Chapter Text
Tav was seven when they were given a lute and told to either learn to play or starve.
It was easy, learning the lute. Like slipping into a warm bath that had been prepared just for Tav. Their fingers were used to the lyre, which their dad had been teaching them before Things Went to the Hells, but quickly adjusted to the lute’s softer strings. Tav liked the sounds it made, gentle but warm. They fit well to the melody of the songs their dad had sung.
The lute made life okay. Even if Tav’s dad was gone now, even if every coin Tav made from passing strangers went straight to the pockets of a man who beat them and fed them on crusts of moldy bread (if they were lucky), they could always lose themselves in another Song of Balduran and pretend they were in front of the fire in their old cottage in Rivington, clumsily playing the notes while their dad sang along. They could sit at the feet of the statue of Balduran and look up at his face and pretend they were looking at their dad’s face instead. As Tav got older, those faces seemed to blend together.
The lute brought Tav magic.
It was through Cornelius that Tav first discovered it. Cornelius, their master, who once left them in the rat cellar for two days because they wished him a good morning in the wrong tone. He was an elf and had a nasty habit of using his elf magic to poke through his buskers’ minds. The first time it happened to Tav, they’d snuck an extra crust at supper, and the seemingly omnipotent Cornelius had suspected them at once. They felt his presence rummaging around in their head and were paralyzed with horror.
The punishment for that crime wasn’t one Tav liked to remember. But the next time Cornelius entered their brain, they were prepared.
They weren’t sure how they did it. What had happened this time was that Tav had been secretly lending some of their coin to Timmy, the newest recruit. Timmy was barely six years old and a sore hand at the flute: from the day he’d arrived, he’d struggled to make enough coin to earn his supper. Tav had been helping him out, which was against Cornelius’s bogus rules, and one of the older kids saw it and snitched on them. They were dragged into the cellar for questioning, and when Tav saw the beginnings of the spell in Cornelius’s eyes, they sort of panicked and then-
My mind is a house, Tav thought fiercely. My mind is a house with strong walls and a thick wooden door.
As they thought, they could almost feel walls raising around their mind. The walls were made of music, the same melody Tav hummed to themself at night but had never figured out the words to. They surrounded Tav's thoughts in a blanket of sound, and Tav knew they were shielding them, protecting them from view.
They felt the beginnings of Cornelius’s intrusion, those cold black eyes skimming the surface of their consciousness.
Tav shut the door on him.
It worked. Cornelius stared at them in confusion for a moment, then tried again. Again, Tav threw him out. And then Cornelius got angry — no, furious, and proceeded to leave Tav in the rat cellar for longer than he would’ve if they’d just ‘fessed up to lending. But Tav was happy, happier than they’d been in a long time.
Tav didn’t have anything. They didn’t own the lute or the clothes on their back. They didn’t even own themselves. But their thoughts were theirs, all theirs, and nobody, not even Cornelius, could take that from them.
The next time Tave used magic, it pretty much saved their life.
The streets near the Szarr Palace were coveted grounds; they covered some of the wealthiest spots a busker could find, without being so wealthy they’d be kicked out for loitering. The problem was, they were home to the Skulking Ones, and every urchin worth their salt knew that the Skulking Ones would take you if you lingered near the Palace too long. That was what had happened to Lil’ Jim seven years ago, or so was rumored.
Most buskers stayed far away from the white walls. Tav, meanwhile, played there at least twice a tenday, and increased their visits as time went on. They weren’t sure if they believed in any Skulking Ones; Lil’ Jim had vanished too long ago for Tav to be certain he even existed, and everyone who claimed to have seen a Skulking One had wildly different ideas of what they looked like. Balduran wouldn’t have let mere rumors scare him away from his goals, so neither did Tav. They made good coin, and for a long time nothing happened.
Then they met one.
She did not necessarily look like a Skulking One. A casual glance would have revealed nothing but a normal tiefling. But Tav was not given the luxury of a casual glance. As dusk fell across the city, they were seized by deathly cold hands and dragged into an alley. Then Tav saw her unusually sharp teeth, felt her inhuman strength. Her eyes were two smoldering coals, shining in the shadows.
