Work Text:
"How fares our favorite tiefling battleaxe?" Gale asked in a jovial tone, plying Wyll with more wine.
His visits to the surface were few and far between. Karlach couldn't come with him and he was loathe to leave her alone in Avernus for even an afternoon, but Gale had made the matter sound urgent.
Hope allowed them to use her home as a safe refuge, so that's where Karlach waited for him, though Astarion and Lae'zel had deigned to visit her while Gale, Shadowheart and Wyll met at Gale's tower.
"Good. Zariel is currently under siege, so she hasn't had her focus on us for a few weeks. There's rumor Tiamat might make another power play."
Gale looked earnestly fascinated by the politicking and inner workings of Avernus, but Shadowheart was getting impatient.
"You summoned us for a reason, wizard."
"You sound like Lae'zel, my dear. You two have been spending too much time together," Gale said teasingly as Shadowheart's face went red. "I have summoned you here because I have a very rare opportunity for us. I had a chance to catch up with Elminster recently and I asked him if he might have a Wish scroll we could use for Karlach's…heartburn," he said jokingly. "And he said that he might be able to help us obtain just the thing! However, because he's a shrewd old man, he requires a favor from us first."
Wyll had talked -- perhaps to an annoying degree -- about a Wish spell and fixing Karlach. They'd done good work on the engine in the years since saving Baldur's Gate. Dammon had come down a few times and managed to work on it in Avernus, where the forges ran hotter, but it wasn't permanent.
He was tired of living on borrowed time, and Gale had likely grown tired of hearing about it.
"He can get me my Wish, truly?" Wyll asked, daring to hope. All he'd ever done was hope, and he'd not stop now.
"If we can get him a powerful artifact from a fellow mage."
"We have to rob someone?"
Gale nodded.
Wyll considered it. He was generally opposed to robbery on principle, but mages were so often stuffy rich types…
"All right. Who are we robbing?"
"The ringmaster of Last Days herself, Lucretious," Gale said with a flourish. "The circus is making a stop in Avernus soon. We get in, get the artifact, trade it for the Wish spell and bam, Karlach's back in Baldur's Gate!"
Wyll's throat tightened. "We'll do it. But…don't tell her. If something goes wrong…I don't want her to…get her hopes up. And I want to surprise her. I think it'd be a good surprise."
Shadowheart smiled, easy and warm. Such a departure from how she'd been when they'd met all those years ago. "We can do this, Wyll. We saved the whole city. How hard can robbing Madam Lucretious be?"
Gale waffled slightly. "I wouldn't underestimate any wizard, least of all Lucretious."
Wyll refilled his wine. "I think we can handle it. Gale, I cannot thank you enough for this. It means everything."
"You owe me one later, Ravenguard."
He returned to the House of Hope and found Lae'zel, Astarion and Karlach sprawled across cushions in what had been the feast hall, drinking generously. Astarion and Karlach were singing, Lae'zel was pretending not to enjoy it, and Wyll was overwhelmed with fondness that he couldn't articulate.
"Time to go, leech," Lae'zel said when she saw Wyll enter the room.
"The Blade of Avernus!" he called, standing up with a stumble and failing to drag Karlach up with him. Astarion's mood had been comparatively sunnier since the defeat of the Elder Brain. Wyll knew some of it was a front, as most things with Astarion were, but it heartened him to see his friends doing well. Leaving Baldur's Gate for the rebuilding Reithwin had suited the vampire spawn's mood, however he tried to hide it. "Always lovely to see you."
Wyll hugged him. "And you, Astarion. We'll see you again very soon, all right?"
"You had better," he said with a sniff. "I don't like you keeping Karlach from me so much."
"You could always come fight some devils with us, Astarion!" Karlach called.
He scoffed and headed towards the glowing portal. "Gods, no. Not on your life."
With that, they were alone. Wyll was buzzing with the secret. He couldn't tell her, not yet. Not when it wasn't a guarantee. But in the last four years, he'd held no secrets from Karlach. She was the center point of his life and his truest friend and they'd shared everything from the moment Mizora had given him horns.
"What are you staring at me for?" she asked with a hazy look in her eye as she fumbled getting up off the cushions they had scattered on the floor.
