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The quartet made their way to the front gate of the manor house. It loomed over them, casting an inescapable shade. If nothing else it provided a welcome relief against the coastal sunlight of Baldur’s Gate. Of the few things about the Underdark that Talryne missed, the calm bioluminescence would always be one. The constant squinting required in this city gave her a headache.
At the moment she missed another thing, being able to hide. The shadows would always be a comfort to the drow, Seldarine, Lloth-sworn, or otherwise. Here, there was no hiding the tremors in her hands. She dug through her bag once again, checking and double-checking the contents. Between the sun and the shaking, trying to read the bottles took more time than she would have liked.
“Necrotic resistance, healing, greater healing…” she rambled on as her companions looked at her. She’d made them stop five times since leaving Elfsong Tavern, and their patience diminished by the second.
Astarion took a step towards her, while the other two women continued their silent stares. He placed a gentle hand over hers, preventing her from once again checking their scroll stock. “Darling, take a breath would you?”
The sympathetic look on his face startled her. His attitude towards her various anxieties always seemed out of character, kind and patient. Still, the change from regular witty Astarion made her pause and take a single slow breath.
“Astarion, we don’t have to do this. Or, maybe we don’t have to do it like this.” Talryne bit down on her lip, trying to regain some of the control she’s known for. Shifting her focus to the new pain made things a bit clearer. She remembered to lick away the blood with Astarion standing so close to her. He tried his best to avert his gaze from her lips.
In truth, she was being selfish. Hoping that he would decide to leave so she wouldn’t have to face the upcoming battle. Their next target scared her more than anything they had faced together; including the man-made gods they’d been sent to fight. Cazador Szarr presented a challenge because he was a vampire lord, a terrifying prospect for a fight all on its own. He also happened to be a heinous slaver and torturer who had made Astarion’s second life hell. Tal wanted nothing more than to tear him apart the moment she learned of him.
However, as always, there was a problem. Talryne would never deny that she was an angry person. She found it to be an asset in fights to be invested, and rarely did she get upset at anyone outside of battle. Recently though, Eilistraee had taken to rewarding that anger. She gave Talryne an unfathomable, and uncontrollable, amount of divine light. She had always had some of that power through her oath, but this went far beyond that level. Her original plan had been to keep this “gift” a secret until she mastered it. Running into Astarion’s siblings had pushed up the timetable. What she was capable of while experiencing true rage, which seeing Cazador would no doubt induce? A mystery known to no one but Eilistraee herself.
Shadowheart’s voice brought her back to the present. “You know better than anyone that it’s now or never Tal, Cazador is not going to spontaneously decide to postpone his ascension no matter how hard we wish it.” Always practical, and almost always right, she couldn’t argue against her best friend’s logic.
Talryne looked into Astarion’s ruby eyes again. A perfect mirror of her own. “You’re sure?”
He looked off at the manor, his home for two hundred miserable years, and shrugged. “Unfortunate as it is, I don’t have time to be unsure. We have to stop that bastard.” The feigned nonchalance in his voice did a lousy job of covering his own fears. She still admired the attempt, knowing it was unfair to ask for comfort from the person who had the most at stake in this fight.
Another deep breath, and another, and her body began to still. Her gaze hadn’t left her lover’s face, somehow going unmarred during all those years in this house of hells. Talryne wanted it to stay that way. She reached up to graze the scar across her own face.
“One rule, you are not allowed to die.” She mentally dared him to challenge her, no matter how childish it sounded out loud.
He snorted, but when their eyes met his whole body stilled. “Are you sure you’re alright, darling?”
The edge of her vision began to blur, a sign of the light. She shook her head, and mercifully it passed. “I need you to understand that you are not allowed to die. Do you understand me? Damn the Absolute, and damn the Gods, I will become the most terrifying thing to ever touch the Sword Coast mark my words. I will raze this fucked up city to the ground, and it’ll only be the beginning. Do you understand?” Her voice cracked, trying to hold back the flood behind her tongue.
Holding back had become her normal because to do otherwise meant vulnerability. Tal wasn’t an idiot. She knew that there was something between the two of them, but it went unnamed. It would have been lying to say she hadn’t known he was using her; that she had been willing to pretend she didn’t if it meant playing house a little longer.
She wouldn’t jeopardize what she had, even if it was crumbs, just to say that she loved him. He’d said it once but in jest. She spent the rest of that night crying to Shadowheart. After this was done, she would ask. When she could part ways with him, when she could escape into isolated misery, that was when she would ask. And they had to live through this to do that.
“Am-am I understood?”
“Yes Tally, understood.” He was the only person allowed to call her that. She would have decked anyone else who tried. The first time he called her Tally she did try to hit him, but she was at a disadvantage from being on the brink of death. It stuck, like most of his nicknames.
