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Tav sighed as the sun set beneath the Rosymorn Monastery. Finding the Githyanki creche there. Poor Lae’zel. Tav bit her lip. She had watched her throw off her armour as soon as they came back to camp, the stand naked in the yearning light. Tav thought to pick it up for her. She’d already had a blade at her throat today. She wasn’t sure how Lae’zel would react to any further stimuli tonight. She sighed and kicked at the ground.
She felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Gale’s. She smiled despite herself and reached for his other hand. He sighed warmly as they watched the sun begin to slip beneath the valley.
‘I love this time. The weave thins throughout the day, but with the flash of the sunset comes raw power that rushes over everything. Or at least, that’s what it feels like.’
Tav smiled at the thought. ‘You can feel the sunset?’
Gale stammered, ‘well, I wouldn’t say ‘feel’ as such. More… sense?’
He coughed lightly. It was so much easier to impress people with one’s wizarding prowess when they didn’t ask very personal questions. How does one explain magic?
‘Well, how does your blessing work?’ He ventured.
Tav puzzled. ‘I ask my god to grant me use of their power.’
‘Everytime?’
‘Well yes. It is not my power I use. It is Lathander’s. And it is by his grace that I use his power for his glory.’
Gale frowned. Asking someone for permission to use the weave? That would be Mystra’s realm, surely? The gods hadn’t much interested him. Well. Apart from her. But Mystra was magic itself and Gale loved magic. With all that he had, he had dedicated himself to its study and mastery. And Mystra was the true master of all magic, for all time. So, as he’d devoted himself to magic, of course he’d devoted himself to her. It was hard to extricate the two. Especially when she’d visited him so regularly.
Tav’s dealings with Lathander seemed so much more up front and open. He had asked if she would serve, she agreed and now she was a paladin of light. Was the magic she used his? Was it a bargain the two gods struck? There was more to it, he was sure.
Then there was his ability to use magic at all. Mystra had hobbled him certainly, but Gale was still able to use the weave, and his travels with the group had strengthened him. He pondered on power. Was it really a gift bestowed by the gods? Or were they merely a gate that granted access? If you could travel to the realm of the gods, would you find that the weave was simply something that came out of a tap, or well? Do the gods turn a key and smile as men are borne bloody and weak only to wither and perish a short while later, a good too many having never heard the voices of the gods they worship so fervently?
A sigh. Sweet and soft as summer air. Tav nuzzled her face into his chest, pressing her cheek against the orb. Gale tucked some stray strands behind her ear as she sighed with comfort against the cooling night air. Even something good can come from that bomb in there. He’d never considered it to be anything other than a burden. He’d thought his greatest folly had made him unloveable, unknowable. And here was this paladin of all people, all shining armour and steadfast tranquility. She had looked past his eyes to his very soul and not even blinked. She accepted him, his diminished gifts and curse combined with his multitudinous idiosyncrasies and, frankly, inability to ever shut up. Even now, standing here with a sun blessed woman clutching him and he couldn’t stop talking to himself. Is it possible to have an excess of thought? A foolish question. Gale already knew the answer.
Tav turned to see the first stars and rested her head on his shoulder as she squeezed his waist with an arm.
‘Whoever made the sunset, even if only by mistake. Thank you.’ He murmured.
Tav chuckled. ‘I’m sure Lathander welcomes your praise.’
Gale goldfished. She was right, of course. If Mystra was his god and he knew of her works, then of course the other gods had just as much right over their domains. But the gods were so insistent that they were the only one you answered to, it was easy to forget the others existed. No wonder they preferred the mortals kept to their churches. Muddying the waters would cause theological extinction, surely.
Gale’s knees ached. The cool night air clutched at his joints. He summoned a chaise for the two of them. His knees cracked as he sat and Tav groaned as she joined him. He giggled. It was a relief to know she found their adventuring as arduous as he. This time, he rested a head on her shoulder and she wrapped him in a hug.
