D'Aron d'lil D'Issan rubbed his eyes and yawned. He had been standing watch in the High Palace since the sun had set, and now as the night wore on, he found it hard to stay awake. Thalion had passed by earlier on her way to her god-mother's chambers to celebrate her one hundred and twenty fifth birthday, and she had not even noticed him. He honestly loved her, but sometimes the elven maiden was oblivious to all around her, especially her doting suitor.
The air was thick with the smell of the moonflowers as they bloomed out in the garden, and their aroma was like a sweet lullaby to the dark skinned elf. He was not a full-blooded drow, or he probably would not have been allowed to stand in the High Palace as a guard, even though recent events had seemed to slightly change the way the surface world viewed his father's race. His skin carried a pale purplish hue, and his hair was mostly white, with several darker streaks thrown in as a sign from his mother, a Moon-Elf.
A smile formed on his face briefly as he though of his father and mother; what a pair they had been! It was well known that drow elves hated their surface cousins; hated them enough to carry out surface raids against their light skinned counterparts. Yet, his father had fallen deeply in love with one.
**********
Mar'duk D'Issan was numbered among many of the drow males that were members of Bregan D'aerthe. The mercenary band, headed by the ever resourceful Jarlaxle Baenre, was one of the few ways that common males could hope to improve themselves in the chaotic matriarchal spectacle that was Menzoberranzan. Yet Mar'duk's lineage was not as common as was thought. He was one of several illegitimate children sired by Kimmuriel Oblodra in his younger years out of common drow stock.
After the fall of House Oblodra into the Clawrift, the mothers wisely hid their children's heritage so as not to invoke doom upon themselves and their houses. Yet in the city of the drow, nasty secrets always seemed to work their way back to the surface. By the time he entered the fighter's academy, Mar'duk's mother had been a hired guard for one of the city's lesser houses, House Vandree, when it came under severe attack by one of its rivals, another house. The attack was defeated, but at great cost to House Vandree. Many of its hired guards (Mar'duk's mother included) lay slain; but such was the way of life in Menzoberranzan; they would be replaced.
The bodies of the slain drow were unceremoniously delivered to their own houses, and Mar'duk saw to it that his mother was buried as best as they could afford, then he returned to his studies at Melee-Magthere. After graduation he returned home and tried to figure out what course his life should take. Would he be a hired guard like his mother? Or was there something else that he was destined to do?
His ponderings were interrupted by a knock on the door, which opened as though it had never been locked. In strode a drow wearing a ridiculous wide brimmed hat with a sweeping diatryma feather attached. His eye patch (on his left eye that day) sparkled in the darkness, and his enchanted boots clacked loudly on the floor. With a word, Mar'duk brightened the chamber and eyed his visitor with wide eyed wonder. "Greetings Mar'duk D'Issan, or perhaps I should say Mar'duk Oblodra," the cunning mercenary grinned, "I am sorry to hear what has befallen your mother."
Mar'duk returned Jarlaxle's revelation of his heritage with a dangerous glare. "How is it that you know this?" he asked when he had regained his composure. The bald mercenary bowed and replied with a grin, "It is my business, and I find it very profitable. The price for information here in Menzoberranzan is quite expensive, you know."
Did the leader of Bregan D'aerthe intend to sell information regarding his heritage to the highest bidder? If that was the case, Mar'duk imagination gave him several possibilities as to what his fate would be. An ambitious matron mother (which one wasn't?) would capture him and force him to be a patron, in the desire to strengthen her house through breeding with the remaining Oblodra blood in the hopes of producing children that would be talented psionicists like the Oblodra family before its fall into the Clawrift.
He smiled at the thought of being a patron, but Mar'duk's ideas changed quickly when he realized that eventually he would fall out of favor with his mate and then be sacrificed to Lolth, the spider queen. He looked back to Jarlaxle as the cunning mercenary smiled knowingly at him, "They would use you to their own gain, and then discard you when they were finished."
Not unlike what your father has suggested in doing with you, but I have other ideas, the third son of house Baenre thought. "What do you suggest that I do then, Jarlaxle?" Mar'duk asked. The answer "Join Bregan D'aerthe" did not surprise Mar'duk, and he gathered his things to follow his new leader out of his mother's house.
He followed in the mercenary's footsteps for many years, finally securing a position in Bregan D'aerthe that allowed him a little privacy. He was trained by his father to use his limited psionic skills to the best of his abilities, and he practiced day after day sharpening his weapons skills with many of the other members of the mercenary band.
