Also,I discovered that I didn't number the previous chapters right and so this is number 4. Anyway, critique it and I hope you do like it.*closes eyes and presses post*
Khalia settled into a kind of half-daze as she roamed the streets and avenues of Neverwinter, without really paying attention to where she was going. She strolled past the ever-present piles of burning corpses, the heat from the flames playing with bits of her hair before the game finally ended when she moved out of the range of the bonfires. She took little notice of the weary faces of the city guards as they went about their grim business of trying to manage a city overburdened with the dead and dying plague victims.
The half elf looked up only once when a pair of guards and a tired looking cleric was tossing corpses on top of a fiercely burning stack of stinking flesh like they were cords of wood. The young priest had driven the death cart and parked it in such a way as to block normal access to the street beyond. Some of the unfortunate victims of the Wailing Death were wrapped in all manner of cloth as a final kindness in death. However, most weren't afforded that luxury and were burned wearing the same clothes (or not) that they had died in. Khalia watched the grim process, not really seeing anything until one of the guards picked up a small bundle. It was the body of a young child, perhaps one no older than six years. The man who had picked up the corpse, paused, and then solemnly, placed it on the pyre.
Even as the sorceress and her familiar watched, the cleric turned around and spoke a final prayer to send the souls of the departed to the safe keeping of their gods. This action repeated itself and when the cart was nearly empty, the sorceress had enough of the scene and so she squeezed her way past the bonfire and continued on her way. Ezie flew around her mistress's head and tried to engage her in meaningful conversation, anything to get a response other than a non-committal grunt. The pixie was concerned for her mistress, as she had acted like nothing mattered to her anymore. The pesky little familiar buzzed rapidly around Khalia's head, knowing full well that habit of hers was quite irritating to the sorceress. When that didn't work, Ezie decided to do something that had Khalia threatening to rip out her wings the last time she had done it.
So the pixie positioned herself behind the half elf, who of course took no notice of what she was doing. Ezie grinned wickedly and hovered just above Khalia's backside, and then she took a fold of flesh in her teeny hands and pinched hard.
"Ugh, Ezie, I told you to stop doing that already!" Khalia cried out as she made an unsuccessful attempt to swat the creature that had pinched her bottom. "Do you want to be the only pixie in Neverwinter who can't fly because her wings have been plucked?"
"Nope," Ezie said in her high-pitched voice, being careful to hover in the air and just out of her mistress's reach. "Nope, nope, nope! You can't catch me anyway, so nyah!"
Khalia glared at her irritating familiar, who was sticking her tongue out at her at the moment. She grumbled and wondered how she had managed to summon such an annoying creature in the first place. The only explanation she had come up with was that she had somehow angered Mystra, and Ezie was the supreme punishment. Either that or Tymora had taken an interest in pestering the half elf.
"You literal pain in the butt," the sorceress growled. "What possessed you to be extra annoying today?"
"You are being such a gloomy person," Ezie harrumphed. "How boring! You are no fun anymore, it's too creepy with all the rotting bodies and I'm cold and hungry. All you've been doing is wandering around like a ghost, and it's been ages and ages since we've stopped to rest."
The sorceress paused, for the pixie did have a point. She sighed and shook her head, for it wasn't too often that Ezie was wiser than her. Talmeth had always said that her and Ezie balanced each other out, and that's why they were bonded to each other. After he'd tell her that he would lean over and nibble on her ear, and then they would go to either her room or his and make love until they were both exhausted and content. She felt so empty without someone to talk to and hold, and to tell her how special she was, and how everything would be all right.
Talmeth. Khalia stopped responding to her familiar when she thought of her druidic lover. She realized with a start that nearly a full day had passed since she had escaped from the destruction of the Academy, and that it was that long since she had lost him. Did she cause his death by the simple virtue of him staying by her side? Would he still be alive if she had called out a warning about that thrice blasted Hook Horror in time? Damn it, why didn't she do anything about it? Why?
She wandered more or less in a random way, her grief assaulting her fresh. In an odd twist Ezie was the responsible one and she carefully guided her mistress towards the center of town, or at least where the main temple of Try was located. The pixie placed little to no thought towards the request that Aribeth had given Khalia back in the halls of the Academy. She didn't care, for her mistress's sorrow was her sorrow, and the teeny flying pest didn't like her mistress feeling sad.