The fear Tav felt as those fiery eyes burnt into theirs went beyond anything they’d felt at the hands of Cornelius. Seized with panic, they found themselves babbling what sounded like nonsense to them, somewhere between complimenting the creature on her pretty eyes and begging not to end up like Lil’ Jim. As they spoke, a strange warmth seemed to well up in their chest, a soothing song of comfort and friendliness. They felt it leave them, passing to the tiefling instead. Almost instantly, her strange eyes softened, and her grip on them relaxed.
Tav knew it was magic, though what kind, they weren't sure. Powerful, certainly, because the Skulking One not only let them go, but promised that Tav could continue to busk outside the palace unbothered if they would only bring her a few small things every now and then — namely pieces of soap, needles and thread, and any bits of cloth they found.
Tav avoided the palace for a good tenday, scared that if they went back they’d find that whatever trick they’d used had worn off and the Skulking One was back to wanting to eat them. Eventually, though, their curiosity got the better of them. They returned to the alleyway bearing gifts, and, when the Skulker did not reappear, they left them in a barrel: two only slightly dented needles, half a soap bar they’d nicked from the Elfsong, and a heavily stained pair of embroidered trousers they’d found in the dump. It was all gone the next day.
Tav couldn’t help but wonder why the Skulking One needed stuff like that. They kept bringing them, though, and they kept playing outside the palace. Sometimes the Skulking One showed up herself to collect them, and their meetings were always very cordial. Tav met some of her siblings, too, and made other deals: peace in exchange for bringing newspapers, or sweet-smelling herbs, or children’s toys. If they ever seemed violent, Tav used the same magic on them. They never suspected Tav of charming them, probably because Tav was so young.
By the time Tav was eleven, they knew a lot of people around the city, and a lot of people knew them. They liked Tav because they were cheerful and didn't harp on them for money. Tav liked them because they found it hard not to like something about everyone, even people as rotten as Cornelius.
Tav especially liked Lora, a fierce redheaded woman they first met on the deck of the Blushing Mermaid. The Blushing Mermaid was one of the rowdier bars, a place the other buskers gave a wide berth, but which Tav was all too happy to fill with music. Lora liked the music. A retired pirate, she had a lot of crazy stories to tell, and Tav took those stories and wove them into songs they sang around the city when they weren’t singing about Balduran. Sometimes Lora would bring her tiny daughter, Vanra. Tav was teaching her to play the lute.
On one such occasion, Tav was idly strumming their lute on the deck when two burly, ugly fellows emerged from the tavern and made a beeline for Lora. In less than a minute they were all drawing their swords and hacking at each other. Vanra ran to Tav, crying, and Tav held them close while cheering Lora on.
Lora was quick on her feet and a lot more skilled with her blade than either of the beefy dudes. She’d soon felled one of them, but the other was giving her a bit of trouble. He’d abandoned his sword for half a wooden table and was swinging it around like a club.
In a moment of pure instinct, Tav played a couple notes on their lute. The melody seemed to fly from their instrument and envelope Lora in a twisting aura of power. When she struck next, she more than felled the dude. He flew halfway across the deck.
“That’s what you get if you mess with Quick-lip Lora! Fuckers!” she yelled. Tav covered Vanra’s ears.
Other powers emerged as Tav got older. They found they could talk to animals and inspire people to be braver.
And... float?
Tav had been playing in the square during the busy break hour, when the streets were swarmed with workers going to catch their midday meal. It was an excellent time for busking, as people often had spare coins from their lunch to toss in a cap. Only, Tav was rather short, so they stood on the street railings to be seen above the crowd as they played. It was dangerous, a ten-foot drop onto a hard roof lurking behind them as they played, but Tav had excellent balance.
The excellent balance did not help when one person jostled into another and a wheelbarrow piled high with boxes of pastries crashed straight into Tav.
Tav yelped, expecting to be crushed to bits on the roof. But the boxes of pastries smashed apart on the shingles long before Tav did. Instead, Tav floated gently down like they’d grown wings. They landed on their feet, unharmed, and looked up just as the delivery man stuck his head over the railings in panic.
