A/N: A quick update for once. Bet you didn't expect that :)

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
Mark Twain

C

A thin veneer

C

Dinin was almost beside himself with the irrational panic, that had gripped him as soon as the damning words were out of Tezan's mouth. Drizzt here. So close. Much too close! It seemed his brother would always continue to haunt him wherever he went, like a sticky shadow he couldn't shake off no matter where he went. Why couldn't the little bastard just mind his own business? For a bitter moment this angry thought was almost enough to make him consider the cleric's insane suggestion. To finally be rid of the bane of his existence would certainly make him breathe easier. But no, he still remembered the feeling of cold dread he'd had crawling inside his chest, when he had been utterly convinced that Drizzt would kill him in that tunnel where they had caught up to him. Not even Vierna in her state of dangerous madness had been able to get him near Drizzt and now when he still had the time and space to run he'd definitely do so. Tezan could go and meet his doom on his own if he so needed to do it, the fighter decided and started to pick up his scarce belongings with sharp, almost violent movements.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tezan demanded quietly. His strange tone should have alerted Dinin, but the fighter's attention was still occupied by dark memories of his brother and the irresistible need to run that was scratching on the inside of his chest like a panicked rat trying to get out.

"Packing", Dinin replied shortly, thinking it was fairly obvious. "I'm leaving."

He was not prepared to have his wrist seized in an iron grip and flinched skittishly at the sudden contact.

"You are not leaving", the priest stated calmly.

"Of course I am!" Dinin insisted and tugged sharply to extricate his wrist from Tezan's increasingly firm grip, but the cleric's finger only dug deeper into his skin, beginning to bruise him with their force.

"No, you are not."

"And how do you think you're going to keep me here? Are you planning to chain me to the wall?" Dinin demanded acidly.

"I won't have to", Tezan said with a small smile that instantly made Dinin go cold inwardly. "Because the only way you'll be leaving this city will be on eight legs instead of two."

All thoughts of further movement came to a stuttering halt inside of Dinin's head. He paled for the second time that night, his free hand falling to his side nervelessly. He couldn't help the feelings of betrayal that welled up at the threat, even though he probably should have known better.

"What, you don't think I could reverse what I've done to you?" the cleric asked sharply. "I will, if you keep up this foolishness."

He could feel the panicked shiver which ran through Dinin's body at the idea. The fighters face betrayed his bone deep fear at the thought of going back to that terrible existence as a drider. Apparently he believed the claim without question. That was good, because Tezan was very much aware that he couldn't actually do what he'd just threatened. Turning others into driders was something only a true priestess of Lolth could accomplish. He could only hope that Dinin wouldn't decide to put him to the test, but he was counting on the fighter being more afraid of another transformation than of his brother, who was only made of ordinary flesh and blood after all.

The fighter slumped against the nearest wall as Tezan finally let go of his wrist, sure now that the other wouldn't just run off. Dinin looked ill and hopeless, but as long as he stayed the priest didn't much care about the fighter's state of mind. Dinin would recover eventually, he was sure of it. Most drow had a very resilient mindset. It was one of the things that allowed them to survive the harsh realities of the Underdark.

"Come now, don't be like that", Tezan admonished the warrior, a bit disturbed despite himself, by this unusually open show of defeated fearfulness. "Look, if you promise to stay and not do anything stupid, I will promise to keep out of his way. He has no idea you're here and he should be leaving the city soon enough anyway. According to the rumours and stories I've heard he doesn't usually stay here for very long."

Of course Tezan had no intentions of actually staying away from Drizzt, but he'd decided that it certainly couldn't hurt to soothe Dinin's fears a bit. If only to keep the fighter from making foolish decisions, like running off as soon as his back was turned. It was not like anybody would notice Tezan while he was just looking. He would be careful and neither Dinin nor Drizzt would ever know.

"You've collected stories about Drizzt?"

Tezan nonchalantly shrugged off the underlying distrust in Dinin's question.

"Well, yes. I have heard many other things as well, but you've got an interesting family and I was curious."

"A family far more interesting than I ever cared for", Dinin told him tiredly, but he finally seemed to be recovering from his earlier shock. "Some day your curiosity will be the death of you", he added with a decisive shake of his head and went back to his resting place near the wall, settling himself on his pillow with his sword in his lap. He really wished he could just kill Tezan, but there was no guarantee that he'd survive any kind of open assault on the cleric. Even if he was injured he had no way to heal himself and he was quite sure nobody here would help an injured Drow, no matter how much money was offered.

