Disclaimer: See the Prologue.
Chapter One
A Friendly Favor
Fifteen days ago, Drizzt had entered a cave to the Underdark, the same cave that he had used, over fifty years before, to exit from the darkness into the light. And now, he was returning to the darkness, in order to stop a war that threatened to destroy the entirety of the world above. His friends back at Mithral Hall did not know of his quest, except Cattie-brie. They would all of tried to go with him, but Drizzt could not allow that. The hall, which was still being attacked every few months, needed their protection. Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-brie had, so far, managed to survive without major injury, after developing a permanent immunization against the poison of the tiny drow crossbow bolts. This came from years of fighting the intruding drow.
Normally, Drizzt would not have left them to fight on their own, but he had received a message that he could not ignore. A letter had arrived to him from his dear friend, Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon.
Dear Friend,
I am sorry to ask you to leave your friends at this critical and
dangerous time; however, I must ask you to come to Silverymoon. There
is urgent buisiness that must be taken care of. This may seem a
strange and possibly melodramatic request, but you know me well enough
to be sure that I would never call you away from your friends unless
for something of great import, not only to yourself and your friends,
but to the whole world. I will expect you to arrive in one week at the
most; that may be all the time we have. I wish that our next meeting
didn't have to occur under such circumstances, but it is necessary.
Thank you.
Your Eternal Friend,
Alustriel
If Alustriel, who was an incredibly powerful mage herself, needed him for something that she couldn't do herself, then it was very serious. So he had gone, and arrived within four days. He was, upon arrival, ushered into the city by a group of the Knights of Silver, guards of the enchanted city and lands of Silverymoon, and straight to Alustriel's audience room. There the guards left him, and moments later, Alustriel entered.
"Thank you for coming, my dear friend."
"What else could I do, My Lady?"
"So formal. However, I suppose it is appropriate for the situation."
"Does this have to do with why I have been summoned?"
"The situation is very dire. Know you that the drow are not only attacking Mithral hall, but other places as well?"
"I had heard of isolated patrols being sighted. But I thought it odd that the people who sighted them were not killed. Letting people live is not the normal way of the drow."
"Normally, no, it is not. However, the Knights of Silver have, so far, fought off three such patrols. They have suffered heavy casualties."
"I am sorry to hear that."
"That is not the only problem. The reason that they may be ignoring the normal people is that they are on a tight schedule. I think that they may be testing our strength, as well as a new weapon."
"New weapon?"
"Know you Belwar Dissengulp?"
"Belwar! How is he?"
"He was inquiring about you, as well. Anyway, he is an old friend of mine. The deep gnomes have their own ways of getting information from Menzoberranzan. The things that they have learned are. disturbing. It appears that the dark elves have come up with a way of treating their weapons and armor so that they don't lose any effectiveness in the sunlight."
"I wondered how the drow weapons managed to survive the trek from the caves to here and still be able to survive a sword battle with the Knights."
"And that is not the most disturbing thing. Many of the Knights' casualties were due to magic."
"How is that possible? Drow wizards are not allowed aboveground, due to the fact that their spells react differently in the sunlight then they do underground."
"Being the secondboy of your house, I do not expect you to know of the mystical item possessed by each house of the ruling council. It is given to a house when it joins the ruling council, but is usually destroyed with the house, should the house be destroyed. This item marks the house as a member of the ruling council, and allows them to converse with the other Matron Mothers, although most that hold them do not realize it. It also allows them to reflect spells, but again, very few know of that."
"Why should this pertain to me? House Do'Urden was not on the ruling council."
"Did you not know? After you left, your house rose to the position of eighth house from the throne. It kept that position for years, until something happened."
"What happened, My Lady?"
"When you left the house, your family fell into disfavor with Lloth. Normally this would mean your house would have been attacked and destroyed, Drizzt, but in this case, it was Lloth's will that your mother sit on the ruling council. Therefore, House Hun'ett, the sixth house, attacked, but was driven off by your house's soldiers with the aid of the mercenary Jarlaxle and his group. This made your mother a member of the ruling council, but she would only keep it if you were killed. So she used Zaknafien's corpse to try to do it. That's when everything fell apart."
"It seemed to be going well enough, but what happened when the corpse failed?"
"When Zaknafien defied his orders and jumped into the acid lake, your family lost any semblance of favor with Lloth. Your house was attacked and destroyed by House Baenre itself."
"I had known about that. But what does this have to do with the item you mentioned?"
