Soulmates Fic
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tales_of_faerunBesieged by Memories (3896 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Drizzt Do'Urden/Alustriel Silverhand
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Alustriel Silverhand, Bruenor Battlehammer
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ensemble Cast
Summary:
Drizzt was angry. Her reputation, her demeanor, that compassion in her eyes were all at odds with her actual actions, and he really did wonder why he'd ever held any hope of finding a place on the surface, away from his people.
Maybe his words were petulant, maybe they were sharp. She was in his space, her hand coming up with the palm cupped to touch his face. He could have evaded, but her eyes, her compassion as confusing as it was, held him right there, and her hand touched his skin with a coolness that would have been refreshing --
Happy carefree children playing. Trying to console a younger sister. Lashing out for being taken from all but one. Strained relationships.
An attempted assault that had awakened her magic.
A drive to succeed, to excel. Loves and children, losses, wins, so many places that defied even his traveled experiences --
-- he heard a noise, realized it was his own grief at this wash of memories mingling with a sound from her.
His anger was just and she wished there was any other reason for the fire she would all but see burning in his eyes. His hurt was palpable to her, and she moved before she had considered her actions. Alustriel meant to say more to him as she touched his skin --
A child enduring pain, over and over. Quiet moments with the one that hurt him. Pride in a task done well. Unending pain and exhaustion.
Further exhaustion tinged in pride and satisfaction, joy even. Lost, utter confusion. Betrayal. Painpainpain... Loneliness. Madness. True friendship,
An emptiness and lack of awareness followed swiftly by soul-crushing grief.
More loneliness coupled to wonder and frustration. Slow understanding. Loneliness followed by a new friendship. Several dangers and near death experiences --
-- there was a sound, maybe a threat, and she needed to pull out of the alien places glimpsed in the memories, that love/lack of understanding for one sister, the eventual hate for others except for the father.
Bruenor had known his elf was acting strange, but to come awake to a cry of pain from him and another voice was disconcerting.
Worst was spying his elf with a tall, radiant woman clad in the finest of silk and adorned as a ruler. Regis sitting up and murmuring 'Lady Silverhand' turned his concern to anger, even as Wulfgar stirred on his bedroll.
The woman's hand was cupped on his elf's face, and Drizzt had brought his own hands up to that and her other arm, as if holding on for balance.
"Drizzt," he called gruffly.
With difficulty, or so it looked to the Companions, especially the experienced dwarf that counted one dark elf as friend in the fullest sense of the word, Drizzt managed to pull back, breaking contact with the Lady.
"Peace, Bruenor," he managed to say. "I..." He cut off those words, and Bruenor would have paid three mithral shirts to know what Drizzt had almost said. "The Lady came, to express her reasons for what happened earlier tonight. Perhaps to offer better aid?"
"Yes, of course," Alustriel said, looking fairly flustered for a woman that commanded a whole city, and whose guard had defended her honor so fully.
She looked at Bruenor directly, hand stealing not to Drizzt's but to Drizzt's sleeve, and he allowed it.
What was going on in his elf's head?!
Whatever it was, he wasn't getting answers this night, as Drizzt caught his eyes with an almost pleading look to let it go. With the Lady offering clues and aid, Bruenor let it go... but before she left, he had an ultimatum for her.
"Ye get things straightened out for me elf tae go as he pleases, or there'll be nae trade tae yer town, any more than for those louts as turned us aside for saving their lives!"
Alustriel's eyes snapped, but not at him, and she looked at Drizzt in the next moment. The ranger gave a brief nod to her, some unspoken words between them it seemed like.
"Find your Hall, good chieftain, and come back to my city to rally those you need after. The gates will open to Drizzt, and all of you."
She vanished away in a sparkling light, leaving Drizzt staring after the space she'd been in.
"Drizzt, my teacher?" Wulfgar began.
"Either more rest for us all, or let us move on," Drizzt said. "The ground is easy enough for me to see from here."
"Ye haven't slept yet, so another few hours in this spot," Bruenor countered that nonsense, but he understood enough to know not to ask questions.
Yet.
Alustriel was a flurry of activity from the moment she came out of her rest. She did not need sleep, and using the hours before dawn to sift Drizzt's memories had revealed tasks she could complete to better apologize to him.
She was still shaken by how much her new soul-mate had been through, and left with a staggering impression that it had all happened so recently. She hoped her own life hadn't hammered him as hard, given the much longer span of events.
And, she admitted, far more happy memories in the mix.
To her eldest sons, she bequeathed the quest of learning about a child, a moon-elf, that had survived a drow raid in recent decades, possibly the only one to do so. Drizzt's uncertainty as to where had been easy enough for her to focus harder on details, and those trees grew only in a small region of the North.
