Chapter 19 You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Can't Choose Your Family
Note— this chapter uses some of the PC's and Daeghun's dialog from the NWN2 OC, much of which has been paraphrased, but is still the property of Bioware and Obsidian. The rest I am solely responsible for.
"So that's Wyl Mossfield?" Neeshka whispered to Shandra skeptically as they stood off to the side, scrutinizing critically the tall young farmer joining the mob of villagers who had come out to greet Dee once word got around she had returned. "Don't know what Dee saw in him."
Shandra whispered back, "Yeah, must be, that's what she called him, and those must be his brothers behind him. Look around you though. It's not like there are a lot of options in a village this size. It's scary, but those three are probably considered quite the catch." She nodded towards a small, young, mousy-looking woman with straight, mousy-colored hair clinging nervously to his arm. "That woman looks like she's afraid he'll run off with Dee if she lets go of him for a second. She's hardly more than a girl, and look at her belly. Oh look, now she's showing Dee a ring and marking her territory. He sure didn't waste any time waiting for Dee to return." They watched as Dee hugged both of them and put her hand on the girl's rounded belly then hugged them again.
Neeshka shrugged and replied matter-of-factly, "Well, it has been well over a year, and she said they broke it off the day before she left after she beat him in that harvest brawl. And besides, she probably didn't keep it a secret from him that she planned to leave here after the harvest anyway." She grinned flirtatiously at Webb Mossfield, who had been trying to get her eye and winked back at her. "His brother's built like an ox and not bad looking if you like the brawny meat-for-brains type. Wonder why Dee didn't pick him instead of his skinny brother?"
Shandra pondered this for a minute as she nodded at a few villagers and waited for them to pass out of earshot before she answered, "Dee said they were the village bully boys, but Wyl was the best of the lot, the smart one of the three, and she controlled the worst of their mayhem through him. She said once in a battle of wits between Webb Mossfield and an ox, she was guessing the ox would win."
Neeshka giggled and whispered, "Ooh, he's being so subtle flexing his muscles for me. It's not his brains I'm interested in, Shandra."
She noticed a group of children who stood back in a protective pack whispering and pointing at her and edging closer. She feigned indifference; only her twitching tail betrayed her nervousness, so she kept a wary eye on them in case the pack turned into a mob. Finally, the bravest of them approached her and asked haltingly, "Beggin' your pardon, is that tail real, miss? And are those horns? Wha..what are you?"
She rolled her eyes, but she thanked Tymora they weren't throwing stones and chasing her out of town. "I should be used to it by now anyway," she thought as she swung her tail around and dangled it in front of him. "Could I do this if it wasn't real? Go ahead, you can touch it. Just don't pull it." The boy hesitated, then reached out and gently touched her tail, and Neeshka dropped to her haunches and pushed her hair aside so he could examine her horns as well. They were soon mobbed by his shyer companions, all clamoring for a chance to touch her as she gave them a lesson on planar beings.
Word of Dee's arrival had spread like wildfire, almost as fast as the initial warning of armed strangers riding in to the village, and now Dee found herself surrounded after having sent Cillian back from the press of the crowd. Only Bishop stood close by at a less discreet distance than Shandra and Neeshka. Sand and Grobnar had gone off with Tarmas to his house to inform him about the King of Shadows. Dee hadn't been surprised that Tarmas was the one who recognized one of the hand signals Harpers used to identify one another that Grobnar flashed at him, Georg, and Brother Merring, and responded to the gnome. It was one answer to why the mage had settled here. Elanee, Katriona, and Casavir followed Orlen and Georg with the horses to be stabled in Orlen's barn. Elanee was listening to Georg's tale of a giant carnivorous swamp elf that used to lurk about the village and trying unsuccessfully to keep a straight face.
