I left Ykril in the care of the healers there and headed off to pick up Miara and the others. It wasn't that far from the Promenade of the Dark Maiden to Luskan, and my travel time was shortened enormously when Arishonna approached on the way. I had no idea how she was doing it, but I was incredibly thankful to her for being able to always rely on her. It wasn't until the last year, after she rejoined me, that I realized how much I had missed her.
I found Miara quickly because Ari led me directly to her, as if the two had been able to strengthen their relationship in the last few days.
Together with her, I went into the city to search for Sanise. With my hand on my belly, I took a closer look around and realized that I felt uncomfortable when I thought about having a child here. Docked ships raised black flags and not only on the marketplace were scolded by sailors and obscene comments made to any even slightly handsome woman. Even I, with my distinctly poor sense of smell, could register a stench of failure, arrogance, and haughtiness. I pulled up my mask, threw over the hood and tried to focus on finding Sanise.
When we reached a marketplace, a small group of people seemed to gather around a decorated fountain. Judging by the sounds, someone seemed to be splashing in it, and I was not sure why, but I immediately thought of Sanise.
We approached the fountain, and it turned out that my suspicions had been confirmed. It was Sanise, jumping around naked in the fountain and laughing with satisfaction.
»Sanise!« I yelled harshly, whereupon she briefly flinched and turned to us.
»Nali bunny!« she cheerfully announced before jumping out of the fountain, running towards me, hugging me tightly and pressing her wet body against mine.
»This place is wonderful. Can we stay here? And where's our 'alpha male'?« she continued, clinging to me.
Miara giggled briefly when she heard 'alpha male' but went silent again when I began to speak.
»I don't know, but I would rather not give birth to my child in such a shady atmosphere.« I spoke softly.
»Oh, too bad.« she replied, slightly disappointed, and let go of me.
»Is it because of these peepers who have obviously never seen a naked woman?« she spoke with a forked tongue as she stroked her breasts.
»No!« I accidentally replied too gruffly, »But for your information, Drow conduct polyamorous relationships. So, already in a social sense, they always have more than one partner! Now get dressed again before one of them decides to make you their second or third wife!« I urged her further.
Halfway to her clothes, she seemed to have realized what I had said regarding my child in the first place, turned around with a wide grin and focussed her gaze on my belly.
»Ohh. I'm going to be such a wonderful big sister!« she screamed out across the marketplace, storming back toward me, sinking to her knees in front of me and resting her ear on my belly.
Smirking, I sighed softly and, stroking her head, began to speak
»Yes, you will. But only if you finally put some clothes on. I would rather not be gawked at anymore!«
She nodded frantically, jumped up and complied with my demand without delay.
»You're pregnant?« Miara asked with interest, to which I nodded gently, smirking to myself as I stroked my belly.
»Don't you think you're still a little too young for this? Surely, that would have taken another thirty or forty years. Or did you run out of the potion?« she said, surprisingly, in a very cautious voice.
»I don't know.« I replied to her in a very soft voice »It feels right to me, in a way.«
While Sanise was getting dressed again, cracking the fingers of anyone who tried to touch her, I noticed an elf looking over at us from the other side of the fountain. The unusually pale elf's faded eyes shimmered noticeably through the sunlight, reminding me of someone I had already noticed in Baldur's Gate. I wondered if it was the same person.
I gave Miara a quick glance and gestured with a slight movement of my head in the direction of our observer. Miara seemed to understand immediately what I was trying to say. We dove through the crowd and approached the elf from two sides. When I reached her, I grabbed her by the arm.
»Who are you and why are you watching us?« I began immediately, a bit rudely, whereupon the uncommonly pale elf was alarmed and tried to flee.
My grip on her arm tightened, preventing her escape. She glanced at me with an angry look for a moment, made a shorthand gesture while her eyes flashed ice blue for a moment, and with a short snap, she was able to free herself from my grip and escaped. When I tried to run after her, I was unable to separate my feet and fell forward towards the ground. Only a strong flap of my wings kept me from hitting the ground and straightened me up again. When I looked down at my feet, I noticed that they were frozen together into a block of ice. But the elf seemed surprised as well, because unlike the thudding sound I would make on impact, which she probably expected, nothing happened. Instead, she stood a few feet in front of me and observed me with great interest before disappearing into a dark alley when Miara arrived.
»Don't mind her. Help me to get out of that ice!« I urged Miara, who was about to run after her.
»Weren't you able to wait for me when you tried to catch her? And what by Lolth was that trick with wings you made?« Miara asked me, hammering the ice with her dagger handle
»I don't know. Since I became pregnant, I can't use my normal magic, but other magic that I can't fully control and seems only defensive in nature.«
»Do you smell something?« I asked Miara after a while, wrinkling my nose, who had freed my feet from the last pieces of ice and was standing up again
»No, what?«
»It smells like incense.« I said, and just as I finished the sentence, Miara was rammed and thrown against a wall of the building.
There she was again in front of me. That ghoul who once hunted me before and whose arm, torn out by Ykril, was replaced by a synthetic one. Claudia Crane. I had hoped never to see her again.
She tried to attack me, but I managed to dodge her massive claws. Instinctively, I didn't try to face the fight, but took flight, unintentionally using the wings given to me by my child to dash from balcony to balcony, but that didn't stop the ghoul from crawling along the walls with incredible speed, seeming to get closer and closer to me with each balcony.
»What the fuck is going on today?« I grumbled quietly to myself and for a brief moment I stopped paying attention to where I was stepping, stumbled and landed roughly on the ground.
Claudia jumped on me and pinned me to the ground firmly with her artificial arm at my neck. Wrinkling her nose, she seemed to sniff at me, starting at my neck, like a wolf trying to identify another.
»Mommy?« a squeaky child's voice interrupted, whereupon Claudia, grumbling at first, looked over her shoulder, let from me, and straightened up. As she stood up, I could watch her intriguing transformation from ghoul to human. It didn't take long, in response, before an unusually strong Drow male threw a jacket over her exposed body, and a little girl who looked incredibly like Claudia began tugging at her arm.
»Can we go home, please?« the child asked, looking up at Claudia.
»Of course, darling.« Claudia replied in an unexpected, incredibly gentle voice.
»This day is crazy. What's happening right now?« I asked, completely perplexed, while Sanise, who was just arriving, helped me up, and as it seemed, Claudia felt addressed
»In a few months you will realize that nothing will be more important to you than protecting your child and even though we haven't gotten along so well so far, I don't want to deny you this feeling!« she said calmly as she lifted her daughter on her arm and continued »For me, the bounty mission was extinguished after my failure against your lover and I hate to admit it, but I am grateful to you for stopping him and for sparing my life.«
I was speechless and looked towards her in silence. As she gave the Drow a kiss, and began to walk away with her family, I managed to get out a »How did you know?« after all.
She just looked over her shoulder at me, and I don't know if I could spot a smile on her face, and replied kindly.
»Your scent. As a ghoul, I can smell the extra hormones. Hearing the extra heartbeat and sensing your altered aura. Not to mention, you've consistently guarded your belly first in fight.« she nodded briefly
»I hope we'll meet under better conditions next time. Meanwhile, I wish you a healthy and successful pregnancy,« she added and moved away.
