A/N: I know I normally do this at the bottom of the chapters, but I think this is important enough to be here instead. Before I say anything, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed, but in particular I want to thank Realan. When I saw that review, I panicked. I am not planning on abandoning this story even if it rightfully seemed so. Thank you for returning my attention to this story. Please stick with me if you've managed to stay so far.

Chapter 11

Melanie waited patiently for Pharaun's return. She had long ago exhausted the potential of reorganizing her pack, and she was tired of sitting on the uncomfortable bed she shared with Morgan. Honestly, the bed wasn't much worse than the one Melanie owned back home, but she would have preferred to sleep next to Madison. Melanie hadn't argued the point, knowing that Morgan would make a scene in front of the drow, but that didn't stop her from wishing.

Melanie rolled her shoulders, sore from carrying supplies, and winced. She had almost forgotten about her shoulder injury. It was not so bad, but she hoped desperately that it would heal properly and that Pharaun would return to check on it as he said he would.

Pushing those thoughts away, Melanie focused on more important things. How was she going to get her and her sisters home? How was she going to keep everyone safe? How did they even get here? She couldn't answer any of those questions now, and she began to worry about her sisters.

She should be with them. She shouldn't have left them with those drow men, and she shouldn't have gone with Pharaun. It had been a mistake, and her sisters could be suffering for it right now. Or maybe it hadn't been. There was little she could do for them if they were in danger anyway, and Pharaun seemed like the person most qualified and willing to answer those questions. He might even be able to send them home.

The door to the inn room opened. Melanie shrank back nervously. She hadn't heard anyone in the hall or a key on the lock, but then again, she had been distracted by her thoughts. Seeing Pharaun enter the room allowed Melanie to relax slightly. Sure he wasn't an intruder, but it wasn't as if they were close friends. She was still uncortable around all of the drow.

Pharaun glanced at Melanie as he closed the door and walked over to his bed. Melanie wasn't certain, but it seemed as if he had forgotten about her. Regardless, it seemed his time in the city went better than any of hers did as he had a light spring in his step that hadn't been there before.

"The priestesses are not back yet. I can't imagine what is taking them so long, but I'm hardly about to complain," Pharaun commented as he pulled a few white rectangles made of something or another and a strange smelling incense out of what must have been a hidden pocket in his piwafwi.

Melanie thought he might be phishing for information, but she really had none to offer on this matter. She didn't know what to say, so she changed the topic. "You're going to cast a spell?"

Pharaun smiled. Melanie couldn't tell if it was because he enjoyed talking about his magic or if it was due to her sounding like an idiot. What else would a mage be doing with things that were obviously spell components.

"I am curious about a few things, and I plan on finding the answers," Pharaun responded cryptically. Melanie felt her chest warm in embarrassment, and was thankful she wasn't wearing anything low cut. At least she was until she realized drow could see heat. Hopefully Pharaun was using normal vision in the dim lighting.

Pharaun walked to the center of the room with his supplies and sat down. Melanie thought it looked weird, but it was probably needed for the spell.

"My casting will progress much smoother if you remain silent and refrain from large movements," the mage said as he set his little white rectangles in a square formation on the carpet.

Melanie wasn't sure if he would see her if she nodded, so she decided to respond audibly. "Of course." She meant to sound much stronger than it came out, but there wasn't anything she could do about that now. She made herself more comfortable before he started casting since she had no idea how long this would take and didn't like the idea of not being able to move.

Without saying anything further, the mage lit the incense and closed his eyes. Melanie had never seen a ritual like this done before, and it felt kind of invasive to watch. She didn't know why. Afterall, he was just sitting there, but she knew she would have been extremely uncomfortable if he were watching her. Pharaun didn't seem to have those reservations, however.

Her awkwardness only increased as he began to chant. She couldn't understand a word of the exotic language, but admired how smooth it sounded. Soon enough, the mage stopped chanting, and the incense flared. Its strange smelling smoke filled the room. It stung Melanie's eyes, crinkling her nose was all she could do to cover her mouth with her hands to try to get fresh air. Her lungs burned as she desperately held in a coughing fit.

Pharaun's red eyes blinked open as the incense burned out. He seemed to be in thought about whatever question the spell had answered, and Melanie knew better than to interrupt him. Melanie made a note to ask Madison what the spell was about latter as she was certain Pharaun wasn't about to tell her anything. She had no doubt that her sister remembered.

