Dancing With Destiny
All recognizable characters belong to RAS. The world belongs to WotC. I do not intend any infringement by using the above-mentioned person's or company's items, I only use them here for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 1
Zin'vey walked the halls of her house like the matron she wished to someday be. If things kept progressing as they had in the last five years she would be that matron soon, very soon.
Her house did not host a legion of faithful priestesses, nor did they hold any high appointments within the city hierarchy, no arcane secrets were deposited within the halls she walked, but one thing she did possess, and most self righteous females failed to take advantage of, was three very powerful males.
Very early her mother had taught her only daughter, the true value of that so under used commodity of males. Virtrin Na'Shar showed her daughter the value of a well taught, a well-trained tool. A sword was useless if it didn't have an edge.
She remembered well all those teachings at her mother's throne. Without those teachings she would not have come as far as she had in such a limited time. One thing she always lived by was a surface adage her mother had told her one day when she had failed to discipline her twin brother for speaking out of turn.
"You can get twice the results with honey as with vinegar." She whispered softly echoing the words her own mother had said to her then.
"Let your servants have a little extra, they will be twice as loyal and three times as profitable than if you subjugated them at every turn. But by no means be lax in your expectations of them. Let them know exactly what you want and what you expect, if they know these things and know the line they are not to cross then they will avoid that line at all costs. If perhaps, they are not bright enough to avoid it make an example of them." Zin'vey could still hear the raspy sound of her mother's voice as it echoed in her throne room of the house in Ched Nasad when it still stood.
She knew the way she ran her house made her look weak in the eyes of the true matrons of the city. But she knew the benefits, one day she would sit on the ruling council, she would be second only to House Beanre itself.
It may take centuries to accomplish what she wanted but she had time, that was one thing she had plenty of.
As she turned the corner and entered the house's gymnasium she saw one of the males of her house inside training.
Rilmarn stood several inches over six feet, remarkably tall for a drow, he practiced in a pair of light cotton trousers and nothing else. Today he was working on his hand to hand skills.
His muscles rippled across his broad back and sculpted chest, ebony skin glistening with a sheen of sweat from his work out. His long white braid swayed as it almost touched the ground. Zin'vey leaned against the door to her patron's sanctum and watched him work through his session. She knew he was aware of her eyes on him and knew he also enjoyed the attention.
After several minutes Ril stopped his work out and turned to face his Matron, smiling. As always she was struck by his beautiful eyes, the color of freshly polished emeralds, it was the only mark that he had anything other than dark elvish blood in his veins.
"Are you ready for your arena bout tomorrow? I've heard the opponent you're to face is very impressive." She spoke watching him move across the floor, he was the most physically powerful male she had ever encountered.
She had searched for months in Ched Nasad to find a suitable mate when she became old enough. Rilmarn had been the champion of the arena at the time, no more than a slave to the arena master, she had spent nearly two tenday trying to purchase him until he had been bought right out from under her. Little did she know at the time he had been purchased by her aging mother and would later be presented as a gift to her, but only after he had sired her youngest brother. Virtrin gave nothing without receiving something first.
"Of course I'm ready. Have I ever lost?" he replied pulling on a light tunic.
"You're entirely too cocky, any other female would put you in your place for only a fraction of the things I endure. Make sure you don't loose, my plans require everyone in this house to perform to their utmost." She turned and left without a backwards glance.
The weapons master only chuckled as he left for his own quarters next door to the area he claimed as his own. He knew as well as she did that as long as he kept her pleased in the arena and in her bedchambers he would be free to do almost anything he wanted.
Going over plans in her head Zin'vey made her way to the part of the house that had still to be reconstructed, on her way to Narfein's laboratory.
Her youngest brother had claimed the old work space, it was the most remote part of the old house.
As she daintily side stepped a pile of rubble, she noticed a shadow that didn't belong.
Speaking to the air she asked, "What have you learned?"
As the shadow materialized beside her, her twin brother's voice said, "Some very interesting things, especially involving the arena."
She kept walking as if she had no companion. The antics of her twin were nothing to her, she had long ago discovered Fimeral's ability to ferret out information. He was her eyes and ears in places she could never go.
"It would seem our Weapons Master is the underdog in tomorrow's tourney. The word in the betting circle is he has eighteen to one odds." He looked sideways at his almost identical sister as he spoke.
Zin'vey laughed out loud. "Eighteen to one are you joking with me? That is wonderful. Ril must be a much better actor than I gave him credit for."
"His opponent is the current champion in Eryndlyn. He uses a whip and short spear simultaneously, and both poisoned of course."
"Poison is supposed to be forbidden unless otherwise specified. Anything we need to worry about?"
"No, he uses several varieties, and one even from the surface. If my information is correct Rilmarn has built a tolerance to all of them. The worse should only weaken him slightly, and even at that he will still be stronger than his opponent."
Maneuvering around more rubble she glanced at Fimeral, she knew how accurate his information was.
"Do you know what weapons Rilmarn has chosen to use?" Her brother asked rounding the corner side by side with her.
"No, but he was practicing his hand to hand earlier."
