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“I hate to be picky, since you dove in after us to save the day and all, but maybe you would have been more successful if you weren’t insisting on holding onto that dead weight,” Astarion yelped, taking another wave of necrotic damage as he clinged to Malaena’s back. “Drop him!”
They were in a free fall down the chasm, plummeting at dizzying speed. Malaena braced herself against the nausea from her vertigo and the wave of necrotic energy pouring off of Gale’s corpse and exhaled,“Astarion, what do you think will happen if we let Gale’s body drop?”
A beat of silence followed as Astarion processed her grim question. “…Oh hells. I told you that Netherese Jack-in-the-box was more trouble than he was worth.”
Another surge of nausea. She swallowed down the bile gorging up her throat and shouted against the roaring air, “Now shut up and let me focus! I have to cast my last spell and charge my flight at just the right time to pull us upward and soften our landing. If I get it wrong, we all die.”
The vampire grumbled some kind of complaint about Malaena not knowing Feather Fall. He became mercifully quiet after that as they continued their plummeting descent down the deep chasm, his self preservation overriding his vindictiveness. Malaena wondered to herself how much longer they had. Was the air they felt on the surface coming out of the chasm from the Underdark, as Gale had guessed? If so, they could have miles more to fall. Malaena was not sure she could hold onto Gale for that long. And that was assuming the chasm remained wide enough for them to fall through. It could narrow at any point.
||The jagged sharp walls could rip through skin and sinew like gnashing teeth, leaving each body so broken and maimed as to be indiscernible. It would be a viscious and beautiful death.||
No. Now was not the time to be distracted by her Urges. The glowing from below was becoming brighter. They would be surfacing from the chasm soon. Well, not surfacing. Diving? No, that was not right either.
“Malaena…” Astarion warned as his nails drew blood, gripping her more tightly.
She shook her head, refocusing.“Not yet.” Another icy stab of magic burned her skin and she groaned. She had to hold on.
Mushrooms of all colors, shapes, and sizes entered her view. “Malaena!” Astarion shouted.
“Te occludo occulos!” Blindness. The only spell powerful enough in her repertoire that did not require a somatic component. Malanena felt the surge of tempest winds give her flight as she desperately tried to right herself and her two companions. She slowed their momentum, dropping Gale from a safe height and then crashed down herself with Astarion still clinging to her.
“You wretch! You blinded me!” Astarion hissed and rubbed at his eyes as he rolled off of her. Malaena could not respond to defend herself as the wind had been knocked out of her. She also almost certainly had some broken ribs based on how painful it was for her to fill her lungs with air again. By the time she was able to speak, the spell had worn off, as had most of Astarions’s ire. They both laid on the ground for several minutes, breathing raggedly. There was something going on near Gale’s body, but neither had the willpower to address it.
“Hey Soldier, fancy a healy or two?” Karlach shouted as she slowly descended down, the tell-tale signs of Feather Fall floating about her. She whistled. “That was quite the fall you had there. It took me our whole stash of floaters to get down.” Karlach handed Malaena and Astarion healing potions. “The spider queen is dead, by the way. You’re welcome.”
At least the arachnoid bitch paid for what she did. “Thanks, Karlach” Malaena wheezed, “But why did you come down?”
“And leave you lot to fend for yourselves in the gods only know where? Besides, I’ve never been to the Underdark. I would have been jealous if you had managed to make it back alive.” Karlach looked around in awe of her surroundings until she appeared to spot something. “Hold on. I thought Gale was dead?”
The two companions nearly choked on their potions when they saw Gale standing upright and… glowing? Karlach helped her fellow tiefling up and added a supportive weight for her to lean on while slipping her a second potion to drink. Much of Astarion’s fall was broken by Malaena and after finishing his first he stood upright gracefully. He gave her a fanged smirk when he noticed Malaena’s dark glare.
As they approached, it became clear that Gale was not quite, well, Gale. They could see the body still on the ground, and this Gale was rather translucent.
“Well met! I am a magical projection of Gale of Waterdeep, and if you are seeing this manifestation, that means I have prematurely perished…”
“This ought to be good,” Karlach enthused. “I am so glad I came down here.”
