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They were surrounded, backs to the wall and corpses already dead at their feet. How they’d gotten there or why no longer seemed to matter in the face of this one pressing need: get out of this alive!
Ashe and Gregor stood in front of Markus, fighting off the nearest enemies so he could cast his magic without interference. A near constant stream of imps flowed from the group between eldritch blasts and eyebeams.
They were doing just fine at first, while their enemies were still human. Too bad the monsters had to show up. At the first sight of an owlbear, Gregor took off to kill the thing solo. It wasn’t long before he was flanked. He managed to handle himself well enough until an overhead bilebat got a lucky shot on him before getting sliced in half by Gregor’s glaive.
He collapsed, writhing in pain from the horrible acid burns and the subsequent kicks and scratches that resulted from the monsters clambering over him to get at the rest of the group.
It wasn’t long before Ashe and Markus were overwhelmed by the onslaught. Ashe, concerned for her friends and her own life, steeled herself for what she was about to do. Bracing herself for the familiar pain and exhaustion that always followed her summoning the golem, she pushed past the bindings and dragged the creature of moss and stone from its home plane. It was just a hand, but that had always been enough.
With great sweeps of the disembodied hand, Ashe ploughed through the hordes of monsters, supplementing the brute force with well-placed blows of her sword. It didn’t take long for her to reach her fallen friend. The hand grabbed monsters and tossed them aside while Ashe sent the familiar electric green charge through Gregor, his wounds disappearing.
As soon as the last of the bruises faded, Gregor was back on his feet and eager to kill more monsters. Just as Ashe was about to yell at him to focus and get back to shielding Markus, the tiefling in question let out a yell of pain.
Ashe’s head whipped around just in time to see Markus fall. As the monsters descended on him, something within Ashe just broke. Maybe it was her inhibition, or the last bit of calm she had been holding onto. Regardless of what it was, she no longer cared about the consequences of pressing through her bindings. Fire burned within her as she called on the golem, drawing it fully from whatever space it resided in. A massive creature of moss and stone appeared from seemingly nowhere and began to wreak utter havoc on the battlefield. Gregor had to dive out of the way of the creature’s feet to avoid getting trampled.
Ashe was just a ball of pure rage as she tore through the mess of monsters. Left and right, they fell to her blade. The wounds she sustained went completely unheeded. Nothing could stop her from reaching her fallen friend. Within a matter of minutes, the entire army lay decimated. Pools of blood rested under pulped and perforated creatures of many varieties. Gregor could only stand in pure shock at the carnage.
Ashe rushed forward towards Markus. He lay on the ground limply, blood oozing out of many large gashes over his body. The golem crumbled into nothingness as Ashe fell to her knees and held the tiefling in her arms.
She placed a hand over his chest, green lightning crackling as she channeled all of her healing power into him. “Come on, Markus. Wake up. Come on. Don’t you dare die on me!”
Slowly, Markus’ eyes fluttered open, the vibrant blue of his meeting Ashe’s normally warm yellow. Now, they seemed dim, murky.
“Ashe? W-what…”
Ashe gave Markus a weak smile as he sat up on his own. “Thank the gods. I thought I’d lost you.”
Markus’ eyes went wide as he took in the carnage about them. “Ashe, did you…? You broke the bindings didn’t you. Wh-”
His question was cut off by a choked cry of shock. Before his very eyes he suddenly beheld his beloved friend Ashe impaled on the blade feathers of a somehow still surviving cathrati. Her eyes were wide in surprise at the sudden pain. She looked down at the blades piercing through her, then back up at Markus. She coughed up a bit of blood before collapsing onto him.
Gregor made short work of the monster, wrenching its hand from his friend’s back as quickly as he could.
“Ashe?”
“Ashe, can you hear me?” Markus called to her, rolling her over so her head was resting in his lap. “Keep looking at me, Ashe. Whatever you do, just don’t fall asleep. You’re going to be okay!”
“M-Markus,” the white-haired girl choked.
