from the corner of one of her pale blue eyes. She thought he didn't notice these looks. Even at his advanced age there was very little that missed his attention. It was his body that was failing not his mind, that instrument was still as sharp as the blades that he had always carried.
"Papa can I get you anything?" A slender ebony hand touched his arm as his daughter asked her customary question.
"No dear. I'm fine for now. Perhaps some tea later."
"Of course I'll go ready the teapot."
They both knew he wouldn't touch the tea. She knew as well as he did that he was dying. His girl was so very intelligent, there was nothing she had attempted that she did not excel at. He could not have been more proud of her if she had been his true daughter and not adopted. He hated the idea of leaving her while she was still so young. He contented himself with the idea that he had taught her everything he was able to, and then there was his closest friend that would help look after her.
As she picked up his untouched tray of food from that morning there was a slight knock on the door. With a swish of sky blue satin and balancing the tray in one hand the young girl partly opened the door and slipped out.
"I don't like this not at all. You know the only reason I agreed was because he asked us to do this." The young dark elvish girl hissed to the two drow in the hallway. "And know this if you so much as think of touching him I'll kill you before you make it to the street." she growled at the younger of the two males.
The older drow only smiled disarmingly and slipped passed motioning his companion into the room before him.
The first thing the newcomer noticed was the elderly man sitting in the armchair. His hair was completely white, deep wrinkles lined a sun darkened face. What held his attention were the eyes. They were the same intense grey eyes he had seen almost 150 years ago.
"Entreri?" the elf asked astonishment clear in his voice.
"Do'Urden, I really didn't think you would come, but then again I did send Jarlaxle." the ex-assassin stated motioning to a chair in front of him.
"Of course he came. I can't believe you lost faith in me? You must be getting senile in your dotage." said the flamboyant drow standing by the door. "But I think I'll retire and let you boys have your little discussions and I need to avoid that crazy daughter of yours. She seems to be in one of 'those' moods again today. You know the mood where she likes throwing sharp things at me." Jarlaxle slipped his head out the door first looking both ways before slipping out himself.
"How?" was all Drizzt said to the man sitting in front of him. All the times they had faced each other over bared blades ran through his mind. This was completely impossible.
"It's rather a long story, but the short of it is I killed something I should have left alone with my jeweled dagger. I was infused with the essence of a shade. That was only a few years after I had thought you dead in Crinshinibon. I should have known better where that walking fashion nightmare was concerned."
Drizzt could only look on incredulously. How could it be that his worse enemy had outlived his friends and loved ones, and he had sent for him, why to what purpose? This could not be happening.
"Don't you want to know why I asked Jarlaxle for this favor?"
"The thought had crossed my mind. Jarlaxle asked me to come to Silverymoon as a favor to him but wouldn't give me any details as to why."
"I didn't know myself why I wanted this. All the way here from Calimport I thought about it. Then one night I finally figured out why I hated you all those years ago and why I needed to see what had become of you." Artemis' speech was interrupted by wracking coughs as he held a handkerchief to his lips.
The ranger noticed bloodstains on the cloth as the man in front of him continued.
"You represented to me all of those 'goodly' people in the world that claim they uphold truth and mercy and say they live by such high morals that no one else can live up to, but in the end they are just as dirty, perverse and lowly as everyone else is. You're a drow, there is no way you could be as good as you pretended to be. I thought if I could kill you or trip you up somehow then you'd be exposed for the charlatan you were. Somehow I could never accomplish that."
Finally some understanding lit his lavender eyes. "Did you ever stop to think perhaps I wasn't pretending, that maybe I did live by my morals, but I never expected anyone else to live up to them. I'll never say that the life I've chosen has been easy, sometimes I've wondered if I've done the right things. I have to believe I have or everything I've done has been for nothing. I never meant to be an example to anyone, or to try to tell someone how they should live."
"Do you still run around doing all those 'good deeds' you and your companions did, or have you stopped now that they aren't here to impress any more?" Artemis asked running a gnarled finger over his white half-beard.
Shaking his head Drizzt replied, "You don't ever change do you Entreri? You're still the same contemptuous, angry person as you were over a century ago."
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but I would like my question answered."
"Why? It won't matter what I say to you. You're still going to think I'm lying. Even if you do believe, what would it matter?"
