No light shone within the endless maze, not even the tiniest lamplight. So deep was this ancient corner of the tunnels lying so very deep beneath the sun-soaked lands that it was a wonder the sheer mass of solid rock did not collapse inward upon those few souls foolish enough to be trapped within the narrow paths. Yet for thousands of years, the tunnels had been the epitome of death and shadow. Long millennia had twisted the history of many races into things that could not bear to view the light with which the world of the living was so blessed from day to day. Yet for all their darkness, all their evil, all their amoral values and qualities, there were some who had felt only the slightest taint of that sinister underworld. However deep it had penetrated, it did not have a complete hold on the one whose lovely voice softly echoed throughout the passages that surrounded her.

"Dark and dreary,
Fate untwisted
Could not bury
Lies bare-fisted.
Shadows creeping,
One, two, three:
The darkness comes
For you and me."

The song was a dismal one indeed, much suited for the world into which the beautiful young woman whispering it unto that lightless, soundless hole no larger than a small closet had been inducted so many decades ago. She was not young at all, of course; by mortal reckoning, she was very old, but she was in actuality a mere child amongst her kind. Some of them were as old as several thousand years; these were the ancients, the eldest and by far the most powerful vampires. But most were anywhere from three or four hundred years to eight or nine hundred years old. Lidia was a child indeed.

But she was no fool.

Long had Lidia dwelt within this world. True, she was not as knowledgeable as she would have liked about the geography or history of the world, but that was not unexpected. She had spent the last century devoting her life to her race, after all. Actually, though, she was more trapped than anything. She wasn't just trapped by this place; she was also trapped by her own search for who she was. She knew what she was, of course; that was certainly no secret. But even those without a soul had to do a bit of soul searching from time to time. She seemed to have no purpose, no real goal in her undead save to exist. She hoped one day to change that. For now, though, she did just that: exist.

The song she sang was an old one concocted long ago by ancient bards. It echoed softly in the tomb in which she now sat upon the ledge that protruded from the wall. That ledge ran the length of the enclosure. She had nowhere to be and this place was mostly hidden, so she wasn't worried about being discovered here and forced to do something. But she was bored. She was very bored. Perhaps that is why she noticed what she did, for it was not the loudest of noises.

Her ears did not fail her as she picked up the faintest sound of a traveler through these dark halls, these tombs for so many. Her voice quieted, trailing off like some creature suddenly gaining distance from those who could hear. Even in the pitch-black darkness, however, she could see nothing. But she did not need to see, for she could hear as well as any vampire. Her sire had been powerful at over a thousand years of undeath - some said well over two thousand, but no one really knew how old he was save the ancients, and they weren't talking.

The tiny space in which she rested was not cramped for her, though it might have been for a man or for a larger woman. She wondered who it might be that was at this moment traversing these lonely depths, but she was not particularly concerned with it. The drow had trouble with her usually, though only when they started something; she was a hard woman to kill and a harder woman to contain. Yet in her silence and curiosity, she watched and waited to see what fate had in store for her.

Finding a friend she had met once already here once before, she had decided to venture down into the dark of the tunnels again. It was mostly curiosity that drew her. Part of it from not understanding what it was like and part of it wonder if such a thing was like he said. As she walked along the pitch black tunnels quite comfortably and without the slightest bit of fear, she wondered... would he get mad at her for returning here? She really hadn't a clues if he would be. He had never cautioned her not to go. He had only said it was dangerous. Frankly Taras was more dangerous to her not that Rothardan was the head of the guard.

She sighed softly to herself and lightly touched the tiny copper dragon draped about her neck like an ornate necklace. One shinning eye opened, then closed again when he saw nothing. Unlike his owner, Turin could not see in as well in the dark. He would wait for the feeling of fear to raise within her and then act.

So... what to do down here? If she kept going she was sure she would find something. What she was looking for was a specific house in the city of Menzoberranzan. Time was not really a problem. She didn't care if it took a long time or a short time to get there, but she had been walking about long enough to get careless about how she moved about. She had become relaxed in the comfort of the shadows. Then, far ahead, she spotted a light. It was soft. A faint blue light that seemed to be moving ever so slightly to the right. Aether Draka came to a stop and narrowed her eyes. There was a second light below it. It seemed to shimmer and ripple some. What did that remind her of? It seemed familiar some how. Her eyes grew wide as she relized what it was. It was water! There was something with a light on it floating on water! A boat no doubt! She should find out!

With her curiosity sparked once more, AD crept forward, more aware of her movements and able to move silently along in the darkness. Her dark clothing, even as well made as it was, was perfect for this sort of thing. This would be a fun trip!

The vampire's eyes saw nothing down the long, narrow tunnel leading into the tiny alcove in which she now sat. She saw no light, heard no voice, but she knew someone was there. She could hear their soft footsteps echoing upon the stone floors. She could smell her blood, too. Come to think of it, she was rather thirsty. Of course, she'd already fed - but blood drained quickly to keep a vampire going; there was always room for more. Nonetheless, she waited several long minutes for the sound to come closer to the alcove's entry tunnel. It did. It came much closer. But never once did that sound pass into sight, never once did Lidia catch even the quickest, faintest glimpse of the one she heard prancing about in the darkness of the tunnels.

