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"Then what do her tenets od, is deemed to represent the universal and divine truth, then once one finds and truly eod To hold it any other way is to attribute to supposed gods petty failings like jealousy or bitterness If that is the case, then ould I pronounce the ulti? And worse, then ould I hold forth a na so would only reduce a truth I call divine to a level of o Quick, too, slid back his chair and leaned back, scrutinizing the drow "Well played," he congratulated

"It’s not a gaoddess is supreme?"

"Because reason lies in harmony with truth, else truth is a lie"

"Ho Quickon the martial arts"

"I will take that as a coo Quick replied "Or a lalories of the Spider Queen?" Drizzt asked "Thatconversation"

Draygo Quick laughed at the sarcasm "Nay," he answered "Consider this talk over our breakfast as one last angle I pursued in order to wrest froht that truth a marvelous irony, and perhaps it is, but oddess"

It was Drizzt’s turn to laugh--at Draygo Quick "As boring as the sunrise and the sunset," Drizzt said quietly "As boring as the movements of theas the food chain and the place of every living creature within the interlocking hands that so bind the as birth and death, the ultimate tenet of this reason and morality I hold as Mielikki"

"I’et? Perhaps I do consider death a lie"

"Because you can pervert it?"

Draygo Quick sighed and stood up "It roeary of this conversation Indeed, I find that I have lost interest in all of our conversations"

"Then let hed at him, and ended abruptly with, "No"

"Then kill o Quick replied "You’re wrong about the gods of Toril, Drizzt They are very real, and much more than mere embodiments of this or that tenet or truth"

"That does not change that which is in my heart"

"Or your fealty to Mielikki?

"My fealty to the truth and justice I knohich have been named to me as Mielikki That is not a subtle difference"

Draygo Quick waved his hands frantically to silence Drizzt and end the conversation "I have reason to believe the coreat as those that brought Toril and Abeir together I believe that, and I fear it As great as the Spellplague and the advent of shadow And I believe that you es"

"I will sharpensarcasods are not"

"I don’t recognize gods--"

"I know, I know," Draygo Quick said, patting his hands once iven a nao Quick once ain

"You tell uide you," Draygo Quick offered as a parting shot "And I believe your sincerity But I know more in matters of the world than you do, Drizzt Do’Urden, and I expect that this road you walk is a deceptive circle that will serve that which you reject more than that which you embrace

"There, Drizzt Do’Urden, is your pathetic truth I listened to the tales, your tale, that you told Effron in the cell when you were first captured It comforts you to believe that your precious Mielikki carried away your wife and the halfling to some place of divine justice Perhaps they are with her now!" He cackled wickedly and finished, "Or perhaps that was the greatest deception of all from a demon queen ade of leaving, and Drizzt knew that Draygo sought a reaction from him, and for a reason beyond any simplistic personal satisfaction The best tests of character and coreat stress and theer

"I know only that which is in o Quick’s emotional bait "When I do not fail, that is all that I follow"

The warlock left in a huff

Drizzt sat in the roo on that most-curious conversation He didn’t believe that he was any kind of Chosen, or anything significant at all--to Mielikki or to the Spider Queen, not in any positive way, at least, regarding the awful Lolth

But Lord Draygo, a shade of no save Drizzt pause Mielikki had taken Catti-brie and Regis in a profound and strange way, after all, riding their ghosts out of Mithral Hall on the back of a spectral unicorn, ending their insane misery And it was Mielikki who had done that, and no deception of Lolth, Drizzt had to believe

But wouldn’t Lolth be leeful to so deceive hiht away Had it been the doing of Lolth, then surely one or another of her minions would have revealed the ruse to Drizzt to torment him all the o Quick had insinuated, then why hadn’t the priestesses of House Xorlarrin discovered his true identity when he had been captured by therym?

It made no sense--none of this did--to Drizzt

But whether he accepted Draygo Quick’s premise or not see anywhere any ti There was no escape

And even if there were, where arded by o told the curious visitor to his castle that typically-gloomy and rainy Shadowfell afternoon

"I do appreciate your granting reat hat

"I would adht that you and Lord Ulfbinder had concluded the trade contract"