Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Maverick 40 wrote:

Love Conquers All

Part 1

They walked hand in hand from the meeting of Doron's Council with the Tethyrian representative. Laisren was not thinking of the Black Orcs, or of his sudden departure from the Mathora he once fought so hard to lead. Not now, for a strange sensation had begun to overtake him with each step he took down the path. He felt Saline’s long and slender fingers wiggling within his own, and he looked to see her biting her lower lip staring up at him like a playful child.

“They still itch?”, Laisren said betraying a smile. Saline’s forehead crinkled and she nodded. Then something happened that was unexpected to Laisren…… he laughed. Saline unable to control her urge took her hand back and began to itch incessantly.

“Give it here…”, Laisren said with a mock disapproving tone, and took her hand back. He began rubbing the poor thing between his two good hands. Stopping in the path as he did, he looked up from her hand and into her eyes. It was there within her hazel eyes that he began to feel rather than understand……

He didn’t speak, there were no words that could explain how he felt at that moment, and tears began to fill his eyes. As Saline looked up at him with an empathetic gaze, he crossed the space between them, and kissed her gently. When he finally released her lips and stood again, she was looking up at him passionately. He led her by the hand away from the path, away from the Jest, and away from here………

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The next morning Laisren woke and walked down to the river. He moved into the ice cold water like spirits passing through veil. It did not feel unpleasant at all, as his body slowly disappeared beneath it’s still glass, rather it seemed to rejuvenate him. He dunked his head beneath the water, and when he arose, she was standing by the creek side. She was wearing her plain gown, same she always wore, and sipping a clay cup filled with steamed tea leaves.

She looked so beautiful to him at that moment. He laughed to himself, a noble he thought, who would have ever known? He could laugh at this because he frankly did not care. He had come to love her neither for title, nor power, but rather for the truth of her words, of her actions, and her passions.

The moment seemed to last forever and for the second time in his life, he was truly happy. He would not let this go, he would not let Saline go, not again! But, it would be these thoughts that began the demise of his tranquility. He looked at her and smiled, but sadness had returned to his heart, and he began to feel the chill of the waters current. There was war coming, a war none could deny and he did not know how he might keep her safe.

I will, he thought, I will find a way……….

Darksider_war wrote:A storm was raging on inside Doron Amar, a storm called "dissent" and "treachery". As much as the priestess of Hanali would have loved to keep herself out of such cataclism, she couldn't stand by and watch. Not now. Not when the lives of everyone he held dear - Elethineth, her little daughters Luilla and Alierna, and of course Laisren...what could have she said about him? One of her most loyal and trusted friends and companion, an elf of utmost honour and dignity.Were it that many others were like him...

She couldn't forget. She couldn't forget that she was often in need, desperate for need. Often bedridden, unable to move and weak as a child. And she couldn't forget all those that came to her side, to support her with kind works and kind deeds. To whom did she owe her loyalty? Once she was dubious regarding the answer, but now she saw everything under a different light. Especially after what happened to Saline.

Laisren's bethrothed stood in front of her, her hand maimed and unusable. What she did was of no concern for Luthien. She was firm in her convinction that she killed that man for Doron's sake. Not to mention that she was indebted to Laisren for a great many things. Carefully, she took Saline's hand, gazing at it with the utmost attention. The wounds were not particularly serious, and even if they were, her goddess gave her the power to heal them. Alternating her gaze between Laisren and Saline, Luthien's stare became vacant, for a very short period of time. Her mind fluctuated back to the times when she was an acolyte of Corellon inside the temple, and the high priest Seiveril Miritar was addressing the initiates.

"Each one of the Seldarine's children has a duty to uphold. Yours is to serve, unto the last drop of your blood, that your brothers might live to allow the People to live. Watch over them, heal them, offer up your very life should it extend theirs but a moment, and by your sacrifice allow Corellon's children to live on."

Seiveril then called by name each and every initiate, giving him a finely crafted dagger with prayers of penance and absolution carved upon its blade. Luthien was familiar with the dagger; mercy killer, the tool with which to administer the Seldarine's peace to those of her own blood that were too much injured and beyond the healing skills of a priest to be healed.


"And when the time comes that you must fulfill your most solemn oath, speak clearly, speak proudly, speed the steel that brings their end into their flesh and send them joyous to the Seldarine's side. Then do your duty, return to the Earth that which is due, and know your mission is done.

Murmuring the prayer of regeneration, a soft golden light enveloping Luthien's hands, before transferring itself to Saline's own, the wild elf was made whole again. She owed that to Laisren. Even in the case that Saline had not been honest with her reply. She simply smiled at the two of them, before slowly going to her Daughters. The place was no longer safe, and she had to relocate them at once. Luckily, an old druid friend of hers offered shelter to her family.

She would have not forgotten that gesture of kindness any soon.