Finding Home - BushelBabe - Baldur's Gate (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Sand down my pants

Chapter Text

The gentle pressure on her shoulders, rocking her, the voice above whispering, “Belle, wake up!” were so familiar to her younger self that she screwed her eyes shut tight & whined “I’ll be up in a minute!"
She rolled over, now half awake, realising that she couldn’t have heard that voice, because it had died twenty years ago. That meant she’d had a dream of him, which was both nice & sad, because she hadn’t had one in the last few years. It refreshed the sound of his voice, his presence & she felt her breath hitch in a little sob.

A gust of wind blew past, carrying the smell of smoke with it, stopping her grief in its tracks. Acrid smoke. sh*t, had she left the stove top on in the kitchen? She sat bolt upright, her head connecting hard with another head so that she both felt & heard the ‘bong’ sound.

“sh*t, f*ck,” she hissed, holding a hand to the sore spot, just as she heard someone else exclaim the very same thing. In that impossible voice.

She opened her eyes, all blurry from her welling tears of pain, to see someone on their arse opposite her, also frantically rubbing their head. Squeezing her eyes shut & blotting them hard with her pyjama sleeve, she reopened them, pulling a long face to right her still watery vision.

Her vision clarified, the someone in front resolving into that of an older man. What was an older man doing in her bedroom? In pure fright, she scuttled backward, sand pouring into the crack of her arse as her pyjama bottoms rode down her legs. She looked down. Her bed was covered in sand. No, wait, where was her bed?

“Jesus your head hasn’t gotten any softer, has it?” the old man was grumbling, crawling to his knees to stand up.

Huh?

She looked up at him. He was dressed in what looked like cotton & leather shirts & pants, looking like someone who’d been out in the willy wags way too long. His hair was salt & pepper, unkempt, his face lined deeply by skin exposed to the sun for too many years without proper protection.

His grey, watery eyes were fixed on her, a mixture of disbelief & absolute joy colouring them. Her mind suddenly skewed left, superimposing a younger version of this man over the top of what she was looking at.

“Dad?” her voice had gone high, shocked & hurt & wanting to believe, but unable to, because he’d died, he was dead, twenty years in the past now.

“Oh, my girl, I can’t believe … I thought it was you I’d seen …& it was!” he came lumbering over, falling to his knees by her, his hand hovering over her shoulder, as if too scared to touch her in case she disappeared.

She turned her head to view the leathery hand, the one she’d studied as a girl when she would just sit in his lap, committing it to memory. It was the same, bar age & some new scars. She whipped her head back to confirm he was still there.

“Dad?” she tried again, her voice a touch firmer this time. Hang on a tick, if he were dead, & she was with him now…

“Am I dead?” she shrieked, making him wince at her sudden shrillness.

“No & you still have a voice too.” He stuck a finger in his ear, wiggling it.

“Then what the f*ck … where the f*ck…you’ve been dead!” she screamed at him, suddenly surging to her knees, pushing him back by the shoulders. She absentmindedly hoiked her pyjamas up over her bare arse, but it only made the sand fall further down the pant leg toward her knee. She barely paid it any mind.

“I’m not dead, girl, I didn’t die! That night, something appeared out on the waters, like a giant, spinning hole! Sucked the whole boat in. I ended up here & I’ve been stuck here ever since!”

What he said barely registered. They’d held a funeral, she’d grieved, gone to counselling for years, had had to treat depression because of it & now, what? It was all for nothing?

“You didn’t try to get back?” she yelled, just angry right now. It wasn’t sinking in that she currently wasn’t in her bedroom, nor that her dead dad was back, or that they were currently surrounded by massive, broken debris & burning meat on an otherwise idyllic beach.

“Of course I did. There was just nothing I could find here that could get me back.”

He sounded sincerely sorry. And sad. She reached out to touch his cheek. The warmth & laxity of his skin were real. She looked up into his eyes, eyes that he’d passed onto her. How often over the years had she wished for something exactly like this to happen? More times than she could count. Her emotions welled up, slapping away all thought, so that she suddenly wailed, hurling herself at him in a huge bearhug that he reciprocated just as enthusiastically.

His sure hold on her, his strength that she remembered him possessing, patting her on the back rhythmically spurred on a sobbing so deep she thought it’d never end.

But it did as soon as someone behind them cleared their throat, sending her whirling around in surprise.

“Ah, you survived.” Her dad said to the newcomer, backlit by the sun so that Belle had to hold up a hand to shade her eyes just to make out the figure. “Good to see.”

“I did. Sorry to break up your little reunion, but we should get moving out of here. We’re in trouble & the sooner we can get help, the better.”

It was a female, the accent somewhat reminiscent of posh English.

Belle’s dad helped her to her feet. She didn’t’ let go of his arm, but was shocked to see now that they were outdoors somewhere. She hadn’t left her little flat; had she been kidnapped….holy sh*t. Her gaze had swept the scene, her eyes showing her now what her brain didn’t want to register.

Metal, flames, meat, electricity sparking from wires within the meat …. & the girl in front of them, eyeing Belle in as politely a disdainful manner as possible. She was done up in some sort of rock n roll armour, shockingly familiar. But it was the giant tentacles strewn everywhere around them, above & out into the water, that made her give out a single, loud snort of laughter before she clapped her hand over her mouth.

“Is she alright?” the girl asked, co*cking her head at Belle’s dad.

“She’s fine; just in shock. She’s, ah, come a long way.”

Belle reached forward & poked the girl in front of her, just to confirm her existence.

“Belle, you shouldn’t poke other people,” her dad chided her gently, reigning her back in. “She may have suffered a hit to the head,” he apologized to the dark haired girl, who was now glaring at Belle.

“I suppose I can quickly heal her, if you’d allow?”

Her dad chuckled good naturedly.

“No need for that, she’s fine. Honestly. Let’s get moving.”

“Dad?” she whispered when the girl in front had pulled ahead, looting actual dead bodies strewn about everywhere with not a care in the world about the ick associated with doing that.

“Yes, Belle?”

“Can you pinch me? Hard?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Cause I think I’m having an incredibly vivid dream.”

He obliged, gently.

“No, harder, it’s got to hurt!”

He sighed, pinching her nearly enough to draw blood.

“Ow, sh*t, not that hard!”

“You said hard – “

“I know what I said, jeez.” She rubbed her arm while never taking her eyes off the young woman ahead.

“Dad”

“What, Belle?”

“That girl … I know her name.”

He looked down at her, still clutching his arm.

“Didn’t we introduce ourselves?”

She shook her head.

“Nuh-uh.”

“Then, how do you know it?”

“Remember all those computer games I used to play that you hated me wasting my time on?”

“Ohh yeah – I’d forgotten about those.”

“Welll – this is one of those games” she whispered quickly.

“Sorry, I don’t quite get you.” He looked at her patiently but confused.

“Dad, I’ve been playing a computer game for the last few months. Mainly for the sexy parts in it, but it’s cool otherwise.”

“Belle!” he sounded absolutely scandalised.

“What? I’m 40 & divorced, it’s a healthy way to get some romance in. Anyways, this. Is. The. Game.”

He turned over what she was trying to tell him, his logical brain turning it over & over like a rubric’s cube.

“How far along in the game did you get?” he asked slowly & she knew he’d clicked onto her meaning. He’d always been one for thinking outside the box, solving puzzles & dilemmas, being the wall she’d wailed to when she couldn’t solve her own problems. It was incredibly liberating to be older & now on the same wavelength as him.

“All the way. About four times I’ve completed it now, from different perspectives. I know who she is!”

He looked from her up to the girl who was now foraging plants for potions.

“Can we trust her?”

“For now we can.”

“With our lives?”

“Yes. She needs us, well, you, more so, alive.”

“How long for?”

“I’ll let you know if we need to worry.”

He nodded. Looked back down at her clothes.

“Unicorns? Still?” he grinned down at her. “But, we’ll have to get you some gear you can actually survive in out here.”

“Gus,” Shadowheart called out. Belle guessed that they must have met on the ship before she awoke. Ugh, which meant she had a tadpole in her head, too. Her gorge rose & as Shadowheat loped over, turned her head to puke on the sand. The cleric rose an eyebrow at Belle, ignored her & continued to address her dad.

“There’s more intellect devourers, just beyond there,” she pointed around the rock beside them.

“Right. You stay behind, Belle. Shadowheart, follow me.”

Belle waved them off, still hunched over with hands on knees, waiting to see if she’d puke again. She heard them dispatch the walking brains, then her dad reappeared to fetch her.

“You ok?” he asked, concerned, rubbing her back. She could have purred at the comfort that gesture conveyed.

“Is she going to be a liability?” Shadowheart came back round the corner, cool bitchiness in full effect.

“You’ve no idea just how valuable she’s going to be.” Her dad could give the coolest ‘stand down bitch’ vibes, his eyes going all slatey when in full dad protection mode.

Shadowheart held up her hands in defence, but didn’t look convinced. They set out past the dead brains, Belle very much not looking at them as they walked by. She causally pointed out the Cartlidge chests & the bodies she so wasn’t going to touch because, gore & blood & more puking for her if she touched them.

The crates just beyond the broken hull of the ship (which smelled strongly of ozone), actually contained some destitute clothing that she changed into behind a broken piece of hull. Halfway through undressing, she remembered just where they were. She turned slowly, her eyes tracing their way up the path to the top, where she could just make out another pod. f*ck. She knew the little murder hobo had seen her dad & Shadowheart take the brains out, but was he still watching? Going red, she turned her back deliberately, wondering if she should just moon him while she was there & half naked anyway.

Deciding to take the higher road, she quickly finished up. The elven shoes didn’t quite fit, but they’d do for now until something better came along. She wasn’t going to get rid of her pyjamas, they’d be great to change into for the night, so warm & snuggly, so she bundled them up & tucked them under her arm.

“Done?” her dad asked & she nodded.

“Dad?” she didn’t think she could say that enough right now.

“Hmm?”

“There’s a survivor up there. I saw movement.” That was for Shadowhearts benefit. She lowered her voice. “Don’t go near him when he asks for help. Don’t hurt him, he’ll join the team. But just - be careful.”

Her dad nodded again, patting her arm.

She followed the other two, already regretting the shoes as she could feel them pinch her toes. The other two pulled ahead, so she stopped to take them off & hobble up to the top of the hill. The conversation was already taking place. Neither her dad nor Shadowheart went anywhere near the pale elf, instead standing there with their arms folded.

“That’s not an intellect devourer, friend, but a wild boar.” Her father was pointing out.

The pale elves eyes found hers as she joined the group. From here, they looked ruddy brown, so she guessed that’s why he could get away with one of the signs of his affliction, for now. But a momentary smirk caught the side of his mouth at her appearance before disappearing. Holy sh*t, the little sh*te had been watching! She should have gone with her gut instinct! She wanted to throw something at the pervert, but all she had were her pyjamas (not gonna happen) & the elven shoes. Shoes it was. She threw them at him.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” he raised his voice, shielding himself. He needn’t have worried, her aim was so poor the shoes had bubkis chance of hitting him.

“Sorry, you had some flies hanging round your head” she waved a hand around her own head to demonstrate while giving him a saccharine smile.

“Don’t people just help these days?” he asked the air in general.

“Say, you were on the Nautoloid. I remember passing your pod. I would have stopped to help, but it looked like you were passed out. Glad to see you made it out alive.”

God bless her dad & his tact.

“Yes, well, I supp – “ he stopped mid-sentence as he & Shadowheart both writhed in pain as their parasites said hello. Her dad looked back at her, eyebrow raised in question.

“It’s the parasites. They connect, showing images,” she said quickly while the other two were affected. It looked painful, & not something she would be looking forward to experiencing.

The connection broke, freeing the two of the bond.

“What in the nine hells was that?” the elf yelled, clutching at his forehead.

“That was disgusting. Let’s hope to keep that under control in the future,” Shadowheart was ice cold compared to Astarion’s theatrical voice.

“At least now I know you were in the same position & not in league with those beasts.” said Astarion.

“We’re not thralls, if that’s what you meant. Look, we’re all in the same boat here. We need to find a healer & get these things out asap. We don’t have long before it’s too late, so we should all work together.” said Gus.

Belle was impressed at her dad’s knowledge of Mind Flayers. If only he’d been that interested in her interests years ago they could have spent more quality time together. She wondered where he’d picked it up from while here in the Forgotten Realms. Which was way too weird to think about, so she closed the door on that train of thought for now.

“Hmmm, I suppose… sticking with the herd isn’t such a bad idea. Alright. I accept. My name’s Astarion. Lead on.” he gave a little wave of his hand as if he were royalty.

“Pompous arse,” Belle muttered under her breath as she passed him.

“That may be, dear, but I know yours at least is nicely rounded.” He muttered right back at her as he passed her to go wander off in front.

She stopped in her tracks, mouth open. Not five minutes in & he’d already seen her half naked. How in the hell did that happen? Was there a god of irony here who was now keeled over in Tashas’ Hideous Laughter? Fuuuck, if her dad had heard him say that, there was no need of him finding out he was a vampire, cause he’d stake him just for having seen what he did.

Jumping when her dad called her over his shoulder, she continued to hobble after them as quickly as she could.

The goblins in the road didn’t have much on them apart from some daggers that her dad handed to her, telling her to treat them like steak knives if anything were to get in close to her. She missed the subtle there & gone flicker he gave Astarion as he said it. The healing potion he handed to Shadowheart.

“Thanks, but I can heal myself.” She told him, stowing the potion anyway.

“Give it to someone who can use it then” her dad said. Shadowheart looked at Belle.

“No, she’s like me. Won’t work on her.” He explained, much to her disbelief.

Belle co*cked her head at him in question.

He dropped back to explain.

“If you’re aware of the game, you're aware there's energy here they utilize and call magic.” he said quietly.

She nodded, twirling her finger to hurry him up.

“That energy doesn't work on me. It somehow nullifies, disappears, whenever it comes near me. The healing potions work so quickly on others because of the magic used to combine the ingredients. Otherwise, it’s like drinking a herbal tea.”

Oh. Oh sh*t.

“No healing?” Oh, good lord, she wasn’t going to last the next 48 hours. Hang on.

“No magic at all?” she gasped loudly, earning her more weirdo stares from the two natives.

“None. Sounds bad, but I’ve managed to survive for 20 years without it. In fact, comes downright in handy at times. You see – “

“What is wrong with that portal?” Shadowheart interrupted, pointing at the strobing purple neon light ahead of them.

Gus frowned.

“I have no idea, I’ve never seen one act like that before.”

Belle, meanwhile, practically skipped over to it, giving Astarion stink eye as she passed him.

“Hello?” she called into it.

“Hello? Hi? A hand, anyone?” Gales voice echoed up out of the whirlpool as he stuck his own hand out, flapping it around wildly.

Belle considered it. Rubbed her chin deep in thought about it. Decided what the hell and did it.

The crack resounded loudly as she slapped his hand. The resulting sting made her hiss & shake it vigorously.

“Ow, geez, I should have clarified & said a helping hand!” she chuckled as he shook his hand trying to clear the pain. Had she looked behind her then at the pale elf, she would have seen a little glimmer of approval in his eyes. But she didn’t because he was currently on her sh*t list.

Gus came over to help, asking her permission with a quick look before gripping the proffered hand & yanking the wizard out of the hole. Gale emerged with a popping sound, much like a cork from a wine bottle.

Belle watched the introductions, struck by how similar it was to the game. Her mind wanted to go down a rabbit hole and explore how & why Earth should have a game detailing this particular set of events, but that opened up a whole can of worms she wasn’t willing to explore right then. Because, if she did, she’d start wondering why she couldn’t have ended up at Hogwarts fighting Voldemort instead of in the wilderness with a parasite in her brain. Shadowheart was right; she was a liability here.

She was brought back to the present when Gale grabbed her hand, pumping it enthusiastically. Aww, he was already nicer to have met than the other two.

Yes, she’d romanced Astarion, he was hot, what did people expect? But, in real life, she’d known straight away he was in the ‘f*ck not marry’ pile. Even with his character progression he was a big ol walking red flag. She’d never been interested in the other romances. Had tried Lae’zels, which was just as spicy as Astarions', but at least Lae’zel wasn’t lusting after power left, right and centre. Still, she shouldn't even be thinking that right now. She blamed the situation, knowing what these people were packing under their clothes & her state of horniness from not having slept with anyone in nearly eight years.

Reigning in her wandering brain, she took off with the others, the path curving slightly around. Not far from where they’d pulled Gale free, voices raised in argument could be heard. Once more, Gus flicked Belle a ‘should we check it out’ look. She nodded imperceptibly which was as loud as a shout for him. He turned them off the trail, toward the argument.

She drew up the rear, just in case. There was no telling if these situations would actually escalate into a fight or not; no real dice here, no stopping for insight checks. Just what normal people did in any situation in day to day interactions. In all honesty, she really couldn’t fight her way out of a wet paper bag.

Gus chatted amicably with the two tieflings, immediately putting them at ease. She had always admired that about him; she emulated it in her own client interactions within her own business, but could never pull it off as casually as him in social settings such as these. The thought of her business, how her employees were going to rock up to work tomorrow with no her there to run it, made her stomach clench in anxiety. She knew there was nothing she could do about it, but she wished there was.

The two tieflings brushed past her as she was wishing for a mobile phone, satellite coverage between spheres & the ability to text in sick, when Lae’zels sibilant voice rang out, demanding to be let down.

Automatically, Belle called out.

“A simple please goes a long way.”

Everyone turned and looked at her.

“What?” she shrugged. “Miss Manners count sometimes.”

They glanced at each other, then back at Lae’zel. With his back turned to her, she missed the lip hook Astarion sported at the thought of telling the gith to watch her manners.

Gus & Gale both managed to help Lae’zel down from the cage without simply opening the bottom of it & dumping her arse out of it. Belle wandered over, nodding at the gith through the introductions. She liked Lae’zel, but the woman took work to warm up to anyone. They all did, which was fair, because, as of right now, they were all just a bunch of strangers thrown together by the weirdest of circ*mstances. Vowing to keep that front & centre of her mind so her own bitchy judginess was somewhat contained, she motioned her dad to head down toward the ruins by the beach.

Herding them all seemed to come naturally to her dad. She could see him becoming the papa bear of them all. Maybe that burden could ease for him when Halsin (she tried not to drool & mainly succeeded) joined them later. She was now kicking herself for not getting around to the bear in the woods scene. If she ever got back, she promised herself it would be one of the first things she did.

‘Why not try the real thing?’, her personal horny devil whispered from her shoulder.

‘Because that’s technically illegal,’ she told it right back.

‘Only on Earth … hehehe’

Kicking the sick motherf*cker off her shoulder, she concentrated (again), on her surroundings.

“There’s bandits in the ruins,” she informed her dad. Quickly filling him in, it then struck her that she was fulfilling the role as the groups’ Hermoine Granger. Fine with her, as maybe that meant they could skip some of those mind numbing side quests going on.

For instance, Mayrina had volunteered herself to Auntie Ethel, so would it matter if they just … left her there? Did they really need to uncover the secret Shadow Druid plot? She didn’t think so. Plus, she knew the time constraints surrounding ceremorphoses had been suspended within the game, allowing & encouraging world exploration, but did that in fact now apply to this situation? She’d been horrified to learn that the point of no return was a single hour, which they’d already well & truly exceeded. No, for the sake of expediency, they needed to race through the acts like someone had lit a firecracker under their arses.

She had a feeling she shouldn’t tell Gus about that, either. He’d always been a ‘stop & help your fellow man’ type, whereas she’d been more the ‘help thyself to help others.’ This was a case of ‘help thyself’ if ever she’d come across it.

Gus talked the bandits out of attacking, citing monsters as the reason they should leave. Quickly.

While the others explored the area, she headed down to the locked door, rapping on it loudly & clearing her throat.

“That you, Gimblebock?” a rough male voice asked through the door.

“Quick, Gimblebock triggered a trap, he’s hurt, he needs help!” she said in her best panicky voice. Considering it immediately after, she felt it needed work, but it seemed to do the trick, as the idiot inside unlocked the door & waited for them to enter.

She jumped a mile when Astarion murmured right beside her ear.

“Smooth work.”

She whirled, punching him in the shoulder. And then pretended she just did not feel those muscles beneath his lightly padded armour.

“Don’t f*cking creep up on someone like that!” she breathily yelled at him & slunk off when he grinned at her.

“Doors open,” she thumbed behind her when Gus came running at her squeaky yell. She sat down outside, knees drawn up while listening to the fight going on inside. Gus had explained her sitting out as she had no fighting experience. Which was the truth. But then he’d said ‘none, nada, zip, zilch etc.’ Way to go rubbing in how bloody completely useless she was. And for how long they were taking, they must be now also exploring those rooms inside. Without her.

“f*ck this sh*t,” she muttered, grabbing up the small backpack she’d found, stuffing her pyjamas in & strapping it to her back along with the (please god do not have any bedbugs inside it) bedroll.

Grabbing her daggers, she entered the doorway, which plunged her into immediate darkness. Closing the door behind her with a foot, she gave herself a minute to adjust to the near pitch black surrounding her. It might have been more than a minute. 40 year old eyes weren’t as good as 20 year old eyes. Stepping forward, she slipped, only just catching herself before tumbling arse over head down the couple of stairs leading into the room beyond. Looking down, she saw a big, wet patch of black liquid. Only, in a certain light, it looked more red than black.

Oh, oh f*ckin sh*t. Blood.

“Ewww” she whimpered, biting her lower lip in disgust.

Grabbing hold of the small banister, she eased her way down, sliding her bare feet over the crumbly stairs to try and clean them off. Her eyes fell on the dead bandit, who had a nice pair of boots on. At least he was at the bottom of the stairs, meaning she didn’t have to wade back through the mess.

She squatted, picked up a dead heavy foot, then awkwardly measured it against her own. It seemed to be right, so she yanked it off, falling backwards as it slipped free. Not stopping, she peeled the other off too. Looking now at her feet, she ripped off some of the bandits shirt, cleaning off the gunk on her feet & prayed to the god of hygiene that no fungal anything's lurked within the boots.

Slipping them on, they fit her feet pretty well but felt tight around her calves. Did they not have a standard clothing size system here? Standing, she stomped to get her feet settled, then, looking around the room, found a torch, lit it from one of the smoking candelabras & set forth into the hopefully already cleared out dungeon.

Following the trail of dead bodies, she soon came across the would be saviours of Faerun, running around & yelling at a bunch of skeletons. Skeletons had always been a bit of a question mark for her. Reanimated corpses. Yeah, right. They were nothing but bone held together with tendons that dried up over time. Remembering one of the Scary Movies she'd seen years previous, she really thought that the character, Brenda, had the right of it in not being scared of them.

She threw her torch at the closest one to her, gaining it’s attention. She wasn’t scared at all as it swung around to hiss at her, like a pissed off cat. It sprinted for her & as she readied her daggers, it dropped suddenly less than two paces from her, as if it’s invisible strings had been cut. Well. That was a bit of a let down. Damn thing sh*t its pants before she could even get to rearrange it. She looked up to see the others taking down the last one left standing.

“Belle!” Trust him to see her before anyone else. But it was nice to have someone on the constant lookout for you.

“Hey, this one was just cactus. What happened?” she kicked at the pile of bones before her.

“Oh, yeah, that happens with me, too,” Gus replied. “I think it’s to do with our being from Earth –“

“Oh, there’s nothing at all ominous about the huge sarcophagus just sitting here, undisturbed” Astarion’s voice drifted out from the concealed area behind Jergals statue.

“For f*ck sake, don’t leave him alone, he’s probably already looted all the good stuff” Belle swept by Gus, rubbing her forehead.

Everyone crowded into the tiny room, reminding Belle of being squished into a little elevator. She just hoped no one farted. Gus & Gale both did the honours of releasing Withers from his tomb, &, wow, watching a desiccated corpse just float around was something else. She kept looking for the little wires that might have held him up. Withers addressed himself to Gus as if none of the rest of them existed. Still, when asked about the cost of a human life, she piped up.

“Tree-fiddy.”

Why did everyone look at her every time she opened her mouth?

“Done.”

Wait, what?

“Huh?” he seriously didn’t’ just accept that, did he?

“I shall meet you all at the appointed time …” he didn’t even finish his sentence before just walking out the door. Just like that.

The raised eyebrows pointed in her direction caused her to pipe up.

“I just saved you all a sh*t tonne of gold, you should be thanking me!”

Everyone pretended Withers wasn’t walking around & muttering to himself as they just raided his lair. Gale found the accounting ledger of the gods, which just popped open when Gus went near it. She was beginning to understand what he’d meant to being a magic nullifier having it’s perks. Her eyes slid to the dead skellies. Slid over to Withers. Her evil chipmunk brain wondered .. but no. Gus had been near him, & he was still alive & kicking… well, kicking… shuffling…an image presented itself of Withers needing a walking frame. Or a gopher.

There was one last room to clear, the one with all the traps unnecessarily placed all together just to hammer home the tutorial.