He was eventually sent by Jarlaxle to scout out the areas of the Silver Marches surrounding Mithril Hall, because one of their clients (the powerful Matron Baenre) wanted to attack the dwarven stronghold and take it for her own. Mar'duk performed his mission as instructed and was on the way back to Menzoberranzan when he was captured by a patrol of Moon Elves. They carried him back with them to Moonwood, where he was imprisoned and interrogated.
After he was questioned by the elves, he was taken as a prisoner to Silverymoon to meet with Lady Alustriel. Mar'duk had lived in a matriarchal society for much of his life, but nothing he had seen before could prepare him for the spectacle that was the Lady of Silverymoon. Being that he was very much unaware of the surface elves' customs, he reacted as he would have if he was still in Menzoberranzan; he looked only at Alustriel's feet.
Instead of being disgusted by the prisoner, Lady Alustriel's curiosity was piqued. She arranged for the captured drow to stay in Silverymoon where she could watch after him, and protect him against any attack that might be proposed by his capturers or any other (for drow elves were known to be deadly menaces; and many would like to take a shot at the captured drow). Alustriel arranged for Mar'duk to be housed near the High Palace where they could meet often, and the drow could share with her his insights about the surface, and tales of his home. It was the Lady of Silverymoon who introduced him to the elven maiden that would one day be his wife.
He and the Silver Lady were to meet in the gardens of the High Palace as was the usual, but this time, Lady Alustriel brought a friend with her. "This is Dahlia, of the Moon elves that roam Moonwood," said Alustriel as they sat down next to the drow, "Her father was the one who captured you in the Silver Marches." Mar'duk acknowledged the visitor with a nod and smile. The smaller dark haired female elf smiled back and blushed slightly, "I wanted to see how Lady Alustriel was treating you," she said quietly.
Mar'duk finally realized that he had seen her many years before; she was the first surface elf to have shown him anything that resembled kindness. She had fed him and tended his wounds on his trip to Moonwood and then accompanied him to Silverymoon for his delivery to Lady Alustriel. Mar'duk smiled broadly at that realization, "She is treating me well, but she is not the one that I owe my life to. In Menzoberranzan, I would be so deeply in your debt Lady Dahlia, that I would most likely be your slave."
Lady Alustriel's eyes sparkled and she did well to hide her smile, for she knew from Mar'duk's tales of his Underdark home, that he would already be Dahlia's slave if she had been a female drow. Quick on his feet, this one is, mused Alustriel, no wonder he was able to keep his hide in the Underdark. The Silver Lady smiled as her Moon elf friend blushed again. "I have urgent Silverymoon business to attend to, so if you two will excuse me," Alustriel rose to leave. "The prisoner Mar'duk D'Issan is released to you Dahlia Tathren for this day," the older woman said with a sly wink. "Please have him returned to the Palace tonight."
Mar'duk and Dahlia explored much of Silverymoon in that bright afternoon. They visited many of the city's famed attractions, but the one that impressed the pair the most was Mielikki's Glade. Both felt the serenity of the Glade calling out to both of them, and they spent quite a while there sharing stories, Dahlia telling of the Moon elves, and Mar'duk sharing stories of the drow.
After the afternoon was over, the pair discovered that they actually had much in common; both craved adventure, both wondered what was over the horizon, and both were ready for their lives to sweep them away somewhere full of danger. He was returned to Lady Alustriel with Dahlia's promise that she would return and visit as often as she could. She was back the next week, and the next, and the next.
Their relationship quickly evolved from simple acquaintances, to good friends. They went on many day trips to the areas of the Silver Marches surrounding Silverymoon and returned full of tales for Lady Alustriel. The older woman was happy to see that the somewhat withdrawn and mysterious drow was opening his inner feelings completely to his new friend, but she wondered how long they would stay only friends.
A few months later, Dahlia and Mar'duk asked for the Silver Lady's blessing to be married, which she granted happily. As the two mismatched elves left Silverymoon to follow their destiny's path, Alustriel wondered where they would find a life that would accept them both, and the child that she knew would be coming soon.
They wandered the Silver Marches for a while seeking adventure until Dahlia could not safely travel with the baby inside of her. The day they returned to Silverymoon was a happy day for Lady Alustriel. She had her friends housed with her in part of the High Palace, and a few weeks later, the baby was born.
