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The doors leading to their escape came into view with only a few more Githyanki standing in their way. The small party of four had successfully battled their way out of the heart of Crèche Y'llek, hidden deep inside Rosymorn Monastery. Helyne, their cleric, could feel the relief the end would bring all the way to her bones. Beyond weary from the long battle, the companions had continuously fought Gith after Gith since escaping the relic. The fight had not been unexpected. After all, one could not go against the direct wishes of the Githyanki's goddess and not expect to have to battle every last warrior in sight.
As Helyne climbed up a ladder to gain a better vantage point of the door, the highly-trained archer monitored the whereabouts of her three companions: Wyll, Gale, and Lae'zel. With her half-elven eyesight, she noted how they had all made it through with nothing more serious than scratches and bruises, a minor miracle considering they were up against some of the fiercest known fighters. She didn't know if she had Lathander to thank for their luck so far, but the cleric made a mental note to thank the god, whose ruined monastery they were currently fleeing, once they safely returned to camp.
Certain they were in the clear as Lae'zel and Wyll took on the final two Giths, Helyne began to lower her bow she had up at the ready. Only later would she chastise herself for lowering her defenses too soon. She watched as Gale made a mad dash for the doors, hand raised to blast the final obstacle to their freedom out of the way. Suddenly, time seemed to slow as Helyne watched what happened next play out in front of her.
A tall, Githyanki warrior had been laying in wait somewhere beside the exit and stepped out from the shadows of the ruins just as Gale drew within feet of freedom. The mage seemed to startle at the sudden appearance of the enemy at the last minute and stumbled as he tried to halt his forward progress. Even though he had been ready with a spell just moments before, he did nothing. It gave the warrior just enough time to step forward and run their deadly blade straight into the wizard's stomach.
The weapon had no trouble slicing through the thin purple cloth of his robe. A memory flashed through Helyne's mind. A spat between them only days before, where she insisted he needed some kind of armor to protect against such attacks, while he insisted his magic would protect him. For a brief moment, she had the absurd thought of how she would gloat over being correct, before complete and utter panic took over her senses. Somewhere in the distance, she heard his name being screamed, only to realize it was coming from her own lips.
The Githyanki hit the ground before Gale did. Helyne hadn't even realized she had raised her bow once more and released the arrow with perfect precision, hitting the warrior in the right eye. Her prior training as a perfect killing machine by her former cult kicking in automatically. She somehow found herself on the ground, unsure whether she had jumped, climbed down the ladder, or scaled the wall. If there were other enemies hiding, she did not give a thought to them as all she could focus on was the wizard slumped forward on the ground. Grabbing at the front of his robes, her mind was awash with terror as she saw the red blood blooming against the majestic purple of the fabric. "You foolish man!" she shouted, more in anxiety than anger, as she struggled to control her normally cool emotions.
She was relieved to find he was still conscious, his dark eyes round in fear as he gazed up at her. With renewed strength from the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she propped him up against the nearest boulder. Her healer mind was racing with what needed to be done to staunch the bleeding and save the man. However, she knew that the location of the wound was enough to make him bleed out in mere minutes. She had no time at all to hesitate. "Helyne!" Gale gasped, terror etched on his face. "The orb!"
Cursing herself for not bringing her usual medicines with her, Helyne frantically wracked her brain for what she could do as she placed her hands over the large gash in his abdomen. Even though a cleric she might be, she had not used her divine magic since fleeing the domain of her dark goddess. Healing the injured was not the norm for the goddess of the hunt, who demanded souls captured in the pursuit as tribute to her. Helyne had been too kind, too caring to kill in her name. Instead, she had run and sought a life in the healing arts, and eventually midwifery, in direct defiance of her name.
The foraging of herbs and crafting of medication had not been a hindrance to healing others in her life prior. That was, until that very moment when she did not have the needed supplies with her. And time was running out quickly. "Do not speak of it," she hissed, trying to staunch the blood flow as she tried to concentrate on the matter at hand.
Gale clutched her forearms, trying to push them away. She could already feel the strength waning from him as his grip grew weaker. "Please, Helyne, go now."
Her angry glare for daring to utter such a thing was met with the unspeakable fear on his face of his impending death and destruction. It made her want to scream, not at him, but at the unfair circumstances that had put them in such an impossible situation. Taking a deep breath, she recalled her words to him only nights before as they spoke of his volatile condition and what would occur should such a circumstance arise. "I'm not going anywhere, Gale. I made a promise to you and I intend to keep it."
