„The Fool's Play"
Finally he knew how long the eternity was. It was exactly four hours. Four hours it took for her to leave the room of Phaere's quarters in Society. Four hours they spent in the room, while the owner of the house was taking care of her business, never leaving them without surveillance.
Veldrin came out without any expression on her dark features, the exact copy of Daria's face only dipped in rich black, but she smiled at Phaere, a smile of a drow of course, with no joy present in forming of her lips. The drow slave walked behind her, his eyes back on his mistress. Xan hated the look of a person satisfied with his work the drow was wearing.
"Now, to the task at hand" Phaere obviously thought she already bought herself a new ally. "I want you to kill Solaufein."
"What?" he didn't stop himself on time and he spoke that out loud. Fortunately the priestess didn't listen to him, looking at Veldrin and her only, who now sat in front of her by the table the rest of her party wasn't even allowed to touch. The slave already disappeared behind the door and Xan felt his stomach twisting at the thought that the drow was probably tired. He felt deeply sickened, his head hurting like if it was being crushed. He had no idea what was stopping him from charging at Phaere this very moment, even if it would mean he had to use his fists to fight her. He wanted this to stop, this game of false smiles, he wanted the drow woman to die for what she had just done, for all the hurt she had caused. But again the fear stopped him from doing anything.
"Of course" Daria didn't seem one bit shocked by the request, more as if she was expecting such order. She sat on the chair relaxed, comfortable, just like she wasn't when entering the room. The mask was on place. Or maybe it wasn't a mask anymore.
"I've got enough of his constant insults. Soon the temple may take it as a sign of my weakness. Unfortunately attacking him outwardly may start a war between my house and his. You, on the other hand, have no such liaisons…"
"How do you want me to do it?"
"However you want, Veldrin, just make sure that no evidence links my house with his death. Bring me his piwafwi as a proof of the deed."
"I'll do it tonight." Daria stood up to walk away without permission, but Phaere let that little insult pass.
The drow wizardess Veldrin entered the room they rented first and went straight to her bedroom, without looking back at anyone, almost as if the proud drow wizadress wanted to escape their eyes. She only stopped by the door, without turing back to them, and became Daria the diviner from Candlekeep for a moment.
"Viconia, could you come with me? I need you" she lied, speaking in Common. She only needed Viconia to cover up for her on another solitary escapade. And she needed someone to… be there while she was gone. All for the facade.
"It was that rough?" the drow mocked, but Daria was already behind the door.
"I'm here for Solaufein of the Male Fighter's Society" Veldrin announced calmly upon her arrival in the compound, without the flash of the dominan female. She didn't need a lot of attention, just enough for a servant to lead her to her target's room. Alone she hoped to pass undetected by anyone who might remember her face from her exploits in the city, especially in the tavern.
A young drow male, a boy not even nearing puberty stepped from the shadows and bowed his head before her, without looking into her eyes, a proper respect to be shown to a female as powerful as her. Her party could learn a lot by mimicking his behavior. They didn't have the courage to act as masters, so they should at least try to appear convincing as servants.
"Lead the way, child" she ordered, satisfied with his behavior, another empty mask of a superior drow. The boy bowed again and began to walk without saying a word.
The Society's quarters were built simply, with straight corridors rarely adorned with any ornaments or symbols, and completely unprotected in the terms of magic. The path leading to Solaufein's chamber was easy enough for her to remember and that was more than convenient given the fact that she wasn't willing to inform anybody of her departure. With the lack of magic seals to guard the construction, using teleportation wouldn't pose any problem should the situation become difficult.
"Be gone" she dismissed the boy servant. He hurried to escape her sight like a little black mouse, disappearing back into the darkness. Veldrin opened the door and entered, not bothering to knock. Assassins rarely knocked to her door when coming after her.
She caught Solaufein while preparing to rest – without armor, leather or adamantine, or as much as thick shirt, his sword placed too far away for him to reach quickly, only a small dagger she knew he always carried with him, hidden in his shoe. A good moment.
