tales_of_faerun | Entries tagged with character: vierna do'urden

The Do'Urdens (750 words) by

senmut
Chapters: 1/1
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Canon-typical child abuse
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Dinin Do'Urden, Maya Do'Urden
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Character study, Introspection, Canon Divergence
Summary:

Scens of various Do'Urdens

The Do'Urdens

'You should join me.'

Zaknafein has to look away from the hands signing those words. He doesn't know how to tell this man the depths of why he can't.

Jarlaxle has made a life that keeps him moderately comfortable, but Zak can't walk away.

So he offers a different take on it.

'If the House falls, then I will.'

He sees the resignation on his friend's face, feels it in how Jarlaxle shifts them on the bed.

'You tempt me to find reason to make Baenre wish that,' Jarlaxle taps out in code on Zak's arm, before ending all words.

The boy with lavender eyes being put under her control was but one point of seething anger for Vierna. The other was knowing how much of a test this was, because the Matron Malice wondered at her loyalty. She pushed the boy as hard as she dared, harder perhaps than any previous boy in their family for that reason.

It remained, though, that the boy was strong, intelligent, and able to meet nearly any challenge, just as she did. Zaknafien's blood gave them both the advantage.

Perhaps, one day, this male would be useful to her.

For now, she pushed.

"What are you doing? I didn't tell you that you could sleep yet!"

Drizzt managed, to not look up and glare at Maya, but it was a near thing. She'd had him running since he'd awakened, fetching every thing she could think of for him, and he knew she had slept once since then, while he was tasked with scrubbing her walls.

He missed Vierna, even with her biting whip, but at least she'd let him rest frequently.

He must have been too slow to respond, or Maya had seen the defiance, because her whip came out.

He would endure.

Zaknafien had two children.

Drizzt was the son of his soul even. He had never cast a second thought to Vierna, as she was a female, and much prized by the Matron of their house.

Long after he was dead, as the house was plunged into chaos and a war for its survival, Vierna wondered at her full brother's oddities.

As Matron Malice died, and she was cast into a rogue's life, Vierna wondered again.

Was a mere male truly stronger than their house? Was that strength in her?

She set foot in Jarlaxle's abode, and prayed it was so.

Most drow did not choose to regret the willful murder of someone else.

Dinin had a glimmer of the chaos he'd brought down on himself when the Weapon Master managed to persuade the Matron that his younger brother should be a fighter.

He felt a twinge of it when he nearly came to blows with the arrogant freak at the fighter school.

Leading him on patrols? Dinin felt a cascade of wishing he'd just let Nalfein live, given that he knew he'd never fend off an attack.

Fortunately, Drizzt didn't seem molded toward that kind of drow thinking, which only added to Dinin's unease instead of relieving it.

What kind of unholy horror had they set loose within their family?

There was almost a respect in Dinin's feelings for the way the younger drow had managed to beat them all so he could escape -- and Dinin had noticed his brother was injured when he did it.

He thought certainly all was done, until the day the Matron sent him with Briza to hunt Drizzt down. After that moment, Dinin was certain of two things: he never should have killed Nalfein, and he feared his brother more than anyone else in the family.

None of those regrets, though, could amount the ones he felt when Lloth reclaimed Vierna, driving her mad...

...and eventually he found himself in service to the Spider Queen Herself, a drider in her undead ranks.

All because he had stupidly coveted the Elderboy position and killed Nalfein.

"I know. It hurts. I am sorry, and wish it were quicker."

She could not answer him. Instead of reaching for her maces, Vierna had fled, choosing to get distance.

It had been as poor a mistake as the maces would have been. His blow had been less true, even if it was just as fatal. She looked up into his purple eyes, eyes that even now watered with pain… for her?

What was this brother who kept escaping Lloth's grasp?

As she thought it, she shuddered, part death-spasm, part awareness that a part of her was glad he lived.

somariel

Doing It Again (A Bit Less on the Fly & with a Little More Planning) (10,425 words) by somariel
Chapters: 5/5
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Alustriel Silverhand, Eilistraee, Vhaeraun
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Time Loop
Series: Part 12 of A Crossing of the Realms
Summary:

How would the events of To Do It Again change if the original timeline was the universe of Plans on the Fly?

Beginning Note

In addition to the linked inspiring fics, I highly recommend making sure you are familiar with the series To Steal a Priestess and Carving a Place, collectively called the Vierna’Verse by the authors, before reading this one.

The universe of “Plans on the Fly” diverges from the main Vierna’Verse late in the fic “Emergent Plans” and replaces the events of the rest of the fics in “To Steal a Priestess” with Vierna’Verse appropriate versions of the events of the book Homeland running from Drizzt’s graduation through the confrontation between Malice and Zaknafein over Drizzt’s actions on the raid, with “Plans on the Fly” itself starting just after that confrontation. And the changes caused by the events of “Plans on the Fly” most likely prevent the events of the fic “Plots Afoot” in “Carving a Place” from happening.

Additionally, this fic contains a certain amount of borrowing from “To Do It Again”.

Chapter One: Future Drizzt; Divine Negotiations

1298 DR

Drizzt sat in one of the map rooms, copying the fullness of the lands he had wandered. Alustriel had brought him to Silverymoon, and everyone was a stranger, even those whose names he knew, like Besnell and Taern. That last had taken him off guard; Taern was an older man, but human… and he was still an older man but human in this time as well.

He did not ask, though.

No, while Alustriel researched, communing with her sisters Syluné and the Simbul as more aware of time magic, Drizzt was putting his life in perspective. A copy of the map, the rough time periods he’d been in places, and what had happened there, was the thought he’d had.

He’d written a separate pair of notes, ones more personal, to give Alustriel. One warned about the attempt to assassinate Aumry that he had foiled, the other about the simultaneous attacks on Dove, Storm, and Shadowdale. Each was marked for the year prior to the events warned of within.

This map, though—Drizzt had to admit that he understood somewhat better just why people thought he’d lived too much in too short a time. He truly had done and seen much before settling in Silverymoon.

For Mithral Hall, he made clear that Bruenor had to be there, because of the dwarf curse. ‘The dragon sleeps’ was added, to contain any need to go ahead of the historic time to tackle that part. After all, if the dragon held the Hall, the drow could not take it.

Crenshinibon got a circle around the general area he had found it in, a questioning mark, and ‘very dangerous artifact; wizards beware’. Likewise, his comment for the tundra peoples themselves was ‘barbarians being themselves’ and the year that they massed.

Smaller notes, like his first meeting with Dove, the banshee lair they had located then, and the approximate location of the various individuals or groups he’d aided and when were dutifully marked in. Small or large, he made a map and time-line of his life.

The hardest note to write was the events of his very first time on the surface. If the family changed events then and there… Drizzt was uncertain what would transpire. But he owed Ellifain the chance to live well. So he detailed where her village was, and gave the number of fighters sent, including himself.

I beg of you to send the patrol back below. My dearest companion’s life, and possibly those of my father and sister, depends on me reaching the city once again.

Once he had it all spelled out in Common, he wrote another letter, this one on a thick piece of hide, using the impression script of his own people. He explained the events, giving details he would not want to be used to make matters worse for the unwary but good-wishing folk of Alustriel’s family. If they upset his time-line, he needed to leave a record, one that would help him use the map as a guide to be certain to save as many as he could.

This letter would remain with Alustriel as well. Only in the event of his untimely death or failure to emerge should it be opened, taken to Qilué to be deciphered.

That was the best he could do, appeasing his cautious nature and his need to protect in one fell swoop.

His careful work done, he put the map in a case, carrying it and the letters to the antechamber of the room Alustriel was meeting in this day. It was close enough to her usual break between courts that he didn’t mind waiting.

As she came out, accompanied by a Spellguard that Drizzt would never know in his own time, Drizzt stood and inclined his head to her.

“I apologize for intruding on your personal time, but I wished to deliver these to your safe keeping.”

Alustriel smiled warmly at him. That he had been keeping himself busy, and only rarely leaving the palace to go meditate in the Glade had not given her much time to assuage her curiosity about him, personally.

“I suppose, Saer Ranger, you will need to accompany me to my meal, then, to explain the items further,” she said, coming to his side.

Drizzt had shifted everything he carried so that his arm came up without thought, and Alustriel noted it.

This ranger existed within her inner circle in his proper time, and she was curious—oh so curious—why and how.

She guided their path to her rooms, where a meal was already being laid out, ample food for two people. Drizzt took in the differences in the room, something she also noted.

“Please be comfortable,” she said.

He nodded, setting the case and letters on a small table, but he did not, as normal for him, remove boots and sword-belt. This was not his Lady, not as she would be… maybe?

He did not want to chase the idea that their paths might not lead to the partnership that had been such an important part of his life for the last couple of years.

He took a seat at her table, and gave a smile to the staff before they departed.

“I thought it best to provide notes on my doings after I took up residence on the surface, and a letter for myself that I will entrust to you. As, once you unravel this spell, I have no way of knowing what I will know from any given point in time.”

“A wise precaution, as Sharr was correct. We cannot, in good conscience, allow you to have a difficult time of it, with what you did.” Alustriel smiled at him, even as he shook his head.

“The difficulties I faced, on the surface and in the Underdark alike, helped make me who I was, but there are certainly problems that I dealt with where an earlier awareness of them would be beneficial.

“As I have no idea how many some of the threats I dealt with had killed before my involvement.”

“That is… a good thing to be aware of. Hopefully, we can track such problems down before they are an issue for anyone,” Alustriel told him. “Tell me more of that over the meal? And anything else you believe will help protect people without causing larger issues? It will help me understand your notes more.”

“Gladly, Lady,” and Drizzt settled to talk with her.

“One thing that confuses me,” Alustriel said, as Drizzt walked her back from evenfeast, so that she could be seen by her people, “is why it took so long for you to meet any of my sister’s people.

“You mentioned that she herself came to teach you of the Dark Maiden while you were learning ranger skills from Dove and Florin, but by all you have shared, that was long enough after you took up residence on the surface that I would have expected you to have met—and learned from—one of the traveling bands before then.”

Drizzt sighed, but he smiled too. “I did not know this for some time, but apparently it was the Dark Maiden’s own choice to tread cautiously in regards to drawing me to Her worship. As She hoped that the continued love between me and my sister, despite our opposed natures, might provide a path to tempering the difficulties between Her and Her own brother.

“And so, while I did hear Her song in the moonlight, and She granted my blades Her moonfire blessing, She did not act to draw me to any of Her people.”

Alustriel made a quiet humming noise. “That is… an interesting choice. Do you know if Her hopes were—in any way—proving to be correct?”

“I know that Her brother never chided my sister for me, so… it is likely that they were, if only slowly.” Drizzt’s smile grew brighter before he continued. “Of course, I had the impression that She was not expecting progress to be swift.”

1314 DR

Eilistraee had paid close attention to the details when Her Chosen had shared the tale of the time-tossed drow ranger, as She knew that with the Silverhand family so invested in helping the younger version of him, it would be wise for Her to be more proactive about drawing him to Her than Her other self had been. And yet, with his beloved sister belonging so firmly to Her own brother, She also knew that Her other self’s caution had been warranted.

She had not dared to even try to so much as observe the younger version of the ranger during the remaining years of his raising in Her mother’s chapel, but once he was free of the chapel, Eilistraee looked in on him as often as She felt it was safe to do so. And every time, She became more certain that being more proactive would not only be wise, it was what would be best for Drizzt.

A test of how strongly good Drizzt’s nature was, made once he had moved into his father’s care, left Eilistraee astounded by the results, as his nature proved to be not just very strongly good, but so strongly called by the wilds that if She had not known exactly who She was Calling to, She would have easily believed she had Called to a wood elf!

And that meant that She had to negotiate with Her brother, as Drizzt would not fit among His followers, especially now, much better than he did among Their mother’s, and everything would go much more smoothly if He was aware of Her intentions and could ease matters with Drizzt’s sister.

While Vhaeraun was well aware that His sister still held some degree of affection for him, Eilistraee actually asking for a meeting with Him was unusual enough to rouse His curiosity, especially when She had offered to hold it on neutral ground—which was a welcome reassurance of Her good intentions, even if He had countered it with the suggestion of using the small domain She kept among the rest of the Dark Seldarine, as neutral ground was never truly private.

That She had accepted His counteroffer had made him even more curious, and now, a day later, the meeting was beginning. “What do You wish to speak with Me about, sister?”

“One of Your prized clerics has a beloved younger brother whose nature is, to be blunt, so strongly good, and called by the wilds, that he will not fit in among Your followers much better than he does among Our mother’s.”

“And why is this so important that it is necessary to bring it to My attention?” His words might seem indifferent, but with his hands, Vhaeraun asked, ‘City? House?’

“Because My Chosen’s family knows of the boy and is invested in helping him, once the two of them and their father leave the city of their birth,” Eilistraee replied, signing back ‘Menzoberranzan. Daermon N’a’shezbaernon.’

His suspicions confirmed, Vhaeraun asked, “And how did the Silverhands come to know of a boy that isn’t even old enough to attend the Academy, much less come to be invested in helping him?”

Eilistraee smiled. “That is a most unusual tale.” And then she began to tell it.

When she had finished, Vhaeraun was silent for a while, considering everything. Then he sighed, and said, “You wish for Me to reassure My priestess when the boy starts to hear You.”

“And to reassure You that I have no intention of interfering with Your plans for her.”

“Point. What are You willing to offer Me, as reassurance, and for Me to do as You wish?”

“I have only Called to the boy once,” Eilistraee said. “I am entirely willing to promise that I will not do so again until after the trio has left the city. And I am also willing to inform You when the Tall Ones set out to intercept the raid, so You can warn Your priestess to be ready to seize whatever opportunity arises from it being turned back.”

“Add that neither of us will try to influence the father,” Vhaeraun replied, “and that You will send some of Your followers—fully informed of Our agreement—to guide the boy to the Promenade once the trio has left the city, and I will accept those terms.”

“Agreed, then.”

Chapter Two: Changes Begin

1328 DR

“I am myself, and will ever be myself, no matter that the others around me are the strange ones for their lack of honor,” Drizzt said steadily, chin tipped up. His body was ready for a fight, if this man he had thought a friend and mentor took offense to his accusation on all drow.

Zaknafein felt his breath catch, his eyes widen, as he looked at the boy standing before him. Idiot, foolish, defiant child—but his son, not broken to Malice’s will after all.

“Darkness bless… how?” he murmured, soft and relieved, before his hands dropped his sword-belt to the floor and he extended both arms palm-out. “I did not dare hope…”

And yet, hope had gnawed at him with its bitter poison anyway.

Drizzt was confused for a moment, but that… that was obviously a peace gesture. He let his own belt drop and crossed the distance, wrapping his hands around Zak’s forearms. “You confuse me,” he admitted softly. “I thought us friends, but the school teaches how foolish that is. Yet—here you are, like this?

“I do not understand, Weapon Master.”

Zak laughed, a sound half bitter and half joyous, and shook his head before he leaned his forehead in to his son’s, hands firm around Drizzt’s forearms almost at the elbows. “You did not understand ten years ago, either, my young dancer. I picked that fight because I did not wish to see you made like your brother, or—night help me—even more like me.

“But when it came to the end… I could not find the strength to spare you, either.”

Purple eyes found Zak’s, as he filtered through the words, that day, and the way the fight had ended.

“You… wish me to be as I am, when it provokes my sisters, the Matron… all who know me?” he said slowly, his hands tightening. “But why? I do not wish to be like them, yet I have to walk carefully, as Vierna has been very clear about the potential consequences of failure to please any priestess, for all that she has more tolerance for me being myself if there are no others present.”

