The Faithwarden & The Archdruid
Day THREEEEEE of HalsinTavWeek is upon us, fam!
Pairing: Halsin/Tav(F)
Summary: When she is away, Tav wonders if Halsin misses her as much as she misses him.
Rating: Explicit. Minors DNI
Warnings/Tag: Voyeurism, Mutual Masturbation, Angst, Fluff, Smut, Post Epilogue
No Beta We Die Like Yonas (RIP Yonas)
And an AO3 link! For all who celebrate.
If Tav had had any idea of the kind of commitment involved with holding the title of Faithwarden, she might have just killed Khaga in cold blood where she stood. The woman had certainly made it tempting enough without the added threat of being named the equivalent of a druidic mediator, judge, and oracle.
When she said as much to Halsin the former archdruid had only given her the proudest, softest expression and assured her that she was the only druid he had ever met who was well suited to the task. Which might have just been, possibly, the least helpful thing he could have said.
The summons came from all over Faerûn and took her away from home from anywhere between a tenday to months on end. Settling disputes between groves, ousting unworthy leadership, and using her ironclad grasp of Silvanus’ teachings to guide, illuminate, and teach his servants.
Highest honor this. Under the eye of Silvanus himself that. It was godsdamned exhausting, is what it was.
Every time her duties kept her away from home for longer than a few days her skin itched to return. To ensconce herself in their house amongst the trees, rousing from her meditation and rolling on top of her lover, listening to the chatter of nature while she walked barefoot through the forest born anew. These were the things that tugged at her mind most when found herself many miles from home.
Frustratingly, Halsin did not seem to miss her quite as much as she did him. When she returned he greeted her warmly enough, an enthusiastic participant in their lovemaking always, but a part of Tav wondered if she was the only one left pining during their separations.
If she was gone longer than a ten day they would exchange letters or messages through nature, sometimes managing to speak through their meditations though that was rarer. He shared news of the happenings from home, asked after her welfare, and sometimes included messages from the children under their care. All very sweet but the few times she tried to broach the subject in her letters, how she missed him and yearned for his touch, he either said something clinically empathetic about duty or, worse, didn’t address it at all.
The lack of reciprocation of her desires began to chip away at her confidence in their bond. She began to wonder if maybe she was being selfish trying to bring it up all the time. Perhaps he considered the lust she felt in his absence a youthful fault of her own and nothing to do with him at all.
When she takes her leave one day she mentions while he walks with her to the boundary of their home, that if it looks like she may need to stay longer she will send a letter before the tenday is out. He smiles and nods but tells her she need not trouble herself on his account and kisses her softly on the forehead.
Walking away from him, her steps feel heavy, and the words chase themselves in circles in her mind. Hurt blooms like a wicked vine, crawling through her mind with cruel barbs that whisper silky lies that taste like truths. Keeping in contact over long distances is not necessary. If someone should miss her, they surely know how to reach her. He may as well have told her not to come home at all.
It all boiled down to the same thing. My love does not equal your love. Once she had the thought she found it had taken root and would not be burned away. She heard it as she walked, as she lay staring at the stars, and in her troubled meditations that shattered under the weight of it. It took very little imagination to begin to hear them repeat in her mind with his voice.
The journey is long and difficult but with dark thoughts dogging her heels she pushes herself as far and as fast as she is able. The grove is surprised to see her arrive so early but readily enfold her to the circle and the reasons they called for assistance.
Two days, one set of bruised knuckles, and a sternly worded letter to an archdruid in Amn later Tav leaves the grove in an even fouler mood than she went in.
“Please, Faithwarden, at least stay another day. Your journey here was most perilous and long, you should take a day and refresh yourself.”
Tav tries to put her best face forward, she really does, but it is extremely difficult after her altercation with the grove’s resident healer left her in such a seething rage the First Druid had been forced to physically hold her back from beating the woman to death. When she whirls on the young novice he flinches back and Tav feels the sharp words turn to ash on her tongue.
She can’t do anything to rid her face of the stern expression that has decided to live there but she does try to curb her tone at the very least. She assures the poor man she was well rested enough thank you very much but must be on her way to her next destination.
The problem was, Tav had no idea where that destination was. Should she go home? Or would it be so terrible to wander for a bit, away from where she was clearly not as wanted as she supposed. Almost as soon as the thought occurs to her she decides no. She has a stack of letters to work through, almost half of them undoubtedly more summons for her aid.
