When Xaiviryn had let slip that he knew a drow paladin on the surface, Aestith had hounded him relentlessly to send for him, but the paladin had split from Dark Carnival some years before Aestith had even come to the surface, and when a drow doesn't want to be found, it can be problematic to find them again through mundane channels, but Xaiviryn was a wizard, and Aestith was insistent he use a Sending spell to tell the paladin of the Temple. The reply was a long time in coming, but the other had agreed to come.

Aestith knew so little of Lolth and what rituals and ceremonies he had learned were from whatever someone had remembered or told him, divine revelation, or things someone else had written down. He needed this paladin.

Xaiviryn was less eager. Arcedi was only neutral on the subject, and thought that it would be a simple matter of religious instruction that would bore him to tears. Aestith wanted the paladin to stay, to teach others. He hoped the other would. Xaiviryn tried to pretend it didn't bother him, but it clearly did-Aestith could tell that even from Xaiviryn's letters and limited Sending messages.

Aestith waited in the shadow of a building, watching the ships in the harbor.

The paladin was the only drow stepping off a ship, smaller and thinner than the humans around him, and an afterthought behind the large genasi sailor. The drow was like a shadow, ignored, and never looked at directly if one could help it.

It was said, below and above ground, that looking straight at a predator could cause it to spring. The drow, in nondescript clothing with short hair, was a predator. Like a spotted cat, he sought to blend in among the background as he hunted, but when his coppered eyes alighted on Aestith, it was as though his muscles coiled and Aestith almost expected him to leap.

He did not.

It would have been more exciting if he had, and they had both fallen, biting, scratching in a tangle of limbs.

His steps were light and measured with the easy grace that came from doing it by habit. If he were wearing full plate, he could have danced in it. His gaze raked over the mark on the cleric's chest, and recognition dawned over his face. The bow he made was elaborate and formal, something from some centuries-old tradition of a paladin to a priestess that made the sailors on the docks stare and quickly move away in fear. A smile bloomed on Aestith's lips, colored the shade of an aged amarone wine. Aestith gave a slight nod. "I must thank you for coming. I have long since desired to meet you, Evyxes."

"And I you, priestess." His voice was smooth as water over rocks. "I arrived expecting to teach a cleric, but instead I am to instruct a priestess. I must thank you for this strange honor."

"It will be a pleasure, I have no doubt," Aestith purred. His smile turned coy. "I must admit, I am young yet and ignorant in many ways of the subtle intricacies of the church. I will value your knowledge."

He seemed pleased to hear it.

They spoke only in Undercommon, their voices low so they would not carry over the water. They moved away, falling into a comfortable gait as if they had known one another all their lives. Aestith suggested food and drink. He also offered that they could picnic at the temple, but it wasn't completed as of yet. Evyxes said, "I do not see a need to hurry."

"Let's have dinner then."

They took a carriage further north. What words broke the relaxed silence between them were exchanges of Evyxes's long voyage.

The restaurant staff were nervous to have them both there, but the rules of social courtesy, and greed, allowed them inside. Aestith requested one of the curtained alcoves, and the maitre d was quick to usher them out of sight of the other diners. They would likely be the source of gossip for a tenday.

Aestith ordered a wine as dark as the shade of his lips that day. The waiter poured it, doing his best to not show his nervousness. Both drow were polite to a point that only made the half-elf sweat.

"You're from Enainsi," Aestith said, a faint smile on his lips. He tasted the wine. "You left decades ago, before the Spellplague."

"Did Xaiviryn tell you that?"

"No," Aestith said flatly and looked at the glass. "You did." His lips pressed into a smile. "Or your rather lovely face, anyway." He set the glass upon the polished table. "Evyxes Everh'lylraeth. You're Xaiviryn's cousin, I wager. He might have mentioned that, but he didn't. Why?"

His eyes flicked away. "I suppose… when a member of the family leaves in disgrace, such a thing is not worth mentioning."

"It certainly explains why he took so long to put us in contact. I could have used you sooner."

"I think you've managed."

