Legacy of the Silver Marches fic

[senmut]

Business Moving On (3737 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ensemble
Additional Tags: Background Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Ensemble Cast
Series: Part 4 of Legacy of the Silver Marches
Summary:

The family is pressing on, learning more things, and...

Blood And Duty continuation

Zanna strode briskly into the council room, Mena at her heels, Klith fluttering ahead of her. She nodded to Rae and Kastan, to Niska who was lighting up to recognize the other joining her. Terema looked up briefly, comparing the newcomer to Rae. Thilson blinked; who was this woman that looked amazingly like his father and elf-blooded uncles?

"Just to be formal, this is Mena Aerasumé who has volunteered to lend a hand here for a time." She focused on Thilson. "I am satisfied she is who she says she is, as she was also my father's apprentice and knew things of life inside the hiexel."

"Hello, Thilson."

The youngest of the Silverhand clan turned to look at the woman again… and drew in a quick breath.

"I'll be damned. I knew you as Cirea. Never realized you were the sister my father mentioned."

Indeed, Mena had shifted, looking like an old human woman. "No one ever does. I've kept eyes on the family for centuries, but rarely revealed myself to them."

"I am glad you came home," Niska said firmly. "You always have the most interesting perspectives on problems."

Mena beamed at her after becoming the half-elf with silver hair once more.

"So what are we tackling today?" Terema asked.

"Mena brought word that Everlund is definitely under the influence of old enemies," Zanna said once Klith had settled on the large table beside her for petting.

"One of the wizards currently residing there and influencing events is one I had a run in, under a different life, a few decades before the last push of the wars," Mena said. "He's allied with two others that I believe to be connected to the Cult of the Dragon."

"Bad news," Kastan said. "So what is the plan?"

"We renew the Harpers, bring them back under our sway here," Zanna said. "Rae, you have the longest contacts with them, on both sides of the divide Storm and Blackstaff created.

"I want them doing their work in our region again."

Rae rubbed his chin, before nodding. "I'll see who I can scare up, and get the momentum building. Darvis is still around; I'll check with him to see who the quiet ones we need are, and the ones that will make the loud fuss to cover their tracks."

"Good idea," Kastan said, though slightly surprised the bard hadn't yet angered the wrong wizard.

"Once we have some eyes and ears, we'll move forward on that front," Zanna said. "Thilson, please make time to study more magic. I know you're handling the fighters, but we need every combat mage we can train up. It takes a lot of endurance these days to cast on the fly."

"Yes, I know. I'll take that under advisement and make time with Niska's teachers," Thilson agreed.

"Kastan, I have a pile of cursed artifacts. I would like it if you would take them out of the city and then reach out to our aunt to deal with them?"

"Anything she's going to want to keep?" he asked warily.

"No, but they should be suitable offerings for her to give."

"Good; she doesn't need more things to experiment with."

"And me?" Terema asked.

"Watchers. I need some of your marvelous creatures with eyes and ears to place around the grounds of the Vault of the Sages," Zanna told her best friend. "We're hearing reports through Klith that the magic barriers there are sometimes showing apparitions. If we can determine the pattern, we may have a clue to breaking them and letting the Vault return."

"I am looking forward to learning how to enchant them," Mena told the gnome, getting a smile.

"Oh it's fun alright," Niska said. "Anything else, Zanna?"

"I think that's plenty, on top of all we already have in motion," the Lady of the City said, ending the meeting by rising to go to her other duties.

"Is she always so… quick at everything?" Mena asked once she was gone.

Everyone, even Thilson, answered. "Yes!"

---

Vierna was pleased at her timing, as she appeared near her nephew well after dark.

"Aunt," Kastan said, not showing disappointment that she was alone. He would have liked to see Grandfather, but understood the man stayed busy.

"Hello, Kastan. Spread your bedroll out, and let us share a meal?"

"News, then?" Kastan asked, lighting up. He'd expected to the hand off and then have her leave.

"Yes."

He put his bedroll down, and she took one end as he took the other. In minutes, she had prayed a simple meal into place for them to share, one made up of foods common to the Underdark. Kastan had to admit this was the better part of knowing his dangerous aunt.

"Vhaeraun is not pleased with one of His allies making moves to keep the north destabilized," Vierna said. "It makes attaining His own goals more difficult."

Kastan refused to make comment on that, and knew that the Masked God was tempered by the Dark Maiden. Whatever further return to the surface happened was not going to be full out assaults.

"The one who Silverymoon's usurper followed has been warned that He will not continue to aid Her in taming the shadow-weave without concessions."

