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At first it was bearable; uncomfortable, but bearable.
Boots stuck to the ground, hindering Tav’s movements yet still allowing them to cast spells and shoot arrows.
However, it quickly got worse.
Vines sliding up and wrapping around their thighs, starting to drag the tiefling down to their knees was mildly inconvenient, no room for scrolls or healing pots available from their pack, instead relying completely on diminishing spell slots.
It was only when they felt something sharp scrape across their abdomen did Tav truly start to invite panic in, watch it track dirt over the doormat, on the recently polished floors, and promptly make itself at home in Tav’s private quarters.
They watched with heavy eyelids as a crimson stream began to flow over their garments, slicing apart their tunic before it fell off completely and began digging into their skin. A brief gasp was all they could manage when they caught a glimpse of familiar purple robes covering their view of the battlefield.
But no words could escape a cut throat, now could they?
The thorns began to pull every which way, maneuvering their limbs apart, tugging at the strings holding each piece together before seams began to rip, tear, and unravel from the main body once sewn up perfectly, crafted meticulously in the eyes of a deity who loved them. How would it react to their perfect doll being ripped to shreds? Would it care? Would it dare? To come down from its precious place to save a single soul?
No…
No mortal would ever be important enough for that.
Tav's mouth opened, jaw hanging slack as their lungs were punctured.
Air escaped slowly, agonisingly, coming out as a choked exhale, covered by the sound of swords clashing, spells being yelled out, and bodies going limp to fall into their final resting place.
Everything in front of them began to blend together, the watercolours of the sky and the trees mixed together, running down the page until everything they had painted turned into a murky mesh of everything that used to be. The trees melted down, becoming one with the mud beneath boots previously so used to running, and were now sinking down through earth. The sky became darker, heavy storm clouds being painted in. Although no rain appeared to wash them away. They were stuck here.
…
Was this it…?
Had their god given up on them?
Their service was not enough to grant another chance.
Not enough to ask for one final boon.
Tav’s insides were pulled… popped… Until finally bursting when seams were broken. The stitching holding vessels on their tracks were broken, the traffic inside gushing out in frantic attempts to get back on course. But there was nowhere to go but the skin, to run down and escape their ruined ecosystem inside, perfectly built and sustainable until everything was broken.
Everything… gone.
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A crack.
…
…
…
A shard of light poking through the wooden boards nailed over Tav’s vision awoke them.
…
…
…
“Tav!?” a voice called through the darkness, dots beginning to appear through slits, hands prying open the frame encasing them before they broke. After that, it was too much. Too bright. Too loud. Too… much effort.
The boards closed up again.
…
…
“No, Tav… No, please, please, please…”
…
…
“I’ll pray… I’ll pray for y-… I’ll… Please!! Who is it? Who do I need to ask to get you back?!”
…
…
Gale’s head rested above their newly-stilled heart, salty tears soaking the cloth before mixing with escaped blood, everything moving to flow off their collarbones, but finding no shoulder to roll onto and instead landing on the discarded appendage having found itself laying in the dirt.
“Please…” His shaking hands grasped onto a locket around Tav’s neck, muttering pleas and promises into the item. “I can’t go on without them… I have- you have to bring… They have to come back… Please, grant me this one boon, and I…”
He couldn’t even bring himself to lift his head, body a heavy weight over Tav. His brain was fried, and no amount of movement that wasn’t involuntary shaking could happen, no matter how hard he willed himself to. There he was, leaning over his companions desecrated, dismembered body. And he couldn’t even bring himself to look at them. To cast a glance at their wounded face one last time.
“Just… I beg of you.” Hands clasped around the locket, shaking from stress as everything else went silent for the wizard. “I may not know you, but this… this wonderful… th- they have pledged their life to you, so I can only believe… If they trusted you, then… you must listen to me… Please.”
His throat tightened, closing up as his shoulders slumped, hands grasping at fabric, at everything that was still attached to them.
The surrounding area shifted, vines slipping away as well as Tav’s body, leaving Gale a mess on some form of concrete ground.
“No… No, bring them back!” The locket stayed in his hands while he scratched upon the ground beneath him. “Don’t make… me…”
He sat back on his heels, nails scratched down to stubs, fingertips showing dots of blood on them.
“Tav pledged their life.” The voice came from behind the wizard. “And now their life has ended. It has thus been fulfilled.”
Gale didn’t move.
Couldn’t move.
“Their oath was to redeem themselves,” it continued, “to escape their troubles, an old life, something holding them back to live anew.”
