Exile - Chapters 20 and 21
Nov. 1st, 2022 01:04 am![[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_whatWell, we seem to be done with the illithids now, thank god. But poor Drizzt has had the shock of his life. So let's see what happens!
So we start off with Drizzt. Since he never actually SAW Zak's execution, his first instinct is to believe that Matron Malice lied to him, and that Zak had never actually been sacrificed. Clacker and Belwar try to urge him to go, but Drizzt refuses to leave, revealing that Zak is his father.
I appreciate that Salvatore has found a way to give us the first part of the reveal while still building up dread. Drizzt doesn't know what his father's become, after all.
“Weapon master!” Drizzt cried, springing up lightly to stand by his father’s side. The younger drow bubbled with elation, not realizing the truth of the monster standing before him. When Drizzt got near Zak, though, he sensed that something was wrong. Perhaps it was the strange light in the spirit-wraith’s eyes that slowed Drizzt’s rush. Perhaps it was the fact that Zaknafein did not return his joyful call.
A moment later, it was the downward slice of a sword.
Drizzt somehow managed to get a blocking scimitar up in time. Confused, he still believed that Zaknafein simply had not recognized him.
“Father!” he shouted. “I am Drizzt!”
But of course, Zak keeps attacking. Drizzt is forced to defend himself. Drizzt has a healthy enough ego to realize that his father wouldn't do this to him, so now he believes Zak is an imposter.
Zaknafein’s moment of victory was stolen from him, though, by the instincts of the hunter. Drizzt sprang to the side ahead of the plunging blade, then twisted and ducked under Zaknafein’s deadly cut. The sword nicked him under his jawbone, leaving a painful gash. When Drizzt completed his roll and found his footing despite the angles of the stair, he showed no sign of acknowledging the injury. When Drizzt again faced his father’s imposter, simmering fires burned in his lavender eyes.
Drizzt’s agility amazed even his friends, who had seen him before in battle. Zaknafein rushed out immediately after completing his swing, but Drizzt was up and ready before the spirit-wraith caught up to him.
“Who are you?” Drizzt demanded again. This time his voice was deathly calm. “What are you?”
Drizzt ends up getting a really good hit on Zak, digging his blade into Zak's lung. But of course, Zak doesn't stop. Instead, he "flashed a smile so evil that it would have made Matron Malice stand up and applaud" and keeps advancing.
Clacker, who we're told is "more a pech than he had been since before the wizard's polymorph spell" urges them to leave. He's hearing through the stones that the illithids are gathering within the castle. They'll rush out soon, to the demise of every slave left.
Belwar refuses to leave Drizzt, and Clacker agrees. They call up to Drizzt, but Drizzt is busy having angst.
Drizzt didn’t hear his svirfneblin friend. He focused on the approaching weapon master, the monster impersonating his father, even as Zaknafein focused on him. Of all the many evils perpetrated by Matron Malice, none, by Drizzt’s estimation, were greater than this abomination. Malice somehow had perverted the one thing in Drizzt’s world that had given him pleasure. Drizzt had believed Zaknafein dead, and that thought was painful enough. But now this.
It was more than the young drow could bear. He wanted to fight this monster with all his heart and soul, and the spirit-wraith, created for no other reason than this very battle, wholly concurred.
I mean, fair enough.
As they fight, we're told of an illithid descending onto the platform behind Zak. As they taunt each other, it attacks. Zak is, of course, unaffected, but Drizzt is not. He's down for the count.
Which is when Clacker saves the day:
Belwar screamed, but it was Clacker’s monstrous cry of protest that sounded loudest, rising above the din of the battle-filled cavern. Everything Clacker had ever known as a pech rushed back to him when he saw the drow who had befriended him fall, doomed. That pech identity surged back more keenly, perhaps, than Clacker had even known in his former life.
Zaknafein lunged, seeing his helpless victim in range, but then smashed headfirst into a stone wall that had appeared from nothingness. The spirit-wraith bounced back, his eyes wide in frustration. He clawed at the wall and pounded on it, but it was quite real and sturdy. The stone blocked Zaknafein fully from the stairway and his intended prey.
Clacker runs up and grabs Drizzt, and even remembers to grab Drizzt's weapons too. They run for it. Zombie-Zak, thinking the illithid is the one to stop it, carves some nice calimari sushi.
Since this chapter and the next are so short, I'm combining them.
--
In chapter 21, we return to Matron Malice. She is initially jubilant, announcing that Zak has found Drizzt. Maya and Vierna are happy, anticipating a return to normal House Do'Urden life soon. Apparently this whole Zin-carla thing has been very disruptive to their lives. It's certainly absorbed their mother's focus entirely.
