Chapter Text
Chapter One
Caleb didn’t pay much attention to the subtle way the force of his teleportation would blow vegetation or sand or dirt aside where he landed, but today he looked down and it registered idly in his thoughts. A few thin weeds that grew between the bricks in the pathway leading to his front door sort of swooned with his arrival. He stood in the dooryard for a moment and let this new environment (different in so many ways from the humid, salty air of the Menagerie Coast) wash over him. The air in Rexxentrum was cooler, crisper, and smokier. Its hubbub had a duller, softer timbre in his cozy little neighborhood than bustling tiered avenues designed to allow monsoon rainwater flow to the sea. Though Nicodranas (being home to the Lavorres and the Brenattos) filled a warm place in his heart, this city was home. His little cottage sat nestled not too close to others like it along a residential street in the Tangles. The structure was narrow but three stories tall in the stucco and exposed beam Zemni style with the gable end facing the street. He had planted beans almost immediately after moving in, and a few gangly, unattended plants hung limply from a large box under the front window to the right of the door. An image sprang into his imagination of a petit drow gardiner with rose-patterned gloves tending the vegetables and planting flowers beside them, a wide sunhat sheltering his delicate skin from the sun. Caleb shook his head and scoffed at the suddenness of this intrusive yet pleasant thought as he withdrew his key.
He had known he’d have a hard time lying to them, not only because some of them could tell instantly, but because they were his dearest friends. What a hard time they had given him. It was difficult, each time they asked if they should contact Essek, to bring him along on this adventure, if he could or would want to help. Staying silent had worked, initially, to deflect their attention. He knew they only meant well, but he had promised Essek his distance. They had reached an impasse. Caleb could not agree and Essek was determined to keep all options available.
A week or so, Essek said. He would be back. Just a week or so. He promised.
Immediately as Caleb stepped up to the door, a spell he’d set in place to inform him of intrusion triggered and his blood ran cold. A quick check determined the wards on the doors had not been breached, yet someone was inside. His pulse raced and he prepared for either an ambush or to be pleasantly surprised as he turned the key in the lock.
The house was cold and the curtains were pulled closed but in the light from the doorway Caleb could see a throw blanket woven with a pattern of stars and moons pulled over the sleeping form of Essek Thelyss curled up on the divan in the center of his front room.
Caleb took a deep breath and calmly let it out before quietly closing the door behind him as he entered his home. His emotions swirled and clashed with each other, the high tension and foreboding colliding into relief tinged with love and frustration. These latter elements gave way to the former as he considered the situation. Essek had returned, had not dismissed the alarm for him as he usually did if he arrived while Caleb was out, and he was sleeping, which, for as long as Caleb had known him, he had never seen him do.
He produced his dancing lights and tiptoed toward him, trying his best not to creek the floorboards. He crouched down on one knee and observed his Kryn friend apprehensively, noting first that he was breathing, but that breathing was labored. As the lights moved and created shadows over the planes of his face, he also noted sunken cheeks and dark circles under his eyes. Caleb called his name, but when he didn’t stir he put his hand on his shoulder and gently shook it. “Essek?” he repeated, and the drow winced and opened his eyes, drowsily at first, then suddenly very wide.
“Caleb?” he gasped.
“Ja, Essek, what happened? Are you alright?”
“You—Caleb, you remember me?”
Caleb froze for a moment, his mind assembling the pieces of information he’d gotten so far, trying to put this odd question into some sort of context. He shuddered as a hypothesis formed. “Oh, Essek,” he whispered. “What did you do?”
Essek trembled and pulled the throw blanket tighter around himself. “You’re going to be so cross with me,” he muttered in a shaky voice.
Caleb bent closer and wrapped his arms around Essek’s head and shoulders. He pressed his cheek to the top of his head and held him. “No, I’m not cross. I’m frustrated. I’m miserable. I’m terrified. Not angry with you. I—” he almost said it. “I’m not angry with you.”
Essek’s trembling ebbed and to Caleb’s surprise he felt him grasp his coat with his right hand.
“I’m sorry, you were right, I shouldn’t have done it, I know, but I didn’t have a choice. Caleb, they found out. They were going to lock me away for the rest of my days.”
Exactly what he’d suspected but still a huge shock. He cast it. Oh, gods, he cast it. Caleb went pale and tried his damnedest to keep his cool. He pulled back a little so that he could see him and tenderly brushed his mussed curls back from his brow. “Essek, what did you wish for?”