Chapter 2: Waterdeep
Adrael's eyes were wide under her cowl as she and her father walked the long streets throughout the town, past the large houses and many nervous glances from the people of Waterdeep.
Before now Adrael had never been out of Neverwinter Wood. In seventeen years of being all she had known was her simple forest home. Even the hilly trails and open plains she and her father had had to cross through to get here had seemed alien to her. This town however was wholly different from the small wooden buildings and dirt paths she had been used to. Massive stone structures where everywhere, paved sidewalks defined the avenues and the population had to be at least one thousand times the number her village boasted, and the village was considered to be one of the larger elven settlements of the area. In that moment Adrael felt small and naive to the world indeed!
She quickly dismissed the notion as she looked to her father, only to see a knowing smile on his face. He had had an experience of awe and smallness similar to the one she was having now, nearly a century before, on his first foray out of his own forest home. He turned so as to fully face her and put his hands on her shoulders, making sure that her blue and gold orbs were looking right into his own green pools.
"Do not fret my child, for in an elven time frame you are still considered to be a babe, you have several centuries of life ahead of you to see and learn of the world, of cities even larger and much more splendorous than this one..." Adrael nodded at her father's logic, her smile returning as she realized the truth to his words. She nodded a final time and the elves returned to their stroll down the main street of Waterdeep, onward towards the Tower of Arcane learnings, where maybe they could learn a more direct course of action than their current one.
Lupin trailed the elves on their walk through Waterdeep, though his hulking form was no more. On the streets of a town such as Waterdeep an eight foot tall wolf-man was nearly as panic causing as a drow elf. A small gray puppy, however, was quite inconspicuous... except where children were involved, Lupin thought as he pulled away from a group of youngsters and continued following the father-daughter duo towards the wizard school.
Adrael had noticed the pup following them for some time, but didn't really think anything of it, except that she could sense the outsider again. Any thoughts of the dog flew from her mind a moment later though, as they approached the Tower of Arcane Learning's. Several spiraling towers coming out of the central tower at awkward angles showed the places obvious magical touch, and Adrael's awe was very much still intact as her father went up and rapped on the door. A rectangular section of the door slid out, revealing a pair of weathered, and very intense, eyes, which looked from Kairel to Adrael several times.
"Yes?" came the curt voice of an older man. Kairel smiled to his daughter to reassure her before answering the man.
"We have come seeking council from the wizards of your magnificent tower, to see what they might know of a wizard we are searching for."
The man's eyes looked slowly from one to the other and suddenly widened in recognition.
"Oh my, you are the elves from Neverwinter, the guards said you had entered the town..." he trailed off for a second and a click sounded from inside the tower and a second later the door swung wide before them.
"I am Antelo, the caretaker for the Waterdeep Academy of the Arcane, our headmistress desires an audience with the two of you." he said with a grin.
"I had no idea of our reputation." Kairel said, sincerely surprised.
"Many in the region heard of the tragedy that befell your village, and all are saddened by the near slaughter of your kin." Antelo explained, his grin fading.
Kairel nodded to the man, touched by his honest sympathy.
"But let us attend the business at hand," Antelo, continued, "If you would kindly follow me, the headmistress awaits."
They followed Antelo through the towers many levels. The headmistress's office and quarters where at the very highest levels of the tower. Many minutes passed, as did many disorienting turns, long corridors and even longer stairways, before finally they came to a large iron bound door made of a bright wood (which made it stand out in the dark halls and made Adrael wonder why such precautions would be taken for the path with such a remarkable portal). Six gems were set into the wood at Antelo's shoulder level. There were two rubies, two sapphires and two emeralds and as the elves contemplated the seemingly random gems, Antelo turned to them with a smile.
" I would appreciate it greatly if you would turn around while I unlock the door to Headmistress DeAdra's chambers." a slight hint of "not asking, telling" in his voice.
Their questions answered, they nodded to the man and complied. Antelo turned back to the door and moved the stones from the straight line pattern they where in and placed them in a circular pattern. As he fixed the last stone in place they sank into the wood as if it were liquid and a multicolored gemstone doorknob appeared on the door. He bade the elves to follow him again as he opened the door.
A robed, middle-aged woman sat behind a large wooden desk across from them as they entered. Her hands where together on the desk and she studied the elves, and more particularly Adrael. A long silence ensued as they sized each other up. Kairel glanced to Antelo, standing beside him, but all he offered was a shrug. After a few stiflingly awkward moments the headmistress began, though she never took her eyes from Adrael's.
"Greetings Kairel and Adrael Lightshadow, I am Morgan DeAdra, Headmistress of the Waterdeep Academy of the Arcane, I understand that you seek a wizard whom you believe led an attack on your village in the Neverwinter wood, yes?"
Adrael nodded and began to speak but her father cut her short.
"A slender man was seen by me and several others; he wore a vividly orange robe and had unusually long black hair. He flew from the battle atop a large black demon, perhaps a horned devil, though he did turn to cast a final glaring look down on us.
Morgan nodded as she took in Kairel's words and she turned them over and over in her head. Only one person in her mind fit such a description.
"Velvadine." she stated, more to herself than to the others.
"Pardon?" came a response from Adrael, not understanding the mages train of thought or the name's significance.
Morgan came out of her thoughts at the question, realizing the elves wouldn't know anything about Velvadine.