Finally the flow of tears stopped and Khalia was able to move about on her own, though she was uncharacteristically silent. She said little to the district guards and when they demanded that she prove she wasn't a plague victim, she in turn replied that she was feeling fine and she was visiting a priest to make absolutely sure. Eventually, they accepted this information and allowed the pair to cross the barricade with the express instruction that they make it to the temple as soon as possible. Even when the types of buildings changed from houses to shops, the city was still teeming with refugees and the occasional plague victim. One old man off to the side and covered in a filthy blanket weakly coughed his life away, and the young girl next to him shook him in a useless effort to wake him up. She had a bottle of greenish liquid in her hand and had anybody been paying attention to her they would have heard her plea of 'please wake up'.
Eventually the sorceress found the pair of large fountains that denoted that the temple of Tyr lay beyond them. She wasn’t really conscious of her journey or how close she was to where the Lady Aribeth awaited her presence. She was just tired, so very tired and the low stone walls surrounding the fountains made for a perfect if temporary place to rest her weary body.
"Khalia," Ezie said as she hovered over the water. "You look just awful, I mean eww!"
"Thanks you pest," the half elf replied, her heart not really into getting angry like the pixie wanted her to. "What is it that makes me look really bad?"
"Hmm," the familiar mused. "Those dark circles under your eyes make you look icky, icky! Your skin is so pale and I bet you smell too. Your robes are stained and gross looking, I think you vomited on them. Phew, I'm going to gag on your stench. Oh, your hair is a mess and I think there's a rat living in it, yes siree! You look ugly."
Khalia reached out and grabbed her familiar by her waist. The pixie gave a squeak and looked at the half elf pleadingly. "I didn't want such a detailed description, you little annoyance. How would you like to eat oatmeal the rest of the week?"
"Um, you did ask and I got lots more to say!" Ezie protested.
The half elf released the creature and stared at the ground in front of her. She lifted her head and looked at her surroundings. She noted the magnificence of the Temple of Tyr and the symbol of the god set above the door glowing softy in the ruddy rays of the setting sun. The hopeful icon was in stark contrast to the misery of the city. Khalia wasn't really noticing any of the other structures surrounding her until a vibrant patch of green caught her attention. She leaned forward and saw the top of one of the biggest trees she ever saw growing inside the limits of a city. She knew it was a giant oak for her mother taught her from a young age how to identify trees. It was beautiful and large, very large.
Khalia sighed and turned away, remembering that she knew about that oak. Of course she knew about the big tree, all the Academy students did. Talmeth had told her it was a temple dedicated to Silvanus and he promised to take her there, but then the plague hit Neverwinter and then…
The half elf felt tears well up in her eyes and fall down her face in a twisting path. She saw the tree, but not with Talmeth. Now they would never get a chance to see it together. The loss of her lover cut like a knife and she wondered when her tears would dry up. So lost was she in her grief that she never noticed that a stranger approached her when she stood up to leave, until the person literally collided with her, sending both plunging into the fountain.
Khalia came back up coughing, her sorrow momentarily forgotten. Water streamed from her hair and some had gotten up her nose, making her very uncomfortable. She tried to sneeze the rest of the water out and found that her nose felt raw. The half elf sat on the edge of the fountain and checked to make sure that here shoes were dry which thankfully they were. She was ready to tear a strip off of the offending party, but was prevented from doing so by the very person who had shoved her into the fountain.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry I did that!" said a strange woman with soaking wet curly hair. "You looked so sad and I came to ask you why but I kind of bumped into you instead."
Khalia frowned for though the woman sounded kind, she couldn't see past the hair that covered her face. It looked like the new arrival was being attacked by some kind of wet, bedraggled animal. The stranger may have finally realized the picture she presented for she shoved the hair from her face and twisted her hair into a quick bun. The sorceress was a bit surprised for the tilted almond eyes and large pointed ears marked her as an elf. Judging by the woman's dark blonde hair and fair skin, she might have been a mixture of sun and moon elf. It was a bit hard to tell the difference in this gloom.
"It's no problem, these things happen," Khalia said, although being knocked into a fountain wasn't a pleasant or expected experience. Meanwhile Ezie wasn't saying anything as she was too busy laughing at her mistress.
"Oh, you are such a sweet child and I know it was me who made you all wet," the elf replied with concern. Khalia tensed a bit and gripped the stone she was sitting on as the woman sat beside her, ready to steady herself should another dunk in the water be in her future. The elfin stranger fussed over her and even reached down and wrung some of the water out of her robe.
