#caed nua’s gonna see some shit!!

[quinttyz]

im planning on making like uhhhh a series post poe1 about adaryc and jinx’s friendship that slowly and hesitantly titters towards bittersweet longing for each other,,,

[ampleappleamble]

—

Chomp. Slurp. Smack.

He glanced up at the group of foreigners. Nothing.

Slorp. Crunch.

Still nothing.

Hiravias was beginning to wonder if he was wasting his time.

He knelt over the still-warm deer carcass, watching the strange little party as they stood just beyond the treeline, talking and stretching and tending to one another's wounds while he licked the blood from his fingers, pulling each digit from his mouth with a loud sucking, popping noise. Ordinarily he'd never eat so ostentatiously– it was never a good idea to draw attention to oneself while eating in the wild, unless one liked having one's hard-earned kill stolen away by something bigger, stronger, and hungrier than oneself. But they still wouldn't look his way, and by now he was starting to feel full. Wael's bowels, how much more loudly am I gonna have to chew before they hear me and decide it's worth investigating? Maybe I should just throw a handful of offal at them instead.

It was unlike him to be so indirect with his intentions, but one never could tell how some estramorwn would to react to a tiny, hairy man openly approaching them with a toothy smile and copious amounts of blood smeared all over his hands and face and clothes. So he had decided to play it safe and try to lure them to him, although he had apparently underestimated either the foreigners' capacity for curiosity or the limits of their sensory perception. These foreigners were the strangest he'd seen out here in a long time, and he was dying to talk to them– for instance, there was only one Dyrwoodan among them, if their accents were anything to go by, and he actually seemed to be taking orders from the orlan in the group. That alone was reason enough to try to insinuate himself into their company, just to find out what was going on there.

He had a few other reasons for seeking their attention, of course. And they were curiosity-based, too. Mostly. Hiravias let his gaze drift slowly over the orlan woman as she allowed the feathered Ocean folk to lay her hand on the curve of her furry hip, a soft, golden glow emanating from the Godlike's fingertips. The orlan woman sighed in relief as the bruise marring her tawny skin faded in the golden light, and she smiled up at the other woman with gratitude, her thick, full lips parting just so, her long eyelashes fluttering.

He pulled his thumb from his mouth with a loud, wet pop.

The Ocean folk woman whipped her head around suddenly to face in his direction. "We are being watched," she hissed, her hawk's eyes narrowing as she searched the underbrush.

Finally! He feigned surprise at being "discovered" as best as he cared to, freezing and holding up his gore-streaked hands when the adventurers charged over, cautious but not aggressive. Yet.

"Woah, there, sorry if I startled you," he grinned, relishing the looks of confusion and disgust he was inspiring on the shiny new faces before him. "I was just enjoying the bounty of nature a little too enthusiastically, I guess. By the way, this isn't your forest, is it? Because if it is, you need a better game warden." He turned his head and spit out a wayward wad of gristle before wiping his mouth on his sleeve, and the wood elf in their party actually gagged and turned away. Hiravias couldn't help but feel an odd sense of satisfaction at that.

The orlan woman, on the other hand, seemed to relax a bit at his words. "I don't think Stormwall Gorge is in my jurisdiction, no. You took this deer down by yourself?"

"A stelgaer killed it, actually," Hiravias replied, smiling pleasantly. Not quite a lie. "A rather large and ornery one. Although the deer had a badly malformed heart and would have been dead within the year even if the stelgaer had never crossed its path. I'd show you, but, well, it was also a very delicious heart." He gestured to the carcass, spreading his arms wide before him. "Here, be my guest. There's no way I can eat all of this myself!"

The dwarf actually stepped forward, her eyes lighting up like stars in the night sky. "I call the shank," she said, drawing a knife while the fox at her knee slavered, panting eagerly. Everyone else remained where they were, their grimaces slowly intensifying.

"And here I thought Sagani was the only raw-meat-eater I was liable to encounter in the Dyrwood," the orlan woman chuckled, indicating the dwarf woman with a tilt of her chin. "You don't cook either, huh?"

"What, and burn out all the flavor? Wreck that incredible texture?" Hiravias scoffed, shaking his head. "Galawain would strike me down where I stood for disrespecting one of His beasts in such a manner, and for damned good reason, too! I mean, look at this–" He dug into the creature's guts and pulled out a fat, juicy loop of intestines. "How is this not appetizing?"

He held the viscera out to her, trying valiantly to fight the mischievous grin twitching into place on his face, but he couldn't quite help himself. "Here, go on. It's the best part! You won't regret it!"

She fixed her eyes on his, a smirk of her own slowly crawling across her lips as she crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom. "You first," she murmured, her voice low and smooth and sultry.

Well, shit, woman, say it like that and how can I refuse?

Feeling a bit sophomoric, but determined not to give up, Hiravias defiantly returned her stare as he stuffed the pink, glistening tube into his mouth and began chewing– and of course, instantly regretting it. "Mmmmm," he managed, performatively rubbing his belly even as he winced and drooled. "S-so... good..." The taste of shit and lingering digestive acids mingled in his mouth. So much for my full stomach.

The aumaua towering above them all choked out a half-laugh, half-groan. "My friend," he declared, "I somehow seriously doubt that."

"Desgant," the bird woman spat, baring her teeth in a disgusted scowl. She didn't look away, though, so Hiravias counted that as at least a partial victory. The dwarf and her fox watched, too, silently filling up on strips of raw venison with only mild bemusement on their faces. He was definitely in there.

Finally he swallowed, although it took him a couple of tries. "Well! Now I know it had elderberries for its last meal. Praise be to Wael for the revelation!" He wiped his mouth again, shuddering, and held out his filthy hand for a shake. "Name's Hiravias, by the way. It's been a good long while since I've shared a meal with such pleasant company, so... thank you for tolerating me." The little woman nodded, smiling, but she kept her hand out of his.

The Dyrwoodan snapped his fingers suddenly, pointing at Hiravias and grinning as though he'd finally solved some great and vexing mystery. "Oh! I got it. You're Glanfathan, ain't ya?"

He barked a short, sharp laugh in response. "This is the brains of the operation, then?"

"What Edér lacks in intellectual prowess, he more than makes up for in other fields, trust me." The orlan woman's smile turned kind as she gently patted the folk man's wrist. "I'm Axa Mala, the... the Watcher of Caed Nua." She almost seemed to have to force the words, as though she wasn't quite used to associating herself with that title just yet. It made him think of the Autumn Stelgaer, a pang of sympathy striking his heart. "What's a nice Waelite like you doing in a place like this, then?"

"Me? Oh, seeing what there is to see, eating what there is to eat, experiencing the wonders of this strange and beautiful and world the gods have blessed us with." He dipped his head low in reverence for a moment before peeking back up at her. "I'm a Druid of the Circle of Hawk and Ivy of the Fisher Crane tribe, you see, and I've been all over Eir Glanfath a few times over now, even pushed into the Dyrwood where I thought I could get away with it without having to face down a bunch of drunken meatheads calling me a hairy little face-painting catfucker. But I have to say, throughout all my travels over the years, I've never had the good fortune to meet a Watcher before."

Her smile broadened even as her eyes narrowed. "And you'd like to see more of this Watcher, is that it?" She may have taken a while to get rolling, but she sure caught up fast. "Well, a Druid's talents could certainly be a boon to us, as well as a native Glanfathan's knowledge of the land and the locations of Engwithan ru– uh." She stopped abruptly, her face blanching as she reflexively readjusted her satchel, pushing it a bit further behind her back. "Not that– we don't– I mean, uh..."

Right. There was that. He'd been so caught up in actually talking to other kith again– another orlan, at that, and not a Dyrwoodan orlan with that depressing, beaten-down, high-strung, constant-victim-of-horrendous-bigotry baggage they tended to suffer from– that he'd almost forgotten that they were a bunch of grave-robbing ruin defilers. He'd watched them descend into Lle a Rhemen hours before, and then he'd watched them emerge with their rucksacks bulging, and although his old protective instincts had flared up inside of him, the familiar rage and indignation wrapping around him like a fiery blanket, instead of shifting and pouncing on them or bidding the earth to open up beneath them, he'd just... watched. Waited. Thought. And now, in place of any lingering urge to gut them, he found himself wanting nothing more than to walk with them, talk with them. It had been so long since he'd run with a pack, and even though they were estramorwn with no respect for the land or for the Builders, they were at least kind to him and easy to talk to. And he knew he'd be lying to himself if he said he wasn't itching to find out what secrets lay buried inside the ruins of the Builders, just a little bit...

"You don't what?" Hiravias huffed, hands flexing at his sides, clenching them into fists over and over. "I didn't see you do anything. ...Maybe the gods did, and if so they'll rend your soul asunder when it passes the Veil, as would be your richly deserved fate, but..." He shrugged, forcing a smile. "This eyepatch isn't just for show, y'know; I really am half-blind. So maybe chance had it that my blind side was facing you when you did... whatever it is you did or didn't do."

Axa scratched at the back of her neck, blushing, not quite able to look at the Glanfathan. "Yeah, I, uh... noticed your Eye of Wael, there." The conversation lulled awkwardly for a moment, until suddenly she smiled at him again, her whole face lighting up. "Hey! Wanna help us track down some assholes who stole scripture from a temple of Wael? Maybe it'll redeem me a little in Their eyes, if indeed I've offended Them."

The aumaua brightened up as well. "Ondra's teeth, I'd very nearly forgotten about that! Will we go to Searing Falls as well?" He leaned toward Hiravias, his smile as bright as the sun and twice as big. "We were asked to go there by a priestess of Magran, you see, on a quest to realize a mysterious vision from her fiery Mistress..."

Edér frowned. "Hey, you said you'd take us to that battlefield where my brother died, look for clues there. ...I guess he ain't gettin' any deader, though, so it's no real rush. Just... you know. Be nice to get some answers, if we can."

Axa gave Hiravias a pointed look. "Well, you heard. Scrolls of Waelite wisdom, mysterious visions, and answers from beyond the grave. We'll have you if you'll have us. You in?"

He ran his tongue over his pointed teeth, smile broadening as he shouldered his pack. "With a pitch like that, how could I resist?"

—

[mementotori]

🍂 🌻 🌳 💫 from the Soft OC Asks for whoever you most want to talk about, please!

Again: I’m deep into Pillars (again) so I’m gonna go ham with my Watcher Faraligh!

🍂:  Does your OC enjoy hugs? What do they do as a show of affection for: their friends, their family, their significant other(s) or for strangers? Over all what are they like with receiving affection from others?

Faraligh enjoys hugs, but usually only from those she considers family. I imagine her society is actually very affectionate and physical, lots of hugging and cheek kissing and just all about having this very warm closeness that is very unpracticed in the Dyrwood.

🌻:  What little things do they notice about people or the world around them that make them happy? What tiny little treasures do they find in the normal every day that makes the world seem a little brighter for them?

Her perception is WILD. I definitely like to buff that stat as high as possible with items and whatnot because I imagine she’s just naturally observant. It’s hard to see good things when you’re thrown in tense situations, but Faraligh finds simple joys in seeing what makes other people smile.

For herself? there’s nothing she loves more than walking through gardens or trees. One of my biggest headcanons is that she takes a superior amount of pride in the grounds keeping of Caed Nua.

🌳:  What is your OC’s favourite way to relax after a stressful day? Do they have a favourite book to curl up with? A hobby? Or do they have a nice bubble bath and have an early night to bed?

If she could sleep she would. Faraligh finds a lot of peace in gardening and relaxing/meditating under trees. She does love a good hot bath, all that walking around all of freaking Eora can really take a toll on your gams.

💫:  What is your favourite fact about this character and why?

Oof I mean there’s a lot that I love about her. I think one of my favorite facts about Faraligh come from before the events in game 1 (they don’t really come up often). One is that she was married before she came to the Dyrwood and was a shaman to her people. Idk how Glamfellan society is in game so it’s mine until the devs say otherwise. Really it all comes to fruition when Faraligh agrees to an arranged marriage to someone in another tribe. She and Kristjen actually were married for a few years before some shit hit the fan, and they actually really were in love with each other.

