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Kaz looks at both Neb and Sephi. "You have both suffered great anguish and loss... in some respects, more than mine, in others, far, far less. For while you lost your loved ones, I lost myself...
Let me tell you my story. I was the daughter of two moon elves, my father was an accomplished warrior and my mother a mage. They were both fighters against the drow, we lived near the battleground, yet the fight never came inside these walls... until...
One day, the Drow started an onslaught. The defenses were overrun, they soon came here. They found all of us here, so they decided to have some 'fun'." Kaz's voice reflects her disgust for the Drows' fun. "They summoned a... a demon, using an artifact, it... kidnapped my family. It took my father and mother into its home plane. I was young, yet I managed to escape. I came to Athkatla, where I lived as a street orphan in the docks, stealing to survive. I learned enough to live, barely.
Yet, one day, I overheard a conversation that would become my downfall. I heard two Drow spies talking. Apparantly they had a stronghold here in the city, and the... mask, the artifact, was there too.
I decided I would try to get my parents back. They had only been kidnapped, it was not certain they were dead. I sneaked into the compound and stole the mask, it was too easy... I just ran into some trouble on the way out, but the Drow could not leave for fear of being detected.
In the shack that was my home, I tried to use the artifact. How I wish I had never seen it!" Sheer fury and hate speak from her voice. Drained, she continues. "It worked, yet it did not summon my parents, it summoned... the demon. It showed me how it had murdered my parents, then it cast... something... at me. A spell, I guess. And the world shattered." There is a lump in her throat, she cannot continue. The memories... too recent... shattered, nonsense, hurting deeply, drawing blood, vivid yet scrambled,...
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