The boy most resembled his father, with his darkened skin and mostly white hair, but he had his mother's blue eyes. Mar'duk spent the morning waiting on Dahlia and their baby. He proudly carried his son to show Alustriel later that day. "We have named him D'Aron d'lil D'Issan," the proud drow father beamed. Knight of the Dawn, thought Lady Alustriel, How fitting a name for a half-drow born into the world of light.
D'Aron grew up at the High Palace under the careful watch of his protective "Auntie" Alustriel. His father earned a place in the Palace guard, and he spent his spare moments instructing his son on the use of weapons and his psionic gifts. Dahlia taught him Moon elf lore and magic when she was not out on patrol with the Knights in Silver. He grew up to be quite the handsome youth, and was the talk of many of the young ladies of Silverymoon.
Their fairy tale existence was abruptly ended the day that a messenger arrived from Moonwood telling them that Dahlia's father had died. Mar'duk and Dahlia set out immediately to attend to matters of the burial. D'Aron was left behind in Silverymoon, much to his disgust, but had he gone with his parents, he would have shared their grim fate.
They made it as far as the southern reaches of the Moonwood before they realized that something was terribly wrong. Mar'duk knew something was amiss and a sickening feeling in his gut told him what he hated to admit. The usual chorus of insects and night animals hushed suddenly. Mar'duk peered around the slight clearing in which they had made their camp. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as their pursuers finally showed themselves. It was a party of hunting drow, and as was customary for his dark race, they hunters only showed themselves after they were certain that the pair of mismatched elves were indeed alone in the middle of the Silver Marches.
"You disgrace the name of Bregan D'aerthe, you traitor!" spat the first drow to show his dark face. Mar'duk placed Dahlia protectively behind him. "We've been sent to clean up any loose ends," continued the drow, "and you've been deemed very loose by our current leader." Mar'duk's brows furrowed, "Why would Jarlaxle think that I'm a traitor?" he asked the leader of the assassination party.
"Jarlaxle? You think Jarlaxle sent us?" The drow laughed loudly and was joined by the others of the party. "Jarlaxle does not command Bregan D'aerthe now," the first drow said with a vicious snarl. Mar'duk wondered what fate had befallen his former friend, if one could call Jarlaxle that. "Kimmuriel Oblodra commands that his heir and rival be eliminated."
Heir and rival? If the breeze had been any stronger, Mar'duk would have been blown away. His father had gained control of Bregan D'aerthe? What had happened that would have precipitated this strange turn of events? He decided that he indeed was lost in the world of the drow even more than he had been that day long ago when Jarlaxle had invited him to join Bregan D'aerthe.
He turned and nodded to his wife. I'm so sorry, his eyes said. If I knew this was going to happen to us, I would have killed myself before I ever reached Silverymoon. Dahlia shook her head and glared back at him, So, we are just going to lie down and die? I think not. Her feral grin startled him back to his senses. They would fight this cruel fate. There were two of them and at least nine opposing drow. The sickening sound of swords being drawn and the clicking of drow crossbows being loaded brought him back to their desperate situation. Mar'duk did not want to admit it, but he knew that both of them would die here tonight. At least they would take a few of his miserable kin with them.
As a testament to their mentors, Tarathiel and Innovindil, Mar'duk and Dahlia danced about each other brilliantly using each other's spinning bodies as shields and even as weapons. They took the first assailant as they spun around each other, Mar'duk's sword taking the female in the lung and Dahlia's took out her throat. As the first drow crumpled and fell to the ground clutching at her throat, another took up her position. Mar'duk heard the clicking of fired crossbows and felt the crackling as his psionic barrier took the hits. He knew had he not set the barrier about both he and his wife, they would have been doomed in the first round of poisoned drow bolts.
The bolts hung in the air where they would have pierced his skin had the barrier not been present. The first would have hit him in the hip, then just above his right knee, and finally the last would be lodged in his left shoulder. He staggered slightly as another drow fell at his feet to his slashing blades. He caught his wife's eye as they spun about and dispatched another pair of drow with vicious slashes to their arms and faces. To his relief, she only seemed to be barely injured, where she had traded a rather vicious slash to her right forearm to a clean decapitation of the offending drow.
They continued to spin, building momentum, slashing out at their assailants as they passed. Mar'duk dropped suddenly and in one fluid motion sent Dahlia sailing around behind him. He grinned with satisfaction as the air was rent with a sickening crack, followed by the groaning of two more of their attackers. The first fell to the ground screaming in agony with a completely shattered hip and the other took a solid hit to the jaw. He fell and lay very still.
