Inside My Mind

Your Lives and Places Rearrange (4422 words) by Somariel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Original Drow Character(s), Jarlaxle Baenre
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ensemble Cast
Series: Part 6 of Have Your Cake, Part 18 of A Crossing of the Realms
Summary:

Just when it all seems settled, more?

---

Beginning notes

Inspired by senmut's fic Profitable Plans.

It assumes familiarity with that fic, and the previous fics in the Have Your Cake series.

Additionally, Drizzt's meeting with the svirfneblin borrows heavily from senmut's fic "War Comes to the Hall".

---

Your Lives and Places Rearrange

1359 DR, spring

Drizzt was at Spirit Sanctuary, discussing with Vierna and the other clerics there the sense of 'trouble approaching' that all of them had been feeling for the last week or so, when Sarilanthe came and interrupted them.

"Drizzt," she said, "Lothalninil just landed on the ledge, and is being insistent about needing you."

Drizzt sighed, and after casting a look of apology at Vierna, he rose and followed Sarilanthe out to where Lothalninil was.

And when he arrived, he reached out to his nest-mate, rested a hand on her neck, and asked, "What do you need me for, dear one?"

Her impatient snort was accompanied by a sense of 'young herd-friend calls, is concerned; dwarf hall needs you'.

Turning his attention back to Sarilanthe, Drizzt told her, "Catti-brie says I'm needed at the Hall."

"I'll pass that on to Vierna," she replied. "Now go."

"Thank you." And then Drizzt got onto his nest-mate's back.

As soon as he was as safely settled as he could be without the straps, Lothalninil carefully trotted into the air, and turned to take the shortest route to the nearest entrance to the Hall.

She landed in Keeper's Dale not long after, and Catti-brie herself was waiting to bring Drizzt to where he was needed.

The dwarf-raised young woman set off into the Hall at a brisk pace once Drizzt reached her side, and as they began to head downwards rather than towards any of the meeting rooms, Drizzt asked what he was needed for.

"Refugees from the Underdark just arrived," Catti-brie answered. "One o' them matches yer description of yer friend Belwar an' asked fer ye by name, but we'd've sent for ye e'en wi'out that, as none o' us speak Undercommon."

"That the residents of Blingdenstone have come as refugees does not bode well," Drizzt said, "and make me wonder if this is a harbinger of the trouble Eilistraee has been warning of."

"Could be," Catti-brie agreed, "could be. And nay, it doesnae bode well at all."

The rest of the trip down to the Hall's lowest protected level passed in silence, but upon arriving in the area where the refugees had temporarily been settled, Drizzt was almost immediately greeted in Undercommon.

"Magga cammara, my friend, it is good to see you again!"

Turning his attention from the svirfneblin as a whole to the speaker, Drizzt's face broke out in a wide smile.

"And I am pleased to see you again, Belwar Dissengulp," he replied. "But what has caused your people to travel so far from your city with women, children, and personal possessions, but so few actual warriors?"

Belwar turned and looked at another male who had been paying close attention to their exchange, and that one came to join them.

"I am Councilor Firble," he said. "Blingdenstone is no more. When the duergar attempted to invade some years ago, we won against them and learned from prisoners of the fall of the Living Shadow that had been here.

"But Menzoberranzan also captured some of the duergar, and we had been in active conflict with the city since then... until a couple weeks ago, when they chose to attack Blingdenstone directly, through spells and treachery.

"King Schnicktick and most of our actual warriors gave us time to bring our people away, but Blingdenstone is lost, destroyed to kill as many of Menzoberranzan's attackers as we could. With luck, it will set their plans back, but my contacts I had said the city seeks conquest."

"The same contacts that provided the information that my mother was still seeking me, back when I first came to Blingdenstone?" Drizzt asked.

"Yes."

"Then please pardon me while I share this with my allies."

Stepping off to the side as a line of dwarves bringing food, medicine, and even carts of water for cleaning came into view, Drizzt relayed everything Firble had said to General Dagna, who started stroking his beard nervously.

"A war with drow, when they have such magic," Dagna began, "does not bode well at all."

"We will find a way," Drizzt said. "For one thing, the Lady of Silverymoon will no more wish to have evil drow as neighbors than she wished to have the dragon as one, and will provide aid to that end for a reasonable price. And furthermore, I can ask my father to come put his centuries of experience with House Wars in Menzoberranzan to use in advising on defenses."

"The king's the one who'd need tae approve both o' those," Dagna said, "but aye, ye do have a point.

"And he ought tae be arriving soon, since I asked the Princess to fetch him soon as you greeted that first deep gnome by name. One o' them knowin' yers could've been from hearing of ye, but I knew you knowin' his couldnae mean anything good."

Drizzt nodded in reply, then moved back towards his friend. "Belwar," he said, "who is your worst hurt? I am no true healer, but I have learned the spells of my calling well enough to handle one, make them more stable."

After giving him a surprised look, Belwar exchanged words with Firble, and then they brought him over to a wizened old male, who was heavily bandaged and breathing poorly.

"Our oldest shaman that came with us," Firble said. "He has the lore of when we traded here."

Drizzt knelt at the elder's side, and touched his pendant with one hand. He then placed a hand on the shaman's shoulder, and willed him to heal.

They all heard the agonized breathing clear, and saw as the body relaxed toward sleep. Drizzt watched the chest rise and fall with pleasure, then turned his attention back to Firble and Belwar.

"I am certain the clerics will come down, add to the healing," he said, "but my goddesses saw this use of my minor ability in it as a good one.

"Dagna has already sent for Bruenor Battlehammer, and though some immediate attention will need to be given to decisions for defense, once that is taken care of, I am certain he will help your people settle here."

"If you think it will be helpful," Firble said, "we will share our own knowledge of Menzoberranzan, to help him prepare for their attack."

"Current information about the city will be quite useful indeed," Drizzt agreed. "As we have very little knowledge more recent than my own escape."

---

Samiar had, of course, noticed when the wards alerted him to Drizzt's arrival, but Zanna had been intent enough on learning the cantrip he was currently teaching her that he had chosen not to say anything.

And now, with Drizzt entering right as it felt like Zanna was about to succeed in casting it, he was glad he had.

Holding a finger to his lips to indicate Drizzt should remain silent for now, Samiar watched as their daughter once again tried to cast mending... and this time, the broken pottery bowl that he had given her to practice on restored itself to wholeness.

Just as Zanna raised her head to smile at her elder father in glee for having gotten the cantrip to work right this time, a soft clapping started behind her.

But before she could even turn to see who had arrived, a very familiar voice spoke. "Well done, Zanna."

Nearly tumbling out of the chair with how fast she whirled around, Zanna launched herself at the speaker.

"Papa!"

