Drow's Dilemma Ep. 107: Settling

Triel flared her nostrils. "With all due respect to you, King of Ghosts, why are you standing up for Maevalzynge? We have all heard of your shameful treatment by their daughter Hael'yss. Who, I believe, has not yet been publicly punished."

"There are a lot of women who were, well, guilty of that particular maltreatment of Lord Hissael," Priestess Hadlyn said mildly. "We cannot very well punish all of them."

"Indeed," Triel said, keeping the smirk off her face. "But was it not found in investigation that Hael'yss was the one who reported the esteemed Jhul'une of Dinoryn and Lord Hissael's relationship to the late, unlamented leader of Dinoryn? And was she not the second most responsible for his ill-treatment in the end?"

The table erupted a bit in response to Triel's bombshell. The Priestess tried to be philosophical about the injection of such potent blood into the community on such a large scale, but the other nobles smelled blood and paid her no heed. Despite them preferring Maevalzynge over the commons, they did want to bring the haughty Spider-Breeders down a few pegs. And this was a pretty good excuse to do so.

Caleldir, for his part, was not really able to get a word in.

Selene sat up in her chair. She hadn't known what Triel knew - nobody had, by the reactions around the table. Her brow furrowed in anger. Finally! Someone she could punish for the terrible treatment Caleldir was subject to! She glanced over to Jhul'une, who seemed to be going through a similar set of emotions. The new Matron of Dinoyrn had suffered greatly during that time, too, though since then her affections had shifted to a different consort. Selene's eyes next fell upon T'rissdril, whose lips were thinned but her expression was otherwise serene. Selene could guess at the chagrin that she must have been feeling at that moment.

"This is a dire accusation, Triel," Selene said slowly. Her words settled the room into the silence of anticipation. They all wanted to see how their 'leader' would respond to such obvious sins against her household. Even if Caleldir hadn't yet gone through the ceremony of becoming Duskhaven's consort, everyone knew that he had been claimed for the house. "I would like to see your daughter punished, T'rissdril," Selene said coldly.

T'rissdril lowered her head slightly in acknowledgment. "Then I will disown her, and give her to you as a slave of your house to punish as you see fit. I believe that will be more than sufficient to apologize for this infraction?" The question was addressed to everyone in the room.

People shifted thoughtfully in their seats. Hael'yss was a handful that many of them were glad that they did not have to deal with. But she was a daughter of a great house, and talented in the magical arts. Giving her up would be a steep price to pay for the mere infraction of trying to earn favor with the losing side. Traditionally speaking, this was above and beyond anything that T'rissdril would be expected to do. Selene could not wisely turn down such a gesture. Indeed, there was a wicked glint in her eye that suggested that she did not want to.

"That would be sufficient," Selene agreed.

Caleldir winced and twitched slightly.

As before, Hadlyn leaped into the situation to try to defuse it. "And, I think that the retaliation against those who have wronged those now in power should stop there," she said authoritatively, though respectfully. "Trying to punish every woman there not end well. There were too many. Besides, I have talked with Ellistraee on this matter, and She has said that the situation is one that we can actually turn for good. When in his polymorphed form, Lord Hissael's children will be pure drow of the most flawlessly perfect blood in looks with near-divine magical potential. The many daughters and few sons he gave the young women of that school on that night will profoundly change our newly divergent Ellistraeen Drow race for the better!"

The priestess' insistence that no one else should suffer for what they had done with Caleldir bothered Selene more than a little bit. She knew it was irrational. She knew that the other people involved were merely pawns. Of course it was impractical to punish every last one of them with the severity of her anger. She gripped the sides of her chair until her knuckles turned bloodless and ashen. All that logic seemed to be worth nothing when overshadowed by the indignant fury she felt grow every time the situation was brought up. Outwardly, the only signs of Selene's distress were a clenched jaw and slightly furrowed brow. At least she still had that much control. Caleldir may not have liked the idea of Hael'yss being brought to their house, but Selene was beginning to think of the many violent things that could happen to the insufferable young mage under the Duskhaven roof.

"That is all very well," Caleldir said, trying to sound neutral and in-control. "But we still have the matter of the mountain's disposition to decide on." He sighed. "As I was saying, I think that the best option is to give the commons the higher caverns temporarily, and the Maevalzynge the lower caverns permanently. The higher caverns will later be used for other purposes, though not made a population center. Once we have cleared out our first city in Old Deusterra - which should not take too very long - the commons will have vastly superior accommodations to move to. I can guarantee that."

Hadlyn raised her hand for a moment, silencing the group. She seemed to be praying. After a few long moments, she opened her eyes. "Eilistraee is vague, but she does seem to want the bulk of her people to move further into the country," she said uncertainly.

Triel sighed. "I suppose that that will do, then. We will build to move, then."

