jackielxxn

[baelavelaryon]

Saera Silverstruck—born Saedria Vandree—was the youngest high priestess in the history of her house, achieving the role before her hundredth year. She was dedicated to her duties and favored by Lolth, and a particularly proficient assassin. Her ability to kill, or arrange a killing, and pin it on a rival house made her indispensable within her house.

Things remained much the same, though her great-grandmother died, in remarkably benign circumstances, making her mother Sabrea the Matron of House Vandree. Then fate stepped in, a surface raid brought down many slaves, and sacrifices for their goddess. Particularly, a tiefling bard, who the Lady Saedria found particularly fascinating.

She chose him to entertain her in her chambers, he would tell her tales of the surface, each night ending the story with a twist, leaving it incomplete, and she would let him live until morning. This continued for months, Saera found herself falling for him, and one night he asked for a kiss in exchange for the end of the story.

He would warm her bed after that, she kept him close, exposing more of her raw emotions than she should have, despite the whispers that circled her, that she was too enamoured with her slave. Eventually, Saera confessed something that she had never voiced, she wanted to leave the Underdark He encouraged this, and eventually the pair agreed to leave for the surface and build a life together, they imagined where they would lives, the children they would raise, free from darkness and endless webs.

Before they could go however, Sabrea learned of their plot, and had Kalen killed in front of Saera. That night, she realized that she was pregnant.

Saera shirked her duties after that, without an escape, without an end to it all, she simply couldn't bring herself to continue the act of being High Priestess. She spent weeks locked in her room, unwilling and unable to perform even the most basic of her duties.

This continued for weeks, until she felt the pains of labour, she crawled to the altar of Lolth and begging her for forgiveness. She would never be sure if it was dream or reality, but Saera has a vivid memory of Lolth appearing before her and leaning in to kiss her before spitting in her face. An hour later, she delivered a twisted drider child, dead before their first breath.

After that, Saera became almost manic, she would spend evenings at parties, had affairs with her mother's most hated rivals, and drank herself into a stupor every single night. Her sister tried to bring her out of it and when that failed, proposed a solution to both of their problems; Saera would kill their mother in public before fleeing for the surface.

Saera took her up on the offer, and the pair helped organized a gala at the Vandree compound. Sabrea was glad that her favored daughter was finally appearing to have returned to herself after her humiliating outbursts, and seemed none the wiser to her children's schemes. When the night arrived, Saera struck her mother through the heart during the middle of her speech.

The Vandree guards were quick to give chase but Saera somehow knew the weaknesses in their patrols and was able to escape them and emerge at the surface. She kept running even once she had emerged from the caves, until her feet were cut up from the foliage of the woods and her legs gave out from underneath her.

Saera wiped her face and looked up at the sky, the moon was full and beautiful and the stars looked exactly as Kalen had described them. It was then that she began to laugh. She had finally done it, she had escaped the Underdark. Kalen was gone but she could make that same life for herself without him.

Still laughing, she began to dance through the woods, revitalized by the sense of freedom and joy she now had. She then collapsed, and entered another strange dream or vision, where a giant drow woman visited her, complimenting her evensong, and kissing her over her left eye... which from then on would be a purple colour.

In the morning, Saera awoke in her clearing, to find a ruined shrine. She could tell it had once belonged to Eilistraee, but had been abandoned after her defeat by Lolth... Saera couldn't help but feel that it was her duty to restore it, to make it a home for herself and any others who escaped the Underdark.

Her shrine at Darkmaiden's Leap was small but popular, Saera would provide supplies and shelter to the runaways and the lost, and healing to the wounded, who always seemed to find their way there despite its remote nature. She grew close to the nature, finding even the smallest things on the surface fascinating, and Eilistraee blessed her with druidic powers so that she could observe the animals more closely.

For the next ten years, Saera embraced that quiet life, though isolated as she was, she couldn't help but feel that she wasn't doing as much good as she ought to, with all the blood she had spilled in Lolth's name.