The First Glance

The next morning, Rishi watched the light catch Elisa’s hair across the breakfast table. Even tied back, it shone whenever she moved. Beside her, Firemind sat with a clear view of the door, Chime hovering above his shoulder.

“Before we reach Renaer, someone may recognize you,” Rishi said.

Firemind set down his cup. “Either of us.”

“Then we should give them something else to see. A Lathanderite delegation. Elisa remains the priest. Maeril is the senior arcanist. You and I are its monastic escort.”

“Our houses exchange visitors,” Elisa said. “Warding practices, records of charitable work. We could travel on that business.”

Maeril considered Firemind’s leathers, then her own hanging charms. “Plain robes for the escorts. Better cloth for me. Let anyone with questions come to the person who looks entitled to answer them.”

“We’ll need names we all answer to,” Firemind said. “And somewhere less visible for the tools.” He glanced up at Chime. “You would be remembered too.”

“Chime would prefer to choose by whom.”

Rishi ran a hand over his own shaven scalp. “This won’t fool someone who knows you well. It might keep a stranger from looking twice. I could shave both your heads. Elisa, people remember that gold.”

Her hand rose to the braid over her shoulder.

Firemind rubbed the back of his neck, then nodded. “All right.”

Maeril reached for her cup.

“Yours needs ordering,” Rishi told her.

She glanced at the charms caught in her hair. “That may take longer.”

Mara brought warm water and clean towels to the window. Around them, bowls were collected and bedding carried upstairs. Rishi opened his shaving kit while Elisa took the chair.

She gathered her hair, but when he held out his hand, hers stayed closed around it.

Rishi let the shears rest against his leg.

Chime drifted nearer. Their faint humming stopped.

“It is only hair,” Elisa said.

“It is yours,” Rishi said.

Elisa looked at him. Then she loosened her fingers and passed the braid into his hand. “Go on.”

Maeril caught the severed length and laid it on a towel. Rishi trimmed the remaining hair close, lathered it, and steadied Elisa’s head with his free hand. He worked carefully around her ears. By the last pass of the razor, her shoulders had lowered.

Maeril handed her a polished copper tray.

Elisa touched her scalp. “I keep expecting it to be behind me.”

“It suits you,” Firemind said.

She met his eyes in the copper, then lowered the tray. “Thank you.”

Firemind unfastened his scarf and passed it to Elisa; she folded it beside his pack. Before sitting, he turned the chair far enough to keep the door in view. Rishi moved the basin instead of turning him back, then rinsed the blade.

Without the copper-red hair, the warmth beneath Firemind’s skin and the sharp bones of his face became more apparent. Rishi finished shaving and wiped away the soap.

Chime circled to face him and sang softly, “Bare roof, bright windows, the same man within.”

Firemind ran a hand over his scalp. “I shall miss the insulation.”

Chime hummed the last notes again, close to his ear. Firemind smiled, and Rishi found himself smiling with him as he cleaned the razor.

By the time Maeril sat down, Firemind had spread their equipment across the table.

Rishi loosened the knots while Elisa received the freed charms. Maeril kept a finger against one small wooden bead. “That stays within reach. The others can go beneath the mantle.”

Elisa divided the loosened hair into neat braids, leaving both horns clear. Maeril tested the pull at her temples before allowing the last cord to be tied. Her blind left eye and the old burns remained uncovered.

“You look very solemn with your hair in order,” Rishi said.

She looked up at him and briefly caught his fingers. “Then stop smiling at me. You’ll spoil it.”

A cream robe and brown mantle edged in muted gold lay waiting. Maeril worked her warding into the inner hem, where the stitches would not announce the Crossing to every temple servant they met.

Rishi changed out of his Twilight Robes. The ochre linen caught beneath his arms when he reached for his staff. He lowered it and tried again, feeling where the seam pulled.

Firemind watched the cloth tighten. “More room there. Mine catches at the knee. We can take the hems up inside.”

They took the robes back to the table. The seams held enough spare cloth to let them out. Rishi fetched a needle and began unpicking his while Firemind marked where the tools would press through. They worked beside each other, adding hidden ties and spreading the weight beneath the belts.

With the robes on again, Rishi lifted his staff, then crouched. The cloth moved freely beneath his arms. Firemind tried a long stride before bending to lift his satchel.

Chime lowered behind him. “The little blades show.”

“Through the seam?”

“Below it. Two sharp shadows.”

Firemind shifted the tool roll and bent again. Chime followed its outline while Rishi held the cloth clear for a new fastening. Rishi’s own satchel needed drawing closer to his hip; Firemind shortened the strap, and this time it stayed still when Rishi turned.

The old leathers became a concealed under-harness. Picks fitted inside a prayer-scroll tube. Rishi kept his red cords and healer’s kit, wrapping the steel of his staff beneath a pilgrim’s sunburst.

Elisa’s chain went under her vestments. She brought out Rika’s cloak to wear beneath the outer robe.

Maeril helped settle it around her, easing an edge free of the clasp with two fingers. “You told us she bought you time to escape. Is that when she gave you this?”

Elisa looked down at the cloth. “Yes.”

Maeril eased the last fold free and turned toward the outer robe. Elisa spoke again.

“Before the fire, when her old Zhent boss came for her, Rika was ready to go with him. She thought we would be safe if she went quietly.”

