Chapter Four – Bellamina
Another A/N.
Nah. Just kidding this time.
She watched intently at the three figures in Ballroom Seven, her insatiable curiosity once again getting the best of her. She watched as the first one to enter, a woman, judging by her slim figure, deftly disarmed both of her carefully-laid traps and even went as far as to set one or two of her own. The figure hiding in the shadows snorted derisively. Either a woman, or an elf, that one.
The scene became interesting when the two others entered the room. The second to enter was a miniscule, lizard-like creature, the likes of which she had never seen before. Wait...no, it was just a kobold. Maybe. Whatever it was, it had a terrible singing voice. The third one – now he was more to her interest. Easily over six and a half feet tall, torn sleeves revealed thick, muscular arms slightly slick with something...red? Was he bleeding?
Briefly, she scanned the rest of his frame, committing him to memory. Long, red hair hung down the nape of his neck in a disheveled ponytail, and on his forehead were two sharp, pointy...
She gasped. One of them? In her rest area? Heart pounding, she stared, transfixed, as he turned around to say something to his companions. Yes, sure enough, a thin, whiplike tail lashed from the seat of his armor. Suddenly filled with righteous anger, she glanced at the other two figures with him. Of course; now it made sense. The woman was his harlot, and the little creature was most definitely his slave. How she loathed such beings of evil!
The figure in the shadows could stand it no longer. Shouldering her mace, she stood from her crouched position to emerge dramatically into the light and promptly tripped over a loose pile of worn tapestry threads. The color drained from her usually radiant face as all three heads turned toward the source of the noise, and toward her.
oOo
"Golem hall indeed," Tazieyn muttered as she immediately marched over to the source of the disturbance and hauled the girl to her feet by the front of her tunic. "How long have you been watching us, kid?"
"No!" she shrieked as the half-elf half carried and half dragged her to the center of the room. "By the Council of Scions, I will not let you take me back to the Planes alive! You shall not have me, you wretched..." Her screams were muffled as Tazieyn fished through her pockets and shoved the first thing she found – an old, wadded-up pair of dress stockings – into the girl's mouth.
"Oooh, Boss be so scary when she be angry!" Deekin rubbed his scaly hands together in glee as he reached for parchment and a quill.
"Angry?" Valen looked up at the kobold over the flail he was polishing and raised an eyebrow skeptically. "She looks more amused to me."
"Mmphu!" The girl caught in Tazieyn's grasp twisted around and managed to free one hand, which she used to point at Valen and glare, rage flaring in her golden-hued eyes. Her breathing was labored from her struggle and her long, silver braids were in severe disarray, but her appearance did not seem to faze her as she spat out her gag and let out a long stream of words in a language completely foreign to Tazieyn. Deekin also appeared confused, but Valen's eyes widened in shock as he digested what she was saying. Then, he promptly burst into laughter, an action that only seemed to infuriate her more.
"Valen?" Tazieyn tightened her grip on the girl as she gave him a look that demanded explanations.
"She..." He took a deep breath, trying to quell his mirth before speaking. Finally, he managed, "She just called me a fiendish slave master; she thinks Deekin is my battle fodder and that you are my harlot."
Tazieyn blinked twice to make sure she understood what she was hearing. "She said what?"
"At least, that is what I think she said. It has been years since I've the Celestial language, so some of that could be a mistranslation...?"
"Must I spell it out for you in your native language, you cretin?" the girl howled, causing Tazieyn to clap a hand violently over her mouth.
"At least lower your voice, or you'll have every drow and duergar on this island converging on us like vultures to the dead!" she hissed. Suddenly, Tazieyn cursed loudly as the girl placed a well-aimed kick to her kneecap and broke free, brandishing a golden mace at the tiefling.
"You will pay for your foul deeds, you fiendish demonson!" she declared as she swung the mace, but the seasoned fighter was too quick for her as he sprang to his feet and grabbed both of her wrists in a powerful grip.
"Look, you," he said calmly as she struggled to free herself again. "I think you need to just sit down and learn who it is you fight before rushing blindly into a battle you won't win."
"Who are you?" Tazieyn demanded as she rubbed her throbbing knee. "What in the Nine Hells are you doing here? And who – or what – in all of Aber-Toril possessed you to come in here by yourself and throw yourself at potential allies like that?"
"You...you are not..." she stammered, unable to get the words out as her face turned bright red. "I...he...you are traveling together of your own free will?"
Tazieyn advanced on the frightened girl. "Maybe you didn't hear my question clearly enough. How about we start with your name?"
"Bel...Bellamina," she stuttered, trying to scramble away from the furious half-elf. "I was raised in Sigil; my mother was an astral deva who had spent a short amount of time on this plane, where she met my human father. She told me stories of Toril, of the mountains and plains and the beauty of it! And so I thought I would see for myself. But..." her face grew downcast. "I made an error in the casting of the portal that took me here, and instead of landing on the ground like I intended, I landed, well, under it."