Drizzt opened his arms to accepted Zanna's flying hug, and took a moment to just revel in the fact that she could be so openly expressive of her feelings.

Samiar knew better than to interrupt Zanna's hug of Drizzt, especially when his co-parent looked so blissful, but once all three of them were settled on the couch, he asked, "So what brings you here when you had expected to be busy at Spirit Sanctuary?"

"Trouble at the Hall that you, and maybe even Zanna, could assist in handling," Drizzt replied.

Samiar frowned slightly at the idea of involving their daughter with anything that Drizzt would consider trouble, but before he could say anything, Zanna spoke up from her seat between them.

"You really think I could help?" she said, all but bouncing with excitement for the chance to help with adult matters.

"If you think your Undercommon is good enough for you to act as an interpreter between dwarves and svirfneblin, then yes, I do," Drizzt said.

Zanna took a few moments to properly consider the idea, then smiled brightly. "I do!"

Samiar had chosen to wait for Zanna to respond before he said anything more, but once she had, he asked the obvious question. "You wouldn't have called a svirfneblin trading party trouble, so what is it that has happened at the Hall?"

"Well..." and Drizzt began to explain what had happened since Sarilanthe had interrupted his meeting with the clerics.

---

The threat of a drow invasion—especially given Zaknafein's assessment that with Menzoberranzan apparently united in this purpose, the damage the svirfneblin had done to the city's forces would not delay things by more than a few weeks—made things move swiftly, and within two weeks of the refugees' arrival, Mithral Hall was well prepared to face the drow.

Traps both magical and physical had been placed according to Zaknafein's suggestions, clefts and tiny passages had been closed off to prevent their use by shadow-form drow, and Knights in Silver and Spellguards were both camped outside the Surbrin Gate and lodged in Settlestone, with small bands of warriors from the region's other powers also hosted there or on their way.

At that point, there was nothing more to do than wait, but thankfully for everyone's nerves, it was only another week and a half before the attack came.

---

Given how thoroughly effective the dwarves' placement of their traps had been, Jarlaxle was quite glad he had agreed to Dinin's demand that he and Kastan be placed in Bregan D'aerthe's reserves for this battle.

After all, it would not do in the least for him to lose his bargaining piece to one of those traps. Which were in fact so effectively placed that if he didn't know better, he would have believed Zaknafein himself had advised on their placement.

As it was, it was clear that he had underestimated just how ruthless the renegade could be.

But with magic as unpredictable as it was, it was clearly time for him to signal his people to retreat, and even as he did so and began to extricate himself, he saw the renegade heading in a specific direction, accompanied by a dwarf, a human woman, and two half-elves.

Well then. It would be interesting to see if any of the Matrons managed to escape in time.

---

When the gods were restored to their proper places, the residents of Spirit Sanctuary had been just as relieved as those of Silverymoon and Mithral Hall.

But though they had done their best to settle back into the usual routine, when Vierna asked for someone to go make contact with a young drow in the hills to their east, just a few weeks later, there was a general feeling of unease over such an occurrence happening so soon after both the Time of Troubles and Menzoberranzan's attempted invasion of the Hall.

Drizzt immediately suggested that he should be the one to do so, and had a strong argument for such in the fact that, unlike the rest of Spirit Sanctuary's drow residents, he was already known to be in the area, but both Vierna and Zaknafein were concerned about the possibility of a trap for that same reason.

However, despite that concern, after a long discussion, Drizzt won the argument, with an agreement that Zaknafein would come with him as backup, but remain concealed unless circumstances required him to reveal his presence.

---

As much as Zaknafein would have liked to hide somewhat closer to where Drizzt was going to conceal himself before opening dialogue with the young drow in this pocket valley, he could not deny that his own woodscraft skills were not good enough to successfully hide in the copse of trees near the closed end of the valley, so he had to settle for this cleft angling towards the newcomer from the other side of the valley.

And just as he reached the point where he had to stop to remain concealed in the cleft's shadows, he heard the owl call that he and Drizzt had agreed on as the signal for when each of them was in place.

So even as he settled himself where he could see the young drow—who had tensed up and started looking around even as Zak did so—he gave his own call

And as soon as the sound faded from the air, his son spoke.

"You have a good awareness of what is around you," Drizzt said, even as the boy tried to turn towards the voice, "for one new to the surface.

"I do not wish trouble with you, so please tell me your purpose in being here."

The boy's hand had moved to the hilt of his longer blade—and Zak found it interesting that the shorter one was longer than the typical dagger, though not to the full length of a short sword—while Drizzt was speaking, and when Drizzt finished, the boy spoke.

"I am going to be honest then, and state there is another who will come, probably two," he said. "We are looking for another drow, and there is solely a business deal the others are interested in."

Well. Zak had to give the boy points for that honesty, and it made it at least possible that for all the boy was very much bait, it was not for a trap. And also likely meant that the shift of the boy's hand to his hilt had been cover for touching a sending stone.

"So you are bait." Drizzt's voice was weary but resigned, and Zak couldn't blame him. "Unless you seek someone other than Drizzt Do'Urden, which is unlikely, as there are few drow who wander, and no others known in this region."

"I do, and I believe the one I am working with, or I would not have helped," the boy replied.

That was another notch towards this not being a trap, but before Zak could start to consider what the business deal mentioned might be, there was a shimmer and displacement of air which cleared to reveal Jarlaxle and a wizard.

"You?!"

The vitriol in Drizzt's voice was surprising to Zak, but after a moment he realized his son must have seen Jarlaxle during the attempt to invade the Hall.

"What is it you soft surface folk say? I'm here to parlay," Jarlaxle said, sweeping his hat from his head with a dramatic bow.

"Test me, and you will learn there is nothing soft to me."

Jarlaxle laughed brightly. "Oh you are Zaknafein's child after all."

And that comment made Zak suspect he knew what his old friend and lover was after, but it would be better to be certain before he revealed himself—he would only get one chance to surprise Jarlaxle, after all—and besides, he wanted to see what approach his friend took.

"If you know enough to know that, you also ought to know that using his name will not gain you anything with me."

"Not even if the whole reason I wish to talk with you is for his sake?" Jarlaxle purred.

That all but confirmed Zak's suspicion as to what his friend was after, but he still chose to remain hidden, curious as to how everything would play out.

And after a very long silence, Drizzt walked out of the copse, from a spot that Zak would have sworn was unoccupied.

"There is no 'sake' for my father," he said, gaze clearly locked on Jarlaxle.

"Are you so certain?"

"I do not know who you are," Drizzt began patiently, though Zak could hear a touch of patronizing inflections in his son's voice, "but given that you clearly know quite a bit about me, do you really think that I would do or say anything about the man that trained me—to a drow I know full well participated in Menzoberranzan's attack on Mithral Hall, due to having seen him there?"

