Chapter VI:
Unlikely Alliance
Zak was back in the darkness of the Wilds from the World Above. Nothing was out of the ordinary to his considerable senses. All was deadly calm, akin to the held breath of a stalking giant. A stalking drow giant, Zaknafein mused grimly. As a steel sliver in the side of a displacer beast, he streamed through the woodland domain without a sound. The red hue of the darkness from his inborn infravision registered no warm bodies nearby in this portion of the Moonwood. Only the calming reassurance of the wondrous beauty shadowing his every step from behind and to the right gave any indication of life at all.
Strange, the warrior pondered. Split seconds after the thought had finished, a trio of chainmail armored guardians with great halberds of titanium steel rushed from the deeper shadows concealed by the dense foliage. The dawn was coming. As even the Lord of the Moonwood's personal guards had arrived to cleanse the threat from their domain!
Pure instinct engulfed the young Do'Urden. Fine swords intercepted the first massive swing from the halberd on the left, tapped it a twice in rapid succession, then sent it flying the other way with a quick backhand. Zaknafein leaped around that opponent. Up he went with a levitation spell, racing for the moon-dappled shadows of the surrounding trees. Jae-Deia was suddenly next to him! Moon elves could levitate, too? he marvelled.
Zak glanced once in her direction, senses focusing back outward to the now all-encompassing danger in the area. Arrows pierced the darkness as a whisper of death. But the instinct to survive demanded that Zaknafein's skill to defend himself remain worthy of his Underdark reputation. An explosion of spinning flurries with his twin blades as he soared into the heavens sliced the swarm of missiles that came forth as a shower from above. Not one of them cut a single scratch on his slender frame!
Jae-Deia Starwind smiled over at him as she rose into the wind, as well. She appeared as an angel in the darkness to Zaknafein's mind. Her supple body shimmered as she drifted in and out of the moonlight, scimitars and bright blue eyes glinting. I will take you to my father and explain everything, she signed at length, after sheathing her weapons at her sides. Merely stay alive long enough for us to reach him, is all I will ask of you.
Zaknafein was scarcely able to follow the woman's awkward version of the silent hand code, but he got the gist of it. In any case, he hadn't any time to ponder it more fully, for the same peculiar bird he had seen before the battle had even begun suddenly appeared again. This time, it flew straight at him, claws extended, hooked beak opened to emit a piercing shriek that reverberated in Zak's ears. Eyes wide, he reacted without even thinking about it, sending his swords into a blurred frenzy. The bird was too late to stop its forward momentum, huge wings spread wide, and was immediately battered by the flats of those whirling blades from all angles -- almost as if there were actually two warriors attacking instead of one!
Zak rose above the floundering and flustered creature, unsure of how the situation would play out at this point. The owl bounced off the trunk of a nearby shadowtop, then righted itself in midair before it fell and swooped back in pursuit. As soon as Zaknafein looked down to monitor its progress, he noticed too the ascending forms of the nearly forgotten elvish guards. Wonderful, he thought miserably, glancing once more at Jae-Deia. She no longer smiled, but focused her attention on the screeching avian rising after them from below. In the language of her own people, she declared something very short and to the point. The bird responded by flapping its wings mightily one last time, then folded them at its sides, closing the distance in less than a couple heartbeats. Once upon them, it swooped about them, circling once and then twice. When Jae-Deia spoke again, the curious bird dove back down to intercept the elvish guards.
Zaknafein watched in bewilderment as the moon elves reacted to the bird's approach with calm assurance. It seemed to be communicating with them, as it now circled them, precisely as it had done with Zak and Jae-Deia a second ago. Nodding their helmed and black-plumed heads, they halted their ascent, grabbing hold of three separate treelimbs and looking up at the departing duo. The bird then launched skyward a third and final time. Jae-Deia reached out and clutched Zaknafein's right arm, forcefully pulling him to herself, as they finally reached a wooden platform that wound completely around a tree so enormous that Zak could've mistaken it for a mountain.
