Disclaimer: I own nothing, okay?
This is my first Forgotten Realms story fanfic. I really hope all of you people reading like it. I got the drow words from a really cool website. My thanks to that paticular website, because it made this chapter sooo much easier to write.
I love the Drow race. They're so complex, so evil, sooo . . . drow. You all know what I mean.
Those DL fans reading this will notice a resemblence between Mina, Champion of the One God (I love her character, she's so awesome) and Minalylrisse. I decieded to make Minalylrisse (yes I made up that name) have distinct difference from the other drow: her hair. Let's see how she developes before decieding anything else.
Please, people, read this.
Chapter One.
Childhood Lessons.
The light of Narbondel rose and rose, higher and higher, centimeter by teensy centemeter. She saw the stirrings of activity on the streets so very clearly from the balcony where she stood. She should be away, she knew with certainty: if her sister and weanmother, LiNeerithra, caught her, she'd be in for a vicious scolding, maybe even a lash of a whip. She was a child, yes, but she was a female child, and unlike male children, she was not taught the feel of the whip.
However, LiNeerithra would indeed have her throat.
Sighing, the female turned away and trotted inside the castle. Slipping delicately into shadows, her small form crept across the unfamiliar halls into the center of the castle, the Chapel. Slipping through the doors, she slid over to her sleeping blanket in the far corner of the Chapel. Like all noble drow children, she was raised and trained in and weaned to the Chapel. She was supposed to stay there, sure, but someone (she suspected it was the Ilharn, the Patron, though she did not know his name and did not care much anyway) had left the door open a crack, and she'd slipped out, to see Narbondel, for she had heard he two sisters-LiNeerithra and Vrae'Jysala-discussing it. While she hadn't paid much attention-it was diffiecult to pay any attention when one was halfway across the room, polishing an idol of the Queen of the Demonweb-the idea of Narbondel had certainly intrigued her.
However, she hoped to Lolth she hadn't been caught.
LiNeerithra, her elder sister, was sitting erect in her Reverie, when she slipped in. Tip-toing by her, the seven-year-old crept to her bed and curled up, trying to appear asleep.
LiNeerithra was not her sister by blood: she had been a noble of a lowly house of Narbondellyn when her House was attacked and nearly eradicated. LiNeerithra had survived the attack (no one knew why except prehaps LiNeerithra) but the rumors said that she'd made a speical pack with Lolth that had insured her survival. House Qed'Vursys had taken LiNeerithra in, letting her carry the Qed'Vursys name, and,to all, LiNeerithra became a noble of Qalharen'd'lil Varval'sharess and a daughter of Ilharess Ilhar (the Drow words for 'Matron Mother') Phyrbreena Qed'Vursys and the girl's older sister.
LiNeerithra stirred and stretched, coming out of Reverie. The child curled up beneath her blanket, closing her eyes tightly but keeping her nose where she could breathe and letting her body go limp, hoping her weanmother wouldn't notice.
LiNeerithra, glancing over at the drowling, noticed the ruse imeadiately but didn't say anything, figuring the girl might as well learn. Shaking her long white locks, she peered at teh child's cap of hair that sprawled over the blanket. In the infrared, the child's hair was the same heatless color as everyone else's. In the lighted world, however, her hair showed not as the usual white, but a vivid ruby.
"Red?" Ilharess Phyrbreena had asked, moving the candle over to better see the newborn babe's locks. Indeed, they were a vivid ruby color, contrasting sharply with the white of the other's hair.
"How unusual." Shricice, the eldest daughter of House Qed'Vursys, mused.
"Red? Prehaps we should give this one to Lolth?" Greyayne, whose mother had been Matron Phyrbreena's younger sister, added, trying to keep the eagerness from her voice and failing.
Arduldriira, younger than Shricice but older than Greyayne, scowled at her cousin. She was not alone: LiNeerithra and Vrae'Jysala, third daughter of Matron Phyrbreena, joined her in scowling at the troublesome cousin.
"The child's hair is a different color: red instead of white. Is that different than a baby that is born with grey eyes instead of a shade of red or amber?" LiNeerithra asked.
"Should we prehaps give your heart to Ilhar Lolth, just because your eyes are grey?" Vrae'Jysala added.
It was Greyayne's turn to scowl, her grey eyes showing oh-so-clearly in the candlelight next to LiNeerithra's shade of vivid scarlet and Vrae'Jysala's dark maroon.