"In the meantime, Aleet and Dinoryn will send soldiers and mages to clear out the upper caverns and Maevalzynge will move their current eggs to the lower caverns," Caleldir said decisively. "I will, of course, personally assist. Keep sending me those of your Houses that show the most engineering potential. We are only a few days away from getting the first mechanized warriors up and reprogrammed to guard us."

Selene struggled but finally managed to get her mind to move on to the practical matters at hand. She was glad to see that the issue between the commoners and the spider house was resolved. Neither of them seemed to like it very much, but they would have to accept.

Then the male leader of Teken'ath brought to the table the issue of currency. Their society was currently working on the barter system. It functioned well enough for the time, but soon enough the need for actual money would arise. Selene and Caleldir spoke briefly about this issue in private before coming to the meeting, Selene explained to the group. Caleldir had a Plan. Therefore, Duskhaven would take care of the currency in the coming months and begin its circulation when it was needed. There were others at the table who would have liked more involvement in this, but it was Duskhaven's right as the ruling house to take up this task. That fact was agreed upon after the appropriate amount of debate.

From there, the meeting consisted of formally writing up procedures that were already unofficially in place. The ones that clearly worked were accepted more or less immediately, and the ones that needed to be tweaked were discussed at length. Laws were put in place in a more official capacity, and in that early stage were much simpler and more straight-forward than the laws had been back in the Underdark. That took quite a bit of maneuvering on Caleldir's and Selene's part, with a great deal of help from Hadlyn, who spoke for Eilistraee. In the end, everyone was more contented than not about how things were going to carry on. Another similar meeting was scheduled for a month from that day to reassess procedures in that ever-changing environment. For the time being, however, everyone left to get back to their busy lives.

Caleldir, exhausted, would have returned to Risa's dimension with Selene, but Selene was busy with items related to the council they had just finished, so he returned to Risa's dimension alone.

There, he quickly came across Risa in her fully biological body - completely naked, now with medium purple skin and dark purple hair - floating cross-legged in the main entrance hall humming and flipping through thick books as her more insubstantial avatars busied about her. Next to her, Alena, now sprinting very obvious signs of succubization in the form of small horns, solidly blue eyes, and elongated fangs, but wearing an outfit reminiscent of her old nun's habit all the same, blushed to see Caleldir and ported away.

Risa turned to Caleldir and gave him a grin. "Ah! Master Librarian. Your council is over. I had considered inviting myself, but I did not really want to deal with that lot just yet. I have pretty much recovered from transporting them, but still... Anyway, I spent the time conferring with Young Marigold instead. Did you know the religion she was brought up in is a bastardized version of the Faith of the Eternal? I was teaching her about the truth of our Faith, and what her church has lost."

Caleldir blinked. "So... she is still able to think about things like that? It has been less than a week since they started converting her! And she is just porting around having talks with you on theology?"

Risa shrugged. "Well, the Seduction is not unreasonable. Once Young Marigold accepted that she really did want to become a succubus, and once I shooed the Seduction away so I could talk to her, we were able to come to some understandings. I think that I am going to try to use her to convert the rest of the succubi to our Faith."

"Uhhh..." Caleldir was stumped. "Well, a noble gesture. I thought that you were starting some new religion where you were the goddess, though? Also, I seem to remember that our religion teaches that people are supposed to wear clothes and not sleep around out of wedlock. Also, women are not supposed to lie with women." A tinge of deep guilt passed across his faith. "Eternal One forgive me, I have sinned deeply," he muttered helplessly to himself.

"Eh, those are not the core teachings of the Faith nor of the Philosophy. They are guidelines to smooth out psychological foibles of certain races, not moral precepts in of themselves." Risa waved away Caleldir's objections. "I embrace artful nudity because I was programmed that way." She winked at Caleldir. "Also as a deliberate choice of asceticism. And because I like the look." She sighed, and landed on the ground, walking over to Caleldir and putting a hand sympathetically on his arm. She gave him a sad smile. "Look, Caleldir. Dear, precious Caleldir. I know that things have been extremely difficult for you and I have hurt rather than helped a lot of the time. I am deeply sorry. Please, if you need me, I am here for you. Not just for sex, but for comfort. I will always be your faithful friend and lover, whatever else happens. " She gave him a chaste kiss on the forehead, and stepped away. "Now, I can see that you are in no mood for friskiness, so I will continue with my work." She floated away, phasing through a wall.

Caleldir stood in the hall for a few long moments, then shook his head. He decided to go check on Ashyr.

