Tales of Faerun

Night's Light Shining Bright (4,772 words) by ilyena_sylph & senmut
Fandom: Forgotten Realms/Legend of Drizzt
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Characters: Bruenor Battlhammer, Wulfgar son of Beornegar, Regis, Catti-brie Battlehammer, Drizzt Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Ensemble Cast
Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Reunions
Series: Part 7 of Sisters in Spirit
Summary:

The party divides, and a family reunites

heading goes here

The group of dwarves had clustered around Bruenor, as Dhaeln's memories had unlocked inside the Hall, and he had them more strongly. Wulfgar and Regis sat on the edge of that group, with Catti-brie torn between their sides... and her ranger's, who had come out and immediately found the nearest tree to put his back to, slumping there.

They'd had a brush with shades, and found horrors, but the weight of that much evil had been hardest on him in many ways.

"Cleric," Drizzt called softly. "I am translating the duergar words as 'dragon-god' and 'Shimmergloom', to go with the scale we found. Do your people have any resources to research this?

"Whatever the Shimmergloom is, its evil is like a miasma at the lowest point we explored."

"Not at our home," Ravenna said, "but the larger community further south should. I will send to a friend there after I rest, to learn what they know. A deep dragon or a shadow dragon seem most likely to me, though."

Regis shuddered again, still bothered by the shades that had swarmed them. A dragon was more than a little beyond what he wanted to deal with, no matter that Wulfgar and Drizzt had killed Icingdeath.

"I agree, and lean to the shadow type, for the shades that roved the corridors," Drizzt told her. "Rest, priestess; I intend to call Guen now it has been a day and some from her last advent, so she can guard us."

He suited action to words, and the cat soon appeared, making a low noise at how worn her drow felt.

"Keep us safe, so we may rest, my friend?"

She flicked her ears in 'of course' and sprang up into the tree above him to find her vantage point.

Ravenna nodded and stretched out more comfortably, soon sound asleep with her own people and the great cat there.

Bruenor studied the woman who'd so willingly gone to sleep with them all around her, thought of her healing and the work she'd done in his Hall... and decided he might just like her.

"Wulfgar?" Drizzt called to him next.

"Sleep, my friend. I know that place weighed upon you greatly," Wulfgar said, rising to go and find his own better vantage. He felt a deep pride that Drizzt would entrust him with the safety of their party. Between himself and Guen, they would be undisturbed.

Dhaeln looked as the ranger settled in with his cloak over his eyes, and then back to Bruenor. "Good lot ye've found, me king."

"Aye," Bruenor agreed gruffly, "that they do be." He was tired, too, and worn down with horror and grief, but —

He switched into dwarven and said, "Tell me about these folk ye live with. Nae secrets, but. She said something about us being neighbors."

Dhaeln snorted. "We'll be allies, me King, with them. Up on Third Peak, cut deep into a cliff, there's a whole village of the dark elves, and them as they've helped that didnae want tae leave," she began. "Established up there my lifetime and a bit a'fore that.

"When the Hall fell, was some of their scouts found us a'fore we'd crossed the river. Took us up, and saw tae havin' us healed. Lost Old Rook tae his injuries, but the priestess as was helpin' him was beside herself with grief for it. Made me think as if we'd found good people. Bhaestaem and Ezrigith agreed, come the spring, and we stayed on, though tracks had been found crossin' into the Moon Wood."

"Lost the pair of them o'er the years," Halan took up then. "But we kept on, us and Micken who came out in a sack. Took up their smithin' needs, helped them see when tae brace, where tae cut. And Micken, he's in charge of all the stores."

Bruenor considered that for a few moments and nodded, accepting all of that. "Well, then. Good enow. I'm fer some sleep, Dhaeln, ye ought tae rest as well."

"We went in fresher than ye, but aye. That lad of yours can wake me for next watch," Dhaeln said.

"Drizzt will take it. He can't sleep more than a couple of hours," Catti-brie told her. "So sleep yerself out."

---

Drizzt noted Bruenor was awake, and slipped over, silent as anything, to sit beside him.

"What now? You found it. There is a terrible evil inside, you have new members of your clan, and there is enough time to reach Icewind Dale, possibly even get them moving before the passes close, if Catti is right and they were already packing.

"Is that our next step? How do we see to getting the allies you will need? Not just dwarves to deal with the duergar we saw, but the dragon itself?"

"Why are ye always full o' the hard questions?" Bruenor muttered at him. "Aye, needin' tae be rousting the clan, but thinkin' me girl could stand with Dhaeln as me voice here, while I get them. Have Wulfgar go back with me, but leave Regis here with her." He then looked at Drizzt. "I'll nae have ye trekking back that way, when people o' yer own kind are right here.