Arduldriira silenced her younger sisters with a look, then turned that look to Greyayne. "Ssst!" she snapped, the hissing signal for silence.
Jhaelriina, the small female having previously been silent, turned her own eyes-pale green eyes in the clear of the candle-to the child.She was a commoner taken in from the streets and allowed to bear the Qed'Vursys name. Taken in because of her extraordinary clerical promise, the girl still moved with the slight awkwardness that graced most drow commoners, and avoided speaking whever possible.
"Let us see the child's eyes." Matron Phyrbreena added, no, commanded, coming to stand directly beside Jhaelriina.
Shricice moved her own candle over the infant and lay her hand on the child's forhead, imparting the mental message of what she wanted the baby to do. Unable to resist the priestess's commands, the child's eyes opened.
"Amber." Vrae'Jysala remarked, indicating the child's large amber orbs. Delicate, red lashes framed them, and the cool amber brought a slight smirk to Arduldriira's lips as her own eyes, the same hue as her younger sister's, searched the baby's naked body for a hint of deformation.
There was none. To all eyes, the child appeared perfect. Iharess Phyrbreena nodded approvingly, if tiredly.
"What is the babe's name?" asked LiNeerithra, eyeing the child.
"Minalylrisse." Phyrbreena said shortly, slipping back into her chair and closing her eyes.
"Minalylrisse?" Vrae'Jysala murmered. "How strange."
"How fitting." She added as her eyes were once again drawn to the child's red locks. The words that made up the name 'Minalylrisse' were 'mi, na, lyl, risse.' which were from the anciant language of the Ilythiiri, the ancestors of the Drow, and ment "She of red locks".
"How very fitting."
"Well, Minalylrisse Qed'Vursys, fourth blood daughter of Matron Phyrbreena and sixth daughter of Qalharen'd'lil Varval'sharess," Shricice said coldy,blowingout the candles with a delicate breath. They all paused, letting their eyes slip away into the red glow of infravision, Jhaelriina's strill retaining a tint of green, Vrae'Jysala's retaining their dark maroon tint. The child's eyes ceased to be amber and joined her sisters' in a cool red.
"It appears you are stuck with us." Shricice ended coldly, drawing chuckles from all the females gathered.
"Who shall be the child's weanmother?"Jhaelriina asked in mild curiosity, drawing interested stares from Vrae'Jysala, LiNeerithra, and Greyayne.
Shricice's eyes roamed her four sister's, silently thinking. No, she who had raised Arduldriira, Greyayne, and Vrae'Jysala was simply too busy to take on this sissy child. Too time-consuming. Arduldriira likewise was busy with her duties of High Priestess. She didn't trust Greyayne-the cousin was simply too ambitious and would use the child to her own ends-and Vrae'Jysala, as caretaker of the Chapel, was also too busy. She'd be damned if she was to let awkward Jhaelriina raise the child.
LiNeerithra, nearing the status of High Priestess, however, was perfect for the job.
"LiNeerithra, you shall care and raise this dalhar," Shricice began, using the drow word for 'child'. "as a test of the Orbb Valsharess, the Spider Queen." She paused, staring the unhappy young woman straight in the eye, and spoke in dire,chill tones,"To fail me is to fail Lolth."
With that, Shricice Qed'Vursys swept out of the chapel, leaving shivers in her wake.
With a sigh, Arduldriira and Greyayne (Arduldriira keeping a keen eye on her cousin) lifted the Ilharess Ilhar and bore her away to her room to rest. With them gone, only Vrae'Jysala, LiNeerithra, and the baby red-haired child remained in the Chapel.
"Good luck to you, ussta d'anthe olath dalninil." Vrae'Jysala nodded to her 'sister', using the drow words for 'my dear dark sister' as the caretaker of the Chapel departed to see to the birth records.
"Ussta d'anthe olath dalninil." mused LiNeerithra quietly, running a cool hand over the child's red hair.
"How true."
LiNeerithra shook her head, shaking away the images of the past. To be caught even slightly off her guard, in chaotic and trecharous Menzoberranzan, was certain and guarenteed death. Gazing coldly at the female child, she swung her foot back and kicked.
