Hark: This chapter is really short and very strange. I'm sorry I haven't submitted anything for a long time, but I've been terribly busy and when not busy, lazy. Inspiration has left the building, but I'm very close to finding it again. Read and review, as usual, and I'll try to continue soon, although I'm not making any promises at this time.

Chapter 3: A long lost son

The sun was shining from cloudless sky over Memnon. The streets were full of people going about their businesses, the dealers of legal goods openly, and the other kind not so openly. Memnon was on its way to evolving into a place where a person looking for something could easily find it, no matter how illegal it was. Compared to Calimport, Memnon was small, but it was now a common belief that the streets of Memnon was the place where people trained before moving to the streets of Calimport and collecting a fortune, usually from someone else.

Elanna Entreri walked through the streets, without the need to avoid the beggars and pickpockets, who had already learned to know her and were aware that she didn't have much to beg for or to steal. She was carrying a basket that held the few things she had been able to buy from a merchant who knew her and usually gave her a discount with a sad smile on his face. Once a week she went to the temple where they gave the poor some food, but there were always more people than there was food, and many had to leave empty-handed. Once or twice she had resorted to begging, when she hadn't had enough money and she had known that if Galen returned and she didn't have the dinner ready, he would have been angry.

Sometimes she thought it would be best if he just killed her. Once or twice she had thought about ruining the dinner, dropping the plate on his lap, doing something that would make him so mad he would kill her, release her from this world. Sometimes she thought about killing him, when he was sleeping, taking a knife and slicing his throat. But she was a coward. Too afraid to do anything but to walk through her life hating every moment of it, but unable to do anything else.

She reached the house, she was unable to use the word 'home' anymore, and as soon as she got in she sat down. Her leg was aching again, it had been ever since she had fallen down the stairs. Falling down the stairs was a very common accident for women living in her neighbourhood, and therefor it might come as a surprise to people that all the buildings in the area were one storey high with no stairs in single one of them. But then again, people had more important things to worry about than clumsy women, who surely deserved to fall down the stairs. Otherwise they wouldn't have fallen, now would they?

Galen hardly ever spent the nights in the house anymore. She was relieved, although she couldn't imagine there was anything he hadn't already done to her. The thought was painful, and brought back painful memories. After Artemis has escaped, she had found out that she was pregnant again. She had already had two miscarriages after Artemis' birth, but that time the baby had survived, a beautiful girl. Little baby Cecilyn had died three weeks before her first birthday, and Elanna still didn't know how or why. Then eight years later, after three more miscarriages, Meroan had been born. Elanna had stared at the baby boy who looked so much like Artemis when he had been born. Galen's eyes. She had loved the baby but hated those eyes. When Meroan was three, Galen had given him to his brother who was moving to Baldur's Gate, to be brought up properly, as he had said. Elanna hadn't said anything, but she had cried, because that was what Galen expected. But during the nights spent awake she had not cried, because true pain of loss, the kind she was feeling, was too great for mere tears. This had happened twenty years ago, but she could still remember what the boy's hair smelled like, just like he could remember every little thing about Artemis. Then there had been no new losses for her, because after her next miscarriage she had not been able to have any more children. That had been a true blessing.

She probably had two children somewhere in the world, two sons. She had heard the name Artemis Entreri mentioned once or twice when she had passed merchants and travellers in the streets, but she hadn't dared to ask them who they were talking about. Entreri could be a common name in the vast world outside Memnon, and she knew that Artemis was a popular name for boys. She had heard nothing of Galen's brother in Baldur's Gate and of Meroan, and if Galen had received some news, he had not told her. And she was afraid of learning the truth anyway, afraid of knowing how things really were. She was used to lies, she could handle the lies and deception, they were an everyday part of her life. The truth might have been too painful after all the lies, and at least now she could hope that her children were safe and happy.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she looked up as the door opened and a man stepped in. He was dressed in expensive clothes that looked completely out of place in the small room. He noticed her, stepped closer, removed his hat and made a little bow. Elanna couldn't move, only stare at a face that looked exactly like the one that had charmed her forty years ago.

"Good day to you, mother," Meroan said calmly and looked around the room. "Interesting. I remember nothing of this place. Thank gods for that. What a dump! Now, aren't you going to welcome me like a mother should welcome a long lost son? I believe we have much to talk about after all this time."