Aestith made a face. "That's not good enough, and you know it. I would have appreciated your expertise, and he withheld you from me. Tell me, if you had known, would you have come?"

He shrugged one shoulder and studied his wine. "Yes."

The question hung in the air; why would he have kept them apart? Aestith looked at Evyxes, the way he looked back at Aestith, and he felt like he knew.

"Are you hungry?"

"I have other appetites."

"You know I was born male."

He smiled. It was bleak and toothless. "My late husband was a slave, Aestith. And my wife is a half-drow. You won't bother me." His teeth were the pearlescent black of a highborn, yet his short hair was wavy, some flaw in his breeding.

Aestith drained the glass and left more on the table than the bottle was worth. He inclined his head toward the door. The closest inn sufficed. The expense hardly mattered. Aestith had a bottle of wine sent up, and a pitcher of water. They would need both.

"Tell my cousin to stay in Neverwinter," Evyxes advised Aestith as he unbuckled his weapons and laid them on the sofa. "Why should a priestess be beholden to a wizard?"

"A powerful wizard and the leader of his faction?" Aestith's lips quirked in a grin. "Aren't you married?"

"It makes no difference."

And Aestith represented more power, a deeper connection to Lolth and the church, a full-blooded drow. Evyxes had settled for his wife. "So you say."

"I shall attempt to change your mind then."

Evyxes was as similar to Xaiviryn in bed as lichen to lichen wine. Evyxes was somehow less creative; he seemed to hold back. He constantly surveyed the room and listened. He was quiet and obedient, and never kissed or touched unless Aestith did it first. Evyxes knew his place and accepted it; Xaiviryn defied it. Evyxes held back until Aestith told him he tired, and he worked himself in Aestith to completion, then moved away to pour Aestith wine, asked him if he wanted anything else. Aestith told him to lie down. He did.

"Your wife. One of Xaiviryn's whores bore her, I take it?"

"Yes, I imagine so."

Drow cared very little for cousins marrying. You were safest with your family, so it could in many ways be sensible, except that it did nothing to consolidate power and expand the family, and rather did the opposite. Couplings were common enough. That she was a half-drow was a larger inhibitor than possible blood. Aestith's lips curled. "I suppose he has sired many half-drow."

"The drought he gives his whores does not always take. Does it make you reconsider him?"

Aestith's hand trailed down the other's sweat-streaked chest. "No."

The paladin swiped a stray lock of hair from his face. He slid from the bed and knelt, submissive, then looked up, never at Aestith's face, but he had other things to draw his attention. "You are a priestess and beholden to none save Lolth, her handmaidens, and your fellows. Do not let yourself be beholden to my cousin."

"What has he told you?"

"He wants your loyalty and you gladly gave it."

Xaiviryn had told him more than that. Much more. The damned bastard. "If I were not lying with him, it would be another, but he is powerful, and that I find useful and attractive."

Evyxes frowned. "Priestess, I would explain why you must leave him, if you'd listen."

"I am listening."

He sighed and nodded, then shifted to a more comfortable pose. "My husband knew I loved him, and when he learned I had every intention of only keeping him and not killing him, he used it against me. When he would have been sacrificed, I freed him and we both fled. It ruined my life and I became an outcast. I married him, because I was an idiot." He sighed. "Do you think he stopped using me? Do you think he ever stopped? To end his manipulations, I killed him. You are in greater peril than you understand. You are giving him power over you, and I must caution you against it."

"I am not so weak as to love him, Evyxes. What is he but a source of wealth and influence?" Even as the words passed Aestith's lips, he could feel the sour tang of something like a lie.

Evyxes stared at Aestith. "It doesn't matter when the end result is the same. He is using you, and you allow it because you want petty things like his wealth and the power and influence he wields. You are above that."

"I want his resources. And I need the drow he keeps, like they need me. What would you have of me, Evyxes?"

"There are suggestions I could make." His face was unreadable, which was itself all Aestith needed to know.

Aestith drained the cup and placed it on the table. He swung out of the bed. "We are wasting time, paladin. You came to instruct me."