"So it's not fully back under control," Kastan said, just to be certain.

"Not anymore than the regular weave is. It takes strong wizards to find the new patterns." Vierna looked at him in amusement. "Or those who completely tie it to specific rituals."

He chuckled. "It's true. Rae and I managed to rework most of our specific blade-singing spells quickly. Zanna thinks it is because we lay a grid, of sorts, for the weave to rest on, much as the items she and Terema craft.

"It may be that the way it shifted this time is harmful enough to the caster that Mystra-minster," and he grinned for the family name they'd given the confluence of a Mystra that had absorbed the ancient wizard, "decided some distance was needed between the spell and the maker."

"Possible." Vierna shrugged. "That brings it much closer to the way I request spell by prayer for the items I craft, anyway."

"True." Kastan pulled the bag of cursed things off the outside of his pack and set it closer to her. "Zanna hopes these can be useful offerings."

Vierna's eyes glinted. "I look forward to finding out." She then gave Kastan a fond look. "Your father sends his love. One of my imps found him after news came of the triumph for our family in Silverymoon.

"He and his woman are 'spelljamming', whatever that is."

"Stars, moons, and abysses, that's… wow." Kastan shook his head. "There's a plane where people use magic up in space, and … not my idea of fun."

Vierna wrinkled her nose. "I think I agree."

---

Rae made no pretense at hiding his approach to the simple house in Port Llast, and his elven blood helped him hear the scurrying in the place. Fortunately, he had prepared for that response.

"What, aww — " and a thud indicated his backup had managed a good bolo throw.

"I hope you didn't concuss him, Trystan," Rae called as he came around the house to where the halfling was proudly watching the former Harper try to scoot away like an earthworm.

"No no no," the man protested when Rae crouched right in front of the undignified escape attempt. "Not you. I'm retired, for real; I am not getting involved again!"

"Relax, bard. I just need your brain, not your former skills."

"Umm, no brain. Bad run in with a mind-flayer."

"What are you doing with him?" came a still-strong voice from the back door.

"Nothing he will regret, or you'll need to chase me for, Lady Holga."

"You damned Tall Ones with the flattery," Holga called before going back in the house.

"Holga, wait, come rescue me!"

"Edgin. Shut up for a minute, would ya?" Rae suggested. "Trystan and I just want to pick your brains for who is still alive, their skills, and if they can help."

"Help who?" Edgin asked.

"The realms. Zanna Silverhand took Silverymoon back, and is set on fixing things for the Silver Marches."

"Heard that, didn't care, still retired."

Rae pinched the bridge of his nose, and then flicked his hand at the bola for Trystan to remove it. It was going to be a long day.

---

Niska settled back as the spell went off without a single hitch.

"I thought you said you hadn't been practicing magic much since the last battles?"

"I haven't been," Thilson said. "Just the quiet ones, that take finesse, like the wire spell."

Niska smiled. "Your grandmother invented that variation, by the way. I didn't know Tar had learned it already."

Thilson came and sat beside her. "Tell me about him? He was … mother didn't really want the risk. But he still visited when he could, and then after I showed him the cantrips I'd learned, he visited more. Only… the wars were starting up by then, and that magic illness, and so much."

"Tarthilmor was in love with living life fully," Niska began. "He was in and out of the city, so I did know him a bit. He was apt to breaking off from his brothers — Nae and Rae — because he was more oriented on doing than learning.

"Dragons, as you see in his art along that spellbook, were his passion. He would learn all he could, go befriend the ones he could, and try to reason with the others. Sometimes, he succeeded. Sometimes he called for his brothers to come help him end them.

"He was fond of people. In that, he and Kolarven — that would be your cousin of a sort — were well-matched and good friends. But for all Tar was bright and usually happy, he did have a short temper, set off easily by any injustice he saw." Niska smiled a little at that. "He was forever being barred from cities for temporary bans."

"He told me that. Told me to work hard to keep it in check, because like him, I had more power in such situations," Thilson said. "He was very kind to mother. To me. Said he met her because a lordling insulted her, and he stood up for her.

"Also said he hadn't been careful, but he never regretted me existing, only that she felt the need to keep me hidden from my birthright."

"Your mother was Calimshite?" Niska asked.

"Yes." Thilson held his hands out. "Shows way more than dad, other than my height."

"Indeed. It had to have been hard for her, living more in the north, raising a boy that stood out no matter, for being darker than most."

Thilson nodded. "We were comfortable, but yes. The knife tricks were partly to have a skill for hire, and partly to make it clear mom and I were not to be trifled with."