[adozentothedawn]

First Playthrough Log Pathfinder: Kingmaker Part 7

I just noticed that weapo proficiency apparently doesn’t mean what I thought it means. Oops. Update: Or it does actually…? Now I’m confused. If weapon proficiency is needed to even equip the weapon I don’t get why my bard can use the Savage Bow. Update: Linzi can’t use it, so it’s not a bard thing. I am further confused.

Stealing is obviously not a thing in this game and on the one hand that’s pretty practical, on the other I feel kind of weird just taking shit from my citizens and they just don’t care.

Okay, that’s some weird shit going on with Kaessi. Not gonna lie, it’s kind cute and hot though. I still love her. Them? Ah, we’ll see how the romance goes. This is one time I actually don’t want a spoiler by the by.

I am slightly annoyed that she fucked off again already, but I’m sure she’ll come back once I solve her problem. Also, that comment about Valerie’s horrible haircut in the diary is hilarious.

Oh my god! The diary is flirting with me! I noticed! And I love it! Fuck yeah, make me blush!

What the hell Tristian?! The fuck is that, I can’t equip anything to him basically! I read that you can find some stuff for him later, but seriously, that guy’s gonna fall if he gets hit once. No wonder the first interaction with him is saving his ass.

I’m still a bit confused but intrigued by the whole barony thing. I actually really like getting to really rule your territory since I always a bit disapointed how little you got to do with Caed Nua. I just don’t know what I’m doing just yet. Right now I spent two week upping loyalty with a project and got like five notifications anbout some owl attack harming my village. Like, what do you want? I can’t do anything with the time skip, and for some reason I have a lot more points now than before. Though I did just figure out how to buil a bunch of stuff…

I don’t know how people played games before the internet. I would have already screamed in frustration. The amount of times I aready googled something because I didn’t get it is… large. I don’t think I’d have survived with just a manual or a game genie or whatever they were called.

I don’t know what weird fetish I have, but I really love the picture of my chracters sitting on a throne. It’s incredibly satisfying. The only way it could be better if I coul have the red panda on my lap and pet it like a supervillain.

[embriium]

Ah, one of the few times my little Orlan Watcher with the--ahem--Benevolent, Rational and Honest reputations gets to be downright vindictive. :) So some smarmy slave trader named Solmar the Shackler shows up to my baby girl’s keep, yeah? Begging for her help so he can sell a bunch of Orlan slaves across the sea. Like, buddy? Really?

You came to Caed Nua whose new Lady is an Orlan, who while vaguely diplomatic, has never NOT given folk and other kith shit for being racist AF, and REALLY thought that she’d give you, a goddamn slaver trafficking Orlans, the time of day? SIR? REALLY? The audacity!

As if my girl hadn’t been plotting a way to fuck him up the whole trip back up to Caed Nua, and that was BEFORE she even knew about him trafficking her people. Please. At first it was gonna be ON SIGHT, but when the guy didn’t even flinch at seeing her arrive (you’d think he’d know better but guess not) she was like, “Mm, yeah. I’m gonna drag this out a little bit. For funsies.”

So she entertains the slaver’s little request, pretending to be some entitled version of herself--some “i’m-not-like-other-orlans asshole--and then lies to his face about arranging something for him. all the while having pulled her companions aside, like, “yo, hiravias, can you go free the slaves AND murder this dumbass motherfucker? i’d love to do it myself but y’know how it is.”

baby girl was sorely disappointed that she didn’t get to flat out kill the man herself. curse her rationality. u_u but anyway, shit-talking the slaver was very fun over dinner that night with the homies lmao. 

[silvanils]

Knight Plays: Pillars of Eternity

Part I || Part II || Part III || Part IV

This is my first time chronicling my playthrough of a game, but it seems like @brightoncemore​ has fun doing it and it would be neat to save my reactions for posterity. I think this is a good game to start with! I’m going into this run about 98 percent blind, considering that all I know prior to playing is that there’s an elf guy named Aloth in it at some point.

Anyway, time to start my first run of this game~

First thoughts: 

It definitely perfected the “oldschool RPG” look. I’m impressed by how nostalgic AND well-put together this character model style is! Nice. Oh man, though, I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the options given to me right off the bat.

When in doubt in these situations, I usually just go wood elf rogue. I appreciate that the game tells you what attributes are good to put points in for the chosen class - especially since they aren’t using the typical DnD ones. 

I’m picking culture PURELY based on what armor I like best because even though there’s helpful descriptions about the cultures I don’t know enough about the setting yet to know what’s “normal” or “unusual” for any of these... 

Aedyr seems neat, though?

SO, MEET BRYN:

Time for actual gameplay commentary, now -

I have a bad feeling about this stop. The fact that everyone keeps warning Bryn about “evil winds” and stuff has my Writer’s Sense tingling and telling me “there’s gonna be an evil wind.”

“Water’s not going anywhere.” Maybe not, but I feel like you might.

(I was proven right pretty quick, oops.)

Ow, poor Heodan. That wound sounds BAD. Don’t die on me, bud.

Oh, a script event?! INTERESTING. I like this.

Heodan, AAAH - I managed to save you AGAIN, but you’re not doing too great, are you? OOF.

I feel like this situation with these guys is setting up a “one or the other” type thing. If I press on, Heodan’s gonna die. If I rest... Calisca’s going to leave. Oh well, I don’t want Heodan’s death on my hands.

Oh. Well. Not only did she run, but she ran right through a fire trap. :T I don’t feel TOO bad, though. That was on HER, not ME...

Now I prove how bad I am at being a rogue by accidentally setting off three fire traps myself while trying to get that waterskin back, WHOOPS.

I don’t like the sound of this ritual thing -

And Heodan’s dead. WELL. I’m on my own now, I guess.

Skipping ahead through some meadow wandering to the first town, Gilded Vale. Sounds like a nice, cozy starting town...

...oh man, that’s a lot of bodies on that tree. Yikes. I’d like to take back the “cozy” comment I just made.

Take back “nice,” too. This is creepy. What the heck is going on here...?

Oh, hello man with a face portrait. I’ve played enough RPGs to know that means you’re (probably) recruitable.

AND HELLO, ALOTH! Wow, I didn’t know he joined up so early! And he starts sounding more brogue when he’s MAD? Okay, I’m PREDICTABLE but HELLO, MY NEW FRIEND. (He’s probably going to be my favorite.)

Hm. He doesn’t like drinks. I SEE. I’m guessing there’s a story behind that, but whether it’s more “I’m a man of refined taste and this stuff is shit” or “I can’t hold my alcohol” I will have to find out later.

One creepy dream and talk with a dead dwarven lady later, Edér has joined the group as well~ He sounds familiar, though. *narrows eyes* 

(Later learned that yep, Edér is voiced by Matt Mercer... and so is Aloth! Well then. INTERESTING.)

Time to run along now, away from Creepy Vale and to Caed Nua.

“I saw you in the flames.” Well, can’t say I like him but this rag-tag group is getting a little bigger.

AND ANOTHER - though I have to say, Kana seems WAY cooler than the Flames Man, Durance. (Is that a gun? HE USES A GUN? NEAT.)

And this is getting a bit long, so cutting off the first part here. Hope you guys enjoyed my antics/shenanigans? There will be more coming later~

[lyriumdreaming]

otp questions

I was tagged by @risualto so ofc its gonna be a pillars response so have some Izrin/Aloth. Tagging @mistralrunner @caed-nuas and anyone who wants to do one! (Risu consider this a tag back, I want Lila/Xoti pls thanks)

1. How did they first meet? 

They meet for the first time according to canon: Aloth gets harassed at the inn as Izrin is looking for somewhere to hopefully sleep off the effects of the biawac. Her accent gives away the fact that she’s Vailian and a foreigner and she’s dragged into the mess despite trying to deescalate the situation. The first two mooks to move get their asses handed to them (non-lethally), and the third gets jedi cipher-mindtricked to leave them tf alone, thanks. 

2. What did they think of each other at first? 

I would think that though Aloth is grateful that she helped him out, he’s at least a teeny bit uncomfortable with her being a cipher. A little because of the residual Aedyr/Dyrwood discomfort with ciphers maybe, but more due to the fact that Aloth has a lot to hide at this point and the extent of cipher abilities aren’t properly understood and can they read minds? wasn’t there a book talking about them reading minds? 

Iselmyr has hearteyes, I mean dinnae ye see th’ lass beat them eejits wi’ naw bit her bow?

Izrin isn’t quite sure what to make of Aloth at first. I mean he’s either mad or talking to himself or both, and there’s honestly not enough space for two people hearing voices in her life right now. But Iselmyr is quiet for the rest of the night, and Aloth is pleasant company. They curse the bland Dyrwoodan food while stuffing their faces full of it, and hey he has a sense of humour what do you know maybe he’s not so bad. 

3. Were they immediately interested/attracted or did they come later? 

Later, for both. 

It’s easy for Aloth to ignore for a while - mostly because he admires The Watcher so much that it’s easy to just let his feelings for Izrin to just get washed away into that tide. Her holding his hand in the sanitarium is definitely his ‘oh shit’ moment, and he promptly sinks so far into denial he’s gonna need a snorkel.

Izrin has a lot on her mind at first - escaping from Vailia, all this watcher business, still not knowing where her family is��if they’re even alive why did they leave without her but once she settles into the swing of her new party and has a little bit of headspace between that and the looming threat of madness she does develop a little bit of a crush on our resident wizard. He has kind eyes for someone who frowns so much, and a nice smile - when he uses it. Also arms. Who knew that lugging around a grimoire was a good workout? 

[haledamage]

Rhicember 12/25

There’s a snow storm. I guess we’re stuck in here together till it passes. - Kai&Ensemble (Pillars of Eternity 1 - in this case, ‘Ensemble’ is Kana, Hiravias, Maneha, Aloth, and Edér)

“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” Hiravias asked, voice deep and gravelly in his autumn staelgar form. He shook the snow from his fur, covering everything near the door in cold water. “Bad news is, there’s a snowstorm and we’re stuck here until it passes. Good news is, we get our pick of the hot springs.”

“How bad of a snowstorm?” Kana threw a towel to Hiravias, who took it delicately between two claws to try and get the last of the melting snow off of him.

“Even the locals are batoning down the hatches.”

Kai sighed. “Lovely.”

Maneha clapped a hand on Kai’s shoulder, sending her staggering a step forward. “Well, at least we got back to town before it hit. Can’t imagine we’d be as comfortable at the Battery.”

“That’s true, I suppose.” At least Durgan’s Battery was warm, Kai thought, but she kept it to herself.

“And at least we aren’t already on the trails back to Caed Nua,” Edér piped up, pushing aside the curtains to look outside. It didn’t look too bad yet, no new snow except the stuff that always seemed to be on the ground, but the clouds looked very dark. “We’d be as good as dead.”

“That… is also true.” Kai sighed again. “Well, I guess there’s nothing to be done for it.” She set her rucksack on one of the beds to do a quick inventory of what supplies she had. “Any dire business you have in town, get it done quickly. I expect you all to be back here by the time the snow arrives. If I have to go out looking for you, I promise you will regret it.”

Edér chuckled, amused by the sharpness of her tone. “I thought you liked snow, Kiki.”

“I don’t like delays.”

“I’d call it an act of the gods, but we’ve already dealt with our share of those.” Maneha’s laughter is much warmer than it has any right to be on such a cold day. “I’m gonna go get a drink. Want anything?”

“No, thank you, dear.” Kai grabbed her arm as she turned to leave. “Do try and pace yourself, please.” Maneha scowled, but Kai continued before she could interrupt. “We don’t know how long we’ll be snowed in and you don’t want them to run out before we can leave.”

“Good lookin’ out, Kai.” Maneha winked and left the room.

The others filtered out, too, to go finish some last minute shopping run or to join Maneha at the bar. Hiravias was still in staelgar form, which was going to be problematic, but he disappeared before Kai could catch him and she had no idea where he went. She’d just have to deal with that problem when it surfaced.

It was only when she turned back to the room, intending to get some of her own work done, that she realized she wasn’t the only one in the room. Aloth stood staring at his open pack, a distant look on his face and a pensive set to his eyebrows. Kai walked over to him and gently touched his arm, bringing him back to reality.

“Are you okay, darling?”

He gave her a small, tight-lipped smile. “I’m fine.”