"It would matter. You see if you had stopped then it would mean I was right that you are just as bad as everyone else that you were never as good as you claimed to be."
Grey eyes stared into lavender awaiting the answer he had traveled months to find out.
"Yes I still try to help those in need, those that can't help themselves. I have for so long now I don't think I could change if I tried. I patrol most of the Moonwood along with the elves and humans that live there. We try and make it safe, free from lycanthrope, orcs, goblins and any number of other dangers that lurk in the woods. There does that satisfy you? Is that what you wanted to hear or did you expect me to have perhaps become an assassin taking money to kill?"
That last statement actually brought a smile to the ex-assassin lips. "No, I didn't expect you to sink to my level, although the barb does surprise me coming from you. You should be careful not to judge without full knowledge of the situation. But if you must know I'm glad you didn't prove me right. It means there might actually be a reason to hope, if only there were a few more honest people, even drow."
The door opened and Entreri's daughter entered carrying a tray with a teapot, two cups, and a small platter of fruit and cheeses. She sat the tray down on a small table to the right of her father and began pouring tea.
Drizzt watched the young elf as she served the tea and food, she moved with the grace of a fighter always in complete balance, she seemed ready to spring at the slightest threat. The color of her light-blue satin dress only highlighted her dark skin and white braid the cut showed her figure without revealing anything. She looked as if she would be equally at home in the richest mansion or in the midst of battle.
Taking the offered cup Artemis asked, "Do you have any children Do'Urden?"
"I do yes, two, a boy and a girl."
"Really? This is my daughter Shanali." Lavender eyes widened slightly as he was introduced.
"Call me Gaile, Papa is the only one that calls me Shanali." she finished up and left without another word.
Noticing the rangers reaction he explained, "No I didn't sire her, we found her on the edge of the High Forest when she wasn't more than a baby. Her village had been sacked by a neighboring town because they were drow. No one stopped to notice they were followers of Eilistree. At first I was going to give her to the first temple we came to, but then I kept thinking of my own experiences with temples and decided I couldn't willingly give any child to that kind of treatment. So I kept her and raised her as my daughter. That was almost 70 years ago."
Drizzt couldn't help but think perhaps he had been wrong and maybe the man before him wasn't exactly the same one that had traversed half of Fearun just to kill him.
They talked throughout the evening. Drizzt talked of his life with Cattie-Brie and their friends. Artemis talked of how he had come to be a follower of Selune and one of her champions. They compared stories of their children even talked of past adventures. The ranger fell silent as grey eyes started to droop and the elderly fighter started to drift into sleep.
The dark elf sat and silently regarding the man that had been his enemy for so many years. In the course of a few hours he had went from being an enemy to something, certainly not a friend, but perhaps very close.
The door creaked open and a large purple hat protruded in.
Drizzt stood and with the grace and silence of traversing the woods for centuries and exited the room. "I can't believe you still have that horrendous hat."
Straightening the said article of clothing, "Of course I do. I have you know this hat has set trends through dozens of cities and townships all over the realms."
"I'll take your word for it, and try to avoid those cities and towns." Smiling at the old colorful drow he left for his own rooms.
The ranger sat upon a grassy knoll overlooking a copse of ancient oak trees. He closed the leather covered journal as he noticed the slim figure approaching in the distance. He still marveled at her grace although much had changed in the year since he had met her. Her hair was shorter, she never wore dresses now, but most of all she wore two very familiar and dangerous weapons around her waist.
Since she had shown up at his cottage ragged and half starved from grief he had come to know her very well indeed. Jarlaxle had mentioned he had nick-named her Gaile after experiencing her first temper tantrum when she was a child. He had to admit her temperament was very akin to an onrushing wind storm, one minute screaming and wild the next calm and soothing.
She never mentioned her father any longer and only ignored him if he were to mention it. Every since the night she broke down and trashed everything in the small two room cottage. Not even a chair leg was left intact. After she had cried herself out she stood, dusted herself off, apologized and began to clean up the mess.
Life was very interesting since she had come into it, he had long since stopped buying breakable dishes.
"Are you going to sit there all day and stare at nothing or are you going to go hunting with me?" she asked planting one hand on her hip and offering the other hand clad in an unusual red stitched gauntlet.
"I suppose I don't have any other choice." Drizzt replied smiling and placing his journal, quill and travel inkpot into his pack.
"Nope none at all."