"Everyone's safe," Aegis sighed in relief, closing the door behind her. Edwin and Imoen were still breathing heavily from their sprint to the tavern.
Dynaheir looked up from where she'd been warding the windows, a relieved expression on her face. Then she did a double take. Edwin was in quite a state. The Thayvian was barefoot, disheveled, and wearing nothing more than a stolen blanket. For such a spoiled man of quite some power and nobility, and with plenty more ego than either, this was quite a bizarre manner in which to see him.
The witch's nose crinkled slightly as she realized exactly where he'd been that evening. It was one thing to know he often did this, and quite another to see and smell the evidence. Kagain turned about to take one look at him and then burst out laughing. "Did yas pull him clear off of a wench, kid? Ha!"
Edwin didn't respond to either of them, not even to glare; though Imoen couldn't suppress a grin at Dynaheir's scandalized expression. Well, out from under one, Imoen thought, but she didn't say anything because Dyn-dyn had apparently ignored the memo that Edwin was a complete lecher. Ah well, as long as everyone was safe, what did it really matter anyways?
"How's Ajantis?" the ranger queen asked, coming up beside the bed.
"I will live," the paladin groaned. "Don't worry about me." Branwen nodded to Aegis to confirm that the paladin was indeed going to survive. Viconia had espied Edwin and came up to the man almost curiously. The Thayvian noticed her attention and turned a dark gaze onto her, waiting to see if she would say something.
Shamelessly, while the rest of the group fussed over Ajantis, Viconia reached out to grasp the edge of the Red Wizard's makeshift drape and to curiously ease it open an inch or so under the arm. Her eyes followed the lines of tattoos down the Thayvian's side. He was heavier than she had realized, with thick and sturdy flesh wrapped about his bones. Though not truly athletic in appearance, he had kept fit by virtue of the road.
The swell of the shoulder and bicep muscles were visible, and though wine and meat had left him with a thin padding of fat, it had been layered over a reasonable shapeliness beneath. He was not a fragile man, and the tattoos were delightfully exotic. He was healthy looking, at least, if hardly divine. She didn't pull the blanket any further aside, but just enough was visible to guess at the size of him.
"See something you like, Night Flower?" the Thayvian growled in soft whisper. Dynaheir grimaced and looked away from both of them. Imoen had noticed them but she rolled her eyes and said nothing.
"Mmm," Viconia mused. "How badly do you want to be gagged?" the dark elf teased, releasing the drape. When the Red Wizard did not provide counter banter, she simply grinned at him. "No, no... as much fun as taunting you and dragging it out for an hour or so might be... You're just hunting a quick release, aren't you? And what pleasure is there in that for me?"
Edwin watched her almost without expression. Viconia smirked and continued with a purr: "I think I'll let you suffer through this one, Thayvian." She stepped closer to him, leaning near so she could appreciate the stench of the rivvil and know he in turn would be affected by her closeness. When she spoke next it was in a whisper: "I suppose if you are desperate, you can finally spend some coin on that... 'tavern wench' you room with. Or is the motive behind that arrangement that she do it free of charge?"
Viconia couldn't see his face from this position, or the way his upper lip curled and his brows furrowed together. She had leaned so close that the heat of her breath was directly upon his ear. "I'd use her mouth if I were you, lest she chitter on the whole time."
Edwin turned his mouth to whisper in her delicate ear. "This morning you made a dominance play against a weak, demure, seventy pound elf; and he humiliated you. Do you honestly believe you could win that same game against me? Or is it that you think there is anything between your legs I haven't seen before? You are a fiesty, warm, wet hole; Viconia, and that is the limit of your value to anyone. That said, it hardly gives you much power against me."
The dark elf pulled back, frowning curiously at him. Had she gotten the wrong measure of how to tease and manipulate him? Interesting.
"This is insane," Aegis hissed taking in the sight of her party. "These ambushes! Twice in one day?"
"Twice?" Ajantis murmured dazedly.