"It turns out that the items have one other ability, known only to the Matrons of the three highest houses. It is the ability to cast magic through the item to wherever they want it to go, while keeping the same affect as if the caster was there. Above the ground, though, the magic acts as if it were cast below ground."
"So this means that drow are casting spells from Menzoberranzan that are taking affect here?"
"Yes. However, there is one way to stop this. One who holds one of the items can stop this effect. By the way, do you recognize this?"
Alustriel held out what looked like a necklace, but Drizzt recognized it from somewhere.
"This is the emblem carried by a noble of house Tre'far. Where did you find this?"
"It was carried by a member of one of the raiding parties. When this particular raiding party attacked, there were twice as many spells hitting the knights as there were usually. This leads me to believe that the item belonging to your house was not destroyed, but was instead taken by house Tre'far, which, as you know, is the third house of the city."
Drizzt looked at Alustriel with a look of disbelief. She couldn't actually be asking him to.
"So, Drizzt, I want you to go to Menzoberranzan and take it."
Yep, she was asking him to.
"As you know, my friend elf, Silverymoon is much the only thing that keeps the dark elves in check at the moment, and I fear that without being able to block their spells, we will not hold out long. But if you must, consider it a friendly favor."
"Fine, I will go and get it."
"You want nothing in return?"
"My Lady, have I ever asked anyone to repay me for what I do? I do not do this out of want of repayment, or as a friendly favor. I do this out of want to keep those I care about, and those that others care about, safe."
Drizzt stood, and began to make his way to the door, but Lady Alustriel stopped him. "When you exit, one of my knights will give you provisions, as well as a map to the cave. I will see you on your return. Oh, and Drizzt?" She kissed him full on the lips. "Please come back safely." And so Drizzt traveled forth. On the journey, he wrote a letter to Cattie-brie to be delivered to her a soon as possible. The letter detailed what he was going to do, but told her not to come after him, and to just tell the others that he was away, but not to let them come, either. He dropped it off at the last guard outpost of Silverymoon, before entering the wilds. After walking for three days, he arrived at the cave; the same one that he had used to leave the darkness, so many years ago.
A/N: Keep Reading. It will, unfortunately, probably be a couple of months before anything is added after the next chapter.
Chapter One
A Friendly Favor
Fifteen days ago, Drizzt had entered a cave to the Underdark, the same cave that he had used, over fifty years before, to exit from the darkness into the light. And now, he was returning to the darkness, in order to stop a war that threatened to destroy the entirety of the world above. His friends back at Mithral Hall did not know of his quest, except Cattie-brie. They would all of tried to go with him, but Drizzt could not allow that. The hall, which was still being attacked every few months, needed their protection. Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Cattie-brie had, so far, managed to survive without major injury, after developing a permanent immunization against the poison of the tiny drow crossbow bolts. This came from years of fighting the intruding drow.
Normally, Drizzt would not have left them to fight on their own, but he had received a message that he could not ignore. A letter had arrived to him from his dear friend, Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon.
Dear Friend,
I am sorry to ask you to leave your friends at this critical and
dangerous time; however, I must ask you to come to Silverymoon. There
is urgent buisiness that must be taken care of. This may seem a
strange and possibly melodramatic request, but you know me well enough
to be sure that I would never call you away from your friends unless
for something of great import, not only to yourself and your friends,
but to the whole world. I will expect you to arrive in one week at the
most; that may be all the time we have. I wish that our next meeting
didn't have to occur under such circumstances, but it is necessary.
Thank you.
Your Eternal Friend,
Alustriel
If Alustriel, who was an incredibly powerful mage herself, needed him for something that she couldn't do herself, then it was very serious. So he had gone, and arrived within four days. He was, upon arrival, ushered into the city by a group of the Knights of Silver, guards of the enchanted city and lands of Silverymoon, and straight to Alustriel's audience room. There the guards left him, and moments later, Alustriel entered.
"Thank you for coming, my dear friend."
"What else could I do, My Lady?"
"So formal. However, I suppose it is appropriate for the situation."
"Does this have to do with why I have been summoned?"
"The situation is very dire. Know you that the drow are not only attacking Mithral hall, but other places as well?"
"I had heard of isolated patrols being sighted. But I thought it odd that the people who sighted them were not killed. Letting people live is not the normal way of the drow."
"Normally, no, it is not. However, the Knights of Silver have, so far, fought off three such patrols. They have suffered heavy casualties."