"I understand that." Niska reached over and gave him a sideways hug. "I am glad to get to sharpen all your other skills, as your blade work is easily as good as Alustriel's was."

Thilson's eyebrows rose, but he'd chase that later. For now, he was honing his magic.

---

It wasn't that Kastan couldn't fight when alone. Far from it; he had come close to rivaling his father and grandfather with his skill.

It was more that he was accustomed to having Rae there, to amplify the magic of their sword work and to have his back protected.

He followed his grandfather's rules of fighting — kill the cleric or wizard first. His father had followed that rule, and it had let him win many fights where he was outnumbered. Kastan focused on it now, bringing forth the displacement spell first, so he did not appear to be where he actually was.

He moved, fleet of foot and grounded in all that made him a Blade-Singer, to become the fight, letting nothing break the concentration of his spellwork. Not for the first time, he was glad that Rae had encouraged him to walk this path; the weave still answered his needs without the crippling effects he'd seen in his sister when she was forced to combat without preparation.

Without knowing how long it had taken him, he soon was the master of the battlefield, with one wizard and four fighter down. The wizard was decapitated, so, with a little disgust, he put that grisly trophy in the spare bag of holding he kept attached to the outside of his haversack. He added the jewelry he could easily remove, fixed all the other details into place, and then set out for Silverymoon at a quicker pace.

The assailants would have to endure a carrion's burial, when he knew he was pushing his endurance as it was.

---

Thilson came in last for the council, but his aunt didn't seem perturbed. He settled in his seat, and then Kastan stood, once all of the wards were in place.

"Sorry for the vile," Kastan apologized before pulling a decapitated head out of the bag of holding. "Anyone know this iblith?"

Thilson let out a curse of his own. "Yeah, that son of two donkeys was with Maisra Nayanti the first time I nearly had my revenge," he growled. "Name is Snell Mronsk. He's got ties to Thay from what I did learn."

"Well done, brother," Zanna said. "So you were being targeted," she added, considering.

"I don't like that," Rae muttered.

"We won't split again, until we get to the bottom of this," Kastan promised him.

"Uncles," Thilson said slowly. "He could have obliterated you from a distance. Are you sure he wasn't trying for capture?"

After a long moment, Kastan drew his hand up to his face, and sighed. "So I'm an idiot."

"No, just overworked," Terema said helpfully.

"Why, though?" Rae wanted to know.

"Because Zanna and Kastan are not affected by the Silverhand curse, despite being heirs of the family," Niska said. "It makes the most sense that they would like to cripple the Do'Urden side of the line."

"Could just kill us and be done with it; neither of us have children," Kastan said. "Or…"

Zanna tipped her chin up. "Not yet," she said firmly. "But they likely suspect Papa is still alive. And if they can work the blood magic, it would lash through Aunt — another Chosen — and grandfather — a Champion."

"Hellfire, Aunt even said the Masked God is more or less pissed at the other shadow deities," Kastan said, shaking his head. "My brain is not keeping up with everything, family."

"Did you take any items from this unlamented wizard?" Mena asked, before she flicked a hand at the head, turning it into a bust. The others half-smiled for that trick, before Kastan brought out the jewelry.

"These?"

Mena came and used an enchanted jeweler's glass on them before sighing. "You've been affected by mind-spells I think."

"I'm not as sensitive to quiescent magic," Kastan admitted ruefully.

"I'll see if any of them can be turned back against the makers," Mena told them, sweeping them all into a box she produced.

"Thay is involved," Zanna said with a quiet contemplation. "I would have thought the effort in Neverwinter — Rae! Did you have an success?"

"A list, and I am expecting Kira to show up soon. After Holga let me do as necessary with Edgin, she threatened me with slow dismembering and letting me watch my own extremities roast on a fire if Kira came to harm." Rae grinned. "I'm sure Kira will prove difficult to keep from jumping headfirst into danger.

"At least if we heard how the Red Wizard was defeated correctly."

They all had a small laugh at that.

"Keep us updated," Zanna said, before turning to other business.

---

Zanna paced the full perimeter of the Vault of the Sage's land. The barriers that had been replaced were full of warning signs in the various languages of Silverymoon, and had become something of a memorial for the city's families. The rails of the barriers were festooned with small mementos, art and carvings in the wood, depicting the losses and struggles of the city since Taern's and Methri's rules.

She had listened to every single one of the volunteers that had provided physical eyes on the perimeter, and all of those that had worked with Terema's clockwork watchers. She wanted to see for herself, as well as taste the magic in the air during the apparitions' appearance.