Finally, her curiosity took over her mind, which in turn took over her body. It wasn't a difficult task; she had not had much to do, for her duties were done for the time being and she wasn't the type to socialize needlessly. If someone wished to talk to her, they could do so; otherwise, she didn't go out of her way to meet people and do things with them unless she found them truly intriguing. Right now, she was merely curious as to who it was that was moving about outside. She stopped at the entrance to the tunnel before her, though. It was probably just another vampire or someone else that she would lose interest in as soon as she saw, she reasoned. But she did need something to do; perhaps spying on another might relieve her boredom - at least for the time being.

So narrow were the tunnels through which she often traveled that those broader than her (and she was slender in build) could rarely get through them easily. They took the longer paths around. Two or more people would have been unthinkable for such passages. This tunnel was no different, nor was the one into which she emerged. To the left and right it stretched forever, eventually turning sharply to the far left and sloping around gradually to the far right. As she stopped to listen, she realized that the sound of those footsteps was coming from the right. She turned and meandered along, not in any real hurry to get where she was going (though there was certainly no trepidation in her, no quivering of the lips or shifting of the eyes). When at last she had rounded the corner and gone a ways, she found herself in an ovular, window-like place looking down almost twenty feet onto what seemed to be a young girl.

By the ears, she was an elf of some kind. Her skin was odd for an elf, but she had only ever met moon elves and sun elves. Perhaps this was simply an entirely different subrace. Whatever she was, there was something else down there as well, in the river below the ledge upon which the girl was now sitting. It was moving silently, which meant that it was either a drow or a vampire - someone who didn't want to be noticed by sound but could care less about the lights the small rowboat bore. Indeed, she saw the lights now. They were passing under a bridge, but they soon made themselves present again. Looking down upon the corridor below, she saw that one passage led off into curving tunnels on the left and the other, at a right angle due to a sharp corner there, led off before her into other tunnels. There was only the place at which she now stood from which to watch the girl below - and watch her she did, as well as the traveler below, if only for something to do.

But the lights weren't lights at all, but the eyes of a jet black panther, which immediately jumped out as soon as the boat touched shore, sinking his teeth into AD's sleeve. A familiar voice spoke softly from the boat.

"Dammit, AD. I TOLD you you shouldn't come down here. But you didn't listen, did you?" Dalhar said, climbing easily out of the boat. His glaive was nowhere in sight, but his scimitars were belted low on his hips.

"Just lucky I found you in time. Another fifteen minutes that way, and you would have been dead. Because here's why. That way? There's an entire FIELD of Shriekers. You remember them. Considering I told you about them the other night."

He shook his head, and looked around the cavern, and his eyes narrowed. "And besides. You're being careless. Bet you didn't know you were being followed, did you?" he said, his golden eyes starting to glow for a moment in the darkness. "Careless, absolutely careless," he said, pulling one of the scimitars with a dull ring of steel on steel.

"Stay put while I go find out who the hell has an interest in you and why," he said, stalking toward where he'd seen the figure moving. His eyes, completely accustomed to darkness, weren't troubled at all by the lack of light, and could see even in the HEART of the Temple of Lolth. Not that he'd ever go there.

((OOC: Careful... there is absolutely no reason AD could not have avoided your panther. Having it bite her sleeve like that borders on Power-Playing. She's a Shadowdancer in the dark. She wouldn't even have had to physically move to have avoided it...))


Aether Draka was too surprised by the fact that she recognized him to react appropriately at first. She just stood there for a moment in surprise and shock. Then her emerald eyes narrowed and her chin dropped down just a notch. She went to move forward and found she couldn't with the cat holding on to her sleeve. She turned on the cat, issuing a snarl, her own teeth bared as she yanked her sleeve away, tearing it in the process and leaving a good part of it still in the panther's maw. Then she rounded back on Delhar.

"I thought it was you. And who do you think you are telling me what I can and cannot do? You are not my keeper and there is no way you could possibly be any sort of parent, as if I ever knew them! I've had enough of that and I don't need any more of it! I did not do what Rothardan or the God of Light ordered me to do, what makes you think I will listen to you." She didn't shout, or raise her voice at all really, but her inflection had changed. She was mad, but she never got mad without becoming more calm and more focused. Her entire frame had become still and her hand was in the pouch at her hip. Her tone only became softer and darker as she continued.

"This world and its creatures are nothing for me to fear. I am a shadow, home here in the dark more then any place else. While you share your existence with a demon, in the fragile hope of becoming as powerful as they are, I command them." She withdrew her hand from the pouch then, three cards in hand, which she fanned for him to see. He hadn't seen her summon them, so he wouldn't know what they were, but she knew. It was her 2 Succubi, Fallen Angel, and Demonic Being Summons. "Don't you dare think of ever trying to give me an order again. I don't care who or what you think you are." The shadows were seeming to move about her, hiding bits and peaces of her from sight, forcing those who could see in the dark to try and adjust to the thickening and lessoning of shadows about her.