Heritage of Evil : Incubation(Posted)
A small figure crept along the riverbank, moving just a bit closer to the large, brown rabbit that had frozen in place when it saw her. She lifted a sling and sighted carefully before casting a bullet at the rabbit. The animal jumped when the missile flew past it, and then ran off into the woods. Two weeks I've been practicing, and still can't hit a motionless target. Some Drowkiller I will be, I can't even call myself Shann Rabbitkiller. She sighed and thought wistfully of the taste of real food; fresh, roasted rabbit would be a welcome change from the dry, flavourless trail rations she had been living on since her escape from the Drow slave pens.
Shann had followed a stream that flowed down the mountain from the N'evarn colony, until it merged with the larger river she was now walking alongside as it travelled westwards. She knew nothing of the lands outside the N'evarn colony, but had been told by some of the surfacer slaves that settlements could often be found close to rivers. Shann both looked forwards to, and dreaded, the thought of meeting people. Sometimes she thought it would be best to walk invisibly among them, but Shann knew she could not move through the lands fast without help.
She had seen how the Drow punished slaves who dared to try to escape, and her memories ensured that Shann's waking and sleeping hours were haunted by fears of being seized by her former owners. Few slaves ever tried leaving more than once; if they were captured alive they were brutally punished, but not killed, and they were left physically capable of working, although their spirits were often broken, leaving them mere shadows of their former selves. Shann was sure she would prefer death to having the Drow track her down and capture her. She wanted to get as far away as possible from her former masters.
It was with relief that Shann came across a large farm. Her food was almost gone, and her hunting skills had not improved. The simple, wooden buildings looked comforting to Shann as she walked up the small laneway and gazed with wonder at the fields of nearly ripened wheat. She slowed when she approached the house and heard the sound of many voices inside. The girl thought about how she must appear after a fortnight of frenzied travel . These are rich people, will they think me a dirty beggar that should be run off? She tried to wipe her face with the least soiled part of her shirt, and then straightened her shoulders and knocked on the door. It was opened by a burly man with a cheerful face who looked with wonder, not disgust, at the small figure that stood on his porch.
The people who lived on the farm, mostly humans with a couple of halfling hirelings, were shocked when they first met Shann, but she was soon being fussed over by the women of the household. They were horrified when Shann explained she had escaped from slavers and had no idea where she was, or where she had come from. It's almost the truth, Shann reasoned, reluctant to mention the Drow.
There were no maps in the household, but Shann was able to learn a bit about the area she was in. The river she had followed, The River Shining, bordered a vast woodland known as the High Forest. A large city, Waterdeep, which lay to the west, sounded interesting to Shann. Or maybe Baldur's Gate, she mused, its south of Waterdeep, and far away from the N'evarn colony. The Drow will have a hard time finding me among so many people.
She was almost ready to leave, afraid to stay in one spot too long, when one of the younger girls noticed her pointed ears. Shann's mother had been ashamed of the elven heritage she shared with her daughter, and had always used her long hair to cover her elven ears, a practice Shann normally imitated, but she had grown careless among the friendly farmers, and allowed the pointed tip of an ear to peek out from her dark mane. She admitted that she was half-elf when pressed by the girl. The child had never seen an elf before and excitedly told her mother about Shann's heritage.
"Why did you tell us you were half-dwarf, child?" the mother asked, confused.
"I am half-dwarf," Shann said patiently, "the other half is elf."
"Oh, I had assumed you were half-human, your colouring is darker than any dwarf I've ever seen."
"That's my elven heritage," Shann said without thinking.
"But there are no dark ... elves," the woman said, and then tensed as a look of horror crossed her features. "Drow," she whispered, then picked up her daughter and ran out of the house, calling for the men.
I'm no Drow, Shann thought angrily. How dare that woman call me that! She was wondering what do, when the woman's husband came in, followed by two other men, one brandished a hoe, and the other an axe. He looked at Shann with a touch of fear in his eyes, and then ordered her to leave at once. One of the men behind him protested, and said the Drow should die. Shann was confused, she knew she was not a Drow, and did not know what to say. The first man tried to calm the others down. "She's only a child," he said.
