Luskan Territory, Three Years Ago

The first time Bishop had arrived back on the Luskan docks, he'd been in such a state when he'd snuck up under one of the docks to buy a pack's worth of Ruathym whiskey and tobacco that his hands had shaken as he counted out the gold pieces from his purse. The tobacconist had clucked at him, saying he was too young to be so dependent on the drink. But he took his coin, and helped him load the heavy pack onto his back, and did not ask any questions. But back in the thick tangle of twisted trees and nets of grape vines, he was back at ease.

Over the period of the next year or so, he made monthly runs back and forth over the border, carrying tobacco and whiskey. Every so often he'd run into Malin, the tracker he'd been bedding in Luskan. She sometimes questioned why he wore the green cloak of a forest ranger and not the black of the assassin's guild, but never refused him access to her tent.

It was the next fall when she took him by surprise, something that was not a frequent occurrence.

"Take another step, there'll be an arrow in the back of your spine," a familiar, female voice said.

He put his hands in the air, trying to place the voice. "...Arky?" he asked, deeply confused for a moment.

"Who the fuck is Arky?" the voice said.

He turned slowly, his hand still in the air.

Not Arky. Malin. Her face was contorted in… it wasn't anger. It was something else. She held her bow out in front of her, arrow nocked, ready to send it through him.

"She's dead," he replied, settling for looking at the top of her forehead, where her golden brown hair parted in a sharp widow's peak. "Thought I was being haunted."

"And what'd you do to be haunted by her?" she asked.

"What did I do to be haunted by you?" he countered.

"I should be asking you that," Malin said, "When were you going to tell me you turned on the Circle of Blades and they think you one year dead?"

"If you're not going to shoot me with that thing, put it down, we can talk like regular people," he said.

"I still haven't decided if I'm going to kill you yet," she said, taking a step back and tightening her bowstring further.

"Malin, I didn't… I didn't think it was important for you to know. I didn't really do anything."

"Oh, you done plenty, Kyrwan Bishop," she said.

"Please, put the fucking bow down," he said, "Here. I'll throw mine down. You can have my hunting knife too. And my boot dagger. If you still want to kill me when we've had an actual conversation, I promise I will let you have a free shot, just like the one you've got right now."

"I showed up at the contact point to speak with Esangi and like a damned fool I opened my mouth and asked for you," Malin said.

"And why the fuck would you ever do a thing like that, you stupid bitch?" he challenged, bristling, all the stress of putting himself back where the Circle of Blades could find him and separate him joint from joint over a period of months spurting forth.

She loosed the arrow, and he ducked and rolled just in time. He lunged at her before she could put another arrow to string and knocked her to the ground. He held her wrists to the wet leaves until she went limp. He let her up, taking her bow and throwing it beyond where she could grasp it again. He kept his eye on both her hands though, just in case she went for a knife he was not aware of.

"Shouldn't have called you that," he said, "I'm sorry. But Good Gods, Malin, why'd you do a stupid thing like that?" he asked.

She shook her head, "You never said a damned thing to me. I always wondered why you weren't wearing the black, but... "

"But why, even if you did think I was still there, why would you ever come looking for me through the Circle? What is so fucking important you had to find me for?"

"Stupid me, thinking you'd want to know you were going to be a father."

Bishop felt his blood run cold.

"Esangi gave me a two hour head start to leave Luskan before she came and got me and disemboweled me. Said you'd betrayed the brotherhood, then died in the mud in Neverwinter territory - or so they thought. But if you'd knocked me up sometime in the last month you couldn't be half as dead as they thought you were. And that's twice as alive as they want you."

"You're with child," he said.

"I fled to Port Llast," she said, "Have you ever been to Port Llast?"

"You're with child."

"Port Llast is a shit little town on the border where everyone's as mean as Luskans and dumb as Neverese," Malin said.

"Gods damn it all Malin, you're with child. And it's mine?"

"Well not anymore I'm not," she said, avoiding his gaze, "What was I supposed to do, Kyr? Have the child of some traitor to the Circle of Blades I wasn't even married to?"

"So you're too good to carry my child now?" he countered. He expected the news would have made him feel relieved. Happy even. One less thing to worry about. But now… what would it have been like? To love someone like Kyla had loved him? Even if he was the spit and image of their tormentor, Kyla had loved him, and he imagined he could have loved a child, even if it was half of that fool Malin. Part of him was relieved. But part of him felt as though he'd taken a pen knife to the gut.

"Fuck off," Malin said.

"Is that why you pulled a bow on me?" he asked.

"Thought you were haunting me," she said, "For what I done. Wanted to make sure you were real. You weren't dead."

"I'm not that. Despite my best efforts," he said.

"I don't know if I'm happy or sad about that," she said.

"I'm no kind of father," he said.

"I'm no kind of mother," she replied, "Where can I find you?"

"You can't," he replied.

"Not ever?"

"Gods, Malin, you're the reason those psychopaths know I'm still alive," he said, "I'm sorry for whatever pain I've caused you, but unless we run into each other out here again I can't see as I'd be wanting to see you again."

"What's to stop me from telling them right now?"

"Then I guess I'll have to kill you," he said, "But I don't think you will. Esangi probably thinks you're in on my betrayal. Probably thinks I staged the whole thing so I could run off and play house with you somewhere in the hinterlands. In fact it's probably why you're still alive and well in Port Llast instead of on the wrong end of a blade. They figure I'll be stopping by to see my girl and baby sometime in the next nine months, don't they.."

"They don't know what a cruel son of a whore you are," she said. Her voice was even, but he could tell she was miserable.

"Oh, they know," he replied. He didn't not feel for her. But it's true, he never made her any promises. And truth, if she'd had his kid, he probably would have shown up, sooner or later, out of curiosity if nothing else.

"I guess this is goodbye," she said.

"That it is," he said, "Don't suppose I'll be showing my face in Port Llast anytime soon."

"See that you don't," she said.

He arrived in Neverwinter the following afternoon in a dark mood indeed. He grunted to Duncan that he'd gotten the goods he wanted, and bellied up to the bar, pouring himself a generous tumbler of his own smuggled whiskey. He drank it down, and poured himself another. Then another.

He was staring the darkness full in the face, feeling nothing but the burning of his own cheeks and the angry buzz of the whiskey in his belly when another voice, female and familiar, came from behind him.

"Do I know you?"

Who is it this time? Ugh, who has time for any of them.

"If I wanted a wench, I'd find the local brothel," he slurred out.

The next thing he knew, he was on his back on the floor, clutching his broken nose, the blood flowing into his mouth and out onto the floor. Through the haze of the whiskey and the stars dancing before his eyes, he was staring up at the face of Addie Elhandrien.