‘Where’s your book?’ She asked.
Gale waved a hand and it materialised. ‘Where were we?’ He asked.
Tav inhaled deeply, the scent of the moonflowers growing pungent around them. ‘Midnight.’ She replied. ‘Some sort of war? Mystra is dead again. Midnight is going to replace her with an enchanted boot?’
‘Staff.’ Corrected Gale. The enchantment wars are not to be taken lightly. Only items imbued with magic before the death of Mystra-’
‘- are all the magic left in Faerun. Yes I remember’. She replied.
Gale suppressed a smile. She couldn’t possibly have an interest in magical history. Gods knew he didn’t really. It was just about the only book they’d found in the monastery. He’d have preferred a tale. Something heroic with pirates on the high seas. Something with a happy ending. But Tav was enjoying it so he’d plodded on at her insistence. He hoped it was to hear his voice.
She wrapped her arms around him and he began, a glitter of lunar moths above them, the night creatures singing to Sélune.
Gale awoke in a warm haze. The kind only a good night’s sleep could provide. What a boon. How long had it been since he’d slept so fitfully? Awoken so softly to the sound of birds and water? He sat up. He was undressed? He didn’t remember getting to bed. He glanced around and saw his clothes were neatly folded next to him, a charm made of grass and flowers placed atop it. Tav and her gifts. He rubbed an eye as he yawned his way out of his tent. He headed back to the cliff’s edge they were at last night. The river in the valley must glitter like gold at this hour. He took a cup of water and picked his way through the sweet grass. He found a rock to sit on and enjoy the view.
Grunting. Below him. His ears pricked at the sound. Friend or foe? They’d picked this area for camp because the cliff was sheer. What on earth could make this climb? Who? 2 voices, working in almost silence, spare the odd guttural exertion. Why it was almost… A high pitched sigh escaped. Tav’s voice. He was certain of it. His stomach knotted. Was she? A cry, hers. Short, sharp and high pitched. Cut off short as the other, much lower voice grunted with great effort.
‘Oh Halsin!’ She cried.
‘You are quite welcome.’ He replied in laughter.
Gale began to see spots, his chest heaved a sob and he clutched his hand over his mouth. His other hand gripped his cup so tightly it shook and the water breached the cup's edge.
As he stood to leave, Tav’s head crested the cliff’s edge, sweat beaded her brow as her claws dug into the earth.
‘One last push my friend!’ Called Halsin and Tav was heaved to ground level. She turned back to help Halsin reach the top. They lay together at the cliff’s edge to catch their breath. Their quick pants sighing into warm silence.
‘It has been quite some time since I endured a climb that arduous, my dear.’ Halsin panted.
Tav groaned as she stood up and helped him up. ‘Me too. Perhaps we could try the shorter rock face further to the south tomorrow? I’m not sure I’ll be rested enough to- Gale?’
Gale balked. He’d forgotten to leave.
Halsin and Tav stared at him as he stood there mug in hand, dumb stricken. He tried a wave.
‘Hello!’ He barked too cheerfully, too loud.
Tav beamed at him. ‘Did you think to join us for the climb? I was so sure you’d fallen back asleep when I told you this morning.’
Halsin strode over and clapped his hands at his shoulders. ‘Gale! My friend! Is this water for your lady love?’ He turned to Tav ‘do you mind?’
‘Not at all.’ Tav replied as she stretched an arm across herself. Halsin gripped the mug and drank deep from it.
‘Thank you.’ He sighed as he smiled warmly at Gale. He turned back to Tav ‘again tomorrow?’
‘Tomorrow again’ she waved.
Halsin squeezed Gale’s shoulder and strode past him to the camp.
Tav padded toward him and kissed his lips briefly.
‘Sorry I need to bathe. The cliff was hard work. Seemed like a good idea yesterday.’
Gale bit his lip. ‘You were… Climbing?’
