Homeland - Chapter Twenty-Six
Mar. 27th, 2022 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kalinara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i_read_whatSo last time, Drizzt and Zaknafein had their clearing of the air. All secrets revealed, kindred spirits found at last. UNFORTUNATELY, Drizzt's mom happened to be scrying them at the time. So they know too.
But unfortunately, we don't actually get to see the aftermath of that this chapter, because we're following Drizzt as he wanders about Menzoberranzan instead.
Okay, anyway, as mentioned, Drizzt is wandering around, processing everything that happened. He's disobeying his mom, actually, because she'd wanted the whole family to stay indoors to avoid assassination attempts. Well, all things considered, I feel like this is not the biggest thing to worry about.
And to be fair to Drizzt, he actually does have a good reason for going outside. He's got a lot of thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, to think, and he doesn't really want to risk a nervous cleric somehow noticing them. That makes sense.
It's "the quiet time" - the Narbondel clock has only a bit of heat left to it. Almost everyone is asleep. And Drizzt is starting to think his mom may have had the right idea. The night's a bit creepy. But Drizzt figures, you know what, let's break more rules, and heads outside of the city.
He's thinking lots of thoughts. About the bond he's going to have with his dad now that there are no secrets. They'll be unbeatable! "a team of weapons masters, bonded by steel and emotions". House Hun'ett won't know what hit them. But Drizzt's smile dies when he remembers that this means more killing other drow.
Drizzt, for whatever reason, doesn't want to do that. I'm honestly not sure why. It makes sense to not want to kill innocent people of any race (including drow), but well, I think it'd be justified to kill the folk trying to kill you. And while I have issues with the "always evil race" concept in general, the fact is that in this universe, most of Drizzt's fellow drow are going to be trying to kill him.
The cross-parry question comes up again:
Drizzt leaned against the wall for support, understanding first-hand the frustration that had racked his father for many centuries. Drizzt did not want to be like Zaknafein, living only to kill, existing in a protective sphere of violence, but what choices lay before him? Leave the city?
Zak had balked when Drizzt asked him why he had not left. “Where would I go?” Drizzt whispered now, echoing Zak’s words. His father had proclaimed them trapped, and so it seemed to Drizzt.
“Where would I go?” he asked again. “Travel the Underdark, where our people are so despised and a single drow would become a target for everything he passed? Or to the surface, perhaps, and let that ball of fire in the sky burn out my eyes so that I may not witness my own death when the elven folk descend upon me?”
The logic of the reasoning trapped Drizzt as it had trapped Zak. Where could a drow elf go? Nowhere in all the Realms would an elf of dark skin be accepted.
...we were doing so good by not trying to tie this story into real world racism. Let's not go that route again.
It is fair to say that Drizzt will have an uphill battle earning acceptance in the surface world. But it's not about the skin! Or it is, but only because someone in D&D history was accidently or on purposely racist and decided black skin = evil.
(It IS possible to do "dark elf" type stories without going the cliched mark of darkness route. If I remember correctly, the Moredhel in Raymond Feist's Midkemia books look exactly like every other race of elves. The difference is in their philosophy and tactics.)
But the problem is legitimate. Drow don't leave their own city. Their reputation is such that finding allies will be nearly impossible. Finding useful information will be nearly impossible. If Drizzt does go to the surface, he'll be doing so blind, with nothing to go on.
Drizzt is so lost in thought that he does something stupid, and wanders into a trap of a "cave fisher", which traps his back and his arms in a translucent cord. Oops. He's pulled toward the creature's mouth.
We switch scenes to Masoj, who I suspect is about to give us a nice example of "Nice job fixing it, villain" as he notices Drizzt leave the city. It's the perfect opportunity! No witnesses!
Masoj, being Masoj, can't resist another dig though:
Eagerly the wizard pulled the onyx figurine from his pouch and dropped it to the ground. “Guenhwyvar!” he called as loudly as he dared, glancing around at the nearest stalagmite house for signs of activity.
The dark smoke appeared and transformed a moment later into Masoj’s magical panther. Masoj rubbed his hands together, thinking himself marvelous for having concocted such a devious and ironic end to the heroics of Drizzt Do’Urden.
“I have a job for you,” he told the cat, “one that you’ll not enjoy!”
So Guen is ordered to go find Drizzt and kill him.