Vierna… let Drizzt be his strange self, if it was just the two of them? Why would she be willing to risk such, even if she was cultivating him with kindness like Zak suspected? That was a truly intriguing choice for a priestess as dedicated to Lloth as Vierna seemed to be.

Something in that thought sparked against an old memory, but Zak could chase it later. Right now, he needed to reply to his son. “I hate the Spider Queen, Drizzt. I hate what our people are, what I have done, all the endless blood and filth of our lives, all the joy in hate and,” he laughed a moment, “malice. You, my dancer, are the only real example I have ever had of anything better.”

There was Jarlaxle, but he was well aware his sometimes-lover would kill him for an advantage if truly necessary. He would not blame him much if he one day did… such was the way of the drow.

Drizzt took a slow, deep breath at hearing that, and then he smiled, eyes shining with joy. “I forgive that day,” he said, seriously, “but this is no way to live,” he added, his voice almost a breath of sound.

Zak thought he would destroy entire worlds to keep that light in Drizzt’s eyes, and was fairly certain he would have to. He took a soft breath of his own, and shrugged his shoulders, still holding Drizzt’s forearms. “I know,” he agreed, just as soft, “but what else is there? Where else is there?”

And that, the question of where else they could go, pulled a little harder on the memory that had been tugged at when he pondered Vierna’s actions with Drizzt.

“Even the wilds would be better than struggling to live against their lies and expectations,” Drizzt said. “Because… I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be part of what they wish me to be.” He pressed his forehead against Zak’s again. “We could survive, together,” he said, with all his heart latching onto this other drow that was not like the ones that made him so upset, all the time.

Zak considered that, a thoughtful hum in his throat for a moment. He had thought of running into the wilds, once or twice, but alone, it would be madness. The first time he needed to sleep, some monster would creep up on him, and that would be the end of him.

But two? When one of them was his dancer, his son, the only-near equal he had ever had?

And finally, the memory that had been jostled rose fully to the surface. The night Drizzt had been born, the Masked God had spoken to Zak, of Drizzt… and of Vierna. Vhaeraun Himself had called Vierna “most intriguing”. Was she not as sincerely devoted to Lloth as she seemed?

Bringing his attention back to the here-and-now, Zak replied to Drizzt’s suggestion. “Two might be able to survive,” he agreed. “Despite all the monsters and races that would hunger for our blood. …do you understand how hard it will be, though, my son?”

“You already know how hard life here will be for me,” Drizzt told him, “or you would not have chosen to battle me that day. Better to try, than face death, or worse, here.” Those last words, though, they hit Drizzt in his chest, as he heard the kinship claimed. He’d long suspected Rizzen had not sired him, but to know that? “Father.”

Zak smiled at him, one hand sliding from forearm up to cheek, nodding. “…I do, at that,” he agreed quietly. “We are going to have t—”

The floor shook. In Zak’s private quarters, a cup crashed to the floor.

In a breath, Zak had let go and rolled for his sword-belt, snatching it up as he went over it and latching the belt around his waist.

Simultaneously, he heard Vierna say, in the manner of a sending, ~Get Drizzt and meet me in the stables.~

With Vhaeraun’s comment about her freshly brought to mind, Zak was willing enough to reply ~Understood~, if still somewhat wary.

Drizzt was just behind Zak, following suit, his face going grim, and his mind switching to defense, away from the dreams of being free with his father—his father!—in the wilds of the Underdark.

“We will never have a better time than now to escape,” Zaknafein said over his shoulder, “if we are canny enough to do it.”

Drizzt caught up to him swiftly. “Then… work our way toward where our lizard riders would be?” he suggested. “At least one would help us, greatly.” He did not flinch as the house shook again, face full of hope.

Zaknafein nodded. He assumed that was why Vierna had made the request she did, since Drizzt was right, a tizzin would be a great help. And if that wasn’t why she wanted them to come there, well, they’d find a way to deal with it.

But would it be better to not surprise Drizzt with her presence there, so he said, “We might not be escaping alone. Vierna asked for us to meet her in the stables.” Drizzt cast him a questioning look at that statement, but a shake of Zak’s head and a signed ‘No time’ kept him quiet.

Zak would have preferred time to plan, to gather supplies, to do anything but simply run… but that was apparently not an option. So. Time to improvise, and get his son—and maybe his daughter—out of Menzoberranzan.

Matron Malice sending the Weapon Master on a long errand that lasted past Drizzt’s graduation had scuttled Vierna’s original plan for escaping with the two of them, and she was not going to reveal her true loyalties to the Weapon Master until she had a new plan, but even so, she had been keeping a pack filled with currency ready ever since she brought Drizzt home from the Academy, just in case an opportunity came up unexpectedly.

So when her Lord had warned her, a few days before Drizzt and Dinin’s patrol was due to return, that she should be ready to leave soon, she had taken the extra steps of adding some travel rations to the pack of currency, and coaxing one of her smaller pirate spiders into a jar for traveling.

The news of the failed raid left her wondering how her Lord had known of it, as the disfavor on the House because of Lloth’s anger was surely what was going to provide the opportunity to escape.

Coming up out of a light sleep because the house had just shaken was a surprise, but she also knew that there would be no better time to escape than with the House under attack. So even as she gathered her maces and the pack and jar, she sent to Zaknafein. And then, having received his agreement, she made her own way to the stables.

She was not surprised that she reached the stables first, but since time was of the essence, she went ahead and saddled a second tizzin after she had done so for her own preferred mount. And by the time she was finished doing that, Zaknafein and Drizzt had arrived.

As he slipped into the stables, Zak was pleased to see that Vierna was almost finished with saddling a second tizzin, her own already tacked up. Three would have been even better, but they could make do with just the two.

Moving to open all the doors, he told his son, “Tell one or two to hunt those without our emblems; the others will likely follow.”

He focused his amulet on the angriest of their herd, giving it the same directions, before moving to mount the second tizzin, as Vierna had finished with it while he was opening the doors.

Vierna was very glad that she had already mounted when Drizzt gave his command to one of the matriarchs, as his desire for them to hunt was so strong in his voice that she—and Zak too, she noticed—had to briefly reinforce her control over her chosen mount to keep it from following the pack.

As Drizzt mounted behind Zaknafein, she said, “I will follow your lead, Weapon Master.”

Zak nodded in response, and let his and Drizzt’s beast follow the herd out the doors, the beasts’ clawed feet and snapping maws making a path, and then sent it for the nearest wall and up, crawling out the destroyed gates upside down. From there, after a brief check to make sure that Vierna was following close behind, he headed the tizzin for the closest small passage out of the city entirely.

Zak was grateful that Vierna had remained quiet while he helped Drizzt work through his emotional crisis over having killed another drow, but once Drizzt had settled down to rest, he turned his attention to her.

Choosing to use the silent language so as not to disturb Drizzt’s rest, he asked her, ‘You’re not as devout as you seem, are you?’

Vierna was still for a moment that seemed like an eternity to Zak, and then she reached inside her robes and drew out… Vhaeraun’s mask! Well, no wonder He had called her “very intriguing”!

She held it to her face for three long heartbeats, then tucked it away again, before signing, ‘Full explanations should wait until Drizzt wakes.’

‘Agreed,’ Zak signed back. He paused, then decided to go ahead and add what he had wanted to say for so long. ‘My daughter.’

Vierna felt her chest tighten as Zaknafein confirmed what she had long suspected. ‘I’m glad it’s you,’ she signed back, before reaching out and offering her hands to him.

He took them, and she squeezed his hands gently, once, then let go.

‘Do you need to rest?’ she signed.

‘No. You?’

Vierna took a moment to consider, then signed, ‘Wake me in two hours. The attack woke me up.’

‘Okay.’

Chapter Three: A Sharp Turn in the Traveled Path

As she had promised, once Drizzt woke, Vierna gave the needed explanations—including that Vhaeraun now recommended that they head for a place called Skullport, which was apparently not a drow city, but had a significant drow population, including one of His temples—and then the three of them moved on, letting the pair of tizzin guide them to water.

They soon settled into a rhythm, Vierna riding while holding the pathfinding spell, and Zak and Drizzt switching off on which of them walked and which rode the second tizzin. The fact that they only had the one waterskin that Vierna had had in her pack and little food meant that she was always keeping those spells on tap, but they also gathered what food they found as they traveled, to reduce their need for such reliance. When they paused to rest, they would sleep in shifts, Zak taking the first watch, Drizzt the second, and Vierna the third.

The House amulets were holding with the tizzin, though Drizzt realized he didn’t actually have to lean into it to get them to do as he wished.

An encounter with a small war party of duergar had gained them more packs, more waterskins, and more rations, allowing Vierna to stop keeping those spells ready and replace them with ones more useful for dealing with the threats they might encounter.

As they were breaking their fast after one of their stops for rest, Drizzt asked his father and sister, “Have either of you been having dreams that seem… otherworldly?”

Vierna sat up straighter at the question, a frisson of concern running down her spine, but it was Zak who responded first.

“Otherworldly? How so?” he asked, cocking his head slightly.

Drizzt considered how to explain, and thought of his brief glimpse of the surface. “Tall things, with many branches, small things coming off them. I saw something like that on the surface, and most of the time, my dreams look like what I saw up there, mostly dark, with a bright circle high overhead that bathes everything in a silvery light, but sometimes it’s brighter and everything has bright colors and strange textures. I see small creatures that are warm, soft, with fur like the bats, but… more?

“Waters that flow and run and crash against things to spew foam and spray into the air. And the dreams with the bright circle in the dark have a beautiful song drifting through them.”

A beautiful song coming with dreams of a bright circle high overhead in the dark? Vierna’s frisson of concern turned to one of fear. Though she did not know what the brighter dreams might mean, that had to be the Dark Maiden’s song her brother was hearing. Was she going to lose him to Her?

“That is the surface,” Zak agreed, “bright during the day, when the ‘sun’ is up, and dark at night under the ‘moon’.

“I was taken, once, on a raid as you were. Most of the few creatures I saw were bat-furred, not slick or scaled. I wonder at you dreaming of it, though, when you have never seen it by day, and had other things to be concerned about during the raid.”

Drizzt ducked his head, then focused solely on his food for a moment, as he struggled with the words. Once he had an idea of what to say, he looked at his father again. “I felt right, when we first emerged. Curious, yes, but every smell, every sensation, the tiny lights above us… they called to me.

“But I’d put that away, in my fear to survive the onslaught of the giant misshapen faerie, to try and make certain Dinin made it back, to not get hit by the spells and blades they used.”

Vierna was too surprised by Drizzt saying he had felt like the surface called to him to question the phrasing about the faerie, but when their father did so, repeating it quizzically and lifting a brow at Drizzt, she paid close attention to her brother’s answer.

“They were so tall,” Drizzt said. “Taller than Briza. And their ears, their eyes… they were wrong, but not like Tanal Hrisski in school, the demon born fighter. Just… blunted? And they all used magic, and all of them had swords and knew how to use them!” Drizzt shuddered all over. “I felt like they were toying with us, all the way back to the priestess.”

While Vierna was certainly concerned about the fact that Drizzt was hearing the Dark Maiden’s song—and she could tell that Zak was concerned as well—she had not thought her concern was significant enough that her Lord would feel a need to speak with her about the matter.

And yet, after she settled down to sleep that night, she found herself in Vhaeraun’s realm.

“Be at ease, My priestess,” He said. “While your concern for your brother is welcome, it is not needed. His nature drew My sister’s attention years ago, and We have long since come to an agreement about the two of you.”

Vierna let out a sigh of relief on hearing that. “Thank you, my Lord.” She dipped a shallow bow to Him, even as her mind started spinning with questions that she was not going to ask—or at least, that she was not going to ask Him. Zaknafein might be able to answer some of them, after all, and some simply seemed impertinent to ask.

When Vierna signed ‘Need to talk later, while Drizzt sleeps’, Zak was sure he knew what she wanted to discuss. After all, he shared her concerns about the fact that Drizzt was being called by the Dark Maiden, and it would be beneficial to have a plan in place well before they arrived at Vhaeraun’s temple in Skullport.

So he was rather surprised when Vierna started the conversation by signing, ‘My Lord says we don’t need to be concerned over Drizzt hearing His sister.’

Zak couldn’t help a swift breath in at those words, but he at least managed to not make any sound that might disturb Drizzt. ‘That is… unexpected, if welcome,’ he replied. ‘Though I do wish to know why, and how He knew that Drizzt was hearing Her.’

‘What He said was that Drizzt’s nature drew Her attention years ago, and They have long since come to an agreement about the two of us,’ Vierna answered. ‘So He must have been paying close attention to me, in order to know when He needed to tell me that.’

Zak was very glad that he was sitting down, because that was… unbelievable. Vhaeraun and Eilistraee had an agreement regarding his children? Had, in fact, had one for years, and were still holding to it? ‘I wonder which of you has interesting times ahead,’ he signed, letting his shock out with an attempt at humor. ‘Assuming it’s not both of you, of course.’

Vierna gave a shaky smile of relief at Zak’s words. She had long since realized that he was—very understandably—doubtful, if not outright wary, of all things divine, so she had been uncertain how he would react to learning that she and Drizzt together had a significant amount of divine attention. ‘I very much hope it’s not both of us,’ she replied. ‘Because Drizzt is the obvious candidate if it’s only one of us and I like being comfortable.’

‘Which interesting times usually aren’t,’ Zak agreed. ‘And with Drizzt dreaming of the daytime surface, I have to agree with that assessment.’

‘Speaking of the surface, do you think that the strange faerie that turned back the raid acted the way they did because they knew one of the members of the patrol was of Eilistraeean nature?’ That possibility had occurred to Vierna almost immediately on learning that Drizzt had had the Dark Maiden’s attention for years, but Zak had a better sense of tactical and strategic decisions than she did.

Zak took a few moments to think that over, because yes, that would explain their actions quite well, but if they had known about Drizzt, there was another route they could have taken that would have held less risk for the faerie. ‘Maybe. But it would have been less risk to them if they simply captured Drizzt and killed the rest of the patrol. So why didn’t they just do that instead?’

‘Less risk to Drizzt to just turn the patrol back, though.’

‘Point. And even if they had some way of identifying him, plans get destroyed quickly when people are fighting for their lives. We can’t tell Drizzt, though.’

‘No, we can’t,’ Vierna agreed, having already reached the same conclusion. ‘He’s not ready to deal with divine interest in his life, and we’d have to explain the agreement to explain why we think the faerie acted that way.’

Catching a sound ahead of them—a half-heard murmur, a tiny impression of armor and cloth in the next tunnel they meant to use—Zaknafein’s hand snapped out in a firm, silent ‘stop’ that had Drizzt and Vierna both bring their tizzin to an instant halt, though Drizzt’s head tipped in question.

‘People,’ Zak signed, ‘ahead.’

Something in the sound had said ‘drow’, and Vierna had told him that morning that Vhaeraun had informed her they would be meeting a party of Eilistraeeans—who were fully aware of His agreement with His sister—today, but he could not be certain. They could be any of the other sentient races of the Underdark, after all. He drew the hood of his piwafwi fully around his face, then fastened the lower catch that invoked its more powerful concealment spells.

Precautions taken, he began to carefully slip along the wall of the tunnel towards the joining, watching the walls as carefully as he would watch for traps in the beginning of an assault on another House.

Vierna and Drizzt had both dismounted while Zak was arranging his piwafwi, and Vierna levitated up even as their father began to slip forward, a spell ready on her tongue for if it proved necessary.

