The ornamented ironwood box rested on a table between Amalette and Aestith. Amalette sat with a straight back. Aestith reclined in the chair, legs crossed, and pressed a glass to his lips. It was a private conversation. Not even Jaalie was present.
Amalette inclined her head to the box. "A wedding present."
Aestith sipped the wine. He had changed out of his torn wedding gown to another dress. "I should thank you, then." He smiled. "I appreciate the part that you and Jaalie played."
Amalette frowned. The power dynamic had shifted. Aestith was no longer only her younger sibling; he was a priestess in his own domain. She said, "I believe it was beneficial to both of us." A pause. "Aestith, this temple served its purpose. Let another make what use they will of it. I must request that you are to return home."
He watched her over the rim of the glass. She wished he hadn't insisted on lighting the room. It had to be the only Temple of Lolth that had installations for lighting. He had claimed that her reaction to it was the exact reason for its existence. "Shall I serve in the Underdark, or rule on the surface?" he sighed.
She glowered. "We have too much power now and not a large enough family to wield it. You must return home to consolidate that power."
"Do our cousins really play so small a role?"
"They are spread too thin, Aestith. And not a one of them a cleric or a priestess. We would be nobles if you but returned home."
He set the glass on the tray and eyed the box. "That sounds like a good way to die." His eyes flicked to Amalette, boldly at her face. He had never been allowed to look previously. Now he held her gaze, defiant. She tried not to allow her displeasure to show.
She stared at him. "You could die here too. It hardly matters when we are speaking of nobility and priestesses. Surely that is more important?"
He tilted his head as he considered. "Maybe."
"Don't you wish to come home, Aestith?"
He glanced away and looked back at her. "Yes. But how could I?"
He referred to his body, and it wasn't only his sun-given freckles. But it could be if he'd only open that box. "You have a duty to our family. You have weakened it with the death of Haeltania, and now this allegiance is broken. You must return to Enainsi."
"If you are so concerned about the weakened state of our dwindling family, why haven't you bore a child?" His smirk bordered on condescending.
Amalette regarded Aestith coldly. "It would be rather difficult for me to achieve such a thing. Perhaps Jaalie when she is older."
He nodded. "Descaronan and Desarandian then. I certainly cannot assist the family with such affairs."
"Something could be arranged." She flipped the box toward him. "Please, accept my gift."
Aestith flipped the latches back, but there was indecision on his face. He had fallen into the ambuscade, and he knew it. Social graces did not permit him to leave it untouched; it implied he thought it was a trap, and that he did not believe himself safe in his own domain. The gesture would leverage her for a position of power over him. But opening it would have its own host of trouble.
He opened it, glanced inside, but she had carefully had it covered. He hesitated and lifted the silk cover. His fingers brushed the garment under it.
The corset's color and size were generally unimportant as compared to what it did. Procuring it and getting it into the box without someone else touching it and destroying it had been a trial. But Aestith had touched it.
There was no auditory alarm or even a light; it simply was a cursed item, and then it was not. Aestith dropped it. "What have you done?"
Amalette rose. "I can't have the only priestess in the family a disfigured boy, Aestith." It was almost worse than having no clerics at all. "Come home. You would have everything you could ever desire and more, sister."
Aestith and Jaalie looked alike. They had Matron Almalza's high cheekbones and they likely shared the same curly-haired sire. Amalette may have spent long decades away from Aestith, and she had not seen him grow from a forgettable, spotted-skin boy to the priestess, but she knew his facial expressions, because she saw them so often on Jaalie. The grin plastered on Aestith's face was as if he had picked it up from somewhere else and wore it like a hat. The voice, too, was wrong. "I think Aestith has learned to be quite happy here. But why don't you ask him?"
Something moved on the stone wall. A foot slid from it, a leg, a hand. Aestith stepped out of the stone with a shake of his head. He still wore the wedding dress, the piece that had been torn removed, as if it had always been meant to be more revealing than the chain mail had permitted. He grinned. "Things like that don't work on changelings, Amalette."
What had been Aestith grew pale and curiously blank. It kept a similar body shape, to fit into the clothes, but it was, very clearly, a changeling.
Her lips curled in abject disgust. "You would bring such a creature into a temple of Lolth?"
"Oh, not the sanctum. No. That would be quite impossible, sister."
Her eyes flashed red with anger, then she smiled with all due politeness. "My absence will be missed at home, so I really cannot hope to stay. I appreciate seeing your surface temple, little brother."
Aestith and she exchanged a quick pleasantry and Amalette left. Aestith used Sending to ensure that someone would see that she actually left. He looked back at Nix. "Per our agreement."