To Elminster, and whomever of her sons or sisters he trusted, she gave the responsibility of finding and containing the deadly Crenshinibon. Elminster had actually yelped at her over her shocking revelation that it was buried at Kelvin's Cairn.
Those two tasks turned over to diligent hands, she wrote a letter, politely inviting Jygil Zelnathra to apologize for allowing her Riders to use lies to cause strife in Silverymoon via the merchants they both traded with. Bending the truth over having a witness to events -- she had Drizzt's own memories, and knew any of his friends would also testify -- she pointed out that such actions might lead to a lack of trust from those merchants that came to Nesme via Silverymoon.
With that in hand, she took herself to the Cloister, to sit breakfast with the Ladyservant, and see if Mielikki had opinions on current events.
Per Tathshandra's own rules, they only chatted about the weather and gossip of the city, nothing of consequence, until the breakfast ended. At that point, Alustriel looked at her friend and sighed softly.
"I must ask if your Lady has had opinions of yesterday's events?"
"You could say that," Tathshandra said. "There's been an agitation in the vigils for days now, and it took yesterday for us to determine why. All of us senior clerics received a not-so-gentle reminder that Mielikki accepts anyone of any kind, so long as their hearts belong to the Wilds.
"Yet, I have been here long enough to understand your hands were tied, once we connected that to the rumors of a drow brigand -- "
"Brigand, my foot!" Alustriel could not help but interject. "The Riders lied about how they came to be attacked by the ranger and his friends."
Tathshandra's eyes gleamed. "I knew there had to be more to this than was said. You are certain?"
"As if I saw it for myself," Alustriel avowed. "The Riders were beset, several down already, when the Companions gave aid. When the fighting was done and the Riders noted the skin color of the ranger is when it ran afoul, and even the one supposed attack on them, the arrow shot at the Rider? Was done as a warning for an attempt to do unto them before they were done unto."
"Hmm." Tathshandra, having those words to meditate on, turned inward, and when she received a resounding affirmation of the truth of it, she looked back to Alustriel. "What have you in mind? We can but charge the higher interest rate, revoking the friend of the city discount given to those that accepted the word of the Riders."
"I had in mind a more direct idea." Alustriel handed her the letter, and Tathshandra read it. The Ladyservant smiled with glee at the implications.
"Let me add a letter, in my official capacity, stating they have thirty days to apologize, or all letters of credit will become due for any of their citizens doing business with our treasury. I can then send them by my goshawk, for speedy delivery."
Alustriel nodded, smiling. "I would be grateful."
Tathshandra pulled her writing kit over to begin, but she looked at Alustriel briefly. "Between friends, how did you come to be aware?"
"A brief meeting, with unvarnished truth confirmed by magic."
Wulfgar and Regis were sleeping, and Drizzt knew he should take advantage of the peace of the Herald's Holdfast to do so, but he had a feeling —
— and there was Bruenor, rolling off his cot to come and sit beside him.
"Lad, the other night, with the Lady? Ye need tae talk?"
Drizzt didn't want to, but… he also couldn't understand. Maybe Bruenor could help him?
"I saw her entire life. I can even pinpoint memories, if I focus on them. And I don't know why. But she… she got all of mine, I think. There was no magic she did, as it hit us both in the same moment."
"Och, no wonder ye were shook as bad as all that," Bruenor said softly. "Have a few in the clan as had it happen, not many."
"What is it?"
"It's the mark of a soul-bond. Happens more among long-living folks, but can happen tae any," Bruenor told him. "Guess I'm going tae have tae get used tae the Lady, as none that could be right for you would be all bad."
Drizzt half-smiled. "She was only trying to do right by her people. I… I know that now. I … her memories of that were strongest, newest."
"Memories in their rawest form can't lie, e'en if we teach ourselves tae remember the hard ones differently," Bruenor said. "She still has tae fix it, ye hear?"
"Yes, Bruenor." Drizzt opened his hands from where he'd unconsciously clenched them, braced against that whirlwind of memory in the back of his mind. "I feel terrible for her seeing my life to date."
"Oh, are ye finally admittin' ye had a rough road?" Bruenor teased him. "Lad, if she's meant for ye, she can handle it."
"I hope so. And… this is all for the future. Quest first."
"Aye. Need tae see this through."
Alustriel, having pondered through the memories, but realizing she lacked cultural context, reached out to her dark sister.
~Dearest, if you have a Lolthite noble male willing to come stay with me and educate me on his society, I would appreciate it.~
~That is a very specific request, but I will ask Elkantar if he is willing, or someone he trusts.~ Qilué was very puzzled in her reply, but did not set up a new sending, allowing Alustriel to go and find Korvallen.