"So the clumsy aasimar miscast her first major spell," Valen quipped, a slight sneer curling across his lips.
"Bellamina, I hope you realize your accusations are entirely false. All of them." The threatening glare in Tazieyn's eyes did not diminish as her voice grew progressively darker. "This man that travels with me is a friend, and a competent – if not valuable – ally. His name is Valen, and you will refer to him as such when you address him if you don't want to wake up swallowing the sharp end of my knife. The same goes for the kobold. His name is Deekin. You can call me Tazieyn."
"Ooh, Boss definitely angry now," Deekin whispered, eyeing the scene unfolding before him with growing excitement. "Pretty gold eyes girl in biiiig trouble."
oOo
"My lady, I...I thank you. For earlier."
A fire was crackling in the ancient fireplace of the room they had chosen to stay in, and both kobold and newcomer were curled up in front of it, fast asleep. Tazieyn, who had insisted on keeping her nightly vigil for the group, was seated with her back to the fire, facing the room's double door entryway. Valen sat a few feet away from her, his eyes appraising her in quiet contemplation.
He watched her as she eyed him with a smile in her eyes, those welcoming green eyes that accepted his alliance and offered him something he had seldom encountered in his life – friendship. Something he was still reluctant to accept. "You don't have to thank me. It was something I would have done for anyone that travels with me." She grinned. "It's not like I was never on the opposing end of a prejudice before. Half-elves, and especially a – oh, what was the word that one noble used – hypocritical half-breed warrior wannabe, I think was the gist of it. Besides, I always found it pretty profitable to stick up for the guys that watch my back in a fight." She gave him a sly wink after that statement and turned her head back toward the door.
They sat in silence for a few moments, until Tazieyn glanced at him again. "You can sleep, you know. I can handle fighting and waking you guys up at the same time."
"Not if we are ambushed by drow. I would rather be alert if we are attacked, rather than dying in my sleep like an unaware noble in his plush bed."
She crossed her legs and absentmindedly played with a throwing knife. She just seemed...so innocent somehow, so untouched by what went on around her sometimes. Then, there were times when purely righteous anger seemed to course through her body, and her entire demeanor would shift from carefree, unburdened wanderer to that of a powerful warrior ready to bathe an entire battlefield in the blood of her enemies. She intrigued him, if not completely mystified him at times.
"What did you do to that duergar out there?" he asked suddenly, remembering the scene before their entry of the golem hall. The little dwarven woman had been holding a spear to her neck, and a simple glance had seemed to...
"Who, Dahanna?" Tazieyn shrugged. "I don't know. People say I have a commanding presence sometimes. Maybe my human half has Rashemi blood or something."
She was hiding something. He could tell by the way she shifted uncomfortably at his question, and the way she was almost too quick to answer. So she didn't trust him, either. That seemed fair enough.
"I guess since both of us insist on staying awake, how about telling me a little about yourself?" she asked suddenly, her voice playful but her green eyes striking him to the core. Was that intentional? He really couldn't tell.
oOo
"Myself? Like what?"
Tazieyn shrugged, as if she didn't really care, but she was determined to get beneath his icy demeanor sooner or later. "Well, how did you meet the Seer?"
She didn't expect the sudden tightening of his jawline, or the way he stiffened up at her words. But before she could say anything else, he began to speak. "Very well. The first time I saw the Seer, I was fighting against her. You see, I arrived in the Underdark by chance, summoned from the Lower Planes by the Valsharess in the attack that almost destroyed Lith M'yathar. At the time, I was nothing more than a rage-filled demon, consumed by my bloodlust and fury. Lith M'yathar was almost taken, and the Valsharess commanded me to kill the Seer."
"But you didn't," Tazieyn said matter-of-factly.
"I couldn't would be the more apt word. She looked at me with such compassion and kindness that I found I could not lift a blade against her. So I disobeyed the Valsharess and went back to the Hells where I had been before."
He paused, staring at the ground in front of him intensely. "When I returned, I found I could not get the Seer out of my mind. In all my mindless anger, she was what anchored my newfound sanity, and so I set my mind to find her again. Unfortunately, my master didn't like his slaves trying to escape."
"You were a slave?" Tazieyn was startled by this admission. The tiefling did not look like the type to be easily enslaved.
Valen flexed his arms uncomfortably. "Maybe it's best if I finish that story another time."
Burning now with more questions than ever, Tazieyn reluctantly nodded and returned to staring a hole through the room's entrance.
A/N – Well, okay. I do talk too much. But I wanted to say this much to those who might be stuck looking for inspiration. Write when you're half-crazed by a need for sleep, say, around three or four in the morning. That's when most of this one was written, anyway. And thanks for the reviews! I will do my best to keep the updates fairly regular. - Silvorfithrade