She couldn’t put it off any longer, and reassured by his promise, they approached the doors to hell. Two tanned oak panels between them and a den of vampires. They were remarkably common looking for the palace of one as grandiose as Cazador Szarr, and that incongruity did nothing to ease her discomfort.
Tal surveyed her team as they walked by her. Astarion refastened his cloak and ran a hand through his hair, returning to his usual preening as a form of comfort. She had come to be intimately aware of his anxious habits. In this case, she was glad for it; anxiety meant he understood the stakes. Shadowheart mumbled an unfamiliar prayer, still trying to get used to the name of Selûne on her tongue. And Jaheira stood in the back, scowling and skeptical of the whole ordeal.
Three days prior Talryne and Jaheira had a blowout fight. She had been only milliseconds from cracking the older woman’s jaw when Karlach pulled her away. Days prior Jaheira threatened to kill their whole team over an old flame that she insisted was not an old flame. And after all of the work it took to free Minsc from the absolute’s hold, he turned out to be a giant moron when not possessed. So, when she voiced her disapproval about going after Cazador, Talryne reached a breaking point. She apologized to the High Harper a few hours later and received nothing in return. Tal started to feel regret creep into her mind about not asking Karlach to take Jaheira’s place for this endeavor.
Astarion inserted the key, and the doors swung open. “Not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign.”
“Well, it means that we don’t have the element of surprise. Still have to press on.” Tal did her best to put on a brave face. The face of a leader. A face that more and more seemed to be an expectation of the team. What made her, a paladin of less than three years, qualified to lead historic heroes, monsters, and those blessed by gods remained a mystery to her.
They walked through the empty manor, the entire place quiet and still. The spawns were there, less than interested in talking to the people who were essentially breaking in with permission. The only interaction they had was being tricked into walking in the room that had a corpse blasting necrotic energy. The first actual person they bumped into willing to talk was no person at all.
Astarion had made an offhand comment about a certain door being where he spent most of his time. She intended to get nothing but a peek, knowing anything upsetting might invoke her unstable power. Talryne knew she had to keep the anger under control, but her curiosity drove her in the moment. Unfortunately, an armored skeleton happened to be standing beside the doorway.
“So the little boy has come home has he? I was dearly hoping I’d get to peel your skin before the Master had use of you. Lamentably, he has need of you now. Go join your brothers and sisters Astarion.”
For the first time since knowing him, Astarion looked like the prey and not the predator. His face had impossibly paled, and his fist curled by his side. “I’m stronger now than I was when you last tortured me. I’d never let you lay a finger on me now, Godey. And I’m sure my companions would prevent any of your sick torment if I was unable to.” He puffed out his chest with as much Astarion flare as he looked capable of.
Meanwhile, Talryne burned hot beside him. The deep loathing twisted her stomach into knots, unlike anything she had felt before. She hated this … thing. This unnatural creature that had dared to touch Astarion. That continued to threaten him even now. The amount of violence and damage he must have done in order to terrify Astarion; she couldn’t bear to think about it.
A delicate tap on her shoulder brought her back to the present. A soft voice spoke into her ear, “Talryne you are starting to leak light. If you don’t cool it we are going to have a Karlach style issue. They may not know about your little problem, but I am certainly not that oblivious.”
She hazarded a glance down and found Shadowheart to be speaking the truth. Her fists, adorned in holy gauntlets, began to glow. She tried her hardest to be calm. To think of anything other than this vile creature tearing apart Astarion. To think of something besides the favor she’d be doing the world by restoring him to death. Putting a cap on a volcano would have been an easier task, and her will faltered.
The world swam in her vision, and Talryne found her glaive in hand. It was a gift from Shadowheart after Aylin returned Shar’s spear, and powered with moonlight. Now it radiated with pure sunlight, calling to her. Her oath sang, begging to purge the unnatural. She remembered when it crooned for her to slice Astarion’s throat and watch the stolen blood seep back into the earth. She’d been able to ignore that call, repulsed by the very thought. Now? She didn’t have the strength to deny it something she also desired.
Astarion’s head whipped towards her, hearing the sizzle of the blade before he’d processed her draw. Shadowheart reached out as well, missing her wrist by a second. She spoke the words of her oath without thought, the words so engrained in her mind she couldn’t forget them if she tried. Calling to Eilistraee, she pounced. The holy light seared through the skeleton, splitting him down the middle. The bones hit the floor, scorched and crackling with heat.
“Talryne, what in the bloody fucking hells was that?” Astarion grabbed her shoulders in a bid to regain her attention, but ripped his hands away just as quick.
No words hit her ears, her entire skull thundering with the song of the oath, calling for more. To bring this house of decay to the ground. She tightened her grip on the handle, trying to look for prey. Another perverted body she could end. She cursed herself, of course a den of the undead would set off Eilistraee’s “gift”. Her foolishness would get them all killed. She willed her hand to search for the dagger strapped to her thigh.
