Quzon Mal's page

Of course he is not really my father. When my mother came to Katheer from Kaer Maga she was already pregnant with me. She never told me why she left her family and the city of her birth, or who my real father was. In the end I guess it doesn’t relay matter. Mother did her best to protect me and prepare me for my future life in Qadira. She taught me her monk style of fighting and the discipline required to keep it sharp. She also taught me several techniques that, while not monkish, were from my real father. My mother did the best she could, aligning herself with a low level merchant prince. He had some power and influence, but was never a threat to the major trader cartels or the Keleshite Princes. He provided for her as his “business agent”, rather than as a concubine, so she could not inherit a portion of his wealth if he died. As such, I was never a threat to his household or his heirs. Instead, I was a valued possession, one to be cultivated and improved to enhance its value and usefulness to its owner.

That is why, at the age of 13, it was announced that I was to be sent to the island of Grand Sarret off Jalmaray. There I was to learn “the arts of seduction, music, cooking, and manipulating the tenuous threads of court politics and intrigue”. My “Sending Out” party was magnificent with entertainers, wine, and many dignitaries. There were major domo from a number of princes inspecting the possible new bride for up and coming young nobles. The highlight was to be my teleportation to the harem training school on that island, the only way to reach the school without flying. As the hour was called out by the clerics in attendance, a famous mage began the spell. I did not, unfortunately, find myself on that small island off Jalmaray. Instead I found myself in a small palace in the capital city of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh. I was later to learn that the man I had called “father” was an agent for Red Star, the secret police of the Padishah Emperor Kalish XXII. It appeared that my destiny was to be a spy.

For the next 5 years I was trained in all the things I would have been taught on Grand Sarret. After all, I had a cover to maintain of being taught there. From their instruction I recognized that my father’s techniques were actually the foundation for Adder’s Kiss. I was taught about the politics of the Inner Sea, the customs of its people, and a passing use of most of its languages. They taught me several cantrips that I could use to cover my tracks and eliminate evidence of my being in a certain place. They expanded my monk training with their own and added the styles of many other monks, so I could more easily pass as one of them. But most of all they taught me obedience to the will and orders of Red Star, and undying loyalty to the Padishah Emperor.

I could not return to Katheer when my training was finished as I would have had to answer too many questions about my recent past. I found out that I no longer had ties to that city; my mother had died while I was in Kelesh. My last two years of training saw me travel over most of the empire under the hand of experienced Red Star officers, so I was not new to field work. My first assignment outside of Kelesh was in Jalmaray. I was to infiltrate the household of a healer monk and get close to his daughter. I thought at the time that this was too simple and later my handler gave me the real mission. I was to travel with the monk and his family to Katapesh. There I was to kill the monk’s daughter and engineer the blame to fall on the monk of the 36th Order who was to lead the party on an herb gathering expedition. The objective was to increase discord between the 36th Order and the healers of Jalmaray. I was not told why this was important. I didn't need to know; I had my orders. Fate, it seems, thought differently.

Initially all went according to plan. I became the daughter’s confidant and companion for the trip. After we reached the Vargus Swamp and began collecting samples, I convinced the daughter that it would be good for the group to take a side trip to see the Sleeping Dove Shrine, a location sacred to Sarenrae, before returning to Katapesh. On the way to the swamp I had begun to get close to the monk assigned as our guide, Harad Navar. It was simple to convince him to do a comparison of monk techniques to pass the time in camp. It was easy after a few nights to persuade him to compare our other “skills”. My plan was to kill both the daughter and Harad on the trip back from the Shrine, but that night we camped there changed everything. After a particularly satisfying “comparison”, Harad had a mystic dream. To my surprise, I found that I was also in that dream and somehow I knew that he could not see me.

I saw a winged creature of light appear before him. I could hear in my mind what it said to him: “In a land veined in rivers you are to be a light on a dark road.” The creature made a gesture, and I saw a spiral pattern appear briefly on Harad’s back before he faded from the dream landscape, but I was still there with the creature. It turned to me and I perceived not a creature but a vision of Sarenrae. She is worshiped widely in Kelesh and I recognized this avatar from the temples there. She smiled at me and said “Your path will mirror his, but you will be guided by another.” Again she gestured and I saw a similar spiral pattern appear briefly on my left forearm before it also faded. As it did I awoke to find myself next to a wide awake Harad.

He spoke of his dream and in that listening I found that I could not go through with my assignment. I had already been feeling connected to him in ways I had been warned would compromise any mission I was on. Our shared dream made those feelings even stronger. During our next comparison I looked for the spiral pattern I had seen in the dream. I could neither see it on him or on my own arm. I knew that it was a symbol used for Pharasma; I also knew that we both were doomed. I could not betray Red Star, but I also could not bring myself to kill Harad, or frame him for the daughter’s death. If I stayed with him we would be found by Red Star and we would both die. They would even use Red Mantis assassins, if they had to, but we both would have to pay the price for my failure. For the first time in my life I was uncertain of the path I needed to choose.

It took all my skill to keep Harad ignorant of what I had seen and what I had to do now. The minute the party got back to Katapesh I told the monk’s daughter that I had an urgent message to return home. As quickly as I could I slipped away on the excuse of going to the docks to arrange passage back to Jalmaray. I had a backup cover as a minor agent of the Aspis Consortium and I used it to go into hiding. I began to shadow Harad every time he left the monastery. I watched as he consulted several sages about the meaning of his dream until he found one who could show him what it meant. A short while later Harad left to visit his home village and I spent several days insinuating myself into that sage's acquaintance. It was very easy to get him to tell me what he had told Harad. That was how I learned about the River Kingdoms. He even spoke of his consultations with other sages who had been asked about similar dreams. Fortunately, he had not shared those with Harad so I now had more information than he.

This brings me back to the beginning, using my cantrips to erase my presence in the sage’s bedchamber where his body will be discovered in the morning, a victim of snake bite. It is so peaceful with the dead of the night and in that peace I finally saw my path. I have to find a magic user who can make for me a permanent non-detection amulet before my handlers in Jalmaray can find out about my failure. It will cost me all of my operating money, and quite a bit more, but I knew where the local Aspis agents kept their emergency funds. After I have the amulet it will take old fashion boots-on-the-ground leg work for Red Star to pick up my trail. Next, I have to create a new set of cover identities to conceal my journey to the River Kingdoms. I also have to pick a new cover profession, something different enough from my real skills without being too difficult to emulate. Maybe I’ll be an adept looking for a new magic teacher. I also have to find a safe method of travel that will keep me out of Red Star’s main spheres of operation. In any event, I must leave my love to his own path with the hope that, if it is fate that our paths cross again, it will not be the death of us both.