Maze and Path—as Drizzt had taken to calling Vierna’s tizzin and the other one, respectively—each laid down to a gentle pat and push from Drizzt, lowering their profiles. Drizzt then levitated up himself, and slowly, carefully loaded a quarrel on the crossbow he’d liberated. He and Vierna would keep watch from above, and the tizzin would stay as they were until there was battle.

At that point, Drizzt knew they would join the fray; Maze had already shown her loyalty to them by trampling a charging fell-drake several days before, and Path had been just as fast to move to deal with it, even though Maze had beaten her to doing so.

Zak got in view of the people—drow. Four of them, with three carrying swords, two of which had fighting daggers as well. The last of them was in robes laced through with sword motifs and crescents. They were all moving with skill, but… not as much as Zak would expect for drow in such a deep part of the Underdark.

The robed one was definitely a woman, but the fighters could have been either gender with the way their armor and tunics—not piwafwi—fell. Between the lack of piwafwi, the skill that was not quite as good as would be expected here, and the swords and crescents on the robes, Zak thought it likely that this was the expected party, but he wasn’t going to consider them safe until he was certain of it.

One of the fighters suddenly signed a halt, and the other three turned towards that one, the one in robes signing a query Zak could not—quite—read from this distance. The fighter half-shrugged, and his responding signs were as difficult to catch as the robed one’s. They at least had skill in that.

The one in robes nodded, faced away from the rest of her party, and her fingers danced for a moment. Her red gaze slid from left to right in an arc… and stopped on him. Dead on him, despite that he knew his piwafwi blended him perfectly into the stone around him.

“Greetings, stranger—or strangers, rather,” the robed woman said in an easy, low alto voice. “Will you join us?”

Well, that was a clear invitation, and he wasn’t going to find out more without interacting with them, so he might as well take it. “Why do you wander the wilds, I would know,” Zak stated clearly, as he removed the extra protections to be more visible.

“Looking for those who have escaped cities where the Spider Queen rules,” the cleric answered, “for each who flees and is willing to abide in peace strengthens our numbers. My name is Ravenna.”

“Interesting, dangerous, and potentially unwanted,” Zak told her without a trace of more than bare manners. He was done giving unearned respect, and from the little he did know, an Eilistraeean cleric would not expect it the way a Llothite one would. “Zaknafein. And I’ve had my fill with religion, but peace does not come easily to a survivor of the Spider Bitch.” But even as he said that, he was signing, ‘Looking for anyone in specific, or just generally?’

Two of the fighters grinned at his use of that epithet for Lloth. “Plenty of call for our blades still,” one of them said in a masculine voice. “Sriva. We have plenty that would see us wiped out, once we escape.”

“All true,” Ravenna agreed, nodding at Zaknafein and Sriva. “I am regrettably sure that the best we can ask for is peace in our own community, not with the world in general. If it’s not that eight-legged malignant excuse for a goddess’s followers hunting us as traitors, it’s most of every other race trying to kill us for how we look.

“Frustrating, but it is what it is.” And as she spoke aloud, she also signed, ‘Looking for three people specifically, but glad to help others, too.’

That was probably as clear an indication that this was the expected party as Zak was likely to get while he was the only one visible, so he pitched his voice to behind him and said, “Vierna, Drizzt, come.”

Vierna dropped down first, but she waited until Drizzt had done so as well before she started moving towards their father. And after a moment, in which the quarrel and crossbow were put away, Drizzt began moving that way too, beckoning Maze and Path to follow.

When the new drow came into view, Maze and Path both hissed at them, and Maze even tried to get ahead of Drizzt and Vierna.

“Easy, Path,” Drizzt said, his voice gentle. “Stop that, Maze,” he continued, adding a reassuring pat along Maze’s shoulder. “Hello.” Seeing how… not exactly at ease, but at least not wary… his father and sister were with the newcomers, he didn’t bother to weigh their threat potential. Besides, the three of them against just four others was decidedly not an even fight, even with the cleric, and the advantage was on his family’s side.

“Night above!” Sriva exclaimed, but barely above a conversational tone. “Are you even old enough to be out of school?! …apologies, I should not have said that. Greetings. You likely heard, but I’m Sriva.”

Vierna had reached their father’s side by then, and signed against his hand, ‘Seems fairly young himself, to actually say such.’

‘Reminds me of Drizzt, yes,’ Zak signed back.

Drizzt didn’t bridle, but only because Sriva did look abashed a little to have blurted that out. “I graduated this year, yes,” he said. “I am Drizzt. The tizzin have decided being called Maze,” he patted her on the shoulder again, “and Path,” and pointed to the other, “is fine.”

Vierna was proud of her brother’s composure. And while she still did not want him to leave her, if he went with these people, his honesty and joyful nature would survive longer than if he stayed with her.

“Then you must be Vierna,” Zelzalle said, turning to the woman who was now standing beside Zaknafein. “Greetings to both of you, and to Maze and Path as well. I am Zelzalle.”

“I am,” Vierna agreed.

Maze snorted to be addressed, but quit posturing quite so threateningly at Drizzt’s utter calm.

“It has been a while since I’ve seen a tizzin,” Elkantar said, admiring the beasts. Both females, he thought, which… might be useful, down the road, if Drizzt stayed with them long enough. “They both look to be in excellent condition, though. I’m Elkantar, and our cleric is Ravenna.”

Chapter Four: Turning to the New Life

Alustriel had just come in from her nightly routine among her people. She was in the midst of undressing with the help of an unseen servant when she felt her sending anklet tingle before she was touched by one of her sisters.

~Alustriel, it seems everything has changed,~ Qilué began, ~as Elkantar has found your ranger… with his father and sister. The father is apparently very neutral to my cleric’s casting.~

~With his father and sister?~ Alustriel asked in shocked surprise (and not a little relief) before she continued, ~isn’t it more than five years early? How did they come to meet?~

That ran out her sister’s sending, and she set off her own. ~Not that I’m not glad, and Andy will be overjoyed… but how?~

~I do not have the full story yet, but they were already on their way to Skullport, with a pair of tizzin, and their amulets are fading slowly.~ Too slowly for the maker and the matron to both be dead, but Qilué thought it was entirely likely that it was the maker who was dead, and the ‘matron’ keeping them from fading faster was the sister with the ranger. Nor did she hold any grief over that. She waited through the recharge, then sent again. ~I will let you know more, once the ranger is safely at the Promenade.~

~Of course. Thank you,~ Alustriel answered, smiling across the sending anklet. ~ My love to you, sister.~

While talking with Ravenna as they traveled had been interesting, especially for the insight into how a woman of Eilistraeean nature managed to survive in a Llothite city long enough to escape, it had also revealed that the fact there was an agreement between Vhaeraun and Eilistraee, over her and Drizzt, was known in the Eilistraeean community. Having the needed discussion of the matter could not happen while they were still on the move, but Vierna did get an agreement from Ravenna to have it after they stopped to rest.

That discussion, which had included Elkantar and Zaknafein as well as her and Ravenna, had ended with the conclusion that Drizzt really did need to know the agreement existed, but Drizzt’s unreadiness for divine interest in his life made eliding things to imply that the agreement was a recent event that had happened because of the dreams he had mentioned a reasonable way to handle the matter.

Even knowing that the reason her Lord had advised her to leave the others earlier today was because He was sending some people from His temple to guide her the rest of the way to Skullport, seeing the faint gleam of faerie fire ahead as she came around a curve in the tunnel still roused the instinct for caution that had helped her survive in Menzoberranzan, especially since this was the first sign of other people she had seen in the few hours since then.

But as she stepped into the lighted portion of the tunnel, she saw that the faerie fire was in the shapes of Night Above animals—one called a ‘cat’, and the other a ‘raven’. Both were symbols Vhaeraun used, and in the light were four drow. Two were in masks that matched the one she had tucked inside her robes, and the other two each wore a paired sword and dagger. Furthermore, the genders of the group were evenly split, with both the clerics and their guards being one each of male and female. “Greetings,” she called across the twenty yards or so to them.

“Greetings to you, our fellow Shade,” the male cleric answered. “Our Lord has sent us to bring you safely to His temple in Skullport, Redeemed One.”

This could still be a trap, as Vhaeraun had warned her that in addition to those associated with His temple, there was another faction of His followers in Skullport, though it had fewer females than the Temple’s faction. But there was an easy way to discern which faction these four were from, even without communing with her Lord.

“Then I am glad to meet you and your guards, fellow Shades,” she said. “Has our Lord informed you of the… unusual circumstances… surrounding me?”

The female cleric laughed brightly. “You mean His agreement with the Dark Maiden regarding your family? Indeed He has.” Then she reached up and put back her mask. “I am Kaiyeth, one of our Temple’s Shadow Hunters, and I am most pleased to meet you, Vierna Do’Urden.”

“And I am Natoth,” the male cleric said, putting back his own mask, “also a Shadow Hunter. Our guards are Tebryn and Chaurah.”

Five weeks later

Once she and Zaknafein were safely in her quarters, with the door locked, Vierna gave into the urge she had refused to follow in public, and hugged him. And after a brief moment of startled tension, he relaxed and returned it.

“I missed you,” she said, once the hug had ended. “Not knowing when you were going to feel Drizzt was safely settled at the Promenade was hard on me.” And as she spoke, she moved to take a seat on the couch.

Zak followed her over and took his own seat before replying. “We should work on obtaining a pair of sending stones, then, since I knew three weeks ago that I was going to be coming here with the Promenade’s trade caravan.

“Though it makes the most sense for you and Drizzt to be the ones who hold them, given that I’m going to be cycling back and forth.”

“That was, what, a week and a half after you arrived at the Promenade? I’m not—quite—surprised that Drizzt settled in so fast, but what was it that made you willing to set a time to leave so early?”

“Partly that Drizzt had settled in well enough to play a small prank on me, and partly that he was very clearly in the process of being… semi-adopted, I guess… by Elkantar and his daughter, so he wasn’t going to be without support if I left.”

“Semi-adopted?” Vierna repeated. “What do you mean by that?

“While both of them were quite clear on the fact that they weren’t trying to take our places in Drizzt’s life, Elkantar was explicitly encouraging Drizzt to think of him as an… ‘uncle’, he called it, a parent’s brother. And Ysolde is very pleased that there’s now someone so close in age to her at the Promenade—she’s less than a decade older than Drizzt—and has been carefully building a friendship with him, and encouraging him to call her ‘cousin’ if he wishes.”

“Ahh, so it’s not adoption in the manner we’re used to, but it’s still—in a way—bringing Drizzt into their family.” Vierna hummed thoughtfully for a moment. “What about Ysolde’s mother? Or is it just the two of them?”

“Qilué is being very careful to let Drizzt set the pace in their interactions,” Zak answered, “as she is the Dark Maiden’s high priestess, and well aware of how wary men who have escaped Llothite cities are of powerful women.”

Chapter Five: Needed Changes and Revelations

1345 DR

Given Drizzt’s dreams of the daytime Surface, Vierna had known that he would eventually leave the Promenade to explore up there, so when Zak told her, once they were settled on her couch, that her brother had finally gone and done so, the only thing she truly found surprising was the frown on Zak’s face as he spoke of it.

“What has you displeased with Drizzt’s decision?” she asked. “You have to have known it was going to happen eventually.”

Zak sighed. “Partly a wish that he’d been willing to wait longer to go—though I’m well aware that if not for his work with the tizzin, he surely would have left before now—but mostly, I wish that he’d at least been willing to join one of the traveling bands instead of going off alone.”

Vierna frowned herself on hearing that. She was displeased by that choice as well, even if she could understand why Drizzt had made it. “Does he have any way of obtaining aid that doesn’t require him to be able to think well enough to use the sending stones?”

“Ysolde gave him a contingency necklace, that will transport him to safety if he’s injured badly enough that he would lose consciousness,” Zak answered.

“And Drizzt accepted it?” Vierna couldn’t help her incredulity, knowing just how much her brother hated even the appearance that people were going out of their way to help him, and the commission of a contingency trigger item was not a small thing. “Also, where exactly will it take him?”

“Drizzt said that Ysolde refused to accept any arguments over it, and he chose not to waste the effort, but she told me later that casting it as something selfish on her part, so that she would have less reason to worry about him, helped settle him more.

“And it will take him to a room, with potions, in Blackstaff Tower, which will send an alarm to the Silverhand, the Blackstaff, and any other mage in the Tower that the Silverhand trusts to come help, and send to the Promenade.”

Drizzt had taken the map tube and the letter, written in the style of the drow of the Underdark, after listening to a strange tale of a man he might have been in some other life. He did not want to open either near others, not after the Lady explained that they knew of him because — of him?

Time magic, he decided, made no sense.

Now, sitting on a ledge above the milling tizzin, away from everyone, he opened the map first. Faerie fire was enough to see it was the north of Faerun, all the way up to the tundra of the Far North, and annotated with dates and notes at several places.

Some of those dates were gone now, but new notes, in a handwriting that was not his own (and it was so strange to know that he had written those notes!) told him the Tall Ones had gone and dealt with events on his behalf.

”You saved their father, near the time that this you was born, or soon after. They wanted to take you on the surface, that first time, but you’d felt it was very important to go back.”

The Lady’s words stayed with him, and his hands shook a little when he opened the actual letter.

“With Mielikki’s grace, it is my own self that this letter is given to. I have enjoined Alustriel to only give it to another to be read if … I have changed things too much and you/I do not emerge in time.”

It was a strange opening, but the impressions in the hide were clear to Drizzt’s fingers, including the utter familiarity used in spelling out the name of a powerful arch mage.

“If my wishes were followed, you were sent back to Menzoberranzan after a raid. It was my hope that in saving the elf lord, father to my friends, that you/I would manage to escape with Father and Vierna without the need for Vierna to improvise with Father’s life on the line. If Father’s life still ended up in danger, I can only hope that your Vierna was as successful as mine. If she was not… I am sorry for the grief you and she know.”

Father — in danger — (or dead?) — NO!

He blessed this older time-tossed version of himself for taking the risk, instead of arranging to remove him at the time of the raid!

“There is no guarantee of how things will play out, so I cannot know if you have met Dove Falconhand. If you have not met her, and through her, her husband Florin, you may not know that the whispers that guide you in dealing with evil and threats to the wilds—if such exist, and how terrible if not—are from Mielikki. She is a goodly goddess, who holds no enmity with Eilistraee, and will be your staunch ally if you wish it. If you wish to learn more, I recommend seeking Florin Falconhand.”

Drizzt knew those names already, knew Dove to be one of the Lady’s sisters. His life was meant to tangle with them, it seemed?

“Barring that, Silverymoon’s clerics of Mielikki will accept you for who you are. Silverymoon is home to me—though I am always welcome to visit Vierna and Father—but whether it will be for you is one you must learn.”

The letter broke off, and then there were notes, larger than the ones on the map, giving more details about what had happened, who to watch out for, who to seek if he chose to walk those paths.

Drizzt looked at the map again, and saw not just adventure, but purpose, chances to take.

And then he noted, written in ink instead of impressions, at the very bottom of the letter, there were two more words, and a date.

“Beware Menzoberranzan.”

He sought the date on the map, and found it beneath one a little earlier, with a note that said ‘invasion’.

That… well. It was a long while off, and Drizzt had friends to meet before that. He put the map away, folded the letter carefully, and then laid back on the ledge to let it all sink in.

When he did move, it was not to return to the Lady, but to go find his father. At this time, he should be home.

“Father and I are coming to Skullport. I’ve learned some things and need to talk to both of you.”

