Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was inevitable, considering how well Slayer’s Cake was doing, that they’d branch out past the borders of Tal’dorei, and Vex’ahlia only felt it right that at least one of the founders overlooked the opening of their Trostenwold store.

Which led to her being here now, sitting behind the counter and talking animatedly to the small blonde halfling woman they had hired in the prior weeks to overlook this particular store, explaining and confirming again the standards she expected of a new employee. On the far side of the store was a half elven boy with shoulder length raven black hair - not a child by elven standards, but certainly not a man either - waving a cookie around in Trinket’s face before shoving it into his own mouth.

“Freddie, don’t make me tell you again, darling,” Vex sighed, standing from her perch as Trinket huffed his disappointment. “If you keep teasing him, he’ll take your hand off one day. I’ve seen him do far more with much less effort.” The half elf grinned and knelt down next to her son, grabbing a cookie from the stand beside her and offering it to Trinket while scratching behind his ears.

The young boy - Freddie - sighed and pushed himself up from the wall reluctantly before slinging a thick pack over his shoulder. “It won’t happen again,” he grumbled, and frowned as his mother ruffled his hair. “I’m going to go watch them set up the carnival or something.. I’m bored.”

Vex’ahlia just smiled and watched as her son pulled up his hood and slinked out the front door,  his mannerisms and attitude forever reminding her so much of Vax’ildan. He would’ve be a proud, albeit problematic uncle. Something in gut kept her positive that her brother was watching over her family, not only herself and her eldest son here, but Percival and their three other children at home in Whitestone.

As the boy disappeared further into the distance, Vex returned to her post inside, flipping the sign on the door from ‘closed’ to ‘open’, and she moved her stool to the other end of the shop, scratching Trinket behind the ears again as he curled up by her feet. He would be a helpful extra pair of eyes if needed but for now he was obviously content to lay on the cool tile floor. Besides, there wasn’t really a reason for him to be in Vex’s necklace anymore, and he was getting older - they all were. He deserved to see and smell and hear everything when he travelled.

The bell above the door chimed as their first customer entered, and then another, and another. The day held up with customers continuously flowing in and out, praising the store and vowing they would be back, filling Vex’ahlia with satisfaction and pride. Besides the few younger customers who eyed off wares and got very strict grumbles from Trinket and pointed looks from Vex, the day went surprisingly well.

Freddie returned late in the day, about half an hour before official closing. Business had started to calm down as people turned to taverns and inns for meals over pastries, and the two of them as well as the halfling who had been working the register made to pack up for the day.

“You’ll be okay to take this on yourself then?” the half elf smiled to the short blonde, handing her a small box to tuck away behind the counter. “Obviously you’ll have more staff to work with after today, and who we did have did well. I just want to be able to leave you knowing that everything will be handled.”

“Of course Lady De Rolo,” the halfling smiled back, packing the box away and sitting upright quickly as the bell let off it’s telltale ding, and everyone looked up at the little blue tiefling who had walked into the store.

The girl looked back between the three of them and Trinket, her cheery face falling suddenly. “You’re not closed already, are you?”  

“Not yet, darling, but we will be closing up soon,” Vex smiled as she moved behind the register to count their take for the day.

“Oh okay, well in that case I will have... “ the new customer hummed in thought and strolled through the store slowly, eyeing off everything that was still left out. “One of everything!”

The sudden shouting across the store caught Trinket’s attention and he strolled up to the tiefling as she continued to look through the display cases, snuffling at her ankles and nudging his snout under her hand gently, getting a small giggle in response. Behind them, Freddie started filling a basket with one of everything in stock.

“Is this your bear?” the tiefling asked as she skipped her way back over to the register, pulling a small coin purse from around her waist.

The way Trinket had taken to the woman held Vex’s attention, her bear treating this stranger like an old friend. “Trinket, be nice buddy,” she said in a low voice, but with a smile, more as a ways of keeping up the ‘guard-bear’ act on her part than anything else.

