Disclaimer: I don't own Sand, NWN2, or any events/dialogs/etc and so on besides my lovely little Nai Farlong and her familiar, Fara.

A Lesson in Subtlety

Sand couldn't blame Nai for sneaking out of the tavern as she had. When he emerged from her room with her familiar perched on his shoulder, he'd been accosted by her mob of angry/worried/obnoxious followers/leeches, all demanding to know where she had gone. He'd tried to tell them to leave her be, to let her deal with things as she saw fit, but of course that just made them do the exact opposite. So, when Sand downed the bland invisibility potion and sneaked into the temple of Tyr, he was not really all that surprised to see Nai speaking with someone. He was surprised, and unpleasantly so, to find that it was Bishop.

"If your friend out there decides to cheat," Bishop was saying as he stalked in a half-circle in front of the air genasi, "or poison you, or slit your hamstring, which he will do if you give him the chance, then you should be ready to do the same."

Nai was leaning sideways against the far wall, her body in profile but her face turned toward Bishop so that Sand had a clear view of her expression. "I can beat Lorne without lowering myself to his level," she said quietly.

Even though Bishop's back was to him, Sand could picture the evil grin on his face as he said, "But it's so much more fun at his level. You know," the ranger stepped closer to the tiny woman and it was everything Sand could do to keep from sticking a dagger in the man's back as he reached out to brush Nai's cheek with his fingertips, "there's really no reason for a sweet little girl like you to have to face a monster like that. Maybe…maybe I would fight in your place, even. If you ask me really nicely."

Nai's eyes narrowed slightly, but other than that she did not move. "I can handle it, Bishop."

The human's hand strayed on her cheek for another few seconds then fell back to his side. "Then handle it," he said in a low voice that quickly turned harsh. "And don't die, girl. Luskans like Lorne are bred to eat little nuisances like you for breakfast." Bishop startled them all, including himself it seemed, by jerking forward and planting a rough, quick kiss on Nai's cheek.

Sand, still invisible, stepped forward instantly, his hands moving in the motions of a spell that would at the very least incapacitate the impertinent bastard, but the moon elf managed to stop himself before casting the silent spell. Bishop was already out the door, and the look on Nai's face assured Sand that she had received no pleasure from the ranger's advances. At least, he hoped that's what he saw.

The air genasi sighed as she pushed herself off the wall and began to walk toward the bench next to Sand, but before she could reach it, his potion wore off. Nai stopped in the center of the room and looked at him, and the moon elf knew that his anger showed in his eyes. "You saw that, huh?" she said quietly.

"It made for a most amusing study in psychology," Sand murmured. "Specifically the psychology of mating rituals."

A heavy sigh swept outward from the young woman's body as she completed her journey to the bench and slumped down with a weary look at her lover. "And what would you have me do, Sand? Kill him for having the audacity to touch me?"

"Certainly not, my dear," Sand said, his face utterly serious. "That would be my job."

With an attempt to change the subject, Nai looked up at him through half-lidded eyes and teased, "What would be? Killing him, or touching me?"

Sand looked down at her and fought back the urge to kiss her full, curving lips. "Both, if you would give me the pleasure," he replied coldly.

Nai sighed again and rubbed her temples as if her head were pounding. "I don't have the energy for this tonight, Sand. If I'm not dead in a few hours, we can talk about your interest in slaying all other men within twenty leagues of me then, okay?"

You idiot, stop giving her more to worry about.

Sand took a deep breath and pushed the image of Bishop out of his mind as he sat down beside her. "I'm sorry, dear girl, forgive me. I am…worried for you as well. That's why I'm here."

Nai turned her head and gave him an odd look. "Don't tell me you're here to convince me to cheat as well."

"No, no," Sand replied as he opened the satchel hanging from his shoulder, "I assure you, my methods are within the terms of this duel." If only just barely.

Without waiting for her to speak, Sand stood up and gestured for Nai to do so as well, which she did, albeit with a touch of resistance. The moon elf took her hand and moved her away from the bench before bending on one knee in front of her.

"This," he explained as he lifted a circular strap of leather out of his bag, "is my gift to you, my dear." He reached around her thigh and tightened the strap around it like a belt. Little loops stuck out from the strap, and Nai soon discovered why as Sand began pulling potions from his bag, naming them as he pushed them into the loops so that they lay flush against her outer thigh. "Invisibility. Stone skin. Healing. Death armor. Remove poison…just in case." When he'd finished, Sand stayed kneeling, his hands lightly resting on both sides of her knee as he looked up at her with worried, searching blue eyes. "It's not much, but it's all I can offer you."