The girl-child squeaked in pain as her elder sister's boot found her thigh, and, moving sluggishly enough to (hopefully) convince sly LiNeerithra that she had been sleeping, she hopped to her feet, favoring one leg, for the other sorely stung.
LiNeerithra studied her young charge-she rarely though of the skinny girl as her sister-and sighed as she enacted the mind-read spell. So, the child had wanted to see Narbondel, did she?
And to do so she had disobeyed her elder, a cleric of Lolth?
That could not be tolerated.
"Come with me." she comanded, staring the girl straight in the eye.
The red-haired drowling shifted slightly, but managed to hold still enough.
The two left the main Chamber of the Chapel, heading for one of the small antechambers.
"Finish it."
The drowling grimaced in pain despite herself as she finished cleaning an idol of the Orbb Valsharess, the Spider Queen, her quick movements opening the whip marks that she now bore. Since she was a female her weanmther had rubbed salve on them, so they wouldn't scar, but they hurt nontheless.
With a sigh, Minalylrisse Qed'Vursys set down the idol and picked up another one.
How she hated this.
"We have been chosen for a surface raid!"
Minalylrisse peaked up from her work. Well, almost. She did not raise her head-she was more intelligent than to do that with LiNeerithra's sharp eye on her-but she peaked up from the corners.
Three drow stood in the Chapel: one, Minalylrisse easily recognized as LiNeerithra. Two years had passed since Minalylrisse had dared to peak out at Narbondel, and she was nine years old now, nearing the day when cool LiNeerithra would relinquesh her hold over her charge. Yet that day was slow, unbearably slow, to the child.
The other two she did not know.
Minalylrisse had never seen a male drow. The only drow she had ever seen where her weanmother, LiNeerithra, and occasionally Vrae'Jysala, the keeper and caretaker of the chapel. Even on days whenher mother, the Ilharess Ilhar Phyrbreena, conducted the dark and sacred (and often bloody) rites of the Dark Mother, the Olath Ilhar, the young girl-child had always remained standing erect between Vrae'Jysala and LiNeerithra, mouth close and arms pinned to her sides. Because she was female, and not a lowly male, Minalylrisse was permitted to witness the rites with her eyes while male children must pin them to the floor. And only then had she seen the females: her elder sisters, though she did not know their names, and the Matron Mother.
But now she saw the male drow she had always been told were her lessers.
They were indeed smaller, she noted initially. Shorter than LiNeerithra, and slightly thinner. Their hair was as thick and lustrous as LiNeerithra's, as her own fiery waves, though cropped shorter: where LiNeerithra's pearly hair shimmered just below her hip, the male's came only a little past their shoulders. Their eyes, however . . .
Their eyes.
The elder male's eyes were cold and hard and the vivid color of blood. Wary and with the slightly paranoid, slightly insane look of the drow, they swallowed up Minalylrisse and gave nothing back. No warmth. No light. Malicious and merciless and sadistic, even by the standards of the drow, they glowed, and looking into those eyes was like looking through ice to see fire.
With a distinct shudder, Minalylrisse drew her eyes away from the male's, and noticed as she did so that he was wearing robes. Not the black-and-red-and-purple robes of a High Priestess, such as the robes that LiNeerithra wore, but pure black robes, embrodiered with black spiders, the thread magically warmed to show against the rest of the lifeless robes. The robes of a wizard, asMinalylrisse had been taught. When he shifted her arm, she saw that he wore a suit of supple chainmail beneath the black, black robes.
She shifted her eyes from him and looked to the other. A quick breath later, she was raising herhead, albeit slightly. She had never seen a drow warrior, but she had heard the tales of her sister, tales of surface raids on the evil Faeries and tales of battles against the wicked gnomes and other horrors, such as monsters of the Underdark.
He was tall, only slightly smaller than LiNeerithra, who was in turn tall for a dark elf. Silver chainmail beneath black armor, cunningly crafted and beautifully fitted and bearing the sacred symbol of Lolth, clothed him, as did his dark piwafwi, thrown casually back from his shoulders. Two long and slender swords adorned his hip, as did a wickedly sharp dagger, a long and curled whip, a small hand-held crossbow, and two cases of quarrles, along with two healing potions and a potion of cold, all three marked with Lolth's symbol. His head was high, a proud tilt to the chin, and a hint of a cocky smile forever reigned on his dark lips.
"When did you recieve the news?"
"Hatch'net just informed me, myself being the master of the sqaud." the cocky male answered back.
