With a groan and a stretch, Tali eased to her feet and chuckled, "Hopefully, that will never be necessary. Dungeons are always so damp and unpleasant." Carefully, she slid the chain and the unicorn into an inside fold of her dress, then dusted herself off and remarked, "Well, one thing's for sure. The rocks haven't gotten any warmer, these last few centuries." Grinning, crookedly, she half-knelt and reached a hand out to Tarlyn as he put away his pen and stuffed the pen box and the tattered journal back into his pack.
Tarlyn planted a hand on the stone beneath him to steady himself, then sighed as he rose to his feet as well. He shouldered the pack, looping one torn strap over his shoulder, and shrugged. "I can walk, I think…" He tilted his head to one side and listened for a few seconds before he said, "I'm surprised we can't hear the brood-mothers from here…" He blinked, and laughed. "Oh, that's right."
Tali chuckled herself, nodding quietly, and smiled proudly. "There aren't any anymore, nor any of the other transformed monstrosities." She brushed her hair back behind her ears as she continued. "We saved those who were still sane enough to be saved. We made them Drow again and let them start their lives over. The ones who had descended too far into madness to be healed… well, at least we gave them mercy. It's more than she would ever have done."
She stepped closer, standing straight once more, and reached her hand out to Tarlyn again. "Here. You're still tired and sore. I'll take us home the easy way. It means you'll need to touch me, though." She giggled softly and regarded him with a curious, playful little grin as she teased, "I hope that's not too severe a hardship." She waited, one eyebrow raised, as she watched his reaction.
He grinned a nervous, lopsided grin and gathered his courage as he reached for her hand. As he reached, he wondered first if she knew what she – and the way she was dressed, in that flimsy scrap of silk – was doing to him, then concluded that she probably did, and that was why she was laughing. Finally, his hand touched hers, and he curled his fingers around hers and held them tightly.
Biting the inside of her lip, Tali stifled another chuckle as she caught his thoughts, and said in a voice full of feigned innocence, "That's better. See? I'm not so bad. I don't bite." Pausing to reconsider, she added, "Well, not unless you ask me to." She squeezed his hand, and there was a moment of disorientation, then the darkness of the cavern was replaced with the multicolored faerie fire glow of Menzoberranzan. The city lay spread out far below them, and the two stood on a terrace hung between two stalactites, high above the streets.
"It's beautiful…" Tarlyn breathed as he gazed out over the city he hadn't seen in centuries. Suddenly, it dawned on him that there was only one place in the city that could have commanded such a view: Tier Breche, the ledge above the city where the academies stood. He turned, and his gaze swept over the pyramid that housed the warriors' academy, and the tower of Sorcere, the wizards' academy. He realized that where he stood was above and behind them, and realized a moment later that this was the ground on which Lolth's academy had once stood.
He stared around, then down, wide-eyed. Instead of the sprawling shape of a giant stone spider, he saw more terraces, buildings, and towers, forming a palatial version of a normal Drow family complex. "It's gone?" he asked, quietly and incredulously, then threw back his head and let out a long, high whoop of exultation. "Merciful spires, it's gone!" he exclaimed, and grinned hugely as he turned back to the panorama of the city.
As he stared, a soft hiss, as of a desert wind, came from behind Tali. "Well. You're back early." She just smirked and remained still, and Tarlyn whipped around to find the source of the voice. He almost immediately regretted it – behind Tali stood a vision from his nightmares. A tall, lanky man with jet-black fur and the head of a jackal returned Tarlyn's gaze with luminous, golden, slitted, snakelike eyes. "I hope you haven't been telling your friend here about the gardens, little elf," he hissed, "…because they're not done yet."
Tarlyn leapt backwards and drew his sword, stumbling and staring in horror. He fell back against the terrace's railing, and almost tumbled over it when his sword abruptly became a spray of colorful flowers in his hand. Swallowing hard, he grasped the railing and stared at the flowers helplessly.
"For me?" hissed the jackal-man. "How thoughtful of you, boy." He grinned a snake-fanged grin and flicked a forked tongue out in a taunting little wave.
Tali covered her face with one hand, shaking her head, for a second, and then stepped between them. She reached out and gingerly pulled Tarlyn back from the edge with one hand, then turned to cast an aggravated but friendly gaze at the jackal and said with forced patience, "Now really, do you always have to be so dramatic? You're going to scare me half to death one of these days, never mind any of my visitors."