"We were ambushed by hobgoblins on the way home, and the leader claimed Tazok had a bounty on my head!" Aegis exclaimed in frustration. There was nothing she hated more than an inability to protect her people. She could scarcely believe that everyone had survived this ordeal; and if she thought back she realized it had only worked out so well because she'd been able to trust her group mates and delegate to them.
"You need to get out of town," Kivan told her grimly. "You called their attention and you are easy to find."
"I agree," Dynaheir nodded. "Until we can pierce straight to the heart of their encampment, we need to disappear! Staying in Beregost is too dangerous; it is too easy for someone to watch and ambush us. I was naught but changing my shirt when Imoen came busting into the room, shouting to duck!"
Aegis grimaced. Well, it was good to know Imoen was also developing wizard-preservation allergies. "We aren't ready to take on the bandits. We can try and stick to the wilderness east of the road while we gather funds, but I don't know the land."
"I do," Kivan told her, and as usual he did not use any more words than he had to. "We leave two hours before dawn."
"We need to be barricading ourselves into our rooms, then," Aegis muttered. "Wizards, you've got the spells to secure yourselves?" She received nods. "Alright, that checks off Dyn, Minsc, Xan, Bran, Imm, and Edwin from our list of vulnerable persons."
"Ajantis needs someone to keep an eye on him through the evening if he's going to make a march come morning," Branwen answered. "Xan and I can camp in this room."
"I will also take a turn watching over him," Viconia responded, coming back up beside the bed. Edwin was a fun enough game, but she had clearly lost this round and needed time to decipher the clues. She had no more interest in him at the moment. "Though it would be easier to defend a smaller space than this."
"The rest of us can bunk in here as well, then," Aegis decided. "Xan can have the couch. Kagain?"
"I'm in if yas payin for it'," he told her. "I'm a dwarf, kid; I don't need no cushy bed ta sleep like a baby a'nights. Even if it means campin' with the pansies..."
"Repulsive as the dwarf is, he is clearly competent," Viconia sniffed. "I can endure his stench for one evening."
"Viconia," Xan hesitated, looking at her. "Your disguise won't last the night. If you wake me, I can reapply it."
The dark elf looked at Xan, then Kivan. Then she gave a shrug and dusted her hands off against one another. "I suppose he shall know soon enough anyway," the Shar cleric responded. "Kivan, I am under a glamour."
"Do you take me for a fool?" the Wild Elf asked, eyes narrowing. "I watched you fight, and talk. You are wrong for a human."
Viconia frowned at this but straightened herself proudly. There was no true reason for her to be ashamed. She was born of a noble race, and she had left Lolth far behind her. "Xan, dispel your illusion if you would."
The enchanter grimaced, but he came up to do just that. When he stepped back from her, Viconia's black skin and white hair were both clearly visible. Kivan stiffened, his full and unadulterated attention riveting on her, his mouth pressing into an emotionless expression. "Kivan-" Xan began.
[You shelter this monster?] the wild elf asked of Xan and Aegis both.
Aegis answered much in the way Kivan had asked, with a simple: [Yes.]
Xan tried to explain their reasoning. [Kivan, my friend, she has proven herself stalwart in emergencies. She healed my wounds, and was swift to lead you to the paladin's-]
[I will not lodge with this creature,] the Wild Elf told them in a low and hostile growl. [And I strongly suggest you reconsider her. I will find you at the appointed hour.]
"Kivan," Viconia protested, for although she could not understand elvish she could feel his sudden antipathy. "I am an outcast from my people. I have no quarrel with you or with-"
"Keep away from me Drow," he responded in a voice dead of sympathy or doubt, "else yours will be the next scalp I give to the Fist." Then he turned and was gone.
Viconia stared after him stunned for just an instant. She and Kivan had fought so beautifully together, taking on no less than six elite Black Talon mercenaries in their rescue of Ajantis! The Wild Elf was an absolute master of his craft; a quick and ruthless wolf of the night; and she had appreciated and admired such finesse.