Suddenly the horned woman’s head disappeared behind the counter, making Vex lean over the register and watch as the tiefling knelt on the ground next to Trinket, patting his snout and scratching his head and neck happily. “Hi Trinket, I’m Jester,” she sang, as she received a big happy bear lick on the side of her face. “You have a very pretty owner, and you are also a very beautiful bear.” The tiefling - Jester , Vex committed to memory - looked up with a wide smile.

“He seems happy to meet you,” Vex smiled back as Freddie came over to the register with a somewhat overflowing basket. “As am I. Lady Vex’ahlia De Rolo, and the broody teenager is my son,” she offered her hand in greeting as Jester stood again, who took the offer and shook firmly with much more strength than it looked like she possessed.

They exchanged a few more pleasantries as Vex did the maths of Jester’s purchase, letting the tiefling talk her ear off about the Half-Orc she’d met days prior in Port Damali, and how they’d saved a fisherman’s daughter from a giant snake, among many other things in such a short span of time. The way she was so excited about her travels and her new friends brought up fond memories for Vex’ahlia.

“Well, make sure to visit the store in Whitestone if you’re ever out that way,” the half elf offered as she counted out the last of the coin Jester had handed over. “We’d always appreciate a helping hand out there, and we have some more unique goods,” she laughed, pushing the very full, now wrapped basket across the counter.

“Of course, of course,” Jester beamed and started to make her way out of the store, with Trinket still on her heels, obviously sad at his new friend leaving, and Vex following up behind that with her son to close down the front of the store properly. “It was nice meeting you!”

Vex was about to respond in kind when the tieflings arms wrapped around her in a tight hug, and she stiffened for a second before shrugging and hugging the woman back gently with a small laugh. Jester pulled away from her as a booming voice called down the road to them.

“Jester, if you wanna come to this carnival, you gotta go drop those off at the tavern,” a well built half orc shook his head with a smile - Vex assumed this was the Fjord that she was told about earlier.

“Oh! The carnival! Yes yes I’m coming!” the tiefling called back, and gave Trinket one more quick head scratch before she skipped down the road toward her friend, calling a goodbye over her shoulder.

Vex’ahlia watched as their forms faded into the distance, Jester obviously telling another animated story to her travelling companion as they walked, and she felt a strange connection to the woman she couldn’t really put her finger on.

“Well that was… odd,” Freddie sighed and started to walk ahead toward the inn they were staying at.

“Yes, quite,” Vex responded, more to herself than anything as she followed after her son, her eyes still drawn to the spot she last saw the little blue tiefling. “Very odd indeed.”

Chapter Text

They were all exhausted, the unexpected detour to Alfield finally settling on them, hard . Beau and Jester had slept a majority of the final stretch to Zadash on the cart, with Fjord sitting quietly up front with the horses, and the other three talking continuously to distract themselves and each other from their own minds.

The sun barely peaked over the top of the city as they settled into the first inn they saw, swearing to sort out their lodgings better when a majority of their group wasn’t traumatised or half asleep. Jester started to complain, before being very quickly hushed by Fjord and Molly, and pushed out of the room with Beauregard, who just shrugged and started to make her way through the city to explore.

City or not, the monk and her tiefling companion quickly discovered that few places were open for business at the crack of dawn.

“Fuck this,” Beau groaned, slumping back against a nearby storefront window, arms crossed in defiance. “I’ve got all this energy and fuck all to do with it.”

Suddenly a hand was next to her head, her eyes level and very, very close to a particularly unnerving set of purple ones. They were sparkling with what Beau could only guess to be some less than lawful plan, earning her tiefling friend a huffed ‘What, Jester?’

Jester’s grin eat in to her personal space, and the tiefling quickly pulled back. “Well, you have all that fancy monk stuff to practice, right?” she sang, spinning away from her human companion and beginning to make her way down the road.

With another sigh, Beau jumped up and began to follow her, noting that they were walking toward the outskirts of the city quite fast. “Okay… what are you thinking about doing then Jester? Amuse me,” the monk hummed, keeping pace with the flashes of blue that darted between buildings, her question either not being heard or being intentionally ignored.

