The View from Cliffwatch and a Visit to the City of the Dead
Aleina looked out over the countryside from the appropriately named Cliffwatch walkway. The landscape stretched out far below - mostly farmland close to the city of Waterdeep that from this height seemed a patchwork tapestry of green, brown, and gold separated by groves, hedges, and walls of fieldstone. She and Jhelnae had missed the sunrise, but it was still early, and the air crisp and new.
The denizens of the City of Splendors roused themselves and took to the streets. But they mostly hustled to jobs and errands. Only a few had the time for a stroll along a walkway bordering a precipice so steep as to be considered unscalable - a cliff face so sheer the city planners had deemed it safe to halt the construction of the wall on either side and provide residents with this spectacular view. At this hour, most of those without somewhere to be, chose to spend it still abed. Which is precisely where Aleina wished she was.
"What are we doing out here?" the aasimar asked.
Jhelnae sighed.
"Sorry. I couldn't sleep and decided I might as well go for a walk. I tried to slip out without waking you."
"You didn't wake me," Aleina said. "I couldn't sleep either. But I was willing to keep trying."
Anyone seeing them, standing side by side at the stone railed overlook would likely believe them two early risers - out for a brisk walk to take in the vista and then maybe visit a cafe to sip hot kaeth while passing sections of the morning broadsheets between them to read. That was a pleasant thought. Aleina decided they should do just that on a morning after they'd actually had a decent night's rest. But such a thing could only be looked forward to if Jhelnae stayed living with them.
"I didn't mean to keep you up all night talking," the half-drow said. "Didn't mean to worry you so much you couldn't sleep. It's my problem. I'll deal with it."
When the three Eilistraeens showed up to their grand opening last night, Aleina considered it a pleasant surprise. While they didn't know Jhelnae, they greeted her like a lost family member and embraces followed. But the half-drow's behavior soon made the aasimar realize something was off. Jhelnae kept finding excuses for needing to be on the other side of the crowded taproom from the trio of drow and she never wanted to be left alone with them - once even going so far as to surreptitiously grab the aasimar under the table to prevent Aleina from getting up and leaving.
It wasn't until their grand opening finished, the Trollskull closed for the night, and the aasimar and half-drow returned to their room that Jhelnae shared the reason. She worried the Eilistraeens would expect her to join them and share in their mission to restore the Promenade of the Dark Maiden. There hadn't been a lot of sleep after that revelation.
"It's not fair," Aleina said. "We just moved in and got our room all set up."
Jhelnae gave a bitter laugh.
"Yes, that argument will carry a lot of weight. 'Sorry Trelasarra, I can't help you in the mission to redeem the drow. You see, my friend and I spent a long time picking out furniture and drapes. And we had our neighbor, Tally, build us a bookshelf that we plan on filling with tawdry chapbooks.'"
The aasimar gave a sad smile.
"Well it's all true."
Despite it being a joke, the half-drow had just laid out the core issue. How could Jhelnae say no to the Eilistraeens, choose a life of indulging hobbies like collecting chapbooks with her friend, over a life of service, and still live with her conscience?
"How do you think it goes with Kuhl this morning?" Aleina asked. "We probably should have warned him before he went to train with them."
"Don't worry about him," the half-drow said, shaking her head. "He is one of them. He is loving every moment of it."
"Them?" The aasimar raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Someone who lives for training," Jhelnae said. "Like my parents. Like Aravae. Probably like Trelasarra. They are all questing after that perfect moment of technique."
The aasimar felt her brow wrinkle in confusion.
"Perfect moment of technique?"
"It's when your mind is perfectly attuned to your body," the half-drow said with mock reverence, voice shifting to the tone she used to mimic her mother. "At that point there is no difference between thought and action. There actually is even no thought as there is no mind, no will, as if reality itself moves you. It's better than sex."
"Your mom said that to you?" Aleina asked, doubtfully. "She said, to her daughter, that it was better than sex?"
"Fine," Jhelnae said, rolling her eyes. "I may have inferred that last part. But the point is, they are all obsessed with the quest of achieving that level of awareness. It's damned annoying and probably a lie or a hallucination they have because they've worked themselves to exhaustion. I was so sick of hearing about how if I only would just push through, hone my technique, I too would feel this wondrous, mythic thing."
"You know, it is not the same thing," the aasimar said. "But I have felt something similar. Sometimes, when we were fighting in the Underdark, even other times, I just knew what each of you were going to do and knew where I needed to be and what I had to do to best take advantage of it. Before any of it even happened. It was like we were all collectively willing the course of events."
The half-drow groaned and closed her eyes.
