A Land Far Away

Author's note: I would like to thank Aitana (Nisha), Loulabelle (Kori), kiyoti (Ali'Hussein), Darugith (Redara), Mr Duncan (Rain) and the player of Cona, for role-playing the events of this story. I also want to thank Thinkpig (Sayid) - although his PC does not directly play a role in this story, his PC is part of Aliyah's crew thus is intimately tied to all that is going on with Aliyah. I would also like to thank DM Rumple who stepped in as the staff of the Golden Oak with the unenviable job of serving and cleaning up after Cona.

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The Door.

Aliyah dreamed of the cold, muddy streets of Baldur’s Gate and its ever present rain. The streets never seemed to end and the further she walked, the more frigid it became. She did not know where she was going in the city, only that she was being drawn deeper and deeper into the darkness of the Gate’s streets. The few scattered lights peeping through closed shutters dimmed as she walked until the streets were as black as they were cold. From the sea came a gray, dripping fog. A sense of unease and foreboding grew with every step that Aliyah took as she made her way through the mist towards whatever lay at the black heart of Baldur’s Gate. Though she did not know where she was going, she realized she had arrived when she stood before the door. A dark, evil and yet seductive door that simultaneously beckoned and warned, invited and threatened. Aliyah wanted to go through the door and she wanted to run away in equal measure. Frozen with fear and indecision, Aliyah stood in the freezing mud, but every time she took her eyes off the door, the door moved closer. It was stalking her.

As the dream descended into a frigid nightmare, Aliyah awoke. She had escaped the door, but she was still freezing. It was dark and quiet in the witching hours of Silverymoon’s night. Aliyah was lying on a big soft bed with no blanket, and she had fallen asleep wet with sweat and sex. The window to the room was open to the courtyard of the Oak, and of course, the courtyard of the Oak was open to the sky. It was little wonder she dreamt of cold. Despite Nisha’s arm wrapped around her waist, Aliyah was shivering. Carefully, Aliyah reached down and pulled the blankets over herself and Nisha, then snuggled in closer to the beautiful Calishite musician. Nisha was warm and soft, and her scent was divine. For a moment, Aliyah just stared at Nisha. The bard’s long, silky black hair flowed around her tanned shoulders beautifully, and the curve of her body reminded Aliyah of the ecstasy of the previous hours. But it was Nisha’s face that drew Aliyah in; that beautiful, perfect face with its pouting lips and delicate nose and high cheeks. For a moment, Aliyah thought this must be what paradise is – I need to enjoy it while I can. Then sleep found her, and she dreamt of Baldur’s Gate no more.

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It was well past dawn when Aliyah awoke again. Nisha was already dressed. They were in the Lord’s Bower of the Golden Oak, the most expensive room at the inn. It was the nicest place Aliyah had ever slept since leaving home at age twelve. Aliyah could not help but smile when she saw Nisha. She did not know what to say, so she said nothing. She just got up and began dressing. Nisha returned the smile and watched as Aliyah pulled on her clothes. Despite their evening together, Aliyah found herself blushing as Nisha’s eyes ran over her body. For some reason, Nisha made Aliyah feel just a bit … shy. Aliyah was a little embarrassed, but she liked it.

What was it Kori had said? There are girlfriends, and there are bedwarmers. For Aliyah, Nisha was certainly a girlfriend. But what was Aliyah to Nisha? And what was Kori to either of them?

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“Another!” Growled the dark-haired man at the nearby table. The man was huge, well over six feet tall and certainly over two-hundred pounds; Rain’s size. Rain, Nisha, Redara and Aliyah were at their usual table at the Golden Oak, drinking and chatting when the dark-haired man had walked in alone. He sat down at a nearby table and yelled out to no one in particular that he wanted drink and food. Nisha politely tried to tell him that the staff of the Oak did not serve at the courtyard tables; you had to go inside. The man ignored her. He had continued to yell until the staff could no longer ignore him. Finally, they brought him food and drink. He ate a chicken with his hands, crunching up the smaller bones in his mouth and throwing what he did not want over his shoulder into the bushes. When he finished his drink, he pounded the mug on the table and yelled, “Another!”

The man ate like a pig and Aliyah could not resist the temptation to point this out. “They could probably put that in a trough for you.” Aliyah mockingly offered. The man ignored her, raising up his fresh mug of ale and pouring it into his mouth so fast and sloppily it seemed like half the ale ended up running down his face. “Nevermind,” Aliyah said, “pigs have better manners.”

The four Calishites returned to their conversation as best they could while the dark-haired man slopped his way through his meal. When he had finished the food and downed three or four mugs of ale, the dark-haired man stood and walked towards the great oak tree in the center of the courtyard.

“Here we go.” Aliyah muttered in Alzhedo. “He’s gonna piss on it.”

As if on cue, the man started fumbling with the cord around his waist that held his pants up.

“Really?” Aliyah asked in the common trade-tongue. “You’re gonna piss on the tree? Really?”

The man let loose the moment his pants were undone. “Why else would they put a tree in here?” He replied.

Aliyah looked back at the others and spoke in Alzhedo. “Well, at least its not Sayid doing it this time.” They chuckled.

The man looked back as he finished his business on the tree. Tying up his pants cord, he approached the table.

