Disclaimer: Some of the characters in this are mine and some are not. The idea is definitely mine. No one else would want it anyway.

--)--------

The present

Ricardt Arniss looked again at the address that Blazidon One-Eye had handed to him that morning and then at the door of the tavern across the street. Like many taverns in Waterdeep, this one had two door guards. Unlike all the others, the door guards were a pair of sun elves bigger than the paladin.

Sighing, Ricardt walked up to the tavern's entrance and was predictably stopped by the bouncers. "Friends," he said in Elven, "I have been asked to meet a potential employer here and have no wish to quarrel with any of the Tel'Quessir."

The door guard on the paladin's right looked at his fellow and shrugged. The left hand bouncer opened the tavern door and glared a warning at the raven haired paladin. Ricardt took note of the silent warning and strode into the Elfstone tavern without further ado.

The decor looked as if someone had found a picture of a forest and then transformed the structure of the building to resemble it. Ceiling supports were carved to look like trees and the live, climbing vines added verdant foliage to the illusion. Softly lit lanterns hung from the "branches," lending an ethereal light to the place.

The paladin again looked at the note Blazidon's secretary had given him. Ricardt was supposed to meet a Maresa Rost on behalf of himself and his two traveling companions to act as guards or scouts for some sort of exploration expedition. The note included that Rost should be very easy to find in the elven tavern. Ricardt sighed as he quietly looked through the busy tavern and wished that Teilla and Mirandaline had come along. Both of them had a knack for picking out the unusual.

The paladin scanned the crowd again and found himself distracted by a young lady sitting alone, dressed entirely in vermilion red. He looked a little closer and almost dismissed her as a really pale moon elf until he saw the woman's hair wafting around her head of its own accord. Like many well off taverns, the Elfstone had good ventilation, but nothing strong enough to blow someone's hair straight up and keep it up there, slowly twining around itself.

Having at least a passing acquaintance with persons of unusual ancestry, Ricardt figured first, that the woman was a genasi of some kind and second, that she might be the Maresa Rost that Blazidon had referred to. Well, he thought, Nothing to left to do but go and ask her.

He eased his way through the tables towards the genasi in red. The table she sat at had three empty chairs at it, two with what smelled like mulled wine in front of them. The genasi saw the paladin as he got closer and eyed him in challenge. Ricardt kept his expression open and honest, an easy feat, as he stepped up to her table and asked, "Your pardon, my lady? Might you be Maresa Rost?"

The genasi nodded and looked him over. "You must be Ricardt Arniss then. Where are your cohorts?"

Unperturbed by either the brusque reception or the line of inquiry, Ricardt answered easily, "Mirandaline's heretofore avoided cities like poison oak. Teilla's showing her the sights. Anyway, both of them trust me to scout out the job offers."

Maresa nodded and looked over his shoulder. He followed her gaze and found a taller, broader man in the regalia of a Morninglord of Lathander looking down at him with an odd looking sun elf behind him carrying a scroll cases and sporting lots of pockets in his clothing. The oddness centered around the tall elf's eyes. They lacked pupil or iris and constantly shifted color.

Covering his surprise with courtesy, Ricardt stood up and proffered his hand towards the new pair. "Hello. May I take it that you keep company with Lady Rost?"

"Yes, you may" the strange elf took the paladin's hand in an adventurer's clasp. "I am Araevin Teshurr and this is Donner Kerth of the Order of Aster. You must be Ricardt Arniss of Tyr."

"It would be downright bizarre if he wasn't," Maresa chuckled.

"I am," Ricardt nodded. "My companions send their regrets at not being available tonight."

"If you and the ranger are as good as rumor and hearsay tell us, then we can put up with the bard," Donner Kerth stated in a rough deep voice.

"Teilla pulls her own weight," Ricardt said evenly. "She drew maps of the last place we went exploring. Very good ones I might add."

Maresa glared at the Lathanderite where he sat. "One of them turned up at Serpentil's Books, remember? She'll be useful." The genasi turned back to Ricardt, "You were also very easy to find out about. Did you know that a lot of Tyrran paladins don't like you very much?"

"I was aware of it Lady Rost," Ricardt sighed. "A conflict of methods regarding conflicts."

"We were not able to find out much about your ranger though," Araevin commented on the genasi's left, "Aside from that she is a very good archer and sometimes called the Duskhunter of Whizban."

"Duskhunter? Mir will probably like the sound of that one," the Tyrran paladin chuckled, "In all honesty though, she has only recently started wandering in lands far from her own and is very shy as a matter of course." Particularly around the Fair folk, he silently groaned.

