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"Here we are, home sweet home for the seven thousand spawn you and your lover sacrificed in my name." He beamed with pride as he swept his great arm over the gaping maw in the ground. Tav stared down in abject horror, recognizing many of the Gur children among others she did not know. They were huddled in small groups,... |
"I understand you are overcome," he said softly. "I am grateful for the gift, though I know you do not see it in such light." Again, Tav was struck with how almost mortal the devil seemed to be, in both manner and empathy. He seemed more compassionate than the vampire who had at one time been her love. |
"If you are satisfied, we may depart." She nodded, unable to find her voice. As she stared down at the tortured souls, she resolved in herself: she would free them and kill Astarion for condemning them and her to this fate. |
They turned to leave, but as they approached the door something caught Tav’s attention. Maybe it was the sound of ragged breath, or the glint of red, or maybe something in her very soul seized her, but she slowed even as Mephisto pressed his hand into her back urgently. She turned, tucking away from him, and passively ... |
Tav gasped, eyes wide and wet, as she realized which soul was trapped inside. She found one whispered word that came to her lips. |
Ruby eyes closed in the darkness, and she heard him sigh deeply. He crept forward and she saw him fully. It did |
like Astarion, but he did not carry himself with ease and arrogance. There was no confidence to be found. His cheeks were wet and dirty, his mouth trembling. It was hard to be sure over the racket of his heartbeat, but she thought he must have said something. The world spun and lurched, and she found herself on the flo... |
"What trick is this?" Her words were hoarse and weak. His eyebrow quirked as his eyes blazed. |
"No tricks, little one." He smiled, and Tav recoiled. "This is one of my favorite souls." |
Tav looked back at the person in the cage, not believing her eyes. Suspicion clouded her vision. Perhaps they were in league with one another, playing her for a fool, an elaborate punishment. Looking at the small and scared man in the cage, however, left doubt. The Astarion she’d been with for the last fifty years woul... |
"I...don’t understand..." She trailed off, her eyes searching for a sign of familiarity in his gaze. All of his features were the same - the high, fine cheekbones, the plush lips, the inexplicably manicured eyebrows and hair - even the small mole below his left eye. But if |
was Astarion, then |
was ruling the Crimson Palace? Her mind reeled, her head swimming, and she met his eyes. She froze there, eyes locked with his, and she knew at once that |
Astarion. Tears flowed from her as he looked away sadly. Her head snapped to the devil, catching his gaze with barely contained malice. |
"How did this happen? What did you do?" Her tone was demanding, accusatory, and she heard Astarion flinch behind her. The devil did not rage, however, laughing heartily. |
"I did nothing, child! I made a deal with |
He branded seven thousands souls, hand-picked for me. This - what did you call him? - |
," he sneered, "tried to break the rules, change the game. He had to be punished." |
Tav turned back to the cage, pressing close up against the bars. She searched his face; he was uneasy, wary, and terrified. |
"Astarion?" She reached a hand out, and he recoiled from her. |
touch me," he snapped. She stiffened, pulling her hand back. At this, he seemed to regard her curiously. "I haven’t seen her in armor in decades. Why the change?" His eyes flicked to Mephisto, who only laughed cruelly, deep in his throat. She realized that he thought she was a trick, part of his torture. |
"Astarion, it’s me," she tried. He did not relax. She wracked her brain for something, |
that would let him know she was real, she was there, she was herself. |
"Remember when we took that stupid love test in Rivington, and it turned out to be Orin the Red? You were so mad at me for getting all the answers right. I felt so guilty, after, for giving up your secrets to a psychopath." He rolled his eyes. |
"This is not your finest work, devil." He regarded her coldly, and she hitched a sob in her throat. Plunging forward, she tried again. |
"I told you when I was little I had a puppy, and Gale’s big brown eyes when he was asking for a magical artifact reminded me of the puppy asking for a treat. His name was Cinnamon." |
Astarion’s eyebrow quirked, leveling a glare at her. "Common knowledge. The wizard made those doe eyes at everyone." |