"Veldrin, what are you doing here…?" he asked, when she closed the door behind her and began to walk in his direction, calmly. Just a step from him she drew her dagger, Dragon's Tooth, and only then he realized what was happening.
His own dagger appeared in his hand in an instant, with instincts saving him from the surprise attack. The two small blades clashed, but drow's weapon was only a barely enchanted piece of adamantine. The Tooth began to burn through it instantly, melting metal dripping on the carpet and starting a small fire Daria crushed under her foot.
The drow's fist shot forward aiming for his opponent's face, but Veldrin was too quick. He thought he would overpower her with ease shortening the distance, but when small female's hand closed around his wrist he felt as if he was held by a stone golem, so unwavering her grip was. She was much stronger than he expected and if not for his trained reflexes he'd take a stab in his chest the moment his dagger finally broke.
He slipped from her grasp and jumped behind his bed trying to set a barrier between them. With her impossible strength he needed to attack more carefully, but before he had any time to think Veldrin sent a flashing Magic Missile after him. Only a split second before the spell hit him he managed to utter the power word to summon up a Shield spell, bouncing off her magic harmlessly. He began to chant.
'An excellent fighter and a decent mage' Veldrin praised him silently. But she didn't have the time for playthings. Her skin began to harden…
"Master Solaufein?" A child, the same which lead her to this room, appeared by the door probably lured by the noise. Slayer's half-way transformed arm shot forward closing around little drow's neck before it could scream, lifting it up as if she lifted a curious flower she wanted to take a closer look at.
Solaufein used the moment to attack, after all she did expose her side while turning to the child. The agile warrior leapt forward, but surprisingly, instead of aiming at her relatively unprotected side, where he had a chance to do some damage and scratch one or two of her scales even with his broken dagger, he thrust it at her arm, the one holding the child. She pushed him off effortlessly, tearing a bloody gush on his chest with her fingers, already hard as talons.
"No, wait!" the warrior shouted, getting from the ground stained with his blood. "I give up. Just leave the child alone."
"Caring, Solaufein?" Now that was beginning to be interesting, she thought feeling the Slayer's anger leaving her. He thought that such a moronic deception wold give him another chance for attack. She laughed in drow's face, but released her grip on the child's neck so it could breathe easily. "Not a very suitable attitude for a drow" she mocked.
"No. I… will not fight you if you release the child."
Daria stopped laughing. He wasn't joking. He really was going to surrender if she did what he asked. She dropped the child taking one more look at it.
It was a servant of his house, plain and simple. Daria took a closer look at the coughing drowling. It bore no resemblance to the warrior, none at all, it was more than unlikely that they were related and besides, such bonds meant surprisingly little among the drow. Without thinking much she cast a spell, the same she used on Phaere's slave today, altering child's memories to a version more beneficial to her. There was a small resistance to her spell at first, due to natural drow immunity to magic, but she learned enchantments from the best. The child drow's eyes became blank for a short moment and after a second he blinked a few times trying to focus his sight on her. Then the boy realized what he was doing and quickly lowered his eyes to the ground, not to look directly at her.
"Go somewhere else" she ordered and he soundlessly run out of the room, probably not even noticing Solaufein, his sight so hard kept to the floor. A cling of a dagger hitting the stone uncovered by the hole burned in the carpet made Daria turn to look at Solaufein, standing few steps from her, unarmed, with his face grim.
"Phaere sent me to kill you, Solaufein" she explained expressionlessly.
"I know" the drow sighed. His wound covered his chest with blood, but he did nothing to stop the flow. He really was giving up. How could this be a trap?
"I won't do it" she decided. The Slayer wasn't interested in his blood now and she never was. She took a healing potion from her pack and offered soundlessly, Viconia's litany of distrust forgotten. He looked at her surprised, but took the bottle, drinking up the bluish liquid, his hand trembling, either from some emotion or the pain he was too controlled to show in any other way. And then she helped him to sit on his bed and asked.
"Tell me your story."