He needed to be warned she was preparing space in her life for a new potential partner, especially because of Drizzt's species. She carried her lunch basket with her, going to find her dear friend, and waited for him to extract himself from observing a knight and squire training for tandem fighting.
"Elué?"
"Lunch, your room, so we may talk."
They adjourned upstairs, and she set out the food for them while he cleaned up. The light lunch was mostly for him; she ate a few treats, but was mulling over her words for him as she engaged him on his duties and what things he needed to share.
"Spit it out, whatever you're not saying yet," Kor said at last.
"You know me well, old friend." She covered his free hand with her own. "I have a new soul-bond," she admitted. "And you needed to know."
Kor pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dare I ask how and whom?"
She enjoyed his moment of theatrics, before sitting back in her chair to regard him. "The ranger from the incident with Nesme."
"The drow?!" was all but snarled, with him staring at her in shock and denial both.
"Yes, Korvallen," she said evenly. "And… Kor, I am asking you to give him a chance. I won't share details, but I can tell you he has known more tragedy in a short amount of years than nearly anyone else I can name.
"He's very, very good, a favorite of Mielikki, and as soon as his duty is done to the dwarf chieftain, I mean to have him come stay, if he will, to learn more of who we might be."
"Why in all the abyss did Khalreshaar pick a drow?" Kor muttered as he wrestled his emotions down.
"Quite stubbornly over Drizzt's," and she stressed the name, "misgivings about any divine interactions."
Korvallen studied her, then sighed. "I want Kolarven to meet him. And then I'll decide how I handle him."
"That's all I can ask then."
True to her word, Alustriel had calmed the city.
Drizzt didn't come.
Eventually, she learned why, and worried, the entire time Bruenor was on his path, with that fiery spirited daughter of his, to go aid his friends.
By the time the Companions, minus Regis, were back and had cleared the Hall, she had in mind to invite him directly to her city, and was preparing a letter to send by one of her Knights —
— when word was carried to her that the drow ranger had come to her city on his own, and was taking lodging at the Rusty Blade.
"Did the informant say how the meeting at the gate went?" Alustriel asked the page, a bit nettled that she hadn't been able to make reassurances first, and that he was so close, yet so far.
"Yes, Lady. Wil said the squire was all polite and none of the guards were rude a bit," the page said.
"Thank you."
It seemed she would need a different message, and a different courier… no, a Knight would do, if Kolarven was off duty and willing.
Drizzt was still soaking in a tub in the inn's bath room, having paid for the hot water, when a half-human wood elf in a stylish shirt, a long layered skirt that swished around the ankles, practical boots, and a sword belt entered.
A pair of dangling gemstone earrings were coming off one ear, and a single stone sat on the lobe of the other ear. Drizzt had never, in all his life, seen someone that looked quite like this person.
"You have to be Drizzt Do'Urden," the person said cheerfully. "I am Kolarven, Knight in Silver, though not on duty at present. I'm glad to finally get to meet you."
Kolarven turned a bucket over beside the bath and sat on that while Drizzt tried to understand the idea of a elf-blooded person being glad to meet him.
"I could get out and dressed to make this less informal?" Drizzt managed to find the wit to say.
"And waste a good hot tub? I still see steam; no, you soak. Rangers often don't have such luxury." Kolarven smiled broadly, then hesitated. "Unless… are you bothered? I presumed, you see, that using the public bath instead of asking for one for your room — "
"No," Drizzt said, cutting in. "The idea of private baths is still an odd one for me."
Kolarven laughed at that. "Oh, so our dark kin kept that custom, at least for some? Good to learn that."
Drizzt wound up smiling in response to that glib reply. "Well, if you bathe alone, there's no witnesses if someone tries to strike, hmm?"
Kolarven winced. "Ahh, yes, practical side. No fewer than three, I bet?"
Drizzt nodded. "Five is better," he added. "And I think I am pleased, if startled, to meet you."
"Don't be. I'm just glad Alustriel asked me to be the one to come bring her message."
Drizzt blinked. First name usage for a leader didn't startle him too much; Bruenor was called by his name as often by his title, sometimes more depending on who and why it was needed. But … she already knew he was here and sent a message?
What if it was negative?
"Well, I am honored a message would find me so soon after arriving in the city." He reached for the scrubbing stick to get at his back, focusing on getting clean rather than all the doubts in his head.
"She said you are more than welcome to come with me to the palace, to choose a suite there — and on a side note, the baths in those suites are wonderful — and enjoy the use of the library there."
Oh. Drizzt's memory of joy for the books that Montolio had shared with him must have guided that offer, but still, he should be careful not to abuse such privilege.