"Ye stay, meet with them, then keep an eye on me girl with me clan down this way, aye?"

Drizzt's heart hammered. He would go where he was most needed, but that… made sense.

"Steer clear of Luskan," Drizzt said, instead of addressing the emotions swelling in him. "And don't pay too close attention to the cairn's burial spot for the crystal. I will seek aid in dealing with it, once I have a feel for these drow."

"Mind your steps along those lines, but aye. Mayhap check to see if we've a tunnel that goes near enough, fetch the thing out in a chest, but like as not we cannae," Bruenor agreed. "We'll sort out if Dhaeln or one o' her two wishes tae come with us, and if they'll allow for Catti-brie and Regis tae go with ye up their way."

Drizzt nodded at that, before watching their friends — old and new — who were still asleep.

---

The division of the party happened in accordance with Bruenor's wishes, with Dhaeln sending both Micken and Halan to back up the chieftain and barbarian. That left her to take Ravenna, Drizzt, Catti-brie, and Regis to their home once the other four moved out.

"Ye have tae understand, seein' where we live and bein' let tae remember is a large amount of trust bein' given," Dhaeln told them. "Any of ye thinkin' yer at risk for others tae take the knowin' from ye? Say it now, and we'll put ye at a safe place tae wait for yer kin and friends tae come back this way."

Drizzt surveyed Regis and Catti alike. "If you wish to go with me, as I must see this place, but you need to not remember the way, I know there are ways to do that." He looked at Ravenna for confirmation.

"We have a memory draught, crafted to replace the time there with a memory of a long rest and good food in a safe place," she agreed.

Catti-brie stood there and considered for a few moments. "I donnae ken anything about magic," she said bluntly, "so I donnae think I c'n judge. But if we're tae be allies, we'll need tae know where ye be, aye?"

"I've never managed to manipulate you with the ruby, Catti," Regis said, "your mind is pretty strong. Mine isn't. I want to go and see, but I'll take the draught when we leave. Or... Drizzt, Guen could take us into her plane, and you could bring us back once we're there? Then do the same when we want to leave, so I wouldn't have to forget?"

"Guen would do that." He looked at Ravenna. "Will that be sufficient, to get them inside without them knowing the path?"

"More than." She was amazed by the solidarity she sensed in them all, the bonds that had formed with this young ranger who had been too cut off from them. "When we are closer, I will tell you it is time," she added.

"Catti?" Drizzt asked, to see if she accepted that. "Guen would love to show you her home, I am certain."

Catti nodded. "Aye, that'll do. Mayhap yer folk can help me figure if it's safe for all of ye for me tae know th' way, once we're there."

"Sounds good, aye," Dhaeln said, pushing off to start the way back. "Were it solely tae me, there'd be no need, but Spirit Sanctuary is awful needed, for those like yer friend, and others. The lowlanders, they wouldnae understand."

---

The first scout to spot them whistled back with 'visitors coming', then gaped as a large panther appeared, and vanished again with two of them, leaving Dhaeln, Ravenna, and the stranger that was drow. Ravenna being with them was the only reason the scout did not add a warning call.

Ravenna had heard the whistle, and looked for her sib, wondering who it was this day, even as she chuckled. "Well, now they know we're coming," she told Drizzt cheerfully, "and no doubt your Guen gave our scout quite a shock."

He smiled. "She seemed very happy to get to take them. It saved Regis's life, the first time she did it."

He glanced around, and made out the very carefully concealed scout. "I admit, when I saw drow markings in the Moon Wood, I feared what it meant."

"Use the blazes, not with magic, tae keep us from wanderin' intae the elves," Dhaeln said. "But if you dinnae know about us, that would be concerning."

"I, too, would have been concerned," Ravenna admitted with a slight smile, "thinking them guides towards raids. But any drow new enough to the surface to be on a raid would not note them, as their eyes would hardly even note the difference."

"I can see that now," Drizzt said. "And I learned in school that not all males are literate, outside of certain symbols."

"Why?" Dhaeln asked.

"I don't know for certain, but I believe it is to keep written records from being passed between the men to incite revolt?" Drizzt offered, looking to Ravenna for her thoughts.

"I find that likely," Ravenna agreed, "though I'm not sure, it seems reasonable. If the Masked God's followers could slip texts into the commoners, or even the males of the Houses..." She nodded. "It would make things more difficult."

"What is this Masked God?" Drizzt asked. "I ... Lloth is the only deity, by my teachings. I know She lies. I know the gods of other peoples are real. I am fortunate to have the alliance of one, after all. But... how much of what I know about drow themselves is a lie?"

