Chapter 6
Melanie walked behind Pharaun, newly burdened by the weight of armour and weapons, as they reentered the inn. She enjoyed being being surrounded by the three males. She didn't actually know them, but she had heard her sisters speak of the books they were in more often than she would have liked. Melanie had never read the books herself, and now she wished she had or at least listened to the obsessive ramblings of her sisters more often.
Melanie felt secure with them. She knew that right now she was needed, and that gave her temporary protection from anything that would see her harm. In an attempt to extend that security, her sisters had told her as much of the books as possible while they were trying on some armour. When Quenthel questioned them, Melanie hoped that she would have satisfactory answers.
As they entered the hall that lead to their room, they were stopped by Jeggred, which only made Melanie all the more glad that she was behind the mage.
"Mistress Quenthel wants to see all of you in her chambers," Jeggred growled impatiently. Melanie had no doubt that the priestesses and Jeggred had been waiting for them to return, and something told Melanie that Quenthel didn't like to be kept waiting on anyone.
Much to Melanie's horror, Jeggred began to sniff the air. Ever since she had read the Fellowship of the Ring, Melanie had found sniffing, by strange people in the right circumstances, to be extraordinarily disturbing.
Before any of the drow could reply Jeggred continued, "You've been drinking." He make it a clear statement instead of a question, and Melanie could almost taste the disdain in his words.
"Only enough to warm ourselves," Pharaun responded lightly and casually. "We'll see Quenthel soon, but first I need to look over something of great importance in my room."
"Hurry," the draegloth grumbled as he walked down the hall towards Quenthel's room. Once Jeggred left the drow began to speak in their language, which irritated Melanie to no end. They walked down the hall until they reached their modest, little room.
Pharaun unlocked the door to their room with the small, brass key and said, "I need to study a spell that will detect scrying, which will help us avoid awkward situations like the one we encountered earlier. It will take but a moment. Therefore, it would be far more convenient if you all waited out here to provide me an absolutely quiet environment to study."
Melanie thought that was overkill. He was a mage. It was his job to study. Regardless, she nodded along with Hune and Ryld. She did, however, feel a need to voice one or two of her thoughts.
"What event earlier? Our encounter with the priestess?" Melanie would have also liked to ask what scrying was, but she decided that if she was going to pass off as knowing the future, she should at least know what that was. Hopefully, it would become clear enough if someone answered her question.
Madison responded, "Someone was watching us with magic when the priestess was being attacked. That's why they switched to using their silent hand code."
"Oh." Melanie looked at the faces of her drow companions. None of them seemed to think her lack of knowledge of that was a big deal. She hoped that she could at least make it through the day without drawing too much attention to herself.
In a matter of moments, Pharaun was out of the room again and heading for Quenthel's chamber. The mage knocked on her door, and the portal swung open. Jeggred let them in to see a particularly angry looking Quenthel with her hands on her hips.
Pharaun was completely undeterred, entering the room despite Quenthel's intimidating figure. Ryld followed him closely. Hune also filed in. Melanie looked at her sisters. They seemed slightly more hesitant to enter than the serious looking males did, but there was no use in hesitation. Melanie entered the room and her sisters followed her. Jeggred quickly and silently as he was able to closed the door behind them.
Melanie wasn't quite certain, but it seemed that Quenthel's expression softened into one of surprise when she saw the grim looks of the three drow males. If the change was even there, she was concealing it well. Melanie had always thought that that kind of control was commendable and admirable, but it also was something to be wary of.
Before anyone in the party could speak, Pharaun began to use the silent language of the drow. It looked beyond complicated, and Melanie couldn't help but wonder how drow were able to move their hands so quickly and precisely or how one could register the movements for complete understanding. She watched his hands intently but could not have even guessed at the meaning with so little context.
After he finished his communication, the mage produced a tiny brass horn and a small mirror from one of his many pockets. He cast a spell, but Melanie was unable to see a visible difference in the room. While that narrowed the possibilities of what he had cast, those remaining were too numerous for Melanie to actually know what had just occurred.
The entire situation made Quenthel look somewhat uneasy.
"I warded the room against any magical scrying," Pharaun explained once he had finished his spell looking primarily at Melanie but also at her other sisters. Melanie guessed that that was the message he had conveyed just a moment before due to Quenthel's now impatient stare.
"The city will not last much longer without boiling over," Pharaun said returning to business. He seated himself on the couch and avoided looking directly at Quenthel as if he were guilty of some crime and was about to get caught. At least that's what it looked like to Melanie.