Nai's lips were slightly parted, the breeze around her still as she stared down with an expression of astonishment. Although the moon elf did not realize it, his gift touched her deeply, and she showed him this by bending her face to his and drawing him into a slow, passionate kiss that took his breath away. "Diola lle," she whispered gratefully against his lips before exploring his mouth again. Sand's hand slid up her inner thigh, his fear and worry for her uncertain future kindling a desperate desire in him, but they both seemed to realize their surroundings as Nai straightened up with a regretful sigh. She glanced up at the statue of Tyr behind Sand and murmured with a wry smirk, "I don't suppose sacrilege would go over well at this point."

"Hmm…best not to risk it, I'm sure." Nai smiled down at Sand, her hand poised to touch his cheek when a loud, intentional cough interrupted them.

They turned to stare rather blankly at a curious looking Nevalle who stood with his arms crossed over his chest in the doorway. There was confusion and perhaps a touch of bemusement in his eyes as he took in the sight of Sand kneeling before the young genasi, both of his hands holding her upper thigh with her hand extended toward the elf's face.

Sand practically leaped to his feet as Nai stepped back from him, clearing his throat as he muttered, "Yes, well…just helping the girl with her armor, you know." He snatched up his bag, ignoring the smirk on the blonde knight's face, and looked hard at Nai for just a few seconds. He so badly wanted to kiss her, but he did not dare do so in front of Nasher's lapdog. "Tenna' ento lye omenta," he murmured, hoping that his affection was reflected in his tone, before he turned around to leave.

"Until next we meet," Nai echoed softly, her voice gentle and warm as a summer's breeze, and Sand's heart clenched at the sound as he left the temple.

Several hours later, Sand sat amid the bustle and noise of the Sunken Flagon and found that he could not take his eyes off the tiny air genasi who was the center of everyone's attention. She had survived, yet he could scarcely believe it. A part of him feared that it was a dream, that he would wake and find that she had fallen to the sword of that Luskan brute. Yet there she sat, her shoulder bandaged, her face weary, but definitely alive and even smiling a little at her adoring fans.

He'd almost refused to attend the Trial. In some part he believed that if he saw her fall he would not be able to keep himself from doing something very stupid, but mostly he was terrified of losing the only thing that seemed good in his life. But to not go, to not be there to support her in her time of need, would have been selfish and cruel, and so Sand had forced himself to go. He'd forced himself to watch her be lead into the arena, forced himself to listen to her proclaim herself the Champion of Ember, forced himself to sit on his hands as Lorne had vaulted across the arena toward her, forced himself to swallow his cries of anger and pain as the Luskan's sword nearly cleaved her arm from her body.

The elf could not remember how she had won. You either blacked out or you've blocked the memory from your mind. In the end it was not the how that mattered, it was only that she was alive. And while he was sure that it should have bothered him to see her dragged off to this celebration, forced to sit on the opposite side of the room from him while her followers fawned all over her, Sand was content just to watch her, to see with his own eyes that she was alive.

Through the fog of relief over his mind, Sand became aware that someone was watching him for a change. He took his eyes off Nai long enough to sweep the room with his gaze, and discovered Duncan scowling at him from a dark doorway. Oh, that cannot be good. The half-elf narrowed his eyes at the wizard, who only blinked blankly at the tavern owner, and then made straight for where Nai was seated. No, not good at all.

Nai's smile faded as her uncle leaned in to whisper in her ear and when he gently caught her under her uninjured arm, the genasi allowed him to lead her apart from the others. Sand was too far away to hope to hear them, so he nudged his familiar snoozing at his feet.

"Wake up you lazy beast," the elf hissed as the cat looked up at him with a baleful glare. "Go follow her, quick!"

The feline sighed and stretched, taking his sweet time until Sand booted him none-too-gently in the tail. As Jaral padded across the floor, Sand focused on his bond with the cat and eventually he was able to hear Nai and Duncan's voices above the general din inside the bar.

It was not exactly what he'd expected.

"…no use lying about it, Nai," Duncan looked frustrated as he chided his niece, "the truth is written all over your faces. Now I'm giving you the chance to tell me what in the Hells is really going on."

"Uncle Duncan, please. You're…."

"Now don't you lie to me! You didn't really expect me to believe that daft story you made up when you spent the night in his shop, did you? Daeghun may have gotten the lion's share of wits in the family, but damn it child, I'm no fool! Now for the sake of my sanity, just come clean with me, please."

Nai was studying her uncle with a calculating stare, and Sand was practically holding his breath as she asked in a very deliberate way, "If you did not believe what I told you, why did you go along with it?"

