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Fjord watches in awe and maybe just a little bit of fear as Caduceus blasts the baby creature with a beam of necrotic energy. How could you blame him? Caduceus doesn’t usually radiate such... negative energy, it’s a little unnerving. The firbolg’s hair and clothes shift with a supernatural wind, and his eyes glow dark and dull. His expression is locked in a deep scowl as the freak of nature withers in the face of the Wildmother’s power.
As the creature stumbles and finally slumps over, Fjord feels himself finally start to relax with the knowledge that everyone would be okay. He immediately stops relaxing when he remembers that Veth got fucking swallowed by the damn thing a few seconds ago, and her tiny ass probably needs some help getting out.
Fjord runs around to the mouth of the creature, stepping around the prone form of Beau. Looks like she got dropped by the mouth-arms of the thing when it died, and she doesn’t look happy about it.
Fjord kneels down and reaches into the mouth of the monster, trying to avert his gaze from its nightmarish face. It’s even more ghastly in death somehow, one of the eyes is completely evaporated from Caduceus’ spell while the other is as hard as bone. The jaw is slack and dry, and pulling apart the interior lining of its mouth is like pushing aside brittle bushes and weeds. Fjord distracts himself from grossness by preparing a response for when Veth inevitably teases him about rescuing her. Her habit of insulting him has managed to grow on him like a particularly thorny rose, and it’s a spiteful kind of fun to find ways to tease her back.
He finds her arm and changes his grip in order to pull her out. However, the Veth that Fjord pulls out isn’t trying to squirm out of his grip or making fun of him like she should be.
“Oh no,” utters a voice in front of him that sounds like Caduceus, but small and broken and miserable an-
Her body is warped and withered, just like the baby, a dehydrated husk of a halfling woman curled in on herself. Her face, once warm and well rounded, is pale and wrinkled. Some of her exposed skin is splotched with acid burns, still bubbling and sizzling, but the rest is flaky and dry, like a single breath could set it crumbling. Her eyes are pinched shut and her expression is twisted in pain, though it looks like it’s slowly relaxing, as if the muscles that hold it that way are no longer functioning. Around her eyes, her aquamarine tattoos seem to laugh at Fjord, remaining pristine and shiny while the rest of her is so maimed. Unlike her rapidly slackening face, her fingers hold fast to the items they carry; Avantika’s old dagger in one hand and a half empty healing potion in the other.
A litany of curses sound off behind him. Must be Beau, he thinks absently, eyes still horribly glued to his friend in his arms. On instinct, Fjord calls upon the Wildmother’s gifts to heal Veth; to restore the vibrant, petty woman who he can barely recognize in her current state. His hands glow a soft green where they hold her, but nothing happens.
Which means-
Is she-
A wayward wind rustles his hair in apology.
“JESTER!” he shouts, “CADUCEUS!” Fjord sinks down to the ground, clutching Veth... Veth’s body, and laying her across his lap. He doesn’t think he can say it out loud, but a quick glance at the rest of his family informs him that they all clearly know what happened.
Beau is furiously scrubbing at the angry tears that have gathered at the corners of her eyes with one hand, the other hand holding onto Yasha’s for dear life. Yasha looks to be coming down from her usual battle rage, and is trying to turn Beau around, as if to shield her from the sight. Jester is running as fast as she can towards them. Fjord can barely hear anything with how fast his heart is beating, but he thinks that he can make out the faint sound of Jester calling Veth’s name. Caleb is somewhere else entirely, even though he’s standing thirty feet away. The wizard carries the same expression he held while carrying Nott’s body out of the Prison of Soot; unmoored and despondent.
Caduceus simply stands still, paler than Fjord has ever seen him. He isn’t too far away, gripping his staff like a lifeline and looking back and forth between the large body of the monster and the small body of their halfling companion, both killed at his hand.
Jester finally makes it over, sliding down next to Fjord and checking Veth over. After a few seconds of futile medical inspection, she lets out a sob and starts frantically hunting through her pack. Caleb stumbles over and collapses on the other side of Fjord. He takes one of Veth’s tiny, dessicated hands in his own, tossing aside the potion bottle it held previously. His sweat soaked red hair hangs in front of his downturned face, and his whole body trembles.
With a watery cry of triumph, Jester pulls out a diamond from her pack. Immediately she places it against Veth’s chest and closes her eyes, concentrating her power. Fjord is just close enough to hear what she’s saying. It’s her usual rambling, but carrying the cadence of a prayer.
“Artie, please I need your help. I know this place can fuck up magic or whatever but this is serious okay? She’s your second high priestess, and she’s my friend and- and her family needs her.” Her voice breaks and tears roll down her face. “Her family n-needs her and we need her too, okay?. We’re her fa-family too.”
Fjord lays a hand on Jester’s shoulder and squeezes tight. His other hand keeps a firm grip around Veth’s body sprawled across his lap, waiting desperately for the spell to fucking work already so he can feel her chest rise and fall again. He really doesn’t want to imagine a world where he doesn’t have his friend to trade insults with, who still cares about him when push comes to shove.
The air in front of Jester shimmers green and in a flash, Artagan appears. He’s sitting cross legged in front of Jester, hood down and face drawn into an uncharacteristically somber expression. He looks down upon Veth and then back at Jester with a look of pity.
“This is her third time,” he says gently. Jester sucks in a harsh breath at the reminder. The Traveler continues, “It will be harder for her to return.”
Fjord finally hears Caleb make a sound, a broken little sob that cuts off too early. The wizard grips Veth’s hand harder as he growls out, “Harder yes, but not impossible. So get on with it.”