Chuckling fondly, she turned to Tarlyn. "This is Set," she said by way of introduction. "He's harmless enough. I'll have to tell you about his part in all this, if you want to hear the whole sordid story sometime." Turning back to Set, she murmured, "Set, this is Tarlyn. He's… going to be here for a while, so be nice."
"Charmed, I'm sssure," Set hissed, then turned and glided away in unearthly silence.
Tarlyn let his breath go in a rush and stared after Set warily, his skin still crawling. He looked down at his hands, and shook his head when he saw that the bunch of flowers had become his sword again. He slid it back into its scabbard, struggling to regain his composure, then nodded and said softly, "Of course I do. I guess I'll need to buy some paper. Does anyone down here take surface money anymore?"
Tali chuckled and nodded. "Most everyone, actually. We encourage trade with the surface world nowadays." She smiled thoughtfully. "I've actually got paper here, but we can still go to the market if you like. Maya, and what's left of the mortal half of my family, live down there, in the old family home near the marketplace." She, too, stared after Set as he departed, and murmured under her breath, "I wonder what Taksuret put in his coffee this morning…"
Falling back into spirits and into the conversation, Tarlyn stuck his tongue out in the direction Set had gone, then shrugged and smiled. "Whatever's easiest. I guess this story is going to take a lot longer than either of us thought." He gazed at Tali now, surreptitiously, his ears and cheeks pink even through the dark skin as he admired her. It took him a moment to tear his eyes away, but at last he asked, "So how did it happen? How did House T'Sarran really fall?"
Tali grinned and swept toward the nearest door leading inside. "It could take quite a while, yes. You did say everything, and that leaves an awful lot of ground to cover," she murmured, then raised a finger and chuckled softly. "Hold that question. I'll be right back," she said softly, and stepped through the door. Tarlyn watched her go, silently admiring her walk, then turned back and stared out over the city again in quiet disbelief.
A few minutes later, Tali returned, with a book tucked under one arm and a full wineglass in each hand. She gestured to a pair of light but comfortable chairs a short distance away on the terrace and smiled charmingly. "Shall we?" she inquired. Once they were seated, she handed Tarlyn a glass of wine and the book. "That one's blank," she explained. "I hope it will do." She shrugged quietly, and murmured, "There's no reason why we shouldn't be comfortable and enjoy the view while we talk."
Tarlyn barely stopped himself from remarking on the view he was enjoying as he slid his pack off and set it down beside him, then took a seat. He took the wineglass and settled the book in his lap, bowing his head in thanks. Clearing his throat a little self-consciously, he raised his glass and whispered, "To the Queen of the Underdark."
It was Tali's turn to blush this time. "Indeed…" she responded with a smile, her ears flushing as pink as his had earlier. "And to good people, and long overdue change." She raised her glass and touched it to his with a soft clink of crystal, then lowered it and took a small sip. "I guess I am, aren't I? But please… just call me Tali. My friends always have."
Tarlyn's pulse quickened as the implication set in. "Tali…" he whispered, tasting the word, then aloud, more confidently. "Tali. All right. If you're sure." Even as he said it, he admonished himself for the spark of attraction she felt. Whatever he thought he was feeling, he was sure it couldn't be real. Goddesses don't do that, he told himself, no matter how beautiful they are. Even if they did, they certainly wouldn't with a nobody like him. He was embarrassed to hear a squeak in his voice as he fished out his pen. "So. Um. House T'Sarran's fall. You were talking about how it happened?"
Again, Tali caught his thoughts without strictly intending to, and she bowed her head, hoping that he wouldn't see her blush. She stared at her bare feet for a moment, then took a deep breath, looked up again, and sighed. "The house… right…" she said softly, then chuckled to herself. She berated herself for acting silly, then gathered her thoughts and picked up where she'd left off. "Well, I was raised to be a priestess. That was really pretty rare in my family. They were always sorcerers and mages-for-hire, but every family needs priestesses, so there I was. When it came time for me to attend the Academy, there were tests... and the test of loyalty exposed me for what I am." She shrugged, and smiled a little sadly. "I always had a pretty good idea I was different, just not how different..."
Tarlyn began writing again, in the same tiny, orderly script. He tucked his hair behind the points of his ears, and then continued writing as he fell easily into the routine of interviewing. "What was life like in the Academy?" he asked. "Was it different for you than for your classmates?" He looked up and waited expectantly for her answer.
