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"I tried that. Do you think I’m stupid?" |
"Sometimes," Tav told him. "There’s something in there then?" |
"Doctor are you? Adventurer, weapons maker, savior of every rat in every barrel, wasn’t enough?" |
Tav ignored that. He was in a crabby mood and he wasn’t exactly a gentle and agreeable person to begin with. |
"You’re going to get an infection. Happened to one of my brothers once, he lost a finger. You’re bleeding out from under your ribs. You’re going to lose organs." |
"What do you care?" |
"You can’t open locks if you’re in a grave," she told him. |
"Practical little thing, aren’t you?" |
"Am I?" Tav asked sitting down beside him. He was perched on a little stool, stewing in his own thoughts. "I thought I was a damnable fool." |
"Did I say that?" |
"No but you exhale in a very particular tone every time I speak to Zevlor." |
"Not quite that one, there’s more disapproval in the other one." |
"Every rat in every barrel." |
"If you’d like to berate me for not leaving children to die, do it on your back." |
"Oh darling, I though you’d never ask." |
Just another difficult client, another powerful man used to getting what he wanted with a careful mix of flattery and intimidation. He was insufferable and maybe it would be better to just let him bleed out and die of the infection. She could learn to pick her own locks. |
With a client in the shop, she would usually hide away that train of thought. She played the role they needed to perfection and did not let fantasies of leaving them to rot show on her face. It was easy enough to give powerful men what they expected. They were never subtle about what that was. But he wasn’t a client. H... |
He wasn’t the only one who could sigh in exact tones of disapproval. |
He smirked, just the very corner of his lip pulling up at the corner. |
"Either I pull that thing out or you go ask Shadowheart to do it. We could go ask Nettie if you could make the walk but it doesn’t look like that is in your best interest." |
The smirk curled towards a sneer but he laid back on the bed roll and waved a hand at her like he was a patron and giving her leave. |
"Men shouldn’t be allowed to grow up rich," she told him. |
"Ah yes, we should all grow up in the filth of the outer city or the muck of the forest, surrounded by bugs and goblins." |
She unpeeled the shirt from the puncture wound. It was a ragged hole that was oozing blood instead of gushing it. Tav didn’t actually know enough about medicine to know whether that was a good sign or a bad one. He was dangerously pale but dangerously pale was where he started so it was hard to judge. He was breathing ... |
She was actually going to have to dig around in there. She had been hoping for something she could see that would be easy enough to pull out. The magic in the potion would heal the worst of the damage once the thing itself was out but she didn’t even know what it was. |
"Don’t like blood?" Astarion taunted. |
"Don’t like viscera," she shot back. "My fingers in your guts is not how I intended to spend my evening." |
"It could be fun, if you were a little more imaginative." |
"Your definition of fun is twisted." |
"Yours is positively dull." |
She should leave him on the ground. Now that he was horizontal, he probably wasn’t going to be able to get up again without help. She could leave him there and go get Halsin to deal with this. Word was that Halsin was in a goblin camp so she’d have to leave Astarion where he was for awhile. Tav got up and he complained... |
This felt like an olive branch. He was trusting her. Not every alliance was one built on friendship and affection. Business deals were built on shared goals all the time. She had let him trail along that day on the beach because they had shared goals. This was a step beyond that. This was trust and she was too much of ... |
She headed back to her own pack and dug out a set of tools. They were not surgical tools but they were what her fingers were used to and they would do the job. She came back to sit on the ground beside his bedroll. He’d scrounged up a few little creature comforts as they’d made their ways through the forest. The tatter... |
"This might hurt." |
"It always does," he said casually. |
Tav paused to glance at him but he wasn’t looking back. He stared up at the sky and made that "go on" gesture with his hand. It was hard to be quite so irritated with him when he said things like that. The man was a walking curse. A pain in her entire ass. It would be easier if he was consistently easy to hate. Instead... |
The tweezers she used were solid iron, heavy enough to withstand a blowtorch but narrow enough to manipulate the smaller designs on a project. His skin was cool but not clammy. The ragged edges of the wound obscured anything inside. She didn’t wait for him to start taunting and slid the tool into the wound. A twitch an... |