“I think Astarion should have the honours of disarming those traps. He has such delicate looking fingers, great for such… dexterous work… “ she battered her eyelashes at him, tossing him the trap disarm kit she’d found earlier.

He caught it, eyes flicking briefly to Gus before he replied.

“Oh, it’s absolutely my … pleasure.” He matched her tone.

Later, when he’d finished (it took ages, she didn’t know trap disarming wasn’t just a quick little minute thing & its done, the game lied!), he made sure to swing by her when Gus was busy with the others chatting about setting up camp in the ruins for the night.

“I had no idea you had such an eye for detail. Let me enlighten you; trap disarming is not the only thing dextrous fingers get up to.” And off he sauntered, as if he hadn’t just said the filthiest thing she’d heard personally in years. Oooo, he was trouble! But that part of her, that evil little part that thrived on mischief, that cheeky part that had lain dormant for too long, used her lips to smile. Game on, motherf*cker, it said.

Chapter 2: Faerun needs a Richard Branson

Chapter Text

They all retreated to Wither’s antechamber, where he could still be heard, muttering to himself somewhere off in a dark corner. She felt kinda sorry for him. Poor old guy needed to take his meds & go to bed.

“We’re all just going to ignore the mummy, then?” Astarion commented at large, his head fixed unnervingly on the dry, dusty ramblings.

“He seems harmless” Gus said quietly, concentrating on building a small fire out of whatever material he was scraping together in the tomb. Turns out, you could use bones as fire material, provided they were dry enough, which those of the fallen skellies appeared to be.

Astarion stared at the corner Withers was addressing for a while more before shaking himself, resolutely turning his back on him. Belle had watched this from the corner of her eye. She made a note to self: Astarion is freaked out by mummies.

She’d managed to unfurl her bedroll with little trouble; it was like an old-time sleeping bag, with natural materials & buckles instead of nylon threads & zippers.

“I’ll help you roll it up again in the morning; I remember you having trouble doing that when you were younger,” Gus smiled at her & she smiled back her appreciation of the offer. She hadn’t been camping since before his disappearance and would probably need the help.

There turned out to be very little in the way of food items to chow down on that night, just some dried, spicy salami looking meat (gross, she hated both spice & salami) & hard, crumbly cheese (even grosser). She decided to forgo eating & had a couple of cups of wine instead. It was dry & tasted, ugh, she shuddered, just like vinegar. She glanced at Astarion at the comparison, wondering if perhaps he was a connoisseur of fine liquor instead of an imbiber of wine.

It didn’t jibe at all with her that vampires here could drink alcohol as well as blood. She was an old time Anne Rice fan & that woman’s description of vampires had forever sealed their constitution in stone for her. It should have been impossible for Astarion to consume anything but blood, but, ‘reasons.’

“Before we turn in, I was thinking that we all might benefit from learning a bit more about each other, just in case we find ourselves in each other’s company longer than anticipated.” Gus had sat down around the fire, inviting the rest to follow. Gale sat cross-legged beside him eagerly enough, but the three more evil aligned of the group appeared much less inclined to do so.

“I’ll start. My names’ Gustave, Gus for short. I’m a ranger, bounty hunter. Lived around the Sword Coast for the last 20 years. You should all know that I have an odd ability where I can’t use magic. Nor can magic touch me, so if I’m injured, you’ll need good old triage to fix me up. This young lady here is my long-lost daughter recently reunited, Belle. She also seems to be immune to magic.”

“Oh, I think I’ve heard of you. Didn’t you show up in Waterdeep years ago, seeking help with that condition? Yes, yes, I remember, all sorts of magic users showed up to test your claims.” Gale’s face lit up with remembrance. “If you don’t mind, I’d very much like to have a crack at that immunity myself.”

“Go to town,” Gus said.

“Thanks. Well, my name’s Gale, of Waterdeep.” He bowed from his waist. “I have a … condition … where I’ve had to sequester myself away from socialising in the last year or so. Nothing catching, I assure you,” he quickly added as Astarion & Shadowheart both leant away from him. “I’m just apologizing in advance if I come across as … eager … when chatting with any of you.”

Awww, he was just shoooo cuuuute!

“Shadowheart. I’m on a mission for my order. I need to get back to Baldur’s Gate as soon as possible.”

Everyone waited for more, but she’d clamped her jaws shut.

“Lae’zel, of Creche K’lirr. We need to get rid of these parasites as soon as possible. My people have a means of extracting them. We need to focus on finding a nearby creche. After that, we can all go our separate ways.”

Nice.

“Oh, what’s there to tell? I’m a magistrate back in the Gate. It’s all very tedious,” he looked at his fingernails with boredom as he delivered his little lie. She wondered then if he remembered being a magistrate, of if he just knew because Cazador had told him. Her brain wanted to dive down that big ol rabbit hole again, but it was her turn to introduce herself.

“Belle. Like dad here, not native to Toril. I don’t even know how the Mind Flayers made it out so far as Earth, to be honest, being shielded as it is away from the other Realms, so I’m guessing wormhole? Maybe? And Lae’zels’ right, we need to get rid of the tadpoles asap, we’re already way past the point of no return, which suggests these tadpoles are different from normal ones, but who knows how much time’s left before we all sprout tentacles – “

Gus cleared his throat. She snapped her mouth shut. Information overload & oversharing, all bundled up into one big bag of ‘oh she really is insane’ looks from the others.

She sat up primly, sipped at her vinegar & stared at the fire.

“On that note, I suggest we all get some rest. Does anyone want to volunteer for first shift on watch?”

Astarion volunteered, not at all to her surprise. She knew he was starving. Not much she could do about it, seeing as though healing potions didn’t work on her. If they did, she would have volunteered her blood. He may be on her sh*t-list, but she didn’t want him hungry; she knew what that felt like.

She’d carefully checked the bedroll earlier, even asking Gus if there was any way to tell if there was an infestation. He’d double checked for her, assuring her it was fine. She wanted to get changed into her pyjamas, wanted to peel off the boots to make herself more comfortable. But a tiny part of her brain suggested that, if she needed to get up in a hurry in the night, it’d be better if she were already dressed & not too deeply asleep. She thought of this voice as Gus’, as its advice was always logical. It only spoke up rarely, so she heeded it when it did.

Grabbing the backpack stuffed with her p.j’s, she used that as a makeshift pillow. It was uncomfortable, but she knew she now had to get used to it. Plus, even if she didn’t, a few sleepless nights would eventually result in her passing out from exhaustion soon anyway.

The bedroll was surprisingly thick underneath her, to the point she doubted she’d feel little stones or pebbles poking through from the underside.

Gus was near her & listening to his deep, even breaths (what was it with men that, as soon as their heads hit the pillow, they fell asleep?), she felt an odd emotion bubbling up. She wanted to cry at that indelible sense of his presence; him taking up space had a feeling; one she’d missed back on Earth.

‘Go to his grave, you’ll feel him there,’ so many people had told her. She had, closing her eyes & trying to sense something, anything. But there had been nothing there. That missing sense was now back, right there, she could feel him for the first time in forever.

The tears pricked her eyes & she pressed her hands into them. She’d cry later, when & if she had time, on her own, where she wouldn’t embarrass herself in front of these emotionally stunted barbarians.
She was still awake when Astarion quietly woke Lae’zel for the next shift. She estimated four hours had passed. She’d heard him wander off there for a bit & felt a tiny bit sorry for him, knowing there were only rats in here (besides them), for him to eat.

Lae’zel took her duties seriously. She really did admire the woman. Maybe she’d be willing to teach Belle how to use an actual weapon. She pictured herself swinging a sword around, something like Beatrice out of Kill Bill. That’d be cool. The sad reality was, she’d probably skewer herself before any enemies.

About three in the morning, her bladder let her know it had held on long enough & needed to go, now. Only, that presented a dilemma. f*ck, just even going to the toilet here was worth more trouble than it should be. No toilet paper, no flushing toilets, no sewage system (out here at least). Where the f*ck was she meant to go that not only wouldn’t be heard by everyone, but that she could steer everyone away from on their way out just in case they caught the smell?

She thought it through quickly. Getting out of bed, she found one of the skellies nearby, ripped off it’s decaying fabric robe & toddled off about three rooms away. Choosing a corner where no one was likely to go near, she dropped her pants (getting some underwear would be nice), squatted awkwardly while holding onto the stone wall, and let it rip. Grunting as she hauled herself back up, she wiped herself with the skelly rags & made sure she hadn’t splattered on the boots. Last thing she wanted was to have that smell following her around.

Trotting back & feeling much better, she met Lae’zels eye. The gith lifted her chin at her, before resuming her watch, mainly of Withers, who had taken up just standing there & staring, near the edge of the camp, still as a statue. He had a lights on but no one’s home look about him. She imagined that Jergal had other places to be, not just baby sitting this bunch of misfits, & he’d currently vacated the building to check on his other business. She was tempted to walk up to him & wave a hand right in his face, but thought she should get some rest, even if she couldn’t sleep.

Laying down on her other side gave her the view of Astarion in his zen position, fingers curled to touch thumbs. His head full of curls was nearest to her. She could just reach out & mess those curls up while he was zoning…. but she knew damned well at this stage he’d know it was her. His retribution could be … scary.

Curling her fingers into a fist to fight the urge, she forcefully closed her eyes. Maybe they’d have to end up tying her up to stop her from messing with everyone.

The next thing she knew was that she was being shaken gently awake.

“Belle, time to rise & shine.”

“…. just gimme a minnn….”

Gus turned from her to answer someone’s question.

“She was never a morning person.”

Pulling the backpack over her head didn’t work. Everyone made too much noise, being so inconsiderate of her trying to sleep!

“f*ck” she snarled, yanking it finally off her head so she could crawl blearily into a cross legged sitting position. She was immediately presented with a mug of steaming black water that smelled somewhat of tea.

“No milk, unfortunately. Or sugar. But it’ll wake you up.” She snatched the mug, inhaling the steam, kicking at her brain to wake it up.

“What a wonderful morning! All that sunlight just streaming through the wall right there, makes one feel alive!” Astarion was stretching & grinning like a cheshire cat. At her.

What an asshat.

“Then go & enjoy it. Just don’t go getting sunburned. You’re awfully … pasty.” She gave him a great big ol smile right back.

“Speaking of pasty, those eyebags are quite prominent this morning. Did someone not get enough sleep?”

How dare he! She’d invested a lot of money over the years on her skin through her business!

“Quit it. No one’s interested in you two bickering. Finish up, Belle, we’ve gotta move out.”

She wanted to throw the dregs of her tea in his smarmy face. Eyebags, her arse!

They all waited on her, Gus helping to chivvy her along. Heading out, she turned her head to find Withers just drifting along behind them. Was that how it worked? He just followed them around like a balloon bobbing along behind them on a string? She dropped back to see if she could get anything out of the old god but wasn’t going to hold her breath.

“What’s up?” she greeted him. He turned his head to look down at her. It felt like actual weight settled on her at his gaze.

“Um, you know I know … everything, yeah? So, uh, I guess I’m after the how & the why.”

“Once thou learnst how to keep thine tongue to thyself, then mayest I speak freely.”

Oh. Ouch.

“Not my fault my man. You know it’s an actual, diagnosable condition back on Earth?”

“I’m aware. For now, find solace in reuniting with thine father.”

“Okayyy, will do,” she snapped off a salute at him, putting on some speed to get away from him. She wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than she’d expected.

“What’d the mummy have to say?” Astarion whispered as she went to pass him, cutting his eyes back at Withers.

“Go ask him yourself” she shot him a bright smile, dropping it the minute she was past him.

“Fully awake, now?” Gus asked her as she caught up with him, a twinkle in his eye as he greeted her.

“No. Why hasn’t someone come up with fast food chains here?”

“Missing the carbs already, huh?”

“Coffee. Sugar. Chocolate. Convenience.”

“I know. It’s a lot to get used to. They do have those things, the sugar & whatnot. But not much outside the larger cities.”

“Is there any improvement in construction, or innovation? Or is it stagnant?”

“Belle” he knew exactly where her mind was going. “You can’t just come in & become the next Richard Branson of Faerun.”

“But the money, dad, the moneyyyyy! It'd be soooo easy, they have nothing!"

He hesitated. “Well, maybe if we get through this, we can think of something.”

She grinned. Excellent.

“Don’t you want to get back to Earth, though?”

“Well, I suppose, I do have responsibilities….”

“…. Is mum still ….”

“Yeah. She’s fine, dad. Remarried.”

“…. oh….well….I suppose I was technically never coming back, so ….”

“She still loves you. We both did. Do. God, this is confusing.”

He smiled gently. “I love you both too. Always did.”

She wasn’t going to cry, so she changed the topic.

“Up ahead, there’s a druid grove. They’ll be goblins.” She lowered her voice so it wouldn’t carry. f*ck Withers, she could be discreet when needed.

“How many?”

He dropped his voice too.

“Dunno. Less than 10, I think. There’s a worg & a bugbear with them.”

He nodded, halting the others. He explained how there could be trouble ahead, he’d seen some recent tracks. Then volunteered Astarion to head out with him to go scout out the sitch. The rouge whined about it, but followed, head down, looking like a cat with its ears flat & tail swishing.

“So, Gale. Wizard. Waterdeep. What’s the city like?”

“Oh, it’s wonderful. A fantastic melting pot - “ he subjected them all to a travellers guide version for the next 15 minutes.

Shadowheart feigned interest, but Belle saw when her eyes glazed over. Lae’zel, on the other hand, seemed genuinely interested, stopping Gale frequently to ask more questions. Hmmm, she briefly wondered if Gale could physically handle the gith if she sicked her on him.

Gus & Astraion appeared shortly after, reporting there was an ambush being organised & that they needed to be ready for trouble. Belle was, once again, left out of the actual fighting, on dad’s orders. That was it, she’d approach Lae’zel that night to start her ninja lessons.

He left her a good five minutes out of the way of the fighting. Said he’d send one of them to collect her when they were done. She gave him a stiff hug, conveying what she felt about it all.

She didn’t have time to scratch herself when Shadowheart wandered back to get her.

“That was quick” she said, surprised.

“It was a skirmish, nothing more. No one got killed.”

“No injuries?”

“Gale got hit in the leg with an arrow, but he’s fine now.”

Man, healing would be so handy!

Shadowheart didn’t bother with small talk on the way back, answering any of Belle’s questions as abruptly as she could.

The blood was everywhere, soaking into the ground while the bodies were being moved out of the way by some tieflings. Nice to see the druids giving two sh*ts about their own front entrance. Sidestepping the liquid, they headed in under the gated bridge. The heavy stones above weighed in heavily above her, & she consciously relaxed her shoulders, telling herself they weren’t about to fall on top of her.

The sounds of men yelling at each other made Shadowheart run off. Belle kept her own pace, knowing what was going on. She didn’t expect to see her dad in the middle of the two, however, fist in each of their shirts, telling them to calm the farm. It was kinda heroic to see it.

He tossed each of them apart, hands still held out to stop them again if necessary. She wanted to applaud.

She listened with half an ear as they got the save the tieflings quest. Gus, naturally, agreed to help them immediately, earning him Astarion’s bitchy little comment of being merely messengers.

“Dad, can I have some money?” she asked him when he finished up.

He blinked, then snorted.

“I haven’t heard that in years.”

“Yeah, same reasons, too. I need clothes. And basic necessities. And food.” She shrugged, sorry not sorry.

He was already digging into the pouch tied to the inside of his belt. He tossed it to her.

“Try & haggle. Don’t just accept what they ask.”

“Gotcha. Thanks. You’ll wanna head down that way.” She pointed down past the little halfling trader.

“Right. Meet back here in about two hours.”

She waved, heading down toward the other area where she could get some food & hopefully sanitary hygiene products from Ethel. She assumed that the hag sold soaps & beauty products alongside her potions. She’d much prefer dealing with her anyway than the obnoxious halfling.

Shadowheart & Gale followed Gus like little baby ducks, Lae’zel behind them, not so much following as carving her own path that happened to coincide with theirs.

Astarion was looking between the two paths, head swinging back & forth. Belle hoped he’d follow Gus; she was still salty about the eyebag comment.

Dismissing him, she followed the path down & around, soaking in the atmosphere. The closest she could compare it to would be an area set up in a theme park, like Diagon Alley. But she knew that if she pulled doors open here, there’d be more to find than just fibre glass sprayed on behind the doors, spoiling the illusion.

The smell of cooking stew wafted over to her, & she drifted over like Withers to where the little old tiefling lady was stirring away in a big ass cauldron.

“Here you go lass, get that into you,” she was greeted straight away with a bowl thrust at her. It smelled earthy & meaty & divine.

She burnt the top of her mouth on the first go but didn’t blow on it too long before she was gobbling it up, also burning her tongue.

“That was fantastic, thank you so much. Do you require payment?”

“No lass, everyone who’s hungry can have a portion. Just glad you liked it” she gave the warmest granny smile!

“Well now, isn’t’ that interesting! I haven’t seen one of your sort for the longest time now!” the higher pitched voice of Ethel grabbed her attention as the hag addressed her. Belle stepped over to her.

“You know I’m a …. tourist?”

“Of course I do sweetie, your aura’s all different. Unique. There's nothing else like it. The only thing spoiling it is that little bugger you got in your brain juices.”

Ethel had pitched her voice low, but it still seemed shrill.

“I can take care of it for you, for a price.”

“Nah, you can’t.” Belle leant forward into the sour sweat smell emanating from the woman. She tried & mostly succeeded in not gagging.

“It’s been touched by netherese magic.” She whispered.

Ethel recoiled instantly, like she’d smelled sh*t on Belle’s breath.

“Oh, oh no. No, no I can’t do anything. However, you seem very informed for someone from a backward little mudball. No offense sweetums.”

“None taken, I think.”

“You know, I may not be able to help with that head problem, but, if you survive, you can always come back & see me. I’ve helped a couple of your kind return before. For a price.”

Belle’s little evil chipmunk brain took over. Her smile widened, showing all her teeth. She leant further into Ethels stink.

“How about I let you keep Mayrina’s baby in exchange for your help getting me back to Earth?”

Chapter 3: Wyll is a Nice Boy

Chapter Text

Later in the afternoon, everyone reconvened after their variously scheduled grove activities. Gus herded them outside the confines, stating that tensions were too high for them to camp there safely. Picking a likely spot about 10 minutes out, he quickly issued orders to the group, giving this person that duty & that person this duty. Belle ended up as some sort of quarter master, in charge of camp supplies; everything from the food to the equipment, & even the gold. That was fine by her; good, in fact, as she was used to managing things like that. It was something she could do.

She noted the new addition to their party, one Blade of Frontiers.

Once the camp had been set up to her father’s standards, he’d motioned her over to Wyll.

“Wyll, my boy, this is my daughter, Belle.”

Wyll’s eyes lit up. He gave her a deep bow.

“My pleasure, my lady. Gus has told me much about you over the years.”

Huh, lady. Huh, his pleasure. Clearly Gus had embellished a bit.

“You know each other?” that was interesting, though not out of the realm of possibility.

“We’ve travelled together before, yes. Wyll was just a baby when I first met him.” Was that something akin to fatherly pride she saw flash in his eyes? She wasn’t jealous; in fact, she was delighted. Belle was an only child, & her dad had always wanted a boy. Good for him finding that with the heroic Blade.

“Eighteen is not a baby, old man” Wyll shot back good naturedly.

“Everyone below my age is a baby.”

“How old are you now, Wyll?” Belle asked. She couldn’t remember; either she’d forgotten or not looked it up in the first place.

“Twenty-four.”

“Still a baby then.” That scrapped Wyll of her list of possibilities. There was being a cougar, then there was babysitting.

“The way Gus here implied, I thought you’d be … uh … more mature.”

She grinned.

“Nice save.”

He smiled.

“I try. But seriously, not to pry, but ….”

“No, Gus is right. I’m nearly double your age.”

Wyll nodded thoughtfully.

“Earth mustn’t be as harsh as Toril, then.”

Awww, a compliment!

“Dad told you about Earth?" It’d be nice to not have to beat around the bush with everyone about where she was from.

“Wouldn’t shut up about it. I think I may be an expert in it.”

Belle laughed. Wyll might be off the table, but there wasn’t anything wrong with being friends with him.

After their chatty introduction, Gus once more pulled her aside.

“Catching up with my daughter after all these years.” He threw out to the group at large, giving her a one-armed hug & hauling her away.

“That’s not …” she began.

“Shhh.” He’d put a finger to his lips. “Tell me about what you’ve been up to since I saw you last.”

That hard knot was suddenly there again, working its way quickly up her throat. So many things had happened she’d wished he’d been there for; walking her down the aisle; seeing her start a somewhat successful small business; & little things, like the first Aurora Australis she’d ever seen. Would she have chosen her ex had Gus been there? It was only hindsight that showed how wildly incompatible they’d turned out to be; would his insight have saved her 20 years of misery?

“Oh pet, I’m so sorry to have not been there. I really wish I could have been. It’s no consolation, but there’s not a day that's gone by where I haven’t thought of you both.”

She twirled her finger at him, that knot so huge it was strangling her. She needed the topic changed.

Gus cleared his throat, wiped at his own eyes briefly. Pausing, he closed his eyes, co*cked his head, & waited. She took that brief pause to study his aged features. Haggard, but otherwise in good health. She looked to his beard, her fingers suddenly itching to grab a pair of scissors & give it a good trim. There should come a night with nothing else to do in camp; she could give them all trims if they wanted.

“Good, no one followed. Some of them have long hearing, if you get my drift,” he hooked a thumb back at camp. Belle snorted. One of them had supersonic hearing. In fact, she plucked his sleeve.

“We should keep walking. Just in case.”

They ambled through the woods, just like they’d done on weekends before she’d hit the age of ten, Gus pointing out the native vegetation that could come in handy in case of wound or infection.

“This should be far enough. Now. There’s a lot going on at that grove. Power struggles & hatred make for a volatile mix. Normally, I wouldn’t get involved (that was surprising to hear), but considering this is a …. um … something that has already happened that you know about, I thought some consultation would come in mighty handy right about now.”

She nodded her agreement.

“There’s just so much going on here, dad. Like, I’m up to over 400 hours in playing the game & still discovering stuff. But I’m pretty sure, for the sake of getting these things out of our heads, we need to uh, ignore the … help …. some people ask for. A lot of it is just to up experience or for some sort of reward.” God this was hard; Gus had never liked games, never understood the appeal or the mechanics, being a hands on outside woodsy person all his life. She needed to simplify.

“We need to focus on getting rid of the parasites. In game we’re given time to explore everything. I’m worried that, this being … real … we may not be afforded that luxury.”

Gus was still, fingering his chin, eyes narrowed.

“You’re saying we can’t help everyone who needs it.”

She shuffled her feet.

“Yeah. You seemed to know about Mind Flayers. Picked it up somewhere I’m guessing. But we should already be changed by now.”

“You know what makes these critters different to the average kind?”

“Of course I do. I could trace you a big red arrow to exactly where we must go to get this fixed. What you have to know, though, is it’s going to be really, really difficult to get the job done. Those misfits of misfortune back there are going to be central to helping. We just have to get them working together on the same page.”

“A team.”

She nodded. She'd done a good run & an evil run. The evil run had left her feeling disturbed. It wasn't in her to be like that naturally. So, she wanted to aim for the good endings. And if anyone could do that, it was him. He … inspired people to do their best. His solidarity, encouragement & logistics had been a cornerstone of her growing up. Pity it hadn’t rubbed off on her so much, but she appreciated it in him.

“Well, I suppose that leaves us with: what do we do next?”

“What did you find out?”

“That we need to rescue an Archdruid, Halsin. I’ve heard of him, but never had the pleasure of meeting him.”

“Me neither.” She sighed. All those muscles. Gus snapped a thumb & finger in her face.

“Belle! Regin it in! You know they don’t’ have safe condoms or morning after pills or anything like that here, yes?”

“Oh my god, dad, I’m 40, not 17! I know how to look & not touch!” What he said made sense. They probably had magical equivalents, but magic went bye-bye around her & him.

“That’s as may be, but you’re still my daughter & I will not have you making eyes at the first random guy that just comes along. It’s called a rebound, & it’ll just hurt the both of you.”

Being fathered for the first time in so long felt … just plain weird. She felt it didn’t sit quite as comfortable with her as she thought it might have. And she hated being chided.

“Fine.” She grated through her teeth. She’d just have to do it where he couldn’t see.

He peered at her closer for a moment. He didn’t look satisfied, but what else could he do at that point?

“Back to topic, then.” He straightened.

“Alright. We go pick up Halsin. He’ll give us the next piece of the puzzle. We follow that. We should check in at the end of every day. I can fill in all the missing pieces & you can work on getting everyone pointed in the right direction.”

“What about this creche the gith keeps insisting upon?”

“It’s a red herring. That thing she’s talking about kills its victims. There’s no cure other than ordering the elder brain to kill its babies.”

“There’s an elder brain involved?” He’d gone pale, rocked back on his feet.

“Um… didn’t I say that? And it’s being controlled, sorta, by the Dead Three?”

