Rain and Brimstone



The time passed easily at the house in Hilltop. Lineth Raine's nights were, for the most part, unhindered by dreams, and her days were full of the smiles and chatter of old friends. She spent many an hour reminiscing, and explaining at length some of her adventures, while her friends sat amazed.

Although Lineth thought her friends had changed, to them it was she who had undertaken the most amazing transformation.

Lineth loved being back in Hilltop. She planned to leave after no more than five days' rest, but the winter grew colder and her supply of Velox Berries was low. So she elected to stay another day...and another...and another....

And finally came the day where she decided to leave.

"I must go," she murmured to herself as she dressed, "Or I will end up staying indefinitely. My wandering days aren't over yet..."

She went downstairs with her bag looped over her shoulders.

Mischa and Xanos were awake in the main room. There was quite a sizeable amount of snow by the front door, which Mischa was industriously shovelling away. Xanos looked like he wanted to kill something.

"What's going on?" Lineth asked as she approached Xanos and Mischa. Dorna was no-where to be seen.

"There's been a blizzard," Xanos said gruffly, and scowled.

Lineth frowned. Excellent timing, she thought bitterly.

"The snow's waist-deep out there," Xanos continued. "For me, anyway...I have no doubt the dwarf would be up to her neck in it."

"Shhh, Xanos! At least only make fun when Dorna is here, please." Mischa finished shovelling the snow into a bucket. Lineth sighed.

"Going somewhere?" Xanos had noticed her pack.

"Not anymore." Lineth slumped into a chair.

"Oh, Lineth," cried Mischa. "You weren't planning on leaving?"

Lineth shrugged. "I was," she admitted. "I can't just stay here. I had plans to travel...perhaps to Neverwinter, and then Baldur's Gate. I haven't been there yet. And then I was thinking I might go home..."

"Home?" Mischa looked at her and frowned. "You know, Lineth, I don't think you ever said where you were born."

"I...don't think about my childhood very much," the Elf said thoughtfully. "It was over a hundred years ago, after all."

"So? Where exactly is your hometown, Elf? I for one would very much like to know what place spawned such a famed adventurer." Xanos laughed. "You could probably make the place a tourist attraction, just by being born there."

"I don't appreciate your tone, Orc," snapped Lineth.

"Ah, we are seeing the old, snappish Lineth at last, rather than your new 'famed adventurer' persona," scathed the sorcerer, before spinning on his heel and stalking up the stairs.

"What's gotten into him?" Lineth asked Mischa, who frowned.

"I don't know. Your return has dredged up some...bitter memories, I think. After all, you did choose Dorna to go with you to Undrentide rather than him," said Mischa.

"I didn't need a sorcerer, I needed a rogue," said Lineth. "Xanos would have blasted everything to high Hells, whereas Dorna is much more stealthier in her approach. I thought Xanos understood that. But all that was a very long time ago..."

"It wasn't, you know," said Mischa, looking at her oddly. "Not for an Elf, anyway, I'd surmise."

Lineth frowned, looking into the middle distance. She sighed before answering. "I suppose...where I was...time moved in a different way."

"What? Backwards?" Mischa smiled.

Lineth did not smile. She attempted to, however, and ended up looking as if she'd sucked on a lemon. She sighed and stopped grimacing. "I'm sorry. It's still hard to think about...some of the things that happened when I was..."

"What's going on here?" Dorna stamped noisily down the stairs.

"Some rogue you are!" Mischa exclaimed, voicing some of Lineth's thoughts. "We could hear you coming a mile away."

"First and foremost, I'm a dwarf," Dorna pointed out. "Second of all, I'm a sneak. After that, I'm a cleric. Which is fortunate, human, because someone will have to reattach your ears after I've cut them off!

"Hush." Lineth laughed, her melancholy mood dispelled by Dorna's familiar bluntness. "There's been a storm, Dorna," she continued, answering the so-called rogue's earlier question. "It's...uh...head-deep out there."