The sound he made was nearly a hiss. Angry and hostile. Dollars to donuts, there was something weird in his family tree. High elf but something else too. She just wasn’t familiar enough with arcana and history to say what. An angry cat. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand back. His fingers held hard. Tav went stil... |
"If you start jerking around, you’re going to tear more holes in your intestines," she said as casually as possible. It was hard to be casual while you were rooting around in someone’s guts. It was even harder when they were grinding your bones together like they were about to snap your wrist. Tav managed it. One eyebr... |
"Don’t promise me a good time," he said but the usual flippant tone was stretched thin. |
He didn’t let go. He stopped grinding the bones together but he didn’t let go. |
"I need that hand," she told him. |
His eyes were warning but he let go. She bit down on the questions. What is it in your bloodline that makes you growl like a monster when you’re upset? Are you some sort of warlock with a patron breathing down your neck? |
More pressing matters, like the hole in his abdomen. She put her attention back on that. It was bleeding more and she couldn’t see anything but red. Working by touch alone was difficult but she knew her tools and could manipulate them blindfolded if that’s what it took. It’s just that metal stayed where it as put and d... |
He was winding up to one of those disapproving exhalations. |
"Shut up, Astarion," she told him conversationally before he got past the inhale. |
She did not like how deep she had gone into this wound and apparently neither did he. Her fingers were inside him and she was still poking around trying to find the bit of shrapnel. She was not cut out for medicine. This was awful. His tension was ratcheting up tighter and tighter. His hands were clenched on the blanke... |
He was watching her. Still a warning. Still that threatening and dangerous presence rippling under the surface. But he held his tongue and for a moment they just looked at each other. He was angry but he was keeping it in check by sheer force of will. He looked at her like he about to cut pieces off of her but then the... |
The metal hit something solid. She felt the change in resistance and did not cheer because that might have led to more internal bleeding. Thank fuck. Tav needed out of this situation immediately. If he looked at her like that again she was going to stab him. She wasn’t sure exactly what the emotion was. |
Annoyance but it wasn’t annoyance born of anger. |
He made her feel like she was going to crawl out of her skin. |
The thing her tweezers had found turned out to be a chunk of claw or maybe bone. A bit of goblin weapon. It hurt coming out but he managed not to flop around like a fish. The pain made him scowl and that hiss escaped again. The sound was low and made some instinctive corner of her shy away like a rabbit from a predator... |
"Well, hardly looks worth the trouble," he said looking at the bloody bit she dumped out on the ground. He rolled over, propping himself up on an elbow. The lines around his eyes were tight from the pain but there was no more hissing. He jerked the shirt back down and pushed himself up to sit. It was too early for that... |
"Take a fucking potion, lie down and go to sleep," Tav said pushing herself up and scowling down at him. |
"What’d I do now? You’re all pouty," he drawled. |
"Go to bed," she said and then stalked away from him. |
Tav had crossed the finish line for ceremorphosis with nothing but that one night of fever to show for it. She studied her hands and sat on a rock looking overlooking the Druid’s sacred grove. The chanting was done now and it was peaceful down there. Grass and rocks and a handful of druids going about their business. |
There was still a crowd of refugees with nowhere to go and a camp full of goblins planning to roast everyone over an open fire. |
Tav’s head popped up to see Karlach with food and a bottle of wine. Tav grinned at her. This woman never failed to make her smile. She was bottled sunshine and Tav was going to hug her as soon as they’d fixed that engine. |
"Is that to mark the occasion?" Tav asked with a nod toward the bottle. |
"Oh," she drew the syllable out. "Shit." |
"I don’t have tentacles yet," Tav said with a shrug. "Feeling pretty good about it." |
"Fuck yes, then this is definitely for a celebration. Should we grab some glasses?" |
"No, pass it over," Tav said holding out a hand for the bottle. Karlach was all smiles as she did and started digging in her bag for the rest of the food. It was mostly stuff they’d scrounged up in the toll house. Some day, Tav was going to eat food that she didn’t have to steal out of a dead man’s pack. Karlach settle... |