His mouth dropped open. Sooo, he had heard of them. And she hadn’t told him yet. Ooops.

“Aaaaand, there’s a Netherese crown involved that’s mutated our little taddies?”

“What the f*ck have we stumbled into?” he rubbed his face. She didn’t like how much colour he’d lost.

“Dad, it’s fine. I’m like a counterweight to that, because I know everything they have planned. Just thank your lucky stars there’s no big white dragon-born with amnesia lurking about.”

He fell on his bum.

“Dad? You ok?” she knelt beside him.

“What’s wrong with the dragon-born?” he wheezed. Belles’ blood dropped ten degrees.

“What dragon-born, dad? I haven’t seen one!” No, she’d chatted all polite like with Ethel, bagging a deal to return to Earth along with soaps & other hygiene products that the hag really should utilize on herself, before going to observe (perv) on Dammon for a while. She hadn’t gone anywhere near the inner grove, because, frankly, the place bored her to tears. There had been no big hulking lizard in any of that.

“We found him back at the grove. Nettie the healer was with him. I promised him we’d pick him up tomorrow before setting out again, because he’s also infected.”

Oh lordy oh sh*t they were in deep do-do now.

Chapter 4: Washing my Pits

Chapter Text

Her father, good man that he was, after hearing what she had to tell him of the Bhaalspawn, took it in stride & still insisted that they try to help him. Their chat lasted until just after sundown as she had also decided to also inform him that Astarion was a vampire spawn, seeing as he was so amicable of Durge. They quickly sketched out how to deal with the two. Personally, she was scared sh*tless of Durge, & therefore insisted her dad could deal with him. With lots of rope at nighttime. And maybe Gale could reinforce it with an all-powerful hold person.

Apparently, Gus was happy with that arrangement, as he’d had dealings with vampire spawn in the past & had a bit of an attitude about them. He’d been somewhat surprised to discover just how much they were controlled by their masters; most people apparently weren’t aware that spawn were just puppets, their actions carefully controlled, & also that, given a chance, weren’t total monsters. No wonder Astarion had kept correcting the difference in people about ‘spawn’ & ‘master.’

“We’ll have to nut out more tomorrow night, but, for now, we’ll make our way to this goblin camp.”

Gale already had dinner on, & the smell punched her in the gut. It was simple fare made of simple provisions, but a hell of a step up from spicy meat & hard cheese.

She helped him dish it up & divvy it out to people. Even took a plate over to Astarion, who took it with his nose in the air, but appearances had to be maintained, for now. She leant down.
“If you don’t want it you don’t have to eat it. Just tip it out behind your tent.”

His eyes followed her as she straightened, &, for once, he didn’t say anything.

After everyone finished dinner, she helped Gale clean everything up & pack it away back in the trunk. With no dish washing liquid handy, this was achieved by having everything rinsed in a big tub & scrubbed out with salt. Barring salt, she’d been told to use sand. Good lord, she was gonna come down with a case of the Faerun Farts before long. Maybe she should have grabbed more soap from Ethel for the dishes; at least it would appease that voice in her head if she saw suds.

Everyone gathered round the fire again at Gus’s call. She felt like breaking out a ukelele & singing ‘kumbaya.’ Not that she was a bard. Oh, yeah, Alfira. She’d have to keep an eye out for the poor thing over the next few nights.

“So” her dad clapped his hands. “What we’ve discovered is that our best chance for now is to find the druid, Halsin.”

Wyll, unspoken, laid out a map of the area. What an organised person he was!

“Last report was that he got taken by the goblins who’re holed up here.” Wyll pointed it out on the map while several others leant over to see. “It’s several days walk from here.”

“We should be heading for the creche – “

God the woman was like a terrier with a bone.

“We will, once we’ve rescued the druid.” Gus smoothly cut her off.

“I heard there was a wise woman near here who might be able to help.” Shadowheart piped up.

“No, no, we shan’t be bothering her” Belle gave a high-pitched sound in the approximation of a laugh, flapping away Shadowheart’s suggestion.

“Why not? Any port in a storm, I say.”

“And I say I’ve already exhausted that option. Wise woman’s a no go.” Especially if she wanted Ethel to keep her side of the bargain later.

“Alright. Fine. Forget I said anything.” She leant back, shadows seeming to cloak her in her sulkiness. f*cking emo. The sooner she could Selunite Shart, the better.

“If we make a beeline through this abandoned village, it’s about a six-day round trip.” Gus was calculating the distance on the map. “Belle, do we need more supplies?”

“Yeah, mainly food. And what passes for wine here. I think we’re fine otherwise.”

“We’ll organise that at first light, then. There’s another traveller who shares our affliction; I promised him we’d swing by & pick him up tomorrow. A dragon–born, just so you know. He looks like he’d be handy in a fight.”

Gus deliberately avoided Belle’s gaze at this. She was having some major issues with accepting durge into the group. She knew the bloke had his fans, knew that without him, none of this would have happened. Now she had to put her money where her mouth was & trust her dad to take care of the psycho. She consoled herself with knowing she could always plant a dagger in his back if it became necessary. This was, after all, a dog-eat-dog world.

And speaking of, after Gus dismissed them, she made her way over to Lae’zel, who had set up her grindstone already. Where the f*ck had she pulled that thing from, anyway? There was no way she’d had it on her yesterday.

The cool yet harsh metallic sound was ok at first; it was only as it carried on it started to grate on one’s nerves.

“Where’d you get that?” She forgot to address Lae’zel properly, & the gith only glanced up at her, painful retribution etched in her eyes.

“Can I fix your makeup?” she tried a different tact. Lae’zel stopped the pedal, the stone grinding to a halt.

“It is not makeup, istick. It’s battle paint.”

“Oh. Can I pretty it up? You’ve got amazing eyes, & –“

“What do you want? I’m busy.”

“Can you teach me how to swing a sword?”

“No.”

That was quick.

“Why not?”

“It would take a lifetime of dedication to teach you the art of swordsmanship. We gith are taught from the moment we can walk how to hold a practice –“

“I’m not asking for the art to be taught; just how to stab someone with it.”

But it was still disappointing to know she didn’t have time to be taught how to be samauri lady.

“Ask the Blade. His form is more … stabbing … than mine.”

Ohhhh yeah. She hadn’t thought of that.

“Ta. Oh, if you want your hair done, I can do that, too.”

She waggled her fingers at the gith, whose eyes had narrowed to evil slits, before trotting off to try her luck with Wyll.

He readily agreed.

“Yay!” she gave him a hug in her excitement, doing a happy dance as he snorted laughter at her.

“I’ll have to find you a properly weighted short sword, but it shouldn’t take too long before we can start on that.”

“Thanks, Wyll” she toodleooed him & made her way back to her tent, grabbing up her bathing gear to go have a quick wash before jumping into her bedroll.

She headed for the small stream nearby, but not too close to camp, dumping her dry stuff down on a dry rock & peeling off her clothes to get access to her bit’s n pieces.

Hissing as she stepped foot in the stream, a litany of ‘oh sh*t oh f*ck this is f*ckin cold f*ck me’s’ fell from her mouth.

Snatching up the soap & flannel, she quickly splashed herself, soaped up the cloth, washed her crevices, splashed off the suds, & stepped out to dry off quickly before putting on the better clothes she’d purchased earlier that day.

The clothing fit different here, no stretchy material, no zippers, very little buttons. Sat different, too. She kinda liked the outer garment that served as bras here; it sucked in her middle to give the illusion of a waist. Twisting & turning, she thought she looked quite nice in it, all things considered.

Grabbing up her things, she headed back toward camp, passing Astarion who was obviously heading there for the same reason. Thank f*ck she’d finished up when she had, or he’d have copped another eyeful. They nodded at each other brusquely in passing.

Settling in for the night, the sounds & movements of the group slowly died, until everyone bar the one on first watch were settled in. Astarion had, once again, volunteered for the duty. Once again, she was still awake when he disappeared for a bit, & still awake when he returned.

Would durge’s presence set Astarion off so that they’d have two murder hobos feeding off of each other's energy to deal with? She sighed, shifting over onto her side. Of course it would. She drifted off earlier than she had the previous night, but kept waking up at all the little, unfamiliar sounds. Nature sounds. No sounds of traffic, buzz of electricity or distant voices to be heard. It carried weight, she found, listening to it.

Like clockwork, her bladder informed her it was around three in the morning & to empty it. Rolling out of bed, she grabbed up a rag from the ones she’d been hoarding for just such an occasion, crept outside, & headed downwind of camp. Finishing up quickly (the air was frigid, & she wanted to crawl back into the warmth of the bedroll), she quietly made her way back to camp, only to become aware of someone whining. It wasn’t loud, but it was high pitched, like they were having a nightmare.

Stopping, she concentrated on where the sound was coming from. Pinpointing it, it suddenly came to her she should have been expecting it. The question was, did she ignore it, or go & wake him up?

Her goodie two shoes conscience told her that, even if he didn’t appreciate being woken up & told he was having a nightmare, at the very least, it would stop him from having it. In that moment she hated the dichotomy of her brain as she picked her way carefully over to his tent. Unlike the game where everyone’s tent flap was open all the time, here, they had more common sense, & had them closed. She carefully untied the cords holding it shut, & poked her head in just to see if he was still in the throes of that awful nightmare.

He was in that weird zen position, flat on his back, fingers touching. But the look on his face was one of pure terror. Forgetting her reservations, she swiftly entered the tent, kneeling by his head. She placed a hand on his shoulder, this time forgetting to ogle at the hard muscle beneath.

“Astarion,” she whispered, pushing at him gently. His face pulled into a sharper look, twisting away from her.

“Astarion” she tried again, squeezing his shoulder, “wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

“… ungh … no…. leave me al …” His words were broken & agonizing.

“C’mon, bud, wake up … or kick him in the nuts, you can do it …. “ she shook him a bit more firmly, trying to break him free of this unwanted trance.

His panting reached an all time high, & he suddenly sat up, throwing her hand from his shoulder as he gasped, sucking in large lungful’s of air that he in no way needed to survive. He stared at the far wall of his tent, & she gave him a minute to come back to himself.

He then rounded on her, eyes glaring. She’d expected it, of course.

“What are you doing in my tent?” he spat at her.

“You were having a nightmare. I woke you up to stop it. I’ll leave you be, now you are.”

She rose slowly, treating him much like an animal that would lash out at any moment.

He watched her every move as she exited the tent, & she could still feel him glaring through the flap even as she tied it back in place again. She turned & headed back to her own tent, knowing full well she wasn’t likely to drift off now until near dawn, when she’d simply have to get up & start a new day all over again.

Chapter 5: Chivalry isn't dead, it just moved to Faerun

Chapter Text

The voices drifted into her ear canal, all blurring together.

“Someone wake up Belle.” Shadowheart.

“I’m not doing it; did you see her when Gus did it?” Gale.

“I’ll do it...” why did that last one sound awfully gleeful about waking her?

Her tent shook as someone yanked open the ties to the flap. It was fine, if she lay here, they’d leave her alone.

The flap got thrown back. The sunlight streamed onto her face, casting anathema on her.

She squished her eyes shut even tighter, hissing like the Wicked Witch of the West did when exposed to water.

Still fine, no one had said anything directly to her yet.

“Wakey wakey dear, it’s another glorious day, & you’re being so lazy just lying in like that!”

Nope, he wasn’t addressing her.

She turned her head into the stuffed backpack she now used as a pillow. Said backpack was yanked out from under her head, leaving it to ‘thwonk’ hard onto the ground beneath her.

“That’s it, you’re f*cking dead meat!” she growled in a possessed voice, fully intending on putting him back in the ground for good. She sprang out of bed quickly, much to his surprise, & leapt at him, hands held out to throttle him.

He grabbed her wrists, easily restraining her even though she poured all her meagre strength into trying to get at his neck.

“Now now, while I do like this type of early morning greeting, I think it best you pour your energy into just getting through the day, hmmm? Those late nights of yours are wearing on your complexion.”

“Bite me” she snarled at him. She f*cking hated mornings.

“Was that an invitation?… but no. For now, how about you get that brew into you & settle down?”

The high falsetto, cheerful f*cking tone was not enjoyable to wake up to, no matter how many others would argue the point with her. How he managed to wrangle her down onto a log & thrust a cup of tea in her hands she couldn’t track; one minute she was a feral mess, the next she was sipping tea.

“I’m volunteering to wake the beastie up from now on” he announced to the group at large. “That was invigorating.”

“f*ck you, you f*ckin’ smarmy arse f*ckin’ bastard” she told him eloquently. He mimed for her to continue drinking her tea.

After fully waking up (she realised morning Belle was a completely different person to everyday Belle), & brushing her hair & teeth (another little difference was that toothbrushes weren’t used widely either; what they had were hard little sticks with splits in the end where boars bristles were placed, & that was if you were rich; otherwise, most made do with the chewed end of sticks & some bicarb soda; she was gonna be f*ckin Johnson & Johnson rich when this was over!) she secured her smaller travellers pack over her back, flicked Astarion the bird, & started off after the others back toward the grove.

She had an ominous feeling passing back through the entrance again, because they were picking up durge. Ugh, she felt nauseous at the thought. Signalling Gus, she pleaded off going with him to go secure more rations instead.

He nodded his understanding, signalling for Wyll to go with her before moving off to go & collect the dragon born.

Heading back down to where Ethel had her own little stall set up (sans Ethel that morning), she found the little old tiefling lady, out bright & early, handing out breakfast to those in need. It was only porridge, but had dried fruit mixed in with it. Not having had much to eat for brekkie earlier, she accepted a small bowl.

Scoffing it down, she handed it back, then offered twice the amount of gold of what the small portions of food on offer were worth. Stuffing it all into another pack, she swung it over her shoulder.
“No, let me carry it,” Wyll offered, seemingly charmed by her gracious display of forking over gold.

“Oh, well, if you’re offering…” she quickly handed over the pack. No one had offered to do something like that for her in years. She was strangely touched by the gesture.

“Let’s see what the blacksmith has in stock.” He walked her over to Dammon, also up bright & early, before the two fell to discussing what Belle needed. There wasn’t a lot to choose from, but after handing her three different types of short swords & seeing how she hefted them, Wyll settled on a plain pewter looking one. Personally, they’d all felt the same to her, but she’d bow to his superior knowledge in this instance. Dammon turned out to be way too fair in his prices, according to Wyll, which immediately put the blacksmith in the Blades good books.

“I think the others will be ready by now,” he led her back up the short hill toward where he’d just been training kiddies yesterday, while she swung her new sword around, grinning like an idiot.

“Wyll?” she suddenly hung back, eyeing the top of the rise warily, her momentary pleasure at owning a sword disappearing.

“Yes?” he paused, looking back at her. Saw her worry. He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Um, the dragon-born that dads invited to travel with us …. he may be a bit …. unhinged. Head wound. Can you help dad keep an eye on him, just in case?”

“Not a tadpole inflicted head wound, I take it?” he looked mildly concerned.

She bit her lip, shaking her head.

He glanced back up the hill where voices were now drifting down to them.

“Not a worry. Do I need to be discreet?”

“For now. Yes please.”

This man was a gem. Her father’s influence combined with his own upbringing had made a fine, young, (waaaay to young), gentleman.

Offering her his arm (oh my, chivalry, where have you been?) she accepted, & they met the group at the top of the hill.

Durge stood out like a McDonald’s sign, high above the rest of them. He was big. Brawny. Snow white. And looking like he was surrounded by kittens. The look in his eyes was one of … she couldn’t put her finger on it. Like he was … happy … to be surrounded by little people he’d be otherwise delighted to murder. Stabby-stab.

“There they are. Belle, this is uh, well, he can’t remember his name right now. Amnesia.” Gus tapped his head.

“He looks like a Brian.” She replied in greeting. Damn mouth.

Gus looked up, waaaay up, at durge. Mouthed the word. Grinned.

“How’s Brian sound to you?”

Durge narrowed his eyes, obviously testing it out. Shrugged.

“Better than ‘hey you’,” he replied in a low, gravelly voice.

“Brian it is. For now, at least.” Gus clapped him on the forearm, which was nearly level with his head.

Belle couldn’t help but stare at the dragon born as Wyll politely introduced himself. Apart from never having seen one before, his sheer size was … awe inspiring. Fear inducing. Puke provoking? She wasn’t sure she’d gathered enough provisions now just to keep him fed, either. Oh, well, there was gonna be roasted dwarf at the goblin camp; maybe he could chow down there.

“It’s rude to stare,” smarmy pants had sidled up behind her like an unwanted blow fly.

“Jealous I’m not staring at you?”

“Hardly. Just thinking that I now owe you two visual displays of my own. I do hate to be in anyone’s debt.”

Her neck felt like it was on rusty gears as it turned to him. She was met with the smirkiest smirk yet.

“You didn’t...” she sounded like she was speaking through sand.

“Oh, I most certainly did. Not by choice, you understand, but you do seem to be in the habit of undressing whenever I’m around.”

That was it. She was going to sic durge on Astarion. He could be his first victim. She suddenly flashed him a murdery smile, the same one she’d given Ethel. It wiped the smirk clear off his face.

He hurried away from her, glancing back frequently. She kept it pasted on there until he disappeared up behind Gus somewhere.

“I think he likes you.” Wyll noted laconically.

“Astarion only likes Astarion. I’m just entertainment.”

“If he bothers you too much, let me know. It wouldn’t take much to deter him … “

“Oh, he’s not bothering me. He’s pissing me off. There’s a difference.”

Wyll tried figuring that one out but gave it up as a bad job before steering her after the others as they left.

Back at the camp site, it didn’t take ten minutes before Brian came ambling over to her for a chat.

“How can I help?” she asked, channelling Gale.

“Gus said I should ask you about, well, my condition.” He did not look sheepish, she told herself. Bhaalspawn did nothing but think in terms of who would look best covered in the most stab wounds. And, for f*ck’s sake, she leant out way past Brian to peer at her father, who was busy whistling & looking at everything bar her.

Leaning back in, she kept her voice neutral.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on what you’re asking.”

Both of them jumped a mile when Withers bobbed in beside them.

“Some journeys’ are about self-discovery, as is the case here. Forget that she knows anything, for anything from her lips is but dribble.”

“Oh. Um, well, sorry for asking,” & the big lumbering slab of muscle slinked away.

“Did you just tell durge that I have loose lips?” she was not having a good day.

“No.” he lied through his parchment lips.

Ladies & gentlemen, Jergal was a f*cking comedian.

“Are you ready to spill about the Earthling knowing everything?”

“Are thine lips sealed?”

The silence between them grew.

“…no disrespect & all, but you need to go bob off over thattaway…” & she pointed away, far away, from her.

Chapter 6: Survivor: Faerun

Chapter Text

The woodlands were lovely. She concentrated on the nature surrounding her. The wind through the trees; the rustle of the bushes they passed by; the tinkling of the nearby stream as it wove its way over shallow rocks. Sounds of birds & the quiet chatter drifting back to her from the people in front. There was something about grounding oneself to help calm a pissed off disposition. All she needed was some Zen spa salon tunes on Spotify & she’d be right as rain.

Having shade thrown at you by a god was … humiliating. Not that she considered Withers a god as such. Very powerful ancient insect creature, yes. God, no.

But the mummy man had made it plain that he knew about her. Quite a bit, too, going on his scathing comments of her inability to keep secrets. She knew how to keep secrets, damn it! It was the oversharing the desiccated dickhe*d was referring to & it made her mad. She hadn’t come all the way to Faerun (actually, she hadn’t chosen to come here at all, because, if she’d had a choice in fantasy destinations, this certainly wouldn’t be it) just to be met with obnoxious attitudes surrounding her behaviour.

Belle just wanted to help. Even durge. Needed to, now that she shared their dilemma. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew you couldn’t just show up & state to random people you’ve just met that you could help them because you knew everything; not just about all the shenanigans going on surrounding the tadpoles, but all about the individual’s deepest darkest secrets & fears? Of which none of them had confronted themselves yet? Puh-leese. They’d think her a raving lunatic & throw her in the nearest chasm.

It was why she wasn’t treating Astarion like he belonged in bubble-wrap. She took him as she found him, ignoring all the things she shouldn’t know about him but did. A lot of Astarion’s growth took place from his own realisations. She knew damn well why Jergal had stopped her from saying anything to Brian. To treat her at face value was just a plain old insult.

Throwing a glance behind her at the floating Withers, she found him watching her intently. Narrowing her eyes at him, she turned back around, intent on ignoring him for the foreseeable future.
She heaved a sigh of relief that sounded more like a groan when Gus called time for a break, not so much as sitting on the ground as collapsing. She wasn’t in terrible shape, had managed to keep fit to a degree through the years, but this was more walking than she’d done in the last month. Man, the map didn’t show the scale of these places.

She was hungry, but with only trail rations on offer she didn’t want her mouth puckering up at the amount of salt used to cure jerky here. Her fault: she hadn’t been able to find any decent fruit for sale back at the grove. And as meticulous as she’d been in game of rummaging through every crate & barrel to score a mountain of camp rations, in real life she felt bad about randomly going through someone’s possessions. Like, what was the go? Did all those random crates & such belong to people nearby? If so, why were they just stacked there with no one guarding them? It was hard to distinguish between unowned crates & crates that belonged to someone. There was no red highlighter to guide her here to show her if she was stealing or not & she felt a bit stupid for asking, even her dad.

“Roll out” she heard Gus call.

“Whyyyy meeee?” she whined, hauling herself to her feet & stumbling off again, feeling like she was on the set of Survivor: Faerun.

Not having had a watch or mobile on her when abducted, Belle was having to estimate the time. The others seemed to be quite lax, relying on ‘dawn, midday, afternoon’ etc. She was used to precise time. She wanted to know when it was 9:45 or 12:15, both a.m. & p.m. She heavily estimated it to be around five-ish in the afternoon when they reached grove side of the bridge that led across to the abandoned village of Moonhaven, seen distantly through trees on the horizon. She peered at the far end of the bridge, but there didn’t appear to be any Aradin or his team there just milling about, waiting for her party to get near them before triggering the cut scene.

The party flew into action, everyone setting up their little tents around the makeshift fire, just left of the bridge. Gus had taken up a permanent position to her right, Astarion to her left, the others in the same order as that first night, except Brian, who had taken up a position after Gus’s tent. She wasn’t sure she wanted durge that close to her. Sure, he seemed nice enough, now, but this was the dude that found love with cadavers & feasted on dead flesh, sooo…

It was nice, sorta, to be falling into a domestic routine with Gale, prepping & cooking dinner beside him & dishing it out & cleaning up after. It felt normal. Grounding. Gave her opportunity to get to know him. Gave Gale an opportunity to get to know her. She got the feeling Gale was scared of her. She wasn’t giving out Minthara vibes, was she?

Wyll collected her straight after dinner, once again going through her stances. He didn’t add anything to it, saying she needed to get this bit right first before the hacking & the stabbing could occur. She was sweating by the end of it, her muscles trembling just from standing upright. She desperately wanted a hot shower. Or a bath. The idea of sudsing off again in the nearby stream just wasn’t as appealing tonight. Especially after inadvertently giving Astarion another eyeful the night before. She knew perfectly well he hadn’t gone out of his way to catch her nude, but he had gone out of his way to rub it in that he’d caught her. f*cktard he was.

She collapsed face first onto her bedroll, half in & out of her tent, & didn’t even bother crawling into it. Tonight, she was gonna sleep well. Within minutes, she was snoring. And it seemed like just minutes later, her gods damned bladder once again informed her it was roughly three in the morning & time to ‘get up bitch & empty me.’

At some point in the night, she must have rolled over, because the front of her was cooler than the back. If she could prolong getting up, she might just get lucky & drift back to sleep. She went to scratch an itch on her cheek, only she hit something solid in the way. Her hand splayed out as it encountered the fluffy solidity & her eyes sprang open in surprise.

The red eyes looking right back down at her were just as round as hers in surprise. Oh. No.

His face backed off so quickly she could almost have been mistaken by its closeness to begin with.

“No – no … it’s not what it looks like ….”

He crabbed crawled backward as she sat up, giving him an ‘are you serious?’ look. She didn’t know what to say. Honestly, she really hadn’t thought he’d try it on, or maybe he’d go for one of the others.

Deep down, Belle didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended. She had two head canons going on for the bite scenario. One was that Astarion saw Tav, (or whoever), as the weakest of the group, therefore dispensable if he killed them while feeding. The other was that he felt something like trust (but nowhere near as strong as what the word implied) in the person to not kill him should they wake while he tried to feed. Interestingly enough, when she’d gone down the rabbit hole of vampires & their spawn in dnd lore, Astarion displayed every single tragic trick a vampire used to lure in it’s victims, including the seduction & trying to talk his way out of being hurt. She remembered the line she’d found, stating that, deep down, all vampires were cowards.

“I wasn’t going to hurt you … I swear … I just needed … well … blood….”

She watched him as he intentionally let the firelight gleam from his fangs. Belle wondered which it was that had made him decide on her.

