Chapter 6: Every Tenday For Two

"She's dangerous. She is not what you think she is." Kimmuriel explained to Jarlaxle in the adjacent apartment.

"Tell me friend, what exactly is it, that I think she is?" Jarlaxled asked sitting down abruptly in the chair by the fire which he relit with a thought using a magic device in his vest pocket.


"An opportunity," Kimmuriel said dryly through cold eyes, "an exploitable opportunity."


"Ah, I cannot deny, you know me well my friend, very well." Jarlaxle confirmed with a proud smile crossing his lips.


"She's not worth it." Kimmuriel argued.


"You and I both know how wrong  you are. What is it that you are not telling me about her?" Jarlaxle asked the psion. "Why does the young thing threaten you so?"


Kimmuriel studied his former master intently. Secrets were difficult even for a psion such as himself to keep from Jarlaxle. He sat back placing his feet up on the desk taking a deep breathe and rubbing his temples with his thumbs.

He wanted to convince Jarlaxle that the girl was better off dead, he wanted to rid himself of the discomfort she brought to him, the discomfort that even Jarlaxle was picking up on. He did not like the idea that anyone could get a read on him, even his former master.


The psion understood these thoughts were coming from a place deep within him, a place he thought had put to rest centuries ago. This child was exposing his weaknesses to himself and he understood he had to get himself under control or these emotions would consume him and leave him vulnerable to outsiders. Logically, he knew she was a valuable tool, she was young and impressionable. At her age her ability was already astounding and there was potential there to further her abilities. She needed strict and regimented training.


"You should teach her." Jarlaxle exclaimed suddenly as if he were reading Kimmuriel's mind.


Kimmuriel rocked back violently as if hit by some unforeseen force, his feet hitting the floor with a loud thud. He rocked upright in the chair and looked at Jarlaxle with a blank expression not knowing what to say, wondering if he had even heard the drow right. He cocked his head in a most curious but obviously flustered fashion.


"That's right you heard me correctly, " Jarlaxle repeated a second time as he placed a new bone toothpick in his mouth. "She will be worth your while that I can assure you," he finished with a wink.


Jarlaxle wanted to laugh at the dumbfounded expression that crossed his psion friend's face but managed to steady his composure and disguised what would have been a laugh as a cough.


"You will take her and train her to the best of your abilities and," he paused for a moment, considering his next words carefully," you will not harm a hair on the child's head. You will be her master, you will craft her into a  valuable tool. There will come a time we will need someone like her." 

Jarlaxle's expression suddenly went cold, "You know what I am speaking of."


It was true, Kimmuriel did know what Jarlaxle was referring to. The illithids hadn't been a visible force in centuries, being too absorbed in their experimentations and scientific studying for centuries. In recent years, however, they have become increasingly involved in many areas of drow, human, and other creatures lives, both above and below the ground. 

Lanie was an exact result of that experimentation and Kimmuriel wondered just how much Jarlaxle truly knew about the child.  There was a whole lot more to this Laenaia Manaallin than she was letting on. Jarlaxle was very clever and cunning and wise beyond all accounts, but Kimmuriel doubted Jarlaxle knew what he did . Kimmuriel studied Jarlaxle who was deep in thought staring at the fire.


"I know enough of about her, Kimmuriel." He said telepathically making clever use of his eye patch, the very eye patch Kimmuriel had created a hundred times over, making it stronger each time. Kimmuriel had long been working on his metacreativity abilities and had employed numerous clerics to study and learn from them.

He carefully observed their magic and applied certain aspects of what he learned to improve upon his own psionic skills. Kimmuriel despised magic in general and knew that what could be done with magic could be learned and tailored to psionic ability and improving upon his metacreativity was proving very useful to himself and to the prosperity of Bregan D'aerthe.


When the psion became more powerful than the clerics he employed he would simply "rid" himself and Bregan D'aerthe of them. He smiled at the thought of Rai-guy, who had mistakenly trusted Kimmuriel as a "friend."

Kimmuriel did not deny the fact he enjoyed the viciously brutal attacks that he a Rai-guy spawned on so many innocent victims, but Rai-guy was after all, was only a tool for him to use and eventually destroy. This child with her dark secrets hiding just within reach, was just that, a tool!

He wanted to get in her head, he wanted to see what was so kept so guarded. She could help him improve upon his own clairsentience abilities and area of weakness- the psion despised admitting he had any weaknesses. The fact he could not break totally through Lanie's mind only convinced him how terribly he needed this child to improve upon his own skills. But for now he saw it as a temporary annoyance that he would soon remedy.

He was ever evolving in his own abilities, ever studying and practicing. Kimmuriel was always desiring to be better than what he was at any given current state. This quest has become the driving force of his life. It is all a "dead inside" creature like himself had to live for.


"I run Bregan D'aerthe and now I am also to babysit a child?" Kimmuriel spat, wanting to see where Jarlaxle was going with this notion.


"Every tenday you will have her for two so you wouldn't have her all the time, in fact, I mean to have Valas take her for the majority of the time. He has developed a fondness towards the child, as she has for him. She needs time above the surface and I want her to develope the social skills you are hardly capable of teaching." Jarlaxle declared adding insult to injury before continuing.


"Let's be frank my friend, try as I might, I have not be overly successfuly in eradicating that xenophobic nature of yours. If I can truly call it that, as you seem to hate everything and anything including your own race. Your social skills are nearly non existent and are only cleverly moulded on instinct alone and not in actuality. Feeling is not your strong point.

This imaskari child serves a purpose, this I know, and like I have told you before, the point of Bregan D'aerthe is more than just for survival, it is to grow in power. Lanie's abilities, like your own, have the potential to bring more strength to our purpose.


Arguing was futile, Kimmuriel knew that Jarlaxle was already set on getting him to take the child. The psion did not underestimate the value this child had for Bregan D'aerthe and for himself. He would have to mentally prepare himself for the task of training her, accepting her into his care was no small step for the highly elusive Kimmuriel who preferred the majority of his time being spent alone.


The psion's eyes met Jarlaxle's, "If I am to take the child I want her initially in the beginning for at least nine tendays. That should be sufficient enough time for laying down boundaries with her and training her to meet my demands and expectations, besides Valas is coming off a long job and would appreciate some well deserved time to himself. Then we can discuss the tenday rotation."


"Agreed then, you will have her," Jarlaxled said, feeling the anticipation in Kimmuriel. He knew that the psion was all too eager to get his hands on her, "Kimmuriel, you are not to lay a hand on her, is that understood?"


The psion acknowledged Jarlaxle's final request with a cold stare.

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