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If Morrighan's coworker at her new gig is less than excited about her, well, it wouldn't be the first time she's been shown the ropes by someone who was burned out. And he had just been an orb, which seems like a better excuse than most.
So he's quiet. And broody. And has a voice that's more gravelly than an chain-smoking, whisky drinking earth elemental. It's not the worst she's had to deal with. She's perfectly capable of keeping up a conversation on her own.
It just makes her miss the Crown Keepers, is all. Dariax and Opal keeping up a constant chatter, Dorian telling a story or working on a song, Cyrus interrupting to puncture the moment, Fy'ra Rai requesting that they all partake of a moment of blessed silence… it felt so far away, now.
Vax'ildan has a tendency to walk away without a word. And hey - Morrighan is happy to have a purpose. She's glad that she has direction and was given clear instructions and was able to keep all of her memories (one up on the fate stitcher) and doesn't have to clean up nearly as much vomit as she had in Kymal. But it makes her feel a little lonely.
Which makes her think. Vax leaves to visit his family all the time. What's keeping her from visiting her friends?
She'd never had a job where she could take a vacation before. When she needed a few days off from a bar, she'd just quit the job, do what she needed, and start a new one down the road. The idea that she can just take off and come back feels - nice. Safe.
She starts with Dorian and Opal, who were fairly easy to find. Unfortunately, that's due to all of the murder, and she's worried that if she spends too much time around them, she'll be sucked into doing work again. Then she finds Fy'ra Rai, enjoying a tea in Vasselheim. It's still pleasant and sweet, but there's an emptiness to Fy'rai with no little sisters to protect that Morrighan feel the need to move on, before she became a potential replacement.
And she can't visit Cyrus - well, she could. It's not like she's squeamish about interacting with the souls of the dead - with her job? But the dead are static - they don't move, or change. It's too close to talking to a memory.
So that leaves Dariax, who she finds at the top of a bunch of mountains in Tal'dorei, the last place she thought she'd find him.
He's so short, how did he even get all the way up here?
Morrighan doesn't ask, and she greets Dariax with a hug and lets him take her out for a beer. It's a small mountain town. There's tons of people on gliders circling, but otherwise
"Dorian left me here. And Deni$e and I just went in different directions, so this seems like a good spot to go after a breakup. Also, they tip really well and don't lock their doors."
"Do they have anything worth stealing?"
Dariax gives a philosophical shrug. "So, what have you been up to?"
Morrighan squinted at him. "You remember that I'm a Champion of the Matron of Ravens, right?"
"Yeah, I remember something like that. That keep you busy?"
"I ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife and do what I can to keep the strings of fate untangled in My Lady's absence."
"So, that's a yes?"
Morrighan nods. "It's pretty nice. It can get kind of lonely, though. I missed you guys."
To his credit, Dariax looks touched. "No other champions?"
"There's one - but he's kind of hard to get to know. He's, I don't know. Used to being alone and not talking to anyone. He doesn't say much. And then he just disappears from time to time and I have no idea when he'll be back." Morrighan sees the way that Dariax flinches at that last part, and then suddenly amends herself. "Not like you - when you disappear it's charming! And you're pretty easy to find, and it's usually because you just got confused and forgot or wanted our share of something."
"I apologize for interrupting this intriguing discussion, but does your companion have dark hair and the same kind of raven feather armor as you?" One of the most beautiful women than Morrighan has ever seen has walked up to the two of them, her voice and clothing dripping with wealth and poise. She looks familiar, but Morrighan can't imagine where she would have run into someone like her before.
Dariax goes to take off a hat - he's not wearing one - and does a quick look for her coin purse.
"Yeah! How'd you guess?" Morrighan says, mostly to try and distract her.
"I'm Vax'ildan's sister." She says, with a sad smile. "Sorry, I'm still not used to the fact that it's not immediately obvious."
"I didn't know he had a sister!" she breathes.
"You did not? Well, I think that we have a lot to talk about. And there is someone else you should meet here, as well." She glances back at Dariax, who has been trying to make himself look as inconspicuous as possible. He's not very good at it. "Your friend can join, but only if he can keep his mitts to himself."
And then, Morrighan is being led into the heart of this mountain village, straight into the large building in the center of town, and meets with the queen? Mayor? Headmaster?
Some sort of ruler, in any case. One with a crown and a mantle and an odd type of timelessness and a tangle of golden fate-strings. Seems a little too important to be called a Headmaster.
Dariax slips away before they enter her office, but Morrighan isn't surprised. He's suspicious of anything good coming of him being in the same place as any sort of political authority.
But once this deer queen hears who Morrighan is, she stands and embraces her as a long-lost friend, then steps back.
"I'm Keyleth - I've heard so much about you!"
"Oh yes! I've heard so much about you, too!" Morrighan says, because she can't imagine telling someone this powerful that she has no idea who she is. Morrighan can figure it out by context clues, if she's given a few more seconds.