Dee stood at the center of the throng, accepting hugs, slaps on the back, and answering rapid-fire questions from her former friends and neighbors about what she had been through and what she had seen since she left, while her new-fangled spectacles were passed around from hand to hand gingerly and held up to eyes in awe. There were many questions, some tactless, about the trial that Dee answered while she and the inquisitive villagers cast furtive glances about for any of the Starlings. Dee found that word travels fast. Apparently the merchant Galen had skipped several of his usual stops on his run south so he could get to West Harbor as quickly as he could with a wagon and inform Daeghun (and unfortunately Georg, who spread the tale around the village) when Dee was first charged.
After the trial a passing bard named Cain made a point of diverting to West Harbor on his way to Waterdeep because he remembered hearing during the trial that Dee was from there. She remembered the name, having seen him perform at the Blacklake amphitheater—a bit of a blow hard and a bully who seemed to take pleasure in thoroughly humiliating anyone who dared to challenge him, and for once she didn't object when Qara suggested they set light to him. When he arrived Cain regaled the crowd of villagers with his version of the trial and the subsequent trial by combat, which he told them he personally witnessed, always eager to watch blood sports and to have a fresh tale to tell.
Only in his telling the tournament was waged in a driving rain that turned the arena into a swamp, and Lorne had become an eight-foot-tall half-ogre with demonic markings on his face, no doubt created in some unholy experiment by one of the Hosttower mages. They fought for over an hour, neither giving the other any quarter when rain stopped all of a sudden as the clouds parted and a beam of light from the heavens fell on the ranger, illuminating her and her raised swords in a golden glow as her shadow cast the sign of Tyr on the ground before her. Then another beam of light fell across the Luskan devil's neck, showing her where to strike. In his telling, Dee had nearly beheaded the beast with a slashing cut and was sprayed with black ichor, yet due to some foul magic or his infernal blood, he would not die! The Luskan beast left the arena after he yielded to her, holding his head up, which was only attached to his body by his spine.
There was little way he could have known that the Luskan devil wasn't from Luskan nor that the name Lorne Starling was also well known in West Harbor, nor that a horrified Rhetta Starling and her youngest children had walked up as the bard told the tale, ignoring the signals and gestures then interruptions from other horrified villagers who tried to get him to shut up. Needless to say, he didn't get an offer of free lodging (perhaps with a comely bed warmer) or coin that he expected when he took the detour to West Harbor.
Dee listened with a look of anguish as Brother Merring recounted the incident, and other villagers muttered their agreement it was a terrible way for Rhetta to get the news about her son. "An hour? It seemed like only minutes, and I would've had a harder time of it if not for Cillian keepin' him back until I could drink a healing potion. Thanks be to Tyr, the part about him blessing me and showing me where to strike is true enough, though no one told me it could be seen from the stands. Poor Rhetta. First that strange attack on Bevil, and now this! I have to go find her."
But then a wave of nudges swept through the villagers, who grew quiet except for a few hushed whispers of "Daeghun" as the elf approached. Granny Buckman clapped her hands to get everyone's attention and exclaimed loudly, "Folks, I just had an idea! Since she missed the Harvest Fair this year, why don't we get some lanterns and set up some trestle tables in our barn so's we can take a potluck supper together and feed Dierdre's friends. The weather is still fine. Mayhap later the little bard can sing for us. Let Dierdre speak to her father in peace." She pointed a bony finger at Bishop. "You there with the dog, come along and help Lazlo with the tables and tell us how you know our Dierdre."
Bishop grinned lewdly at the dessicated crone and said, "Believe me, I know her every way a man can know a woman."
Shandra snarled as she walked up beside him and elbowed him in the ribs, "Mind your words, Bishop if you've ever cared about her at all!" She shadowed him for a time as they helped set up trestle tables and haul out chairs and benches until the Widow Jons caught his attention whether by accident or by design when she bent over so low to pick up a basket of apples that she almost spilled out of the plunging neckline of her blouse. She paused to give the handsome stranger a good look at her best assets, and Bishop leered appreciatively and agreed they were spectacular. He looked her over. That was definitely by design. The wench was forty if she was a day, and her golden hair was graying at the temples, but as he always told himself, all cats are gray in the dark. Besides, older women would willingly do things that would cause younger women to faint if he even suggested them, and afterwards they were just so grateful...He grabbed an apple from her basket and sunk his teeth into the succulent fruit taking a huge bite, and she took it back and licked the juice from the fruit and sucked it from his fingers. He knew where he'd be sleeping tonight.
