Cousins

This is a very innocent fic I wrote some time ago when I was part of a BG community that ran
regular topics one could write fics to. This was my answer to one of the topics - I don't recall
what it was now, somethign to do with family I think.

~~~~~~~

"Can I have a brownie?"

A pair of green eyes stared longingly across the kitchen bench at Danera's freshly baked plate
of brownies.

Danera smiled fondly at the five year old half-elven girl. It had been only a year since her cousin
Gorion had come to Candlekeep with Narri, the child of his dead lover, and Danera had
summarily taken over the day-to-day care of the child.

"Did you brush your hair this morning, Narri?" Danera eyed the mess of blue-black atop the
girl's head.

"Yes!" Narri said a little too quickly.

"Narri…" Danera frowned.

"Err… no." Narri admitted.

"Well go brush it and then you can have a brownie." Danera told her and watched as she
ran off.

"You mind if I have one too, Dani?"

Danera turned to look in the smiling eyes of her husband, Winthrop. "Win, if you eat too
many of my brownies you'll get fat on me!" she teased playfully.

"Aww, then you'll just have more of me to love then, won't you?" Winthrop grinned as he
took one of the brownies. Danera couldn't help laughing.

"Oh, a letter came for you." Winthrop said as he pulled a thin package from under his arm
and handed it to his wife.

Danera opened the letter and read it silently, frowning.

"What is it Dani?" Winthrop asked.

"I need to talk to Gorion." She said and immediately headed out of the inn for the library.

***

It had been quite a few years since Gorion was last in Waterdeep.

When Danera had received the letter from their cousin Mela she had immediately brought
it to Gorion begging him to go to Waterdeep to find her.
When they had been young the three cousins had been constant companions. Children of
three siblings, all growing up in the same town.
Mela had been the youngest, the one Danera and Gorion watched out for.
As Gorion had grown up his longing for adventure had driven him to leave the quiet life he
had lived. Danera did not have any wish for adventure and had found her niche in life when
she had married Winthrop. Mela had been a bright cheerful girl that everyone had loved.
Both Danera and Gorion had worried about their younger cousin when she ran away to the
big city looking for fun.

In his work for the Harpers Gorion had lost virtually all contact with both cousins until
circumstances had caused him to seek shelter behind the walls of Candlekeep where he
had been surprised to find Danera and Winthrop running the inn.

He stood in front of a shabby house squeezed between two larger, equally shabby buildings.
A request to some of his old Harper contacts had gotten the location of Mela's current
residence in one of Waterdeep's lower class districts.

Gorion knocked on the door. It whipped open surprisingly quickly.
"Gorry!" A redheaded woman, perhaps in her late twenties, smiled at Gorion. "Gorry! Gorry!
Gorry! Come in! Come in! Come in!"

There was something brittle about Mela's cheerfulness that worried Gorion as he stepped into
the house. The worrying impression was encouraged by the odd state of the kitchen Mela guided
him to. Some areas were so clean they shone. Others were piled with various junk coated with
thick layers of dust.

"How have you been, Mela?" Gorion forced himself to make small talk.

Mela's smile slipped from her face, her lip trembling she started to cry.
"OhGorryI'vebeentryingsohardbutnoonewantstotalktomenonotmeVarek'slittlewhoreandthatbratkidof
hersohIwishtheywouldn'tcallImmyabratshe'ssuchasweetchildbutIknowshecouldbesomethingterrible
becausethosepriestsdidsomethingtoherwhenIwaspregnantwithherbutshe'ssosweethowcanshebeachild
ofBhaalohGorryI'msoscared!"

A chill went down Gorion's spine as he listened to Mela's tearful flood of words. priests. Bhaal.

"Mela, slow down and tell me." He said.

"It wasn't my fault Gorry," Mela hiccupped. "Varek was going to marry me but when he found
out I was pregnant he cancelled the wedding calling me a no good whore but it wasn't my fault,
those priests grabbed me and I couldn't fight and they… they…" A look of terror came into
Mela's eyes.

"It's okay, Mela…"

"Noooo! Immy is such a sweet girl! She can't be a monster! But… but…" Mela was stopped
by the sound of the front door opening.

A small redhead girl that was the very image of Mela, probably the same age as Gorion's own
ward Narri, came running into the kitchen followed by a young blonde woman.

"Momma, Momma, Momma!" The girl raced over to Mela smiling broadly. "Adaina bought
me a ribbon!" She held up a strip of bright pink to show Mela.

Mela's terror vanished in an instant. "Oh how nice!" She cooed. "Come on and I'll braid it into
your hair, Immy!" And with that she took the girl into the sitting room, totally oblivious to her
cousin and Adaina.

Gorion looked at Adaina and Adaina looked back at him with a suspicious expression.

"And who are you?" Adaina said, a scornful tone in her voice. "Another man looking to take
advantage of a poor, mentally unstable woman?"