“I can see about getting you a separate room,” she said quietly, trying to guess what might be bothering him. “I know spending a lot of time in this close of quarters makes you uncomfortable.”

“You don’t need to make exceptions for me, Kai,” Aloth said, but his smile became a little more genuine.

“I know.” She looked around to make sure they were truly alone, then dropped her voice to a near-whisper just in case. “I may have, perhaps, been hoping you would say yes so that I could get away from them for a while, too.”

He raised an eyebrow at her, giving her a shrewd look. “Well, with a party this size it would make sense to split up. For safety’s sake, of course,” he said lightly. “You, me, and Edér in one room, the others in a different one?”

“Very clever, darling. What would I do without you?” Kai asked fondly.

The tips of Aloth’s ears turned pink and he looked down, staring at his hands. “I’m sure you’d be just fine.”

“Oh, I doubt it. I don’t think I’d have even made it out of Gilded Vale without you.” There was a loud whoop and then a crash, and they both cringed. “I should see to that.”

“Of course,” he said, all business once more, and the moment was gone like it had never been there. “I’m going to head into town and see if they have any supplies they can spare. We didn’t exactly pack for a prolonged stay.”

“Good idea. If they give you any trouble, don’t be afraid to throw my name around.” She fished around in her rucksack until she found the seal of Caed Nua that she carried around for just such a purpose and handed it to him. “After the shit I’ve been through on their behalf the last few days, they owe me some extra blankets at the very least.”

Aloth laughed quietly. “Indeed.”

There was some yelling in the main room, and something that sounded decidedly like a staelgar roar. “Right. Going. See you later.”

[queen-scribbles]

Unlikeliest Places

@pillarspromptsweekly fill 95. It’s another Roll for It, and my elements are The Living Lands, travel fatigue, and a beautiful natural vista. (also, crazy self-indulgent bc my birthday is this coming week AND I think this is my 100th prompt fill(?) so I wanted to have even more fun with it than usual.)

                                                        ---

Despite how much she loved traveling and adventure, Tavi did have to admit there were some not so great things about it. Like sore feet. And walking in the rain. She didn’t have anything against rain, per se; when she was somewhere like Caed Nua or an inn and it was her choice she loved to go for long walks and get absolutely soaked to the skin. But that was completely different from this--boots squelching with every step as she she and Aloth trudged down another road after another lead. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she knew how far to their destination. But road signs were apparently unheard of here, and the last person to give them directions had just vaguely gestured down the road and told them it was a straight shot of “a few miles”. A few miles so far was up to six by Tavi’s reckoning.

At least the Living Lands were more scenic than, say, the Vailian Republics. And all the flora and fauna was new and unusual. It made her regret never making it up this far before. 

And then she stepped in a deceptively deep puddle and almost lost her balance. Would have if Aloth didn’t grab her arm.

Abydon’s fuckin’ forge, we better find somethin’ that makes this fuckin’ worthwhile  Tavi shot him a grateful smile as she shook muddy water off her boot. “Thanks. I’m gettin’ real fuckin’ close to wantin’ to talk with that orlan about the definition of the word ‘few’.”

Aloth chuckled. “In my experience, places this... provincial tend to use that as a catch-all for anything lower than about twenty.”

She snorted and raked sopping tendrils of hair out of her eyes. “You can say ‘backwater mudhole’ if that’s what you mean, Corfiser, no one’s here to get offended.”

He shrugged and rolled his shoulders to shake rainwater off his cloak. “Better not to take the chance.”

She shook her head fondly. “You are incorrigible, city slicker.”

Aloth snorted in amusement as he tugged his hood further forward. “And you’re one to talk on that score, Tavi.”

Tavi grinned despite the rainwater trickling down her face. “Pot and kettle, what a pair we make, huh?”

He actually laughed. “You could say that.”

“Or I could point out I think I finally see a town up ahead,” she chuckled. “It better be Stilden, or I really will go hunt down that fuckin’ orlan to have a few words...”

“Whether it’s the town we seek or not, I’ll be satisfied if there’s an inn,” Aloth pointed out. “Just getting out of the rain will be enough for now.”

“Heh, true,” Tavi snorted. “We can dry out while we try to figure what the fuckin’ Key wants up here. Untamed frontiers never struck me as their kinda place.”

“No?” Aloth raised an eyebrow as they drew close enough to see this was indeed a community of some kind. “With all the unexplored valleys in which to hide, the potential ruins waiting in their depths, and a high likelihood no one will question your disappearance--or others’ who poked where they didn’t belong--because meeting an unfortunate end is all too common?”

“Well, when you put it like that...” Tavi grinned, letting the words trail off. She nodded toward the only two-story building in sight. “That’s prob’ly either a tavern or a general store, an’ both’ll serve our purpose.”

“After you, then,” Aloth said lightly, tucking his hair back behind one ear.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m the diplomatic one,” she teased, rolling her eyes.

“Perhaps not, but you are the forceful one, and I have a feeling that counts for more out here,” he returned.

From the sign over the door--the carven torrents of a splashing waterfall--Tavi was pretty confident this was an inn, or at least a tavern, as they approached.

The sight that greeted them when she pushed open the door confirmed that; the interior was full of tables(half of them occupied) and fairly tough looking folk woman stood behind the long, rough-hewn bar.

Thank fuckin’ Hylea, Tavi sighed. I need a drink.

Every eye was on them as soon as they stepped through the door. and she practically felt Aloth tense at the attention. Tracking down a Leaden Key cell usually relied heavily on keeping a low profile, and this was the exact opposite of what they wanted.

“Can’t be helped,” Tavi murmured, tugging his arm so he’d follow her toward the counter.

“I know,” he murmured back, slipping his hand in hers. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

She squeezed his hand in silent agreement--at least out here no one recognized the Watcher of Caed Nua--as the woman behind the bar jerked her head toward them in greeting.

“Don’t get many travelers through here,” she commented, bracing her hands against the counter. “What can I getcha?”

“Whatever you have that’s strongest for me,” Tavi replied as she pushed back her hood, extremely aware of the drip trail they were leaving across the floor.

The barkeep nodded approvingly and raised an eyebrow at Aloth. “And you?”

He met the question with a tight smile.”I’m fine, thank you.”

“Whatever y’say,” she shrugged. “What brings you through Stilden?”

Aloth’s grip tightened fractionally on Tavi’s hand. She shifted her weight, brushing her shoulder against his as she replied, “We’re adventurers. An acquaintance mentioned there were plenty to be had up here.”

The barkeep snorted as she pulled a dark green bottle from under the counter and popped the cork. “Heh, this acquaintance would be right. You sure they ain’t also tryin’ to get you killed? We got more up here that’ll do ya in than any other country in Eora.” 

Tavi laughed and accepted the freshly poured drink the woman pushed toward her. “Pretty sure, yeah. And I think we’ll chance it, either way. Danger just adds to the fun.”

The barkeep smirked. “Good attitude to have up here. Just don’t go lookin’ for too much fun or ya might might get in over yer head.”

“That’s good advice anywhere,” Tavi said glibly. She picked up the mug, smelling the alcohol in the drink before she had it more than a couple inches off the bar. She’d said strong and the woman had obliged. She took a good hard swallow and ranked it better than most of what she’d had in the Deadfire, even if it wasn’t the best she’d ever had.

She nodded appreciatively as she lowered the mug. “That’s pretty good.”

The barkeep grinned. “Thank ya, I brew it m’self.” She held out her hand to shake.  “Hilde.”

Tavi shook her hand and introduced herself. “Any other advice for increasing our chance of survival?”

“Don’t travel after dark,” Hilde said with a shrug. “An’ your best bet is t’ hire a guide if y’ wanna go explorin’. A good one,” she clarified, “who’s seen a lot of this place. Hey, Tarven,” she called across the room to a dark haired elf slouched alone at a table. “Skellen back yet?”

The elf snorted. “With the shit his group was lookin’ t’ find? We ain’t gonna see them for another month or two at least.” He tipped his head and gave Tavi and Aloth a meaningful look. “If we ever do.”

“They get the point, Tar,” Hilde said dryly. “You wouldn’t happen to know who is around, would ya?”

Tarven pursed his lips in thought a moment. “They could ask the Rook whelp, I s’ppose. He don’t do much guide work these days, though. His wolf’s too old t’ keep up on the long trips and no one who makes it this far into the Lands wants a short one.”

“Can’t hurt t’ ask,” Hilde retorted. “An’ he’s been roamin’ the Lands more’n three decades, I’d hardly call him a whelp.”

“He is in the scheme of things,” Tarven shot back, before locking eyes with Tavi, his ears dipping in mild irritation. “But I can tell ya where to find him, if you wanna gamble on bein’ special enough he’ll say yes.”

Tavi shrugged and took another swig of her drink. There was a note of something in there she couldn’t quite figure out, but it was really growing on her.  “Worth a shot. Worst he’ll do is say no, right?”

“Kel, yeah. There are some folk that would do more dependin’  on their mood.” Tarven straightened in his seat. “Now, he works outta his folks’ salvage business, so it’s a little ways outta town...” He beckoned them closer, and Tavi went, her drink in one hand and tugging Aloth along with the other. He followed just behind her without protest, though she could see concern in his eyes. She made a mental note to ask about that as they sat down across the table from Tarven so he could lay out the route to where they could find this guide.

o.O.o

It took a while to finally get some privacy; Tarven proved chatty, and Hilde even more so when they attempted to wait out the rain. When the weather showed no sign of relenting anytime soon, they caved and got a room.

“Alright, spill, city slicker,” Tavi said soon as the door closed behind them. “You’re so tense I can practically see your anxiety floatin’ over your head like a fuckin’ storm cloud.”

Aloth half-smiled at her attempted humor. “I’m simply concerned about bringing someone into our confidence who we don’t know.”

“Whaddya mean?” Tavi probed as she hung her cloak over the back of a chair to dry and sat down to start working off her boots. 

“This guide,” he said. “I do appreciate improving our odds of survival, but how do we search for a fanatically secretive cult without tipping him off to what we’re doing? There’s only so much we can explain away with the adventurers cover.”

“What’s so wrong with tippin’ him off that we’re lookin’ for someone?” she shrugged. The stubborn boot finally came off and she started working on the other one. “Obviously he doesn’t need to know everything, but what can it hurt tellin’ him we’re... shit, lookin’ for evidence of an ancient guardian order. We can just leave off that we think they’re still around and fuckin’ with the course of history.”

“Because we don’t know how large a presence they have here,” Aloth replied, absently raking his fingers through his still-damp hair. “For all we know, this Rook fellow could be one of them. Even if not, who’s to say he wouldn’t answer any questions put to him regarding our business, whether for compensation or simply due to not having a reason he shouldn’t?”

Tavi snorted. “If you’re gonna be that fuckin’ paranoid, maybe I shoulda used a fake name, Engferth.”

He shot her a dirty look for that, but she saw the corners of his mouth twitch.  “Tavi, it’s been two years, are you ever planning to let that go?”

“Nope,” she said cheerfully, kicking her boots under the edge of the bed. “It’s too much fun givin’ you shit for it.”

“That’s the answer I was both afraid of and expecting,” Aloth said with a long suffering sigh. He was smiling as he joined her on the bed, however. “The benefits of aliases aside, we really do need to decide if we’re going to employ this Rook, and if so, how much we tell him.”

“Look, city slicker,” Tavi turned so she was half-facing him. “I know we’ve survived everything from town drunks to cultists to the fuckin’ gods themselves, but I didn’t survive all that to get eaten by a fuckin’ lion or some weird plant b’cause we were too paranoid to take advantage of local knowledge and experience.”

He shot her a dubious look. “A plant?”

She shrugged. “Y’hear things. Rumors’n shit.”

“I... highly doubt there’s any truth to that one,” Aloth said diplomatically.

“Better safe than sorry,” Tavi insisted. “I say we hire the fuckin’ guide. You can decide how much we tell him,” she conceded. “You have more experience with the fuckin’ Key than I do.”

Aloth mulled that over a moment, twisting one of his rings while he thought, before nodding. “That’s a fair compromise.”

“Great. Then I’m goin’ to bed,” she grinned, wriggling out of her pants and kissing him on the cheek. “B’cause walkin’ in the rain and mud all day is fuckin’ exhaustin’.”