For a moment, Kivan's blatant loathing filled the drow with frustrated dismay. Then her face hardened, because she had grown used to such turnabouts. "Well, that has come to be expected of you stupid surface dwellers," she responded callously and then turned back to take her watch over the paladin.
Xan winced. Viconia's reaction had not been lost on him, nor the bitter shield it had triggered in her defense. Though the sight of her black skin continued to send instinctive prickles of disgust running through his skin, he could not help but feel a whiff of sudden despair. Was it any real wonder Viconia had no idea how to talk to people? Or that she continued to embody dark elf cruelty despite rejecting her own people? On the rare occasions she reached out to people or allowed herself a momentary interest in them, there was no welcome waiting for her on the other end. Certainly there were no minds patient enough to handle her hatred through the in-betweens.
Well, there was Dynaheir, one supposed. The Wychlaran had scarcely left Viconia alone since meeting her, and now she came up and placed a sympathetic hand on the cleric's arm.
Edwin glanced slowly to the partially opened room door when he heard someone clear their throat. Imoen flit over to investigate and then smiled. "Rek'herok," the thief called in Mulhorandi, waving Edwin over. The Thayvian joined her side and found their guest to be none other than the tavern laundry woman. She had finished cleaning his robes and shoes, and he took them gratefully into his arms. They smelled fresh, thank Kossuth. Imoen tipped the woman.
{We need to ward the room so I can change,} he told Imoen. The thief nodded, and went with him to barricade their bedroom against entry. Only once the windows and door were thoroughly warded and the former had been tied closed with rope did Imoen step out so her wizard could have a moment of privacy.
Imoen found Aegis waiting for her! Her sister didn't say anything at first, stepping forward to give Imoen a tight hug. "I was worried about you," the ranger woman confessed. "You should have waited for me! I would have helped you."
"Would you believe me that I got there just in the nick of time?" Imoen giggled. "Maybe it wasn't smart of me to leap out a window and all, but it was like I could feel the danger!* Or maybe that's just adrenaline talking. I don't know. Gods, I am beat. Ran my legs off, I did, yup!"
Aegis sighed dramatically. "Keep being competent," she instructed wistfully. "Xan and Dynaheir were worried for you. Go reassure em, eh?" Imoen laughed but nodded and went to go do so.
When Edwin cracked the door back open to let Imoen know she could enter, he found Aegis waiting. Sensing an unavoidable conversation, he eased the door open and looked at her tiredly.
"She jumped out the damn second story window to get to you," Aegis told him. "Everyone else was so frantic, we didn't even remember you weren't here."
Edwin seemed to take this into consideration, but said nothing.
"Look... I've not had a single conversation with you about her, and I'm not primed to deliver a lecture. If anything, it looks like you two get along pretty well. And if he could see her studying magic right now, I think my father would kiss you; All Harper/Red Wizard enmity be damned. But some days I just really hope somewhere in that insane, inferno-filled head of yours that you've got managed to reserve even the tiniest corner for other people. I get the impression it's going to make a significant impact on our near future."
The mage waited to see if that was everything. Then he shook his head and turned and headed back into his room. Aegis frowned after him because she'd never really known Edwin to be silent on any topic whatsoever. Especially not when people were critiquing him or espousing goodliness.
Imoen reappeared a second later to do likewise, and she and Edwin didn't say so much as a word to each other. They'd had a very, very long day.
It was easily midnight, and Imoen couldn't sleep. By the frequent adjustments and readjustments of rustling blankets she heard from across the room, neither could Edwin, actually. She doubted it was for the same reasons, though.
For her part, her heart was still hammering in her breast, and she felt herself falling into a state of near panic every time she ought to have been drifting off to sleep. It was terrifying to think that the assassins had come for them in their beds, and in a way maybe it reminded her of how Montaron had nearly killed Aegis.
Imoen kept turning thoughts around and around in her head. She thought about her friends; about Dynaheir, her sister and Xan; about Kivan and the look on Viconia's face when he'd stormed out; about Ajantis nearly dying alone out on the training grounds...
