For the Love of...

Chapter Four?

"I will not ask again, what are you doing here?" Entreri asked of the handsome drow sitting at the table.

"Truly, you have no concept of how utterly I can destroy you," stated Kimmuriel, who seemed smug in his ability to kill with a mere thought.

"Of course I do. I just don't know where Jarlaxle has disappeared to, therefore cannot help you, therefore I want to know what in the Nine Hells you are doing here!"

Kimmuriel for his part didn't seem too surprised and with a flick of his ebon wrist, sent the driftwood flute he had been playing with gently back onto the table. "I have...business with him. You may or may not be aware, but we meet once every tenday and he was supposed to call me yesterday but did not."

Entreri snorted. He knew that Jarlaxle had been in constant contact with Bregan D'aerthe, but he had managed to keep these meetings out of his way. He had been thankful for that, as he had never intended on meeting another drow himself ever again. "I have not seen him in over a day. He took off one night in a fit of temper and has not yet returned."

Kimmuriel just looked at him and grabbed at the flute again. "You have not tried to find him? How very loyal of you," the dark elf smirked, before blowing into the flute once again, bringing forth a few notes before throwing it back to the table.

"I did try. We could not find him." Entreri didn't know if Kimmuriel was aware of their...business partners, or their race for that matter, but it mattered not. For all intents and purposes Jarlaxle had disappeared.

"We? Interesting. Any theories? He would have called if he was able."

Entreri nodded shortly. He did have one theory. That people had begun to talk about a drow being in town and the King had been a bit interested in why. "Perhaps he was kidnapped by the King's men and taken to Gareth. You could find him there if you tried couldn't you?"

Kimmuriel grinned and nodded and Entreri had to stop the sudden impulse to slam his fist into the smug drow's face. A look of concentration passed onto Kimmuriel's handsome face, but vanished soon after.

"I need a focus. Something of his to use to find him," Kimmuriel stated and Entreri sighed.

"Then come with me. I know where we could find something," he stated and walked to the door, hoping Ilnezhara would not think him rude for barging into her tower again, with a strange drow in tow.

The trip was longer than it usually was and all the while Entreri's thoughts were spilling over each other in a jumbled mess in his mind. He could not focus properly, and he didn't understand why. He was always able to keep focused. Perhaps it was Kimmuriel's doing? Though he didn't feel the gentle pressure on his mind that usually came when the drow tried to read his thoughts. His gauntlet usually would prevent such attacks, but he had left that at the apartment, as he would go with the drow.

As he reached the tower door, he gave his head a gentle shake and knocked. It was Tazmikella who greeted them.

"Have you found him yet? Ilnezhara is brooding over his loss and it is quite a bit much to behold," stated the older of the two dragon sisters.

"No, but help is at hand," he replied, waving a hand to where Kimmuriel hopefully stood, and waving the drow, who had been made invisible due to a ring one one finger, inside.

When he heard the softly lilting voice say he was inside, Entreri followed and closed the door behind him. Kimmuriel immediately became visible and Tazmikella stared at him for a few minutes before nodding. "How are you able to help?" she asked of him.

Kimmuriel gave that smirk again and opened with a mere thought a dimentional door to the room that Entreri and Jarlaxle had been staying in. "Psionics."

Tazmikella's face lit up at the thought, before she began walking towards the secret door that held Ilnezhara's treasure hoard. Entreri couldn't help but roll his eyes at the actions of the younger dragon. She was acting like a love-sick fool!

"She is not human," came the voice of Kimmuriel beside him and he nodded.

"Dragon. Copper dragons the both of them. One happens to be infatuated with Jarlaxle and he at the moment is returning those feelings."

Kimmuriel rolled his eyes at that. "Of course,"

Entreri couldn't help the small smile that played around his lips. Something he and Kimmuriel had in common! Who would have ever thought such a feat possible! Still when Ilnezhara came into view, the drow's eyes almost popped out of his head and the repeated mumble of "of course," was heard softly coming from his direction.

Entreri couldn't help but snicker lightly. Ilnezhara had had a similar effect on him and he prided himself on his control when it came to desire. He had soon shaken the feeling away though when he had learnt of her true form.

"A psionicist, how charming! Please, come in. I have a few things of his he deemed fit good enough to gift me without giving me any of his marvellous magical trinkets!"

She led the way to that secret compartment and opened the door to the magically huge room and stepped inside, her body transforming into that of her dragon shape as she was fully inside. Perhaps it put her more in tune with her treasure, or perhaps it was natural for her to be in that form in this room, but the impression it had on Kimmuriel looked to be the same as he had had. Kimmuriel seemed to like dragons about as much as he did.

"Ah, here we are. A nice gold trinket for you to use," she stated, holding up with a sharp claw a necklace that glittered nicely in the room. She held it out and smiled a smile full of teeth.

Seeing as how Kimmuriel was shooting him looks, the assassin rolled his eyes and took the necklace himself. "You'll get it back when we are done with it," he said, seeing the steely glint come into the dragons eyes.

Looking around himself, the drow scowled. "This could be any dragons lair. I will take Entreri with me, but will return with Jarlaxle to their apartment. I have that small placed memorised."