A pause. "As you say." He followed Aestith to the bath, and combed the priestess's hair as the water ran. He helped Aestith into the bath, and would have washed the other's hair and back, and delicately dried him, but Aestith gently pulled him in after him, then laid against him. The wide copper tub was pleasantly cramped.

"You are unlike any priestess I've known."

Aestith laughed. "Only physically? I am too young by most cleric's standards, far too young to be a priestess. Too young to have my own temple, to have the kind of power that I do. I am a child, and born worthless, and still Lolth blessed me, and oh, how my sisters and the others in the church curl their lips with disgust and must swallow their rather bitter revulsion." When Aestith spoke of their goddess, his features seemed to soften and glow, the way someone spoke when they were in love.

Evyxes understood, then, what inspired Lolth to heap rewards upon the young priestess; she coveted his unending and enduring devotion, a faith that had been tempered by hardships and trials and was not destined to break like iron but folded into the hardest steel. And he understood, too, why Xaiviryn wanted Aestith-why they all did, really; they needed him.

#

Aestith stalked around the temple, trying almost in vain to contain his glee. Arcedi kept pace with him, pleased just to see how happy Aestith was. They still needed a few things; Xaiviryn was working on the altar and some of the furniture still had not been delivered, but it was exactly what Aestith had hoped. The pair trotted down to the cellars and Aestith cast a spell, exchanged a few words, then they waited.

Evyxes tolerated Arcedi in increasingly small intervals, though both were cordial. He had his own errands to run and today, he was determined to find some mix of herbs and spices that would be similar to the sorts of incense such a temple should have. Aestith wished him the best of luck with the task, for Aestith had struggled with it for months and thought it would just have to be imported to get it right. The two had talked for a time, and came to the conclusion that there was really nothing in the doctrines that it had to be a specific blend.

Arcedi chatted freely, and Aestith was too pleased with the temple to be annoyed. To shut him up, Aestith suggested he play the viol, as it might aid Kai anyway. Arcedi removed the instrument from its case. Aestith had taken it to be repaired some time past, and the sound it produced was significantly improved. Nothing could be done to make Arcedi stand still, however, and he still danced as he played, which detracted from the sound.

The earth rumbled. Pieces of the unfinished dirt floor crumbled and chipped, then it fell inward, bits forming small mounds around the hole. A creature popped, briefly, out, then ducked back in. There was a long pause, then an exhausted-looking Kai clambered out of the tunnel. "I"ll set it to making stairs," he murmured and swiped sweat from his brow. "Shit." He leaned against the wall. A kamadan sprang from the hole. It briefly surveyed the surroundings, checked that Kai had not been stupid, and sat, waiting.

Aestith crossed his ankles. "You're perfectly on time. The wizard I mentioned, however, is late, which is unfortunately what he is best at." He scowled and looked at the floor. "Would someone do something about the dirt, please?"

Arcedi set the instrument down and used cantrips to smooth over the dirt. Aestith had done all but tell Honest Jack what the room was when he had stalled to keep the room from being finished as of yet. The floor would be installed tomorrow, and would include a trapdoor with a variety of locks.

"Am I really on the surface?" Kai said blearily.

Aestith scowled. "No, you're still quite far underground, so you've nothing to fear." He tilted his head. "You went with the umber hulk after all?"

Kai's shoulders hunched. "You left me with the money for slaves, but buying them was harder than I anticipated in Skullport. So I did a lot of searching, and managed to get a spellscroll for Geas." He flinched when Sailanshin's snakes hissed. "After that, it was a matter of finding it. I paid mercenaries to keep it busy while I cast Tongues and then used the scroll."

Aestith smiled. "I knew you were ingenuitive. That was very good thinking."

He shrugged weakly. "I thought… If a scroll got me into this, then perhaps…" His voice trailed at Aestith's raised brow. He squirmed.

Aestith sighed. "You have done quite well, Kai. I believe there may be some hope for you yet."