Jarlaxle merely smiled, then chuckled. "Well, the lack of introduction is easily remedied, at least. I am Jarlaxle, leader of Bregan D'aerthe.

"As for your question... You are an idealist, and principled in ways I will never understand. But I didn't always understand your father.

"I am a drow, Drizzt Do'Urden! I do as I must to survive, and to place a small measure of protection around men that require it in the city that birthed us both! Let us start anew, and discuss the matter at hand without shadows, hmm?"

Zak braced himself, knowing that Drizzt was unlikely to react well to Jarlaxle's statement, but not sure how it would expressed.

"A pity," Drizzt began, his voice as taught as Zak knew his son's face must be, "that your reach is not long enough to shield more, then."

Even without the wizard's tensing at Drizzt's words, Zak knew that Drizzt had just hit on one of Jarlaxle's sore spots with regards to their friendship, and waited with bated breath to see how his friend responded.

"He refused me, time and again, even after your sister disappeared, and then... then there was you."

Jarlaxle's quiet words carried a punch well out of proportion to their volume, given all the ways that Drizzt's body language lost its hardness to shock, and Zak held his breath for his son's response.

"What do you want to know?" Drizzt asked.

That was as good as Zak could have hoped for, and he quietly released the breath.

"What happened to Zaknafein after your mother, the late and very unlamented Malice Do'Urden, wreaked that spell upon his body?" Jarlaxle asked.

"She failed," Drizzt said flatly.

"More words, renegade," Jarlaxle entreated with an edge of impatience.

Drizzt leaned against the nearest tree, and Zak could tell from his posture that his son was considering his next words.

"Why? What do you gain?"

Jarlaxle snorted. "Have you learned how to do business? Fascinating." He half-shrugged. "I wish the knowledge, and depending on what it is, there may be further steps. I gain a sense of closure, and open new avenues, perhaps."

Zak knew his son well enough to know that Drizzt would not be reassured by such a vague answer, but despite a distinct rise in the tension in the air, Drizzt still gave Jarlaxle the information the mercenary had asked for.

"There is no body left. Zaknafein took control back of the body, and destroyed it."

"How... trying of him," Jarlaxle said with irritation. "Where? For my own peace of mind? You wouldn't want to leave an old friend of your father's tortured, now would you?"

"If you know where the hopefully former city of illithids near enough to Blingdenstone and Menzoberranzan for us to wander there is, then that is the location." Even from his position, Zak could tell when Drizzt met Jarlaxle's gaze before continuing. "The acid lake outside the city. The zin-carla caught up to us after we had damaged the elder brain severely, and killed many of the mind flayers."

The tone of Drizzt's last sentence made it clear it was as much threat as it was information, and Zak waited cautiously to see how his friend would respond.

Jarlaxle muttered something quietly enough that Zak was only able to tell he had by the movement of his lips, then sighed. "That makes this much more costly, I must admit."

"He said he was at peace, Jarlaxle," Drizzt said, and while Zak doubted Jarlaxle would notice it, he could hear wariness in his son's voice as much as dislike of Jarlaxle's clear intentions.

"Yes, but would you deny him a chance to live as free as you have been? Are you that selfish in your escape from Menzoberranzan?!" the mercenary snapped in a low, quiet voice.

And if that wasn't a perfect opening for Zak to reveal himself, he didn't know what was.

"He isn't," Zak said, stepping out of the cleft and into the open. "But he is understandably wary of your intentions, old friend."

Jarlaxle's entire body jerked taught at Zak's first word, but by the time his friend had turned to face Zak fully, he had managed to place a laconic look on his face.

But despite that, Zak knew full well that Jarlaxle would not truly believe what he was seeing until Zak proved his identity.

So once he had reached arm's length from his friend, Zak asked, "When's the last time you had to be pulled out of the fire by an upstart from a low House?"

"I would have have found a way to survive."

"You perhaps, but the men you had? Hardly."

As Zak had known it would be, that was sufficient proof, and Jarlaxle moved to embrace him.

It was Drizzt's uneasy shifting, caught out of the corner of his eye, that caused Zak to end the embrace, and once he and Jarlaxle had parted, his friend spoke. "Blood and breath, Zak, it's good to see you. But as much as I want to catch up with you, I'd rather not do out here."

"Neither would I," Zak said, "so how about meeting in Skullport in two months?"

"Agreed," Jarlaxle said. "And with that settled, I should make introductions." Flicking a hand at the boy he'd used as bait, he continued, "Zak, Drizzt, this is Kastan. He was born the year after Drizzt graduated, to a priestess that graduated that year."

Zak saw Drizzt's eyes widen slightly at that statement, before his son managed to put on a stoic mask. Nor could he blame Drizzt for it, given the implications in Jarlaxle's words.

"And he is a good drow." And for all it was said as a fact, Zak could hear the question in the words.

"Very much like his father," Jarlaxle agreed. "And in more ways than just that."

"You've had someone teaching him left-handed fighting, then?" Zak said. "Given the longer than usual dagger."

"Dinin was most compliant with my wishes on that matter," Jarlaxle agreed. "Also, I know you'll have your own people check, but I did have my newly acquired psionicist look for nasty traps. Removed at least one.

"And if you want to keep in touch, I'm sure Kastan would be willing to give you the sending stone I provided for this."

"Good to know, for both," Zak said. "And if there isn't anything else, then it's probably time to part for now."

That got nods all around, and then Jarlaxle and the wizard disappeared in another shimmering of the air.

---

Although Vierna had chosen to occupy herself in her workroom as a distraction from fretting over Drizzt and Zak going to meet the young drow, her worries were still close enough to the surface that she immediately paused what she was doing at the sound of a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called, even as she turned her attention to putting away the materials she had been working with.

The door opened, and her visitor entered, but just a few steps into the room, they stopped. "Am I interrupting something?"

The words were in Drizzt's voice, so Vierna turned to face him, and immediately let out a sigh of relief on seeing that he did not appear to be upset. A bit perturbed, maybe, but not upset, which meant that the meeting had to have gone well.

"Not at all," she replied. "I was just puttering to keep myself from worrying. Where's Father, though?"

"With the young drow we went to meet," Drizzt said. "Neither of us is truly comfortable bringing him here until his mind has been checked for traps, so I came to bring you to him to do so."

"Can you tell me why you think that's necessary?" But even as she asked, Vierna was moving towards the door.

"He's my son," Drizzt answered.

Well, that would explain why he seemed a bit perturbed, but not the need to check for traps.

Oblivious to her thoughts, however, Drizzt continued. "And he's known himself to be such for long enough that it is all too likely that someone sought to make him an unwitting weapon against me."

Vierna couldn't help but wince at that. "I can see how that would appeal to a Lolthite priestess.

