Disclaimer: I am an artist, writer, Gamer and a single Mother. I DO NOT create or produce games. I AM NOT BIOWARE. All Characters but Hope and her kids are NOT mine.

Chapter 2: Looking back to move forward.

A week after Navelle, Bevil and Daeghun found Hope and her family they made it to Crossroad Keep. Many of the older Greycloaks looked ready to fall over out of the shock of seeing Hope. When they reached the Castle and entered the main hall Hope saw Kana. She was busy talking to Light-of-heaven and Katriona. Hope cleared her through loudly and the three women looked over to where Hope and her group were standing.

Before any of the women could say anything Bevil stepped forward, wrapping Kana around the waist from the back. "Look who I stumbled upon in the mare Hunny."

Hope raised an inquisitive brow at her old Lieutenant and Bevil. Bevil chuckled. "yes, Hope, I was finally able to reign the stubborn but wonderful Kana.

"Kni… Knight-Captain. How, where, when…?

Hope laughed at the normally eloquent Lieutenant, stumbling over her words. "It's a long story and the reason that we are here." She gestured at those that stood behind her.

"I would like you three to join us if you would be willing and can spare a bit of time."

Katriona stepped forward and hugged Hope. "I always believed you were alive." Then she stood strait and stared intently into Hope's eyes. "That is why they are all here, why your old gang is all here. They said they had been asked to meet here today in the dining hall to meet with a very important guest to the keep."

Slowly Hope nodded at her friend. "Yes, I got Navelle to ask them all here to see me." Hope turned to the group behind her and grinned. "I think I still remember where the dining hall is," laughing all the way there.

There they were just like old times, sitting around the scrubbed wooden table in the dining hall talking and joking while waiting for her to turn up to start the meeting about the next crazy mission they were to go on. This time was different though.

They didn't know who and they didn't know why it was so important that they be here but it was good to be in the company of old friends after so long. They'd kept in touch for the most part and all tried to attended the annual memorial every year for HER but they had not sat down at the table in the dining hall and just talked like this in years. There was something comforting about it. Something that made them feel content but they all knew that there were a few key people missing from the group, their friend, their leader, their captain and the always loyal, reliable, stoic paladin that was always by her side protecting her, defending her… loving her.

She stood in the doorway with her family, Navelle and Bevil, Safiya and Okku along with the two sergeants and her old Lieutenant watching the group of old friends with a content smile on her face. Listening to them talking and reminiscing about the old days when she heard Neeshka say while trying to hold back laughter "not to mention the time she went hunting with Grobbie, they both ended up coming back soaking wet and covered in some sort slime."

"I should never have trusted Grobbie when he told me that the best part of the Elephant toad was the mucus gland. The damn creature jumped into the lake just as I pounced for it." Hope commented and giggled without thinking while reminiscing.

Everyone's heads twisted around so quickly that they could have come off without much more help. Hope walked into the room completely now with a wide grin on her face then turned to Gann. "You would think my old friends had seen a ghost love."

He burst into laughter "I believe they think they have, my Love."

Slowly Neeshka got up from her seat, rounded the table and came to stand right in front of her long lost friend, studying Hopes face. "Is it really you Hope? Or, are we all seeing the same hallucination?

Hope wound herself around the happily upset tiefling. "It's really me Neesh. Who else would know what happened that day I was stupid enough to believe Grobbie for the hundredth time?"

Neeshka tried to laugh at Hopes comment but it came out more as a watery gurgle because of the tears blinding her and rolling down her cheeks. As Neeshka let go of Hope she tuned to Navelle and gave him a half hearted slap across his chest. Navelle just gave her his 'I'm the most innocent man in the world' grin. "How could you keep this from ME? Your own wife?" The words were hardly out of her mouth when she heard Hope gasp. "Apparently it wasn't the only thing you haven't told someone" giggled Neeshka.

Hope had known that her tiefling friend had 'liked' Navelle from the first time they met but had no idea that anything had come from it. "When did this happen?

Neeshka giggled again. "Surprisingly, about a week before we all tried to commit suicide."

