Kiyralynn’s Story: Part Two

Kiyralynn looked at this strange man for most of the night, until he got up to leave.  When he had gone out the door, Kiyralynn got up and followed him.
	
When she stepped out into the cold darkness, he was waiting.
	
“What do you want from me, woman?  I notice you’ve been watching me all night.”  he said coldly.  Kiyralynn waited to reply, sizing him up from inside the dark cowl over her head.
	
“Yes, well.  I sense Shevarash’s blessing upon you, else I would slay you where you stand.”  She replied just as icily.  The strange elf looked taken aback.  
	
“Excuse me?”  he asked, astounded.  Kiyralynn pulled back the cowl, shaking her hair out.  She noticed, with increasing regret, the look of shock on the elf’s face.  She held her gaze steady, however, watching him with her golden eyes.  
	
“You follow Shevarash?”  the stranger asked.  It was all he could think to say.  Kiyralynn snorted.
	
“As much as you do.”  she answered.  The stranger still looked a bit shocked.  
	
“How did you know I followed Him?”  he asked warily.  Kiyralynn shook her hair out again, running a finger over her scar absently.
	“Drow have skin of ebony, not white.”  She replied evenly.  When the stranger did not reply, Kiyralynn continued.  “I assume you have met Him, then?”
	
“What?”
	
Kiyralynn rolled her golden eyes.  Some people, she thought.
	
“Never mind.”  
	
There was a long pause.  Kiyralynn looked up at the sky, where she could see thousands of stars, twinkling at her.  She knew that Shevarash was up there, watching her interrogate this stranger.  
	
“Jaede’in, then.  Jaede’in Araestein.”  The named stranger said.  Kiyralynn looked down at Jaede’in.  She offered her name flatly in return.  Jaede’in nodded.
	
“How long have you been in His service?”  Kiyralynn ventured.  Jaede’in shrugged.  
	
“A few months.”  He replied.  Kiyralynn blinked, as it was her turn to be surprised.  Apparently Jaede’in did not notice.
	
“You?”  he asked.
	
“Years.”  She said quietly.  “About a decade.”
	
Jaede’in looked puzzled.  “I hadn’t known He’d even been around for that long.”
	
“Shevarash has been with the vengeful for six thousand years.  He is no new deity.  You obviously don’t know much about your god, do you.”  Kiyralynn asked, her last question like a slap in the face for Jaede’in, as he realized he didn’t.
	
“Shevarash was killed in the Underdark after killing a drow priestess of Lloth.”  Kiyralynn added, spitting out Lloth’s vile name as if it tasted sour in her mouth.  Jaede’in nodded.
	
“You live here?”  he asked.
	
Kiyralynn pointed to the mountains.  “It is my refuge.  I would be ‘accepted’ here.”  she said, as if she were speaking of Lloth once more.  Raising an eyebrow, Jaede’in wondered what she meant by that, but did not pursue it.  He got the idea that if he did, the outcome would not be good.  
	
Suddenly both whirled around to the sound of screaming, though it stopped as quickly as it had began.  Jaede’in looked at Kiyralynn, who had drawn her sword without him knowing so.  He silently wondered how, and marveled at her speed and silence.
	
“What is it?”  he whispered.  Kiyralynn shook her head, listening.  Jaede’in could hear nothing.  What was she listening for?
	
Without warning, his question was answered as several arrows landed at his feet.  Looking at Kiyralynn, he saw her pulling one out of her cloak.  
	
“What is it?”  he repeated.
	
“Drow.”  Kiyralynn growled, looking up.  There was no light, but Kiyralynn could see well enough, as could Jaede’in.  
	
They attacked.  
	
Drow leapt from the rooftops all around Kiyralynn and Jaede’in.  Kiyralynn saw Jaede’in pull out a strange weapon which she recognized as a katana.  He parried with the firs drow as it tried to attack him.  It was on the ground before Kiyralynn even had time to register what was happening.  She felt a slight feeling of deja vu creeping over her, but she quickly overcame it.  
	
She turned quickly and slammed her sword into the gut of an approaching drow; he was trying to get the element of surprise.  Instead he keeled over, and Kiyralynn quickly turned to another.
	
