Writer's note: The first chapter in a while where the uncensored version differs significantly from the ff version. I'll say now that in the last ten-or-so chapters of this story they are all likely to be censored to a point; so if you prefer your sex and violence implied rather than graphic, it is probably best to stay here where it is safe. ;)
"Are you sure about this?" Rasaad asked doubtfully.
"Nope," grinned Coran. "Even I have never courted a drow before, but you've got to start somewhere!"
They had reached Beregost and were pausing to eat and swap horses. Jaheira was convinced that the four of them could make the Friendly Arm Inn by sundown. In the meantime, the elf had dragged Rasaad to the market and the two had returned bearing a huge bouquet of pink and purple flowers and a large box tied up in silk ribbon.
"Should I give them to her now? Or wait until tonight?"
"No time like the present!" Coran replied, slapping him on the back bracingly. "And if she doesn't like them, that gives you hours of riding time to plan your next move!"
"My next move? You make love sound like a board game," Rasaad said wryly.
"Love is a game! One with which I never get bored."
So it happened, that over a fine lunch of venison haunch and root vegetables, Rasaad pulled out the blooms and the box and placed them before an astonished Viconia.
"What are you doing? Idiot male! Are you trying to draw the rivvins' attention to me?" she hissed, staring horrified at the bright blossoms. Their colours glowed like a beacon amidst the muted greys and browns of the tavern around them.
"Forgive me. I did not think-"
"And what is in the box, dare I ask?"
"Marzipan," Rasaad waivered. Viconia scoffed.
"I hate sweets, but- hmm… Candied violets with anise seeds are not bad. Make me some human."
The drow busied herself with her meal. Rasaad looked beseechingly at Coran who gave an encouraging little nod. Sure, Viconia disliked the gift, but she had indicated what she would like which was a start.
"Marzipan, you say?" Jaheira licked her lips delicately. The druid retained little from her childhood as a noble lady, it had come to such an abrupt and violent end. Yet her parents had sometimes bought her marzipan as a treat and her partiality for the sweets had never really faded.
"Hands off! They are mine!" Viconia snapped petulantly.
"You don't even like them!" Jaheira protested.
"True, but I don't like you either," Viconia smirked, tossing Rasaad's gift into the fire.
"Grow up!" Jaheira snarled, sniffing wistfully as the scent of charred sugar and almond filled the inn.
"Excuse me ladies," said Coran, rising to his feet and bowing.
With almost unseemly haste the elf left the tavern.
"Where do you think you are going? We're riding north straight after lunch!" Jaheira hollered after him, but Coran was already gone. "Ugh, it's like herding cats!"
Coran returned just as they were saddling up the horses with a bundle tucked under his arm.
"You bought the anise seeds?" Rasaad whispered to him, helping him onto his horse. "How can I thank you my friend?"
There was a sudden commotion from down the road. A red-faced man in an apron was running from the direction of the market. He was pointing at Coran and bellowing expletives.
"Not bought exactly," Coran mumbled awkwardly. "They were imported… quite expensive… and I'm a bit short on cash. I'll send the money by courier when we get to Baldur's Gate but in the meantime I think we had better…"
"Stop! Thief!" shrieked the furious stallholder whom Coran had pilfered the spices from.
"Coran!" Rasaad and Jaheira cried together.
"Idiot darthiir!" Viconia snapped, flicking the reigns of her mount.
There was nothing the others could do but gallop after the chaotic elf as he rode away laughing. He hadn't done this in a while. It felt good. Jaheira drew level with him in order to berate him breathlessly, but he didn't care. He held the reigns in one hand, pulled an octagon-shaped box from his stolen bundle with the other and held it out to her.
"That had better not be marzipan!" the druid hollered, though she snatched it from his grasp just the same.
"It is!" Coran replied cheerfully.
Jaheira made a dangerous noise somewhere between a growl and a hiss. She lowered her staff like a lance and rode at him full-tilt in the manner of a jousting knight. In response Coran clicked his heels against the horse's flank and went galloping off up the road, laughing raucously and causing two farmers on the roadside to tut-tut and mutter under their breath to one another about 'hooligans.'
"Childish surfacers," Viconia sniffed, with a superior air.
"I certainly cannot condone theft, even with the intent to repay, for so trivial a cause!" Rasaad agreed.
The pair rode on in lofty silence. The elves would soon be out of sight but their horses would tire of the gallop and they would catch them up in due course.
"How long do you suppose it will take Arowan to reach Baldur's Gate?" Viconia asked.
"Difficult to say, it depends what route she took and what resources she still has at her disposal," Rasaad replied after thinking about it for a moment. "Why do you ask?"
"I am trying to decide what to do when we get there," Viconia said. "I'm not keen on walking through the front gates without a plan. Yet so much depends on whether Arowan gets there before us. She and Bodhi will prove a formidable alliance."