Tav was still a little breathless. ‘Yes of course, though I’m not as practised as Halsin, he carried me up the last few lengths. Shameful. Any more water or are we going back to camp?’
Gale faltered. Tav stretched her legs, pressing her hands into her feet as she continued.
‘Though we could stop by the stream, a swim might be quite nice. To cool off. When we got to the bottom I thought I could jump it but I grazed both my knees. Look.’ She proffered her knees for him to see and he nodded, mouth still agape.
‘Come, I saw berries and mint last night, we could make tea for everyone.’ Tav pulled at Gale’s hand and he let himself be pulled towards the stream behind her.
As they came across the camp, Gale flinched and gripped her. ‘Madam. I… I do not wish to…’ Gale blushed as he studied the ground.
‘Are you okay Gale?’
Gale wrenched his eyes from the floor to her eyes. Only her eyes.
‘You are completely naked.’ He finally exclaimed.
Tav blinked and then giggled. ‘Oh! Well yes.’
‘You and Halsin are… Often naked together?’ He ventured. His blush deepened. Had he been mistaken that their relationship was monogamous? He felt silly. And prudish. And small. The orb bit at his ribs and he grimaced.
Tav’s face was completely placid. The silence mawed between them for an age. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears.
She came back to focus on him, and took his hands in hers. She squeezed them as she looked into his eyes. ‘We exercise or bathe in the dawnlight. It is customary for me to commune with Lathander with all of myself, and Halsin enjoys the company as he communes with nature.’
Gale tried not to sigh too heavily, though the kind smile she gave showed his own lungs had betrayed him.
‘To bathe in Lathander’s light as he first graces us is an honour. And the druid clans often believe clothing to be a hindrance. It makes sense for us to find this common ground as friends, do you not think?’
Gale blinked. ‘Right. Just so.’
He and Tav made their way back to the camp. She squatted to drink from the fresh water pot as Gale let the chill morning air wrest the last of the sleep from him. He rubbed his eyes. Tav stood and stretched, the muscles in her back snaked across each other. Even the bottom of her feet seemed more supple than any he’d seen. Though he tried to think of how many soles he’d seen in his life, studied out of appreciation, let alone lust. Just hers, just now. His chest scraped. He fought the urge to clutch at it and bely his emotional state. Aroused by her body when she was simply existing. He was thinking of her spread buttocks and she was thinking about breakfast. Grow up Gale. He shook his head and forced himself to look to the tree line. The river sang somewhere past the shade. Cold water would help.
‘So, some mornings do you both climb and bathe?’ He offered.
Tav smiled. ‘Do you have your soap from Halsin? I have some clean rags in my tent.’ She strode off and Gale did the same.
They met again at the treeline, Tav held her hand out for him. She had thrown on a shift, probably out of respect for his shame. He blushed again as he took her hand and she picked blackberries as they made their way to the stream.
Halsin was nowhere to be seen. ‘He must be hunting.’ Tav explained. Gale felt as though he’d stumbled upon another world as he stripped to his smalls, watching Tav inhale sharply as she forced herself into the cold water. She shivered and waited for him to join her. He broached the water. It was frigid, almost painful. He tried not to flinch as he pushed his way to her, clutching the soap she bade him bring. The stones in the river bed were slick and he was not graceful. She held a hand out for him for the last step. Pride clouded his judgement and he instead passed her the soap, setting his shoulders as though he meant to cut through the river as she did. As he lifted a foot, he thought better of it and went back to gingerly testing the rocks for purchase. He realised she was sitting on a large rock, making bathing much easier in the current. He joined her and they worked in silence. She comfortably, and he… Well he was trying. Everything that had happened to them so far had left him conflicted. He’d lived more in days than he had years before he’d met this party, before the tadpole. Not all of it enjoyable. And yet, in many ways, it was. He’d experienced things he couldn’t imagine, and certainly hadn’t wanted, but with a lasting mark nevertheless.