"Several years ago," she began, "I took an apprentice, a boy with a great understanding of and a natural affinity for magic. Within weeks he had attained skills in the arts that took most others years to reach, another few months and his powers were beyond all but the most powerful wizards at the school. After only two years under me he had learned every spell book, scroll and tome of magic we had in our libraries, as well as personal books of headmasters, by memory. Not only that be he somehow came upon the ability to cast spells with the utterance of but a single rune. His power grew beyond anything I have ever imagined and he rightfully grew arrogant. The most complicated and difficult of summons were nothing to him, and as such powerful demon lords and ageless specters bent to his will, as did we. He had no need to rest to regain magical energies, no need to memorize spells for the day, because he had them all memorized at all times. No need for components and a seemingly limitless use of spells that the most learned and powerful wizards I know can only cast once or twice a day. Through contacts with demons and thieves and other sources he acquired many spell books, which due to their evil nature are banned from our academy, and this consequently led to his expulsion. He left the school cackling, his raven black hair, a symbol of his growth and power I believe, for it was clean shaven when he arrived here, past his knees, that was seven years ago..." she trailed off, allowing the elves to digest the information.
At that moment Adrael realized that what befell their little village would pale in comparison to what could come to pass if such a wizard was aloud to amass an army and grow in his own powers.
"He must be stopped, not only for my mother and the other lives he ended that day, but to prevent the future catastrophe that is immanent if he continues this course without resistance."
Kairel, Antelo and Morgan all nodded in agreement, drawing the same conclusions themselves. If the tribe he had brought against the elves was even within a fraction of his ability to control, they shuddered to think of how many other tribes of goblinoids might join his army, and what other beings might cow under his substantial power.
Morgan brought them all out of their private contemplations with an even more disturbing thought.
"Velvadine also has another considerable ability, the eyes of the oracle. He can see the future, which leads me to believe that he struck your village purposefully, perhaps in the hopes to slay someone he found to be instrumental in his downfall, but this is just a theory."
Adrael dropped her hands to her hips, feeling the hilts of her blades, "He missed." she stated as coldly as Kairel had ever heard her speak.
When the elves and Antelo had left her office, Morgan immediately broke into tears. She understood that Velvadine's capture, and perhaps even his death was necessary, but he had been her apprentice, the only apprentice she had ever taken and would ever take, and the closest thing to a child she had ever had. After a few minutes she regained her composure.
"May your goddess, Mielikki be with you Adrael Lightshadow, for you will need all the help you can summon against this foe."
The moment they stepped out of the tower Adrael felt the outsider's presence again. She looked to her right, where she could sense the being strongest, but only saw an empty lane. Empty, save for a familiar gray pup.
"Father," she said, looking to the left to her father, "I believe the pup to be the large one that has been trailing us since our departure from the wood."
Kairel looked to the scraggly gray mongrel, which cocked its head at the elf's examination, then back to Adrael, his eyebrow raised.
'Earlier I felt the aura of an outsider around whatever was following us, and again when we were walking to this tower, from this pup, who was following us, and when we stepped out of the tower I felt that same aura, coming from this pup again, as best I can tell."
Kairel's expression turned to one of recognition. Keadrea had told him of how a certain sensitivity to extra-planners had been bred into the drow over millennia of contact with such creatures. If this was the one who had been following them, and Kairel held no doubts about Adrael's judgment that this was indeed their pursuer, he wanted their unavoidable encounter to be on their terms. He began backing into a more defensible area as he drew out his long swords, but as he did a voice, strong and sure, sounded in his head, and by the look on her face, Adrael's too, causing him to stop.
Kairel and Adrael Lightshadow, I am no enemy, though I assure you that such eyes are upon you. Let as leave these walls behind, that I may take my true form and explain things in full.
Kairel thought over the words carefully, "What is your true form?" he asked finally.
I am known as a hound archon on this plane.
Kairel, beginning to understand nodded, though he was still skeptical, "Hound archons are known to be lawful creatures and are welcomed openly in any goodly society, why the guise?"
I have become the champion of your goddess, Mielikki, on this plane and thusly I have taken on traits and features of a wolf, more than one ignorant peasant has mistaken me for a werewolf.
Kairel nodded again, a smile coming to his face. The Champion of the Lady of the forest had sought them out and apparently meant to travel with them, good news indeed to any true follower of Mielikki.
Let us be on our way then.
"What is your name?" Adrael asked, as proud as her father at Mielikki's apparent favor.
Lupin Mooncaller. He stated as he came towards the elves. Adrael bent low and scooped him up to cradle him close to her, for he was rather cute, presently. Yes, he may indeed come to befriend these elves.
The three exited Waterdeep hastily and with a nod to the inquisitive look the guard whom had let them in gave them.
The road waited.
Lupins' feeling that less than friendly eyes were upon them was correct. Deep pink eyes speckled with red were upon them. The eyes of an assassin with considerable powers of the mind were upon them, and those were eyes that few would want upon them.
The lithe form of the psionicist-assassin flicked back her shoulder length raven black and blood red hair to reveal two small horns protruding from her forehead just below her hairline. She looked to her slightly clawed hands and to the demonic sibling blades sheathed at her slender hips and wondered if even her own considerable ability would be enough to beat the newest ally these elves had made.
With but a thought a portal opened to her mental call. Velvadine would not enjoy the news of a hound archon joining with these two, (and she knew him to be a hound archon because she had mentally intruded on their conversation) or would he? Or had he already foreseen this coming about? Of course he had, and he probably sung with joy at the thought, he did so love a challenge.
It hardly mattered, she thought as she stepped through her dimensional doorway to Velvadines fortress. With another thought the door closed behind her.