Frustrated, Tav exhaled heavily and pushed her shoulder into the cage door, leaning on it. She pressed her fists into her closed eyes, searching every corner of her ruined brain. She came up empty. |
"I never stopped loving you," she whispered, "even as you hurt me." She heard him sigh. |
"Yes," he said sadly. "My greatest punishment." A fresh tear slid down her face and she choked back a sob. She looked up at the towering archdevil; he was smirking with glee at the wretched scene before him. |
"Once you free the souls, Astarion will be free as well. Will he go back to his body? I can’t kill him just to send him back here." |
Mephisto smiled wide, |
and wagged a finger at her. "This one isn’t part of the deal, sweet thing." Tav bristled with outrage, standing up square, as tall as she could reach. She saw the red-hot fury illuminating his skin, but she did not care. |
he isn’t," she growled. Flames crackled and popped around Mephistopheles as she spat tacks at him. "I would have to free all the souls sacrificed in the ritual to kill the ascendant. He’s one of those who was sacrificed." |
Mephistopheles growled low, bending down and glaring in her face. "He was |
sacrificed, he was |
" He stood up tall again, smoothing his hair with his hand. "He is mine, and I’ve really quite delighted in tormenting him these years. When I’m not parading caricatures at him, I render him blind, only able to see through the eyes of his body. He’s seen everything he’s ever done to you, and more." He flashed a wicked ... |
Tav blanched, glancing back at Astarion, who watched them curiously. Something flickered in his eyes that she couldn’t place. She gave him a small, wan smile. She steeled herself, and turned back to the devil. |
"Would You be open to another deal?" He hummed, his finger tapping his chin. |
"The terms of our first deal explicitly state that you will |
your everlasting soul. What else could you have to barter?" He raised an eyebrow at her, and she paused. He was right, of course. She had nothing. She had already promised him her service, to be fulfilled at a later date. She wouldn’t make the same mistake Astarion had by sacrificing innocents for him, though it pained... |
"She would never deal over me," he whispered, voice cracking. He shot a glance at Mephisto. "Please, end this cruelty. Please, I’ll go back in the dark. Anything if you’ll only stop this farce." Mephistopheles only laughed, sneering at him. |
"Perhaps I can get one more punishment in for the road," he hummed. "He seems to really abhor the idea of you dealing with devils. Perhaps it would make for a fair trade." |
Tav stared at Astarion, her eyes soft and sad. "There was a time," she said quietly, "when he would have traded his soul to a lesser devil for the chance to be free from Cazador." She looked up at the archdevil. "I can’t stand to see him bound a slave once more." |
Astarion stared at her, and somewhere deep in his soul there was a spark of recognition. He reached a trembling hand through the bars, and she slowly placed hers in it. They nested together as if made to be one. He gripped, wide eyes staring at their joined hands, then dragging back up to her eyes. His brow furrowed de... |
"Tav?" His mouth wavered as she nodded slowly, and he choked on a sob. "Why are you here? What are you thinking?" He scolded her, but his face held no anger, only a mask of sadness, regret, and guilt. Tav drew up closer to the bars and he held her other hand, pulling them closer together. She pressed her forehead to hi... |
"I’m getting you out of here." |
The air was thick and heavy, wet with the smell of blood. It was intoxicating and infuriating in equal measure. Astarion’s body heaved with exertion, dripping sweat and blood. A drop rolled down his lips and he wiped it away hastily, not sure whose blood it was and unwilling to find out. There was so much pain, so much... |
couldn’t know |
about the blood and the fear and the horror of it all. They had defeated the necromancer and the insane doppelgänger, but each time they went to battle they all feared it would be the end. They clung to life like tenuous strands, so easily broken, so easily plucked out of their grasp. Astarion stared at his love, her c... |
Looking down at the monster who’d stolen his youth, he sneered angrily. This worthless worm of a man had been bested by a group of veritable strangers, all who slashed and clawed in Astarion’s name, who despite his viciousness, his walls, somehow cared enough for him to give him this gift of bloody revenge. Lae’zel and... |