A loud smack and the world began to stop shaking. Jaheira cursed, and pulled away her hand. “Pull yourself together. You insisted on doing this mission, do the damned mission!”
Talryne staggered back newly aware of what had occurred, and the deep pain across her face. “I-I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t let it live.” She tried to look at her companions but found no reassurance. She set aside the glaive hoping to relieve the tension in the room.
Shadowheart took hold of Jaheira’s hand, earning a hiss of pain from the druid. Red and raw and burned. Almost as if she had touched Karlach. With no more than a word from the cleric, it was healed.
Talryne went red, “Jaheira, I am so sorry.”
Astarion cleared his throat and she dared to look at him, afraid of what his face might show. It was a small blessing that it was blank. “Care to enlighten us on what that was all about?”
“I-I have been having some problems lately.”
Jaheira wrapped her hand with a tattered cloth. “That was very obvious, but I’d have liked a warning before storming into a castle with a radiant bomb.”
Shadowheart spoke up next. “We need to get going, there’s still work to be done.” She turned and strode out of the room, leaving the other three confused. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Talryne scrambled to follow.
Looking quite displeased, Jaheira stormed forward to lead the way. Astarion on the other hand fell back from Shadowheart to walk with her. He handed her a signet ring and a scroll. Even at less than her best, she was still the most likely to put any sort of riddle together.
She turned the ring over in her hand, before reading the scroll. Easy enough. “It’s the key. We have to use it to open the other doors.” She pocketed the scroll and slipped the ring on her finger. It tightened, having been much too large beforehand. It was only a hair away from cutting off the circulation.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Astarion whispered, calling to the guilt in her heart.
She sighed, pushing back her hair. “I knew this was important to you. And I didn’t want whatever is going on with my oath to prevent you from taking the chance to stop Cazador. And, selfishly, I wanted to be here to see you do it. If-if you want me to leave now I will Star. I won’t blame you for it.”
It was rare for her to use the nickname, typically restricted to the morning after their late-night meetings at the beginning of their quest. It felt appropriate here though, might as well pull him down into vulnerability with her.
He stopped, and held onto her arm to prevent her from going forward. He waited for a sizable gap between them and the two other women. “Tally I’m not fucking worried about Cazador right now. I’m worried that you felt like you couldn’t share this. I’m worried that you are seconds away from self-combusting. This is the worst possible mix of Gale and Karlach’s curses. You’re going to light on fire because your Goddess wants you to, no matter who it hurts, including you!” His eyes flared, the anger an all-too-familiar sight, though usually not at her.
“I don’t have control over it! I’ve been trying to, even went to Sorcerous Sundries to see if they had anything on it. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. It’s not exactly like I can summon Eilistraee herself and ask what the fuck is going on. The only assumption I have is she is trying to help us and doesn’t realize that I can’t wield it.”
Yelling after burning that bright ate at her energy. She sighed, sitting on a cobweb-covered bench and resting her head in her hands. “I’m sorry Star. I shouldn’t have hid it from you. We just can’t afford to deal with one more uncontrollable thing right now, especially from me. I’m supposed to be leading this whole circus and now I get to do it while walking a tightrope. I’m exhausted.”
Tal almost jumped when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder. So tired that she didn’t even hear him walk over and sit beside her. She couldn’t help but lean into him, appreciating the support if only for a moment.
Astarion looked down at her. “I think I’ve had my fill of circuses recently.”
She chuckled, “At least clowns are easy to kill.”
“I’ll take a line out of your book. You don’t have to do this alone. No one is expecting that from you, darling. We all play a part in this show. Now, as much as I’d like to sit here and get the full details, Jaheira seems to be deciding on whether she’d rather kill you or Cazador.” He stood up, giving her a hand to grab onto. She reached out and he pulled her up off the bench.
It didn’t take them long to catch up with Jaheira and Shadowheart. Together again, they stalked down the gloomy manor halls. Occasionally they stopped to rifle through some things. Tal almost allowed for a moment of relief that they had only encountered one small group which they eliminated as soon as they made contact.
After an hour, they came to an elevator plate. It was then that it became apparent Astarion would be no help at all in trying to figure out how the damn thing worked. Together with Shadowheart, she uncovered the mechanic to get it to descend. Before hitting the button, she looked at him. One last chance. One last hope of forgetting this suicide mission. Instead, he gave a nod, and down they went.
The elevator shook, an expected reaction after Talryne looked at the mechanics. She had limited knowledge in this area, but 1,000 years seemed to be the correct guess. She momentarily had grasped onto Astarion’s arm, fearing the fall. Just a moment though, as the thought of dragging him down with her haunted her far more than the image of being crushed or slipping off. She was all too happy when it settled into the lower floor.
Astarion stepped off the platform first, jaw dropped. “I can’t believe this was all down here! Right under our feet this whole time. I thought he was killing them…that’s what he told us he was doing. I felt bad about it before, but this. This is so much worse.” He couldn’t stop looking around. Taking in the immensity of the place.
