The knife made a wet noise as it slid out of the man's chest, dropping fresh blood into the rain-soaked cobblestones of the moonlit alleyway.
"Now, now, we told you this would happen if you didn't get us the money." The tieflings voice slithered like a venomous serpent. "But since you didn't, we might have to go check on that lady friend of yours, see if she can make a small donation."
The man's eyes widen in fear and worry as he tried to catch the blood threatening to expel itself like vomit from his mouth. No, the man thought as he slid down the stone brick wall of the alleyway, not Thia. His gaze grew hazy, slipping into darkness and back again before solidifying into a new scene.
Before him sat a small child, maybe four or five, but with skin as dark as charcoals and hair as white as moonlight. "Thia," The man whispered, recognizing the child he had taken from the forgotten corner of the Underdark during one of his old raiding trips. The child turned around and cocked her head as if trying to understand what he had just uttered before the man's vision began to flicker again.
This time, he was sitting at a rough oak table in cozy, almost homely house. A fire was roaring in the fireplace keeping the cold of the winter snow outside at bay. Across from him sat an elderly man, bald, and in a robe that seemed to outshine the snow outside in whiteness. Besides the bald priest, as the man recalled, sat Thia, looking roughly two years older peering at a set of books that were laid out across the table in a haphazard fashion. She was staring with such contempt that the man was afraid she might begin burning holes in the rather old looking books.
"Come on, read it with me." the old priest said as he pointed to a line in a book. "Here we go," The priest began reading an old children's poem but the tiny Thia refused to talk. The man smiled a bit, remembering how she always hated books. But as he continued to watch the endearing sight, his vision flickered before going black.
The man came to with a pain in his rump. Ah, he remembered this. This was the first time the now teenaged Thia beat him in a brawl. He slowly got up and popped his back before turning around and opening his eyes. Before him stood an outrageously gorgeous dark elf dressed in leather training armor he had borrowed from the guild. They were supposed to be given back a few years ago but the guild master had let him go with a laugh saying he knew how hard it was to find equipment those days. Now they barely fit the teen. The man had to divert his attention away from the curves that stuck out between the ill-fitting armor. He was brought out of his distractedness by Thia as she bounded up to him and pulled him into a large bear hug, pride and excitement written across her face. But before she could inevitably begin her cheerful chatter, the world fell to nothing yet again.
Now he was back in the alleyway, the snake-tongued tiefling and his two thugs laughing as they sauntered out of the alleyway and back into the city proper. Or at least that was what should have happened. In the blink of an eye, a dagger slid through all three necks, knocking them off their high perches. The owner of the dagger had only been visible a moment, but the man leaking blood in the dank alleyway had seen the telltale mark of moonlight hair. "Thia, he whispered as more blood dribbled out the corners of his mouth.
"Dad!" Thia almost shrieked as she emerged from the shadows at breakneck speed. She knelt down beside him and pulled out a med kit, trying uselessly to figure out what she needed. But she was no doctor, and he was already too far gone. Realizing this, he put a hand on her arm. Looking at her now, she had come a far way from the lost girl in the Underdark. Now she was a fine young woman that any man would fall for if not for her skin color. Twenty years will do that.
"Thia," the man began before the blood in his throat became too much and he was forced to let spill a mouthful of blood into the alleyway. The worry and concern on her face broke his heart. "Thia, my time has come." He put a finger to her lips to keep her silent. "There is nothing either of us can do right now, the cleric is out of the city right now. But you know that I mean, we stole his lockbox just yesterday!" The man's laugh turned into a ragged cough. "But since it is my time, my dear Thia, I want you to remember these last things." She opened her mouth to answer but he laid his finger back on her lips.
"One take care of yourself. I know about your side job," She blushed, as she had thought that that particular thing had escaped his all-seeing eye. "I've known about it since you started doing it at eighteen." She blushed even harder now. "You are your own person and I respect that, but remember, not everyone is your friend, no matter how they act." She nodded, tears beginning to well up in her lilac eyes.
"Two, by Lliira, keep your alcohol budget separate from your needs budget. I don't want to come back from the dead just to pay your tab." Thia giggled wiping away some of the tears that had begun streaking her face. The man began chortling as well before the blood pouring from his mouth reminded him he didn't have a lot of time.
"And lastly, Thia, be free. The world is your oyster. Remember the book you hated to read so much when you were younger? The one about the poor girl who became Queen? That could be you. And when I look down from wherever I go, I want to see you doing all the great things you said you would. I want to see you sitting on a throne of gold. I want to see you chugging down a pint of mead with your friends after a job well done. I want to see you being you. So promise me, promise me, that you will live life to the fullest and be, free."
As the final words fell out of the old man's mouth, the brightness of life in his eyes dulled. In the alleyway of a moonlit city lay a lone dark elf woman, barely out of her teens, quietly crying as she cradled the arm of her guardian and savior to her chest. When the tears stopped coming, she wiped the remaining wetness from her eyes and leaned in close to the body fo the only one she ever loved and whispered, "I will Dad, I promise."