Settling In

Usual Disclaimers: The characters in this chapter are owned by Bioware and a whole lot of other people and not by me, with the exception of a bear-lovin' ranger and an occasional NPC. Concrit and reviews appreciated.

They had settled into a routine, helping out in the Flagon around Dee's Watch duties, though she seemed to be reserved for "special projects." In no time at all, Dee had acquired a few new nicknames bestowed by the patrons of the Flagon-"Legs," the even more clever "Blondie," and even "Longshanks." She rolled her eyes and laughed. There had been a few incidents though where patrons emboldened by drink got too free with their hands that led to her or Khelgar and especially Duncan putting the offending party in his place with a shout of "Oi! That's my niece there, not some festhall wench!" She found it funny how quickly Duncan assumed a paternal attitude towards her, and thought bitterly how different he was from his brother.

Dee quickly earned a reputation as a hard-fisted brawler too, wading into the fray right beside the dwarf. She was only sorry that he did his best to ignore her except for when she caught him watching her and he sneered and looked away(and Elanee annoyed Dee by observing that she had to be watching him to see that he had been watching her), sending all his orders through the bar and offering her no excuse to pummel him, though she did take satisfaction in luring his wolf away from him with a bit of meat or a bone more than once.

Dee had set things straight with Neeshka their second tenday in the city. "You don't shite where you eat, Neesh," she hissed at the tiefling, grabbing her by the horn and pulling her into the storeroom.

Neeshka, who had been reaching for a dock worker's pouch dangling from his belt, gave her a look of abject horror. "Ow! Hells, Dee, that's really disgusting! I didn't do it! Who would? It had to be the dwarf! Or the tree-hugger! Ow! Or the badger! Or your bear!"

Dee gave her a stern look then darted her eyes at the man Neeshka had been stalking. "Oh, I see what you're saying. Harborman humor. Good one," she said and she elbowed Dee hard in the ribs until she released her horn. "Alright, I guess you're right. Don't need to cause trouble with your uncle. I'll go work the Prancing Unicorn."

"You could just help serve here too, you know. Sal's right, the tips aren't bad." Dee patted her belt pouch, which caused Neeshka to recoil wide-eyed in further horror. "Me? A bar wench? Serving drinks? Putting up with having my tits groped or my butt pinched or my tail grabbed? Ugh!"

Dee shrugged. "'Tis a whole lot safer than dealin' with your former partner and his goons, isn't it?"

Dee settled easily into life as a member of the Watch thanks to her militia training, and her special assignments around the city, at least the parts they were allowed into, gave her ample opportunities to explore her new home. It pleased her no end that one of her first assignments was to bring Caleb and his gang in, and part of her felt a dark pleasure that he resisted arrest. She was good at what she did, which brought her both wanted and unwanted attention. Not that it got her any closer to Blacklake however, and even more frustrating, Neeshka had turned out to have a lot more enemies than friends who could slip them past the guards, so that was a dead end. Furthermore, Leldon, Neeshka's former partner and former lover apparently, seemed to want her dead or at least grievously injured, and this extended to anyone unfortunate enough to be found with her.

Dee discovered a street of booksellers near the temple of Oghma, which astounded her-a whole street! She consoled herself with a map of the Sword Coast she purchased and hung on the wall in her room, where she marked the places she had been with pins and traced roads and paths and marked all the places she wanted to go once she was finally free of those damned shards. She also purchased a used set of all of Volo's guides and read them over and over in the bath, pointing out interesting entries to Cillian lying on the floor beside her, who just grunted bearishly at her. Soon she felt she knew the Sword Coast as well as she knew West Harbor, but her frustration at the wait was like an ache in her gut that didn't stop. Fortunately, her uncle had a small forge in the back of the tavern, so she also pounded out her frustration on metal and had so far produced a few swords and knives that a local weaponsmith actually thought were good enough to buy.

She also spent an imprudent amount of her tip money on cosmetics. Daeghun would not have approved, but he was the one who sent her here, so she reasoned that he was partly to blame. She made the common novice mistake of applying her paint too liberally and ended up a couple of times looking clownish or whorish, but with just a little practice, she learned that with a bit of kohl or a touch of red on her cheeks she could easily alter her appearance from wide-eyed innocent to hard and deadly. Besides, she discovered that a heavy coat of kohl around the eyes helped cut down the glare on a sunny day, something he seemed to have discovered too, not that she was watching him, despite what Elanee and Neeshka said.

Dee became a regular visitor to the Moonstone Mask, usually with Neeshka in tow, at first to see if Ophala had any news for her. But as time went on, she learned that it was a good place in general to gather information, especially if she let someone buy her a drink. She also began to develop a fascination with the ladies of the Mask in their ephemeral black gowns, and their ephemeral world, who were unlike any women she had ever seen before. They in turn delighted in trying to transform the "country rat" into a sleek "city mouse." By her third visit, she and Ohpala had developed a casual friendship, and by her fourth visit, Ophala broached the subject of working at the Mask.