Was this going to be the rest of their lives? Were they going to be hunted by assassins forever?
As she listened to her roommate try and fail to find some form of rest, she considered how absolutely last-second her timing had been. If she had hot-footed her way to the brothel even a pace slower, or let the madame delay her a minute longer, or had even a moment's hesitation about barging into that room...
Well. Edwin was a very capable wizard. But he'd been dead silent after she'd pulled him out of the brothel, and he hadn't even insisted they turn about to grab his clothing. Edwin might have been the juggernaut when it came to mass destruction on a battlefield or cunning plans of engagement, but it looked like Imoen was the expert on avoiding ridiculously unpleasant deaths.
That's who she was most worried about, she realized. Her roommate. Maybe that was for the best; it didn't look like he had anyone else to worry about him and she was glad to do the job. But if she had to guess, the reason Edwin couldn't sleep probably had at least something to do with-
"Kwefai...?" came a quiet whisper. Perhaps Edwin hoped she was already asleep. No such luck.
Imoen shifted to hear him better. "Yes, Dragon?"
She imagined him grimacing. "Eh... may, m-may I...? Ehm..." He sounded like he'd almost prefer being electrocuted to asking her this.
Imoen smothered a giggle, because she had been wondering if this topic would come up from the moment Edwin first suggested they room together. "Well... if I can? If I want to, that is."
The Thayvian was silent for a moment. "... That... is... That is... fair..." he replied awkwardly. This was clearly one of the most uncomfortable conversations he had ever participated in.
"And we won't listen or say anything, at all, ever?" she suggested.
"Ever." The Red Wizard agreed this was the necessary stipulation.
"Yeah it's fine. Thanks for asking."
He made a sound of appreciation and, thankfully, he was not even remotely vocal after that. Sleep came easier when he'd finished.
Aegis led. Her change in armor had put an extra spring in her step. Her flexibility had been greatly improved, and if the weight even mildly inconvenienced her she did not show it. Whenever Kivan appeared it was sudden, and the Wild Elf did not speak unless he had to. Often he simply pointed in a direction before vanishing back into the forest. His face was grim and he avoided coming anywhere near Viconia.
For the most part she knew Kivan was obscuring their tracks. Urso and Dynaher's Hawk Ankh made for excellent scouts. She was concerned about her new friend's omnipresent glower, and the weird sensation of a deathly mantle encompassing him had never full abated. On the other hand, she and Minsc had pathfinding to do. They would simply have to find some means of mollifying Kivan later.
The rest of the group was too tired to chatter for many hours. They grouped together in protective sets. Deprived of a wizard, Aegis had Minsc. Branwen kept to Xan's side as was fast becoming natural. Dynaheir and Viconia walked arm in arm. The drow was not disguised and held her chin high with pride. Ajantis followed closely on their flank. He had recovered almost entirely from the poison thanks to the ministrations of his clerics, though sleep itself had eluded him.
Ajantis had been conscious through those long hours in which the Rashemi Wychlaran and the drowess had spoken to each other of their incredibly different homelands. Eavesdropping on them had felt wrong and horrible; but he suspected he would have regretted ruining their bonding moment by warning them that he was awake. He would just have to be quiet about all he had heard.
Behind Ajantis followed two hoods, one red and the other pink, hovering almost protectively close to one another. They were the only ones talking, muttering to each other in their strange eastern tongue and jabbing fingers at some scroll or another.
"Rrodi ma'aer, Kwefai. Nat'tsha pa irt aerreta twon "R" whet'tsha," Edwin insisted.
"Tam! Inik gomi rodir "H" whet idin djeda medwa," Imoen disagreed playfully.
"Cherdept khosnni..." the Thayvian growled, and clearly he was being insulting.
"Rek'herok penest," she beamed innocently.
Kagain took up the rear, requiring neither conversation nor company to keep happy, and quite capable of stalling a rear assault on his lonesome.