Vierna had been worrying ever since Drizzt had sent to her with that message, so once he and Zak were both safely within her rooms, and she had locked the door behind them, she pulled him into a hug.

Feeling the unusual fierceness with which he reciprocated the hug, she asked, “Are you all right, Drizzt?”

“I… think so?” He eased up some, then, and shifted so he could see her face. “I just… I know why Vhaeraun and Eilistraee needed to have an actual formal agreement about you and me. I know why the raid was so carefully turned back. Which is fine. You’re here, and Father’s here… and that is perfect.”

“We are all here,” Vierna agreed, though he wasn’t acting like everything was fine, and Zak’s signed ‘Most he’s said yet’ confirmed her thoughts, “here and well and safe.”

And apparently some of her dubiousness had leaked into her voice, because Drizzt pulled back from her, gave a serious look to both her and Zak, and took a deep breath. “I could let you see the map and read the letter, but it’s very… hard to believe. Other than for the fact it is in my handwriting, and I can see my life having gone as described, if we had gone to one of Vhaeraun’s cities after leaving Menzoberranzan.

“And in a world that was different, we did do so.”

Vierna frowned, then started guiding Drizzt towards the couch, with Zak following. “Come sit down, little brother, and tell us what you’re talking about. Because you’re not making a great deal of sense.”

Drizzt obeyed, taking a seat between her and Zak before he tried to find the right words.

“I apparently lived a life to a point well past this one, and got ensnared in a time spell by an elf-witch. That was marked on the map, with ‘do not go’ and a year. I would have been in my sixties by that date.” Then he turned to look directly at Zak. “You… ended up with your life in danger, after the raid but before we escaped, and Vierna had to improvise to save you. In that world.”

Vierna did not like the idea that things had gotten to that point in the other world, but she could actually see how they might have. But before she could say that, Zak spoke.

“Did your… other-self, future-self, however you want to phrase it… say anything of how? Or why?”

“No,” Drizzt answered. “Only that he was hoping, by leaving warnings, that the events would change, and you would not end up in danger. If you still did, he hoped that my Vierna was as successful as his, and if she was not, he was sorry for our grief.”

Drizzt smiled wryly, and Vierna took advantage of his pause to speak. “I actually can see a way that events would have reached such a state.”

Drizzt and Zak both turned to look at her in surprise. “How?” Zak asked, voice low and intent.

“Drizzt, you said that you now know why the raid was turned back with such care. I can easily guess that it must have been due to knowledge left by your other-self. Which means in that other world, it must not have been turned back. But I cannot imagine that you would have participated in the killing.”

“I… No! I’d never…!” Drizzt sounded honestly horrified by the very idea.

Vierna reached out to rub his back soothingly for a moment before continuing. “So I find myself wondering, what would you have done if you saw a chance to spare the life of one of the faerie by making it look like you had killed them, especially if it was a child?”

“I’d take it, no matter how risky!”

Zak’s face lit up in comprehension. “Which would piss off the Spider Bitch. But Her disfavor on the House would not be publicly known, so Hun’ett would be more cautious about planning their attack.”

Vierna nodded. “Then, since Malice was already aware that another House was moving against ours, if she thought she had Lloth’s favor—whether for Drizzt’s supposed actions on the raid, or for another reason—she would seek to take advantage of that perceived favor to find out which House it was.”

Drizzt frowned, then gave a great sigh. “And when she was rejected because of the disfavor, she’d start investigating to find out who had brought it on the House.

“But I never would have told anyone, so how would she have learned of what I had done?”

“Not even me,” Zak asked, “if I was furious enough over what you were believed to have done to force a fight between us?

“Because if I thought the Academy had broken you to the point where you were willing to kill a faerie child, I would be. And you and I would have been considered the most likely suspects for having done something that angered Lloth.”

“Oh,” Drizzt said, “I see. Malice would have been spying on us, and learned that way.”

“Yes,” Vierna said. “And Father never would have let you be the sacrifice Lloth would have required to be appeased. So I would indeed have had to improvise to save him, as Malice would not have allowed any delay in performing the sacrifice once she had agreed.

“But that’s enough discussion of something that never happened for us. Your other-self left warnings, but you also mentioned a map earlier?”

Drizzt shifted closer to Zak, clearly needing the reassurance of physical contact after having what could have happened laid out so clearly, but once Zak had wrapped an arm around him, he answered.

“My other-self mapped out his life on the Surface, with notes for every place and time he had helped people, or dealt with some threat. He was quite busy, apparently. But the Tall Ones, Lady Veladorn’s nephews, have been handling the events on the map, to be sure that the changes to my timeline didn’t result in others being harmed.”

“I’m glad they have been, little brother,” Vierna said, “as otherwise you would be fretting over the places and people he had helped. Your other-self must have made quite an impression on them, though.”

“He saved their father,” Drizzt said soberly. “An elf lord, my other-self said. And that put all of this in motion, from them being so careful to turn our raid back, to Lady Veladorn knowing to send Elkantar to meet us, and even Eilistraee and Vhaeraun making a formal agreement about you and me.

“And… I think that me was very close to their mother. Because he wrote her name in the familiar sense, without any honorifics.”

Zak hummed noncommittally at that last bit, and Vierna herself had to suppress a frown. She really wasn’t sure what she thought of the idea that Drizzt might someday end up so close to such a powerful woman, though at least with it being one of Lady Veladorn’s Surface sisters, she could be sure that it would be entirely his own choice.

“So what do you plan to do now?” Zak asked.

“I’m going to use the map to guide me,” Drizzt said. “It may lead to some longer absences, but Vierna and I do have the sending stones.”

“I will miss you during those longer absences,” Vierna said, “but I know better than to try and talk you out of doing so.”

Even so, there were further things to discuss about his plan, but for now, she just wrapped her own arm around him, and settled in to enjoy the company of her family.

somariel

Hedging Bets (5,179 words) by somariel
Chapters: 1/1
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Artemis Entreri, Kastan Do'Urden, Ensemble Cast
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence
Summary:

When Vierna is successful in bringing Drizzt back to Menzoberranzan, his future looks bleak.

But the Spider Queen's plans for him are not as straightforward as he thinks, and he might have some unexpected allies in the city.

Beginning Notes

Many thanks to

senmut for providing the original idea and helping with brainstorming. Thanks also go to

ilyena_sylph and

ukia_dragon for helping with brainstorming.

Like other fics that include Kastan, assumes Drizzt didn't escape graduation unscathed.

Hedging Bets

By the time Drizzt had fully returned to consciousness, he knew—with absolute certainty and deep regret—that the lead he had gained with his desperate dive under the drider to get beyond it, when it had reared up in front of him, had in the end still not been enough of one to let him escape from his sister and the mercenaries who had accompanied her.

And the restraints that had been added—some sort of bag over his head to keep him from actually seeing the tunnels around him, and his elbows bound together in addition to his hands being bound behind his back—made it clear that his only hope for another chance before they reached Menzoberranzan would be the fight with him that Entreri had been promised.

So despite the fact that the party was undoubtedly slowed by having to carry him, he began trying to support himself, rather than hang in the firm grips just below his shoulders.

It only took a few stumbling steps for those carrying him to notice, and the quiet "He's awake" from one of them quickly resulted in the party coming to a halt.

Once they had, Drizzt was carefully set down on his feet, steadied until he had his balance, and then the grips on his arms disappeared.

Noticing an approaching heat signature, Drizzt braced himself to ignore whatever verbal barbs his sister chose to sting him with. For although the fabric of the bag blurred the signature too much for him to actually be able to discern identity, he thought it was most likely to be Vierna.

The person stopped right in front of him and began to speak, their voice proving him correct.

"I'm impressed by how close you came to actually managing to escape, my lost brother, but you won't have another chance.

"Jarlaxle's pet human is rather displeased with the alteration of our agreement, but you've proven quite clearly why his fight with you will have to happen someplace far more secure."

And then, while he was still mentally reeling from having his one hope dashed, a yank on a rope around his neck started him stumbling forward again.

Fifteen days later

After a final check of the small packs she had prepared, Vierna secured them where they would be cleverly concealed by her outer robes, belted on her maces, double-checked the dagger she had secretly obtained, then cast a last wistful look around the quarters in Arach-Tinilith she had been granted upon her successful return with her lost—with Drizzt, she reminded herself firmly—and quietly slipped out the door to begin sneaking out of Tier Breche entirely.

Not too long after, concealed in the stalagmites below the westernmost edge of the side cavern that held the Academy, she let out a sigh of relief for having completed the first step of her plan without being noticed.

A look at Narbondel showed there was still most of half an hour before the total darkness known as "the black death of Narbondel", so after taking a drink from her waterskin, Vierna began sneaking west along the outer wall of the cavern that held Menzoberranzan.

And as she did so, she reflected—for far from the first time in the last few days—on how impossible her current actions would have sounded to her ten days ago.

But the zealotry that had consumed her when she found herself once more being favored by Lloth had eased since her triumphant return, and she had begun to see the inconsistencies between what she had been told and what it was clear others had been told that her fanaticism had blinded her to.

Some comments from Jarlaxle had helped her realizations along, and three days ago, she had fully grasped how she had been positioned as a piece in the power plays of House Baenre.

Which they were soon going to regret, as before she left the city entirely, there was one thing she was going to do to show that she was no one's pawn.

The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor woke Drizzt from the uneasy sleep that had proved to be all he could manage since he had regained consciousness—having been dosed with the sleep poison as soon as his sister's party entered Menzoberranzan—to find himself in this cell, each leg individually chained to the wall, his hands tightly shackled in front of him, and otherwise completely naked.

That there was only one set of footsteps meant it had to be Vierna—the guards who brought his allotted ration bar and cup of water always came in pairs—so despite the fact that he would much rather attempt to resume what sleep he could manage, he sat up and arranged himself into the most comfortable position his restraints would allow, as his sister had proven all too willing to use her whip to get his attention if he attempted to ignore her when she came to gloat and taunt him.

Much to Drizzt's surprise, Vierna paused to do... something... just short of the opening that had once held the cell's door for several long moments before she entered.

And when she did, he received another surprise, as her expression no longer showed the religious fervor that had filled it on her previous visits. In fact, he would almost call it "serene".

Drizzt couldn't help but flinch when Vierna came to a stop just out of his reach, since she only came that close when she intended to inflict physical harm, but instead of pulling out her whip, she ordered him to hold his hands out.

His wary hesitation produced a snapped "Hold out your hands, Drizzt!", in the tone she used when she was just a single provocation away from whipping him, so he hastily obeyed, despite his confusion over her use of his name, instead of the "my lost brother" that had been all she called him since he regained consciousness after his attempt to escape in the tunnels under Mithral Hall.

His confusion only increased when, instead of seeking to damage his hands, she stared intently at the shackles binding them and then, after a whispered word, reached out to touch the pair of half-links holding the shackles together.

And when she then proceeded to pull out a dagger, thrust it into the space where the half-links overlapped, and saw it back and forth until the links broke, he could no longer contain his confusion.

"Vierna, what...?" His attempt to escape, the second time he had been fed after waking in this cell, had—despite its spectacularly unsuccessful nature—been punished so brutally that he had not dared to try again, and now she was doing something that would help him to escape?!

"I will not be used!" she growled.

And while he gaped at her for what that statement implied, she put away the dagger, dropped a small roll of leather by his feet, and left the cell.

She did not go far, however, as she quickly returned, carrying a bundle that, when she opened it after placing it just inside the cell, was recognizable as his gear.

And before she left in truth, a small pack, a piece of parchment, a small potion vial, and—most importantly to Drizzt—Guen's figure, had all been added to his gear.

Still half-disbelieving what had just happened, Drizzt picked up the roll of leather as Vierna's footsteps receded, opened it to find a set of lockpicks, and bemusedly set about freeing himself.

Since her triumphant return, the redeemed priestess formerly of House Do'Urden had been in regular—and noticeable—attendance at the daily services held in Arach-Tinilith, though she had missed a few when something regarding the traitor had needed to be dealt with at exactly the wrong time.

She had not, however, ever missed both of the day's services.

So when she failed to attend the evening service, after having already missed the first-light one, Triel made her way to the quarters Vierna had been granted until it was decided which of the first eight Houses would adopt her, in order to find out why.

The rising priestess was not in her rooms, however, so Triel set about the business of finding out when she had last been seen.

And when she found out that the last sighting of Vierna had been by a guard who reported having seen her descending the stairs from Tier Breche down to the rest of the city, half an hour before the black death of Narbondel the previous night, Triel could only think of one reason for her failure to return.

"Go check on the traitor, and report back swiftly!" she ordered.

The lesser mistress of Arach-Tinilith who had received that order returned with impressive speed—in fact, it could only have been achieved by a pace just short of running—and made a deep bow to Triel.

"Matron-Mistress," she said, without rising from the bow, "the traitor is gone, and has been so for long enough that the cell has cooled completely."

"You are dismissed." Triel was moving even as she spoke. Just as no House had been allowed to hold the traitor or host the redeemed priestess before the priestess's status had been settled, it would not do for any other House to have the glory of recapturing the traitor. Which meant she needed to speak with Jarlaxle.

As he stood in the center of the main chamber of Bregan D'aerthe's compound, openly giving his men Triel's orders and more subtly giving the orders he wanted them to actually follow, Jarlaxle kept an eye out for the two people who had the most reason to give him the results he wanted from Drizzt's surprising escape.

Turning his head to answer a question, he noticed them emerging from the training area together, and suppressed a satisfied smile over how well sliding Zaknafein's grandson—who had very much inherited his sire's nature—in front of his pet human had worked out.

Entreri had become oddly protective of the boy who was so strongly reminiscent of the man that the assassin desired to test himself against, and Kastan was now getting the experience of training with someone who could draw out the full potential of Zak's lineage.

Catching Entreri's eye, Jarlaxle gave him a Look, accompanied by a subtle tilt of his head in the direction of the only exit from the compound accessible to the man, and watched with pleasure as the assassin discreetly guided the boy away, then returned his full attention to the fighters he was speaking with.

Jarlaxle's unspoken message—“You want out of here; the boy will do anything to help his father. Go make it happen.”—had been clear as day to Entreri, so he steered Drizzt's son towards the tunnel up to the city, signaling for silence when he saw the questions in the boy's eyes.

Once they were halfway up the tunnel, which had thick doors on both ends, he signaled for Kastan to halt, and once the boy had, gave him freedom to express himself.

Kastan had wanted to rush off as soon as he heard what was being said in the main chamber, but the human who had taken to teaching him—despite his obsession with Kastan's father—had steered him back into the compound at a look from Jarlaxle.

His obedience to the man's signal for silence had been grudging at first, but as Entreri took him through a part of the compound that Kastan had never been in before, and then into a well-concealed, upwards-sloping tunnel, Kastan began to believe he had missed something in the look Bregan D'aerthe's leader had given his teacher.

So when Entreri stopped them in the middle of the tunnel and let him speak, it was not an angry rant that came out of him, but a confused "What's going on?"

"I want to get out of this hellpit; you don't fit any better than your father did.

"We have a mutual interest in finding Drizzt, and Jarlaxle, for some unknown reason, doesn't want him to be recaptured."

"Oh." Even with his conclusion that the look had imparted more than he had realized, that was still not anything Kastan had expected to hear.

He took a moment to consider what was being left unsaid, then nodded. "You want us to work together to find my father and get out of the city, while Jarlaxle runs interference for us."

"Precisely."

As much as he truly did want to find Drizzt, Entreri had felt that Jarlaxle was being oddly optimistic in thinking that he and Kastan would succeed, when they had no way of knowing where the ranger had gone.