She took Dee aside and said, "My dear, you could make much more serving drinks here than at your uncle's tavern, and you would also make an attractive bouncer if you would prefer not to serve drinks. It would take quite a bit of training in music and dancing and the art of conversation to soften your rough edges before you could become one of my ladies, but you have potential. Lord Hendall there has already asked if you were available. He's very rich, and he has a fondness for tall blonds in leather." Ophala indicated a well-dressed older man sitting at a table alone.

Dee blinked and gasped "Me? I could never...I mean, what would my father say? He disapproves of everything I do as it is. Besides, I've never even..."

Ophala raised a delicate eyebrow. "Never? Saving yourself for marriage then? Or do you prefer women?"

Dee shook her head and replied, "It's not that. 'Tis just that were I'm from that's the same thing as settlin' down to raise a family, and I'm not ready for that now. And we didn't have mages right across the street sellin' potions to prevent that. Besides, I don't know if I could with someone I wasn't attracted to."

Ophala put an arm around her shoulder and said silkily, "My dear, it's all in the mind. You just convince yourself you love them for the night. The trick is never to fall in love. Besides, you're going to meet someone if you stay around the city much longer anyway, so why not earn a few hundred gold for your trouble instead of giving yourself to some handsome adventurer who might make you more inclined to settle down? It is a little thing, after all. Take a few lovers and you'll be more able to resist a handsome man's charms until he's the right man."

Dee grinned and said, "Thanks for the advice. I still don't think I could, but I'll let you know if I change my mind. Besides, as much as I like it here, I get an itch if I'm in the city too long. I'd much rather be scouting out a trail or fightin' orcs."

She slipped out of town for a day or two with Cillian and Elanee and her badger when she grew weary of the city and longed for the peace of the wild, looking for what remained of the Neverwinter Circle, though after the first time they both just enjoyed the freedom of being out. She never stayed away long though, fearing that she would miss her meeting with Aldanon or that the Gith would attack with greater numbers than they had sent against her thus far. So they hunted, fished, and just lazed about in the forest. On her third time out, she had been teased by Duncan about not bringing anything back the first two times, so she resolved to get a deer, or at least a proper catch of fish. Elanee flushed a huge buck towards her, and she had it in her sights, aimed her arrow, and loosed. It buckled and went down in the brush, and she ran to it, only to see a familiar chestnut-haired man already there starting to bleed it. His wolf whined a greeting to her.

"Hey! That's my deer!," she growled.

He looked at her coldly. "It's my deer, with my arrow in its heart. Check the fletchings. That's your arrow over there," he said, nodding at her arrow sticking in the ground.. "I wouldn't have missed that badly. What are you, blind?"

"Yeah? Screw you!," she hissed, snatching her arrow and hurrying back to her camp, cursing him for discovering the one thing that even Daeghun had never figured out when he scolded her for not spending enough time improving her archery-she was short-sighted and often couldn't clearly see the target, so she usually shot based on sound, or instinct. That was why she preferred taking the fight to her enemies, which was fine when hunting orcs, but not so good when trying to catch a meal.

She awakened her first morning back from Old Owl Well with the Morninglord's first light and washed her face, then applied midnight blue kohl around her eyes, which gave her a harder and older aspect, but she left off painting rouge on her cheeks or lips or applying powder as she would have done if this were one of her rare free days. She had to get to the Watch headquarters to turn in her report, so she went down for breakfast before she got into her armor. Duncan, looking harried, told her Qara was nowhere to be found and begged her to take over for her. Dee grabbed an apron, muttering curses under her breath. Dee had finished the breakfast shift as Qara finally showed up to work.

Dee's first impression of Qara had been that she was a whiny, spoiled brat, unlike anyone she had known or could have imagined in West Harbor, who acted more like a six year old throwing a tantrum than a serious spellcaster. But she had tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and taken the sorceress with her on Captain Breilana's last "special" mission to find a missing emissary, reasoning that they could the extra firepower, and she thought the girl would appreciate a break from waiting tables. But after enduring her whining about the cold, the bugs, sleeping on the hard ground, her sore feet, trail rations, and so on for a tenday, not to mention Qara's appalling lack of concern about injuring her own companions with careless casting of deadly spells, she vowed to never recruit her again unless she had to. Dee tossed her apron at Qara and growled, "Thanks for waking up, now that the rush is over. I was to be at the Watch office an hour ago!"

Dee slipped behind the bar and filled a mug with mead, which she drained on her way to her room. She donned her leathers; she had gotten her time down to five minutes to get them on and fasten all the straps. Next she knelt down next to her weapon rack and considered her assortment of long and short swords, before slipping a long sword enchanted to add fire damage and a silver short sword she had made herself and Sand had enchanted with lightning into her scabbards. Finally, she checked that her pouches were secure and fastened her Watch cloak then headed back to arrange to meet Khelgar, Elanee, and Casavir at the Moonstone Mask after she had their assignment from Cormick.

