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Jas	By : awcoppelia Category: A through F > Forgotten Realms Views: 3207 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Forgotten Realms series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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CHAPTER 2

Jas ambled out of the main entrance of the complex where his home resided, white ponytail bobbing from the topknot he normally kept it in. He idly tugged at the one of the signature braids in his hair, ostensibly a symbol of his house, the weave pattern echoed on the medallion contained in the neck purse he wore as well. However, they were actually an attestation to the fact that he had fifteen sisters, all with long thick white hair that needed to be combed and groomed on a regular basis, and braiding was the easiest way for his mother and older sisters to keep up with all that hair.
As he wandered along, he wondered if some of the more ancient houses symbols had been started in similar ways. The thought made him giggle. His was a very young house, only slightly older than Jas, who was about to turn fourteen. His mother had been 'encouraged' to split with the house she had been a member of by birth, a house much higher up the community ladder, when her daughters started outnumbering the current Matron's own. There had just been too much competition, and something had had to give. So out she had went to forge her own way, starting from the bottom and working her way up. As of now, she had done very well with that as well. She had literally single-handedly wiped out three lower ranking noble houses, two of them since Jas's birth. He had gone with her on those two occasions, not that she let him do anything, just stand watch and the like. He had the justified suspicion that he was being used as fodder, not that he minded. It was quite exciting. But, it would certainly explain why she had taken him along, when she had not let any of her daughters ever accompany her on these hair-brained schemes she concocted. From the stories he had heard, and the two affairs he had seen himself, she mostly accomplished these by sheer unpredictable, yet ingenious, comedic wit. They always started with an idea: "Wouldn't be funny if.." and got more ridiculous and complex as they went. You would think it was all a joke, but then before you knew it, she'd put these nutty schemes into action, and it would actually work, and down that house would fall. And since the schemes were so perverse in nature, no one had guessed what was going on for a long time, long enough for her to cut quite a swath through the obstacles in front of her house's status before the lowest noble houses of the city finally caught on and raised some defenses. Many of the houses directly above them had even been hinting at possible alliances, to prevent them from being the next direct target in her sights. And none of her immediate rivals would dare move against them, as their house was under the protection of their much higher ranking parent house, an extra ear in a different socioeconomic strata.
Jas was fiercely proud of his house, especially of his mother, who had accomplished more in twenty years than most of the oldest houses accomplished in a century. Of course, it wasn't quite the same level of competition that the single digit status houses had to face, but it was a great start. And there was the fact that his house had more noble high priestesses than more than half the city certainly didn't hurt. Yes, he would do anything for his house, his family, and their status in the city and in Lolth's eyes.
He had no real destination in mind when he left the complex, only wandering about idly in the rather lush mushroom gardens in the beds near the gates. He turned back to look at the rather small complex while he pondered. A thought drifted from the back of his consciousness, a thought that it hadn't always been this way, at one time there was another family, one whom he didn't treat with respect or pride. Especially treated the females with a level of insolence that would probably be the end of him here.
As suddenly as it came, the thought receded back into his memory, leaving only the faintest trace of its meaning behind. This had been happening to him since he could remember. Strange, off the wall thoughts that he never could really remember. Thoughts that reminded him of the worms in this very mushroom garden, the ones that his mother had procured from some obscure source to tend her garden. It had worked with booming success, resulting in defensive gardens that equaled and sometimes even surpassed the gardens of the higher noble houses. Small the complex was, but it was one of the best defended, at least in vegetative fortification, in Menzoberranzan. The worms were actually a good example of his mother's wicked sense of humor, as they were one of the most sought after treasure in this part of the city. Drow were always trying to steal the worms, which wasn't as difficult as it sounded, as the worms tended not to stay put inside the gate. But the worms' skin was coated in a naturally produced poison that ate through even the most enchanted gloves, and was almost impossible to get rid of once you touched it. Inevitably, the thieves would die, usually days , sometimes weeks later. And the worms would die with them, since they required a special additive to their soil, an ingredient his mother would not share, even under the most tortuous circumstances. Of course, she had made herself immune to the poison over time, as well as those of her immediate family.
The only one of those wiggly-worm thoughts that ever stuck around was CHESS. And he really wasn't even sure if the two were related, just another similar quirk he'd had forever. He didn't know where the name had sprung from, nor the elaborate rules for the game that had been with him since he could think and arrange rocks on a suitably flat surface. As he grew, he had hand made more detailed pieces, first out of dried mushroom stalk, then later out of exotic wood bought one expensive chunk at a time out of the little bit of money his mother allotted him to spend. He had also made something he(?) had labeled a chess board out of a mix of the mushroom stalk and a darker wood like material called zruff, which was processed from the stiff seaweed stalks found in Lake Donigarten. His next goal was to make a board completely out of the exotic surface wood that came from something called a ‘tree'. Somehow its material seemed the best, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. Compared to the mushroom and seaweed materials, it was difficult to work with, hard to carve, and especially hard to polish to the gleaming shine he liked his boards to emit in the low light of a candle. And if it got wet somehow, it would warp up so quickly, ruining all the careful work he had gone to. This had happened to several of his crafted chess pieces.
He had taught the game to all his sisters, in need of an oppositional player. He could play it by himself, by playing both of the colored sets of pieces against each other, but it was more enjoyable when you had someone to actually provide some unpredictability to the game. It was somewhat similar to the game of sava that his father liked to imbibe in, but completely abstracted. The houses and members were reduced to simplified representations in the form of pieces that he(?) had named Pawns, Bishops, Knights and other curious titles The words made no sense in the Drowish language, but were somehow fitting. The combat movements were reduced basically to mathematic puzzles, a mix of movements to various numbered spaces in a certain number of moves. Certain pieces were restricted to certain movements and actions, providing even more challenge and puzzles to the players. The point of the game was the same: Be the last house, or color, standing. Unlike sava, though, you could come to a stalemate, wherein no house won, both ending up in a position from which they could make no more moves. Jas especially liked game scenarios like that, they provided the most challenge: trying to prevent, in those last few precarious moves, that complete impasse.
Jas was very good at predicting those traps. He could usually see them coming from many movements away, could study the board and see exactly how the next movements, both his and his opponents, were going to play out. And in doing so, he could in turn, lead his opponent right into the trap he had noticed. He was so good at this that his most closest competition, in the form of his two oldest sisters, accused him jovially of using psionics to read their minds, or possibly the very short term future! But he wasn't, he didn't need any of those tricks to see what was coming. It was just a skill he had, part of the little quirk that had started him inventing the game to begin with. Or at least, he thought he invented it.
Ah, but enough of this wasted time. Not that he had anything to do, really, it just was silly to hang out in the front yard like one of the worm thieves that so often made an appearance. He decided to meander up to the local dry-goods merchant, right down the street, and pretend he actually had some money to spend. And you never knew, he might spot a good, not quite so expensive, piece of wood that could be usefully carved. If he did, he could probably talk one of his sisters into spotting him some cash in return for some favor or chore done. Heck, he'd almost look forward to a chore, as boring as this day had been so far.
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Jas