"So you'll be sensible and stay?" Tezan couldn't help but asking, even though the look of bleak resignation dawning on Dinin's face indicated exactly that.

"It's not like you've left me any other choice now, is it?" Dinin replied with a bitter frown. "Please do at least promise me that you will not go after him", he added, looking so intense that Tezan almost began to doubt the wisdom of his plan. The moment didn't last long though.

"Of course I won't. I just said so, didn't I?" he replied, the lie slipping easily over his lips. Dinin only cast him a doubtful glance before he took up his usual position for reverie and closed his eyes, abruptly and effectively ending the conversation. That was fine with Tezan though, who had much to plan for anyway.

The priest slipped outside early the next morning, taking great care not to disturb the fighter in his rest. Then he went about gathering the necessary ingredients for his intended disguise. He had already decided that a human boy would probably be the least suspicious thing he could impersonate. There were a lot of children running around the docks every day and his small, slender built and smooth face gave him a good base to work with, so that he wouldn't have to change too many things in his appearance. He wouldn't even have to use much magic, something he didn't like to do anyway, because it could very easily be detected by a wizard if he was actively looking for such things. And since the street children here generally did not have any magical possessions it would look odd if Tezan radiated too much magic of any kind.

The cleric quickly found a street child willing to trade his old and worn garments for something newer and better. He took care to conduct this part of his business as far away from the harbour as possible to minimize the risk of meeting that boy again. He didn't really appreciate the smell of stale sweat and general mouldiness that came with the threadbare garments, but to have them cleaned would only lessen their usefulness and make his guise less believable.

After the careful application of dirt to his person Tezan put on the clothes and a cap to hide his pointed ears. He had mussed up his already dyed and dirtied hair and now pulled it into his face to hide the distinctively elven shape of his eyes. As long as he didn't get too close to anybody and took care not to move too gracefully, he wouldn't be recognized as elven.

Then a bit of brightening powder and a quick additional glamour to hide the dark shade of his skin and the deep red of his eyes and he was finished. He hoped that the glamour was small and subtle enough to escape notice in the case of a superficial inspection, because he really couldn't do without it. It was necessary to hide the deep ebony colour of his skin, something no amount of powder and cosmetics could ever do reliably. As he worked on trying to reproduce the youthful swagger of a street boy he felt almost giddy with excitement. Soon he'd see his prey up close. It didn't matter to him that there was nothing substantial he could gain from this endeavour, but a rather immaterial feeling of adventure. The chase was quite enough for Tezan. Enough to make an otherwise boring day become so much more interesting.

Tezan encountered no problems as he made his way to the docks and to his satisfaction his disguise seemed to hold up well. People frequently sent him wary looks and snarled at him to get out of the way. They did that a lot less when he wore his elven guise. The cleric made a mental note that, if he were ever to hone his skills at pickpocketing again he'd have to choose a different look than this one. It only made things unnecessarily difficult. He spent the day wandering along the docks, keeping to the sidelines and watching the ship which housed Drizzt Do'Urden from afar.

As the day went on, the drow could witness the arrivals of several deliveries, consisting of barrels and other big packages and concluded that the ship would probably head out onto the open sea quite soon. Disappointed to have this pleasurable pastime cut short, he finally decided to dare going closer. The last packages to be delivered were still in the process of being loaded onto the ship by means of a pulley. Drizzt was there, helping like everybody else, apparently indifferent to the bright sunlight, which still stung in Tezan's eyes more than he cared to admit.

After the sailors had done their job and everybody started to disperse a bit Tezan crept even closer to watch Drizzt, who was lounging near the railing. He had to admit that this Do'Urden was even prettier than his brother. That he would be more willing was doubtful though, considering the way he was longingly staring at the terrible red haired woman right now, while she had her back to him. It was hard to misinterpret that kind of look. Drizzt clearly wanted her. The cleric shook his head in disbelief. How could anybody even entertain the notion of bedding a human? They were so far beneath oneself that it was almost like taking an animal.

Tezan was momentarily so wrapped up in his thoughts of astonished revulsion that he failed to notice the pricked ears and sniffing nose of the big black panther that had so far been resting in a lazy sprawl on the deck of the ship. If he had noticed, what happened next wouldn't have surprised him so much, because the big feline raised her head in interest, sniffed a few moments longer and proceeded to jump over the railing in one big lunge only to land directly on top of him. The unlucky drow went down with an undignified squawk of alarm as he got buried under a small mountain of black fur and hard muscle. This was definitely not how he had planned things!

