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Recursive fanfic: Forgotten Realms
May. 18th, 2023 04:14 amDoing It Again (A Bit Less on the Fly & with a Little More Planning) (10425 words) by Somariel
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Alustriel Silverhand, Eilistraee (Dungeons & Dragons), Vhaeraun (Dungeons & Dragons)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Loop
Series: Part 12 of A Crossing of the Realms
Summary:
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”.
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.”
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.’
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.”
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.”
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.
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden, Alustriel Silverhand, Eilistraee (Dungeons & Dragons), Vhaeraun (Dungeons & Dragons)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - 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.
