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Dark Justiciar Shadowheart, but like, timey wimey

This is my wacky little idea to redeem Dark Justiciar Shadowheart with time travel!

Summary: Every night when she sleeps, Mother Superior Shadowheart is taken back to various moments in her past as a tadpoled adventurer. The flashbacks are quickly proven to be more than dreams, as she discovers whatever she does in the past changes the events of her present.

Pairing: DJ!Shadowheart x F!Tav Story Tags: Redemption arc, time travel, post-canon, retelling with a twist, angsty romance, angst with a happy ending Words: 3.2k

Check out the Dark Justiciar Redemption collection for other goodies in this genre!

(765 words) Extract below:

A light snap of thaumaturgy cracks open the door to the mapping room. Silent as always, her client enters the room taking seat on the opposite side of the bench from Shadowheart. Sounds of shuffling precede a faint clink of silver on the stone bench. Shadowheart takes the patriar's ring and confirms it is the real deal–confirmation of a successfully neutralized mark.

Shadowheart sets two satchels of gold between them signaling a wordless question: coin, or company? Cypress, as always, takes only one.

Shadowheart smirks and pulls back her hood to welcome her former travelling companion. It's only proper to greet another hero of Baldur's Gate face to face. The lithe half-drow woman turns to meet her gaze. She looks well, an impish twinkle belying the hunger in her eyes. The touch of purple in her charcoal hair is dulled slightly by the amber candlelight.

"Paying you properly is going to make me miss tonight's Nightfall feast," Shadowheart says with a touch of put-on annoyance. She regards her guest with an obvious, drawn out once over.

"I'm flattered to be the priority of the two," Cypress responds, donning a roguish smile. "If it makes you feel better, I think I can make this count for both at once."

It's almost a shame they were never involved on the road five years ago. Their trysts since, while strictly business, have been a rare gem that Shadowheart is more than happy to oblige. But it's well that they were not. A fling in that time would have been a fleeting distraction to her reaching the rank of Dark Justiciar. Her heart belongs to Shar, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Cypress is discreet, effective, punctual, and has shown no unwanted affections that would be unbecoming of the Mother Superior to entertain. An uncommonly well-suited match for this sort of arrangement. As an added bonus, the most agreeable exchange of services feels like anything but a chore. She leaves promptly, never overstaying her welcome but always arriving on time.

Shortly after her company's exit, a knock raps at Shadowheart's door. Sentry Baxta has returned, delivering a metal case holding the artifact sans hand.

"Very good. Send Nocturne here, tell her to bring the agreed texts. She'll know what I mean."

The artifact appears dull and inert in the iron box. Underneath, Shadowheart finds the accompanying report penned by the leader of the artifact mission.

The abandoned Lathanderian temple resides exactly as informed–a day's travel North, one way, from Baldur's Gate. It lies in great stages of disrepair. We encountered resistance from an adventuring party spelunking the ruins. Most fell quickly, but the cleric persisted, barricading himself in a collapsed hallway with the artifact. We extracted him with 3 satchels of smokepower.  

In lieu of slaying him where he stood, we hope the esteemed Mother Superior accepts the offering of this sun sheep for slaughter. It seemed appropriate as we return the morning of a Nightfall Feast, artifact most literally 'in hand.'

In addition, below is an inscription carved into the plinth that held the artifact. Likely Morningfool drivel. Lamona insisted on its inclusion below.

Siphoned unbidden from the setting sun From its veins a new dawn shall rise A soul unchained A favor gained The worthy may claim their prize

Haughty gods and their riddles. Shadowheart turns her focus back to the artifact and dwells in the irony. A successful artifact retrieval mission. One that was truly divined by the Nightsinger herself. Rumors had been spreading of a powerful artifact lying in the catacombs of an abandoned temple to the sun god. What better way to undermine hopeful heretics than to snatch the prize from under their noses? Hide the Morningfool's sacred trinket forever in shadow where the sun will never see it again. Mirthful approval from her Lady rings in her ears.

Perhaps, however, it could be corrupted. Just as a Moonlantern could be reversed to harness the shadow weave, so too could a... what even is this? Carved ruby wings emerging from a golden crest of the sun. She turns the artifact over in her hands but it refuses to reveal its secrets. No inscriptions, no compartments. A gaudy paperweight. One that bathed her Nightfall ritual in uninvited sunbeams.

If a lowly cleric could channel his own divine power through it, what should happen if she did this herself? Surely if anyone can bring to heel an artifact of supposed legendary power, it is a god's Chosen. Shadowheart grasps the crest as the cleric did and channels the divinity of the Nightsinger.

It revolts.

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lady of sorrows

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Blades in the Night: Chapter 15

Link embedding isn't working for me right now, but here's the newest chapter of my post-canon Asheera/Shadowheart fic.

AO3 Link

It's interlude time... and it's a bit longer than a normal one due to some extra POVs that I couldn't find room for elsewhere. The other interludes are mostly about The Girls being lovebirds, but this one has a little bit extra to coincide with what happened in the previous chapter.

I've been using these interludes as a sorta rest stop between arcs, and I think this one was a fun break leading into what comes after.

Enjoy!

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Post-Shadowfell love confessions and a kiss 🥺❤️

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My First Published Fanfic!

Baldur's Gate 3, F/F, Shadowheart/Tav, Film Noir AU

Tav knew Shadowheart was trouble when she walked in, but she never could have imagined exactly how much trouble. A beautiful woman comes knocking on her door in search of a priceless family heirloom, and to find it Tav has to delve deeper and deeper into things that the shadows of society would much prefer to remain hidden. The talons of organized crime reach further than she could ever imagine - and it remains to be seen if she can avoid becoming ensnared by them.

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i couldn’t sleep so here is a wip of shadowheart having a good old time

i already have this whole nsfw sheet planned out, will be chipping away at it

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how 2 stop self from feeling self conscious about comm prices and just finally post them

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A soft and sweet oil painting of Shadowheart for my first post of 2025 🪻💫

been a while since I picked up a traditional medium (definitely a few years since i have touched oil paints) but i should really go back to my roots and use them more often!

thanks to @namelessdistantshores for letting me use a screenshot ref for this :)

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remembering that i have free will and can draw my tav any time i want

just a little practice page ✨

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anatomy practice...

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A soft and sweet oil painting of Shadowheart for my first post of 2025 🪻💫

been a while since I picked up a traditional medium (definitely a few years since i have touched oil paints) but i should really go back to my roots and use them more often!

thanks to @namelessdistantshores for letting me use a screenshot ref for this :)

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Comic - Shadowheart's Choice

Hi everyone! That comic took hella long time to produce. Mostly because I changed dialogs and the end page too many times. But I'm glad it's done.

Also a bit of Octavia's (Tav) backstory - she was born into the cult of Talos, but got separated from her family and became a druid of Silvanus. A lot of tragic shit happened, so now she opposes all the priests of Talos and gets triggered when someone mentions her origins. That's why Shart's comment got her a bit

Also a silly bonus:

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act 2 with a high charisma tav

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this is the piece I made as my contribution to @bg3womenswrongs zine! I absolutely loved working on it! Thank you for having me <3 Please check out the other works, we worked so hard for each piece and they all came out wonderful!

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i’m your dog