Tali laughed and shook her head, then said quietly, "I never made it that far. You see…" She gestured to the two remaining academy buildings. "I don't know what it was like there, but when you were destined to be a priestess, Lolth herself touched you, to see what you were made of, if you were good enough and loyal enough…"
A subconscious shudder passed through her as she remembered. "She touched me, and I felt something else inside me." She raised her wineglass and took another small sip, then swirled the glass and sighed. "She saw something that didn't belong to her, and it frightened her. My father's blood made itself known when she touched me, and I found out what I really was. And I… I changed."
He nodded quietly, his pen making faint scratching sounds as he kept writing. Without looking up, he asked, "What happened to you, after that?"
Tali was silent for several minutes, until Tarlyn caught up and looked up at her. When he finally did, she heaved a sigh, set the wineglass down beside her chair, and rose to her feet. "What you're about to see," she cautioned him, "…isn't a spell. It isn't an illusion. It's what I am. It's what I was born, and never learned to use until the first time I was threatened." Her voice was quiet and heavy with misery. So many times, she'd shown this to someone who asked her about her story, only to have them panic and leave when she showed them, and she quietly hoped that this wouldn't be another such case.
As Tarlyn watched with wide, curious eyes, Tali closed her eyes, and her form changed. Suddenly, her black skin and snowy hair had a strange copper cast, a small pair of horns peeked out of the mane of her hair, and a pair of huge, wickedly clawed black wings spread out behind her. She looked every inch the demon she claimed to be. Then in a rapid-fire series of changes, she became a redheaded human girl, a pale-skinned and silver-haired surface elf, and a wolf-woman covered in plush white fur.
A second later, she was herself again, and she collected her wineglass and settled back into her chair. "What happened…" she mused. "As I understand it, the priestesses were ordered to kill me. They were holding me prisoner, preparing for a proper sacrifice. My brother Mourn somehow managed to set me free." She sighed quietly, the regret and pain becoming more evident in her voice with every word. "He was so young, and I never paid him any mind… he was male, why would I have? That's what they taught us." She laughed a deep, bitter, aching laugh. "He was male, so he was less. Not worth my notice. But he risked his life to set me free, even knowing the monster I was."
The tears welled up in her eyes and flowed freely down her cheeks as she spoke. "They caught us. I wanted to take him with me. I wanted us to get away together… but he insisted that I go on alone, and took them on by himself." She shook her head and said softly and vehemently, "I swore… I promised him… I'd never make the mistake of disregarding someone just because they were male again, as long as I lived. And I won't."
It took Tarlyn several long minutes to catch up. He wrote down her words, exactly as she spoke them, then added notes each time she paused. He looked up briefly, then looked down at the page again. She was crying, tears of grief and pain… for a male? This woman really was something completely different… "I knew Mourn T'Sarran," he said softly. "Not for very long," he added sadly. "Why did he save you? Did he ever give you a reason?" He thought he knew the answer, but he wanted to record it in her words.
"All he ever said," Tali said in a quiet voice choked with tears, "…was that it wasn't right. That I was his sister. It meant something to him, in a way it never did to anyone else. He was so different… he had a soul that few other Drow have ever had…" She leaned her head back against the back of the chair and stared up into the darkness of the cavern ceiling above as she struggled to compose herself. When she finally regained control of her voice, she blinked away the tears and continued. "They murdered him for it. He and my mother were both sacrificed. Him for letting me get away, and her for giving birth to me in the first place. The rest of the family, she allowed to survive, provided that they managed to destroy me."
In shock, all Tarlyn could do for a moment was shake his head. He shook it off, and continued writing. "It's an honor and a mark of favor for a priestess to have a child with a demon, and they killed your mother for it. Absolute insanity." He looked up at her again for a moment, sadly wishing he could do something to ease her pain, then looked down and asked softly, "How did you escape?"
As she brushed the last few tears from her cheeks with a fingertip, Tali shrugged and mused, "My father was the wrong demon, apparently. I guess I was some kind of threat." She threw her head back and laughed, simultaneously merry and a little bitter. "Well, in the end, I suppose I was, wasn't I? Then, though…" She shook her head. "Then, I ran." She took a deep gulp from her wineglass, then eyed it critically and shivered as she remembered. "Once, I got cornered. I changed again, gods only know how, and I slaughtered three priestesses. It was either blind luck or someone looking out for me, I guess."
She heaved a sigh and gestured toward the main road out of the city and into the wilds of the Underdark. "I still don't know how I managed to get out of the city and into the caverns, but I did." She smiled fondly. "I hid, in the same cavern I took you to before we came here. That's been my safe spot for a great many years now." She shrugged and smiled faintly. "I stayed there and lived as best I could, until I was sure that they weren't searching that close to the city for me anymore. After that… I had nowhere else to go. I was a rogue… alone… so I made my way to the one place they feared. I went to the surface."