Briza, on the other hand, looks vaguely disappointed. But fortunately no one notices.
But then, of course, Drizzt escapes. Briza's maybe a little too smug about that, but fortunately the other girls are quick to reassure and console their mother that Zin-carla hasn't failed yet. Zak's not destroyed yet, and can still serve his purposes.
Malice herself isn't in great shape and is starting to have some second thoughts:
When the others had gone, Malice lit a candle and took out a tiny, precious mirror. What a wretched thing she had become in the last few tendays. She had hardly eaten, and deep lines of worry creased her formerly glass-smooth, ebony skin. By appearances, Matron Malice had aged more in the last few tendays than in the century before that.
“I will become as Matron Baenre,” she whispered in disgust, “withered and ugly.” For perhaps the very first time in her long life, Malice began to wonder of the value of her continual quest for power and the merciless Spider Queen’s favor. The thoughts disappeared as quickly as they had come, though. Matron Malice had gone too far for such silly regrets. By her strength and devotion, Malice had taken her house to the status of a ruling family and had secured a seat for herself on the prestigious ruling council.
She remained on the verge of despair, though, nearly broken by the strains of the last years. Again she wiped the sweat from her eyes and looked into the little mirror.
What a wretched thing she had become.
I mean, to be fair to Matron Malice, she doesn't really have a choice here. MAYBE she didn't have to undertake Zin-carla specifically, but Lolth does want Drizzt dead, and Drizzt is one of the most famous Marty Stus in the D&D setting most famous FOR Mary and Marty Stus. The Forgotten Realms is Mary Suetopia! That's part of the fun! If you want to play someone NORMAL, go play Greyhawk!
But anyway, Drizzt was never going to be killable by normal methods, and Malice wasn't going to regain Lolth's favor in any other way, and Lolth's favor is pretty much how you survive in Menzoberranzan. So Malice was kind of fucked regardless.
Malice, of course, blames Drizzt for this and wants more than ever to see Drizzt dead.
-
We rejoin our heroes. They're running for it. Drizzt is understandably silent and melancholy. Belwar is a good friend though:
“Not what you expected, dark elf?” the burrow-warden asked softly. With no answer forthcoming, but with Drizzt obviously needing to talk, Belwar pressed on. “The drow in the cavern you knew. Did you claim that he was your father?”
Drizzt snapped an angry glare on the svirfneblin, but his visage softened considerably when he took the moment to realize Belwar’s concern.
“Zaknafein,” Drizzt explained. “Zaknafein Do’Urden, my father and mentor. It was he who trained me with the blade and who instructed me in all my life. Zaknafein was my only friend in Menzoberranzan, the only drow I have ever known who shared my beliefs.”
So Drizzt finally gets a chance to share his grief. He explains that his mother sacrificed Zak, and there's a nice bit where Belwar realizes that the straightforward way Drizzt explains this means that it's not all that unusual in Menzoberranzan. But Belwar is a good dude who hides his revulsion to help his friend.
Drizzt doesn't know what monster is wearing Zak's face now, but it definitely has all of Zak's fighting ability. Drizzt is clearly having trouble processing the implications of that.
Drizzt doesn't remember how the fight ends, which gives Clacker a chance to explain. Clacker is still feeling very Pechish, I beg forgiveness for the pun, and explains:
“We are a peaceful race,” Clacker began, realizing that this might be his only chance to tell his friends of his people. He remained more pechlike than he had since the polymorph, but already he felt the base urges of a hook horror creeping back in. “We desire only to work the stone. It is our calling and our love. And with this symbiosis with the earth comes a measure of power. The stones speak to us and aid us in our toils.”
Oh, poor dude.
Drizzt pokes a bit of fun at Belwar, bringing up the earth elemental. But no, this is a different thing. As much as the svirfnebli (and crap, I think I've been misspelling it all this time. No, I will not go back and check or change it) love the earth, it's not to the same extent. The pech are "brothers with the earth".
Drizzt thinks that Clacker speaks of the earth as a sentient being. Both Belwar and Clacker agree it is. Belwar can hear it as a distant song, Clacker's people can speak to it directly. Drizzt doesn't completely understand, but he accepts their claim.
He asks if anyone is in pursuit still. Clacker doesn't think so, but he doesn't trust his senses, revealing, all of a sudden, that he's fading fast. Bringing up the wall was a huge deal, something that only a group of elders could accomplish. Clacker did it on his own, but it seems to have broken something in him, and the hook horror part is emerging with a vengeance. The chapter ends with Clacker begging them to kill him.