"Do you think so?" It may have been sarcastic or earnest, but it was difficult to tell which.
Aestith glanced back at him. "Yes. But, Kai?"
"Hm?"

He made a face. "May I suggest that you abandon wizardry?"

Sailanshin groomed his whiskers. Kai's face fell. "Being a swordsman with Sailanshin around-the real Sailanshin-is like being a vestigial arm."
Aestith nearly laughed at the imagery. He folded his arms under his breasts. "You could always stay here, Kai," he said, voice gentle. "Make a pact with a yochlol. I'd allow you to serve in the temple."

He flinched. "I can't stay this close to the surface." Aestith's eyebrow arched. The last they had spoken, he had been pining over a particular wood elf. Apparently, that had ebbed. "Besides, I'm a noble. I can go home."

Aestith nodded his understanding. "Very well. I'm not sure when the wizard will arrive, but could you keep your Umber Hulk on guard in the passage please, until we can get a more permanent solution? You can stay in the temple, or come with me into the city, but it would mean seeing the surface."

Both declined the latter half, but agreed to stay in the temple. Aestith gave them the passwords to the glyphs anyway, and he and Arcedi left.

Aestith held the parasol over his head. He refused to wear a hat, but he found this to be an acceptable solution. Arcedi had brought Aestith a pair of glasses that shaded his eyes, but he didn't much like the way they looked. "You were gone for a few cycles."

A pause. "Yeah. Zelvier wanted me to find something."

The priestess frowned. "Doesn't he have minions for that?"
Aracnelxeth laughed. "I was closer."

When he didn't immediately elaborate, Aestith's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What were you doing?"

He shrugged. "He just wanted me to steal something." He flashed a grin. "Don't worry about it." He shaded his eyes from the sun. "What do you want from the temple?" Arcedi asked as they picked their way toward the main road.

Aestith frowned. He didn't know how to explain that his main purpose was merely to serve Lolth and spread her influence. Xaiviryn or Evyxes would grasp the concept immediately, but Arcedi had never had the benefit of experiencing drow culture so didn't, and likely couldn't, understand. "It's a testament to Lolth, first. But secondarily because…" He struggled. "When I came here, I was alone, everything was confusing and nothing made any sense. The instinct is to isolate oneself to shut out the culture shock, but then it never improves." He was silent a moment. "I want to feel more at home."

"You don't think you can go home?"

He shook his head. "If I were welcome home, after Haeltania, I'm sure Amalette would have contacted me. But she never did." He sighed, tilting his head up to look at the sky. "So this is where I have to be."

A pause. "If she welcomed you home, would you go, Aestith?"

The priestess was silent for a long while as they walked. Aestith's eyebrows knitted together. He would probably think it was a trap, after the last time. If he could have some kind of evidence that it wasn't, and he could trust that he could go home, would he? They would probably claim him as some kind of cousin-he certainly had enough of those. And he'd have to spend his life pretending he were female, because what he was was imperfect and something to be hidden. He didn't want to go back to that. He wanted to go home more than anything, but he didn't know if the sacrifice of himself was worth it. "I don't know."

Arcedi tilted his head, watching Aestith's expression. He sidestepped closer to Aestith and his fingers trailed down his arm and slid into Aestith's palm. Aestith leaned his shoulder against Arcedi.

He was safe with Arcedi in a way he wasn't with anyone else.

Arcedi removed a box from a pouch. It looked like something that Edajin would have made. He flipped the box open and a slow, haunting melody poured from it. Arcedi stopped and set it down, a hand still in Aestith's. He flashed a grin. "Dance with me?"

Aestith felt heat rise to his face. "It's been years since I've danced, Arcedi."

"No one is watching."

The parasol was placed beside the box in the grass. Aestith stepped into it, his uncertainty as he tried to remember the steps allowing the other to lead. Then, he gained confidence, and pulled Arcedi to follow, changing the steps. The other was momentarily thrown off-which would be considered bad form in Enainsi, and a good play on Aestith's behalf. But they were a long way from there.