They passed around a walking breakfast of juice and biscuits about an hour after dawn, and then people began to get a little more talkative. Edwin and Imoen were still arguing, the language barrier effectively shutting anyone but Dynaheir out of that conversation. Branwen and Xan struck up a conversation about the melee combat strategies available for the magically gifted.
Ajantis watched Kivan reappear, growl something to Aegis, and then disappear just as swiftly. The paladin was quiet for a moment before coming up beside Viconia. He knew she must have been as tired as he felt, so he broached the subject in as gentle a tone as he was able: "I did not get an opportunity to thank you properly, Lady DeVir."
Viconia looked startled for a moment. Then she sneered in annoyance up at him. "What do you want, male?" she snapped.
"Just to thank you," he assured her. "I am to understand you were the one who found me."
She waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes: writhing in self-righteous fury at the outrage of being put in your place by a soldier three times your mettle. Smiting out your insecurities on practice dummies."
Dynaheir expected the paladin to glower or take offense, but strangely enough she could see no fight in the young squire at all. Ajantis continued to have an absolutely innocent and even diplomatic expression on his face.
"Well, whatever you call it, I am in your debt," the paladin told her. "Even your use of that shadow magic most likely contributed to saving my life. That bandit had an arrow nocked for my head, and I was moving very slowly by then."
His persistence made Viconia eye him cautiously again. "Yes, well. Remember that the next time you feel compelled to stand by and do nothing, while we fight. It would do us all some good if you'd give in and muck up your pretty white armor in shielding us unclean devils."
Ajantis regarded the diminutive cleric for a moment and then inclined his head in a mute nod. She was his healer, and he would defend her. But he'd prove it with actions rather than words. His 'submission' seemed to trigger a haughty calmness in her, and though it did not result in any kindness or retractions of her invective, he could tell she at least felt better.
When Ajantis kept pace with them and did not lag behind to follow in their wake again, Viconia glanced at him irritably. After a few moments, the dark elf finally turned about to look much farther behind her. "Thayvian," she called. "Do you keep yourself properly sterile?"
Edwin looked up with a blink from the scroll, taking a moment to shift mentally from Mulhorandi to Thorasta. When he was sure he had properly interpreted the query, he rolled his eyes and then fixed her with an amused expression. "Black onyx, I don't believe this Red Wizard has gone a week without ingesting cassil leaves* since he was sixteen years old," he told her flatly, provoking Imoen to fits of laughter and Dynaheir to cringe. " 'Just in case.' "
Viconia gave a slow, sensuous grin and slowly turned back to the path at hand without saying another word. Edwin smirked and looked back to the scroll. Ajantis lifted a brow and glanced over the drow's head at Dynaheir, who shrugged unknowingly. Regardless, he decided not to say anything or to lag behind again, and the group continued to walk.
Imoen elbowed Edwin, {When did you find time to plot to overthrow your masters and sabotage your peers?} she hissed, still laughing.
Edwin shook his head in disbelief, as if the question annoyed him more than anything. {Asks the backwater trollop of the Wizard in Red, when the former spends her evenings in the laps of as many bards as she can find, and the latter really only cares for power...}
Imoen giggled. {Hey, speaking of trollops: I'm glad not to be bawling my eyes out at the Song of the Morning right now, paying Kelddath out the nose for diamond dust. He would probably charge a real premium for a Red Wizard.}
Edwin turned his head slowly and looked down at her without expression for a long moment. Then, without saying anything, he pointed at a word on the scroll he knew she absolutely could not pronounce unambiguously without learning to roll her Rs. Imoen sighed dramatically and made her most pathetic attempt to date.
The Thayvian grimaced at her. He glanced back at Kagain to see the dwarf wasn't paying them a lick of attention and was counting gold in his purse. He looked ahead of them to make sure no one was turned back. Then he gave a mute sigh and eased his pack off his shoulder. When he spoke, it was in his quietest whisper. {If you squeal; if you make a sound; if you so much as touch me, I will sell them back,} he said, rummaging within. {In fact, if you tell anyone at all, even a word...}
{What?} She was confused. {What did you do?}
He pulled out a bundle of pitch-black leathers. Imoen caught them bewildered as he threw them to her. She looked down and plucked at the material, and then her eyes widened in stupefaction.