"Explain what you're going on about. Who's been watching you? And what were you six doing out in the streets, anyway? I instructed you to rest and meet here before the evening meal," Quenthel responded in a vaguely irritated tone. It struck Melanie as amusing that they were expected to eat together.
"Actually, Mistress, you never instructed any such thing," Pharaun answered as Ryld and Hune found places to lean against on the far wall. Melanie and her sisters, Morgan and Madison, remained standing awkwardly near the door. "You said you were going to rest, and you emphasized that we were to leave you alone. Under those circumstances, I didn't think it wise to disturb you with trivialities like a refreshing walk around the city."
Quenthel sighed at Pharaun's words before he continued.
"As for who was watching us, I can't say. It is possible that it was nothing, perhaps a mage overcome with curiosity was merely checking out some unusual-looking foreigners and moving on. Then again, it might have been someone specifically worried about us. I wasn't able to see the person who was scrying. When I returned to this inn, I examined my grimoires for a spell that would detect any scrying, though not stop it from happening. If I give a signal, everyone must be silent." Melanie was impressed by Pharaun's forward thinking and his fluency in English or common. Actually, everyone here except her and her sisters was quite impressive on that front. Melanie felt like the most useless burden in the room upon realizing this. Not only that, but it appeared that she didn't even have anything of value to contribute to the conversation.
Quenthel nodded curtly. "Very well," she said. "What was it that you discovered when you were strolling about the city that makes you believe it is about to 'boil over'?"
"It's true," Valas said quietly from the corner he was lurking in. "The lesser races here are growing restless and bold. We saw an attack today."
"And?" the high priestess responded. "The filth squabble and fight amongst themselves continually back in Menzoberranzan." Melanie was growing tired of any races being called "lesser" or other negative words.
"True, but we witnessed a small group of them attacking a priestess," Ryld answered for Hune, glowering for some reason that Melanie couldn't have guessed. "Their boldness enabled them to kill her in front of everyone in an open plaza."
"They would dare?" Faeryl spat, sitting upon the edge of the bed. Her voice was tight with rage, and her red eyes glittered with anger, "And you did nothing?"
"In all honesty, she was quite inebriated," Pharaun commented, moving to recline more comfortably on the dark couch. "However, she did give us the proof we sought. The priestesses of Ched Nasad suffer the same, ah ... challenges that you do, Mistress."
Quenthel slowly crossed her arms across her chest and navigated to stand directly in front of the wizard. "None of you aided her?" she inquired, turning her piercing gaze toward the other two males. Melanie saw them look away with what she imagined was guilt. Somehow, that made her feel somewhat better about what had happened.
Pharaun shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. "If we had done something and interfered, we would have undoubtedly drawn attention to the fact that we are in the city, Mistress. In order to investigate completely, we must remain inconspicuous. Besides," he added, leaning forward once again, adding an effective drama to his words, "she pleaded for Lolth to return to her, right there in the open courtyard in front of the crowd. Clearly, she had lost her resolution and was not, in my most humble opinion, fit to serve the goddess." After his words he smugly sat back reclining once again.
"In your opinion?" Faeryl seethed. "The opinion of a impudent male means nothing in matters of priestesses." Melanie was surprised by her actions. It seem to her that the priestess was overacting.
The ambassador stood, stepping towards Pharaun. In an instant and with a subtle gesture of command from Quenthel, Jeggred was between them. Faeryl shrank back from the draegloth in fear.
"Faeryl, my dear, your statement would normally be correct," Quenthel soothed in a disturbingly gentle voice which Melanie had never heard her use before. However, Melanie was more interested in watching Pharaun gape in surprise at the high priestess. "But, if you were to think about it," the high priestess continued "you would find that the mage is actually correct, though he no doubt came upon this conclusion accidentally, as his mind is addled with alcohol. Your fears are reasonable but lack logic. When a priestess loses her faith in a public spectacle, does she do her sisterhood any service?"
Faeryl backed away from the half demon, shaking her head, and she sat on the edge of the bed she had been on previously. "No," she mumbled meekly after a pause. "Her cowardice shames us all."
"Exactly," Quenthel said, nodding as if she were extraordinarily wise, "It was foolish for the males to leave the inn and to drag the humans with them, but they would have caused more harm to our cause if they had drawn any attention to themselves in the process of aiding the doomed, shamed priestess. Buying supplies for the humans was useful on the other hand." Melanie shifted awkwardly as she realized Quenthel had inferred that on her own by observing her and her sisters. It would have been more surprising if she hadn't, but it was still vastly uncomfortable.