In Enainsi, learning to dance was expected. The footwork involved could be incorporated in a duel, and the social aspects provided a valuable lesson. It was also a way to select bed partners-or a way to get close enough for assassination.

Arcedi didn't know the dances Aestith knew, but he was a good enough dancer that he picked it up quickly and fell, quite naturally, into the following position. Perhaps he didn't know the power play for what it was, or perhaps he merely accepted it.

But it wasn't a serious affair, was it? They already knew the position of power. Arcedi was not about to betray Aestith, so there was no underlying tension. Aestith moved into the unfamiliar territory of the dance-something just as intimate but less tense.

Aestith felt his mouth curve into a smile. His steps were light, and he realized-he was having fun. He almost laughed.

You have a duty to your family. Come home.

Aestith missed a step. Arcedi stilled. "Aestith?"

He blinked and shook his head. "Amalette…" He looked over his shoulder, back at the temple. "My sister requested that I am to return home."

Arcedi rolled his eyes and stepped to pick up the box. He snapped it closed and the music stopped. "How'd that work out for you last time?"

Getting to Skullport was easier now. He could have Arcedi come with him, and perhaps Kai and Sailanshin so he wasn't alone. He could always use his boon and have a couple of giant spiders nearby as well. Evyxes? "I have more bargaining power this time, but you are right to be wary."

Arcedi wove his fingers between Aesitth's. "If you are considering it, do you still want to go home, Aestith?"

He flinched. "Yes. I've wanted nothing more for most of my life, than to just go home. But I can't." He shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts. "I doubt she'd try to kill me, at this point I'm too valuable a commodity, but even if my life were not on the line, there are other reasons." He was quiet a moment. "I'd have to change my name, I imagine. Pretend I'm a woman."

"Is that so terrible, when you'd have everything you ever wanted? You'd be back home, you'd be a priestess."

Aestith glanced at the barley growing in the fields. "I'd be happier in the Underdark, and happier with my family. What is left of it. I'd be a priestess and have more power and influence than I'd ever imagined. But is it worth losing myself, when I'm a priestess here with my own temple?"

Arcedi's grip on Aestith's hand tightened. "You're miserable here."

"I know," Aestith whispered.

Arcedi's hand slipped from Aestith's.

#

Priestess Ondalia has requested that you are to repay your debt to her. Come home.

Aestith shivered. He could have ignored Amalette's request, but this one left him sweating. He had never forgotten that he had owed the priestess for his life, that favors were a currency among drow. Ondalia inspired his views on his appearance and how he presented himself. Thoughts of her made him ache with longing. He didn't know if he wanted to be her, or climb into bed with her, and probably both.

If Amalette knew about the favor, they were obviously talking. What did Ondalia want of him? It wasn't like he couldn't just ignore it. What could she do to him directly? Oh, she could make Amalette's life hell, could potentially ruin his entire family if she wanted to-a merchant family refusing to return a favor for a priestess.

Aestith didn't know why he should care. What did it matter to him what problems Amalette was in? She had set him up to die.

That was an unjust thought. To Amalette, Aestith was a surface runaway and an abomination worthy of death even if he weren't male and disposable. Losing him was nothing to their family, and losing Haeltania had hurt. Ondalia had chosen now to redeem the favor, while his family was weakest. Amalette was put in a bad situation that was Aestith's doing. If Aestith refused to go, he was condemning Amalette and single-handedly ruining his family.

Xaiviryn would not arrive for another several days.

I can be in Skullport tomorrow, Aestith replied.

A lie. He could be in Skullport today.

He rolled from the bed. "Arcedi. Get up. We're going to Skullport."

Arcedi groaned. "You're shitting me. Aestith, this is idiotic. You can't—"

"I told you about the favor system among drow. When I was a child, Priestess Ondalia saved my life. I owe her a favor. She is redeeming it now. If I don't go, I condemn my family to ruin."

"Who the fuck cares? Didn't they try to kill you?"

Aestith sighed. Why didn't Arcedi understand that it wasn't personal? "Arcedi. I would consider you a lover and an ally for the moment, but my family are the ones most likely to help me should I need it."