She handed him the soap as she slipped under the stream's surface to rinse and he began to work quickly. She swam in circles around him to keep warm, refusing to brave the chill air outside the stream’s embrace. She returned to him and clutched at his knee to steady herself, letting her body float. He vigorously scrubbed at his free foot, trying not to look at her. Knowing her naked form would be being warmed by the sun as she bobbed in the water. He turned to his hair, his beard. He was running out of things to concentrate on as she began to hum a tune he couldn’t quite place. Though he was sure he’d heard it before. She was not a practised singer, it humanised her. He settled somewhat. Perhaps tonight, she would lay in his arms and sing to him again.
She stirred and he clenched. She lifted from the water and stood between his knees, the water ran in rivulets across her breasts. He forced his gaze to her face as his heart raced against the orb. She smiled and kissed him. Deep and long. Her lips pressed gently against his. He folded his arms around her and kissed down her neck, across her shoulders. Pain be damned. He pressed her against him and he felt the chill of her chest against his. He closed his eyes as he embraced her, and she continued to hum for him as the water rushed around them both.
At camp, Tav made tea as Gale gathered the cups and honey. He picked up the millet and some dried sausage for the morning’s porridge. The thuds of Lae’zel’s unarmed strikes against her training dummy signalled the wake up call for the rest of the camp. Halsin returned with the filled water pail and a pouch full of herbs and mushrooms to add to the porridge. He filled the cauldron and began to work on the herbs next to Gale as Tav placed a cup of tea in front of him.
‘The birds tell of a great fire to the south.’ Halsin sighed. An army of the Absolute is burning fields on the way to Baldur’s Gate.’
Gale frowned. ‘So it’s a war of attrition, as well as all the other sorts.’
‘It would appear so.’ Halsin rumbled.
Tav stirred at the pot and sighed heavily. Gale’s heart ached. A brief moment of respite had been ruined by their plans for what they may face in the city. Now her shoulders were tense and her eyes glassy again. She concentrated on the porridge more than was necessary. Both men could tell and an uneasy silence settled on their work.
Halsin gazed at Tav’s back, then back to Gale. As their eyes met, Halsin put his work down, picked up his cup and left in silence.
Gale bit at his lip. He hadn’t been there for the conversation with the Illithid, gods knew what it had said to her. They spoke without mouths and the party that were there had heard different answers to the same questions. But since that night Tav had slept less restfully, stared at what wasn’t there. She had been speaking to The Emperor long before they’d met. What did it whisper to her? Was it talking to her now? He rose and tested the ground between them. Tav lifted the spoon for him to taste before he’d made his existence known. It was quite good in a fortifying, peasant gruel sort of way.
‘You’ve made a feast of what the wilds offer us yet again.’ he smiled.
She smirked. ‘It’s edible. If Halsin wasn’t scouring the woods for herbs and vegetation we’d all be quite weak against. Well. All of it.’ Gale pulled her closer and kissed her forehead.
He held the back of her neck as she rested on his shoulder and her breath shook as it left her.
‘You’re frightened.’ He whispered.
‘There’s two more stones. We barely survived getting one. It took something of an army to even get into Moonrise Tower. And they’re all dead. It’s just us now. Against a city. A whole city. Then there’s an elder brain somewhere.’ She sighed and clung to Gale. ‘What if it’s not even in the city?’
Gale pressed his lips at her hairline and hugged her tighter. She could be right. This could all be for nought. But what use was that fact to her? What good would it do?
‘We can only do but the task in front of us.’ He mused.
Tav looked into his eyes. ‘Bit poetic.’
He snickered. ‘Elminster’s words, not mine’ He frowned. ‘You don’t think me poetic?’
‘I think you are a romantic. But you use the common tongue.’
Gale considered, his lips thinned. Tav squeezed his arm. ‘I mean, our time so far has not given cause for your more elevated musings.’ She said considered. ‘I think. Does that sound like something a wizard would say?’