Jaheira rolled her eyes, looking miserable as always. “We didn’t come here to stare at architecture. We have a fight ahead.”
Tal looked at Shadowheart, sharing a knowing look. Sometimes Jaheira reminded her of the early days with Lae’zel. The githyanki had pissed them both off on many occasions, but she couldn’t hold a candle to the eye rolls Jaheira could elicit from even the most mature members of the group.
Beyond the architecture, Talryne noticed the cages Astarion had been looking at. Hundreds of cages, suspended in the air. The figures inside looked to be near skeletons. Only the occasional quiet moan or reaching hand made it clear they were alive…alive as vampire spawn could be anyway.
She looked at her vampire companion, “You didn’t know about any of this?”
His face betrayed him, and to her surprise, he actually looked offended. “Of course not! It’s unfortunate that this happened. Luckily they’ll all be put out of their misery soon…” His voice trailing off at the end did not assuage her doubts that he would make the right choice. For a moment her mind wandered. If he made that choice, what would the oath’s song command her to do?
They walked on, coming across Cazador’s sleeping quarters. Learning that his own master had tortured him…she had to admit to a small amount of sympathy. This endless cycle of hell could have stopped centuries ago. When would evil men learn that torture has never helped anyone? It makes people who are fragile and scared. They are willing to inflict pain on others if it means saving themselves. They will salt their own wounds if it means control. She was sick to death of people like Cazador. Had known enough Cazadors to last more than a lifetime.
She felt the light start to build and took a deep breath. And another. Tried to channel that rage back into the bottle where she kept it. She would need it soon enough.
Tal began to walk on before spotting Shadowheart trying to get her attention. She held her thumb up behind her back while she walked at Jaheira’s side. A question. The original group; Shadowheart, Astarion, and Lae’zel had come to use the hand signal after things got tense. She plastered on the reassuring smile she’d become so used to giving and returned the thumbs up. When her friend turned to look at her, she didn’t seem convinced.
A voice echoed down the hall, interrupting the moment. Small. Quiet. “Don’t I know you?” it whispered.
In an instant whatever torn emotion Astarion had been feeling melted into pure devastation. He walked over to the cells, trying to peer in. A desperate hand clawed out, making a grab at him. Astarion barely noticed the movement, eyes locked onto one of the men in the cell. “Oh, gods above it cannot be you.”
Talryne rushed to his side, trying to see what upset him so much. A human by the looks of it, and pale. Paler than Astarion. He looked like the sun had never so much as glimpsed his skin. His eyes were black and red, another spawn. Then her eyes strayed down to the carvings. Dug deep, they were old and still open. Astarion’s scars were healed over, but he also hadn’t been blood-starved to this extent. She couldn’t imagine Cazador fed them so much as putrid rats down here. The final odd detail she noticed was that in spite of all of it, the man was not unattractive. She could only imagine how he must have looked alive.
“I can’t remember your name. I can barely remember my own. Almost everything from before this unending hell is lost to me. I remember your voice though. You were so sweet to me in that tavern. I had never had anyone speak to me like that. Do you remember this face?” The harsh and dry voice struggled to speak. His lips cracked with the slightest movement.
Astarion’s face contorted. Any of his pride and petty vanity vanished—nothing except terrible empty sadness left. Talryne gave him the moment, and praised whoever was listening that the other two did the same.
“Of course, I remember you, Sebastian. You…you were one of my first. You were so kind. Full of life. You told me you had never been kissed before, and I told you I could change that. I told you just how unfortunate it was that no one had known your lips.” His voice caught, and he said nothing more.
Talryne wanted to comfort him. To assure him it would be alright, that redemption remained possible. Something stopped her, letting him sit in this moment. She knew that he had no choice. Of course, she knew that. But gods above, this poor man’s ragged body was destroyed. This was not targeting a random on the street. This was not chasing down criminals no one would miss. Astarion had taken the time to learn that he was good, and kind. He would’ve lived a good life…had he never met the vampire. Astarion, the man in control of her heart, had taken everything from Sebastian. He had taken more than that, even if he hadn’t meant to.
“How long?” Sebastian croaked.
“What?”
“How long have I been down here?”
He looked lost for words. She wished she could have shut her ears. Not listened to whatever wretched words would come next. She suffered torture in the Underdark for 90 years. Even then, it was nowhere near this, and there were gaps. There were happy moments. And she could look back on it and understand how it made her. There was no silver lining or lesson to come out of a hell like this. Except that the gods are cruel and unjust. That people are horrific by nature.
Astarion sucked in a breath, “170 years.”
And Sebastian shattered. Any shred of togetherness, of humanity, gone in a blink. “They’re gone,” he sobbed, but no tears ran. “Everyone. Everything I ever loved. They’re all gone. While I sat down here and rotted in dirt and in piss and in blood.”