He chuckled. “I’ll join you shortly, there’s something I want to check first.”

“If you wait too long, I’ll be asleep,” Tavi warned playfully around a yawn as she snuggled in. She hadn’t realized how tired she was til she said something, but she really was exhausted.

“I’ll just have to take that risk,” Aloth said with a smile as he pushed off the bed. 

o.O.o

Tavi’s suspicions proved correct and the night was at least half over before she felt the bed shift as Aloth settled in next to her. But he’d never needed much sleep, and the lack of it didn’t have a noticeable effect on his mood, so she didn’t tease him too much as they prepared for the day.

Aloth took all of it in stride--he was well accustomed to her habits by now--and waited until they were leaving the room to inform her that her hair had dried slightly curly.

“Oh, yeah, it does that sometimes,” Tavi grimaced self-consciously. “’Specially in humid weather if I’ve cut it recently.” Which was the case; she’d trimmed it less than a week ago. She sighed and feathered one hand through it. “Oh well. Nothin’ I can really do about it, so guess you get a peek at what I looked liked in my twenties,” she teased, pulling on her cloak as she stepped into the hall.

Aloth raised an eyebrow. “This is how you kept it back then?”

“Well, yeah, city slicker, I was workin’ for the blacksmith at that point, short hair was much easier to keep out of my fuckin’ eyes.” She tugged the door closed behind them. “An’ our part of Old Vailia got humid as fuck in the summer, so this is how it usually ended up.” She scowled at an ugly thought and kicked the wall. “At least until everything went to shit. There was a while in there I couldn’t cut my hair, even if I’d cared enough to.” Her gaze dropped to her hands, just in time to watch Aloth take them in his.

“Tavi,” he said softly, deliberately turning her hands so she couldn’t see her scarred palms. “I didn’t mean to bring up unpleasant memories.” His thumbs swept in matching arcs over her knuckles.

Tavi snorted a shaky laugh. “Shit, Corfiser, it’s almost forty years ago. I can’t expect you to walk on fuckin’ eggshells ‘bout anything that might bring it to mind.” She squeezed his hands appreciatively all the same. “B’side I walked myself into that one.”

“Still, I am sorry for bringing it to mind.” Aloth tugged her hands to close the distance between them and steal a kiss.

“Mmm, not that you need it, but you’re forgiven, Aloth,” she mumbled, smiling, into the kiss.

“You know how much I admire your resilience,” he whispered when they finally broke the kiss, foreheads still touching.

“Tough as fuck,” she agreed mischievously, freeing one hand to cup his jaw as she tipped her chin forward for round two, murmuring, “Just like you,” right before their lips met.

Gods, she loved the way his ears went pink whenever she complimented him. 

“I don’t know about that,” Aloth demurred. “I’ve seen some of the things you survived and doubt I would have fared as well.” He cleared his throat. “But don’t we have somewhere to be?”

“Right.” Tavi brushed her thumb against his cheek one last time before stepping away so they could resume course downstairs. “Let’s go hire a guide so we can have an adventure with less risk of dying.” She laughed when he rolled his eyes. “Didja figure out what we’re telling him?”

Aloth nodded. “We’re searching for Engwithan ruins. It’s a large enough portion of the truth to serve our purpose, and still sufficiently commonplace to not raise suspicion. And given the connection between the Key and Engwithan culture, it’ll at least get us where we need to start looking. Between what we learned in the Dyrwood and the fact you understand the language, it’s more than plausible.”

“Also, if it’s leaked somehow, worst that’ll happen is the Key comin’ after us rather’n us havin’ to hunt them down,” Tavi added with a dark grin.

“I did consider that, actually,” he said dryly.

Tavi shot him a bemused look as they exited the tavern. “Covering all your angles?”

“Exactly.”

o.O.o

Tarven’s directions from the night before proved easily followed, and this salvage business equally easy to find. The walk was also far more pleasant now that it wasn’t raining and they could enjoy the view. There was a wild, untamed beauty to the land, even this close to a settlement, and she could see trails that meandered toward tangled forests and overgrown ravines. I really should’ve made it up here sooner, she mused. This place would be perfect for me.

But it she had, she wouldn’t have met Aloth or Kana or any of the others, or shit, even Maren and the rest of Silversteel. So she wouldn’t really change things. Besides, this place didn’t seem overly given to change, so it probably didn’t look that different than ten or twenty or even forty years ago.

“This place reminds me of you,” Aloth commented, almost as if he’d heard her thoughts. 

Tavi snorted. “Stubborn and untamed?”

“And chaotic, and fascinating....” He nodded toward the sprawling vista off to their right, trees framing the view of sky and clouds, ground split by a red-rock valley. “Beautiful.”

“Now we’re talkin’,” she teased. “Shame I can’t think of anywhere flatterin’ to compare you to, city slicker.”

Aloth smirked. “You’ll just have to come up with something else, then.”

“Yes, I will, but later.” Tavi nodded toward a dirt path that wound off to their left, curving around a clump of trees before looking like it maybe, eventually, led to an indistinct shadow that might’ve been a house.

“Well, this just fills me with confidence,” Aloth said dryly.

“Why?” Tavi laughed, starting down the path. “He’s a wilderness guide, I”d be more worried if he lived in the middle of fuckin’ civilization.”

“Or what passes for it out here,” Aloth muttered, swiping at the tall grass that encroached on the trail.

“Be nice,” she  scolded playfully. “‘Specially since you just said this place reminds you of me.”

“Fair point,” he conceded, lips curving in a faint smile.

The indistinct shadow had started to take more definite shape now; a low, single story bungalow, with semi-neat piles of miscellaneous goods lined up along the sides. As they drew even closer they could see the figure sitting out front, a few feet away from the door. A blond elf, the sun catching both the reddish highlights in his hair and the silver-streaked coat of the wolf lounging at his feet as he worked. Tavi gave the longbow he was shaping a once-over, one brow arched in admiration. Bows might not be her weapon of choice, but she’d spent enough time with archers to recognize a well-crafted one when she saw it. 

By now they were close enough for the wolf to catch their scent, and it lifted its head, ears twitching back, to alert the elven hunter.

“Easy,” he murmured, not looking up from his project to address them. “Help you?”

“Yes, we were looking for Kel Rook,” Aloth said. Tavi bit back a smile at the wary glance he sent the wolf. Just because Tarven had alluded to the animal getting old didn’t mean it was harmless.

“Found him,” the blond grunted, flicking a brief look at Aloth before returning to the bow. “But it’s just Rook. Why the interest?”

There was something familiar about his voice, in a way that set Tavi’s teeth on edge and squeezed something tight in her chest. She didn’t like the feeling much. Probably because outside Silversteel or her Dyrwood and Deadfire companions pretty much anyone familiar had likely tried to kill her. She crossed her arms defensively(as if that would help). “We’re lookin’ to explore around here an’ were told you’re a good guide.”

Rook frowned. “Damn Tarven,” he muttered, running his hand along the curve of the bow. “Were you also told I don’t do guide work often now that Fletch has trouble keepin’ up?”

“Maybe you could give it a fuckin’ try,” she returned, more irritably than she meant to as that nagging familiarity squeezed tighter. “We’re lookin’ for ruins, so we’re not gonna be movin’ all that fast, an’ we can handle ourselves, so it shouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“Everything here is fuckin’ dangerous.” Rook shot back heatedly, finally looking up to scowl at her with glass-green eyes. “I work best with an animal partner, Fletch ain’t up to it, and the pup I’m trainin’ isn’t ready yet.” He cocked his head and his scowl turned to a squint for a protracted moment before, “Have we... met?”

Tavi frowned. “Not unless you’ve been outta this fuckin’ jungle at some point in your life.”

“Not since I got here.” His brow furrowed. “Somethin’ familiar about you, though.”

Tavi crossed her arms tighter. That weird feeling was getting stronger and it was setting off alarm bells and she really didn’t like it. She shuffled a half step closer to Aloth and shrugged. “Well, I’ve never been up this way, so can’t help ya. C’mon, city slicker, if the man won’t do it, we’ll just hafta find someone else.” Someone who didn’t send spider-feet sensations crawling up her spine. Something about Rook tugged at her and whether it was from her own life or just more Watcher shit, she didn’t like it. She’d apologize to Aloth and explain herself later.

“But-” Aloth started to protest.

“Hylea’s tits, just-”

Rook caught a sharp breath and stood so fast the bow he’d been crafting tumbled to the ground and his wolf bolted up on shaky legs in case he was needed. “...Tavi?”

She froze. How...? She looked, really looked, at this naggingly, uncomfortably familiar hunter with his reddish blond hair and pale green eyes. The burn scars she hadn’t noticed before that trailed down his arm and up the side of his neck. There’s no fuckin’ way. It can’t be.

“What’s wrong?” Aloth whisper, protectively glued to her side.

Tavi shook her head. Nothing was wrong, just her world being tilted on its axis. Tarven had called ‘the Rook whelp’ Kel. No, Tavi, she scolded herself as she pictured the man in front of her thirty-odd years younger and with his voice a couple octaves higher and a ridiculous hope started to sprout in her chest, nearly four decades after the worst day of her life. They all died, all of them. Even him. It’s not... He can’t be.

But hope was a wild thing, stubborn as Tavi herself, and the name escaped in a breathless, unbelieving rush. “Khellin?!”

He nodded and the world screeched to a halt, fading out around the edges as she clapped her hands over her mouth.

“Oh, Hylea’s blazin’ feathered copper-fucking tits,” she muttered through her fingers. This couldn’t be real. She hadn’t really woken up yet, this was a dream or some shit like that. She bit the tender skin at the base of one finger hard enough she nearly drew blood. OW. Nope, not dreaming. FUCK.

Khellin--who was really standing there, she wasn’t dreaming--gave a strangled laugh that sounded more than half a sob. “Figures you still swear enough to send Mom into fits.”

“‘Course,” Tavi snorted shakily, dropping her hands. “I’m fuckin’ incorrigible, you know that better’n anyone.” Almost anyone, she corrected herself, darting a glance toward Aloth.

He was staring at her with wide eyes. He’d been there through enough occurrences of the relevant anniversary to know exactly the implications of this turn of events.

Khellin laughed again, this one closer to the real thing. “Can’t argue with that.” He ran one hair through his hair. “Guess it’s a bit of an understatement to say we have a lot of catchin’ up to do?”

It was Tavi’s turn for a shell-shocked, almost hysterical sob-laugh combination, because her brother was alive. He was alive and she wasn’t dreaming and what the fuck, whichever god she needed to thank she’d do it gladly because Khellin was fucking alive. “I think callin’ it just a bit of an understatement is an understatement.”

Forty years. She’d thought he was dead for almost forty gods-damned fucking years and he’d been here the whole time. I really should’ve visited the Living Lands sooner.

Khellin reached down to brush his wolf’s ears in a comforting gesture when he whined. “How ‘bout I change my answer, help you two find those ruins you’re lookin’ for?” he offered. “We can start the blazin’ long process of catchin’ up while we search.”

Tavi nodded, not even looking at Aloth to check. There was no way he’d deny her this, even if they hadn’t been planning to employ him before her own personal Godhammer had been dropped on the encounter. “Sounds like a fuckin’ plan. There’s just... something I need to take care of first.”

He cocked an eyebrow and she could feel Aloth’s curiosity as well before she crossed the distance in three swift strides and pulled her baby brother into a ferociously tight hug.

Khellin flinched and his wolf’s ears tipped backward, but he did wrap his arms around her after only a few heartbeats and hug back.

“Sorry,” Tavi whispered. She knew he wasn’t always thrilled with physical affection, she just couldn’t help herself.

“Don’t be,” Khellin mumbled, hugging tighter, his voice further muffled by her shoulder. “You’re an exception, always have been.”

Tavi matched his strength, still hardly able to believe this was happening, even though she could feel him, warm and solid and real. She finally, reluctantly, loosened her grip and stepped back, surveying him head to toe again. “I guess... I guess if we’re gonna travel while we talk we better get movin’?”

He nodded, glancing between her and Aloth before he bent to pick up the dropped bow.  “We should; it gets dark early if you’re under tree cover. And it seems you’re lookin’ for somethin’ special? Usually hafta go pretty deep for that.”

