Chapter Text
Your trembling fingertips skip about the page as you recite the spell. The text shifts under your eyes, powerful and pulsing. Weave permeates the room with an electric charge. It is alive and biting.
You lift your arms, firm in your movements. The magic is potent. Dangerous. It threatens to shatter your bones, to peel the flesh from them if you succumb to its will. This magic may ruin you, but you are already ruined. Blank and bloody faces flit through your vision, horrible illustrations of your former companions—easy prey for the beast that now stalks the halls, hunting you.
The spell is agonizingly complex. You write layers upon layers of intricate runes in the air around you. A million short strokes of starlight burn into your eyes, unfathomable.
Tension torments your body. He is coming. The arcane lock on the door will not hold him for long.
His mind presses against yours, smothering your thoughts. The tadpole that once resided in your brain is long gone. Now, the only parasite in your mind is him.
Your concentration remains stable as the door rattles under his fury. Wood cracks and splinters. He screams, but the words are lost on you.
The last rune burns into existence, completing the constellation around you. They crackle like lightning, deafening you.
Astarion stands in the doorway, teeth bared. Every muscle is wound up, ready to snap. He opens his jaws, a command at the tip of his tongue.
A stardust tear trails down your cheek, and you smile for the first time since your heart stopped beating.
“I’m going to fix this.”
He dives for you, gnarled claws extended to snag you. You clap your hands, allowing the spell to surge through you. Brilliant light flies in every direction. When it fades, a cruel hand closes around nothing.