'You argued with him at the time,' Aliisza pointed out. 'So did I.'
Kael nodded. The guilt of his lapse made him stare at his hands again in shame. 'That was wrong of me,' he said. 'It was a moment of weakness.'
'Nonsense,' Aliisza said. 'Tauran was willing to defy the High Council and his own god to go after Zasian. He was even willing to drag you along with him, and you didn't protest then. You went along with it, because you knew it was right. So what was different about freeing Kaanyr?'
Kael shrugged. 'I don't know. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore.'
'The reason we both became so upset with him is because we could see what he was really doing. He was giving up.'
Kael cringed at his mother's words. 'Don't,' he pleaded. But he knew she was right.
'Look at me,' Aliisza said. 'He was ready to die. He had accepted it, even remarked that death would have been preferable to… what else he faced. He freed Kaanyr because he had accepted his fate.'
'And we weren't ready for that,' Kael said, understanding at last. 'We wanted him to keep on fighting, so we could return and see his honor restored.'
'Yes,' Aliisza said. 'He was trying to set us free. I even think, in a strange, weird way, he wanted you to see, one last time, the folly of slavishly adhering to the law. Releasing Kaanyr from the compulsion was the means to do both.'
'But that put us in greater danger from Vhok. I don't think Tauran intended for that to happen.'
'Neither do I. That was just a miscalculation on Tauran's part. I think he believed that Kaanyr would take me with him and flee, and then he would convince you to go, too. In his mind, getting left behind was a just end for his crimes against Tyr. I think that he at last had come to understand just how absolute his own self-destruction was and was trying to avoid reconciling it within himself.'
Kael considered everything Aliisza said. It hurt to think that Tauran would do that, but he couldn't deny that he had sensed it in the angel, too. 'So now you're asking me if we should have brought him back here,' he asked, 'when maybe he didn't want to return?'
'Something like that,' Aliisza said, and she smiled faintly. 'We didn't want for him what he wanted for himself. He perhaps didn't think he could face up to his own flaws. Did we do him any favors? I don't know. But I do know this. You asked me if the law didn't treat everyone fairly. I can't answer that, but I can say, having watched the toll it took on Tauran-and you-trying and failing to stay within the strictures of a set of laws, that nothing should dictate our lives in such an absolute way.'
'Oh, well said,' a voice from behind them said. 'I couldn't agree more.'
Kael rose to his feet with his blade free and spun to see who had intruded on his conversation with his mother. A drow stood there, a little way back, on a flagstone path. Even in the soft light of the moon, leaves, and faint globes, it wasn't hard for Kael to see his own features in the midnight face. His own garnet eyes stared back at him, surrounded by a tousled mane of white hair. The dark elf was slender of build, and his clothing bespoke wealth and perhaps even a little self-importance.
'Pharaun!' Aliisza said, rising and moving quickly toward the drow. 'I wondered if you would show up.'
Aliisza hugged the drow, then leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. 'I'm glad you're here,' she said.
'Yes, well,' the drow answered, examining his own body as he spoke, 'I have to tell you, I'm more than a little surprised myself. So much to figure out in such a short time. The matron mothers never even kept me guessing this much.'
Aliisza tilted her head, considering. 'I wonder, though, why we all managed to be here together. Maybe they wanted a chance for us to talk.'
'More likely they want to listen in,' Pharaun replied dryly. 'See what we'll reveal.'
'We've got nothing to hide,' Aliisza said, sniffing.
'Speak for yourself,' Pharaun answered with a wry chuckle. 'I'd prefer that my life not be an open book for angels.'
Kael found it hard to keep from squirming. That was his father standing there, his blood sire, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.
Tauran is my father, he told himself. He's the one who raised me.
'Well met, Kael,' Pharaun said as Aliisza led him back over to the bench. Kael didn't say anything as the drow sized him up. 'You are quite the impressive specimen, lad. I guess we can really cook, eh, Aliisza?'
Aliisza giggled, but there was a nervousness to it.
Kael scowled. 'So, you're my father,' he said at last, unsure how to proceed. A part of him was thankful for the chance to visit with the drow while not under constant duress, but having the opportunity suddenly didn't seem quite so… beneficial. 'Not what I expected. Or imagined.'
'I would hope not,' Pharaun replied with a self-satisfied grin. 'I doubt dear Aliisza here could really do me justice. Even for one as glib-tongued as she, it would be hard to truly explain a Master of Sorcere. You must actually meet one to understand. And now you have! Consider yourself fortunate. It is not every day one has the privilege of doing so.'
Kael's frown turned into a smirk. 'Was he always this vain?' he asked Aliisza, put off by the drow.
Aliisza laughed, and it was genuine. Pharaun, Kael noted, was decidedly less amused. 'Actually, yes,' she said. 'He was. Is. But don't hold it against him, Kael. If you had ever seen Menzoberranzan or met a matron mother, you'd understand.'
Pharaun turned to Aliisza, feigning a pout, and said, 'Just what have you been teaching our son, you troublesome tart?' he asked. 'Clearly not any of the important things, that's plain to see. And will someone please explain to me why he's dedicated his life to the likes of such a stuffy, overblown cad as Torm?'
Incensed, Kael took a step toward the drow, his grip on his sword tightening.
Pharaun, his eyebrows raised in surprise, retreated a step, his hand slipping inside his tunic.
'Stop it, both of you!' Aliisza said, stepping between the two and planting her hands against their chests.
Rage still burned within Kael at the insult, but he grudgingly relaxed, and when his counterpart did likewise, Aliisza sighed and dropped her hands.
'Men,' she grumbled, returning to the bench. 'Come, sit with me, both of you. I don't know how much time we have, and I don't want to waste it watching your egos clash.'
Kael grimaced, but he took a seat next to his mother. Pharaun positioned himself on her other side. The three of them sat in silence, staring at the water before them.
Finally, Aliisza spoke again.
'I'm going to tell you both a story. Each of you has heard some of it before. Neither of you has heard it all. When I'm finished, maybe each of you'll understand the other a bit more.' She paused, drew a deep breath, and began.
The alu spoke of her time in the deep halls far below the surface of Faerыn, when she and Vhok had been together. She told the tale of how she'd met Pharaun, and of following him through what seemed like the entirety of the Underdark.
'Why?' Kael asked at one point. He couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that the alu would care that much about the drow. What could she possibly see in him? he thought.
Aliisza shrugged. 'He made me laugh,' she said, as though hearing his thoughts. 'He was witty, and when we were together, even though he knew I was fishing for knowledge, he didn't care.' She sighed. 'I think, looking back on it, that I liked the fact that he enjoyed my company so… honestly. I had never felt that from…' She trailed off, and there was a hint of wistfulness in her tone.
'Not even a little bit because I'm so irresistible?' Pharaun interjected. 'You certainly seemed to act that way at the time.'
Aliisza giggled, and she sounded like a giddy girl to Kael. He cringed. I don't want to know about that, he realized.
The alu continued, explaining all the way to how the two of them had wound up trapped within the dark recesses of a cave in a chunk of what had once been the Blood Rift. Her voice grew hoarse briefly as she spoke of Vhok's trickery and ultimate betrayal.
When she finished, the three of them sat quite still for a long time. 'What a strange, mixed-up life this has