"Do you hear music? Are those lot singing?" |
"It’s Alfira. She’s up the hill on that side." |
"Good for her! That song’s gotten better." |
It had. There were still hitches in it as she worked through the verses and they were too far away to hear the words but the faint music on the air felt like a promise that everything would be ok. Eventually. There was still a goblin camp to infiltrate and they were pinning a lot of hopes on Halsin’s ability to help. T... |
"Oh, you’re here." |
There was a lot of disdain on the way he said you. Like they were peeing on his shoes. Tav did not look back. She was enjoying the view of the grove. It was always a crap shot to know which version of Astarion she was going to get and she didn’t really want his pessimistic side to sink her mood. |
"Come have some cheese," Karlach said with the same cheerful enthusiasm she had for everything else. |
"Oh darling, I don’t eat such paltry fare as salami," Tav said. She couldn’t quite match his inflection or that upper city accent but a bad impression was funnier than a good one. The silence was a little longer than she expected. She didn’t open her eyes. "Is he making the face?" |
"Which one?" Karlach asked. |
"The disapproval one." |
"Maybe, can’t tell," she said. |
Tav looked over at him. She could always tell. He didn’t try adn hide it when he was irritated. Whatever the not-quite expression had been, it was gone. He was fully annoyed now. He’d been looking for someplace to skulk about on his own and had wandered into their picnic instead. |
"Wine?" she asked holding out the bottle. A peace offering. She did not want to fight with him. Astarion had many faces but not all of them were bad. Maybe they’d get the flirty and charming version of Astarion and he would make Karlach laugh. Tav only knew the smallest fraction of her story but she knew that Karlach d... |
"Your wine selection isn’t better than your charcuterie board," he said but it wasn’t a hostile voice. |
Tav shook the bottle in his direction, "I’ve seen you drink wine. I don’t know what you hoard in your tent to eat when we can’t see you but I know you drink wine. Come on, just a little, be sociable. We’re celebrating." |
A half smile. He took the bottle and sat down beside her. He lounged a bit. He posed like he was having his portrait painted every minute of the day. |
"Do you always drink the night before a battle? Is this some soldier tradition?" |
"Little Mr Magistrate doesn’t know the story of General Shiraz," Karlach said without missing a beat. |
"Of course he doesn’t, no one told me until after basic training. I have a sergeant that would kill me for even hinting at it," Tav said. |
The joke required absolute commitment and for a moment, they’d pulled it off. He was considering her with a little tilt to his head but the wine was going to her head and she had no idea how to follow it up if he did ask for the story. The skepticism crept into his expression and she burst out laughing. |
"Your face!" Tav said clapping her hands. |
"I think we could have made him believe it," Karlach said. |
"I bet. He looks gullible enough," Tav saidd. |
Which got her the laugh she’d been hoping for from Karlach. It wasn’t true but it was funny and that was all she needed right now. She needed a good laugh. |
He was not gullible. He was a lot of things. Changeable. Dangerous. A liar. But he wasn’t gullible. That’s why it was so funny when he fell for it. |
Astarion did not flounce off in a fit of annoyance. He took the wine out of her hands and took a swig. He made a face but resisted saying anything disparaging lest they gang up on him for being an Upper City Magistrate again. All three of them had grown up in Baldur’s Gate but their lives had been worlds apart. Astario... |
"What are you doing up here?" Tav asked. |
He pursed his lips for a moment and then said, "Sunsets are peaceful." |
Tav studied the side of his face. He glanced at her once but he had sat down so he was facing out to where the sun sank over the rocks and sea beyond. Simple and direct. Every time she got a little bit of honesty out of the man, she found it a bit harder to dislike him. Even if it was something as tepid as liking sunse... |
She could not hold her liquor. She didn’t get sick unless she had far far too much and they were nowhere near that. Three people and they were only a half a bottle in. But even that was enough to open a faucet in her brain. Words just came pouring out. |
"You might have grown up decent if you’d had to haul wood as a child," Tav told him. |
"Is that a euphemism?" |
"No. Farm labor would do it too." |
"That also sounds like a euphemism. Do what?" |
"Wring some of the snob out of you." |
"Darling, if you want anything wrung out of me, you’ll have to do it yourself. I refuse to haul wood or do anything near a farm animal." |
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