"It would, after all, just be a delayed form of our original concerns."

"And it turned out that you and Father were half right."

Drizzt's voice was wry, and Vierna paused in her walking to turn and look directly at him. "Half right?"

"He was bait, but not for a trap."

Vierna raised an eyebrow at her brother, and he elaborated. "An old friend of Father's wanted a parlay with me, to discuss the possibility of resurrecting Father."

"So how surprised was this friend, when Father revealed himself?"

"Enough that he couldn't conceal it, which Father says is rather significant for him."

Their walking as they spoke had now brought them out to where Lothalninil was waiting, so rather than reply, Vierna went and offered pets and scratches to her brother's nest-mate.

And when she had finished, she mounted up behind Drizzt, who had done so while she was giving Lothalninil her attention.

---

Kastan had initially been somewhat wary of the idea of allowing a female drow cleric to potentially meddle with his mind, but between the casual way she interacted with Drizzt and Zak, and her respect for his wariness, it didn't take all that long for him to become easy enough with Vierna that he was comfortable with her checking him for traps.

And as it turned out, while there had been traps, they had been rather thoroughly broken—most likely by the Time of Troubles was the consensus among Zak and his children—and Vierna was familiar enough with arcane magic to say with confidence that there was no sign of that sort of tampering.

So once Vierna and Kastan had had a chance to settle from the search and the removal of the broken traps, the four Do'Urdens headed back to Spirit Sanctuary, to begin properly introducing Kastan to the residents and to Surface life.

---

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

A Curse Here, a Blessing There (4355 words) by Somariel
Chapters: 1/1
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, Original Elf Character(s), Alustriel Silverhand, Vierna Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden, Inthylyn Aerasumé
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Past Rape/Non-con
Series: Part 4 of Have Your Cake, Part 16 of A Crossing of the Realms
Summary:

Maybe the family isn’t big enough…

---

Beginning notes

This fic was inspired by senmut and ilyena_sylph's fic Making the Most of Magical Mayhem and my fic Magical Mayhem with a Pegasus.

It assumes familiarity with those fics, and the previous fics in the Have Your Cake series.

---

A Curse Here, a Blessing There

1343 DR

Samiar knew, perfectly well, that drow were excellent liars, and one might be using tongues to speak, but… he also knew that it was not possible to fool a pegasus’s innate sense of a person’s nature. Even so, he still twitched his fingers through the motion for detect thoughts, focusing on the drow. "Drizzt Do’Urden, hm? Well, at least we are even on the matter of names, now, though I still do not know the name of your friend there.

"But what curse troubles you, that your own people could not deal with better than I?" The phrasing of his question was deliberate, as even though Drizzt was very clearly not evil, it was still possible that he was neutral, and a Vhaeraunite scout or information gatherer.

"My friend is called Lothalninil," Drizzt said. "As for my people, while the Dark Maiden has been good to me and my family since each of us escaped the Underdark, I remain wary of divine intervention in my life, nor do I wish to develop a habit of relying on those whom my ranging may have taken me quite far from."

That was the truth and nothing but, Samiar felt, reading the truth of the 'no divine intervention' and the 'don't want to depend on family' alike, though a stubborn thread of 'got myself into this, I'll get myself out of it' was woven through the latter. "And the curse?"

"I made a mistake in the last set of ruins I cleared. While I could feel magic, it did not feel innately tainted or wrong, and the box I took from there called to me, for it was inlaid with a cat much like my companion that drew you here."

Drizzt dropped his eyes, and Lothalninil bumped her nose against his chest. "The curse upon it escaped as I opened the box, and now… I need aid."

"You appear to be healthy enough," Samiar said curiously, raising a brow, then flicked his fingers, "no, no. Come, we will talk within my home."

If the pegasus—Lothalninil, he reminded himself—had not been present, he would have cast an arcane eye to keep an eye on Drizzt Do’Urden as he led the way to his tower, but she was, so he was willing to place enough trust in her goodly nature to expose his back to Drizzt.

---

Sharing drow culture and society notes, the language and writing examples, was familiar to Drizzt from the time he had spent doing the same with Sharr, whom he very much felt would get along quite well with Samiar.

It wasn't until Sam chose to share the tale of one of his youthful misadventures, however, that Drizzt realized just how correct that thought was. Because the other two elves featured in the tale were Samiar's cousin Sharr, and Sharr's friend Kor.

But although the likelihood of there being two such groups with both that structure and those names was vanishingly small, once Sam had finished the tale, Drizzt asked, just to confirm things, "Do you mean Sharrevaliir Silverhand and Korvallen Senahye?"

"Why, yes. How do-" Sam broke off abruptly and stared at Drizzt as the family names sank in. "Wait, Silverhand?!? Is that actually El-, I mean Alustriel, up in Silverymoon, then?"

Not sure what Sam's source of confusion might be, Drizzt chose to answer in the way he thought would have the least chance of being misunderstood. "Silverymoon's current ruler is Sharr's human consort, if that's what you're asking."

"Then we're going up there. If I'd known that really is Alustriel, I would have sought her and Sharr's assistance from the beginning."

---

As curious as Alustriel was about the guest that Drizzt had called an old friend of both her and Sharr, the timing of the page's message delivery had been such that she could not actually go find out until after evenfeast.

And now, having changed from her evenfeast gown to something more casual, she stood at the door to Drizzt's rooms and knocked.

"Come in" was called in Drizzt's voice—though, for some reason, it sounded higher than usual—so she let herself in.

As she entered, Drizzt and his guest were busy comparing the papers scattered across the table they were sitting at, but before she could do more than register that the guest was a sun elf, they both turned their attention to her, and she gasped in surprise.

"Samiar?!"

"Hello, Elué," he said, even as he got up and came over to her with his hands outstretched in greeting.

Bypassing any sort of hand clasp, Alustriel embraced Sharr's cousin tightly. He returned the hug with equal vigor, and they held it for a long moment.

When they mutually released the embrace, Alustriel took a step back, and reached out to clasp his hands. "It's so good to see you again. But how in the world did Drizzt find you?"

"He was looking for a cursebreaker," Samiar replied.

At that, Alustriel turned her attention to Drizzt, and had to stifle a gasp. Because though she could tell it was still Drizzt sitting at the table, he now had a female body.

"How are you, Drizzt?" she asked.

"Uncomfortable."

"Understandably." Then she turned back to Samiar. "It's easy to see why you wish to consult with me, but what is it about this matter that has you wishing to consult with Sharr?"

"The inscription inside the damned box that was the trigger is in Seldruin."

"And when I unknowingly triggered the curse by opening the box, the whispered words that accompanied it sounded vaguely familiar from my work with Sharr on comparing Seldruin with Drow," Drizzt added.

