A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.
Herb Caen
C
Asking the right questions
C
The wizard, a short stocky human, didn't seem to mind Tezan's disparaging gaze as he settled into a crouch next to the incapacitated Drow. Well, he did have the upper hand here, the cleric thought gloomily. He watched the beard in front of him quiver with the next words.
"I'm going to cast a truth spell on you, so we can verify what you're telling us", the human explained, only confusing Tezan with his well meaning words. Of course they were going to cast a truth spell. To him that was a matter of course. And then they'd do who knew what else. There really was no need to be gloating about that.
"Whatever", he grated shortly. "Just do it quickly, before I suffocate here."
As he heard the casting begin and felt a tingle and sudden comfortable warmth settle over him he grew a bit alarmed. This was not the kind of truth ward he was used to. Very soon his feelings of alarm abated and left only a kind of warm coziness behind that confused him but was really too nice to seriously try and shake off immediately. Curiously Tezan tried to examine the relaxed happiness, that was spreading in his mind. He knew intellectually that it was dangerous for him to feel this way, but at the same time the alien feeling was something he had never quite encountered before and so he found it interesting enough to spend some time trying to work through it. Very few drow ever let themselves feel this carefree and the ones who did usually ended up dead quite soon. Maybe that should have warned him, but he couldn't manage to dredge up enough determination to fight it yet.
"Well", the cleric mumbled dreamily to himself. "This is certainly strange."
Guenwyvar, obviously sensing the change in her captive, finally shifted to give the slender drow beneath her a little more breathing space. Robillard and Drizzt exchanged a look and the wizard nodded, indicating that Drizzt might begin his questioning.
"Why are you here?"
"But I already told you that", Tezan grinned, his open, smiling expression very much different from anything he or any other drow would usually produce. "I was curious and wanted to see what about the great Drizzt Do'Urden made Dinin so afraid that he'd rather run like a frightened rothe than at least consider to stay and face you."
A fleeting frown passed the powder streaked face.
"Maybe you could do me a favour and forget I just said that", Tezan asked hopefully already smiling unconcernedly again. "I don't think your brother would be very happy if he knew that you're aware of his presence."
"My... brother?" Drizzt choked, rather shocked by the unexpected news. The last he'd seen of Dinin didn't make him think it possible that his brother would be able to hide in a city like this. Not with the big unwieldy body of a drider. With a small shiver he thought back to Vierna's smiling face as she had told him, gloating about her terrible deed. For all he remembered Dinin should be dead.
"I think you're mistaken", he said faintly, fervently hoping for his words to be true. "Dinin can't be here."
"Oh, no. There's no way I'm wrong", Tezan answered decisively. "I needed his full name to turn him back after all. He was a drider you know. Lucky for him that the fat spider seems to have abandoned her flock for the moment or I wouldn't have been able to do anything except kill him on the spot. Serves them right though. I do hope that someone takes it onto himself to gut all those spider kissing bitches back in Menzoberranzan while they're still weak and hangs them by their own entrails!"
Drizzt just stared, not quite able to decide if he should be appalled by the happy gloating about killing priestesses of Lolth.
"Why is Dinin here?" he asked then, trying to smother his rising emotions of concern and apprehension. Whenever his family turned up they seemed only to bring harm to him and his loved ones. This time it was possible that things wouldn't turn out like that, since it did not sound as if Dinin had come after him specifically, but after bitter experience he didn't dare to let himself hope for too much.
"Because I made him come. Dinin didn't want to go anywhere near the city. He only wanted to crawl back into the depths of the Underdark, the coward. I actually had to blackmail him into going", Tezan admitted with a small giggle as if this was all highly amusing. "Not that he is exactly easy to get along with", the cleric complained, suddenly sulky. "He still resents me for the one time I fucked him. And I wasn't even rough or anything."
At this Robillards eyes widened, but Drizzt, more accustomed to the habits of his people and the importance rank and power held among the drow when it came to sexual matters, only frowned slightly. He still remembered how much Dinin had always disliked being with males. Not even as a Master at Melee Magthere or on patrol had he ever seen his brother making use of his right to take students and subordinates to his bed as some of the others regularly had. It looked as if this Tezan, as he had called himself, held some power over his brother then, because Drizzt couldn't imagine how else the other might have persuaded Dinin to allow such an act to take place. He decided to ignore his distaste for the time being in favour of gaining more useful insights. Before he could ask anything else though, Tezan drew a deep breath and shook his head with a deep frown, obviously trying to clear it.
"He is already shaking it off", Robillard remarked surprised. "It usually takes longer than this."
"By the masked Lord!" Tezan said darkly, suddenly looking a lot less relaxed and happy as he realized what he had so carelessly revealed during the last minute. Dinin would kill him with his bare hands when he found out. "I can't believe you made me tell that so easily!" he exclaimed in astonishment. "What kind of spell is this?"
"Do not worry", Robillard answered sourly. "It generally works only once on such distrustful creatures as yourself. From now on we will have to rely on other means of gaining information."
"There really isn't much else to tell", the cleric admitted morosely. "As I said, I merely wanted to watch. It was never my intention to actually take any action. I apologize for startling you."
"I don't understand. Why would you wish to observe me? What would you gain by that?" Drizzt wanted to know, his distrust still obvious. Tezan gave him a look of plain surprise.