"If I were to ask you as a person, maybe even as an elf specifically, if I should accept that offer, would you advise me?" he asked seriously. "The very last thing I wish is to cause even a perception of wrongness to the people she protects, and the allies she requires."
Kolarven rolled their eyes and then shook his head. "Nesme had to issue a full apology. The Ladyservant — she's the head of Mielikki's church here — was going to revoke every single letter of credit if they did not, for offending the Forest Queen."
Drizzt stopped scrubbing and just stared at the Knight. "Why? How? I am so confused."
Kolarven stared back. "You… alright then, let's leave it at the ways of the Named Ones being strange. But I urge you to accept, if only so I can wheedle you into showing me your blade-work. I've heard tales from those that went to aid in the Hall, and you sound like a master of swords!"
"I am good," Drizzt agreed, "but I feel I can improve. My father was faster, had more maneuvers than I have yet learned."
Kolarven grinned. "Oh, you are going to be fun to get to know! You will come?"
"Tomorrow," Drizzt said, after a moment to think. "I would prefer my dealings with the staff there start after a rest and other things."
"Then come to the Knight's wing, ask for me, and I will see to everything!" Kolarven then gave the best directions to come directly to their entrance, before taking their leave.
Drizzt looked up at the knock on his door, having just truly settled into the entirely too generous suite about mid-day. He'd gone to the Sacred Glade for vigil, then been invited to breakfast with the clerics at the cloister, been interviewed by the Ladyservant herself, and met someone who actually knew Montolio when he was young.
He rose and went to the door, expecting Kolarven —
— and opened it to find Alustriel herself, in her morning dress and robes of court. It made her only slightly less regal in appearance than the night on the road, and Drizzt realized he was holding his breath as he appreciated the radiant waves of goodness that seemed to roll off of her.
"Come in," he said as he made himself move back.
"I hope you've had a good stay so far," Alustriel said, following him to sit on the divan with him after he had closed the door. "I was going to send you an invitation to visit, was actually ready to write it, when they told me you were here."
Drizzt ducked his head. "Bruenor has more work to do that does not need me, Catti-brie is occupied with helping there, Wulfgar is settling his own people who have no love for me," he said. "I decided, given the aid you gave my friends, to risk seeing if I was allowed in yet."
Alustriel nodded at that, before tipping her head. "If, by chance, I had not managed to set matters right, what would you have done?"
"Explored," he said swiftly. "Mapped out possible dangers to the Hall. Found the differences in the lands here versus those I have traveled before."
She rested her hand on his, nodding to all of that. "I am relieved that it was resolved.
"And now I have two pieces of meddling to share with you, that I have seen dealt with since our first meeting."
He turned his hand under hers, to lay them palm to palm, and found that more electric than any contact with another speaking being he'd ever known. He did look at her face, eyebrow arching.
"The child you protected was found," Alustriel began, almost flinching for opening that raw wound. "She… needed care, for her mind. That is now being provided by the elven cleric you likely saw in my memories so often."
"Scharick?" Drizzt asked, uncertain, but trying to filter the memory of names called.
"Charic, yes," Alustriel told him. "She will see Ellifain — the girl's name — to a better way of looking at life around her. One of my sons and his consort have been helping."
He had to close his eyes, just soaking in the knowledge that the child he'd protected, that had cost him his father, lived and would be well in time.
After several moments he opened them, and inclined his head deeply. "Thank you for that. The second though?"
This got a grimace from Alustriel. "That vile abomination that is called Crenshinibon is safely locked away under the protection of the oldest, strongest wizard in the realms. I promise you that it can offer Elminster nothing he hasn't already had or decided was a waste of his time."
Drizzt snorted. "Even I have heard that name. The Wandering Wizard, Eternal Meddler, and a few other less flattering things are said around campfires on the trade roads."
Alustriel laughed softly. "I should get you to write them all down, and see if he's heard them all. It would amuse him." She squeezed his hand. "It will take more time to deal with the balor — really, Drizzt, you must learn to tell small lies!"
"I was tired!" Drizzt defended himself, but he smiled as he said it. "I have most of a century to prepare for that; don't fret over it."
"With any luck at all, Drizzt, I hope to very much be a part of your life in that time," she told him softly. "What I have seen through you tells me quite strongly that the soul magic landed correctly, that you are one that I wish to hold close in my life."
He drew in a deep breath, and nodded, not trusting his voice yet. He held tight to her hand though, and let those words settle, soothing his aching need to belong with a person and a place at a deeper level than even Icewind Dale had given him.
"All I am, Alustriel Silverhand, is in your keeping, as long as you wish me here," he finally said, decision made. She studied him gravely, then drew his hand to her lips, kissing it lightly.