“You know I can’t heal, yeah? I know you heard that discussion. Planning on draining me dry in my sleep, were you?”

“What? No, of course not! I just need a drop, I swear … all this exertion, it’s making me weak, I can’t think properly … if I just had a little blood, I could think clearer, fight better ….”

“I’m sure you could.” She dragged a hand down her face. Luckily, she was too tired right now for her shoulder devil, who was busy chanting at her to just ‘let him f*cking suck you dry, you don’t need the blood, f*ck the blood, he can have it!’

He didn’t respond. He wasn’t backing off; she hadn’t said no, nor had she raised an alarm. He was in full survivalist mode right now, the slight promise of blood overpowering his more primal instinct of self-preservation.

“Please …“ he pleaded, voice broken. She’d never heard it from him before. There was no cajoling going on, just desperation.

“Hang on a minute.” A thought had occurred to her. She rolled back into her tent, grabbing a small, very sharp knife she’d found for ‘just in case situations’. Along with a freshly boiled rag & a small tin cup, she remerged, Astarion standing now, casting glances between what she was doing & the rest of the sleeping camp. Her eyes darted to where Lae’zel should be on duty.

“She’s gone wide,” he told her in his soft voice, making a circle with his hand, answering her unspoken question of where Lae’zel had disappeared to. She took that to mean she’d widened her patrol of the camp.

Nodding, Belle then motioned him to follow her just a ways out behind her tent. He didn’t ask questions, his eyes flicking between the items she placed down on a fallen log. Knife. Bandage. Cup.

“Oh. I see.” He put it together.

“When did you last feed?” she asked him all business like, rolling up her sleeve.

“Last night. But it’s only been small animals. I need something more ... robust.”

“Hmm-hmm. Why me?”

He knelt before her, watching her work meticulously.

“If you must know … you … your aroma … smells the most … enticing.”

Her eyes flicked up to meet his, slate to red. Made sense. In a way. Her blood would be the one most free of infections, the one with the most immunities, the one who’d had the richest diet of not just healthy proteins & minerals but a good share of carbs. A third head cannon appeared. He just wanted the nicest smelling food.

“Why haven’t you alerted the others?” he asked suddenly.

His question came as a bit of a surprise. She’d been functioning on autopilot with him, she realised, too used to his scripted lines & responses. Having something new meant she got to now make her own choice of response & there was a lot more options available than just three or four.

She picked up the little knife, honed to scalpel sharpness. It had just been sitting in the bottom of a basket she’d kicked over. She held it up in the moonlight, admiring the glimmer on the metal.

“You’re pretty hungry, yeah?”

“That’s an understatement. But yes.”

“I can’t stand to see people go hungry.”

He waited for a further explanation. None came. He blinked.

“That’s it?” he said.

“Pretty much. I can’t give you much. Turns out I need it to live, too. Not that it’s much consolation to you right now, but, if I could give you more, I would.”

“You’d let me bite you?”

She nodded, bringing the knife to her wrist.

“You’re f*cking annoying, Astarion, but it turns out, I like annoying.”

She slashed across her wrist, making sure to keep the wound shallow enough to draw plenty of blood, but not deep enough so she’d bleed out. It pattered down into the little clean tin cup. She’d always been funny about blood. She could deal with others in a crisis, touch it, clean it up no worries at all. When it was hers…

“Ugh. Tell me when the cups full.” She had to look away.

A cold finger touched her fist. She glanced down to see him wrap his pale fingers gently around hers, turning her hand so not a drop of blood was lost outside the cup. Her eyes flicked up to his, where she could see in the moonlight, they looked entirely black.

Chapter 7: Paranormal Activity

Chapter Text

Belle knotted the rag tightly over her wound while Astarion consumed the life blood she’d poured him. She concentrated on securing the knot so she didn’t have to acknowledge the low moans coming from him. It only took a couple of seconds for them to stop, thank god, as they sounded utterly debauched! Not having heard moans like that since her first boyfriend at the tender age of seventeen, she looked back up to see him licking the inside of the cup. Oh, look, her bandage needed more attention!

He replaced the cup on the log. Daring to look again, he was now wiping the blood smile left around his mouth& licking the remaining traces from his fingers. She was never going to be able to burn these images from her brain. Her shoulder devil was drooling.

“Better?” she cleared her throat.

“Mmmm, that was …delicious. It’s no wonder he forb –“ he snapped his teeth shut, refusing to continue the sentence. She let his slip slide.

“…. good. Hopefully it helps.”

He closed his eyes, head tilted slightly back.

“I feel …. clear. In my mind. Thankyou.”

He looked back to her before getting to his feet.

Ooooo, she got a delicious & a thank you! Kinda made up for the sh*tty day she’d had.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I need to find something more … filling.” He turned to leave, striding off. Oh, his posture had changed, look at that back!

“Later tater” she called softly, as he disappeared into the tree line. Maybe he wouldn’t be such a sh*t from now on….

She quickly checked the bandage to make sure no seepage was occurring. None could be seen. The knot was as tight as she could get it without cutting circulation.

Getting to her feet, she held her wrist up to her chest to mitigate bleeding & stood there a minute longer to make sure she wouldn’t pass out. Feeling ok, she made her way back to the front of her own tent, & stopped in her tracks when she saw Brian, standing still in front of his own tent, staring at Shadowheart. It was the single most scary thing she’d seen since watching Paranormal Activity.

Every nerve in her body tightened instantly; she’d never had such a visceral body reaction before in her life. It made her muscles tense & vibrate. Her concentration narrowed to a laser point. The aura he put out was one of such malice she was surprised she couldn’t see it.

Belle had no idea why she did it; her body had taken over completely at this point. She bent down, picked up a sizeable rock she hadn’t even laid eyes on until right then, & piffed it straight as his head.
It made a hollow sound as it connected & bounced off his scales. He didn’t even flinch. f*ck. Why had Gus ignored her instructions on tying this guy up? He was murder incarnate when he was like this. And although she wouldn’t cry a river if he offed Shart (at least, not as she was right now), she couldn’t condone waking up in the morning to such a grizzly sight.

To her immense relief, Lae’zel had wandered back into camp & had woken Wyll to take the next shift. Both had noticed at the same time as Belle there was trouble, & surrounded the large dragon-born from each side. Wyll looked over at her, made sure she was unharmed, nodded, & tried talking to the murderous lizard.

“Hey there, big guy. Feel like laying back down?”

The reptile head turned, ever so slightly, & now regarded Wyll with what she could only assume was the same stare he’d levelled at Shadowheart.

“If you refuse to comply, we will tie you down” Lae’zel informed him. She’d make a great police woman.

“He was meant to be anyway. Why isn’t he bound?” Belle contributed.

Neither glanced at her, not taking their eyes off the beast lest he suddenly attack.

“Gus couldn’t bring himself to do it” Wyll answered from the side of his mouth.

f*ck a duck he hadn’t taken her seriously enough!

“Is he even aware?” Lae’zel asked, eyes narrowing at Brian.

“Nah, he’s something like sleepwalking. But, for f*ck’s sake, don’t go near him!”

“You and I are going to talk tomorrow, Earthling. I have questions.”

Ok, maybe Withers had a point ….

“It would take the whole camp to restrain him if he fought. I will continue watch duty if you take over watching the Brian.” Lae’zel addressed Wyll.

“Are you sure? You could wake Shadowheart, or Gale, to take over instead?”

The gith snorted.

“Useless as tit* on a dragon, both of them.”

Oh. Didn’t dragons have tit*?

“Go to bed, Belle. Don’t worry, I’ll wake everyone up if necessary.”

Brian just kept up that murderous stare, fists clenched.

“You sure?” she asked, uncertainly.

“Positive. I’ll make sure he’s restrained every night from now on.”

“Get Gale to do a full body bind on him.”

“A what?”

Oops, wrong fandom.

“Hold monster, or beast, or whatever it is that will restrain him.”

Wyll nodded, planting himself, every line of him ready to move if necessary.

She crept into her tent, leaving the flap open. Wasn’t any way she’d sleep comfortable with the proverbial door closed, not being able to see danger approaching if necessary. Wasn’t any way she was gonna sleep at all for the rest of the night as it was now, but she could at least lie down & rest.

The nudge to her shoulder only brought fuzzy awareness to her mind. Nothing else happened, so she started drifting again.

“No, no, time to wake up.”

“…fuggorf…”

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Earthling. Now, here.”

A hot cup was thrust into her open palm.

She cracked an eye open. Silver hair & a grinning grinch face. Lovely. Apparently, he’d been serious about waking her from now on.

“Leave. Me. Alone.”

“I would, but I can’t. Seeing you all feisty like this is … delicious.” He invested that with so much double … no … triple entendre her eyes popped open.

“You're such a dork, Astarion. Get outta my way.” She sat up, blowing & sipping on the hot brew.

“I heard there was some issue surrounding our new recruit last night. Do tell.” He leaned back on his elbow.

“You’re a gossiper.” Blow. Sip.

“I am. How else am I meant to keep up with camp activities?” He wasn’t ashamed in the least.

“Brian slept walked. End of story.”

Astarion seemed hung up on the wrong thing as he asked her,
“Where on earth did you pick that name from?”

“A dog.” Blow. Sip.

“You’re as bad as that floating mummy with your short answers.” He looked down his nose at her.

“Don’t you dare compare me to him!” She shot him an evil, hurt glare.

“Then elaborate.”

“There’s nothing to elaborate. Just … don’t trust him a night-time.” She was trying very, very hard to prove Withers wrong, now.

“Like you were good enough to trust me?” he lowered his lashes at her, peering through them. She didn’t trust that look, hot as it was.

“That’s completely different! You’re an asshat, he’s …. uh … “ she wanted to say ‘dangerous’, but she had a feeling that would offend him.

They glared at each other for a few moments, before he broke the silence & she cheered (mentally) that she’d won!

“I think you know more than you’re letting on.” He finally accused her.

She sighed.

“Brian has an acquired brain injury. People like that can sometimes lose control of themselves. Doing weird & dangerous things at times & not remembering it. I know you like weird & dangerous sorts of things, just … beware, is all I’m saying.”

Belle was fully aware of the ‘Astarion & Durge were meant for each other’ trope. Once more, she’d delved into it only to find that the writers had simply had more time to spend on the two having dialogue than with the other characters. It was simply more fleshed out. She was worried, though, because Astarion was drawn to danger & trouble like a moth to flame. Brian was just as likely to murder Astarion as the rest of them, no matter if they were made for each other or not. Her brain tried to slew sideways into the mechanics of f*cking a dragon-born, but she pulled it back viscously.

He pondered her answer.

“What on earth did you do on … uh… Earth?”

Looked like she wasn't the only one whose brain went down rabbit holes.

“Helped pretty people like you feel better about themselves.”

Mulling that over, he tried to find the Faerunian equivalent.

“A … courtesan? You were a courtesan? I mean, I believe it, you’re quite delectable, but your demeanour …” had his entire tone changed with her in just one sentence?

What the f*ck was a courtesan? Why did it ring a bell? How had she gone from eyebags to delectable?

“Visitor,” Gus called out at large, alerting everyone someone was approaching.

Chapter 8: Pai Mai

Chapter Text

Aradin & his little troupe had spotted them in the middle of the night as they’d arrived at the other end of the bridge. They’d called by to warn them away from the goblin camp, chatting away to Gus on a more amicable level than that displayed back at the grove with Zevlor.

Belle listened with half an ear. After emerging from her tent, Astarion taking her mug away from her after she’d finished it, she beelined for Gale, who cowered at her approach. She wasn’t that scary, was she? Plus, Astarion was the one copping morning Belle now, not the rest of them.

“Can we have a quick chat?”

He hesitated, didn’t receive an outburst from her, & acquiesced. She led him off to the other side of the camp away from the others.

“You heard about last night?” she asked him, voice low.

“Some. It must have been a frightful sight – “

“He’s dangerous, Gale. More than you know. He needs to be restrained each & every single night, from dusk till dawn. I told dad, but he didn’t take me seriously.”

Gale was watching the others while listening to her, his eyes darting back to the dragon-born again & again as she spoke.

“Not that I don’t believe you, Belle, but what evidence do you have to support your claims? So far, apart from sleepwalking, there’s been nothing to indicate that.”

“Oh? He hasn’t randomly told you he’s having urges to kill people? Hurt them? Uncontrollable urges?”

Gale looked more uncomfortable as she hammered each point home. Shifted his feet.

“He … uh, he may have ….”

“Then just trust me. Please.” She gave him her most sincerest look she could muster.

He studied her face for a moment. Sighed heavily.

“Fine. But it means moving him away from Gus. You two with your magical black hole ability is quite fascinating, & absolutely frustrating at times.”

She gave a tiny happy squeal at someone else taking her seriously.

“Thanks Gale. You’re the best wizard I know!”

“Aren’t I the only wizard you know?”

“That’s beside the point.”

They got to cooking & organising brekkie for everyone. Aradin concluded his chat with Gus & took off. Hopefully they wouldn’t run into him in Baldur’s Gate. She didn’t hate him like she did the little trader Aaron (obnoxious little sh*t he was), but his opportunism would make a very short life for him if they did. Then evil chipmunk brain spoke up.

After everyone packed up camp, she drifted through the ranks to fall in beside Astarion.

“Oh, hello, what can I do for you?”

Looked like her rating was on the up & up.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Don’t burst a vessel.” He told her seriously, only to smile, very slightly at her, taking the sting of the barb away. Huh.

“Shoosh. That diet of yours; have you fed on any delicacies apart from the one last night?”

His eyes lit up in the evilest gleam she’d seen yet.

“No, but there’s been little opportunity.”

“What if I pointed out particular delicacies for your perusal?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t decline that.”

Her smile widened. So did his. Sorry npc’s who’d pissed her off, but they were now on the menu.

“I was soooo hoping you’d say that” she parroted one of his lines.

“You know, I like this side of you.” his looked at her appraisingly. She preened a bit. Placed a hand on her chest.

“I have a need to be fulfilled; you can fulfill it. Two birds one stone.” Her mind whispered at her to sic him on durge. She soothed it by telling herself if Brian murderised anyone, she would.

“Sooo, how are we to go about this, then?”

“When we’re near the items in stock, I’ll tell you.”

“Excellent.”

“Otherwise, the sooner you share your little dietary requirements with the others, the sooner you can also choose your own vintages. For example, in the goblin camp. Large selection there.”

“You seem very confident that they’ll all be as magnanimous as you were…”

She sighed. Pitched her voice even lower.

“Astarion, dad knows. Wyll knows. Gale suspects. Lae’zel knows. The other two have no idea.”

“What?” he shrieked, & she had to grab his arm to keep him from fleeing on the spot.

“If they were gonna kill you or run you out of camp, they would have done so already. Now shut it!”

He clamped his mouth shut, shooting furtive glances at the travellers in front.

“The fact they haven’t speaks volumes! They need you, & they know it!”

He looked to her; eyes all feral & wide.

“I won’t let them.” She meant it, too. Astarion was way too versatile for them to get rid of. In a way, she’d found him better to have in her party when playing the game than Shadowheart or Gale.

He slowly nodded.

“You're certainly scary enough, but, if they kill me, I’m coming back to haunt you.” he threatened.

“Then we’ll just get to annoy each other even more” she gave him a reassuring smile & a little rub on his (oh so f*cking tight!), bicep before letting him go, trusting he wouldn’t just exit left.

“Tonight, I’ll do it tonight. Just … you’d better be right.” He muttered before they both dismissed the subject.

Letting him be for now, she jogged up to Gus for a reckoning before they hit Moonhaven.

“I see you’re making friends … “ he opened with.

“You didn’t listen to me” she accused flatly.

“Belle, he seems harmless…”

“I know what he seems. He’s not. We’ve had this chat. He was looking at Shadowheart like lamb chops last night. You didn’t see it.”

Gus, she remembered, could have slept through an earthquake once his head hit the pillow.

“Gales’ promised to hold him at night magically. I’m dealing with Astarion; you deal with durge. And, speaking of, Astarion’s going to confess tonight, so you’d better accept him for it!”

Gus looked sheepish at her telling him off. There were only a couple of occasions she could recall where she’d had the right side of an argument with him, & they’d occurred just before he’d disappeared. Realising one’s parents were fallible was such a blow to one’s world view it could forever change it. It had with hers; younger Belle had worshipped the ground Gus walked on, until she’d discovered he was just as flawed as her. Welcome adulthood.

“Alright, Belle, alright. I don’t like it, but I promise to make sure he’s restrained. You wouldn’t happen to have a way I might approach it with him?”

“Uh, yeah, tell him he went to attack one of us & frighted the sh*t out of us. White lies go a long way.”

He nodded his head sorrowfully. Then pointed up the trail.

“Anything we need to know about the village?”

She quickly filled him on the position of the goblins & the ogres, telling him to just kill them all. She didn’t find any benefit to gaining the ogre horn, had never used it nor missed the using of. And having a larger party at her disposal meant greater fighting power. Hehehe, f*ck you spell slots & turn based play!

Letting Gus figure out the mechanics of who should go in first etc. etc., she suddenly spied the dead boar by the side of the road. So did Gus.

“Move on dad, nothing to see here.” She told him as he veered toward it.

“Just want to see how it died.”

“It was exsanguinated.” She hissed, trying to steer him back.

“Plain English Belle, I’m not that smart.”

“Drained dry of blood” she whispered fiercely, the others catching up.

He glanced at the boar, then back at Astarion.

“Oh. Oooohh, right.” He quickly moved away from the dead animal.

“What’s that?” Lae’zel wanted to investigate.

“Dead boar. Looks like natural causes” Gus cut in smoothly before breaking up the team into scouts, melee & ranged attackers. Belle, once again useless, got to hang back twiddling her thumbs. Ignoring the looks from both Lae’zel & Shadowheart, she broke out her sword & started practicing the stances Wyll had been showing her. f*ck them, she’d get to a level where she could contribute!

“Thine dedication is becoming of thee.”

She jumped a mile as Withers spoke up. Why did she keep forgetting he was always there? Was it a trick? Or was he just really boring?

As casually as she could, she propped the sword over her shoulder like she’d seen the others do. Her shoulder joint protested loudly at the awkward weight, so she made it seem like it was her choice to lower it.

“A compliment. My my, how unexpected.”

“Do not let it go to thine head. Thou still hast a way to go yet.”

“Why are you so insufferable? Is it just you? Do you get a thrill out of it?”

“It is both mine nature & my station. Thou wilst learn.”

“Well, I’ll take that to mean it’s not in my immediate future to die.”

Wither’s eyes gleamed. Was that … approval?

“See? Thou canst’ use thine brain … when thoust triest.”

“I got enough of this sh*t in high school, man. I try, I always try, I just get … side-tracked.”

“Those with many lines of thought often do. It is a rare trait; one I will see honed.”

Oooo, that was a bit too Pai Mai for her liking.

“You done? I’d like to get back to practicing.”

Chapter 9: Escape Room

Chapter Text

Gale was sent to get her. She’d expected him covered in gore from head to toe, but she reminded herself he must cast prestidigation after every bloody encounter.

“Anyone hurt?” she quizzed as they headed on in past the decrepit gate. Vaguely, she understood she was asking if Gus was hurt.

“No. Well, Shadowheart was, but not anymore” he wiggled his fingers in explanation.

Nodding, they met up with the others at the well. The ground inside the village was muddy & slippery, as she found out as she nearly performed the splits, grabbing onto Gale’s sleeve & sending them both to the ground.

“Thank god I don’t have balls,” she commented as they straightened each other, Gale going red & disentangling himself from her quickly.

The little gnome, Barcus, was hanging around, finishing up chatting with Gus.

“Hi there,” she intercepted, “I’ve heard a lot about you. Can we have a quick chat, please?”

He eyed her suspiciously, before nodding cautiously, as she led him just off aways from the others.

She didn’t lower herself to his stature, no matter how much she was tempted to. He wasn’t a child & didn’t need to be patronized like that.

“Your reputation precedes you, you know. I’ve heard you’re quite the genius.”

“Really? I mean, I do like to dabble, but that’s quite … nice …. to hear.”

His face brightened considerably under her praise.

“I’ve quite a few connections who have heard some interesting things you’re working on.” She encouraged.

“Oh, I’m always working on something or other.” He smiled shyly.

“So I’ve heard. One of your experiments, I must admit, set my own brain on fire with its possibilities.”

“Oh …. ?”

“Hmmm-hmmm,” she leant down, just slightly, conveying confidentiality for just the two of them.

“Magic rune powder.”

His face closed instantly. That was fine. She’d planted a seed there for now.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said flatly, & very politely, as he backed away.

“I’m sure; but my interest is in its application. If we see each other again, I hope to discuss it further.”

He looked at her distrustfully before turning & hightailing it out of the village.

She felt pretty smug with herself. This is what Raphael must feel when he was planting his seeds around, too. No wonder he enjoyed his job!

Rejoining the others, she spied Astarion casually throwing a large, palm sized shiny purple rock up in the air, over & over.

“Are we ready to head out?” Gus addressed her suddenly.

“What? No, haven’t you explored the buildings yet?”

“No, there doesn’t seem to be much left here.”

“Well, we need to investigate that building, right there. There’s something you might have missed. In the basem*nt. In the secret chamber behind the basem*nt.”

He gave her a wuthering look.

“Who should go down there?”

“Me. Wyll. Astarion. Lae’zel.”

He sighed.

“Fine. Make it quick.”

He called to others, letting them know that, on a hunch, they should check out the old apothecary shop. Belle led them in, feeling like a mother hen.

“What are we looking for again?” Astarion asked, bored, as he picked up an old, ornate silver mirror. She saw him raise an eyebrow, look around quickly at the others, then stow it in his pack. God, he was such a peaco*ck!

“Anything of value. Saaay, isn’t that a trapdoor?” How convenient of her to just spot it like that!

Lae’zel did the honours, going down first, followed by Wyll, then Astarion, then herself.

“The view from here is lovely” his voice floated up to her as she descended.

“You’re lucky she doesn’t rip your head off in the mornings, Astarion,” she heard Lae’zel defend her purity.

She looked down quickly to see him at the bottom of the ladder, grinning back up at her shamelessly.

“I could hawk a logey on you from this height. I wouldn’t miss.”

“I have no idea what that means, dear” & he sauntered off to go investigate the basem*nt.

Reaching the bottom, she looked around in the dim light. Wyll graciously handed her a lit torch, seeing as how she’d forgotten to bring one with her. She gave him a quick smile before zooming around the perimeter of the basem*nt, making a half-assed effort to look like she was rummaging.

Everyone else was being too thorough. i.e. taking too long.

“Oh, what’s that?” she called brainlessly & loudly to the room at large as she found the not so hidden switch.

At the promise of hidden treasure, Astarion materialised by her side to see what she’d found.

“It looks like a switch”, he said, going in for a closer look. “It’s not trapped.” So, he pushed it.

The wall near it ground loudly, stone over stone, as it slid sideways, revealing a hidden passage.

“This is so coooool, I never got to do escape rooms back home!” Belle said excitedly, letting the more capable fighters in first.

No one answered, probably because they were concentrating on a possibly dangerous situation.

The little area opened to reveal a grassy area, covered with coffins.

“Well, that’s always a good sign,” Astarion muttered, readying his bow.

Belle crept right up behind him, peering over his shoulder while the other two carefully kicked open the coffins, one by one.

On the opposite side, a loud crunching explosion suddenly drew all their attention as a skellie jumped out of its box.

She couldn’t help but jump herself, even though she’d half expected it. Wyll started firing fire at the thing as it hissed and brandished its sword & Lae’zel went in charging like a bull at a gate. Astarion started to lose arrows at it, faster than she’d thought possible, & she was momentarily distracted by how that made his light armour pull & tug against his back. During that distraction, skellie decided to charge right at her & Astarion, except, when it got close to them, it suddenly crumbled.

Everyone stopped what they were doing. They all looked from the skellie to Belle.

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten” she said, eyes growing wide, stepping out from behind Astarion & heading to the nearest coffin.

It rattled briefly as she approached. Wyll lifted the lid quickly, & they found a dead skellie inside.

“Well, this makes it easy, then” she muttered, simply walking around the rest of the coffins. Two more rattled, & that was that.

“I wonder what else that ability of yours can negate” Astarion said thoughtfully as he raided the last coffin near where she stood.

“I know, right? If it negates magic, which means the weave, does it negate everything to do with the weave?”

That line of questioning had them both looking at each other, the ramifications of that not lost on either of them.

Shaking herself free of that massive thought, she stepped away to go speak with the magic mirror. The others followed quietly.

The floor length mirror looked just like an ordinary mirror as she peered at her reflection. sh*t, Astarion had been right, she was puffy around the eyes! That was it, as soon as someone found cucumbers, she was bagging them!

Aaaand …. Shouldn’t the face have appeared by now?

co*cking her head, she gave it the count of five. Nothing.

“Hello?” she said, rapping on the glass.

“Are you expecting an answer?” Lae’zel questioned impatiently.

“Ob-vious-ly not” she replied, gesturing for the gith to shatter the glass.

