chapter 3

Eleni did not think that it would be this much trouble to get an 'audience' with Duron. For sure, they usually met briefly once every few weeks to catch up and see how each other were doing, but as the years passed by and Duron seemed to be fully emersing himself in to the fabric of the city far better than she had imagined, the get togethers became fewer and fewer. The last time they had met was a full month ago, when Duron proclaimed that he finally had found a matron and mistress that he knew would bring him into the circle of nobility within the city that he craved so. Perhaps it was with some sadness and regret that the elf girl noted that Duron was still very much an employee of the Velvet Glove festhall, not exactly a place of good repute where a 'personage of his noble blood' was want to be in employment.
It was a strange pairing, she and Duron. Stranger still was the friendship that still held fast even over so many years gone. There were times in the past where it was made plain that the dwarf was quite evil, and a little crazy besides, but for some reason in Duron's world, Eleni to him was a little sister that he sometimes spoke of in nights when he would get a few of his senses pieced together enough to speak of his past. Eleni did not know where the dwarf had hailed from, nor why he took on the persona that he did. But those things did not matter to her. All that she cared about was that Duron seemed to crave her presence next to him and with her by his side, he seemed to lose the blase' casualness that he had about murder and meyham. Up to a point. Eleni had been curious to know more of Duron's past at the beginning of their rather odd friendship, but in the back of her mind she knew that to delve further into the dwarf's soul would most likely cause him to wake from whatever dream that she thought he was living in. Instinctively, Eleni knew that it would be a dangerous thing indeed.
When Duron finally entered the reception area of the festhall, he was looking rather dapper in a greenish silken bathrobe and smoking a pipe with a rather long stem, looking quite dignified. His tightly bound ponytail was streaked with a bit of gray, and his mustache was also looking iron grey in color as well. He frowned upon seeing Eleni seated on the cushioned chair, clutching at her lute at her side. "Leave us." he intoned to the waifish looking, half dressed women that were seated at the reception desk. They looked a little disappointed as they did as bidden, walking behind curtains that hid the inner recesses of the reception room. The dwarf then turned his iron gray eyes toward the elf and said in a rather disprooving voice, "Elee, my dear dear little one. This is not a place for children! I've warned you about coming to this house of ill repute!" He presented his right cheek to the elf girl as she got up with a smile and gave him a light kiss. "You do not look well. What has happened. Did that fluffy creampuff of a fiancee do something to you?" Duron asked, his voice darkening as he took a seat next to Eleni.
The elf girl shook her head. "Nothing of the sort, Duron. You know he wouldn't hurt a fly. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body."
Duron took a long drag from his pipe and looked at the elf girl critically, saying, "Still, I do not trust that one. He is not natural. Noble born he may be. Goes against all good common and decent folk. I've reason to believe...he's got the devil in him."
Eleni kept her giggles in her throat as she shook her head and quickly changed the subject, saying with a smile, "You're looking very well, Duron. It's been too long since we've talked."
The dwarf's features around his hard, gray eyes softened at this, and he said, "It has been quite busy for me, little girl. I know this may sound like an excuse, but things have become somewhat complicated here in these parts. So many things to do and so many things need my undivided attention. I am doing all that I can to climb my way from this forced setback in my station. You do not know how it is like, to live as these common folk do. Subsisting on their banalities." Duron palmed the pipe in his hand and removed it from his lips. He smiled at Eleni and added, "Be patient and wait for old Duron to work his magic, my girl. I'll make it all right for both of us. I will get us both out of this dungheap of mediocrety and to a place where we can live like the nobility that we are." He then reached into the breast pocket of his robe and withdrew a small, leather bag, pressing it into Eleni's hand. "Just like old times, little girl. You can count on me." Duron said as Eleni shook her head and placed the bag into the dwarf's pocket, patting it for good measure.
"Duron, old friend." Eleni began as the dwarf began to protest. "I wish I was here to merely exchange greetings and catch up, but I'm afraid this evening won't be as simple in passing." She then pressed the sandalwood box into the dwarf's lap. "I've received this box tonight. Open the box and tell me what you see there."
