------------- Tales of The Raptors – Evil Twin

With the treasure of Gahnimah Xanth dealt with, Persia off doing the museum circuit and then planning to return to Freltag’gar to finish the dig, and Aniqa and Xavier heading off to who knew where on some mission for the Kar’Thane Order, Jay, Yashifa and Tieran were left to return to Xanthius under cover. They were faced with a daunting task, overthrow the boss of bosses, bring down Haziz Fekesh, the man who’d ruled the Xanth Guild with a greasy hand for over fifty years. Hildy was already in their camp and had agreed to help them do just that, with the end goal being she herself would take over the leadership of the Guild, and by extension, the rule of Xanthius. They’d returned several of Gahnimah Xanth’s more personal artifacts into her care, not the least of which was the Orb of Glyth, the jeweled orb that had served as the symbol of the rulers of the city even before Xanth came along and took over. But now, the Cliff Raptors were only three, and with Persia being at the top of Fekesh’s hit list, they had no connection to the Guild.

That’s where Hildy went to work and uncovered a few contacts that would be useful. They would end up being the muscle and the brains the Raptors would need to infiltrate and tear the Guild apart from the inside. They were waiting at a particularly stinking bar for one of those contacts when Jay laid eyes on someone she’d just as soon have forgotten. The belly dancer at the end of the bar, though dressed a little different than she’d remembered, was one of the members of the Iron Coil, one of the bands of villains at the top of Jay’s personal hit list. Tieran was sent to scout the crowd and find the others, for Erycin Varago never went anywhere without one of her compatriots slithering about nearby to watch her back. When none were found, Jay decided to see what they could learn from the errant Erotic and proceeded to attempt a capture. The fight that ensued nearly cleared out the bar. In the end, she discovered something that she would have never expected, and the poor belly dancer made a strange discovery as well.

Najalla Dashanti was raised in a Rhadji caravan, travelling the wildlands of Equideyea, going from village to village, town to town, stealing, conning and whoring their way through life. The old women would preach about karma and yell at the youngsters, but Najalla learned to dance and sing and entertain the men that visited their camps outside of town and didn’t concern herself with the next life. She was eventually taken in by the Rhadji Madame and taught the magical ways of the Erotic. But some years ago, on a visit to Xanthius, she was attacked by a street gang who tried to rape her. However, she’d just reached that age, and her dragon blood boiled to the surface. She tore them limb from limb and discovered her terrible secret. So too did the Rhadji, who made signs of hexes and left her to her own devices. It wasn’t long before she developed two distinct sides to her personality, the demure dancer and whore who worked the streets and the bars, and the monster who fought in the pits and never lost a match. They called her Naga.

What Naga didn’t know was that she was not alone in her strangeness. There was another like her. Almost exactly like her. Her twin sister, Erycin Varago. They say that when two dragons emerge from the same egg, it is very bad luck,… or very good luck. All depends on who’s telling the tale. This tail was that of a snake. The Cliff Raptors would find her a very useful snake after all, and she would eventually get a chance to meet her evil twin.

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