"Guen!" somebody cried a good six feet above him, as he struggled to breathe and Tezan couldn't quite decide if he actually wanted the panther lifted off his person only to be discovered as an imposter immediately afterwards. He had no illusions that his disguise would hold up to a close inspection. How embarrassing! He needed a plan and he needed it quickly.

When he got a little more breathing space a few moments later, he still had no idea what to do, which was really a pity, because Drizzt Do'Urden was already staring past the rather big head of his hellish panther. Tezan went rigid as said head bent down towards his face. A long, agile and rather rough tongue came out between rows of white, pointed teeth and licked squarely over his cheek, dispelling even his last hope of getting out of this without being discovered for what he was. Since he had made the glamour so weak his dark skin would begin to shine through now that the powder on his cheek was gone. Maybe it was something in the powder, Tezan thought hazily as he recovered from not being eaten on the spot. Not that the continued licking did much to improve his condition. An overpowering smell of cat, primal and predatory, choked him as he tried to keep breathing despite the weight on his chest.

The concerned trepidation, which had marked Drizzt's face before now quickly gave way to puzzlement and after that to the first spark of suspicion.

"Who are you?" the drow warrior wanted to know slowly, watching the thin layer of Tezan's stolen identity disappear further with each eager swipe of the rough tongue. Masked Lord, Tezan pleaded silently, let me get out if this alive and I will kill the merchant who sold me that stupid powder!

Well, there seemed to be nothing for it the priest decided. Better tell the relatively innocent truth now than to be interrogated more thoroughly later on. Maybe he could confuse the other enough to slip away quietly. The plain truth tended to confuse people with astonishing reliability.

"I am called Tezan", the cleric answered with a wide smile, ignoring how hard it was to breathe right now. "And as you've probably already noticed I'm a drow, just like you", he continued amicably, causing a rather conflicted look to spread on Drizzt's surprisingly expressive face. Well, expressive for a drow.

"And you're spying on me because?"

At this Tezan tried to shrug only to fail spectacularly, because that hellcat was still weighing him down, but he didn't let that deter him and said lightly: "Oh, I was just curious."

"Curious", Drizzt echoed doubtfully, not quite sure what to make of this. He'd had enough experience with his people to be more than sure that the majority of his kin rarely did anything only because they were, as that strange person in front of him had put it, "curious". Usually there was something to be gained. He cast a quick uneasy look around the docks, wondering whether there was an assassin hidden somewhere, watching him right now, slender finger resting around the trigger of a crossbow, beneath a cold smile. Something he probably wouldn't be able to discover until it was far too late.

"Don't worry. I'm alone", Tezan said, easily interpreting the glance. He was feeling uneasy himself at admitting such a thing out loud, but maybe it would work in his favour. He sighed softly when Drizzt didn't look at all reassured by that information. The eyes with that interesting lavender hue narrowed with distrust, which was not quite the effect that the cleric had hoped for.

"Would you mind getting your pet off my chest while you consider this?" Tezan asked hopefully since he was actually wheezing a little by now.

Instead of giving him an answer though Drizzt only turned around for a moment to yell for someone who was apparently called Robillard.

"Robillard is our wizard", he deigned to explain shortly as he turned back.

"How nice", Tezan gasped back weakly and started to wish he would miraculously vanish and reappear somewhere else. This was not going how he'd planned it. The wizard was bad, but the priest was still hesitating as he considered mounting a magical defence. With the wizard, the cat, Drizzt and all the sailors around here he was sorely outnumbered. His obvious dark heritage wouldn't help him either if he were to try and attack so openly. Not that he had much chance of completing an attack with Drizzt and the cat so close to him. He'd have to be truly desperate to start any kind of fight from this position.

Maybe he'd be desperate enough quite soon, Tezan thought, his neck prickling with an ever growing sense of impending doom as he waited for the wizard to arrive.

"He will not hurt you, as long as you do not act hostile towards us", Drizzt was telling him earnestly, as if he actually expected to be believed.

"Oh please save your breath", Tezan muttered, but decided to save his own precious air for more important conversations. He really wanted to slap the younger Do'Urden for putting on such a stupid charade. As if he'd ever expect mercy from another Drow.