"I've felt that too. But never let my mother know that. If you do, I'll deny I ever said that."
"I'll try not to tell her," Aleina said. "Which shouldn't be too hard since I've never met her and she is on the other side of the Anauroch Desert from us."
They fell silent for a time, both staring, but not seeing the view before them. Then, by some unspoken agreement, turned and continued down the Cliffside walkway. A scattering of other people shared the space - among them an older gentleman lost in his own thoughts on one of the stone benches, a nanny rolling a stroller back and forth while watching other children playing in a greenspace, and a priest in rose red robes basking and praying in the morning sun.
"Do Eilistraeens accept followers of other gods in their ranks?" the aasimar asked as they walked down the cobblestone path. "Someone who is not a drow?"
"You're talking to someone whose father is a paladin of Torm," Jhelnae said. "And before she was killed, over a century ago, the leader of the Eilistraeens was a Chosen of both Eilistraee and the goddess Mystra. So, yes, they do accept others into their ranks. But I see where this is going, and no, Aleina, I couldn't ask that of you. It is not your fight. Don't even hint that you are even thinking about it to Trelasarra."
"First of all," Aleina said. "Let me decide what is and is not my fight and second, why not even hint about it?"
"Because yes they'd be happy to have you join," the half-drow said. "And Trelasarra is already hoping for it. Remember her line of questioning? 'Oh, you two escaped Velkynvelve together? Then the Underdark? Now you are roommates? You two must be very close.'"
The aasimar slowed her pace for a moment, thinking. That had been the way the conversation had gone.
"I thought she was just being nice," she said. "Trying to get to know me."
"She is nice," Jhelnae said. "She was trying to get to know you. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have ulterior motives. And she won't try to force or trick you into anything. But if you are able and willing to help in their work, she'll be overjoyed. Eilistraeens are few in number compared to Lolthites and they need all the help they can get. They primarily grow through conversion. By offering a sisterhood of solidarity in place of the sisterhood of rivalry of the Lolthites."
"Not a Lolthite," the aasimar said. "Would not even consider it as really a conversion. I'd just be helping out a friend."
"Helping out a friend?" the half-drow said. "For the rest of your life? At the risk of your life? Have you lost your mind?"
"When did I say anything about the rest of my life?" Aleina asked. "And how is this any different than the Underdark? The High Forest? Even the sewers or Granny Nightheart?"
Jhelnae gave an exasperated snort.
"It is completely different!"
"How?" the aasimar asked.
"In the Underdark we were fighting for our lives," the half-drow said. "For the rest of it, we were just following where fate took us. There wasn't really a choice. There is a choice on this. For you. For me? It's a life sentence."
They'd stopped walking and faced each other for this last verbal exchange. Jhelnae left Aleina in stunned silence and wandered over to an empty stone bench and threw herself down on it, staring out into the distance provided by the Cliffwatch view.
The aasimar became acutely aware of all the eyes watching. She and the half-drow had unconsciously raised their voices. They must look an odd sight - one with obvious celestial heritage and the other with ancestry from the Underdark, and seemingly in an argument. Their walk had carried them near the midway point of the Cliffwatch walkway. Two Watch officers, easily identified by their green-and-goldenrod doublets and tall steel helmets, were positioned along the stone railway. They straightened and became attentive to the aasimar and half-drow. The old man, previously lost in his thoughts on his bench, now glanced at the apparently quarreling pair and the nanny had gathered her charges from their play and herded them away. Only the rose-colored robe priest seemed oblivious - still basking in the sunlight with a beatific smile on his face.
Aleina sighed and joined Jhelnae on the bench. After a moment she realized she'd sat, not really thinking about it, at the far end from the half-drow. Now they looked like two petulant children, stubbornly waiting for the other to speak. With another sigh the aasimar scooted along the bench until they were shoulder to shoulder and put an arm around her friend. For a moment, Jhelnae went rigid, arms crossed in front of her, body language closed off. Then she took in a deep breath, released it, and leaned into the aasimar.
"I've been running from this my whole life," the half-drow said. "Fighting my mother's plans for me every step of the way. I don't want to go, but maybe it's time I finally grew up. Stop being a spoiled child. Stopped living just for myself."
"You seemed to have decided," Aleina said. "But what about the other thing? The source of your magic?"
"Simple," Jhelnae said. "I won't use it anymore. I won't summon the sword and won't blast things with the power of the Demonweb. I was trained in the sword, and I'll just use that."
The aasimar rolled her eyes, knowing the half-drow couldn't see her do it. That wasn't going to work. No one would be able to resist that temptation when danger threatened, and lives were on the line. It was another reason, if her friend went with the Eilistraeens, Aleina would have to accompany her. But the Jhelnae had already gotten upset at the suggestion and the aasimar decided to come at the issue from another angle.