“Ssh, ssh. Don’t speak. Just keep looking at me, okay? Don’t go into the light.” The tiefling took her hand in his and placed it over her chest. “You need to heal yourself. Come on, I know you can do it.”
Ashe shook her head only the slightest bit, coughing up more blood as she did so. “N-no, I can’t. I’m s-spent.” Her voice was hoarse.
“Don’t say that!” Markus shouted, crying. He refused to believe that his friend was dying. He couldn’t. This was Aesling they were talking about, after all.
“Markus, sh-shut up. I… I won’t last much… much longer…” More blood and desperate gasping for air.
“Ashe, you can’t die,” Gregor protested, tears plainly visible in his eyes. “Who else is going to stop us from doing stupid things all the time and yell at us for almost getting ourselves killed and stuff? Don’t… Don’t make me lose more family. Not again…” Gregor broke down into a sobbing mess, unable to control himself any longer.
“Gregor’s right, Ashe. Without you, we’d be dead so many times over. You-”
“Just listen to me!” Ashe managed to shout, though she coughed up a lot of blood. “L-listen. Markus, I… I don’t want to die… with regrets. I-I… I love you.” Tears streamed down her face to match those of her companions. Her breathing was getting shallower by the second and she knew she only had moments left.
The look on Markus’ face was that of sheer heartbreak. He wept harder, struggling to keep his composure through his friend’s final breaths. “I… I love you too, Aesling.”
Markus pressed his lips to Ashe’s in the most bittersweet of kisses. He felt the life drain from her body. Her eyes went dark and her body hung limp in his arms. She was gone, her final expression a sad smile that tore at the tiefling’s heart. He couldn’t stand it anymore.
As he felt the heat leaving Ashe’s body, Markus threw his head back and let out a scream of raw emotion. Anger, sadness, love, and longing all mingled together in that cry as he cradled the lifeless body in his arms.
Markus woke up in a cold sweat, his throat sore from shouting. He was in the usual place he slept, in the hole under the bar. It was still night time, but he could hear the sounds of Thog complaining and Gregor worriedly searching for his friend.
It had all been a dream. Just a dream. But then why did Markus feel so panicked? He desperately felt the need to check up on their other companion, to be sure she really was unharmed.
Clambering out of the hole, Markus ignored Thog and Gregor as they tried to question him about why he’d been yelling. He rushed out the door and towards the forest behind the bar, only to run into Ashe on the way. She looked like she had been awake the entire time, not groggy like the others.
“Markus, what the hell are you screaming about in the middle of the night?” she asked before the tiefling suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.
Ashe didn’t know how to react to this, it was so sudden.
“Oh, thank god, Ashe, you’re alright.”
“Markus… What’re you talking about?” Ashe asked slowly, trying to extract herself from his grip. “Let go of me.”
Markus pulled out of the grip, holding the girl at arm’s length and looking her over from head to toe. He breathed a sigh of relief before looking her in the eyes.
“Ashe, there’s something I need to tell you, and I want to tell it to you now, before it’s too late.”
“Yeah…?” Ashe was obviously apprehensive by the tone of her voice. By this time, Thog and Gregor had made it outside and were watching the scene in utter bewilderment.
“Aesling, I want you to know that I love you. Not just as a friend, and not as the one who keeps healing us all the time and keeping us from dying. I love you as a woman, deeply and truly in the most sincere way possible. I want you to always be here with us, because I honestly don't know what I would do without you. Ashe... I love you. More than anyone.”
Ashe could only stare at Markus in shock for a moment. She blinked a few times before ascertaining that the tiefling was absolutely serious and not drunk. Then she smiled.
“Markus, you’re probably the biggest idiot I’ve ever met, but… I love you too.”
Words could not describe the joy on Markus’ face before he embraced Ashe again and kissed her. She didn’t try to resist or pull away. In fact, she kissed him back.
“Aw,” Gregor sighed in the background. Thog just looked totally confused and turned around to go back to bed, deciding that this was all some messed up bad dream.