Guen of course is not on board with this:
“Go to him, my pet,” Masoj purred. “Find him out there in the gloom and kill him!” He studied Guenhwyvar’s reaction, measured the horror he had laid on the cat. Guenhwyvar stood rigid, as unmoving as the statue used to summon it.
“Go!” Masoj ordered. “You cannot resist your master’s commands! I am your master, unthinking beast! You seem to forget that fact too often!”
Guenhwyvar resisted for a long moment, a heroic act in itself, but the magic’s urges, the incessant pull of the master’s command, outweighed any instinctive feelings the great panther might have had. Reluctantly at first, but then pulled by the primordial desires of the hunt, Guenhwyvar sped off between the enchanted statues guarding the tunnel and easily found Drizzt’s scent.
Poor girl. And I'm gratified to know that Salvatore was as annoyed as I am that the publishers wouldn't let him give Guen her proper gender.
Masoj isn't alone though, Alton is behind a stalagmite. He's disappointed that Masoj sent Guenhwyvar, figuring that he and the wand that SiNafay gave him aren't likely to play a role in Drizzt's demise. But well, at least he can use it against other Do'Urdens. That's the spirit!
Back to Drizzt, he's still fighting back. And belly-aching, of course, because he's Drizzt.
Perhaps death was not so bad an alternative to the life he would find among the drow, trapped within the evil framework of their dark society. Even Zaknafein, so strong and powerful and wise with age, had never been able to come to terms with his existence in Menzoberranzan; what chance did Drizzt have?
Yep.
Anyway, he snaps out of it, vowing that even if the cave fisher eats him, he'll put a boot or two in its eyes before it gets its meal. Atta boy.
But hey, here comes rescue! Guenhwyvar arrives! And she can't murder Drizzt if something else eats him first, right? So she attacks the cave fisher. Woo hoo!
It ends up being a team effort, eventually the fighting gives Drizzt a chance to get his arm and a scimitar free. He attacks, mostly as a diversion, and Guen strikes. They're a good team!
But then, once the cave fisher dies, things go wrong:
Guenhwyvar retreated step for step, its ears flattened and teeth bared.
At first, Drizzt thought that the pain of a wound blinded the cat, but a quick survey dispelled that theory. Guenhwyvar had only one injury, and that was not serious. Drizzt had seen the cat with worse.
Guenhwyvar continued to retreat, continued to growl, as the incessant pounding of Masoj’s command, back again after the instant of terror, hammered at its heart. The cat fought the urges, tried to see Drizzt as an ally, not as prey, but the urges …
“What is wrong, my friend?” Drizzt asked softly, resisting the urge to draw his remaining blade in defense. He dropped to one knee. “Do you not recognize me? How often we have fought together!”
Aw. Drizzt stays unarmed, trying to figure out why Guen would be out here at this hour. Because he's a moron. Finally he remembers why his mom told everyone not to go outside. And what Masoj's fucking last name is.
But mocking Drizzt aside, this scene is actually really sweet. Drizzt talks poor Guenhwyvar out of her compulsion and it's as romantic as any love story could be:
You could have let the cave fisher do the deed for you,” Drizzt retorted, “but you did not! You charged in and saved my life! Fight the urges, Guenhwyvar! Remember me as your friend, a better companion than Masoj Hun’ett could ever be!”
Guenhwyvar backed away another step, caught in a pull that it could not yet resolve. Drizzt watched the cat’s ears come up from its head and knew that he was winning the contest.
“Masoj claims ownership,” he went on, confident that the cat, through some intelligence Drizzt could not know, understood the meaning of his words. “I claim friendship. I am your friend, Guenhwyvar, and I’ll not fight against you.”
He leaped forward, arms unthreateningly wide, face and chest fully exposed. “Even at the cost of my own life!”
Guenhwyvar did not strike. Emotions pulled at the cat stronger than any magical spell, those same emotions that had put Guenhwyvar into action when it first saw Drizzt in the cave fisher’s clutches.
Guenhwyvar reared up and leaped out, crashing into Drizzt and knocking him to his back, then burying him in a rush of playful slaps and mock bites.
Awww.
But it's a temporary solution. Guen is Drizzt's "in spirit", but "still held by another, one who did not deserve the cat, who enslaved the cat in a life that Drizzt could no longer witness."