“Not today, I fuckin’ don’t,” Tavi grinned and Khellin laughed.

“No, I guess not.” His fingers brushed the wolf’s head as he turned to go lean the longbow against the bungalow. He ducked inside briefly, returning with a shortbow and quiver of arrows as well as a ration bag. “Preparedness is our chief virtue out here,” he explained, slinging both quiver and bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go find whatever it is you came lookin’ for.”

Tavi was pretty sure she’d be smiling for the next several hours at least. “Let’s,” she agreed, reaching for Aloth’s hand and weaving her fingers between his. She felt really good about their odds now. She’d hoped to find something worthwhile up here, and that had already been granted beyond her wildest dreams.

Surely they’d find something to work with; the Living Lands had all sorts of great things hiding in the unlikeliest places.

----------------------

I’ve been wanting to let Tavi find out Khellin’s alive for... I think like a year and a half? Maybe longer? And just never had the chance to do it, so when I saw the elements for this week’s prompt I had a MY TIME HAS COME moment and decided to do it now. Obviously at some point there’s gonna be a follow-up that’s them talking about what happened to each of them, woven in with Tavi and Aloth’s hunt for the Leaden Key. But we’ll just have to see when I get the chance for that ;)

[dragonologist-phd]

Breathe So Deep

For the @pillarspromptsweekly topic “Versatility”- or, what happened when my Ranger decided to learn how to punch people. Also posted on AO3.

Rudi was pretty sure she was dying.

“You’re not dying,” Eder said, exasperated. “You just spent an hour getting the stuffing beat out of you because you’re wearing the wrong armor. I warned you this would happen.”

Moving was excruciating, but Rudi garnered all of her remaining energy to raise a middle finger in Eder’s direction. He just laughed.

“Dick.”

To Eder’s credit, he took the insult in stride. “How about we call it good for today? We can try again another time. Maybe when you’re wearing some real armor.”

Rudi groaned, pulling herself off of the floor. She was exaggerating a little- this certainly wasn’t the worst she had ever felt. But it was a helluva lot worse than she was expecting this training to be.

“You know I can’t move around in that clunky stuff.”

Eder shrugged. “Well, you either gotta wear the armor or take the hits.”

“Isn’t whole point of fighting not getting hit?”

“No, that’s why they invented shields. Which you also refuse to use.” Eder’s amusement was evident in his voice. “I don’t really know what you were expecting to happen here.”

“Oh, go bench-press a boulder or something.” In her tired state, Rudi’s insults lacked her usual bite. She did, however, earn a chuckle from Eder.

“You don’t have to put yourself through this, you know. Why are you aching to brawl all of a sudden?”

Rudi shrugged and looked away. “You know me. I’m an asshole who wants to hit things.”

“Sure.” Eder didn’t sound totally convinced, but he let it slide. “Same time next week?”

Rudi’s muscles screamed in protest at the mere thought of more of this torture, but she was far too stubborn to turn him down. “You bet. Once I get the hang of this, I’ll wipe that smug look off your face.”

Truthfully, the whole stupid idea had started when Sol got his foot stuck in a clamp trap during a fight in the Russetwood. Rudi was more than confident in her ability to defend herself- and she had a reputation throughout the Dyrwood to back that up- but she hadn’t quite realized just how much that ability depended on a lion standing between her and her enemies. As deadly as Rudi’s bow and arrows were, they weren’t much use against a foe standing only a foot away and swinging a sword.

Rudi had hit the ground, bleeding and uselessly trying to string her bow before another strike could fall. Sol had still tried to protect her, of course. He’d ripped himself free of the trap and thrown himself back in the fight as soon as he saw his master fall, despite his injured paw. If Pallegina hadn’t been watching their backs… well, it had been far too close a call for Rudi’s liking.

As soon as they returned to Caed Nua, Rudi had enlisted Eder’s help in training.

As time passed and no noticeable improvement was made, Rudi’s patience began to thin.

Eder was a good teacher, but his method relied on armor and heavy weapons and a shield fashioned from a reinforced door, for crying out loud. Rudi couldn’t lug around a shield in addition to her bow and quiver of arrows. She couldn’t scout or stealth in stiff, heavy armor.

But she also couldn’t sit with the knowledge that she was helpless without her bow, so she kept returning to the training grounds to get her ass kicked.

Rudi ducked as Eder’s wooden training sword whistled over head, barely missing her. She took advantage of the situation to charge him, but he thrust his shield forward to block her. Unable to halt herself, Rudi smacked into the large shield. Her own training sword crashed to the ground, leaving her hand ringing from the impact.

Shit!

She lost her footing for a moment, and before she knew it Eder’s wooden sword had swing back around and caught her in the stomach, sending her sprawling to the floor.

Again.

Rudi groaned as she sat up, wincing at new bruise in her side. Eder leaned over, holding out a hand. “You alright? Maybe we should finish up for today…”

Rudi swatted the offered hand away in irritation. She grabbed her sword and heaved herself up, getting back into sparring position. “One more time. I need to get this right!”

Eder sighed and shook his head. “We keep trying this, but I just don’t think it’s gonna work.”

“Why not? I’m following your instructions.”

“No, you’re not. You won’t use the right equipment, and it’s messing you up. You get distracted, then angry, and then you fall apart.”

Rudi bit down on her lip to keep from yelling something she would later regret. She knew she shouldn’t lose her temper over this- especially on Eder, who was remarkably patient.

But she needed to learn this, and she couldn’t, and that was seriously pissing her off.

Taking in her frustrated expression, Eder sighed. “I wish I could tell you something different but…the truth is, I don’t really see you becoming a fighter anytime soon. Sorry.”

After that disaster of a training session, Rudi found herself making her way to the stone amphitheater. Sol liked to nap in the sun there- she would sit with him for a while, and hopefully that would calm her down.

She did find Sol there, but to her surprise he wasn’t alone- Zahua was sitting beside him, staring unblinking into the sun as he slowly stroked Sol’s mane. He didn’t acknowledge Rudi until Sol jumped up and padded over to her. That must have broken his concentration- he blinked slowly and turned to smile at her.

“Ah, the young Watcher. How goes your training?”

“It doesn’t,” Rudi replied flatly. She scratched Sol’s ears, earning a low, approving rumble from the lion.

“You’re quitting?”

“No,” Rudi snapped automatically. She hesitated, gnawing on her lip. “Well, yeah. Maybe. I’m not getting any better. I think I’m actually getting worse.”

Zahua regarded her for a moment. “Perhaps you should join me tomorrow in my meditations. I would be willing to share my knowledge and skills.”

Surprise kept Rudi from answering for a few moments. Zahua’s style was…intense, to say the least. If she couldn’t handle Eder’s training, she didn’t even want to think about Zahua’s.

But right now, it seemed her only other option was quitting, and Rudi hated quitting.

“First tell me- is this ‘meditation’ one of those freaky torture things you enjoy so much?”

The nice thing about Zahua was that Rudi never had to worry about offending him. His smile only widened. “My particular practices, valuable as they are, are perhaps not suited for one not of the clan. Tomorrow will be a simple meditation, to clear the mind as dawn clears the night.”

“And is that just code for ‘doing whiteleaf while everyone else is asleep’?”

Zahua considered that for a while. His brow was furrowed in concentration, and at last he said, “Not necessarily.”

Not exactly promising, but at this point, Rudi was willing to try anything.

Despite what Zahua had told her, Rudi was still surprised to find that his meditation was actual meditation.

She met him as instructed in the Caed Nua gardens just before dawn, sleepy-eyed but determined. Zahua was already sitting contentedly when she arrived. His legs were crossed and his eyes were closed, and Rudi honestly wasn’t sure if he was meditating or sleeping.

“Sit with me,” he said as she approached, not opening his eyes. Huh. He actually was meditating.

Rudi obliged, copying his stance and closing her eyes. She didn’t feel nearly as confident as Zahua looked. “Um… what do I…?”

“Your goal is to detach yourself from this world. Clear your mind and forget your body. The rest will follow with time.”

“Just this once, could you actually explain what you mean?” Rudi pleaded. “It’s a little too early for me to follow this cryptic stuff.”

“Either you will understand or you will not. More talking will make no difference. Our breath is better served breathing.”

Rudi huffed but closed her eyes and did her best to clear her mind. It was difficult- trying to deliberately not notice things went against her nature. The nearby sounds of nature, the feel of the wind, the urge to open her eyes and check her surroundings- rather than fade with meditation, it all seemed to amplify.

Focus, she snapped at herself, but it was hopeless. She couldn’t clear her mind, and frankly, she didn’t see the point of it. This wasn’t going to help her defend herself any better. And next time she was caught unprepared in close combat, someone was going to get hurt. Probably her, but possibly one of her friends, or- Gods forbid- Sol. All because she couldn’t-

“You are not following instructions.”

“Dammit,” Rudi muttered. She opened her eyes and leaned back on the grass, glaring at the sky. She felt like she’d been sitting here for hours, but the sun still wasn’t up. She could feel Zahua watching her. “I really am trying. But I don’t know how to clear my mind.”

“Of course you know how,” Zahua said. “Everyone knows how. You only need to discover where that knowledge lies within you.”

“Zahua, I don’t know what the fuck that means.”

“Do you not harness your focus as you fight?”

“Sure, but my mind’s not clear when I’m firing arrows,” Rudi said with a frown. “I notice everything. That’s what long-range attackers are supposed to do.”

“Exactly,” Zahua said unfazed. “When you fight with your arrows, do you put all of your focus onto one single target? Or do you take in every target, every threat, every change in your environment? This is the difference between a distracted mind and a clear one.”

“Shouldn’t that be opposite?”

Zahua shook his head. “When I clear my mind, I am not devoid of thought. I am simply able to process my thoughts without the haze of emotion.” He smiled at Rudi, as if he was making perfect sense. “This is why I thought this style would suit you. These Dyrwoodans are effective, but preoccupied with what is in front of them. You and I, we approach the battle from a distance.”

“Do we?” Rudi asked, skeptical. “You fight by punching, Zahua. You’re about as much in the thick of things as you can get.”

“My body is.” Zahua agreed. “But is my mind?”

He paused, and Rudi wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer or not. The silence continued to stretch out, and she finally said, uncertainly, “…no?”

Rather than respond to her answer, Zahua closed his eyes. “Let us continue our meditation. Copy my breathing, and trust yourself.”

Rudi was lost as ever, but she acquiesced. She copied Zahua’s posture once more, and tried to remember his advice. This time, instead of fighting against the noises and feelings of everything around her, Rudi followed her instincts. She listened to world around her, and as the minutes passed she grew used to the rhythms of her surroundings.

And in a strange way, Zahua’s words began to make sense. The meditation was reminiscent of the long hunting trips she took back home- the endless hours of moving through the wilderness, taking in the prey and predators around her, at one with the hunt.

When Rudi opened her eyes again, she was surprised by how high the sun had risen.

Of course, it couldn’t all be meditations and sunrises. The time came when once again, Rudi had to endure sparring sessions.

Zahua, however, eschewed the training swords in favor of simple hand-to-hand. As always, he wore little in the way of armor. This was a small comfort to Rudi- at least there would be no concern over heavy metal weighing her down.

And yet the training was more ruthless than anything Eder had put Rudi through.

“Fuck!” Rudi yelped, cradling her bruised arm. “That’s gonna hurt for weeks!”

“Of course it will hurt.” Zahua’s eyes seemed to burn as he stared Rudi down.  His fists were raised, ready to lash out again at any moment. They had barely started the session and he’d landed countless blows against her, while Rudi was barely able to stay on her feet as he danced around her.

“Our way is not comfortable. Nothing worthwhile in this world is comfortable. We do not do this because it is easy. We do this because we must.” He lunged forward, but Rudi managed to dodge out of the way. She swung out, managing to graze him with her fist. He took her strike with a grin. He lunged again, this time managing to grapple Rudi and trap her in a hold.

Rudi threw her weight forward to try and break the hold, but Zahua held fast. “You will not succeed in these methods until you embrace what must be endured. I know why I must do this. Do you?”