Gale chuckled. ‘It does. A very worthy attempt. I was fooled before you gave the game away.’
Tav smiled, pleased with herself.
‘I could teach you?’ Offered Gale.
Tav’s nose wrinkled ‘I’ll pick it up, I’ve always been good at languages.’
Gale nodded. She was right. You didn’t grow up in the undercity of Baldur’s Gate and not learn at least some of all the languages it was home to. The same could be said of Waterdeep, though of course someone of Gale’s standing only visited the more worldly parts of his home as a tourist. He realised now the class and trappings in which he was raised were pointedly isolationist, to keep the lesser out.
Lesser. What a life he could’ve lived if he’d not seen himself as different. He loathed to say ‘better’, but in his life a full belly and a warm bed were a given. And anyone not as fortunate as he was seen to have; surely; a moral failing. It was deemed, certainly by his family, that to not be born into wealth was the idle stupidity of a lower moral class. He, of course, rallied against this ideal from a young age, his mother indulging his friendship with the children of the staff, there being no one else his age in his standing at the time. He remembered being a boy of no more than 6, standing in his father’s study as he and his mother were admonished for a picnic they’d taken by the river on Midsummers fete. A Dekarios amongst the lower classes would have seen his standing fall from a great height. Gale could only whimper as he watched his mother struck again and again as his father bellowed. When he left, Gale ran to his mother to comfort her. She pushed him away. She told him to harden his soft little heart, it would do him no good. That their family name was worth more than anything, and he would do well to follow in his father’s footsteps. Days later, remembering his father’s lesson, Gale had struck one of the maid’s sons for speaking to him after breakfast. That maid apologised to him for her son's behaviour. He realised then what power was, what his father had been teaching him. He understood that he was born for a life of extraordinary power and fame, and anything less made him unworthy of that life.
Tav produced a comb from her pouch, she offered it to Gale and he happily accepted as she settled on her knees in front of him. He began to work. Work! Ha! He hadn’t even combed his own hair until The Academy. He was already 11 when he was shipped off. He hummed. Sort of. Something his mother used to sing him, he thought. When he came home for the next Midsummer fete, she was already dead. His father brought him to a grave in the gardens, where his new mother was waiting with flowers for him to rest there.
That night he’d wept in Mystra’s lap and begged her for the power to see his mother again. She refused, instead offering herself as his protector from then on. She kissed his lips and poured the weave into him, giving him power in place of grief. From then, he saw the fear in his father’s eyes. That the power his father chased all his life was for nought, and they both knew Gale could be controlled for not much longer. Of course, his father held the reins tighter still. Part of his conditioning. Unbridled power was nothing without capital in the mortal realm. Gale was once again yoked and continued the course his father set him on. Until he learned of the orb. He would acquire the orb, gift it to his goddess in return for a life of his own, of true power. He would have the means to shield anyone from death, from pain. And then his father would die. And he would be free. Beyond mortal needs and human wants. Beyond grief, beyond fear, beyond greed. He would want for nothing. He’d have the weave, his goddess, and immortality.
He snorted to himself as he pulled the comb languidly through Tav’s hair. Immortality. Never had it felt so far from his grasp than now. And yet, he couldn’t remember a time before the tadpole where he’d felt so free. He wondered if it would be worthy to die on this journey, having felt more at peace than ever before in his life. But his greed reminded him of what could be. To know Tav’s body completely, to share in a life, perhaps. Maybe even to be as brave as she was and walk around naked.
Maybe it could be done, though. To share one night of ecstasy, to sate him enough to walk to the wastes of the Calim desert and let the orb claim him and the sands. No. he was far too much of a coward, far too greedy. One night with her could never be enough if he could spend a life with her, an eternity even. Yes. Greed. Gale’s shining star. His grasp constantly strained to exceed his reach.
