Chapter 13 Ashes

"I want to go see Valas now." Lanie said, tugging on the bottom of the Jarlaxle's vest.

He wasn't sure how long he had been staring at the spot Kimmuriel teleported through. He noticed the sun had risen and there were plenty of birds chirping from the boughs of the tree he stood under. A strange feeling lay heavy in the pit of his stomach and he couldn't shake it. Again, he felt Lanie tugging on him.

"Come," she said, "I want to go."

"Alright, alright," he replied beginning to stride forward. He felt the small girl grab his pinkie with her hand and she began to skip forward matching her step with his.

Lanie looked up at the drow; his mouth was drooping like his eyes. He had a heavy heart she could feel it with an intensity that caused her to instantly throw his hand away from hers. Suddenly she ran back to the spot where she had watched the sunrise, collapsing into the grass and hiding her face with her hands. The tears that the mercenary was unable to cry for himself were streaming down her cheeks.

She mentally told herself to breathe, deep breathes, rocking herself and counting to refocus her mind. Counting slow deep breathes she visualized something that brought her comfort, which oddly enough, in that moment happened to be in the quiet quarters of her psion mentor. Kimmuriel's teaching had become instinctual; the techniques that he spent long arduous hours teaching her had sunk in.

"Are you alright Laenaia?" Jarlaxle asked with some hesitation.

Laenaia lifted her eyes as if puzzled by something but then quickly shifted her gaze down towards the town below the hill and then out towards the sky. A hawk was soaring on the wind and the sight of it brought a smile to her thin lips as she wiped another tear from her cheek.

"You want Kimmuriel to change, you want all of them to change, and you need them to. It will be the vindication you seek. Your experiment on a human assassin friend ended with a disappointing outcome. You fear there is no redemption for the drow or for yourself even. The drow are fueled by lust, hate, greed, and a power for hunger. You have found a glimmer of hope in Drizzt. You pray he succeeds in a life above for in the heart of Jarlaxle beats a hope that his people are capable of change and without that hope there is no longer a point to Jarlaxle's life." She hesitated quickly before continuing.

"That is what you projected just then. That is what I felt as if it were my own feeling. That sentiment lies deep in your heart where you shut it away most of the time, but you were dwelling on it just then" Her mouth collapsed in an awkward but gentle smile.

"It's okay to feel that way and you don't have to talk about it, not right now." She offered her sentiments shyly while wiping the tears from her face. "Actually I would prefer that you to talk about it. It frightens me."

Jarlaxle was in awe of her, he didn't realize how easy it was for her to pick up on such things even with the magical devices he had in his possession. Kimmuriel was right, she was quite powerful. He watched her struggle to stay in control of herself, sitting back on her heels she closed her eyes and began breathing slowly. When she opened them again she searched the sky for the hawk, but it was long gone. The breeze had picked up and she raised her hands in an attempt to catch it.

Jarlaxle found himself to be totally enraptured with the girl. He knelt down beside her on the hill and permitted a small smile to reach his lips as he entertained an idea that he would normally have found quite unnerving. If it was that easy for her to sense those feelings in that short time, he wondered just how much more she had felt during the times she had been in his presence? What more did she know about him?

"What it is I know I won't share with anyone." She answered his unspoken question without breaking her stare from the sky. "But you must promise me one thing and you and I both know how difficult promises are for you and how easily betrayal comes to you, should you find a level of prosperity in it."

The child turned herself to face him reaching up to hold his face in her hands. She cocked her head strangely to one side and slowly lifted the eye patch that now covered his left eye.

"You don't need that silliness with me." She giggled softly as she flipped it up to rest on his forehead.

She drew her fingers gently down tracing his face and took both his hands in hers. Strangely enough he did not feel alarmed, but instead welcomed the strange moment that was occurring between them.

"When infinity comes to settle over me I want you to promise me on thing." She whispered. "Please." She paused briefly before continuing and the only response he could give her was a slight nod.

"Burn me. Burn my flesh, burn my bones, send my ashes with the wind. I don't wish to suffer a death where I cannot die. Don't leave me to dwindle endlessly in some cold phylactery under someone else's influence. I was given a power I didn't ask for. I don't want to be bound to it endlessly.

Please I beg you to set your selfish nature aside and any temptation you may have to keep me for your personal gain. Promise me that. You must promise me that," tears began streaming down her face.

Jarlaxle suddenly found himself wishing she had tried to attack him with some psionic invasion for that would have been easier to deal with than her current request. He was totally caught off guard by the request. It was haunting and he could feel chills traveling through to his core. It was as if she knew or had a premonition of her future demise. He knew promises were hard to keep and he had a general understanding of the potential she could become. He was afraid he may not be able to keep such a promise.

"Please." She sobbed her desperate plead, crawling up into his lap and throwing her arms around his neck. He could feel her warm tears trailing down his neck he could feel the emotions she felt, she was projecting them into him. She wanted him to feel how important it was for her.

"I will do this for you little Lanie, you have my word."

She raised her head to look into his eyes, "Do I have Jarlaxle the drow's word? Or do I have the word of Jarlaxle's heart?"

She placed her hands on his chest just above his heart then slowly lowered herself, pressing her ear into his chest.

"I would rather the promise be spoken from Jarlaxle's heart and not his mouth." She whispered.

"My heart promises, listen to it." He said.

He looked into the girls eyes and began convincing himself of how necessary it was for him to keep this promise. For a long moment they sat there swallowing the silence that lingered between the two of them. It was Lanie who spoke up first wanting to go see Valas.