Astarion looked back to Tav, and a new fear gripped him. |
I can’t lose her, this beautiful angel of ruin who saved me in so many ways. I can’t let harm come to her. |
Fear sprang anew, a fresh bud bursting through the ash. If he killed Cazador here and now, he would remain a spawn. They planned to defeat the elder brain, and then he would be left without the tadpole’s protection, sent back into the dark. She was comfortable in it, but he was not. He’d never been fond of the night th... |
With the power of a vampire ascendant, he could protect her from |
He wouldn’t know fear or pain any longer, and neither would she. He would be stronger for the battle to come. He could protect her on the battlefield and off. He could stay in the sun. He would have no need to drink her blood, make her weak and woozy for his damnable appetite. Astarion had gone over the possibilities i... |
He stared into those wide, trusting eyes, and pain ripped through him. She would die, eventually, if he didn’t protect her. Her bleeding heart would get her into a situation her easy charm couldn’t talk her way back out of. He couldn’t stay by her side if she needed to go to a market, or visit a friend on the beach. I... |
take this power, for her. |
He barely heard the words as he spoke them, begging her to help him complete the ritual. Her face had shifted then, but he paid no heed. She had tried to talk him out of it, but she couldn’t see the fear, the hunger, the pain he was in. Those spawn were doomed either way; he couldn’t let them live to feast on thousands... |
"Please, my love," he didn’t recognize his own voice, "I’m begging you. Please help me." She nodded, and his vision clouded, mixed with hers. She overlaid the image of his scars in his eyes, and he used it as a stencil to meticulously carve Cazador’s back. White-hot blood lust coursed through him; it was as if he wasn’... |
And then, everything became red. |
Pain ripped through him, crashing and clawing into every bone and sinew. He screamed, but no sound came. It felt as though he was ripped in two, torn asunder in a violet cacophony of blood and viscera. Briefly, he saw double, two Tavs blinking at him, worried. She didn’t want this. He had to stop. But it was already to... |
Astarion snapped back to his body with a pop, and suddenly all was calm. He didn’t feel different. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words came out unbidden, foreign. Sure it was his |
, but his mind had not formed them on his lips. He still felt the hunger, the pain, the fear. It did not feel delicious, as he’d said. Tav smiled at him, but it was guarded. He finally saw Lae’zel and Shadowheart, their nervous, disapproving glances between them hidden behind Tav’s back. He tried to yell, |
no, I don’t want this! |
The words died, unborn. |
Astarion thought he had known torture under Cazador. How wrong he had been; Mephistopheles was a crueler master by far. How he had raged at him, flinging him about like a puppet on a string, breaking every bone in his body just to forge them anew and do it again. He channeled his anger and hate through Astarion’s soul ... |
The hunger never ceased. His constant companion, another reminder of all he had lost and all the wrong he had done. He listened, day in and day out, to the tortured cries of the souls he had sacrificed. The children, in particular, caused him to claw at his ears, wishing he could bloody them enough so the thickness wou... |
It’s not me! Please, you can’t stay with this monster! |
The night she was turned, he wept bitterly. No reprieve came for him, no puppet show performed by the devil, no blissful agony to distract from the torture. His heart broke again and again, watching his love drained dry by his own lips. Watching the single drop of blood he "blessed" her with. She would never be a true ... |
Now soulless, his body acted on only his basest of desires and whims. He acquired power in any form it would come. He subverted Tav, his own personal plaything to act out the fear and loathing of those long 200 years. He watched desperately as he inflicted wound after wound on her body, heart, and mind, and how she end... |
One day, she ran away. His heart leapt, hopeful and afraid. She was strong and wily, but he had watched her soul be broken, her mind twisted over the decades as they passed, agonizingly slowly. She had no one to help her. They had tried, and failed, each and every one. She was all alone. The reprieve from having to wat... |