She continued to press as they walked, still garnering no response from Jester, who in turn was met with grunts and sighs of discontent. She stopped paying attention to where they were walking, looking down at the back of Jester’s ankles and following blindly until they stopped.

When she looked up, they were at the treeline of a bordering forest, she guessed on the south side of the town where they’d entered earlier, faintly seeing the mountain ridge they’d passed through behind the mass of trees.

And then Jester was in her face again, holding up a panel of bark she’d pulled of a nearby tree with a shrug. “It’s not very strong, but at least you can practice your aim?”

Beau had to hand it to the little blue tiefling, she could be damn resourceful, and Beau had to take a moment to step back and admire her handiwork. “Fuck it, why not,” she smiled genuinely at her travelling companion and took a second to reposition to a defensive stance as Jester’s tail held out the makeshift target to the side.

The sun continued to rise as Beau made her strikes, calm and precise, littering the ground around them with chunks of bark as she smashed through each makeshift board that Jester pulled from the trees around them, leaving the base of at least three looking fairly bare - but nothing that would last too long.

The lithe monk wound up for another firm punch through the board, Jester now using her hands to hold the board up in front of her and a little offset. (‘It’s fine, you’ve been watching me break these things for like an hour, I’m not gonna hit you’ she’d said minutes before, already breaking through two and gaining the tieflings trust.)

Everything moved in slow motion. Beauregard pushed her arm forward with force, a large flash of light coming from a tree beside them throwing her focus off for half a second, but half a second enough for her fist to collide with Jester’s nose.

“Shit Jester I’m sorry,” Beau stammered quickly before turning away to see the source of her distraction, immediately back on guard in her defensive stance, body between whatever was now in the treeline and her friend.

“What the fuck, dude!?” the tiefling cursed, hands immediately coming up to her nose as blood and tears rolled down her face. “I think you broke it. I know I’m the cleric but I don’t really know how to fix broken bones, Beau.”

“Jester, shut the fuck up,” the monk quickly shouted over her shoulder as she looked at the three humanoids who were standing in front of her. “What the fuck? Who are you? Where did you come from?”

She took a second to take in her surroundings; Her staff leaning up against a rock a few feet away, Jester doubled over in pain behind her (that was going to be fun to explain to everyone else), and the three strangers in front of her.

On first glance they didn’t seem to pose a threat, two half elf women and a human male, dressed in common - if a little pricey looking - travel clothes. But they HAD just stepped out of a tree.

“Uh, hi,” the redhead taking point smiled and waved shyly. “Sorry if we scared you, there’s not usually anyone out he-” She was interrupted as Jester let out a choked cry of pain from behind her.

Beau quickly to a step back and wrapped an arm around Jester’s shoulders, still in a very defensive position as she muttered another ‘Sorry,’ into the tiefling ear.

“Oh shit,” the redhead rushed forward to asses the situation, and Beau felt her body go rigid as she held out a hand in front of her.

“Don’t come any closer. We still don’t know anything about you. Any of you,” she pointed quickly about the three strangers. “Just fuck off and I won’t hurt anyone else, okay?”

The other half elf stepped up quickly, a look of shock on her face. “Jester? Jester what happened.”

Beau made a double take between the dark haired elf and the tiefling behind her. “You know this fucker?” She stood up straighter. If these fucks were here to hurt her new friend, she sure as hell wouldn’t let that happen, not without a fight anyway.

“Lady Vex’ahlia,” Jester’s voice came quiet confident, if still a little nasally. “Beau it’s okay. She’s a friend.” She messily wiped the blood from the bottom half of her face with her sleeve and took a step forward. Beau stayed where she was, her eyes flicking between all three of them as the dark haired elf, Vex’ahlia, took point of them and tilted Jester’s face up gently.

“Keyleth, be a dear and heal this up for the young girl, will you?” Vex’ahlia asked quickly to her redhead companion - Keyleth, Beau noted.