I take it this is the home of your father? he signaled the instant he sheathed his own weapons. His booted feet settled firmly on the landing at the same time as Jae-Deia's. That beautiful smile of hers returned tenfold. The warrior supposed it would have been a shame if he was more like his own people.
For this charming elvish princess would have been long dead by now.
* * * * *
The Elf Lord's keep was a beehive of activity. Jovell Starwind marched his new acquaintances from a different galaxy down and around and around, barking orders to his archers as he came upon each organized group at various points along the serpentine walkway. All stood at attention, wearing solemn expressions, some of them glancing hopefully toward the eastern horizon where the first glimmers of the sun shone reddish-pink. Speartips reflected the silvery stars still visible through the breaches in the thick canopy of leaves and limbs. Stinging insects pestered several soldiers here and there, causing them to swat angrily at exposed flesh.
Jovell led the otherworldly visitors to a section on the platform about midway to the bottom of the tree. There they met up with his daughter and -- another visitor, it appeared. This one was drow! "By the storms, Child, tell me I am not seeing things in my old age!" he growled, clasping his hands tightly behind his back, his feral gaze locked with the crimson-glowing eyes of the dark elf standing casually beside his daughter.
Jae-Deia snapped to attention, saluting her father with a swift chopping motion of her left hand at chest-level. "Forgive me, Father," she implored. "This one is not like his kin. He turned on them, along with another who did not return here with us. We have been hunting the drow as a unit for the last couple hours or so. It is a hard tale to believe, I am sure, but--"
"It is most certainly that, Child," Jovell cut in venomously, not even blinking or taking his eyes off the drow warrior for an instant.
"I see that you, too, have acquired new friends. One of them appears to be goblinoid, albeit unusually small for its kind," Jae-Deia pointed out, as if her father had not spoken at all. Or more to the point, as if her bringing a drow here was somehow diminished by her father's present company.
Yoda and Corintheus stirred uneasily behind the Elf Lord as the heated exchange continued. The Jedi Master could sense all that transpired in and around the immediate area. Kandomyr's communication spell was still in effect, so that Yoda and his Padawan understood all that was said by each new speaker they encountered. But Master Yoda was more intent on that which could not be readily seen or heard.
"A new disturbance in the Force, I detect," Yoda confided in his Padawan, murmuring softly.
Corintheus nodded. His facial expression was vacant as he responded just as discreetly. "This new version of the Force has more than two sides to it, I feel. Voices as from a dream keep speaking in my mind, and not all of them under one accord. Some seem evil, others goodly, while still others are whimsical, free-flowing as the wind. Others hold to neutrality, saying very little but making their presence felt all the same. What do you suppose it all means, Master?"
Yoda's ears swivelled and twitched as he looked straight ahead, observing the back of their noble host. Yoda's eyes, however, looked right through the slender Elf Lord, focusing ever inward. A subtle sensation washed over the Jedi Master, alerting him that his Padawan was in danger of converting to whatever this world's version of the Dark Side might be at some point -- if they didn't leave this planet soon. As it stood, there was another danger hovering about, one that was very real and very immediate. A menacing specter of some sort was even now observing all that moved from some place unknown.
"Careful in the days to come, we both must be," Yoda whispered at length. "As for now, wary you should be of something akin to a Dark Lord of the Sith, somewhere near."
Moments later, after the Elf Lord escorted the small company to the Council Chamber near the top of the grand tree, the Archmage Kandomyr appeared in their midst, back in elvish form. His golden eyes instantly locked with the crimson orbs of Zaknafein Do'Urden. Eventually, the wizard reenacted the spell that would allow everyone to communicate in his or her own language, while being heard by the others in their own languages.