—
Their meager campfire sputtered weakly, making more smoke than providing any actual warmth. Between the chill, moist environment of the Underdark, the remaining foggy tendrils of the Fugue Plain that clung to his spirit, and the stabbing ice in his chest from the orb, Gale feared he would never get warm again. The agony of his current state almost clouded the thrill of his resurrection puzzle being solved. Almost. He gamely tried to put on a cheerful mien and asked the group, “So, don’t leave me in suspense! What are your thoughts on my security protocol? Thankfully thus far you have been the only ones to work through it.”
Malaena was uncharacteristically quiet, poking the dirt in front of her with a stick. Astarion and Karlach exchanged knowing glances. As the silence continued, the elf could not resist filling it by needling their group leader. “Yes, darling, do tell Gale how you feel about his little protocol.”
Gale looked back and forth between the companions. Malaena was still stubbornly refusing to look up, and her scratching in the dirt became rather more aggressive. Gale gazed softly at her pouted lips and furrowed brows. He could not help but smile— she really did look quite lovely whenever her temper was gently riled like this. He guessed their wizard vs. sorcerer rivalry was resparked, and she must have felt patronized by his projection “teaching” her how to accomplish such simple magical tasks. He patted her shoulder and said, “Malaena, you must understand that I had to design the protocol so that it could be completed by a lay person. I had no idea when planning this that I would have the good fortune to travel with skilled magic users such as yourself.”
The stick snapped in half and their other companions fell into a fit of laughter. Karlach’s head was in her hands, shoulders shaking, while Astarion leaned his head back and made no attempts to hide his delight. Malaena stood up stiffly, still refusing to look at Gale and walked away a short distance. Not far enough to leave sight of the camp, but far enough to send the message that she did not want company.
By Elminster’s beard, what had gotten into her? Gale looked at Astarion and Karlach for explanation, but had to wait quite a while for their giggling to die down. Karlach finally took pity on him and said “Gale, you mad man, that whole process was ridiculous.” She gestured her chin over to where Malaena was standing, “She had a hell of a time getting it right and had to be corrected each step- by your projection, me and Astarion, and even that weird little mephit guy had to take pity on her.” Karlach shook her head. “It’s obvious that the only reason she had trouble was because the poor thing was exhausted and in pain from rescuing your body—” a hmph of indignation from the vampire interrupted her “—and Astarion, of course. But her pride was knocked around a bit.” She poked Gale in the chest. “You had better appreciate what she did for you.”
Astarion gave a terse nod of agreement “She dove in head first and managed to bank our fall with her flight. We both had to suffer constant necrotic stings from your damn corpse the entire way down. I wanted to drop you and be done with it, but Malaena refused.” He clucked his tongue in disgust.
“Ah.” Gale swallowed, overwhelmed by the magnitude of Malaena’s efforts. “I see now that I completely misread the situation. I managed to say just about the worst thing I could have, didn’t I?”
Karlach’s face softened. “Go on, Gale. I know you have just the right fancy words to smooth things over. Astarion and I are going to turn in for the night. At first light we should keep searching for a waypoint. Wake me up when it’s time for my watch.” Astarion opened his mouth to speak, but Karlach firmly elbowed him in the stomach. With a glare, he mumbled his agreement and they both moved to their bedrolls.
Grateful to Karlach for providing them at least a semblance of privacy, and for her vote of confidence, Gale inhaled deeply and walked toward his brooding companion. She was perched upon a large mushroom, her dark blue skin aglow in its vivid bioluminescence. Where on the surface in daylight she appeared more as a blooming storm cloud on the horizon, here, in the dark, she became more like a celestial canvas. With effort he tore his eyes away from her, not wanting to add any pressure. She often seemed to have difficulty with being closely observed, he had noticed. So he sat beside her, looking outwards to share her view.