Dee and Daeghun stood staring at one another as if looking at strangers, until reality became reconciled with memory and the strange became familiar again. Neither spoke nor moved closer for several heartbeats as the villagers quickly walked off to their homes or the Buckman barn, leaving her alone but for Cillian, who had ambled over to stand beside her as the crowd dispersed. Her father's face was as smooth as she remembered, but he seemed smaller, and had his eyes always looked that weary? Finally Daeghun broke the silence and said in the same cool, emotionless tone Dee had grown up with," So you've returned, my foster daughter. I hardly recognized you; you're much changed."
Dee looked back at him feeling all those raw emotions she thought she had overcome and felt her resolve melting like ice as he gazed at her with the same impassive expression. She said with more cheer than she felt, "Aye, I've returned, father…Daeghun. How have you been? It must come as a relief that you've fulfilled your promise to my mother and you're free of the responsibility of me. Your life is your own again. Oh, your brother sends his affection, and Judge Oleff told me to say he misses your talks. He's been very kind to me and helpful since my vigil, father. I've wanted to return before now to talk with Rhetta and Bevil to try to explain about Lorne...and I need to talk to you before I go, but it's been difficult what with the trial then routing the Luskans at the Keep, and now I'm recruiting workers for my…the Keep I've been charged with restoring. I figured if I didn't come now, I might never find the time…but 'tis just as well I tarried I think, or I might have said some things out of anger I would later regret..."
She trailed off, realizing she was babbling nervously, twisting a lock of hair around her finger like she did when she was a girl and she feared his disapproval. What would her Greycloaks think if they saw her now? What did she expect him to do or say? Had she expected him to throw his arms around her like Georg and Brother Merring had done when he had rarely shown her such affection? She forced a bright smile and continued making small talk as she bent down and dug in her rucksack. "I brought back your brown tunic I accidentally packed the night I left, and I bought you a bow string jig in the city..."
Daeghun looked at her, so changed, but so much the same. He almost didn't recognize her at first with her cropped hair and wearing a warrior's sleeveless tabard over her studded leather armor with a design of two crossed swords over a bear standing on its hind legs. He said with a soft sigh, "Calm yourself and say what is on your mind, Dierdre."
She straightened up, took a deep breath to steel herself and blurted out, "All right, I need to know, when you sent me away with the shard…" She opened the pouch she kept the shards in and poured them out into her hand and held them out for him to see. "Father, did you know about the shard in my chest I've carried since that battle that killed my mother?"
He gasped, eyes wide with alarm staring at the shards in her hands that gleamed in the fading light. "You have brought the shards here? Then you must leave at once! You're a danger to everyone the longer you're here."
Dee blinked back tears from the sting of his words, and she growled her first response as she put them back in the pouch, "As welcoming as ever, father."
He replied coolly, "Was that human sarcasm? It is so difficult to tell."
She folded her arms across her chest and said tersely, "You need not fear another Githyanki attack. They gave up their pursuit of the shards after we killed their witch, and we've dealt with the King of Shadow's minions who also sought them for now."
Daeghun raised an eyebrow and replied with his normal calm demeanor restored, "The Githyanki? I have heard their names mentioned only once or twice in passing: invaders from the outer planes, a fierce foe. Still, perhaps the hunters are just biding their time before attacking their prey. It would be best if you do not stay for long." He closed his eyes then added, "And to answer your question, no, I wasn't aware there was a shard lodged in your chest, though that would explain the speed at which your wound healed and the strange things that always happened around you as a child. It must have passed right through her and into you." A look of horror appeared on his face for a moment.