She determined she would ask him anyway, as it might make her feel less awkward. "Did you learn what you wanted to?"

"Not exactly," Pharaun answered in the vague way Melanie expected. He smiled as he continued, "You probably want me to look at your shoulder. Am I correct?"

It was true that Melanie did want her shoulder attended to, but her comment wasn't intended to remind him or any such thing. Oh well, Melanie thought. She might as well seize the moment. "Now that you mention it..."

Pharaun laughed as he took his time getting up. He was trying to hide it, but she could tell the spell took quite a bit out of him. She knew from reading her fair share of fantasy books that spells could exhaust the caster, but it was strange to think that chanting words made you tired.

Pharaun walked over to her, and Melanie was glad that she had taken off her new armour while he was gone doing whatever. His cool, slender hands pushed the sleeve of her new shirt she had been given the other day. It was made of a much coarser material and was far less finely made then her clothes at home.

The mage didn't seem to think this was awkward or uncomfortable at all as he unwrapped the bandages on her shoulder. Melanie felt completely embarrassed. She wasn't even capable enough to treat her own shoulder, and it wasn't as if it was his specialization. It was just that she was that incompetent.

She needed to distract herself, even if her last attempt to do so had just escalated the uncomfortable situation. "Are you done casting then?"

Pharaun began examining her wound. He wasn't so distracted by his task as to not come up with a frustrating, yet oddly charming response. "Magic is my specialty, I doubt I'll ever be done casting." He began to smirk at his own response. "I am planning on casting one last spell today. I want to learn more about our missing goddess."

Melanie nodded. She was terrible at keeping conversations going and thought he used the wrong possessive pronoun in that last sentence. Lolth certainly wasn't Melanie's goddess. Melanie had no deity.

Pharaun wrapped her shoulder in clean bandages a few moments later. "It seems your shoulder is healing nicely. Try not to reopen it." With that Pharaun left Melanie feeling even more stupid as he returned to his seated position on the floor.

The Master of Sorcere gathered up the little white strips and stuffed them back into his piwafwi. He pulled a little mirror out of his haversack. Melanie was not at all surprised he traveled with a mirror, even if it was mainly for his spells. Melanie watched him chant over the mirror, wondering what kind of spell he was doing. He was using a mirror, so it was probably some type of spell for spying on someone or something. At least that's what she assumed. She really had no idea.

After a few seconds he was done chanting and peered intently into the mirror, which strengthened Melanie's suspicion about the intent of the spell. From where Melanie was, she could very little of the mirror. It looked cloudy and not at all reflective. Maybe Pharaun could see more, but from the searching expression on his face she doubted it. He looked into the mirror for several minutes, and Melanie tried not to stare the whole time but there was little else to watch. Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice that her eyes kept falling on him.

Pharaun's eyes widened the slightest bit. Melanie thought he might have seen something and was going to attempt to discreetly get a better angle at the mirror when Pharaun flew back from the mirror. He slammed hard on the floor about ten feet away from the now shattered mirror. Melanie was still in shock. Should she do something? His spell clearly wasn't supposed to do that.

When Pharaun didn't move, Melanie panicked. Was he alright? What would she do if he wasn't? She knew nothing of the area, and the others could be hours yet. She shakily ran over to his limp form. She relaxed a fraction when she saw he was breathing. There wasn't any blood, so if his head was harmed it was internally. Melanie knew you weren't supposed to shake injured people.

"Pharaun? Pharaun, are you okay?" Melanie whispered.

"Pharaun!" she half shouted. She didn't want to draw attention to their room in a unsettled drow city. But then again, Melanie guessed shouting probably was common place in the violent city.

When he still didn't respond, she tapped his shoulder. He was motionless. Melanie really didn't know what to do. Should she check him over for obvious injuries? He was already lying on his back, so she didn't know what else could be done.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Luckily, before Melanie really had to decide to do anything, Pharaun was already waking. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked. After a few moments his eyes settled on Melanie's concerned face. Melanie could see that he was dazed and in pain. He quickly hid that with a cheerful smile.

"I am unharmed, if a bit shaken."

"Are you sure? What happened?" Melanie helped him sit up as she questioned him.