Ravenna's breath hissed in between her teeth, and she raked her fingers through her hair. "Goddess bless, which of the cities are you from?! There aren't that many that She's managed to force that lie over -- sorry. Poor form to answer a question with one of my own.

"Vhaeraun, the Masked God, is my lady Eilistraee's twin brother. As rebellious against their mother now as Eilistraee is, though at first He followed the Spider-bitch in Her attempt to destroy the king of the elven gods and take His throne for Her own, and still has much of that rebellious and malicious nature."

Drizzt wrinkled his nose to hear that. "I am from Menzoberranzan," he said. "They said in school that sometimes She would take drow form and walk there." His eyes glinted. "Would that I'd ever seen such, with the skill I have now."

Dhaeln chuckled. "Donnae go biting off such large chunks, lad. But the sentiment is a good one."

Ravenna stopped dead. "You're from Menzoberranzan," she finally managed to say, shaking her head a little, "and with your name... Have you ever heard the name 'Vierna Do'Urden'?"

Drizzt's entire posture tensed before he could guard himself. "Once. From the man I know to be my father, and I was told never to say it around the Matron or elder sister of the House," he told her. "She was a daughter stolen from the House long before any of us younger three were born."

"I suppose a Matron might call it stolen," Ravenna replied with a soft chuckle, smiling, "but we would say rescued. She is First Sister -- our leader -- of our community. We thought it had only to be coincidence, that you must be from another city that had a long-sundered branch of the family, because for two of a single house to escape that city is almost beyond belief. But then you said you were from Menzoberranzan. Oh, you are going to be so very welcome, cousin!"

Drizzt stared at her, stunned beyond all belief, and wished, for the moment, Catti-brie was still at his side. Family? Good like him? A leader of this place?

"I knew father was not like other drow, but to learn of a sister that way... likely his daughter for how poorly he managed his emotions about her... this feels impossible."

Dhaeln laughed. "Ye brought me king -- me friend, who I've thought was dead since we were wee -- back tae me, ranger, an' we've set foot again in our Hall, which we've nae seen for two hundred years. 'Tis a week fer impossible things."

That helped ease the shock, and Drizzt wound up smiling. "Now I am most eager to meet your leader, Cleric, and learn more of this improbable, if not impossible, series of events!"

Ravenna smiled at him in delight and nodded. "Indeed, come on," she said brightly and picked up her pace to make her way to the hidden entrance to the village, looking over her shoulder with a smile before she slid through the rock and waited on the other side.

Dhaeln waited, giving a motion for Drizzt to go on, and he did, holding his breath at first. When he emerged on a broad ledge, with cleverly concealed openings into the cliff, he smiled brightly. Dhaeln came behind him, and gestured broadly.

"Home, for the last couple o' centuries. We've put a bit in the working, tae keep it all hidden from those that fly."
"It is... exceptionally well-done," he praised.

"We think so," Ravenna agreed, and called out to one of the goblin children to go tell the cook they would have three guests for dinner, drow, human, and halfling. The child hopped up and ran to do so with a laugh... the orc and drow child he had been playing with abandoning the game to follow.

"This way, I know where Vierna will be, and I think you would rather have such a reunion more privately," she added, and made her way into one of the openings and down the passage to their First Sister's working space. "Vierna," she called, "we're here, I'm coming in."

Vierna had made herself keep to her tasks rather than go running out, but she put everything away and stood up to come around her desk at the words. "All right," she called back, and waited.

Drow, orc, and goblin, playing together, seeming happy even as they were given work to do -- Drizzt had no idea what to make of it. He wanted to bring his friends back right then, but... he also did not want to burden them with his emotions of this reunion.

They could wait a bit; it had not been so long that they would be in any danger.

He followed along, even as Dhaeln turned off to go handle her part of telling Micken's and Halan's partners those two would be gone.

Ravenna opened the door and came through, standing with her back against it with it fully open to let Drizzt in.

Vierna looked from her friend to the stranger -- and her heart nearly stopped, because the young drow standing there looked so much like her mother in a masculine guise, and wore two blades with such easy confidence that she had no doubt, suddenly, about his parentage, or his relationship to her. Her hands signed greeting in the House's language, a gesture she had almost forgotten, as she tried to convince her throat and mouth to work.

That motion, her face so like his own, and her genuine emotions on seeing him did much to convince him. "Hello, sister," he signed back, hands out of practice with the drow subtleties after so long with dwarves, but it was intelligible. "I am amazed to meet you, Vierna Do'Urden, of whom I only had a few hushed words from the Weapon Master," he said aloud, in Common.