Klith idly glided above her, staying clear of the airspace beyond the barriers. No one knew how high up the danger extended, and he was not about to be stupid when his wizard needed him so fully. He felt her anticipation, and a request to get to a point antipodal to her on the perimeter. He pushed himself to greater speed, and soon was right where she wished him to be, sitting on a spire of a church that had yet to be reclaimed.

Just at the time the apparitions were thought to begin, Zanna felt a slight change in the weave and devoted her mind to deciphering it. Her eyes stayed locked on the area, just as Klith's were, but she was using all of her training under some of the best and most innovative wizards to determine the strands of the weave involved in this.

For most of a minute, her eyes and Klith's made out ghostly impressions of people, moving infinitesimally, wizards and warriors caught in a battle that had yet to end —

— and the clarity of knowing which strands to sever came through sharply. The apparitions faded away, and Zanna smiled as she began her walk back to the Palace, the staff in her hand all the protection she needed at present. Klith came gliding to her, and she pulled her braids around the other shoulder from his preferred perch, never complaining about his weight.

Between them, and the other defenders of the city, they could bring the Vault back.

---

Zanna, Mena, Niska, and Rae all studied the apparition time carefully. They brought their studies of the magic together, and developed a plan of attack, according to Zanna's own impressions of how the mythal was interacting with the spell.

With their plan solidified, and the counterspell ready, they had Thilson and Kastan deploy both the Silver Watch and the Knights in Silver along the perimeter, before inviting every cleric in the city to join them.

"When the apparitions appear," Zanna began, her voice carrying thanks to a bard's spell, "we will undo the magic. At that point, the battle that was raging when the Vault vanished will be visible to all of us.

"Try, my people, to subdue, not kill. There's been too much killing. But. If they resist, do as you must to get the Vault secure! Clerics, there will be injured and dying; follow your deities to the worst in need as the fighters clear the way."

"We hear, Lady Silverhand, and we aid," Tathliana, the newly appointed Ladyservant, said for them all.

The groups moved to their assigned places, and using a countdown device provided by Terema, the counterspell was thrown in the moment the apparitions first were visible. All four wizards put their full might into it, and for a moment —

— all was visible, the battle resumed —

— reality wavered, and Zanna cried out to the mythal that its protection was causing suffering, not aid.

Reality, and time, stabilized, and the forces of the restored Silverymoon rushed in to lend aid to the beleaguered ones of the past, still fighting the war that had broken the city.

---

For all the magic had taken from him, Rae was already rushing into the fray, sword out, weaving his song of defense as he moved. His brother, one of his born-together brothers!, needed him. Nor was it hard to see Nae, as the silver-hair and height marked him in the chaos.

The enemies were turning recognizing they were over-matched, that Silverymoon had saved her defenders at long last. That made it even easier for him to get to Nae's side, and when the fight eased, to hand him a potion.

Once the fighting had ceased, Rae didn't care at all for anything but wrapping his arms around his brother, holding on to him with all he was.

"I missed you."

"I… think there's a bit of time missing for me," Nae said, but he held on, just as tight, especially when Rae's tears trickled down his neck.

---

"So you two — "

"Still very much us," Kastan answered, sprawled in the chair as Rae was not yet letting go of the brother he'd gotten back.

"And baby sister went and got political," Nae continued.

"Hmm, 'cousin' Dagnabbet and Aunt Laeral had to prod her a little, but I think she'd always been working her way back to this," Rae said.

"Mena is the sister from Mom," Nae said, "who shape-changes, so I have met her more than at dad's send off, but I didn't know it."

"Yeah. Our nephew knew her by a completely different name," Kastan said. "Apparently keeps track of the family that way."

"Yeah, nephew… never actually expected to meet him."

Rae chuckled. "We'll tell you how we did on another day. But right now, he's supposed to be catching up on spells, when he's not helping us with the Watch and the Knights."

Nae stretched his arms out and cracked all his fingers and wrists to ease them. "Mom and Drizzt are off-plane, Laeral's a Hidden Lord along the coast, Simbul's who knows where, Ysolde and Azalar and Del are handling Cormyr and the area.

"And we still can't use sendings, but things might be getting more stable?"

"That sums it up," Rae and Kastan said in unison, grinning across a each other even as Nae rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you two are still you." Nae sighed. "Guess I'll be jumping into the deep water wherever baby sister needs me."

"Here." Rae said it instantly. "Sorry, I just… I can't."

Nae leaned into him. "Yeah, I'll be here. Even if I have to throw things at the two of you when you decide to be one mind in two bodies," he teased.

"We're not that bad."

They all laughed, a needed reprieve, for that echoed comment, settling to the respite from trying to set the world to rights.