"Do you know why I ran away from my marriage?" Aleina asked.
"You've told me before," the half-drow said, voice confused. "Many times. You didn't believe getting a favorable marriage was the appropriate destiny for a divine aasimar. A tad arrogant, by the way."
Aleina chuckled.
"Not divine, only celestial touched, and far more than a tad arrogant, I'll admit. But the truth is far worse. My cousins and I were completely naive when we entered the social scene. One day we were playing with broken dolls in the nursery, such fun games of imagination, and then suddenly one by one it was 'oh you've gotten your moon's blood, you have breasts, let's see who you can catch for the family?' We didn't know we were poor or understand what that meant. We were actually very excited to play dress up in old things pulled out of dusty closets. Until we went to events and the daughters of the other patriar families had such sadistic fun at our expense. Then there were the seemingly nice ones who invited you over for some private little affair. At first we thought finally, finally we'd be judged by something other than for wearing faded gowns smelling of the must. But those private little affairs were always a private little arena for even more cruelty and humiliation. Without my cousins, I never would have survived those years."
The aasimar held her friend tighter for a moment, angry at the remembering things long suppressed.
"But then everything changed," Aleina continued. "I caught the eye of the scion of a powerful and wealthy house, and we were betrothed. Everyone treated me differently then, and my fiancé was handsome, and kind and I felt great affection towards him."
"But?" Jhelnae prompted.
That one word held a question. The half-drow had heard this all before and doubtlessly wondered why the aasimar told it to her again now.
"But one day I found myself imagining life after my wedding," Aleina said. "I was sitting alone, plotting, and in my mind, there was a ledger of all the slights I had received. All the little cruelties. I would pay them all back and then some. Forgotten invitations, unfavorably seating at dinner parties, and insults veiled as compliments would be my weapons."
The half-drow pulled away to look at the aasimar, a look of surprise on her face.
"That all sounds so…"
She trailed off.
"Go ahead and say it," Aleina said.
"Petty," Jhelnae finished.
Aleina nodded. "I came to the same conclusion. And when I realized what I was becoming, I felt I had to escape, had to run, had to seek out a life more like the one I had imagined the future would hold when I played those games of imagination with my cousins in the nursery. That plan didn't go so well. I ended up in the Underdark."
"What are you trying to say?" the half-drow asked, eyes narrowing. "Are you trying to compare my mother and Trelasarra to those petty patriar women? Say I should run from my duty to Eilistraee because you ran from a life of planning out guest lists for parties?"
A dangerous edge was in her voice. However much she might complain about her mother, Jhelnae held her in high regard. Well she should as someone who had dedicated her life to trying to bring more drow into the light.
"I haven't finished yet," the aasimar said. "I woke up in the Underdark with Ilvara standing above me. I knew what she intended. Something creatively cruel to amuse her subordinates and solidify her power base. But it never happened. Because you interceded on my behalf."
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae said. "How many times do I have to tell you that I wasn't trying to save you from a beating before you'll believe me?"
"Stop," Aleina said. "Just stop. I was terrified, so it is imprinted in my memory. I was in shackles. In my underclothes. Defenseless. I tried to wield my magic, but it wouldn't manifest. Kuhl was still unconscious and all around me were denizens of the Underdark. I looked around for anyone who might help me, and our eyes met. And I saw the pity there. Then, right then, your mouth opened, and you started mocking Ilvara. Drawing her attention away from me and onto you."
"Fine," the half-drow said, throwing up her hands. "Maybe. You know me. I don't plan those sorts of things. I was acting on instinct. What is your point?"
"My point is, Jhelnae Mizzrym," the aasimar said. "Your first instinct was to protect me at a cost to yourself. Which means from the moment I met you, you have never been, how did you put it? A spoiled child who only lived just for herself. And I should know the difference. I've met plenty as the daughter of a patriar house. Was well on my way to becoming one myself. "
Tears brimmed in Jhelnae's eyes, and she quickly turned away to stare out over the cliffside vista.
Aleina pressed on, and though she spoke kindness, she somehow felt a bit like a merciless bully for doing so.
"What was it we talked about last night? When you recounted your dream of Eilistraee? She said you were meant for a different path. To keep as you were, dancing in your own way, mindful of helping your friends and others, and that you would find your way. You do help your friends. You helped me from the moment I met you. You do help others. Ask the gnomes of Blingdenstone if you don't? Ask the residents of Uluvin you helped protect from an undead army if you don't? Ask the ghosts of the children you set free from Granny Nightheart if you don't? Selune's tears, ask Floon Blagmaar if you don't?"