"You mean before we went to possibly our deaths, you two got together and you didn't tell me Neesh?" Hope said in mock anger but her face was alight with joy and happiness for her two friends.

Hope guided the group around her to the empty chairs at the table and as those moving to the table sat down; Hope noticed that her father had sat next to Elanee. Elanee saw Hope's curious glance with a smile and mouthed to Hope "Later".

Zhjaeve then said with a straight face, in one of her irregular moments of wit. "Know, that we always… Hoped for you to be alive and come back to us one day." Hope couldn't help but grin and Zhjaeve's attempt to lift some of the shock that was still swirling in the room.

Hope stood from her chair and watched as all eyes went straight to her just like they use to, during a briefing for a mission in the old days. "Before I explain why I am here and why I wanted you all to meet me here I should probably make introductions." Hope gestured to those who came with her. She then went round the table introducing everyone.

"Navelle, Bevil and Father finally found me and asked for my help with an issue that concerns Lord Nasher, his illness and I. But before I can even consider anything to do with that, my children need to know my past, our past." At the shocked looks of her friends, she smiled sadly. "As I said to my father the day they found my family and me, how do you tell your children such a tale when they are young? I cannot do this by myself; I need you, my friends to help with the telling, not just because a lot of it is a blur of events but for the support as well."

"You know that we would do anything you ever asked of us Lass." Khelgar replied.

Sand looked directly to Navelle when he spoke. "News of his illness has of course reached the keep and the surrounding lands, but I have also heard that it is not a natural illness." All his focused on Navelle.

"You are correct Sand, we have the priests and mages all working on a cure but we still need to make preparations for if they are unsuccessful."

Neeshka looked at her husband. "What does that mean Hun"

"We need to know if the next in line will take up the crown or pass it on. The law says that the highest decorated of the Neverwinter Nine is the next in line for lordship."

"And who IS the next in line Navelle" Khelgar asked.

Cullum answered, shocking everyone including his mother. "They think Mum is."

Still looking at Hope's son, Khelgar asked. "Is the Lad right Navelle?"

"The reason why you're all here is to help Hope make that decision."

Cullum suddenly stood up. "I still don't fully believe any of this. How is that possible, sure, she was an adventurer, as was dad but a member of the Neverwinter Nine and next in line to the lordship? You have to be kidding?"

"I see that keeping things inside and from your children is a family trait Hope" Elanee said with a sad knowing smile.

Gann placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Son, sit and listen please." He urged his son to listen. "This is why we are here, why you are here and why all your mother's old friends are here. For you and your sisters to understand what is happening now and what may happen in the future you need to know what happened in her past, our past." He gestured around the table at everyone there. "We have all known your mother for a very long time; all have traveled with her at one point or another."

As Cullum sat down Shandra said "Dad's right Cullum. Plus, we have always wanted to know and now they are actually going to tell us," she said giddily. After a moment Gann stood.

"This is the tale of a misunderstood girl, an unconventional adventurer, a reluctant hero, a cursed soul, a strong willed woman and the most beautiful being I've ever known, inside and out, except maybe for Myself" As Gann said this Hope could not help but laugh at her husband. Even after all these years, he had not lost his love for drama, sarcasm or his own ego. "This is the tale of my wife and your mother." Gann said dramatically. "Though like Hope has previously said, we are going to need some help telling it." Gann looked around the full room, seeing them acknowledge his request.

"Then we will need to start with me." Daeghun said, shocking everyone as he spoke up. "Because it does not start the year your mother left West Harbor to go to Neverwinter but the year she was born, the first attack on West Harbor."

With a concerned look on her face but almost undistinguishable pride in her eyes at her father's gesture, "Father, you don't have to do this."

"Yes, I Believe I do, Hope. I thank you for your concern but how will your children, my grandchildren understand anything of what anyone says here unless they understand the history of it, unless they understand where it all started. And how will they ever be able to respect me as their grandfather if I do not show them that I can do the right thing… if only eventually." He said while staring intensely into his daughter's eyes. He looked back across the table to his daughter's children. "For many years, my wife and I travelled with your grandmother and a few others. However, as the years went on that life grew tiresome for my Shayla and me. We were tired of losing those close to us and tired of the constant danger we were putting ourselves into, My Shayla had friends in West Harbor; we had visited the small village many times over the years and found it to be quite suitable to settle down there. There was plenty of land to have for our own and plenty of game in the area; we knew we could make a good life in the village."

