Chapter Text
Jester walks carefully through these tunnels.
She knows how important this is, and they’re going to save Yeza, and Nott is going to get to see her husband again, and her, and their son, they’re going to get to have a meal together again, and that’s really all Jester wants in this world. But...things seem...different. They’re worse now? But nothing’s really changed.
Even though she can see fairly well through the darkness ahead of them, there’s a shiver down her spine, like something is watching her, watching them. It’s incredibly unsettling, and the fact that nothing changes while they walk, after one hour, after four hours, it’s like being trapped in bubble. Like being trapped in a ball.
Jester swallows hard, the smell of ozone filling her nostril, and her heart pounds under her ribs as though that dragon is still looming above her. She wants to look behind her, just to check, just to know, but she isn’t going to take her eyes off of the path in front of her. Shaking hands go unnoticed in the dark, especially when the only other people who can see her are already incredibly distracted. Fjord is watching up front with her, but he’s distracted, like he has been for a couple days, ever since he found out the truth about Nott.
Beau has her glasses on, but she’s a little too busy being so painfully bored that Jester’s able to escape her usually perceptive friend’s eyes. Nott is completely in her own little world, though Jester is super aware that she hasn’t pulled out her flask once, at least not yet. Nott is trying her best to figure out what to do next, and she doesn’t need Jester’s irrational anxiety making everything worse. Caduceus is bringing up the rear, which is a blessing, since he could take one look at her face and probably know every secret she’s ever had in her whole life.
It might be two hours, it might be four, and Nott suggests taking a break for a second. No one’s against the idea, and they all lean against the stone walls, taking a moment to collect themselves. Jester sits cross legged, playing with the rocks on the ground. They’re almost in order by color when she sees some fuzzy little paws come and swat them away. Jester giggles, trying to put them back together, but Frumpkin keeps swatting them away.
“You’re such a naughty cat.” She tells him, sneaking a glance over at Caleb. He’s not paying attention at all, talking with Nott about something. Jester keeps trying to arrange the rocks, and Frumpkin keeps messing them up. Although, there’s a few times where he almost lets her finish, only to obliterate the arrangement again.
When they’re ready to keep going, Jester’s mood feels a little bit lighter, and if she isn’t mistaken, she’s pretty sure she sees Caleb call Frumpkin back, a smile on his face.
“Can I ask you something?” Caleb asks her later, at their next break. Jester looks up at him from where she was carving a dick into the wall.
“Yes, it’s necessary.”
“No, I wasn’t-” He scoffs, sitting down next to her. “It’s a nice dick. Proportionate.”
“Thank you, Caleb.” She smiles at him, setting her tools down. “What’s on your mind?”
“I just wanted to see if you were okay, honestly. I noticed you’ve been a little...down? Since we started underground, and...I guess I just wanted to check on you.”
“Oh.” Jester pulls her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. “I guess...I guess after the Dragon, and what’s happened to Felderwind, and Nott, and...and you I guess, I just sort of know how...awful this could be. Can be.” Will be.
Caleb waits for her to finish before lifts his hand, like he’s going to set it on her shoulder, but he stops, setting it back down. “I’m sorry, I know...I know this is scary. All of it is scary.”
“Yeah, I guess it really is. And it’s not like stuff wasn’t scary before, or anything, but this feels...like, we’re walking right into Xhorhas, and they’re at war with the Empire, probably over the dodecahedron, which we have. I guess...this is just super...real.”
Caleb nods slowly, exhaling as he does. “Yeah, this is pretty...real. I know...but I think we will be okay. I mean...I can really just hope so, honestly. What I do know is that we’re going to save Nott’s husband, and she’s going to be so happy when we do that. So even though I’m terrified, we’re going to do this, and we’re going to win.”
Jester smiles, her shoulders a little less heavy. “You’re right Caleb. We are going to do that.”
“We always do.” He assures her.
“Yeah, I guess we do okay, huh? This is going to be okay.”
“Ja, you can trust me on that.”
The second Caduceus casts his light spell on the crystals, Jester’s entire heart lifts.