The healer, helpless to heal him with her normal methods, came to the conclusion she knew she had been building up to. There was only one way she could save him now. She needed to use the divine magic she had forsaken years ago.
Searching deep within herself, she waded through the darkest parts of her soul where she had buried it long ago, believing she would never use it again. The blackness and decay began to take hold of her guts, crawling and ripping with their sharp talons. She felt the sick creep of things forbidden, and the smell of rot began to fill her nose. Ignoring the ill feeling it gave her, the familiar feeling of doom as it tried to twist her heart, she grasped a hold of it before it took control. She weaved and manipulated it, shaping it from something dark and destructive to beautiful and light. An energy of healing she had learned to use so long ago, to the disappointment of her goddess.
Holding her hand directly above his injury, she murmured the incantation in Elvish, the language she had spoken for much of her young life. Within moments, she felt the injury begin to knit itself together from the deepest point, blood renewing as arteries and tissue reformed around the wound.
Without warning, she felt a cold, bony hand slip onto her shoulder. A chill ran down her spine as the oppressive presence she had lived under loomed large behind her. The smell of decay gagged her, overwhelming and everywhere all at once. She felt the words form in her head, the clattering of bones and the feral hissing of beings doomed forming each syllable. "Finally, you are mine once more." Deonne, the goddess of rot and ruin whose cult she had escaped from over eleven years ago, had found her.
With a gasp, Helyne let go of the magic, stuffing it back down as deep as it would go. Just as quickly as she came, the goddess was gone as soon as the magic disappeared, unable to sustain herself for long outside of her domain. Even though she was rattled from the encounter, she urgently checked on Gale to see if her efforts to save him had been in vain. His color, still pale from the loss of blood, was no longer waning but his eyes were still wide at what he had just witnessed. He was the only companion, the only person in all of Faerûn, that she had trusted enough with the truth of her past. How she had spent the past eleven years on the run from her goddess after escaping the cult that tried to make her into a killer. He was the only one who would know the severity of the action she had just undertaken. "You didn't," he gasped, staring at her in disbelief.
"It is done now," was all she stated as she checked to make certain the healing she had performed was enough. The wound, while still there and bleeding, was not as deep as it had been. They would need to get back to camp where her medicines remained as soon as possible, but she knew he would make it. She felt no regret for her actions, knowing that Gale would live.
~
Gale was not a light man, and having him leaning into her as they limped back to camp made the trip extra slow. A thousand apologies for the inconvenience it caused fell from the wizard's lips. He kept insisting he could walk on his own, that he could make it without being a burden to her, all the while trying to lift himself upright and stay steady on his feet. Every time he did, her arm tightened around his waist. She refused to let him go, knowing that as soon as she did, he would likely collapse face first on the ground.
Assisting him was not a burden in the slightest for Helyne, and the healer wished Gale would stop insisting it was so. She did not like the way he swayed slightly every time she had to stop to get a better grip on his waist, nor did she like the copious amounts of blood on his purple robes. Was his wound coming undone from all the exertion? Or was it coming from a wound she had not been able to spot yet? She felt the urgency to get back to camp swell in her chest.
The wizard, ever regretful for being a perceived nuisance, tried his best to stand up once more. It only led to him stumbling forward. "Lean on me, Gale. You do not have to worry. I have you," Helyne soothed him for what felt like the hundredth time.
Shaking his head in shame, Gale sighed before taking a deep inhale of breath. "I should not always be such a burden on you, Helyne," he replied, a note of sadness in his voice.
Coming up from behind them, Wyll placed an arm around Gale's midsection across from Helyne. "We all share our burdens with each other, friend," the warlock reassured him with a smile.
Helyne was grateful for Wyll's help, as it seemed to put Gale's mind at ease. He finally seemed to give in enough to let his companions guide him the rest of the way back to camp without further complaint.
As they stepped foot back in camp where the rest of their companions had remained, Helyne immediately began giving orders. As reluctant as she had been about taking on the mantle of leader for their rag-tag little group, she felt herself growing to fill the role with more confidence as the tendays passed. “Shadowheart, you attend to Wyll to ensure his scrapes get mended. Astarion and Lae'zel, we will need the fire stoked high. There should be a pond somewhere closeby. Please bring back as much fresh water as possible. Karlach, bring me as many clean rags as you can find. I will attend to Gale's injuries.”