But then, once the two of them were actually up in the city, Kastan was extremely insistent that they should head for the west side of the cavern.

A hushed conversation about the boy's insistence had not produced any more explanation for it than that he had a feeling he trusted, so Entreri simply sighed and let him lead the way.

Kastan truly had no idea why he was so certain he knew how to find his father, but given that the feeling was accompanied by the same wordless but gentle song that had sustained him through the worst moments in his life, he was entirely willing to trust it, even when it seemed to be leading them right up to the west wall of the cavern.

And given that upon reaching the cavern wall, the feeling shifted so that it was now directing him towards the Westrift, he thought that trust well-founded.

Entreri's skepticism of Kastan's 'feeling' had subsided somewhat as it led them right past the ruined House that Drizzt had been held in, then turned to follow along the cavern wall towards some nearby tunnels, but when Kastan bypassed all of them, only to stop at the rim of the rift somewhat further along, it returned in full force.

"You can't really think he'd manage to safely get down there," he said, looking down at the near vertical cliff face that had no hand holds he could see.

"Give me a minute," Kastan replied, dropping to his knees to peer over the edge from a closer vantage point.

And... yes, there it was! "I see the route he used!" he exclaimed, then immediately started to climb down.

Once Kastan had started down, Entreri found himself able to pick out the route himself, so he sighed and began to follow the boy.

It had been long enough since he had lived in Menzoberranzan that Drizzt had known he would need some time to recall the various side tunnels leading out of the city and decide which of them was the best one to use.

So once he had followed Vierna's instructions on how to get out of their ruined House without being seen—which he was quite grateful for, since he had never had a chance to learn of any of the secret exits—he had followed a feeling to this cave in the south wall of the Westrift.

And although he had, at first, not been entirely sure of the feeling's source, the gentle melody lingering in his head when he woke from the much needed sleep he had taken after entering the cave had confirmed his suspicions.

Food and water from the small pack Vierna had prepared for him had been followed by a period of drawing maps of the city's walls while he worked on remembering the ways out, which of them were regularly used by patrols, which ones were mostly used by those seeking to leave the city discreetly, and, just as importantly, which ones in the latter category could be reached without the use of levitation.

Eventually, he had begun to feel a need to rest again, so he had curled up in a spot that was not easily seen from the cave's entrance, and let sleep take him once more.

Waking an indeterminate time later, he had resumed his mapping after more food and water, but just a few moments ago, his concentration had been disturbed by footsteps on the ledge the cave opened onto, which had soon been followed by a hushed discussion.

Taking advantage of the noise of the discussion, he had concealed himself in a fold of the cave's walls that would prevent anyone from seeing him without coming some ways into it, and now waited to see what would happen.

The sound of footsteps came closer before stopping, and then a voice spoke in Common.

"Drizzt?"

That was Entreri's voice! But while his instinctive reaction was to prepare for a fight, Drizzt could also feel Eilistraee's encouragement for calm and patience.

So he started breathing deeply and slowly, and waited to hear what else Entreri might say.

"I understand that you have little reason to trust me right now," Entreri continued, "but my companion and I are likely the only people in this entire city willing to actually help you escape."

After considering Entreri's words for a moment, Drizzt made a cautious reply. "Your companion?"

"A boy Jarlaxle stole out of one of the noble Houses. He's very much like you, in multiple ways."

After another moment of consideration, Drizzt sighed and stepped out where Entreri could see him.

"Then both of you should come in so we can talk."

Without looking away from Drizzt, Entreri made a beckoning gesture to his right. Footsteps approached quickly in response, and soon enough, a young drow male stood by the assassin's side.

Drizzt carefully hid his surprise at seeing that this male truly was a boy—just about the same age he had been when he first escaped—and asked his name.

"I am Kastan, of House Duskryn," the boy said—surprisingly enough, in Common.

"Well met, then, Kastan," Drizzt said, continuing the use of Common, since it made the most sense to use the language all three of them spoke. "I am Drizzt Do'Urden."

Kastan nodded acknowledgement, then followed Entreri as the assassin moved into the cave.

When Entreri and Kastan reached a point a few feet from Drizzt, all three of them sat down simultaneously, by unspoken mutual consent.

"Before we start on figuring out the best way to leave the city," Drizzt said, "I have to ask: How did you find me?"

Entreri shrugged and looked to Kastan, whose face heated for a moment before he answered.

"I... had a feeling about how to find you," he said. "I don't know why, but it was one I had reason to trust, so..." Kastan scrunched his shoulders up and ducked his head as he trailed off.

It wasn't hard for Drizzt to figure out the source of that feeling, but he understood why Kastan would feel embarrassed to admit to it, when he had no way to know there was a reasonable explanation for it.

"Did you hear a wordless, but gentle, song with the feeling?" Drizzt asked.

Kastan straightened, a look of surprise on his face. "Yes! You've heard it, too?"

"Only in the last few months. But I would have heard it long before then if not for interference." Drizzt made a dying spider gesture, and Kastan laughed, nodding. "The song is from Eilistraee, who is a Good drow goddess and seeks to guide those she can away from the Spider."

"Can I ask how you managed to escape?" Entreri said.

After a moment of carefully studying the other man, Drizzt said, "It seems Vierna was not pleased to realize she was being used to advance the ambitions of others."

In contrast to Kastan's clear surprise at that statement, Entreri looked like he had halfway expected that answer.

His next words confirmed that. "After hearing you had escaped, I wondered if she had been involved. Given that she demanded the figure from me yesterday."

And Entreri, Drizzt knew, was well aware of his feelings regarding Guen.

"On to planning, then," Drizzt said. "My memories are telling me that the tunnel I used to escape the first time is rarely used, and would be a most unexpected choice, but I am having trouble recalling exactly where it is."

"The boy'll be more help with that than I am," Entreri said.

Drizzt looked at Kastan inquiringly, and the boy nodded, then said, "Show me what you have remembered of the ways out of the city?"

"Of course." And Drizzt began to draw the map on the cave floor with the heat of his hands.

A while later, having finally determined that the tunnel he was thinking of was the one just to the east of the Academy, Drizzt sat back on his heels and sighed.

"I still think it's the best choice, but actually getting me there is going to be difficult."

"Your gear does make you rather distinctive," Kastan said apologetically.

"Then it's a good thing I've been keeping the mask on me at all times, isn't it?" Entreri said.

Drizzt gave the other man a sharp look. "That would be a most excellent solution," he agreed, after a moment of hesitation. He could not afford to reject such a useful tool simply because of how it had last been used.

"Mask?" Kastan asked.

"An enchanted mask that allows the one wearing it to change their appearance completely, including clothing and gear," Drizzt answered.

"Oh. That is a good solution. You can use the mask to become an ordinary male, and then the three of us will head for the Clawrift like we're going to report to Jarlaxle, except we'll continue to the north wall instead, and make our way to the tunnel."

"Exactly," Entreri said.

Four days later, Jarlaxle tipped back in his desk chair and contemplated the... interview... he had just had with Triel.

Despite a very thorough search of the city, and even a day's travel into the surrounding tunnels, no sign of Drizzt Do'Urden had been found, leaving his sister immensely frustrated.

Though, he mused, some of that was likely due to the fact that she had had to admit that Vierna must have been responsible for Drizzt's escape.

But more pertinently, he had been able to tell her with complete honesty that none of his men had found so much as a hint towards where the renegade had gone.

After all, Entreri was not actually a member of Bregan D'aerthe, and Kastan had—deliberately—never been properly inducted.

And though those two had been seen with another drow male, first heading towards the Clawrift, and somewhat later, entering one of the side tunnels near Tier Breche, that male had been in typical drow gear, and his weapons had been a longsword and dagger instead of Drizzt's scimitars, so he very clearly couldn't have been the renegade.

After allowing all four of the chair's legs to touch the floor again, Jarlaxle got up and left his office to start letting his men know that Triel had called the search off.

Nine days after the trio had left Menzoberranzan, in the tunnels under Mithral Hall, Drizzt and Kastan prepared to part ways with Entreri.

Those nine days had not been untroubled—both learning that Kastan was his son, and putting together what Kastan and Entreri knew to realize that Menzoberranzan planned to invade the Hall had shaken Drizzt—but they had certainly been less stressful than the ones that had preceded them.

But there had been good moments on the journey as well. In addition to the pleasure of getting to know his son, there had been a joyous reunion with Belwar, when the trio encountered a svirfneblin mining party he was leading—which had also enabled Drizzt to pass on warning of Menzoberranzan's plans, so the residents of Blingdenstone could make preparations for their own safety.

And after they had entered the tunnels under the Hall, Entreri had provided the unexpected but welcome news that not only had he not killed Regis, the halfling appeared to have been found by their other friends, as he was not where Entreri had left him, and the bindings the assassin had used were discarded at that spot.

And now, standing on the ledge where a tunnel opened onto the mountainside, the trio was having some parting words.

After expressing a heartfelt desire to never have to deal with drow again—though carefully phrased in such a way as to not include Drizzt and Kastan in that statement, Drizzt noted—Entreri started making his way down from the ledge.

Drizzt watched the assassin's progress in the pre-dawn light for a while, then turned to Kastan. "Time for us to go up the mountain, my son."

"Up the mountain?" Kastan repeated, his puzzlement clear on his face. "Not through the tunnels?"

"I feel it would currently be unwise to attempt to bring another drow in through the tunnels," Drizzt replied.

After a moment in which he was clearly thinking it through, Kastan sighed. "You're probably right. Where are we going, then?"

"I have a cave up on the west side of the mountain, that I use as a retreat when the rock becomes too much for me to bear.

"We should, I believe, be able to reach it before the light becomes too much for you, and then I can send Guen down the mountain to let my friends know I have returned."

Kastan nodded, then turned to face the mountainside. "Then let's get started."

Catti-brie had only just left the Hall, intending—as she had done so many times in the last few weeks—to go up to Drizzt's cave to offer some prayers to Mielikki for his safe return, when a roar from further up the mountainside drew not just her attention, but that of the dwarves standing guard at this entrance.

And as all of them looked up towards where the roar had come from, a large black panther came bounding down the slope.

Catti could not help but gape for a moment, which proved to be all the time needed for the panther to reach her and give her a friendly lick.

Shaking off her stunned surprise, Catti threw her arms around Guen with a cry of joy.

"Oh, I've missed ye, me friend," she said. "And sure'n as yer here, Drizzt is safely back."

Guen gave a pleased mrowl, then pulled back from the hug and looked at Catti, looked up the slope, then looked at Catti again.

"Me ranger's up in his cave then," Catti asked, "and wants me to come up there?"

At Guen's affirmative chirp, Catti turned to look at the guards, but before she could say anything, the leader preempted her.

"Runner in to the Hall for th' King and Rumblebelly, an' one down tae Settlestone for Wulfgar, aye?"

"Aye," Catti agreed. Then she turned her attention back to Guen, gave the panther a scratch behind the ears, and headed for the beginning of the trail up to Drizzt's cave.

It was getting on towards noon when Drizzt heard footsteps coming towards the cave. Turning to his son, he said, "I'm going to go out to greet whichever of my friends this is. You should likely shade your eyes before I open the windbreak."

"Of course, Father."

And once Kastan had done so, Drizzt opened the windbreak just far enough for him to slip out, pulling it as closed as he could manage from the outside after he had.

Turning to look down the slope, he was quite pleased to see that it was Catti-brie who was coming up the trail beside Guen. He knew that all of his friends were likely to be somewhat unsettled by him having returned with another drow, but Catti was the one who was least likely to make a fuss about it.

Quiet scuffing ahead of her drew Catti-brie's attention up from watching where she put her feet, and when she saw Drizzt standing just outside the cave—which had the windbreak pulled across the opening for some reason—she broke out in a smile, and took the last few yards at a pace just short of a run.

Catti's hug was just short of a tackle, and Drizzt was very glad he had braced himself for it when she had sped up.

"Ach, me ranger, but sure'n yer a sight for sore eyes," she cried.

"I am equally glad to see you again, my friend," Drizzt replied, returning the hug just as fiercely.

Catti-brie kept up the hug for longer than she usually would, just reveling in the solid proof that her friend was back, was safe, but eventually she pulled back and looked Drizzt in the eyes.

"I thought ye might have come up here tae counter havin' spent so long under stone," she said, "but there'd be nae reason for ye tae have th' windbreak closed when yer not in the cave, if'n that were the case.

"So why did ye choose tae come up here and send Guen down for us?"

Drizzt returned her gaze with equal seriousness. "One of the people who helped me to escape is like I am, and I did not think it would be a good idea to attempt to bring him in through the tunnels, or to approach either of the gates with him before the guards had been warned of his presence."

"Aye, that'd've gone poorly," Catti-brie agreed. "But me ranger, it's fer certain sure ye are that he's like you?"

"Eilistraee guided him to where I was hiding while I worked on remembering the ways out of Menzoberranzan," Drizzt replied calmly, knowing she only asked out of concern for him. "If he was not like me, he would not have been able to hear Her."

"That's well enough, then. Bring me in and introduce us?"

"Of course."

Introductions between Catti-brie and Kastan had gone well enough, though Drizzt could tell that Kastan's exact relationship to him had startled her.

But she had set it aside well enough to demand the tale of how he had escaped, and Drizzt had obliged.

And now, as he wrapped it up, he sobered greatly. "For all that I am now safe, there is more danger coming. Between them, Entreri and Kastan knew enough for me to be certain that Menzoberranzan intends to invade the Hall."

"Aye, we know," Catti said. "At the most, we've got a week and a half or so, before their forces arrive."

Drizzt could not help but gape at her for that statement, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Kastan was doing the same.

"I... what... How do you know?!"

"Ach, that's a bit of a tale, me ranger," Catti replied. "And if'n the both of you'll settle down, I'll tell it."

Drizzt stretched, forcing himself to relax, and once both he and Kastan had assumed comfortable poses for listening, Catti-brie began to spin out the tale of what had been happening on the Surface.

senmut

Raising a Resistance (4,575 words) by

ilyena_sylph and

senmut
Chapters: 1/1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Relationship: Vierna Do'Urden & Zaknafein Do'Urden
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Ensemble cast
Additional Tags: Canon-typical Violence
Series: Part 2 of Oblodra Gloom
Summary:

Drizzt is growing up under the care of his father and sister... and the band they live with

( fic this way )

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V
* Links will work as parts are revealed

Current Mood: working
Current Music: "Suzanne" - Leonard Cohen

senmut

The Coming of Gloom (4414 words) by

ilyena_sylph &

senmut
Chapters: 1/1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Minor Character Deaths
Relationship: Malice Do'Urden/Zaknafein Do'Urden
Characters: The Do'Urden Family & Ensemble
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Ensemble Cast, Positive Malice/Zak
Series: Part 1 of Oblodra Gloom
Summary:

In Menzoberranzan, a grasping matron makes a devil's deal with a dragon that had already destroyed one drow city. Another begins to plot for how to rise above what that meant for all of her plans.

Notes:

As ever, we are choosing a longer time span between Malice's children, and thus continuity is not going to quite match the Official Time Line. Including, we discovered, a discrepancy with when Mithral Hall was taken versus when it was described as being invaded in the original canon.

( fic this way )

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V
* Links will work as parts are revealed

somariel

Adjusting to Family Found (2,338 words) by somariel
Chapters: 2/2
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Past Rape/Non-con
Relationship: Drizzt Do'Urden & Kastan Do'Urden, Drizzt Do'Urden & Vierna Do'Urden
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Kastan Do'Urden, Korvallen Senahye, Alustriel Silverhand, Vierna Do'Urden, Qilué; Veladorn
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Unplanned Parenthood, Family Reunions, reconciling with estranged family
Summary:

Now that his son is clear of hostile magic, Drizzt can start properly adjusting to the changes having a son brings.