He reached through the bars again, frantic to get at Astarion. To do damage or get revenge, and Tal couldn’t blame him. “You did this to me! Why me? Why me you bastard? You could have had anyone you wanted in that gods damned bar! Anyone! Yet you picked me.” He slid down the bars, out of the precious energy he had left. Still, he slammed his fist against the ground.
Shadowheart had turned away, mumbling another quick prayer to her goddess. Jaheira looked at Astarion with seething contempt.
However, Talryne sank to her knees. Despite the warning bells in her head, she reached out to place a hand over Sebastian’s fist. He tore his gaze from the floor and locked eyes with her. Those blood-red eyes were too familiar for a stranger’s face.
“I swear to you, we will get you out. Today is your last day in this hell. I swear it on my life.” She squeezed his hand.
With the little strength he had left, he squeezed hers back. “On your life?”
She nodded, despite Astarion’s growing look of concern. “On my life, Sebastian.”
He let out a deep and long-held breath. “Then I look forward to seeing you again…”
She realized she had never given him her name. “Talryn’diira Duskryn. I will be back for you my friend, on my life and oath.”
He let her hand go, and his head rested against the wall of his cell. She stood up, looking back to her teammates. They had to keep moving, and with new motivation, Tal was ready to send Cazador to the unending grave.
Before they could set off from the room, she heard another voice. Younger. Oh gods, younger? She looked around and spotted the cage closest to the door. A small face barely visible between the bars. She turned her gaze to Astarion, and he couldn’t meet her eyes. She mouthed as subtly as she could, “The Gur children?”
And he nodded.
The knots in her stomach returned, ever more forceful. She could have spilled her guts right there on the ancient tile. Instead, she walked up towards the cell. “Hello?”
There must have been eight children in the cell. Each filthy, some not moving. A little girl walked back out of the shadows, and much like the other captives, her eyes shone red. “Are you one of Cazador’s servants?”
Talryne’s heart shattered. Even the children turned into spawns. “No, my love, your parents sent us. It’s going to be...I can’t tell you it will be okay, but we are going to get you out. We are going to kill Cazador.” She spoke as softly as she could, trying not to scare the girl.
All her effort was for naught as the girl locked eyes on Astarion. She shrieked, shoving all of the children into the corner away from him. ”He took us! He’s the one that took us away! Kill him, Miss! He’s the bad one!”
She had to fight back tears. Poor kids. Poor Astarion. “H-he was one of the bad ones. But he feels sorry, and he’s trying to fix it. He’s the one that got us in here Darling. He’s trying…” She had nothing else. No possible way to smooth this over, as she had done for the vampire in so many other conversations.
The girl, still fearful, continued to block the other children from the monster outside their cell. “He’s trying to fix it?”
Tal nodded, no words left at all.
The girl stepped forward, the other children remaining back. “Mr. Vampire?”
For the first time, Astarion turned to look at her. “Yes?”
“You better get us out of here. This lady says you're going to fix it. So fix it. We’re just lucky we didn’t have to wait 100 years.” She was stern and assertive. She didn’t sound like a child, then again terrible things will do that to you. Talryne knew that better than most.
Astarion nodded. And kept walking down the hall. Jaheira and Shadowheart followed behind him. Talryne took one last look at the girl, no older than 12, and set her course. She would make Cazador suffer, suffer as he never had before.
She picked up her pace, making her way to the front of the group, and faced the door. The last door they would need to open before facing the bastard himself. She turned and grabbed Astarion’s hand, yanking him aside.
“Do you still plan on trying to Ascend?” Her voice shook. No prayers would work trying to change the course of Astarion’s mind. She had to find the courage to challenge his fears face to face.
He tried to laugh, but between the young girl and Sebastian, his carefree mask had been irreparably cracked. “Yes, of course. We need to be safe. I need to be free. Ascending will give me that. Give Us that.”
She was so tired. Tired of begging everyone around her to find morals. Only a month had passed since she almost got on her knees in a bid for Shadowheart to keep her soul. Here she stood again. “Even if it means killing your siblings? Even if it means killing the Gur children? Even if it means killing Sebastian?”
“I-” He tried to find something to say. She was not interested in getting used to this new world of Astarion being speechless.
“If we had met a month earlier, that would have been me. I would have been the one clawing at the bars, tired and bloodless. You sang those same sweet phrases to me, and I fell for them. Gods damn it I even knew you were fucking manipulating me and I couldn’t bring myself to care. I got caught up in the feeling of being wanted, but not just being wanted. Being wanted by you. Being wanted by this funny, intelligent, charming man. Hells, I probably would have been an easier catch than any of these other poor fools-”
“You weren’t a fool! I did love you. Do love you. And I can’t bear thinking about what might have been. All that matters is that it didn’t, and we are here now. Let’s finish this.” And Astarion opened the door.