Rudi struggled to free herself, but Zahua’s grip was iron. She was left to consider his questions. She still didn’t understand Zahua’s philosophy- his journey for perfection had never made sense to her. But she did understand the need to hold on to something important, the last thing he had of his home.

“I’m doing this because there are things I need to protect,” she said, breathing heavy. “And I can’t do that if I can’t protect myself.”

“And this is something you will suffer for?”

Rudi was almost afraid to answer, but she took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Yes.”

“Then do not focus on the pain. You have already decided you can accept the pain. Clear your mind. Forget your body. See the battlefield from afar. See how everything is connected. See how you can use the pain.”

That’s not helpful! Rudi thought, but she bit back a barbed retort and tried to go back to that space she was in during meditation. She tried to step out of her body, take in the sensations, and trust herself. And to her own immense shock, a sudden flash of clarity came. Rudi sensed the weakness in Zahua’s hold, and could see in her mind how she could twist and break his grasp. It would mean straining-possibly dislocating- her already aching shoulder, but it was the only way.

So Rudi gritted her teeth and shoved herself to the side.

It worked- Zahua’s hold broke, and although Rudi’s shoulder was screaming in protest she was able to whip around and kick his feet out from under him. Despite the pain, Rudi barked out a laugh. This was the first time she’d held the advantage over somebody in close combat. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Zahua leapt back to his feet, grinning maniacally. “Now we’re having some fun!”

Afterwards, they did smoke some whiteleaf.

Sol was curled up at Rudi’s feet. She wondered how much the lion truly understood about their lives. Did he realize how far they were from their home back on the Plains? Did he wonder what happened to the village they left behind? Did he keep count of how many times they’d both nearly died this past year?

Sol yawned, looking for all the world like a careless, sleepy cat. Rudi wondered just how fast-acting this stuff was.

“It relaxes the muscles,” Zahua claimed. “Very important after a sparring session. It is also good for meditation.”

Rudi wasn’t sure how seriously to take him, but for once, she decided not to question his methods. Despite her tired, aching muscles, Rudi thought her journey to monkhood might not be all that bad.

[berah-ronah]

Brief thots on the Characters as of just arriving at Caed Nua:

Eder: a real Good Old Boy but in a good way. I'm interested in learning more about his faith and his history as a soldier. Kinda surprised he just stood there when I told the dude in the temple of Eothas to fuck off and get some morals instead of like. Reacting to the dude who left the priests of his faith to die

Aloth: seems nice enough, I'm a little worried they're gonna do a whole "ooooih he has a mischievous aggressive split personality with a different accent" thing tho.

Kana Rua: man of the year. Tall, melodic baritone voice, dedication to knowledge, devil-may-care attitude about assassins pursuing him, can do bard shit AND carries that Glock on him. Reminds me of Loial from the wheel of time. I've known him for five minutes and he's already my fave

Durance: literally just Rasputin, freak shit and all. I was tempted to ditch him at the crossroads after he undressed my character w his eyes but I'm curious to see if he has actual Plot or if he's just the mineta of PoE

I am once again attempting to play through pillars of eternity despite my hatred for real-time crpg combat

[ampleappleamble]

—

Axa stood staring down at the two men's corpses, her sabre dangling from her limp, shaking hand. The room was cramped and hot with the breath of kith and the fervor of conflict, stinking of shit and blood and bitter, pungent dyes.

How did this sort of thing keep happening to her?

She'd actually been in decently high spirits upon entering Dyrford, happy enough to see that at least this town didn't have a tree full of dead bodies. But the the quaint little village did have its warts, and it had revealed them to her little by little, bit by bit, until by the end of their first evening there she'd wanted nothing more than to be done with the accursed place. Berathian priests brutalized by Leaden Key thugs, bounty hunters tracking down a serial baby killer, a bloodthirsty ogre prowling the periphery, some bigshot noble from the city menacing what villagers hadn't already been driven away by the Hollowborn plague, the remaining villagers themselves surly and suspicious and devoid of hope– this town had more problems than she, and misery permeated the air as surely as the stench from the curriery did.

But Axa never had been one to leave well enough alone. Especially when kith were suffering.

So to start, she'd entered the inn and– with a little help from the orlan fellow she'd helped out of a rough spot down in Defiance Bay's catacombs– located the bounty hunter's target. The other orlan woman was a thief, but no more a committer of infanticide than Axa herself was, so she'd sent the fugitive one way and her pursuers another, figuring there'd be no love lost between herself and House Doemenel anyway– not after the send-off she'd given their Danna back in Ondra's Gift. She'd talked to the town apothecary with her burnt and bandaged arm, as well as the angry farmer whose pigs had fallen victim to the ogre, promising to see what she could do for them. And of course, she'd reassured the nobleman that she'd do what she was able to help track down his missing daughter.

That, really, was where she'd started to feel like something was wrong here. She'd been unable to put her finger on it, but something about her conversation with Lord Harond of Defiance Bay had triggered an unease in her that had wriggled down into her very core, tipping off the survival instincts ingrained in her gut. The way he'd described the missing young woman as though she were not his daughter, but chattel for sale at auction. The way he'd seemed to bluster and make a show of his worrying, as though merely trying on the role of a concerned father. The way he'd nibbled at the thumb of his glove, toyed with and yanked at his graying hair, his eyes never quite meeting her own. The whole encounter reminded her less of a desperate man who wanted to make sure his daughter was safe, and more of a merchant afraid that he'd botched his only chance to make a big sale.

Of course, it had only driven her to want to find the girl that much more.

But first things first. If she was to learn anything from the people of Dyrford, trust was a must. So off she'd gone with her retinue to the wilds a few hours' hike from the village, to try her luck at finding a dragon egg and a rogue ogre. "It almost sounds like the plot of some epic poem from olden times," Kana had laughed.

He hadn't been laughing when they'd come across a band of poachers hunting after the very same dragon egg, baring teeth and blades both at their approach. And he'd found nothing funny about the ogre's den in the spider-infested cave either, the ground littered with bones and stained rust-red with gore– although he had made a sound somewhere between a chuckle and a whimper when Axa had asked if he had any sealing wax for the proof of endorsement she'd written for Korgrak after he'd agreed to serve the Lady of Caed Nua. Watching the giant trundle off into the darkness, Edér had quipped: "Letter or no, Engrim's gonna shit a brick when he sees that fella comin'," and Axa had been surprised to suffer a sudden bout of homesickness for her castle.

And there were more surprises. A wrong turn on their way out of the cave had lead the party to an exit they'd not noticed before, one emptying out onto a ledge that rather resembled a small garden balcony– or would have, if not for the dead man. They figured the poor fool had probably sheltered here while Korgrak was out hunting and gotten quite the nasty shock when the ogre had returned. And Axa had gotten a shock of her own when Sagani'd brought her attention to the note on his person, the key.

"Now who do you think 'T.' could be?" The dark stripe painted across the huntress' eyes had widened as she'd raised her eyebrow. "Because I've got a few ideas."

"Thaos." Axa had felt her whole body tense up just at the thought of him.

"Actually, I was looking a little closer to home than that," the dwarf had replied, tracing underneath the words with her finger as she read: "'My shop,' it says. 'The tower.'"

"Trygil?" Edér had muttered, scratching his beard. "The leather worker with the hygiene issues? What could he have to do with... whatever this note's about?"

"Perhaps we ought to ask him ourselves."  Aloth's eyes had met Axa's, determination hardening his gaze. "After we've asked his neighbors a few questions first."

Everyone else in town had been willing enough to talk after she'd proven her worth to them, but the currier and his assistant had been cagey and curt, and then downright aggressive once she'd started pointing out inconsistencies in their story– in particular, that it seemed rather unlikely that a noble lord's daughter would seek the intimate company of a man who smelled the way he did. "Careful, now," he'd snarled, his hand falling to the axe at his hip. "I never heard an orlan pass judgment on a folk's cleanliness before, and I better never hear it again."

"Trust me, I'll be more than happy to never speak to you again once I get the answers I'm after," she'd retorted, fists clenched. "But you're making it awfully difficult, lying to me like you've been. For instance: the ogre you claim ran off with Aelys never actually saw hide nor hair of her. I know because I spoke with him, and he was a Hel of a lot more forthcoming than you've been so far. Care to explain that discrepancy?"

Trygil had preferred to attack her instead. So now she stood above his corpse and that of his apprentice, watching as Aloth tried the key they'd found with the note in the door at the back of the shop.

"No good," he breathed, turning to her with a slight look of panic on his pale face. "It won't fit the lock."

"Well, we can just break it down, can't we?" Hiravias suggested, rummaging through the assistant's clothing for valuables with one hand and gesturing toward the locked door with the other. "Edér, Kana, you're both huge."

"I don't think we ought to chance attracting any more attention than we may have already," Kana muttered, attempting to peek nervously through a filthy window. "In fact, we might be better served making a speedy retreat. Trygil may not have been the most popular man among his neighbors, but if they find us here with his blood on our hands, there's no telling how they might react."

He looked to Axa, then, grimacing. They all looked to her, waiting for her decision, but she couldn't seem to move, couldn't bring herself to speak. She simply stood, frozen, her blade still hanging loosely from her numb fingers, her mind blank but for one thought:

How did it come to this?

Finally, Pallegina spoke up. "That note seemed to indicate a point of interest on the river in Dyrford Crossing, too. Perhaps this key fits something out there?" She frowned, wiping the last of the blood from her sword. "Don't know why we didn't try that first before coming here. Regardless, Kana is right. We should get moving before we are discovered. A simple misunderstanding can be the undoing of much good work."

Axa heard and comprehended but said nothing, not even as her companions started readying themselves to abscond. Edér had to take her by the shoulder and drag her toward the door in the end, gently but firmly prying the still bloody sabre from her grip. "Come on, girl, we gotta move now. Don't make me carry you." He smiled reassuringly, but she didn't respond.

And she remained withdrawn and taciturn as they made their way quickly and quietly along the northeastern bridge, the sense of foreboding that had been gnawing at her gut since she'd stepped foot into the town intensifying with every step she took. Ever since she'd been forced to kill Trygil, she couldn't help but feel that she was now teetering on the precipice of something huge and horrible and invisible, something that could open up beneath her at any moment like a sinkhole and swallow her whole. This, she felt, was the Leaden Key's real power, just as much if not more so than the chaos they'd wrought at Heritage Hill: their grand, clandestine plots, orchestrated over the course of centuries by a deathless man, carried out just beyond the prying eyes of ordinary kith, festering like an abcess just under the surface of society until it inevitably burst, spreading misery and death. And only she knew, only she could see it.

It was enough to drive her mad, although Wael knew she didn't need any assistance in that department. Indeed, even as she fled with her allies, she thought that she could just barely hear the sound of a great many tiny bells and chimes, jingling somewhere along the riverbank, and she couldn't begin to tell if it was real or just in her head.

She listened to them for the entire hike back to Dyrford Crossing.

—

[ohlawsons]

HOMESICK

SUMMARY. Neria's used to spending her birthdays at home and with family. This year, she's spending it surrounded by undead. NOTES. written for @pillarspromptsweekly prompt 0006 birthday prompt! this turned out longer than i’d figured but hey, i finished on time, which is more than i can say for last week’s prompt. i’m still slowly working on the old flame prompt. slowly. anyway fun fact -- i opened up my copy of the pillars cookbook for the first time bc of this fic LINKS. [ ao3 ] [ Neria’s tag ]

She brings it up on their first trip into Defiance Bay, as they’re passing by the market in Copperlane.

“D’you think they have ymyran pudding?” Neria asks no one in particular, falling a bit behind as the group walks through the city.

“Do they have what?” Eder slows, letting Kana and Sagani pass him up as he waits for Neria to fall back into step beside him. “Sounds like some sort of fancy Aedyran thing.”

From just behind them, Aloth scoffs. “It is.” Eder can’t see the elf rolling his eyes, but he can assume. “It’s a very sweet, very heavy cinnamon dessert. I’m not surprised you had it in Rauatai.”

Neria shrugs, the movement quick and unsettled. “I didn’t, really. Myra used to make it for my birthday every year, even after she went back to Ixamitl. I just thought, since it’s-- well, nevermind.” She takes a deep breath, face tilting upwards to give a wide grin to both Eder and Aloth. “Just let me know if you see some? Dyrwoodans can’t bake for shit and it makes me kinda homesick.”

