![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Sisters in Spirit Part III
Jul. 12th, 2023 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senmutMoonstruck (2,230 words) by senmut
Fandom: Forgotten Realms/Legend of Drizzt
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Philomena (Canon-Inspired OC), Ellifain Tuusarail, Inthylyn Aerasumé, Ensemble Cast
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Female Friendship, Background Relationships, Aftermath of violence
Series: Part 3 of Sisters in Spirit
Summary:
1250s D.R.
After having seen his healer prove to be a complete master of dual-wielding swords, Thyl made up his mind that it was time to find her. He had noted the ring, knew she was not a moon elf. That made it harder, but he tried to think like Mena, to figure things out. He had some things to get out of the way, promises to keep, but eventually he had a clear enough time to set out on his quest.
They'd been in the Frost Hills when he and Lin had gotten so badly hurt. Mena's immediate reactions were always based on proximity. Given that the Glade had a teleport location open to allies of Silverymoon, he was leaning toward the idea that the healer had to be in the Frost Hills themselves.
Was she an Orc? That would make sense. A generally evil race trying to have a peaceful community, and orcs could be very intelligent. The skill with the swords wasn't even that odd, but the speed was.
That only whetted Thyl's curiosity further, so he convinced his pegasus friend they'd spend the autumn flying over the hills for a bit, and see if he could find the hidden community.
Lin was spending the autumn and winter with Aunt Laeral, adventuring with her party in the southern part of the Sword Coast, so he wasn't leaving his twin in the lurch.
Thyl headed for the abandoned dwarf town, and paid close attention to the surroundings as they landed there, getting a good view of the countryside. The peaks, Four through One, staggered out in a northeast line from where he was.
Mindful of this being goblin and orc country, they set out to overfly each peak, looking for hidden valleys and clefts that might obscure a settlement, going at a slow glide most of the time.
Micken came inside the work cavern, where various drow, dwarves, and goblins were gearing up for the winter's crafting session. Vierna was patiently showing one of the goblins, who had lost his leg below the knee, how to knit.
"First Sister, there's a flying horse coming up on our area," he reported. "We've got the goat-herds up in the high field, trying tae bring the stubborn critters down tae the winter pasture."
"A pegasus," Vierna said absently. "I'll be back, Wick," she told her student, as she stood, and the goblin bobbed his head, knowing she had to go see for herself.
She made sure she looked presentable, an unconscious vanity when she was fairly certain it would be one of the Aerasumé men. She wanted to keep their perception of Mena's chosen allies high, after all.
It did not take her long to reach the protected promontory point that allowed them to watch the region without standing out terribly. The wizards she had managed to keep with her had done an outstanding job on the permanent illusion to hide it.
The scout with lookout duty for the day smiled. "Definitely seeking something, the way the pegasus is gliding and making sweeping turns every so often," he told her.
"A pegasus will not tolerate evil near them," Vierna said. "And their sense for it is true, so it will not be a threat. The rider, on the other hand… well. It is very likely to be one of Mena's family."
"Thought I remembered her speaking of her brothers being riders," the scout answered that. "Tall and silver-haired, blunt ears and eyes," he reminded himself.
Vierna nodded. "Micken says our herders are out?"
"Rafi already dispatched a hand of fighters and one wizard to go be protection, if the rider spots them and means harm."
"Do any of you even need me for guidance?" Vierna teased lightly.
"Always, First Sister!"
The fervent avowal made her sigh softly, then reach out and squeeze his shoulder lightly, before starting on the path to the high fields.
Thyl felt the reaction in his keen-sighted friend, the ripple of the hide as people were spotted and discerned. The confusion that came into the nicker was almost amusing, but Thyl calmed her down.
"Easy, Thorntail. We're seeking good people that might not look like ones we're used to being good."
That settled the mare, and she banked to begin a closer approach, ignoring the four-legged alpine goats as thoroughly as they would ignore her.
The people, however, Thyl eventually could see were very much not on the good folk of the realms list! He was pretty sure that was a goblin that was moving after a goat-kid, and the other two were drow!
Drow? Really? That certainly explained both the ambidexterity and speed, as few could match any elf for quickness. Drow often used a two-handed style, though not usually with matched long swords.
In the span of their approach and his startled wonder, the trio had… hmm, hidden against the rock face maybe? Well, that just added to the idea they were good, and he signaled Thorntail to descend.
