Cerridwen knew the second she felt the icy chill across her face that her secret was exposed. She took careful stock of her situation. She was not bound in any way, nor were there any magical spells cast on her.
"I know you're awake. What is a female drow doing this far from the Underdark?" asked a voice.
Opening her eyes...they adjusted to natural light for the first time in a month. The second she saw the male drow she winced. Then her eyes landed on what he had on him...the same cloak Regis had ordered from her months ago.
"You're the ranger the halfling mentioned aren't you?" she asked.
"I am. Why are you here?" he asked.
There was a level of tenseness in his shoulders, though he was clearly prepared for a fight should it become necessary.
Anyone who would chose to serve a goddess like Mielikki was about as far from a normal drow as one could get. That plus his facial features...
There was really only one thing she could actually say to earn a bit of trust.
"Lolth is a spiteful, ugly old bitch who can go fuck herself, and Matron Malice can go rot on the surface," she said deadpan. "And the less said about that complete and utter twit Briza and her uptight and prudish personality, the better."
Dead silence, though the complete and utter shock on his face said volumes. No drow would dare disrespect Lolth like that, or use such names openly.
"Who are you?" he asked, shock still in his tone. He couldn't keep it out if he tried.
"I am Cerridwen Do'urden, fourth daughter of Matron Malice," she said bluntly. "Not that it really matters...the whole family can go to whatever hell horrifies them the worst for all I can care...well, except for Zaknafein. He was the only tolerable one of that lot."
"You know of him?" he asked.
"He trained me how to use my swords," she admitted.
"He is dead."
"As sad as that is to hear, it does not surprise me. Like I said, he was the only tolerable one of the lot and people with actual morals rarely live long. I'm surprised he survived as long as he had," she said. "You look a lot like him you know."
He looked at her for a long moment.
"I am Drizzt. Drizzt Do'urden. You must be the one Zaknafein mentioned once in passing. The one who 'died' on the surface."
Cerridwen snorted.
"More like faked my death. I wasn't about to stand that place any longer than I absolutely had to."
"Why are you here?"
"I rescued a high elf child. His people came for him, so I left. I came here so that if he did try to find me, enough time would have passed that he would be old enough to make his own decisions and the training to go with it," she admitted. "He's better off becoming an adult without the shadow of being raised by a drow."
Drizzt looked at her. She rolled her eyes.
"I worship Loki, not that bitch Lolth," she said flatly. "I refuse to indoctrinate any child the way we were."
It was clear Drizzt felt a slight discomfort around her. She knew why to...he likely felt she might try to act superior to him because of her gender. After all, the fact that men were the lesser sex compared than the women had been drilled into them from birth. However...there was a slight hope. Hope that maybe he had some family from a life he left behind that he would be willing to claim.
Cerridwen was a ruthless pragmatist who demanded money up front to insure she didn't get screwed over in the end. However even she could admit to herself that she held out that same hope that maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't be alone anymore.
Once Drizzt lead her to the dwarves (her veil back in place) she slipped something in his hand.
"If you want to talk, just say my name," she told him in drow tongue.
Drizzt blinked, but nodded.
It took him two weeks before he did. He would not regret that decision, even if it took him over a year before he loosened up around his younger sibling. Though only they knew of the connection, as everyone still believed her to be disfigured.
The reaction his friends, especially Catti-Brie had to the actual nature of the mage/seamstress who always wore a veil was better than he could have hoped. Namely that they didn't suddenly have the urge to chase her out for the truth.
Drizzt wondered if they would have had the same opinion had they known how...malicious...drow female were. It baffled him that Cerri had manage to escape Matron Malice to the point she hadn't attempted to chase her down.
From what little he had seen, there's no way his mother or his sisters would have allowed her as much freedom as she had in the Underdark if they had known how strong she was or how good she was at enchanted artifacts.
He certainly appreciated the special 'sunglasses' as she called them, which allowed him to see just as well as he would have in the Underdark without any pain. Though unlike his sister, she had fashioned a pair of goggles instead since he was far more active and it lessened the chances of them falling off.
It was clear Cerri didn't know how to handle having a sibling she'd claim either... it always felt incredibly awkward talking to each other over the communication mirror she had given him, though it was getting better over time.
Catti-Brie, for the most part, had decided to try and get his sister to socialize more. Even if the most Cerri could manage was to walk around the dwarves without her veil. She had cultivated the lie about being disfigured for some rather valid reasons.
An undetermined time later...
Cerri could openly admit that while Catti-Brie's idea to try and form a proper sibling relationship with Drizzt was one of the few things that could work, it didn't help that they still suffered from how they were raised and she was still apprehensive around him.