"Bodhi already has it in for Coran and Jaheira even without Arowan's input, but we have allies of our own," Rasaad reminded her. "Bernard is stationed there and we must assume that there are other Harpers keeping watch. Captain Corwin is on our side and as Freya's heir, Coran is the wealthiest man in Baldur's Gate. With such assets we are not without our strength."
"Assuming the darthiir is even allowed to access his money. Everyone thinks he is a lunatic," she mused. Her red eyes squinted at the elf cantering off into the distance and waving at Jaheira teasingly. Her lip twitched. "Or should I say that everyone knows he is a lunatic?"
By the time they reached the Friendly Arm a soft golden sunset was lighting the sky above its battlements.
"I wonder what's for supper?" Coran sighed longingly.
"Missing our creature comforts, are we?" Jaheira mocked.
"On the subject of creatures I've missed!" Viconia cried suddenly.
A black cat with peculiar markings etched into its fur slunk out from under a cart and wound herself, purring, around the drow's legs. Viconia scooped it up, and it kneaded her shoulder contentedly, pausing only to give Rasaad a savage hiss. Last time he had come across this creature she had been accidentally hurled at him. Clearly Cat had neither forgiven nor forgotten the incident.
"What a sweet girl, how I wish I could keep you," Viconia crooned, stroking its velvety ears. "But it's too dangerous where we're going."
Coran swung down off his horse, tossing the stolen anise seed to Rasaad with a grin. The monk took it straight to the kitchens with his instructions but it was of little help to him. Viconia ate one treat, fed another to her cat and ignored the rest. If she appreciated the gesture, she did not show it.
"I do not believe that flowers and candies play a significant part in drow courtship," Rasaad mused to Coran later.
"Have you tried a more direct approach?" the elf whispered.
"Direct how?"
"We-ell… she does often bring up the pleasure slaves of Menzoberranzan and the… er… premium she places on male size, and I have seen you take a piss in the woods from time to time and…"
"I do not think I like where this is going."
"Consider the possibilities! We could tie you up in her room and leave you there with a whip, it'll be just like old times for her. A taste of home so to speak," the elf suggested brightly. "Or you could try licking her boots? Wait! I've got it! Take the ribbon from your last gift to her and instead tie it in a bow around your-"
"Coran!" Rasaad exclaimed, turning purple. "Might I remind you that you are talking to me and not Freya! While I value your advice could you possibly make it a little less obscene?" Coran snickered and Rasaad groaned. "I am aware (however much I might wish for the blessing of ignorance) that Freya would have considered what you just implied to be tame. However, I am not prepared to present myself in Viconia's bedroom with any part of my anatomy wrapped in ribbons."
"Suit yourself," shrugged Coran. He drummed his long clever fingers over the inn's stone walls. It was more like a castle courtyard than a tavern, and so it had once been under previous ownership. "It seems to me," he said slowly, "That what Viconia would really like, more than anything else, is Bhaal's assistance against Lolth."
"That is a more serious matter than just my feelings!" Rasaad reprimanded him sternly. "Viconia faces an eternity of agony if the Spider Queen gets a hold of her. I pray to Selune nightly to grant me the wisdom to find a way but-"
"Just to Selune?" Coran cut him off.
Rasaad pressed his lips together defiantly and folded his broad arms, just as the sun slipped below the battlements plunging them both into shadow.
"Selune would not intervene on behalf of a servant of Shar," Rasaad said. Somehow in the darkness Alorgoth's vestments took on a life of their own and the monk's demeaner came over as almost menacing.
"But this Twofold goddess might?" Coran suggested quietly. "That's widely considered heresy. Tread careful Rasaad. It is no small thing to cross the gods."
"As you would know! A so-called follower of the Seldarine who consorts with Bhaal!" Rasaad snapped, but he quickly took a deep breath to recover himself. He was still unsure in his own mind of where he stood theologically. "In any case, if I knew how to force Bhaal to do the right thing I would do it, regardless of my and Viconia's… status."
Coran leaned against the wall, grimaced and thumped his small fist backwards against the stonework in frustration.
"Bhaal can be such a git sometimes. But there has to be a way!"
"You know him better than anyone else. If anyone can find a way to get to him it's you." Suddenly the monk perked up. "What if you were to throw yourself between Lolth and Viconia? Then he'd step in to save you!"
Coran shook his head.
"I thought about trying something like that, but it won't work. He could just teleport me to safety and leave Lolth to it. They wouldn't fight over me, I'm not her target." The elf chewed his cheek. "If only we had some way to make Bhaal owe Viconia. Really owe her I mean. A divine debt, not just a moral one."
Rasaad nodded thoughtfully before the two men parted ways. In a quiet part of the courtyard near the cowshed, he settled cross-legged into the straw and began his evening meditations. These days focusing on the moonlight reflecting off water had a hard time competing with the higher priority thoughts vying for his attention and tonight was no exception.