"I expected this from a long time" he answered. He didn't ask for her reasons, perhaps he didn't want to know what made her spare his life, or perhaps he thought she didn't, that she just postponed his death sentence for interrogation's sake. "No house or connections could save me from assassin's dagger thrust in my back. I and Phaere were once…lovers" There was an emotion in drow's voice, something long suppressed. He would probably tell her that even if she hadn't asked. "But Matron Ardulace decided that she was caring for me in ways inappropriate for her heiress and she was taken to the temple. They were torturing her with tentacle rods…it's a torment I can't even begin to describe. When the priestess' finished all that was left of Phaere I knew was her ambition. And I became a last reminder of her weakness…"
Solaufein risked a look at Veldrin and he saw a drow face wearing compassion, maybe the first time in his life.
"I need your cloak to prove your death to Phaere, but I will not strike you again" she held his hand. It was trembling badly. Not much control for a life in the darkness. Maybe there were limits to everything, but she never heard anyone saying that even a drow couldn't be cruel all the time. "I'd like you to hide, at least till the time we leave."
"Leave? Back to Ched Nasad?" he asked now even more confused. "No, you're talking about something else, aren't you?"
"We are going to the surface, back where we came from, after we retrieve Adalon's eggs to her. The ones we are chasing had already passed this way. If you want, you can come with us" she offered, hesitating only for an unimportant moment.
"Go with you to the Surface?" Solaufein looked at her astounded. "I… I would like to see Eilistraee's face at least once in my lifetime." The drow smiled seeing that this time he surprised her. "The Spider Queen has no hold over my heart, I serve only lady Silverhair. Should anyone find out about it, it would be my death, but I think you I can trust. I'd be happy to see the surface with you Veldrin, if you'll have me.
"My real name is Daria." It felt weird when something happened to her face and not even realizing when, she smiled.
"She left some time ago. She said that she'd take care of it alone." Viconia'e eye appeared in a narrow fissure between the doorframe and the door, leading inside the bedroom she shared with Daria.
"You let her alone in such state?" Jaheira yelled, putting her foot into the gap, effectively stopping the drow from closing the door, even despite her best efforts. Adamantine enhanced boots weren't going to give up that easily.
"She's in better state than you, mongrel, better than me!" Viconia went into a counter-attack, now that retreat wasn't possible. "Such petty little details can't possible hurt her."
"You sicken me." Jaheira didn't care to spare even another look at Viconia. She walked to the main door, knowing that it was the time for her to do something, opening it just in time to see Daria reaching for the handle.
"I'm back." The black-skinned elf greeted her expressionlessly. In her hands there was a dark purple cloak, a drow piwafwi. "We should go to Phaere."
And Jaheira knew that she was once again too late.
"So you come back. I take it that the task is completed?"
"The cloak is for you, my mistress." Veldrin offered her the piwafwi, with her best servile smile, kneeling on her one knee.
"Not even stained. Well done." The dark priestess examined the fabric with raised eyebrows. Her slim hand slid through the smooth surface.
"He didn't have it on him when I killed him. Or anything else at that" Daria scanned Phaere's featured for and reaction, any emotion. She saw her hand twitch almost unnoticeably. She'd doubt she saw it, were she not soulless.
"I hope he didn't give you any trouble" the priestess asked, perhaps a bit too coldly.
"Trouble? Oh no, mistress, I enjoyed this task thoroughly. It was almost a pity I had to kill him in the end." Daria drilled the needle. Phaere's knuckles whitened when she clenched her fingers on piwafwi. Whatever the priestess was imagining Veldrin did was more than she could disregard. "And please don't worry about the body. No trace of it will ever be found."
"Well done!" So false, so clear a tone rang in her voice. So she did care for him still… It was more than Veldrin could ever hope for. A clear soft spot, a weakness perfect to be used, for distraction, manipulation, whatever she wished. "You've proved yourself to be a most valuable asset to House Despana. It's time to introduce you to Matron Mother Ardulace. Come with me to the temple and… take your companions as well. Matron will be pleased to meet you."
Yes, they'd go to meet the great Matron of the Second House, but Veldrin was to lead in this dance, now that she knew Phaere, just as Adalon, just as anyone with a soul, had her weakness.