Tav raised to his seat and took his hand. She brought it to her lips and kissed it as she looked in his eyes. He winced as the orb plucked. Tav held his gaze as he was loathe let go, the pain making his ears ring. She kept his hand and placed it on her heart. As his heart beat apace his chest grew hot and the back of his neck began a dull ache to his skull. He grit his teeth.
‘You know something of pain, wizard.’ Tav said kindly. ‘To become a paladin, we learn pain. To know strength and battle, to taste valour, one must also be able to subject oneself to strain, to injury, and know how to guide oneself through this pain for glory.’ She spoke as though reciting long learned words.
Tav lowered Gale’s hand and rested it between both of hers gently. ‘I can teach this to you, if you wish. It is not pleasant.’
‘To what end, my lady?’
Tav bit at her lips as she stared at his. ‘For a kiss.’
The orb dulled, it almost disappeared as Gale gazed upon her. A kiss that didn’t have a price? A love that didn’t exact a toll?
Gale cupped her face with his hands. ‘I have never physically exerted myself before. But for you? For a kiss? I will try my utmost, my lady.’
Tav blushed as she reached for his hand upon her face. ‘I. Thank you. Truly.’ She sighed in contentment. ‘We will begin at last light.’
Gale started. ‘Sorry, bedtime?’
Tav nodded. ‘You will not sleep. You will train at night. In the day, we journey.’
‘And when do I rest?’
‘You don’t. The mind breaks easier than the body. That is where we begin.’
Gale tried to look nonplussed, rather than horrified. Tav stood.
‘I can teach you to withstand pain, Shadowheart can teach you to luxuriate in it to your benefit. I think lessons from us both would be of most use.’
Gale stood as well. ‘Er. Ok. What’s the first lesson?’
‘Lift your leg, hold your arms at shoulder’s height’
Gale did as he was bid. ‘And what does this do?’
‘It is the first of the paladin training we give to the young. You may move again when I tell you.’
Gale chortled as he wobbled to keep steady. ‘I had a tutor like this, a stern woman who taught us herbs and potions, my least favourite subject. I always wondered if there were more women like her. I suppose she had a fervor that was almost religious. I didn’t realise that I- Tav? Tav?’ Gale looked as far as he dared behind him without having to rest his raised leg. She’d gone.
Gale awoke with a start as a cold sting beat his entire body. He clawed for the surface of the water and found himself clutching at Halsin’s neck as he lifted him like a babe. He was naked again.
‘You did well.’ Tav called from the stream’s edge.’
Halsin lowered Gale into the water and let him make his way back to the water’s edge at his side. He seemed perturbed. ‘You do not need to revel in your lady’s more… fervent religious behaviour my friend. She loves you regardless. It is plain.’
Gale blushed. ‘It is for a higher purpose, I assure you.’
Halsin chuckled ‘Oh I can imagine. Then. Good luck.’
They rose out of the stream together and Halsin shrugged as he passed Tav. She reached for Gale’s hands.
‘Do you need rest?’
Gale sighed. ‘How long did I last?’
Tav beamed ‘more than half the day. I knew you were strong but I’m still impressed’. She clutched at his shoulders and he tried to keep his legs steady as they swayed against his will.
‘Right. Well. That wasn’t so bad. I suppose I just…Start again?’ He asked, hopeful that perhaps he’d earned a sit down. Or at least a cup of tea.
‘Yes!’ Tav replied, overjoyed. ‘I knew you would understand. You even fell correctly on your first try.’
‘I did?’
‘Mmm. Most novitiates fall forward to let their raised leg steady them. You knew to fall back and let Lathandar embrace you.’
‘Oh. Right. And did he?’
Tav smiled warmly. ‘We did.’
‘Right.’ It sounded like Tav had done the work there, but Gale wasn’t going to debate. Certainly not with another half day’s standing to do.
‘Well, let’s not idle by the river. Back to it then.’ He forced the words out of him as cheerfully as he could muster.