Dear journal,
It’s hard to not jump right into this entry. My heart is still racing in my chest from the day’s events. So much happened in such a short time, I hardly know how to begin. I’ll start where I left off last time, I suppose.
We were still gathered around the camp outside of that ancient watchtower when Juno heard something in the bushes. We all spun around ready for a fight. The creature jumped out and tumbled forward, covered in blood and with a wild glint in his eyes.
“Shade?” Slender gasped and the tabaxi collapsed forward to begin panting like he had run across the entire island, and maybe he had.
“Oh, hey guys,” he managed between gasps. His tail flicked around and his whiskers twitched as he smiled. “Funny seeing you here.”
“Funnier seeing you,” I said back. “I thought you were watching the ship. What happened to you?” I gestured up and down at the copious amounts of blood that had stained his auburn fur a near crimson red. “Did something happen?”
“Only a slight mutiny.” He shrugged like it was nothing. “All taken care of though. It’s actually sort of a funny story.” Turns out, Shade had a strange definition of “funny.”
He continued on to relay the most horrific tale I had ever heard in my life. Apparently, a handful of the crew members were not so quietly discussing their displeasure with mine and Juno’s seafaring. They thought that we had gotten lost, but I suppose it’s difficult for commoners to digest that we had been pursued by the magical island home of a giant squid that likes to rob us.
The big drunken sailor suggested throwing Serona overboard and taking the ship for themselves. Shade’s ears swiveled from where he was eating his dinner to really focus on the conversation after that. The other two men didn’t seem convinced they could handle Serona, but the big mean one said it would be easy if he spilled her guts in her sleep. Shade purred a laugh and asked the trio to come join him where he was eating.
They were wary. Shade had seemed to be our friend, after all, but the tabaxi was clever at weaving his tale. After a few more drinks and a couple sanguine smiles, he had all three of them convinced he was entirely in favor of killing Serona in the night. His cunning was a welcome addition as they made a full plan of how to carry out the heinous act, and at the conclusion of it, Shade stood up and grinned once again. This time, knowingly.
He stretched his arms and mentioned his love with the idea of stringing her up with guts to really send a message to the others on the crew. That had all three of the sailors muttering gladly among themselves, feeling so confident in their plan and Shade helping head it up. Shade strode over to the door to the mess hall and casually clicked the lock on it. He didn’t turn around at first as he asked them, “Now, which of you will be offering up your intestines for the cause?”
Silence. Shade turned around– those yellow feline eyes of his catching the lantern light, gleaming with a sense of dread I doubt even I could match. His fur shone like fire. His big ears could pick up the shift in the room– rapid breathing, hearts pounding. He pulled out his claw blades, the “fountain pens,” and fixed them on his paw-like hands. He looked down at them. The first man stood up, shaking his head rapidly, stating they would be using Serona’s guts. Shade laughed.
“No,” he said quietly. It was a low hiss. “No, see I want those guts now. Gotta get them ready. I need one of you to give them to me.” He extended the metal claw blades.
The man that had already stood up took a step back as Shade stepped closer. His movement was silent, and no one doubted his speed. He could dig the blades into their throats before they could get a scream out. They all knew it. Shade’s tail flicked again, this time like a calculation– like a wild cat stalking its prey. The man turned to the open window and leapt out, choosing anything over the alternative.
Shade reached their table, eyes still almost seeming to glow. His smile bared long sharp fangs. The big drunken man that had started the conversation pulled out his sword and drove it into the other man’s gut. No honor among men like these, it seemed. He stood up and backed away from the mess he had made. The guts poured out of the opening and onto the wooden planks below.
“There–” he said, voice quivering. It drew Shade’s attention off of him. Only for a moment.
The tabaxi stooped down and reached into the slain man’s stomach cavity. The other watched in fearful silence as he pulled out a long intestine and held it up to catch the light.