"Hello, I come in peace!"
The cloaks of the goat-herds must be quite cunning, as he was having little luck discerning where the trio had hidden, and no one answered his hail.
One goat, a billy with an impressive set of spiraling horns, investigated him, but went back to finding food the moment Thorntail touched down.
He had not imagined them. Thorntail had seen them. He dismounted, loving on her a bit, and surreptitiously looked around —
— and there was a cleric, robes woven with swords and the moon in many phases that was just stepping past the last of the trees on a rugged path leading down.
"I suppose you did find us, Thyl Aerasumé. I suppose the question is, how do you feel about what you have found?"
That was his healer's voice, and she stood, supposedly unarmed, without fear or hesitation in full view.
"I feel that I have many questions, such as how do I help your people the way my sister does, and if you have contact with the bands along the Sword Coast, and can I visit for a time?"
He was pleased by the warm smile she gave him, before beckoning.
"Come… unless you want to help persuade goats that they need to come to our winter field and cavern?"
"Not my skill, but I think Thorntail will gladly help spot any stragglers for your people. Let me make the introductions and get her straps off."
"That would be welcome."
1327 D.R.
Eilistraee had refocused on claiming the hearts of those moon elves she could pull on in the region closest to her dedicated priestess in the north. There was nothing She could truly do when the ritual was disrupted by vicious violence, but the immediate call for help to Her priestess, with the spell of a moon-bridge freshly given, was not an unusual thing between goddess and follower.
Vierna grasped the spell, calling for her warriors to join her... including sturdy Dhaeln who often went as a voice of reason against drow prejudice.
The battle site was so new that bodies were still cooling, and Rafi immediately wanted to give pursuit upon seeing the slaughter that had happened.
"No, we must see if we can save any of them!" Vierna said firmly, moving into the carnage, her very soul weeping for what this had to mean. The cuts were made with sharper edges than the local troubles carried, the cruelty on display in how the blows landed making it clear.
"Drow?" Dhaeln asked, her gorge rising at the sight before her.
"I fear so, Lolthite, most likely, as Vhaeraun's people tend to raid on non-elves," Vierna told her friend, one of the other leaders within their mountain home.
A flicker of motion drew everyone's attention, and then Vierna was in motion to it, Dhaeln on her heels.
A child, covered in blood, lying upon a brutally carved woman's body, was alive!
Before the child could panic, and make the injuries worse, Vierna drew a sleep spell up and used it, with the will of her goddess behind her. Then, she gently lifted the child to move her to a clear area, so she could find the injuries and heal her. The others continued their search, hoping for more survivors.
Vierna frowned, then used the waterskin she had to start cleaning off the blood that marked the child... and her confusion only grew.
"First Sister? There are no more. May I take the others to search for the attackers' way here?" Rafi asked, intruding briefly.
"Cautiously. Find it, and we will bring a wizard back to put alarms on it," Vierna said. "Dhaeln will remain with me."
"As you wish," Rafi answered, before organizing the rest to help him.
Dhaeln came, saw the effort to get the child cleaned, and added her own waterskin, working carefully to not hurt the child worse... only to gasp as every spot she cleaned revealed unbroken skin.
"A bruise, a small abrasion near her temple," Vierna said softly. "But then coated in blood... from the woman, maybe? This child was stunned and camouflaged."
"But... the ferocity of the wounds on the bodies all around her?" Dhaeln protested.
"I think, my Lady, or possibly Her Brother, have a new follower," Vierna said softly. "I hope he survives having chosen this, if so, for showing quick wits and compassion."
"You're certain it will be a man?"
"Lolthite society is strictly segregated. While women learn to fight, and common women might be soldiers, they would never, ever be sent above for a raid." Vierna rose with the child to move further from the carnage. "We'll wait for the others, then go home. It will take time, especially given who did this to her people, but she will be safe with us.
"Since none have descended to give aid."
"You'll put her with us, at first, and we'll work with her," Dhaeln told Vierna. "She'll thrive, in time, under the love of our peoples."
Vierna looked at the girl, and could not help the tears. "Poor child." She wasn't certain how much of that was for the one she held, or the likely very young fighter who had made an impossible choice.
1340 D.R.
Thyl and Mena both watched Ellifain playing a game with the three drow youths and one young goblin. She looked peaceful, as Vierna had done many intensive prayer sessions to recede the tragedy into distant memory, while carefully explaining why they believed she had been saved on purpose.
