Given that I have been using two computers and one is sometimes a bit... uncooperative, it may take a bit for me to get the updates as I sort through files. Right now, I have one update to Lilithia's story. This, I believe, is the longest of the three that were listed as in progress in the previous day's post. it's really rough, some parts of it I don't think mesh very well but it's going up anyways.
Paths of Our Lives
Lilithia awoke bright and early next to her father, turning to him where he was curled under his own cloak. She sat up to wipe the sleep away from her eyes, shivering in the first soft rays of the moonlight. She much preferred night, as he did, for her infrared vision was much easier to tolerate. She wasn’t used to the sun yet, and often times turned her face away from the bright orb. To her surprise, she found a steaming piece of mutton wrapped in a bit of cloth, on a rock next to her.
Drizzt must have cooked and saved her this piece. She leaned over, with him close enough to her as they slept, and gave him a soft kiss on the temple.
“Thank you father.” She whispered, knowing he was awake. His slow smiled revealed him as he shifted over to hide it, her coy grin award him a second quick peck. She was lucky that he had saved her. She had heard the tales of her grandfather Zaknafein, and sometimes wished she could have met the man. She unwrapped the mutton and began to pick at it, eating slowly and savoring its juices.
Her father had told her of her grandsire, how Zak hadn’t left the Menzoberranzan horrors to go to the surface. She hadn’t wanted to; she’d been too wrapped into the lies from birth. She’d had no Zaknafein to shelter her, but her mother had paid special attention to her. She never allowed anyone to speak to the girl privately; Matron Shikia had been very cruel to her. Matron Shikia taught her all the magic she would have learned in Arach-Tinilith but dabbled even further into elven magic, to prepare her against them. Wise, as Shikia had been, she knew if Lilithia understood her enemy, she’d no doubt defeat them. She enlisted the best weapons master in Menzoberranzan to train Lilithia, and was amazed that at sixteen, the girl had defeated, and promptly killed, a master.
To Lilithia, it was all an accident, but she told her mother that she’d killed him because he was weak. And thus, she became the teacher in his stead, training students to become weapons of death. At the time she enjoyed it, returning home as Matron Shikia bade her to. She was to be protected from everything. But she couldn’t be protected from Lolth.
She shook her head as she peeled off some more burnt tidbits of the veal, remembering the wand she carried but seldom used. The black and orange crystal rod was a gift from Lolth herself. The scimitars were a gift. The amulet was a gift. She seemed so covered in magical values that she might explode, but the only concern was where the gifts had come from.
Lolth had given her the wand; she’d used it to forge the amulet on her twentieth birthday. Without the wand the amulet would crumble and without the amulet, the wand was useless. Her scimitars were a gift from her father for when he would begin to temper her fighting skill further. They had been enchanted to return at the call of a single word for her, but she had yet to master it. It was a powerful and complex power which often drained her. She had been gifted, being able to have the powers of two very different goddesses at her back. But she only accepted Mielikki, Lolth’s power was a gift to convince the girl back to her dark world.
Lilithia knew soon one day that power would be gone and the wand would be no more. But she wouldn’t yield; Mielikki was her ‘mother’ now. Thinking was too complicated now, as she wiped her fingers on the piece of cloth and tucked it away in her pack. Drizzt was stirring now as the moon shown bright in the sky.
“You look like you are in pain Lilith.” Drizzt murmured as he shifted. She hadn’t even noticed him standing over by the fire, and the odd way he said her name told her he wasn’t concerned. There was a question he wanted answered.
“No… I’m fine father.” She returned, standing and picking up her gear. It was a slow process strapping everything back on before she turned to him.
“I’m confused. And you want answers.” She said, giving him a guilty little smile, the one that usually turned him head over heels. As he smiled and paced over she knew she had guessed right.
“What are you planning to do if the elves don’t accept that apology?” He asked, his face going stoic. She knew lying wouldn’t even make it past his good senses.
“I’ll offer the rest of my time to replace her in servitude. They can slave me, perhaps I have much to learn from these… elves.” She faltered, nearly calling them enemies as she had been so well trained to. She felt the familiar ball of guilt for hating them. It had taken many beatings for her to come to hate them and many more mental attacks to deny her wrongful hatred. Drizzt nodded and sighed, knowing how painful it would be to leave her in their hands.
“We’ll be in Riverdale before the sun rises?” She asked, looking over his shoulder to the east. Drizzt nodded, staring at her with a curious expression. “What?” She said, shrugging.
“You are not doing this to earn my forgiveness. You have-“ She hissed, surprising him as the feral side he thought had been removed when they left the darkness reappeared.
“No!” She shrieked, calming some to smooth her fine face, “No… I’m doing this for myself. I have already earned your forgiveness, I need to learn humility and humble myself. Temper my… my angers.” She said, turning her gaze down. She just realized she had almost had another outburst and lashed out at him. It wasn’t his fault she was used to killing anyone who dared question her, but this was unexpected. She’d quit acting like this a year ago. Drizzt stepped off onto the path after her kicked dirt over the fire’s embers, waiting for her to follow on her own choice. She touched the amulet, taking a single step and with a gush of wind, appearing just ahead of him and smiling. She rarely used that kind of magic, it was for the lazy in her mind, but she wanted to feed the amulet her anger. After all, it fed on that for it was Lolth’s hand that helped her forge it.
Drizzt smiled and chuckled at her as she tucked the amulet away, matching their steps and yawning softly.
“Father, are you disappointed that I won’t be able to give you grandchildren?” She asked, turning to him in the darkness. He saw the sparkles in her eyes so much like his own. He shook his head and smiled, taking a deep breath.