Instead, he joined her. "Just missed you."
She grinned, tackling him into the soft nest and kissing his face with abandon, running her hands down his sides, tugging at the hem of his shirt. "I missed you too."
"Karlach, we can't -- in the middle of Hope's house."
"That grandma tapped out hours ago," she muttered against his neck. "She won't bother us."
"At least be a gentleman and take me to bed, Cliffgate," he joked, unwilling to get lost in Karlach out in the open quarters of the house. He kissed her jaw and pulled on her earlobe with his teeth before he managed to extract himself from her grip and pull her to her feet, all but dragging her back to the room they shared during their time in the House of Hope.
She struggled to pull off her boots, stripping down to nothing before she was on him again.
"Karlach, hang on," he said, pulling his shirt over his head. "I've got something to tell you."
"Hmm?" she asked, dragging her lips across a scar on his neck.
"The group is coming to Avernus," he said. "We've got a job to do for Elminster."
That completely distracted Karlach, whose hands stilled on his belt. "Really? Everyone's coming?"
"Yeah, everyone," he said with a nod. "Elminster needs an artifact from the circus and asked Gale to get it for him, so we're all gonna go."
"The group gets back together, we get to do a heist AND go to the circus?" she asked with a happy grin, immediately engulfing him in a hug. "Is it my fucking birthday?!"
Not yet, he thought, but he said, "should be fun, right?"
"I can't wait!" With that, there was no more protest, and Wyll allowed himself to be tackled onto their bed.
He woke up and looked out into the shifting landscape of Avernus, with the heavy feeling of knowing that they could leave it all behind soon. They had been here for four years. Four years of fighting devils and demons and worse, four years of knowing that this was the only place they were allowed to be truly themselves… Having no choice and no chance to return home. He wanted to see his father. He wanted Karlach to frolic in the ocean and he wanted to kiss salt water off of skin warmed by the sun and not the fires of hell.
As she slept, steam puffed off of her, her chest glowing with unnatural light as she squeezed Clive close. Maybe he would miss parts of it, he thought. He would miss the uncontrollable bursts of light when she was happy. He would miss her moods being written in the warmth of her body… but he would trade it for a whole, alive Karlach any day.
Now he just had to make sure the plan went off without a hitch.
Gathering in the House of Hope a few weeks later, Wyll marveled at seeing all of his companions together once again. It clawed its way in and made a happy home in his chest. Could it be like this always? Gale was drawing out plans in the air with a shimmering illusionary script, with Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Karlach listening to him ramble intently. Astarion pretended to listen, but he was sitting on Halsin's lap and fidgeting with the other elf's hair.
"Lucretious has a trunk with a holding enchantment on it that she keeps at the back of her tent. The artifact will be in a small metal box inside that trunk. So the plan is simple. We get in, we distract the circus, and Astarion sneaks in, picks the lock on her trunk and gets the box. Then we come back here and take Elminster his prize."
"Do we have any idea what this thing even is?" Astarion asked.
"It's an important, rare artifact that was stolen from Elminster's collection," Gale said for the thirtieth time. "That's all we know, and if we push too hard, he's likely to give the job to someone else."
"A circus in hell," Shadowheart mused. "This is going to be interesting, even for us. Do we know where the circus is setting up?"
Gale pulled out a map, that seemed to shimmer with the latent insanity that Avernus always generated, and pointed to a mark he'd made on it. "Around the area where Elturel was pulled into the depths a few years ago. Lucretious has a sense of humor, as we all know. Plus the barrier between the planes is a little wibbly there."
"Wibbly? Is that a technical term?" Wyll played.
Gale glared. "Now, by my calculations, the House of Hope is about a day from there as the crow flies."
Karlach stood up. "Luckily, I can cut down our travel time!" she said with a proud rumble. "I got us rides."
"Rides?"
"Devil's Rides," she repeated. "They're like… a hell horse."
The wickedly spiked two-wheeled contraptions that ran on soul coins and were a favored vehicle of Zariel's worst scouts were waiting outside of the house for everyone.
"Well, that's a Tormentor," she said, pointing to the four-seater as she straddled her own ride. Three Devil's Ride and one Tormentor sat there, shiny and chrome and rumbling with hellfire. "Me and Wyll got these. Y'all pick how you wanna split up."