Ashyr was in her normal place: in the master bedroom in Risa's dimension. She actually managed to get out of bed that evening and was eating her dinner at the small table at the other side of the room. Tsabdrin was there, too, holding infant Uriel and talking to him in a soft tone. The young half-demon was watching Tsabdrin with rapt attention, then grabbed at an errant lock of hair that slipped past Tsabdrin's shoulder. Ashyr watched them with an almost passive expression, though there were crinkles at the edge of her eyes like an almost-smile. Both of them looked up when Caleldir entered.

"Good evening," Tsabdrin greeted Caleldir. "Ah... I was just going to show Uriel around the mansion." The male drow said with a touch of uncertainty in his voice as if the plan had only just occurred to him. He shot Ashyr a questioning look, then looked more confident as the female drow gave him one slow nod. Permission granted, Tsabdrin rose from his position at the end of the bed and made his way past Caleldir.

"Hey," Ashyr said tiredly when her cousin was gone with her son. Her eyes were on the door instead of on Caleldir. She rose from her place at the small table, leaving behind a mostly empty plate. Then she went to sit on the edge of the bed. "How did the meeting go? Anything interesting happen?" she asked in her now-usual quiet tone.

The difference between the Ashyr before she was taken to that cursed layer of Hell and the Ashyr afterward was one that always deeply depressed Caleldir. Ashyr had been forced into sex before, sometimes even deeply unpleasantly, and she had always bounced back from it fairly quickly, so whatever it was that she had undergone in that realm was so horrifying as to likely be incomprehensible.

On that topic, his feelings towards poor Uriel were still extremely complicated as a result. The poor infant had not done anything wrong, after all, but his father was, well, not the best of men. To put it very mildly. At least Uriel had been mostly purified, and they had plans to fully purify his father's nature and even genetics from him soon enough.

Caleldir pulled a chair in front of Ashyr and sat down across from her, a few feet away. "A... a lot has happened," he sighed. "We did get quite a bit of productive work done and resolve some issues, but one of those issues ended up with an awkward result for us. There has been a bit of resentment towards Maevalzynge, as you know? Well, that came to a head, then their Matron staved it off by giving Selene Hael'yss as a slave. So, she will be here now. Not what I wanted to happen."

"Hael'yss..." she said thoughtfully. "I don't think I've met her, but I've heard her name. Maevalzynge was enormously proud of her. The word was that she was going to be one of the great sorceresses. And... well, she was part of that ordeal with the University, yes? She must have had a greater hand in that event to warrant her house disowning her." Ashyr sighed and put her head in her hands for a moment. Not for the first time, she lamented her own stupidity and rashness that got her captured. Caleldir went through so much trauma because she failed to save him. Again.

"Yeah, she did," Caleldir sighed. "Have a greater hand in that. As it turns out, she knew about Jhul'une's fondness for me, and went to the old Matron of Dinoryn to inform on us. Ended up being responsible for the whole affair, in that way. I am sorry to have given you worry about that. I fear we will be dealing with the fallout of that day forever." Because he had sired a looooot of children.

For a few moments, both were silent.

"So, how is Uriel doing?" Caleldir finally asked.

"He seems to be thriving," Ashyr responded simply. The subject change made the dark shadow that had crossed her mind lessen slightly. "He seems to be developing much more quickly than a drow infant. Slightly more than even a human one." Her captor was an impatient one. "It doesn't seem to be something to worry about, though."

Caleldir nodded. "We will have to move quickly to retake the Geneforge, then. Try to slow down his aging. Perhaps it is not overly something to worry about, but I still worry."

She looked back up to Caleldir, suddenly wondering why he was so far away from her. Wasn't he supposed to be her anchor in her world of constant upheaval? And wasn't it only fair that she would do the same for him? Why had she made him think that he needed to keep his distance now? Hesitantly, she held out her hand to him, beckoning for him to come to lie down with her.

Caleldir smiled and did as Ashyr silently asked. "I presume that you would not want to talk about what happened... well, there?" he asked in a low tone. "If you do want to talk, or simply need someone else to hold, I am here. For you and Uriel."

Ashyr stretched out next to Caleldir, not quite touching him. A look of hesitation crossed her expression, then she turned toward him and cuddled up next to him, as she had done so many times before she... she gave birth to her son. She heard his words, of course, declaring that he would listen if she wanted to talk about what had happened to her. Ashyr worried at her lip, silently wondering if she even could. In the end, she decided that she couldn't. Not yet. But finally letting someone hold her? That she could do. She could also talk about issues with the city, and in fact, seemed highly interested in doing so. Ashyr found that it took her mind off of... other things.

After a while, Tsabdrin came back with a sleeping Uriel. He observed his cousin finally accepting Caleldir's embraced with mixed emotions, then quietly placed the infant in his crib and made his quick exit. Quite a while later, Selene finally joined Caleldir and Ashyr in bed. She took her place on the other side of Caleldir - just like old times - and quickly fell asleep curled up to Caleldir's back.