{H-how...?} she asked in amazement. It was Shadow Armor from Thunderhammer Smithy.
{An Odesseiron does not want for gold, child,} he told her angrily. {(At least not before wasting it on ungrateful pink children.) And not all purses can be stolen.}
{You... you got me a present?}
He sneered. {I made an investment. Do not make me regret it.} Imoen looked up at him a moment and then down at her new black leathers.
{So. Um. My Rs,} she said after almost an entire minute had passed. {They need to be rolled. I think I should get to work on that.}
{Yes. Yes, see that you do,} the Thayvian growled haughtily, glad this conversation was coming to a close. If he'd had to endure a single comment from anyone else in the party, they would have regretted it. He wasn't one to suffer the scrutiny of fools, and he'd had quite his fill of 'awkward conversations' with or about his infuriatingly chipper apprentice of late. Being spared even one was something of a relief.
Imoen stared at the black leathers, not exactly sure how to feel. This was her second brand new set of armor in as many weeks. Just before his betrayal, Montaron had bought her the very brigandine hauberk she was currently wearing.
The assault had been successful.
With Halftyril leading the charge and Winthrop on point, there had been little enough opportunity for the Bhaalites to react. Lullorin had sent them forward with blessings and prayers, and Gorion had followed them primarily with spell breaches and spells to reveal, counter, or incapacitate.
Not everyone in the complex was a cleric. Many if not most Bhaalites were bounty-hunters, assassins, and other men who made death their trade. Detecting threats and applying invisibility purges was an essential pipeline for their raid, and so it was that Tallix's and Harus' accute hearing were two of their most vital assets.
They were stopped once. Not by a man, woman, cleric, or creature. They were stopped by a gigantic swinging axe trap, which Haftyril just narrowly managed to dodge, and a spiked pit trap which he quite simply did not. To be fair, Winthrop had seen both and had tried to warn him.
It took them about three minutes to pull the elf back out of the pit again. He was not happy about this, and wriggled about irritably while Lullorin applied her healing. Tallix ended up having to lead the rest of the charge.
But the assault had been successful. The high priest was dead. The clergy had been battled and defeated. The thieves and thugs had been dealt with.
It was with great trepidation that Gorion stepped past his resting comrades and made his way into the final chamber of the complex. It was poorly lit within, but most certainly a prison; It was lined with cells on one side, and he felt the malevolence of abyssal taint all around. As his eyes became accustomed to the gloom he took in a sharp and painful breath, his heart catching in his throat.
A dozen pairs of frightened eyes were peering up and out at him.
Mystra... Mystra and Lathander spare him.
*Hmm, maybe you should replace 'danger' with 'death' Immy? Naawwwww, that's silly.
*Cassil: Birth control herb used almost exclusively by noble men owed to its pricing and effectiveness. Thay is a slave state which means Edwin likely indulged whenever he wanted to which, given his preoccupation with magic, was actually probably much less frequently than we might give him credit for. Man does like to run his mouth.
Taking Middle Egyptian into Faerun to form Mulhorandi is fun and way too much work :3. I spend hours fiddling with the sounds till I like them. Middle Egyptian, like many languages in the same region, doesn't transcribe its own vowels. Which leaves it to the imagination what goes between the consonants in any word. I imagine when its whispered, almost any vowel but 'a' or 'i' could be replaced with hissing.
Plus to make up modern words like 'brat' one must link together ancient words that seem to have a similar connotation, ie 'crocodile child.'
Final Mulhorandi blending: Cherdept khosnni...
Middle Egyptian transliteration: Xrd dpy T qsn qni...
Egyptian Grammar order: "child-crocodile female wretched-brave"
Matching English to available words: "Wretched brave crocodile child"
English: "Impudent brat."