Vierna had never expected to be a mother, but neither sibling watching the bloom of the child could deny she'd made a good one.
"You both could not have come to just see me or Elli," Vierna said, sitting beside them on the bench overlooking the play area. "One or the other, yes, but both together? Hardly likely."
Thyl put an arm around her shoulders, and was pleased when she pressed into that casual embrace. "Rumor has it that a drow is haunting the realms, along the trade roads, but none of us have laid eyes on him."
"Except Aunt Dove," Mena said, "and she was prevented from getting to him in time to meet him. But she is convinced he is one of your people, not evil."
"Where?"
"Aunt Dove encountered him near Maldobar. She said he fetched up with a ranger near Dead Orc Pass, but he's not there," Thyl said. "A bit far from Spirit Sanctuary or the new place Aunt Qi is carving out on the Sword Coast."
Vierna frowned. "We do have bands all in the various forests between us, but… not that region."
"When Aunt Dove passed on her tale, it was with the thought that Eilistraee would guide someone that way, but as of yet, Aunt Qi said no one has reported finding him," Mena said. "And the last new people I've seen here are the ones from your people going to rescue from the trade town in the Underdark."
"Yes, they are our most recent ones, though many of them decided to head for a different city, not sharing our faith." Vierna never tried to convert, but she had hoped for more of the men to choose to follow them into something better.
"We'll keep our eyes out, Vierna," Thyl promised. "But this new drow? He saved the lives of my aunt's group. After making it through a giants' ambush without being seen, he turned back and came to help them, despite they'd been chasing him to find out the reason for his presence."
Vierna muttered in her birth language about disturbing people trying to live in peace, and Mena giggled.
"She needed to see if he'd guide them to where he emerged, be sure he wasn't a scout for a larger party," Mena chided. "But she was convinced enough of his goodliness to write the ranger a full account of why she had been involved, and what had happened.
"So the family will do what they can."
"Alright." Vierna leaned more on Thyl, glad to have such allies, such friends, and she took Mena's hand to squeeze it in gratitude. This drow would eventually be found, by the roving bands, or the Tall Ones, and all would be well.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX
* Links will work as parts are revealed
senmutFandom: Forgotten Realms/Legend of Drizzt
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Philomena (Canon-Inspired OC), Ellifain Tuusarail, Inthylyn Aerasumé, Ensemble Cast
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Female Friendship, Background Relationships, Aftermath of violence
Series: Part 3 of Sisters in Spirit
Summary:
A closer tie with one, a daughter rescued?
Moonstruck
1250s D.R.
After having seen his healer prove to be a complete master of dual-wielding swords, Thyl made up his mind that it was time to find her. He had noted the ring, knew she was not a moon elf. That made it harder, but he tried to think like Mena, to figure things out. He had some things to get out of the way, promises to keep, but eventually he had a clear enough time to set out on his quest.
They'd been in the Frost Hills when he and Lin had gotten so badly hurt. Mena's immediate reactions were always based on proximity. Given that the Glade had a teleport location open to allies of Silverymoon, he was leaning toward the idea that the healer had to be in the Frost Hills themselves.
Was she an Orc? That would make sense. A generally evil race trying to have a peaceful community, and orcs could be very intelligent. The skill with the swords wasn't even that odd, but the speed was.
That only whetted Thyl's curiosity further, so he convinced his pegasus friend they'd spend the autumn flying over the hills for a bit, and see if he could find the hidden community.
Lin was spending the autumn and winter with Aunt Laeral, adventuring with her party in the southern part of the Sword Coast, so he wasn't leaving his twin in the lurch.
Thyl headed for the abandoned dwarf town, and paid close attention to the surroundings as they landed there, getting a good view of the countryside. The peaks, Four through One, staggered out in a northeast line from where he was.
Mindful of this being goblin and orc country, they set out to overfly each peak, looking for hidden valleys and clefts that might obscure a settlement, going at a slow glide most of the time.
Micken came inside the work cavern, where various drow, dwarves, and goblins were gearing up for the winter's crafting session. Vierna was patiently showing one of the goblins, who had lost his leg below the knee, how to knit.
"First Sister, there's a flying horse coming up on our area," he reported. "We've got the goat-herds up in the high field, trying tae bring the stubborn critters down tae the winter pasture."
