A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 94: Meeting

"Perhaps I do take you for fools," Caleldir said dryly. "I mean your house has spawned that" he gestured at the girl behind the wall "and has failed to fix the problem. Maybe Aralolth has cursed your house, maybe someone or something else, but whatever seems to be the cause of this abnormality can be fixed. I know because that child that Selene now bears is my own, and I have run the simulation in-vitro on her. She is perfectly healthy, and perfectly drow. And far, far more than that. Which is good, because I built her that way. Now, I will grant you that, before I began working on the girl, she seemed to be turning out to be pale, but I simply considered that an aberration and corrected it. This curse is of genetic deformity. Pure magic undirected and poorly understood will not work, you say? Well, it is time that you bring a specialist in, then." He looked at the girl with the eyes of a mad researcher. "An intractable problem, a curse, a degradation. Excellent. My services will be indispensable." He rubbed his hands together.

Ethefein blinked and then gave Lord Blackdawn a strange look. Caleldir, the father of Selene's child? "How is that possible... you were not there at the time when... Do you mean to say that she got to you just before we got to her? Interesting. Well. I feared that I would have a son or daughter like that one. Instead, you get to. How do you know that whatever intervenes doesn't do so directly before birth? For all we know, that is the case." They didn't have a way to be certain what one of the children looked like before birth, after all.

"I was with Ashyr when Selene got away," Caleldir said. "Selene tried to take revenge on Ashyr for abandoning her by raping me in front of Ashyr, who I was involved with at the time. So... yeah. You have the timeline correct. And if the curse takes place just before birth, I will be ready. I suppose I will have to watch the pregnancy more closely." And build a replica of the Gene-Forge. Not that he had enough time to do so before the delivery. Ugh. And he was past the point of genetic malleability anyway. Hmm... what if it was more complicated than a simple genetic trigger? That would provide quite a puzzle to solve.

Ethefein's silver brow furrowed a bit when Lord Blackdawn told the story of how he managed to impregnate Selene. "It sounds as if things are not as peaceful on your side of things as one would hope." To his delight. Not that he let that delight show on his face. "Do watch things. It would be interesting to find out if this genetic curse can be remedied. Our solutions have... not been entirely ideal. As you might have noticed with that girl, Diza. Assuming she's still alive."

"I did not note any issues with Dizafaerae." Caleldir mused. "But I have not interacted much with her." He was glad that Ethefein had took the bait on the story of Selene raping him. The other male would be more likely to trust him now that he seemed sympathetic. It was obvious that he was not going to persuade any of the remaining Duskhaven boys away from their new patron, so the time to convince them that he was secretly able to be persuaded by them was at hand. He would show as much wavering as need be to get the info he wanted.

"Then you think far too highly of your powers of observation if you could not spot issue with her almost immediately upon meeting her." 'Lord Blackdawn's' act was seeming to make Ethefein a bit more comfortable around him. To the drow's mind, the male was just a favored pet of his sister and cousin. And 'favored pet' would be a position that would vastly waste this powerful Lord's potential. Ethefein was certainly a bit more forthcoming about information than he initially intended to be. "Dizafaerae... well, she is not as quick as other Duskhaven children usually are." A look of chagrin crossed his features. "She's mine, you know. I was forced to impregnate a common drow 'as a precaution' around the time the matron conceived. Same sort of deal with the twins. They were switched for their defective counterparts." He let out an amused scoff. "A lot of good all that planning did for them in the end."

Internally, Caleldir twitched. Ah. That was the reason things were as they were. Dizafaerae was not descended from the females of the House directly, but through the male line. And he had not noticed any significant loss of intellect. Hmm... that was difficult to deal with. But he could find a way to do so. Methods of giving those of average or below average intellect above or highly above average intelligence were expensive and time-consuming. It involved Wishes, which were dangerous things to try to work with. He had worked with Wishes with Birchborn before, but that sort of magic was beyond him.

"Women of Duskhaven produce damaged children that should not even be called drow. The logic was clear when we found this out. None of the Duskhaven males have produced those inferior creatures. It was something wrong with the women. That was part of the reason why we were trying to impregnate Selene - to see if somehow that helped things, have something to experiment on. Until Irahc'vic fucked that up. No matter, though, because we didn't hold much hope in that plan to begin with. As we speak, she is probably carrying an ugly, disabled, sorry excuse for a noble drow. Clearly, the gods are telling us that it's time for a change of regime. Us males, we are not inferior. It is, in fact, the women. Duskhaven just needed a push to fulfill our true purpose and bring about a new era." The anger Ethefein displayed was quickly smothered by the light of religious fervor. "We just have to wait for the right time to reveal all to the world. A time when we know the noble houses will either back us up or fall. You helped with that first step with Dinoryn. The time of Men is coming."