Alustriel nodded her understanding. "Well, I'd be asking him to come with Kor anyway, simply because of Sam's return, but I'll make sure to tell him Sam brought a translation challenge with him."

---

Drizzt had been insistent that Samiar should take some time to actually catch up with his family, so once the cursed box had been secured in the workroom Taern had set aside for Sam and Sharr in the Spell Tower, it was several days before any more attention was given to the matter.

The first day that Sam and Sharr worked on translating the inscription went well enough, with the box safely contained in an anti-magic field, but on the second day, Sharr happened to arrive at the workroom before Sam did.

Since both he and Sam had received a copy of the key for the workroom, Sharr chose to enter anyway, and settled down to review the previous day's notes.

He had not gotten very far into them, however, when an explosion in the adjacent workroom rattled the door and shook the furniture.

Setting the notes aside, Sharr stood up and turned to scan the rest of the room for anything else that might have been disturbed.

Movement on the central table caught his eye, and he experienced a frozen moment of shock as the cursed box slid over the edge of the table.

Then instinct kicked in, and he lunged to catch it. He only just managed to do so, grabbing it a bit below the visible line near the top.

And then, much to his horror, a seam appeared below where he had grabbed it, and the box swung open.

---

Samiar had just exited the stairs onto the level that held the workroom reserved for his and Sharr's work with the cursed box, when a door-rattling boom sounded from the other end of the hallway—which was where their borrowed workroom was.

Concerned over what effect the probable explosion might have had on the organization of yesterday's notes, Sam increased his pace down the hall.

Very shortly, he had reached the workroom, and was reaching for his key when he noticed that the door was not quite closed.

Knowing that had to mean that Sharr had arrived before him, Sam let go of his concerns about the notes, and opened the door.

But he had not gotten more than a couple of steps into the workroom before he noticed something of far greater concern.

Sharr was lying motionless on the floor, his head almost under the central table, with the cursed box close enough to his hands that it had to have been in them when he collapsed. But the most concerning thing was that Sharr had very clearly been struck by the box's curse.

Sighing, Sam stepped back out of the workroom, and knocked on the door of the adjacent one.

It was opened fairly quickly by a human male who looked to be on the younger side even for humans.

"Yes?" the young man said, a distinct note of nervousness in his voice. Which was not truly surprising, as Sam recalled Taern saying that the workrooms used for doing anything likely to explode were in a different area.

"Samiar Ravarel. Am I correct in thinking that you were responsible for the recent explosion?"

"Stordan Helder. Why do you ask?"

"Because it disrupted my own work in a way that had unfortunate consequences for my colleague," Samiar answered.

Stordan's face paled, and he visibly swallowed a few times before replying in a voice that squeaked with nervousness. "What can I do to help?"

"Go find Korvallen Senahye and bring him here," Sam said.

"I will, Saer." Stordan gave a low bow, then turned and headed for the stairs.

Once the young man had entered the stairwell, Samiar went back into his workroom.

The first thing he did was cast the anti-magic field on the box, but once that was taken care of, he used the sending he had memorized for the day to inform Taern of the incident.

Taern's response had been a sigh, a mutter about headstrong young idiots, and a promise to come as soon as he could.

Then Samiar set about checking Sharr over for any injuries that would necessitate moving him before Kor and Taern arrived.

---

When Sharr regained consciousness, he had to take a moment to just breathe—which felt so odd with the extra flesh on his chest—and catalogue the myriad new sensations his changed body was bombarding him with.

However, he was still working his way through them when the scrape of a chair nearby caused him to open his eyes.

He was lying on the bed in his own rooms, with Kor and Sam both sitting in chairs pulled up beside it.

"Good to see you finally awake again," Kor said, his voice gruff with worry.

"Finally?" Sharr repeated. "How long was I out?"

"Most of the day," Sam answered. "Which at least proved useful in allowing me to analyze the curse's traces on you."

"Did you learn anything useful?"

"There is an escape clause, and it's tied to both something physical and something time-based."

"Still would have preferred it if you hadn't had the opportunity," Kor grumbled.

Sharr sighed. "So would I, but I'll take it as a silver lining to misjudging where I grabbed the box when it slid off the table."

"How do you feel?" Kor asked.

"Uncomfortable. Everything feels so different, and it's making it hard to concentrate right now."

Kor frowned. "That's the only problem, though?"

"Yes."

Kor gave a sigh of relief, and Sam smiled.

"Well," Sam said, "you'll presumably be able to concentrate better once you get used to the new sensations.

"Since Drizzt clearly has no problem concentrating."

"Let's hope so," Sharr said, "But speaking of Drizzt, please tell me that he isn't blaming himself for this."

"He didn't even get a chance to do so," Sam said. "The headstrong young idiot responsible was already defying a direct order, so Taern came down hard on him."

---

Samiar was indeed correct about Sharr's concentration returning once he became more accustomed to the female body's differences, and a few days later, the two of them resumed their work on translating the inscription.

As the weeks passed, Sharr's sons came by to meet or re-meet Samiar—with Thyl also visiting Spirit Sanctuary, resulting in Vierna and Zak being informed that Drizzt had run afoul of a curse, if not the exact details—and eventually, about a month and a half after the translation work had resumed, Sam and Sharr agreed that they had finally determined the correct one, though the implications it carried were unpleasant.

And with the translation found, Alustriel began working with Samiar on figuring out how the curse might actually be broken.

---

A bit more than three and a half weeks later—and almost exactly two months after he and Kor had started exploring the more intimate aspects of the female body's differences—Sharr noticed a change in his balance, along with a few other changes in how the female body felt.

So that evening, while he and Kor were lounging with Alustriel in her rooms after evenfeast, he asked, "What sort of physical changes accompany a pregnancy?"

Kor jerked bolt upright on hearing that, but Alustriel just gave him a considering look.

And after a moment, she said, "What changes have you experienced, to cause you to ask that?"

"There's been a shift in my balance, my abdomen feels unusually firm, and the breasts are sore."

Alustriel took a deep breath before she replied. "Well, those are all symptoms of pregnancy, so if you're thinking you might be pregnant, you're most likely correct.

"But if you want me to, there's a spell I can use to confirm it."

"Please."

"Then give me your hand."

Sharr complied, and Alustriel cupped her hands around his, then murmured a single word. And in reaction, a faint silver glow arched in a crescent from her right thumb to her left, over his hand.

Alustriel let out a gusty sigh and released his hand. "You are pregnant. About two months along, according to the spell."

Kor made a strangled sound beside him, and Sharr turned to look at his heart's brother. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Are you?" Kor replied.

Sharr took a moment to actually think about it before he replied. "I... think I will be, once I get over the surprise.