Later, while they're at the Promenade, it turns out there are some more familial adjustments to be made.

A continuation of senmut's fic Prisoner of the Dwarves

Beginning note

Past rape is only implied by reference, but is much clearer in inspiring fic, so I felt it was worth warning for.

Chapter One: Needed Adjustments

Once breakfast with Alustriel was over, Drizzt led Kastan to the public practice yards for their spar. And as he had expected would be the case, the spectacle of him sparring with a near-equal drew many spectators. So when the spar was finished, Drizzt started introducing his son to the various Knights and squires that had been watching. After the introductions were done, they returned to Drizzt's rooms for their rest.

Upon their waking in the early afternoon, Drizzt brought Kastan to the Spell Tower for more introductions. And while Niska and Taern were the only two that he had actually planned, Drizzt did not hesitate to make introductions when they passed others in the Tower's hallways.

On leaving the Spell Tower, Drizzt guided his son to the Palace library. And once there, they settled down to continue Kastan's lessons in reading and writing.

Continuing Kastan's lessons in the library rather than his rooms had been a calculated choice on Drizzt's part, balancing Kastan's comfort against the curiosity of others as word of his presence spread. But in the late afternoon, perhaps an hour before sunset, it was Korvallen who approached them.

Once Drizzt indicated that the current lesson had reached a stopping point, Kor spoke. "Drizzt, Alustriel wants to know if you'll accompany her to evenfeast and a few events after, if I stay with Kastan?"

"Kastan?" Drizzt asked.

"Go, Father," Kastan said. "I could see this morning that you find... peace... being with her. I will be fine with Korvallen."

"Alright," Drizzt said. Then he turned his attention back to Korvallen and asked "Her rooms?"

"Yes."

Drizzt stood up then, and as he moved away, heading for the door, he heard Korvallen asking if Kastan wished to remain in the library, or go somewhere else.

Back in her rooms after evenfeast, while she was changing into a gown more appropriate for the events she planned to attend tonight, Alustriel broached a potentially delicate matter with Drizzt.

"I noticed, when you introduced Kastan this morning, no family name was used. Does he not want the Do'Urden name, or is it simply that you haven't offered it to him yet?"

"Haven't offered it to him yet," Drizzt replied. "I was waiting for him to be declared clear of hostile magic, but he—both of us, really—needed soothing after hearing what Laeral removed, and then we ended up talking about other things last night."

"You should make sure to do it once you return tonight, then," Alustriel said. "With your name becoming known as that of a good drow, Kastan bearing the same family name will smooth his path."

Drizzt sighed. "That's not a factor I had considered, but you are undoubtedly correct."

When he returned to his rooms roughly an hour before midnight—earlier than usual for having accompanied Alustriel, but still fairly late by objective standards—Drizzt sent Korvallen off to rest, then sat down on the divan and gestured for Kastan to join him.

Once his son had, Drizzt took a deep breath, turned to face him, and began to speak.

"While the society we both were raised in does not allow family names to be passed along the male line, things are different on the Surface.

"I have kept the Do'Urden name all these years, despite my rejection of its source, as a connection to my own father, who also bore it. And just as you inherited your differences from me, my own came from him, though his were not as stark as ours.

"In light of that, do you wish to also bear the Do'Urden name?"

"Do I...? Yes!" Kastan didn't know why he was blinking back tears when he was so happy!

"Tears of joy, my son," Drizzt said.

Kastan felt his cheeks heat. He hadn't realized he'd actually said that. "Sometimes, imagining being a free Do'Urden was what helped me keep going. But I didn't want to ask."

"Oh, my son," Drizzt sighed, pulling Kastan into a hug. "The only reason I didn't offer it earlier is because I was waiting until I could be certain it was safe."

The sequence of sunrise vigil, breakfast with Alustriel, practice yards, rest, lessons for Kastan, then Korvallen—or sometimes Kolarven or, more rarely, Niska—staying with Kastan while Drizzt accompanied Alustriel to evenfeast and some events quickly became a pattern, which held steady until the night that Mystra was injured.

That night, Drizzt was not willing to leave Alustriel, given what she said had happened. So before going to speak with Ellorie, he took the time to write a note for Korvallen, which he then asked the page to deliver along with the messages for Taern and the event Alustriel had been going to attend.

The next morning, after settling Kastan with Kolarven, Korvallen headed for Alustriel's rooms On his arrival, he was informed that they were also waiting for Taern, so he took a seat at the dining table and impatiently waited to learn what had caused Drizzt to send last night's note of 'Something happened with Mystra, staying the night with Alustriel, come for briefing over breakfast.'

Taern arrived shortly after, and though breakfast had not yet arrived, the briefing began.

The news Alustriel had to share was certainly quite concerning, and Korvallen was about to start pondering adjustments to guard schedules when Drizzt mentioned personally carrying the news to the Hall.

"My friend," Korvallen said, "while good faith does require us to let the Hall know, there is no need for you to be the messenger."

"But-"

"No. If you truly feel it is best for the news to come from you, we can send an official messenger to carry a letter from you."

For a moment, it looked like Drizzt was going to continue to argue, but Taern and Alustriel's strong agreement caused him to sigh and acquiesce.

The four of them then settled down to eat the meal that had just been brought, though discussion of necessary precautions was the subject of conversation, with a brief detour for Korvallen to convince Drizzt that Kastan would understand him sticking close to Alustriel today.

After that day, things mostly returned to the established pattern—at least until the gods were restored to their proper places.

When that happened, Drizzt allowed himself the one night to share in Silverymoon's—and Alustriel's—joy, then late the following afternoon, he and Kastan set out for Mithral Hall.

For all that the dwarves did not rely highly on the power the gods could give, the mood at the Hall was nearly as jubilant when Drizzt confirmed that the gods had been restored.

So it was not until after things had settled down somewhat that Drizzt had the chance to properly introduce his son to his friends there.

Two weeks at the Hall had given Drizzt's friends time to reassure themselves as to his wellbeing and get to know Kastan at least somewhat, but between his own desire to bring Kastan to the Promenade as soon as reasonable and the little signs he could see that showed Kastan still had a ways to go before most of the residents of the Hall trusted him as much as Drizzt, the ranger knew it was time for the two of them to leave.

His friends reminded that he was unsure of when he would return, Drizzt headed back to Silverymoon with Kastan.

And after a few days in the city, Alustriel gladly teleported them to the Promenade.

Chapter Two: Unexpected Adjustments

"Walk with me a bit, Vierna," Natoth said as he came up beside her in the corridors of the temple.

She looked warily at him, but inclined her head, and changed course to match him.

"Given that you have mentioned before that your brother had a significant role in starting the questioning that let you accept our Lord, what would you say to him if you had the chance?" Natoth asked her.

And as far as Vierna could tell, he was sincerely interested, not seeking information he could use against her.

But the wariness that had been ingrained in her by her time in Menzoberranzan still pushed her to question his reasons. "Why do you ask?"

"Our Lord tells me that your brother is currently at the Promenade of the Dark Maiden," Natoth replied. "And one of their trade caravans will be arriving in Skullport soon. So if you wish to write him a letter, I will personally pass it to the caravan master."

While meeting with the caravan master upon the trade caravan's return was usually a simple administrative task, sometimes there ended up being other concerns to address.

So when Qilué asked "Is there anything else you need to bring to my attention?", Shana's answer of "Yes" was not truly unexpected.

But being handed a sealed letter addressed to Drizzt, that Shana said had been given to her by a masked priest of Vhaeraun, was very much not what Qilué had expected the additional matter to be.

"Did the priest say anything to indicate what the letter is about?" she asked.

"He did," Shana replied. Closing her eyes, she recited the priest's explanation. "'A message for Drizzt Do'Urden, from a fellow cleric of my Lord, who rejected the Spider out of love for family after Drizzt escaped.'"

"That is... odd," Qilué said. "Odd enough that I am going to be very thorough about checking for traps before I give it to Drizzt."

"Agreed," Shana said. "The only reason I didn't discard it before we left Skullport is because that mask can't be faked."

Drizzt had listened to Qilué's explanation about the letter with a growing bewilderment—because he could not think of anyone Vhaeraun might have stolen from Menzoberranzan who would have a reason to contact him—and then went to find a well-concealed place to read the letter in solitude.

That place ended up being a ledge high up in the rothe cavern, and once he had settled himself, he opened the letter and began to read.

'Drizzt,

I am so very sorry. Sorry that it took seeing your reaction to something I took for granted for me to start questioning what we were taught. Sorry that it took our father's murder for me to actually move from questioning to true realization of how wrong Llothite society is. Sorry that that realization left my foundations so shattered that leaving to join you didn't occur to me until long after the opportunity was gone.'

This... was from Vierna? That was hard to believe, but the use of 'our father' left no other possibilities. And the apologies she gave certainly laid out a reasonable path by which she could have come to follow Vhaeraun. Curious now, Drizzt resumed reading.

'Vhaeraun supported me while I rebuilt my foundations, and when the House fell, I escaped with the aid of the leader of Bregan D'aerthe, who then made arrangements to get me to the Temple of Vhaeraun in Skullport.

While I will understand if you no longer wish to call me 'sister', I would like to see you again, as I have always cared about you, even if I didn't truly understand how deep my feelings ran until after you had left.

Vierna Do'Urden, Silent Sable, Skullport'

After folding the letter and sticking it in his belt pouch, Drizzt tucked his knees up under his chin, wrapped his arms around his legs, and started to carefully think things over.

His heart—the part of him that had never been able to fully let go of his softer feelings for the sister who had raised him—wanted the letter to be true, was insisting he should head for Skullport as soon as he could.

But his more rational and analytical side was urging caution, reminding him that there were ways others could have learned of the events referred to in the letter, and even if it was true, his responsibilities to Kastan made a solo trip through Undermountain quite unwise.

Sighing, he jumped down from the ledge and headed off to find Qilué. She should at least be able to tell him if such a conversion seemed realistic.

Qilué had, on the basis of the apologies offered, felt that it was entirely possible for the letter to be true, so after some further discussion—with both her and Kastan—Drizzt had decided to accompany the next trade caravan.

Now, standing off to the side as the traders unloaded the wagon, Drizzt looked around, sincerely hoping that the drow he had seen carefully watching the caravan as it entered the market square, only to leave swiftly after locking eyes with him, was going to let Vierna know he had come.

And even as he thought that, a slight disturbance in the same direction that drow had gone in turned out to be people making way for four drow—two in masks and clerics' robes, two very obviously guards.

The quartet approached the caravan carefully, moving so they were coming directly towards Drizzt, and then, at a reasonable conversational distance, they stopped.

"Hello," Drizzt said, doing his best to keep his wariness out of his voice.

One of the clerics—female, by the way the robes hung on their body—stepped forward and pushed back her mask. "Hello, little brother," Vierna said.

Drizzt had agreed to come to the temple for the much needed conversation between the two of them, contingent on Vierna's promise that it would be finished in time for him to return to the Promenade with the caravan, which she willingly gave.

Said conversation had been highly fraught, but it had ended with both of them in a much better place regarding their feelings for the other.

So when Vierna returned to her rooms after seeing Drizzt out of the temple, she sat down at her desk and started writing a letter to Jarlaxle.

If her nephew's mother had survived the attempt to invade the dwarven hall, it was time to dust off some old ideas and start planning a murder.

somariel

Stolen Children Bringing Hope (7,444 words) by somariel
Chapters: 1/1
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Relationship: Drizzt Do'Urden & Zaknafein Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden & Zaknafein Do'Urden
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Inthylyn Aerasumé, Lilinthar Aerasumé, Eilistraee, Mielikki, Qilué Veladorn, Vierna Do'Urden, Elkantar Iluim, Bruenor Battlehammer
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence
Summary:

Vhaeraun stole Vierna from His mother before she was even old enough to enter formal training as a priestess. Zaknafein stole his son away from Menzoberranzan before Drizzt had reached the age of twelve. Now events are moving and both of Zak's children are bringing hope to others.

A continuation of senmut's fic The Time Zak Stole Drizzt.

Stolen Children Bringing Hope

The sharing of tales lasted for a while, but eventually, Thyl and Lin could tell that Zak truly needed time to think about what they had told him, so when Lin wrapped up his current tale, Thyl stretched and said, “We’ve likely taken up enough of your time for today, but if you wish, we can come back in… a week or so, maybe?… with a map, so we can show you where the places we’ve talked about are in relation to here.”

Drizzt frowned at those words, and oh, that reminded Thyl so much of Del not wanting storytime to end, but Zak nodded sharply. “That would be useful, yes,” the elder drow said.

“Then we will take our leave and see you in a week,” Lin said.

He and Thyl got up from where they had been sitting on the ground and walked away. However, they only went far enough to be sure they were out of earshot of the pair, then stopped. “Time to talk to Aunt?” Lin asked, looking at his twin.

“Yes,” Thyl agreed.

Qilué was dealing with some necessary correspondence when the sending anklet tingled, just before Thyl said, ~Aunt, Lin and I are at the portal. Can you send someone for us? We have a tale you need to hear.~

~Of course, nephew,~ she replied. ~Someone will be there soon.~

Setting aside the letter she had been writing, she left her office and headed out into the public areas of the caverns that she and her Lady’s other followers were working on turning into a refuge for all goodly drow.

Sending the first adult that she encountered—Xinval, as it happened—to bring her nephews through the portal, Qilué then went to the area that had been set up for food preparation and storage, and gathered some refreshments for the coming conversation.

She ended up meeting Thyl and Lin on the way back to her quarters, and once they were all settled in the sitting room, with the refreshments in easy reach, she asked, “So what have you found that I need to hear about?”

The tale that followed, of a pair of drow who had been living peacefully on the surface for a few years, but who knew little to nothing of her Lady and were wholly unaware of the larger community of Eilistraee’s followers, left her feeling confused. And taking a moment to commune with her Lady only increased that confusion, because She had no knowledge of the pair either, despite that Thyl and Lin were quite certain that the younger of the pair was firmly good.

Coming back out of that communion, Qilué asked, “Would the two of you be willing to anchor for my Lady when you see this pair again, so She can investigate?”

“Of course,” Lin answered.

As they had promised, a week after their initial meeting, the pair of half-human faerie returned with a map. And after a long session of discussing distances, travel times, terrain, and potential threats along the way to the two places that the pair had recommended as safer places to raise his son, Zak gave a deep sigh. “I think the… Promenade, you called it?… would be the better place for us to go,” he said. “It’s further away than ‘Silverymoon’, but we’d be among other drow, instead of being oddities.”

“The Promenade of the Dark Maiden, in full,” Thyl said, “but it’s usually shortened to just ‘the Promenade’, yes.”

Lin sighed. “As much as I’d like to say that no one in Silverymoon would ever treat the two of you as oddities, I’d be lying if I did, even if I am certain that most residents would get past that stage fairly quickly.”

“Not going to start the journey now, though,” Zak said. “Too close to ‘winter’ for me to feel comfortable traveling that far.”

“Completely understandable,” Lin said. “There’s rarely any good reason to leave a proven shelter for a long journey, when winter is coming.”

“Speaking of winter, though,” Thyl added, “would you like for us to bring you more winter clothes, or supplies, or even just for us to check in on you throughout the winter to make sure that you haven’t developed any new needs we could help with?”

Zak frowned. Warmer clothing would be welcome, as well as dried meat—because Horim had been correct in saying that fishing wasn’t always reliable during the winter, and not having to deal with the cold water would be better for them—but… “Why?” he asked. “What do you get from doing that?”

