Chapter 10 - Alianna

To My Dear Distinguished Colleagues:

My visits to the laundry rooms have become more frequent as of late. It seems Veil has rejected her clothing in favor of my own. Or my shirts, at any rate. While it is, as you can no doubt imagine, quite adorable seeing her run about in sleeves almost twice as long as her arms and her knees just barely poking out of the bottom of a shirt, it is also proving to be a considerable inconvenience. Fortunately, she's told me she doesn't require that the shirt be stolen from my dresser before she will wear it, so donating all my current shirts to her wardrobe once I've ordered replacements for myself should disarm the situation.

Should there be any complaints regarding the frivolity of this letter, let me once again remind you that it is not I who insists on monthly correspondence. Candlekeep really is a bit of a dull place, and earth-shaking events are actually quite uncommon here.

Sincerely, Gorion

"Why did I call them friends?" Mijandra asked suddenly.

"W-wha?" Imoen stammered as she struggled to block Mijandra's attack, another sharp bark of wood striking wood sounding through their camp.

"Jaheira and Khalid. I called them friends." Her make-shift practice sword – a two foot pole of wood cut from a quarterstaff they bought at the Friendly Arm – smoothly pushed Imoen's thrust aside before making a counter attack.

"Ah!" Imoen shouted as she dodged. "Wish-I-could-talk-now-Mijandra," Imoen rushed out, followed by another yelp and narrow miss. "If-you-wanna-stop…"

Mijandra frowned. As usual she and Imoen started their practice slowly, Mijandra quickening the pace until she reached Imoen's limit. And as usual that limit did not take nearly long enough to reach in Mijandra's opinion. For the past year Imoen had hardly shown any improvement at all.

"Ow!" Imoen grunted as Mijandra's pole thudded into her shoulder. "Hey! You did that on purpose!"

Mijandra blinked slowly. "Of course I did."

"Y-you're not supposed to hit me!" Imoen shouted, her pole at her side tightly clenched in her hand.

"I'm supposed to protect you."

"W-what?! Since when has protecting me meant giving me bruises?!"

"It's better than what you'd get in a real fight. Raise your guard."

"No! OW!!" Mijandra struck without waiting for Imoen's compliance. "What the hell are you doing?!" she said as she finally brought her guard up to deflect the next attack. But Mijandra was no longer holding back at Imoen's limit, and Imoen quickly received a sharp blow to the wrist, then another to her side. "Dammit, Mijandra, knock it off!"

"Ahem." They both turned to see Khalid walking towards them. "P-perhaps I could have a t-turn, Imoen?"

Khalid had started watching early enough to realize what Mijandra was trying to do. And to realize that it didn't seem to be working. Imoen turned a scowl on Mijandra. "Fine by me," she said as she handed her pole to Khalid. Mijandra said nothing, and Khalid couldn't tell if she was upset with the interruption or not. She simply readied her guard as Khalid stepped forward.

It was not long before Khalid verified Mijandra's limit went much higher than she had gone when fighting Imoen. He also verified the weaknesses he thought he saw in her defenses were really there. Mijandra grunted as Khalid rapped her on the knee.

"Hah!" Imoen called spitefully from the tree she leaned against as she rubbed her sore wrist.

Mijandra and Khalid separated and then started the fight anew. Khalid quickly made another attack on Mijandra's knee, and Mijandra blocked easily. The sound of their staffs colliding increased in pitch as the fight continued, and Khalid eventually made a glancing blow to Mijandra's shoulder, followed by another strike at her knee. Once again she blocked, and Khalid narrowly defended against her counter attack. "You learn quickly," he said, smiling. Mijandra still said nothing, neither appreciative or offended that Khalid could see.

Their practice continued a few minutes more, Mijandra receiving a handful more grazings and two or three bruises before Khalid decided Imoen's smile had gotten smug enough. "I think that's enough f-for now, Mijandra. Imoen, p-perhaps you'd like to practice with me?"

Imoen's smile disappeared. "No! Uh…no, that's okay."

"You're s-sure?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I've had all the practice I need, today."

"Well, ok-kay then," Khalid said, smiling warmly. The sisters would be ready to make peace, now, he hoped. Khalid walked back to the fire to leave them to it.

Mijandra placed her hand on Imoen's cheek. Imoen was about to move away when she felt a familiar tingling warmth seep through her and wash the pains of their practice away. "I love you, sis," Mijandra said, not moving her hand.

Imoen felt her anger fading away, which for a few seconds made her even angrier. Imoen sighed as that too faded and she leaned into her sister, Mijandra's arms wrapping around her. She was such a sucker. "You need to fight better, Im," Mijandra said into her ear.