Surely her ability wasn’t that strong …. was it?

Stepping through into the room beyond was like stepping into whacky dinosaur bones exhibit in a museum. They were everywhere! The giant one in the middle of the room warranted a good minute just staring at while the others went off to do their looting thang.

“What have we here?” Astarion murmured, kneeling to apply the little tools he kept handy to the trapped gate.

Belle came swanning in beside him, kneeling right next to him & peering way too close at what he was doing. He paused, looking down his nose at her.

“Do you mind, I’m trying to work.”

“Don’t mind me, I find this fascinating.” She didn’t back off.

“I do believe I’ve offered you a demonstration of my dextrous fingers before.”

Only her eyes slid up to his. His were obscured behind his lashes, looking like they were smouldering. She didn’t buy it. Astarion had honed his bedroom eyes into an artform. But his body language, or rather, the aura he gave off, said something else entirely. Being in the beauty industry, the type of industry that called for close body contact; how to touch people to instantly put them at ease; how to pick up on if they were on edge; meant she’d developed a finely honed instinct to what she could only call ‘aura’ around people.

Belle was beginning to believe he meant what he’d stated later in the game; all his promiscuous jibes were deflections. He didn’t know what to say once she’d refused to move away from him.

She slid out of his way. He hesitated only a moment before getting back to work. She tried a different tact.

“Astarion?”

“What?” he asked, annoyance in his tone now as he twisted the little tools.

“Can you teach me that?”

“I’m not a teacher.” He said flatly, tongue poking out the edge of his mouth as he tried to concentrate on unpicking the lock safely.

“There’s always a first time.”

He swore as the lockpick broke.

“Over there. Now.” He pointed at the other side of the room for her to go retreat to.

She slunk away, resolved to annoy the sh*t out of him until he gave in & taught her how to pick locks.

Chapter 10: Killing the Necronomicon

Chapter Text

Belle let him work, disarming the traps holding the tome of Thay while she skulked in the corner. Watched him while he grabbed the tome & re-entered the main living area, turning it this way & that as he studied it.

“How do you open the bloody thing?” he muttered.

“Yes, open the cursed book Astarion. Over there, way over there.” Lae’zel pointed to the corner opposite her while she rolled her eyes at him.

“I think we should give that to Gale.” Wyll added, looking at the tome like he wanted to bury it.

“No. He’s not getting it” Astarion hugged the book to him like it was a precious babe.

“Oh look.” Belle pointed out as she re-approached him. “Purple gem eyes. And an open mouth. I wonder – “ She stopped mid-sentence, because, as she neared him, the purple gleam in the eye gems winked out & the book popped open.

Her mouth popped open.

“That abilities’ proving to be quite convenient” Astarion approved, flipping through the pages lazily. Not a whisper of guardian spirits or purple tentacle light emanated from it.

“I just killed the Necronomicon!” she gasped, still flabbergasted.

“You did! Does it extend to other magical items? Armour, weapons, jewellery, safes?” he’s eyes gleamed with unspoken possibility.

“I have no idea. Guess we should check that out at some point.” If it did extend to them, did those objects reclaim their magic once she was out of range? It hadn’t killed anyone’s connection to the weave in the group, so … maybe?

“Took you long enough” Princess Shart commented acridly as they emerged from the basem*nt.

“Eat my shorts” Belle retorted, earning a glare from Gus, who clearly remembered the Simpsons.

“Can we move out now?” he asked her gruffly.

He dropped in beside her, lowering his voice. Astarion was making a show of having found the tome in front of Gale, who began inching his way in beside the rouge.

“Yeah, except, now that I think about it…”

“What, Belle?” he appeared to be the one having the bad day now. Younger her immediately felt bad, her anxiety setting off, trying to find a way to make her dad happy again. Adult her told younger her that he was a grown ass adult who could handle his own bad days perfectly fine on his own, & that it wasn’t her fault he was having one. It was nice having adult her present; it was the first time she’d told younger her that she didn’t need to be in charge anymore. Her need to please melted away.

“Well, there’s another person we need to pick up. In game, you could just leave her there until you went to get her. But, if we just leave her there now, I can’t see her hanging around just waiting for us to come get her.”

Gus tried to work out what she’d said, almost going cross-eyed in the attempt. Finally, it clicked.

“Oh, for the love of … Wyll” he barked, & the Blade came trotting over on command.

“Lay the map out lad, we may need to reconfigure our plans.” He shot Belle a baleful glare. “You. Me. Talk tonight.” He shooed Wyll off before continuing.

She nodded, anxiety back & squirming in her gut. Trying to speed run this was turning out to be harder than she’d initially thought.

“Where?” He barked at her, pointing to the map.

“Back up here.” She pointed just south of the toll house.

“It’s roughly the same distance to there as the camp. We could swing by & pick this person up on our way back.” He said, studying the map.

“Yeah, & normally, you could. But would you hang about just waiting, just cause? Not to mention, there’s people after her right now. She could take them, but what then? More hanging around?”

Gus’s eyes flicked over the map, thinking.

“f*ck. Is she that important?”

For that comment to come from this man, meant he was feeling the stress.

“Yes dad, she’s that important.”

He twirled a finger to Wyll, indicating him to come back & roll the map back up.

“Who’re we talking about?” he asked, having overheard some of it.

Ohhhh. Ummmm.

Belle opened her mouth to explain who it was. Over Wyll’s shoulder in the distance, Withers suddenly popped into view. He was giving her that very weighty stare he seemed to reserve just for her. She closed her mouth slowly. Seriously?

“I heard tell from one of Aradin’s crew about someone near the toll house who’d also been in the Nautoloid. Thought we ought to check it out before we hit the goblin camp.” Her tone was slow & even, & she kept her eyes on Wither’s the entire time. He nodded once when she’d finished, then became boring again & disappeared. What a kill joy.

“Ah, that would probably be for the best.”

Did he really just swallow that drivel? Shrugging mentally, they followed Gus out of the village onto the road leading toward the toll house.

Just outside the village, the barn, THAT barn, came into view.

Belle bit the insides of her cheeks. That itch was back in full force, the one that had caused her to slap Gale’s hand, only now ten times worse.

Gus looked back to her with a questioning brow when he saw the barn. This was it. Decision time. She gave a single curt nod. Then had to scoot to the back of the group to keep from giggling maniacally.

He approached the barn, the others close in behind him.

Belle hung back. Gus went to open the door but must have heard the noises issuing forth from within. Frowning, he put his ear to the door. He recoiled quickly at whatever he’d heard, giving the door a disgusted look. Shot his head around to give Belle a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, let me, they sound dis-gus-ting,” Astarion saved the day, stepping forward & throwing open the doors, a devilish grin plastered across his face.

“What do you think you’re doing?” came a strangled, guttural voice from deep within the barn.

“Nothing, sorry, we’re just leaving,” Gus tried to close the doors back on the rutting pair within.

“I think I’m going to scrub my eyes out. With salt.” Gale left the rest of them to it quickly.

“No fair, desire gone” the poor lady ogre with the biggest tiddies Belle had ever seen wandered out, dragging the bugbear behind her. Bras really needed to be invented here as well. She added it to her growing list of entrepreneurial take overs she had planned for Faerun if she couldn’t get back to Earth.

Otherwise, Belle could commiserate with ogres’ sentiment. Her ex had been pretty poor at performance, too, often destroying anything remotely approaching a romantic interlude.

Lae’zel hadn’t been bothered in the slightest by the scene presented in full, gory detail – had, in fact, simply gone in to check the barn quickly.

Shadowheart had gone a whiter shade of pale, leaning heavily on the corner of the barn, shaking her head slightly, eyes wide & staring into the distance.

Astarion – well – everyone knew how he reacted. Much like her, doubled over, hands on knees in the throes of cackling insensibility.

Brian had no idea what to do, so was just standing there, watching the two lovebirds retreat, scratching his head. Dude had led a sheltered life, she realised suddenly. All murder & no fun.

Two feet planted themselves in front of her. She couldn’t straighten, doubled over in hysterics the way she was, just grabbing hold of Gus’s arms as he stood there, promising retribution.

“That was … was … “ she broke down again.

She felt his arms shake. She didn’t know if in laughter or anger. It made it funnier.

“Warn me next time.” He sounded like he was trying, valiantly, to not laugh along with her.

“Aaan…d sp…spoil the suppp….prise?”

“Belle. They could have attacked.”

“There were plenty of you to take care of it.” She slowly regained her composure, wiping her eyes as they streamed tears.

“This was in the game?” he asked, looking back at the barn.

“There’s low level p*rn in the game – you can mod in these sex scenes –“

“Enough, Belle, I don’t want to know.” He cut her off before she could explain further.

“I know what they’re all packing” she sung song as the group re-joined together.

“Shut it.”

“Yes dad.”

Belle quickly let Gus know about the dagger in the meat at the top of the hill; someone might make use of it, & it was right there. Brian accompanied him. Durge seemed to have taken to following Gus around like a duckling. The little duckling ripped the dagger out of the meat as if he’d pulled it from water.

Continuing on, she couldn’t believe it actually took roughly two hours of mindless trudging before they reached the broken bridge. Everyone surveyed it before they retreated. It was a much larger break than just jumping across was going to be able to achieve in crossing it.

Discussions started on how to get across as the wind picked up. Belle wrinkled her nose as a smell accompanied it. Had someone farted?

Suddenly, a crack sounded in the clear air, echoing hollowly, sounding much like when a plane broke the sound barrier. She automatically looked to the skies, shielding her eyes. Dropped her hands sheepishly when she remembered where she was.

Back down the road aways, a circular opening appeared, something made of what she could only think of as ‘non-light’ that still shone brightly. A tall man stepped out of the hole. An elegantly dressed man who started sprouting prose as soon as he’d reached them.

Raphael had entered the sh*t show.

Chapter 11: Apparition

Chapter Text

Belle hung back, studying the devil as he approached. Handsome, just as in game. Confident posture as he strolled toward them. This was a being who knew how & what to offer others; how to intrigue, ensnare, but he exuded the most malevolent aura she’d ever felt in her entire life, barring Brain’s the other night.

In game, she’d loved Raphael. He was one of her most favourite characters. His voice acting was as superb as Astarion’s (probably why she liked him so much). She’d even given him the crown in one of her playthroughs, fully expecting him to take over everything & not at all surprised when he revealed that exact intention. What did it matter to her he wanted all of creation? It wasn’t her creation, so she could be gracious in handing it over.

But now? This creature, this devil, wasn’t at all what she’d expected. She felt pure repulsion at his nearness. Raphael wasn’t the nice devil she’d thought he was. Belle had to do some quick foot work in her own mind, reshuffling some plans she had half baked going on up there, so that nothing, absolutely nothing, relied on this … person.

He was currently waxing poetic with Gus, who obviously felt the same way, going by his guarded, defensive posture. The others in the group didn’t look too sure what was going on or who this guy was based on their quizzical looks being thrown at each other. Lae’zel was the only other one to have her hackles up; she kept scenting the air & didn’t like what she found there, judging by her screwed up face.

After chatting about his cats & foxes, Raphael lifted his hand, snapping his fingers together, & apparated them straight to his House of Hope. It was exactly how Harry Potter had described the sensation; like a fishhook just behind the navel, pulling you through a tiny hole where your extremities got spaghettified before ‘pop’, you arrived at your destination. Not a nice feeling, as it left her head ringing & her fingers & toes tingling as if they’d only just regained circulation.

The others were all shaking their heads as well, so it wasn’t just her not used to sh*t like this.

Raphael faced them, his hands clasped behind his back as he welcomed them & invited them all to partake of the lavish feast he had prepared for their arrival.

The smell of roasts, dripping in gravy was thick in the air, permeated by sweet apple pie, cranberry sauce dips & fragrant soft cheeses. Her mouth watered. She hadn’t seen a spread like this in quite a few years now. She inched over to the table as Astarion stood on her foot, halting her. She looked back at him. He shook his head, once. Her hand reached out behind her, not caring what it snatched from the table. He grabbed her other hand, hauling her away from the tempting food while Raphael started his temptation of Gus.

“Don’t take anything from here!” he whispered at her fervently, eyes darting back up to the portrait above Raphael & back down at her.

But she was starving! His eyes pleaded with hers before she nodded, sulky at not being able to eat any of the nice food. He released her hand but stood by her, totally not ready to stop her should she lunge for the table at all. Regrettably, he was starting to know what she was like.

Raphael ‘poofed’ into his devil form, which was absolutely impressive and downright diabolical. His malevolency skyrocketed. He didn’t care for them, they were simply tools to be used to get the crown, to be discarded when they’d fulfilled their use. Or enslaved like the others he kept here. She finally understood why Karlach had been so vehement in retrieving the pact she’d gleefully signed away that one time.

Gus handled the situation well, she saw. He didn’t flinch at Raphael’s transformation & looked thoughtful at the devils’ words of being their saviour.

“Well, I thank you for your warning, devil –“ he began.

“Please, call me Raphael, after all, you and I have a way to go. Why not on friendly terms?”

Gus hesitated.

“Raphael. You’ve given us much to consider. We’ll indeed take your advice in looking for alternatives first, &, if the time comes, we may have another little chat.”

“Excellent! I do so enjoy making new friends & allies! But, for now …” he lifted his fingers again, snapping them, sending them all away … except her.

f*ckin sh*t f*ckin f*ck balls!

“Um, I think you forgot me?” she put up her hand like she was back in Grade 3.

“I didn’t forget you, little Earthling. Why don’t you take a seat, have a bite to eat while you & I have a separate chat, all our own?”

“Oh, I’d love to, really, but I’m on a diet, you see, & all those calories & carbs ….” She could heed advice when given to her. Especially from Astarion, & especially when he’d given her such a sincere plea, giving her puppy dog eyes.

“Tut tut, all that effort, gone to waste. Well, maybe next time,” he swept his hand grandly, & the food just disappeared. Into thin air. Just like that. What a neat Jedi trick!

“But, please, take a seat. I have a proposal, just for you.”

One of the chairs moved itself, flinging itself behind her, ramming into the back of her knees so she collapsed onto it.

“What the f*ck, this isn’t Ghostbusters!” she grunted, unable to pry her ass away from the seat of the chair.

“I don’t know what that is” he waved away her reference. “No doubt some weird little Earth thing. Now. Down to business.”

He clapped his hands together before rubbing them vigorously & leaning down so that his face was level with hers. His breath was hot like steam, smelling vaguely of the hot springs in New Zealand.
“You’re going to ensure that the crown is delivered unto me. In exchange, I will send you back to Earth.”

She gaped at him.

“You know I know?” she asked him the same question she’d tried to ask of Withers.

“Of course I know. It’s my job to know. What do you say, hmmm? You know what you’re doing, you’re already guiding the others through dear old daddy. Just continue doing so, &, at the end, hand the crown to me. I promise I’ll spare Earth once you do; they won’t know a thing that goes on.”

He chuckled.

“They haven’t for a long time now, anyway. So, it’ll be the same as it has been in forever.”

Fuuuuck, think Belle, think! Right, there was a loophole.

“I want Gus sent back too.”

He smiled, revealing every single sharp tooth lining his mouth. She shied back from that carrion look.

“Done” he purred, no bartering, no cajoling. He must really want that crown something bad!

“I won’t promise anything just yet; it’s early days. Things might change between now & then, circ*mstances etc. Plus, I might die. I have it on good authority I can’t be bought back.”

“And I have it on good authority that fate won’t let that happen. So, what’ll it be, little Earthling?”

What was so damn important that the very gods & fate itself had promised her to see this thing through without her kicking the bucket? She was guessing it was some sort of perverted, cosmic entertainment to them, like an episode of Seinfeld.

“I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request. For now. When you contact dad again, I’ll let you know if I’ve changed my mind.”

She expected his smile to drop from his face like a hot potato. Instead, if anything, it widened.

“I always did enjoy the tougher clientele. It makes it that much sweeter when they finally do accept my deal.”

She opened her mouth once more, only he clicked his fingers in her face, sending her reeling backward, through space & time, to land on her butt, back on the road where everyone rushed over to her when she finally reappeared.

“Belle!” Gus threw his arms around her, bear hugging her. His scent, the scent of dad, of safety, of authority, surrounded her, & she wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his shoulder. Her heart was pounding crazily, because she’d just told a devil ‘No’. She’d always had trouble with confrontation; not a good thing to have when dealing with the public, & now she couldn’t understand how she’d been terrified of Karens, but an actual, live f*cking devil she’d been able to turn down? What the f*ck was wrong with her?

“What happened, what did he want?”

He pulled her away to look at her face, his thumbs running over her cheeks.

“He wanted a separate deal, one that, if I fulfilled, he’d send me, us, back home afterward.”

“Back to Earth?” Wyll clarified. She nodded, looking up at him.

“What was it?” Gus asked.

“I can’t’ – it was confidential. He did something where I can’t mention it.” God, she was sick to death of lying.

“Alright, ok, well, it’s just another thing to add to our growing list of ‘deal with later.”

He stood, helping her up.

“For now, I think we break early for camp. There’s lots to discuss. It might take the rest of the day. In the morning, we’ll deal with that.” He nodded at the broken bridge.

Heading off the road a way, they found a likely spot & began resetting back up camp for the night. Belle struggled in trying to push aside Raphaels’ deal. It was so tempting – but that was what a deal with a devil was all about, wasn’t it? She was in no way excited to take him up on it. Plus, she still had Ethel by the short and curlies as a backup plan.

“You didn’t eat anything, did you?” came Astarion’s voice as she was on all fours, half in & half out of her tent, spreading out her bedroll.

“No, Astarion, I was a good girl.” She sighed.

He knelt by her as she crawled out.

“A tempting offer. To go home, I mean.” He continued, reaching such levels of sincerity she had to wonder if this was a shape changer already.

“I know. But not one I’m likely to take. Once upon a time, I would’ve. Not now.” Yeah, like three playthroughs ago.

Something shifted in his expression, like a shadow disappearing from his countenance.

“If you don’t mind me saying, I’m glad to hear that.”

“Really? I thought you couldn’t wait to get rid of me!”

“Please, I volunteered to look after your beastie self in the mornings. I certainly wouldn’t have if I didn’t think something of you.”

Oh woooow, where the f*ck was this coming from? Not that she was complaining, in fact, her shoulder devil was making kissy faces at him right now. Was it the blood offer? It had to be; she couldn’t think of anything else she’d done to warrant this turn around.

“That’s morning Belle” she flapped it away.

“It has a name?” he asked, his eyes starting to look more mischievous as they bantered.

“It does, but it won’t respond to it. Say, does Faerun have coffee?”

“What’s coffee?”

She stared at him, horrified. She’d been holding out on the hope it existed here.

“Uh, never mind. I think returning to Earth may be in my best interest.” No f*cking wake up juice? Not on your nelly would she stay in a place without it!

She noticed the shadow return to his face.

“Are you alright?” she had to ask, because something was clearly bothering him.

“I’ve been thinking –“

She gasped, hands clapping to her mouth, eyes rounding.

“Oh, ha-ha, very funny” he drawled.

“I know. I’ve been waiting for it, you left yourself wiiiide open, my friend.”

He paused when she said that.

“Is that what you think we are? Friends?”

“You are really starting to frighten me. Where’s all this …whatever this is…. coming from?”

“Well, if, in a few days, we rescue this Halsin, our time travelling together will come to an end. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that. You’re quite the ally to know, after all…”

Christ, things were out of order. And, honestly, shouldn't he be targeting someone else? Someone more powerful? Like durge (perish the thought!), or, even, ugh yucko, her dad? Rubbing her head, she interrupted him.

“Do you honestly think a druid is going to be able to cure a tadpole that is no way a normal one that easily?”

“I – do you mean he can’t’? Why are we bothering to rescue him, then?”

“Because he’s been studying them. He’ll know something more about them than we do. Ergo, we rescue him to see what he knows.”

“Oh. I see. Well then, never mind what I just said.”

He went to stand up.

“Astarion.” She stopped him, plucking at his sleeve.

“What is it?” he paused.

“I’ll be hanging around a while yet; getting back to Earth is not going to be that easy, I’m afraid.”

“…. good. I mean, not for you, but … still. I was hoping we could continue awhile longer together.”

She nodded at him. He nodded back.

“You!” came Lae’zels’ sibilant hiss. How could she make vowels sound sibilant?

“What?”

Astarion left quickly as the gith approached.

“You know stuff you’re not letting on. I demand to know what you do!”

Oh sh*t, couldn’t she get a break?

Chapter 12: Man of Steel

Chapter Text

The headache kicked in when Lae’zel was halfway through accusing Belle of being a clairvoyant, something she called a ‘senja’si’.

“I’m no ones’ sensei” she shot back, pointing at the giths chest.

When they’d both figured out what the other meant (lots of mouthing of words & eye rolling’s later), she conceded lizard lady had a point. How mighty convenient of her to have raised it, in fact. Made it possible to gloss over future knowledge she might let slip.

Lae’zel wanted her to convince the others to head straight for the creche. Belle rubbed her temples, the ache reaching out into her upper jaw.

“We’ll get there. But other things have to come first. The, uh, the visions said so.”

“Then we survive ceremorphosis that long?”

It was the first time Belle had heard something else other than scorn or downright contempt in the warriors voice. Hope?

“What is wrong?” Lae’zel immediately went on alert as Belle starting working her jaw, fingers digging into the joint as the ache worked its way down into her molars.

“Headache. Started when you came over.” The gith could interpret that how she wanted.

“Is there any nausea? Sweating? Aches or pains?” The concern was clear.

“No, Lae’zel, it could just be coming up to ‘that time of the month.” She often got migraines coming up to period time. Just one more thing to put up with & grin through being a woman, because taking a day off work for period associated symptoms wasn’t recognised as a reasonable excuse.

“I don’t know what that is.”

Fuuuuuck, she really needed to write an encyclopedia for these people. Maybe Gale would help?

She was in no mood to discuss the ovulation cycle with the gith.

“Periods. Bleeding once a month. To have a baby.”

Lae’zel wrinkled her nose.

“We gith – “

“I’m aware you don’t. If you don’t mind, I need to talk to dad.”

Lae’zel closed her mouth, concern etched in her eyes as she turned away.

She’d spotted Gus on his way over while talking with Lae’zel. He’d poked his head into Astarion’s tent & had been there an awfully long, awfully suspicious amount of time. What on earth was he discussing? What on earth was Astarion replying with? She narrowed her eyes at him as he approached.

He held his hands up placatingly before reaching her.

“Before you say anything, I just had a chat, a nice, friendly little chat. Set some ground rules … & some boundaries.”

“What’d you say specifically, old man?” she was gonna flay him alive if he’d upset her little vamp. She was the only one with that privilege, because he was an asshat & needed to be pulled into line occasionally.

“Nothing bad, Belle. Simply stated that we all knew about his nature, & that he shouldn’t feel like he’s not welcome because of it. And, that he shouldn’t feed on any of us, without explicit permission.” He hesitated. “A couple of other things, but that’s between us.” He looked back at Astarion’s tent. “What other powers has the tadpole granted him? Because, frankly, he doesn’t act like any spawn I’ve ever come across before.”

“You think he acts like that because of tadpole powers? Dad, that’s just him.”

“He’s very …”

“Bitchy.”

He nodded.

“As far as the taddie is concerned, in his particular case, it's been a blessing. It broke him free of his master, allows walking in the sun, access to running water & to peoples’ homes uninvited. I did a bit of digging into it, & all his teeth may have been sharp before being infected, now it’s just the fangs. I think he also may have lost spider climb & regeneration.”

“Are you telling me he’s basically human?"

“I think so? You know, apart from being undead & needing to drink blood?” Her headache spread to the base of her skull. She shifted, acid reflux kicking in, & she gave voice to a deep burp.

“Ugh, sorry, must be something I ate.” She rubbed her head again. “Got anything resembling Panadol here dad? Aspirin? Nurofen? Any pain killers that don’t use the weave?”

“Belle? What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s that time of the month coming on.”

He looked her up & down.

“You’ve gone pale, hun.”

“That happens, dad.”

“Hang on, I’ll go get you something, hang on.” He zoomed off, returning in record time with a cup full of water he was stirring something powdery into.

“Get that into you.”

Trusting her dad, she upended the cup, chugging it. Vile, musty & almost pissy tasting water coated her tongue. She gagged & it took all her effort to get her gorge under control.

“What in the f*ck was that?” she spluttered, licking her sleeve to try & get rid of the taste.

“A fungi concentrate. Better than Panadol. It’ll hit you hard in about 20 mins, so we need to quickly sketch out our plans now before it does. After that, you’re out for the night.”

He sat her down, grabbed out the map Wyll usually carried around, & got her to quickly fill in the quests on the other side of the bridge, & the position of enemies. Her eyes were growing heavy before they finished, her headache floating off somewhere, hopefully to annoy Withers. Reality started looking mighty watery at that point.

“Tha’s good sh*t” she slurred at him.

“I know. Go lie down, I’ll fill the others in on what to expect.”

“He’s not gonna run off, is he?”