"It's not anything I expected-" Sharr paused for a moment to look at Alustriel, who had made a surprised noise when he said that, but she waved for him to continue, so he did. "-and I'm sure there will be some difficult moments due to the mismatch between mind and body, but I'm pleased to be carrying your child."

Kor sighed and threw his arm around Sharr's shoulders. "Alright. But you will let me take care of you during the pregnancy."

"Of course." Then Sharr turned his attention back to Alustriel. "Why were you surprised I hadn't expected this?" he asked her.

Alustriel again took a deep breath before speaking. "What conclusions did you and Sam come to about the nature of the curse and its escape clause, based on the translation you settled on?"

Sharr knew there was a catch somewhere in that question, but he couldn't see where, so he simply answered it. "It's a lover's curse, possibly a spurned one. And I would have said that fulfilling the escape clause requires sex, but given that it's been two months since Kor and I started having it, and the curse hasn't broken yet, I'm not so sure."

"Men." Alustriel rolled her eyes with that exasperated mutter, then sighed. "May you learn the pain of your deeds most personally, by living the life you have given to me. To me, that says pregnancy, and some amount of time breastfeeding the baby after it is born."

Sharr groaned and threw his head back. "Physical and time-based. Why didn't I see that?"

Alustriel smiled wryly. "Because you're not a woman."

"Fair enough," Sharr laughed. "Fair enough."

---

Roughly two and a half months after Sam and Alustriel had begun their research into how to break the curse, they reluctantly concluded that the only options were requesting divine intervention or fulfilling the terms of the escape clause.

Drizzt had been just as displeased with that conclusion as they were, but after taking some time to think about it, he accepted Samiar's offer to be the child's father.

Drizzt's decision that he would stay at Spirit Sanctuary during the pregnancy resulted in Thyl—who had remained in Silverymoon after coming to meet Samiar again—going there to give Zak and Vierna a full accounting of the situation, so that, when Drizzt did come, they would not be surprised by either his appearance or Samiar's presence, and once Thyl returned, Samiar started on treating Drizzt as a friend he was interested in intimacy with.

Drizzt proved to be more skittish about the process than anyone—including himself—had expected, but Samiar was very careful about always making sure he was comfortable with whatever Sam was doing, and about a week and a half after they had started, Drizzt felt ready to move on to actual sex.

Which ended up not getting very far at all, as experiencing intimacy while naked caused the long repressed memories that were the source of his skittishness to return in full.

---

When Vierna emerged from her workroom for the evening meal, she was somewhat surprised to learn that Thyl had arrived on Steelheart not much earlier.

But since she was rather hungry, and Thyl did not appear to be excessively concerned, she was willing to wait until after the meal to learn what had brought him to Spirit Sanctuary so late in the day, when she knew that he had to have come from Silverymoon.

Once the meal was over, however, Thyl actually pulled her aside, and said, quietly, "I need to talk to you and Zak."

Well. That he was asking for Zak as well made it likely that whatever brought him here involved Drizzt, but since she knew how much her brother valued his privacy, she simply caught Zak's attention, and indicated a need to talk, with a tilt of her head towards Thyl, and then in the direction of the exit from the communal dining area that would lead to her quarters.

Zak gave a sharp nod in reply, and was moving towards that exit even as she and Thyl started that way.

The walk to her quarters was accomplished in silence, but once all three of them were settled in the conversation area, Vierna couldn't hold off her concern any longer. "What happened with Drizzt?" she asked.

Thyl sighed. "The careful progress he and Cousin Sam were making hit an unanticipated obstacle."

Turning his full attention to Zaknafein, he continued. "As it turns out that he had rather thoroughly repressed his memories of graduation, but exploring intimacy slowly eroded that, until they fully resurfaced when he and Sam attempted to actually have sex."

Zaknafein couldn't help but wince when Thyl finished his explanation, "I... probably should have considered that possibility," he admitted with a sigh.

Putting what Thyl had said together with her own knowledge of Lolthite society, Vierna came to an unpleasant conclusion. "He was raped. During his graduation."

"Yes." The answer came in two voices, Thyl and Zak having spoken simultaneously. And after they exchanged a look, Thyl gestured for Zak to continue.

"The graduation ceremony is for all students graduating that year," Zak said, "both male and female.

"The teachers from Arach-Tinilith and a favored student summon a demon for the student to have sex with, and the drugged incense induces an orgy among everyone else present.

"The incense is likely why it didn't occur to me that those memories could be a problem, since it affects the memory enough that I just plain can't remember anything between that and the end of the ceremony."

"That's useful to know," Thyl said, "because Drizzt very definitely does remember all of it."

Vierna hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe because of his innate sense of evil?

"Because a demon would be a large splash against that."

"That's probably the best explanation we're likely to come up with," Thyl agreed.

"And to return to the current situation," he continued, "since Drizzt is insistent that he still wants to go through with fulfilling the terms of the curse, any further attempts at sex are on hold until he's received aid in properly processing the trauma and has reached a point where he feels ready to try again."

---

As the weeks passed, Drizzt made slow but steady progress in processing his rape trauma and coming to terms with what had happened in a way that let him move forward with fulfilling the terms of the curse.

Finally, a bit less than two full months after the memories had returned, he felt ready to make another attempt at having sex with Samiar.

And after a day of careful discussion and planning, they successfully went forward with doing so.

The three week wait until a pregnancy could be detected by the spell Alustriel had used to confirm Sharr's was mildly nerve-wracking, even knowing that the curse had most likely been designed to guarantee fertility, but Drizzt managed to find enough to occupy himself with that he was able to avoid dwelling on the matter.

And once his pregnancy was confirmed, he and Samiar said their farewells to those they wished to give them to, then rode Lothalninil up to Spirit Sanctuary.

---

Samiar had left Spirit Sanctuary after seeing Drizzt settled in—though not without promising to return for the child's birth—but even so, Drizzt and his family were kept abreast of the progress of Sharr's pregnancy, as Thyl had chosen to remain in Silverymoon at least until Sharr gave birth.

Given that Thyl had been updating them by sending, however, it was still a surprise when he teleported to Spirit Sanctuary roughly three months into Drizzt's pregnancy, about five weeks after the Midwinter festival.

But even with his smile making it clear that he had brought good news, the Do'Urdens still gathered in Vierna's rooms as swiftly as they were able to, in order to hear what news had brought Thyl in person.

And once they were all settled, he launched right into it. "Dad gave birth around dawn," he said.

"Were there any complications with the labor or the birth, or for the baby?" Vierna asked.

"Nope," Thyl said. "Unless you count Uncle Kor almost dropping the baby when the midwife said it was a girl."

"That would only count if he had actually dropped her," Vierna said, before giving in to the giggles she could feel bubbling up.

