The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Coquette Blacquin]

"I do what I can to right the wrongs I can right. But slavery is.... personal, to me. I lost a good friend once. Now I do what I can to help those I can reach."

[Zevran]

"...tell me about her?" It's part request and part challenge. Both an offer to listen and understand Coquette but also a test to determine if this friend truly existed. To his credit, Zevran makes no effort to hide either motivation in his voice. And, also, Justina has melted onto the table to allow him to pet not just her ears and neck but also her flanks. Not her belly, the world is not yet entirely taken by Limbo, but still.

[Coquette Blacquin]

Coquette closes her eyes, warring with her first instinct -- to tell him no, to keep Melissa for herself. But no. If she wants to win his trust, she'll need to extend some of her own. 

"We were girls, together. It was nearly thirty years ago. She was something I'd never seen before. Sweet, uncomplicated, like sugar syrup. There was so much joy in her voice when she spoke of this baker's boy -- she was a smith's daughter, and he was an apprentice baker. She taught me what love really meant; her and her parents, her and her baker, her and I. And then one day she was just... gone. And all that love was destroyed in an instant. I searched for days. I found the ship only after it had left port, too late to stop it."

[Zevran]

"Did you ever find her?" Zevran asks her quietly. "Or... her fate?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"No," she says quietly, and for a second her face twists with old pain. "No," she repeats, a little louder. "And it's been thirty years, and Mel was human. I have no hope that she can be recovered at this point. Still."

[Zevran]

"Did you ever ask your wife?" he asks, voice tense but his hand still gentle and sure as he stokes Justina.

[Coquette Blacquin]

"She doesn't keep slaves," says Coquette, and her voice is tired and a little cold. "She's not like that. Her family are surface Drow, not underdark Drow, and she's only merikos herself, as am I. As are you. Surface drow have chosen to break ties with That One, and merikos have even more wiggle room to choose our own destinies."

[Zevran]

Zevran frowns, his expression showing his disbelief clearly. However, he does manage to keep his verbal response mild. "She knows Danarius well enough to buy me from him. From the first time I met her, I know she's at least met a dozen other slaves of significant standing and... scope and that she was able to walk among them as an equal. More or less. Regardless of her personal views, she has, as they say, front door access."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"They are probably business associates," says Coquette slowly, but this news troubles her. 

[Zevran]

Zevran shrugs a little, not really caring about the why at the moment. "My point had simply been that she might be able to locate your friend, or at least find out what happened to her. If naught else, she can act openly." He studies her a moment, wincing just a touch as Justina scratches his hand because his preoccupation had stilled his hand. "You truly did not know what company she kept? Did not wonder how she acquired not only myself but Nathaniel?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"She mentioned some little detail of your previous meeting. I assume she sought you out to spite your previous master, whom she despises. She is not overly concerned with chivalry, but spite, that is definitely a motivator of hers."

[Zevran]

Voice bland, Zevran agrees, "he is most worthy of spite and despisement both. Much more as well, I might add. She did not tell you her reasoning?"

[Coquette Blacquin]

"No. But neither did I ask. Things are... complex, between us. I certainly can, if it's something you need to know."

[Zevran]

"It is," he confesses. "But I would not trust whatever is said. Words are hollow and too easily faked."

[Coquette Blacquin]

"My wife does not lie to me. Not ever. If she doesn't want to tell me the truth, she'll tell me nothing." Coquette's tone is oddly flat, here; there's clearly more to the story, something painful behind her words, but just as clearly she fails to elaborate.