The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Coquette Blacquin]

Noire's face twitches. "You really ... You aren't kidding, are you?" She asks slowly, with growing horror 
.

[Zevran]

Zevran laughs brokenly. "I wish I was, my wife, I wish I was. I wish I was lying, that this was all a cruel joke I was playing on you. I would take your hatred and disgust, never speak with or touch you again, if only I could honestly say I was kidding."

[Coquette Blacquin]

Her face shutters, and she turns away. "Well. On that note, I'm going to bed."

[Zevran]

Zevran stares a moment, thoughts scattered and chaotic. Finally, he nods to her back before thinking to speak. "Of course. I... I hope you sleep well, Noire. And... I am sorry."

[GamesMaster]

Nothing. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Surveillance is almost a non-starter; Tenachka lives just adjacent to the Matriarch and thus benefits from the clear passages with no hidey-holes or anything else to hide behind. Disguising oneself as a servant is possible, but Tenachka sends her own maid in most errands. A message is faked, but there is only a small glimpse of her chambers attained by this.

"I'm sorry," sighs Coquette after the pair regroup. "I'm just not as good at this as we once were."

[Zevran]

"It's been some time since you had a chance to, ah, get out of the house," Zevran comforts them. He'd been a little off, first thing in the morning, but had smoothed out before they'd split up. "Think some practice on softer targets might help?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"Maybe? I wish Cedric were around to tell me how this works."

[Zevran]

"You can't just..." Zevran wrinkles his nose as he tries to work out how he's imagining this works. "Go into his room and... borrow his... tools?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"That's just it - his room isn't there. We figured it's because he's gone silent entire, not just sulking."

[Zevran]

"Not-- right, mental construct thingies," Zevran mutters to himself, shaking his head. "Well. That's... unfortunate. Hmm. Has this ever happened before? The loss of skills? Is there a way to... recover them or must you learn them fresh?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I have no idea. It's not like there's a handbook. No, but my body almost remembers how, so I bet I would learn faster..."

[Zevran]

The way she states that causes a memory to surface. "I think you might be right," he says with excitement. "It is not the same, no, but some years back I helped some others reteach a slave how to read and write after he lost the skill due to a head injury. I am no teacher nor parent so I had never done so before but I was given the impression he learned swiftly."

[Coquette Blacquin]

Cindy nods, eagerly. "Do you know how to manipulate the shadows, then? I can almost feel how to do it, but I can't quite recall. Noire knows how to generate them, but not manipulate the existing ones to cover us."

[Zevran]

"To... manipulate the shadows?" Zevran asks, off balance again far too soon. "Can you describe that more?" She cannot mean simply how to stand in shadow to best hide yourself, not with how she phrased that but...

[Coquette Blacquin]

"It's... hmmrmm... it's a drow thing, for certain. Cedric can use the shadows like a second skin, slipping into any small amount as if he wasn't even there."