The man with the axe cursed and threw it at Shann. Fear made Shann move faster than she had thought possible, and she ducked under the table where she called on her ability to become invisible, and then crawled into a corner of the room. She stayed there, frozen, and tried to still her breathing as the men attempted to find her; they panicked when it was evident that Shann had disappeared. The man who threw the axe was convinced that Shann was an evil, sorceress Drow. "Probably not even a real child," he said, boasting a bit about his perception, "we should look for more of the dark demons to be coming soon."
Shann waited until the room was clear, and then went to the shed where her pack had been stored. She was a little dazed at how quickly the friendly people had turned on her, but was now determined to leave for Baldur's Gate at once. Before she left the house, Shann went to the chest where the household gold was kept. It had a simple lock that Shann was able to pry open with her dagger and she took all that was in there, only a few silver pieces, but more than Shann had ever seen before.
She restocked her provisions from the storehouse and was ready to leave the farm. The people were rushing about frantically, but did not seem to have any idea what they should be doing, and Shann had no difficulty moving undetected among them.
Before she left, Shann went into the barn. She had a vague idea that eventually the fools would settle down and try to track her, and she could not stay invisible forever. She knelt down by the hay that was loosely stacked in a corner and got out her tinder box. For a moment she wondered if she should light the fire, it could spread and jump to all the buildings, devastating the prosperous farm and the people who lived there. They called me a Drow, she thought, and lit the hay on fire with no more hesitation.
She stood there, watching the fire as it grew, and saw the flickering flames dance and make shifting shadows on the walls. Shann did not stir until she heard shouts as people noticed the smoke and came running towards the barn. Then she smiled, and walked out boldly among the excited people.
The experience at the farm taught Shann a lesson about revealing her mixed heritage. In the four months it took her to make her way to Baldur's Gate, Shann became used to hiding her dwarf heritage. She had inherited the broad facial features of Dwarves rather than the sharp, angular elven features, and found that, with her ears covered, she could pass for human. If pressed, she would admit to being half-elf, letting the questioner assume the other half was human.
Once in Baldur's Gate, Shann spent most of her days invisible, which made finding food easy, and changed her sleeping spots every night. She thought she moved around unnoticed, but soon found that she wrong. One day she was swiping a pastry from one of her favourite bakers when a soft voice addressed her. "Hold on lass, I know you're there, I saw the sweets disappear when you picked them up."
Panicked, Shann looked around to see who was speaking. She almost ran, ready to assume she was still undetectable, but something in the speaker's looks made her want to trust him. He was a cheerful, halfling youth, a little taller than Shann, but not by much. Shann glided across the floor and the speaker kept looking at the area where she had been, somewhat comforted, Shann decided to answer the halfling. "You with the guards or something?" she asked warily.
"There you are, lass," he said, and smiled disarmingly. "Nay, far from it." He jumped down from the counter where he had been sitting and approached Shann. "I'm called Jarond, and I work for an organization that could use someone with your, ahem, talents."
Jarond was working for the Southgate Thieves Guild, whose members had noticed the petty thievery that Shann engaged in. Her talent of invisibility, and more importantly, the fact that it was undetectable by normal magic, interested the guild master. Shann's visits to the baker's shop had been noted, and Jarond was planted in the shop to make contact with her; he cheerfully admitted that it was because he had an uncanny ability to make even the most suspicious people trust him.
Shann was happy to join the thieves, she worked for them for more than two years, paying for her training and board by acting as an advance scout for the older members. She was gaining skills, but felt she needed to learn more than the thieves could teach her. She often woke, screaming, from her frequent nightmares about the Drow attacking the guild, and cutting down the thieves with chilling ease.