Nix sighed. "Is it really necessary that I—"
"Yes, and time is limited."
Nix harrumphed, but consented to the spell. Aestith erased and replaced his memory of the past ten minutes, and Nix woke outside the chamber. Aestith saw him outside. Nix still knew where the temple was, and knew entirely more than Aestith liked, but he didn't know the passwords to the glyphs, and had not seen past particular areas of the temple, not that he hadn't made the attempt to explore. The giant spiders and all the drow were enough to dissuade him.
Aestith gave him the second half of his payment when they were outside. Nix weighed the gold in one hand and grinned. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Likewise." Aestith turned to go back into the temple. Behind him, Nix headed toward Waterdeep.
Aestith reactivated the runes on the way back in. Someone locked the doors behind him. Cyraz told Aestith that Xaiviryn had gone to the Underdark entrance, with a hint that Aestith might wish to go too.
Aestith groaned inwardly, but made his way down. He could only hope that he wasn't terrorizing his sisters.
He was.
Xaiviryn was happily chatting with Jaalie, catching up on what had happened in Enainsi since he had been gone, and seemed to be flirting, but in a more respectful manner than he might normally. It was odd to witness. Jaalie or Amalette would tell him something, and he would react in a manner expected, provide commentary that always edged toward coquetry. His eyes were not downcast, but they were averted. Aestith felt like he should almost be offended-or Xaiviryn just knew where and when to test boundaries.
Jaalie glanced at Aestith. Aestith stared at her face in a manner that, outwardly at least, seemed not to bother his sister at all. "Ah, there you are, Aestith." Her smile implied she was glad to see him. Her eyes told the truth; she was angry that their plan with the garment had failed, and she was angry that Aestith could not be convinced to go home. "We were just leaving."
Aestith hesitated. "Jaalie. I hate to leave our family weakened so, and we need a cleric."
Amalette's shoulders sagged in relief that he had finally seen reason. Xaiviryn's face went carefully blank. Jaalie nodded. "True."
"When House Velweb fell, which family will fill that void?"
"House Karazis. It is already in place. We will consolidate our share of House Velweb's assets and fold what she had into our family."
Aestith pinched the bridge of his nose. There would be other houses waiting to pounce, but they might be cautious and bide their time. Still, Rix would not have long. Amalette, Desarandian, and Descaronan should be enough, though, for now. He made a face. His eyes flicked from Xaiviryn to Jaalie. He wondered if this would not be inviting trouble. He said, "Did you merely never have the capacity to be a cleric, or were you skipped over?"
She shrugged one shoulder. "I was tested." She left out that she had been found wanting.
Aestith nodded. "What if I could teach you?" He glanced at Amalette. "Jaalie, you'd have to stay here, but there's no reason you can't become a cleric by less standard means if I could."
Xaiviryn's spine straightened.
Jaalie's eyes widened, but she stared upward. The surface was a scratch away. She looked at Amalette. "It would take years and I have duties of my own to perform."
Aestith made a face. "Alas, I cannot go with you to teach you this. It's here, or not at all."
Amalette's lips pressed to a hard, thin line. Slowly, she had to give ground. "We must have a cleric before Innis."
Aestith blinked in surprise. "They have a cleric?"
"A daughter that shows promise," Amalette sighed. "Or so your late wife informed me. The Innis girl will be sent to the college in less than a decade."
"Then we have little time to waste." He did not say that he doubted that Jaalie would ever have his natural gift for it. She would learn it through careful instruction and devotion, and it would have to be enough.
Amalette's guards went down the path and she went behind half of them, and the rest followed her. Her handmaiden walked just behind her, and closer than one might expect. Aestith found himself happy that she had chosen a paramour. If she were getting laid, maybe she wouldn't be as bothersome when it came to trying to convince him to go home. That, after all, would still be preferable, wouldn't it?
Aestith showed Jaalie around the rest of the temple. Sailanshin walked behind them, silent on his paws. Xaiviryn had not quite had time to study and correct Sailanshin, and the process seemed rather more involved than he had anticipated-he likened it to untangling knotted yarn. Aestith did not bother to tell Jaalie who and what the kamadan really was. The explanation was too complicated, and stupid.
Sailanshin had wanted to be a paladin.
Was that why he was shadowing them? It gave him some taste of what that may have been like.
Aestith hoped that it inspired him to be greater. When he was himself again, perhaps he might learn something of use from Evyxes.
Jaalie was amused, though somehow unsurprised, to see Bingath in more normal clothing. She grinned sardonically at him. His lips pressed into a thin, somewhat embarrassed, line. She glanced at Aestith and mouthed, Well played.
He smirked and waited until Bingath was out of earshot before he said, "Was it convincing, then?"