"They haven't so far," he said darkly.

Evyxes had slipped in from the hallway and leaned against the doorframe. He was beautiful naked, probably more pleasing to look at than Xaiviryn, for he was all hard muscle and the scars that marked his body only seemed to enhance him. They were marks received from fighting, from surviving. They had been earned and kept and Aestith liked to roll his hands down them. Xaiviryn was thinner and flawless-active and lightly muscled but a wizard, not a paladin. "You are naive, Arcedi."

Aestith nodded his agreement. "Virabel tried to kill me for being an abomination, and for witnessing Jaalie's death." That one still stung, even years after. "Haeltania just wanted to be a priestess, and who could blame her? I certainly can't expect to blame my family for sacrificing what they view as disposable for something that could grant them more power and status."

Arcedi rubbed his temples. "Remind me again why this makes sense?"

"Get dressed." He looked at Evyxes. "Will you go with me?"

He bowed his head, and lifted it smiling. "I'd go with you to the Demonweb Pits, priestess."

Aestith felt warm just looking at him.

They took a carriage somewhere close to the temple and walked the rest of the way. They entered the small utilitarian building sitting on top of the entrance with a key and a password for the glyph. Another key opened the interior door and they shut it behind them. Another glyph and a set of stairs, down to the main floor. Aestith donned the circlet. They found Sailanshin asleep, sprawled out like a lazy cat. Kai looked up from a book and it snapped closed. "What are you doing?" he said.

Aestith paused. "Kai. I'm meeting my sister in Skullport."

Kai stared at him flatly. "Because that went so well last time."

"Shut up," Aestith suggested.

Sailanshin growled and kept pace with Aestith as he marched down to the tunnel. The kamadan stepped in front of him, its big body blocking Aestith. Aestith gave an exasperated sigh. "I wish you could talk," he muttered. The cat hissed. "I have to go." Another hiss. "Xaiviryn will be here in a few days. He knows your situation. Just stay here and—"

Sailanshin rose on his hind legs, paws on Aestith's shoulders. Aestith tried to push back, but he couldn't have hoped to move a kamadan. With its weight bearing on him, it was either crumple to the floor or step back. Aestith stepped back and the cat fell forward.

Arcedi crossed his arms. "At least someone has enough sense to stop you." He shot Evyxes a glare. "Hey, Kai, how important is repaying a favor?"

"Extremely," Kai said blandly. "In the best case scenario, refusing to repay it will prevent merchants from wanting to sell to you. In the worst case—" He shrugged. "-death. Depends on who you owe the favor to. Aestith?"

Aestith glared at Sailanshin, but it was difficult to pick a set of eyes to glare at.

Arcedi said, "A priestess. On… Ondalia?"

Evyxes bristled at the name, and Aestith frowned. Kai and Sailanshin glanced at one another. Aestith rounded on Kai, teeth gritted. "What do you know?"

Kai flinched. "Aestith—"

"Tell me now, Kai."

Sailanshin backed a pace, head down. Kai squirmed, staring at the circlet. "Ondalia acted as a liaison between your family and Matron Ter'resa."

Aestith's eyes narrowed. He had suspected as much when Kai had told him that Ondalia had sent the brothers with Aestith's sisters. He should have pressed them for more information, but the issue of Sailanshin being a kamadan had been more important at the time. "Why?"

The snakes slithered into the kamadan's fur. Somehow, he looked sheepish. Kai glanced at his brother, and back at Aestith, his eyes downcast. "Our family is pledged to Ondalia." He shrugged. "Sailanshin and Haeltania have had a… tryst off and on for decades. It just fell naturally into place."

"Innit?" Arcedi snorted. "You could've said so."

Evyxes glowered. "What a strange turn of events."
Aestith rolled his eyes. "It wasn't relevant at the time." You couldn't expect a drow to lay all of their cards on the table. One day, Arcedi might understand, but that was a long way off. "Well. Anything else you'd like to share?"

Kai's lips pressed together.

"This changes nothing."

