A/N: Alright, hooray for chapter three. Slightly shorter than the last, and somewhat filler-esque, but oh well... Let's go! Btw, this one is dedicated to Ray venn Hakubi for being one cool person.

Kaia Moonchild

Neverwinter streets…

I should've picked a different city to become obsessed with… Majandra thought to herself as she observed the lethargic people moving around below her seat on the dome of the Halls of Justice. Probably be a lot more interesting without all the dead people.

In the month and a half since leaving Desther and Meldanen to do whatever it was they were doing, Majandra had learned more about Neverwinter than she imagined she needed to.

She knew the best whorehouses from her time spent in the Docks District cracking the wrists of petty thieves and avoiding roaming bands of land bound sailors. Their alcohol was the strongest available, she found, and it was easy for her to sit in the corner of a bar unmolested as she sought to forget the memories that plagued her sleep, then simply rent a room for the night. More often than not, the Docks were where she stayed when she didn't have anywhere else to go at night, or refused for another second to sleep in one of the dirty alleyways of the Core.

Not that the Core was a bad place to be, compared to the rest of the city. She knew the best place to get a drink and a bit of gossip, as well as who the best mercenaries were of the bunch that stayed at the Trade of Blades only a block away from where she sat. It was harder to navigate the inner city district, especially because of laws requiring that all patrons have bare heads while out and about. She found that a couple of well-placed hair ties hid her horns from sight. Her tail was never a problem, since the extra limb was easy to conceal amongst her belts and clothes.

She learned to avoid the Beggar's district like, well, the plague, after spending a worthless evening fending off rabid dogs as she scouted out the Academy of Heroes. The district was the home of the poorest of the poor, as well as the over flowing cemetery where the dead were placed. The air was constantly filled with the screams of those too ill or poor to leave, and certainly a hive for catching the disease. She thanked her demonic blood, for once, for rendering her immune to most mortal illnesses.

The Black Lake District would be the first she burned after fulfilling her duties, if only because of the way they lived their lives all but obliviously to the suffering of their fellow citizens beyond their pair of guarded gates. The headquarters of Desther and Meldanen's plan was almost as disgusting as the Beggar's District to Majandra's senses, and she avoided that place as well.

Gonna keep day dreaming? Rekkei demanded acidly, voice grating on Majandra's mind. I'm bored. Do something. Kill something.

Majandra picked up a piece of tile and chucked it at a pigeon sitting a little ways down from her, killing the bird instantly and knocking it to the ground far below. "Happy?" she replied curtly, lying back against the sun-warmed stones and closing her eyes. She had to admit, though, she was a little bored too.

Do it again! Rekkei squealed like a gleeful, bloodthirsty child. Do it again, Demon girl!

"No, damn it." Majandra growled, running the claws in her knuckles across the tiles and making a song with the tinkle they created. "Can't you do something else?" Almost immediately, Rekkei began singing one of her off color ditties, filling Majandra's head with the singsong, childish voice.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" She rolled off the side of the building and free fell into the alley beside it, startling a toothless old man as he looked up from grubbing in the trash. "Sorry, grandfather." She muttered as she walked by him and into the shiny Core.

Besides scouting out her new home, Majandra had used her oh-so-free time to look for it. Unfortunately, it seemed the gods were playing with her, because the bond seemed to have gone haywire the moment she set foot in the city. First it would be in the Core, then the Beggar's District, then back in the Core, and so on and so forth. Some days, she despaired of finding the thing, and this was just another of those days.

Her stomach grumbling reminded Majandra that she had yet to eat that day, and so, with that in mind, she made her way to the Trade of Blades.

NWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNWNW

"Ari, are you listening to me? Aribeth!" Aribeth jerked herself away from her idle thoughts and refocused on Fenthick, who had long since grown bored of the silence at the table while he ate his food and she stared at hers. "What's going on with you, lately? You can't seem to pay attention to anything, and others have noticed. Think of our reputations!"

Aribeth nodded in understanding and placed her fork beside her plate. "My apologies, Fenthick," she replied, stifling a yawn. "I haven't been sleeping well, of late." Truthfully, she hadn't slept more than an hour or so since that night a month or so ago when she was awakened by it coming into her city. Since then, she'd felt like she was going insane, feeling whatever was attached to the other end of the bond bouncing from district to district.

"Well, try to stay awake for the next couple of hours," Fenthick muttered, shoving his plate aside and stomping to the door of their private chambers. "Lord Nasher expects us to attend him within the hour when he formally invites Desther's church into Neverwinter." He swept out without waiting for her response, an act that was becoming more common every other day.