Aliyah implied the man should go fuck a pig or maybe a ewe, to which the man retorted that he was man enough to make Aliyah bleat. Aliyah pointed out that she did not lay with men at all, but preferred women, slipping an arm around Nisha to make the point.

“Are all the men where you’re from so weak that you have to lay with women?” The man asked.

Aliyah smiled. “Yeah, pretty much.” She answered with a laugh. “Well, those in Calimport are, anyway. Present company excluded of course. Rain here is from the desert, not Calimport, and he is anything but weak.”

Rain looked over at Aliyah with a frown. He spoke in Alzhedo. “Thank you for defending my honor in front of the monkey.” He said sarcastically. Rain stood and walked out of the Oak, his bottle of rum still in hand. Aliyah had to laugh. Men. Is it really any wonder I choose women?

The northern savage was prattling on. Finally he called Aliyah a “man-woman” to which Aliyah responded by calling him a “pig-man.” Having had enough, the dark-haired man finally stomped off, leaving the three Calishite women to laugh among themselves.

Nisha, still smiling, looked to Aliyah. “That sexy mouth of yours is going to get you killed one day.”

Aliyah stopped laughing and looked off into the distance. Rakham was dead. Marianne was dead. The B*tch’s Due was at the bottom of the sea., its crew all executed and dead save for Aliyah. And hells, as far as Calimport was concerned, even Raheel and Layla were dead too. Why not Aliyah? Every day her new crew went out to ‘work’ and they fought and they killed, but you cannot dance with death forever; death is always the last one standing in that affair. Better to die here at the Golden Oak than in some dark, dingy gnoll-cave. She thought. My stupid mouth, my stupid head, my stupid heart; one of them will be the death of me. Aliyah admitted to herself.

“I know.” She finally answered Nisha with a sigh. I know.

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The sweetest perfume did not compare to the salty scent of the ocean for Aliyah. She had grown up with that smell all her life and it was part of who she was. When she was younger and homeless, she had slept as close to the docks and quays as possible; the brisk ocean air was far preferable to the stinking, stale air deeper in the city. Her later teen years she spent aboard ships, traveling the ocean. She had not realized how much the smell meant to her until she missed it. Silverymoon had its own docks and quays, barges and boats and even sailors, but the scent of the sea was entirely absent. The smell of tar could be found along the wharf of course, and when you got close to the ships you could smell the wood and the rope. But the perfume of the sea was nowhere to be found.

Now, Aliyah could smell the sea again. Rain, Ali’Hussein, Nisha, the half-elf woman Kori, and Aliyah had all sailed down river from Silverymoon to the sea, then down the Sword Coast to Baldur’s Gate. The four Calishites were in search of work; mercenary jobs in the Silver Marches were drying up. Aliyah and her crew had fought their way through Rivermoot’s hills, the caves and fens outside High Hold, the rugged vale around Fourth Peak, and across the woods around Quervar and Silverymoon. In their wake they had left a bloody trail of dead goblins, kobolds, orcs, gnolls and bugbears.

Along the way Ali’Hussein had taught Aliyah how to scout. Since her days on the street, Aliyah had always been able to move quietly and unseen, and she had learned to pick some locks and pilfer this and that. Given her talents, it seemed only logical she should be the crew’s scout; but wilderness scouting was a far cry from stealing strawberries in the Calimport markets. Ali’Hussein was a hunter, and a patient one; step by step, cave by cave, kill by kill he had been teaching Aliyah how to scout for the crew. For her part, Aliyah did her absolute best to learn. Not only did their lives depend upon it, she genuinely wanted to contribute to the crew’s success.

But sometimes success is its own curse; there was little left for them to kill now. They even took a long walk to a place called Settlestone, but there was no work to be found there. So they had moved on, in search of new work.

For the half-elf woman Kori, however, this was just a trip home; Baldur’s Gate was where she lived.

It was sunny and beautiful when their ship tied up along the dock in Baldur’s Gate. Rain and Ali’Hussein set out to find something they referred to as the “Thayan Enclave.” Aliyah did not much care; it did not sound interesting to her. She preferred to simply bask in the warm glow of the sun and the sweet scent of the ocean.

While the boys were off, Kori invited Aliyah and Nisha to her apartment for a rest before the next leg of their travel. Aliyah’s crew was not staying Baldur’s Gate for long; they planned to move on looking for work, possibly heading deeper inland. There were rumors that merchants needed swords along the Trade Way.

Aliyah was wary of Kori’s offer, but Nisha accepted so Aliyah did as well. The three women walked through the sunny streets of Baldur’s Gate, passing places Aliyah knew from her first days in the north. Kori veered off the familiar paths, however, and took Aliyah and Nisha down a side street Aliyah had never walked before. The wooden buildings were tall and the streets narrow, but the day was beautiful and warm even in the shade. The women chatted as they walked; Kori told them of the Calishite land-lord who owned the building she lived in, and the bath he had built that the tenants shared. It sounded lovely to Aliyah, like a private slice of paradise. Aliyah was smiling, enjoying the scent of the fresh sea air carried on the light breeze when they walked through a narrow gap between two large buildings. On the other side of the gap was a courtyard and on the far side of the courtyard, was Kori’s building.

And there was the door. It had found her. A cold shiver ran through Aliyah straight to her core; suddenly, all the sunshine in the world could not keep her warm and she began to shiver.