“Who?” he helped her to crawl back into her tent.

“Ass-tarion.” She collapsed onto her bedroll.

“No, Belle. He’s stayin’.”

“Good, cause he’s my asshat.”

“Ummm, good to know? Should I be worried?”

“Naaahhh, all good da.”

“Get some sleep.”

“Nigh’”.

She fell into a daze, where high pitched ringing kept turning into people’s voices, only to fade off again. Her fingers, toes & tongue felt all tingly. She tried to move them, for them to only twitch at her command. Her stomach churned.

The ringing became clearer after a while. Morphed into some sort of new age hippie music. The grass under her face was soft, but tickly. She didn’t remember going to sleep on grass. Her eyes flew open, & she saw some old Greek (or Roman, it could have been Roman) ruins. Columns & broken stone walls. The grass beneath her was purple. Oh wow, Gus had given her magic mushies to chase away the pain.

Rolling over & sitting up, she froze as she realised she wasn’t alone. About ten steps away was a figure, standing there, arms crossed & regarding her silently. It looked like someone had drawn a human charcoal subject, then smeared it everywhere, obliterating any details. Once it saw she had sat up, it drifted toward her. She watched, bemused, high as a kite from what Gus had given her.

Very quickly, the charcoal figure changed. A long, red cape unfolded behind it, billowing gently. Then a dark blue body suit grew over its skin. Black hair sprouted from it’s scalp, it’s skin became pale & the bluest eyes she’d ever seen watched her serenely. An ‘S’ symbol bloomed on its chest. No. f*cking. Way.

“Superman?”

There in the mental flesh was the man of steel, gliding toward her, wearing a smile that could melt the knickers off any granny.

She leapt to her feet, raced over to the figure, & buried her face in his pecs. For a mental projection, he felt solid enough.

“Don’t you dare sprout tentacles!” she growled at him, voice all muffled in between the giant chesticles where she'd buried her face.

“I have no intention at this stage. You wouldn’t like it.”

Eeeeek, he sounded just like him!

“No, no I wouldn’t.” She looked up at the cerulean blue eyes. Day-um if the emperor didn’t get it right!

“f*ck me” she whispered quietly, reaching up to touch the jaw line that could cut paper.

“We really don’t have time for that” he replied, grasping her hands which had started their exploration over the rest of him.

“Uh, you could call on me every night, in this form, you know?” What was a little wet dream between friends?

Superman chuckled.

“You work quick. But, honestly, that’s not why I’m here.” He guided her over back to the grassy patch.

“I’ve said this before, & I’ll say it again. You know I know you know I know, yeah? I mean, you can read the depths of my mind, so you know I know everything? In which case, there’s nothing hidden from you anymore, & with the pathways available, you’ve got a lot of ammo to work with."

“I admit, your mind has been more … convoluted … than the others. All those pathways. It made for an interesting read.”

“It makes for an interesting game. Won game of the year! You should be proud!”

“To think that Earth has somehow developed a type of clairvoyance is, indeed remarkable. My kind do not usually bother with such backwater worlds, especially one’s so inaccessible.”

Was he dissing Earth? Ex-queeze her very much!

“Who you calling backwater?” Her jaw jutted forward.

“Not Earth, at least, not anymore. The fact they’ve reached the realm of studying quantum physics in such a short amount of time….remarkable! You should make sure that no other illithid finds this out. It would not be … good … for your planet.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

He shrugged.

“That’s helpful.”

“I am sorry. All I can offer is, help me put a stop to the elder brain & the dead three, & I promise to help you find a way to protect Earth from other illithids.”

Oooo, he was good! He presented a problem & a solution. While getting her to help him. Hat’s off, Balduran!

“I’ll help, as long as you consider freeing Orpheus sooner, letting him guard us all instead of keeping him a slave in here. If you read my mind, then you’ll also know it’s a win-win situation. You get what you want, the gith get what they need, we all go home happy.”

Superman’s brow furrowed while he rubbed his chin.

“I did encounter that scenario while in there. I personally would never have entertained it, never thought Orpheus capable of working with an illithid. Your mind shows otherwise.”

His expression cleared, though his eye remained troubled.

“I will consider it more, before making a decision. For now, I have halted your ceremorphosis – “

“Why was it so much like period symptoms?”

Superman balked at the question. Honestly, he’d just plumbed her mental depths & not expected something like that? Just how good a mind flayer was he?

"I – I cannot say. Only, it is now halted again, with the mental shield in place. I will come to you to discuss more strategy as needed, when I can.”

“Nah, go to my dad, he’s better at that sort of thing.”

“You’re the one aware of my true identity, as well as access to knowledge of many pathways that will yield success. It makes more sense to come to you.”

sh*t, really? She hated this sort of responsibility! She barely coped owning & running her own small business, let alone getting in the pilot seat of stopping the Grand Design.

She huffed. Crossed her arms.

“Fine” she allowed. “But only if you continue to look like as you are now.”

“Up to a point; it becomes inconvenient after awhile.”

“Five more times then.”

“Three.”

“Four.”

“Done.”

Chapter 13: Head Butts

Chapter Text

Unbelievably, even to her, Belle woke early the next morning, the pre-dawn light filtering through the canvas of her tent. She felt great! Energized! Like she was in her late teens again! All those pesky little aches & pains one grew to live with as one aged had simply vanished, leaving her body feeling young again! She went to roll out of bed, groaning as those aches & pains came flooding back the moment she moved. Ah, well, it was nice while it lasted.

She supposed the combination of the ‘fungi concoction’ & the emperors …uh … whatever it was he did; she wasn’t a hundred percent sure on what that was technically … had contributed to her getting a good night’s sleep for once. She wondered if the stuff Gus had given her, was addictive, for … science reasons. It had possibly been the worst tasting thing she’d ever consumed, but the effects were pretty rad.

Sitting up, she got a whiff of herself. Oh, pew-yew, she could smell the stuff she’d drank last night, now seeping from her pores. Combined with sour sweat smell, she was getting ripe! Time for another quick wash off, then. Grabbing up her shower gear & fresh pants & shirt, she only had the one corset thing, so had to make do with using it again over the top of the fresh clothes.

Poking her head out of her tent, she spied Lae’zel, doing some Highlander sword stretching exercises. Wyll might be somewhere on patrol, she guessed. No-one else seemed to have stirred. Emerging, she headed on past Astarion’s tent. She stopped as an admittedly evil little idea occurred to her. Grinning, she grabbed up a water canteen by the fire & very carefully, very softly, lifted the flap on his tent, her tongue peeping out the side of her mouth.

No one was home. sh*t! It was such a good plan, too! If she had to guess, she would say he was off hunting somewhere. Well, no use in drawing attention to it. Dropping the water canteen, she squinted as the sun breasted the horizon. It wasn’t a common occurrence for her to be up this early & she wasn’t used to the brightness. Feeling like a vampire herself, she shielded her eyes as they watered, turning left, out of camp, to go & try and find a way down the embankment leading to the stream nearby.

Roughly thirty minutes later of stumbling & crashing her way through the underbrush covering the embankment, it finally plateaued enough for her to reach the water. Her head was down to watch her footing the entire time, & she only lifted it as she approached the water. And swivelled on her feet to head straight back where she’d emerged from, her face going blotchy red.

“OhmygodI’msosorry” her voice came out high pitched in her embarrassment of having caught him unawares, like she’d stubbed a toe. She’d seen him open his eyes before she’d about faced.

The image burned into her retinas was of Astarion, naked as the day he’d been born, facing the dawn with his arms outstretched to greet it. The sun had reflected off his skin, making him glow. Combined with his silver hair, the man looked like an angel of death, beautiful & deadly. Why hadn’t he covered up at her less than graceful approach? She must have sounded like a herd of elephants crashing her way down to him! He’d been facing her way & she’d seen ev-rey-thing!

And, stupidly, her mind chose to focus on that morning coolness had no effect on shrinkage factor for the undead. Her mind’s eye zeroed in on it, while she chanted at it to concentrate on something else, anything else. But her mind refused, because, it had been a while since she’d seen a willie, so it was a novelty.

So, while she blundered her way back up the embankment, clutching her bathing gear in one hand, the other out to balance her, her mind focused in on his co*ck.

‘Was it more purple, or bluer?’ it asked her, analysing the colour.

‘It doesn’t f*cking matter, go back to camp, rinse off later!’

‘Yes, but, if we look at the skin under his eyes, it matches, don’t you think?’

‘Gale will be up now, let’s help him with breakfast!’

‘Do you think it’s pigmentation, or blood supply?’

In the middle of such an argument with herself, her emotions sawing back & forth between embarrassment, hilarity, morbid curiosity & the heat that had bloomed, not just in her cheeks but in her middle, her tadpole decided to wake up & knock heads with his.

She had no idea that you didn’t need to be in eye contact for that to happen. Her tadpole must have found what she’d been concentrating on peculiar, because it felt like her mind expanded, extending an invisible force, like a tube of clear water, taking some of her consciousness with it, to go & ask his ‘hey, buddy, is this normal?’. She felt it hit him with soft force, enveloping his mind, & his own consciousness connected with hers, the two mixing like coloured dye.

And she wasn’t oblivious to what her tadpole shared with his. She’d thought, going on the game, that you were simply presented with brief visions, snippets, of the other’s past without being aware of what was shared from your end. Not so. No, her tadpole took what she’d just been fixating on, & shared that gleefully with his tadpole.

Not only that, but it also took all the interactions she’d ever had with downstairs equipment (both men & women) & shared that across the connection. Having done what she’d done for a living for the past twenty-four years, that was a lot of puss*es & doodles she’d waxed & lasered. Many, many more than the roughly thousand people that Astarion had bedded. sh*t, she’d be falling behind in her kpi’s if she had less than a thousand a year.

But now, his tadpole woke up & said, ‘well now, that’s interesting, here’s what I found that looks like what you’re talking about.’ And then…she saw Astarion in sooooo many positions, fingers working holes, his mouth at work sucking, licking, biting (but not drawing blood because that was forbidden), people making use of his hole (& not just with their body but with objects, sometimes objects that were way too big or …. sharp), people biting him on the balls or even his co*ck … & how he’d crawled up & died inside at every interaction, how he’d pushed everything away, everything aside, because he couldn’t say no, it wasn’t an option, to balk was to incur the wrath of Cazador …

She wrenched her mind completely away from that, breaking that connection, severing it. Panting, she felt tears pouring down her cheeks. Wiping them away viscously, she looked at her own hand that was shaking uncontrollably.

Never, ever had she thought of it in those terms. She’d only ever vaguely thought of it in terms of plain old vanilla sex with those victims of his. The level of depravity she’d just seen, just experienced, she felt like the one who’d been violated.

Belle had always saved the spawn, sending them into the under dark. Thought she was doing the right thing, that every single one of them were innocent. More than half of them had used Astarion in such a feral way, as if he’d just been an animal to f*ck & hurt & leave for dead afterward. Even the ones’ who might have presented themselves as decent during their daily interactions, when lured back, & told that they could indulge any fantasy they’d ever hid away in their deepest, darkest selves … did so.

And Cazador’s presence, not seen, just felt, permeated every single one of those memories, like his very aura increased the violence in an act that should have been fun, or intimate & trusting. A loving act that became an act of hatred, despoiling it. No f*cking wonder he wanted to ascend. She finally, finally understood it.

And how the f*ck could she look him in the eye now? He’d be aware of that horror having being shared, just as she was.

Sniffing, she straightened. Glanced back down the embankment. He was finishing pulling his silly, frilly & what she found darling shirt back over his head, letting it fall over the scars decorating his back. He wasn’t looking her way, seemed fixated on the stream in front of him.

He had the right of it. How could they just approach each other with ‘hey wassap?’ after seeing that? What the hell had he thought she’d done, as well? God, it would have come across as torturing people.

She was pretty sure waxing as a job didn’t exist in Faerun; if it did, it’d be a primitive form & found in the Middle Eastern equivalent. Ergo, she was some sort of BDSM master.

Snorting at that thought, she left, funky smell to be dealt with later.

Arriving back at camp, she dumped her stuff inside her tent & went to help Gale, who gave her a tight little nod.

“You OK?” she asked as he seemed a bit subdued this morning.

“Oh, yes, I’m fine, weird dream visitors in the night aside.” He continued chopping the bacon on the wooden board.

Oh, yeah, Superman. Glad for the distraction, she quizzed him about it.

“Me too. Was yours really, really good looking or what?”

He considered it as he continued chopping.

“More ethereal than good looking. I take it that we shared the same dream, then. What do you make of it?”

“It’s the person shielding us from turning into mind flayers. You can trust them, to a point. I personally wouldn’t consider eating any more tadpoles, but if you want to, be my guest.” In her opinion, Gale was the only one who looked hotter as a half illithid, so she wouldn’t be all that averse if he decided he wanted to.

“Is that those senja’si abilities Lae’zel elaborated on last night?” he paused, looking more interested in her now than in all the time they’d spent together in domicile bliss.

“Yeah, that’s them, all right.” She guessed the lizard had taken the liberty of sharing that with group at large. Now she got to repay the favour & share something about the gith to the party at large, when she could be bothered.

He nodded.

“Then I’ll take your advice with due consideration. What else would you know about this person.”

“Don’t set your mind in stone on how they’re presenting themselves. It’s a projection. A very hot, very convincing projection, but not the real them.” She sighed lustily.

“I take it yours was to your liking then?” he seemed amused at her sigh.

“I invited him back every night, but I think I scared him off.”

Gale went red at that. Wooow, he was easy to embarrass!

“Sorry, Gale, just ignore me when I say stuff like that. It tends to slip out.”

“No apologies necessary, Belle … but I appreciate it, all the same. And, moving forward, I’ll try my best to ignore your more … colourful displays of your personality.”

He paused, his brow crinkling as he put down his knife, his hand going to his chest & kneading it.

“Oh sh*t, are you having a heart attack, or is it gas?” It was a Netherese orb attack, she knew that, but she had to watch her mouth. She’d already slipped once today, not but a few minutes ago.

“No, no, it’s that condition I have. I think I mentioned it when we met?”

“Maybe? I can’t remember. Is there anything I can do?”

“No!” he said quickly, digging at his chest now. He looked up at her. “Neither you nor Gus can help. One of the others, if they can go to my tent, I have a golden mask sitting on top of my trunk. Get them to bring it to me. You’ll have to wait over there with you father.”

She nodded. Made sense, especially seeing as how her & Gus were magical black holes. She beelined for Shadowheart, simply because she appeared to be doing nothing but her little prayers right now, so Belle figured, two birds one stone. Stop Shart praying to the wrong Goddess & get her to retrieve a magical artefact for Gale to consume.

Belle sketched in quickly the situation with the near Sharran, who didn’t look happy to be disturbed, but then, when did she ever look happy? Girl needed to get laid. Barring that, do something fun like go on a rollercoaster or retail therapy.

She retreated to the far end of camp, just outside Gus’ tent. She could hear him inside, grunting & smacking his lips & all the normal morning sounds most men made to announce to the world at large they were awake.

“Hey dad,” she called as she sat by the tent to let him know she was alive after the night before.

“Belle! Morning; you ok now?”

“Yeah, thanks for the magic mushies, worked a treat. How’s your dreams?”

He poked his head out of the tent.

“Funny you should ask, I dreamt of mum last night. We were in this weird Roman place, & she was talking about the tadpoles.”

Oh, f*ck her, she was gonna cry, hearing that on top of what she was currently trying to ignore she’d witnessed in her head earlier. She sniffled, nodded, & concentrated on Shadowheart thrusting the gold mask at Gale. Huh, turned out it was the golden shapeshifter mask.

“It wasn’t mum, dad. Don’t freak out, it was the mind flayer protecting us all.”

He toppled out of the tent.

“What?”

“He uses the shape most attractive to us to put us at ease. Don’t worry bout it. He’s generally good people, insofar as we can trust him to do right by us; as long as we help free him entirely from his elderdbrain. Which happens to be the one producing these mutant taddies.”

“Bloody hell, how do you keep all that in your head? There’s so much to this!”

She shrugged.

“I dunno how to explain it to you, dad. There’s so much that’s changed in just twenty years. The internet was only just getting started in a big way when you … left.”

“What’s computers got to do with this?”

“I learnt everything about what’s going on now through them. The game’s on computer, as well as other devices. If it ever becomes relevant, I’ll explain it. Otherwise, we’ll be here until the elder brain wins before I could cover everything.”

She watched, fascinated, as Gale took the mask, holding it in both hands & in front of his chest. It glowed light blue & disintegrated like it had been left too long in acetone. As it did, she felt something backwash over her, like a tugging sensation, there & gone. Weird. But it didn’t repeat, so she dismissed it.

“I keep thinking I’ve seen everything this place has to offer. Shows how wrong I am.” Gus had watched it as well. He clapped a hand to her shoulder, using her to lever himself up to his feet.

“Time for brekkie, then to hit the road again.”

“I found a place to cross, bout half an hour that way.” She nodded in the direction she’d taken earlier on her disastrous attempt to get clean.

“Good girl, saves us time.” Belle felt a glow at the approval she’d just received, melting some of the horror away that had clung to her in the aftermath of her tadpole waking up. Getting up, she packed up her tent, had a bite to eat for breakfast even though she had no appetite & tried to pretend she didn’t notice when Astarion wandered back into camp.

Chapter 14: The Wonderful Wizard of Waterdeep

Chapter Text

Trudging back through the gully where her tadpole had woken & shared things it never should have, Belle resolutely looked anywhere but where the others were in front of her. More specifically, she avoided the bobbing silver cloud of hair toward the front of the party. Every time she caught sight of him, those images cascaded back down through her mind’s eye. She didn’t think she’d be able to eat now for the foreseeable future.

They ended up having to scale the other side; it was too sheer for them to find anywhere to scramble out safely. Low & behold, that’s where the ropes came in handy. She almost smiled, wondering why’d they’d provided ropes for you to find in game but not having any use for them. Brian also came in handy, being the one at the top of the gully to haul everyone up, one by one.

“Uh, thanks,” she told him, peering all the way up into his crimson eyes. She expected a flash of dark, murderous intent. Instead, she got a quick, bright flash of gratitude.

“You’re welcome” he replied, his oddly cultured voice in stark contrast to his dragonish features & what she knew lie within him. His lips curled slightly in a little smile. Alriiiighty, then. Nodding at him, she fell to the back of the queue as they resumed walking, heading right.

The day had broken out hot & clear, a warm, intermittent breeze kicking up & covering them in a fine layer of road dust. It mixed with her sweat, creating grimy areas & settling in the creases of any exposed skin. Adventuring was the pits! Who’d do this for a f*cking living?

The smell hit them when the breeze wafted past once more. sh*t & piss & blood & guts.

“Oh, uh-uh, you guys can deal with that, I’m out.”

She went to stand resolutely by the side of the road, arms crossed. The others looked back at her, & she made shooing gestures at them. No way she wanted to go stab dying hyenas & deal with ravenous gnolls. Let them do the honours. Only she probably shouldn’t have, because now she was alone her mind once more presented her the horror show again from this morning.

“Withers,” she called out, biting her lip & staring at the other side of the road.

“Dost thou require something?” he materialised beside her.

“Can you wipe memories?”

“No.”

“Please? My head’s gonna replay what I shouldn’t have seen until I’m desensitized to it. That could take a long time. Time we don’t have if I have to concentrate on other things.”

She heard him heave a dry sigh.

“Cans’t thou not bear his pain? It is but a single life, after all.”

The tight knot she’d felt in the base of her throat all morning crept up higher.

“It’s too much – I had no idea, no feeling, for all that … suffering. It’s too much for a single life.”

“His is not the only one – far from it – to bear such pain. Pain & suffering, if handled with grace & shared with those that care, lead to growth of the soul. But to ignore it, hide from it or mask it leads to stagnation, regression & repetition.”

“That man deserves his revenge” she said thickly, wiping her eyes as they began streaming once more.

“Is that for thou to decide?”

And wasn’t that a doozy of a question! It had been for her to decide, every time she’d played the game, in the seat of both the protagonist & the omniscient being in control. Ascend him or not, knowing where each pathway would lead.

“It’s not up to me, is it?” It dawned on her, only now, that while she might be privy to all that helpful information, she could no more control how these people reacted to situations than make those choices for them when they arose. She could only be there for them, if they wanted her to be. Belle realised she needed to up her A game in forging relationships with them if she wanted to influence them toward their best selves. Which meant being genuine. How scary.

The others returned, who knew how much later, maybe midmorning, covered in blood & gore.

“Anyone hurt?” she called out as Gus came over to stand beside her while Gale cast prestidigation on the others, cleaning them up quick smart.

“Just some cuts & such, nothing serious.” Gus assured her, wiping off his daggers on some rags before throwing them casually away on the road. He caught sight of her face.

“You alright, hun? Did something happen?”

“No, I’m fine. Just got a kick up the pants by Withers is all. I’ll deal with it.”

“Do I need – “

“You don’t need to do anything, dad. It’s fine. I’m a big girl now, I just have to act like one.”

He studied her a moment before nodding.

They started out again, Belle walking as far out from the path as possible once they hit the hyena massacre. Were they native to the area? It didn’t strike her as a place that was natural to them, but then, what did she know, really? She wasn’t a geek on the intricacies of Faerun & had only become interested in it again because of the game. The only other time she’d had anything to do with dnd was when she’d been a girl & read the Dragonlance Chronicles, which, she was pretty sure, wasn’t even set in the same world.

“Hey, Gale?” she asked him as he was ahead of her.

“Hmmm?”

“You heard of a Drizzt Do’urden? Or a Raistlin Majere?” She remembered the names, but not the specifics of who they’d been.

He tripped, whipping his head back round to her so quickly she could have sworn she heard it snap.

“Whoa”, she ran up quickly & grabbed his arm, helping to steady him, then stepped away quickly so as not to subject him to her aroma.

“How does an Earthling know those names?”

So, that was a yes.

“You’d be surprised. I’m surprised we seem to know. But that knowledge is presented as fiction, so no one really believes all this is real.” She waved her arms about indicating where they were right now, but also Faerun at large.

They started walking together, albeit Belle keeping the personal distance between them & then some.

“They’re fictional?” His brain gears sped up. It was interesting watching how quickly his brain worked. Not so much when he put two & two together.

“Does Earth know about Toril? About Faerun? …. Us?”

Whoopsie.

“Whaaaat? Nooo, of course not!” She gave a high falsetto laugh.

“Forgive me, but you’re a very bad liar. Is this where you get your fore knowledge from, then? Fictional means on Earth?" He looked hurt. Great. Puppy dog hurt eyes from Gale did not sit well.

Recalling her talk with Withers, she took a deep breath in. Genuine. She was the epitome of genuine. Breathed out.

“We know. But we don’t believe. Nothing like magic exists there, so we make sh*t up. No magic, gods, aliens, elves” (she nodded ahead to Shadowheart & Astarion), “wizards, clerics, vampires etc. etc. Just humans. Just us. No one & nothing else.” She knew people believed in gods back home, but, with no evidence, she didn’t present it as such.

Gale looked thoughtful. Then sad.

“Thank you for sharing that. I imagine you’ve been told not to by our erstwhile scribe companion. I appreciate it. I can’t imagine how … lonely … that must be for you all.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a modern theory going around that we’re all lacking spiritually & it’s leading to epidemic sized problems of disconnection & depression. I think we’re losing ourselves with no clear direction or purpose. We make up for it with addiction, work, losing ourselves to things that aren’t in the end healthy for us….”

“There’s more to you than meets the eye, Belle. I had no idea your thoughts delved so deeply.”

“I try to not let that show. It scares people when I do. Most people I know don’t like to think that deep, or don’t understand why I do it. I don’t either; I can’t help it, it’s just something I’ve always done. To find out later when you’re older that most people don’t think like that is … isolating. So, you stop sharing that part of yourself, so you can appear to fit in more.”

“I find most don’t like it when I get enthusiastic about a topic, either. To cut oneself off from their enthusiasm, however, seems to me like you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

This was turning out to be the best chat she’d had in years! Gale was not only listening to her but reciprocating with his own anecdotes & experiences. A deeply buried part of her moved slightly in response. Opening up herself to others had been stamped out of her years ago by someone to whom she should have been closest with. This was… nice. To listen, share & be heard in return.

She gave him a small smile, a genuine smile, that he returned.

Chapter 15: One Hundred Thousand is a Big City ...

Chapter Text

Early that afternoon they stopped for a short break. Something to eat, drink & a quick rest. Belle still wasn’t hungry, so settled for draining most of her canteen while sitting in the shade of a scrubby bush.

The heat was reminiscent of early summer in Australia, sharp, but easily dispelled by the shade or the breeze. She could feel the slight burn of the sun on her nose & cheeks. Wishing for sunscreen & knowing it was impossible to get her hands on some, she noted to herself to ask Gus if aloe vera existed here, & if she could get her hands on some.

