Almost gingerly, even though she knew Ebeian couldn't feel anymore, Tazi began to wipe his face free of the caked blood. She wanted to do something for him, to see his face as it had been, but she also needed to keep busy for her own sake. The coppery smell of blood was overwhelming and nauseating, and the entrails strewn about recalled a gruesome night for her. She found herself dragged into memories she had desperately tried to forget.
Nearly two years before, on a night a little drier than this one, Tazi had gone out to play a trick on another suitor of hers. She had meant to pilfer a small gift she had presented him with, but she walked into a living nightmare instead.
Her suitor, a mage named Ciredor, practiced a dark magic with a high price. Tazi had discovered his hidden sanctum and found that Ciredor had committed a heinous act. He had split open a young boy from Selgaunt Bay and pulled out various organs and entrails from his body but had left the child alive. He was using the boy's life-force as an energy source for his magic.
Various clues had proven to Tazi that a then recent acquaintance of hers, a young woman from Calimport named Fannah, would likely be his next victim, and Tazi wouldn't let that happen. She realized that she needed to kill the boy to stop Ciredor, but he discovered her before she could take her first life.
Tazi found herself in a fight to the death with the mage, but she wasn't alone. Steorf had followed her and he managed to temporarily distract the dark wizard.
Steorf's concern for her safety proved to be a crucial error. Ciredor easily bound her friend against a wall and turned his attention to Tazi once more.
She could still remember the excruciating pain when one of Ciredor's minor spells caused her hair to grow immediately to its former waist length. He had toyed with her mercilessly, and Ciredor delivered the final blow when he revealed that for the preceding seven years, her friend Steorf had been on Thamalon Uskevren's payroll, no more than a hired hand. Her father was buying her friends for her.
Despite how devastated Tazi was by that discovery, she didn't let it stop her. She was able to use her emerald ring of protection to thwart the killing bolt of magic Ciredor had thrown at her. He was stunned that she had been able to stop him, and that was his downfall. Tazi, though blinded by terrible pain, managed to throw the small dagger she kept secreted in her boot into his chest. While he was incapacitated, she killed the young boy who had been his energy source. Weakened by the wound and the drain of the battle on his magic, Ciredor vowed revenge and fled, never to be seen again. Tazi was left alone with the ashes of the child she had killed and Steorf's betrayal.
She shook her head violently. The smell of decay brought Tazi back to the present and was suddenly so overpowering that she ran to the window of Ebeian's room and flung it open. Leaning heavily on the casement, she breathed in the damp air and let the rain cool her face, but she could still taste ashes in her mouth when she thought of Steorf's betrayal. Nothing could wash that away. Tazi turned from the window and leaned against the wall, raking her hands through her short hair.
What's happening? she wondered. How is it that Steorf is in my life again?
Glancing at Ebeian's body once more, Tazi tried to determine what had transpired. Someone had killed him- that much was beyond obvious-but she started to look more carefully around the room. She rummaged through the wardrobe and his desk. Nothing was out of place and nothing gave her any answers. She felt sure Ebeian wasn't killed in his room. Someone would have heard all the noise if it had happened there. Ebeian would not have gone down quietly, Tazi was certain of that. Of course, a mage might have been able to cast a spell of silence while Ebeian was killed. Steorf had been the first to discover him and it looked like Ebeian had been dead a tenday at least. Steorf…
'I haven't spoken to him in two years and now he shows up for this,' Tazi wondered aloud. 'What would he have been doing with Ebeian?
'Dark and empty!' she yelled as she threw her hands in the air. 'Why this now, when I'm next to useless?'
Tazi paced back and forth, unwelcome thoughts pouring in. She couldn't fathom what kind of dealings Steorf might have had with Ebeian, but Tazi was certain that this was not a chance encounter between the two of them.
Why wouldn't Ebeian have told me if he and Steorf were working on something together? she thought.
It was true that she had cooled many of her relationships after her injuries at the hands of the shadow demons, and it had been many months since she and Ebeian had shared any real time together. She'd shut everyone out as she struggled with her loss of ability and confidence. When she thought more seriously about it all, Tazi realized that she had let all of her associations drift away and she really didn't have any idea what any of them were doing with their lives. The more that fact sank in, the more she realized she didn't know what some of them might be capable of.
'Look at Steorf,' she pondered aloud. 'In just the short time we were together tonight, he demonstrated more skill than I've ever seen in him before. Everything he did came so easily. Granted,' she argued with herself, still pacing, 'they were all minor spells but just how strong has he become? Just what is he capable of doing?' She moved back over to sit on the bed and looked down at Ebeian's delicate face.
'I know you would be absolutely mortified if you could see what a mess this place is,' Tazi chuckled, trying to keep a grip on her emotions.
In a twisted way, it did seem as though someone had scattered his remains as though, in death, he wanted to mock the way Ebeian had chosen to live.
And how many knew that quirk about him? she pondered.
'I will find out who did this to you and make him pay,' Tazi vowed quietly.
'This doesn't seem to be working,' Tazi whispered.
'Give it some more time,' Steorf replied.
'It's nearly moondark now, and you arrived with this cleric-' she nodded her head toward the disciple of Mystra-'around midnight. How much more time do you need?'
'This is not an easy spell,' he answered. It was hard to tell, but Tazi thought Steorf sounded irritated. 'I already explained that to you. Have some patience, for once.'
Before Tazi was able to shoot back a retort, the cleric of Mystra interrupted them.
'It would be very helpful if one of you could tell me who Ebeian's patron deity was.'
'Thazienne should know that,' Steorf said, turning to face the fuming Uskevren. 'I believe you were closest to him.'
His almost sarcastic tone was not lost on Tazi. The night was weighing on both of them, and it showed.
'It may have been Lathander, but that was something we never talked about,' she said, directing her answer to the cleric. 'I'll see if there's anything among his possessions that might give us a clue, but don't count on it.'
As Tazi started to rummage through Ebeian's meager personal belongings again, she looked at Steorf with new eyes. In the hours that had passed since he had gone in search of the cleric, Tazi had played out several scenarios in her mind. She finally concluded that Steorf would not have gone to all the trouble of finding a cleric if he himself had had a hand in Ebeian's murder. It would have been near to impossible to find a liar amongst those who served Mystra to aid him in some type of subterfuge, but she was troubled that it took the presence of a priest to prove Steorf's innocence to herself. While she might grant him the benefit of the doubt regarding Ebeian's death, she was still too proud and angry to ask what his business with the elf had been. Perhaps that was best left a mystery, for what would it matter now?
She also knew she was becoming unjustly impatient with the cleric. These things did take time. While Tazi didn't bother much with religious matters, she was not ignorant of them. Still, it had been many hours, and the first thing Steorf and the cleric did when they arrived was to shut the windows and fill the room with burning incense. From the stench of decay to that perfumed odor was not an improvement. It was enough to make most sick to their stomach and Tazi probably would have been ill had she eaten much at the Kit. She almost wished the two would ask for a brief break… anything to step out of that place for a moment or two.
But if the men wouldn't leave, neither would Tazi.
