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"Leave," she instructed the dwarf and the monk as she descended

"Aye, but we’re too close to be takin’ such a garis warned

Dahlia didn’t blink, and didn’t regard the dwarf, her eyes locked on the s in a haris instructed the monk, but before Afafrenfere took a step toward Effron, Dahlia repeated, "Leave," her tone leaving no rooed looks and shrugs, and neither seemed to care ris offered,up to the deck behind her monk companion

"We are almost in port," Dahlia said when she and Effron were alone in the small aft hold

He didn’t even look her way

"Me to a chair beside his hammock "An exotic city, from what I have heard Southern and very different froh he didn’t turn to regard her

"Look at me," she bade

"Get out," he replied

Dahliahihly that he tumbled out of his hammock to crash down to the floor He ca clearly in his distinct eyes, one tiefling red, one elf blue

"Sit down," Dahlia co to a second chair

"Jump into the sea," he replied

Dahlia took her seat anyway, and stared up at this half-elf, half-tiefling

"I need to tell you, and you need to listen," she said quietly

"And then?"

Dahlia shrugged

"And then you kill me?" Effron asked

"No," Dahlia answered, her voice thick with resignation

"And then I kill you?"

"Would that please you?"

"Yes"

She didn’t believe him, but understood why he had to say that "Then perhaps I will let you, or maybe I will just let you walk away"

Effron looked at her incredulously "In Meed as if it didn’t ain to the chair, but Effron re

It didn’t matter The elf woman took a deep breath "For every moment since I learned who you truly were, in the bowels of Gauntlgrym, I have dreaded this," she said, hardly able to keep her voice fro apart

"Dreaded? Your admission? Did we not already have this conversation, in the hold of another boat in dock at Baldur’s Gate?"

"No," she said, looking down in shame "You already have o Alegni has told you about that day when he first caught sight of you is no doubt true There would be no need for hiave a helpless snort "I did it"

Dahlia took a deep breath, steeled herself, and looked Effron directly in the eye "I threw you from the cliff I denied your existence and wanted it … obliterated" She took another deep breath to stop herself fro on the floor "I denied you I had to"

"Witch," he muttered "Murderess"

"All true," she said "Do you even care why?"

That comment knocked Effron off balance, it seemed, and Dahlia had expected as much Effron hadn’t killed her, hadn’t even tortured her, when he had her at his mercy in the hold of the scow in Baldur’s Gate Most of all, he yelled at her, and asked her questions that had no answers

But perhaps she had an explanation, and perhaps that hat the young warlock truly wanted

"I was barely o, but it seems like an eternity And still I remember the day, every moment, every step--"

"The day you tried to murder me"

Dahlia shook her head and looked down "The day Herzgo Alegni tore ive it credence, would not allow herself to go there Not now

She took another deep and steadying breath, and she deterain, and was surprised when she at last glanced up to find hi back at her

"I went to the river to fetch so chore, and one I relished" She gave a helpless little laugh "To be out in the forest alone, in the sunshine and with the birds and the small animals all around Could an elf lass ask for h escaped her lips as she looked down once more

She told her tale, and never once looked up at Effron She told of the surprise she found waiting at her clan’s sni She didn’t hold back anything for Effron’s sensibilities or her own as she told of Alegni’s reaction to her, and fully detailed his violation, and his ultimate betrayal in the decapitation of her beloved mother

Tears dripped fro the months that followed, the pain and the fear, honestly and in full, nor did she shy from the truth of that fateful day when she went to pay back Herzgo Alegni for his crimes

"You didn’t h it was in reality all about you But I didn’t see that"