"That should be fine, one opportunity to get up close and his foul breath will take the match for him easily." Only the four people inside this house knew that her patron's sire was a green dragon, and that he had inherited some of the wyrm's characteristics, including increased strength, speed, agility and the less potent version of a green's breath weapon.
"When is Narfein to take his test for a masters position at Sorcere?"
"Tomorrow of course, along with my yearly meeting with Matron Mother Triel. It seems tomorrow will be a big day for us all."
"How long do you think they will keep us as vassals to House Baenre?" Fimeral asked.
"As long as Triel thinks she can get away with it. At present, with no priestesses, and little resources we will be houseless vassals for some time to come. Luckily for us the matron of the first house knows how to use her resources well and leaves us to make our own way."
"Then perhaps it would be in our best interests for Matron Mother Triel to retain the throne of the first house."
"For the time being I agree with you. Here take this, make sure you put all of it on Rilmarn for tomorrow's bout, anonymously of course." She said handing her brother a bulging rothe' hide pouch.
"Of course." Fimeral said as he bowed to his sister and melted into the shadows.
That one was always full of questions, but he always answered as many as he asked, and as long as that stayed true she cared little to sate his curiosity.
After traversing two more rubble strewed corridors Narfein's constructs began to make appearances.
Narfein was an adept wizard excelling at a very young age at his arcane studies. Yet his specialty was constructs and reconstruction. She knew her brother's shining moment had been when he had created a full grown functioning kobold from a single discarded hair he had found. There was nothing he could not make given time and the right materials. Thanks to him she saved so much gold on slaves and servants to keep up the house, although she had to purchase enough to keep up appearances.
As she drew closer to his private chambers and work space, more and more golems became evident, until she came to his guarded door. He had chosen an earth golem for a guard.
"Tell your master his Matron wishes to enter." She had seen evidence when entering a wizard's chamber it was always wise to announce ones self first, or otherwise very unsavory things might happen.
The grey lump moved with the sound of boulders grinding against each other and slowly went to inform its master of his visitor.
After several minutes the golem returned to its former place, but with the door opened, which meant Zin'vey was free to enter the rooms beyond.
On the other side of the door the area was free of debris and had begun the transformation from an abandoned structure to a livable abode. As she made her way to her destination, she passed several of her brother's workers busily repairing structures and cleaning.
Zin'vey's jaw dropped as she entered the opened door of the room Narfein occupied at the moment. Was this his work room or his private chambers?
The large chamber was very tastefully decorated with a rug from some far off destination. Sitting in the center of the rug was a beautifully carved table of hardened mushroom. A crystal and pewter chandelier hang over the polished table. Finely painted scenes from the world above adorned the walls, but none of that was what caused her uncharacteristic shock.
Lining the walls were golems made from every known substance she could think of, from precious stones, to rare metals, one even looked to be made of smoke. What caused her shock was the form these golems were molded to resemble. All were females of some race or another from diminutive figures to tall slender ones. Each and every one were as bare as the day they were made and all were remarkably life like in their make.
Her eyes finally looked to her youngest brother standing on the other side of the uncluttered table. He had inherited Rilmarn's height but not his girth. If it were possible, he was even more handsome than his sire, with that charming smile. He wore a white spider silk tunic tucked into a pair of dark-blue velvet trousers that in turn were tucked into a pair of well made black calf length boots, all covered in an outer wizard robe that matched perfectly the pants. The robe of course was left open to better show case the extravagant clothing beneath. His thick white hair hang loose about his shoulders.
Yes this boy before her was very much like his sire in so many ways yet different in so many others.
"I do hope you keep this area properly warded against outside eyes." She glanced around the room in disgust. "I do not even want to know what you do with these things, just keep them hidden."
Smiling broadly the wizard replied, "Of course I keep my rooms warded as I do the rest of your house. As to my toys they are for decoration only, call them a fetish perhaps. Why should all my constructs be shapeless forms of goo?"
"Whatever I really don't want to know your strange obsessions. Just make sure you're ready for your test tomorrow. I need one of you in the academy somewhere and I cannot waste Rilmarn in Melee Magthere, he's far more productive in the Arena."
"I'm ready. I know which questions to answer correctly, which to miss and by how much. Don't worry sister. We all know exactly what our roles are." He said this making his way to a desk in the corner carved to match the table.
"By the way my constructs are still unearthing things left over from the former inhabitants of this house. Most of it is inconsequential junk not even worthy of the bandits that sacked the place when the house fell. But every now and then something interesting appears."
He handed her a small leather bound book and a qu'ilinsar.
"They were found in a hidden niche in one of what I think was a bed chamber. If you notice there is still blood on the dagger."
"Who would hide such a thing? Could you find out who was sacrificed?" Turning the qu'ilinsar over in her hands. This had been used and hidden, but by whom.
"Of course I can. I won't guarantee I can find out the whole of it but I should be able to find out enough."
"Do it after your test tomorrow. Do not waste your time on something this trivial."
She tossed the sacrificial dagger to him, pocketed the book and left. Never did she wish to enter those rooms again.