As the others went about their given duties without the usual complaint and backhanded comments, Helyne guided Gale towards his tent. She helped him to his bedroll that was laid out in front of his tent, rolled out and waiting for its owner to return from his adventure. As soon as she released her hold on his waist, he crumbled forward. His body hit the ground with a sickening thud. It seemed as though his limbs had been waiting for permission to give out on him. A gasp left her lips and she dropped down to the ground next to him. "Gale!"
The wizard's eyes were closed as he laid curled across the bedroll. Momentarily, she feared he had lost consciousness. Thankfully, he left out a groan as he winced in pain. "Glad I did not have the opportunity to do that on the way to camp. I find myself embarrassed as is." He left out a chuckle, which quickly turned into another groan.
"If you would have listened to me and not insisted on struggling against every modicum of assistance, we would not have come to this," Helyne hissed, trying to hide the relief she felt that he was still conscious.
Just as an added bonus to demonstrate her annoyance, she squeezed his shoulder roughly as she helped him straighten out on the bed roll. She was rewarded by a grunt from him, leaving her satisfied.
Standing, she glared down at him, her gaze full of menace. "Now remain here as I retrieve my bag. If I find you have moved an inch, I will flay you alive for your insolence."
He might have thought she was joking as his pained laughter followed her, though she was deadly serious. Gathering what supplies she needed from her tent into her arms, she carried them back to where he she had left him laid out on the ground. Thankfully, Gale had remained prone just as she had told him to. However, she wasn't certain it was her words that kept him inert. She took in the beads of sweat on his brow as his hand clenched his robe over his sternum. "Does it hurt?" she asked quietly, laying out the bottles and bandages she had gathered.
"No more than usual," was his cheery reply through clenched teeth.
A sadness ripped through her heart at the knowledge that she had no ointment, tincture, or magic to stop the pain he was experiencing. Could she truly call herself a healer if she could do nothing to heal him of the pain that was slowly eating him alive? Concentrating on what she could do, however, she turned her attention to his external injuries. Switching all her thoughts to a healer mindset, she went to work.
Looking him over, Helyne tried to determine if there were any other injuries that she had missed and needed to treat immediately before she went to work on the one she had partially healed in the crèche. Not seeing anything overt, she reached for the clasps of his robe. "What are you doing?" Gale questioned, his voice rising as Helyne began to untie the fastenings of his bloodied clothing.
"Taking off your robe so I can better assess your injuries," she told him, continuing with what she was doing.
"There's no need for that. I'm fine. Truly," he stated, trying to grab the robe from out of her grasp.
"No, you obviously are not. You suffered an almost certain life-ending injury had I not intervened. You could barely walk back to camp and you just collapsed directly in front of me. I need to see the extent of the injury in order to determine my next steps," she scolded, teeth gritted as she struggled to wrestle back control.
“Truly, I am fine. You should attend to the others. They need more help than I do,” Gale insisted.
Helyne did her best not to scream, even though his martyrdom irritated her to the extreme. “Do I tell you how to be a wizard?” she growled.
In his weakened state, it was not long before the struggle tired him out and she was able to gain the upper hand, allowing her to finish what she had intended to do. As she eased off his robe, she thought not of the previous few nights when she had allowed herself to imagine doing this exact activity while she laid alone in her tent. Imagining herself caressing his bare skin. Kissing along his chest, the way she had shared the image with him when they had connected in the Weave. Instead, her mind was bent on the singular thought of his life almost slipping away from her not more than an hour previous and it only made her work faster.
The fight did not seem to have left Gale entirely as he squirmed under her touch. “No, but neither have I tried using magic to uncloth you,” he spat crossly as he tried desperately to cover himself back up again with the robe that was quickly being removed from his body.
Frustrated, Helyne grabbed his wrists, pulling them away from his chest rather easily. “If you would prefer the touch of Halsin or Shadowheart, then by all means, I will call them over to attend to you. But do not think they would not be doing the same thing as I,” she hissed.
Her words finally made him pause and look her in the eye. “I know such treatment may seem embarrassing coming from someone who has shared the image of her desire to kiss you, but rest assured I only wish to heal your injuries, not strip you bare and ride you in front of our companions. That is the farthest thing from my mind at this moment. Need I remind you of how you were begging me to run so that the orb would not obliterate us both?”
Helyne’s tone grew softer as she returned his concerned gaze. “You can trust that I will keep your dignity intact. I only need to remove your robe. Your undershirt may remain on. May I ask that of you?”