“I wanted to-“
“I am sorry for-“
Startled at interrupting each other, they both stopped mid sentence and laughed. “Ladies first,” Gale conceded with a small bow and a gesture towards her, the faintest blush dusting his cheek. Malaena smiled wryly, her ire having passed as soon as she had snuck a peak and seen his sad brown eyes in her periphery. This man had no right to be so charming so soon. “I’m sorry for my temper earlier. It’s been a long day.” She was aware of how close his hand was, but did not dare touch it. She still felt the sting of his gentle rejection after they had shared that moment in the Weave just a few evenings ago. “I’m just grateful that you are here, and alive,” she sighed out.
Gale nodded his head and let out a hum of agreement. “That makes two of us.” He spoke lightly, “It appears I will not be clearing my life debt to you for quite some time. First there was the portal, then the artifacts, and now your heroic effort from today has been added to the ledger.” Feeling Malaena’s irritation slipping away, his voice softened, “I heard it was quite a sight to witness.” The wizard shifted, desiring to face her more directly, and his arm lightly brushed hers in the process. He shivered, but not from the cold. “I heard that you were extraordinary. Although I did not need to be told that, having witnessed it myself countless times.”
Given how things had been left between them, Malaena searched him for any signs of empty flattery, but she could not find any. Had she misread him, before? “I was so worried about losing you. For good. I didn’t even really think. My body just moved on its own.” She began to tremble, the stress from the fall finally making itself known now that they were all safe. “Not even Withers could bring you back if your orb detonated, right?” She took a shaky breath and wiped tears from her eyes angrily, “And then to have to go through those damn puzzles, like some kind of game…”
To see her like this on his behalf was agony. He ignored a painful pulse from the orb and reached for her hand. “Malaena, please do not waste your tears on such a fool as me. I thought that I had to make the process interesting, somehow, to motivate a stranger to use the scroll rather than steal it. For all of my planning, it never once occurred to me that I would have someone who cared for me to bring me back. It was never my intention to design something that made anyone feel toyed with.” He stroked her hand with his thumb, in part to comfort her, but he was also entranced by how soft her skin felt.
Malaena sighed and shook her head. He truly was a fool, and did not understand that him thinking of himself in such a way was precisely what had upset her.
||You could show him just how precious he is, cut by cut. Use your claws and your knives to make him appreciate each piece of flesh as you take it away.||
This Urge had little bite to it, for once, as the gentle movement back and forth of his thumb soothed her. However, it was also slowly drawing out a reckless desire to feel him drag the pad of his thumb across her lip, and for her to take it into her mouth and lightly suck it. Part of her wished they were connected in the Weave again, wanting to see his scandalized expression as she shared such an image with him. Emboldened, she asked “Do you… do you ever think about that night? About what you saw?”
She did not need to specify which night. There was always a part of his mind now, waking and dreaming, that was occupied by her fantasy of kissing him. Wondering if he could dare hope to make it a reality someday. “I do. I am not a big believer in fate. But I do believe in serendipity. Life is a tempest of events that we sometimes brace against, and sometimes embrace. You are one such tempest that one day soon, perhaps, I’d like to embrace.” The orb was practically churning in his chest now, and he unconsciously started to rub it. It was a well-timed and cruel reminder, and Gale could feel his optimism about their chances waning by the moment. “As for now, I think some rest is in order. Or, at least what scraps of it we can attain without even the minimal creature comforts of our party’s camp.” He smiled to mask his pain, and offered his hand to assist her up. She took it gratefully. Neither commented on how the other did not let go as they walked back to the campfire.
—
Despite his exhortation to the group at large to continue on their journey through the Underdark with caution, Gale simply could not resist commenting on the unique flora of the land and their culinary applications. “Ah, blue stalk! The grain of the underdark. Did you know that while the cap of this mushroom is inedible, the stalk can be ground into a fine flour? Bluebread is quite dense and nutritious, although it can be an acquired taste. I for one did not care much for mushrooms of any sort until a visiting drow chef took residency at Blackstaff for a spell.”
Karlach and Astarion had long since tired of his educational efforts and had picked up the pace. They were not truly out of ear shot, especially for Astarion’s sensitive hearing, but the distance at least kept the elf from trying to surreptitiously stab the wizard.
