Kheldar blinks after Eliria.
Hmm, never got her name. . .
With a shrug, Kheldar goes back to facing Khaira.
"Mischief? Oh, I've been up to quite a lot of it lately! Lets see. . . I found a woman beater, slapped a spell on him that made him look like me, and let him wander around for a while. . . Actually, I was going to guide him here, to the Crossroads Tavern so that one paladin could arrest him and bring him to justice!"
Kheldar shakes his head.
"My plan didn't quite go according to plan. . . Maybe it turned out better. Trand, that malicious Angel, saw my duplicate and assumed it was me. He offered the duplicate a position in the Whispering Hand if the poor commoner could do a certain task. I was going to see if I could get Trand to hire this low-life commoner when all of a sudden
someone pointed out the duplicate couldn't have been me. . ."
Kheldar eyes Kathryn, then immediately resumes eye-contact with Khaira.
". . . Any way, after the "cat was out of the bag," I popped out and threw all sorts of insults at Trand. Ya know - the kind that hurt after you make a mistake. . . Ohh. . . I also killed a few of his men during my entrance. . . I don't think he took that too well. . . Bah, the man-* ahem-* the Angel could use a little humility now and then."
Kheldar faces turns some-what concerned.
"The only problem is I don't know where my duplicate is now. . . He made an escape when everything went to hell. . . And I'm not entirely sure how I'll find him. . . Speaking of everything going to hell. . . An ending to one of D'win's stories was burn to ashes by Trand during the encounter. . ."
Kheldar grabs a sheet of paper from his cloak. The page was torn, as if it had come from a book. On the front of the page there was an ending to one of D'win's stories. The back appeared to be blank. No, there were slight traces of pen on the back, but almost all of it had been faded away some how.
". . . Do you think you'll be seeing her any time soon? And If so, could you please give that to her. She seemed rather upset when it was taken away from her."
Kheldar puts the page on the table. If Khaira could give it to D'win great. If not, well he could give it to her himself he supposed.
Kheldar looks around the tavern. Some new faces had appeared. Kathryn was here. . . She had been there when he played his trick on Trand. . . Duilya had shown up. Some woman who kept on darting in and out. An Elven woman he had never seen before. A young man whom the woman who didn't introduce herself had gone to. . . And a peculiar Gnome the looked familiar to Kheldar. . .
Where have I seen him before?
"Well, that's my story - what have you been up to Khaira? Did I hear something about a Lich?"
Kheldar shuddered. Liches were difficult to deal with. They couldn't be killed with a swift dagger cut across the neck. . . and when you finally did kill them - it was very difficult keeping them dead!
Artwork copyright © 2003, Gordon R. Quigley