So it's possible that Drizzt's "kill no drow" vow will have to start tomorrow, as he tells Guen to take him to her "false master". The chapter ends here, of course!
But unfortunately, we don't actually get to see the aftermath of that this chapter, because we're following Drizzt as he wanders about Menzoberranzan instead.
Okay, anyway, as mentioned, Drizzt is wandering around, processing everything that happened. He's disobeying his mom, actually, because she'd wanted the whole family to stay indoors to avoid assassination attempts. Well, all things considered, I feel like this is not the biggest thing to worry about.
And to be fair to Drizzt, he actually does have a good reason for going outside. He's got a lot of thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, to think, and he doesn't really want to risk a nervous cleric somehow noticing them. That makes sense.
It's "the quiet time" - the Narbondel clock has only a bit of heat left to it. Almost everyone is asleep. And Drizzt is starting to think his mom may have had the right idea. The night's a bit creepy. But Drizzt figures, you know what, let's break more rules, and heads outside of the city.
He's thinking lots of thoughts. About the bond he's going to have with his dad now that there are no secrets. They'll be unbeatable! "a team of weapons masters, bonded by steel and emotions". House Hun'ett won't know what hit them. But Drizzt's smile dies when he remembers that this means more killing other drow.
Drizzt, for whatever reason, doesn't want to do that. I'm honestly not sure why. It makes sense to not want to kill innocent people of any race (including drow), but well, I think it'd be justified to kill the folk trying to kill you. And while I have issues with the "always evil race" concept in general, the fact is that in this universe, most of Drizzt's fellow drow are going to be trying to kill him.
The cross-parry question comes up again:
Drizzt leaned against the wall for support, understanding first-hand the frustration that had racked his father for many centuries. Drizzt did not want to be like Zaknafein, living only to kill, existing in a protective sphere of violence, but what choices lay before him? Leave the city?
Zak had balked when Drizzt asked him why he had not left. “Where would I go?” Drizzt whispered now, echoing Zak’s words. His father had proclaimed them trapped, and so it seemed to Drizzt.
“Where would I go?” he asked again. “Travel the Underdark, where our people are so despised and a single drow would become a target for everything he passed? Or to the surface, perhaps, and let that ball of fire in the sky burn out my eyes so that I may not witness my own death when the elven folk descend upon me?”
The logic of the reasoning trapped Drizzt as it had trapped Zak. Where could a drow elf go? Nowhere in all the Realms would an elf of dark skin be accepted.
...we were doing so good by not trying to tie this story into real world racism. Let's not go that route again.
It is fair to say that Drizzt will have an uphill battle earning acceptance in the surface world. But it's not about the skin! Or it is, but only because someone in D&D history was accidently or on purposely racist and decided black skin = evil.
(It IS possible to do "dark elf" type stories without going the cliched mark of darkness route. If I remember correctly, the Moredhel in Raymond Feist's Midkemia books look exactly like every other race of elves. The difference is in their philosophy and tactics.)
But the problem is legitimate. Drow don't leave their own city. Their reputation is such that finding allies will be nearly impossible. Finding useful information will be nearly impossible. If Drizzt does go to the surface, he'll be doing so blind, with nothing to go on.
Drizzt is so lost in thought that he does something stupid, and wanders into a trap of a "cave fisher", which traps his back and his arms in a translucent cord. Oops. He's pulled toward the creature's mouth.
We switch scenes to Masoj, who I suspect is about to give us a nice example of "Nice job fixing it, villain" as he notices Drizzt leave the city. It's the perfect opportunity! No witnesses!
Masoj, being Masoj, can't resist another dig though:
Eagerly the wizard pulled the onyx figurine from his pouch and dropped it to the ground. “Guenhwyvar!” he called as loudly as he dared, glancing around at the nearest stalagmite house for signs of activity.
The dark smoke appeared and transformed a moment later into Masoj’s magical panther. Masoj rubbed his hands together, thinking himself marvelous for having concocted such a devious and ironic end to the heroics of Drizzt Do’Urden.
“I have a job for you,” he told the cat, “one that you’ll not enjoy!”
So Guen is ordered to go find Drizzt and kill him.
Guen of course is not on board with this:
“Go to him, my pet,” Masoj purred. “Find him out there in the gloom and kill him!” He studied Guenhwyvar’s reaction, measured the horror he had laid on the cat. Guenhwyvar stood rigid, as unmoving as the statue used to summon it.