Kana turns to face them, his booming laughter reaching them easily. “That makes two of us, then. Maybe when you’ve gotten Caed Nua back to a reasonable state, we could try our hand at making some sweets. Rauatai pies, perhaps?”

“By the Effigy,” Neria groans, “I would kill for a Rauatai sweet pie right now.”

“Anything chocolate, really,” Kana agrees.

From up ahead, Sagani shakes her head. “The two of you have a sweet tooth as bad as an Aedyran. No offense, Aloth.”

The wizard sighs. “None taken.”

Neria and Kana continue to trade sickeningly sweet treats that they miss as the group walks through the city towards whatever horrors await them in Heritage Hill. Eder chimes in every so often, sometimes to defend the relatively bland Dyrwoodan cuisine or to offer a clever remark of his own. He pays particularly close attention to Neria, tucking away whatever little bits of knowledge he can about her as she talks, including the pudding -- which he’s already forgotten the name of.

There’s one point he really wants to ask her about -- her birthday, and the odd way she hesitated when she brought it up.

He doesn't get the chance, though, because they're leaving the populated districts of Defiance Bay and Neria’s bribing the guards, and suddenly they're surrounded by undead and half-dead. They stop to catch their breath in one of the partially collapsed mausoleums -- Neria pulls out some jerky, asks if it's distasteful, and Eder and Sagani laugh alongside her -- and once his pulse has returned to normal, Eder tries for a conversation.

“You mentioned something about a birthday, earlier,” he mentions, nonchalant.

Neria looks up from where she's sitting beside him, inspecting the blade of her axe. “Yeah, it's… It's weird. Don't worry about it.”

Kana perks up at that, his eyes lighting up as he turns his attention towards Neria. “What do you mean?”

She sets the axe down on her lap and sighs. “It’s weird,” she repeats. “I don’t actually know when my birthday is. I mean, my parents tried to abandon me in the forest to avoid the ire of Berath, so it’s not like they told me. All I know is the day Myra found me, which,” she pauses and shrugs, “would be today.”

“And we’re spending it in a haunted neighborhood chasing down cultists.” Kana shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Neria. Perhaps we’ll have time to celebrate when we get back to the inn.”

She grins. “Well, I’m not gonna turn down an excuse to spend the night drinking.”

They don’t spend the night drinking.

They’re ambushed by guls in one of the abandoned, run down manors on the east side of the district. Sagani takes a hard hit and she’s still standing but barely, so they gather in one of the rooms on the top floor and Neria barricades the door while Kana sings a quiet song of rest. Itumaak curls up beside Sagani, and between Kana’s singing and the bandaging they manage to stop the blood flow.

Neria offers to take the first watch, wanting to give Kana and Aloth plenty of time to rest. She pulls the last of her jerky out from her pack and settles onto one of the dusty armchairs, the upholstery torn and stained. It’s going to be a long, quiet watch, she knows, because they’re inside and there aren’t even stars to watch.

She’s on her last strip of jerky, tearing it into increasingly tiny pieces to make it last, when she hears a sound from the floor below them. It’s nearly time to wake Eder for his watch, anyway, so she shoves the rest of the jerky into her mouth and shakes him awake.

“There’s something downstairs,” she whispers, the words garbled through her mouth full of jerky. “I’m gonna go look.”

As Neria turns to leave, Eder reaches up to grab her wrist -- he’s sitting upright, and they’re nearly eye-level now -- and shakes his head. “Just leave it. We’ll worry about it if it comes up here.” He pauses and looks her over. “Besides, you need to rest.”

She frowns and tugs her wrist free from his grasp so she can cross her arms. “Fine, take all the fun out of this trip.”

He gives her a slow smile. “You mean you haven’t been having fun?”

“Oh, loads,” she assures him, hoping to draw out another smile. “I usually spend my birthday in Ixamitl with Myra, but going up against mindless undead and fucked up animancers? Huge improvement.” She pauses, then glances back towards the door. “I’m just gonna go look.”

“Neria, wait.” His smile has disappeared, and the soft, measured way he says her name is enough to break through the last of Neria’s resolve.

“Alright, alright,” she relents, letting her war hammer drop to the dusty floor beside her with a thunk. She rests her left hand on its haft, fingers drumming against the sturdy wood as she thinks. “I can’t believe I’m stuck in a fucking haunted house.” The words are bitter and quiet, meant only for herself, but out of the corner of her eye she just catches the way that Eder’s brow knits together. Neria bites back a curse; she hadn’t meant to bother him -- or anyone else -- about her birthday, but the combination of this Watcher bullshit and the fact that it’s the first birthday she’s spent away from Myra has put her in a particularly sour mood.

“Hey.” Eder puts a hand on Neria’s shoulder -- and it’s odd, because he’s still sitting and neither of them are used to being eye-level with each other -- and offers a warm smile. “Soon as we get back to Copperlane, we’ll celebrate with drinks and some of that immer… ymyr… whatever pudding it was that you were lookin’ for.”

She isn’t certain she should find his clumsy attempts quite so endearing, but they are, so she returns the smile and gently corrects, “Ymyran pudding. And I doubt they have it anywhere in this city and if they do, it’s probably shit. I’ll settle for drinks, though.”

“Good,” he grins. “I know where to find those.”

Even once they’ve dealt with the nightmare that is Heritage Hill, Neria doesn’t get to spend the evening drinking and celebrating.

She does drink, though it’s far from celebratory; the sensation of physically breaking someone’s spirit -- even if that someone was an undead animancer trying to take advantage of a tragedy for her own good -- had left Neria more than a little uncomfortable. The soul machine is destroyed, though, and that does bring her some satisfaction.

They find an inn in Copperlane to spend the evening, and Neria quickly retires to the room she’s sharing with Kana. Most days, she would gladly deal with such a state of mind by drinking until the discomfort has been thoroughly dashed, but this soul magic and Watcher nonsense is completely over her head and she hasn’t quite figured out how to deal with it.

So instead of staying down with the others, she curls up on one of the two small beds and pulls out one of the books that Kana had recommended to her. It’s filled with myths and legends from all over the Eastern Reach, and they’re as interesting as they are implausible and the sheer ridiculousness of some of them brings her a strange comfort; it’s as if perhaps everything she’s experienced the past few days is nothing more than a story, and will all one day end up in a book filled with fantasies like the one she’s reading now.

She’s in the middle of a story about a delemgan’s curse when there’s a knock at her door. She makes a face -- she really doesn’t want to have to deal with social niceties at the moment -- but slowly closes the book and sets it aside. “Yes?”

“It’s me.” Eder’s voice is muffled through the thick door. “I’ve got something for you.”

“Oh.” Curiosity piqued, Neria slides off the bed and pads over to the door, opening it to find Eder holding a small platter covered with a cloth napkin.

“No luck with the pudding,” he explains without pretense, holding out the platter. “But Kana had another idea.”

“O...kay?” With a little frown of confusion, Neria reaches up to take the platter. She glances up at Eder -- who’s watching her, almost expectantly -- before slowly sliding the napkin off. Beneath is a large piece of Rauatai sweet pie, warm and rich and sending a wave of nostalgia through her. “You found Rauatai pie.” Combined with the mention of pudding, the pie is enough to remind her of their conversation earlier in the day about the ymyran pudding she'd been craving.

He shrugs, as if to downplay the way he’s beaming down at her. “Least I could do, after the birthday you had.”

Unable to hold back her excitement any longer, Neria reaches greedily for the pie. “Want some?” she asks, almost as an afterthought. “It's a pretty big piece.”

“Already tried some. It's a little too heavy for me.”

“Dyrwoodan,” she mutters, glancing up to grin at Eder before taking a bite of the pie. It’s not as good as she remembers -- although that may just be the homesickness coloring her memories -- but it’s still rich and chocolatey and sweet. “Thank you,” she offers, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand and awkwardly setting the rest of the pie on the dresser. “It’s been pretty shitty lately, but this… helps. Like a little piece of home.”

Eder’s still beaming down at her, giving her a warm smile that’s equal parts proud and apologetic. “Like I said, it’s the least I could do. Wish I could’ve done somethin’ more than just get you a pie.”

Neria plants a hand on one hip, leaning against the doorframe. “It’s more than enough, Eder. It’s a lot more than I was expecting, honestly. But,” she shrugs, “feel free to shower me with gifts when we get back to Caed Nua and I throw a huge party.”

“If I’d known you’d be throwing a party, I might not’ve wasted my evening trying to find a baker from Rauatai,” Eder teases, giving an innocent shrug of his own.

Before Neria can answer, she hears someone clearing their throat from in the hallway. “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kana apologizes, behind Eder and just outside of Neria’s view, “but I’d like to turn in for the night. Unless you want to switch rooms,” he offers, a wry edge creeping into his voice. “I have nothing against staying with Aloth.”

“I was just leaving,” Eder says, stepping back to give Kana a hearty clap on the back. “But I’ll keep that in mind.” With a wink, he begins making his way back down the hallway.

Neria watches as he goes, aware that she’s staring and aware that Kana is still watching her with amusement. “He found Rauatai sweet pie for me,” she informs the aumaua. “I think I’m in love.”

“Technically,” Kana corrects cheerfully, “I helped. The two of us went out searching for the bakery.”

“You know I love you, Kana.” Neria grins up at him, then tilts her head towards their shared room. “C’mon, I’ve got a pie to finish and I want to show you one of the stories in this book I’ve been reading.”

[cannibalisticskittles]

vela is sweet and i like having her on the ship but the canon way of getting her there is........................... well. to be honest. i did not know that was how it was gonna go down. i saw gifsets of vela talking to companions in poe2 w/ the comment that all you have to do is say that ur keeping her in poe1 and i thought oh, how sweet, u look after a baby!

if i’d known that picking that option meant murdering her foster-brother to keep her, i would have, uh, thought differently.

the only way i can reconcile what i was expecting w/ what happened is to like. imagine an in-between. accept the quest, grab baby vela, when her brother confronts u outside say “oh no dude, i just wanna make sure the baby’s safe, like. someone might come in and see that she hasn’t been liquidized to a soul potion and report back to ur dad. actually, u being here makes this easier, can u like, walk w/ me and the bab to blood sands and just hang out with her there until i’ve, uh, ganked ur dad? makes a better cover.”

and then finishing the quest by ganking his dad and asking “so uh. does she go back to her birth parents now? do u take care of her?” and getting the explanation on why vela is there and how that works with all the clans fostering kids from other clans, and says “hmm. well. you can’t give baby back, i get that. at the same time,  you don’t seem 100% prepared to be the sole provider for a baby suddenly, and i’m like.... amassing a ton of riches from being the owner of a super haunted castle, and i’ll have a lot of free time on my hands once my soul is no longer in danger of strangling me with memories of the past, maybe i could drop by after i fix that and say ‘hi,’ bring some toys or supplies or food or whatever, babysit for a few hours to make things easier?"

bond with the baby and the foster-brother to the point where they eventually get a weekend or two a month to hang out w/ her, and a few weeks in the summer so vela can run around caed nua, and it’s during one of these times that the Weird Shit Happens and they wake up on a boat after having most of their soul ripped out, see vela, and go “oh, shit, summer’s almost over and my time with her is almost up, if i don’t get her back to her family in eir glanfeth in the next week, i’ll be breaking the custody agreement, fuck.”

[captainofthefallen]

Berath’s Gate (2/2)

Watcher/Eder, continued from the Watcher’s POV

blame @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels

She's not really clear on what happened. Some kind of earthquake, but they're in the middle of the Dyrwood. They don't get earthquakes, in her limited experience. Not by natural causes, anyway. 

She's standing on a road, she thinks. Narrow, surrounded on all sides by a field of stars. Is she dreaming, then? Maybe. Or maybe it's another vision. 

Ahead, she sees a door. A door in a skull's mouth, like her vision of Berath. Behind, a light, so bright it almost burns, but it's not welcoming or inviting.  

She falls to her knees (if they're even real) under the weight of a sudden flash of memory. Lightning flashing around the outside of the keep, turning the world purple, she runs out of Brighthollow, telling everyone to get to the keep for safety, praying it will be enough, but suddenly the stones around the chapel shift, and the ground quakes, and a gigantic adra fist closes around the building, crushing it to splinters. 

