Chapter Text
The Empire got a lot more unfriendly towards “unauthorized” mages, after the attack.
Molly hadn’t even been aware that “unauthorized” mages were a thing beforehand, but suddenly they were. He didn’t know where that left the poor bastards who’d been trying to get into Solstrice Academy and get authorized before important buildings started blowing up, and no one in charge seemed to feel it worth explanation. That was just the way things worked in the Empire, now more than ever, and it was one more thing The Mighty Nein had to roll with.
Until one day they couldn’t. Until one day they found themselves too far north and suddenly no one was willing to look the other way anymore. Not towards tieflings, not towards goblins, not towards unauthorized mages.
They’d just been trying to stay somewhere out of the snow for the night. Despite the fact that they were on the outskirts of one of the largest cities on the road since Zadash, they’d unilaterally agreed to sleep in a barn instead. Okay, they hadn’t actually asked permission from the owners to sleep there, but it was a big barn, and they’d planned to be out of there before sunrise, snow or no snow.
They’d been found out, somehow. Maybe someone had been following them, maybe someone from the family had gotten an inconvenient bout of insomnia and gone for a late night walk. Either way, it resulted in Caleb’s alarm spell being tripped by what must have been a solid twenty Crownsguard surrounding the building in tandem.
It was not an easy fight. The soldiers had crossbows. Caleb had fire, but that really only served to make things worse in the end. There were a great many flammable things in the average barn, after all.
So the end result was this – the building was on fire, one of the beams that had burned through had fallen across Molly’s legs and cracked Nott hard across the skull. He could see blood drying on her face, but he couldn’t see where the rest of the group had fallen. He could just see where the last one standing was, and it just so happened to be Caleb. He stood in the center of a ring of fire and steel, only just barely managing to keep the guards from skewering him by adding in more fire. Even so, Molly saw two of the survivors raising their crossbows. He was just lifting his sword to slice into his neck and damn their eyes when Caleb called out: “Wait!”
His voice echoed throughout the barn, louder than Molly had ever heard it, maybe even loud enough that the family no doubt cowering back in the farmhouse heard it. It did nothing to settle the nerves of Caleb’s opponents – but it did make them pause, and gave him an opportunity the wizard seized. “I wish to speak to your captain!” he continued, his voice magically reverberating. “I have a deal to make with him! No one else has to suffer, or burn, or die!”
A few glances were exchanged, with some casting anxious looks between Caleb and the flames licking higher up the walls. Finally, a guard dressed a bit nicer than the others stepped forward. “This should be good,” Molly heard him say. “State your intentions.”
Caleb started to slowly move a hand towards his face. It wasn’t slow enough, however – with an ugly twang, a crossbow bolt sprouted out of his shoulder. The wizard cried out, clutching the wound and slumping further where he stood. The guard standing next to the one with the twitchy finger, the one who still had a bolt loaded, suddenly started screaming, as black bile began to pool in his eyes and ooze down his cheeks like hell’s own tears. Molly didn’t even wince at the momentary bite of pain across his neck, one more scar to join the many.
Caleb reacted quickly, as Molly had known he would. He pointed at the screaming man as if it were his own handiwork. “You see?!” he boomed. “I have more than fire! You will probably kill me, yes, just like you slaughtered all my servants. But how many of you will have equally terrible deaths? Better you hear the terms of my surrender, ja? Then we all leave with our necks. This is your one chance and your final warning!”
Perhaps it was only a trick of the light to begin with, but the Crownsguard probably didn’t notice how Caleb’s hands were shaking. But neither did they stop him as he lifted a hand to his face again and smudged…something under each eye.
It felt like the world was holding its breath for an instant…and then the captain lowered his sword, just an inch. “Those…things. You summoned them here?”
“Yes.” Caleb let the volume of his voice fade to something less resounding, now just loud enough to be heard over the flames. “That little green monster, those two demons, that orc brute. The roads are dangerous for a man like myself, as you have just proven. I made help for myself.”