Drizzt was snickering beside her, and Thyl was grinning broadly, but Zak just looked confused by their amusement, which helped her to bring the giggles under control once she had gotten the first rush of them out.

Seeing that Vierna had calmed her giggles, Zak gave voice to his confusion. "Why is it amusing that... Kor... almost dropped the baby?"

"It's not him almost dropping her that's amusing," Vierna explained, suppressed mirth still in her voice, "it's the reason he did so."

"That reason being," Thyl continued, "the fact that until now, Dad has only had sons. So no one was expecting him to finally have a daughter after thirteen sons."

"Oh." Zak took a moment to consider that, then smiled. "That is amusing."

Finally stopping his snickering, Drizzt asked, "What did they name her?"

"Faeliniel Senahye."

Vierna made a surprised noise at that, and when all three men looked at her curiously, she said, "Why'd they choose to use Kor's family name?

"Given that you've previously mentioned that elves pass family names along the maternal line."

"Because Dad never uses the one he received from his mother," Thyl said. "I don't even know what it is, and he's been borrowing Kor's or Charic's for so long, I'm not sure Mom knows it, either."

"Huh. Do you have any idea why?"

"Given that Grandmother and her brother left Myth Drannor before its fall, my best guess is that their family was of a high enough rank that Dad feels it's not safe to use the name."

Vierna quickly ran through what she knew about the fall of Myth Drannor, and winced. "I can see why."

---

Samiar returned to Spirit Sanctuary a month before Drizzt was expected to give birth, and just three weeks after the Midsummer festival—about five and a half months after Faeliniel's birth—Zanna Do'Urden was born shortly before false dawn, and experienced her first sunrise half an hour later, when Drizzt brought her along for his sunrise vigil.

Samiar chose to stay at Spirit Sanctuary after the birth, saying that he didn't want to miss a single moment with their daughter, and things soon settled into a routine for the new parents, with Sam doing as much to care for Zanna as Drizzt did, even if Drizzt was the only one who could feed her.

Time seemed to pass surprisingly swiftly with a baby to care for, and it felt like it was all too soon before the next Midwinter festival occurred.

But it was barely a week after that when Samiar received a very welcome sending from Alustriel.

---

As Drizzt settled down to feed Zanna after his sunrise vigil, Sam sat down beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Alustriel sent while you were holding your vigil," Sam said. "The curse on Sharr broke while he was sleeping."

Drizzt smiled at Sam in relief. "That is good to know. I had been getting a little concerned over how close we were coming to a year since Faeliniel was born without his curse breaking."

"I think we all were," Sam said. "But it appears that the curse breaks eleven months after the child's birth, so now we know when to expect it for you."

---

Having a definite end to the curse in sight eased something inside himself that Drizzt hadn't even been aware was wound too tightly, and his mood lightened noticeably over the next few weeks.

And sure enough, just a week before the Midsummer festival, exactly eleven months after Zanna's birth, he woke to find himself restored to his proper body.

---

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

Starting to Find Family (2135 words) by Somariel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Vierna Do'Urden & Zaknafein Do'Urden
Characters: Vierna Do'Urden, Zaknafein Do'Urden
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ensemble Cast
Series: Part 2 of Have Your Cake, Part 14 of A Crossing of the Realms
Summary:

After a god meddles, a father finds his daughter.

---

Beginning notes

Inspired by my fic Divine Snit Fits Occasionally Bring Good Things.

It assumes familiarity with that fic, and the previous fics in the Have Your Cake series.

---

Starting to Find Family

Early 1338 DR

Vierna had only just returned to her rooms after singing Ellie to sleep when she heard Qilué's voice in her head. ~Vierna, I need to speak with you. Let me see through your eyes, so I can come to you?~

Vierna knew that her Lady's Chosen would not say "need" lightly, nor would Qilué be willing to use her single teleport frivolously, so despite her own surprise and need for sleep, she responded with ~See~, before focusing on the most distinctive area of her outer room.

Silver stars filled the air a few feet from her, and when they faded, Qilué was standing in front of her.

"I am very sorry for keeping you from your own rest," Eilistraee's Chosen said, "but something unusual occurred just before we started our own ritual, and you need to know about it."

"Don't worry about it," Vierna replied, even as she moved to take a seat in the conversation area. "But now you've roused my curiosity as to what could have happened near Waterdeep that would be necessary for me to know about."

Qilué waited until she had taken her own seat to reply. "We were very close to starting, when a naked drow male just... appeared, accompanied by a musteval.

"The musteval gave a very brief summary of what had caused Someone to send the male to us, and requested that we aid him, then vanished.

"But what brings me to speak with you is that the male gave his name as Zaknafein Do'Urden."

Vierna just stared at Qilué in shock for a moment, before she shook herself free of it. "He's free? He actually escaped?"

Qilué smiled softly. "So he is the Weapon Master you've spoken of so fondly.

"But while he is now free, what the musteval said of the circumstances makes me believe that he had not escaped before Someone not pleased with Lolth intervened in his life."

"My teacher," Vierna agreed, "and most likely my father.

"And while I would like to go greet him immediately, the fact that you believe he had not actually escaped makes me think it would be wiser to wait until he has had some time to become accustomed to freedom."

"That does seem like the wisest course of action," Qilué said. "And given that I did mention that there is another bearing the Do'Urden name among those I serve, it may be best to wait until he asks about who it is."

"Agreed," Vierna said.

---

As he started to settle in at the Promenade, Zaknafein did his best to give all of his attention to learning these new ways and the teaching he was doing, but his thoughts kept circling back to Qilué's mention of another Do'Urden among her people, and Rylla's comment, after his first spar with her, that there was only one person she knew of who might be his peer with the blade.

And so, just three weeks after his arrival, he chose to broach the subject with Elkantar.

Settled in his own rooms after the evening meal, with the other man seated opposite him, Zak took a deep breath, and said, "Qilué mentioned another Do'Urden among you. Do you know who it is?"

"That would be Vierna Do'Urden," Elkantar said.

"She's alive?!" Zak's voice almost squeaked in his surprise, and after he took a sip of water to wet his suddenly dry mouth, he continued in a more even tone. "Why haven't I seen her here?"

"Because she doesn't live here," Elkantar replied. "She leads our only other permanent settlement, up north in the Frost Hills."

Zak hummed thoughtfully. "Is she the one Rylla mentioned as possibly being my peer with a blade then, or is that someone else?"

"It's her. Rylla went to learn from her at one point, on Qilué's recommendation of Vierna being the best drow warrior under Eilistraee."

"Ah." Zak hummed thoughtfully. "Has she been told that I'm here?"

"Qilué teleported up to tell her the same night you arrived," Elkantar said. "It was actually her suggestion that we give you time to settle in here before we spoke of her by name."

"Understandable," Zak said. "And now that I know, I'd like to meet her again, but... do it here?"

