Work Text:
Layla takes the liute and, sat around the fire, the only light in the underdark, she starts playing a song.
“Oh, life is bigger It's bigger than you, and you are not me”
She observes slowly all her companions, each one of them busy doing something else or with their head up in the clouds while listening passively to the melody. Between these there’s Gale that, with his head turned towards her, has his gaze lost in the past. He was listening to the lyrics way more carefully then he let on.
“The lengths that I will go to The distance in your eyes”
Mystra’s eyes.
Her gaze, always direct, always crossed with his, and yet always so distant.
Like something unreachable, a neverending waiting, a request impossible to fullfill.
“Oh no, I've said too much I set it up”
He always said too much, even now, after a year secluded in his tower, he still has too much to say, too many questions to ask and too much to share. Mystra often shutted him up, never harshly, but firmly.
“That's me in the corner That's me in the spotlight, losing my religion”
That year in the tower, crying what I lost: fame, power, love.
But was it really love? Now, after a year praying her, mourning her and begging her, only now she spoke to me again, and what she had to say was that i have to die.
What was the use of all my devotion? Where did my ambition take me?
“Trying to keep up with you And I don't know if I can do it”
That book, that artefact, the piece of wave you missed.when i took it, when i opened it, i did it all to reach you.
I wanted to be your best lover, your beloved, the prodigy you told me i was. I wanted to be by your side, holding your hand. Look into your eyes and see warmth, affection, closeness.
But i was wrong. A mortal can’t reach a goddess. My ambition made me fall, like Icaro my wax wings melted, leaving me to fall into my end.
“Oh no, I've said too much I haven't said enough”
But, like always, i’ve said too much, i’ve begged too much, and i craved too much.
Even so, it isn’t enough.
Mystra now demands even more, now she demands my life.
And i … maybe i will give it to her.