Cillian growled lowly at the long ears, not understanding the words that were passing between them but sensing from their tone that he was upsetting his bonded companion. Dee dropped down to her haunches and threw her arms around him to show him there was no danger. He gave the bear a small, tight smile as he held out his hand to him and said, "The bear is very devoted to you. He suits you."
She continued patting the bear's neck. "Why is it you never had a bonded companion, father? I don't recall any critter being particularly attached to you while I was growing up."
He grimaced. As she feared, almost every word out of her mouth caused him pain. After a minute he replied, "My first companion was a swamp otter. I've had several others over my long life, but...I didn't accept the puma Silvanus sent me last time." His eyes became clouded with pain.
Dee understood that this was one more thing he had had to bear losing in a life that had known so much loss. She replied softly, "It must be difficult to be so long-lived. Let's start over, Daeghun." She ran a finger absently over her heart where the scar was. She stood and looked around the village and the people gathering and sighed wearily, pushing her hair back behind her ear. "You are right. I should leave anyway, but the horses must rest, father…Daeghun, and I don't think the others share your concern, though they probably should. We will camp yonder in the field behind your house and leave on the morrow as soon as Orlen and his sons are ready, and once my other business is complete."
She had given Brother Merring the offering from the temple in Neverwinter when she first arrived, and she made a mental note that Grobnar had taken care of identifying the Harper agent and passing on the warning, so that was one less thing she had to do. As she thought about that, she gave him a quizzical look.
He looked puzzled as well and said, "What is it, Dierdre?"
She grinned as she raised her left hand beside her ear and gave Daeghun the same signal. To her surprise (though it wasn't so surprising later when she thought about it) Daeghun blinked and returned the gesture just as Tarmas had done then smiled slyly back at her for just a moment. Dee whispered, "Well. That explains the many times you went out in the middle of the night or had a sudden need to go hunting and left me at the Starlings, or that time you left me with that innkeeper's wife while you were off with her husband. You and Tarmas both? Very well then, this is what we've learned, and you two must get the word out south at once."
She filled him in succinctly about what she had learned of the King of Shadows and his growing power as well as his cult of shadow priests building an army of undead, and she was glad she didn't have to go into what happened the last time he rose to power since Daeghun had been there. She finished with, "You've no doubt seen the spreading dead zone in the Mere. My friend Elanee hasn't been able to contact the Circle of Merdelain or the Circle of the Neverwinter Woods either, and the few druids we've found have been cursed so they can't shift back from their animal forms. The druids seem to suffer from his dark influence more keenly due to their ties to the land. Please take care when you venture into the Mere, and give the word to the surrounding villages. I would guess that there's less than a year before he regains his power and returns to this plane, and you may have to spread the word to evacuate before then."
He said softly, "I sense you are more sure of your course then when you left, Dierdre. I will pass the warning along. Now if that is all, you should rejoin your companions and the rest of the villagers."
Several more heartbeats passed silently between them as she studied his face, trying to read his emotions, before she swallowed and said, "No, that's not all. I would like, no, I deserve to know about my mother, though I think I've figured out the story with what I've heard about her in Neverwinter."
He didn't answer her for a few minutes but he looked off in the distance, his face contorted in pain. "Yes, I imagine you do deserve to know what I can tell you about her. Before you ask, I don't know who your father was. She never said, and my people value one's privacy."
Dee looked away and shrugged, "Doubt she even knew anyway. Apparently half of the men in Neverwinter could've been my father. Not that it matters." She hesitated then added, "I can't do it now, but if you would like recompense for your time and expenses in raising me, let me know how much you expect and I'll honor the debt."
He stood there stunned gaping at her, feeling a pain in his midsection that couldn't have hurt more if she had punched him. He blinked at her, then blinked again before he said, "Why...would you think I would want that, Dierdre? You owe me nothing." He turned and looked off into the distance past the wheat field again as if meeting her eyes was too painful. "When your mother was little older than you, adventure sought her out as well. We met in a tavern and were drawn together by mutual necessity. There were others with us, and some tales of our adventures were told. But not all such stories end well. One day we both realized that of the original band, only we two were left. I had had enough of death, especially of those close to me."
