Role

Chapter 6

The Troupe

It turned out that Martha and Marvin were childless parents of a
troupe of actors who travelled Thera performing plays that mostly
featured great figures from the past. The troupes children included
Michael, Megan, Mohan, Milhouse, Mildred, Mezcal Mary, Mouse, Midget,
Monk, and Zeke the Retard. (These were not their real names and
Zeke was not actually retarded.)

Martha and Marvin called a meeting of the minds and the mimes and
mummers met. The troupe was presented with Ikso, a rail thin waif of a
ghost of a shadow. Martha and Marvin wished to bring her into the troupe
and cast her as Ahteli in a new play "The Reign of the Lich."
"It writes itself," said Marvin.

"Your death stands there, and likely mine, too." said Zeke, lighting his pipe
with a deftness known to no true retard. Marvin and Zeke locked gazes and
the troupe fell silent. They put it to a vote. She was voted in 10-2. Mezcal
Mary voted with Zeke, because she knew what he did have in common with
his namesake.

For a time and a time she mastered rhyme. And meter and how to find a leader
when dancing. And how to lead and find the light and fight but not fight. And
history and mystery and how to contort her face to seem another race.

She was a star in a way, for when she was in full makeup and wardrobe she
seemed Ahteli herself, standing at the foot of the stage she was seven feet
tall to the audience. Those of whom gleaned her true nature often slipped
out trying to be unnoticed. She noticed.

The troupe dwindled to merely Martha and Marvin and Megan, Milhouse,
Mildred, Midget, and Monk. None of the missing said why they left the
once tight troupe, but it was understood it was Ikso. It was alway Ikso.

She sang. She loved to sing. She sang Duergar marching songs in a
sad Drowish voice. She sang sad Drowish songs in a Duergar chant.
She sang and sang. She found some type of joy in it, as close to joy as
she could get.


In time she understudied with everyone and learned to mimic an Imperial
and a Tribunal and a Battlerager and every manner of Theran. She learned
how to scowl like a feral felar, how to chortle like a dwarf. She already knew
how to sound like a Drow dying.

She became too many to name. She became legion.

Anyway, one night she slit the troupes throat while they slept and ate
their livers and walked towards Galadon in a red dress with a smirk on her face.