Lae'zel practically dove for the remaining Devil's Ride, much to Gale's chagrin, forcing the wizard to drive the Tormentor, Shadowheart at his side as Astarion and Halsin crammed into the backseat.
"They're just going to stare at each other for the whole ride," Gale complained, poking Halsin in the arm to emphasize his point.
Halsin, who had indeed been fondly staring at Astarion as he fiddled with the controls of the Infernal Warmachine, startled slightly. "I'll keep my eyes to myself if it upsets you so, Gale."
Gale and Wyll exchanged a glance and Wyll could only shrug. They knew how amorous their companions could be. They'd just have to deal with it. "Very considerate, Halsin," Gale said. "Let's hit the road."
"We should be able to get to the circus before we need a proper rest unless we come across some devil shits who are feeling bold. Lots of bearded devils think they can get one over on the Blade of Avernus," Karlach said, pulling goggles down over her face.
Wyll said a silent prayer to the Triad that it would be easy travels. He had gotten used to the shifting landscape of Avernus, but sometimes it still proved disorienting.
Of course, nothing could be easy.
The imp swarm was on them like flies on a hot day, clearly sent by Zariel to harangue them. They could handle a few imps, to be sure, but the sheer volume of them meant that it took time out of their ride.
Panting and smeared with imp blood, Gale declared they ought to rest and come to the circus after a full night's sleep. He chanted a few words and a door materialized out of nowhere.
"I've been perfecting this one," he said, opening the door and welcoming them to a massive mansion, decorated in what Wyll could only describe as "Gale plus grandma" with a dozen comfy surfaces and books everywhere. "Everyone has their own room and bathroom."
With that, everyone was off to the races to get cleaned up.
"Me first on the bath!" Karlach declares brightly, though as she opened the door to what must have been their bath, she stopped. "Or…we can share," she said with a wicked smirk.
Wyll craned to look over her shoulder. The tub was huge, fitting of the fanciest spas in Baldur's Gate. Certainly big enough for two.
Despite the abundance of space, he found himself atop Karlach's thighs, held by the horns while she kissed him breathless, still smelling faintly of singed imp. "This is fun," she said. "Getting the gang back together. I…wish we could do it more often."
Wyll kissed her nose, then her cheek, then her forehead. "I know. It's not fair."
Karlach's grin started to fade, her hands dropping to around his neck. "Nothing is."
It was every bit of restraint he had to not say anything about the scroll. He could picture the joy on her face. He could feel how she'd grab his horns and kiss him and smile into his lips, but that would only make it worse if they failed, or if Elminster went back on his word. He didn't trust himself to keep his mouth shut for too much longer, so he pulled himself out of Karlach's lap. "Sit up there," he said, pointing to the rim of the tub.
Karlach obeyed with a confused look until Wyll braced his hands on her knees and gently pulled her legs apart.
"To cheer you up," he said as she smiled, sinking between her thighs.
Gale woke them up at what was probably sunrise in Waterdeep, and they found an elaborate breakfast spread presented to them by invisible servants. Food was one of the things he missed the most about Baldur's Gate. Food in Avernus was questionable at best and nearly inedible at worst. Eating eggs and bacon and toast felt like a luxury.
"Quite the fancy digs, Gale ole pal," Karlach said. "Coming up in the world!"
Gale smiled. "A simple wizard trick, if you know the right dusty words."
"Better than living on goodberries and whatever Mad Maggie will spare ya," Karlach concluded with a shrug. "Though if I have to sit across from this any longer even I might lose my appetite," she added, jerking her thumb towards where Astarion was feeding Halsin a slice of bacon. "Oi, you two, knock it off!"
Astarion glared. "Mind your business."
Halsin, graciously, extracted himself from Astarion's squid-like grip for the rest of breakfast. "Apologies. With Astarion's…limitations…we often see less of each other than we'd like."
Wyll understood the feeling in his own way.
"Just not while we're eating," Lae'zel said, rolling her eyes.
They set back off and found themselves at the circus in good time, parking among a larger crowd of Infernal Machines…devils taking some time off the blood war to enjoy a circus.