Molly managed to bite his lip at just the last possible second to keep from making any noise, as he felt the broken wooden beam being slowly shifted off of him. He looked back, moving his head as little as he dared, to see Beau crouching behind him. The monk was backlit by flames, but he could make out Fjord draped over her back, Jester being dragged under one arm. She held a finger to her lips, nodded at Nott, then jerked her head towards the nearest wall.
He heard the captain scoff. “This is exactly the sort of activity the Empire is attempting to regulate in light of the attack. One unknown man cannot have such uncontrolled power over the very forces of hell, the very forces our soldiers fight against.”
“My name is Caleb,” Caleb said. “You know me now.”
There was a hole in the wall where Beau was indicating. It wasn’t much – Molly guessed she’d ripped it open herself. But it was enough for them to squeeze through, and on the other side was open fields and open sky and a chance.
Beau, seeing that he understood, started to move herself and her burdens over towards it. Molly carefully gathered up Nott and followed at a half crouch. They were screened by rubble and flames, but if someone looked over at the wrong moment, if someone saw…
“You do seem a…remarkably reasonable man.”
“So I am often told. I am sorry, after the attack…it is so hard to keep track of what is rumor and what is truth. Perhaps you could take me back to the offices of the Lawmaster and we could work to resolve this mess properly.”
Beau had to push Jester through, clamber out herself, then drag Fjord outside. Molly had to remind himself to breathe. At least here, low to the ground, the smoke wasn’t so bad.
He passed Nott out to her, then started to squeeze himself through.
“Perhaps that can be arranged. I feel we’ve made our point, there need be no further loss of life tonight, you…you bastard!”
Molly heard it when the spell ended. He heard it in the sudden rush of fury in the captain’s voice, he heard it in the sharp smack of a backhand and Caleb’s grunt of pain. Molly looked back as he stumbled through the gap, and through the flames he saw Caleb’s silhouette slump to his knees, saw the one who must have been the captain looming over him as another faceless guard passed over what looked like heavy shackles.
Mollymauk Tealeaf made a decision, then. It was one he would come to regret for a very, very long time.
He turned away, and followed Beau at a sprint into a distant copse of dead apple trees. He paused just long enough to set Nott down near where she’d left Fjord and Jester, then turned and chased after Beau with all the strength he had left in his limbs. When it seemed even that wouldn’t be enough to catch her before she made it back to the barn, Molly cursed in Common then barked in Infernal: “Your bones will lie fallow and forgotten!”
Beau cried out in pain, clutching at her head and stumbling. Molly caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, trying to dig in his heels. His vision exploded into stars for a moment as she drove her elbow back into his eye, but by some miracle he managed to keep his grip.
“Let go of me, what the fuck…”
“Hey hey hey stop stop. I saw them pulling out shackles. You don’t shackle someone you plan to execute on the spot. We have time we can do this right we can do something besides running back in there to die…”
She clipped his temple with her other elbow, but that was probably just on principle. After that, grumbling and cursing him all the while, Beau nevertheless slowly stopped struggling. Molly didn’t think to release his grip right away – instead, he held her as they stood together and watched the distant barn in flames, watched as a line of shadows hurried out of it, helping those who stumbled and dragging those who resisted. At this distance, it was impossible to tell which was which.
“How long do you think we have?” Beau whispered.
Molly had no idea. “Long enough,” he said. “To wake those three chuckleheads up, figure out where we’re going, execute one of our classic dramatic rescues. It’ll be all right, Beau.” He knew better than to give her even a friendly kiss, but he squeezed her a little tighter instead and hoped she recognized the half-hug for what it was. In case she didn’t, he promptly let go and hurried back towards the trees. “Come on.”
He was brought up short by a soft, plaintive meow. He and Beau looked to their right to see a tattered ginger tail winding its way towards them through the tall grass. Molly laughed in relief and delight, before reaching down to pick up the cat. “There, see? Our first stroke of luck. Soon as Caleb figures out where he is, he can use this little guy to lead us right to him.”