She gasps, opening her eyes, looking back and forth between Berath (the Usher and the Pallid Knight flank the door) and that strange light that blinds but doesn't burn. 

If she goes onward, she's choosing death, that much is clear. Funny, she thinks. Didn't think I'd get a choice. 

She doesn't want to die. She turns back toward the light and pushes to her feet, but something stops her, almost like a physical force holding her back. Why is it... 

With a startled cry, she falls to her knees again as another flash of memory overtakes her. She sees the fist and she runs, there's only so much she can do, and she knows that if she dies Caed Nua goes with her. It might be going anyway, but she has to try. Get to Steward, her mind says. She may be able to help. Some hidden defenses, or, or something. On the threshold of the keep, she turns back. There's a hole in the ground. A pit, descending into the depths. She's been there before. She's seen Od Nua's titan in its entirety. She never imagine it would come to life. But there it is, and as it turns its head to face her, something flares to life across its forehead. A symbol. No. She returns to herself with a gasp. Eothas. 

Her first thought is of Eder. He'll be crushed.  

This is the choice she faces, then. Last time she walked Berath's road, she had no choice. This is hardly better. To die, or to return to face an enemy worse than any she could have imagined. More powerful than Thaos, more powerful even than the Master Below; a “god” who clearly gives fewer shits about following the rules than even Woedica. 

If she goes that way, if she chooses to return... will he not just kill her immediately? Or has he already left her keep behind to ravage the rest of the world? 

So she stands, facing to one side, unable even to look at Eothas' light, but unwilling to move toward Berath. She faced down impossible odds before, and won. She wants to go back, she's not ready to die, but... the light. Somehow, whatever Eothas is doing, he's keeping her from moving back. As she thinks, though, the ring on her finger grows warm, and her hand begins to move, as if of its own accord. It lifts, shifting until it shields her face from the blinding glow of the once-dead god. 

And then, the glow seems to fade, as though it is being eclipsed. Cautiously, she begins to lower her hand. There's a figure, on the road directly in front of the light, blocking it. And suddenly she can move. 

She takes a few cautious steps, back toward the eclipse of Eothas, waiting to see if she'll encounter another block. There's nothing. Encouraged, she walks faster, then breaks into a run. 

The road is far longer than it looks. She suspects this may be Berath's doing. But as she runs, the light of Eothas seems to fade, receding into nothing, blocked out completely by the interceding figure. A figure she now recognizes. 

She runs faster and she doesn't stop, ready to throw her arms around his neck in greeting, and then-- 

A foot away, she stops short. Remembers everything that happened (or didn't happen) between them. And then it occurs to her that he is standing here, with her, on the road to death. 

"What did you do?" She's afraid now, and makes no attempt to disguise it. If he's traded his life for hers, or something equally stupid... "What I had to," is his answer. It's not reassuring. 

She reaches out, tentatively, hovering for a moment before putting her hand on his shoulder. "Are you...?"

"Dead?" He gives her that trademark half-grin. "Not sure. Doesn't matter anyway."

Her eyes bug. "Are you crazy?! Of course it matters!"

His grin fades into something more gentle and he shakes his head. "Nah. You're alive. Or you will be. 'S all I care about." 

She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at him. "Oh yeah? How's this, then? I'm not leaving here without you, Mayor Teylecg." 

He chuckles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "You're stubborn, I'll give you that. Almost as bad as my brother. By the look of this place, though? Berath wants payment. And I'm not letting it be you." 

"Fuck Berath," she snaps with unexpected vehemence. "He's not taking you." 

He folds his arms with some kind of omniscient smirk, like he knows he's going to win this one. She glowers at him. "Looks like we're at an impasse then," he says. 

"Looks like we are," she replies, mimicking his pose. 

They stare each other down in silence for a few moments before he says with an air of forced casualness, "So... how's the Dyrwood nobility?"

She rolls her eyes. "Ugh, don't get me started. Part of me almost regrets not just letting Gathbin have the place, so he could deal with all the assholes himself." 

"Aw, come on," he says. "Place wouldn't be half as good with him running it. And the basement would still be full o' monsters." 

She grins suddenly. "Love to see him try to fight that adra dragon." 

They laugh, and for a moment it's back in the old days, and they're gathered by the campfire, and they're not standing on the road to death facing an unbearable ultimatum. 

"How's Dyrford?" she asks. 

He shrugs a shoulder. "Better and better. Always new problems to deal with, of course, but they're doin' all right." 

Silence falls again, fraught with tension, and finally she sighs. "Look, Edér..."

He looks over at her, a strange softness in his eyes. "I missed you," he says.  

She'd had an argument all planned out. Caed Nua’s done for anyway, he has a village depending on him--but it all vanishes in an instant when she meets his eyes. What comes out instead is... the truth. "I can't lose you." Well. Not the whole truth. But a large part of it. "Half of what made all this bearable was..." she twists the ring on her finger, "knowing you were out there. I can't lose that. I can't lose you." 

He sets a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Then you know how I feel." 

Her heart skips a beat. He doesn't... he can't. 

She glances back over her shoulder. Neither aspect of Berath has moved. She looks back at Edér, steeling her resolve. "You know what? Fuck 'em. No one loses anyone today." 

He frowns. "But..."

"You were there," she reminds him. "They're not gods. That means they can be stopped, and they're not absolute. Let's see Berath try to stop us." 

"How do we--"

"Just follow my lead."

She clasps his hand tightly and closes her eyes, concentrating with all her might on Caed Nua, all but dragging her soul back to her body, and his right along with her. Berath, or whatever it is, resists, but somehow the knowledge that he isn't omnipotent is all the strength she needs. 

The pain returns with awareness. Broken ribs, probably, and at least one broken leg. She isn't about to check. Or move. 

She groans. "Maybe I should've just died." 

"Don't say that." He's there, right at her side, one of his hands gently cupping her face. "And don't do that to me again, you hear? Thought you were dead." 

She nods, too weary to argue. He seems to notice, and his gaze softens. "You're gonna be okay," he says. "Get some rest. I'll be right here." 

"Can you...?"

He nods before she can finish the question. The last thing she hears before slipping back into unconsciousness is his voice, soothing her to sleep. They've got problems, sure. Boatloads of them. But for now, he's here, and she feels safer than she has in months.

[ampleappleamble]

—

The Kitten of Caed Nua. That's what people were calling her now.

Or so Axa had gleaned upon walking into Admeth's Den Expedition House and immediately coming face to face with six of the ugliest, rudest, meanest-looking adventurers in the place. They had been on their way out when she and her crew had entered, and the tension hung palpably in the air as the two groups sized each other up.

"Well, well, lookee here. A new litter of pups, come to try their hand at adventurin'." The leader of the merc band grinned, his knife-picked teeth notched and browning.

"Not just any pups, Byne," one of his cohorts sneered. "That's none other 'n the Kitten of Caed Nua and her kits, that new buncha foreigners been makin' a ruckus in our neighborhood." The lone woman in the group lifted her chin to look down her nose at Axa, an open challenge on her rough-hewn face.

Axa had not been expecting to be recognized as the Lady of Caed Nua quite so quickly, and the puerile nickname was a nasty twist to the surprise. She bristled visibly in response, no doubt to the delight of the thugs before her. "Well. My reputation precedes me, it seems. And who exactly are you lot?" She kept her voice as low and as calm as she could.

"I'm Byne," the first man drawled, pride suffusing his raspy voice, "and me and my crew're known around here as the Giantslayers. Best godsdamned adventurers in the city, and don't you forget it."

Axa allowed herself the tiniest smirk. "That so? Never heard of you."

The whole group seemed to deflate all at once, their demeanor immediately souring. "Well you fuckin' have now," Byne spat, stepping forward and leaning in close to hiss at the little woman, barely keeping a lid on his smoldering anger. "You better watch your step, Kitten. Word is you been seen hangin' around Crucible Keep, rubbin' elbows with them little fancy lads. Might be we even heard you been runnin' errands for 'em, helpin' 'em run some sort of sick animancy shit–"

"Byne." A harsh, gravelly voice boomed at them from across the room, and all eyes quickly darted to the source: a well-built folk man who stood with his arms folded loosely over his chest and a no-nonsense glare etched into his features. "I gave you a job to do. You gonna do it? Or you gonna stand around runnin' your fuckin' mouth all day?"

The Giantslayers' leader winced, straightening up and scowling in the man's direction. "Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on, Wenan. I'm goin'." He cast one last glance at Axa, unconcealed hatred further twisting his features. "You'd do well to stay out of our way. There's only so many bounties to lay claim to in this city, and we get the lion's share. Understand, Kitten? Now then, Giantslayers– let's get this coin." Byne jerked his thumb toward the door, and he and his crew brushed past Axa and hers, glaring all the while.

So, she thought. It's gonna be like that, is it.

"Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant," Aloth grumbled. One of them had very purposefully shoulder checked him on their way out, and he ruefully rubbed at the tender spot.

"Told you this was a bad idea," Edér sighed. "Say, was that big fella wearin' a diaper? Or did his loincloth just really look like one?"

Kana pushed his hat back to scratch at his forehead, grinning bemusedly. "At least they weren't quite as bigoted as the Knights were. Although I don't know whether they invented that 'Kitten' epithet or if they were just repeating it."

"To be fair, I have not heard of them, either," Pallegina added, "and I have been in Defiance Bay for some time now." She smiled wryly down at Axa. "You held your ground well, Watcher."

"Was there a reason we decided to come here?" Sagani glanced around furtively, looking like a deer that was ready to bolt, Itumaak panting nervously beside her. "Other than the delightful company, I mean."

Axa steeled herself, squaring her shoulders and standing tall. She couldn't afford to look weak, not if this was to go the way she wanted it to. "We came here to work, of course," she stated clearly and boldly as she strolled purposefully toward the man Byne had called Wenan. "And to get familiar with the local citizen militia. After all, the Dozens are the ones the people of Defiance Bay actually see out and about solving problems, taking care of business." She stopped at Wenan's feet, flashed that feisty smirk up at him. "Isn't that right?"

"We ain't got any work for the likes of you," Wenan growled, unimpressed. "So you can march your little ass back to your pals at Crucible Keep and tell 'em to step up their spy game."

Quickly, now. Don't let him get on top of you–

"Oh, shut your face!" She puffed out her chest, thrust her chin at him, narrowed her eyes. And drew looks. Lots of looks. Just as she'd hoped she might. "Those stuck-up little lordlings are no friends of mine. The only reason I poked my head into their clubhouse was to see why they were dragging their feet on dealing with the situation in Heritage Hill. And when they couldn't give me a satisfactory answer, I offered to handle it for them. I figured somebody had better."

For a split second, Wenan had let his gruff facade slip and his eyes had bulged in surprise. But he'd quickly returned to his standard squint, his mustache twitching. "That so? Well, what the Hel are you doing here, then, if you're so busy saving the fuckin' city?"

"Just what I said before," Axa snapped back. "Looking for work. You don't think I plan on dying in there, do you? I'll need something to do once I'm finished cleaning up after the Knights, and I'm already fed up playing nursemaid to a bunch of rich brats. Figured you lot might have need of me, seeing as you actually seem to do shit." And here, she let herself soften just a bit, let the act drop just enough for the sincerity in her voice to shine through. "Plus, I meant what I said about wanting to get to know the people of Defiance Bay. The real, honest, hard-working people. You–"

Wenan scoffed and waved a broad, scarred hand at the little woman. "Alright, alright, stow the flattery. Maybe you are on the level. But I meant what I said, too: Unless Byne and his crew fuck theirs up, I ain't got any jobs for you." He scanned the room, glancing behind him at a line of novices awkwardly jabbing their hand-me-down swords at hay-stuffed practice dummies, and he continued at a significantly louder volume than before. "Although you're welcome to hang around, get to talkin' with some of the boys. Maybe you'll find someone with a... personal score they wouldn't mind you settlin' for them."

When he turned back to face her, Axa glanced over his shoulder at the man overseeing the novices, who now had her fixed in his sights. Wenan winked.

Winning hearts and minds, she grinned to herself as she strutted over to the line of dummies.

—