Said wizard leaned over to Malaena enthusiastically, careful not to drop what was now an armful of bluecaps. The pain of the orb was still present, and growing, but Gale had a talent for suppressing his senses once his interest in something was sparked. Having the attention of his beautiful companion and a fascinating subject to explore was a powerful analgesic for him. “Now that man knew his way around fungi. He concocted all sorts of delicacies. Apparently he had stolen the recipes from his grandmother and was cast out for prying into the family matriarch’s secrets.” Gale shook his head in disbelief, “Quite terrible. But their loss was our gain, so to speak. I practically begged him for his fire lichen sauce recipe. He never shared it, but he did teach me some tricks on how to prepare a bluebread pastry so light in texture one practically felt like they were eating a cloud.” He looked up to the nonexistent sky as if to look for a cloud to illustrate his point, and promptly slipped on a slimy patch of ground. His mushrooms scattered about as he instinctively grasped onto Malaena to steady himself.
Unfortunately for them both, Malaena was too busy admiring the way Gale’s eyes lit up when he was talking about a favorite subject to pay attention to her surroundings either. She was unable to maintain her balance against Gale with the bluecaps underfoot. They both slid down the hill and landed in a heap, with Gale letting out an “oomph” as Malaena landed atop him. She told herself she was just catching her breath from the tumble as she snickered into his shoulder, making no efforts just yet to move off of him. She was not basking in the firm feeling of his chest, or the warmth of his breath at her temple, or the security of his arms wrapped around her. Heat was certainly not pooling in her stomach as she felt him shake under her in laughter, wondering if this would be how it felt to have him shaking under her for entirely different reasons.
As his laughter subsided, Gale became more aware of their positions. She felt good, curled onto him like this. But if he did not extricate himself soon, he would have quite an embarrassing situation on his hands, if not an outright explosive one. “Malaena, if you would…?” With a jolt, Malaena sat up, her hands braced on his chest, and her bottom now weighted firmly in his lap. Gale thanked the gods for the small mercy that at least she was not fully astride him, but feeling the shapely curve of her ass press into his thigh had the opposite effect of what he had intended. He could not hear what she was saying— likely some kind of apology—because he was desperately focused on the steps to that bluebread pastry recipe. The orb started acting up fiercely, as if it too was aroused and wanted to devour her. He needed to focus, and reach a glade of calm before he killed them both and everyone else within several miles. Gale grimaced as a surge of Netherese magic traveled along his scar. He had to get space between them, and quickly. Without thinking, he flung her backwards with a Gust of Wind.
Malaena went feet over head and rolled backwards, pushed along by Gale’s frantic spell. What in the hells was that? She was about to tell him off after she righted herself, but the words died on her lips when she saw him. He looked absolutely wrecked, blushing furiously and panting. Before she could feel too smug, however, she saw pain etched into his features as well. “Gale, are you alright?” Gale took a few more heaving breaths, but did not respond. “Gale, talk to me. What can I do? Do you need a magic item?” She placed her spurred band into his hand and pressed it to his chest. The magic was absorbed almost immediately, and thankfully it seemed to take the edge off of Gale’s pain. His breathing evened out, and the violet glow disappeared from his spell scar.
“Are you two done frolicking in the grass like two teenagers, or are Karlach and I going to need to abandon you and make our own way?” Astarion called out, exasperated.
“I would like to see you try, Astarion! The sigils only respond to magic users!” Malaena shouted back.
“Tsk. Well then, all the more reason for you to hurry up. Not all of us are blessed with eternal youth.”
Gale clapped his hands on his knees. “Well, this has been sufficiently embarrassing,” Gale chuckled. As he stood, he offered Malaena a hand up. Always the gentleman. “Please forgive me for my blustering rudeness just a moment ago. I was not fully myself.”
“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Malena teased, looking over her shoulder as she started back up the hill. She winked at him. “It was actually quite flattering to see that I had such a strong effect on you.”
“Is that so?” Gale smirked. He could not resist leaning in close to whisper to her ear, “Although, perhaps I should be the one that is flattered. That’s twice in as many days you have fallen for me.”