Imoen didn't respond. She wasn't angry anymore, but that didn't mean she was about to agree to anything Mijandra said. Not that she really disagreed, though. Her swordsmanship definitely wasn't up to the challenges ahead. She just wasn't going to say that.

"We'll train again tomorrow?" Mijandra asked.

"Sure," Imoen finally said.

Their armor creaked as they separated. Mijandra wore her own armor once again, Jaheira having bought Imoen a set of well-fitting leather, much better than anything the bandits had. The armor Mijandra had taken from the bandit leader was thrown into one of the handful of rubbish bins scattered about the inn grounds.

Imoen blinked at that reminder. "Hey, Mijandra," she began as she sat at the base of the tree she'd been leaning on. "What was it like…the first time you had…to kill?"

"You mean Koga?" Mijandra asked as she lay down in the grass at Imoen's feet.

"Yeah." Koga was a small-time thief and adventurer who showed up at Candlekeep two years ago after stumbling upon an ancient library in Myth Drannor. He put the handful of books he'd grabbed at random up for auction, and the Keeper of the Tomes' offer of access to Candlekeep in addition to a handsome some of gold caught Koga's attention. Once there he took an immediate liking to Mijandra and Imoen, and spent all of his nine days teaching them things they couldn't learn from a book about thievery.

"Disappointing," Mijandra answered after a moment.

"Disappointing?"

"Yes. Disappointing that he was…who he was, and I had to kill him. That people like him exist." On the ninth day it turned out his affection for Mijandra was far from innocent. He had a fondness for young girls and elves, and Mijandra was both. He tried to force himself on her, threatening Imoen if she did not comply. A bad move on his part. "The world looked uglier after that. I wanted to cry."

"Did you?"

"No."

Imoen leaned her head back and looked into the boughs of the tree. "Did you feel bad at all? Just for having killed a person?"

"I didn't just kill a person. I killed Koga." Mijandra sat up and waited until she caught Imoen's eye. "And you killed bandits. There's nothing to feel bad about."

"They might have had family. People who care about them."

"They should have thought of that before they gave up their lives. It's on their heads, not yours." Mijandra put a hand on Imoen's knee. "Are you sure you want to do this, Im?"

Imoen sighed. "Yeah, I'm sure. I've already told myself pretty much the same stuff you did. I'll get over it."

"But do you really want to get over it?"

Imoen paused, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yes," she said, and it sounded more like she were making a decision than merely answering a question.

A wolf strode up to the fire opposite Khalid, carrying a pheasant in its jaws. It dropped the bird as it sat down, and was soon covered in a dim green glow. Khalid brushed a hand in front of his face to hide his smile at the sight of Jaheira sitting before the fire, knees up and hands on the ground in front of her, a much more amusing position now that she was back in her natural half-elven form. She gave him a look to let him know she was not fooled before moving into a more human posture.

"So," she began as she set to work preparing the pheasant for dinner. "Been taking a stick to Gorion's beloved ward, have you?" she asked, smiling lightly.

Khalid looked down at the shaft of wood he was still holding, and gave a quiet laugh. "You w-were watching, then?"

"I was around." She crushed a few herbs and leaves into the pot over the fire. "What did you think?"

"She fights v-very well for her age and b-background. A n-natural warrior."

"And that worries you."

"Aye, s-some," he answered, though it was not a question. "I have s-seen what happens when s-skill grows f-faster than wisdom."

Jaheira nodded solemnly, "So have I." She sighed. "And it is left to us to guide her." Shaking her head, she asked, "What of the other one, the thief?"

"They are b-both thieves, Jaheira," Khalid smiled.

She gave him a sharp look and his smile turned sheepish. "What of Imoen, then?" she asked.

"Sh-she has some potential from what I saw, but I d-doubt her strength will ever lie in the s-sword. She did hold her b-bow well w-when we first saw her."

Jaheira snorted at the memory. "She seems to know much of magic," she said thoughtfully.

"I-I'll have to take y-your word on that," Khalid grinned, and Jaheira returned the smile.

She continued to prepare the meal in silence for a time until she noticed Khalid gazing at her intently. She blinked at him. "What is it?"

"Oh, I-I'm sorry, it is j-just your hair looks very p-pretty in this light," he said, not looking very apologetic.

Jaheira threw a blonde tress over her shoulder and grunted dismissively. "It smells terrible. The slime that the Friendly Arm called shampoo was not natural," she grumbled, regretting running out of her usual herbal mix that didn't smell like seventy different flowers all at once. Still, try as she might, she couldn't completely remove the smile from her face at Khalid's compliment.