Aw.
So we start off with Drizzt. Since he never actually SAW Zak's execution, his first instinct is to believe that Matron Malice lied to him, and that Zak had never actually been sacrificed. Clacker and Belwar try to urge him to go, but Drizzt refuses to leave, revealing that Zak is his father.
I appreciate that Salvatore has found a way to give us the first part of the reveal while still building up dread. Drizzt doesn't know what his father's become, after all.
“Weapon master!” Drizzt cried, springing up lightly to stand by his father’s side. The younger drow bubbled with elation, not realizing the truth of the monster standing before him. When Drizzt got near Zak, though, he sensed that something was wrong. Perhaps it was the strange light in the spirit-wraith’s eyes that slowed Drizzt’s rush. Perhaps it was the fact that Zaknafein did not return his joyful call.
A moment later, it was the downward slice of a sword.
Drizzt somehow managed to get a blocking scimitar up in time. Confused, he still believed that Zaknafein simply had not recognized him.
“Father!” he shouted. “I am Drizzt!”
But of course, Zak keeps attacking. Drizzt is forced to defend himself. Drizzt has a healthy enough ego to realize that his father wouldn't do this to him, so now he believes Zak is an imposter.
Zaknafein’s moment of victory was stolen from him, though, by the instincts of the hunter. Drizzt sprang to the side ahead of the plunging blade, then twisted and ducked under Zaknafein’s deadly cut. The sword nicked him under his jawbone, leaving a painful gash. When Drizzt completed his roll and found his footing despite the angles of the stair, he showed no sign of acknowledging the injury. When Drizzt again faced his father’s imposter, simmering fires burned in his lavender eyes.
Drizzt’s agility amazed even his friends, who had seen him before in battle. Zaknafein rushed out immediately after completing his swing, but Drizzt was up and ready before the spirit-wraith caught up to him.
“Who are you?” Drizzt demanded again. This time his voice was deathly calm. “What are you?”
Drizzt ends up getting a really good hit on Zak, digging his blade into Zak's lung. But of course, Zak doesn't stop. Instead, he "flashed a smile so evil that it would have made Matron Malice stand up and applaud" and keeps advancing.
Clacker, who we're told is "more a pech than he had been since before the wizard's polymorph spell" urges them to leave. He's hearing through the stones that the illithids are gathering within the castle. They'll rush out soon, to the demise of every slave left.
Belwar refuses to leave Drizzt, and Clacker agrees. They call up to Drizzt, but Drizzt is busy having angst.
Drizzt didn’t hear his svirfneblin friend. He focused on the approaching weapon master, the monster impersonating his father, even as Zaknafein focused on him. Of all the many evils perpetrated by Matron Malice, none, by Drizzt’s estimation, were greater than this abomination. Malice somehow had perverted the one thing in Drizzt’s world that had given him pleasure. Drizzt had believed Zaknafein dead, and that thought was painful enough. But now this.
It was more than the young drow could bear. He wanted to fight this monster with all his heart and soul, and the spirit-wraith, created for no other reason than this very battle, wholly concurred.
I mean, fair enough.
As they fight, we're told of an illithid descending onto the platform behind Zak. As they taunt each other, it attacks. Zak is, of course, unaffected, but Drizzt is not. He's down for the count.
Which is when Clacker saves the day:
Belwar screamed, but it was Clacker’s monstrous cry of protest that sounded loudest, rising above the din of the battle-filled cavern. Everything Clacker had ever known as a pech rushed back to him when he saw the drow who had befriended him fall, doomed. That pech identity surged back more keenly, perhaps, than Clacker had even known in his former life.
Zaknafein lunged, seeing his helpless victim in range, but then smashed headfirst into a stone wall that had appeared from nothingness. The spirit-wraith bounced back, his eyes wide in frustration. He clawed at the wall and pounded on it, but it was quite real and sturdy. The stone blocked Zaknafein fully from the stairway and his intended prey.
Clacker runs up and grabs Drizzt, and even remembers to grab Drizzt's weapons too. They run for it. Zombie-Zak, thinking the illithid is the one to stop it, carves some nice calimari sushi.
Since this chapter and the next are so short, I'm combining them.
--
In chapter 21, we return to Matron Malice. She is initially jubilant, announcing that Zak has found Drizzt. Maya and Vierna are happy, anticipating a return to normal House Do'Urden life soon. Apparently this whole Zin-carla thing has been very disruptive to their lives. It's certainly absorbed their mother's focus entirely.
Briza, on the other hand, looks vaguely disappointed. But fortunately no one notices.