Standing in the middle of a dusty, overgrown road she sighs. The tangle of hurt and anger giving way to sudden weariness. Was this to be her doom? Always wandering, always aiding, and never finding a notch to catch her heel and making her stop and rest. To sooth her loneliness with the fleeting, loveless passion between strangers who desire her body or her position. It turns her stomach. Inside her chest her heart feels splintered with cracks. One more blow and she will crumble.
When she is close to Thaniel’s realm she hesitates crossing the border right away. She decides that the temporary succor of reuniting with her lover, for once, does not outweigh the turmoil inflicted by the detachment of his farewell. It hasn’t even been a full ten-day anyway, so no one will be looking for her return. She can steal in through the window in her raven form, collect her stack of correspondence, and be gone again without anyone the wiser.
The sky is dark and silent when she begins her mission. A new moon offers plenty of cover to flit through the dark shadows on her way to the house nestled deep in the center of Thaniel’s realm. Spying an open window she flits though and perches on a chair, cocking her head and getting a read on her surroundings. The house is quiet though; the children are all nestled tight in their beds and the druid is nowhere to be seen.
She wonders at that for a moment, it’s unlike him to leave the children unattended overnight. Though, she concedes, he does like to wander the border in wildshape when he feels like thinking in solitude. She brushes the thought away and sheds her birdform to creep on soundless steps through the dark home.
The letters are not in the study where she expected them to be. The desk is tidy, just how Halsin prefers, but the slot where she usually keeps her stack is empty. She rifles through the drawers but they’re simply not there at all. Huffing an irritated sigh she spends a few extra moments poking around the rest of the room but there’s nothing.
He’s already preparing for you to leave permanently, whispers the acrid voice from before. That makes Tav stop her tracks, her heart and stomach and throat twisting so much she has to put her fist against her chest to assure herself she hasn’t been impaled by an arrow. The cracks within, quiver in expectation but she’s here on a mission, not to feel sorry for herself. She ruthlessly shoves the thought and the accompanying lance of pain from her mind.
The kitchen is likewise tidy, and the living area where Tav is most guilty of leaving her things strewn around, “like a magpie’s nest,” Halsin had oft remarked. The words had seemed teasingly affectionate then but now, wandering the spotless house, Tav isn’t sure.
There’s only one place left to check but at this point Tav wonders if she mightn’t just leave after all. It seems unlikely the druid would move her things there, where they had no proper place like the desk. But there is a dreadful anticipation buzzing under her skin and she realizes she can’t not look, can’t leave without seeing for herself if she has been erased from even that space. If he has packed away the odds and ends, removed the evidence of her existence. If he had truly cut her out of his life so thoroughly.
Her hand on the doorknob, heart in her throat, Tav braces herself. When the door swings open on silent hinges, revealing their bedroom just as she remembered it before she left she lets out a sigh that feels less like relief than she thought it would. Stepping in and shutting the door behind her, her keen eyes can see little that has moved or changed in the few days she’s been gone.
Her robe is missing from the place it usually hangs but that’s not unusual. The children were very fond of donning it for their make believe games of wizards and sorcerers. The little vanity table the druid had carved for her is littered with her trinkets and keepsakes, untouched. She spins slowly, correspondence forgotten for the moment while she looks for something. Anything to either untether the ache in her chest or banish it for good. But there’s nothing. The room is unremarkable, ordinary in every way.
She pokes around a bit and finds her stack of letters in the drawer of her vanity. She gives the room another cursory glance but pauses when she hears a gasp. She freezes, wondering if one of the kids had a nightmare and has found her in their search for comfort but the door is shut. The room still.
Curious, she moves as silent as a shadow towards the alcove where the bed is tucked away from sight by a large screen she brought with her from one of her travels. A very dim light comes into view, a guttering candle more ember than wick left. The view that unfolds beyond the screen however, steals her breath away.
Halsin is naked on their bed, eyes shut tight, with one hand holding her robe to his face while the other works a fierce pace along his erection. His hand rolls over the leaking head, once, twice, smearing the leaking precum from the tip before returning to pumping his thick length. His head drops back on the pillow, his mouth dropping open as he pants, his face a rictus in concentration. He breathes in sharply, another gasp he can’t hold back while he pleasures himself, lost in his fantasy, with her robe acting as the anchor.
She feels…giddy. The sight before her would in any other circumstance be enough to have her naked within moments and joining him but the evidence of his clear desire for her, his desperate gasps and near silent wails are the result of his desperate want of her and she…she can’t look away. Her blood runs hot but she’s frozen.
On the bed Halsin whines, teeth clenching, hips flexing as he tries to fuck his own hand. His heavy breathing is broken by a soft murmur, a whispered litany of words she can barely make out except for one.
