Chapter Text
Sweat wracks her body without pause during the first night. Something demands to burst out from within. Bones twist and muscles strain as her body fights to contain itself. Under the warm crackle of firelight, she tosses and turns as her mind begs for relief.
Please. Please. Please.
Joints strain, almost popping as they press tightly against rough stretching skin.
Dark Maiden-
The battered leather of her bedroll feels irritable and rough against her skin. It catches against every fibre of her sensitive flesh with each excruciating twist and every agonising turn.
- help me
Pressure increases inside her skull in response. She can almost feel the bones beginning to crack as something pushes, and pushes, and pushes. Her teeth grind against the building pressure as her head tries to split itself open.
please
A stuttering gasp escapes her lips as the pressing and pushing shows no sign of ending. The thing burrowed in her brain writhes and squirms in an uncontrollable dance that will no doubt end with her no longer being her.
Eilistr-
The parasite presses sharply to one side, and her head turns, scratching against the disturbed and flattened pillow of her bedroll. A scream lodges itself in her throat as she is certain she feels her skull splinter down the middle, snapping her eyes open for the last time-
Only to be greeted by gently curving brows that press together above soft ocean eyes. A cool metal-clad hand traces close to the pulsing heat of her scalp somehow soothing the chaos within and tugging the briefest of memories to the surface; burning sulphur, entombed within alien metal, a man donning glistening armour, sun-kissed hair falling over his shoulders. A single word surfaces at the brief vision; saviour.
Weak, shaking arms do their best to propel her backwards. Away from the warmth of their smile, their eyes, their skin, and their touch. No doubt daggers were hidden behind those soft misty eyes, ready to strike the moment she relaxed. She knew the game all too well. Poisoned blades and scornful words were always concealed behind an easy smile, especially for someone like her.
“Wait-”
They reach out as she shunts backwards, her spine colliding with something hard and rough as another head-splitting pound rocks through her. She gasps between gritted teeth, her hands grasping at her waist for the dagger she was never without. The rough cotton of her sleeping clothes is all that she grasps as her heart beats faster in her chest and her eyes zip around looking for something, anything.
Another bout of pain rocks through her head and into her skull. She cannot help but clutch one side in futility as she finally spies a small chunk of rock; she had killed with less. With her free hand, she goes to grab it, although her movement is less precise and involves more flailing as darkness creeps in from the edge of her vision.
A heavy metal hand presses atop her hand, carefully?
“I’m here to help you.”
Their words are urgent and pressing under the low familiar timbre of their voice. Male. Here to aid. Here to serve-
Something cool presses against the side of her face in a light-fingered caress. Tendrils of calm ripple against her cheek with the gesture, soothing the tadpole that battled against the inside of her skull. The tension in her body eased as the world returned to focus with the face of the sun at its centre. Warm skin blesses sharply contoured cheeks that sit high upon a masculine face, pared to perfection. A well-defined jaw and a strong brow crafted with the precision of the gods themselves balance the soft brilliance of his ocean-blue eyes.
“Who the Hells are you?” Her hands move up defensively across her torso as the accusational scowl fills into her brow. She spies the lengthened tips of elven ears peeking through his long hair. Why did it have to be a Sun-Elf? Or... was that even the case?
“Your salvation,” he puts oh-so-simply, and with a barely detectable hint of smugness. “And not for the first time. I saved you before.”
A smarmy grin is quick to burst onto her lips as she’s very ready to tell him just how wrong he is. The words are barely formed on her tongue when she’s thrust into another unwanted memory.
Cold biting wind suddenly rushes against her cheeks. No longer is there stable ground beneath her as she’s launched into a freefall. The scene around her changes, the stranger is gone, flaming pieces of metal and organic residue tumble around her as the moonlit sand rushes up and up to greet her. It doesn’t slow and neither does her heart as it beats up a storm in her chest. In an act of futility, she braces her arms to her face as the hard grazing ground reaches up, ready to break and crush her bones.
It stops.
Moments from her own crushing death, she stops. The soft sandy ground settles beneath her its taste for her blood abated as the armoured elf steps into view oozing smugness. For a moment she still hangs upside down, her head level with his own makes it all too easy to stare into those endless eyes. Beyond the pride he exudes she spies something else, something softer . Before she can delve deeper, he shifts closer, too close, and she recoils unconsciously.
“And I’m here to save you again.” There's an unwarranted hope to his words, even as his smile fades when he gauges her reaction. A small part of her feels a pang of regret as he waves the moment away and she feels cool jagged stone pressed against her back once more.
“Don’t worry,” his words are earnestly tender even as the spark leaves his eyes and he straightens away from her.
“You will not become a mind flayer.” A promise. An oath. The words are sworn so fervently a conflicted chill slithers up her spine. “Not while I’m around.”
How she wishes that were true. How she longs to believe. This was no promise a stranger would keep. Not so selflessly. A price would be demanded. Be it now or later, when she was of no more use she would find a dagger in her back, dripping with lethality.