The scenery changed once again, Gale’s hazy vision barely registering anything until a vision appeared in front of him, a young Tav appeared. Unequipped for the world outside. So scared, nothing on their person but the clothes on their back, and a pouch for food.
“Tav came to me while still so young. Their mind new to the world outside their town. Yet so desperate for changes to be made.”
The vision shifted. Tav looked worse here, battered and bruised, stumbling towards ruins.
“They found me in my ruined temple, cried for me, and begged for a solution.”
A young Tav dropped to their knees, curling up into a ball at the foot of a cracked statue, having been broken off at the waist, vines beginning to form a comfortable rug at the deity’s end.
“Our deal was that I could change things. Help them become stronger, so as to help them on their way.” The being sighed. “But now their strength has worn out.”
The vision faded away, a hole poking through the ground to show Gale crying over Tav’s body, companions crowded around the two.
There was this silence. The kind of silence that made people brace for impact. That made people brace for the impact of nothing coming.
Tav always used to fill that silence so easily.
“I’m afraid I cannot grant you a boon, dear wizard,” the deity spoke calmly, “for what is required cannot be given out again.”
Gale’s hands clenched into tight fists.
“It is time to say goodbye.”
…
“No,” he spat.
The world around Gale began to shift, concrete floors turning to soft clouds beneath him, calm skies overhead became dimmer, stars showing themselves through the haze above everything.
“You must…”
“No, I must not!”
Gale turned around, eyes widening at the blinding light coming from the deity. His hair was blown out of his face, and the Netherese orb in his chest began to pulse. The familiarity of the weave flowed through his veins, finding its way up his neck, entering into his brain and lighting up his eyes. Soon enough, the being became clear, an outline of limbs, wings, and smoke intended to deceive faded away to portray the truth.
He came face-to-face with the being, staring straight at them through a scarred face, teeth exposed from a strike running from their chin to their cheek. One eye a pure white replica of the clouds around them, with the other a deep green, swirling like leaves before falling into an ocean wave, the sunlight reflecting down on it and making everything bask in its golden light until the iris showed harsh reds and volcanic magma crumbling over and turning to solid rocks before the lush grass regrew.
“H- how is this…?” the deity fell back, hands scrambling for their throne, dissipating under their frantic grasp and falling back into a clouded pile. “You are mortal!”
Gale stepped closer, insisting on encroaching upon the deity as it continued to scuffle away.
“You are not- you will be killed for this!”
“I shall not be killed by something so insolent as you… You, who wishes to take away the most wonderful being I have ever met.”
The deity held its hands up in front of itself.
“No, no wait- wait, wait… I can fix them.” Gale paused. “I can fix them… I can save them.”
They pleaded, scarred hands shaking. Not once in their entire existence had someone —fellow deity or not— looked upon their true form.
“Do it.” The clouds crackled, turning dark as a crack was heard in the distance, lighting up behind Gale, casting his silhouette over the begging god.
“I can- I can… I… I will.”
Gale stepped back, hands coming back down to his sides as the clouds began to lighten up around them.
“I shall do it.” It nodded, giving him a weak smile.
The ground opened up beneath him, and Gale’s concentration was broken, glow fading away as the deity grinned, and he began falling.
Falling…
…
And falling…
…
…
…
A gasp.
…
Gale’s head shot up, tears staining his cheeks as the locket was still tightly in his grasp. He sniffled, the agony of the situation crashing down on him as hard as he had fallen back into his body.
“You must bring them back!” Gale scorned, crushing the locket in his hand, a brief spout of fire lighting up the metal before it dissipated into crushed shards, and a plume of smoke escaped between his knuckles.
…
The party let out a breath, all eyes on the wizard.
…
A cough.
“Tav!?” Gale dropped the crushed locket, and held either side of their face, blood stains on his hand smudging the dirt smeared across their cheek before the two mixed. “Tav, my dear can you hear me? Can- can you see me? Speak! Can you say something?!”
Tav groaned, lips trembling and tears flowing over their face, landing between Gale’s palm and their dirty skin.
“Oh, yes… Yes! You’re there, oh, you’re here… Thank the—” he paused.
Gale shook his head, pulling Tav closer to his chest, eyes focusing on the discarded limb on the ground. No twitches. No flicker of life visible in it other than the heavy waterfall of blood escaping the useless appendage resting there.
…
Tav’s first sound was a scream. The kind that echoed through the silent battlefield, waking up the decaying souls of the bodies laying there, encapsulating all their pain and suffering through the one left alive at the end of it all.
