#Jarlaxle explicitly invites him into his head

[rukafais]

today, i'm thinking about how jarlaxle and kimmuriel go from an implied high trust level, hinted at or stated to be pre-timeskip stuff:

Jarlaxle’s principal lieutenant in his powerful mercenary band was an accomplished psionicist, and had taught Jarlaxle much in the ways of mental trickery and defense. Jarlaxle brought every bit of that knowledge to bear. (Ghost King)

“Many have promise,” Kimmuriel reminded. “Few will see it bloom, as you yourself know well.” (Rise of the King)

Intelligence alone didn’t guarantee psionic prowess—the brilliant Jarlaxle was quite fumbling with regard to the psionic powers, after all— (Archmage) which both allude to Jarlaxle letting Kimmuriel into his mind, repeatedly, to try to teach him psionics ultimately unsuccessfully

So, Jarlaxle is leaning on Kimmuriel a bit! He's allowing him past certain boundaries!

And then this happens, talked about in the Neverwinter quartet:

There it was, spoken openly, and Jarlaxle suppressed his initial response to lash out at the dwarf. Athrogate was right, he knew. Jarlaxle had betrayed Entreri to the Netherese many years before, when the empire had come in force for the sword, Charon’s Claw. It wasn’t often in his long life that Jarlaxle had been trapped without recourse, but the Netherese had done it, and before physically surrounding the pair, the powerful lords of Netheril had appealed to greater powers in Jarlaxle’s own circle of potential allies, to Kimmuriel and Matron Mother Quenthel.

Indeed, the snares of Netheril had been complete.

And so their offer had been accepted.

[...]

But that rescue attempt had never occurred, and indeed, many years passed before Jarlaxle had ever learned of the conspiracy working against him. Kimmuriel and the Baenres, for Jarlaxle’s own sake, had worked in concert to break down Jarlaxle’s magical defenses and thus allow the psionicist to invade Jarlaxle’s mind and alter the details of the Baldur’s Gate betrayal. [...]

Thus, by the time Jarlaxle had even sorted out the truth and remembered that Entreri had been taken as a prisoner of the Netherese, it was too late for Jarlaxle to do anything about it.

By that point, Matron Mother Quenthel had made it quite clear to the outraged Jarlaxle that he needed to forget the whole ordeal. (Charon's Claw)

and then in Jarlaxle's narration in Neverwinter quartet, when he clearly knows about his memory being fucked with:

Kimmuriel had witnessed the exchange with Tiago and the others in the bowels of Gauntlgrym, and so he understood the true desire behind Jarlaxle’s gracious offer to lead Bregan D’aerthe back to the City of Sails, and so, indeed, Kimmuriel’s invoking of their agreement was entirely proper regarding the interests of Bregan D’aerthe. Jarlaxle had done well in selecting this brilliant lieutenant to serve in his stead.

Too well, perhaps. (Last Threshold)

His narration starts being suspicious about Kimmuriel's motives again.

For contrast, the last time Jarlaxle really talked about him like this was when Jarlaxle first transferred power to Kimmuriel in Sellswords, specifically Road of the Patriarch:

Kimmuriel, and not Jarlaxle, ruled Bregan D’aerthe, and would continue to until Jarlaxle returned to Menzoberranzan and formally retrieved his throne. That was as they had agreed upon after the destruction of the Crystal Shard. Neither held any illusions about that agreement, of course. Jarlaxle knew that if he stayed away from his homeland for too long, allowing Kimmuriel to make inroads into the supportive relationships Jarlaxle had built within the City of Spiders, then Kimmuriel would not relinquish control of Bregan D’aerthe without a fight.

(and then he goes on to argue with himself like but kimmuriel doesn't LIKE leading...so it's fine...right? But he's still suspicious about Kimmuriel in a way that gradually goes away...and then pops up again, in Neverwinter.)

So the first House twisted Kimmuriel's arm to modify Jarlaxle's memory so he wouldn't go haring off to save Artemis and jeopardize business deals with the Netherese and also get himself murdered, Kimmuriel did so, violated the trust that Jarlaxle placed in him in allowing him access to his mind and imo, prioritized Jarlaxle's life over what he would want (better to beg forgiveness than permission etc),

and in doing so takes a hammer to every single bit of built up trust between them that took almost a century to grow and now they have to start from the bottom again and that's a lot of what informs Kimmuriel's approach to Jarlaxle in the second half of the series. Ouch.