Duron looked at the ornately carved object on his lap and then at Eleni's face, and then carefully opened it. He took the note out first, and then the delicate, three pronged knife. "This is yours. This is hummingbird..." Duron began in wonderment. "But you lost this, if I remember correctly. Curious." Duron murmured as he went over the note as well. "The black crow. How utterly unimaginative and uninspired. You would expect such from scum of lowborn breeding stock." The dwarf muttered as he dismissed the note and tossed it back into the box. He then turned to Eleni with stern reproof. "Of course you are not going to meet this villain."
Eleni shook her head and said, "I don't think he means me harm. He knew where I worked. He could have harmed me any time he wanted to if he so chose. And I am curious. So curious! You know how much I hate loose ends and unsolved mysteries Duron."
Duron looked on darkly at this and replied in an upset voice, "And this is how precisely innocent young girls like you get into trouble! I won't have it, Eleni. No, I forbid you to go meet this black chicken."
"Crow."
"Whatever. He can call himself a silver waterfowl that craps out gold bird poop as far as I care, the base scum. I smell danger afoot, my little girl. Absolutely not you will meet with this vagabond, this villain!" Duron exclaimed heatedly, and put his pipe back in his mouth, puffing on it in quick, angry successions. Duron and Eleni both sat in uneasy silence then, with Eleni turning the pretty little dagger in her hand point over point. She was recalling back to the time, the small shop in Amn that Duron had bought the dagger for her claiming it to be magical. But Eleni knew even back then that it was merely just a well crafted, albeit an unusual looking weapon. The shopkeeper had told her that it was more of an ornament than a real dagger, and told both her and Duron that the edges were not keen enough to cut through butter, let alone hurt anyone. It had taken Duron a few weeks until he could make the edges sharp enough for Eleni's liking, and Eleni just a few seconds to prove the shop keeper wrong on all counts. There wasn't a doubt in the elf girl's mind that this was indeed her dagger, right down to the black, silken coils of her hair that she had worked into the woven handle that she had knitted for herself. Eleni held the handle of the little weapon in her fingers, rubbing on it thoughtfully as she looked over the blade, and then threw it sidearmed to her right. Duron and Eleni both watched as the tiny little blade whirled like a starfish in the air as it started to buzz about, whistling a single, soft note. The hummingbird flew on in a wide arc all of a sudden as the spin became greater, and then flew on and on until it started to snuff out the candles that the women had placed on the reception table in succession, buzzing about each candle by candle, weaving between each stalk until it lay spent on the table with a light clank, rattling there for awhile.
Eleni got up and went over to the reception table, picking up her dagger. "I'm out of practice." The elf girl said somewhat disappointed as she examined the dagger once more.
"All the more reason you should not go." Duron said as he also stood. "Promise me you won't, Eleni."
Eleni smiled and walked over to the dwarf, giving him a light hug. She then went over to the box, placing the dagger into it and closing the lid. She was somewhat disappointed as she shouldered her lute. Eleni had thought that Duron would have been curious as well, and therefore would have wanted to accompany her in some fashion. She found herself being a little vexed as well, surprised at herself for not being happy that Duron had settled so well into a life that was to her so very boring and drained of excitement. But then again, she reminded herself, she had felt the same way about adventuring and intrigue as Duron obviously felt, and told Tonio so as well earlier in the evening.
Eleni walked out into the cool evening of the city, turning her steps away from the festhall that still was brightly lit with garish colored lamps and bustled with activity. Ignoring the obvious leering looks and seeking hands, the elf girl made her way down the street, cradling the box to herself. "One little box to ruin what little semblence of normalcy I had built up for this long." Eleni said softly to herself as she walked on. "You know, things were just fine before you showed up. Just when I had everything figured out and where my place in the world was." The elf girl said down to the box in a musing voice. What upset her the most was that she was leaning towards doing something very rash, without thinking things through. Eleni thought sourly to herself that perhaps all the years of complacency, living in this giant of a city and being so "normal" had worn away at her sanity. As she reached the steps of her tenement, deep in her own little thoughts, she realized at long last that she was, afterall, very bored, and it took this little box to make her realize it after so long.