Jarond had acted as a mentor to Shann and had trusted her with one of the secrets of his survival. He had innate powers of magic at his command, a hidden power he could call on when he was losing a fight. Sorcerer, Jarond named himself. Shann decided she wanted the same power.
"Sorcerers are rare, lass, most mages must study years to master the craft," Jarond had said in an attempt to dissuade Shann. She only shrugged and bribed the guild magician to test her to see if she could become a wizard. The mage found that Shann did have the potential to learn magic, but had no desire to apprentice, as she put it, an underaged, impoverished, nonentity. Determined, Shann used the guild resources to find a mage that would accept her as an apprentice.
Jarond could not understand why Shann was willing to do anything to learn magic. "If you just wait a few years," he said, "you'll rise in the ranks of the guild and have gold enough to buy a tutor in the mystical arts, if you still desire to learn magic."
"Don't you understand?" she answered, "I don't have a few years. I know you don't believe the dreams I have of my Father are real, but they are real, and he has warned me that I must become stronger, or I will not survive. I must go back and destroy my Drow masters, before they come for me."
"Bloody rot!" he replied angrily. "I doubt those masters even noticed you left, and if they did, surely they would have given up by now."
Shann laughed bitterly. "You have no idea how vindictive, and patient, the dark ones can be. They will wait centuries to avenge an imagined slight, no matter how small. I cannot run far enough to be free of them, I must be stronger, no matter what it costs."
"If I ask the Guildmaster; he will keep you here."
"Don't be foolish, Jarond, I know you are trying to help me, but this is the best thing for me," Shann said sadly. "And the Guildmaster will not be so quick to keep me around, if I let him know the truth of my heritage. I won't be gone for good, you know, I'm not finished with the guild."
Arboral was the name of the mage Shann found through the Thieves Guild information networks. He was a blonde, well-fed, half-elven wizard who had spent many years working his way up the social structure of Baldur's Gate, and now commanded huge sums for his services from the elite of society. Shann bluffed her way into his house by forging a message from one of the ruling dukes. Arboral looked with distaste at Shann, after she admitted her deception, and explained to the wizard that she was looking to become his apprentice.
"Why," he asked icily, "would I, Arboral the respected, ever contemplate taking a common urchin like you as my apprentice?"
"Because," Shann said, smiling sweetly, "the pillar of society, Arboral, has a secret, one that could destroy him. Even the corrupt nobles of this city frown on certain, shall we say, activities. And a mongrel like yourself has less chance of surviving an open scandal than the average full-blooded deviant."
"Begone, whelp, I have nothing to hide," Arboral said, even though he had started to sweat.
"That raid on Madame Lyona's was a close one, wasn't it? I heard you had to pay nearly a year's worth of fees to keep your name out of that one. Those society matrons detest the thought of 'the poor little children being kept in those horrid brothels'. Just a hint about your liking for little girls and the demand for your cosmetic alteration spells will suffer most, most horribly. Am I right?" Shann asked as she winked at Arboral.
"I will not be blackmailed, you shall not leave this house alive," he stated.
"Don't be so hasty," Shann said with a sigh. "I have no intention of blackmailing you; I simply wish to propose an exchange of services. I want to learn magic, and you need a safe way to indulge your indecent desires, one that won't expose you to another disaster like the Madame Lyona incident. Agreed?"
"I see," he said as a smile slowly spread over his face. He studied her for a moment, and then lightly stroked her face, from forehead to chin, smiling even more when Shann could not stop herself from flinching. "Yes, if you're a good girl tonight, I might have time to teach you some cantrips in the morning."
The Thieves Guildmaster was not happy when Shann left to apprentice with the mage, Arboral. She mollified him by promising to work with the thieves when she could, that way Shann did not have to end her thief training completely. The dreams she had at night became less frightening when she began learning magic skills, the price of the skills was worth the end of her bad dreams. Rather than dreaming of Drow killing her friends in the Thieves Guild, Shann now had dreams where it was the Drow who died at her hands, and Father was proud of her.