"We will learn how to keep each other safe, and whole, then," she agreed.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Drizzt Do'Urden/Alustriel Silverhand
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Alustriel Silverhand, Bruenor Battlehammer
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ensemble Cast
Summary:
When Alustriel touched Drizzt on the road that first meeting, neither was ready for the experience.
Besieged by Memories
Drizzt was angry. Her reputation, her demeanor, that compassion in her eyes were all at odds with her actual actions, and he really did wonder why he'd ever held any hope of finding a place on the surface, away from his people.
Maybe his words were petulant, maybe they were sharp. She was in his space, her hand coming up with the palm cupped to touch his face. He could have evaded, but her eyes, her compassion as confusing as it was, held him right there, and her hand touched his skin with a coolness that would have been refreshing --
Happy carefree children playing. Trying to console a younger sister. Lashing out for being taken from all but one. Strained relationships.
An attempted assault that had awakened her magic.
A drive to succeed, to excel. Loves and children, losses, wins, so many places that defied even his traveled experiences --
-- he heard a noise, realized it was his own grief at this wash of memories mingling with a sound from her.
His anger was just and she wished there was any other reason for the fire she would all but see burning in his eyes. His hurt was palpable to her, and she moved before she had considered her actions. Alustriel meant to say more to him as she touched his skin --
A child enduring pain, over and over. Quiet moments with the one that hurt him. Pride in a task done well. Unending pain and exhaustion.
Further exhaustion tinged in pride and satisfaction, joy even. Lost, utter confusion. Betrayal. Painpainpain... Loneliness. Madness. True friendship,
An emptiness and lack of awareness followed swiftly by soul-crushing grief.
More loneliness coupled to wonder and frustration. Slow understanding. Loneliness followed by a new friendship. Several dangers and near death experiences --
-- there was a sound, maybe a threat, and she needed to pull out of the alien places glimpsed in the memories, that love/lack of understanding for one sister, the eventual hate for others except for the father.
Bruenor had known his elf was acting strange, but to come awake to a cry of pain from him and another voice was disconcerting.
Worst was spying his elf with a tall, radiant woman clad in the finest of silk and adorned as a ruler. Regis sitting up and murmuring 'Lady Silverhand' turned his concern to anger, even as Wulfgar stirred on his bedroll.
The woman's hand was cupped on his elf's face, and Drizzt had brought his own hands up to that and her other arm, as if holding on for balance.
"Drizzt," he called gruffly.
With difficulty, or so it looked to the Companions, especially the experienced dwarf that counted one dark elf as friend in the fullest sense of the word, Drizzt managed to pull back, breaking contact with the Lady.
"Peace, Bruenor," he managed to say. "I..." He cut off those words, and Bruenor would have paid three mithral shirts to know what Drizzt had almost said. "The Lady came, to express her reasons for what happened earlier tonight. Perhaps to offer better aid?"
"Yes, of course," Alustriel said, looking fairly flustered for a woman that commanded a whole city, and whose guard had defended her honor so fully.
She looked at Bruenor directly, hand stealing not to Drizzt's but to Drizzt's sleeve, and he allowed it.
What was going on in his elf's head?!
Whatever it was, he wasn't getting answers this night, as Drizzt caught his eyes with an almost pleading look to let it go. With the Lady offering clues and aid, Bruenor let it go... but before she left, he had an ultimatum for her.
"Ye get things straightened out for me elf tae go as he pleases, or there'll be nae trade tae yer town, any more than for those louts as turned us aside for saving their lives!"
Alustriel's eyes snapped, but not at him, and she looked at Drizzt in the next moment. The ranger gave a brief nod to her, some unspoken words between them it seemed like.
"Find your Hall, good chieftain, and come back to my city to rally those you need after. The gates will open to Drizzt, and all of you."
She vanished away in a sparkling light, leaving Drizzt staring after the space she'd been in.
"Drizzt, my teacher?" Wulfgar began.
"Either more rest for us all, or let us move on," Drizzt said. "The ground is easy enough for me to see from here."
"Ye haven't slept yet, so another few hours in this spot," Bruenor countered that nonsense, but he understood enough to know not to ask questions.
Yet.
Alustriel was a flurry of activity from the moment she came out of her rest. She did not need sleep, and using the hours before dawn to sift Drizzt's memories had revealed tasks she could complete to better apologize to him.
She was still shaken by how much her new soul-mate had been through, and left with a staggering impression that it had all happened so recently. She hoped her own life hadn't hammered him as hard, given the much longer span of events.
And, she admitted, far more happy memories in the mix.
To her eldest sons, she bequeathed the quest of learning about a child, a moon-elf, that had survived a drow raid in recent decades, possibly the only one to do so. Drizzt's uncertainty as to where had been easy enough for her to focus harder on details, and those trees grew only in a small region of the North.