"For me, you mean," the dwarf said sourly.

"Oh, don't be that way."

"There should be a Campaign for Equal Heights," Dorna muttered as she went over to one of the windows, standing on tiptoes so she could see out.

Lineth couldn't resist. "Want me to get you a box?"

Dorna turned around. The Elf laughed. "Are you sure you aren't a wizard as well? Because I could swear there's daggers coming out of your eyes.."

"Speaking of wizards, I saw the orc storm up the stairs a moment ago-"

"I'm not a wizard, dwarf, I'm a sorcerer," Xanos said, creeping silently down the steps. "And I was getting my cloak. It's cold in here." He shot a withering glance at Lineth who, quite unexpectedly, started laughing.

"What is so funny, Elf?" The half-orc bared sharpened canines as the elven woman clutched her sides.

"You - a half-orc Sorcerer - are quieter than a roguish dwarf!"

"Roguish." said Mischa. "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

"All right, fun's over," Dorna said, clapping her hands together loudly. "It looks as if we're snowed in." She sighed heavily and looked at the assembled company with something approaching distaste. "I don't fancy being stuck in here with you lot, but it appears I have little choice..."

"There's a shovel in the pantry," Xanos said, wrapping his cloak around his towering form. "Would you like me to dig you a tunnel?"

Mischa walked over to Lineth, who was shaking her head and cradling her pack in her lap. The paladin sat down and leaned close.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say the dwarf and the half-orc are in love..."

The snow-covered house echoed with Lineth Raine's laughter.



The day passed quickly. The foursome spent their time playing poker with a deck of Dorna's old cards. Lineth ended up winning most of the time, and Xanos eventually left the table in disgust.

"Are you sure you aren't the personification of the Goddess of Luck?" he snarled as he folded.

"Why, thank you, Xanos," Lineth said sweetly. "I'm sure she would be flattered at being compared to me."

"Egotistic elf..."

"Ham-fisted half-orc..."

Mischa smiled and Dorna laughed. Play continued into late evening, and it ended with Lineth taking back to her room most of Mischa's stash of healing potions, one of Dorna's holy water traps, and a grand total of ten gold pieces. Lineth smiled as she poured her acquisitions into her bottomless bag.

"You're too lucky sometimes, Lineth," said Mischa as she stood up and yawned. "By Mystra, I'm stiff."

"I don't think Mystra had anything to do with it," grumbled Dorna as she slid off her chair. "Curse Tymora if you will."

"Oh, don't blame your losing to some divine providence," Lineth said, leaning back. "I'm just a natural talent at cards."

"Natural cheat, more like. I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Mischa. Lineth," Dorna nodded at the other women before ascending the stairs.

"It's nice being back here," Lineth said as she stood up, glancing out the window. It was dark, but Lineth's superb night vision could see it was snowing gently. She sighed heavily. "I hope the snow lets up..."

"It should be a sunny day tomorrow." Mischa looked worried. "You really aren't going to leave, are you?"

Lineth gave her old friend a long look. "I have to, Mischa," she said. "If I don't go now, I'll end up staying forever."

"Is that really so bad?"

The Elf smiled. "Maybe not, but...there's still a few cities in Faerun that don't know my name."

Mischa smiled, too. "I'm sure you're fairly notorious anywhere, Lineth."

"Yes, perhaps." Lineth looked away. Truthfully, sometimes she wished she'd never gone on any of those adventures.... In some ways she wondered if she mightn't have been better off, settling down with some Elven man in Silverymoon, having twenty children and dying at the ripe age of eight hundred. But she was a victim of circumstance, it seemed: Whenever there was a dirty job that needed doing, Lineth Raine was the only one around to get it done.

"I think I'll go to bed," she said, standing up. "Goodnight, Mischa."

"Goodnight, Lineth."

Lineth went up the stairs in silence.