"My name is Gorion Greenme."e." Gorion introduced himself, wondering what sort of person
Adaina had thought he was.

Adaina's suspicious expression cleared. "Mela's spoken about you!" She smiled. "You and
Danae… Danela…"

"Danera," Gorion supplied. "Our other cousin. Mela sent her a letter although considering how
she seems to be living I wonder how she could afford to have it sent all the way to Candlekeep."

"Oh, that's the letter!" Adaina said, surprised. "A month ago she spent all her money on sending
a letter somewhere but she didn't tell me where or who to!"

"So you've been keeping an eye on Mela?" Gorion asked.

"Yes," Adaina nodded, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I try to help where I can and Mela
needs someone to watch out for her and Imoen."

"How long has she been…"

"Unstable?"

"Yes." Gorion sat at the table too.

Adaina sighed. "She's been like that ever since she was attacked."

"So she did get taken by Bhaalyn?" Gorion pressed to the most worrying issue.

"I don't know for sure," Adaina said. "I do know she was kidnapped and then left on the streets
a few nights later. When her betrothed, Varek, found out she was pregnant he cut off the
engagement and threw her out calling her a lying whore but I know she was already pregnant
before the attack. She was already having morning sickness."

"And what about the child, Imoen?" Gorion asked.

"Oh Imoen is the sweetest little thing," Adaina smiled. "She's always happy. I find it hard to
believe there could be anything bad about her."

The conversation moved into less important topics after that and Gorion eventually made his
goodbyes and head back to the inn he was staying at thinking it would be best for him to
report to his Harper superiors of the possibility of Imoen being another child of Bhaal.

*"But is she?"* He wondered to himself. *"She was not conceived by the spirit of Bhaal so
she may not be one of the lord of Murder's spawn. Still, it would be best to report this to
Blackstaff, I'm sure he would prefer to know if a Child was living right under his nose even
if her status as such is questionable.* Gorion made up his mind. He would head around to
Blackstaff tower immediately.

***

The next day Gorion headed around to Mela's house again.
The meeting with Khelben had gone as well as could be expected, the archmage appreciating
the heads-up about a possible Bhaalspawn.

Gorion was uneasy about leaving his cousin in Waterdeep with her obvious mental instabilities
with only Adaina to care for her and Imoen so he had organized for the Harpers to keep an
eye on them as well.

Gorion came to the front steps of the house to find Imoen sitting on the front step of the house
rocking herself back and forth in shock.

"Imoen, what's the matter?" He asked gently.

"Momma…" The child squeezed her eyes shut.

The door behind her flew open as Adaina came out, her face red from tears. "Oh gods!"
The young woman said, her voice choked up. "Mela's dead!"

"No!" Gorion rushed into the house to find Mela lying on the kitchen floor in the middle
of a pool of blood, her wrists slit and a knife lying near her hand.

"I was only out for a few a few minutes with Imoen…" Adaina said from behind him.

"No, it's not your fault." Gorion said. "I should have seen this, she was too unstable."

"Oh, what are we going to do with Immy?" Adaina worried. "I can't support her and she
has no one else…"

"I'll work something out." Gorion said. "Even if I have to take her back to Candlekeep
with me."

***

"Are you sure you can cope with two Bhaalspawn?"

Gorion had gone to see Khelben Arunsun again to inform him of his decision to take
Imoen back to Candlekeep with him.
"If Imoen is a Bhaalspawn Candlekeep will be a safe place for her to grow up." Gorion said.
"I have doubts she is one of the Children though, she's shown none of the signs Narri has."

"Well it's up to you," Khelben said. "You are her closest living relative."

"Yes well I'll also have Danera's help in taking care of her too. I'm sure everything will be
fine." Gorion stated.

"Well I wish you Mystra's blessing then Gorion," Khelben told him. "I really think you are
going to need it."

***

"Imoen!" Gorion called the girl who was talking to a golden-eyed sembian boy who's family
were staying in the same inn as Gorion. "Time to go!"

Imoen jumped up and lightly ran over to join Gorion.

The girl had evidently blocked out the memory of her mother's death, unquestioningly accepting
Gorion's care in the process.

"Are we going to Candlekeep now?" She asked, looking up at him, smiling.

"Yes we are, child."

"And I get to meet Narri?"

"Yes, child."

"Oh goody!" The girl said.

Ever since Gorion had told her about Narri Imoen had wanted nothing more than to meet his
ward quite sure they'd be immediate friends.

"You better go get you things packed or you'll never see her." Gorion told her.

"Okay!" She said and immediately raced off into the inn to retrieve her few belongings.

Gorion sighed. *Khelben may be right.* He thought. *Coping with ~two~ of them may be
too much for me!* And with that he followed Imoen into the building.