"You won't be able to see him right away." Jarlaxle stated rather bluntly.


"And why not? I have been looking forward to seeing him." She said.

"Kimmuriel has him on an assignment." The mercenary explained.

"Oh, if he is away and you are leaving what then is going to happen to me?" she asked with a nervous anticipation.

"Valas and I have made arrangements for you. While you are on the surface you will be living at the Book Wyrm under the care of your adoptive half-orc father, Jarjin. Though not really adoptive, he is just playing a role we assigned to him. Valas and you share a love of the written word, and he has worked hard at forming a mutually beneficial relationship for Bregan D'aerthe with the bookkeeper, Jarjin, and has managed to pull some strings to get you in there." Jarlaxle explained pausing briefly before continuing.

"I have also specifically requested you attend school with the other human children your age. It is important that you be socialized and gain a knowledge and understanding of the people who dwell up here. And when you are not in school you will be helping Jarjin with running and maintaining the store, it will be good for Bregan D'aerthe to have someone such as yourself there."

Lanie kept her gaze ahead of her she didn't mind the idea of staying in the bookstore but going to school was not something she had not anticipated. "I am not sure I want to go to school. I don't think it will be something I need nor is it necessary. Kimmuriel does not like when I come to the surface, he says that I belong down in the Underdark and that I am a far superior being in comparison to the surface dwellers."

"Of course Kimmuriel would tell you that. He tries hard to convince me of where I belong too, but I don't listen to him." A seemingly all know smile crossed Jarlaxle's face just then.

"You must really be growing on him if he wants you to stay with him."

"That's not what you meant to say Jarlaxle." She called him out on his innocent lie.

A puzzled look came across his face as he waited for her explanation.

"You did not say what you were truly thinking. I am not growing on him nor is he developing any sense of fondness towards me. Kimmuriel only realizes what my potential is and his interests lay with my abilities and my past. He doesn't have a caring bone in his body, that is not the way of Kimmuriel and you know this." The girl explained kicking a small pebble off to the side of the trail where it found a new resting spot next to lonely stalk of wild lavender.

Jarlaxle chuckled at her overt acuteness-she was a brilliant little thing.

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Kimmuriel put his hands together, matching fingertips, and half nodding. "What news do you have to share after scouting the area in question?"

From across the large table in the Bregan D'aerthe headquarters Valas's eyes met his master's. He was more at ease with the psion now that he had spoken his question out loud in voice. Valas found telepathy unnerving but more than that he was most intimidated by Kimmuriel's other psionic abilities in addition to his presence. He felt this way about the psion well before he became the leader of Jarlaxle's infamous band.

Valas missed Jarlaxle's leadership and though it had been years, he was still struggling to develop a working relationship with Kimmuriel. Where Jarlaxle had a personality and was quite impressionable the psion ran empty, there was so sustenance to his being, and simply put he was void. Kimmuriel will not warm up to anyone and Valas felt that in order to be accepted by the psion things had to change incrementally, he acquiesced and played the roles he felt Kimmuriel expected of him and he never challenged the psion.

With Kimmuriel there was no friendly banter mixed with business nor was there any sense of camaraderie in the way there was with Jarlaxle. The psion was just a body giving orders- just a brain always calculating and capable of efficiently running the band without any pollutants of an emotional thought or care getting in the way. Every decision made and every direction given was done so with a purely logical and strategic thought process.

Valas tugged on the ends of his vest before proceeding. "The group I saw in the upper east tunnel was unique, not like any thralls I have ever seen. They weren't mindless they were functioning on an entirely individualized level and yet they still worked together collectively, like something or someone was directing them, someone had control over them." Kimmuriel was listening intently and tapping his forefingers to his chin as Valas spoke.

"They gathered around wall by the shaft that leads to the surface where they were met by two illithids. One who either did not have a successful ceremorphosis or it's just not complete; it was sickly looking, grotesque even. I couldn't get close enough to hear anything and there was an enchantment placed around their surroundings that kept any magical scrying devices on my vest from working, including those able to pick up on telepathic conversations. The illithids lead the group through the wall and I haven't any idea where they went after that and finding out is well beyond my ability."

Kimmuriel who had not spoken a word since his first question cocked his head slightly in Valas's direction and stood up abruptly. "Focus your mind upon the mental image of the group you saw as well as the illithids." Valas hesitated at first, he knew where this was going and didn't welcome the idea.

I can force it for you if you prefer, but something tells me you wouldn't like that. The psion's telepathic voice sounded off the walls of Valas's skull.

He was quick to concentrate on the bizarre scene he saw in the tunnel and as he did so he felt the warm sensation of Kimmuriel's mental intrusion and he noted the wicked the smile that crossed the psion's face. It was apparent Kimmuriel knew something that he was not going to divulge. Kimmuriel stepped back and away from Valas, the air next to him started to quiver as a teleportation hole opened. The psion titled his head and tossed Valas a small pouch full of coins, his eyes narrowed and grew serious, "Your service here is no longer required, and you are free to leave."

Valas made a squawk of some sort and began to stammer, "I prefer to find my own way back up to the surface." He hated teleporting as it was quite nauseating. In all truth he didn't prefer using any of his magical trinkets all that much. He was born a low class male in the Underdark and had managed to survive for centuries without many magical devices or enchanted weapons, other than the ones he stole, and he did not have the academy training that the wealthy drow were "entitled" to. He had learned to make do and survive with very little.

"I am not giving you the choice" Kimmuriel issued his spoken threat.

Valas took a deep breath and obeyed.