But then, of course, Drizzt escapes. Briza's maybe a little too smug about that, but fortunately the other girls are quick to reassure and console their mother that Zin-carla hasn't failed yet. Zak's not destroyed yet, and can still serve his purposes.
Malice herself isn't in great shape and is starting to have some second thoughts:
When the others had gone, Malice lit a candle and took out a tiny, precious mirror. What a wretched thing she had become in the last few tendays. She had hardly eaten, and deep lines of worry creased her formerly glass-smooth, ebony skin. By appearances, Matron Malice had aged more in the last few tendays than in the century before that.
“I will become as Matron Baenre,” she whispered in disgust, “withered and ugly.” For perhaps the very first time in her long life, Malice began to wonder of the value of her continual quest for power and the merciless Spider Queen’s favor. The thoughts disappeared as quickly as they had come, though. Matron Malice had gone too far for such silly regrets. By her strength and devotion, Malice had taken her house to the status of a ruling family and had secured a seat for herself on the prestigious ruling council.
She remained on the verge of despair, though, nearly broken by the strains of the last years. Again she wiped the sweat from her eyes and looked into the little mirror.
What a wretched thing she had become.
I mean, to be fair to Matron Malice, she doesn't really have a choice here. MAYBE she didn't have to undertake Zin-carla specifically, but Lolth does want Drizzt dead, and Drizzt is one of the most famous Marty Stus in the D&D setting most famous FOR Mary and Marty Stus. The Forgotten Realms is Mary Suetopia! That's part of the fun! If you want to play someone NORMAL, go play Greyhawk!
But anyway, Drizzt was never going to be killable by normal methods, and Malice wasn't going to regain Lolth's favor in any other way, and Lolth's favor is pretty much how you survive in Menzoberranzan. So Malice was kind of fucked regardless.
Malice, of course, blames Drizzt for this and wants more than ever to see Drizzt dead.
-
We rejoin our heroes. They're running for it. Drizzt is understandably silent and melancholy. Belwar is a good friend though:
“Not what you expected, dark elf?” the burrow-warden asked softly. With no answer forthcoming, but with Drizzt obviously needing to talk, Belwar pressed on. “The drow in the cavern you knew. Did you claim that he was your father?”
Drizzt snapped an angry glare on the svirfneblin, but his visage softened considerably when he took the moment to realize Belwar’s concern.
“Zaknafein,” Drizzt explained. “Zaknafein Do’Urden, my father and mentor. It was he who trained me with the blade and who instructed me in all my life. Zaknafein was my only friend in Menzoberranzan, the only drow I have ever known who shared my beliefs.”
So Drizzt finally gets a chance to share his grief. He explains that his mother sacrificed Zak, and there's a nice bit where Belwar realizes that the straightforward way Drizzt explains this means that it's not all that unusual in Menzoberranzan. But Belwar is a good dude who hides his revulsion to help his friend.
Drizzt doesn't know what monster is wearing Zak's face now, but it definitely has all of Zak's fighting ability. Drizzt is clearly having trouble processing the implications of that.
Drizzt doesn't remember how the fight ends, which gives Clacker a chance to explain. Clacker is still feeling very Pechish, I beg forgiveness for the pun, and explains:
“We are a peaceful race,” Clacker began, realizing that this might be his only chance to tell his friends of his people. He remained more pechlike than he had since the polymorph, but already he felt the base urges of a hook horror creeping back in. “We desire only to work the stone. It is our calling and our love. And with this symbiosis with the earth comes a measure of power. The stones speak to us and aid us in our toils.”
Oh, poor dude.
Drizzt pokes a bit of fun at Belwar, bringing up the earth elemental. But no, this is a different thing. As much as the svirfnebli (and crap, I think I've been misspelling it all this time. No, I will not go back and check or change it) love the earth, it's not to the same extent. The pech are "brothers with the earth".
Drizzt thinks that Clacker speaks of the earth as a sentient being. Both Belwar and Clacker agree it is. Belwar can hear it as a distant song, Clacker's people can speak to it directly. Drizzt doesn't completely understand, but he accepts their claim.
He asks if anyone is in pursuit still. Clacker doesn't think so, but he doesn't trust his senses, revealing, all of a sudden, that he's fading fast. Bringing up the wall was a huge deal, something that only a group of elders could accomplish. Clacker did it on his own, but it seems to have broken something in him, and the hook horror part is emerging with a vengeance. The chapter ends with Clacker begging them to kill him.
Aw.
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Date: 2022-11-01 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-03 01:08 am (UTC)