To Elminster, and whomever of her sons or sisters he trusted, she gave the responsibility of finding and containing the deadly Crenshinibon. Elminster had actually yelped at her over her shocking revelation that it was buried at Kelvin's Cairn.
Those two tasks turned over to diligent hands, she wrote a letter, politely inviting Jygil Zelnathra to apologize for allowing her Riders to use lies to cause strife in Silverymoon via the merchants they both traded with. Bending the truth over having a witness to events -- she had Drizzt's own memories, and knew any of his friends would also testify -- she pointed out that such actions might lead to a lack of trust from those merchants that came to Nesme via Silverymoon.
With that in hand, she took herself to the Cloister, to sit breakfast with the Ladyservant, and see if Mielikki had opinions on current events.
Per Tathshandra's own rules, they only chatted about the weather and gossip of the city, nothing of consequence, until the breakfast ended. At that point, Alustriel looked at her friend and sighed softly.
"I must ask if your Lady has had opinions of yesterday's events?"
"You could say that," Tathshandra said. "There's been an agitation in the vigils for days now, and it took yesterday for us to determine why. All of us senior clerics received a not-so-gentle reminder that Mielikki accepts anyone of any kind, so long as their hearts belong to the Wilds.
"Yet, I have been here long enough to understand your hands were tied, once we connected that to the rumors of a drow brigand -- "
"Brigand, my foot!" Alustriel could not help but interject. "The Riders lied about how they came to be attacked by the ranger and his friends."
Tathshandra's eyes gleamed. "I knew there had to be more to this than was said. You are certain?"
"As if I saw it for myself," Alustriel avowed. "The Riders were beset, several down already, when the Companions gave aid. When the fighting was done and the Riders noted the skin color of the ranger is when it ran afoul, and even the one supposed attack on them, the arrow shot at the Rider? Was done as a warning for an attempt to do unto them before they were done unto."
"Hmm." Tathshandra, having those words to meditate on, turned inward, and when she received a resounding affirmation of the truth of it, she looked back to Alustriel. "What have you in mind? We can but charge the higher interest rate, revoking the friend of the city discount given to those that accepted the word of the Riders."
"I had in mind a more direct idea." Alustriel handed her the letter, and Tathshandra read it. The Ladyservant smiled with glee at the implications.
"Let me add a letter, in my official capacity, stating they have thirty days to apologize, or all letters of credit will become due for any of their citizens doing business with our treasury. I can then send them by my goshawk, for speedy delivery."
Alustriel nodded, smiling. "I would be grateful."
Tathshandra pulled her writing kit over to begin, but she looked at Alustriel briefly. "Between friends, how did you come to be aware?"
"A brief meeting, with unvarnished truth confirmed by magic."
Wulfgar and Regis were sleeping, and Drizzt knew he should take advantage of the peace of the Herald's Holdfast to do so, but he had a feeling —
— and there was Bruenor, rolling off his cot to come and sit beside him.
"Lad, the other night, with the Lady? Ye need tae talk?"
Drizzt didn't want to, but… he also couldn't understand. Maybe Bruenor could help him?
"I saw her entire life. I can even pinpoint memories, if I focus on them. And I don't know why. But she… she got all of mine, I think. There was no magic she did, as it hit us both in the same moment."
"Och, no wonder ye were shook as bad as all that," Bruenor said softly. "Have a few in the clan as had it happen, not many."
"What is it?"
"It's the mark of a soul-bond. Happens more among long-living folks, but can happen tae any," Bruenor told him. "Guess I'm going tae have tae get used tae the Lady, as none that could be right for you would be all bad."
Drizzt half-smiled. "She was only trying to do right by her people. I… I know that now. I … her memories of that were strongest, newest."
"Memories in their rawest form can't lie, e'en if we teach ourselves tae remember the hard ones differently," Bruenor said. "She still has tae fix it, ye hear?"
"Yes, Bruenor." Drizzt opened his hands from where he'd unconsciously clenched them, braced against that whirlwind of memory in the back of his mind. "I feel terrible for her seeing my life to date."
"Oh, are ye finally admittin' ye had a rough road?" Bruenor teased him. "Lad, if she's meant for ye, she can handle it."
"I hope so. And… this is all for the future. Quest first."
"Aye. Need tae see this through."
Alustriel, having pondered through the memories, but realizing she lacked cultural context, reached out to her dark sister.
~Dearest, if you have a Lolthite noble male willing to come stay with me and educate me on his society, I would appreciate it.~
~That is a very specific request, but I will ask Elkantar if he is willing, or someone he trusts.~ Qilué was very puzzled in her reply, but did not set up a new sending, allowing Alustriel to go and find Korvallen.