"Because I figured if it was worth you lying, then it must be damned important to you. I hadn't known you long…still haven't, really, but long enough to know you're not a troublemaker like some. You're entitled to your privacy, Nai, but I can't turn a blind eye any farther, short of gouging them out completely!"

Sand knew that look on Nai's face. She was about to tell him everything, and it was all he could do not to sprint toward them to stop the coming travesty. He will kill me, if not for bedding his niece, then for lying about it for this long.

"Now," Duncan frowned at her, "are you and Sand…" the half-elf balked, then said in a rush, "are you and that eel intimate, Nai?"

"Yes."

Nai's simple answer made Sand cringe inwardly, and the expression was reflected on Duncan's face as he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. When the barkeep looked back up at Nai, he had a stern, fatherly expression on his face. Ah, here comes the point when he lectures her for being young and foolish. "Now listen to me, I know you're young and young people tend to walk around with their heads up their ass." Eloquent as always. "Hells, I was young once too, you know, and I did my share of foolhardy things in my day." In your day? You mean yesterday? "Sand and I have our share of disagreements, but I've seen they way he looks at you." Disagreements? Is that what we're calling those now? Wait…how I look at her? "If you're just playing some game with him to get your kicks, then it'd be best to find someone else to spend your nights with." Oh, gods, is he defending my honor? "There's no point in someone getting hurt over a-."

"I love him, Uncle Duncan."

A nauseating mix of elation, fear and guilt – for having listened in on this private conversation – twisted in Sand's gut, and if anyone had looked around at that moment they would have seen an identical stunned expression on the moon elf and half-elf's faces. "I…see," Duncan eventually managed. "And does he…feel the same?"

A small, sweet smile touched Nai's lips, but she said, "You'd have to ask him that yourself."

Duncan grunted and muttered, "I might have to do just that." The barkeep studied his niece for a long moment, his shoulders slumping a little. "You're happy?"

Nai looked thoughtful, a little frown creasing her forehead. "As much as I can be under the circumstances, I suppose," she answered carefully.

The half-elf sighed, his eyes drifting around the crowded tavern and Sand made a show of examining his mug of warm ale as if he had no idea what his familiar was showing him. "Why don't you go on and get some…rest." Duncan said with a significant look. "I know you're miserable being stuck here. I'll tell everyone you're off to bed so you can," he made a face but tried valiantly to hide his discomfort, "do what makes you happy."

Nai laughed at her uncle's expression and surprised him by giving him a quick hug with her uninjured arm. "Thank you," she said softly.

Sand did not wait to see what happened next, as he was suspicious that he would be Duncan's next target for a long chat, and he simply lacked the energy for such a struggle. After he slipped out the door unnoticed, Jaral at his heels, the moon elf made straight for his shop and hoped that Nai would soon follow. And she did, even faster than he'd expected.

As the door slid open silently, her white weasel snaked through the opening first and greeted Jaral noisily, but Sand only had eyes for the air genasi as she closed and leaned back against the door. Although her shoulder had been healed as soon as the battle had ended, it clearly still pained her as it was wrapped in a thin bandage, and Sand hesitated to reach for her out of fear of hurting her. It was proving difficult for him to restrain himself as all she appeared to be wearing was a thin, light robe that rippled across her body from the gentle draft of air around her.

When he did not approach, Nai moved slowly toward him, her eyes glowing brightly in her passive face while she studied Sand's expression. "You're looking at me like I'm a ghost," she murmured as she came to a stop in front of him.

The wizard's eyes drifted to her damaged limb and he replied in a voice that was unusually emotional for him, "You very nearly were."

"But I'm not," she answered with the barest hint of a smile. She looked to him at that moment to be older than when he'd first met her, as if she'd aged years in just the last few months. It was an observation that saddened him, but it made him want to protect her as well. "Touch me, Sand."

Even if he hadn't found the quiet command to be so arousing, Sand would have done as she asked just because of the need he could hear in her voice. He reached out to pull her into a comforting, chaste embrace, but she would have none of that. Wrapping her hale arm around his neck and digging her fingers greedily into his hair, she dragged him into a fervent kiss, a tender sound of pleasure rising in her throat. Sand's passion quickly matched her own, and his hands roamed her body through the thin material as he explored her mouth, only stopping his assault when she flinched as he accidentally brushed her wounded shoulder.

"Dear girl, you are injured and need rest," Sand tried to insist in spite of his own desires.

"Pain is good," she murmured as she kissed him again. "Pain proves that I am alive."

Sand chuckled against her lips and whispered, "There are more pleasant sensations that can prove that as well."

Nai's voice was low and lusty, her wind tugging longingly at Sand's robes as she replied, "Show me."