"Thank you, Kandomyr," Jovell Starwind said with an appreciative nod. He then took a seat in one of the padded chairs surrounding the small wooden table in the far right corner, gesturing for the others to do the same. Once they were all seated, he began the proper introductions. "First, I want to welcome you visitors to the forest of Moonwood. I am Lord Jovell Starwind. My peculiar friends here are called Master Yoda and Corintheus Thoram. Yoda, Corintheus, you have already met my wizard advisor Kandomyr. This is my daughter Jae-Deia Starwind, and her newfound companion Zaknafein Do'Urden, a warrior from the hated underground city of Menzoberranzan, a dark elf, sworn enemy of my people."
The three strangers acknowledged each other with a solemn nod of their heads. Master Yoda could sense a bit of trepidation in this dark elf warrior, even though no outward signs of it were revealed.
"Zaknafein will now be so gracious as to tell us what brings a representative of his kind to my doorstep, with my beloved daughter as his personal escort," Jovell went on to say, filling a golden goblet with dark wine from a silver pitcher. Kandomyr used telekinesis to summon other goblets from a nearby shelf. Once all the goblets were filled and offered to each in attendance, Jovell sat back and sipped at his own, staring expectantly at Zaknafein.
Zak followed suit, savoring the delicious blend, before speaking his piece. "It was not my intention at first to turn against my people," he confided slowly and deliberately. Glancing over at Jae-Deia, Master Yoda noticed that the warrior gathered his courage on the basis of her encouraging smile. "But my people disgust me! All the tales I have ever heard of your people were of bloodshed brought about by my own people and not yours. All the evils my people ever declared with regard to the surface elves were of self-defense and nothing more. When my companion Jarlaxle, who has taken a different route, in order that he might investigate a peculiar vessel on the eastern border of your domain --"
"Peculiar vessel, you say?" Yoda interjected at once, his long ears perking up at the mention of what could very well be the X-Falcon II. "On the eastern border?"
"Yes," Zaknafein admitted, regarding the diminutive green alien fixedly for the first time. "He thought it was some kind of... starship, I think he called it. Yours perhaps?"
"Aye, indeed it is," Master Yoda revealed, sleepy eyes boring holes into Zaknafein, though his body remained relaxed. "More I would like to hear of this companion of yours. Of his intentions, specifically, I would like to know."
"We will get back to that presently, Master Yoda," Jovell assured the Jedi, reasserting himself in the conversation. "I believe Zaknafein here was about to divulge some rather interesting information as to why he is here, as well as why my people should now treat him as an ally, when he was originally sent here to pillage and destroy."
Zak cleared his throat at that, taking another sip of wine. Setting the goblet back on the table, he said, "When my companion Jarlaxle fought against Jae-Deia, he convinced her that we were not the same as our people. Our actions soon convinced her fully of what mere words could not. A short alliance, to be sure, for with the rising sun even now, my people must prepare to retreat back into the Underdark. And I'm afraid that I, too, must leave. But I wanted to make a difference by fighting on the right side, albeit in a covert fashion, with the hopes of going unnoticed by my kin upon my return. I wanted it to appear to them as though I was on their side the whole time, killing faeries at my leisure."
"Ah, but all the while betraying them by literally stabbing them in the back," Kandomyr piped in, speaking up for the first time. "Truly an excellent premise upon which to form an alliance, however temporary, with one's sworn enemies, wouldn't you agree?"
Zaknafein responded to the sarcastic response not at all. Instead, he shot a nervous glance outside the tree, where the darkness was gradually giving way to the new dawn.
"What more to accomplish, do you feel you must?" asked Master Yoda, unexpectedly adding his own voice to this particular aspect of the conversation.
Zak regarded the Jedi Master warily, obviously unsure of what to make of the small creature. Yoda could sense the warrior's discomfort as easily as he could sense his own heartbeat. But, before Zaknafein could answer the Jedi Master, Yoda shifted his focus back to Kandomyr, whose facial expression appeared suddenly alarmed. Yoda sensed it, too: a sinister presence in the chamber, which had been lurking like an unseen cloud for quite some time now.
Kandomyr looked as if he was about to say something -- when virtually all Nine Hells broke out.