Both he and Ilnezhara nodded at that, not wanting them to end up in the lair of a fierce red dragon, especially as they didn't know how Jarlaxle was health wise. "I will meet you there," the dragon replied, quickly turning back into her human form and exiting the room.

Naturally, Entreri kept his mind off stealing any of the treasure around them and handed the piece of jewellery to Kimmuriel.

He watched that look of concentration come over the drow's face, before a smile lit up his black features and he opened a portal to be right near Jarlaxle. Entreri stepped through first, followed by the psionicist himself.

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He knew what pain felt like. He was a drow and had been tortured plenty of times before, but he had never before had his cheek broken so badly that every tiny movement would send daggers through his face and head. He had thought he had known what pain was.

He tried to focus on the man in front of him, but one eye was completely swollen shut and the other was close enough to it that to see anything in front of him, he had to tilt his head to an ungodly angle. This was definitely a new level of pain.

"I did not mean for you to get so badly hurt. I just wanted to know what you knew about the raids. Since you do know nothing, I will let you go."

Jarlaxle would have raised his eyebrows in surprise if he was able, but since he seemed to not have the ability, he coughed instead. The action made him cringe. "Let me go?" he asked, in just an experimentation to see how much talking hurt. It sent tiny daggers of bone to jab at the side of his face and he grimaced through the sharp pain.

"Perhaps I should get a healer in here...though I doubt any would want to heal you. I am sorry again that this was taken so far."

He would have answered out loud, but instead just shrugged. At least that didn't hurt too much.

"Your things will be given back to you in short order. One of my men is fetching that...hat of yours."

Jarlaxle smiled before before he could stop himself. He had to close his eyes or pass out because of the move, but it had been almost natural to him. The world seemed to fall into two categories: people who liked his hat, and those who didn't. The same went for his jewellery and clothing, though his styles to the latter had changed to a surface style to his liking. He wasn't as stared at as much, he found.

Almost as soon as the sentence was finished, a guard came in carrying his things, which he was more grateful for than he would ever say. Without his magical items, both for protection and offensive attacks, he felt naked. And not in the good way Ilnezhara made him feel. No, in a vulnerable kind of way.

He didn't bother putting the items on, just clutched at them, holding them close to his chest. It wasn't much, but he felt a little better for the action.

The guard left after making sure his Lord was alright and closed the heavy door behind him from a request of the King.

Just in time too. By the time the door was shut a glowing from the corner of his still open eye caught his attention and he was shocked to find a dimentional door opening in the cell. As he watched Entreri stepped into the room, followed closely by Kimmuriel.

"Entreri, Kimmuriel, what a pleasant surprise. I was just about to leave when you two came to my rescue," he stated, before remembering it wasn't a good idea to speak. He spent a minute or two writhing in pain, so unbecoming of him.

"We had to get help from your dragon paramour, but I was able to find you," Kimmuriel stated in a matter-of-fact voice.

Gareth who had just been staring at the intrusion immediately stiffened at the word dragon. "What is this about? Your lover...you said she was a business partner, but skipped the part about her being a dragon!"

Jarlaxle made himself look small and vulnerable, which wasn't hard as at that moment against the human he was both. "Please don't hurt her, or her sister. They aren't bad, they are copper dragons. Go look it up, they are part of the good dragon family. If a little...mischievous."

His pain didn't bother him as much now, as he was more worried about Ilnezhara than himself. What if the King decided to kill the two sisters. He did after all have a reputation of doing so.

"Did I say something wrong?" asked Kimmuriel in his thickly accented common. He didn't sound sorry if he had said something he shouldn't have, of which he did. With a shrug and a small smile the drow psionicist answered an unsaid question.

"They are copper dragons and did not seem overly vicious. In fact, they seemed pleased to help, though there was that threat of imminent death if we did not return the necklace, but no one steals from a dragon."

The angry king turned a glare to Kimmuriel. "I don't suppose you know anything about the recent raids here?"

With a shake of his head, Kimmuriel shrugged, the angry expression fading slowly from Gareth's face.

"Go then, all of you, and I will be keeping an eye on these dragons of yours," stated the somewhat defeated ruler, before he exited the room and left them to their own devices, confused as to how easily another drow made it into his keep.

Jarlaxle turned his gaze to his rescuers and tried to smile. The pain that had disappeared made itself known again and he closed his eyes to keep from making it worse.

He was picked up by Entreri and the dimention door disappeared, replaced a few seconds later by another.

As soon as they reached the other side, stepping into their apartment, he was taken out of the ex-assassin's hands and into a familiar powerful grip. Without thinking, his arms wrapped themselves around the shoulders of Ilnezhara's human form.

He didn't ever want to let go.

A/N - Updated, yay! Heh, sorry it took so long, but this chapter was rewritten so many times, but most of the other versions (alright ALL the other versions) ended with me hitting a brick wall. I suppose that is what I get for not planning my stories beforehand.

This I can go with, and it was fun to write Kimmuriel, though I may have botched the characters more than usual in this chapter.

Thanks go to my reviewers. I hope you are still reading.