4th of Kythorn - Back at the Inn:

After we finished at the temple of Velsharoon, we returned to the inn and all crammed into mine and Swift's room to hear Kate's story.

"Alright. Tell us your story, Kate. And it had best be the whole truth," I said.

Kate stood in the middle of the room as if she were about to perform for a crowded tavern. Then she started speaking, "Like I said, it is a very long story. And I'm not really supposed to tell it." She shuffled her feet around sheepishly, but continued, "But I suppose I've already broken the rules by helping you like this."

Kate stopped fidgeting and began her tale, "My family has been on this mission for nearly four hundred years, ever since the very first Wilavor protected Covell Ashwalker. Wilavor and Covell fought the forces of Velsharoon and won! But Marat, Covell's deva, sent dreams of the future to Wilavor. She dreamed of Velsharoon rising again. And of a new champion, a woman with black hair, golden eyes, and a scared face. She also dreamed of the woman's guardian, a white and black striped tabaxi. Wilavor saw herself in the dreams helping, always in the shadows, while the chosen pair fought the agents of Velsharoon."

It took every bit of will within me to let Kate finish her story before asking any questions. I was so unnerved hearing her talk about me, Marat, and Swift from a supposed 400 year old dream. And how in the world is Wilavor over 400 years old?! She may be a half-elf, but they don't live that long. And how does Kate even connect to the whole story? I've never seen her before.

Kate continued, "Wilavor shared her dreams with Covell and they knew Marat wanted Wilavor to find and guide these future champions of Kelemvor. But they didn't know when in the future the two of you would be born, so she created the Wilavor trade caravan leader persona. She would travel the land, making connections and creating contacts in every town she could. So that in the future her persona's successors would have a network throughout the land to help find the two of you."

She looked directly at Swift and me with a giant smile that lit up her face and said, "All my life I helped search for you. And six years ago I was lucky to be chosen to take on Wilavor's persona and mission!"

And as she said that, Kate's face changed into the face of Wilavor!

Swift snarled and stepped in front of me, crouching prepared to fight. The rest of my companions took similar stances.

Kate/Wilavor took a step back. Her appearance returned back to Kate, and she held up her hands, "Look I know it's a lot to take in. And I wasn't supposed to expose myself to you..."

I interrupted her, "What are you? And what are you doing here? How do you know of Marat, Swift, and me?"

"I am a changeling. You stayed in Waterdeep longer than expected and I left my caravan to find you. My ancestor, the original Wilavor, was Covell's protector, like Swift is your protector. As I said before Marat was Covell's deva and they sent dreams to my ancestor. Helping you defeat Velsharoon, from the shadows, is my family's mission."

Everyone relaxed, slightly.

Swift asked, "Then why did you leave the shadows?"

"I've spent my life searching for you. And when my sister and I confirmed Zira's identity six years ago, she turned the Wilavor persona over to me. I AM the Wilavor from the dreams! I was so excited to meet you and see you in action, I didn't plan to expose myself," She lost some of the excitement in her voice and added, " My sister is going to be very mad at me when she finds out. She has quite the temper."

"If you're Wilavor then you've met us before," I stated.

"We don't just change our appearances and names, we become the persona, the person. Wilavor is a persona I take on. Kate is me. I am Kate. Well Duplicate, but to most people it's just Kate. Duplicate is the persona I was born with. Yes, Wilavor has met you. But it has been my dream since I was a child to actually meet you. This is the best I can explain it. I know to outsiders it can be very confusing," Kate answered.

"Show us again," Adrala said curiously.

And Kate's appearance changed again to Wilavor and then back again.

"That is fascinating," Israel chimed in.

And with that, the tension in the room was gone.

"I'm supposed to meet back up with my caravan on the fifteenth of Kythorn in Tribor unless I sent word otherwise. I hope you'll let me continue traveling north with you…" Kate said, but she didn't sound like her normally confident self.

We told Kate we needed to talk about it and we would let her know in the morning our decision. She told us she understood and left for her room.

As soon as the door closed Adralla said, "I think we should let Kate join us. I bet she could give you lots of information to help us defeat Velsharoon."

"I agreed with Adralla. The more information we have the better our chances are. Perhaps we're the lucky ones that she couldn't keep herself concealed. We should take this opportunity to learn all we can," Israel stated, then shrunk back into his seat.

"How do we know if we can trust her?" Elisha asked.

"We don't," I responded, "If she is Wilavor too, then she already knows us, what we look like, and all about Kelemvor and Velsharoon's fight. So she could easily create the rest of the story…"

Swift put a finger up and said, "Maybe we can. I have vague memories, most likely triggered by Kate's story, from when I was just a tiny cub, not even a year. I remember playing with a young human named Kate. My mother was very fond of her older sister."

"So you're saying you remember something from when you were not even a year old… How fascinating. That is incredibly young. Elisha, what are your earliest memories?" Israel turned to his brother notebook and quill in hand.

Elisha laughed good-naturedly, "It's late. Can we leave the research till tomorrow?"

Israel mumbled, "Sorry," and his face turned bright red.

"We age faster when we're young. So it's the equivalent of maybe a two to three year old human. However, I do think we can trust her story is true. Not just from my memories, but because how could she possibly know anything about Marat? You don't speak of them often."

I paused. In fact, we all paused.

And as I looked at each of my friends' faces they all had the aha look which I'm sure was on my face as well. Marat sent Kate to help me. Maybe Kate's help isn't the way Marat planned, from the shadows. But I've learned that Marat only sees part of the picture because we control our actions.
We decided to invite Kate to join us.

—

Swift is pressing me to finish up so we can both get some much needed sleep.

He said to me teasingly, "You don't want to yawn while working with the AllFaith's church. What would they think?"

I laughed and said, "Give me a moment to finish up."

I hope I can get everything settled with the AllFaith's clergy tomorrow so we can be on our way. Eldora has a huge head start on me. I hope we find her in Westbridge, but who knows where she could possibly be.

Z

When I first created Wilavor, I knew I wanted her to be more than a passing minor NPC. But I wasn't sure what role she was going to play. Plans for Wilavor really started to take shape while Zira and her friends were in Waterdeep, but before I could write Wilavor's chapters I had to work on her backstory. Which has also helped me continue to develop Zira's story.

I created Wilavor as a mastermind rogue and gave her the charlatan background for the false identity. I spent a lot of time figuring out the Wilavor persona and not much time on Duplicate/Kate. While I was working on Kate's backstory, I knew I needed to flesh out her original persona more. Growing up on the stories of the original Wilavor and traveling around the realm, she became a lover of learning and telling stories. Yet I still hadn't thought about making her a bard. After reading Aaron_Mag's comment asking if a bard was joining the group, I thought why not and gave Kate a level in bard too.