Caleldir rolled his eyes. "Please, the time of Men? When I was on the surface, I heard that exact same line spouted by soooo many humans. Always going on about the dawning age of Men." Granted, they meant Humans. "Now, I will agree with you that our women are entirely too domineering. Oppressive and cruel and frequently annoying. But you seek to reverse things? Hah, you are an idiot. Aralolth will not truck with such things. She favors the women far too much. I suppose that you are in rebellion against Aralolth too then?" Caleldir shook his head. "I can understand that. I would appreciate you not spewing this abroad, but I do not follow that capricious goddess myself. But whatever entity that you think has your back has no chance against Aralolth. I wish he did." Caleldir sighed, looking morose. "I truly do. If there was a serious chance at toppling the Spider-Queen who will enforce our inferior position as long as She rules over our race, then I would consider signing on with a revolution. But as things are, I do not see that happening." He looked downright dejected. "The most we males can hope for is to work within the system to bring about subtle reform in attitudes where we can. But there is no victory against the Spider Queen's order." He glanced over at Ethefein, a glimmer of desperate hope in the back of his voice. "Isn't there?"

A savage grin spread across Ethefein's face. Suddenly, it was like he was an exact copy of Ashyr. Except for the hair and eyes, of course. "The spider queen will soon be no more, have no worry, Lord Blackdawn. We have a powerful and terrible patron on our side. He will put that wretched goddess in her place. The fact that I can comfortably say that aloud should be proof enough for you."

"So you see," Ethefein continued, "it is our side who will win in the end. We will change the Underdark forever. It is you who should be coming to our side, or else quietly slip away to some distant corner. I'll even let you take Selene with you if you need entertainment in that lonely far edge of the world. I promise we won't be worried about looking too hard for the pair of you."

"Really? You are going to challenge the Spider-Queen in her own realms? What Patron could possibly have the power to stand up against her? It sounds like you are bluffing. I know the power of the Spider-Queen. This mysterious benefactor I do not know."

"The true name of our Patron is Irahc'vic's area of expertise, and not something that he wants to repeat even to his brothers. We call him The Great Descended. But I have seen His power, and I have every confidence that He can overcome a goddess whose power has been waning for a century." Ethefein seemed completely convinced of that fact - else he wouldn't be able to say it under the truth spell.

"I... I am still not sure about this Patron," Caleldir said uneasily. "I mean, the Spider-Queen's web is hard to escape from. I... I would need to see some sort of proof." His voice was slightly broken, but he quickly 'mastered' himself. "I will be watching to see how this plays out. You have given me a lot to think about. Perhaps Lolth's time really is at an end." Wait. 'The Great Descended...' oh. Fudge. It was Faust's dad. It had to be.

"You will see evidence of His power soon enough. Or so I am told by Irahc'vic. The guy's rather secretive at times, but I trust his dedication to the cause completely." Which was saying a lot for a drow. "You don't have to make any decisions yet. Sit back. Watch how things unfold. Then you will see that males will rise up in the end."

Caleldir would have to see. For now, there was a mystery on the other side of that door. "I have some tools on me to take a blood sample. Do you mind if I take one from the girl here? To analyze the genetic side of this curse? I might be able to shed some illumination on it from my area of expertise."

"The girl..." Ethefein said, looking unsure. "I... suppose you can have a look at her. Remember: you can't take her. She stays with us. Not that having her would be likely to benefit you." He waved his hand across the door, runes glowed upon its surface, and the door swung open.

"We do not have any particular use for her right now. One way or another, when this conflict is over I want to have more regular access to her in order to analyze and dissect the nature of the curse, because even if the Male side is ascendant, I would prefer that a similar event not happen to us. Also, and more importantly, I admit, a pure challenge." He licked his lips. "I love seemingly unsolvable genetic riddles." That was no bluff.

"You sound like an important ally to have Lord Blackdawn. Prove yourself, and you won't even have to run and hide from us. Abyss, we might even let you keep Selene as a slave. That would be a pleasant turn-around, would it not?"

"That would be amusing," Caleldir said cheerfully. He still had not really noted the spell of truth around him. It was affecting him, of course, but he had not yet attempted a lie. And indeed, the image of the haughty Selene as his slave was amusing, to say the least. The reality would not be, but the brief mental image of Selene in a go-go pleasure slave outfit haughtily refusing to follow orders was grin-inducing.

"I can't make any promises about my sister, though. Honestly, I have no clue what is happening with her right now."

Caleldir grew more serious. "Ashyr was... nicer to me than Selene. The first drow I met upon my journey on the surface that tried to help me. I hope that she is still alive," he sighed. "That said, if your Patron can deliver, it then may become necessary for me to take her firmly in hand to prevent her from doing something stupid to upset the new order." He was back to bluffing without lying.

"I admit, Ashyr is a better female than most. She did raise me, she and Tsabdrin, and I had a better childhood than all of my older male relatives. But she still stands in the way of progress," Ethefein admitted. He did actually look a bit regretful, but all the same determined that things were the way that they had to be. "Anyway. I will open the door for you. You will see how hopeless her case is."

And so, Ethefein allowed Caleldir to join the albino drow in the other room.