After assembling the Steel Crossbow, which stood almost as tall as he did, the old Dwarf looked up, glanced at Renato, and muttered:
"Sorcerers have all sorts of bizarre spells. They can even turn a perfectly good human lad into a pointy-ear..."
Balin had said this countless times over the past few days. Renato knew the old Dwarf was having trouble adjusting to his "transformation."
After all, anyone would feel uncomfortable if the human beside them suddenly became an evil Drow, yet kept speaking to them with the same familiar ease.
Renato himself had not quite adjusted either, though it was not his appearance that bothered him, but Tristana's behavior.
Over the past two days, whenever the female Drow had a moment to spare, she would sidle up to him, claiming she needed to tutor him in Elvish.
Whenever Renato tried to refuse, she would dress it up as a matter of their mission's success, insisting it was to keep others from seeing through his disguise when he spoke.
Her reasoning sounded so high-minded that Renato could hardly object.
But Tristana's domineering nature seemed to have grown even more pronounced. She claimed she was helping him practice speaking, yet every conversation consisted of the female Drow talking endlessly.
Her choice of topics was questionable too. Renato had merely asked about her family in passing, and Tristana had launched into a lengthy account of how many slaves and mushroom fields the Nightwind Family owned. She even boasted that she was the youngest Priestess in Arachne's history, and that even its head envied the Goddess's favor toward her.
So favored that she got captured by Mind Flayers and nearly had her brain eaten?
Something about the Drow's behavior reminded Renato of the birds outside Fried City, perched on branches and eagerly spreading