She wished her heart did not lead her life. Wished she could stop loving this stupid, prideful, arrogant man. But, he had said the words she had been so desperate to hear. And under that facade was her Star, so Tal followed him into the final layer of hell.
Shadowheart and Jaheira had to jog to keep up with them as they descended the stairs. Talryne tried to get Astarion to slow down, to at least get a lay of the room, nevertheless, he stormed ahead.
Whatever hope of an advantage they had went down the drain as Cazador whipped around to them. “At last! The prodigal son returned home. Don’t stand there stupid boy, start begging for my forgiveness!” Cazador yelled across the room to them. The magic in the air smelled of rot and decay. A small echo started to build in the back of her mind, but she held it there.
Taking in their surroundings, there were even more cages of innocent souls caught in the web of Cazador and his spawn. To her surprise, they weren’t alone in their captivity. The other six spawn were drenched in blood, hovering on arcane symbols in a circle around Cazador. She tried to reach for Astarion, not sure of his place in this, but he charged forward.
“Forgiveness? You son of a bitch, you’ve never forgiven a fucking thing. Every slip, a toe over the line, was met with beatings the body can barely fucking take let alone my gods damned soul. No…no, you are going to pay. Pay for every shitty thing you’ve ever done to me! I’m going to ascend in your place and remove you from fucking history!” Astarion's voice echoed off the ancient stone walls. A little too triumphant considering they hadn’t beaten him yet.
Cazador threw his head back and laughed. Laughed so hard that she felt terrible for Astarion. “Go ahead and try, little boy. You were useless before you left, and nothing you did or can do will ever change that.”
He hesitated long enough that Talryne thought he might be seeing sense. Instead, he threw himself at Cazador, fists up. In a confusing moment, she watched as he hit an invisible wall. And began to scream.
The three women charged forward, trying to understand what happened. She cursed herself for not seeing this coming. Of course, Cazador would use painful and unethical magic. His wrists were in arcane locks. Unable to move or fight back. Her heart lurched, sending her forward, “Astarion!”
The laughter kept going. Cazador’s wicked laugh shook the damn room. At that moment, she could have believed he was a devil lord himself. “Thank you Astarion, for bringing me the final piece. Witness my ascension!” He sent the spawn’s body flying, and the arcane runes locked him into place. He struggled against the magic trying to free himself.
“Get me out of here! And stop him!” He screeched.
They launched into action. Shadowheart, who had been praying since she entered the room, summoned a Deva of Heaven. If Tal had the time, she would have been impressed. The deva threw itself onto the arcane runes by her command, blocking the flow of magic to Cazador. Jaheira bolted up on the stairs, bringing down a storm of ice. A new skill for her as well that she had been eager to use. The vampire master commanded his servants to take the blows as he ran to safety.
But Talryne? She glowed. From her crown to the tip of her glaive, she radiated divine light. Filled with a bottomless rage. She took a step into the weave, and immediately was at Astarion’s side. She couldn’t spare a word while undoing the arcane runes. She had to concentrate, chanting the prayer to Elistraee and her oath. In her training and testing of the ability, that seemed to be the only thing that helped. Astarion had to let go of her, the glow starting to build into heat. She couldn’t hear, and could scarcely see. The oath filled the void in the silence of rage. Eliminate all that threatens natural life. She would.
She ran to the middle of the platforms. As long as Astarion stayed behind her, she could focus. Tal would gladly burn up for him. She called down the magic, throwing Cazador out of his incorporeal form. Sweet defender of life, do what you must.
The glaive came down without a thought. Any shaking vanished, exchanged for pure unleashed power. The glaive burned, hot enough to sear. And she brought it down on Cazador. Again. Again. Again. Again. Her throat went raw, screaming the words of the prayer. How dare he hurt Astarion. How dare he threaten him. How dare he torture the man who was hers. Hers. And she would protect him. Would bring down this castle on them all. Again. Again. Again. Again. The song overwhelmed her every thought. Unwilling to relent until he was well and truly gone. She attuned herself to it, drawing more and more power.
The glaive fell away from her hands, she wasn’t sure why. She was on her knees then, hearing her armored knees hit the stone before she registered the movement, bringing her holy fists down on his ribcage. She felt it crack under her gauntlets. Screaming so hard she couldn’t tell what words were coming out. Tears sizzled against her skin. He stopped moving, but her head pounded still.
Two pairs of strong hands were on her. She tried to fight against them, but found the well of her power dry. She struggled to pry open her eyes. “Ast-Astarion?” The blurry figure shook their head. She tried to right herself, sitting up. The world tilted, and the hand tugged her to her feet. The white hair she had initially assumed to be Astarion was Shadowheart. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. Drowning in the heavy armor.
Squinting, she tried to find him amongst the carnage. As her sight cleared, she saw Astarion pull Cazador’s battered body from the coffin.