"Astarion, Shadowheart, you find Lucretious's quarters while we mingle. Send us a signal and we'll enact the distraction," Gale said, tossing them a scroll. "It's a sending spell. Just hit me with a message and I'll know when to start some chaos."
Karlach was happy to bound from stall to stall, delighting in the familiar faces of the circus. "Look, it's Popper! Hi Popper! Hi Stoney!" Wyll watched her delight, unable and unwilling to mask the adoration he felt at her easy, hard-won enthusiasm.
"It's unwise for a warrior to be so blatant in his affections," Lae'zel said. "It would not do to have your enemies know what your dearest weakness is."
"We aren't on the battlefield Lae'zel," he said with a sigh. "And Karlach isn't my weakness, she's my strength. She keeps me fighting."
To his utter shock, Lae'zel gave half a smile. "It is…nice…to have someone to fight for. Minsc says every great warrior must have a wychlaran. He is a fool, always, but he is correct in that."
"So Shadowheart is your wychlaran? Be careful, Lae'zel, that almost sounds like a commitment."
"Tch." Then she paused. "I suppose you would have been Karlach's wychlaran, if only you had kept your powers." It was said in the same snotty way everything Lae'zel said was, but it had the tone and tenor of…
"Did you just make a joke?"
"I'm beginning to learn the concept."
Wyll wanted to say something encouraging about the frankly dreadful attempt at a joke, but Karlach bounded over and grabbed his shoulder. "Let's go talk to the Dryad!" She was pointing to the lush magical oasis of flowers where a dryad stood. Not the same dryad he remembered from last time, but similar enough. "Love is my business," she said with a breathy giggle. "Let me put your love to the test."
Wyll thought it might be a fun way to spend the time waiting for the distraction signal. "Why not? You ready Karlach?"
Karlach beamed. "We can pass any test!"
The dryad frowned, green magic flowing off of her gently. "Love you have, but to keep secrets from your beloved is…" her voice trailed off as Wyll's heart plummeted. "The changes you seek will not be found in secrecy."
"Changes? Secrets?" Karlach laughed haltingly, a frown playing across her features as she cut her eyes over to Wyll.
"You should have just told her about the scroll," Lae'zel said with a sneer. "I would never be judged lacking by such a creature."
Time froze around him as he tried to avoid her confused eyes, looking frantically over to Gale. Gale was already trying to be a peacekeeper when the sending stone went off. "Halsin, Lae'zel, with me."
Before Wyll could turn away from where they were rushing off to the busier part of the circus, Karlach had stormed off. Pushing through the loitering devils, he found her well away from the merriment, sitting on a magically conjured bench and hugging herself. "I can explain."
"You lied to me about why we're here? Why?"
Wyll couldn't stop himself from fidgeting with the sleeve of his tunic. "No…I mean…a little. I just kept some details to myself. I didn't want to hurt your feelings --"
"What could possibly hurt my feelings?"
"Elminster asked us to do this job in exchange for a Wish spell," he blurted out all in a rush. "I was scared it'd go badly and we'd fail…I didn't want to get your hopes up."
She was looking at him with wide eyes, still not quite understanding what he was saying. "Get my hopes up?"
"I want to Wish for you to get your heart back, Karlach," he said, steadying himself by taking her hand. "Isn't that obvious?"
Karlach's building annoyance seemed to vanish in an instant, her hands falling to her side limply. "You - me? All of this is just for me?"
"'Just?' Not just for you. It's for you. You're the most important person in my world and this is what I want. I want you to be able to go to the Material Plane and see your friends. Ever since I met you…all I've wanted was to have more time."
"But we're Wyll and Karlach. We kick ass through all of Avernus. If I got my heart…I wouldn't have to be here. I wouldn't have to stay in Avernus at all."
"I'll follow you wherever you lead me. The Blade of Avernus is nothing without his Karlach. Stay or go, you deserve the choice. I can be the Blade of wherever you want to go."
Karlach threw her arms around his neck with so much force they fell to the ground in a flurry of giggles. "I love you so much. I love you, Wyll Ravenguard. You are perfect."
"If I were perfect, I'd have gotten your Wish 4 years ago," he said, kissing her before he let her help him to his feet, just as Astarion bolted by them, followed by a singed-looking bear and the rest of their friends. "Time to go," he said with a laugh.