Mar'duk stood back up and met their remaining pair of attackers with a feral grin. The larger female started moving her fingers about in rapid movements, casting a spell. Both Dahlia and Mar'duk knew they could not defeat a wizard in their present conditions, so Mar'duk dropped his psionic barrier explosively in the hope that the casting drow would be caught in the ensuing blast.
His plan would have worked had the devilish female not grabbed the remaining male by his neck and placed him as a shield in front of her. Is the psionic energy dissipated, the drow wizard threw the corpse to the ground, wiped the bloody gore from her face with a sleeve and continued her chanting.
They knew that they could not escape. Dahlia threw her arms around Mar'duk as they hugged each other tightly. "I love you," she whispered in his ear with tears in her eyes. He smiled back and kissed her for the last time. The cast fireball exploded brightly, singeing the wizard's robes and her silver hair. She grinned in satisfaction of the grim scene; now complete with the charred carcasses of the traitor and his wife. Yet the female wizard had to admit, she was impressed. The frightened pair had been able to coordinate their movements enough to actually defeat eight of the drow that they faced. But then again, it only takes one drow to kill.
The murdered elves were found a few days later by a contingent of the Knights in Silver. Silverymoon was broken hearted; for the entire city had seemingly gotten swept up in the fairy-tale romance of Mar'duk and Dahlia. Alustriel was often seen with tears in her eyes, and D'Aron was found wandering the streets, listless.
Lady Alustriel was determined to see justice done, so she enlisted the help of her sister, Dove Falconhand, to try to find the remaining drow and bring her to justice. Yet even given the legendary skills of the ranger and her adventuring troupe, the drow had been able to escape, back to Menzoberranzan.
**********
D'Aron regretted that he had not been with his parents on that fateful night, perhaps, had he been there, they might have defeated the final drow and lived to tell the tale. The possibility that his parents could have been saved became a mental battle for the young half-drow. He constantly blamed himself for their demise, yet he knew he should not.
He quietly walked away from his post and out to the edge of the garden, as silent as a cat. His dark blue eyes glittered as he stood watching the play of the moths as they visited the moonflowers and flitted around in the silvery moonlight. He leaned his enchanted halberd against the wall behind him and sat down on one of the many stone benches. He leaned down, stretching to touch his toes and then reached up high above his head. He slowly twisted his slender limbs, and then reached back down to his neck, massaging his cramping muscles. His stretches completed, he stood again and slipped his hands down the back of his legs and gripped the hilts of the two swords that were strapped there.
When a moth flitted too close, D'Aron's well trained muscles sprung into action. In one fluid movement, he had drawn his swords from their sheaths and set them in a spinning pattern about the silvery moth. The speed of his strikes was dizzying, and the created whirlwind between the slender blades kept the moth flying around in circles, unable to break away from the prison of wind that the drow had created. In a few seconds, D'Aron slowed and allowed the dizzy moth to light on one of his blades. He sheathed the other and waited for the confused creature to regain its equilibrium.
After placing the moth on a nearby moonflower, D'Aron sheathed his other sword, and retrieved his halberd. He was now fully awake. He stretched again and walked back to his post, casting a globe of darkness over himself as he went.
He had just made it back to his assigned position when he heard familiar footfalls coming down the hall. Thalion was coming back from Lady Alustriel's chambers, finally. The hall darkened as a cloud covered the moon. D'Aron blinked as his eyes shifted into the infrared spectrum. He could see Thalion's footprints on the carpet as she moved along coming near to his post, and her breath as she hurried down the hallway. Her body glowed like a beacon; the heat she gave off was bright as she hurried toward him.
D'Aron stilled his breathing and waited. She neared his position and stopped. Turning to face him, she put a slender hand aside his face and rubbed his cheek. She slid up against him and he wrapped her in a tight hug. "Are you certain that you don't have infrared vision?" he asked her after they shared a kiss. She leaned back from him and gazed into his dark eyes as the moon shone brightly again and the globe of darkness dissipated. "No, I don't have infrared vision, but I can feel where you are all the time." He smiled brightly and kissed her again.
