Author's Ramblings: This is the product of many hours of gameplay and my growing interest in Kaelyn the Dove. I hope you enjoy it, and I also hope I don't start writing Kaelyn horribly out of character. Her dialogue is surprisingly difficult to write...It's kind of a series of oneshots. Some of them will be silly, some of them won't, yada yada.
Obligatory Traditional Disclaimer: I do not own anything but Damirius the paladin and a strange sense of humor.

--

Reclining against the cold stone of the wall, Kaelyn ran her fingers through her hair, sighing contentedly. She wouldn't say that it had been lonely without others to aid her, but there had been a distinct lack of comfort and security in traveling alone. She cast a glance at her new companions, the wizard and the hagspawn, who were both asleep... but wait, where had their leader gone?

She furrowed her brow in worry, surveying the Great Hall of the Vault - and then jumped as she felt a small tap on her shoulder. Kaelyn rose to her feet and turned to face...

...ah, yes. Damirius, who was the apparent leader of the party. She knew he was a paladin in service of Helm, but beyond that, not much. He chuckled lightly at her surprise, a good-natured grin on his face.

"Damirius... you startled me," Kaelyn murmured, smiling somewhat sheepishly. "Is there something you require?"

"I thought you might want to take this time to get to know everyone a little better," he shrugged. "Seeing as how neither of us are really doing anything."

Having prayed to Ilmater for spells quite some time ago, she nodded. "Very well... I suppose I would like to know more about you, Damirius." She leaned against the wall, wings folded behind her back.

He arched an eyebrow curiously. "Me? Ah, I thought..." He fiddled absently with his ponytail, glancing briefly in the direction of the others. "I thought you would be more interested in Safiya, or Gann."

"It is important to know who leads you," Kaelyn said, tilting her head inquisitively.

"Well, yes," Damirius mumbled, "but not many people ask about me. They usually find out everything over the course of the adventure."

Kaelyn blinked at him, feeling persistent now. "What do you mean by that?"

"There isn't much about me that isn't blatantly obvious," he shrugged, gesturing towards himself. "I'm a paladin of Helm and my name is Damirius. Is there anything else to know?"

"I would think so," she replied. "There is a great deal of mystery surrounding you."

A mischevious grin made its way onto his face. "Are you sure that's not just the persistent aura?"

"I am sure," she assured him, smiling slightly at his joke. "If you are uncertain of where to start, perhaps you could tell me how you came to Rashemen."

"I'm actually not sure about that," he muttered thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. She had noticed that the lower half of his face, the part that was unobscured by the mask he wore, was devoid of facial hair - something she had thought was unusual among human males. "I remember waking up in some kind of spirit barrow, and that was it. Before that, I was in a collapsing room of stone, dodging falling rocks and trying to stay alive... really don't know how I got out of that."

Kaelyn's eyes widened slightly. "How did you get into that?"

"Ehhh, that's an incredibly long story, Kaelyn," he said, "but suffice it to say that I traveled all around the Sword Coast collecting silver shards to make a sword to defeat an evil they called the King of Shadows. Then we finally brought him down, but the place we were in started crumbling."

He sighed, folding his arms. "As a matter of fact, one of those shards is - was, I mean - embedded very close to my heart. Someone or something removed it... I think it has something to do with this strange constant hunger." He shifted uncomfortably.

Kaelyn nodded. "I noticed that. There is a sort of absence within you..." She looked up at him, catching sight of the troubled look in his eyes. "I am sorry. Did you wish to speak of something else?"

"It's nothing, really," he sighed, "but... talking about it seems to make it worse. I'd appreciate it if we could shift the conversation."

"Of course." She glanced about the stone hall, gaze finally settling on the pair sleeping in the corner. "What of your first two companions? Gannayev, Safiya?"

Damirius seemed to brighten immediately. "Safiya is a Red Wizard of Thay, though you wouldn't know it from personality alone. She has... kindness and mercy, more of a scholar than anything else. She led me out of the barrow and aided me in the fights against the spirits. The batlike thing that follows her is Kaji, her familiar. I wouldn't worry too much about him, but you may want to secure your valuables."

"I see," Kaelyn murmured, feeling disinterested. "And Gann?"

"Gann is a hagspawn, or so he says. He doesn't look like any hagspawn I've ever seen in a book. He also says he was born from a dream, and that he was imprisoned for being too handsome to look upon... Gann says a lot of things." Shrugging, Damirius rolled his eyes.

"You don't seem to trust him or his words," she observed.

"To be honest, I'm worried." He stared up at the dark ceiling, lightly tapping his foot. "He wasn't particularly inclined to aid me at first, and I had to do a lot of convincing and wordplay. I think his loyalty to us is weak... but, eh."

"Perhaps I will be able to see his loyalty for myself," Kaelyn said. "At any rate--"

She stopped dead as she saw two pairs of glowing eyes watching them from the darkness. Hearing Damirius curse under his breath and draw his sword, she readied her mace and began muttering incantations.

Safiya and Gann both jolted awake at the sound of screeching undead, rushing over to the scene and casting what little spells they had recovered.

"Never a dull moment in Rashemen," muttered Damirius as he narrowly dodged the blade of a death knight.