To her, killing drow was nothing but an adrenaline rush for her.  It was like smashing a spider with the heel of her boot, and then grinding it into the floor until there was nothing left but a mangled mess of legs.  Easy.  Kiyralynn looked at each drow as if they were a spider.  Some, the inexperienced and young, were like harmless baby spiders.  But others, the older and more experienced, were like the tarantula, waiting to taste the skin with their poisonous fangs.  Nonetheless, none of the drow were a problem for Kiyralynn.  They fell around her like flies, almost as if caught in a web.
	
Likewise, Jaede’in turned out to be a skilled fighter as well.  However, Kiyralynn did not find his heart in the kills, but she knew it would come in time.  
	
When the last drow fighter fell, both Jaede’in and Kiyralynn looked up to the leader of the group-a drow priestess.  She was surveying the battlefield in disgust.  
	
Kiyralynn was surprised to find Jaede’in suddenly in front of her, in a protective stance.  
	
“What are you doing?”  Kiyralynn hissed.
	
“Protecting you.”  Jaede’in said.  Kiyralynn pushed him aside.
	
“I can protect myself just fine, thank you.”  Kiyralynn protested.  Jaede’in eyes her curiously.  “When you know me better, you will know when to protect me.”  she whispered, her voice venomous.  Jaede’in did not answer.  Kiyralynn looked up at the drow priestess.
	
“Ultrinnan!”  Kiyralynn shouted, taunting the priestess with the drow word for ‘victory’.  The priestess’s lip curled.  
	
“Nau!”  she replied, the drow word for ‘no’.  Kiyralynn smirked, the closest she’d ever come to a smile.  Jaede’in was looking back and forth from Kiyralynn to the priestess in confusion, for he understood nothing of what was being said.  
	
“What is your goal here?”  Kiyralynn asked in the common tongue.  The priestess apparently understood her, for she smiled.
	
“Ulu elgg darthiir!”  she cried in the drow tongue.  Kiyralynn’s eyes raised.  She had just said, ‘to kill the surface elves’.  She silently wondered if she truly meant that.
	
“However, you have defeated my men.”  The priestess said, this time in the common tongue.  Kiyralynn looked up at her, eyes flashing.
	
“So do you retreat, or find the same fate as your men?”  Kiyralynn asked, and for emphasis, pointed to a body on the ground.  The priestess smirked before answering.  
	
She was a slim, tall drow woman.  Locks of shock white hair spilled down her back and shoulders, twisted into small braids.  Skin, shiny ebony, shined even in the dim moonlight.  In her society she was considered quite attractive, but to Kiyralynn she was just that huge, ugly spider, a poisonous black widow lying in wait.  At her hip hung a whip, a horrifying enchanted whip with the heads of snakes.  The Whip of Fangs, it was called, and all high priestesses of Lloth carried them.  They were deadly weapons, more powerful than the sharpest blade.  
	
“Neither, but I will take yours as replacement.”  She said, voice icy.  In an instant she had run forward and taken the whip in hand.  She threw her hand back to hit Jaede’in, but Kiyralynn threw herself forward.  The snake-headed whip wrapped itself around Kiyralynn’s wrist, tearing off the flesh painfully as it came away.  Another scar for Kiyralynn’s collection.  
	
Jaede’in was bounding forward now, pushing Kiyralynn away to protect her.  Startled and wounded, Kiyralynn stumbled and fell several feet away.  For a moment she gasped in breaths of cold air, holding her wrist to clot the blood.  Then, outraged, she jumped up and looked around, not quite sure who to attack.
	
The whip struck again with a frightening snap!, the snakes biting at Jaede’in’s flesh.  Many wounds covered his arms and neck when suddenly a sword burst through the priestess’s neck, Kiyralynn behind her.  The whip fell, as did the drow as Kiyralynn moved.  
	
Jaede’in staggered back and fell.  Kiyralynn knelt by him, a look of smooth satisfaction on her face.  
	
“I had to protect you.”  Jaede’in explained.  “Shevarash would be angry with me if you died.”
	
Kiyralynn snorted.  “Of course, you idiot.”  She said rather quietly.  Jaede’in wondered if he had heard correctly.  “But believe me, Shevarash would be much more displeased if you died.”