"Don't you realise?" he asked disbelievingly. "You're famous or maybe I should say infamous. It rather depends on who you're talking to." He grinned again, but it was a darker grin this time, though no less amused. "You're the one who the old hag Baenre used as an excuse to drag half the city through the whole Underdark to an old dwarven stronghold that held absolutely no importance to anybody but her. And then you even managed to get her killed, which I personally appreciated very much by the way. I was merely interested in seeing you, maybe discover a few differences between you and Dinin. Anyway it seemed like an interesting way to spend my day. In fact it has become rather more interesting than I'd originally planned."
Tezan shrugged nonchalantly, apparently recovered from the small shock his fatal lapse of caution had given him or merely determined to ignore whatever hole he had dug for himself by revealing such sensitive information. He didn't miss the helpless looks that were exchanged between the wizard and Drizzt though and decided that now was the time to try and influence things in his favour.
"You're wondering what to do with me aren't you?" he asked them, but left no time for an answer before he continued: "Well this is still a free city, no? You could just let me walk away, since I haven't done anything."
"You are sure that he didn't lie?" Drizzt wanted to know from Robillard, still wearing a dubious expression.
"I'm reasonably sure, yes", the wizard replied. "People are mostly compelled to say the first thing which comes into their mind when put under that kind of enchantment."
"But he could have trained himself to lie?"
Robillard slowly shook his head.
"I don't think he knew the enchantment and its peculiar nature until today or it wouldn't have worked on him at all. It might just be possible that he was doing exactly what he said."
Tezan suddenly felt the silly urge to say something stupid like, I told you so, but he resisted.
"And you are living with my brother?" Drizzt asked again, beginning to feel slightly daft as he repeated the same questions over and over.
"Yes", Tezan said slowly, obviously agreeing with that feeling. "And he will be much easier to live with, if he doesn't find out that you know about that."
Drizzt sighed deeply. He had a little trouble coming to terms with the realization that he wasn't the last Do'Urden left after all. He knew Dinin too well to expect any fundamental changes in his personality though and he could still remember, better than he wished to, how he had once seen the other gleefully hack his way through the defenceless bodies of a group of surface elves. His brother had delighted in the bloodshed like most drow would. Was it Drizzt's responsibility to save the city from his brother's undoubtedly villainous tendencies? And even if he just took Tezan himself: He had revealed himself as a rather typical drow in only a few freely spoken sentences. Could Drizzt, in good conscience, allow him to go free? But was it actually his place to judge this time? It wasn't like Waterdeep didn't harbour her fair share of shady characters even without these two individuals. But Dinin was family. Family in a warped and very jaded way by the standards of the surface world, but it made him different nonetheless. It made Drizzt feel more responsible, and even though he was aware that it was not a logical feeling he could not quite shake it off. By all rights he shouldn't even care since he had broken ties with his homeland long ago. But somehow, deep down it seemed he still did.
"And where do you live?" he heard himself ask next, even though he had not consciously decided on any course of action yet.
"As if I'm going to tell you that!" Tezan scoffed, blithely ignoring the big black panther still resting on his chest. At least he could now breathe with relative ease. "Why do you wish to know anyway?"
"What do you think man! It's his brother!" Robillard exclaimed, making Drizzt cringe slightly. To him the words sounded terribly incongruous when spoken aloud, because he knew the human's intended meaning. The wizard wouldn't understand this, but for Drow the family unit had a very different meaning that it did for humans. Family were the people you had to be most wary around, who by necessity knew you best and had therefore access to more opportunities and ways to hurt you. Tezan promptly demonstrated this mentality by looking back at Robillard without the slightest shred of understanding.
"That doesn't have to mean he absolutely has to go after him", the priest said, obviously coming to the wrong conclusion a few seconds later. "Until two minutes ago he didn't even know he still existed."
"I don't want to kill Dinin!" the ranger cut in exasperatedly, hoping at the same time that he wouldn't have to regret his words in the near future.
"He seems very convinced that you do", Tezan reminded him with a dubious look. "On the other hand", the cleric continued musingly, "you haven't killed me yet. So maybe he was exaggerating a bit."
For someone still pinned under a few hundred pounds of black fur and muscle he appeared supremely unconcerned.
"The circumstances of our last meeting weren't exactly peaceful, so I can not blame him for his fear. But I don't think..."
"What's happening?" a clear voice chimed in curiously, interrupting Drizzt.
Tezan grimaced with distaste as he saw red hair bouncing somewhere around Guenhwyvar's black furred shoulder. Oh great, that terrible human woman he so detested had obviously decided to involve herself in things that did not concern her at all. He did have enough sense of self preservation left though, to refrain from saying anything deprecatory about her just then.
"A Drow?" she commented with a sudden frown, as soon as she had gotten a good glimpse of the prostrate cleric.
"By the Gods no!" Tezan exclaimed theatrically, his cheeky nature getting the best of him. "A Drow? Where is the scoundrel? Help!"
His audience was not quite as amused as he himself though. While Robillard, much to his credit, actually smiled a little, Drizzt only frowned and the stupid woman stared at him in confusion.
"Who is he?" she stubbornly insisted, beginning to look concerned now. Her experiences with Jarlaxe had made her wary of Drow with such a seemingly humorous nature.
"His name is Tezan", Drizzt told her, frown still firmly in place. "And he is going to show us where he is currently living with my brother Dinin."
"I am?" Tezan murmured mostly to himself. Well, that had definitely not been his plan this morning, but he also had no intention to let himself be tortured for Dinin's sake. Watching the sudden reunion of the two Do'Urden brothers might even be exciting enough to make up for Dinin's fit of fury, which was sure to follow.