“Go!” Masoj ordered. “You cannot resist your master’s commands! I am your master, unthinking beast! You seem to forget that fact too often!”
Guenhwyvar resisted for a long moment, a heroic act in itself, but the magic’s urges, the incessant pull of the master’s command, outweighed any instinctive feelings the great panther might have had. Reluctantly at first, but then pulled by the primordial desires of the hunt, Guenhwyvar sped off between the enchanted statues guarding the tunnel and easily found Drizzt’s scent.
Poor girl. And I'm gratified to know that Salvatore was as annoyed as I am that the publishers wouldn't let him give Guen her proper gender.
Masoj isn't alone though, Alton is behind a stalagmite. He's disappointed that Masoj sent Guenhwyvar, figuring that he and the wand that SiNafay gave him aren't likely to play a role in Drizzt's demise. But well, at least he can use it against other Do'Urdens. That's the spirit!
Back to Drizzt, he's still fighting back. And belly-aching, of course, because he's Drizzt.
Perhaps death was not so bad an alternative to the life he would find among the drow, trapped within the evil framework of their dark society. Even Zaknafein, so strong and powerful and wise with age, had never been able to come to terms with his existence in Menzoberranzan; what chance did Drizzt have?
Yep.
Anyway, he snaps out of it, vowing that even if the cave fisher eats him, he'll put a boot or two in its eyes before it gets its meal. Atta boy.
But hey, here comes rescue! Guenhwyvar arrives! And she can't murder Drizzt if something else eats him first, right? So she attacks the cave fisher. Woo hoo!
It ends up being a team effort, eventually the fighting gives Drizzt a chance to get his arm and a scimitar free. He attacks, mostly as a diversion, and Guen strikes. They're a good team!
But then, once the cave fisher dies, things go wrong:
Guenhwyvar retreated step for step, its ears flattened and teeth bared.
At first, Drizzt thought that the pain of a wound blinded the cat, but a quick survey dispelled that theory. Guenhwyvar had only one injury, and that was not serious. Drizzt had seen the cat with worse.
Guenhwyvar continued to retreat, continued to growl, as the incessant pounding of Masoj’s command, back again after the instant of terror, hammered at its heart. The cat fought the urges, tried to see Drizzt as an ally, not as prey, but the urges …
“What is wrong, my friend?” Drizzt asked softly, resisting the urge to draw his remaining blade in defense. He dropped to one knee. “Do you not recognize me? How often we have fought together!”
Aw. Drizzt stays unarmed, trying to figure out why Guen would be out here at this hour. Because he's a moron. Finally he remembers why his mom told everyone not to go outside. And what Masoj's fucking last name is.
But mocking Drizzt aside, this scene is actually really sweet. Drizzt talks poor Guenhwyvar out of her compulsion and it's as romantic as any love story could be:
You could have let the cave fisher do the deed for you,” Drizzt retorted, “but you did not! You charged in and saved my life! Fight the urges, Guenhwyvar! Remember me as your friend, a better companion than Masoj Hun’ett could ever be!”
Guenhwyvar backed away another step, caught in a pull that it could not yet resolve. Drizzt watched the cat’s ears come up from its head and knew that he was winning the contest.
“Masoj claims ownership,” he went on, confident that the cat, through some intelligence Drizzt could not know, understood the meaning of his words. “I claim friendship. I am your friend, Guenhwyvar, and I’ll not fight against you.”
He leaped forward, arms unthreateningly wide, face and chest fully exposed. “Even at the cost of my own life!”
Guenhwyvar did not strike. Emotions pulled at the cat stronger than any magical spell, those same emotions that had put Guenhwyvar into action when it first saw Drizzt in the cave fisher’s clutches.
Guenhwyvar reared up and leaped out, crashing into Drizzt and knocking him to his back, then burying him in a rush of playful slaps and mock bites.
Awww.
But it's a temporary solution. Guen is Drizzt's "in spirit", but "still held by another, one who did not deserve the cat, who enslaved the cat in a life that Drizzt could no longer witness."
So it's possible that Drizzt's "kill no drow" vow will have to start tomorrow, as he tells Guen to take him to her "false master". The chapter ends here, of course!