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“Lae’zel,” Tav says abruptly, freezing outside a door. “This one.”
Jaheira watches with baffled amusement as the githyanki bends to her task with martial focus - picking the lock on a Sharess’s Caress room. Jaheira briefly, internally weighs the benefits of a lesson on privacy, but catches a look in Tav’s eyes that stops her. There’s a seriousness, a direction to this wandering. She wonders if it’s the tadpole or Tav’s burgeoning Urge that steers their path, but they have too much yet to discuss to air that topic now.
The door clicks open under Lae’zel’s tools, and Tav walks in first.
Neither party inside looks over at the soft sound of the door opening, but certainly neither appears dressed for battle.
Jaheira narrows her eyes, scans the room for signs that Tav’s instincts were right.
The Fist turns and spots Tav, and the others lurch in unsteady unison. Ah, so they’ve followed the tadpole in.
Hypothetically, the battles of Jaheira’s youth should have prepared her for the regularity which townspeople now morph into hideous new shapes before her eyes. The mindflayer bursting out of the woman’s skin still sickens her.
It’s more than a little satisfying when the orange, wet pearls of eyes finally slide shut, silver blood spreading across the ground.
“No tale did justice to its ethereal beauty,” the wood elf is saying, to a nonplussed Tav. Jaheira clocks her interested tone, amusement and horror briefly intertwining in her own expression. She pushes them both down in favor of a Harper deadpan.
“The creature aroused you, didn’t it?” Tav asks. There’s a hint of judgement in the phrase, but not much. More curiosity, bewilderment.
Jaheira doesn’t like the tone the conversation quickly takes, and by the time the elf asks Tav to close their eyes she is bristling. There is enough going on in that Bhaalspawn’s tadpoled head without meddling fey.
But the first few words from the elf’s mouth are soothing, grounding.
“The all-being. Here, there is no suffering. Here, you want for nothing.”
Something flares in Jaheira’s chest, aching and vulnerable, and she quashes it immediately. Someone has to stay functional here. She realizes she’s closed her eyes and snaps them open, crossing her arms.
“You have one word. Tell me, what will you be?” the elf continues, magic woven through her speech, layering over itself. Charm, illusion. Jaheira opens her mouth to interrupt, to break this spell, but Tav blurts out a response.
“Sane,” they say, their voice catching on the word, and Jaheira freezes.
Screaming in the night. Nightmares. Twisting, maddening realms of blood and bone and murder. She knew someone else, once, who yearned only for sanity and a good night’s sleep.
“You are sane,” the elf says, without missing a beat. She has a gleam in her eye, sharp but not predatory. Like she’s caught sight of something she’s trying to commit to memory. “Time dances on in sequence. The winding path of time evens, and becomes straight.” Tav’s shoulders relax, even as the elf paces around behind them, which is such an enormously compromising reaction that Jaheira is going to have to scold them for the lapse.
Later.
“With a quiet head, you can once again hear the song of the birds and the wind in the grass,” the elf continues, lilting and calm. Tears prick at Jaheira’s eyes and she clenches her jaw. She’s caught Tav watching wildlife from afar at night, seen their hesitation before they approach Scratch or the owlbear cub that seems to freely roam camp. Like nature is something they keep just out of reach, lest the urge to destroy overtake them.
She feels the pull of the scene, the hypnotizing power of the elf’s voice once more.
“You pluck a flower-” the elf says, and she doesn’t exactly hesitate, but something in her seems to soften as she adds, “-and it does not bleed.” Jaheira can see the tears running down Tav’s cheeks, and glares fiercely and uselessly at the elf.
“Open your eyes,” the elf says, and Tav visibly shudders before that iron self-control snaps back into place. Jaheira can almost see the second when the fleeting peace escapes them. For an instant, she is furious enough that her hands twitch toward her blades.
“I’ll remember you,” the elf says softly. “And you’ll remember me.”
Tav nods, once, and turns to leave.
Jaheira stays a step behind, watches the others trail out the door.
“A single moment of bliss, then dropped right back into battle,” she says casually. “There are those that would call that a cruel trick.” The elf turns wide, too-perceptive eyes on her.
“All mortal happiness is fleeting,” she says quietly. “Should they then not seek it?” Jaheira frowns at her.
“That is not the same thing,” she objects. The elf smiles.
“Run along, mama bear,” she says softly. “Your cub will come to no harm from a quick taste of Naoise’s honey. They have already learned from their father to always fear the stinger.” Jaheira pulls back like she’s been burned, hurt and fear and shock coiling in her chest.
“You-“ she says.
“I see many things. I keep many secrets.” The elf’s smile is more unsettling than ever. “Run along, now. You’re the best chance they have at getting hold of that dream of theirs.”
Jaheira whirls and leaves, thoughts still racing. Who is this Naoise, who knows too much about Tav and their poorly-concealed secrets? Not another Orin-form, she doesn’t think, since the shapeshifter doesn’t seem have the patience to avoid a dramatic reveal.
She almost runs into Tav, who must have stopped a few meters down the hallway when they realized she’d stayed behind.
They dodge easily, laughing.
“You want to take the lead, High Harper, feel free,” they say, amusement warming their tone. She looks at them carefully. A trace of happiness is still caught in their face.
It won’t last forever. (Nothing does).
“Yes, thank you,” she says, striding to the front. “If I let you lead, we will evidently end up with half the clientele turning into Mind Flayers, and the Harpers will no longer be welcome here.”
Tav’s quiet laughter eases some of the protective anger still roiling through her, and she wonders at how easily Naoise had provoked her.
Keeping so many secrets sets her on edge, she decides. It is time to have a talk with Tav. Tonight, if their dreams wake them, she will bare her blades and the truth, and finally see what road lies ahead.