"I've had far worse. It seems that someone or something didn't like me looking into their affairs." Melanie could see an emotion in his face which she could only label as embarrassment when he spoke. Was it because his spell failed? She was sure whatever he was doing was difficult.

"It's no matter. I'll just collect my information in other ways." Pharaun stood up unsteadily and wobbled over to his cracked mirror as steadily as he could manage. He stared down at it for about a minute.

Melanie began to doubt that he was really okay. "You were trying to learn what happened to Lolth?"

Pharaun nodded as he began to scoop up the mirror shards. "Indeed. It seems a rather silly thing to go through all of this trouble when members of our party already know, doesn't it?"

Melanie had very little information about Lolth. "Maybe," she replied. She had to say something, but didn't really know what.

Pharaun looked for somewhere to discard the mirror fragments. He laughed a little, "I'll bet most people don't go through all this to find their deities. I'm sure they merely look them up anytime—"

Melanie watched as Pharaun froze in the middle of the room. She could see him thinking something through rapidly, so she was only a little surprised when he dropped the mirror, shattering it even more in a twinkle of glass.

"Of course! We've been going at this the wrong way. We're asking the wrong deity!" Melanie couldn't help but think that it was him not 'we' that had been doing it wrong if indeed he had been. She didn't know if this new idea was any better as she didn't know the books.

Pharaun began to pace as he mulled over his idea. Melanie hoped the others would come back before he began to question her about whatever he was planning.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Melanie sighed in relief as the others walked in. Pharaun had been silent so far, but she was certain that wouldn't have lasted too much longer.

As she looked at them her chest tightened in fear. Hune and Ryld entered first. They were battered and gloomy, clearly they hadn't been successful, but Melanie was more concerned about the violence they had encountered. Relief washed over her for the second time as her sisters entered behind the drow men. Madison was unharmed and Morgan only had a couple of bruises. Morgan looked far from happy while Madison had a largely neutral expression.

Madison smiled at Melanie when she saw her, and Melanie smiled back. For some reason that smile meant a lot to Melanie. It was nice to be reunited with a friendly, familiar person, even if they had only been apart for a day.

Hune walked with a slight limp over and Ryld was having trouble raising his left arm above his waist. Moving in synchronization, the two dropped their gear on the floor and collapsed onto their bed rolls. Melanie felt bad for having a bed.

"I see your trip was less than successful," Pharaun commented. "I gather we still have no way to move Quenthel's supplies out of the city?"

"We went to three different places and were attacked twice for our efforts," Hune muttered.

"There aren't any pack lizards in this damned city, it seems," Ryld joined in with Hune's complaints while rubbing his eyes with his good hand. "At least not any available to outsiders."

"You find that surprising?" Pharaun asked with some amusement. "With no trade entering or leaving the city, everyone is holding on tight to what they have, waiting for the crisis to end."

Melanie watched as Pharaun fiddled with his pack while he spoke. He always seemed to need to be busy, and it had a habit of putting Melanie on edge.

Ryld turned to address Hune, "Rock, knife, and parchment to decide who gets to tell Quenthel that we have no lizards?" Melanie couldn't help but be disturbed. The suggested wager sounded too much like Rock, Paper, Scissors. The similarity was unsettling, considering how alien everything felt.

Hune wearily shook his head. "Let the mage do it. He seems to enjoy taunting her anyway. I'm sure bad news will spill easily from his mouth." Melanie was surprised how readily Ryld agreed and even more so when she saw Pharaun smile. How was he not afraid of Quenthel?

Pharaun sat on his bed as he said, "The news will have to wait for the moment. They have not returned from the storehouse." Melanie had forgotten in the excitement of earlier casting that Quenthel, Jeggred, and Faeryl had gone to take back some of House Baenre's supplies from a shared warehouse.

Hune sat up immediately, "Really? They should have returned by now."

Pharaun shrugged with an obvious lack of concern. "I also thought as much. I assure you they are not here, however."

Melanie saw her sister, Madison, shift uncomfortably. She knew something and was deciding whether or not she should tell the male drow. Whatever she was wrestling with, it seemed her timid nature won out because she remained silent as Ryld began to speak.

"Good," Ryld commented as he leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and settled in for rest. "The less I have to be around that draegloth, the better off I'll be." Melanie couldn't begin to guess why, but both of her sisters looked mortified at the Weapons Master's words.