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i_read_what2022-04-18 10:07 pm
kalinara) wrote in i_read_what2022-04-18 10:07 pm
Homeland - Chapter Twenty-Nine
So, we've made it to the last chapter. Drizzt has won his girlfriend cat friend's freedom. So now he's heading back home.
So Drizzt has finally killed Masoj Hun'ett, inspiring a vow:
Drizzt walked back around the stalagmite, back to the body of Masoj Hun’ett. He had had no choice but to kill his adversary; Masoj had drawn the battle lines.
That fact did little to dispel the guilt in Drizzt as he looked upon the corpse. He had killed another drow, had taken the life of one of his own people. Was he trapped, as Zaknafein had been trapped for so very many years, in a cycle of violence that would know no end?
“Never again,” Drizzt vowed to the corpse. “Never again will I kill a drow elf.”
This whole vow is one of those things that is an interesting character idea, but doesn't really work within the story.
I mean, it IS good for Drizzt to draw a line in the sand about his own morality. But there are plenty of places he could do that that make sense with the greater narrative. He can refuse to kill children. He could refuse to kill innocents. He could refuse to kill surface dwellers. Or people who are weaker. He could refuse to kill at all.
The problem is, in this story and in the Forgotten Realms entirely, the drow aren't just killing each other. They're actively murdering other people. Refusing to kill drow doesn't protect the surface elves, who inspired Drizzt's change of heart. It doesn't protect the svirnebli. It doesn't even protect other drow elves.
This is a situation where Drizzt is reacting to abuse and oppression by swearing to never harm the abusers and oppressors. It doesn't really work. And it doesn't mesh with what Drizzt knows about his own people.
Anyway, Drizzt's vow does create a problem. He can't very well function in Menzoberranzan if he won't kill.
So Drizzt heads home to a strangely quiet house. He's heading to the gym and his father's quarters. He is thinking hard. He's accepted that he has to leave and he's trying to think of how to convince his father to go. He likes the idea of fighting their way out of the Underdark together, but he's worried that Zak will refuse to come with him. Zak's had three hundred years or so to try to flee, and Drizzt remembers Zak going pale once when asked why he remains.
Zak is brainwashed, Drizzt. We don't know his backstory. I have not personally read the book that goes into it. But I'm hazarding a guess that Zak did not have his own version of a Zaknafein. Or at least not one with even as much dubious power to protect him as Zaknafein did Drizzt. He's not, at least as far as we know, an heir to a noble house. He is (or rather was) alive only because Matron Malice wanted him alive, for his martial talent and his sex appeal.
Drizzt decides there's no point in arguing with himself when Zak's so close by. So he goes to find him. And quickly figures out there's something wrong. His father is gone.
He first thinks that Zak must have been sent out to find him and winces at causing so much trouble. But then he sees Zak's sword belt:
Never would the weapons master have left his room, not even for functions within the safety of House Do’Urden, without his swords. “Your weapon is your most trusted companion,” Zak had told Drizzt a thousand times. “Keep it ever at your side!”
Yeah. He wonders if it were an attack by Hun'ett. But there's no blood or indication that the belt was forcibly removed. He goes to find the rest of the family. Everyone is present, Except Zaknafein.
Matron Malice studied her son carefully, noting his many wounds. “I instructed you not to leave the house,” she said to Drizzt, but she was not scolding him. “Where did your travels take you?”
“Where is Zaknafein?” Drizzt asked in reply.
“Answer the matron mother!” Briza yelled at him, her snake whip prominently displayed on her belt.
Drizzt glared at her and she recoiled, feeling the same bitter chill that Zaknafein had cast over her earlier in the night.
“I instructed you not to leave the house,” Malice said again, still holding calm. “Why did you disobey me?”
“I had matters to attend,” Drizzt replied, “urgent matters. I did not wish to bother you with them.”
I mean, if you told her that you just killed two members of House Hun'ett, she'd probably be happy.
Malice is reasonably tolerant, of course. She asks if he's completed his business, he says yes, and she tells him she trusts he won't disobey again.