Males were subservient to the females. It was a statement of fact about drow society.
The problem was that Cerri did not want Drizzt to feel subservient to her, and hated everything to do with drow society in general. She wanted an actual sibling relationship with him, not a mockery of one.
As such she was up entirely too early for her liking, hiking up to the mountain where Drizzt was waiting for her.
She would deny that the second she saw the massive black panther, she squealed and went to pet it.
Drizzt...had a look of tolerant amusement as Cerri fawned over his partner. She looked so much like the teen girl she actually was it took him a moment to remember she was a drow and raised the same way he was.
Guenhwyvar certainly appreciated the attention, and tolerantly doted on her like a cub.
"Are you ready?" he asked, once she collected herself.
She nodded and they went out hunting.
Being forced to interact for three days on end with next to no buffer was a great way to learn about each other. Even if the first days was rather awkward. Drizzt was pleasantly surprised that his sister knew how to act as a ranger, despite being a mage.
And then he went into the tent she brought, which had a spell on it to make it blend in with the surroundings.
He immediately came back out and looked at her incredulous.
"How?" he asked, baffled.
"How what?" she replied cheekily.
"How in the name of Meilikki were you able to leave the Underdark without them knowing you were this good at enchanting things? And why aren't you selling this to make more than you'd make in several lifetimes?"
"Because I prefer to keep a low profile," she deadpanned. "And because enchanting magical tents is a pain. It takes a considerable amount of time to make just one, and the demand would be far too high. I'd rather save them as special gifts to people who actually deserve it."
Drizzt looked inside the tent, which looked far more like a small house that happened to look like a tent outside. The amount of effort to make this must have been insane.
"That being said, I can make an enchanted satchel or bag that you can use with far more space inside than people would guess."
"How much space are we talking about?" he asked, mostly joking.
"Enough to carry a full armory and allow your partner to take a nice long cat nap while stretching out as much as she wanted," she replied without hesitation.
Drizzt didn't hesitate to agree to that. He found himself relaxing while talking to Cerri about her knowledge of enchanting, warding, and magic. While she was far more knowledgeable about drow magic, she hated using it because it brought up bad memories of her training with their sisters.
Meanwhile Drizzt was far more knowledgeable about sword fighting and surviving in the wilds than she was, and was more than happy to share it with her. She was an attentive student and rather polite.
At the end of the hunting trip, they had enough meat to last a while and the barrier between them had lowered, just a bit.
Cerri made a note to thank her human friend for the suggestion.
Drizzt heard the sounds of battle. However he also recognized the sound of swears (in multiple languages) and thus knew who one of the parties was.
Cerri was rather amusing in that regard...if she was forced into close combat, she had a habit of swearing if her opponent got a decent hit in.
Seeing a flash of black past the hill, Drizzt started running.
Only to stare as the sword came flying back towards it's owner, or at least to it's white copy.
It neatly sliced the monster's head clean off and Cerri neatly caught it. It was clear she had a lot of practice.
Sensing the familiar magic she placed on his cloak, Cerri peered out towards him.
"Nice timing," she said dryly.
"Did your sword just fly back to you?"
"This is Kanshou," she said, lifting one sword. "This is Byakuya. They have an interesting legend about them, if you're interested."
Drizzt was.
"So these swords were made purely for the sake of making a great sword, rather than to accomplish some great deed?" he asked.
Cerri flipped the handles so that he could hold them.
Drizzt accepted the offer. They held a good weight to them, enough to do damage. There was the subtle hum of magic in the blades, indicating they had a hidden power inside them.
"How did you get the black one to come back?"
"One of the properties of the swords is that they are drawn to one another," said Cerri.
"So what brought you up here?"
"I noticed Catti-brie has a knack for magic. I offered to teach her in exchange for a discount on certain things from the dwarves," she replied.
"Catti-brie has magic?" said Drizzt surprised.
"One of the spare focuses I use for precision work sparked when she picked it up. That only happens when someone has a certain level and affinity for magic."
Bruenor had watched the initial lessons and by this point had a decent understanding of Cerri's personality enough to trust her not to teach anything dangerous. Besides, enchanting magic was something he could share with his daughter.
What Drizzt didn't know was that the magic she was teaching her human friend was the magic she knew from a life she had almost forgotten by this point. For whatever reason, she was able to teach it to others, including elves.
She honestly preferred her old magic, because it didn't require a ridiculous amount of studying to use a spell once it was cast a single freaking time. The fact it was easier and came more instinctively didn't hurt either.