“Shh… shh, shh. Please… alright, there… there, you’ll survive. You’ll get through this.” A hand came up to cradle them down, tentative to move them too quickly, twist them in a way that would let out another yawp of agony.
“Potion… Po- anyone have a healing potion?!” Gale yelled, turning to look up at his companions, each one taking out their packs before a healing pot was passed down to Gale, and he uncorked it hurriedly. “Shh… here, here, you have to drink this, you’ll be good enough to get on your feet with this, and we can… we can take you to the next town over, find you a proper medicine worker and… and, and, and-...”
The contents of the bottle was emptied inside Tav’s mouth, bits of it spilling from the corners where they were attempting to gasp and cry out.
“No, no, no, you must drink it. You- you must!” Gale wiped a thumb across their cheek, pushing the liquid back between their lips. “You must… You must drink it.”
Tav coughed, but managed to swallow the liquid down, leaving them sobbing silently on the ground, eyes shut tightly. Their tears flowed over the familiar pathway many more before it had carved a path, each one rolling down the slope of their temple.
“We need to get him to a village,” Gale decided, “Cl- closest village, we need the closest village, anyone please!”
…
Tav awoke to subtle bumps underhead, eyes cracking open to reveal muted light. A far better conclusion than the last time this had happened. They groaned to themselves, bringing a hand up to wipe their face from whatever muck had clung to it. But… nothing happened.
They craned their neck to one side, eyes widening at the sight of deep rouge bandages covering their shoulder, and stopping abruptly. There was nothing but a memory of a moveable arm, fingers that could flex and trail delicately over the greying hair of a companion. It was all gone.
Panic flooded what was left of their body, settling deep in each new stitch having sewn their arteries together before escaping finally at their tongue, coming out in babbles and sobs once again.
A curtain pulled open, the shadow of someone moving about cast itself over Tav’s increasingly fuzzy vision.
“You’re awake… By the- they’re awake!” He had yelled back to the companions, causing the cart to come to a brief halt and more voices could be heard. “You’re alright… it’ll only hurt for… you’re still hurt?”
Tav nodded, sniffling as a warmth was pressed against their cheek, muffling the sounds as more light was welcomed into the back before fading away behind curtains once again.
“Don’t—” Gale snapped his neck around. “Keep going, they need to get to an alchemist. Now!”
Tav’s right hand twitched, fingers reaching up for Gale’s belt as an incoherent semblance of words slipped past their quivering tongue. “I… M- my… feel- it…”
“What is it darling? Hm?” Gale reached down to grab their only hand, bringing it up to his lips carefully, pressing a gentle kiss to the bruised knuckles. “Come on… you can say it… I know you’re strong enough to say it.”
He nodded his head at each word that made its way through the overhaul of sobs starting up again.
“I f- feel… I can—” Tav sniffed, shaking their head before a large, warm hand settled them back down, grounding them with a simple motion of a thumb heading back-and-forth over their cheek.
“Go on…” Gale pressed.
“I… can’t feel them… any- more.”
Gale nodded.
“Wh- what happ -ed?”
“You fulfilled your pledge to them,” he answered simply.
“Wha- What?!” Tav went to push themselves up, but didn’t move other than their head, which led to another pained whine escaping them.
“Shh… You… You fulfilled your pledge to die for them.”
Tav’s head fell back against the mat they were laying on, eyes closing for just a moment. Gale reached out to hold their neck, intending to comfort them before a smile cracked on his companion’s exhausted face. They exhaled out a laugh, catching the wizard off guard before they heaved and began to chuckle wearily. Gale’s brow furrowed, and he moved a hand to delicately brush any hair off of their forehead.
“What is it, you maniac?” He asked, the hint of a smile breaking out on his face.
“Oh…” Tav’s eyes shut as another sweet escape of giggles slipped out, and this time, Gale couldn’t help but join in with them. “Just that I’m… safe.”
Gale’s soft laughs subsided, the look on his face betraying something of contentment.
“Safe?”
“Mm.”
“And… only one limb down.”
Tav chuckled heartily now, chest moving up and down while Gale doted down upon them. The wizard couldn’t help but let a few stray tears slip down his cheeks, ending up on Tav’s shoulder.
“Perhaps I should find a use for it, then,” Tav suggested, “offer our friends a… helping hand.”
Gale shook his head and smiled fondly, wiping his face with the back of his shaky palm. “I’d say that would be a marvellous idea love, but perhaps we should wait a little longer before we… go out on a limb for anyone.”
Tav snorted, the two dissolving into another round of quiet giggling.