The woman moved awkwardly but with purpose, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, drawing the monk’s attention to the circlet around her head, complete with a set of carefully crafted antlers. She’d seen a few druid’s in her life, and this Keyleth woman seemed to fit that category well if she had to take a guess. Between that and the earth tones she wore.

If she wasn’t already convinced, the gentle green glow that emanated from Keyleth’s hands as she healed the tiefling confirmed her suspicions.

“There,” the druid beamed happily and took a step back. “Jester, was it? It might be a bit tender for a few days, but otherwise, it’s all fixed up!” As if on que, Jester poked herself on the bridge of her nose and let out a quiet ‘ow’, earning her a little chuckle from Vex’ahlia and a head shake from the other man travelling with them.

The lithe monk let her stance drop a little as the druid continued to speak. “Beau, it’s okay. We’re not here to hurt you. I’m Keyleth, Archdruid of the Air Ashari,” she extended a hand with a shy smile and a nod that Beauregard took hesitantly. “This,” she gestured to the other half elf, “is Lady Vex’ahlia,-”

Vex interjected quickly, putting a hand on Keyleth’s arm and offering a smile just as warm and sincere as the druid’s own. “This is my husband, Percival,” she offered quickly, nodding to the human behind her before digging into the bag he had slung over her shoulder. “Jester and I met at the Slayer’s Cake in Trostenwold. We’re sorry for startling you both. There’s usually nobody out here when we tree stride with Kiki.”

“It’s nice to see you again,” Jester gave the dark haired elf a small hug. “What are you doing in Zadash?”

“Ah, we have to pick up some things here before heading west to Deastok to meet a friend,” she hugged back before pulling out a small jar with some sort of treat in it and handed it to the tiefling. “We have new product to pitch,” Vex winked, “consider it a free sample.”

“Oh thank you so much, I will love it!” Jester beamed and tucked the jar away into her bag.

Beau moved to pick up her staff and sling it over her shoulder, bits of bark crunching under her feet as she moved. “Ahem, well, Jester,” she coughed awkwardly as she walked back to her friend’s side and linked their arms together. “We should probably get going. I need to find a bathhouse after the last few days, and places are probably open now.” She laughed nervously with a gentle tug on the tieflings arm.

“Yes, you are starting to smell a bit like Caleb, and you're all covered in Gnoll bits still, kind of,” Jester teased and let herself be tugged away a little. “It was nice meeting you all!”

“Yeah, maybe we’ll see you again,” Beau shrugged as she started to walk away with Jester in tow, catching the druid’s awkward wave in the corner of her eye as she went, the small gesture and general atmosphere of the woman bringing a small smile and blush to her face.

Jester waved again enthusiastically back at them as she was pulled into the streets of Zadash once more, foot traffic starting to pick up as shops opened their doors for the morning. “I hope we do see them again, you know.”

“Yeah. That wouldn’t be so bad.”

Chapter Text

Caleb carefully finished setting his silver thread in place for the morning. He looked over his works one more time, taking a step back and letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Only the rustling of his small goblin companion behind him brought his attention back to the task at hand as Nott started pulling out everything he’d need to bring back Frumpkin. She was obviously fighting sleep as she sorted out the components Caleb would need.

“Ah.. thankyou, Nott,” the wizard offered a small smile as he ruffled her hair. “Get some sleep. You need it.”

For a second, Nott looked like she wanted to protest, before she shrugged and climbed up onto the bed, curling up in a little ball against the headboard. “You have to sleep too, okay?” she mumbled, already half asleep.

Caleb hummed and nodded as he settled on the floor at the foot of the bed, looking down at the spell components set out in front of him. She was right - he did have to sleep. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy as he prepared everything, but this… getting his companion back was a priority. In the small time he’d been without his familiar, his mind had run rampant.

With that, Caleb started his ritual, making sure the small brazier was positioned properly. Methodically, he moved each reagent to the brazier, counting and double checking the amounts. Charcoal first, then the herbs, and finally the incense, lighting them with a quick spell.

The fire flickered in his eyes and he turned his attention to watch the smoke rise and dissipate before it reached the ceiling.