“No, no I am not Lilithia. You will, in time, find the right boy for you.” He reminded her as he had many times before. She had already had a consort back in Menzoberranzan, but she had refused him many times, preferring to stay childless as long as possible to climb the ranks faster. Lilithia smiled, stepping closer to him.
“And of the one you married many years ago? The human? Is she my step mother?” She asked, a tinkling laugh escaping her lips. How much had she changed, thought Drizzt, from cackling like Malice to the laugh of a young elf?
“Catti-Brie? Of course, if you want her to be.” He was unsure what she needed, a better role model, perhaps a female, or just a mother figure to teach her the ways of women. He knew Lilithia would have a harsh road ahead, but he didn’t doubt for her beauty and delicate body that she couldn’t kill with the efficiency of any dark elf. The conversation slipped away as suddenly as it had come and they welcomed the silence, each thinking over their own set of obstacles. Bruenor had hated Lilithia, after knowing that she had wanted to turn Drizzt into a drider. Catti-Brie had been fine around Lilithia, as welcoming as she’d been to Drizzt, but Wulfgar would have sooner turned Lilithia into a pile of bones than to have her near him.
Her exploits were rather well known, and whenever she passed any of the five, particularly Regis, they had turned over their shoulder. Drizzt only meant to check on her as Catti-Brie, but Bruenor and the others were afraid for their backs. Each time Lilithia felt like screaming out her innocence, but she knew that if she had seemed threatening, she knew they’d have slaughtered her. But her father’s one very poignant conversation with them had kept her safe. She brought back the memory to ease the time of walking.
“She can’t be trusted!” Bruenor roared, slamming his fist down on the wooden table. Drizzt frowned and looked to Catti-Brie, the only other to understand the girl’s good intentions.
“Bruenor, I will take responsibility of Lilithia. On my word, she will not harm you or yours and if she does she will be dealt with, firmly.” Drizzt promised in a calm voice, his eyes flashing violet. Wulfgar stepped in then, snarling.
“She’s evil, Drizzt! You saw her try to kill me with her dark magic.” He growled, pointing an accusing finger across the wood table at Drizzt, her took a deep breath and began his retort.
“She didn’t know any better.” Drizzt said, his voice pleading for them to understand. “How can you blame her when she had no idea of the morals that I adhere to? She knows now, she wouldn’t kill the innocent.” He said, shaking his head and running her palm over the edge of the table. The incredulous looks he received made him feel as if he were the one they were trying to have imprisoned. Bruenor shook his head, standing and growling at Drizzt with such a furious glare that the drow backed up a step.
“The witch stays outside. If and when ye bring her into me halls, she is to be stripped of all her weapons and shackled.” He said, making Drizzt scowl.
“No,” Drizzt hissed, “I’m going to leave then. She needs a father and I need to be with her when she asks all the questions I asked myself.” He said, leaning back from the table and turning on his heel, leaving the room before anyone could make an objection. His words were heavy with the truth, Bruenor knew. Wulfgar had held a grudge against the drow girl after she had tried to cast some spell on him. He had clipped her left knee with Aegis-Fang when he threw it, and had nearly crippled her. But Lady Alustriel had been summoned to heal her, by Drizzt of course.
Drizzt stood outside the room, waiting as Catti-Brie left to go find him. She turned and he put a finger to his lips so they might listen in on the others. They heard Regis sneak in from another door, having been avoiding Drizzt at all costs, just as much as he would Lilithia later on. None but Catti-Brie and Drizzt had met Lilithia after the change, after Drizzt had brought her to the surface in ropes. Wulfgar had caught a fleeting glimpse as she had tried to cast a spell on him, trying to keep the angry man away as she fought off the Shadow, but it was purely because he couldn’t have seen it. Her attempt had nearly cost her life when the shadow had returned, and Wulfgar had come upon the cripple. Drizzt stopped them both as he battled the invisible enemy, only seen in infrared eyes. Wulfgar had been so amazed by the display he set aside the attack and let Lilithia get away.
She didn’t realize she’d been crying until Drizzt’s hand shook her firmly.
“Lilithia?” He asked when she collapsed against his shoulder.
“W-Wulf… gar…” She hiccupped, biting her lip. Drizzt had tried his best to get it through to her, it wasn’t her fault the barbarian had misinterpreted her try to keep him safe. The blow of the hammer had smashed her knee almost beyond repair Lady Alustriel had fixed it easily, but it was still stiff from time to time. As she stopped crying, Drizzt released her, keeping her to his side as they began walking again. Lilithia couldn’t answer as her memories returned.
Lilithia awoke in a nice bed, the silk nightgown she wore hiding the fat cast around her left knee. She could only see the blur of a single ebony face in the dim room around her. She could here him crying, though he wasn’t sobbing. Drizzt had honestly believed her dead that night, her breath was so shallow. When he saw here eyes open he smiled, wiping his tears away and leaning forward. She could see the exhaustion on his face, and knew though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, that she was the cause of it.
“Vel'uss ph'dos?” She had murmured, pushing away from him as she searched for weapons that weren’t there. Drizzt was astounded by her words, in the drow language. He nodded, reaching out to herself.
“I am your father.” He replied in the drow tongue, “Drizzt Do’Urden.”
Right after that she’d passed out, the pain coming from her knee too much to bear. She’d moved it and it had ground together, bone and tendons in one huge mass.
Drizzt shook her gently again, this time bringing her from the memories for good.
“I was… the night you explained to me the reasons why I would be better for staying with you.” She whispered, her voice dry and hoarse. Drizzt nodded, kissing her cheek to bolster her strength.
“Not far now. Not more than a mile.” He sad, smiling. Lilithia bit her lip. She’d been thinking for most the night, and now the sun’s first rays shown dull against the far mountain crests.
“I’m going to leave my things with you.” She said, her finality surprising him. For once, she knew where and when, without a question.
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