Artagan nods. “I’ll help you as best I can Jester. It’d be a shame to let such a spark of chaos leave this world.”
With that, he disappears in another flash. At the same time, the diamond bursts into glittering powder. The diamond dust adheres itself to Veth’s body, wreathing it in twinkling white light. Slowly, life returns to her wilted form. Her skin returns to its tanned, supple state, and the acid burns fade a bit from the grevious wounds they’d been before. Fjord’s arm around her jerks as Veth gasps a breath, dark eyes shooting open, fingers tightening around her dagger. She swings around in a panic, and Fjord only narrowly avoids being slashed. He reaches out and gently grasps her hands with his shaking ones.
“Veth, Veth, it’s okay, you can calm down,” he manages to say, suppressing any quiver in his voice.
Her eyes dart around the group, taking in their distraught faces and choked sobs. Her shoulders slump and her desperate breaths slow down. “Oh shit,” she mutters before asking, “What happened?”
Silence is the only response she gets. Veth hums understandingly, and her eyes land on the hulking corpse behind them.
“Oh sweet, you guys killed the baby?”
Jester nods eagerly, swiping at the remaining tears in her eyes. “Y-yeah Veth, don’t worry about it. You still need healing though, so hold still.” Jester wraps her arms around Veth, and through the hug Fjord can see pink energy glowing where Jester’s fingers touch Veth. Jester pulls back, sniffing a bit, and Veth looks a lot healthier than she did a moment before.
Fjord can also see the exact moment when Veth realizes she’s still essentially sitting in Fjord’s lap because she turns slightly redder and immediately stands up. Fjord rolls his eyes, but misses having something to hold on to, and grasps for one of Jester’s hands instead. She takes it silently, not even needing to look at him, and squeezes it tightly. Caleb still has one of Veth’s hands in a death grip, but with her other hand she holds up her dagger and looks at herself in the reflection.
“I really died, again,” she mumbles to herself, so quietly Fjord can barely make it out.
“You are back now,” Caleb insists, voice rough but emphatic. “That is what matters.”
Beau nods at Veth. “Caleb’s right. Also, uh, thanks for coming in after me. I didn’t know what was happening on the outside when I got swallowed, or if the thing I did even fuckin’ worked, but when I felt you grab me I guess I felt like everything would be okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t help when it happened to you.”
“It was very brave of you,” Yasha adds in agreement. “I was too scared of looking into its light to do anything, and you just jumped right in.”
“Guys, it’s okay, no need to apologize or feel bad or anything like that. Answer me this though: who killed it?” Veth asks.
After a small pause, Jester answers nervously. “Caduceus got it. Did you feel anything happen while you were in there?”
“Last thing I remember is trying to take a potion. I guess the acid was just too much,” Veth sighs, holding her dagger closer to inspect the persisting acidic wounds on her face.
Caduceus shuffles over and falls to his knees beside her to get on eye level. He shakes his head with a mournful expression on his face. “Uh, I’m afraid it wasn’t- it wasn’t the acid. I’m so sorry Veth, the spell I used to kill the creature caught you as well.”
“Ohhhh,” Veth responds, mulling over his words. “Well, there’s no way you could have known that it would get me too. It’s okay, Mr. Clay. See what I did there?” She smiles a little at her own stupid rhyme.
Caduceus smiles weakly. “It’s really not, but I appreciate how you always try to make light in a dark situation.”
“Hey, look at it this way: we’re finally even now!” Veth exclaims, cracking a wider grin.
“Huh. I never held that against you in the first place, but if it makes you feel better then I guess we are.”
The group stays loosely huddled around Veth as they settle into a short rest. Caleb doesn’t let go of her hand for the next hour, and the two of them have a murmured conversation that involves a lot of intense forehead leaning. Fjord kind of moves away so as not to intrude, moving instead to offer some consolation to Caduceus. The poor man clearly isn’t handling this entire expedition very well, and Fjord is a little lost as to how to comfort him, but he tries his best. Beau regales the group with the story of how she knocked the baby out from the inside with dosages of Suude that would kill an ordinary person ten times over. The frigid air feels a little lighter after that.
Before their rest ends, Veth wanders over to Fjord. “Psst. Hey. Fjord,” she calls.
“Yes Veth?” he responds. “Did you need something?”
She sits beside him. “Nah, I just wanted to bother you for a second. Caleb told me you were the one that pulled me out of the baby creature, and I just figured that was probably super fucked up for you to see.”
“Oh yeah definitely,” Fjord agrees, blinking his eyes a bit to try and rid himself of the image of her dead body. “But you know, all in a day’s work and whatnot. Seeing super fucked up shit isn’t really new at this point.”
“Obviously. Remember Halas’ rotting but also jacked clone from the Happy Fun Ball?”
“How could I possibly forget, we both got grappled by the thing. I was thinking more along the lines of that kobold we met underground that got smashed flat by a fire giant.”
“Oh right, of course. The kobold named...” Veth’s eyebrows furrow. “Wait what was his name again? It was something super stupid that’s all I remember.”
“Sprigg?” Fjord suggests. “No wait, I think it was more like Splurt or something.”
Veth considers it. “I feel like that’s not quite right, but Splurt is definitely the sound he made when the giant hit him.”
Fjord laughs despite the situation and the two of them share an awkwardly dark chuckle before falling to silence.
“I’m glad you’re alright,” Fjord says in a hushed voice, surprising himself with his own sudden sincerity.
Veth smiles at him. “Yeah I am too. We need to find this threshold crest and get the fuck out of here though, this place has sucked in every way.”
“Agreed.”
The two of them get up to rejoin the group, and make their way deeper into the Aeorian laboratory.