[You guessed it. Still more to come…]
Tarlyn planted a hand on the stone beneath him to steady himself, then sighed as he rose to his feet as well. He shouldered the pack, looping one torn strap over his shoulder, and shrugged. "I can walk, I think…" He tilted his head to one side and listened for a few seconds before he said, "I'm surprised we can't hear the brood-mothers from here…" He blinked, and laughed. "Oh, that's right."
Tali chuckled herself, nodding quietly, and smiled proudly. "There aren't any anymore, nor any of the other transformed monstrosities." She brushed her hair back behind her ears as she continued. "We saved those who were still sane enough to be saved. We made them Drow again and let them start their lives over. The ones who had descended too far into madness to be healed… well, at least we gave them mercy. It's more than she would ever have done."
She stepped closer, standing straight once more, and reached her hand out to Tarlyn again. "Here. You're still tired and sore. I'll take us home the easy way. It means you'll need to touch me, though." She giggled softly and regarded him with a curious, playful little grin as she teased, "I hope that's not too severe a hardship." She waited, one eyebrow raised, as she watched his reaction.
He grinned a nervous, lopsided grin and gathered his courage as he reached for her hand. As he reached, he wondered first if she knew what she – and the way she was dressed, in that flimsy scrap of silk – was doing to him, then concluded that she probably did, and that was why she was laughing. Finally, his hand touched hers, and he curled his fingers around hers and held them tightly.
Biting the inside of her lip, Tali stifled another chuckle as she caught his thoughts, and said in a voice full of feigned innocence, "That's better. See? I'm not so bad. I don't bite." Pausing to reconsider, she added, "Well, not unless you ask me to." She squeezed his hand, and there was a moment of disorientation, then the darkness of the cavern was replaced with the multicolored faerie fire glow of Menzoberranzan. The city lay spread out far below them, and the two stood on a terrace hung between two stalactites, high above the streets.
"It's beautiful…" Tarlyn breathed as he gazed out over the city he hadn't seen in centuries. Suddenly, it dawned on him that there was only one place in the city that could have commanded such a view: Tier Breche, the ledge above the city where the academies stood. He turned, and his gaze swept over the pyramid that housed the warriors' academy, and the tower of Sorcere, the wizards' academy. He realized that where he stood was above and behind them, and realized a moment later that this was the ground on which Lolth's academy had once stood.
He stared around, then down, wide-eyed. Instead of the sprawling shape of a giant stone spider, he saw more terraces, buildings, and towers, forming a palatial version of a normal Drow family complex. "It's gone?" he asked, quietly and incredulously, then threw back his head and let out a long, high whoop of exultation. "Merciful spires, it's gone!" he exclaimed, and grinned hugely as he turned back to the panorama of the city.
As he stared, a soft hiss, as of a desert wind, came from behind Tali. "Well. You're back early." She just smirked and remained still, and Tarlyn whipped around to find the source of the voice. He almost immediately regretted it – behind Tali stood a vision from his nightmares. A tall, lanky man with jet-black fur and the head of a jackal returned Tarlyn's gaze with luminous, golden, slitted, snakelike eyes. "I hope you haven't been telling your friend here about the gardens, little elf," he hissed, "…because they're not done yet."
Tarlyn leapt backwards and drew his sword, stumbling and staring in horror. He fell back against the terrace's railing, and almost tumbled over it when his sword abruptly became a spray of colorful flowers in his hand. Swallowing hard, he grasped the railing and stared at the flowers helplessly.
"For me?" hissed the jackal-man. "How thoughtful of you, boy." He grinned a snake-fanged grin and flicked a forked tongue out in a taunting little wave.
Tali covered her face with one hand, shaking her head, for a second, and then stepped between them. She reached out and gingerly pulled Tarlyn back from the edge with one hand, then turned to cast an aggravated but friendly gaze at the jackal and said with forced patience, "Now really, do you always have to be so dramatic? You're going to scare me half to death one of these days, never mind any of my visitors."
Chuckling fondly, she turned to Tarlyn. "This is Set," she said by way of introduction. "He's harmless enough. I'll have to tell you about his part in all this, if you want to hear the whole sordid story sometime." Turning back to Set, she murmured, "Set, this is Tarlyn. He's… going to be here for a while, so be nice."