Dee shuddered as a chill passed through her and involuntarily glanced at Shandra and Neeshka, hovering a discreet distance away. "Uncle Duncan said that was why he stopped adventuring and bought the tavern. Did my mother give up adventuring as well? I know that she was performing in festhalls and taverns in Neverwinter in the year before I was born."
He shook his head. "Your mother was spun of a different silk, and maintained her vitality in spite of loss."
Dee wrapped her arms around herself, feeling chilled though the day had been unseasonably warm. "From what I've heard she lost her vitality, drowning her pain with drink and men in that last year. You don't have to hide the truth on my account. Or did you know that about her? I have to ask, were you and she lovers too, Daeghun?"
He scowled angrily at her but fought to control the anger before he snapped, "That really is none of your business, but since you asked, no." After a moment he continued more softly, "When I settled in West Harbor with my Shayla, she would visit us from time to time. A heart can heal over time. I had become content with my bride and my new life here. This was Shayla's home, and she was happy to be back. One day when Esmerelle returned she was thick with child—you."
He closed his eyes remembering back to those days. "I helped Shayla deliver you because the woman who served as the village midwife then was off delivering another baby. I cut your cord and placed you in your mother's arms. You were a loud, happy tow-headed toddler who always seemed to be underfoot, mine anyway. Those were... good times. When you were a child you were so full of life. I could not have children, as much as my Shayla desired it. Your mother still felt the call of the road, but she stayed for you. Yet she knew that death could come for her, as it had for our friends and our allies. So she exacted a promise from Shayla, a promise readily given, that if something should befall her, Shayla would care for you as her own. As fate would have it, the promise would be fulfilled, but not by my bride, but by me."
Dee's voice cracked as she said, "Aye, but I don't doubt she was plannin' to go back on the road when she was killed. She was probably telling herself it would be just for a season, but who knows how long she would've been gone. It would've been Shayla and you raising me anyway. I don't see Esmerelle being happy for long in such a small village, baby or no. I should be glad you took on the responsibility. Some of my companions...they weren't so lucky when their folks died." She glanced over where Casavir had come up to wait discreetly beside Shandra and smiled sweetly at him.
Daeghun followed her eyes and noted the way the tall, dark-haired young human smiled back shyly at his foster daughter. "Your friends are very protective of you."
Dee smiled and replied, "That they are. Daeghun, I want you to know I've come to appreciate what you did for me when you could have packed me off to a temple like my friends Neeshka and Cas over there and called it good, or given me to one of the other families here to raise. It couldn't have been easy when I expect you just wanted to disappear into the swamp with your sorrow. I used to wonder sometimes if you would ever come back to me, and that's why I started followin' you and learnin' your ways, so I could make myself useful to you and worthy of your notice. I understand, Daeghun. Mutual necessity, you said...Aye, I have some companions that, honestly, we're not friends, not even close; I suppose bound together through mutual necessity is a good way to describe it. But if they showed up some day under similar circumstances, I'd hope I'd do what I could for them, even if it meant raising their kid. I suspect such was the case with you and Esmerelle too."
He answered with an exaperated sigh. "You are quite mistaken about your mother, Dierdre, but I suppose that is because you only know one side of the story, and you have a right to know the rest, or as much as I know. Despite what you may think, she was a good woman. I counted her amongst my dearest friends. I've always thought that something about living too long in cities poisoned her as much as she clamored for the crowds and the excitement. What can I tell you about her..." He closed his eyes and thought. "She had a clear, pure soprano that was so perfect, many of her listeners were surprised she was human and not of my people. She studied music and dance formally as a child, and later she learned the ways of unarmed fighting from a monk that traveled with us...She was very loyal and kind and deceptively deadly with her rapier. You get much of your grace from her."