Khalia frowned at the giggling pixie and found her eyes drawn towards the symbol hanging from the elf's neck. She almost recognized it, but she was sure it was an elfin deity, one of the Seldarine. "Uh, how is it that you ran into me?"
The woman looked up at her and smiled kindly. "Because dear, I was on my way to the temple to see if they needed an extra hand to help with the sick. Oh my, where are my manners? The name is Linu and I apologize again for the accident."
"I'm Khalia, a sorceress and one of the few survivors of the attack on the Academy," the half elf said flatly. "Pardon my ignorance, but what god do you follow? I'm not sure what holy symbol you wear round your neck."
Linu smiled and replied, "I serve the goddess Sehanine Moonbow as her priestess. I'm so sorry about what you went through though, no wonder you were crying before I accidentally knocked you into the water."
"I… "
The elf patted the sorceress's arm fondly. "Poor dear, you look like you've been in a fight and wandering everywhere. You must be very tired. Have you slept at all?"
"No, she hasn't!" Ezie interjected, placing her hands on her hips in a show of anger. "She's been walking and walking everywhere and not eating. You have food? Khalia won't eat, but I'm so starving I can barely fly because she hasn't fed me at all. Humph!"
"I can help you at least," Linu offered. "I've got a room at the mercenary barracks and I can share it with the two of you until you find a place."
"That's very kind of you, but we should really find our own room," Khalia protested.
Linu shook her head and told the half elf insistently, "Nonsense, it's no trouble. You need to rest up and get better."
"Why are you being so nice?" the half elf wondered.
The elfin cleric sighed and looked wistfully at the Tyran temple. "I'm here for another matter and when the sickness started to kill off the city, I immediately volunteered to help. Helping is in my nature dear and at first the temple was glad of my aid. Even in there you can find people dying from the Wailing Death. Too bad I was banned from giving aid inside the temple."
"Banned?"
"Yes, banned," Linu sighed. "I came here to try to get back in as I know they need the help. The statue of Tyr I clipped with a staff was an accident. How was I to know the head would shatter when I hit it? And all those broken dishes, I'm sure they can easily replace them, and it's not like I smashed them on purpose."
Khalia felt a yawn coming on and not wanting to be rude, she tried to stifle it to no avail. Linu saw this and repeated her offer of sharing a room. The half elf agreed at last since she really didn’t feel up to negotiating with an innkeeper for a room at this time. One thing the sorceress did tell the elf as a sort of payment was that she was required to see the Lady Aribeth, who was inside the Temple of Tyr and perhaps she could see if she could put in a good word for Linu. The elfin priestess was delighted and so was Ezie, who spoke incessantly about all the food she was going to eat now that she didn't have to starve anymore.
The sorceress was too exhausted to notice that her tears were spent. She followed the elf to where she was staying and completely ignored the catcalls one greasy looking mercenary gave the women. Ezie noticed and the pixie promptly bent over and showed her small bottom to the offending man, though it was uncertain whether or not he saw it. Khalia, unaware of what was going on around her slumped on the bed in the elf's room and even before she could take off her dampened clothing, the half elf fell into a deep sleep.
He was glad he was able to get into Luskan as the city had barred entry to most until the Wailing Death crisis in Neverwinter was over with. The official excuse was they didn't want to get sick, but he knew better. Luckily he knew which guard to bribe so that he could gain entry to the city. Armed with the latest information and instructions imparted to him by Lord Nasher and some of his own contacts within Neverwinter, he went in search for his Luskan contact, if he could be found that is.
Lord Nasher's instructions were clear enough. All he had to do was to find the person his lord told him to find, give him details of what the ruler of the city wanted him to do and he could leave. The only problem so far was that the person in question was his superior and he was notoriously hard to find. So, Sancha knew that he had to drop hints in the right quarters and hope that the one he was supposed to find would make himself known. Yet he had heard distressing news that maybe Lord Nasher had sent him on a fool's errand, and he was in fact looking for a man who no longer walked this plane. He dismissed this idea as a far fetched rumor; nevertheless he had followed up on a lead where the man supposedly met his end. All he needed to do was to find the one man who witnessed the crime and get conformation once and for all.
Unfortunately, almost an hour has passed and Sancha was no closer to finding the witness he sought than he had been since he started. A rat jumped from the top of a pile of garbage and ran off, which startled the man. He stared at the spot where the rodent had disappeared to and wondered if the rumors about wererats wandering the streets of Luskan were true.