"A pegasus," Vierna said absently. "I'll be back, Wick," she told her student, as she stood, and the goblin bobbed his head, knowing she had to go see for herself.
She made sure she looked presentable, an unconscious vanity when she was fairly certain it would be one of the Aerasumé men. She wanted to keep their perception of Mena's chosen allies high, after all.
It did not take her long to reach the protected promontory point that allowed them to watch the region without standing out terribly. The wizards she had managed to keep with her had done an outstanding job on the permanent illusion to hide it.
The scout with lookout duty for the day smiled. "Definitely seeking something, the way the pegasus is gliding and making sweeping turns every so often," he told her.
"A pegasus will not tolerate evil near them," Vierna said. "And their sense for it is true, so it will not be a threat. The rider, on the other hand… well. It is very likely to be one of Mena's family."
"Thought I remembered her speaking of her brothers being riders," the scout answered that. "Tall and silver-haired, blunt ears and eyes," he reminded himself.
Vierna nodded. "Micken says our herders are out?"
"Rafi already dispatched a hand of fighters and one wizard to go be protection, if the rider spots them and means harm."
"Do any of you even need me for guidance?" Vierna teased lightly.
"Always, First Sister!"
The fervent avowal made her sigh softly, then reach out and squeeze his shoulder lightly, before starting on the path to the high fields.
Thyl felt the reaction in his keen-sighted friend, the ripple of the hide as people were spotted and discerned. The confusion that came into the nicker was almost amusing, but Thyl calmed her down.
"Easy, Thorntail. We're seeking good people that might not look like ones we're used to being good."
That settled the mare, and she banked to begin a closer approach, ignoring the four-legged alpine goats as thoroughly as they would ignore her.
The people, however, Thyl eventually could see were very much not on the good folk of the realms list! He was pretty sure that was a goblin that was moving after a goat-kid, and the other two were drow!
Drow? Really? That certainly explained both the ambidexterity and speed, as few could match any elf for quickness. Drow often used a two-handed style, though not usually with matched long swords.
In the span of their approach and his startled wonder, the trio had… hmm, hidden against the rock face maybe? Well, that just added to the idea they were good, and he signaled Thorntail to descend.
"Hello, I come in peace!"
The cloaks of the goat-herds must be quite cunning, as he was having little luck discerning where the trio had hidden, and no one answered his hail.
One goat, a billy with an impressive set of spiraling horns, investigated him, but went back to finding food the moment Thorntail touched down.
He had not imagined them. Thorntail had seen them. He dismounted, loving on her a bit, and surreptitiously looked around —
— and there was a cleric, robes woven with swords and the moon in many phases that was just stepping past the last of the trees on a rugged path leading down.
"I suppose you did find us, Thyl Aerasumé. I suppose the question is, how do you feel about what you have found?"
That was his healer's voice, and she stood, supposedly unarmed, without fear or hesitation in full view.
"I feel that I have many questions, such as how do I help your people the way my sister does, and if you have contact with the bands along the Sword Coast, and can I visit for a time?"
He was pleased by the warm smile she gave him, before beckoning.
"Come… unless you want to help persuade goats that they need to come to our winter field and cavern?"
"Not my skill, but I think Thorntail will gladly help spot any stragglers for your people. Let me make the introductions and get her straps off."
"That would be welcome."
1327 D.R.
Eilistraee had refocused on claiming the hearts of those moon elves she could pull on in the region closest to her dedicated priestess in the north. There was nothing She could truly do when the ritual was disrupted by vicious violence, but the immediate call for help to Her priestess, with the spell of a moon-bridge freshly given, was not an unusual thing between goddess and follower.
Vierna grasped the spell, calling for her warriors to join her... including sturdy Dhaeln who often went as a voice of reason against drow prejudice.
The battle site was so new that bodies were still cooling, and Rafi immediately wanted to give pursuit upon seeing the slaughter that had happened.
"No, we must see if we can save any of them!" Vierna said firmly, moving into the carnage, her very soul weeping for what this had to mean. The cuts were made with sharper edges than the local troubles carried, the cruelty on display in how the blows landed making it clear.
"Drow?" Dhaeln asked, her gorge rising at the sight before her.
"I fear so, Lolthite, most likely, as Vhaeraun's people tend to raid on non-elves," Vierna told her friend, one of the other leaders within their mountain home.