Her wrist, the one she had bandaged up, started itching. She glanced down at it, just to make sure it wasn’t weeping through the cloth. Nothing to be seen, she eased the bandage, trying to ease the itch by putting pressure on it. She had to end up flicking her hand to confuse the nerve endings, which finally settled it down. Looking up, she inadvertently met Astarion’s gaze, fixed on her. They both looked away quickly at the same time.

Feeling awkward & out of sorts, she got to her feet without protest as Gus called out to them all to get moving once more. Shadowheart had swapped places with Gale in the queue, so that now the cleric was the one in front of her. Belle pondered whether to gather up a handful of stones to flick at the woman in front, simply to take her mind off the funk it was in. It’d be entertaining but would do nothing to foster a good relationship with the woman.

Running through her knowledge of the Sharran who wasn’t, all she could remember was that Shadowheart liked some sort of night flower; she was as poly as Halsin & a terrible shot even at point blank range. Admittedly, the character was not her favourite & so she hadn’t spent a lot of time with her as a companion. Shart was pretty much a blank slate for her. Ok, blank slate it was. Start from the start.
“Hey, Shadowheart, is that your real name or stage name?”

The dark braid swung only slightly to the side as the woman deigned to acknowledge her.

“I chose it.” She replied in that ‘why are you talking to me, commoner?’ voice that rubbed Belle the wrong way.

Biting back her immediate retort, she tried again.

“Ok … you’re from the Gate, like Astarion, yeah? How big is it?”

Shadowheart sighed.

“In terms of what? And please, I’m not a tour guide like Gale.”

What. A. Bitch.

“Population.”

“Roughly 100,000 people. It’s smaller than Waterdeep, but still substantial.

“Only 100,000 people?”

“It’s a large city.” She narrowed her eyes, then asked her own question.

“How many people live in … I assume it’s a city. Where you live?”

“Just over 5 million.”

Shadowhearts’ eyes widened in disbelief at what she’d just heard.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s not even our biggest city.” Belle couldn’t keep the smugness from her reply.

“You’re telling me … “ she fell back to fall into line with Belle;

“ … the city you live in, one single city, contains the same amount of people as … as Thay?”

“If Thay has roughly five mil, then yeah?” she shrugged nonchalantly.

“How many people does this Earth, contain?”

“Roughly 8 billion. We’re incredibly overpopulated.”

Shadowhearts jaw dropped open. She corrected the oversight immediately but couldn’t keep the awe from her eyes.

“I heard you telling Gale that you have no gods there. None at all.” Shadowheart switched the topic out.

“That’s right. Well, none like what you have here. People have their belief & religious systems, but we don’t get any displays of anyone being there on the other side. No one has personally met a god, face to face.”

The cleric’s eyes darkened as a thought occurred to her. She went quiet, focusing on following the others. That turned out to be the end of their conversation. Not as satisfying as Gales’, but a start, she supposed.

The toll house came into view later in the afternoon. Her mind had numbed itself with the hypnotic sameness of the scenery they’d been passing for the last few hours, so at least she hadn’t had to put up with the visions from that morning. Of course, as soon as she realised she hadn’t thought about it, back they came with a vengeance. Wondering if she could bash out those visions & feelings on a tree trunk, or even a nice, flat rock, she followed the others blindly.

Gus led them down the trail that split off toward the stream. She’d wanted, desperately, to tell both Gus & Wyll that it was Karlach they were picking up. Gus, so he’d be prepared to step in & deal with Wyll; Wyll so that Gus wouldn’t have to step in & deal with him. In the end, she’d bit her tongue, letting them have their free agency. All she could do, should Wyll decided to be a dick about it, was help Gus in restraining him.

Belle noticed some of the leaves on the nearby bushes were brown & dry, as they stood out clearly against the greenery. Dead. Scorched, even. Looking forward, she could see the stream coming into view. Rushing forward, she bolted past the others, shoving her way to the front with Gus, squeezing herself in past Brian (whom she tried desperately to not touch, those hands & arms had been deep in rotten meat), & Astarion (whom she also tried not to touch, because he didn’t need any more touching from anyone), resulting in her feeling like the meat in a grinder.

She was, in turn, bowled out of the way by Wyll, who’d also rushed forward, brandishing his sword & yelling his ‘advocatus diaboli’ schtick. Belles’ adrenaline kicked in, slowing everything down, including her thought process & so, she grabbed the warlock in a tackle from behind, & wrenched him backward on top of her. She wasn’t a petite or even small woman, average would be best to describe her, but Wyll was nothing but muscle, & as he landed on her, it drove all the air from her lungs, winding her severely.

Her chest pinched down hard, & wouldn’t relax, no matter how much she gasped & clawed for air. She was only vaguely aware when Wyll’s weight disappeared, because she could roll to the side in an effort to re-gas her lungs. She heard yelling. Feet moved & stamped all around her. Someone started rubbing her back. That was nice. Her eyes were streaming tears, making her vision swim.

Once she could drag in a sip of air, she could also then push herself up into a sitting position. Wiping her eyes & face with her sleeve, she continued to gasp air until it became easier.

“Better?”

She looked around at Gale, who’d been doing the honours. That was nice of him, but ... mental note to self, make sure Gale didn’t fall in love with her. Knowing this bunch of misfits, all it would take would be a sneeze to set them off.

“Thanks, dude.” Keeping it friendly, but not seductive. That was her mission.

“I don’t know what that is, but I’ll presume it’s something friendly.”

“That it is, that it is.”

“That was awesome, you should’ve seen the look on Wyll’s face!” A huge red blob squatted down beside her. “I’m Karlach, by the way; I’d shake your hand, but I’d burn it off!”

Belle looked up, & up, (why were there so many giant people here?) & found the smiling face of her second most favourite character beaming down at her. She thought she’d react all excited to see her. Thought she’d be over the moon. She was but, instead of matching Karlach’s energy, she opened her mouth & started bawling her head off instead!

“Oh, that’s no good, are you hurt?” Karlach’s concern just made it worse!

“I I’m a-all goo-ood. Just nee-ed a crry!”

“Ohhh, that’s fine, hang on a tick!”

Belle buried her face in her hands while Karlach went all Mama K on the rest of them, including Gus, & herded them back up the trail away from her. She came stomping back down, squatting beside Belle again, obviously comfortable on waiting this stupid crying fit out.

“If I had something that wouldn’t catch fire, I’d give it to you”.

“I’ve got my sleeve.” She held up the now saturated arm.

“I think you need to swap sleeves.” There was just the right amount of amusem*nt to her voice.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. Everything’s just been …”

“A sh*t-show? Ballsup? Clusterf*ck? I, personally, can relate.”

She looked up to Karlach, heatwaves baking off her, holding a hand to her chest. Now it was quieter, she could hear the infernal engine, clanking away in the tieflings’ chest.

“Yeah, a legacy of being of being sold to the hells” Karlach looked down to her own chest, having followed Belle’s line of sight.

“I can’t imagine. I’m glad we found you, though. Welcome to the tadpole survivor’s society, where we’re all f*cked & f*cked up.”

Karlach’s’ smile split into a grin.

“Sounds like I’ll fit right in then.”

Chapter 16: Gus Steps In

Chapter Text

Gus led the band of hotheads back up to the base of the hill where the path forked. He was worried about Belle, but not overly concerned. He would have been more concerned had she continued bottling everything in & not displayed an outburst before much longer. It was good for her, & he suspected that this Karlach would be good people for her.

The odd lot of companions took the opportunity to break. Wyll went to brood off on his own. That was fine, too. He was a good lad, his moral compass strong and compassion for people laudable. Personally, he couldn’t understand why Ravenguard had been so quick to dismiss his own son. He suspected he’d let his own pride get in the way as he’d gotten higher in the Gate’s politics. If he ever caught up with him, he’d love to give him a piece of his mind …

Brian sat down beside him, knees drawn up, plucking at a blade of grass. For a Baahlspawn he seemed quite complacent to Gus. Still, he didn’t want to make any more mistakes that led to like what had occurred the other night. He’d hated having to tell the large sorcerer that they had to tie him up, even more that he’d been threatening the others. The look in Brians' eyes had been a mix of confusion, sadness & resignation. And a flicker, there & gone, of something darker. It had to have been this ‘killing urge’ Belle had warned him about. In response he’d since been tossing up whether it’d be a good idea to let Brian go in killing things to his hearts content to get it out of his system; or if that might not feed that need to kill.

The two ladies headed to opposite sides of the group. No love lost there, but he found it ridiculous they couldn’t see how similar they were & just work together. They’d be quite formidable in combat if they did that. He’d been chipping away at them both, planting seeds here & there to wake them up to it. For now, he’d wait to see if anything sprouted from it. If not, he might suggest they simply punch it out one night, no weapons allowed. He loved that about Faerun; some problems were actively encouraged to be sorted by fisticuffs.

The biggest problem, as far as Gus was concerned, was the spawn, who flopped down in the shade, sighing heavily & making a show out of it. He didn’t like how quickly a bond had developed between Belle & the vampire. Tapping his upper arms, his mind worked at ways he could keep the two separated without making it obvious. Despite Belle’s suspicions, he had yet to warn the spawn away from her. Being blunt wasn’t always a smart tactic & often backfired in these types of matters.

It didn’t help matters that his daughter had hinted at what had happened over the last two hundred years to him. It meant this had to be handled like surgery. Carefully & precisely. Right now, what could he give the spawn that would ingratiate him to Gus, while taking him away from Belle?

He ambled over to the spawn, who peered up at him as he stood over him.

“Oh hello, what can I do for you?”

Good lord, he would have had those fangs knocked out of his mouth if he’d been on Earth, back in Gus’ younger days. The foppishness would have been enough to label him a poof, & that would’ve been that. In his time in Faerun, Gus had dealt with so many different sorts by now he’d grown used to it, but he wasn’t sure how to fit that in when thinking about this … man … with his daughter. Luckily, that wasn’t going to be a thing, if he had any say in it.

“I need you to go with Wyll & scout the toll house. Go, see, come back. Think you can do that?”

“Really?” he whined. “We’ve only just stopped.”

Gus didn’t react, just gave him a ‘look’.

The spawn sighed theatrically.

“Fine, fine, I suppose I could.”

He heaved himself to his feet with more mutterings & dragged his feet heavily over to Wyll, where he pointed back at Gus. Wyll turned, nodded, & the two took off.

Gus sat, waiting for them to return. He spied red movement coming up the path, which resolved into the giant tiefling woman & Belle, winding their way back up the path.

“All good, daddio” Karlach waved to him, going to pat Belle on the back but remembering at the last second & turning the gesture into running her hand through her own hair instead.

Belle came & slumped beside him; her face blotchy from crying.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She mumbled to him, her voice snotty sounding still from the outburst.

“Don’t be. It’s a bit much, what’s happened in the last few days. It had to come out sooner or later. You aren't hurt, are you?” He wrapped her in beside him, warmth spreading through him as she lay her head in his shoulder, shaking it to indicate no. Gods, he’d missed this! His little girl, all grown up now, & by some miracle reunited with him in another world. He wasn’t a stupid man, he suspected there was something more than coincidence going on, but what that might be eluded him.

He glanced down at her hand, clutching his arm, where the indent of a ring remained on her wedding finger. It looked recently removed. One of these nights, he was going to make sure he caught up on what had happened to her over those lost years. Surely things would settle down enough to allow that.

Wyll returned shortly afterward, the spawn following. That was something else Gus had noted; he always followed, never led. Too used to being told what to do. He frowned at the thought. He might not like the idea of something between his daughter & the spawn (they hadn’t noticed anything; thank god they both appeared blind in that area), but he hated power trippers lording it over others. He’d seen enough of it back on Earth, let alone here, where it seemed to be tenfold in comparison. He sighed mentally. Looks like he was gonna have to teach the spawn to think for himself.

“What’d you find?” he called to them. He felt Belle shift before burying her head in his chest.

“Four. They appear to be on their guard, but exhausted. We could take them now, before nightfall, if you wanted.” Wyll gave his report, the spawn pretending to look everywhere but at his daughter. He had to mentally settle his hackles before answering.

“Let’s f*cking go!” Karlach stood enthusiastically, making a fist.

“Some of you. The rest will be on standby. You” he pointed to Karlach, who voiced a ‘hells yes’, fist pumping the air;

“Brian” the dragon born looked up, gave a ‘who, me?’ look before standing & moved to join Karlach.

“Lae’zel” who just nodded, folded her arms & waited, &, finally,

“Astarion”.

“What? Why?”

Gus made himself look into those blooded eyes.

“Easy. Fresh blood. Go to town.”

The spawn’s expression changed, going from mild annoyance to one of hungry killer.

“When you put it like that …” he turned to the others, “…what are you waiting for? Let’s go, already!”

Blood. Blood was the way to the spawn’s heart. He’d offer the spawn as much blood as he wanted, which would negate any need for him to go anywhere near his Belle.

Chapter 17: Sausages, Again?

Chapter Text

Belle distracted herself from the worst day she’d had yet by setting up her tent. Finally, after that was completed, she could go & wash off with not a chance of stupid coincidental sh*t stopping her from doing so. Once more grabbing up her fresh clothes, soap & rags, she trotted off down the trail to where they’d found Karlach.

Thank god they’d found the tiefling woman; Belle wouldn’t have known where to look afterward had she not been there. They may have run across her later at some point, but the big red woman was an asset they couldn’t do without, in her humble opinion.

Putting her things aside, she stripped off her outerwear, peeled off the boots & waded into the water up to her knees. f*ck she couldn’t wait until she could bathe in hot water, this was getting old, quickly!

Scrubbing herself thoroughly, she untied the knot on her wrist to check the wound. It had clotted, looked a bit red with inflammation but otherwise no sign of infection. Flexing her wrist, it felt tender, but that was normal.

Drying off as much as possible before heading out of the water, she slipped on the fresh, no-colour cotton shirt. Peering at the ground, she stood on some rocks instead of simply stepping out onto the mud, not wanting to smear mud down the insides of her fresh change of pants. Balancing precariously, she managed it, silently cheering her own efforts. It was the small things, honestly.

Stamping the boots back on, she headed back up the trail where she could smell cooking food wafting back down to her. Was she hungry yet or not? Hurrying along, she crested the rise, & saw Gale & Gus cooking side by side. Looked like her night off. Fine by her. She wondered if Shadowheart had any good vintages stashed away, & not just the sh*t shared out from what they’d all managed to find.

Dumping her gear back in her tent, she went to check. The goth girl was cross-legged once more outside her tent, eyes closed & fingers working over what looked like a rosary. She wondered what sort of prayers one would offer an evil goddess. ‘Goddess bless me with forgetting sh*t’ didn’t seem like a good choice to her. Maybe these idiot Sharrans needed a dose of ADHD to really understand what that was like.

“Yo” she greeted as she approached.

Shadowheart sighed, cracked an eye open, closed it & resumed her prayers. Belle recognised a dismissal when she saw one.

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything sweeter in the alcohol department rattling round your tent, would you?” Just because she was dismissed wasn’t an actual reason to leave.

“For the love of … “ she slammed down her beads & glared at Belle.

“Do they do anything? Is it like a system where you can contact your goddess directly & she answers straight away? Cause I know of a better system –“

“They’re for meditation. I use them to mediate on my goddesses’ edicts & teachings, but on also how I can better serve her. It also allows me to calm down, so I don’t end up killing camp mates.”

“Ohhh, like a zen garden. Gotcha.” The threat floated right on by the goalkeeper.

“Whatever. And no, I haven’t found anything sweeter than sawdust out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Bugger. Is there anything sweeter than the piss we’ve been swilling? In the Sword Coast, I mean?”

“There’s several, actually.” She held up her hand & ticked some off. “Golden Sands Brews; Highwater Ale; Luiren’s Best & Belbuck to name a few. Like the sweeter ones, do you?”

“I do. You guys got co*cktails here?”

Shadowheart looked intrigued but shook her head.

“OMG when we get to Baldur’s Gate, you, me Lae’zel & Karlach are gonna have a girlie night in while the boys can go bugger off somewhere. I’ll teach you how; it’s gonna be the best night!” she squealed in excitement at something to look forward to.

The light caught Shadowhearts’ face just right, & Belle might have seen it hike into something other than resting bitch face.

“I – I don’t think I’ve ever had a ‘girlie night’ before. It doesn’t sound half bad. Could we leave the gith out of it though?”

“No. Can you imagine a drunk Lae’zel? That would be worth ignoring wanting to kill her for!”

The cleric considered it without committing.

“Anyways, I think I’m going for an early one. I’m f*cked!” she toodle-ooed Shadowheart, who half raised her hand before she caught herself, dropping it like a hot stone once she realised what she’d gone to do.

“Belle, come here a moment” Gus called her over to the fire, looking like he was dishing up sausages onto a plate. He handed it to her as she sat beside him, but she refused.

“I’m sick of sausages, no offense dad.”

“You need to keep your strength up, hun. I bet this is a lot more activity you’re doing now than you were used to back home.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m not a big fan of fatty beef products anyway. Makes me queasy. You eat it” she shoved the plate back at him.

“I’ll have to try to get some more ingredients so I can prepare a more refined menu” Gale commented, from the other side of Gus.

“All good Gale. I just wanna hit the hay; today’s been … tough.”

“All right sweetie. I want to see you eat brekkie in the morning though, ok?” Gus replied, his tone brooking no argument.

“Yes dad. You’re such a worry wart!”

“Someone’s got to look out for you. And I suppose the rest of this bunch.”

“You’re such a dad, dad. At least there’s boys here you can go do all those boy things with you tried with me.” She laughed. “Remember the time you tried to teach me how to use a shotgun?”

Gus paused, recalling the incident. Mirth lit up his face.

“I remember having to stop you from swinging it around at me whenever I asked you a question.”

“I remember you shoving the barrel to the ground when I did.”

“What’s a shotgun?” Gale asked, intrigued.

“Use your taddie, dad. Show him.” She got to her feet, dusting off her backside from the debris on the log.

“You can do that?” he asked, dubiously.

“You can. Used to be a penalty for doing so in early access, but they removed it for the full game. Go on, use that little sucker like a movie projection. Little f*cker should earn it’s keep, anyways.”

“Are you sure there aren’t any side effects?” Gale asked her, worry etching his countenance.

“Some humanity, I think. We’re all lacking to a degree in that department anyway. Don’t say you’re not” she pointed a finger at the wizard who had opened his mouth to protest. “I’m senja’si, remember, I know things from your past as well!”

“You’re an impossibly well-informed Earthling, not a senja’si.” He pouted, subdued by her threat of knowing things about him she shouldn’t.

“I’m beginning to like the sound of it. Better than ‘fraud’, which is what we generally refer to clairvoyants as.”

Sounds began to filter down through them all from the path leading up to the toll house. Belle looked up but couldn’t see the returning party yet. And she was in no way ready to see Astarion at this point. She didn’t know if she ever would be after that morning. Which was sad, because she liked the weird love/hate thing they had going on.

“I’m going to bed. Wake me if anyone’s dead” she dived back into her tent, tying up the cords quick smart.

She told herself she was not avoiding him, but of course she was.

Chapter 18: Cone of Silence

Chapter Text

It was Gus who woke her the next morning. Not that she wasn’t happy to see him, but she felt a pang that her backpack hadn’t been wrenched out from under her head. Was that weird? That was weird, right? She didn’t have time to even bitch at him before he thrust the cup of tea in her hands & left her to her devices. She sighed, staring at the roof of the tent until the cup grew too hot in her hands & she put it down so she could sit up & stare at the wall of the tent instead.

The usual bustling & voices could be heard outside the tent flap. She watched it unenthusiastically. Uh oh, looked like her dopamine hit of finding herself in Faerun had run its course. All she had to look forward to now was more f*cking bush hiking, killing goblins, then the tiefling party, where she would get drunk & hide herself away in her tent to avoid temptation. Or, maybe, she could entice Halsin to go for a walk in the woods with her. That could work, couldn’t it? And, if not, there was always some hottie tieflings’ she could fling herself at.

Ugh, birth control, though. And safe sex! f*cking hell this world sucked at times! There was probably an herbal remedy to it, but she’d have to hunt one down, which she couldn’t be bothered with. She chugged the tea, threw the cup at the now doused fire, narrowly missing Wyll, & wrestled her tent into messy submission, all the while swearing at it as if it had offended her.

She felt like one of those cartoon characters as she fell into last position (except for Withers, wherever the f*ck he was hiding behind her), the ones with the gloomy rainclouds poised above their heads, pissing down rain on them. They walked & walked, the scenery did it’s thing in not changing much, snippets of conversation not involving her drifted back to her on the breeze.

“I’m bored. Can’t I go home? Withers, can’t you zap in some f*cking motorbikes or cars, or even some f*cking nukes? Let’s go nuke the bitch, get it done with so I can go chill with Netflix!”

Gale looked back at her as if she’d gone mad. Well, she had! With boredom! Withers didn’t even bother answering her on that one. f*cking mummy man who’d gone & f*cked up everything. How did one go about f*cking over a god of death, anyhow?

She was lost in thought on that subject when it slowly became apparent that she wasn’t walking by herself anymore. The elegant arm swinging beside hers was certainly not hers, & she didn’t own jewellery like that. She looked to her right, where a woman now occupied the space previously taken up by air.

“Who the f*ck’re you?” she politely enquired of the lady, draped in a beautiful dark dress that Belle wouldn’t have minded for herself. At a f*cking ball. Who goes bush walking in a f*cking evening gown?
Gale, surprisingly, didn’t look back at her. Maybe he’d had enough, or just come to the conclusion that she was having just another bad day & it was better to leave her to her own ramblings.

“I’m the one who organised your transportation here.” Her voice was all echoey, reminiscent of Withers. Belle narrowed her eyes at the bitch.

“Great. Now send me home. Now.” She didn’t care who this one was, she was sick to death of gods & goddesses & devils. All they did was take your life & upend it, no answers given as to why.

“Jergal did warn me, but I must say, your vocabulary … I’m not accustomed to being referred to in such a manner.” There was no inflection in her tone. None. It was like she was a newbie teenager at their first debate club, reading the lines verbatim from their notes.

“Get used to it. I’m not genuflecting for the likes of you or any of your kind. Why am I here?”

The elegantly dressed goddess (Belle knew all about how one presented oneself & how that could be used as a weapon; used to put someone in their place; used to make others feel like they should bow & kowtow to the better dressed ones; she simply imagined this woman dressed like the rest of them; worked a treat) turned to regard her. The whiskey-coloured eyes were wise, & deep, and utterly human looking.

“I know who you are” Belle said, suddenly superimposing a purple glow over this woman. She stabbed a finger at her. “You’ve got some nerve calling on me when you’ve left him in limbo” she thumbed at Gale, who was absolutely oblivious to his own goddess strolling along behind him.

“Gale has a lot to learn if he intends to fulfill his role as my chosen. It is for his own benefit that I do this.”

“You didn’t think to tell him that?”

“Do you think me simply telling him would change him? Gale’s hubris must be tamed from the inside; he must know it in his bones. Suffering leads to change; change leads to true growth of the soul.”

Where had she heard that before? And why were they deigning to share this with her? Why not Gus? He was Tav, after all, she was just along for the ride. Speaking of,
“Whatever. Why am I here? Do I have to suffer as well to lead to this change? This growth? For what purpose?”

Mystra’s face changed, warmth suffusing the previous stillness she’d displayed.

“He is right. You do see beyond, when guided. Many, many more do not. To answer your question: just like your father was brought here for his purpose in this, you have your own to fulfill, at the end. I simply wanted to call in to check your progress. Personal curiosity, shall we say.”

Belle stared at her, waiting for more. When it became clear no more was forthcoming, she couldn’t help herself.

“That’s it? That’s all your going to tell me?”

“For now. Yes.”

“How come your magic still works around me? Shouldn’t the weave collapse in my presence?”

Mystra’s lip curled up on one side.

“You’re not strong enough for your ability to work on me like that. Yet.”

And she ‘poofed’ out of existence, the air collapsing back in, making a little sound like someone slapping a cheek.

Yet? What the f*ck did that mean?

“Gale?”

“What?”

Now he could hear her. Made sense Mystra had covered them with the cone of silence.

“You’re goddess sucks, man.”

“Where in the hells did that come from? Are you looking to get killed, because, if she heard that, you’d end up on the pointy end of a lightning bolt. Seriously, just because you don’t have gods like ours on Earth doesn’t mean you can go around slandering them here.”

“And yet, I’m still here. Funny that, isn’t it?”

He looked around them, looking like he fully expected a lightning bolt out of the blue to smite them where they stood.

“Just promise me you won’t go mouthing off at any of the deities here. Or devils…. or any other entity you can think of.”

“Maybe. It depends on if they’re dicks or not. Most of them have been, so far.”

“Just because they’re … not what you’re used to…”

“Say it. Say they’re dicks. You know you want to.”

“I will not!...even if they are” she heard him mutter under his breath as he turned resolutely back around.

She felt better, now that she’d led Gale into sin with her.

