Author's Note: This is in-character story. I used to post these in the Library, but I have been told that technically, Waterdeep is not really part of ALFA. I am not sure what that means at this point, but if it is not really part of ALFA, I will post stories from Waterdeep in Waterdeep's forum at least until someone tells me not to.
This story is about Shein'n, as I am sure you might have guessed. This is the beginning piece, which delves into who Shein'n is, and so does not deeply involve the other PCs yet (though a number of you are mentioned).
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Safe
Raindrops pitter-pattered off the wooden palisade overlooking the Waterdeep dumps, known to most as rat-hill. The rain soaked through the hooded cloak of Shein’n Valakasha but she did not pay the weather any attention. Shay, as she was called, could see one of the large rats that gave the dump its name down below the palisade. She nocked an arrow and drew. The rat was not far, and it had not seen her yet. It was an easy mark. She took aim, took a breath, and let loose the arrow. But the arrow did not fly. Instead, it just slipped forward an inch. Her hand was still on the bow-string. She pulled the arrow back and loosed it, and again, the arrow did not fly.
Down below the rat was running into a pool of water. The rodent was the size of a dog and breathing fire. She tried to loose the arrow again but the arrow simply would not leave the bow-string. And she was wrong; the rat was not the size of a dog, it was the size of a horse. It had reached the pool of water and it was turning to face her. Its black eyes made contact with hers. Fear coursed through her chest like a bolt of lightning. She could not get her bow to work. The rat was bigger now, the size of a bear, and then the size of a house. It was not a rat at all, but a frost-giant from the far north and it was charging through the snow with its terrible, bloody great axe. Shay saw their scout, Nylo, fall beneath the giant’s blade. Shay’s father, Jain’n, was there, sword in hand. He was fighting the giant and calling to her, but she could not understand if he wanted her to fight or to run. She pulled back the bow-string but still the arrow would not fly.
Now the giant had fins and was no longer standing in snow, but in water so dark it looked like a portal into the abyss. Tentacles emerged from the depths and stretched forth, reaching and grasping the body of the sorceress Inthara, whose heart had already been removed by Shay’s mother. The beast was no longer a giant or a rat, now it was the demon-lord Dagon. Angered and provoked by Shay’s mother, Dagon was rising out of the black, frigid waters of the lower-dark, reaching out with terrible, sucking tentacles to rend Shay’s soul from her body as she stood atop the battlements of her mother’s castle. Dagon’s narrow, knife-like head was horrible, with over-sized eyes and a mouth filled with hundreds of slender teeth six-feet long. The abyss was coming for her …
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…. Shay woke with her heart pounding in her chest, her body alive and twitching with adrenaline. It was dark, but not so dark as that lake far below the surface of the world. Shay gripped the hilt of her naked sword and took in her surroundings. She was sitting on the floor of her room in the Safehaven Inn, where she had come to enter reverie. Her bed was pushed up against the door, just as she had left it. The armoire was pushed in front of the window, just as she had left it. Her sword was still in her hand, just as she had left it. There was no one in the room.
Her heart continued to pound. The adrenaline continued to flow.
Do the list, she told herself, do the list, do the list, do the list.
I am not in the underdark. I am safe.
I am not in the far north. I am safe.
I am alone, there are no monsters in here. I am safe.
I saw my father’s face, which means he is dead. I am safe.
I saw Inthara’s face, which means she is dead. I am safe.
I saw Dagon’s face, which means his aspect is dead. I am safe.
I did not see my mother’s face, which means she is alive.
I am not safe.
A fresh shot of adrenaline fired through Shay’s chest like a bolt and she began to wheeze violently. Her eyes widened and she dropped the sword. She was hyperventilating. There was a mead-horn on a stand near the bed. She stumbled across the room, grasped the horn and drained it in a single long pull. There was brandy in her pack. She retrieved the bottle, yanked the cork, and drank a shot. She repeated her mantra to herself, this time leaving out the last couplet.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
Gradually, the mental-chanting and the alcohol overcame the adrenaline. She pushed back the images of Jain’n’s face, Nylo’s death and the aspect of Dagon and tried to picture the faces of her comrades. The wild-elf Ai, the ever-serious monk Dahvet, the good-natured dwarf Tragnar, the lovable but dangerous Kree-bear, the beautiful Marisha, the annoying but cheerful gnome, and especially, her first and best friend, Darrow.
Friends, I have friends. She told herself. I am safe.
She did not believe it. Not for an instant. She continued to drink.
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Far, far below the surface of the world Sheyreiza Valakasha stood, hunched over an obsidian bowl filled with coagulating blood.
“Mistress?” Asked the familiar voice of her second-in-command, Faeryl.
“Yes?” Sheyreiza responded without looking up.
“We have news. Our spy says a human caravan smuggled your daugh .. um .. Princess Shein’n .. out of Mantol Derith to the surface.”
Sheyreiza had assumed as much. “Very well. Dispatch a murder-team. Have them slaughter a human caravan, mutilate the corpses and leave it for the people of Mantol-Derith to find.”
“Yes, of course Mistress, but .. we do not know exactly which humans it was. This is just rumor.”
Now Sheyreiza looked up at Faeryl, revealing predatory fangs and malevolent eyes. “It does not matter. If we kill the right humans, then we are avenged. If we kill the wrong humans, we are still avenged because one of two things will happen: either the responsible humans will be honorable or foolish and either take responsibility or brag about the affair, in which case our slaughter will have revealed them and we will kill them next. Or, the responsible humans will be smart and will keep the truth to themselves. Either way, the people of Mantol Derith will believe we are avenged and will know that it is death to cross us.”
“Yes Mistress.” Faeryl responded with a curt nod. “But … what of Princess Shein’n?”
Sheyreiza turned away from Faeryl and the blood-filled scrying bowl. Shein'n has made it to the surface. She is in Waterdeep now. Sheyreiza did not tell Faeryl this however. Instead, Sheyreiza walked to a tall, narrow window that overlooked the front gate of her castle. There, mounted above the gate, was the magically preserved skeleton of the demonic-fish monster that had been the aspect of Dagon. The mere sight of it caused adrenaline to shoot through Sheyreiza’s chest make her heart start pounding. Reflexively, her slender, clawed fingers wrapped around the hilt of her sword.
It is dead she told herself, I am not under attack.
Like her daughter above, Sheyreiza had to fight the fear brought back to the surface by remembered horrors. Sheyreiza was far more practiced, however. She let the adrenaline course through her and rode the lightning it brought with it.
“Shein’n is gone.” She said flatly.
“Gone?” Faeryle asked. “Yes, of course Mistress, but, are we not going to hunt her down.”
“No.” Sheyreiza replied curtly. “She is beyond our reach now. She is on her own.”
"But she is your daughter Mistress.."
Sheyreiza cut her off. "Shein'n is the daughter Jain'n gave me. You, Faeryl, are the daughter that Lolth gave me. Shein'n no longer matters."
“Yes Mistress.” Faeryle replied, “I will dispatch the murder-team to slaughter the humans then.”
Sheyreiza just nodded.
Shein'n is gone. Sheyreiza thought. And hopefully, she will stay gone, forever. For a moment, Sheyreiza tried to lie to herself that Shein’n’s escape to the surface would make her daughter safe, but Sheyreiza had never been very good at lying to herself. There was no place to go for safety. Not below ground or above ground. There was no where above or below Faerun that was free from danger. True safety existed only in strength.
Be safe, my daughter. Sheyreiza prayed. Be strong.
Safe
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