<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/SLefrvn.jpg)</div><br/><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ 100 years ago ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/>Somewhere in the wilds of the Faded Lands<br/><br/>The dance to Eilistraee was all that mattered.  Their bodies, black and shining in the moonlight, flung about and spun in the air, their white hair whirling and leaving a silvery counterpoint to their dark skinned dance.  Their bodies shone with the sweat of their exertion as they whirled about each other in circles that closed and became more and more passonite with each dance.  They'd left their clan for the night and snuck off to dance and worship together, alone.  Passion ringed their crimson eyes and the world faded away to nothing but the other, their dance, and their love.  Their lips finally met and the dance to Eilistraee, the drow goddess of dance, moonlight, and song changed.  It turned into a dance dedicated to Shoni, the goddess of love and lust.   The couple danced among each other's bodies in the forest moonlight, and when the eventual conclusion came, one called out praise to Eilistraee and the other called to Shoni.<br/><br/>And somewhere among the divine realms, both goddesses took note of the most honest and genuine praise and worship that the couple sent that night, and both goddesses placed their mark upon the child that would grow from that night's love.  Months later, when the girl child was born, the clan of redeemed drow took note of both the birthmark in the shape of a crescent moon and the unusual color of the girl's eyes, a deep blue.  The marks of Eilistraee and Shoni respectively promised that the girl would lead an interesting life.<br/><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/PWFtdTY.jpg)</div><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ 15 years ago - till recently ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>It was no surprise that the girl child choose to leave the clan.  Wanderlust was nothing new to the elven people and redeemed drow were no less immune to that call.  She left to see more of the world, lured by the call of the ancient world that had recently re-opened.  But a nearly penniless young woman of great beauty who wanted to see the world had limited options.  She made her way to Malkin City where she caught the eye of a minor noblewoman, a human mage named Kristen d'Nevein.  The girl sold herself into a twenty five year slave contract to the mage with the understanding that the mage would show her the ancient world, and upon the end of the contract, would provide a substantial purse for the drow to start her life.  The mage was not only a wealthy noblewoman, but a wizard of some skill, despite only being in her thirties at the time.<br/><br/>Kristen took the drow under her wing and the two formed a bond very quickly.  The mage was the mistress, demanding and in need of the care of a servant for so many things.  The drow learned of proper ettiquitte, grooming, diplomacy, and eventually, love.  The mistress and the slave became lovers in time, and it was then that the drow's personality became dominant, for while she was servant in life, behind the closed doors of the bedroom, her mistress enjoyed the firm hand of a strong and dominating lover.  The pair would sometimes bring others into the bedroom, and often when that was the case the noblewoman retained her dominance, but the pair knew the true nature of their relationship.  Around anyone else, the mage was in charge, but when between the sheets and alone, the drow became the mistress.<br/><br/>Over the years, the drow learned the ways of erotic pleasure from her mistress.  She learned how to pleasure a woman's flesh as well as a man, as they would bring in other people to their bed, but also because of a minor artifact that the wizard possessed.  The Anjial allowed a woman to become a futanari, growing a cock and balls above her vulva, once a day.  Magus Kristen d'Nevein often cautioned that the artifact was still largely unknown, and that it's powers might be dangerous.  But that could never stop her from using it to penetrate and fuck her dark skinned lover.<br/><br/>The pair moved to Laelith and the magus was instrumental in helping to rebuild the reclaimed city.  Often were the weeks spent in worry when the mage would go out into the wilds or into deep tunnels and the drow would stay at their home, wondering when her lover and mistress would return.  But d'Nevein's return was always a cause for great celebration.<br/><br/>Magus Kristen d'Nevein was a kind mistress, and eventually retired from adventuring after a close scrape and the loss of one of her companions.  Her band went it's separate ways, and the she kept in touch however she could.  One such person she stayed in touch with was a monk by the name of Fen'ber Risingwind.  He retired in Laelith to raise his family.  His daughter, Lyen, had achieved quite a bit in her mastery of martial arts.  Kristen and Fen'ber realized a mutually beneficial arrangement could be made with their two loved 'daughters.'  The drow studied martial arts under Lyen, and Lyen in turn learned song and dance from the drow slave.  A friendship formed between the dark skinned drow and the caramel skinned human, and it was a good thing too.  For that friendship was one of the only things that saved the drow's life.