It didn’t take long for Beau to dig out the healing potions Jester kept in her haversack. It didn’t take long for the two of them to dump those potions down the throats of the unconscious, or for the unconscious to wake. It felt like it took a minor eternity to explain what had happened, with shame and fear squirming for position in his stomach like stubborn snakes. The most difficult part of the entire affair was forcibly stopping Nott from racing off to try and rescue Caleb right then and there.
But from there, they settled down to lick their wounds and make a plan. Halfway through their efforts, Frumpkin suddenly sat up straight, chirped at nothing, then raced off back towards the city. Not without some collective hesitation, they let him go and trusted that he’d be back.
When the cat did return, it was just as the sky was starting to lighten. The air was growing colder, which honestly felt a little bracing after so long in the fire, and on the wind was the scent of imminent snow. When the cat did return, it was in such a state of agitation and distress that there was no possible chance of delaying any longer. The remainder of the Mighty Nein hastily gathered what they could and raced off after Frumpkin, praying they weren’t too late.
* * *
They found Caleb wandering aimlessly in the snow on the edge of the city.
Molly could scarcely believe the sight, but there he was – ginger and gaunt and disheveled as ever, there was Caleb wandering aimlessly in the snow. Nott didn’t give any of them any longer than that to wonder if they were seeing things. “Caleb!” she called, racing towards him, with Frumpkin hot on her heels. The little goblin collided with her friend at top speed to hug him tight, and Caleb stumbled so that they both wound up sprawled in the snow.
Nott seemed to barely have time to catch her breath, though, before Caleb was shoving her forcibly away, struggling and squirming to escape her grip, and by then Molly was close enough to see the expression of confusion and hurt in her eyes as she let him go. Caleb stumbled to his feet, staggered away, looking first at her and then at the rest of the group standing an anxious few feet away. Molly saw panic on his face, confusion, fear, and then…
...and then recognition dawned, and he smiled at them all. It was the most un-Caleb-like expression Molly had ever seen. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen Caleb smile and mean it at all. Usually it was something he reserved for books, or Frumpkin, or Nott. Maybe Molly had sometimes fantasized about that changing, of course, but...not like this, never like this, when everything was so wrong even if he had no idea how or why.
It was Jester who noticed first. Molly realized too late that he’d been so busy being disquieted by that smile that he hadn’t thought to look at the rest of Caleb’s face. “Oh my god,” she breathed, around the hands now covering her mouth.
Fjord noticed next. “What the fuck…?” he whispered, taking a hesitant step closer.
“I’m gonna be sick,” Beau said quietly. “I’m gonna kill someone and then I’m gonna be sick.”
Molly lifted his gaze just a few inches.
Someone, with an evident lack of care, had lopped off most of Caleb’s bangs, leaving just choppy orange fringe remaining. All for the sake of having better access to his forehead, where someone – someone who really was going to die very soon – had left an ugly, official-looking brand.
“Caleb…?” Nott whimpered. Molly saw by the tears in her eyes that she’d noticed it, too. She hugged him again, much more carefully this time, and this time he was obviously happy to let her even if he seemed at a loss about what to do in response. Molly watched him touch her head, her shoulder, until he seemed to remember what a hug was and hesitantly gave the goblin one in turn. “Are you all right?”
“Why isn’t he saying anything?” Beau whispered, not taking her eyes off the two of them.
“Maybe he can’t hear?” Fjord ventured.
“Maybe he can’t speak,” Molly murmured.
“M-Maybe he’s just being grumpy that we took so long to rescue him!” Jester was trying, bless her heart, to keep a lightness to her tone, but it had never been more obvious that she didn’t believe a word she was saying. Molly watched her skip over to Caleb and tug on his sleeve, speaking in a sing-song tone that sounded as firm as spun glass. “Caleb! We’re really, really sorry we took so long to come and get you and you had to bust your own way out. We just didn’t realize how impressive and strong you are now, or we would have just waited for you on the other side of the wall you burned down!”
Caleb looked at her, and...stayed silent. He still looked happy to see her, was still smiling in that unnervingly open and genuine way, but as she spoke that smile faltered and he tilted his head and just...stared at her, with utterly no hint of understanding in his eyes. Jester’s attempt at optimism flagged visibly as the seconds ticked by, and she cast a pleading gaze to Fjord for help.