"Really don't want to ask the last one," Jhelnae chuckled. "Since reminding him would mean he'd just try to thank me with a hug again. But we were lost in the High Forest when I dreamt of Eilistraee. We're in a city now with Eilistraeens for me to join with. It could be said I found my way and that statement no longer applies."
"I think it does," Aleina said. "I think you do have a choice. But if you feel you need to join with Trelasarra and the others, well and good. But I am going with you."
"You know I really hate you sometimes, Aleina," the half-drow said. "Just when I think I've figured out what I need to do, you get me all confused again."
Despite her words she put an arm around the aasimar and returned the side embrace, leaning in so their heads rested together for a time. Then she gave a deep sigh.
"I'm so sick of thinking about this," Jhelnae said, pulling away. "Are you hungry? Because I am. Let's get some breakfast."
"I am hungry," Aleina said, realizing it was true. "But I forgot my coin purse back in our room. Did you bring yours?"
The half-drow shook her head.
"We can eat back at the Trollskull. But in that case, let's walk more first, because someone made me cry and I don't want to go back there with my eyes still puffy and red."
They stood and, for the first time since sitting, Aleina noticed the old man on the other bench was probably within hearing of at least some of what they said. He stared at them now with bright, attentive eyes, looked down to write or scribble something in a leatherbound journal on his lap, then looked up at them again.
The aasimar threw up her hands in a questioning gesture.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
The journal snapped closed, his charcoal pencil disappeared into a pocket of an oversized, stained, shabby coat, creased with wrinkles, and he put a battered brown felt hat with a long drooping pheasant feather on his head. He stood up.
"Already have," he said, ambling away. After a few paces he called back. "You might find the evening edition interesting."
"Evening edition?" Aleina mumbled. "What do you suppose he means by that?"
"Just some weird creep who can't mind his own business," Jhelnae said, fanning her eyes to get the swelling to go down. "Forget him."
"Yeah," the aasimar said, shaking her head. "You're right."
They walked south along the Cliffwatch until it connected to Zendulth Street, joining the flow of pedestrian traffic walking past row houses and occasional noble villas. Aleina looked over at Jhelnae and found her eyes still bloodshot, but now probably just from lack of sleep and exhaustion rather than crying. Her own eyes probably looked no better. She was about to suggest they take the next road north, back to the Trollskull when she caught sight of the stone wall enclosing the City of the Dead, and further beyond that, the open gate to the cemetery.
"Want to do a quick loop in the City of the Dead and then head back?" she asked. "Volo did say we should visit it."
"He actually said we should have a picnic there," the half-drow said, with an eye roll. "A picnic in a cemetery? How did he become famous for writing guidebooks? But that warrior fountain statue he described did sound interesting. Let's take a quick look."
Volo's suggestion of a picnic didn't seem so crazy once they got to the gate. The City of the Dead resembled a park, or the grounds of a wealthy noble house, rather than a cemetery. Morning sunlight played off grassy hills, tended flower beds, groves of trees, sculpted bushes, beautiful sculptures, and astounding architecture.
"It's beautiful," Aleina said, surprised.
"Go on then," one of the constables guarding the gate said, his gray mustache twitching upward from the smile on his lips. "In you go. No reason to gawk and hold up traffic at the entrance when admission is free."
Gravel crunched under their boots as they walked through the gates. Despite the Watch officer's statement about holding up traffic, at this early hour there were few visitors. As they followed the wending paths past grand mausoleums, sculptures, grassy hills, and stands of trees, the waking city outside the walls seemed to fall away.
Despite the sun, flowers, and greenery, the statuary of the City of the Dead never let you forget it was a cemetery. The bronze and marble sculptures were stunning, haunting, mournful, and sometimes downright eerie. So eerie Aleina grew thankful every time they ran across one of the many groundskeepers clipping, weeding, or mowing.
The sound of rushing water guided them to the Warriors' Monument near the center of the cemetery. They saw it before they reached it. At sixty feet in height it was hard to miss. The intricate sculpture, really a myriad of master work sculptures that must have taken a lifetime to create, depicted a circle of three women and two men striking down trolls, orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, and barbarians, all of which fell backward and outward around the warriors. Above all of them, a flying griffon rider speared a skeletal knight wearing a breastplate bearing a grinning skull in a black triangle. The entire sculpture was also a fountain and the wounds of the combatants gushed water to fall in rushing rivulets into a basin below.
"Really, really, impressive," Aleina said, as they circled the massive piece of art. "Worth seeing, but very garish and gaudy."
"There are no drow," Jhelnae said.
