Ambition

[Nodders]

(A short story of a new character of mine, and her fall from grace as a cleric of Lolth. It's not particularly good, but I felt mildly creative.)

"Mother is weak. She dotes on your father, visiting him often in his sickbed..."

Veldrin closed her eyes, exhaling a heavy, and certainly audible, huff of air through her nose - a measure clearly intended to be loud, and to let her sister know that she was annoying her. Veldrin had some level of privilege, being the firstborn daughter.

Such was the way of her sister, though; annoy, pester, talk-talk-talk. The damned woman almost always had an opinion, and Veldrin almost never cared to hear it.

She and her sister had always been at... odds. There were no fewer than a half-dozen times that they had broken out into fistfighting within the inner sanctums of the House (for the Matron was clever in banning them from having weapons), away from the prying eyes of the common rabble and slave workers. Away from the eyes and ears of other Houses. If only the other Houses knew just how disjointed the Zau'ar House was. Their whole house would be obliterated within a month for being so disgustingly weak.

The Matron had left a standing order with the retainers and guards of the House to break up any bouts of violence that erupted, but the Matron had also taken to spending more and more time with Veldrin's father as of late. In the last month, he'd become severely ill.. and though he was only a male, he was a favored male of the Matron - perhaps the only favored male. It just so happened that Veldrin was the only child that he'd had. Her sister was the result of another male, which no doubt only fueled the animosity. Part of Veldrin suspected her sister of poisoning him - not that she overly cared.

"Shut up," Veldrin ordered after the silence hung in the air for a moment. She didn't even bother opening her eyes. "I don't care about your opinion. You should thank Lolth the Matron forbade me from ripping your tongue out."

"As I recall, it was me beating your pretty little pouty face into the ground, before the guards saved-"

Veldrin felt the anger flare up. Her eyes snapped open, and she stood from the ornate stone chair she was seated in. The pair had found themselves in one of the various rooms in the House compound, and a guard warily stood nearby, loathing his posting. The loathing was compounded by Veldrin hurling a glass goblet across the room, though she missed and it shattered on the floor. Her sister merely smiled, and took it upon herself to back away, toward the door to the hallway.

"All I'm saying is, if you wanted the Matron's position..." She left the words unspoken, but the not-so-subtle hint was clear as she exited the room. Veldrin could only see the benefits of such a play, however. She'd kill her mother in the privacy afforded by the recent seclusion with her favored male, and she'd assume control of the House.

And she'd have her sister thrown off a cliff. She forced a smile at her sister before she exited fully, imagining that very scenario in her mind.

It was only a few hours later when Veldrin approached the Matron's private study. She'd come prepared, having inflicted a wound on her arm - shallow though it was, it was messy enough to be convincing of there being an issue. She came running up the hall, and the guard that stood outside was given the story of how her sister had cut her with a knife and was in the throes of a rampage. The guard bolted down the hall, leaving Veldrin with an unprotected door, which she gladly helped herself to.

The dagger that she'd wounded herself with - handily concealed in her dress - made short work of the Matron, who's back was to the door. She never even heard her daughter creep in as she sat by the bed. Her father, asleep, was spared the same fate - though only for sake of convenience. Leaving the weapon impaled in the back of her mother's head, she went to leave, only to find her sister and an entourage of guards walking up the hall.

"She killed the Matron. Get her! Get her! Alive!"

She slammed the door as they all began to sprint toward her, locking it. It wouldn't hold long, but it'd hold... long enough. Her sister had outplayed her, and that filled her with fury. That her sister would now assume control of the House. In truth, it made her sick to her stomach as she climbed out of a window to scale down the stone walls.

She could sense the duality of Lolth's pleasure and disgust with her. Disgust, that she'd failed in her act of treachery. Pleasure, that she'd make a lovely sacrifice. Veldrin was content to not face 'justice'. She rationalized to herself that, in time, she would get over the loss of the powers that Lolth had bestowed upon her - though, it was nonetheless painful to depart the city in haste with nothing but the clothing on her back. If luck was on her side, she'd make it through the Underdark's vast, untamed darkness to somewhere she wouldn't face 'justice'.