“Tav.”
The hand holding her robe clenches and he takes a deep breath through his nose, taking in her scent from the fabric and when his eyes slit open Tav feels her own breath shudder out of her. It’s hot, suddenly too hot. His expression betrays surprise, confusion but when his hand stops moving on his cock Tav’s mouth is moving before her brain can catch up.
“Don’t stop,” she commands with a voice that sounds stronger than she feels. Inside she feels brittle and if he pushes the issue she would crumple immediately but he doesn’t. He nods, chest heaving, and his hand resumes its ministrations, his nearly black eyes on hers further driving her wild with desire.
Not even sure what she’s doing anymore Tav sheds her clothes and positions herself at the foot of the bed. A possession has come upon her, moving her limbs for her while her brain is far away. Abandoning his grip on her robe he uses his other hand to squeeze his balls, his breath hitching and in response she feels herself suck in a breath sharply. When he growls, stare heavy on her, she licks her lips and drags the hot skin of her palm across her nipples, her stomach, before finally dipping between the lips of her sex, seeking the bundle of nerves that throbs for attention.
“Tav,” he utters, breathing thready and she sways.
She drinks up the sight of him; squirming, needy, and skin flushed with arousal. The precum welling up from his tip looks like beads of pearls before he swipes it away to join the wet slick slide of his grip pumping his sex. When his hips start to jut into his hand again her hips jerk to echo it, her fingers swirling around her clit increasing their pace to keep rhythm with his movements.
The silent room has become a chorus of their echoing gasps, groans, and stilted breathing. The lewd wet sound as they masturbate to each other’s pleasure is obscene and Tav nearly comes apart with the force of how much she likes it. She watches with intense hunger, the flex of each muscle as he unravels under her gaze.
“I’m–! “ He breaks off, throwing his head back, the corded muscles of his neck taunt, the column of his throat damp with sweat.
“Y-yes!” It’s all she can manage to choke out before she’s lost to the sensation of her toes curling, jaw clenching.
They orgasm together, the sight of his seed spurting across his hand, his stomach, his chest has her moaning and grinding her finger into her clint until she exhales an aching, guttural sob, vision exploding with stars.
She crashes to her knees on the mattress, throwing out a hand to catch herself from falling face first into the blanket while she blinks away the haze of her orgasm. There’s movement and before she’s fully inhabiting her body again his mouth is on hers, his hands pulling her into his embrace. They’re both sticky and sweaty, but it feels like coming home after being away for a decade and she throws her arms around his neck and plunges her tongue into his mouth.
Breaking apart, still catching their breath they sit entwined, foreheads together while they come back to their senses.
When she finally meets his gaze it’s to find it already on her, soft and warm. The ache in her chest cracks wide open and she bursts into tears.
“My love?” Halsin’s voice is the comforting rumble of a summer thunderstorm and it only makes the tears flow more insistently.
“I–I thought...” The words die in her throat. It’s stupid, it’s ludicrous. How could she ever have even dreamed this sweet man would do the things she had supposed. What foolishness had bewitched her? How did she let her mind come to those awful conclusions? She doesn’t have an answer and speaking the words out loud feels fraught with peril.
Halsin doesn’t press her but cradles her head against his chest, running a hand down her back in a soothing gesture that only makes the tangled mess of her emotions a stronger torrent of tears. He rocks her, humming something slow and soft. He kisses the fevered skin of her forehead, clutching her body to his tightly, securely, until at last she feels her last sob give way to hitching sighs.
“I think…I think I’ve been incredibly foolish,” she admits, pulling away to look at him with bloodshot eyes and a snotty nose.
Halsin takes that in but instead of interrogating her, he thumbs away her tears gently before pressing featherlight kisses against the damp skin of her face.
She breathes in, sucking what courage she can from the air between them and haltingly begins to explain. Halsin’s face goes through several complicated emotions as she speaks before settling on sadness.
When she is done relaying the whole of it. How she thought he did not miss her and how it snowballed so horribly from there, he takes her face in both his hands and kisses her softly.
“I miss you,” he begins firmly, holding her gaze. “I miss you when you are not near, whether that means you have gone to answer a summons to a far away grove, or down to the river to collect the children, or even when you are laying in this bed in a trance close enough to touch. I miss you like the land misses the rain in a drought,” he takes her hands in his and presses them to his chest. “I miss you like the winter misses the sun; the dragon misses his flight; the Tears of Selûne miss the moon when its light is extinguished and they are left to trail along until she returns. Without you by my side I feel my days grow dark and grey and spend too often looking over my shoulder for the moment you might appear and bring the light to shine on me again.”