"Forgive my impudence, Mistress Quenthel," Faeryl said drearily "I have returned home and found my city in a state of chaos. Thralls and lesser races dare to openly attack priestesses. As you love Menzoberranzan because it is your city and homeland, so do I love Ched Nasad. I have no wish to see her come to this end, and I merely forgot myself in a brief moment of emotion." This was the first time Melanie had heard any of the drow speak of emotion, and, unsurprisingly, no one seemed moved by Faeryl's display.
Quenthel waved her hand dismissively shooing the apology away. "An understandable slip in these times," she said. "However, you must control your emotions, so we can move forward."
"Ah. Then you believe that there is more to be discovered?" Pharaun asked eagerly once again leaning forward.
"Maybe," the high priestess answered as she began to pace. Pacing had always been distracting to Melanie, and it was certainly beginning to distract her now. "I will hear what the rest of you have to say before I make my decision."
The scout, Hune, spoke first. Melanie liked Hune. He seemed like a pretty reasonable person. However, his lack of interest in her personal safety and the safety of her sisters was troubling to her.
"I think it would be unsafe to remain in Ched Nasad for much longer, Mistress," the diminutive scout said. "We have discovered what we came to learn, and I think it would be wise to return to Menzoberranzan before riots fill the streets and we get caught up in another slave revolt, or worse."
"I would have to agree with Valas," Ryld added. "It is clear that the priestesses and clerics here in Ched Nasad have handled the vanishing of Lolth less well than you and the priestesses back home. There is nothing they can do to help us."
Quenthel looked to Pharaun at the same time Melanie did. Melanie was sure that Pharaun was going to suggest something completely different. In fact, Melanie was fairly certain he was going to bring up questioning the priestesses of that strange race they had seen in the market.
Pharaun shifted a bit on the couch and looked at Ryld and Hune before saying, "I think it would be more beneficial to investigate matters further here. Valas said something earlier which made me interested in another possible avenue of study, one that I would prefer to take advantage of while I can. Other races worship the Dark Mother besides us drow, and it would aid us immensely if we were to discover whether or not they also have lost communication with her." Melanie couldn't help but smile that she had been correct. Perhaps drow weren't as chaotic as they had been portrayed by her sisters.
Quenthel nodded and said dismissively, "Surely it is an interesting idea but not very practical. Drow are not held in love by the other, lesser races, and I doubt that those inferior races who worship our goddess, Lolth, would share any such delicate information with us. We haven't even shared our plight with the dark elves of our sister city. However, because of my unfinished business here, we will not leave the city just yet." Melanie could see the concern on Hune's face which was mirrored in the weapons master's. Melanie wasn't as knowledgeable as them about being able to understand when things were about to collapse, but even she doubted the wisdom of Quenthel's decision.
"Yes, precisely," Pharaun replied smoothly, undeterred. "While you are preoccupied with your plans, I intend to look into my theory, if not complete my investigation. I know of a way to confirm it by tomorrow." Pharaun's eyes glanced at Madison briefly as he said the last part.
"You'll have other work to do tomorrow," Quenthel responded icily, shaking her head and giving the wizard a cold gaze. "Faeryl, Jeggred, and I shall visit the storehouses of Black Claw Mercantile and reclaim what is rightfully House Baenre's. The three of you will find means to transport it all back, and the humans will remain in the inn. I intend to get out of the city as soon as we possibly can once we are done at the storehouses. Ched Nasad's caravans are long overdue in Menzoberranzan, and we are to make sure the due payment is made." Melanie had been told by her sister's that Quenthel intended to steal from the storehouses, but she couldn't believe the ridiculous way Quenthel defended her actions.
Pharaun scowled briefly as if here were going to argue, but the wizard merely stood, nodding. The meeting appeared to be over and everyone was leaving Quenthel in her room for the evening meal. Melanie joined them, and as she was going through the door she heard Quenthel speak.
"Pharaun, I must speak with you." Quenthel kept her voice even.
"Of course, Mistress," Pharaun replied with some surprise evident in his voice. The entire situation made Melanie uneasy for a reason she didn't understand. She was somewhat upset that she had to go to the meal and leave the mage with Quenthel.
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A/N: Sorry for the late update. I hope to get the next chapter up soon. Also, I was wondering if anyone wanted to see a particular POV. I would be happy to include any requested POVs in future chapters because I feel like Melanie and Pharaun have been dominating the story lately.
Thanks for the reviews, follows, and reads! I do not own anything other than my humans.