Evyxes frowned. "Priestess, you owe a favor to Ondalia. Your family is already obligated to her house. Do you have any idea what she wants?"

"No."

Sailanshin heaved a sigh and sat. Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is incredibly stupid, Aestith."

"Yes? Well, do you suppose if I let my family fail to return the favor that Amalette will let me live in peace, or do you think she'll send an assassin?" He raised an eyebrow as he waited for Kai's reply. When none was forthcoming, he nodded. "Right. So I have to at least hear them out."

Sailanshin seemed to consider, then paced like a caged animal. He stopped and the snakes hissed, maybe in frustration at his inability to speak. Kai's brow furrowed as he tried to piece together whatever Sailanshin wanted to say. The boy said, "Then I-then we-must go with you to protect you, priestess."

Aestith paused. Something caught in his throat and he swallowed hard. "Then we had best hurry."

#

The Flagon and the Dragon was quiet. It always was, but Aestith's presence made many of the drow become scarce. What was left were paid off mercenaries, a few too stubborn or curious to leave, and Aestith. Arcedi was stationed outside, and Kai on the upper balcony. Evyxes sat at the bar. Sailanshin curled under the table at Aestith's feet. Sometimes, a snake nudged one of his legs.

Spotted. On the way here, Arcedi said through the telepathic bond.

Sailanshin said, How many? The spell was the only way he had been able to talk in a long time, and he seemed to be enjoying it.

One female drow, six guards. Looks a bit like Aestith. Gotta be her.

Kai said, Ready?

Aestith took a breath and cast another spell, borrowing a page from Xaiviryn's book. He stared at the half-empty cup in front of him. No. But it's time.

The door opened. He couldn't see it from the interior of the booth, but he could hear the hinges creak. Kai affirmed that it was them.

The bugbears interspersed through the bar, two climbing to the loft area, the others nearby. Someone looked from booth to booth, and stopped in front of Aestith's.

If Disguise Self had been a concentration spell, Aestith would have lost it.

A steel bow peeked over one shoulder. The pale red curls bounced as she came to a halt. Her lips pulled into a sardonic grin. She sat down across from him and stretched. "You didn't get me a drink."

If it had been Amalette, Aestith would have said something snide. He stumbled over his words, and managed to spit out, "Virabel stabbed you. How did—?"

Jaalie smirked. "Oh. Gut wounds can take hours to die. You should know that. She never finished me off." She tilted her head. "Descaronan said you'd changed."

He suddenly felt ashamed of the spell making him look like a short-haired male drow, a dim reflection of himself from the last time she had seen him actually. "I did." To the others, he said coldly, Why didn't you tell me Jaalie was still alive?

Kai said, It didn't occur to me.

Aestith made a mental note to have this discussion later. To his sister, Aestith continued, "Some changes are more apparent than others."

She nodded, as if this was sensible. "A… a priest, then?"

He was silent, uncertain of how to respond to the question. "I ascended, yes." His fingers clenched. Why was Amalette doing this to him?

A finger wound into a red curl. Jaalie smiled, as if no time at all had passed between them, as if the events 28 years ago that had expelled him from Enainsi had not come to pass. "Well, we have some catching up to do. What happened after Virabel died?"

His lips parted, and he wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to tell her about the Duergar, about how he had gotten lost, about how he had discovered he was a cleric, and about the guild, the brothel, the Trial. He wanted to tell her about the temple. Sailanshin's weight bore down hard on his foot. Detect magic. Now.

Xaiviryn knew an Alter Self spell, and it wasn't unreasonable to deduce someone else could use it as flagrantly as he did, so it could just as easily be Amalette, come to think of it. Or anyone else. Aestith blinked and whispered the spell as he lifted his cup. Her bow had some kind of enchantment on it, but it seemed to be her.

He leaned back in the seat. "I could ask the same. This has been eating at me for years-what was going on with the shipments? What lured Virabel out?"

"From what we can tell, she was impatient." She sighed. "I should thank the bandits. She was selling us out to Innis."