"Very," she laughed. They passed one of the male drow, carrying a bag of holding that Aestith knew was full of the bodies of Ondalia's guards. There was nothing left of the priestess herself. Aestith left her at the baths at her request and Sailanshin walked with him down the hall.
Aestith returned to the ritual chamber. It was empty now. Someone had cleared away whatever blood had not stained the altar. The blood on the altar had been left alone to collect flies that would feed the spiders. The giant spiders were fed all manner of things, usually animal.
Aestith knelt before the altar, head low as he prayed, the train of the dress spread out behind him.
Aestith, for the first time in many a year, was happy. He was not content; there was still far too much to do and an empire to grow, wayward drow to collect, and he knew that contentment would lead to stagnation so he was glad he was not that. But he was finally doing what he felt he was meant to do.
He was destined to be a priestess, and this was his temple. His domain.
It should have been the end of the story.
But drow don't get happy endings; it isn't in their nature. Aestith was not one to rebel against his innate being and he reveled in his religion's teachings. Dying of old age was shameful and he had no intention to ever undergo such a thing.
He heard footsteps, but did not rise until he was finished. He lifted his head and the steps continued toward him. The person stopped. Xaiviryn said, his voice quiet lest it carry in the chamber, "High priestess."
"I have not earned that title."
"Yet you are the priestess of this temple, the only one. You have just consecrated the temple. You are the high priestess, Aestith, and you are worthy of the title."
Aestith rose. "Lolth has many Trials. I have passed two. Is that sufficient?" He looked at Xaiviryn's eyes, red with infrared. They were wide, almost trusting. Xaiviryn thought he was worthy, even if Aestith didn't. Sometimes, it took someone else to make you see who you were.
The priestess stepped toward the wizard. Aestith's hands gripped Xaiviryn's arms and he tilted his head. Xaiviryn met the kiss.
It began chaste, quick, but Aestith pulled the other in deeper, wanting more. Xaiviryn's hands pressed against Aestith's back. They broke and he whispered, "Your marital chamber was readied after the last."
Aestith's lips pulled into a smirk. "But we're here now." The other could find little fault in such plain logic, and so the only obstruction was one another's clothing. The gown had to be removed slowly, and Xaiviryn seemed to take his time with the sole intent of tormenting Aestith. He must have used some spell to summon one of his minions, because one of them walked into the room a moment later and Xaiviryn handed him the gown. It wouldn't do to simple throw it on the floor. The other male kept his eyes respectfully averted, but Aestith could almost sense his curiosity.
The rest of Aestith's clothes were discarded without such precautions, and Xaiviryn's less so. The smooth stone floor was cold and rough against the skin. It punished the knees. Neither seemed to notice, much less care.
They were intent and confident to the point of arrogance, to allow themselves to be exposed in so public a space.
Lolth had many tenets; they kept them. What act of vengeance they had done was not for vengeance's sake. Discord had been sowed and reaped. Power sought and gained, with more to come in their future. Every act praised their Queen.
Lolth desired for them to struggle. They pushed, rolled, fought to mount the other. The jewels in Aestith's circlet, the only thing he still wore, seemed to glow. A giant spider above them shot a web and Aestith used all of his strength to roll Xaiviryn into it. The male's eyes widened, fear edged into his lust as he realized he was trapped. Aestith slid over him, taking him inside him. He fought against the webs, suddenly not to escape, but to touch Aestith. Aestith's legs became stuck in the web. They were trapped there, together, tangled and embraced.
Lolth desired sacrifice; they had given it with the plan for more. There must always be more.
Xaiviryn strained against the webs, but remained held fast. He moved his hips to thrust into Aestith and whispered, "Priestess, let me touch you."
Aestith leaned down to kiss his lips. His lacquered nails dug into the other's shoulders. He remembered making similar but more debase pleas to Ondalia. "You need not request what I would freely give." He kissed Xaiviryn's neck and licked along his jaw to his ear. The tip of his tongue trailed up to the pointed edge and he bit, gently, then nibbled back down. The priestess held the other close and the pair winked from existence to reappear above the room, embraced, on the other side of a web in the space between web and ceiling-safe, for now, in the spider's web.
Author's Note: It's been a wild and really fun ride writing this, but it became far too long for only one book and due to some events in it, I had to split it into a second. I hope that if you enjoyed this, that you'll read the second one. For the record, I don't endorse most of the things Aestith does, and I'm actually a bit of a tree-hugging leftwing freethinker so it's kind of fun to put myself in the mind of someone so opposite myself. Are there bits of me in my characters? Oh, probably. We all have an inner monster, and sometimes that monster needs to come out to play.