“But–”
“I miss you,” interrupts Halsin urgently. “With everything that I am. Foolishly I held myself aloof in your absence because I did not wish to burden you with my own selfish suffering. You already found the duty bestowed on you an oppressive one and I did not wish to add myself to your troubles. I see now that was a mistake. One I will not commit again.”
“I’m sorry,” says Tav, looking away. “I should have tried harder to explain what I…what I wanted, I suppose. What I needed from you.”
Halsin smiles and nuzzles her cheek. “We each of us have learned something here today and I think we are the better for it, no?”
“You’re very wise, archdruid,” says Tav with a small smile, the spark coming back into her eyes. “You wouldn’t be interested in becoming Faithwarden, would you?”
Halsin laughs and tugs her into his arm again, burying his face in her neck, and stroking her hair and the bare skin of her back. “I’m afraid I’ve quite retired from druidic duties, my heart.”
“Yeah yeah, rub it in.” She pulls back from his embrace when a thought occurs to her and she scans his wide chest in puzzlement before she spies her rolled up robe cast aside on the floor. “Halsin Silverbough did you use my robe to clean up your– “
He leans in close and snatches a kiss to cut her off. “I will wash it myself.”
“Yes you will, that was a gift I got in Waterdeep! Silvanus protect you if I have to go back to that fetid kingdom of money plagued rats to get another one.”
He grins and snatches another kiss before rolling away and snatching the robe off the floor, backing away to the door. “I’m glad you’re home, my heart.”
“You’re not going to be very glad if you don’t go put that in some water right now!”
“Yes, dear,” he calls, sauntering away
“Cold water, Halsin, I’m serious!” He doesn’t respond and she trails after him in alarm. “Halsin? Are you listening?”
“Always, my heart.”
The End
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Betrayed
Hi hi friends!! I wanted to post today but I have been working on not one but TWO snippets- one hero x villain (songbird part threeeeee anyone?!? 😈😇) and one urban fantasy (dragons and wolves and mages, oh my!) to post and neither of them are quite where I want them to be yet.
But fear not! I will be posting them as soon as possible:) In the meantime, here is a short snippet I wrote AGES ago based on this prompt by @gingerly-writing:
Prompt #2784
“You can’t give me to [villain]! You can’t! You’re supposed to be my friends!”
“We’re also supposed to save the city. And right now, that’s more important than saving you.”
Sidekick couldn’t keep the panic out of her voice nor the trembling out of her bound hands as she was led, well, dragged, out of the car towards where three men in black suits stood waiting next to a black SUV parked beside the pier.
“Please! Please don’t—" Her voice cracked as those she had once called friends pulled her to a stop a safe distance from the men. Hero and Hero’s Soulmate gripped her arms, stopping her futile attempts of escape.
“Her, in exchange for the city’s safety?” Hero’s question sounded more like skepticism than confirmation, and if terror wasn’t pounding in her veins, Sidekick would have been offended.
The figure in the middle, the man who’d been wreaking havoc on the city for years, nodded, his deep voice smooth and certain. “You have my word.”
That must have been reassurance enough, for in a flash, Hero and his team—the team she’d been a part of—were back in their car and speeding away.
She cast a quick glance around the deserted pier, the gentle glow of the fading sun staining the calm water with soft streaks of pink light, a far more appealing picture than the sharp lines and harsh blacks of the supervillain and his men.
She could try to make it to the water.
But her hands were bound. She wouldn’t last long.
They would pull her out, and most likely be furious with the delay.
She swallowed her fear and turned towards the three men. They hadn’t made any move to come closer.
Dark sunglasses blocked out their eyes despite the fading light, and a shiver ran through her.
She closed her eyes as her mind filled her head with all the things that could happen now that she was here, defenseless, sold to buy freedom for everyone else.
“Come.”
The quiet word from the man in the middle carried across the distance between them, and she instinctively took a step back before lurching forward, terrified she’d displeased the one whose mercy she was now at.
It took an eternity and no time at all for her to reach the front of the SUV. She stopped, unable to bring herself any closer to the man who had the power to bring the city to its knees with a flick of his fingers, who had instead demanded her.
Her breaths were loud in the stillness of twilight, and she kept her head down, as though memorizing each inch of her shoes was the most important thing in the world.
“They taught you to fear me.” It wasn’t a question, and it was filled with displeasure.
She flinched.