"Charmed, I'm sssure," Set hissed, then turned and glided away in unearthly silence.
Tarlyn let his breath go in a rush and stared after Set warily, his skin still crawling. He looked down at his hands, and shook his head when he saw that the bunch of flowers had become his sword again. He slid it back into its scabbard, struggling to regain his composure, then nodded and said softly, "Of course I do. I guess I'll need to buy some paper. Does anyone down here take surface money anymore?"
Tali chuckled and nodded. "Most everyone, actually. We encourage trade with the surface world nowadays." She smiled thoughtfully. "I've actually got paper here, but we can still go to the market if you like. Maya, and what's left of the mortal half of my family, live down there, in the old family home near the marketplace." She, too, stared after Set as he departed, and murmured under her breath, "I wonder what Taksuret put in his coffee this morning…"
Falling back into spirits and into the conversation, Tarlyn stuck his tongue out in the direction Set had gone, then shrugged and smiled. "Whatever's easiest. I guess this story is going to take a lot longer than either of us thought." He gazed at Tali now, surreptitiously, his ears and cheeks pink even through the dark skin as he admired her. It took him a moment to tear his eyes away, but at last he asked, "So how did it happen? How did House T'Sarran really fall?"
Tali grinned and swept toward the nearest door leading inside. "It could take quite a while, yes. You did say everything, and that leaves an awful lot of ground to cover," she murmured, then raised a finger and chuckled softly. "Hold that question. I'll be right back," she said softly, and stepped through the door. Tarlyn watched her go, silently admiring her walk, then turned back and stared out over the city again in quiet disbelief.
A few minutes later, Tali returned, with a book tucked under one arm and a full wineglass in each hand. She gestured to a pair of light but comfortable chairs a short distance away on the terrace and smiled charmingly. "Shall we?" she inquired. Once they were seated, she handed Tarlyn a glass of wine and the book. "That one's blank," she explained. "I hope it will do." She shrugged quietly, and murmured, "There's no reason why we shouldn't be comfortable and enjoy the view while we talk."
Tarlyn barely stopped himself from remarking on the view he was enjoying as he slid his pack off and set it down beside him, then took a seat. He took the wineglass and settled the book in his lap, bowing his head in thanks. Clearing his throat a little self-consciously, he raised his glass and whispered, "To the Queen of the Underdark."
It was Tali's turn to blush this time. "Indeed…" she responded with a smile, her ears flushing as pink as his had earlier. "And to good people, and long overdue change." She raised her glass and touched it to his with a soft clink of crystal, then lowered it and took a small sip. "I guess I am, aren't I? But please… just call me Tali. My friends always have."
Tarlyn's pulse quickened as the implication set in. "Tali…" he whispered, tasting the word, then aloud, more confidently. "Tali. All right. If you're sure." Even as he said it, he admonished himself for the spark of attraction she felt. Whatever he thought he was feeling, he was sure it couldn't be real. Goddesses don't do that, he told himself, no matter how beautiful they are. Even if they did, they certainly wouldn't with a nobody like him. He was embarrassed to hear a squeak in his voice as he fished out his pen. "So. Um. House T'Sarran's fall. You were talking about how it happened?"
Again, Tali caught his thoughts without strictly intending to, and she bowed her head, hoping that he wouldn't see her blush. She stared at her bare feet for a moment, then took a deep breath, looked up again, and sighed. "The house… right…" she said softly, then chuckled to herself. She berated herself for acting silly, then gathered her thoughts and picked up where she'd left off. "Well, I was raised to be a priestess. That was really pretty rare in my family. They were always sorcerers and mages-for-hire, but every family needs priestesses, so there I was. When it came time for me to attend the Academy, there were tests... and the test of loyalty exposed me for what I am." She shrugged, and smiled a little sadly. "I always had a pretty good idea I was different, just not how different..."
Tarlyn began writing again, in the same tiny, orderly script. He tucked his hair behind the points of his ears, and then continued writing as he fell easily into the routine of interviewing. "What was life like in the Academy?" he asked. "Was it different for you than for your classmates?" He looked up and waited expectantly for her answer.
Tali laughed and shook her head, then said quietly, "I never made it that far. You see…" She gestured to the two remaining academy buildings. "I don't know what it was like there, but when you were destined to be a priestess, Lolth herself touched you, to see what you were made of, if you were good enough and loyal enough…"
A subconscious shudder passed through her as she remembered. "She touched me, and I felt something else inside me." She raised her wineglass and took another small sip, then swirled the glass and sighed. "She saw something that didn't belong to her, and it frightened her. My father's blood made itself known when she touched me, and I found out what I really was. And I… I changed."