The colors that dance across the wall are beautiful, she wishes she could somehow get this down. There aren’t enough colors in her paints to cover the spectrum around her, but it’s one of the greatest things she’s ever seen. There’s so many different crystals around, in blues and purples and greens and yellows and she and Nott are gathering some up pretty quickly. Fjord, Caleb and Caduceus talk about perhaps setting up camp in this really cool place, and Jester’s head pops up, excited at the prospect.
Her eyes catch a flash of black, and she sees Caleb’s blackened fingertips scratching through his bandages. Jester winces, thinking about how the entire chamber is literally covered in crystals, and Caleb just told them about his history with them. He says nothing, though, just helps Caduceus find the best corner of this chamber for them to set up camp. Any pain Caleb might be feeling is hidden as he sits down to cast his spell, and the tiny hut appears.
He sits a few moments, working to match the colors to the walls around them. Jester plops herself down next to him, pointing to the left. “Just a touch bluer there.”
“It looks blue?”
“Caleb I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I am a master artiste, and I basically specialize in blue.” She puts her nose up in the air, all snooty-like, and Caleb rolls his eyes, changing the blue ever so slightly.
“Better?”
“Yes, much, actually.” She informs him, pointing to where the colors blend seamlessly. “Now if something passes by while we’re sleeping, they won’t be like ‘ah, oh my god, why don’t these blues match, I bet there’s someone hiding behind this strange mismatched color, let’s eat them ahhh!’ Or something.”
Caleb stares at her for a second, then lets out a deep breath before getting back to his feet. “Well, what a terrible way to die.”
“Isn’t it tho!”
They all fall against the stone walls, only a few hours after the encounter with the scary rock monsters that had the audacity to mess up Jester’s temple.
All of them groan. Caleb and Nott slide down the wall into a mess of limbs. The wizard is still cradling his left arm, which might have stopped bleeding, but he isn’t using it for anything. Nott looks up at him, a frown on her face. “I think I have a potion.”
“Nah, it’s fine. It’ll be okay tomorrow, I’m just sore.” He assures her, closing his eyes for a moment.
“Yeah,” Beau sighs, flexing her bruised knuckles. “Maybe we just catch some sleep, there haven’t been any deviations off this tunnel, so we know we’re headed the right way at least?”
“That’s a good idea,” Caduceus agrees, looking around. “I can carve us out a little hole, and we can do the same set up as last night. Mr. Caleb?”
“Ja, that worked really well. We’ll do that again.”
Jester sits back for a moment, letting them work to set up the hut again. Nott sits next to her, still trying to eat her way through that thing’s tongue. “I’ve never seen something be so hard to eat.”
“I know,” Nott growls, frustrated. “But I’m going to eat it. It’s a pride thing at this point.”
“What does it taste like?”
“Rocks, mostly.”
“Gross.”
“Yeah, but like I said. Pride.”
Jester hums, rubbing her neck where her armor was poking into it. “I bet the Traveler loves his temple tho.”
“The dead rocks only make it cooler.”
“I know, right!” Jester grins. There’s a dim flash of light, and the hut is up. Caleb stretches his arms out, the ten minutes of casting ending, and Jester watches him seize up for a moment, one of his hands coming to rest on his left shoulder. She can barely hear a string of Zemnian words escaping his lips.
Most of the groups throws a thank you to Caleb and Caduceus, heading into the hut. Caleb takes an extra moment, unrolling the silver wire he uses for his alarm spell. Jester comes up next to him, hands behind her back. “Hey Cayyyyleb.”
“Hey what?” He answers her, fingers still working the wire free.
“I’m coming in your bubble again.” She warns him, before she places one of her hands on the joint where his neck meets his shoulder. He freezes, of course he does, and she’s banking on it. She moves his coat out of the way so she can see the skin understand, and it’s decorated in deep purples and blues.
“Jester-“ He hisses, and she looks at him, a frown on her face.
“It’s a bad blue, let me heal it.”
“It’s fine-“
“Sleep won’t fix this. I can. Let me help you.”