Drizzt asks again after Zaknafein. Malice decides now isn't the time for punishment and tells him that Zak went on a personal mission. Drizzt isn't stupid though.
Drizzt didn’t believe a word of it. Zak would never have left without his weapons. The truth hovered about Drizzt’s thoughts, but he wouldn’t let it in.
Now Drizzt finally tells them what happened. Well, not the Guen part. But he tells them about Masoj's attack, and Alton DeVir. Matron puts together the whole SiNafay adopting Alton thing pretty quickly, and she's delighted to hear that Drizzt has taken TWO wizards off the playing field.
Malice sees her advantage. Hun'ett may not even attack with this set up, so they can take the aggressive position and advance a rank.
Drizzt asks after Zak, again. And this time...he gets an answer:
“He is of no concern to you, my son,” Malice said to him, still keeping to her tact despite Drizzt’s impudence. “You are the weapons master of House Do’Urden now. Lolth has forgiven your insolence; you have no crimes weighing against you. Your career may begin anew, to glorious heights!”
Her words cut through Drizzt as surely as his own scimitar might. “You killed him,” he whispered aloud, the truth too awful to be contained in silent thought.
The matron’s face suddenly gleamed, hot with rage. “You killed him!” she shot back at Drizzt. “Your insolence demanded repayment to the Spider Queen!”
Drizzt’s tongue got all tangled up behind his teeth.
“But you live,” Malice went on, relaxing again in her chair, “as the elven child lives.”
(We're told that Dinin gasps audibly at this, and he isn't the only one.)
Drizzt puts it all together and realizes that his mother has sacrificed his father to "that damned Spider Queen." And Malice makes an offer:
“You have no options,” Malice said to him, seeing his inward struggle. “I offer to you now your life. In exchange, you must do as I bid, as Zaknafein once did.”
“You kept your bargain with him,” Drizzt spat sarcastically.
“I did!” Matron Malice protested. “Zaknafein went willingly to the altar, for your sake!”
Her words stung Drizzt for only a moment. He would not accept the guilt for Zaknafein’s death! He had followed the only course he could, on the surface against the elves and here in the evil city.
“My offer is a good one,” Malice said. “I give it here, before all the family. Both of us will benefit from the agreement … Weapons Master?”
I do appreciate that for all of Drizzt's often aggravating angst, he does not (and should not!) accept blame for Zak's death.
So anyway, Malice never witnessed the cross-parry lesson. She never understood Zak or Drizzt. And Drizzt, for better or worse, lacks the subtlety or sensibility to allow him to fake his morality the way Zak did.
“You ask me to serve your evil designs,” Drizzt continued. He knew but didn’t care that all of them were nervously fingering weapons or preparing spells, were waiting for the proper moment to strike the blasphemous fool dead. Those childhood memories of the agony of snake whips reminded him of the punishment for his actions. Drizzt’s fingers closed around a circular object, adding to his courage, though he would have continued in any case.
“They are a lie, as our—no, your—people are a lie!”
Them's fighting words. But Drizzt is prepared. See, he'd taken Zak's pouch from his weapon's belt. I didn't excerpt it, but he'd been keeping his hand in it all the time. And now he acts: drawing out a tiny ceramic globe that casts a blinding light into the eyes of everyone present.
Wisely, he runs like hell.
And we get an interlude, where on the Astral Plane, a magic panther hears the sound of a familiar, comforting voice and comes enthusiastically running.
--
So we end the chapter here. With Drizzt looking out at Menzoberranzan one last time. For the first time, he shows off his capacity to monologue:
“How many others are like me, I wonder?” Drizzt whispered, taking one final look. “Doomed souls, as was Zaknafein, poor Zak. I do this for him, Guenhwyvar; I leave as he could not. His life has been my lesson, a dark scroll etched by the heavy price exacted by Matron Malice’s evil promises.
“Goodbye, Zak!” he cried, his voice rising in final defiance. “My father. Take heart, as do I, that when we meet again, in a life after this, it will surely not be in the hellfire our kin are doomed to endure!”