Chapter 19: Yeenoghu

Chapter Text

Gus halted them all as they approached the last group of gnolls before they started the trek to Waukeens’ Rest, planned for the next day. Belle was in a mood where she thought she might like to see, in real life, from the safe vantage point of as far away as possible, what the other’s looked like in a fight. She spied an elevated, craggy outcropping & sat down in a little, hard to spot area that gave her a great view of the area below. Gus cautioned her to keep quiet & not draw attention to herself. She nodded on her way over.

The outcropping was just out of range to be effective for any of the others to use (not that the magic users in the group would come anywhere near her when fighting, her ability noshed away all their magic supply so that they were useless in a fight).

She watched as her dad swept wide of the gnolls & kept clear of the others, readying his bow as he went. This was freakin’ awesome! The others spread out, crouching & skirting the edges of the aimlessly wandering gnolls. She could just see the entrance to the cave from where she sat, & wondered if they would end up freeing the trapped Zentarim or let the gnolls feed. Either or, in her opinion. Secretly, not so deep down, she was hoping one of the others would go tadpole to tadpole with the gnoll leader & command the bitch to eat herself. That would be so, so gross, yet oddly satisfying to see.

At a signal from Gus (how weird to see everyone just obey his commands like that; not like her, god no, she remembered telling him he was a horrible parent at one stage when he tried telling her what to do when she’d been sixteen), they launched their attack; arrows & spells flew through the air, whistling or making odd, compaction sounds as they landed; someone had launched a thunder bolt arrow, & the explosion was fantastic!

Before she knew it, she was on her feet. Fists clenched, she was bouncing on her toes, hurling abuse at the gnolls in between hollering encouragement at the fighters. It was like watching your favourite footy team live at the stadium.

She looked down in surprise at her feet as a gnoll suddenly sprang up, snarling & stinking to the high heavens. Her jaw dropped as an arrow blossomed between its eyes & it toppled backward & off the crag. She looked up to see Astarion, bow raised, who’d just saved her life. Her face broke out in a grin, & she gave him the thumbs up on both hands.

“My hero!” she yelled & was surprised to see him flourish a bow in her direction before going back in for more murdery fun. She chuckled, suddenly feeling a hundred percent better than yesterday. Then she saw Brian, in brainlock with the gnoll leader, both trembling & snarling, vying for dominance.

‘Make it eat itself’ she projected (well, thought she did; if anyone had looked at her then they might have thought her constipated). But something must have got through, because, next minute, it started tearing into its own arm.

“Oh, ewwww, so disgusting” she breathed, watching avidly as it literally consumed its own limbs, hands, feet & what it could reach of its legs. All that was left was a writhing torso, snarling up at the white dragon born as he reached down & casually ripped it’s throat out, stuffing the throat back into the jaw of the beast. “So f*cking cool.” She kinda wished she coulda’ had that ability when dealing with some rotten clients at times back home.

She trotted over to them as they looted the corpses or cleaned off their weapons.

“What’d you think?” Gus asked her as she approached.

“You couldn’t hear what I thought?” she’d been yelling loud enough.

“I could. And I thought I’d warned you to keep quiet & not draw attention to yourself.”

“All good. Only one got near me. Astarion killed it. Dead. One shot. Right here.” She pointed between her eyes. Out the corner of her eye she saw him hold his head higher & preen a bit. Nice. Hopefully that meant they could go back to sh*t-stirring each other. Gus, on the other hand, gave Astarion a look from under his bushy brows. She couldn’t quite interpret it. It wasn’t one she was familiar with. Her dad ended up nodding to him, once, before turning to deal with the cowardly Zentarim who were only now emerging from the cave.

She, however, was full of energy from having witnessed them fighting. It made her want to buckle down & practice harder to get to a stage where she could at least stab something. She took out her own sword, unused as yet, looking at it critically as the sun twinkled off it. Looked to the carcass of a nearby gnoll. Had never stabbed a humanoid creature before, & they were already dead, sooooo….

“Why are you stabbing it? It’s dead, dear.” Astarion asked her in his ‘you’re really, really weird & I’m just gonna point it out to everyone’ tone.

“Get the feel of it” she replied, pulling out the sword & stabbing the beast again, in a different spot. “I’m great at filleting fish or chopping up a chook, but a majority of Earthlings don’t go round like you lot getting all stabby with other humans.” She paused, sawing the sword back & forth, making the corpse issue forth some funky sounding squishes. “Actually, depends on where you are. Certainly not from where I’m from.”

“You live in a city of over five million people, & you don’t stab each other?” Shadowheart had been listening in.

“Well, there’s murders, but they’re always investigated. Generally, though, no.”

“Did you just say five million…” Astarion had turned to Shadowheart, who nodded.

“One city” she said, holding up a single finger. “One.”

Belle ignored them, really getting into the stabby stabby now. She hit something that belched out an enormous stink.

“Ok that’s enough of that” Astarion grabbed her & hauled her away from the deflating corpse.

Chapter 20: Twenty Years

Chapter Text

Inside the cave it had seemed redundant in setting up the tents, so they’d just laid out the bedrolls in a wide ring around the larger fire Wyll had got going earlier. Gus had taken the opportunity to catch up with Belle, asking her what she’d been up to for the last twenty years he’d been absent. He handed her a cup of sour wine.

Sipping it & pulling a face, she answered succinctly.

“Got married, then divorced. Started a business. That’s pretty much it. Oh, found out I’m neuro-spicy, too.”

“Belle.”

“Hmm?”

“Care to elaborate?”

She sighed, running a hand through her hair & taking a large swig of the foul drink.

“It’s a long, exhausting story, dad. I settled at an early age for what turned out to be Mr. Not Right for Me. Someone who was more about presenting masks in public than about substance in a personal relationship. A workaholic that never took the time for us, even for birthdays or special occasions. He believed that me asking those things of him was selfish of me. Plus, turned out, after many, many years of lack of intimacy, not just in the bedroom, but emotionally, he was asexual. I believed it was me. That I was in some way horribly undesirable. And he reinforced that by not answering my questions as to what I’d done wrong. Would have been nice to know that before committing myself to a life of celibacy, & being told I was too much in asking for a shred of affection like a cuddle or the touch of a hand.”

She finished off the cup & tilted it toward Gus for a refill. He obliged, looking sad.

“People have it way worse, I know that. There wasn’t physical abuse. Just … absence. Neglect. For twenty years. That’s ok. I worked at understanding a lot of it before I left. In a way, my understanding was the catalyst for me to leave. He wasn’t a bad person; just bad for me.”

“Oh Belle, I’m so sorry. What’d mum think of all this?”

“Mum … didn’t help. She … sort of took his side. She’d say stuff like ‘if you only tried harder’, or ‘maybe if you kept the house cleaner’. She implied it was my fault that he was treating me that way. Sorry, dad, I know you love her, & I do to, but I …. don’t like her. She’s what we call toxic, these days.”

She watched him sigh, rubbing his creased eyes with his age spot covered hand.

“I should have been there. I could have done something … “

“Like what? You remember, don’t you, I could never be told I was wrong. I look at it as a really long lesson I had to learn in order to grow ….” hold the phone, that seemed to be a recurring theme, lately.

“You were a teenager. All teenagers behave like that, thinking they know everything, & the parents know nothing.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll never know now, anyway. Can we not talk about it anymore, please?”

She hated talking about it. She felt like a whiny little bitch who shouldn’t complain because she had nothing to complain about.

Belle felt that, for all that could be gained from the experience, was that she now knew better. Not everything, & not everything was any one persons’ fault. It was just … life. And, right now, she’d somehow managed to break free of her old one, for a time, at least, & dive headfirst into navigating herself through this bit of it.

All in all, she didn’t think she was ballsing it up too badly; she’d wait until Act 3 before finding that out, anyway.

Chapter 21: Drinking Game

Chapter Text

And after that exhausting exercise (much more exhausting than traipsing around the bush for the last few days) Belle got drunk. f*ck it, she deserved it, & future Belle could worry about the hangover she’d suffer in the morning. She normally didn’t bother drinking now; but it didn’t mean she didn’t know how to do it when she wanted to.

She’d convinced Shadowheart, who needed no convincing whatsoever, to go & get a bottle of cold wine for her out of the magical fridge they carried around.

“Need a drinking partner?” the cleric had offered as she’d handed over the bottle. Belle looked up at her from her cross-legged position on her bedroll.

“You know what? Absolutely! Pull up a chair!”

She waited until Shadowheart had selected her own beverage, before re-joining her.

“Are you any good at drinking?” Belle eyed the goth challengingly.

“You’ve got to be joking. I can hold my own” Shadowheart accepted the challenge.

“Show me, then.”

Shadowheart took a long draught from the bottle, gasping & wiping her mouth as she downed a third of it in one go. She smiled viscously at Belle.

“You’re turn.”

Belle upended the bottle, having given it a sharp flick as she did so. The entire bottle disappeared down her throat in less time than Shadowheart had taken for hers.

The half-elves’ eyes widened in disbelief.

“How in the goddesses name did you do that?”

Belle gave voice to a deep, ladylike burp that reverberated throughout the cave.

“I’m an Aussie, hun, you’ll never outdrink one of us.”

“We’ll see about that.”

She tried to emulate what Belle had done, only ending up wasting the wine, having half of it pour from her mouth as she couldn’t keep swallowing fast enough.

“Lightweight” Belle commented good naturedly. “Wanna know how it’s done?”

She went to get up, only both ladies were presented with a bottle each. Looking up, Astarion was offering them more, with an encouraging, evil smile.

“I have got to get in on this” he commented, pulling a third bottle out of who knew where & seating himself beside the both of them. All three uncorked the bottles.

“Right. Trick to downing it quickly. You’ve got to get the liquid moving fast, like a tornado. Kills the resistance going down.”

She showed them the flick of the wrist. Astarion got it straight away, Shadowheart took a couple of goes.

“Good, that’s good. Now. The tricky part. You’ve got to … erhm… suppressyourgagreflex”

She kept her eyes on Shadowheart saying that. The other woman took a hot second to understand, & simply nodded. Astarion, however …

“Easy”.

Of course he’d say something like that, in that tone, the one he used for picking locks.

“Well then, you’ll be a natural at this, won’t you” she replied, facing him, Dutch courage kicking in now that the alcohol was starting to worm its way through her veins.

His smile deepened as he tilted the bottle at her in a ‘cheers’.

“The winner slams their bottle down first. Conditions are no spillage …”

The snort beside her was enough for her to drive her elbow into him; lightly, of course.

“Oww, watch where you’re putting that thing” he rubbed the area excessively. He then followed with, “I may need you to kiss it better, darling.”

“Oh, for the love of … will you shut up or f*ck already?” Shadowheart stabbed her finger at Astarion while rolling her eyes at Belle.

“I beg your pardon, I’ll have you know –“ followed right on top of

“Whaaaat? That is so not happening!”

They glanced at each other, then looked away quickly.

“Nope, no, back to drinking” Belle insisted, her face glowing. With alcohol. Juuust alcohol.

“Right, well, let’s do this then.” Shadowheart looked smug at her little dig. And to think, Belle thought she’d started to like the woman.

“Where was I?” Belle asked.

“Spillage, dear.”

“I’m f*cking warning you” said Shadowheart, glaring at Astarion.

“Right. Um, & nothing left in the bottle. Ready?”

They both nodded, hands poised to give the flick.

“Three. Two. One. Go.”

They all upended the bottles, letting the wine pour down their throats in a torrential stream. Belle slammed down her bottle first, followed quickly by Astarion, then Shadowheart.

“Oh, eugh, that’s terrible.” Astarion wrinkled his nose as he wiped his mouth.

“How the hell can you drink alcohol anyway? I’ve been meaning to ask. Because, frankly, that does not add up.” Belle questioned him.

“How in the hells should I know? I’m not an expert on vampire physiology. Besides, I don’t think anyone’s ever bothered studying it, let alone wrote a dissertation on it.”

“I’m going to get another bottle. Do you two want a refill?” Shadowheart interrupted, unfurling herself, only very slightly unsteady on her feet.

“Yes” Belle answered.

“I think not” Astarion told her. “It’s just swill.”

Belle leant over, plucking at his sleeve. He turned to look at her. Oops, she was closer than she’d intended. She pulled back, only, he followed her. Ok, then. Blinking owlishly, she asked,

“Would it make it taste better if it had blood in it?”

His pupils blew wide just at the mention. He flicked a glance down at her wrist.

“Well, it might. I’ve never tasted it before when mixed. But, your father, darling, is sitting right over there.” He nodded, ever so slightly, at Gus.

“What about just a few drops, then?”

He hesitated before answering her.

“Why? I mean, why are you offering? I’m not complaining, mind you … “ he trailed off, seemingly at a loss to continue.

“To make it taste better?”

His eyes flicked over her face; looking for what, she didn’t know.

He finally answered.

“Alright, then. But don’t make it obvious you’re doing it”.

“I am the picture of covertness.” She said, placing a hand over her heart. Leaning back, she faced away as she burped again. That was the other secret; get rid of any air as quickly as possible so it didn’t get stuck & make drinking impossible.

She heard him bitch behind her about being glad his digestive system didn’t work like that anymore. Shadowheart presented the bottles once more at her return, seating herself & removing the cork.

Belle did so as well, half falling & crawling to grab the little scalpel knife she kept tucked away in her bedroll now.

“Gotcha” she told it, rolling back into a sitting position.

Shadowheart, (Selune, or whoever, bless her), eyed what Belle was about to do, but kept her mouth shut.

Poking her tongue out, she flicked the knife over the tip of her thumb, squeezing the welling blood out into the wine bottle. She massaged her thumb, trying to get as much in there as possible before her thumb started going numb & white.

“Righto. Here you go” she said, swapping bottles with Astarion.

He held it up to smell it, the moan he gave so low it vibrated in his chest. Both ladies ignored it.

“Ready?” she gave the countdown once again, flicking her wrist on go, & slamming her bottle down, seconds after Astarion had.

“You swallow too slow” Belle pointed out to the cleric. “But good job, not everyone can do this.”

“On that note, I think I’m done.” Shadowheart got to her feet, turned, & walked carefully away, with a pronounced lean, back to her own bedroll.

“You done?” she turned to Astarion, who had meanwhile picked up the empty wine bottle, held it up to his mouth & tapped the bottom of it for the dregs.

“Unfortunately. That certainly helped the flavour” he tipped his head at her thumb, & placed the bottle back down, giving her a smile from the side.

“Somebody should study what happens to alcohol in vampires. It’d be interesting to read. Earth has various theories on the constitution & what you lot are capable of, but it varies from source to source.”

“I thought you said Earth only contains humans.”

“It does. And lots & lots of stories. The vampire genre is huge. All I can say is, thank god you don’t sparkle in the sunlight.”

“Sparkle? I don’t sparkle. Glow, yes. Sparkle, no.”

“I know …” whoops, that went too close to the other morning.

He leant in towards her just a tiny bit more.

“So you saw, did you? I thought you might have. Naughty girl.”

“That was totally unintentional. I had no idea you’d gone that way. Anyway, what were you doing flashing off everywhere when you couldn’t not have heard me coming?”

“I did hear you coming. And I thought that it had been quite unfair of me to have seen your delectable self & not return the favour.”

“You are so lucky I’m drunk right now & immune to your bullsh*t.”

“Is that so?” he reached out, & stroked her hand with a single finger, causing huge knots of gooseflesh to wind their way up her arm. She looked down, utterly fascinated at the response. It was exactly like being a virgin & never having been touched before.

“Astarion.” She said quietly, “I know you know what I saw that day. Don’t do something you don’t really want to be doing.”

Thank all the gods that be for alcohol, because there was no way in hell she’d have said that to his face while sober.

“I’m aware.” He continued to stroke her hand anyway, seemingly fixating on it & losing the seductive quality he had but a moment ago.

“Then why …”

“Why not? As you’re so fond of saying, just because.”

“Oh.”

“Your skin really is quite warm. I like it.”

“Yours’ is freezing.”

“Comes with being undead.”

“No sh*t.”

She watched as her own hand, seemingly entirely on its own, ever so slowly turned over while his own finger paused in its ministrations. When her palm presented itself, he let his own fingers brush the mounds & valleys it contained lightly. The tension built, her palm buzzing & tingling at the attention it was being paid. When it got too much to bear, she closed her hand around his fingers, her heat thawing his coolness.

Chapter 22: Hangover

Chapter Text

Her tongue felt like carpet the next morning. She could taste the rank, swamp-ass gas left by the wine. Her stomach felt like it was swaying from side to side, & she wasn’t even moving. Why the hell had past Belle thought this would be a good idea? If she could, she’d go back in time & wring the silly bitch’s neck.

Someone was poking timidly at her shoulder.

“Ugh” she communicated to them.

“Belle? Gus said you’d need this” Wyll. Why was he shouting? She wanted to snarl at him & rip his tongue clear out his head. But Wyll was too nice a person to be subjected to morning Belle, let alone hungover morning Belle. No, she couldn’t do that to him.

She flopped one arm over her eyes, which felt like cotton wool stuffed sandpaper, & flopped the other arm out, hand open, to receive whatever it was Gus had entrusted Wyll with giving her. It was another cup of whatever the hell her father had concocted. Smelled a bit like minted fairy floss.

“Hang on” Wyll told her as she upended most of the contents on her face instead of into her mouth. He took back the cup, lifted her head, & let her sip from what was left. It left a chalky coating in her mouth & on her teeth.

With her head pounding, she rolled off the bedroll, moaning & groaning, so that Wyll could roll it back up for her while the potion had time to work.

“I’m surprised you’re still alive. Three bottles of wine in under fifteen minutes. You could drink a sailor under the table.”

“Don’t ….. talk…..” She whispered, reaching out a hand & splaying it against Wyll’s face, grimacing at having to talk herself. The quality of the wine she’d imbibed was as bad as one she’d drank as a teenager, a cheap & nasty brew that you could only abide because it was sweet going down.

She didn’t see him glance at her & nod. She was aware when he got up & left. Now, if she could only sit here & nurse her head for the rest of her life, she’d be fine.

“Hair of the dog, darling” Astarion commented gaily as he wandered by her, awake & chirpy as ever at this ungodly hour of the day. She couldn’t even muster the massive amount of energy needed to throw a dagger at him. If she had a dagger. She must find one, for future situations just like this.

“She doesn’t need that, Astarion.” She heard Gus answer him, his tone warning him it was wrong to suggest it.

“It’s a proven method of curing a hangover.” She heard him retort.

“So’s a bullet, but you wouldn’t suggest that.”

“Well, I might. Depends on whom I’m suggesting it for.”

“Would you suggest it for Belle?”

Silence filled the cave. She heard him sigh softly before replying.

“…no. No, I suppose not.”

“Perhaps think about what you’re saying & whom you’re saying it about before opening your mouth next time.”

Oh good lord, she remembered that tone from when she’d been a teenager. If her head wasn’t wanting to separate from her body right then, she might have lifted it to give Astarion sympathy. Hearing someone else on the receiving end was, however … hilarious.

They headed out shortly after, Gale thrusting a stack of fried bacon at her, & she noshed on it as they wound their way around to Waukeens’ Rest. Her brain had exited the building once the potion had kicked in (Gus needed to sell this sh*t back home; he’d make a killing) leaving her gloriously thought free most of the morning. No gods stopping by to shoot the sh*t, no one narking at her. It was almost peaceful bar the nausea that kept coming & going.

The mid-morning rest was a welcome one; the sun seemed to be gradually getting hotter as the days wore on. She found a nice, flattish rock, sat down with her head hanging down, telling herself the headache was definitely not trying to creep back in.

She was bumped to the side slightly as someone came & sat beside her.

“So. You told me last night you’d tell me today what you know of my scars.”

Crap, had she? Her head gave a throb as she tried to recall any bit of conversation where she’d said that.

“Did I?” she asked him thickly, wondering now if she wouldn’t throw up, after all.

“You did. You wanted to compare them to your own, actually.”

Oh f*ck, she hadn’t, had she? Her stomach lurched with the thought.

“Mine aren’t written in infernal.”

No, hers were old surgery scars, right back from the first two years of her relationship.

“You said that. And that you couldn’t read them; but you knew what they were about.”

She couldn’t believe (well, she could, if she stopped to think about it), she’d told him. Well, at least this cut Raphael out of manipulating him, she supposed.

“I didn’t senja’si you, did I?”

“You did. What wonderful information you must have access to.” He’d gone all contemplative on her. She imagined a marching band going by, cheering ‘here comes the manipulation’.

“Will you be fine with the short & sweet version? Cause I think I’m not far from hurling.”

“Short and sweet is fine. For now.”

“It’s a binding ritual. Part of a contract between your master & Mephistopheles. He’s going to sacrifice you & others so he can become the first Vampire Ascendant. Excuse me.” She dashed off into the bushes, where she tried to puke as quietly as she could.

Chapter 23: Transactional Cuddles

Chapter Text

She felt better after having a chunder. Washing her mouth out with water, she re-joined the others. Astarion was still sitting where she’d left him looking pensively off into the underbrush.

Gus called them to start out again. Everyone shifted, falling into line behind her father. Who knew this would be a militaristic holiday?

She caught up with Astarion as he went to re-join his spot up near the front.

“Hey, walk with me a bit” she said, touching his shoulder.

He looked down at her, & she could see he was a million miles away. She filed that look away, so she knew what to look out for in the future, just in case. He nodded, joining her.

“I’m sorry for knowing about your scars. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“It doesn’t bother me you did; you'd seen them anyway. For the longest time I thought they were just the ravings of a madman. To know they mean something, though… that bothers me.”

“I imagine it does.”

“All those years …” he continued, “… & that … bastard … was laughing at me.”

There was nothing to say to this. So, she just listened.

“I can’t believe … Infernal. Do you know what he told me it was?”

“No.” Yes.

“A poem. He carved it into my back over the course of a night. If I moved, if I screamed, or cried or made any sound at all, he’d stop, heal the wounds he’d made already, & start again.”

f*cking hell, hearing this in person was … just horrible. She’d had others over time confess to abuse of all sorts; the salon environment & developing trust in ones’ therapist made them a safe person to open to … it eluded her right now how she’d suddenly become Astarion’s safe person to confess to, what with screaming at him like a harpy & calling him names, but maybe he’d sensed her empathy, like all the others.

“Can you tell me about him? Or is that too much?”

“About Cazador? Why?”

“It helps to give voice to it, sometimes. Or not. It’s entirely up to you. I’m not interested in him as a person or his motives. I’m interested in how you perceive him.”

“Oh, I perceive a monster who needs to be destroyed.” He was utter viciousness suddenly, his posture bending, arms reaching out & ending in hands clenched like claws. He was entirely feral for a moment. This was the caged beast who lived at the heart of Astarion as he was right now. All she wanted to do was bundle him off & cuddle it out of him.

Then he straightened.

“But that will have to wait until we deal with these parasites, I suppose.”

“It’ll come.”

“Will it? Or will he find some way to drag me back? He has, before. Once, years ago, I broke free. I managed to get quite a ways out to a town; I can’t remember the name. I holed up in the tavern there. He found me that very night. Sent the other spawn to fetch me. That earned me a three-year stint in the kennels.”

He turned to her fully as they continued walking.

“The kennels are where he kept the more unruly spawn. I spent a lot of time there. When he got sick of torturing us, he had Godey take over in his stead.”

Christ those flood gates had opened wide, hadn’t they? All the hate & fear were now spilling out everywhere, & she doubted he could control it right now. This was exactly like a cyst that had been left to fester; apparently, she was the one to come along & lance it.

“I know for a fact that if you stay here – with us – he doesn’t get you.” No, that possibility came later in Baldur’s Gate. She also knew for a fact that if he left the party, he was as good as dead.

“That little foresight ability of yours? How interesting.” He paused. “How much information are you privy to that you don’t let on?”

Holy moly who said he wasn’t as sharp as Gale?

“Um, a bit.” And then some.

“So, you know more about this Ascendent ritual.” He wasn’t asking.

“Just a tad.”

His lips quirked upward just right; his eyes heavily surveying her through his lashes as he swayed toward her.

“I wonder what it would take to make you … want … to share.”

Was it her, or did he just subtly present his body in the best possible way for her to purview him? She was strongly minded of jewellery presented just so under the light of the showcase. Suddenly, Astarion's seduction techniques became icky. Belle found she no longer liked it; give her serious Astarion like he'd been last night when they'd just talked, or smart arse Astarion, or Astarion who was spewing bile & acid everywhere. They were real; not this caricature he'd been forced to present to the world.

There was no way he knew that what he was doing wasn’t what he actually wanted to do right now. And it was her he was propositioning, not any of the others. The others didn't know what she did. Ergo, it was her sacred mission to make sure he navigated his own way to freedom & autonomy. But she'd have to start on his terms. Astarion understood that if he wanted something, he had to give something. So, she'd give him something positive.

“Cuddles.”

“Ohh … into that sort of thing, are we? I suppose …I could do … that.”

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic. Must be too out there for you. I understand it’s not to everyone’s taste…”

“I didn’t say no. Cuddling is … fine. Especially if it leads to other things, darling.”

It sure did … more cuddling!