She trained tirelessly, trying to regain her former strength and agility, but every day was a struggle. She was amazed to discover how weak she had become, and she was too frightened to admit it to anyone. Those closest to her saw how tired and pale she was, but she persevered through her own self-imposed training and had reached a point, or so she thought, when she was ready to try her hand at some of her more larcenous activities. When the winds of Marpenoth turned cool again, Tazi woke up feeling oddly refreshed. She took it as a sign that she was ready again, but she had failed tonight.
"Sorry to interrupt your daydreams," Kalli said, "but your stew's ready."
Kalli looked at her, clearly disturbed by the vacant look in Tazi's eyes.
"It looks good," Tazi replied after a moment's hesitation. "It should be fine," she added, sensing Kalli wanted her to say something else.
Kalli placed both her hands on the wooden table and leaned closer to Tazi.
"Child, what is wrong?" she whispered.
Tazi looked up into Kalli's face. She could see how worried Kalli was. Glancing past the older woman's shoulder, Tazi could see that Alall was watching the scene from behind the bar. As soon as Tazi caught his eye, he turned his attention back to the mug he had ostensibly been polishing for the past five minutes. If everything had been normal, Tazi would have laughed at the two mother hens clucking over her, but all she felt was suffocation.
"Just leave it be," she whispered to Kalli and saw the hurt register on the woman's face.
Kalli straightened her back and turned to leave. Tazi shot out her hand and caught the woman's wrist lightly. Kalli turned at her touch.
"One day," Tazi promised, "I'll try to explain."
If I'm ever able to explain it to myself, she thought.
"When you're ready, child, I am always ready to listen. You know I…" but the older woman was unable to say more. Tazi's words had been enough to soften Kalli.
"I know," Tazi said sincerely and squeezed Kalli's hand once before letting go.
Kalli smiled at her and walked away, leaving Tazi to her solitude.
She picked absently at the bowl of steaming stew, one of Kalli's finer concoctions, with little interest. She knew if she didn't at least play with the bowl for a little bit, either Kalli or Alall would find some excuse to come back over and worry over her. Tazi really didn't want to say something to either of them that she would regret later. They had been too good to her over the years to deserve that kind of treatment. The only other person outside her family that she had known longer than the Allals was Steorf.
Why does his name keep floating up tonight? she wondered.
Pushing the bowl away from herself, Tazi reached for the mug of wine. She sipped at it slowly, feeling its warmth start to spread through her. She warned herself not to drink too much without food, but Tazi had already decided she would spend the night in her rooms here. Her condition, inebriated or otherwise, really wouldn't make any difference. She hoped the wine would help her forget the evening's failure.
Tazi set the mug down and pushed her fingers through her drying locks. She leaned her chair back against the wall, balancing herself on its back legs, and closed her eyes. Her mind would not stop replaying her fall from between the buildings. Like a dog worrying a bone, she kept playing the scene over and over. Abruptly, Tazi slammed down the chair with a thud. She balled her hands into fists and stared at them as they rested on the wooden table, as though they were separate entities.
"Why can't it be like before?" she whispered plaintively, suddenly shivering again.
She reached for her mug, hoping to drive the chill away, but a strong hand grabbed hers. Without looking to see who it was, Tazi used her free hand to reach for the dagger she kept secreted in her boot. Gripping its worn handle, she drew the small but deadly weapon out in a flash. Her unwanted guest didn't flinch at the blade brandished before him.
"I've faced worse," he said simply.
Tazi froze at the sound of his voice. She glanced past him and saw that no one seemed to notice him standing before her. Tazi stared up at the hooded man in shock and amazement. She didn't need him to pull back his black hood for her to recognize him, but as though he read her last thoughts, the stranger used his free hand to pull the hood away from his face. Tazi found herself staring into the gray eyes of a man she hadn't seen in two years: Steorf.
His blond hair was a little longer, she noticed, and slightly unkempt. It gave him a wilder look, Tazi thought. Even though his black cloak still obscured most of his body, Tazi could see he was just as muscular as she remembered. She found herself momentarily curious as to how much more powerful his magic had become since they were last together. It didn't take long, however, for her surprise to be quickly replaced with anger. Though she might wonder about him and his abilities, she had neither forgotten nor forgiven his betrayal.
Not lowering her dagger, Tazi replied, "While you think you might have faced worse, do you really want to find out?"
Steorf didn't even blink at her bravado. He yanked Tazi to her feet. While she stared at him in a stunned fashion, he reached over with his free hand and passed it across her sack and cloak.
"You'll need those," he said.
Too startled by his actions to speak, Tazi removed her gear from the stool. She noticed that both items were bone dry, and a quick pass of her hand over her vest revealed that all her clothes were dry as well.
"Just what do you want?" she asked the mage.
She wondered what could have possessed him to act in this manner. He took her arm and led her from the taproom into the stormy night.
"There is something you have to see," he answered enigmatically.
CHAPTER 2
"How?" was the only word Tazi managed to choke out as she stood in the doorway of Ebeian's room.
For the entire march from the Oxblood Quarter to the Lady's Thigh Inn, Steorf had not spoken one word to her. The only thing he had done to acknowledge her presence was to extend the ward that kept him dry to cover her as well. Tazi found herself wondering if he was simply playing at being the silent type for some sort of effect, marching a step ahead of her the whole way. Standing in Ebeian's door, she understood that there would have been no words for him to describe to her what lay in this room. She would not have believed him.
Tazi recalled that she had always teased Ebeian about his almost insane penchant for neatness. He had explained to her once after an evening escapade of theirs that there was a method to his madness.
"It's like this," he had told her. "If I keep the room impeccable, it's much harder for someone to nose around through my things without my noticing." He shot her a pointed look at that before snuggling closer to her and adding, "By maintaining everything scrupulously precise and to a minimum, there's less of a chance of leaving telltale clues as to my business."
In fact, it was when Tazi was snooping through his things that he'd caught her in the act. He had, in turn, discovered a few of her secrets that day. Since then, they became slightly more than friends.
Her father, of all people, had once tried to pair her up with the elf "silver trader" when Ebeian first appeared in Selgaunt. Tazi decided to do a little investigating of her prospective beau. Before Ebeian stopped her, she'd discovered that the elf was a fraud, simply accepting payments from clients in Waterdeep to fund his travels. He was no more than a glorified servant, running errands for the wealthy with no real fortune of his own. But she discovered he was ambitious and was always looking for a deal. Ebeian was made for Selgaunt, or, rather, he had been made for Selgaunt. All that remained of her sometimes lover was scattered about his rented room.