Holding her breath, she waited for his reply as he remained silent for a few heartbeats. Then, he gave her a nod. She didn't even notice that she had been holding her breath until she had to exhale loudly.
Gently, the healer released the wizard's wrists and he let them drop to his sides in silent permission to proceed. Removing the robe completely, she ever so gently pulled his undershirt away from the injury. He left out a hiss as she lifted the once white shirt away from the bloody gash that had been the source of the wizard's near demise.
Helyne's lips pressed into a line of grime determination as she took in the sight, a chill running down her spine. The damage the Githyanki sword had done to him was devastating to witness. She knew how lucky he was to be alive. If it had been any deeper or aimed any higher, he may not have been laying there with clenched eyes and fists, battling against the pain. Still, she didn't understand how he had been able to tolerate such an injury for so long even with what little healing she had already performed at the ruined monastery. The pain of it had to be immense.
Her dark eyes trailed up to his face. What kind of wizard could endure so much and live to tell the tale? If he was able to tolerate the pain of such an injury, what kind of pain was he covering up in his day-to-day life? She could feel her heart shattering into a thousand pieces.
Shaking her head to remove the thoughts, she reached into her bag and pulled out a red leaf. "Chew on this. It will help with the pain," she told him as she pressed it into his clenched hand.
With something to think of other than the pain, Gale's muscles visibly loosened as he began to examine the herb in his hand. "Tekkil?" he questioned, his brow arching. "I must admit, I have partaken in quite a few herbs, but this is new to me."
While he was distracted, she went to work. She busied herself crushing the more of the same leaves before mixing the sap into the water she would use to clean his wound. A dash of marigold was added to help keep away any infection. "Yes, thank the gods we were in that swamp a tenday ago. Practically littered with it so I could replenish my stock," she answered him as she worked, eyes never leaving the bowl.
"Hmm, you would quite enjoy picking it in Waterdeep then. The North Ward sewers are said to be rife with tekkil plants. Not that I have any first hand knowledge of the subject," Gale chuckled, amusing himself by his own story.
His chuckle quickly turned into a wince of pain. Even though her heart was fluttering at his mention of her visiting Waterdeep, she pushed the thought aside at his expression of discomfort. Shaking her head, she took the leaf from his hand and placed it against his lips herself. Like a child that had just been scolded, Gale's eyes dropped as he opened his mouth. She slipped it onto his tongue so he could chew it, looking sheepish as he finally did what she had told him to do. "Thank you," she said, trying to soothe his embarrassment somewhat. "This next bit will hurt and I do not want you to be in more pain than you must."
Helyne knew it wouldn't take long for the herb's soporific sap to take effect. To keep his mind from what was a needless amount of pain until the tekkil made its way through his system, Helyne decided to get him to partake in one of his favorite pastimes: talking. "So what you are saying is the most appealing part of Waterdeep is the sewers. Doesn't much sound like a city I wish to visit," she joked as she dipped the rags she would use to clean his wound into the medicinal water.
“Oh no!" Gale was quick to defend his beloved city. "The sewers are not part of the appeal of Waterdeep, I can assure you. The list of notable sights and attractions are endless. It is a city like none other. I am saddened that your travels along the Sword coast never ventured north to the City of Splendors."
"I heard tales of your Guild of Apothecaries and Physicians who don't much care for those that help the indigent without their blessing. I always tried to travel where my services would be less noticed by the authorities," she confessed.
He hummed thoughtfully at her explanation. "One can hardly fault your logic. Still, it would be nice for you to visit someday. With or without me, that is," he said, his words beginning to slur slightly as the tekkil began to take hold.
Happy that the drug was finally taking effect, Helyne knew she could begin cleaning his wound without fear of hurting him. As she began to clean his wound with the cloth, she kept a close eye on his expression to ensure he was not experiencing pain from the gentle swipe of the cloth across the bloody gash. The dreamy, faraway look on Gale's face was an indication to her that he was entering a state of blissful peace. Sadly, she realized it may have been the first time she had ever seen him look so peaceful.
When she was satisfied that his wound was clean, she took out her supplies to stitch it shut so that it could begin to heal.
"I would only wish to visit Waterdeep with you by my side."
She dropped her statement casually as she worked, glancing up at his face to see his reaction. The tekkil was working effectively enough that Gale's eyelids were growing heavy with sleep. She was glad, not only that it was keeping him from the pain of her work, but also in hopes he would not comprehend what she had just confessed to him. It could very much have been interpreted as a friend wishing to visit a friend, but she knew the blush on her cheeks gave away what her true intentions were. His only response was a mumbled 'mmm.'