Suddenly an arm wrapped itself around his neck and a knife blade was pressed to the exposed skin of his throat. His heart was hammering and he cursed himself for having been caught by a mere mugger. Still, the criminal had the advantage and all he could do was to play along and hope he could reach the dagger he had hidden in his pants. The silent thug pulled Sancha backwards until they were in between two buildings where no one could accidentally witness the crime taking place. His arm was free and he was desperate so he reached for his knife, only to find it missing. Damn.
"You're actions are rather foolish," the stranger whispered softly in his ear. Somehow that sound was more distressing than having to listen to someone who demanded all your money or they will cut your throat.
Sancha swallowed heavily and managed to say in a clear voice, "If it's gold you want, I have none."
The mugger chuckled and said, "I have no need of your gold. You seek a witness to a certain crime and I will lead you to him. When I let you go, turn around and make no sudden moves."
He nodded his head in agreement as much as he dared, and then his attacker let him go. He rubbed the area on his neck where the knife blade had dug into his skin and let out a barely audible sigh of relief. Sancha turned around and saw a figure that was familiar to him, if not on a personal level than by description. Brown eyes, always careful, always probing stared back at him from a face that was at once both handsome and mysterious. There was only one person that Lord Nasher trusted who had a stealthy manner about him and skin of such a deep, rich brown.
"Aarin, I have some news from the ruler of Neverwinter," Sancha said, his fear forgotten.
Aarin Gend, Spymaster of Neverwinter and currently skulking about the streets of Luskan replied in a voice just loud enough for his companion to hear, "We'll talk where there is little chance of being overheard. The city has many eyes and ears, and they are not always friendly. Take your weapons and follow me."
Sancha blinked but he did what he was told. As his superior handed his weapons back to him, he realized that Aarin had used his own dagger to intimidate him. As the two left the alley he cursed himself for Aarin had pulled that trick on him before when he was first being taught the art of information gathering at the Neverwinter Academy. Having the Spymaster spending the week at that respected institution sure kept everyone on their toes.
Soon they arrived at a plain looking house that had little if anything to distinguish itself apart from the rest of the buildings in the neighborhood. Without discussing it they moved into the main living area and sat down on a couple of chairs to begin their talk. Sancha gave Aarin his report, and the man quietly probed for details here and there until Sancha realized he knew a lot more than he thought he did. Aarin listened patiently to what Lord Nasher wanted of him, though when Sancha asked him for detail on his plans Aarin brushed his request aside.
Eventually he exhausted all that he knew and waited in a sense for permission to leave. After all, his task was done and there was little to keep him here. The Spymaster surprised him on this, as he did with a lot of things.
"You're information is troubling," Aarin observed. "I'm not sure why Khelban and the others felt the need to ship the ingredients for a plague cure to the city as living creatures, though I suppose he has his reasons. I'm most concerned with what you felt were a couple of silly rumors that were, how did you put it, mere gossip. Tell me about them for at times the simplest truth hides in the most unlikely of places."
Sancha fidgeted a bit in his seat for he felt like he was being tested and he would soon lose. He decided to tell the man across from him what he heard in passing anyway for after all it couldn't hurt. "I have two rumors, gossip, pieces of story to pass to you. One concerns the student who was enrolled in the Academy that the Lady Aribeth has picked out for special attention, though I doubt the girl in question knows what it means."
"That Lord Nasher is interested in the girl's progress?" Aarin supplied. "No, she has no idea, I'm certain of it. It's no surprise this is the case, given what I've heard of the girl's family. Wait, you said was enrolled. Did anything happen inside Neverwinter that I should know about?"
Sancha sighed and said, "This is the most far fetched. I wasn't able to confirm it as I was out in the countryside and wouldn't have been able to return to the city until the plague was gone. I got a message from someone inside the city, one of my friends in the mage guild who contacted me though a crystal and told me the Academy had just been attacked."
"Ah. Will you please hand me that crystal that was given to you by the arch mage Blackstaff?"
"How did you know…?" Sancha began. "Never mind, you really do know everything."
"Not quite," Aarin admitted as the crystal changed hands. "I'll be leaving Luskan soon, for there are some things I need to do before I return to Neverwinter. You will be more useful here than wandering the countryside. Here's what I want you to do."
Sancha listened and the two spoke for a long while, discussing the Spymaster's plan for him and the troubles the city of Neverwinter was facing.