Then he, with Guen at his time, leaves Menzoberranzan behind.
The chapter, and the book, ends here.
See you later for the verdict!
So Drizzt has finally killed Masoj Hun'ett, inspiring a vow:
Drizzt walked back around the stalagmite, back to the body of Masoj Hun’ett. He had had no choice but to kill his adversary; Masoj had drawn the battle lines.
That fact did little to dispel the guilt in Drizzt as he looked upon the corpse. He had killed another drow, had taken the life of one of his own people. Was he trapped, as Zaknafein had been trapped for so very many years, in a cycle of violence that would know no end?
“Never again,” Drizzt vowed to the corpse. “Never again will I kill a drow elf.”
This whole vow is one of those things that is an interesting character idea, but doesn't really work within the story.
I mean, it IS good for Drizzt to draw a line in the sand about his own morality. But there are plenty of places he could do that that make sense with the greater narrative. He can refuse to kill children. He could refuse to kill innocents. He could refuse to kill surface dwellers. Or people who are weaker. He could refuse to kill at all.
The problem is, in this story and in the Forgotten Realms entirely, the drow aren't just killing each other. They're actively murdering other people. Refusing to kill drow doesn't protect the surface elves, who inspired Drizzt's change of heart. It doesn't protect the svirnebli. It doesn't even protect other drow elves.
This is a situation where Drizzt is reacting to abuse and oppression by swearing to never harm the abusers and oppressors. It doesn't really work. And it doesn't mesh with what Drizzt knows about his own people.
Anyway, Drizzt's vow does create a problem. He can't very well function in Menzoberranzan if he won't kill.
So Drizzt heads home to a strangely quiet house. He's heading to the gym and his father's quarters. He is thinking hard. He's accepted that he has to leave and he's trying to think of how to convince his father to go. He likes the idea of fighting their way out of the Underdark together, but he's worried that Zak will refuse to come with him. Zak's had three hundred years or so to try to flee, and Drizzt remembers Zak going pale once when asked why he remains.
Zak is brainwashed, Drizzt. We don't know his backstory. I have not personally read the book that goes into it. But I'm hazarding a guess that Zak did not have his own version of a Zaknafein. Or at least not one with even as much dubious power to protect him as Zaknafein did Drizzt. He's not, at least as far as we know, an heir to a noble house. He is (or rather was) alive only because Matron Malice wanted him alive, for his martial talent and his sex appeal.
Drizzt decides there's no point in arguing with himself when Zak's so close by. So he goes to find him. And quickly figures out there's something wrong. His father is gone.
He first thinks that Zak must have been sent out to find him and winces at causing so much trouble. But then he sees Zak's sword belt:
Never would the weapons master have left his room, not even for functions within the safety of House Do’Urden, without his swords. “Your weapon is your most trusted companion,” Zak had told Drizzt a thousand times. “Keep it ever at your side!”
Yeah. He wonders if it were an attack by Hun'ett. But there's no blood or indication that the belt was forcibly removed. He goes to find the rest of the family. Everyone is present, Except Zaknafein.
Matron Malice studied her son carefully, noting his many wounds. “I instructed you not to leave the house,” she said to Drizzt, but she was not scolding him. “Where did your travels take you?”
“Where is Zaknafein?” Drizzt asked in reply.
“Answer the matron mother!” Briza yelled at him, her snake whip prominently displayed on her belt.
Drizzt glared at her and she recoiled, feeling the same bitter chill that Zaknafein had cast over her earlier in the night.
“I instructed you not to leave the house,” Malice said again, still holding calm. “Why did you disobey me?”
“I had matters to attend,” Drizzt replied, “urgent matters. I did not wish to bother you with them.”
I mean, if you told her that you just killed two members of House Hun'ett, she'd probably be happy.
Malice is reasonably tolerant, of course. She asks if he's completed his business, he says yes, and she tells him she trusts he won't disobey again.
Drizzt asks again after Zaknafein. Malice decides now isn't the time for punishment and tells him that Zak went on a personal mission. Drizzt isn't stupid though.