Caleb looks like he might want to fight her on it, tell her not to worry, but he just sighs, relaxing his shoulder a little. “Please.”
She smiles then, closing her eyes and casting a pretty decent healing spell, until the blues and purples get lighter and more green. “There!” She tells him, carefully removing her hand. “That’s so much better.”
“It is,” Caleb nods. “Thank you.”
He smiles at her then, one of his real ones, and Jester smiles back, wondering why she feels warm when she’s usually kind of cold. “Goodnight, Caleb.”
“Goodnight, Jester.” He goes back to casting his spell, and Jester enters the hut, crawling between Nott and Beau. They adjust accordingly, only to have to readjust when Caleb comes in as well, on Nott’s other side.
He sleeps on his left side, and Jester can’t help but feel proud of that.
In the tiny alcove where they had managed to find a place to rest, Jester feels some movement against her chest. She fights consciousness the best she can, but her eyes crack open eventually. Beau and Fjord and piled on top of each other, trying to snore louder than each other. Caduceus barely fits in the hut, but he curls himself up well. Nott is curled up between Cad and Caleb, who was next to Yasha and Jester.
Those Fire Giants were brutal, and though they weren’t in the best place to rest, they all desperately needed it. Caduceus and Caleb had found a small crack in this tunnel and had fashioned them a space again. No one had really spoken to each other since, opting to just fall into their giant pile and rest, but Jester did see Caleb holding Nott for quite a while, before her little friend had finally assured him she was alright.
What she feels is Caleb’s foot as he pulls himself to his knees, quietly, so he doesn’t wake the rest of them. His hands are on his head, like he’s trying to keep from shattering. Jester waits before she sits up, not wanting to make anything worse. She knows today was awful, she knows that Nott almost died and those giants almost killed them and nothing is going to make that okay, but she still feels like she should do something.
She wonders if she should wake Nott up, but there’s no way she can wake her up without Caleb knowing she’s awake. Plus, Nott needs to sleep. She and Caduceus healed her up more as soon as they had a moment to breathe away from the Fire Giants, but she’s still in a pretty rough spot. Jester moves subtly, and Caleb flinches, turning to look at her. She sits up slowly, not wanting to push Yasha awake either.
A long thirty seconds pass before either of them makes a move. Jester breaks first, motioning for him to come closer. He hesitates, wondering if he can make a break for it, but if he does that, he’ll lose the spell. Eventually, carefully, he makes his way over to where Jester is.
“Are you alright?” She asks him, barely a whisper. Caleb shakes his head, curling up again. “Is it pain?”
“No.” He whispers, unwilling to meet her eyes. “It almost happened again. It almost happened again.”
“Caleb, shhhh.” She reaches out to touch his shoulder, and he winces hard when she does. Jester doesn’t let go though, she waits until his shaking stops. “It’s okay, Nott is okay.”
“She...she almost...she almost-” Caleb’s eyes are far away, and Jester reaches out and puts her hand over his mouth. Caleb starts, looking at her.
“Nott is okay. She’s okay and we saved her. We’re all going to make it, and we’re going to save Yeza and everything will be okay. Just like you told me. It’s all going to be okay, even if it isn’t right now, okay?” She whispers, very quietly. Caleb lets out a shaky breath, but he nods and Jester releases her hand. “Try and get some sleep, okay? Tomorrow we have to be heroes.”
Caleb nods, his eyes a little more present. “We’re okay.”
Jester smiles at him, a fondness fluttering in her chest. “Ja, we are. You can trust me on that.”
He looks like he might say something for a moment, but instead he just presses his forehead against hers. It’s only for a second, before he’s settling back into his spot, his hand coming to rest on Nott’s head. Jester smiles, wondering if she’s blushing as she lays back down.
She’s almost back asleep when she feels Caleb’s boot knock against hers, like he’s grounding himself. She knocks her boot back against his, curling back into Yasha to steal some of her warmth. She hopes it's enough, she really does, but it isn't too long before she's able to hear the calm breathing (or snoring) of all of her friends around her. With that, Jester is able to find sleep again.