"Anyway," Maresa broke into Ricardt's line of thought, "If she's half as good with a bow as rumor suggests, I won't care about a lack of reputation. You're hired."

"Right," Ricardt took a deep breath and blew it out. "So the chit I got from Blazidon said you needed people for some sort of exploration expedition. Care to add any details?"

"With any luck it'll be more of an excavation once we get there," Araevin told him. "The getting there and back will likely be the place where we'll most need your skills, although Lady Hawksman will likely be useful once we start."

Ricardt frowned slightly, "You still haven't told me where we are going." The paladin silently summoned his faith to discern if those in front of him served dark powers or spoke less than the truth.

The strange elven mage answered, "It'll be safer to tell you on the way there. Can you meet us at the South gate tomorrow an hour after dawn? We'd like to start riding then."

Ricardt nodded, having found no trace of evil or falsehood on any of the trio in front of him, "We'll need to procure supplies and horses tonight then. I bid you good night, sirs, lady." He stood, bowed and started to pick his way towards the tavern door. He had much to consider as he made his way through the early evening towards the Sailor's Corner where he planned to tell Teilla and Mirandaline of their new employment.

--)--------

"That has to be the weirdest group, besides us, I've heard of in a while," Teilla told the paladin in the room the trio shared. The cubby was just spacious enough for two narrow beds, a bed stand between them and a heavy chest under the room's one window with Mirandaline's hammock hung above it.

Ricardt supposed that some might assume he always had a lovely time sharing a room with two reasonably pretty ladies. Point in fact, Mirandaline did not sleep and he and Teilla were usually so tired that by the time they got to an actual inn, they would drop, packs and travel cloaks and immediately fall asleep, sometimes not in that order.

Teilla Hawksman stood a little shorter than Ricardt. He stood a full hand span shorter than most other paladins he ran across, including Donner Kerth. The half elven bard kept her blazingly red hair gently tied back where it could frame a pale face with tawny brown eyes and softly pointed ears. She paced the small room in a white shirt with little blue and red flowers embroidered on the sleeves and collar, scarlet trousers and her usual pair of weather beaten brown boots.

So quiet that one would only see her if one looked directly at her, sat Mirandaline Sparrowhawk. Standing, the young elf came up to Ricardt's shoulder and watched everything out of uptilted green eyes in a dark chocolate face. She, like Teilla, wore an embroidered white blouse but with leafy green vines on the shoulders and around the neckline. The elf ranger wore a pair of brown trousers a few shades lighter than her skin and a laced up dark wool vest. Mirandaline kept her long hair braided, coiled and hidden under a pale grey kerchief and had done so in every town outside of her native Whizban to better hide its soft cloud grey color. "I've seen stranger," she commented, "But I've never heard of elves with eyes like that. Maybe he's from one of the outer planes."

"You sound remarkably calm for someone who likes to disappear when strangers appear," the bard noted.

"Since when would panicking help?" Mirandaline muttered then continued in a clearer voice, "Besides, they want me for scouting and arrow fire. Most of the time I won't be anywhere near this Teshurr. When I am, I suppose I'll have to keep my hair covered and use that darkening stuff for lashes and eyebrows."

"You do look almost exactly like a wild elf when you do so," Ricardt observed. "I just wish you didn't need the deception."

"It beats finding out too late that he's one of the Black Archer's adherents," the ranger sighed. "And besides I can't break your word just because I'm nervous. No matter how prudent it might be to do so..."

"Lighten up," Teilla gently shook the elf's shoulder. "You wouldn't have been able to hide from the world forever."

"It'll be all right," Ricardt assured the nervous ranger. "Teilla and I are here. We'll keep them off you as best we can." The red haired bard nodded firmly in agreement.

"I suppose I can't ask for more than that," Mir sighed. "If you two want to get some rest, I can go and get supplies tonight."

"Going to say good by to Kyriani?" Teilla grinned.

"Of course," the slight ranger pulled on her long, green, hooded coat. "And see if she might be interested in some of that home brew your uncle makes. I'll look around for some stables too, but I don't think any will be selling until tomorrow."

"Don't bother with the stables," Ricardt told the elf. "I can get horses for us at the Halls of Justice, provided I leave a deposit and bring them back."

"Right, see you in the morning," Mirandaline waved as she slipped out the door.

"Well," Teilla looked back at Ricardt, "The hard part's over with."

"No, the hard part will come if and when Lady Rost and company find out Mir's parentage," the paladin corrected. "Till then, I'm planning on sleeping on the problem."

"Good bye civilization," Teilla sighed theatrically, kicked off her boots and turned in to sleep.

--)--------