D'Aron left his halberd at his assigned post and walked with Thalion to the garden. They lay on the bench that he had used earlier and she curled up against him, her dark hair mingling with his as they stared up at the stars and the moon. "How was your birthday this year?" D'Aron asked her as he lay with one arm back behind his head and the other wrapped protectively around her hip. Thalion smiled as she lay on his muscular chest, listening to his breathing. "I'll show you in the morning what all everyone gave me. But you'll never guess who came this year."
He halfway sat up, grinning mischievously, "What will you give me if I guess?" "How about my undying love and devotion." D'Aron quieted as if pondering her statement. "I've already got that, how about a kiss then?" Thalion sat up, "Agreed." "And if I guess all of them…" He bent to whisper in her ear. He sat back and grinned devilishly. "You wish," the dark haired elf replied to his very forward request with a glare and an arched eyebrow. "You know as well as I that I will not do that unless I am bound to the other, and the other to me." "We will have to do that soon then," D'Aron said as he lay back on the stone and ran his slender fingers through her hair. As she lay back down on his chest, Thalion heartingly agreed.
She knew from the first moment that she had met him, that D'Aron would be her soul partner. He had been on duty at his post in the castle when she first noticed him, and he had taken an interest in her stories of excursions to Silverwood. The exotic half-drow had helped her take care of Hwesta when the small kitten was rescued from the Rauvin by Eradan. They had seen each other grow up, and were very much alike. This pleased Lady Alustriel beyond words, yet it pained her too. She remembered when D'Aron's father and mother had been this way, and she resolved that a similar fate would not befall her newest young charges.
As she with him, D'Aron had fallen quickly and hard for Thalion. She was spirited and wild as he had remembered his parents had been, and the sight of her as she walked the grounds of the palace haunted him. He had found her many times with her long dark hair cascading around her as she worked in the garden planting new flowers she found on her excursions to Silverwood. Under her care, the strange flowers bloomed and thrived, drawing new butterflies and moths to the already enchanting garden of Silverymoon. Thalion had been the one to find the moonflowers that now seemed as if they had always been a part of the palace. The greenish-white blossoms opened in the early evening, and stayed upon until the sun showed its face again.
They lay on the bench for a while, watching the moths and the stars. D'Aron closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The scent of the moonflowers was almost overpowering, but he could detect the slight smell of lavender floating on the wind. Thalion's scent, he mused. Never again will I think of merely lavender when I pass a field of the purple flowers. "Are you going to try and guess who came this year," asked Thalion who had similarly closed her eyes, "Or do I have to find another excuse to kiss you?"
D'Aron smiled, but kept his
eyes shut. "Lady Alustriel, your kin, and the Harpells," the half-drow said
sleepily. "That's three," Thalion yawned, "keep going." Covering his mouth to
suppress his yawn, D'Aron continued, "Dove Falconhand and her troupe, and
another group." "That makes four correct, but you'll never guess who was in the
last group." D'Aron paused thoughtfully, "I saw Hélène Volhard come in with the
Harpells, but I know that Barachiel is still out on patrol. Have you heard
anything from her lately?" Thalion shook her head, "No, but I now know where
she went. I'll tell you in the morning." D'Aron sat quietly for a few moments,
as he tried to figure out who might have been to his loved one's party.
"Drizzt, Regis and Cattie-brie," Thalion said quietly, "You missed those three, so I owe you five tomorrow." D'Aron lay very quietly. Drizzt Do'Urden, Regis and Cattie-brie, what would they be doing here? Not simply celebrating a birthday D'Aron knew. Something was definitely going on, and he determined that he would soon know what it was. He lay quietly trying to piece together this newly discovered puzzle. He cleared his throat to ask Thalion to share more with him, when he realized that she was already deep in slumber.
He sat gingerly and cradled her gently in his arms. He carried her quietly out of the garden and up the stairs to her chamber where he placed her carefully in her bed and tucked her in. With a swift kiss to her brow, he exited the way he came and walked back to his assigned post just in time to see his replacement come around the corner. He waved at the human guard, who nodded in response. D'Aron gathered his belongings and walked in the direction of his room, all the while his mind digesting what he had learned from Thalion that night. Drizzt Do'Urden was back in Silverymoon, and the young half-drow desperately needed to talk to someone that shared his father's heritage.
Perhaps he could find the famous ranger the next day, and ask to speak with him in private, although he seriously doubted he would be able to see the famous drow. Yet D'Aron knew that he must find a way to contact his idol if he were to ever find a way to be with Thalion and keep her safe from his father's race. His important thoughts were lost as dreams of his future life with his love overcame him and he plunged into a very deep sleep.