"As you say, my love," Aribeth spoke to the empty room, sighing as she rose to put the dishes aside for the maid. Once the table was straightened up, she quickly donned her court clothes -a crème colored tunic with green trim to bring out her eyes, pale green breeches, and doeskin ankle boots- and left the room, taking the spiraling stairs to the main entrance of the Halls of Justice. Both she and Fenthick were entitled to rooms in Castle Never, but chose to live in the Halls for various reasons, accessibility to their people being one of them.

Nodding to the cleric's going about their business, Aribeth exited the large chamber and stepped out into the brightness of the city Core. Had the screams of the dying not been ringing in her ears, the city would have looked as it would on any other sunny day.

Suddenly, the bond flared, and she whirled about in time to see something fall in her peripheral vision. Could it be? She hastened across the square to the alleyway, only to be greeted by an old man staring at the brick wall that ended the passage.

"Are you alright, sir?" she asked, senses still straining to find what she was searching for. The bond had gone back to jumping around, and her shoulders sagged with the knowledge that she'd been so close. "If you have need for anything, the Halls are open to you."

"Need anything?" the man cackled with what he figured to be a toothy grin. "What need a man when women fall from the skies and land at his feet? Anything indeed!"

Aribeth bowed perfunctorily and left the man to his laughter, a perplexed expression on her face. Women falling from the sky? Perhaps I should have Mikhail send some of his men to check on the food and water supply… The strange encounter followed her into the castle and through the throne room doors before she managed to bring her thoughts back to the task at hand.

"Milady Aribeth," the guardsmen bowed to her as she entered the grandiose chamber, silver armor clinking in her wake.

"Lady Aribeth," Lord Nasher sat his high seat like a man holding onto his last lifeline, rough features pale and sallow with illness. He'd been one of the first outside the Beggar's District to catch the Wailing Death after the quarantine, proof that the plague was spreading by more than human touch. "I'm glad you could join us." Fenthick shot her a quick glare for being late before schooling his features back into Boy Scout perfection.

"I'm sorry, my Lord," Aribeth bowed before continuing up the dais to stand before her lover and her lord. "One of the citizens reported a strange occurrence, and I felt it fit to question him."

"Strange occurrence?" Fenthick echoed, a slight frown marring his perfect features. "What happened?"

"He said he saw a woman," she hesitated slightly at Nasher's slightly spaced expression. "He saw a woman fall from the sky." She finished.

"We've had a few such reports," Nasher stated, shocking the lady paladin. "Word has been reaching Aarin's ears about strange sightings of a shadow lurking about the city. Hallucinations from dying minds, I say."

"And I wasn't informed?" Aribeth asked calmly, though she felt a flash of anger. It was just another tiny omission in a string of omissions that made her feel as though she were slowly being pushed out of the boy's club of Neverwintian hierarchy.

"We didn't feel it was important enough to burden you with its knowledge, my dear." Fenthick replied sweetly, giving her the gentle smile she'd fallen for since the start. "You have enough on your plate as it is."

"Indeed she does!" The three turned to the entryway as a new presence entered the hall. "One of the reasons why I'm glad my brethren and I are being officially recognized. We can help ease your load, my Lady." Desther, High Watcher of Helm, strode into the room confidently, resplendent in his red and black vestments of faith.

"Welcome, Lord Watcher," Lord Nasher bowed his head weakly. It was surprising that the old man, made even older by the debilitating plague, had lasted as long as he had without an army of attendants surrounding him as they did in his bedchambers.

"Brother," Aribeth watched as Fenthick descended the dais to clasp arms with the other cleric. He personally greeted a member of a rival church and not his own fiancé? But again, she knew she would never bring up the slight. Maybe when times were better….

The investment ceremony was brief due to Nasher's fading stamina, and the cleric's quickly took their leave to oversee some of their people in other districts, leaving Aribeth to return to the Beggar's District and her academy alone. Perhaps I'll stay there for a while, the lady paladin mused as she and her escort made their way through the disaster zone. It seems I am not needed in the Core, and the other districts are fine on their own, as of now.

She nodded to the student-soldiers posted at the gates to her brainchild as they waved her into the compound, feeling the weight of responsibility lighten as she entered her comfort zone.

"My Lady! My Lady!" she straightened up as a human boy, surely no older than fifteen, came charging out of the main building with an overlarge sword strapped to his back. "Kaerion Galadorn has arrived!"

For the first time in weeks, an honest smile played across her lips. Hope. She thought. Hope at last.

A/N: So I managed to do two in a single day. Hooray. Honestly people, what's wrong with a little review? Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next one should be up soon as well.