The respite did not last. She was caught, and he cried bitterly, desperately begging the devil to return him to his body. He tried to tell him it would be an exquisite torture, to be back now, when her trust in him had completely gone. The devil disagreed, and Astarion watched horrified as wolves dug in the dirt, spawn... |
Mephistopheles occasionally found a new and fun way to torture him, by giving him a glimpse of her mind inside that coffin. Several times Astarion had clawed the very eyes from his head in agony, but the unnatural sight remained. He was utterly broken, completely destroyed, and he had brought about his own ruin that da... |
"Oho, this is delicious," the devil laughed, practically purring. "I could almost never tire of this scene." He waved a hand dismissively, "but I’ve some arcana I need to attend to, so unless there’s a deal to be made, I’ll watch from afar. I’m sure the two of you have a lot to talk about." He grinned wickedly, but Tav... |
"How are you here?" She whispered. "What in the nine hells happened? I’ve been...with you for fifty years!" She sat back on her heels, hands folded in her lap, as Astarion’s choked sobs rang through the bars and gripped her heart. |
"A fitting punishment," he choked out at last, "for a detestable monster such as I." He did not meet her gaze. She did not refute his words, as she once would have. How much of the person she’d been tortured by was him? If this was his soul, then what was piloting his body? She took a deep breath, then spoke, calmly a... |
"Tell me what happened." His eyes flicked to hers, then away as if struck. "Look at me, will you?" Her voice was soft, coaxing. |
"I can’t-" he sobbed. "I can’t bear it." |
at you," he hissed. She recoiled like he’d slapped her, but remained calm. |
"Why not?" He laughed then, a hollow aching sound. She hadn’t heard him sound bitter, sad, lonely like this in decades. Finally, he dragged his eyes up to hers, his whole body trembling. |
"I can’t stand what I’ve done to you." Tav exhaled slowly. Was this just the part of him that felt grief, remorse? Was he actually the one who did those things to her? |
"You’ve been in a cage," she tried. "You haven’t done anything to me." |
!" He was yelling, practically manic, eyes wild. "You cannot |
after everything I’ve put you through! Open your gods-damned eyes, Tavwren!" |
Tav did not flinch this time. He was hurting, and she had waited fifty years for the opportunity to help him. "Just tell me the whole story," she tried again, softer than a whisper. "Please." |
Astarion’s frantic ruby eyes searched her face, and finding it resolute he sighed deeply. He sat back, propping one foot against the floor and leaning on his knee. He looked away. |
"It began, I suppose, in Cazador’s ritual circle." He told her every detail, the fear and the hunger, and how angry he was that she couldn’t see it, couldn’t talk him out of it. He spoke about the sundering of his body and soul, the helplessness of being trapped in his own body, unable to stop it from doing the things ... |
"You stupid creature," he spat angrily. "How could you trust me, after everything I said about how it |
happens? How could you believe a damn word I said?" He paused, looking at her with anger and regret. Tav looked down at her hands, shrugging softly. |
"I trusted you with a knife to my throat," she sighed. "I would have, and did, trust you to death." He scoffed, laughing bitterly. |
"Cazador would have loved you," he whispered bitterly. She snapped her eyes to his, hard and glinting. A warning. He was hurting, yes, and he was lashing out at her for it. But she would not be bullied, not now. |
"Dial back the angst, Astarion. Remember what I’ve been through." He closed his eyes, a deep frown coloring his face. |
"How could I forget?" He was silent for a long moment, before continuing. |
"I was alone here, but never for long. Mephistopheles hates me for "breaking the rules," as he says. He would use his magic to assume your form and torture me regularly in those first years." He closed his eyes against some painful memory. "He would produce puppets of us, you and I, or I suppose the |
one, and act out the things I’d already seen. You, naked and afraid, kneeling before me at the foot of a throne. Me, taking you and savaging you in unimaginable ways." He swallowed hard. "It was awful, but nothing compared to |
through my own eyes." |
Tav looked at him, her gaze softening. |
He’s been just as tormented as I have, |
she thought. A tear slipped down her cheek and when he looked at her he almost growled. |
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