“Talryne, I need your help. To ascend, I’ll need you.” She tried to walk toward him, but Jaheira was holding her up.
Shadowheart screamed back at him, “Look at her! Has she not helped you enough? Don’t do this Astarion!”
Tal pushed away Jaheira and threw off her armor. It clattered across the floor, skidding in a pool of blood. With the armor off, she began to realize she had not come away from the fight unscathed, blood still leaking into her underlayers. She stumbled towards him, grasping his hands to stay up.
She took in a breath, clearing her mind. “Astarion. You are better than him. You don’t need this to be safe. We have taken down gods as we are. And think of the spawn, think of the men and women and children who you will kill doing this. Thousands.”
His eyes began to water, and she put her hand on his cheek. “You are better than him, Star” she reaffirmed.
He looked at her, scanning for any hint of dishonesty, but found none. And nodded. “I am better than him. But, I am not above enjoying this.”
Astarion ripped his hands from hers, and drove his dagger into Cazador. Drove it in as many times as she had driven her glaive in, with much the same fervor. He fell back, crying. Yelling into the hollow room for all he had lost. And she let him have that. Gods knew he deserved that if nothing else. A moment to grieve.
The spawn approached him, lost without their master. “He’s-he’s gone is he?” The question came from one of the men, one of his “brothers.”
Astarion pulled himself together, rising to his feet. “He’s gone. We are free.”
Jaheira interrupted what might have been a cathartic moment for the survivors. “All that’s left is to eliminate the spawn.”
“What do you mean, ‘eliminate’?” Tal questioned.
“We have to kill them, we can’t let 7,000 vampire spawn roam Baldur’s gate. They’ll kill half the population!” She sounded annoyed, arrogantly assuming that her path forward was the only option. It was anything but.
Astarion looked at the harper, before turning his gaze to Talryne. “They deserve the chance I got, don’t they?”
She smiled at him, mustered all the remaining strength she had left. Happy to retire as the group’s moral compass. “We should free them, they are innocent.” Shadowheart nodded as well. It almost felt like it had so many months ago, with the three of them and Lae’zel correcting injustice in the forest.
The other spawn sighed in relief, Jaheira left as the only one upset by the decision. “You are making a mistake!”
Talryne picked up Cazador’s staff and handed it to Astarion. “The honor is all yours, my love.”
He took it from her, slamming it into the ground. Even from the chamber, they could hear the click of rusted locks. The sound of timid feet stepping out of cages for the first time in a century. Walking and then running to freedom.
She let her happiness overtake her, a welcome change to the rage. She nearly tackled Astarion with a kiss, their first in a while. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him in. He laughed against her lips, returning the kiss. He buried his hands in her hair, pulling tighter. She could feel him shaking, could feel her own tremors too. Relying on each other to stand.
Oh Gods.
In the next moment, she had lost control of her body. Nearly slamming her head into the floor, only stopped by Astarion’s lightning quick reflexes. The casual shaking of adrenaline coming down turned into something twisting and writhing. It felt like someone had ripped out her heart. Like her blood had been replaced with hellfire.
“Talryne! Talryne, can you hear us?” Astarion yelled above her. She wished she could have responded. Her eyes shut, trying to escape the pain invading her body.
Shadowheart crouched on her other side. She could feel the healing spells hitting her body, but they provided no relief. Instead, they intensified the pain. She screamed, loud enough that Jaheira covered her ears. Astarion and Shadowheart didn’t bother, instead moving to dig through her bag for something. Anything that might make this better.
“What is wrong with her Shads? Why aren’t you fixing it!” His voice shook. Everything hurt.
Shadowheart frantically ripped open the bag. “I don’t know Astarion! Her wound isn’t fatal, this shouldn’t be happening!”
Red light flooded the room, and the pain eased. No potion had been opened though, instead, a fifth person stood next to them. Talryne tried to twist to see who it was. Astarion pulled her up enough for her to lean against him. Her mind cleared quickly, but confusion took the fog’s place.
A knight clad in paladin’s gear stood before them. She tried to make out his god, before realizing something was off. In contrast to the bright silvers and golds paladins typically wore, his gear was black. Something inside her sunk. Tal had heard stories. Every paladin had heard the stories.
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” She screamed, but she didn’t have the voice left for it to sound anything but pathetic.
Astarion and Jaheira looked at each other, confused. Shadowheart whipped toward her, met her eyes, and realized. Her face dropped in an instant.
“Oh Tal, I’m so sorry.”
Talryne dragged herself off the floor, ignoring the pain still shooting across her side. She leaned against one of the columns in the room. “Please. Please, I followed it. I did everything I was asked. Please tell me you aren’t him.”
His voice was ice cold. “I cannot lie to you, Sister in the oath. I was called here to break that which binds you.”