Glad that her slip of the tongue might have gone unnoticed, she went about her work stitching up his wound. With the normally talkative wizard silent, she found it a much faster act than his previous injuries she had attended to for him. Somehow, though, she found herself missing the soothing sounds of his voice that she had grown accustomed to hearing in their short time together.
When she was finished, Helyne placed a bandage over the stitches. She knew it would take a few days to heal completely, but with the aid of a few healing potions, he would be good as new soon enough. She was just glad she had been able to heal him initially, or she was certain she would have been begging Kelemvor to return his soul. Deonne be damned, she would not have changed what she did for anything.
As she rinsed the bloody rags, she glanced up at her patient to check that he was still resting peacefully. She was surprised to see his dark eyes gazing back at her. She could have been certain that the drug would have already caused sleep. Instead, he was staring at her with a thoughtful expression on his face as he seemed to fight to focus on her. His eyes had the hazy, dimmed quality of one high on drugs. "Gale, are you in pain?" she asked quietly, placing a hand on his forehead to check for a high temperature.
Gale didn't answer her question at first. Instead, he continued to stare at her as if concentrating on a thought that was alluding him. When he did speak, his words were slurred together. "You used her magic to save me back at the monastery. She knows where you are now."
Even though she should not have been surprised that Gale had been contemplating what she had done to save his life, Helyne was startled to hear him state his concern about her use of clerical magic to heal him aloud. Through his drug addled thoughts, he was still considering what it meant for her, and was concerned for her well being even as he lay wounded on the ground. "Yes," she agreed, seeing no reason to lie to him. "But that does not need to concern you. It is my battle to fight. Now, you must rest."
His brow scrunched, overly exaggerated from his drug-induced stupor. "No, that is blatantly untrue. It does concern me. Years you were in hiding, never once using your magic so you could remain hidden from the goddess you were running from. But you threw that all away today. For me." He paused and she didn't know if it was for dramatic effect that surely a less high Gale would have done should that have been the case, or if it was just so he could remember his train of thoughts. "Why?"
"I'm a healer. Life is sacred to me. I did what needed to be done, the same as I would have done for anyone," she said with a shrug, unable to meet his eyes as the lie slipped out all too easily.
Surprisingly, he was quick to catch it. "That is a lie. I have witnessed you kill and watched as you left others to meet their fate. You have never used your goddess-given magic on any of our companions. Only for me."
It was as if he were fighting against the Tekkil as he spoke, and she wished he would succumb to the effects of the narcotic soon. She knew that he would most likely not remember the conversation when he woke, so it did not matter what she told him in response to his assertion. She toyed with the idea of confessing the feelings she was keeping from him. Perhaps it was the perfect moment to tell him the truth, a catharsis to clear her own conscience.
"You are correct. I would not use my magic for anyone else but you," she confessed, a weight seeming to lift off her chest as she spoke. "But I cannot allow you to die. Not because of the orb or the destruction it would bring. No. I cannot allow you to die because I have come to realize that I cannot go back to a world without you in it. When I think of a future without you, all I can imagine is a world in black and white. I cannot go back to bleakness after you have shown me what the brilliance of life looks like with you by my side."
There was silence between them as she waited for his response to her confession. She held her breath, wondering what he would have to say. Slowly Gale's eyes closed, but there was a small smile turning up the corners of his lips. Unbelievably, she realized that he was finally falling asleep. She almost felt a hysterical laugh bubble up from within her at the absurdity of it all.
Gently, Helyne began to rearrange his clothing once more knowing that he was finally resting. She took a clean rag and dabbed the beads of sweat along his brow. As the cool cloth brushed his face, his lips began to move once more. "Helyne?" His words were so garbled she could barely make out what he said. "When you are near me, I picture kissing you too."
For a moment, she sat perfectly still as she let his words sink in. Then she placed the cloth down before turning back to him. This time she used her fingers to brush the damp skin of his face. She stroked his cheek, his bearded jaw. He was well and truly asleep this time, his breath even as his chest rose and fell. Her fingers found a stray lock of dark hair on his forehead and she brushed it back into place.
Leaning over, Helyne gently placed her lips against Gale's sweaty forehead. Perhaps one day she would finally get the chance to kiss his lips. Until that day came to pass, she would do all that she could to protect the wizard from Waterdeep, even if it meant coming face-to-face with the goddess who wanted her very soul.