Role

Chapter 8

The man took form, shimmering into a giant bird that Baendra did not
recognise. Clutching her in his talons, he flew with her towards the sun,
over mountains, then fields, then sea, before finally circling lower and
lower over a village that seemed unremarkable were it not for the smoking
volcano that lay to the south-west. Setting Baendra down as gently as he
could (which involved little impact but much dust in the face), the man took
human form once more, helping her into a cottage and onto a bed before
turning with a promise to return with broth. Later, as she sipped her broth,
but before she succumbed to the slumber that tugged at her conciousness, the
man spoke of her future. "You can't stay here with me, that's plain, My
Dear!" he exclaimed. People would gossip, for they already view me as an odd
sort. You will have to join one of the guilds and earn yourself a living.
I sense you have the power within you, though your magical aura is as yet
faint. Perhaps you would care to learn to fly, as I do?


She was sorely tempted for a moment, but then remembered the animated figures
in the laboratory, and how she'd wanted to study them. Explaining as much to
her benefactor, she listened as he mused aloud. It seemed that there was
no such field of study alive in the realms today, but that the school of
necromancy might be able to give her some insight into how to animate. He
promised to pay her entrance fee, in return for being kept informed of her
studies. This came to pass, although the dark teachings awoke the dark-elf
within Baendra, and she came to love the magic without care of the moral
arguments against using the spells she was taught. However, she did retain
a sense of justice. She would not harm the man who saved her, and indeed,
looked upon him with a sense of amused scorn, for despite his power, he had
little sense of what he'd brought out from the laboratory. The drow, on the
other hand, she had a burning hatred for. However, she would use her human
form to keep them blind to the threat she posed them until it was too late.
She did intend to have her revenge for what they did to her. Perhaps if she
used her powers to bring justice to others, the forces of law might serve her
own rise to power, and enable her to mete out justice to her brethren.