"Your grandmother however was spun off a different silk, the call of adventure and the longing to always be moving was strong with her. She continued to travel up and down the sword coast and beyond sometimes. Every couple of years; she would come back to West Harbor to visit us. The last time she came to West Harbor, she was heavy with child though, with your mother. She did not confide about the father to me – she may have to Shayla," He looked down for a moment and took in a calming breath. "But I will never know. – And where I come from, we do not pry about such things. If she wanted to share that with me then she would in her own time. When your mother was born, it was clear that whoever her father was that he had been a drow just as your grandmother was."

Hope watched her father as he was telling the story of her mother, she could see the pain, sadness, regret, guilt and self-loathing but there was something else there too… She couldn't quite pin point what it was but it comforted here somehow.

"Your grandmother had asked Shayla shortly after your mother was born that if anything were to happen to her that Shayla would care for your mother. Being the good friend that Shayla was to your grandmother, she accepted without hesitation."

"Your grandmother was a very unusual woman. She may have been drow and she kept some of her beliefs from that society but she was far from your typical drow. She was a loyal and good friend if you were able to get that close to her and she was as compassionate as anyone I have ever known, though I guess that is not too surprising given that she was a cleric of Eilistraee. At first the village was not sure what to make of her, they were extremely wary of her and some were even out right afraid or angry of her living and working in the village. As they saw her with Shayla around town and after the incident of treating and caring for half the village when an illness swept through that winter, they began to accept her."

It was then that Hope recognized what was happening to her father as he told the store in its fullness. There was almost a sense of peace washing through his features and frame as he was speaking. As if telling this story in its fullness was washing out a poison that had been festering there.

As Daeghun took a breath in his telling, Elanee spoke "I remember my mission to watch her for the circle. The circle was worried about having a Drow so close to the lands we tended. However, the more I observed her the more I believed she was not what the stories described, she did not act as Drow did and the fact she was staying with elven cousins was a testament to that. That they could each put old prejudices' aside and live together harmoniously was extraordinary."

"So it was not just me that you watched old friend?" Hope said cheekily.

"It was because of that mission that after she died I felt compelled to watch you, even against the orders of the elders." Elanee smiled. "I had to see if nature or environment would be prominent."

Gann snorted. "In other words you wanted to know if my wife was inherently evil or if that is taught to them in their society."

Elanee flushed. However, Neeshka spoke up. "My, he is blunt Hope. Quite the opposite, yes?"

"Not as opposite as much as you might think Neesh." Hope giggled while patting her husband on the forearm.

Daeghun cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. "You, Hope, were only six months old when the attack occurred, though it was not an attack on West Harbor itself. West Harbor was just ill fated to be caught up in a battle of the war that was being played out in the shadows. The first Shadow war was terrible; thousands had been killed in that war, peasant, noble and everyone in-between. In addition, West Harbor was caught in the middle of the final three-way battle between the Shadow, demons and the Neverwinter Army. The militia and anyone else that wanted to help evacuated the village as soon as we saw them converging on the village. My Shayla being a paladin and your grandmother being a cleric were among the first to offer their services to help evacuate the village, as was I. It wasn't till I looked around later after I thought the last had been evacuated that I realized that my Shayla and your grandmother were NOT there, I knew I couldn't go looking for them, it was suicide to try. By this time the whole village was consumed by the battle between the three sides, and when they did not turn up during or after the battle had finished I knew something had happened to them."

Hope could see the amount of restraint and control it was taking her father to recall these painful memories without falling apart and it tore at her heart and soul to see this man in such pain. Though seeing Elanee place her arms around him for comfort and encouragement lit a spark of joy in her heart for the pair. "When it was safe to return to the village… there was no village, or at least not a recognizable village. I went directly to our home on the edge of the village and to this day, I do not understand how it could have kept standing. I worked my way through the house and found my wife at the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor. When I saw her, I… took her into my arms. I do not remember collapsing to the floor with her but I must have because when I heard cries coming from up the stairs I had to lift myself up off the floor.