They walked away from the villagers towards the bridge that led to Daeghun's home. "What else can I tell you. She was estranged from her family though I can't tell you the cause; I never asked. She sold her family estate in the Blacklake District after the death of her father—Oleff may be able to tell you if any of the rest of them still live. After that she used the gold to set up a scholarship for poor but gifted students at the music academy at the shrine to Milil. I know she also donated generously to the temple of Ilmater's ministry of feeding the poor. She lost many dear friends, just as I did...that as much as anything drove her to drink." He blinked a few times, and Dee saw that he was blinking away tears. "She lost two husbands over the years as well, the first when she was not much older than you. She lost a child she was carrying when she was badly wounded during a battle outside Zhentil Keep. She was also a master Harper, and that as much as anything kept her on the road."
Dee allowed the tears to flow freely as they sat on a fallen tree. Daeghun shuddered and waited several minutes until he had composed himself before he continued. "This is difficult to admit, Dierdre. In truth, Esmerelle never intended for me to care for you alone; such warmth is difficult for me, but she loved me despite my dark moods. But you had no one else when they died, so I did as best as I was able. I certainly wouldn't turn you over to family members that Esmerelle refused to acknowledge." He shook his head and gestured towards the villagers gathering for the feast. "I see other fathers and marvel at how they do it. If it was ever in me, it was lost long ago, buried in the graves of fallen friends. I know your years with me have not been easy ones, yet I hope you have grown up well in spite of me."
She drew close and put a comforting hand on his arm, which was about as near as they ever came to an embrace while she was growing up. "The years with me have not been easy for you either. I keep thinking back to the last time we spoke when you sent me away, how I threatened to beat the hells out of you, and I'm ashamed of my words. I think I've just come to realize how well I grew up thanks to you, and also thanks to Rheta Starling." She stepped back, sensing how uncomfortable he was becoming, though the only physical sign was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"I need to go find her now, father." She grimaced and added, "Truth be told, I don't know if I'm gonna survive this battle. I seem to be pretty invulnerable despite all that's happened, but such is the case of those who are marked by fate, as you know from the histories." She took a deep breath and wiped at her face before she continued, "I'd like to hope that we could become friends some day, if seein' me doesn't cause you too much pain. I'll keep your name too unless you object. I've grown up with it, and I can't imagine changing it now. What's more, I'm keeping my uncle too. It's true he has his faults, but so does everyone, Daeghun, even you, and he's become very dear to me."
Daeghun replied softly, "Dierdre, of course you can keep my name unless you have cause to change it." He glanced over at Casavir watching Dee and smiled knowingly. "I have not always approved of choices Duncan made. My brother is a subject for another time, perhaps, though you should know I would not have sent you to him if I did not trust that you could take care of yourself and that he could take care of you." He put his hand on her arm and said softly, "Now go to your friends. There are no doubt many hungry villagers waiting for you."
Dee looked over to see that Casavir and Shandra had been joined by the others, except for Bishop, and she frowned, worried for a moment about what he was up to. She beckoned the others over. "Come, father. I know you wish to be alone, but I want you to meet my friends."
Daeghun shook his head. "I will see you before you leave, my daughter. You and your friends may stay at my home tonight. It should be safe enough if we take watches. I want to explore the ruins in the Mere at once." He paused as Elanee came around from behind Casavir and stared at the lovely young druid. "Is that the druid of the Mere you spoke of?"
"Aye, that's Elanee. She's become a good friend, tho' she acts like she thinks she's my mother sometimes." Dee paused for a moment and looked at her thoughtfully. "She confessed she's been watching me for her Circle since I was a child because of the strange things that seemed to happen around me, so I suppose seein' me grow up has given her feelings like I'm her kin."
Daeghun's only reply was a murmured, "I've seen hints of her, but she's very elusive when she wants to be. She is lovely, isn't she?"
Dee remembered his earlier words, "A heart can heal over time," and thought, "Aye, with the right balm." She wished there was some way to get him to the Keep. She suppressed a grin and replied, "Aye, she is."