"The Waterdeep emissary speaks highly of you, lieutenant. That was quite a rescue."

Dee chuckled and sat on the edge of Cormick's desk, facing him, and crossed her legs. "Lucky for him he was bein' held by orcs. Don't know if I'd have been as diligent if he'd been captured by kolbolds. But I couldn't have done it without my friends. Orcs are treacherous bastards, and I might not even be here if a paladin who hated them as much as I do and his men hadn't stumbled on the battle. Now, does it get me any closer to Aldanon?"

He smiled sympathetically. "If it were up to me, you would've been allowed to see Aldanon tendays ago, but it's not up to me, it's up to Captain Brelaina. Is your report ready?"

"Gods, what more does she want?," Dee snarled with exasperation as she handed her report to Cormick. "Seems like she's gettin' most of the benefit of our arrangement. Not that the Docks didn't need cleanin' up, or that I minded helpin' out but...I feel like I'm a tool for her...ambitions. Am I wrong?" She leaned back with her arms stretched out behind her and watched him.

He raised an eyebrow at her and grunted but said nothing, which told her as much as if he had agreed. She watched him silently as he read through it. "And becoming a permanent member of the Watch wasn't part of your plan, Dee. I can really sympathize, more than you know. It wasn't my plan once either. You encountered more members of this shadow cult?" He paused to look at her. "Necromantic priests? Sounds to me like someone's trying to create an army of undead. Lord Nasher should be informed of this, but that's up to the Captain too. It's hard to get people concerned when it's not happening here though."

She stood and stretched as he gazed at her then looked away, flushing, reminding himself that she was the daughter of his friend.

She smiled at his reaction and wondered if he would be more friendly if she asked him for a drink at the Mask. But she got back to her business for being there-time for that later. "I think if this cult spreads here, it'll be pretty hard to stop it by that point. And it may already be here. I'd check the Blacklake district cemeteries and look for unusual activity among the spoiled brats of the nobility, but that's just my opinion. Anyway, what's my special assignment today?"

"The captain wants you to investigate a Luskan ship called "the Sea Ghost" he said, turning to face her again.

"Investigate?" she asked.

"Aye, investigate, and let them know we're aware of their presence. Luskan is making...incursions again, testing the waters, knowing that the city isn't ready to go to war again," he answered, crossing his arms over his chest.

She turned to go and looked back at him over her shoulder. "The more Luskans I meet, the less I like them anyway. Let me go collect my crew and my bear. But if this isn't enough for Captain Brelaina, I'm thinkin' of heading for Longsaddle. There's said to be a whole family of mages there, and there's bound to be someone who can figure out what these shards are and why I have those githyanki after me."

Cormick answered with a sigh, "It would be a shame to lose you, Dee. Just give her some more time. There's a great deal of pressure being brought to bear on her with the murders of more lords. You must see that your problems can seem less significant compared to stopping a murderer. Besides, I think I have something that will tempt you to stay."

She turned and walked back to him, smiling. "Looks like I'm not gonna have to get a drink or two in him after all," she thought. "Indeed? What do you have to...tempt me with," she purred in her best imitation of Ophala.

He flushed again and quickly reached into his desk. He stammered, "Dee...Dierdre, I've known you since you were a babe. Your father is a trusted friend." He fumbled in his desk then drew his hand out and held out a harp-shaped pin to her in his palm.

"Aye, and I'm all grown now, in case you haven't noticed." She gave him a puzzled look as he handed her the pin and asked "What's this?," even though she knew.

He stepped forward and pinned it to the underside of her cloak. "You've proven that you have a knack for gathering information. We could use you as a scout, if you're interested. It can be dangerous work, but you've proved more than capable of handling danger."

She turned back her cloak and gazed at the pin then at Cormick. "Me? But I'm just a girl from West Harbor."

Cormick grinned and answered, "Aye, and I was just a lad from West Harbor as well. We all start somewhere, Dee. I've already said you're more than capable, and Ophala agrees, and so does the agent you met on the way to Old Owl Well. So are you in?"

She realized she had been staring at him, mouth agape the whole time he spoke. "Casavir?"

He shook his head. "The paladin, right? They don't make good Harper agents. They're too concerned with doing things by the book."

She scratched her head trying to make sense of his words. "Well then, that only leaves...Grobby? Couldn't be. Oh hells no!" But his grin spoke the truth of the matter. "Ophala too? That makes more sense. So what do I do now?"

He shrugged. "Pretty much the same as you've been doing. Investigating, reporting, saving wayward emissaries. I assume you're in then. Come back after you deal with the Luskans and I'll show you more."