"You tell Elminster that brunch is off!" Lucretious shouted at their heels as they dodged around Benji and managed to get out of sight of the pursuing circus performers.
They managed to get all the way to their war machines, panting and giggling nervously.
"Let's crack it open," Astarion said, fiddling with the case in his hands. "It's weirdly cold. Like there's an ice spell on it." He opened the case and his smirk fell into a deep frown. "Please tell me we didn't risk our skin against a Feywild necromancer for --"
"-- Cheese? No, my good boy, it's not just cheese. It's Elysium goat cheese. Made from the milk of the god Tyr's beloved goats in the divine realm itself. Lucretious has been taunting me for years and now…now I have it! Think of the egg tart I'll be able to bring to the next brunch!"
"If you're ever invited back," Gale noted. "A deal is a deal Elminster. The scroll?"
"Ah, yes, yes, of course!" He cast a twinkling eye to Wyll and Karlach as he started to dig through his impossibly deep bag. "Took me a bit to find it. The library is cluttered. Did I tell you that my great, great, great -" By the time he had finished his greats, Karlach had begun to doze on Wyll's shoulder. "Grandson helped save Neverwinter? Some Thayan red wizard was going to level the place!"
"Yes, we're all very proud of Simon," Gale said, hand extended expectantly.
"Simon? I thought Gale was your grandson," Karlach asked with a wide yawn.
"Not by blood, sadly!" Elminster said as he passed over the scroll. "Now, do me proud, lad."
Gale looked over at Karlach with a tentative smile as he unfurled the scroll. "You ready?" he asked.
Karlach suddenly didn't seem that ready, eyes darting between Wyll and the scroll nervously. "You think it's gonna hurt?"
"If it does, I'll hold your hand," Wyll said, extending his hand to her palm up.
She immediately took it, skin warm against his. He took a moment to memorize that feeling. The heat that radiated off of Karlach…the happy rumble of her chest when she laughed…the glow that drove him insane, kept him up all night. The flames that licked his hands when she was excited…
Strangely, he felt that wistful pain again. Like he'd miss it all.
But not that much.
"Let's do this thing, Gale!"
Gale took a deep breath, readying himself to read the incantation, stopping short to glare. "Astarion, please release Halsin's face and treat this moment with some gravity."
Astarion glared where he had once again wrapped himself around the larger elf. "Karlach knows I'm very excited."
"Gale's right, my heart," Halsin said with a gentle nudge of his shoulder.
"Proceed, wizard!" Lae'zel barked.
Gale began chanting in a hypnotic rhythm, eyes glowing purple as the scroll burnt away in his hands. He reached for Karlach, who let go of Wyll and stepped towards him on shaky legs. He wished he could keep holding her hand.
Gale's hands were on her shoulders and the purple glow was blinding, encompassing both of them entirely. Wyll had to shield his eyes, and he couldn't make out anything happening.
A few minutes passed in that blinding sense of stasis, and then the light was gone and it was just them standing in the House of Hope. "Did it…did it work?" Wyll asked, rushing to Karlach's side. Her scarred arms were the same as ever…there was even still a faint fiery glow in her chest… his heart sank as he watched it.
"Mystra…Mystra said what was lost couldn't be put back," Karlach said, wiping her eyes with a shaky hand. "But…but she fixed it. I can leave Avernus. No more broken engine."
Wyll let out the breath he'd been holding as Karlach dragged him into her arms, picking him up and spinning him around. "Thank you. I love you. Thank you. I love you."
"I love you so much," he said, their foreheads pressed together tightly as he wiped away happy tears. They could go home. "Where to first?"
"Oh, to the beach! Splashing in the Chionthar for hours! Or, oh, we could visit Aylin and Isobel? Or we could go see your dad --"
Wyll kissed her. "Anywhere you want to go. I'm with you."
"We're all with you," Shadowheart said with a warm smile. "Wherever you want to go."
"If you need a job, there's a special artifact that an old rival of mine has been hoarding down in Elturel --"
"No, Elminster!" they shouted down in unison.
"I don't know…I might be down for another cheese-based heist," Karlach said with a shrug.