He needed to be warned she was preparing space in her life for a new potential partner, especially because of Drizzt's species. She carried her lunch basket with her, going to find her dear friend, and waited for him to extract himself from observing a knight and squire training for tandem fighting.
"Elué?"
"Lunch, your room, so we may talk."
They adjourned upstairs, and she set out the food for them while he cleaned up. The light lunch was mostly for him; she ate a few treats, but was mulling over her words for him as she engaged him on his duties and what things he needed to share.
"Spit it out, whatever you're not saying yet," Kor said at last.
"You know me well, old friend." She covered his free hand with her own. "I have a new soul-bond," she admitted. "And you needed to know."
Kor pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dare I ask how and whom?"
She enjoyed his moment of theatrics, before sitting back in her chair to regard him. "The ranger from the incident with Nesme."
"The drow?!" was all but snarled, with him staring at her in shock and denial both.
"Yes, Korvallen," she said evenly. "And… Kor, I am asking you to give him a chance. I won't share details, but I can tell you he has known more tragedy in a short amount of years than nearly anyone else I can name.
"He's very, very good, a favorite of Mielikki, and as soon as his duty is done to the dwarf chieftain, I mean to have him come stay, if he will, to learn more of who we might be."
"Why in all the abyss did Khalreshaar pick a drow?" Kor muttered as he wrestled his emotions down.
"Quite stubbornly over Drizzt's," and she stressed the name, "misgivings about any divine interactions."
Korvallen studied her, then sighed. "I want Kolarven to meet him. And then I'll decide how I handle him."
"That's all I can ask then."
True to her word, Alustriel had calmed the city.
Drizzt didn't come.
Eventually, she learned why, and worried, the entire time Bruenor was on his path, with that fiery spirited daughter of his, to go aid his friends.
By the time the Companions, minus Regis, were back and had cleared the Hall, she had in mind to invite him directly to her city, and was preparing a letter to send by one of her Knights —
— when word was carried to her that the drow ranger had come to her city on his own, and was taking lodging at the Rusty Blade.
"Did the informant say how the meeting at the gate went?" Alustriel asked the page, a bit nettled that she hadn't been able to make reassurances first, and that he was so close, yet so far.
"Yes, Lady. Wil said the squire was all polite and none of the guards were rude a bit," the page said.
"Thank you."
It seemed she would need a different message, and a different courier… no, a Knight would do, if Kolarven was off duty and willing.
Drizzt was still soaking in a tub in the inn's bath room, having paid for the hot water, when a half-human wood elf in a stylish shirt, a long layered skirt that swished around the ankles, practical boots, and a sword belt entered.
A pair of dangling gemstone earrings were coming off one ear, and a single stone sat on the lobe of the other ear. Drizzt had never, in all his life, seen someone that looked quite like this person.
"You have to be Drizzt Do'Urden," the person said cheerfully. "I am Kolarven, Knight in Silver, though not on duty at present. I'm glad to finally get to meet you."
Kolarven turned a bucket over beside the bath and sat on that while Drizzt tried to understand the idea of a elf-blooded person being glad to meet him.
"I could get out and dressed to make this less informal?" Drizzt managed to find the wit to say.
"And waste a good hot tub? I still see steam; no, you soak. Rangers often don't have such luxury." Kolarven smiled broadly, then hesitated. "Unless… are you bothered? I presumed, you see, that using the public bath instead of asking for one for your room — "
"No," Drizzt said, cutting in. "The idea of private baths is still an odd one for me."
Kolarven laughed at that. "Oh, so our dark kin kept that custom, at least for some? Good to learn that."
Drizzt wound up smiling in response to that glib reply. "Well, if you bathe alone, there's no witnesses if someone tries to strike, hmm?"
Kolarven winced. "Ahh, yes, practical side. No fewer than three, I bet?"
Drizzt nodded. "Five is better," he added. "And I think I am pleased, if startled, to meet you."
"Don't be. I'm just glad Alustriel asked me to be the one to come bring her message."
Drizzt blinked. First name usage for a leader didn't startle him too much; Bruenor was called by his name as often by his title, sometimes more depending on who and why it was needed. But … she already knew he was here and sent a message?
What if it was negative?
"Well, I am honored a message would find me so soon after arriving in the city." He reached for the scrubbing stick to get at his back, focusing on getting clean rather than all the doubts in his head.
"She said you are more than welcome to come with me to the palace, to choose a suite there — and on a side note, the baths in those suites are wonderful — and enjoy the use of the library there."
Oh. Drizzt's memory of joy for the books that Montolio had shared with him must have guided that offer, but still, he should be careful not to abuse such privilege.