Divine debt. The only living (if you could call it that) person to whom Bhaal owed a divine debt was Skie Silvershield. That debt had been incurred by her ancestor Maire and her husband in extreme circumstances involving the opening of the gate to hell and Bhaal almost dying in mortal form. Circumstances that could never be replicated.
Moonlight was reflecting from the water in the cows' trough. The Sun Soul order taught that the reflection of moonlight from water was illuminating in more ways than one. It was one of their favourite metaphors for reeling in new followers. He had relayed it to Arrow the very first time they had met in the woods outside of Nashkel.
"What we see as moonlight first comes from the sun," he recalled under his breath. "From the moon it reflects again off the water before it reaches us… before it reaches us! Goddess be praised!"
Rasaad exclaimed suddenly and leapt to his feet, causing the drowsy cattle to wake in alarm and start mooing loudly. He pelted for the inn, ignoring the startled looks from drinking travellers, bounded up the stairs and hammered loudly on Viconia's bedroom door.
Viconia did not answer Rasaad's knocking. In fact, behind the wooden timbers she was rather alarmed. There was a rule about violence at the Friendly Arm, but she did not trust these surfacers to abide by it when it came to drow. Jaheira, however, stumbled out of the neighbouring room looking bleary-eyed and cross.
"What has gotten into you?" she groaned. Hearing Jaheira's voice, Viconia cautiously opened her own door a fraction. She glared when she caught sight of Rasaad for his daring to disturb and frighten her.
Two doors down, Coran stuck his head and shoulders out curiously. He was leaning his torso around the door with a glass of wine in his hand and from the way his bare flesh was dripping it was clear that Rasaad had interrupted his bath.
"Our goddess has given me the answer!" Rasaad cried, grasping Viconia's doorframe. "The moonlight first comes from the sun, from the moon it reflects again upon the water before it reaches us. Skie is the water, don't you see?"
"What do you mean our goddess?" Viconia eyed him suspiciously. "Is this some reference to the Twofold? Are you officially declaring your status as a heretic now?"
"No! Maybe… I don't know! That's not important!" Rasaad jabbered. "I mean it is important, forgive me," he added with an apologetic glance at the heavens. He took a deep breath. "I was meditating on how light reflects from the moon to the water to us and how we are all connected. The divine debt is like the light. It can pass from person to person. From the Silvershields to their descendant Skie and from Skie-"
"-to us!" Coran clapped his hands together triumphantly, spilling his wine and releasing his grip on the door in the process.
"What are you idiots prattling on about this time?" moaned Jaheira, who was too tired to endure a full-frontal view of Coran's water-logged crotch.
"You're saying that I should release Skie's soul for Bhaal before he has a chance to do it himself," Viconia said softly. "So that the debt he owes to her will pass to me instead."
"Yes!"
"Rasaad yn Bashir that is… that is genius!" she cried, wrenching the door open and flinging her arms about his thick neck. Without warning she pressed her lips passionately against his own, so that he almost stumbled backward from shock. "I owe you so much," she panted as they broke apart. "You are my safe harbour in a storm of terrifying power. My need for you enthrals and enrages me all at once."
She ran her fingers over his broad chest, still scarred from surviving numerous fights. Her mouth pressed warm and hungry over his, and he parted his lips to let her tongue tease his teeth. As her leg wrapped around him, he hoisted her onto his hips, hand resting under her buttocks. They were so lost in the moment that they had forgotten that they had an audience. At least Rasaad had. Viconia just didn't care.
"I hate to pour cold water on this volcano of oversharing," Jaheira cut in waspishly, "But you might find this plan easier said than done. Arowan still has the Soultaker dagger, and without it we haven't a hope of restoring Skie."
"Then I suppose we'll just have to steal it from her," Coran winked. "After all, Jaheira, it's not like I've never broken into Arowan's bedroom before."
In response the druid shot him a look that could have made an oak tree wilt. Of course, Coran could benefit from some wilting. When Viconia had thrown herself at Rasaad, the naked elf had hastily concealed his lower half behind his bedroom door once more, and it did not take a woman as worldly as Jaheira to deduce why.
"Let us try to get some sleep then," she replied, her jaw almost locked with irritation. "Come hell or high water we ride to Baldur's Gate tomorrow where for the good of all Toril I will try to assist you in carrying out this insane plan. Oh, and Coran?"
"Yes?" the elf smiled hopefully.
"The next time I lay eyes upon you, you had best be wearing some pants. Else I will be forced to demonstrate to you just how much years of practise with a druid's sickle have honed my skills at harvesting nuts."
"It's not my fault- I was in the bath!" the elf protested modestly. "The water is still warm by the way if you happened to fancy joining… ah. Is that a druid's sickle I see in your hand already? Goodnight then Jaheira."
"Goodnight," the druid rolled her eyes as Viconia seized Rasaad by his shirt and dragged him into her bedroom.