"What's cookin'? Smells good," Imoen commented as she and Mijandra appeared next to the fire. Khalid moved closer to her to make room for them.

"Just a simple pheasant stew, nothing to get excited about," Jaheira reported.

"Sounds better than anything we could make," Imoen replied.

Jaheira stopped stirring the pot and turned to the two of them. "I understand you two have received some bruises from your practice," she said, faintly disapproving. "The sun will be setting and I must pray soon, so if you would like me to heal you, you had best ask now."

"Oh, Mijandra already healed…gave me a potion." To be fair, Imoen managed to sound very convincing with her cover up, but it was still clearly a cover up.

"You are fortunate I do not believe you, for potions are far too valuable to waist on bruises," Jaheira said smoothly, but with her eyes hard. "Now, kindly explain yourself."

"Whadya mean, ya don't believe me?" Imoen began, but was interrupted by Mijandra.

"You can tell her, Im. It's not bad anymore."

Jaheira raised an eyebrow. "Tell me what?"

"I see," she said after Imoen finished. "That explains your questions last night," she turned to Mijandra. "Now, if you could explain why you didn't tell me this before," she began heatedly.

"I didn't want to," Mijandra responded. Jaheira gritted her teeth. She didn't sound sullen or evasive, but Jaheira wanted more of an answer than that.

"And why not?"

"I didn't know you," she answered quietly. "And I didn't like…it. Now it's better." She studied Jaheira a moment, and when Jaheira didn't ask any more questions – nevermind that she looked ready to bite the head off an orc – she asked one of her own. "Do you know what happened to me?"

As she realized that was the more urgent question Jaheira calmed down. "No," she shook her head. "There are many fell powers wielded by mortals throughout the realms, but rarely are they obtained unintentionally, or without consent. That you felt his eyes awaken something within you… Perhaps your power is inherited, through an otherworldly ancestor or…," Jaheira froze. 'Or even from a divine source.' "Or something like that," she said aloud. "Excuse me, I must begin my prayers. Khalid, if you would watch the stew?"

"Y-yes, dear," she heard him say as she got up and almost ran to a grouping of three trees nearby; the densest foliage in the area. As she ran a traitorous part of her mind told her that Imoen was much more convincing at covering up than she was.

Khalid followed after his wife an hour later, reaching her just as she was getting up and returning her symbol of Silvanus to its pocket just over her heart. She turned and stared at him blankly for what felt like several seconds.

"U-um," Khalid stammered, searching for something to say. "M-Mijandra tried t-to heal herself after you l-left. She was unsuccessf-ful, b-but said she could f-feel the power w-would rep-plenish itself by m-morning."

"I see," Jaheira nodded.

"Did…d-did your prayers p-provide you any answers?" Khalid asked.

Jaheira sighed. "No, but I did not expect them to. They did bring me calm, however."

"A-and what had you so uns-settled, dear?" he asked as he came closer, tentatively putting a hand on her arm. "Do you kn-know what's happening to M-Mijandra?"

Jaheira put both her hands on Khalid's waist and looked down. "I might." She raised her head again and looked into his eyes. "Tell me, Khalid, why did Gorion adopt Mijandra?"

Khalid shook his head. "I-I don't know. He t-told us sh-she was Alianna's daughter."

"Yes, but who was the father?" Khalid could not answer, and Jaheira continued. "Have you noticed how many of the Harpers have been preoccupied with Alaundo's prophecies of late? One of them in particular?"

Khalid frowned in concentration. "I r-remember the one G-Gorion was…" Khalid's eyes widened. "You d-don't think…?"

"It is too early to jump to conclusions, but you agree it is a strong possibility."

"Y…yes, it…i-it c-could b-be," Khalid said quietly. His eyes were slightly panicked as they focused on his wife. "W-w-w-what do we do, Jaheira?"

"Exactly what we promised Gorion we would do. We watch over his daughter, and keep her safe."

Against her Imoen let out a small snore, ending in a snort and a slight wriggling of her nose before returning to the slow, quiet breathing of sleep. She had told her what otherworldly meant. Angels, demons, and devils and the like. Of those Mijandra was pretty sure she could rule out angels.

Most of what she heard eavesdropping on Jaheira and Khalid made little sense to her, but she retained as much as she could to tell Imoen later. Later, because there was one thing she did manage to understand, and it was currently dominating her thoughts beyond reason.

Her mother's name was Alianna.