"Zaknafein spoke of me?" Vierna asked, surprised, even as she came closer, stretching out her hands to him. "I -- I couldn't believe you could really be family, when I heard your name, it...."

"Is improbable, yes," he said, taking her hands gladly. "And he spoke of you because I'd tried a maneuver you had also used once. One he conceded would work against a less-experienced fighter.

"I think the similarity of trying made him feel strong emotions." He squeezed gently. "But he said I must never speak of you in Mother's hearing, or Briza's."

"He was no doubt right in that," Vierna said, as she squeezed his hands in return, still amazed, shaking her head a little in amazement and surprise. "I... he was the one point of good in the entire House for me, though Nalfein could be kind at times. If it suited him."

"I... would not know that," Drizzt said. "I am third-born, of Malice's sons, spared because Dinin killed Nalfein the night I was born," he told her. "A fact I did not learn until an argument with Dinin while I was in school."

Vierna hissed in a breath, shaking her head. "I am sorry to hear it... but given that you are standing here now, I am very glad that you lived."

He smiled for her words, then sobered. "Perhaps, if you have fondness for Zaknafein, you should not be," he cautioned, "as my actions directly led to first his death, and then the loss of his body."

There was grief stamped in every line of his body, in the forced attempt at a calm delivery of the words.

Vierna looked to Ravenna, who nodded and slipped out, shutting the door behind her. Then Vierna tugged at his hand and said softly, "Come and sit, Drizzt."

She had a fine leather couch, thickly stuffed, off to the side of the room, and she moved that way with him. Once they were both sitting, with her turned towards him, she said just as gently, "If you will, tell me? I will hold no grudge, I promise you, unless you yourself slew him in cold blood -- but you grieve too much for that to be true."

He settled, then dropped his eyes for a long moment at her words. He did feel some guilt, but knew that it truly lay on their mother, on the goddess that drove their birth city to such violence.

"I brought disfavor down on the House, due to actions I chose. Briza or Mother must have determined it was I who had done it, heard my confession to Fa -- Zaknafein, possibly. I had left, to clear my head and plan for how to get both of us free. In my absence, they sacrificed him in my place. Maya, our other sister, taunted that he chose it in my place."

"Ah, goddess," Vierna breathed out, grief ripping through her that their father had suffered such a fate. "No... call him father, he deserves that," she said softly, "far more than our mother deserves that name."

She sat considering for a little while, before she reached over and laid her hand on his. "I believe he would have," she said quietly, "to protect his son... as he must have thought he had failed to protect his daughter. Whatever you did that Lloth disapproved of, I have no doubt it was something praiseworthy."

"Drow don't have fathers. They have rumors of sires," Drizzt said dryly, but it was with a biting edge to it. "I should have realized much sooner. Briza let it slip, and he confirmed it, the night I lost him," he told his sister. "Only, after I'd been gone from there for ten full years, they sent a hunter after me, after I'd bested Briza and Dinin -- he's the brother I mentioned between me and Nalfein -- when they tried.

"The hunter wore the body of my -- our? -- father. But it was driven by Mo -- Malice's spirit, until nearly the very end of it."

Vierna shuddered in revulsion and dismay, tightening her hand on his. "That... that is abominable. I have never heard of such a spell -- but I never went to Arach-Tinilith, so that is no surprise. I would have been beyond terrified, to have such a thing seeking me, if it had his skill and her hate combined."

"I hurt, to see it," he admitted. "And wanted, desperately to save him. But he was not really alive again, nor truly undead. She could not beat me, and I used our training to push enough of the control to him that he could make a choice.

"He told me to flee the Underdark, that he was at peace, and then he made use of the acid lake we were fighting near, to deny her his body for all time," Drizzt summarized, but the pain in his voice and eyes told Vierna he had not, ever, grieved in truth.

"...at peace?" Vierna murmured, marveling -- but she could think on that later. Right now, she had a soul-wounded little brother to comfort, if he would accept it. "That action is very much our father," she said, as she kept hold of his hands. "But by the moon, it must have been horrific for you, little brother. I... I had so little time with him. But you were a fighter, he would have had you to train for years. I grieve for him," she admitted, tears she wasn't trying to fight beginning to streak down her face, "but it must have been so much worse, for you."

He met her eyes then, and seeing her tears, he closed his own eyes, holding on so tightly to her hands. "Four wonderful years. He shaped me to be his heir, exactly what Matron Malice wanted, but I was too different. More even than he was. He could learn to hate all drow, even himself. I... hate what they are made into, but wish so much that it was different for them all."

"You were like me," Vierna said, and slid closer to him, leaning her shoulder in against him. "So much like me. ...let yourself grieve, Drizzt. I'm with you."

