Chapter Text
Caleb sighed as he dropped into his seat in the bar, ready to take a load off. It had been a long day and every inch of him was sore. As the rest of the group joined him with food and drink his eyes couldn’t help but stay on Jester a bit longer than the others. Unlike him she looked raring to go, undeterred by the hours of digging she’d done that day. Usually that energy would make him smile, but unfortunately the dread from seeing her and Veth’s conversation the other day hadn’t waned.
‘Copper for your thoughts Caleb’, Beau slid her chair over to him, a mug of ale in one hand.
‘Oh nothing Beauregard, just thinking about that residium we found today’, Caleb lied, though it was an easy one. The jewellery they’d found today was something they previously had thought was first crafted only 400 years ago, but these artefacts were at least 500 years if not older. It was fascinating and they were both excited to figure out what they had been used for. Based on the inscription of Pelor on one of the rings their best guess was a ritual, but they weren’t completely convinced of that yet.
‘Same here’, Beau put her mug down and dug out her notebook from her satchel, flipping to one of the pages, ‘Obviously residium has been used for accessories far longer than we originally thought, but I’m interested as to how it got here and if other examples can be found in Wildemount or Tal’dorei. Pelor is heavily associated with the origin place of the stone, so can we assume that ring belonged to someone born there or was residium used to signify Pelor himself? Did it just belong to a devout worshipper of him?’.
‘Beau you realise we’re off the clock now right?’, Fjord groaned as he took a bite of his pie, ‘Can’t this wait til tomorrow?’.
‘Let her keep going, otherwise she’ll be up all night and you don’t want to deal with a cranky Beau’, Yasha smiled as Beau pouted, ‘You know it’s true babe’.
Beau huffed, ‘It’s only because this is such a rare find and I need to know the answer’.
Caleb nodded, ‘Agreed, it’s unprecedented and I too would like to discover the reason though we can move to my room if it bothers you Fjord?’.
‘No!’
All eyes turned to Jester as she shouted, the tiefling halfway out of her seat.
‘You alright Jester?’, Veth said with concern.
Jester flushed as she slowly sank back in her chair, ‘I’m fine it’s just, I was really interested in what Beau was saying, you know?’.
‘Oh, well’ Beau said slightly flustered, ‘It’s nothing really just some theories’.
‘It’s good to get different perspectives though, right Caleb?’, Jester insisted, switching her gaze to the wizard who now looked visibly uncomfortable.
‘Um..ja, I have always found input from others to be a vital part of the process’.
‘That’s settled then, Beau and Caleb can keep talking about it down here’, Jester crossed her arms as she stared at Fjord, daring him to disagree.
Fjord raised his arms in surrender, ‘Fine, I don’t care what you guys do it was just a suggestion. I was probably going to head to my room to meditate soon anyway’.
‘Could I join you in that, I feel like I should speak with the Wildmother today’, Caduceus asked with a gentle smile.
‘Sure, I would appreciate the company’, Fjord kicked back his chair, as he downed the rest of his ale, ‘No time like the present’.
Caduceus nodded sagely before turning to the group, ‘I will say goodnight to you all then, enjoy your studies’.
With that the two men left, discussing which meditation technique was best. The rest of them went back to what they were doing, Veth and Yasha talking about their favourite musicians, while Beau and Caleb started discussing the find. Jester would occasionally pipe up with an idea, which Beau would studiously note down.
As the hours passed by and the food and ale started to dwindle, Veth and Yasha decided to head off to their own quarters. Before she left, Veth whispered in Jester’s ear ‘Make it tonight, he’s so entrenched in this discussion he’s bound to have his defences down’. The pair looked to Caleb, whose usual tense frame had relaxed as he and Beau were arguing over a certain point that neither of the pair understood.
‘You’re right, this is my best chance wish me luck’, Jester whispered back with a grin. Veth snickered and squeezed her hand before shouting out, ‘Night everyone don’t stay up too late’.
Caleb and Beau said an absent-minded ‘Night’ before returning to their argument. Jester waved goodnight to Veth before settling in for what she could tell was going to be a long night. For a second Caleb glanced over to her, a smile on his lips. She returned his smile, causing him to duck away Jester cursing herself. But then Frumpkin came over and scooched onto her lap, purring softly. In delight, she started to stroke him and then an idea for how to enact her plan came to her.
‘Hey Caleb?’.
‘Hmm?’, he responded as he flipped through his own notes.
‘How do you summon Frumpkin?’.
‘Oh’, Caleb looked startled, not expecting the question. Beau raised an eyebrow at Jester curiously, ‘It’s a simple ritual spell, young novice wizards learn it fairly early on. Why?’
‘It’s just I have my own summoning spell and wanted to compare’, Jester shrugged as nonchalantly as possible, trying to hide her nervous energy.
‘You can summon creatures too, that’s amazing!’, Caleb exclaimed, the argument with Beau now forgotten.
Jester blushed, earning another curious stare from Beau who was now looking between her and Caleb suspiciously. Doing her best to ignore Beau Jester replied, ‘Ja, I can. If you would like I can show you’.
Caleb nodded eagerly, making Jester giggle, ‘Come outside then, I need a bit of space to work with’.
She led Caleb out to the front of the inn, Beau following as she too was intrigued. Taking a deep breath Jester closed her eyes and began to chant the words the Traveller had taught her. In her mind’s eye she started to sketch out the creature she wanted to summon, and within a minute she heard Artie’s voice in her ear.
‘An excellent choice my dear, let me see what I can rustle up’.
Beau and Caleb watched in amazement as an emerald gateway appeared in the centre of the yard, orchids and tulips springing from the frame creating a visage of beauty. As Jester finished the spell, they suddenly heard a whinny and trotting through the gate came a pure white unicorn with a sapphire horn. The creature immediately went to Jester and kneeled in obedience to her, causing the tiefling to laugh in delight.
‘Oh you’re gorgeous, hello’, she bent down and stroked the unicorn’s mane. She looked to Beau and Caleb whose mouths were open, ‘You can come and stroke her if you want guys’.
Beau immediately went over and started to pet the horse, ‘Jessie this is amazing, I had no idea you had magic this strong’.
Jester winked at Beau mischievously, ‘Never underestimate me Beau’, then she looked to Caleb to see his reaction.
Caleb for his part was oscillating between excitement at seeing such interesting new magic and the dawning horror that he may not be able to resist this little tiefling’s charm for much longer. He’d already fallen in love with Jester’s kindness, empathy, and wit, but seeing Jester perform magic was something entirely different, and by the gods if that wasn’t a turn on for him. She looked so in control and powerful, not to mention she created such beauty. As she looked to him he knew he was fucked. If he’d thought he could resist her before, he was lying to himself now. Just that look was making him think that maybe he should give this a try, that he wanted to make her look as happy as she did now. There were only two days left on this expedition, and that wall he’d put up for so many years was quickly beginning to crumble.
‘Caleb what do you think?’, Jester asked, hope keen in her eyes.
‘It’s, ah, it’s incredible Jester. Is that a celestial creature?’, Caleb managed to get out.
‘Yep’, Jester nodded, ‘I can summon certain celestials for up to an hour, but this is the first time I’ve properly tried it’.
‘You did well for your first attempt’, Caleb said impressed.
‘Well you know, I’m not afraid of a challenge’, Jester quipped, but Caleb heard the intention in her words clearly. Jester wasn’t going to let Caleb run away from this, and by the gods he was beginning to think she was right.