Drizzt didn’t believe a word of it. Zak would never have left without his weapons. The truth hovered about Drizzt’s thoughts, but he wouldn’t let it in.
Now Drizzt finally tells them what happened. Well, not the Guen part. But he tells them about Masoj's attack, and Alton DeVir. Matron puts together the whole SiNafay adopting Alton thing pretty quickly, and she's delighted to hear that Drizzt has taken TWO wizards off the playing field.
Malice sees her advantage. Hun'ett may not even attack with this set up, so they can take the aggressive position and advance a rank.
Drizzt asks after Zak, again. And this time...he gets an answer:
“He is of no concern to you, my son,” Malice said to him, still keeping to her tact despite Drizzt’s impudence. “You are the weapons master of House Do’Urden now. Lolth has forgiven your insolence; you have no crimes weighing against you. Your career may begin anew, to glorious heights!”
Her words cut through Drizzt as surely as his own scimitar might. “You killed him,” he whispered aloud, the truth too awful to be contained in silent thought.
The matron’s face suddenly gleamed, hot with rage. “You killed him!” she shot back at Drizzt. “Your insolence demanded repayment to the Spider Queen!”
Drizzt’s tongue got all tangled up behind his teeth.
“But you live,” Malice went on, relaxing again in her chair, “as the elven child lives.”
(We're told that Dinin gasps audibly at this, and he isn't the only one.)
Drizzt puts it all together and realizes that his mother has sacrificed his father to "that damned Spider Queen." And Malice makes an offer:
“You have no options,” Malice said to him, seeing his inward struggle. “I offer to you now your life. In exchange, you must do as I bid, as Zaknafein once did.”
“You kept your bargain with him,” Drizzt spat sarcastically.
“I did!” Matron Malice protested. “Zaknafein went willingly to the altar, for your sake!”
Her words stung Drizzt for only a moment. He would not accept the guilt for Zaknafein’s death! He had followed the only course he could, on the surface against the elves and here in the evil city.
“My offer is a good one,” Malice said. “I give it here, before all the family. Both of us will benefit from the agreement … Weapons Master?”
I do appreciate that for all of Drizzt's often aggravating angst, he does not (and should not!) accept blame for Zak's death.
So anyway, Malice never witnessed the cross-parry lesson. She never understood Zak or Drizzt. And Drizzt, for better or worse, lacks the subtlety or sensibility to allow him to fake his morality the way Zak did.
“You ask me to serve your evil designs,” Drizzt continued. He knew but didn’t care that all of them were nervously fingering weapons or preparing spells, were waiting for the proper moment to strike the blasphemous fool dead. Those childhood memories of the agony of snake whips reminded him of the punishment for his actions. Drizzt’s fingers closed around a circular object, adding to his courage, though he would have continued in any case.
“They are a lie, as our—no, your—people are a lie!”
Them's fighting words. But Drizzt is prepared. See, he'd taken Zak's pouch from his weapon's belt. I didn't excerpt it, but he'd been keeping his hand in it all the time. And now he acts: drawing out a tiny ceramic globe that casts a blinding light into the eyes of everyone present.
Wisely, he runs like hell.
And we get an interlude, where on the Astral Plane, a magic panther hears the sound of a familiar, comforting voice and comes enthusiastically running.
--
So we end the chapter here. With Drizzt looking out at Menzoberranzan one last time. For the first time, he shows off his capacity to monologue:
“How many others are like me, I wonder?” Drizzt whispered, taking one final look. “Doomed souls, as was Zaknafein, poor Zak. I do this for him, Guenhwyvar; I leave as he could not. His life has been my lesson, a dark scroll etched by the heavy price exacted by Matron Malice’s evil promises.
“Goodbye, Zak!” he cried, his voice rising in final defiance. “My father. Take heart, as do I, that when we meet again, in a life after this, it will surely not be in the hellfire our kin are doomed to endure!”
Then he, with Guen at his time, leaves Menzoberranzan behind.
The chapter, and the book, ends here.
See you later for the verdict!