I found your grandmother in the doorway to her and your mother's room. I stepped over her trying to discern where the cries were coming from but then they were behind me. I knelt down to have a closer look at your grandmother's body and saw there, cradled in her arms was your mother, crying. Somehow, a piece of debris had come through a window, through your grandmothers back and into your mother's chest. Your grandmother was dead but your mother, while injured severely was at least alive for the mean time. If nothing else, getting her seen too and caring for her - as I was all she had left – got me through the following days and months. It gave me something other than my own grief to focus on. The injury did not take long to close and heal. In fact it healed remarkably quickly."

He looked to his daughter and smiled a sad smile. "It may not have seemed it when you were a child but you were the one thing that kept me sane, kept me moving forward. I know I was not there how I probably should have been a lot of the time but that does not mean I did not care for you or come to love you as my own."

After hearing her father's confession and actually vocalize, what she had subconsciously always known but had never heard from him brought Hope to the brink of tears. She got up out of her chair and threw her arms around her father "I know father, somehow I've always had known"

The whole room was thick with the suffocating feeling and silence that follows long overdue confessions and acceptance.

"I think perhaps it's time for a break." Gann said quietly while his eyes were still on his wife and father-in-law.

After an hour or so they were all back in the dining hall ready to continue and while they seated themselves around the table Shandra stood.

"We…" gesturing towards herself and her siblings, "were going over everything that had been said before and last week at home during the break. We want to thank you grandfather for you telling your story. It made us realize who mum is the way she is about some things. We could not imagine how painful that was for you, to tell us."

Aime and Cullum stood with their sister but Aime was the one who continued. "Mum has always taught us NEVER to take anything for granted and always live for the moment because it will not come again and you may miss important events or people if you look too far back or too far forward. We now understand where some of that has come from."

Daeghun looked up into his daughter's, children's faces but especially of the girls. – They look so much like how Hope had at their ages – and saw nothing but complete understanding and acceptance from them. It was almost as if Hope herself was saying this to him, it gave him a since of peace that he wasn't sure he deserved but would willingly accept it from these three young people, so full of life and love and understanding. "It was long overdue for her and you to know what I knew. Telling it has lifted a weight from me that I have been carrying around for far too many years. As elves and as part hag-spawn…" He glance over at his daughters husband and gave the man an appreciative quirk of his lips and nod of his head, "you will live for several centuries in this world and you do not want to have such burdens on your heart for that long. I hope my story and the others that you will be told here by your mother's friends will teach you another lesson, one that I have not fully accomplished and succeeded at but am working on it with a little help…" he smiled lovingly at Elanee before continuing. "Your mother on the other hand has succeeded in learning this lesson with the help of your father. Do not keep things to yourself. Talk to people; share what you know, no matter how painful it may be. Let at least one person know otherwise it will eat at you and consume you till there is only a shell of your former self left with a festering poison ready to seep into every facet of your life."

Everyone including the three young people acknowledged this pearl of wisdom readily from the Daeghun as none of them wanted to go through what he had over the years, keeping such pain inside, that only lead to you torturing yourself and making yourself miserable. With the amount, that Daeghun had kept to himself for some many years you would think it would have split him down the middle.

Bevil now stood. "I think we all appreciate what you have said Daeghun and it is a lesson that we all need to make sure to learn no matter who, what or how old we are." Bevil then took a deep breath and raised a grin onto his face. He looked over to Hope with his eyes full of glee and mischief. "Now it is time for us to continue the story, and if you don't mind Hope, I think I will start. I'm sure your husband and children would like to know how you were as a child."

She grinned back at her old friend. "As long as you leave any excessive humiliating anecdotes to yourself Bevil"

Chucking he started "When people saw her, for the first time…"

Hope you enjoyed reading it. Don't be afraid to leave a review, good or bad. I'm a fan of both :P

~Becky Dale