"She knows nothing. Vax'ildan is being even more tight lipped with her than she is with us." Vax's sister says, immediately giving the game away.
"Oh, I'm Keyleth - Vax was my long lost first love who came back, but only kinda. This is Vex. Or, I'm sorry - Lady Vex'ahlia."
"Just Vex is fine," the Lady Vex'ahlia says,giving Morrighan a smile and a wink that makes her heart skip a beat, before turning back to her companion. "Keyleth dear, just so you know - her companion was talking about robbing Zephrah blind."
Morrighan wonders if she can get a message out to Dariax without them noticing. Or even if it would matter, Dariax has probably figured out that he should skip town by now.
But Keyleth seems unbothered. "Oh, the dwarf? Yeah, he's been around for a few days and walks into people's homes - but he hasn't taken anything, and we don't actually have rules about private property here, so." She shrugs and grimaces, then reaches for the bottom drawer in her desk. "Anyway, this is a great vintage - you should really try it."
Morrighan doesn't get drunk easily, but neither did the two women she was drinking with. Yet, as the conversation turns - from her digging up a surprising number of stories about Vax to them giving Morrighan their most embarrassing anecdotes to Keyleth and the Lady Vex'ahlia having conversations about people she had no context for, she felt her body go heavy and mellow and a warm, pleasant feeling fill her belly. Maybe it was the company and the companionship, or maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was both, but she felt more content than she could remember being in a long time.
Eventually, time moves on and the Lady Vex'ahlia indicates that it is time to leave. Just before Morrighan is able to slip out the door, Keyleth reaches out and grabs Morrighan by the wrist. "Hey. Thanks. It's great to meet you, you know? And to hear that he's really doing okay."
When Morrighan returns to the ethereal plan and see Vax, she sneaks up behind him and says, "Your sister mentioned you got into some trouble in Kymal, back in the day. Oh, also something about you insisting being called The Dread Lord when you were ten."
Vax starts and turns towards her. He almost looks surprised. "You went to see my sister?"
"I went to see an old friend," Morrighan says, not unkindly. "Your sister recognized me. I think it was the armor and the raven feathers."
"Hmm."
"I didn't even know you had a sister." Morrighan tries to not sound too curious, Vax doesn't need to tell her anything, but she thinks she fails.
He looks guilty for a second - it sits more easily on his face than the surprise. "I am not used to having to explain to others about my life."
Morrighan thinks about what that might mean. About the way that Vex'ahlia has the air of both wealth and ambition, and of the crown and mantle that Keyleth wears. Morrighan doesn't know much about Vax's adventures - she must have been in the feywild when their party was active, and she never paid much attention to the stories of grand heroes when she was in Kymal. But she knows how legends can far outpace the they mortals they're based on, and she thinks that whatever troupe Vax was part of, they were legendary indeed.
"I think they mostly want to know that you're okay."
Vax sighs. "I know."
"You know, I got kicked out of Kymal, too," Morrighan says, and that's enough to get Vax to look at her. "We kind of did a heist, and then it went south and then we were flying out of there on kind of a hot exit. Can't really show my face there. Though I guess they can't really stop me now."
"I miss our flying carpet."
"We had a balcony. There was a bunch of brumstone on it, it was a whole thing. Hard to steer. We were floating for like a week before we crashed into a mountain."
That's enough to get a weak chuckle out of Vax. "I should introduce you to Scanlan and Pike some time. Perhaps not right now, they seem to be going through something. And are horses."
Morrighan thinks of Fy'ra Rai in Vasselheim. "Would either of them benefit from a stern but loving Fire Genasi?"
"Ah, no."
"Damn."
Vax thinks for a second. "I have nieces? Though they may have enough siblings already."
The concept of the revenant before her having anything as prosaic as a passel of niblings breaks her brain a little bit. "That's who you were visiting? I don't know anything about where you went or who you saw. I thought you might have been dead for hundreds of years."
"I don't know who you saw, either. A friend? Some family?"
She shakes her head. "Some friends - yeah. I don't have any of my memories of the feywild, and then I was mostly in Kymal, where I didn't really get close to people. I might have a hag?"
And now Vax really looks surprised. Morrighan sometimes forgets that her story strikes most Exandrians as strange. She's pretty sure it would be normal to anyone who grew up in the feywild, though she hasn't met that many.
It's the first time she's considered that she might be interesting to him, too.
"You play cards?" she asks, finally.
"I was in Kymal, what do you think?" he shoots back with the ghost of a smile.
"Okay, this is what we will do. We'll play cards together, and we'll talk. And maybe, if we can manage, you can introduce me to your friends and be mothered a little bit by one of mine." She pulls out a half-forgotten deck of cards from a pack which only maybe exists on this plane of existence.
Vax sits on the rough approximation of the ground and gestures before him. "Deal me in."
And Morrighan does. They'll have countless years together - plenty of time to get to know each other. And no better time to start than now.