"Wherever you're most comfortable having the meeting happen."

"Then can you speak to Qilué about arranging it?"

"Of course."

---

The next day, after the midday meal, Elkantar pulled Zak aside, and once they had found some privacy, the other man said, "Vierna suggested tomorrow evening for her visit. Is that suitable for you?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'll get Qilué to pass on your acceptance.

"But on another note, have you given any thought to where in the Promenade you wish to hold the meeting?"

"Other than somewhere private?" Zak replied. "Not really. Do you have a suggestion?"

"Qilué has offered her office, if you don't want to have it in your rooms," Elkantar said. "And I'm sure Rylla would be willing to do the same, if asked."

Zak hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "I'd feel more comfortable in Rylla's office than Qilué's.

"Because she's correct in thinking that I would like to keep the initial meeting out of my rooms."

"Do you want to handle asking her, then, or would you prefer for Qilué or I to do so?"

"I'm fine with doing it," Zak answered.

"Then I'll leave you to continue with your day."

---

Vierna had been quite pleased when Zak chose to come with her upon her return to Spirit Sanctuary, even though she could tell that there was still something troubling him.

But given that he was still well within the adjustment period that males went through after escaping, she knew it would be best to let whatever it was lie unless he brought it up with her, no matter how much she wanted to make everything right for him.

Which is why she was rather surprised when he came to her the very next evening, after the night's activities had commenced, and said, "We need to talk."

"Of course," she said. "Where do you want to do so?"

"Your rooms would be fine," he answered.

"Very well." Then she turned and headed for them, Zak falling in beside her.

The walk to her rooms was done in silence, but once both of them were settled in the outer room's conversation area, Zak sighed heavily and began to speak.

"When Qilué mentioned another Do'Urden among her people, you were very much not who I was expecting it to be."

"I had guessed as much. But that does leave me with the question of who you were expecting it to be."

"Your full brother. Drizzt."

"Will you tell me about him?" Vierna asked.

It seemed that that was all the prompting Zak had needed, because the tale of her brother just started pouring out of him.

And when he had finished, wrapping up with how he himself had come to simply appear at the Promenade's ritual night, Vierna slowly stood up and came over to his seat.

"May I hug you?" she asked.

Zak's response was a sharp nod, so, being very careful to move slowly enough that he could easily see what she was doing, she wrapped him in a gentle embrace.

After a moment of frozen stiffness, he relaxed enough to wrap his own arms around her.

And when he lowered them again, she released the embrace and stepped back, then took a seat as close to him as she could manage.

"Well, scrying ought to be able to locate Drizzt," she said, "so I can certainly handle that myself.

"But if you will allow it, I think the investigation into Who re-embodied you should be turned over to Qilué. As she has more resources to draw on for such than I do."

Zak sighed. "Given that I recall Elkantar saying something about Qilué being Chosen—with the implication of a stronger connection to Eilistraee than any cleric has—I think you're right. Regardless of how much I would prefer for you to handle it."

"A more direct connection to that deity is one of the benefits of being a deity's Chosen," Vierna agreed. "Though I was more referring to the fact that Qilué is Twice Chosen, giving that service to the human goddess of magic in addition to Eilistraee.

"But going back to Drizzt, can you tell me what color his eyes are?"

Zak blinked several times in surprise. "Huh. I think I want to hear more about how that works, later.

"As for Drizzt's eye color, he has purple eyes. Why do you ask?"

"Qilué's fairly open about it with our people to begin with, but it does tend to end up being a conversation for after newcomers have fully settled in," Vierna said.

"And given Drizzt's eye color, I can confidently tell you that you gained a granddaughter by his actions."

"I... What? How?!" Zak didn't think he could have been more surprised even if Malice herself had declared for the Dark Maiden.

Vierna smiled gently. "Roughly ten years ago, Eilistraee reached out to Spirit Sanctuary for whatever aid might be possible to give to moon elf followers of hers who had suffered a drow raid.

"We found two survivors. And while the elder of them had been injured badly enough that I was almost unable to save her, the younger one—a girl of about five—had no injuries other than a bruise near her temple, despite being covered in blood when we found her.

"Her nightmares about the raid are far less frequent now, thanks to intensive prayer sessions to recede it into distant memory, but the purple eyes of the man who stunned her have been a consistent feature of them from the very beginning."

---

When Vierna's own attempt to scry for her brother had just plain not worked, with no discernible cause, she had asked Qilué to try.

Qilué having the exact same problem had resulted in the discovery that Eilistraee was, for some reason, completely unaware of Drizzt, even though everything they knew about him indicated that She should be aware of him.

But since that was a mystery that could not be solved until Drizzt was actually found, the task of scrying for him had been turned over to the rest of Qilué's family, and Vierna had filled in Zak on the unexpected obstacle.

He had been just as displeased by the news as she was, but since there was nothing either of them could actually do to help, all they could do was wait.

It was just two days later, however, when Thyl arrived.

But while Vierna had been fully anticipating a visit from him, once he heard about Zak's arrival, she had not expected him to come by teleport.

And when, instead of asking to meet Zak, he said that he needed to speak with both her and Zak, she became concerned.

"Has something happened to Drizzt?" she asked, after she had sent the nearest child to find Zak and ask him to meet them in her rooms.

"No, I have good news," Thyl replied. "It just... needs more explanation than can be easily given by sending."

"Ah."

The walk to her rooms was accomplished in silence, and when they entered, Zak was already seated in the conversation area.

Introductions were made once she and Thyl had taken seats, and then she asked, "So what is this good news that is too complicated for a sending?"

"The good news is that we were able to confirm that Drizzt is on the Surface," Thyl said, "though we do not yet have a location other than 'northern mountains'."

"You're going to keep scrying until you get a specific one, then?" Zak said.

"That's the part that needs explanation," Thyl replied. "From all we can tell, he's been adopted by pegasi."

"Oh." Vierna had, through Thyl, learned enough about pegasi to guess how that had affected the Silverhands' decision making, and it truly was more than a sending could handle.

"And due to that," Thyl continued, "the consensus among the family is that we don't need to keep trying to discern his exact location, because the pegasus gossip network will guide us to him eventually."

Zak's face was a study in confusion, and Vierna had to repress a laugh before she clarified things for him.

"Thyl's family has thirteen bonded pegasus riders in it, and pegasi are at least as intelligent as the average human."

"Which means wild ones are fully smart enough to understand that Drizzt cannot remain with them indefinitely if he's truly going to thrive," Thyl continued, "and seek out a bonded pegasus to request two-leg aid for him."

"Oh," Zak breathed. "You'll still check in on him, though?"

"Of course."

---

Part I|Part II|Part III|Part IV|Part V|Part VI
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