Right, it took time for newly free drow to get used to aid being freely given, without anything expected in return. And for all that Zak and Drizzt had been on the surface for a few years, they hadn’t had the experiences needed for that.

Thyl did not sigh, but he wanted to. “Caring for and protecting the younger generation is something we value strongly, and wish to assist you in doing so for your son, having seen that you hold those same values in regards to him, despite all that the society you were born to does to discourage such.”

Zak could… sort of understand that, but it still wasn’t anything tangible. “But how do you—or those you have a duty to—benefit from helping me care for Drizzt?”

~Let me try?~ Lin sent, seeing that Thyl was having trouble finding a way to frame things that would be acceptable to Zaknafein.

~If you have an idea, go ahead,~ Thyl replied.

“Did Horim tell you anything about what rangers—like he is—actually do?” Lin asked.

“He said that it was his duty to deal with that wyrmling,” Zak replied, curious as to how that had any bearing on his question, “but he never explained why.”

Well, that made this a little harder, but it wasn’t like Lin was unable to explain what a ranger did. “It was his duty to deal with the wyrmling because rangers are guardians and protectors of the wilds, who have a duty to deal with unnatural beings, and evil ones that pose a threat to the wilds. Many rangers will also deal with threats to travelers, as well as any threats that hamlets, villages, and even towns, cannot handle on their own.”

“That… makes sense,” Zak said, “but I can’t see what it has to do with your offer to aid us.”

“I’m getting there,” Lin replied. “One of the things that Horim said, when he was speaking of the two of you, was that he feels that Drizzt hears the whisper of the wilds as much as he does. And from what we have seen of your son so far, we both feel that he is a ‘wild-called’ ranger in the making.”

Picking up the thread of the explanation, Thyl continued, “A wild-called ranger is one who is even more in harmony with the wilds than an ordinary ranger, having been gifted by the wilds with the talents other rangers must call on their patron to use, though those talents do become more potent if the ranger has a deity’s favor.”

“Wild-called rangers are rare, even among surface elves,” Lin added. “For Drizzt to be one, when he is a drow… that is unheard of. So how can we not offer you aid, when your son has such a valuable gift, especially when our mother’s city holds rangers in high regard and protects one of the most sacred places belonging to one of the common ranger deities?”

While Zak still wasn’t pleased by the explanation, it was at least one he could understand. Thyl and Lin saw potential in Drizzt, of a sort that they had been raised to value, and felt they had a religious duty to help protect and nurture it, for the future benefits it would bring.

“Very well,” he sighed. “I accept your offer.”

Eilistraee was now very confused, as even with Thyl and Lin anchoring for her, She had still been barely able to perceive the younger of the two drow they had met with. It was at least understandable why the father had escaped Her notice, being firmly neutral, but what little She had been able to perceive of the son had confirmed his goodly nature, so She truly should have known of him.

However, the fact that the boy was a wild-called ranger gave Her a new avenue of investigation, so She went through the portal from Arvandor to the House of Nature and sought out Mielikki.

Mielikki was talking with Gwaeron and Lurue when She sensed a minor disturbance—of the sort that was the equivalent of a polite knock—on the boundary of Her personal domain within the House of Nature. Swiftly excusing herself from the conversation, She teleported to Her domain and made her way to the point along the borders where the disturbance had occurred.

And while Eilistraee had certainly not been among those Mielikki had thought might be seeking entry to Her domain, the Dark Maiden certainly had a reason to seek Her out. So once she had invited the other goddess in, and they had settled comfortably in a clearing, Mielikki asked, “Have You come to speak with Me about Drizzt Do’Urden?”

Eilistraee blinked twice in mild surprise. “Well, yes, though I was not aware that You specifically were who I needed to speak with about him.”

“Oh?” If Eilistraee had not been aware of Mielikki’s own interest in the young drow, then why had the other goddess sought Her out?

“For some reason, I am unable to properly perceive him, to the point that I was wholly unaware of him until My Chosen passed on the tale of him and his father that some of her nephews had shared with her. But since he is a wild-called ranger, I thought it was possible that someone among the nature deities had accidentally blocked Me with a protection intended to block My mother.”

“That he is blocked from You so thoroughly puzzles Me,” Mielikki replied, “as while I am holding protections around him, I made sure to craft them such that You were explicitly exempted from their effects.” She hummed thoughtfully, considering Who might wish to conceal such a goodly drow from the Dark Maiden’s notice, and one name immediately came to mind. Given the nature of the Dark Seldarine’s banishment once Eilistraee had chosen to follow them, there was even an easy way for Mielikki to test what She thought might be happening.

“You’ve thought of something,” Eilistraee said, noticing the change in the Forest Queen’s expression.

“Maybe.” Mielikki focused within Herself and… shifted…, switching to Her aspect as Khalreshaar. Then she shifted Her attention to the Material Plane, focusing on the wild-called soul of Drizzt Do’Urden. And while she was still able to see him, it was difficult, the connection She had strengthened over the years since She had first noticed him fraying with every second She held this aspect. A shift back to Her true form, and the connection was back to its usual strength.

“Well. It seems that someone, most likely Your mother, wished him hidden from You, but could not achieve that without hiding him from all the other elven deities.”

Mielikki’s shift to Her half-elven aspect had made Eilistraee quite curious as to what the Forest Queen had thought of, but that… that made sense in a way that left Eilistraee concerned over Her mother’s plans for the boy. “I must tell My Chosen of this, as his father has decided that, in the spring, they will go to the stronghold My followers are building in Undermountain, and it is not safe to allow such a shroud to cross the wards there.”

Qilué had passed word of the shroud on Drizzt and what needed to be done about it on to Thyl and Lin, so when they returned with the clothes and food that Zak had requested, they told him about the matter. He had been quite displeased to hear of the Spider Queen’s interference in his son’s life, not much happier about Mielikki’s ‘meddling’—as he called it—regardless of Her intentions, and still more displeased about the need for further divine meddling to remove the shroud, though he did acknowledge the necessity.

Biweekly check-ins had been agreed upon, though Drizzt’s curiosity and desire to learn all he could quickly led to the check-ins turning into weekly lessons in wilderness skills. And while it had been Drizzt’s drive to learn that had initiated the lessons, Zak also tended to join in, his practical nature seeing the value in both of them gaining such skills, especially with the journey they would be taking in the spring.

The speed with which Drizzt picked up everything Thyl and Lin taught the pair of drow was always impressive, and sometimes truly surprising, even accounting for his youth making the learning easier. Thyl and Lin ended up concluding that it had to be another manifestation of Drizzt being a wild-called ranger, and even Zak eventually came to agree.

When the days started getting warmer as well as longer, Drizzt announced that he wanted to have a true test of how well he had learned all that Thyl and Lin had taught him. And after some serious negotiations between all four of them, it was agreed that they would all spend two weeks following the nearby Goblintide up into the Frost Hills, with Drizzt taking the lead in all matters, after which Thyl and Lin would teleport them back to Zak and Drizzt’s shelter.

And while the expedition did go well, satisfying Drizzt’s need for a test, it had also turned up the curiosity of an above-ground, abandoned dwarf city near the mountain known as Fourth Peak. They had not explored it for long, as Thyl and Lin knew that there were cursed ruins in the Frost Hills, and did not want to risk that their discovery was among them, but both they and Drizzt made careful note of its position in relation to both Fourth Peak and the Goblintide.

On Thyl and Lin’s next visit after the expedition, the subject of conversation came around to Zak and Drizzt’s upcoming journey to the Promenade, and when it would be safe for them to start it. Discussion of potential routes revealed that Zak had taken their warnings about Nesmé seriously enough to feel that it was worth the extra traveling time to begin by heading west to the Long Road in order to avoid Nesmé’s territory as completely as possible.

Knowing that, Thyl and Lin were able to say that it would be necessary for Zak and Drizzt to wait until the spring floods were at least mostly over before starting the trek, as there were two major streams they would have to cross in order to reach the Long Road. Zak was not entirely happy about the need to wait for an event that could not be predicted, but he did acknowledge that Thyl and Lin were the ones who knew the dangers, and their promise to check the state of the streams every week placated him.

Six weeks later, Thyl and Lin reported that the floods had subsided enough that travelers on foot would be able to cross the streams if they were careful. They also brought a map showing the area from the Spine all the way to Waterdeep, and two packs filled with travel rations.

“We’ve marked both the location of the portal to the Promenade and the more common locations used by its residents for the full moon rituals,” Thyl said as he handed the map to Zak, “but for the safety of the Promenade’s residents, we used a spell to make it so that only you and Drizzt can see those marks.”

Somewhat more than a month and a half after Zak and Drizzt had begun their journey, they reached the general vicinity of the portal to the Promenade. However, for all that he felt the Promenade was a better option than Silverymoon, Zak was still wary of other drow, and decided that he wanted to watch one of the full moon rituals, so he could see how these drow actually interacted with each other, before he and Drizzt approached them.

A bit less than a week later, Drizzt sat concealed in a tree at the edge of a clearing, watching a large group of drow dance and sing and spar under the full moon. He knew his father was wary of joining other drow again, but none of the ones in the clearing made his skin itch. Which, given that his father was the only person he had met before their arrival on the Surface that didn’t produce that reaction, had to mean that these drow were like him and his father!

Not willing to wait any longer for his father’s signal, when the song was so beautiful and pure, faintly calling to him in a way he didn’t really understand, Drizzt slipped down from his perch and stepped out into the clearing.

“Hello,” he called.

Zak cursed silently when his son stepped into the clearing, but he had halfway been expecting such an event to happen, even as he had hoped that it wouldn’t, so rather than immediately follow Drizzt, he chose to wait just a little longer on revealing himself.

Qilué had been just as startled as everyone else when a young voice called out greetings in Common, but turning to see that the speaker was a young drow—younger than Ysolde, even, she thought—at least relieved her concern that they had been discovered by someone who would reveal their presence to those distrustful of drow.

“Hello, young one,” she said, stepping closer to the youth, though still remaining out of easy reach for an attack with the blades he wore. “My name is Qilué Veladorn. What is yours?”

“Drizzt Do’Urden.”

“Ah, then you are the young drow that Thyl and Lin spoke to me about. They also spoke of your father, however. Is he near, or did something happen to him during your journey?”

Well, that was as good a cue as any for him to reveal himself, Zak felt, especially since the drow in the clearing had not only not reacted in any hostile manner, their leader herself had expressed concern—odd as that was to him—that something might have happened to him.

So he slipped down from the tree he was in—nowhere near as silently as Drizzt had managed—and stepped out into the clearing himself. “I am here, Lady.”

“You are Zaknafein, then, yes?”

“That is correct.”

“I am sure that you, at least, have questions that you want answered before you and your son enter the Promenade.” Qilué reached out to where Elkantar had come up beside her, and took his hand. “If you find it suitable, my consort and I will do our best to answer them, while the rest of our people continue with the celebration of our Lady.”

“I’d like Drizzt to stay with me for now, but yes, that does work.”

“Of course.”

The four of them gathered at the edge of the clearing even as the rest of the drow resumed what they had been doing before Drizzt interrupted things, and by the time the moon set, Zak’s questions had all been answered, the Spider Queen’s shroud had been removed from Drizzt, and both of them were ready to enter what would now be their home.

While Vierna had not dared to try and locate Drizzt and the Weapon Master while she was still in Menzoberranzan, she had hoped to be able to do so after settling into her Lord’s temple in Skullport. But for some reason, she proved to be just as unable to scry for Drizzt as for Zaknafein—more so really, as she had at least been able to determine that Zak was on the Surface, but scrying for Drizzt got no results whatsoever.

She kept trying again periodically, in case the protections had been removed, but as the months wore on without success, her frustration grew.

And then, roughly nine months after she had arrived in Skullport, ~I have news for you~ brushed across her mind as she was settling down to sleep, followed by a shadow forming in her bedchamber, a shadow that had Vhaeraun’s mask where the face would be.

“What news do you bring me, my Lord?” she asked.

“It seems that your brother and the Weapon Master have managed to make their way to the community of My sister’s followers that lives in Undermountain.”

Vierna smiled widely. That was significant news indeed. Only… “May I ask how You learned they had done so?”

“A reasonable request,” Vhaeraun said. “I have been keeping some of My attention out for them, and My notice was drawn by what turned out to be the removal of a shroud My mother had placed on your brother, to conceal him from the notice of the rest of Us.”

Vierna was already aware that the Promenade of the Dark Maiden sent trade caravans to Skullport on a bimonthly schedule, so now that she knew that Drizzt and Zak were there, she arranged for some of the Temple’s guards to go look for Zak among the caravan guards when the next one arrived.

Zak had not been with that caravan, nor had he been with the one after that, which meant that Vierna was going to have to get someone to approach the next caravan that came, in order pass along her request to speak with him. And while she would like to deliver the request personally, she knew it would be better to have one of the male guards do so.

Given the careful observation by other drow that the last two caravans had reported, Elkantar had felt it would be a good idea to send some extra guards with the next one, and had chosen to lead the caravan guards himself.

That choice now seemed to be paying off, as a male drow, wearing a cloak pin in the shape of Vhaeraun’s mask, approached him directly while the traders were unloading the wagon. As the other drow’s hands were well clear of his weapons, Elkantar did not reach for his own, though he did shift to make sure he could draw them quickly, should it prove necessary.

Tebryn noticed the shift in posture of the Eilistraeean he had chosen to approach, and stopped outside of easy attack range, though still within reasonable conversational distance.

The clear indication that the Vhaeraunite did not wish conflict either was at least somewhat reassuring, Elkantar felt, but he remained alert even as he asked, “What do you want?”

“One of my Lord’s clerics wishes to speak with Zaknafein.”

Well, that would certainly explain why the last two caravans had been being observed so carefully. The cleric must have been hoping that Zak would be one of the caravan guards. It also raised the question of how the cleric had known that Zaknafein was at the Promenade, but since Elkantar didn’t think it likely that a mere messenger would know the answer to that, he settled for asking “Did this cleric say what they wish to speak with him about?”

“A family matter.” Tebryn was quite curious as to what sort of family matter the Redeemed Shade could need to discuss with an Eilistraeean, but he knew better than to ask.

‘A family matter?’ Elkantar knew of exactly one other member of House Do’Urden that Zak would have any desire to speak with. And given that Zak believed that member was wholly lost to the Spider Queen, this was most likely a trap of some sort, but it was worth finding out how well it was baited. “What is this cleric’s name?” Elkantar asked, not bothering to hide his suspicion.

“Vierna.”

Elkantar concealed his surprise by main force of will. That was the name of Zak’s daughter, which meant that there was a slim chance that Vhaeraun had, somehow, stolen her from the Spider Queen, though a trap still seemed more likely. But if they knew enough to use Vierna’s name, Zaknafein himself should be the one to decide how to handle this. “I will pass the message along.”

As Elkantar had suspected would be the case, Zaknafein’s reaction to the request passed along by the Vhaeraunite drow was well beyond suspicious, and solidly into paranoid. Nor could Elkantar blame him for such a reaction, as it was all too easy to imagine how much Vhaeraun might covet a neutral drow who had Zaknafein’s skill with blades. And that was assuming a more benign reason for a trap. It was entirely possible, after all, that a priestess of House Do’Urden had managed to get a follower of Selvetarm to pretend to be Vhaeraunite in order to reclaim the House’s erring Weapon Master.