He hesitated, but she was offering as freely as Catti-brie would, and he closed the gap, letting himself breathe through the pain of reopening that wound, his tears coming with the freedom to grieve with someone who had actually known Zaknafein.

It took a long while before he could pull himself together, having been granted that permission to finally lance the grief.

"I ... thank you, Vierna, for helping me go through that. I am sorry to carry such ill news. I wish I'd just told him to come, right then, when we had truth."

She had just held him against her and swayed a little bit, letting him weep -- her own tears soaking into his hair as she mourned the loss of her father all over again, now knowing he was dead, not just lost to her -- until he calmed, and then she let him slide away if that was his wish.

"You are more than welcome, my brother," she told him, lifting her hand to first brush away her own tears, then -- more gently -- the last of his. "Wishing," she said wryly, "unless one is an archmage, gets one very little. And yet we can't help it. Is that what makes us sentient, I wonder, the longing to change things?"

"Perhaps," Drizzt said, even as his heart thrilled to hear her voice a philosophical point. How many such questions had he asked of himself, or his friends, when they indulged him. "Oh!" He did shift away, finding the figure. "Now that I have met you properly, I really should bring my friends back from the Astral Plane.

"It was our compromise to guard the secret of this place. And it would not be good to try and do it in here. I stand surety for both Catti-brie Battlehammer, daughter of their chieftain -- well, king now -- and Regis the Halfling. As I have known them for years to be goodly people, even if Regis came from far different beginnings on that road."

"How in the names of all the gods are they in the astral plane?!" Vierna asked, even as she stood up. "No, my working-room is not really large enough for two more people," she agreed, "besides, I keep things rather darker than my dwarven friends prefer, and I assume a halfling would have much the same preference?"

"And Catti is human, though dwarf-raised," Drizzt agreed. "As to how, my Companion is an Astral Panther, bound to this statue, but very much her own entity, not a magical construct."

He stood, following her to somewhere to be able to call his friends to the Material Plane.

"How fascinating," Vierna said as she led him back out onto the main ledge, with its incredible view over the valley between their mountain and Fourthpeak, turning to watch curiously.

Drizzt held the figure, crouching down out of habit, and called, "Guenhwyvar, my shadow, come to me with our friends."

The familiar mist formed, and then Guen was there, Catti-brie on one side, and Regis the other. Regis beamed at Drizzt, then turned, as Catti was, to see who was with them.

"Catti-brie Battlehammer, Regis; meet my sister, daughter of my father, Vierna Do'Urden."

Vierna smiled at them both, saying, "Welcome to Spirit Sanctuary, oh friends of my brother."

Regis looked at her, then at Drizzt, and said, "I think I could have guessed that, from looking at both of you, but... how?"

"It seems our father sired goodness," Drizzt said brightly, smiling to indicate he was at peace with this.

"Greetings, Lady," Catti-brie said. "And greetings from me Da, Bruenor Battlehammer, who charged me tae be makin' allies for our clan."

"It will be good to have an ally in these mountains," Vierna replied, smiling at the young woman, "though I am no Lady. I am First Sister here, but only because my folk continue to tell me they prefer me to lead. Priestess, cleric, or just 'Vierna' is more than fine."

Regis moved over and hugged Drizzt, nodding with pleasure to see his friend so happy. "Well, good. I'm glad."

Drizzt returned that hug, then rested his hand on Guen's shoulder as she was regarding Vierna. "My sister, this is my friend Guenhwyvar, who has saved my life and freedom more times than I can count."

Guen rumbled softly, greeting -- and warning not to hurt Drizzt.

"Behave, my friend," Drizzt said with a chuckle.

"She's as protective as us, where me ranger is concerned," Catti-brie said.

"I am glad you are, Guenhwyvar," Vierna said, "my brother has needed it, I am already quite sure." She looked at Catti-brie with a quick smile, including her in the comment without saying it directly. "Would you like to be shown around?"

"Aye, we would, as just the stone work I can see is lookin' impressive," Catti-brie answered. "And I know me ranger is curious as his cat."

Guen made a playful protest.

"You mean she is as curious as her drow?" Drizzt teased lightly.

Vierna chuckled and began to show them around, taking the same route she took with every new drow who managed to escape to them, showing off the work Dhaeln and Halan and Micken (and the spouses they'd brought home) had done to make things better than she had imagined.

Catti-brie took the lead in asking questions about craftsmanship, Drizzt asked about the way work was divided out, and Regis listened intently, trying to find a way to make sure he understood how to keep the dwarf-drow alliance solid in the future.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX
* Links will work as parts are revealed