He leaned back against the bed frame with a quiet groan and closed his heavy eyes, the wounds left from the bandit attack earlier still fresh enough to be painful, even after some healing.

The incense coming off the small fire in the brazier was all encompassing, and Caleb found his attention drifting from the sting behind his eyelids to the way Nott’s gentle snoring echoed around the room, and how he finally had a second to sit down and just breathe…

Caleb opened his eyes to almost pure darkness, the brazier in front of him barely giving off any semblance of light.

All thoughts of getting his cat back were gone as he took in his surroundings. It was so dark and the… surface beneath him was cold and damp. Aside from the burnt out pile of reagents in front of him, he saw nothing but darkness.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Caleb could hear the gentle snoring of his goblin counterpart on the bed, keeping him anchored to the mortal plane. In front of him he heard faint footsteps, the flapping of wings and the gentle mewl of a lost kitten.

K-chk. K-chk. K-chk.

The footsteps came closer. Gentle. Nott’s snoring stayed the same volume behind him.

K-chk. K-chk. K-chk.

Closer again. The softest underlying rustle accompanying the steps now, the telltale sound of leather armor, and the occasional clang of buckles.

“Caleb,” a gentle voice called from the darkness, an outline of a man barely visible, feathers adorning the outline of his shoulders, visibly shaking in an unfelt wind.

“Why am I here,” Caleb asked as he looked up into the empty space, his voice fragile and small.

The dark figure continued to move closer, kneeling before Caleb and resting a soft, cool hand under the wizards chin, meeting his eyes with a sad smile as his free hand pushed a stray red lock from the man’s face. Behind him was a looming darkness, and a stark white porcelain face with a gentle smile, not unlike Nott’s half mask.

“It’s not his time, Vax’ildan,” the shadow sang quietly, and extended a hand to rest on the - what Caleb could now see - half elf’s shoulder, gently pulling him back. “He’s come to us before, he’s on the right path, and he will be watched over. But it is not his time.”

The wizard was startled back to reality by a loud caw, no longer reverberating in his mind, but echoing around him in the small room of the inn.

A telltale, birdlike claw tap. Tap tap. Tap tap tap. Moving closer, until the wizard forced his eyes open, met with the sight of black feathers and big black eyes.

“Scheiße. This… Ich verstehs nicht. You are not what I asked for,” Caleb sighed, dropping his head into his hands as the Raven hopped over to him, it’s head tilted curiously.

He had no more reagents. He couldn’t fix this even if he wanted to.

“I’m sorry, Frumpkin,” he sighed again, shaking his dark ginger hair out of his face as he extended a hand tentatively to the bird, who happily hopped up to perch on his arm. “I did not mean for you to take this form. I will change you back as soon as I have everything, I promise.” The Raven let out a gentle trill as it nuzzled it’s beak into Caleb’s bicep.

With a gentle smile, the wizard stood, taking a second to glance at the still peacefully sleeping goblin at the top of the bed before he moved the window of his room. They were only on the second floor of the inn, so he could still see the happening on the Zadash street below him quite clearly as he let the bird perch on the windowsill.

Caleb retrieved one of his books from his coat and settled comfortably in the chair next to the same window, reaching his hand up and petting at the back of the Raven’s neck. There was no way in hell he was going to sleep just yet - not after how his accidental power nap had ended.

On occasion he’d look up and find the dark bird watching him, almost too carefully, the black beady eyes focused on his features. It was almost too human, not like any of the other forms Frumpkin had taken before.

Nott’s quiet snoring mixed in with the Raven’s occasional quiet calls, he decided, wasn’t the worst soundtrack for his reading.

The Raven let out another trill as it’s attention focussed on something outside, and Caleb sat up straight, only to see a small cluster of well dressed folk making their way through the city streets. From what he could see, two half-elf women, and a human man… The one out in front looked familiar, and Frumpkin seemed to have focussed in on her too. She held herself tall, a dark braid sitting across her shoulder as she laughed and talked with her companions.

Caleb shrugged and went back to his book, giving the Raven-formed Frumpkin another quick scratch behind his neck.