She truly let go. Let the sadness, and exhaustion catch up with her. Sobbed with everything she had. She dropped to her knees in front of him. “I don’t understand. I couldn’t kill them Brother. Why would she ask me to do that?” She buried her head in her hands.
The oathbreaker had been whispered about since oaths began. To break your oath was to be shunned by all who knew it. Talryne always had sympathy for them, but it would never happen to her. Of course not, because she was pious. She listened to her Goddess’ commands and did as told. But here he stood, above her like an executioner.
He placed a gentle hand on her head. “It is alright not to understand. The gods are cruel, and they are unfair. They demand we break ourselves in their name, yet horror at the thought we might one day disobey them. That is why I, the first oathmaker, also was the first to break. Still, it remains not in my power to disobey their will, a curse and a gift. Are you ready, Sister?”
She sobbed harder, shaking her head. She knew it didn’t matter. The other three were speaking in the background. She didn’t care. Didn’t care about anything. She had broken her oath. Nothing could fix this.
The knight spoke in an old language, nothing she knew. The light within her began to fade, a sunset to the glory she’d achieved. She was tired. So tired. He lifted her chin to look at her. “When you are ready to wield the darkness, seek me out Sister. This need not be the end, I will show you the way.” He faded into smoke, a fitting exit.
Talryne crumpled. Not even enough energy left to cry. To scream. To beg. To curse her forsaken goddess. Nothing at all. Just slid to the side and laid there. She felt herself being scooped up. Couldn’t bring herself to look up, to know that others had witnessed this, her greatest shame. She didn’t have to though, the sweet coldness and lack of beating heart gave her enough to go to sleep.
“Should we do something?” Shadowheart broke the silence, addressing the elephant in the room.
He sighed, “I’m not sure. Isobel and Aylin are watching over her.”
“They aren’t doing anything to help her. Come on Astarion, she hasn’t moved from the bed in two days except to relieve herself. She barely lets me change the dressing on her wound. You of all people should be at her side!”
“Yes, of course. ‘Hello Tally Darling, I thought you might want to speak to me, the man who almost committed a genocide and made you break your oath.’ I’m sure that’ll really smooth things over, Shadowheart!” He buried his face in his hands.
He hadn’t been able to keep her out of his mind, even when he tried. Her face when she had knelt next to Sebastian, making the oath that should have been his responsibility. The look she gave him when she saw the Gur children he’d kidnapped. Astarion knew there was something between them, but he’d never had the balls to actually say it to her. He couldn’t be sure that connection still remained after all they had been through this week.
Shadowheart gave him a long hard look. Her signature move during arguments. “So, you think ignoring her until she isn’t traumatized is a better option?” The eyebrow raise sealed the deal. He knew there was no argument to be had. If Tally had waited to recruit everyone in their group until they were healed, there would be no group.
“I will…try.” He stood up from the table, and Shadowheart gave him a reassuring thumbs up. He walked into the room Tally had to herself, which he regretted not arguing against. She spent her time alone here, with the exception of Aylin and Isobel, who he tried to discreetly shoo from the room. They were more than happy to oblige, having been on watch duty for the last two days.
He padded up to her bed, careful not to disturb the quiet. Talryne laid curled up into the corner facing away from the open room. He sat down at the end of the bed, scared to force a conversation on her. After a couple minutes, he gathered the courage to set a hand on her lower leg, rubbing circles into her calf with his thumb. She didn’t shy away, but she didn’t acknowledge him either.
He took in a breath, more scared now than he had been under the earth with Cazador. “Thank you Tally. I don’t think you get told often enough. You are always willing to sacrifice so much for each of us. Sometimes I wish you were greedier, or at least more self-preserving. I used to worry that someday, one of us would ask too much. Push too far on your kindness. That maybe you’d agree and tear yourself into pieces if it meant helping us. Or, that you’d realize we were terrible pieces of shit after all and give up on us.”
He paused, trying to give her time to respond. Being this sincere was hard. He didn’t understand how she did this all the time. With everyone. She remained silent, but leaned into his hand, so he tried something different. He laid down beside her.
Astarion tucked his chin between her shoulder and cheek. He pulled her in tight, something he had seen her ask for from Shadowheart. He spoke at a whisper, “I didn’t mean for that person to ever be me, sweetheart. I can’t begin to imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t been there. I wish I could return the favor, and save you from this. It’s so fucking unfair. I finally make a good decision and you get punished for it.” He pulled her in tighter, and she relaxed into his hold.
“I’m so sorry Tally. Sorry for dragging you into my mess. Sorry for not realizing what was happening. Sorry for not saying everything I felt about you so much sooner.”
“I love you Star.” She spoke so quietly it could have been mistaken for a breath.
He could’ve cried at that moment. He hadn’t shattered her. And he would spend the rest of time proving to her that loving him was not a mistake. That she wasn’t a fool for choosing him. A tear slipped down his cheek, and splashed onto hers. “I love you too, Tally”