Fictober Day 17: “I’ll tell you but you’re not gonna like it.”
Fandom: Dungeons and Dragons
Project: The Sea Maiden’s Faire Series
Characters: Sly, Zarifrax, and Dinin
Rating: Teen and Up
“Where are we going?” Dinin asked. He’d been giving his uncle the benefit of the doubt and not pestering him with questions, but he was growing impatient.
“You’ll see,” Zarifrax flashed a smile at his nephew as they rounded a dark corner and approached one of the many villas that dotted the Sea Ward, this one lit up with colored lanterns and bustling with people. Dinin furrowed his brow. He’d seen villas decorated for celebrations all night, this one barely stood out, aside from the crest upon the front gate, a golden circle depicting two intertwined snake devils, naja, in silver.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“This is the Stormwind Villa,” Zarifrax answered, “home to an old friend of mine, and where you will be staying from now on.”
“Why?”
“I suppose I’ll tell you, but you’re not gonna like it.”
Dinin scowled as Zarifrax led him through the gate and into the grounds, marked with gardens more functional than decorative and a small guest house tucked away to one side. The main house had two paths leading to it, one through the gardens and the other straight from the gate. Zarifrax turned back to Dinin and smiled, trying to be reassuring but Dinin was even less at ease seeing the lichdrow smile.
“Oh, fair warning,” Zarifrax added, “the Stormwinds are tieflings, half-fiends, proudly drawing lineage from the naja lords of the Nine Hells.”
“Great,” Dinin muttered, now slightly understanding the crest before the gate. Zarifrax opened the doors and led Dinin into the entry hall, where a young tiefling with scarlet skin in a frilly blue dress was commanding everyone’s attention with a rather eccentric violin performance. Dinin paused to watch, curious to see who this young woman was.
“That’s Shimmer,” Zarifrax revealed, “the eldest of the four Stormwind siblings.”
“She’s good,” Dinin complimented, though the compliment was stunted, he didn’t feel like complimenting her any further than mildly.
“I think she’s about as good as Malice was,” Zarifrax shrugged.
“You said the eldest of four, what of the other three?”
“Sly is who we’re here to see, then there’s Therai and Shava, the younger ones, only children.”
“What’s so special about Sly?” Dinin asked.
“What’s so special about Dinin?” came a retort in a very familiar voice that made Dinin jump and whirl around. Instead of the drow mercenary he was expecting, a slender, light blue tiefling stood there, grinning. Seeing that it wasn’t the mercenary didn’t make him feel any better, considering the imitation was nearly perfect.
“That was just mean,” Zarifrax remarked.
“When you said one of your nephews, I asked Jarlaxle which one you’d be more likely to dump on me,” Sly shrugged.
“Why did you do that?” Zarifrax pouted, “It was supposed to be a surprise!”
Sly shrugged and looked over Dinin for a moment, “He looks passable.”
“Passable?” Dinin almost shouted, then realized where he was. Luckily, no one seemed to care.
“Passable,” Sly nodded, “did Zarifrax tell you why you’re here?”
“No,” Dinin admitted.
“Wow he jerks you around too? Fantastic. He wants you to be my bodyguard for some reason.”
“Pardon?” Dinin glared at Zarifrax.
“You’re hopeless and I’m pretty sure someone’s gonna kill you one day for being a jerk,” Zarifrax replied, looking not even remotely sorry, “so my plan is to make you give a shit about someone in hopes that it will actually make you give a shit.”
“I told him it wouldn’t work,” Sly revealed, “he didn’t listen to me.”
“Why wouldn’t it work?” Zarifrax pouted.
“I’m a jerk there is literally no way I can make him less of a jerk.”
“You’re less of a jerk than he is.”
“Zarifrax I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“He murdered his older brother and tried to kill the younger one.”
Sly paused, slowly turning to stare at Dinin.
“The younger brother is the Hero of the North, if you’ll recall.”
“Shut up,” Sly ordered Zarifrax, still staring at Dinin, “How do you manage being worse than Soluun Xibrindas at being a brother?”
“You’ll need to explain,” Dinin shook his head, “I don’t know who that is.”
“He’s one of Jarlaxle’s new lieutenants and tried to murder his younger brother after Jarlaxle offhandedly mentioned he might need to kill him.”
“So preemptively taking care of a loose end.”
“A loose end that wasn’t really a loose end via an order that was a massive liability because of the operative’s relationship with one of the highest ranking lieutenants in the Bregan D’aerthe, but yes, I suppose you can call it that if you were a heartless bastard.”
“None of those details change my mind.”
“Because you’re a heartless bastard,” Sly nodded with a grin, “Jarlaxle was not happy about this, by the by, I know because I was in the room when he found out.” Sly turned to Zarifrax, “Have you ever seen Jarlaxle shout?”
“I think if i ever did I’d be running and hiding,” Zarifrax replied, “I do hope Soluun lived, he’s entertainingly daft.”
“Oh he was fine,” Sly shrugged, “he is in a lot of trouble right now though.”
“Besides that,” Zarifrax smiled, “Please take the fratricidal idiot before I choke him.”
Sly looked at Dinin, then back at Zarifrax, “Only because I’m under the impression you’ve given up.”
Zarifrax let out a delighted shout and gave Sly an overzealous hug. Dinin, on the other hand, was far less enthusiastic.
What the hell had his uncle just signed him on for?
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