"A raid . . . how lucky you are, Nalrysin." LiNeerithra did a marvelous job of hiding her jealousy.
Nalrysin smirked, casting the envious female a flash of white teeth. "You do me less than I most definately deserve, Ssin'urn Uss, Beautiful One."
"You watch your words, Streeaka Uss." LiNeerithra warned the saucy male, moving her hand toward her snake whip.
The cold-eyed male interupted, holding up a hand.
"Yes, Valvyll? Since wizards are not permitted to take part in the raids, why are you here? Surely the Master of Sorcere has other duties than accumpanying a younger brother to his destination." it was an obvious insult, but cunningly so.
"Ah, no, Ssin'urn Uss." the male, the one named Valvyll, answered with a sly tilt to his voice.
"Lyst Uss." was all LiNeerithra cared to reply, the drow words for 'sly one', waving the drow warrior away. He took his leave with a cocky bow and drew his piwafwi around his shoulders as he went, closing the door on his heels.
LiNeerithra and Valvyll moved toward the shadows, and Minalylrisse could hear no more.
Nor did she care to.
"The surface?" Minalylrisse asked LiNeerithra once the two were alone again.
Minalylrisse had heard tales of the wicked surface, yes. Vrae'Jysala had told her a few, all about the vile, hating wretches that were her surface cousins and the whiny, stupid humans and dirty, sullen dwarves. These tales had been horrific and frightning, and Minalylrisse suspected Vrae'Jysala took the time to tell these awful tales only because she enjoyed the child's fear. Minalylrisse had never really had it described to her, though.
LiNeerithra took a second to look at the timid girl, weighing the gains she would make by going through with the child's undeniable request. "What of it?"
"I heard there was going to be a surface raid . . . "
"Do you know what a surface raid is?" LiNeerithra asked, turning her attention away from Minalylrisse to her snakewhip.
"Ahh . . . no. I don't." Minalylrisse confessed.
LiNeerithra didn't bother to even flicker her eyes. "First, do you know of the vile wretches we call cousin?"
"No . . . not entirely . . . Vrae'Jysala . . . " Minalylrisse's voice trailed off into a whisper.
LiNeerithra decided to simply ignore the girl's stuttering. "The Faeries, the surface elves, are traitors. We walked beside them, once, millenium ago. We called them kin, those wretches. We did not know-could not know-that they were the very embodiment of deciete and evil, that they would turn on us, driving us away at the point of blood-stained sword. They drove us to the ends of the world, and we teetered on collaspe."
Minalylrisse listened, eyes wide.
LiNeerithra's face twisted suddenly, her eyes flaring. "But then we found the Goddess, sacred, blessed Lolth! It was she who took our orphaned race, abandoned by the false gods of the faeries, to her side, she that helped us strike back at the vile faeries! She that guided us home, to the Underdark, to what would become Menzoberranzan, beautiful Menzoberranzan, the City of Spiders. And later, the City of Shimmering Webs, Ched Nasad. And after that, the City of Darkness, Shei'Alaunisstree. It was she that provided the soothing darkness in which to rest our weary eyes, she that gave us power and magic beyond any of the surface dweller's wildest dreams!"
Minalylrisse was silent, stunned slightly.
"The surface is a vile place, Young Drowling. Every day, the ceiling glows a vivid, bright blue that stings the eyes. But even more, a great ball of flame, millions of times more painful than the punishments of the Clerics, burns above the land, searing it. The sssiks, the hated Sun, burns the flesh of the Faerie Elves and the wretched Humans, sucks the color from the Faeries's flesh and tints Human flesh an unhealthy, uglyreddish-pink. Even as teh flames sear and burn, the wind, for up there is wind, blows, bringing coldness and misery and stinging frozen water. There is no beauty up there. Not the blessed Darkness down here, the warmth of the earth's breast, the trum of the world's power!"
Minalylrisse cheered, other questions forgotten.
Eight months later, Minalylrisse - or Mina, as she was nicknamed - turned szith, ten, and was relinqueshed from LiNeerithra's care and placed in the Chapel as a servant to Vrae'Jysala, the K'lar d'Lolth Lani, the 'Location of Lolth Keeper', and spent the next six years in her care.
Then came her sixteenth birthday, and that marked the beginning of a chain of events that would change Menzoberranzan forever.
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