“I’ll protect you.”
Even as she snorts her disbelief and her head pounds at the action, he slowly offers a hand. Tender eyes never veer from her gaze, as if challenging her distrust with the offer of aid.
As sore and as stiff as she feels, the offered hand is ignored as she gingerly pushes herself to her feet. This stranger, this Sun-Elf, would have to prove his intentions with more than just words. She knew well enough not to trust in the honeyed words of others, no matter how sweet they were. A fact that the old bitter scars she carried saw she would not forget.
“Independant. Good.”
She eyes him and his praise warily. No doubt he had expected reluctance. Good. At least he was no fool, so far.
“We haven’t much time so listen closely.”
Words that sounded like he would finally reveal something pique her interest as he walks away from the stone dais with its flowers and vegetation of muted colours. Determined to obtain all the information she could, she hobbles after him with a grimace. Her uneven steps across the stone and sand have him pause momentarily, shoulders tilting in her direction before he casts aside the act and continues. The grimace is transformed into a light smirk as her eyes dance with interest, how curious.
“There is great potential within you.” He dives quickly into the explanation as he stops near the edge, which grants him a measure of respect as there have been many who have always tried to waste her time with frivolous nonsense. A backdrop of floating stone and rock of all shapes settles behind him as his towering form turns to face her, eyes glistening inquisitively even as his brows furrow sombrely above them.
A difficult ask, was it? Something unsavoury? Something-
“It comes from that parasite.”
-most would ardently refuse.
Eyes widening and brows raising in response, she feels ready to do the same as many would. But he continues before she can even begin to voice a protest. His tone shifts into a crescendo of...desperation? A crescendo that is layered with concern and compassion, even as his anguish threatens to swallow it whole.
“Your instinct is to resist the power it gives, but you must accept it, nurture it.”
He offers no room for her to protest, insisting that she is to hear it all before passing a judgement. And she allows it. It gives her the time to process because he will naturally want a decision by the time his offer is laid out before her; caveats excluded of course.
“I will keep it from consuming you. But for the sake of both of us, you must learn to wield it.”
Or not?
It seems he takes her for no fool. His words, tone and the fervent gestures of raised hands beg as much. Honesty and promises? That would remain to be seen, but thus far this man, this Sun-Elf, appeared to be forthcoming enough to lace substance into his pitch.
She’s almost ready to offer her piece when he continues. Turning side on, she catches the bloom of white into purple that washes away the ocean hue of his eyes and settles into a constant humming glow. A simple sweeping gesture, bereft of any incantation or natural material, is all he seems to require to move his backdrop of stone and rock.
With a glimmer of translucent amethyst, the various chunks of rock as pulled back like a curtain. Cascades of starburst azure and blooming violet burn against an endless darkness peppered with seeds of shimmering gold. At the centre of it, crowded by melted stone and scattered eruptions of damson pearls upon magnificent waves of electric ice, hovered a skull akin to a planet carved from the very stone that drifted around them. Within it an orb of glass beat over and against the jaw, cheekbones, and even the enormous golden crown that nestled atop it. It was plain to see the teal-trimmed fractures that make up the orb, with every pulse they burn into a searing red that strains to hold itself together.
“A fight for the fate of Faerûn.” Her increasingly dubious, yet interesting, visitor offers the explanation with a pinch of their brows. It’s an expression she barely manages to capture as she drags her gaze away from what she’s sure are figures in amongst the bursts of light.
“A fight we are losing. For now.”
She can feel the pang of sorrow in his voice as his solemn eyes fixate on the scene before them. A small hopeful lift slips its way in, just as he returns his full attention to her.
“You can change that, but only if you embrace your potential.”
Despite her distrust and her reluctance, his words are a spark of temptation. Perhaps if she does this, if she saves this cursed world people will finally see past the pigments of grey and indigo that make up her skin.
“I-”
A strangled sizzle leaves her words unsaid as a being of electric blue is dispatched with a violet rupture. The darkening of his smouldering eyes and the pressing down of his brow are immediate in their response, and she cannot help but enjoy how alluringly dangerous it makes him. Especially when raised against the warming comeliness of the rest of him... it reminds her of another fondly. A woman who had shared the same sun-kissed skin, luminescent hair, and bold features. A male, however, she’s never considered a male...
Distrust aside, she wouldn’t be against a spar with him. To feel him fight against her dominance, to feel the-
“I have to go.” The rumbling timbre of his voice dips oh-so-low with simmering rage as his heated gaze is turned upon her. “The enemy is closing in.”
So taken aback by his intensity, all she can do is stare wordlessly as he utters yet another promise.
“I will be back.”
The words are barely voiced before her senses are overcome by white noise and she is thrust back onto the rough fabric of her bedroll.
Dark Maiden aid her. She needs a lay and some clarity. Preferably in that order.