<br/><div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/91hmx9G.jpg)</div><br/><br/><br/><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ Two weeks ago ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>The bars on the cell could have been made of mithril or of paper, it mattered not.  Lirdylene Teken'urden, the gorgeous drow slave, sat unmoving on the floor staring at a wall.  The cool stone would have felt pleasant in the almost omnipresent heat of Laelith city, but Lirdylene didn't feel it.  She felt nothing.  She felt empty and hollow inside.  Her fingers rubbed across the silver locket in her hands as she stared at the wall, her mind a complete void.  She had nothing else, they'd taken her belongings when they'd put her in the cell, but she'd broken a guard's nose and the hand of a second when they'd tried to take the locket from her.  She might pay for attacking guardsmen trying to do their duty, but it didn't matter.  At the moment nothing seemed to matter.<br/><br/>Her mistress, her lover, her world, Lady Kristen d'Nevein, was dead.<br/><br/>Murdered.<br/><br/>The image of the mature yet still amazingly beautiful woman laying dead in her workshop, blood pooled around her robes, a dagger still stuck into her chest, haunted Lirdylene<br/><br/>The two of them knew that eventually Lirdylene would outlive her mistress.  She had only just turned a hundred years old this past year.  An adult, certainly, but with centuries of life ahead of her.  Lady Kristen on the other hand had been in her fifties, and approaching her twilight years.  But to lose her like this?  So suddenly?  They'd had another ten years on the slave contract, and Lirdylene had always assumed she would stay with Lady Kristen till the end, even after the contractual slavery had ended.<br/><br/>She blinked her blue eyes and more tears rolled down her inky cheeks as she rolled the locket about her fingers.  She had to push away such thoughts, they were too painful.  Better to think of nothing.  But her mind, her discipline that she'd been learning under Lyen Risingwind seemed to be too insubstantial for this kind of hurt, this pain.<br/><br/>Eventually, hours or days later, it mattered not, it was Lyen who came and found Lirdylene.  She took the drow out of the cell, clearing the slave's name, and bringing her back to her own home.  Lyen lived in a spartan three room apartment that overlooked the sea and was a stone's throw from the temple where the monks trained.  For days they spoke not a word to each other.  But then it was time for Lady Kristen's funeral.<br/><br/><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/xBn8Ht9.jpg)</div><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ Eight days ago ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>The ceremony was held on the beach north of the City of Laelith, and there were more people there than Lirdylene had ever imagined had known her mistress.  More, they all seemed to know her.  She cried again that night at sunset as the fire was put to her lovers funeral pyre.  But found comfort in the arms of her good friend Lyen that night.<br/><br/>She dreamed that night as well.  She floated up out of her body and looked down at her and Lyen's forms intertwined on the reed mat that Lyen used as a bed.   Then as she watched both forms stood and looked at her ethereal form.  But suddenly the people she saw were not herself and Lyen, but something more.  The two bodies glowed with an unearthly radiance, but from within.  'Her' body spoke to her first, "Ahhh Lirdylene, my child, you've come so far."<br/><br/>The caramel skinned woman who was not Lyen spoke next, "Yes, and you're ready to hear what we have to say to you."<br/><br/>The first woman wearing Lirdylene spoke again, "You know us, we have been watching you since before you were born."<br/><br/>The drow nodded her ethereal head.  She knew exactly who these two were, but could not speak the words, could not admit the truth for the magnitude of what was happening.  The caramel skinned woman who was not Lyen approached and placed a hand on Lirdylene's ethereal form, and suddenly the drow was suffused with perfect calm and also a sense of almost orgasmic bliss, "It is ok daughter, don't be afraid, we've always been with you.  Speak, say our names."<br/><br/>Lirdylene fell to her now sold knees and wept, pressing her face into the floor as she cried out, "My goddesses, Eilistraee and Shoni, I am not worthy of your presence!"<br/><br/>Two sets of hands raised lirdylene up, and now the goddesses wore their own forms.  Eilistraee a tall drow, lithe of form, and with hair that almost touched the ground.  Shoni the goddess of love and sex, an almost impossibly beautiful human woman.  "Nonsense," said Eilistraee, "Do you not sing and dance and love in the moonlight?  Do you not sing to the moon and dance naked on the rooftops out of sheer joy and pleasure for doing so?"<br/><br/>Lirdylene nodded.  Shoni said then, "and have you not enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh, for no reason other than the sheer love of it, and for comfort, and to grant comfort and pleasure to others as well?"<br/><br/>Again lirdylene nodded, and both goddesses embraced her.  When they parted, Eilistraee said, "So then you have no reason to think yourself unworthy of our presence.  But know that we come bearing you a warning.  Your lover was murdered over an artifact."<br/><br/>Shoni nodded, "You know it as the Anjial.  A petty reason to take a life, but that was it.  An artifact like that, so capable of bringing so much joy and pleasure, being the focus of pain displeases me."