"If I were to ask you as a person, maybe even as an elf specifically, if I should accept that offer, would you advise me?" he asked seriously. "The very last thing I wish is to cause even a perception of wrongness to the people she protects, and the allies she requires."
Kolarven rolled their eyes and then shook his head. "Nesme had to issue a full apology. The Ladyservant — she's the head of Mielikki's church here — was going to revoke every single letter of credit if they did not, for offending the Forest Queen."
Drizzt stopped scrubbing and just stared at the Knight. "Why? How? I am so confused."
Kolarven stared back. "You… alright then, let's leave it at the ways of the Named Ones being strange. But I urge you to accept, if only so I can wheedle you into showing me your blade-work. I've heard tales from those that went to aid in the Hall, and you sound like a master of swords!"
"I am good," Drizzt agreed, "but I feel I can improve. My father was faster, had more maneuvers than I have yet learned."
Kolarven grinned. "Oh, you are going to be fun to get to know! You will come?"
"Tomorrow," Drizzt said, after a moment to think. "I would prefer my dealings with the staff there start after a rest and other things."
"Then come to the Knight's wing, ask for me, and I will see to everything!" Kolarven then gave the best directions to come directly to their entrance, before taking their leave.
Drizzt looked up at the knock on his door, having just truly settled into the entirely too generous suite about mid-day. He'd gone to the Sacred Glade for vigil, then been invited to breakfast with the clerics at the cloister, been interviewed by the Ladyservant herself, and met someone who actually knew Montolio when he was young.
He rose and went to the door, expecting Kolarven —
— and opened it to find Alustriel herself, in her morning dress and robes of court. It made her only slightly less regal in appearance than the night on the road, and Drizzt realized he was holding his breath as he appreciated the radiant waves of goodness that seemed to roll off of her.
"Come in," he said as he made himself move back.
"I hope you've had a good stay so far," Alustriel said, following him to sit on the divan with him after he had closed the door. "I was going to send you an invitation to visit, was actually ready to write it, when they told me you were here."
Drizzt ducked his head. "Bruenor has more work to do that does not need me, Catti-brie is occupied with helping there, Wulfgar is settling his own people who have no love for me," he said. "I decided, given the aid you gave my friends, to risk seeing if I was allowed in yet."
Alustriel nodded at that, before tipping her head. "If, by chance, I had not managed to set matters right, what would you have done?"
"Explored," he said swiftly. "Mapped out possible dangers to the Hall. Found the differences in the lands here versus those I have traveled before."
She rested her hand on his, nodding to all of that. "I am relieved that it was resolved.
"And now I have two pieces of meddling to share with you, that I have seen dealt with since our first meeting."
He turned his hand under hers, to lay them palm to palm, and found that more electric than any contact with another speaking being he'd ever known. He did look at her face, eyebrow arching.
"The child you protected was found," Alustriel began, almost flinching for opening that raw wound. "She… needed care, for her mind. That is now being provided by the elven cleric you likely saw in my memories so often."
"Scharick?" Drizzt asked, uncertain, but trying to filter the memory of names called.
"Charic, yes," Alustriel told him. "She will see Ellifain — the girl's name — to a better way of looking at life around her. One of my sons and his consort have been helping."
He had to close his eyes, just soaking in the knowledge that the child he'd protected, that had cost him his father, lived and would be well in time.
After several moments he opened them, and inclined his head deeply. "Thank you for that. The second though?"
This got a grimace from Alustriel. "That vile abomination that is called Crenshinibon is safely locked away under the protection of the oldest, strongest wizard in the realms. I promise you that it can offer Elminster nothing he hasn't already had or decided was a waste of his time."
Drizzt snorted. "Even I have heard that name. The Wandering Wizard, Eternal Meddler, and a few other less flattering things are said around campfires on the trade roads."
Alustriel laughed softly. "I should get you to write them all down, and see if he's heard them all. It would amuse him." She squeezed his hand. "It will take more time to deal with the balor — really, Drizzt, you must learn to tell small lies!"
"I was tired!" Drizzt defended himself, but he smiled as he said it. "I have most of a century to prepare for that; don't fret over it."
"With any luck at all, Drizzt, I hope to very much be a part of your life in that time," she told him softly. "What I have seen through you tells me quite strongly that the soul magic landed correctly, that you are one that I wish to hold close in my life."
He drew in a deep breath, and nodded, not trusting his voice yet. He held tight to her hand though, and let those words settle, soothing his aching need to belong with a person and a place at a deeper level than even Icewind Dale had given him.
"All I am, Alustriel Silverhand, is in your keeping, as long as you wish me here," he finally said, decision made. She studied him gravely, then drew his hand to her lips, kissing it lightly.
"We will learn how to keep each other safe, and whole, then," she agreed.