Then flinched again at the angry noise he made at her flinching.
The gravel crunched until she could feel his presence before her.
Warm hands caught her bound ones, lifting them. She hardly registered that the bindings had been cut as he turned her left arm to expose the dark swirling mark on her inner wrist.
And in turn revealing the matching mark on his.
Taglist:
(this is my general taglist for all my posts containing my writing, if you'd like to be added, pls lmk by asking to be on the general taglist! If you prefer to only be tagged in certain snippets, you can specify:)
@im-a-wonderling @shieldmaiden-of-gondor @watercolorfreckles @distance-does-not-matter @onestopheroxvillain @lolafaiy @chaoticgoodandi @1becky1 @tobeornottobeateacher @himynameisorla @superherosweet @brekker-by-brekkerr @crazytwentythrees @great-day-today @sunflower1000@selectivegeekwithstandards @chibicelloking @trantolette @sapphiques @jinpanman @genesissane @wish1bone1 @amongtheonedaisy @distractedlydistracted @kitsunesakii @glitterythief @jinx1365 @cherrychewingbrat @in-patient-princess @thepenultimateword @sorrow-and-bliss @technikerin23 @deflated-bouncingball @talesofurbania1 @rivalriotrenegade
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Day 26: Counting
Tickletober 2023 - Critical Role - C2 Mighty Nein - lee!Caleb
[see my other tickletober 2023 fics]
A/N: Jester loves to tease. Caleb flusters easily.
[read on AO3]
Words: 550
—
Caleb squirmed uselessly against the floor as Jester loomed over him, her weight tossed over his hips and her knees pinning his arms to his sides. His cheeks bloomed with the redness of a ripened tomato as he tried his best to close his eyes and block out Jester’s teasing. Her grin was wide as her fingers wiggled teasingly toward Caleb.
“Jester- wait!” Caleb strained, eyes pleading up at her, the hint of a smile on his lips.
“Okay! Fiiiiive.” As she spoke, her wiggling finger descended in time with her countdown.
“Fooouuuur.” She drew each number out, words laced with teasing and joy.
A strangled whine came from beneath her.
“Threeeeee.” A dramatic pause as she sucked in a deep breath.
“Twooooo.” She was getting close to the material of his shirt now.
“No no no no- Jester- Jester please!” Caleb squirmed as far as he could from the encroaching fingers. He could barely fight off the anxious giggles bubbling up in his chest, a few slipped through.
“What is it, you’re not ready yet?” She pulled her hands back a few inches. “Do we need to count down from a bigger number so you have time to get ready?”
“No! Please- Jester!”
“Ten.”
“Nein! Don’t!”
Jester snorted at that. “Eight!”
Caleb kicked feebly behind her, knowing there was not much of a chance of evading a tickly tiefling attack once Jester or Molly had their sights set. Best to just get it over with - if only Jester would just do that.
“Seven… Six… Five… Four…” Jester’s nails wiggled closer and closer as Caleb lost the battle with fighting off his smile. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying his best to tamper his giggles. Once his eyes were shut tight, a long few seconds passed without her saying anything else.
Slowly, one of his eyes peaked open. Jester was beaming down at him, her eyebrows twisted into a faux-stern expression. “Are you paying attention? Do I need to start over at an even higher number so you can get ready?”
“Gods- Jester, don’t-” Caleb whined.
“Twenty-five.”
“Nehehein!”
“That’s not what comes next! It’s twenty-four! Don’t skip ahead!”
Caleb whimpered through his anticipatory giggles.
“Twenty-three… Twenty-two... Twenty-one... Twenty... Hey you know this next one! Nein-teen!”
Had he not been so high on adrenaline and anticipation, Caleb might have rolled his eyes at that. Or laughed - well, he still laughed.
“Eighteen... Seventeen... Sixteen…”
“Nein- no no please- don’t count down- don’t count!”
Jester pouted, her hands drawing back to rest on her hips. “Well now you made me lose count again!”
“Mein Gott- Jester, please!”
“Do you want me to just start tickling you?”
“Nein!” Caleb embarrassingly (see: adorably) squealed out in response. “I- I-”
“Well then I don’t know what you want me to do! You know how I draw all the time? My hands have to stay active! My fingers can only wait so long, they have to tickle!”
Caleb willed himself to melt through the floor. Instead, he just closed his eyes as a deflated whine came out of his throat.
“How about we try again?” Jester grinned down at the blushing wizard. Her tail whipped side to side with excitement behind her. “Come on, open your eyes, I’ll start over-”
“Nein!”
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