"I am sorry to hear that."
"That is not the only problem. The reason that they may be ignoring the normal people is that they are on a tight schedule. I think that they may be testing our strength, as well as a new weapon."
"New weapon?"
"Know you Belwar Dissengulp?"
"Belwar! How is he?"
"He was inquiring about you, as well. Anyway, he is an old friend of mine. The deep gnomes have their own ways of getting information from Menzoberranzan. The things that they have learned are. disturbing. It appears that the dark elves have come up with a way of treating their weapons and armor so that they don't lose any effectiveness in the sunlight."
"I wondered how the drow weapons managed to survive the trek from the caves to here and still be able to survive a sword battle with the Knights."
"And that is not the most disturbing thing. Many of the Knights' casualties were due to magic."
"How is that possible? Drow wizards are not allowed aboveground, due to the fact that their spells react differently in the sunlight then they do underground."
"Being the secondboy of your house, I do not expect you to know of the mystical item possessed by each house of the ruling council. It is given to a house when it joins the ruling council, but is usually destroyed with the house, should the house be destroyed. This item marks the house as a member of the ruling council, and allows them to converse with the other Matron Mothers, although most that hold them do not realize it. It also allows them to reflect spells, but again, very few know of that."
"Why should this pertain to me? House Do'Urden was not on the ruling council."
"Did you not know? After you left, your house rose to the position of eighth house from the throne. It kept that position for years, until something happened."
"What happened, My Lady?"
"When you left the house, your family fell into disfavor with Lloth. Normally this would mean your house would have been attacked and destroyed, Drizzt, but in this case, it was Lloth's will that your mother sit on the ruling council. Therefore, House Hun'ett, the sixth house, attacked, but was driven off by your house's soldiers with the aid of the mercenary Jarlaxle and his group. This made your mother a member of the ruling council, but she would only keep it if you were killed. So she used Zaknafien's corpse to try to do it. That's when everything fell apart."
"It seemed to be going well enough, but what happened when the corpse failed?"
"When Zaknafien defied his orders and jumped into the acid lake, your family lost any semblance of favor with Lloth. Your house was attacked and destroyed by House Baenre itself."
"I had known about that. But what does this have to do with the item you mentioned?"
"It turns out that the items have one other ability, known only to the Matrons of the three highest houses. It is the ability to cast magic through the item to wherever they want it to go, while keeping the same affect as if the caster was there. Above the ground, though, the magic acts as if it were cast below ground."
"So this means that drow are casting spells from Menzoberranzan that are taking affect here?"
"Yes. However, there is one way to stop this. One who holds one of the items can stop this effect. By the way, do you recognize this?"
Alustriel held out what looked like a necklace, but Drizzt recognized it from somewhere.
"This is the emblem carried by a noble of house Tre'far. Where did you find this?"
"It was carried by a member of one of the raiding parties. When this particular raiding party attacked, there were twice as many spells hitting the knights as there were usually. This leads me to believe that the item belonging to your house was not destroyed, but was instead taken by house Tre'far, which, as you know, is the third house of the city."
Drizzt looked at Alustriel with a look of disbelief. She couldn't actually be asking him to.
"So, Drizzt, I want you to go to Menzoberranzan and take it."
Yep, she was asking him to.
"As you know, my friend elf, Silverymoon is much the only thing that keeps the dark elves in check at the moment, and I fear that without being able to block their spells, we will not hold out long. But if you must, consider it a friendly favor."
"Fine, I will go and get it."
"You want nothing in return?"
"My Lady, have I ever asked anyone to repay me for what I do? I do not do this out of want of repayment, or as a friendly favor. I do this out of want to keep those I care about, and those that others care about, safe."
Drizzt stood, and began to make his way to the door, but Lady Alustriel stopped him. "When you exit, one of my knights will give you provisions, as well as a map to the cave. I will see you on your return. Oh, and Drizzt?" She kissed him full on the lips. "Please come back safely." And so Drizzt traveled forth. On the journey, he wrote a letter to Cattie-brie to be delivered to her a soon as possible. The letter detailed what he was going to do, but told her not to come after him, and to just tell the others that he was away, but not to let them come, either. He dropped it off at the last guard outpost of Silverymoon, before entering the wilds. After walking for three days, he arrived at the cave; the same one that he had used to leave the darkness, so many years ago.
A/N: Keep Reading. It will, unfortunately, probably be a couple of months before anything is added after the next chapter.