He nodded quietly, his pen making faint scratching sounds as he kept writing. Without looking up, he asked, "What happened to you, after that?"
Tali was silent for several minutes, until Tarlyn caught up and looked up at her. When he finally did, she heaved a sigh, set the wineglass down beside her chair, and rose to her feet. "What you're about to see," she cautioned him, "…isn't a spell. It isn't an illusion. It's what I am. It's what I was born, and never learned to use until the first time I was threatened." Her voice was quiet and heavy with misery. So many times, she'd shown this to someone who asked her about her story, only to have them panic and leave when she showed them, and she quietly hoped that this wouldn't be another such case.
As Tarlyn watched with wide, curious eyes, Tali closed her eyes, and her form changed. Suddenly, her black skin and snowy hair had a strange copper cast, a small pair of horns peeked out of the mane of her hair, and a pair of huge, wickedly clawed black wings spread out behind her. She looked every inch the demon she claimed to be. Then in a rapid-fire series of changes, she became a redheaded human girl, a pale-skinned and silver-haired surface elf, and a wolf-woman covered in plush white fur.
A second later, she was herself again, and she collected her wineglass and settled back into her chair. "What happened…" she mused. "As I understand it, the priestesses were ordered to kill me. They were holding me prisoner, preparing for a proper sacrifice. My brother Mourn somehow managed to set me free." She sighed quietly, the regret and pain becoming more evident in her voice with every word. "He was so young, and I never paid him any mind… he was male, why would I have? That's what they taught us." She laughed a deep, bitter, aching laugh. "He was male, so he was less. Not worth my notice. But he risked his life to set me free, even knowing the monster I was."
The tears welled up in her eyes and flowed freely down her cheeks as she spoke. "They caught us. I wanted to take him with me. I wanted us to get away together… but he insisted that I go on alone, and took them on by himself." She shook her head and said softly and vehemently, "I swore… I promised him… I'd never make the mistake of disregarding someone just because they were male again, as long as I lived. And I won't."
It took Tarlyn several long minutes to catch up. He wrote down her words, exactly as she spoke them, then added notes each time she paused. He looked up briefly, then looked down at the page again. She was crying, tears of grief and pain… for a male? This woman really was something completely different… "I knew Mourn T'Sarran," he said softly. "Not for very long," he added sadly. "Why did he save you? Did he ever give you a reason?" He thought he knew the answer, but he wanted to record it in her words.
"All he ever said," Tali said in a quiet voice choked with tears, "…was that it wasn't right. That I was his sister. It meant something to him, in a way it never did to anyone else. He was so different… he had a soul that few other Drow have ever had…" She leaned her head back against the back of the chair and stared up into the darkness of the cavern ceiling above as she struggled to compose herself. When she finally regained control of her voice, she blinked away the tears and continued. "They murdered him for it. He and my mother were both sacrificed. Him for letting me get away, and her for giving birth to me in the first place. The rest of the family, she allowed to survive, provided that they managed to destroy me."
In shock, all Tarlyn could do for a moment was shake his head. He shook it off, and continued writing. "It's an honor and a mark of favor for a priestess to have a child with a demon, and they killed your mother for it. Absolute insanity." He looked up at her again for a moment, sadly wishing he could do something to ease her pain, then looked down and asked softly, "How did you escape?"
As she brushed the last few tears from her cheeks with a fingertip, Tali shrugged and mused, "My father was the wrong demon, apparently. I guess I was some kind of threat." She threw her head back and laughed, simultaneously merry and a little bitter. "Well, in the end, I suppose I was, wasn't I? Then, though…" She shook her head. "Then, I ran." She took a deep gulp from her wineglass, then eyed it critically and shivered as she remembered. "Once, I got cornered. I changed again, gods only know how, and I slaughtered three priestesses. It was either blind luck or someone looking out for me, I guess."
She heaved a sigh and gestured toward the main road out of the city and into the wilds of the Underdark. "I still don't know how I managed to get out of the city and into the caverns, but I did." She smiled fondly. "I hid, in the same cavern I took you to before we came here. That's been my safe spot for a great many years now." She shrugged and smiled faintly. "I stayed there and lived as best I could, until I was sure that they weren't searching that close to the city for me anymore. After that… I had nowhere else to go. I was a rogue… alone… so I made my way to the one place they feared. I went to the surface."
[You guessed it. Still more to come…]