Philip “Pip” Pembroke was Eleanor “Nell” Pembroke’s younger brother by eight years and the person she loved most. Bright, mischievous, and endlessly curious, he grew up convinced that his sister was the greatest physician in Waterdeep.
By fourteen, Pip had become Nell’s unofficial medical assistant. He cleaned instruments, ground herbs, prepared bandages, delivered medicine, organized supplies, and maintained the clinic’s inventory in a battered notebook. He also had a habit of reminding Nell to eat and sleep.
Pip was one of the only people allowed to call her “Nellie.” She pretended to hate it.
When Nell was twenty-two, a devastating epidemic struck Waterdeep’s poorer districts. Nell turned her unofficial clinic into a makeshift plague ward and refused to abandon her patients. Pip refused to abandon Nell.
Eventually, Pip became sick. Nell kept him alive longer than many others, but she could not obtain enough of a scarce treatment that might have saved him. Pip died at fourteen with Nell beside him.
She could not cure him, so she stayed with him.
Pip’s death became foundational to Nell’s philosophy as a physician: when she cannot cure someone, she can still care for them, and no one under her care should have to suffer or die alone.
Nell still carries the battered notebook Pip used as her assistant. His handwriting simply stops one day. Hers continues underneath it.