“Caleb!” the half-orc called, as he went to join the growing huddle. The wizard looked over at him with barely a pause, then, which neatly resolved the issue of whether his captors had deafened him. He flinched a little bit when Fjord lightly punched his arm, but returned the gesture after a moment with a smile. “Glad you’re back with us.”
Caleb still seemed to be a little uncomfortable with the people suddenly surrounding him, which was the most relieving thing Molly had seen in the past five minutes. So he hung back, and saw out of the corner of his eye that Beau had chosen to do the same.
“So,” she whispered to him. “Guess you called it.”
“Seems I did,” Molly said, watching the other four. “At least...I hope that’s the extent of it.”
“Whatever else is going on, we should probably bail. Like, fast, and now. Catch up and hug it out in the woods.”
“First thing you’ve said that I agree with all day.” With that, Molly clapped his hands like a schoolmarm and strode forward. “All right! Caleb is back with us, only...slightly worse for wear, and we didn’t even have to burn anything to the ground to make it happen.”
He could hear the yet reverberate throughout the reset of the Mighty Nein, unsaid but no less certain. And gods, Molly loved them all then. Really clicking with a group was the most wonderful feeling in the world, and he’d been afraid he might never experience that again after the circus fell apart.
“For now, I say we cut our losses, blow a kiss to Lady Luck, and take this little reunion somewhere more isolated while we figure out what the fuck to do next. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Fjord said. “Maybe we swing back south, until things cool off a bit.”
“Let’s not go making any plans just yet until we’ve all eaten.”
Jester tugged on Caleb’s sleeve again. “Let’s go, Caleb! We have a nice little camp in this really cool cave. There’s a river nearby! I bet even you want a bath now that you’re all covered in prison stink!”
The tension eased a little, at that, and they all chuckled a bit, all except Caleb but that was nothing out of the ordinary in and of itself. And old habits were such a powerful thing that when they all set off towards the woods, Molly didn’t realize right away that Caleb hadn’t taken his usual favored position at the back again. He didn’t realize the full extent of what was wrong until he heard running footsteps approaching at speed before he was suddenly seized from behind in a tight, fierce, trembling hug.
The sound of Molly’s soft gasp of surprise made the others stop and look back. Molly didn’t even have to look down at the arms clasped tight around his stomach to know who had jumped him. He just turned, very careful not to break Caleb’s grip, until he could look the other man in his wide, frightened blue eyes.
This, at least, was a little familiar, though Molly knew that a slap probably wouldn’t shake Caleb out of anything now. He skipped right to the forehead kiss instead, before trying to make his voice low and gentle. “Hey,” he murmured, running a hand through Caleb’s matted hair. “Hey, c’mon, why’re you being ridiculous, hm? You act like we were just about to march off and have a party without you. Of course we’re not about to leave you behind, you’re...”
You’re our wizard, he could have said. You’re our friend, he should have said. But Molly watched Caleb’s eyes as he spoke, and in the end he trailed off with a sigh.
“You can’t understand a word I’m saying, can you?” he said, before kissing Caleb’s cheek as though that could soften the blow. It seemed to help ease the other man’s fears, at least. It got a reaction out of him besides distressed confusion, which was more than anything any of them had said so far had done.
Molly heard the others gasp and murmur to themselves as they heard what he said, as they realized that – in defiance of all logic, reason, and goodness – he really did seem to have it right. They probably wanted explanations. Molly didn’t know how to give them any. Evil as this curse or enchantment or whatever was, it still wasn’t his kind of magic.
One thing he did know how to do, however, was get them moving again. He took Caleb’s hand, lead him over to a Nott who was barely keeping it under control herself, and linked their hands together with some ceremony.
“Make sure he doesn’t get lost, okay?” Molly said, patting her on the head. Nott swallowed, scrubbed fiercely at her eyes with her free hand, and nodded. Molly then looked to Caleb and patted his other cheek. “We’ll be there soon.”