Firemind stopped adjusting the fastening on his satchel.

Elisa glanced across the table at Firemind. “He had been so cold with us when we first met. Always calculating. I never quite knew where we stood with him. But that night, he stepped in front of us.”

Her hand closed around the edge of the cloak. “He said, ‘I don’t abandon my friends. Rika stays with us, even if I have to die here.’”

“Her old boss laughed,” Elisa continued. “Then Rika hit him.”

A small smile touched her mouth. “She was always quick to get into fights.”

The smile faded. “There was so much blood. The people inside the inn came to the windows to watch.”

She rubbed the cloth between her fingers. “I killed him. A bolt of light. There was nothing left of him but ash, in front of all those people.”

“We thought that was the end of it,” Elisa said.

Her gaze moved past Maeril toward the Hall’s cots. “We were trying to turn Trollskull Manor into an orphanage. I wanted the children to have beds of their own, to know they could stay. Whatever the Zhents wanted from us, I never imagined anyone would attack a house with innocent children in it.”

“They should have been safe,” Maeril said.

Elisa looked back at her. “Then, one night, Firemind went out alone. He often did. I thought nothing of it. The Zhents came with men from Xanathar’s Guild. They attacked the Manor. Set it alight while the children were still inside.”

She drew the cloak closer. “Rika stayed between us and them. I was getting the children out. She gave me her cloak—the protection woven into it, everything she had—and went back into the flames.”

Her voice caught. “I got the children out.”

Maeril laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Rika didn’t make it.” Elisa pressed her lips together, but her breath broke. Tears ran down her face. She bowed her head, still gripping the cloak.

Maeril kept her hand on Elisa’s shoulder.

Firemind held out the scarf Elisa had folded. She took it and pressed it to her eyes. He stayed beside her while she wiped her face.

For a while they stood together beside the table. Rishi waited, listening to someone pour water at the cots.

When Elisa’s grip loosened on the cloak, Maeril settled the outer robe over it and fastened the clasp. Elisa passed the scarf back to Firemind. He folded it once and tucked it into his pack.

Rishi gathered the loose thread and scraps of cloth.

Maeril brought a wooden box to the cleared end of the table. “Chime. Would a reliquary suit you?”

Chime descended to inspect it. “Chime would like a window. And a door Chime can open.”

“That can be arranged.”

“It will need to open the satchel as well,” Firemind said.

Rishi held the box steady while Firemind fitted a broad inner release and linked it to the satchel’s catch. Chime settled against the padding to show him the height of their eyes, then rose out of his way. He aligned the sight holes with gaps beneath the satchel flap. Maeril laid a ward under the lining, and Elisa painted a small sunburst on the lid.

Chime settled inside. “Will people pray to Chime?”

“They should pray to Lathander,” Elisa said.

“Good. Chime has no experience arranging dawn.”

Elisa laughed as Firemind lowered the lid. He closed the satchel over it and stepped back.

Something clicked within. The flap lifted with the lid, and Chime rose between them. “That door will do.”

Firemind smoothed a fold in the lining. “Not all the way to Waterdeep. We’ll keep it open whenever it’s safe.”

Chime brushed lightly against his knuckles before floating back toward Maeril.

Kargun returned with lamp oil as the afternoon light reached across the table.

He set down the crate and looked from Elisa to Firemind. “Busy morning.”

“We can leave this afternoon,” Elisa said.

Kargun nodded. “Then I stay.”

Elisa drew the duty sheet toward him and went over the volunteers’ night rounds with Mara. They explained when help from the temple would arrive for the sick.

Mara checked the stores list against the crate. “That’s the oil. The linen’s ready, and the pantry will hold. I’ll show you where we’ve put the keys.”

“I leave the Hall in your care, Kargun,” Elisa said.

“Ours.” Kargun looked at Mara. “I’ll take the door tonight. Show me who needs a hand before then.”

Mara turned the sheet toward him and put her finger beside a name.

Rishi packed his shaving kit and fetched his staff. Kargun had drawn up a bench beside Mara; Elisa was answering his question about the temple.

Firemind stopped beside the table. “Before we go. Names, and where we’ve come from.”

They gave the identities chosen over their work. Elisa supplied the small Lathanderite house south of Elturel and the temple where they had supposedly last rested. Maeril gave the purpose of their visit, then Rishi and Firemind answered as her escorts.

“And if someone recognizes either of you?” Rishi asked.

“Maeril answers first,” Elisa said. “Not all of us trying to explain.”

“I’ll keep their attention,” Maeril said. “You keep moving. We don’t stay to win an argument.”

Firemind nodded and settled the satchel against his side.

Chime slipped inside. “Chime is ready.”

At the door, Elisa took Kargun’s hand between both of hers. Rishi waited on the step until she released him. Firemind closed the reliquary and lowered the satchel flap before following her out.

Maeril’s hawk swept through the doorway and rose above the street. She came to Rishi’s side and adjusted the strap at his shoulder. Her fingers found the altered seam. “Better?”

He rolled the shoulder once. “Better.”

Elisa and Firemind waited at the foot of the steps. Rishi moved aside for someone carrying a basket of clean linen, then stepped down with Maeril to join them. Together they turned toward the long road north.