Many serious discussions later, Zaknafein had decided that even with the strong likelihood of it being a trap, it would still be better for him to join the next caravan and see what he could find out, leading Elkantar to chose to go with the caravan again, since he was the one who could identify the drow who had conveyed the request.

Vierna was well aware that Zak’s reaction to her message was most likely to be outright paranoia, and he would therefore be unwilling to go out of easy reach of the other drow with the Promenade’s caravan, so when the next one arrived, she and another guard accompanied the one who had delivered the message, the two of them stopping in the shadows just out of easy sight of the caravan, while the original guard continued on.

As the traders began to unload the wagon, Zak followed Elkantar’s signal to come stand beside him, having agreed earlier that they would remain together unless Zak indicated otherwise. And it was not long before a male drow, once again wearing a cloak pin in the shape of Vhaeraun’s mask, approached the two of them.

Tebryn was relieved to see, as he approached the caravan, that a drow matching the description the Redeemed Shade had provided was indeed present this time. And unless he was mistaken, the man was standing beside the one Tebryn had spoken to last time, which had to be deliberate on their part.

Once again stopping at a reasonable conversational distance that was nevertheless out of easy attack range, Tebryn looked directly at the drow with unbound hair who bore two longswords, and asked, “Zaknafein Do’Urden?”

Shifting his hand so that it touched Elkantar’s, Zak signed ‘Same messenger?’ against his friend’s—strange as it still seemed to have someone that he could call ‘friend’ without any caveats—palm.

‘Yes,’ Elkantar signed back.

“That is my name,” Zak answered the other drow.

“Will you join me for a little while?” Tebryn asked. He hoped Zaknafein agreed, but at least the Redeemed Shade had provided non-confrontational instructions for what to do if the man refused.

“If we remain near my allies, then yes,” Zak replied. Elkantar shifted beside him, and he signed, ‘Stay. Will remain in sight.’

‘Alright,’ Elkantar signed in response.

“Of course,” Tebryn said. “It’s not far at all.”

“Then lead on,” Zak said, stepping forward.

Tebryn turned, and began to head back to where the Redeemed Shade was waiting with Chaurah, trusting Zaknafein to follow him.

As he followed the other drow, Zak paid careful attention to how far he was getting from the caravan, and when he saw that they were almost out of easy sight—and more than that, they were heading into a shadowed area—he stopped. “This is as far as I’m going,” he said. “If your Lord’s cleric still wants to talk to me, they can meet me here.”

In the shadows just beyond where Zaknafein had stopped, Vierna did not sigh, even though she wanted to. After all, she had been expecting something like this, and Zak had actually come a good bit closer to where she was waiting than she had thought he would. So she put on her mask, and stepped out of the shadows. “I am here, Zaknafein Do’Urden.”

As the woman who had stepped out of the shadows spoke, Zaknafein had to call on all of his long, long experience in not letting his reactions show in any visible way. Because the woman certainly sounded like Vierna, and she was even wearing two maces, but it was not possible for her to actually be Vierna. His daughter had long since been lost to the Spider Bitch. But with such incredible effort put into the deception, it was at least worth hearing her out. “And what sort of family matter do you wish to speak of with me?” he asked.

“Gifts given to a child, and the lessons taught by those gifts.”

At those words, Zaknafein was entirely unable to hide his shock. No one but Vierna should know about the pirate spider he had given her as a young child, much less what he had named as his price for giving it to her. Elkantar had thought there was a slim chance that the Masked God had somehow managed to steal Vierna from the Spider Queen; was it actually possible that his friend had been correct?

Vierna had never seen Zaknafein display any emotion so openly as he did at her reference to the gift that had, in so many ways, prepared her to be receptive to Vhaeraun’s overtures, much less one so vulnerable as surprise. But then again, that was precisely why she had made the reference, since it was knowledge that only the two of them held. Reaching up, she removed her mask and smiled. “Hello, Weapon Master.”

Zak had returned to the caravan long enough to tell Elkantar that it wasn’t actually a trap, that slim chance had turned out to be correct, and promise he’d be back before the caravan left, then quite gladly went with Vierna to Vhaeraun’s temple so they could visit in private.

The conversation had started with clearing the air between the two of them, then rambled through the experiences each of them had had since Zak had stolen away with Drizzt, and when it eventually came around to Zak and Drizzt taking up residence at the Promenade, Vierna said, “Is there any chance I can convince you and Drizzt to come live here? I have truly missed both of you.”

“It’s already clear that Drizzt loves the Surface enough that he’s not going to stay at the Promenade forever,” Zak replied, “so I’m certainly willing to come live here once he starts wandering. But Drizzt himself is, somehow, so thoroughly good that he just wouldn’t fit in here.”

Vierna sighed. “That’s… disappointing, though I can’t quite say that I’m surprised, given that I never did manage to teach him proper caution in trusting others. I’ll have to get to work on a pair of sending stones for him and me, then, since I certainly don’t want to have to wait years to talk to him again.”

She was about to ask what Zak meant by ‘Drizzt loves the Surface’, when the combined thoughts of ‘Drizzt is good-aligned’ and ‘a magical item for Drizzt’ made her realize that she now had a solution for the problem of the figure she had taken off the Hun’ett wizard. Drawing it out of her belt pouch, she handed the figure to Zak. “This is a gift for Drizzt.”

“Are you sure?” Zak asked. A figure of wondrous power was quite a valuable object, after all, and this had to be the one that she had mentioned as spoils of the House War that had given her the opportunity to escape.

“I am,” Vierna said. “Unfortunately for me, the great cat it summons is not only atypically independent for a figure, it is wholly good as well.” Then she told Zak its name and explained the time limitations.

“Ah,” Zak said, tucking the figure into his own belt pouch. “I’m sure Drizzt will be delighted to have an animal friend more intelligent than the bats and the spitting crawlers, even if it cannot be present all the time.”

“So what did you mean when you said that Drizzt ‘loves the Surface’?” Vierna asked, returning to the train of thought that had been diverted by the figure.

“Apparently, he’s what’s known as a ‘wild-called ranger’,” Zak replied, “and as a result, his nature is far more suited to living on the Surface than in any sort of underground settlement.”

“Well then, I think that makes it even more appropriate for him to have the figure.”

Elkantar and Qilué, and even Ysolde, had also noticed how obvious Drizzt’s love of the Surface was, and having more knowledge of rangers than Zak, had realized that Drizzt’s calling would drive him to leave the Promenade far sooner than would be considered a reasonable age for even a half-human elf or drow. And so, the three of them set about convincing him (and Zak) that when he did decide to leave, he should start by spending at least a few years training with Dove and Florin, learning the ranger skills that no one at the Promenade could truly teach him.

Thyl and Lin, and even the rest of the Tall Ones, contributed to the effort whenever they visited the Promenade, and eventually, after a meeting between the two drow and the two rangers had happened, Drizzt and Zak both agreed to the plan.

So when Drizzt’s itch to explore finally got too strong to hold back, at the age of thirty-six, Qilué quite gladly arranged for Thyl and Lin to bring Drizzt to Dove and Florin’s home in the Dalelands.

Drizzt studied with Dove and Florin for five years, traveling with Dove, and learning ranger spells, how to better communicate with animals, and more advanced wilderness skills than Thyl and Lin had managed to teach him during that one winter, before even that was no longer enough to keep him satisfied.

Dove and Florin had actually been expecting such a decision for most of a year at that point, and were impressed enough with his skills that they had already wrangled an agreement from all outside interested parties that—as Drizzt was still underage for even a half-blood, let alone a full-blood, but was of an age at which a half-blood might start exploring in the company of family—if he could manage to spend a full year living off the land near Shadowdale, without being seen by its residents, and leaving minimal sign of his presence other than actions taken to protect the residents or their animals, no one would fuss about his age.

Drizzt readily agreed to such a graduation exercise, and so, after just a month of preparation, he set out to begin it.

Drizzt had, by the strictest letter of the agreement, failed the graduation exercise, but since the only reason he had been seen by any of Shadowdale's residents was because he had saved its lord from an assassination attempt while said lord was traveling, everyone agreed that he had held to the spirit of the exercise, and had therefore passed.

So once he had said his farewells to Florin and the other students—and to a grateful Syluné and Aumry—Dove brought him back to the Promenade so he could spend some time with the family and friends he had not seen in six years, before he took up his independent wandering.

A month at the Promenade, two months in Skullport with Vierna and their father, followed by two more months at the Promenade, with Zak, proved to be as long as he was willing to spend visiting, and so, after farewells all around, Drizzt set out on his own, Guen’s figure in his belt pouch, and the contingency necklace Ysolde had given him around his neck.

Six years after he had set out on his own, Drizzt followed a pull north all the way up to the Icewind Dale. Knowing that the residents of the Ten Towns were unlikely to be any more welcoming of a drow than most places below the Spine, he chose to bypass them entirely, and set about finding a suitable cave up on Kelvin’s Cairn.

That had resulted in him meeting a young human girl, by the name of Catti-brie, which had led to a meeting with one Bruenor Battlehammer, chieftain of the small clan of dwarves that had settled in the cleft below the Cairn, and Catti-brie’s adoptive father. And while the meeting with Bruenor had started out poorly, Eilistraee’s blessing on Drizzt’s blades had quickly changed the dwarf’s mind about him.

By the time winter had set in on the tundra, Drizzt’s willingness to watch out for, and teach, Catti-brie, along with his willingness to aid the clan as a whole, had earned him welcome within the clan’s caverns. And while he did not impose on that welcome often, it was nice to be able to occasionally spend an evening with pleasant company in a place that was warmer than his cave, even with the improvements the dwarves had made to it.

On one such evening, as the tundra was starting to move into spring, the conversation between Drizzt and Bruenor came around to Bruenor’s eventual plans to find his clan’s ancestral home of Mithral Hall. But this time, unlike previous times the subject had come up, Bruenor mentioned that as best as any of those who were old enough to remember could recall, the Hall was probably somewhere in or near the Silver Marches.

“In or near the Silver Marches?” Drizzt repeated, intrigued. The Frost Hills definitely counted as ‘near the Silver Marches’, and he remembered the ruined city they had found on that long-ago expedition to test the skills Thyl and Lin had been teaching him.

“Aye,” Bruenor rumbled.

“Do you remember if the Hall had an above-ground trading point?” Drizzt asked.

It took several minutes, in which Drizzt was patiently quiet—knowing the difficulties those who had been old enough to walk out of the Hall, rather than be carried, had in recalling much of anything about the Hall—but Bruenor eventually sighed, and said, “It might’ve. There was certainly a place very close by that we stayed fer a few days right after th’ fall, before we had tae move on. Could’ve easily been th’ tradestown.

“Why’d ye ask?”

“Roughly thirty-five years ago, my father and I, along with my friends Thyl and Lin, found an above-ground, abandoned dwarf city in the Frost Hills.”

“Those're just west of the Silver Marches, aye? D'ye recall where in them th’ city was?”

“Essentially the western border of the Silver Marches, yes,” Drizzt said. “And the city was located near Fourth Peak, not far from the Goblintide.”

That description stirred something in his memory and Bruenor couldn’t help but gape at his friend. Was it really possible that Drizzt had found the best lead the clan had ever had, decades before they met?

“I think I need tae discuss this with th’ elders,” Bruenor said. “Because somethin’ about that seems familiar somehow, but damned if I c'n say why.”

After long discussion, and much cudgeling of their memories, the remaining greybeards agreed that the city Drizzt had spoken of just might be the tradestown they had known as Dwarvendarrow. But given the difficulties with their memories, they felt it would be best if they could speak to at least the pair of half-elves, and see the location on a map, before doing anything like preparing to move the clan back south.

Drizzt was well accustomed to Catti-brie coming to visit him, but it was far less common for any of the dwarves to come up to his cave. So when he heard a dwarf’s heavy footsteps approaching, a few days after his last visit to their caverns, he was a bit puzzled, though not at all displeased.

Drizzt had not—quite—forgotten what he had mentioned to Bruenor during that visit, but he had, rather deliberately, done his best to set his curiosity aside, in order to have his full attention available when he was ranging. The visitor turning out to be Bruenor himself, however, brought it fully back to mind, and once he was settled on one of the chairs, with a warm drink in hand, the dwarf got right down to business.

“D’ye have any way of gettin’ those half-elf friends of yers tae come up here, with the location of that city ye found marked on a map?” he asked. “The greybeards agree it might well be the tradestown, but want tae be a bit more certain before we go and do anything major.”

“Not directly, but I can start a message chain that will reach them,” Drizzt replied. “Though I will warn you up front that part of that chain is dependent on a bimonthly trade caravan, so it may take some time for the message to actually reach them.”

“We’ve been up here for near two centuries,” Bruenor rumbled, “a couple o’ months won’t matter, so long as the message does reach them.”

“Then I will use my sending stone to reach out to my sister tonight.”

Vierna had passed the message to Zaknafein, who had gone to the Promenade with their next trade caravan and passed it to Elkantar, who passed it to Qilué, who had then passed it on to Thyl and Lin.

The twins had wrapped up their current business as quickly as they were able to, and then, after procuring a map that they could give to Drizzt’s dwarf friend, went up to the Frost Hills to make sure they marked the location as accurately as possible. A chance remark to their mother when they had stopped in Silverymoon on their way to the Frost Hills had led to a brief sending to Drizzt to verify the clan name of his friend, and the result of that had both caused a week’s delay in actually heading north and given them a great deal more to share with said friend.

Most of three months after Drizzt had sent to Vierna, he, Thyl and Lin, Bruenor, and the clan’s remaining greybeards gathered in one of the rooms the dwarves kept warm at all times for the greybeards’ comfort. But after Drizzt had made the needed introductions, Bruenor and the greybeards experienced a further surprise, as Thyl started things off by saying “In addition to bringing the map you requested, we have set in motion a census of the Hall’s survivors in the Silver Marches, so that you will have a better idea of the clan’s full numbers, regardless of whether the city we found proves to be the trading point.”

“Ye’re sayin’ there are others of me clan who survived?” Bruenor asked, disbelief and hope warring in his heart and in his voice.

“Yes,” Lin said. “We were too young to help ourselves, but our older brothers brought many dwarrows and elders to the Citadels, after they had been found wandering by the elves in the Moonwood.”

“That is a blessing to know,” one of the greybeards said, “e’en if most o’ the elders have passed on by now.”

“We are pleased to have been able to bring you such welcome news,” Thyl said.

As surprised as he had been by the news of more clan to protect, Bruenor was still a practical dwarf, so he shook off the shock, and said, “Now let’s be about hearin’ yer accounts o’ the abandoned city, and lookin’ at the map ye brought.”

“Of course,” Thyl said, getting out the map.

Some time later, after much studying of the map, and an intensive interrogation of Thyl and Lin by the greybeards that had occasionally had them sending to their older brothers, Bruenor and the greybeards had to agree that the city most likely was Dwarvendarrow, called Settlestone by others according the records Thyl and Lin had found.

“Too late in the year tae be tryin’ to make the move now,” Bruenor said, “but we can spend the rest o’ the year preparing, and head south next spring.”

“And we can spend that time spreading word of your coming among the other survivors, and getting started on preparing Settlestone for the clan’s arrival,” Lin said.

“Aye, that’d be right good o’ you,” Bruenor agreed. “’Tis nice tae have some hope for the future again.”

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Tales of Faerun

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Tales of Faerun

Entries tagged with character: vierna do'urden

The Do'Urdens

Doing It Again (A Bit Less on the Fly & with a Little More Planning)

Hedging Bets

Raising a Resistance (Oblodra Gloom II)

The Coming of Gloom

Adjusting to Family Found

Stolen Children Bringing Hope

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June 2025

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