"What?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "If Rix pledged to Innis, Innis controls a monopoly on the drug trade. Virabel gets a high payout and a position of power in their family, and maybe in a few decades and with some careful planning and elimination, she can control both. It's not a bad plan, if obviously short-sighted." A pause, then she explained, "Her daughter talked. In time."

"We have better business than Innis. She was matron of our family. That kind of gamble is idiotic."

Jaalie sighed. "But the consolidation would eliminate the competition."

Aestith lifted his cup and sipped. "And now?"

Jaalie made a face. "Now, Innis has a daughter that will become a cleric. I believe Virabel may have suspected it long ago and threw in her lot with them then before they decided to decimate us. It was a survival tactic, at the time. And Haeltania, the only daughter in our family to be offered a similar chance, is dead. Which leaves you, Aestith."

He snorted. "Well. Not a lot of good a male cleric is going to do for the family, is it?"

She stared at him flatly. "Drop this nonsense, Aes. Descaronan already told me about you."

His eyes flicked to his cup. "Then you know that I still cannot go home and be a priestess."

She tilted her head. "But you can, Aes. Drop the male guise and put on a dress. Tuck your balls." She shrugged. "Or cut them off. Hardly matters."

His thighs tensed reflexively.

She continued as if she hadn't noticed. "There are other options too, but it's high time you returned home and performed your duties to our family. With you, we might be able to leverage for nobility, Aes."

He crossed his legs. "I see very little personal gain in that arrangement."

"Coming back home?" She propped an elbow on the table. "Think of the power you could wield at home, compared to-what, the surface?"

He was silent a moment. "I'll be a priestess anywhere I go. That is inseparable from who I am, Jaalie."

One white eyebrow arced. "Then perhaps I should remind you of your duties to Priestess Ondalia."

He stilled. "What does the priestess wish of me?"

Jaalie's smirk had never used to bother him. He had never cared that she was always a step ahead of him, or that she could regularly outwit him. It bothered him now. She said, "She has proposed marriage, Aestith. A union between priestesses. You'd be quite powerful together, wedded into a noble house."

And his family would have climbed one more rung on the ladder to nobility. His stomach churned. He had been obsessed with Ondalia ever since he had seen her. To marry her was beyond his wildest imaginations. And she had proposed to marry him. He leaned forward, prepared to eagerly accept. Sailanshin's claws dug into his leg, not enough to break the skin or tear clothing, but enough to feel how easily they could. Aestith stilled.

Sailanshin said, Do you recall how casually she mentioned cutting off your balls earlier? Is that what you want?

What's going on? Evyxes demanded.

What the fuck? Arcedi said.

Sailanshin explained to the others what had happened.

They're going to fucking castrate you. Don't, Arcedi said.

Kai countered, But consider the power and prestige of two priestesses in a marriage, and should you sire a child first, how powerful she would be?

Think of your temple. Think of the power you already wield here, Evyxes pressed.

It was getting noisy in his head, with all of them talking. He rubbed his temples. He said, "I'm confused. Why would Ondalia wish that as her favor?" He was only buying himself time; he knew perfectly well why. She had known from the moment he had lain eyes on her that he was enthralled by her. One priestess having such control over another was a pipedream, and she would gain power over Rix to boot. For him, it would be a nightmare. They'd wed him, he might be permitted to lie with her until she was pregnant, and then they would castrate him. It wasn't even unlikely that they would just get another male to impregnate her and they would castrate him before the marriage.

Would that be so bad?

It wasn't like he wouldn't be able to have sex, but he had already told Lolth he didn't wish to be fully female. Allowing this to happen now seemed like a slap to the goddess's face. If that didn't complicate things enough, he didn't want to change like that. He wanted to stay as he was and damn the consequences. If it meant staying on the surface, it was a heavy price, but it was one he had to pay to be himself.

Jaalie went over the social and business aspects of the union while he tried to stall for time as he thought.

The paw on his leg moved away. Do what Drow are known to do, Aestith Rix.

Aestith looked back at Jaalie, and gave her the only answer he could.