A flicker of motion drew everyone's attention, and then Vierna was in motion to it, Dhaeln on her heels.
A child, covered in blood, lying upon a brutally carved woman's body, was alive!
Before the child could panic, and make the injuries worse, Vierna drew a sleep spell up and used it, with the will of her goddess behind her. Then, she gently lifted the child to move her to a clear area, so she could find the injuries and heal her. The others continued their search, hoping for more survivors.
Vierna frowned, then used the waterskin she had to start cleaning off the blood that marked the child... and her confusion only grew.
"First Sister? There are no more. May I take the others to search for the attackers' way here?" Rafi asked, intruding briefly.
"Cautiously. Find it, and we will bring a wizard back to put alarms on it," Vierna said. "Dhaeln will remain with me."
"As you wish," Rafi answered, before organizing the rest to help him.
Dhaeln came, saw the effort to get the child cleaned, and added her own waterskin, working carefully to not hurt the child worse... only to gasp as every spot she cleaned revealed unbroken skin.
"A bruise, a small abrasion near her temple," Vierna said softly. "But then coated in blood... from the woman, maybe? This child was stunned and camouflaged."
"But... the ferocity of the wounds on the bodies all around her?" Dhaeln protested.
"I think, my Lady, or possibly Her Brother, have a new follower," Vierna said softly. "I hope he survives having chosen this, if so, for showing quick wits and compassion."
"You're certain it will be a man?"
"Lolthite society is strictly segregated. While women learn to fight, and common women might be soldiers, they would never, ever be sent above for a raid." Vierna rose with the child to move further from the carnage. "We'll wait for the others, then go home. It will take time, especially given who did this to her people, but she will be safe with us.
"Since none have descended to give aid."
"You'll put her with us, at first, and we'll work with her," Dhaeln told Vierna. "She'll thrive, in time, under the love of our peoples."
Vierna looked at the girl, and could not help the tears. "Poor child." She wasn't certain how much of that was for the one she held, or the likely very young fighter who had made an impossible choice.
1340 D.R.
Thyl and Mena both watched Ellifain playing a game with the three drow youths and one young goblin. She looked peaceful, as Vierna had done many intensive prayer sessions to recede the tragedy into distant memory, while carefully explaining why they believed she had been saved on purpose.
Vierna had never expected to be a mother, but neither sibling watching the bloom of the child could deny she'd made a good one.
"You both could not have come to just see me or Elli," Vierna said, sitting beside them on the bench overlooking the play area. "One or the other, yes, but both together? Hardly likely."
Thyl put an arm around her shoulders, and was pleased when she pressed into that casual embrace. "Rumor has it that a drow is haunting the realms, along the trade roads, but none of us have laid eyes on him."
"Except Aunt Dove," Mena said, "and she was prevented from getting to him in time to meet him. But she is convinced he is one of your people, not evil."
"Where?"
"Aunt Dove encountered him near Maldobar. She said he fetched up with a ranger near Dead Orc Pass, but he's not there," Thyl said. "A bit far from Spirit Sanctuary or the new place Aunt Qi is carving out on the Sword Coast."
Vierna frowned. "We do have bands all in the various forests between us, but… not that region."
"When Aunt Dove passed on her tale, it was with the thought that Eilistraee would guide someone that way, but as of yet, Aunt Qi said no one has reported finding him," Mena said. "And the last new people I've seen here are the ones from your people going to rescue from the trade town in the Underdark."
"Yes, they are our most recent ones, though many of them decided to head for a different city, not sharing our faith." Vierna never tried to convert, but she had hoped for more of the men to choose to follow them into something better.
"We'll keep our eyes out, Vierna," Thyl promised. "But this new drow? He saved the lives of my aunt's group. After making it through a giants' ambush without being seen, he turned back and came to help them, despite they'd been chasing him to find out the reason for his presence."
Vierna muttered in her birth language about disturbing people trying to live in peace, and Mena giggled.
"She needed to see if he'd guide them to where he emerged, be sure he wasn't a scout for a larger party," Mena chided. "But she was convinced enough of his goodliness to write the ranger a full account of why she had been involved, and what had happened.
"So the family will do what they can."
"Alright." Vierna leaned more on Thyl, glad to have such allies, such friends, and she took Mena's hand to squeeze it in gratitude. This drow would eventually be found, by the roving bands, or the Tall Ones, and all would be well.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX
* Links will work as parts are revealed