"What?" the aasimar asked.
"There are no drow," the half-drow repeated. "I mean that circle of defenders are killing everything. Trolls, bugbears, other humans, and even some weird skeletal knight, and yet they aren't killing a single drow."
"And this offends you?" Aleina asked.
"Yes, it offends me," Jhelnae said. "If you are going to have a sculpture with warriors fighting all sorts of scary races, the drow should be featured."
"It's all white marble," the aasimar said. "So wouldn't any drow they sculpted just look like any other elf?"
"It isn't all white marble," the half-drow said. "That skeletal knight has a triangle in black marble on his breastplate."
"But I think that was a specific choice to represent victory over death, or something like that," Aleina said.
Jhelnae shrugged.
"Whatever, but it still would be better if it had some drow in it. And besides, everyone the warriors are fighting are male. You've got three women Waterdhavian warriors but no females on the other side. I'm just saying they should put in a drow female. I could pose for them."
She threw herself back into the imitation of having just received a gruesome death wound. Aleina laughed, not knowing if it was the pose itself that was funny or the half-drow repeatedly glancing back at the statue of a dying bugbear for facial reference and making adjustments to her expression.
"I'm guessing the sculptor who made this," the aasimar said, between chuckles. "Died a long time ago and they probably aren't going to resurrect him just so he can add you in."
"Too bad," the half-drow said, dropping her pose. "Because I already have experience as a statue, remember?"
The aasimar immediately sobered.
"Don't joke about that, Jhelnae. You might not remember any of it, but for the rest of us, it was terrible."
"Sorry, sorry," the half-drow said, putting up her hands in a conciliatory gesture. "That was in poor taste. Ready to head back?"
They'd completed their circuit around the Warriors' Monument and Aleina nodded. They retraced their steps towards the gate they'd entered. They'd fallen into a companionable silence but looked at each other when they heard a whimpering cry from beyond a monument of a cowled figure looming over the gravel path, his draping bronzed robes green with age. The statue itself was sculpted of black marble as was the massive carved slab shadowing him and the trail from behind.
"What was that?" Aleina whispered.
A chill ran down her spine and she looked around for any of the groundskeepers. None were in sight. Another cry of pain sounded before Jhelnae could answer.
Together they left the path, sprinting around the marble marker, then skidding to a halt from what they saw. A diminutive, red-skinned humanoid with a barbed tail, small horns, and leathery wings was on top of a weakly thrashing bald and gray skinned deep gnome. Even as they watched, the tail stinger descended again, jabbing into the little devil's struggling prey.
A bolt of fire flew from the aasimar's outstretched hand, striking the creature full on. But the flame seemed to slide right off the red-skinned humanoid with no effect. It turned and hissed, baring sharp teeth. Then a crackling blast of energy from the half-drow slammed into it, sending it hurtling and skidding across the landscaped grounds and through a flower bed. It came up spitting out dirt and blossoms and threw another hiss and a baleful gaze towards Aleina and Jhelnae, then leapt into the air as it saw the half-drow take aim with her hand again. It seemed to blur and writhe, and suddenly the creature flapping away was an innocent looking crow.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae said. "What was that thing?"
The aasimar didn't answer, instead running up to the fallen gnome and touching him with healing magic. For a time, he didn't respond to her presence, just laid there, breathing raggedly and gathering his strength.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "What was that thing?"
"Thank you," he finally said, rolling up.
He gave her a grateful smile then felt for something in his pocket, sighing with relief as he discovered whatever he expected was still there. Suspicion clouded his expression as he looked back up at Aleina.
Without a word, he stood up, pushed past her, and ran for a stand of trees.
"You're welcome!" the half-drow yelled after him, looking to the aasimar with a shrugging expression of disbelief. "How do you like that?"
She shook her head. "Guess we'll never know what that was all about. Come on, let's finally get that breakfast. I'm starving."
Okay...except for the last part, none of this is really planned out too well. I'm still dealing with the ramifications of discovering a temple to Eilistraee so close to Trollskull Manor. I gave Aleina and Jhelnae really simple instructions when I started writing, which were as follows:
"Okay, gloss over the Eilistraeen issue, and then lets move on with the plot again."
The result is Aleina is talking and talking and I'm like, "What are you doing to me? You are going completely off the rails." And she is like, "Shut up! This is what I'd say." So I don't know if this works at all.
In other news, however, I've made it through Chapter 35 in edits to Out of the Abyss and I frequently felt the same way after each of those chapters. With around a year passing before rereading I was pleasantly surprised that the story did seem to flow along okay. So maybe a year from now I'll feel the same on this chapter. Let me know your thoughts.