“Oh! Thank the gods, you’re alive,” he grumbled, the relief in his eyes obvious despite the distance. He was a half-orc, a somewhat rare find in Baldur’s Gate. Tav liked him immediately.
Then there was the incident in the Stormshore Tabernacle. Tav didn’t go in there a lot, because the priest hated them for no reason. They didn't so much as know his name, but every time they stepped foot inside the place, he glowered at them like they’d peed on the statue of Tyr and wouldn’t stop until they’d left.
Tav didn’t mind too much. Everyone knew the gods only listened to rich people anyway. On really bad days, though, days where they hadn’t had dinner in a while, or seen one too many rats, they liked to go inside the Tabernacle and look at the gods and the offerings people made to them.
On one particularly hungry day, Tav went inside and found that someone had left an orange as an offering to Mystra.
It was a big, juicy orange.
Tav wasn’t thinking much when they took it and shoved it into the shabby pocket of their jerkin. They began to think a bit more when they realized the priest had seen it all.
“Insolent thief! You dare steal from the hands of the gods,” he snarled, and Tav was sure he’d have said more, but by then they’d booked it out of the place - only to stop at the steps when they saw a Flaming Fist patrol just outside.
Shit, Tav thought as the priest caught up with them. But to their surprise, he ran right past them, then stopped, looking around. After a moment, he growled something under his breath, then slunk back inside.
Tav wasn’t sure what to think until they looked at their reflection in a passing window and saw a completely different face. Somehow, in between stealing the orange and going outside, they’d become the spitting image of Timmy.
By the time the sun set, they’d morphed back into Tav. But they practiced, and the next day they managed to turn themselves into Cornelius himself. That was useful, Tav was sure. Tav just didn’t know when else they would use it.
Tav’s life wasn’t the greatest. But it wasn’t too bad, either. They spent their days doing what they loved most in the world, playing the lute, and even if there was nothing to look forward to in the evenings but moldy bread and a cold floor to sleep on, well… they had their imagination, and they had their magic, and they had Timmy, who burrowed next to them every night and made the floor less cold. Things were bearable. Things were okay.
Tav was at the Blushing Mermaid when the flying squid ship appeared.
They were hanging out on the deck as usual, watching Captain Grisly and Lora get into one of their little spats. Vanra wasn’t around; she was probably with Agnes Shveitz, who made a living watching other people’s kids since she couldn’t have any of her own. It was lunchtime, and both Grisly and Lora’s words were sharp with ale. Tav wished they would just kiss it out already.
“There ain’t no such thing as Kraken-” Grisly was saying.
“-A load of bollocks! I’ve seen one, Quenora-”
“-in Baldur’s Gate, Lora! They don’t come near our docks - too populated!” Grisly paused. “And it’s Captain, to you.”
“They’re chaotic evil, Gris, you think they won't come by because of our population,” Lora huffed. “I just think you should take the proper precautions, in case-”
“In case what?! A Kraken decides it wants to spend its retirement smashing up my tavern??”
Then the bell tower fell apart.
Tav had been transfixed, staring at the massive ship in the sky. It had appeared out of nowhere, a giant shell-like thing with huge tentacles sprouting from its front and waving every which way. One of those tentacles wrapped around the tower and squeezed. The stone crumbled into bits like brittle chalk.
People started screaming. Lora and Grisly dropped their argument, their bodies freezing as they looked up to see the floating monster of a machine. They both instinctively reached for their swords, then stopped with them half-drawn.
The tentacles weren’t waving around randomly. As the thing swooped overhead, they lashed down into the city, tapping the backs of fleeing citizens. Every person they touched disappeared into a cloud of swirling ash.
“Holy shit,” Lora breathed, as the ship headed straight for the Blushing Mermaid.
It was then that Tav made a decision.
Perhaps it wasn’t a very good decision, or very well thought out. But in the split second before the ship reached them, they saw the tentacle swooping down to touch Lora, and they had two very quick thoughts. One, that Lora was an amazing person and had a daughter at home who needed her. Two, that no one would miss Tav if they were gone.
Moving faster than Tav thought they could, they sprang forward and shoved Lora out of the way just as the tentacle neared her head. It collided with Tav instead.
The last thing Tav saw was Lora’s horrified face before everything went dark.