<br/><br/>Eilistree frowned, "You may wish to know that if you find the  artifact you find your lovers killer."<br/><br/>Shoni added, "Or vice versa, find the villain and retrieve the artifact for yourself.<br/><br/>"Or," added the dark skinned goddess, "Simply move on with your life.  You will dance and love again."<br/><br/>Shoni kissed Lirdylene then on the cheek, and the sensation caused her knees to buckle with an orgasmic bliss that shook her to the core, "But know that you have our favor, and we shall be watching you."<br/><br/>Lirdylene woke with a gasp as Lyen shook her firmly, "Ylene!" the monk said, "Are you all right?  You were speaking in your sleep, and I think you came as if being fucked better than I ever could!  Are... are you crying again my dear?"<br/><br/><br/><br/><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ Four days ago ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>The lawyer sat at a table with Lirdylene and had her sign the documents.  "No, it's not uncommon.  For a slave contract with a time limit, masters sometimes choose to have the contract expire upon their death instead of passing the slave on as property."  He pointed at a line on the scroll, "and sign there as well.   Aaaannnd congratulations miss Teken'urden, you're a free woman again.  Here's the chest that Lady d'Nevein was saving for you, and the instructions were that you be given some privacy to read the scroll inside before you leave.  So I'll let you have my desk and you can call for me when you're ready for me to return.<br/><br/>The lawyer left the room, and Lirdylene sighed before opening the chest.  It was an admission that her loving mistress was gone.  Inside the chest were tightly rolled, leather bound, stacks of coins.  Probably hundreds of gold in coins all bundled neatly.  On top was a single sheet of paper.  She picked it up and recognized Lady Kristen d'Nevein's handwriting immediately.  It was dated five years ago.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">My sweet Lird,<br/>This chest is double the agreed upon amount of your slave contract.  The love we've come to share and the service you've given me, both as a handmaiden and as a lover dictate that it is the least I could do.  I felt that to try to place any sort of monetary limit on my love and satisfaction of you would be crass.  So I simply doubled our agreement, as you've been twice as good as I could have ever expected.  The bulk of my possessions will be donated to the Mages Collective here in Laelith, where we have made our new home over the last few years.  The remainder of my wealth must for the most part, return to my family, house Nevein, back in Malkin City.  A small amount that is left will go to a few charities, such as the temple of the form.<br/>My deepest hope is that you do not read this until after I have passed, because I can not imagine my life without you in it anymore.  But when such a time happens, I know that you will face centuries of life after me, and ask only that you move on.  You have brought me great joy over the last decade, and I look forwards to another decade and a half with you by my side, and hopefully more.  But for every moment we have, I cherish, and I pray that in the centuries you may live without me, you hold those memories as sweet and dear, and do not dwell unkindly on them.  For I've known many an elf in the years I've been alive, and of all of them, they agree on one thing; to look forwards to a new horizon is the only way to live.  To dwell in the past is a slow and pitiful death.  I would never wish that upon you.<br/>So take this gold, use it to make a new life for yourself, and know that I will always love you, in this life and the next.<br/>Your love,<br/>Kristen</span><br/><br/><br/><br/><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ Two days ago ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>Lyen looked around the empty flat.  She nodded, "It's not as nice as your old home, but of course, you couldn't stay there.  The view is nice,"  She pointed out the windows in the main living space, one looking towards the sea, the other looking down upon the temple of the form, where the two monks trained.  "Nice neighborhood too, not much crime.  And you own it out right eh?  No worrying about rent?"<br/><br/>Lirdylene nodded, smiling, thinking about how she had the top floor of the building, and that included her ability to use the roof whenever she wanted.  It had been too long since she'd danced to Eilistraee.<br/><br/>Lyen smiled, "Well, lets go buy you some furniture then!"<br/><br/><br/><br/><div align="center">(http://i.imgur.com/KnPIL23.jpg)</div><em><span class="bbc_u"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">-=[ Today ]=-</span></strong></span></em><br/><br/>Lirdylene's eyes opened.  She'd had a dream and she couldn't shake it.  It wasn't mystical or magical, but it was clarifying.  The guardsmen had arrested her right away, and she'd never questioned why.  But last night, in her dream, she saw d'Nevein's body again, saw the blood, but most of all, had seen the dagger more clearly.  The hilt had a stylized spider on the blade.  It had been an ancient ceremonial dagger of Llolth.  What was more, she'd seen writing in undercommon on it.  No one spoke undercommon, they wouldn't know the markings were even language as much as just stylized markings!<br/><br/>She realized that she might have just found the first solid clue to catching the murderer of Lady d'Nevein.  She just had to convince the guard that she wanted, no, needed to help.<br/><br/><br/><br/>