“Good, good,” Shade said as he approached the final man. He held the guts out towards him with that awful grin. The man cornered himself, and Shade slowly reached out to pat him on the head with his blood covered hands. He brought the guts to the guy’s face, and the man lost it. He tried to run, but Shade overpowered him easily. The cold steel of the claw blades met his lips. “Shh, shh, shhhhh.” He draped the intestine around his neck and pulled tight. The man struggled, but it was no use. “Sleep now.”
The final traitor collapsed dead on the floor, strangled by the very guts he spilled.
When Serona came down to the mess hall, she had already gotten the full story from the man they fished out of the sea. She thanked Shade’s foresight to deal with the traitors, but let him know that they would need to make a public display to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.
The two of them sliced apart the last traitor and threw him back into the ocean to become food for the sharks, stating that it was what happened to those who went against the chain of command and tried to mutiny. Jerry was apparently sent down to clean the mess hall. I almost felt bad for the dumb pervert, almost.
While the mutiny did explain most of the blood, Shade had also let us know he ran into the same lizards we had in the redwood forest. He had managed to fake them out, letting them get ready to fully consume him before slicing their necks apart with the fountain pens. I made a mental note to never upset Shade.
With our friend back in tow, we made our way away from the watchtower to look at a very worn down bulletin board. It had to be at least a few hundred years old, and all the papers on it had long since worn away. There were a few wooden notices that had withstood the test of time: a notice around missing persons from the nearby town, earthquake procedures, and a request for supplies after the town was magically cut off from the outside world.
While Juno read the notices, I looked up and saw that the blood hawk that Anny had sent to watch us for so long was no longer in the sky. I was about to comment on that when a strange whisper carried on the wind.
“Juno…” it called out.
The ground around her began to pulse like when the tieflings attacked us back in Thornwall, but nothing came of it. It seemed no one– be it Anny or those tieflings, were able to find us on this island.
Slender cast a spell to see if he could find any magic, and Shade strolled down to the stream to begin to clean the blood off of himself. Slender let us know that we were surrounded by protection and preservation magic, and that the spirits and weasel were also giving off unique magical traces.
The weasel squeaked at Slender while he walked around the camp, and it caught Shades’ attention. He ran out of the river and got down on all fours to chase it around the ruined watchtower. Slender picked up a stick and began to try to keep the tabaxi away from his perceived prey, but Shade was just as relentless.
While they were messing around, Juno spotted another tent over in the bushes to the west. I followed her over to it carefully, still wary about the tieflings finding a way to show up and really ruin our day. She picked up a journal next to the camp and let us know that the people of the town had been trying to get past the magical barriers for almost 7 years. It noted seeing strange lights and hearing strange sounds in the night.
I pulled back the curtain to the tent and Juno coughed next to me as it let loose a cloud of dust. There was a skeleton laying on the bedroll– covered in cuts and punctures all over its bones. Slender and Shade caught back up to us. Juno handed us a bone and I compared the marks to one of my daggers, but they were too thin and it looked like something dull had done it. Shade extended his claws, but they didn’t seem much like those either. The mystery seemingly continued.
We passed a big cart on the road that had been picked over for supplies long before we got to it. It looked like it would have belonged to a much larger city than what the watchtower would have been constructed to watch over.
We continued down the road through the jungles, finally seeing the smoke of a town across the river. The base of the river was so deep that the bottom was completely obscured, and the rapids looked like they’d drown us when we tried to cross. Mole slammed their sword into one of the trees, falling it in a nice single swing. We all realized what they were doing, so we helped construct a raft that looks like it would hold to cross all 7 of us to the other side.
I squeezed my eyes shut as we got to the deepest part, and thank the gods no one could tell under my goggles. It was only water. I would be okay. Juno could fly, and Matanza was a fierce swimmer in spite of their armor. Still, the sounds of currents roaring downstream were entirely unnerving. I was first to jump off the boat on the other banks.
Slender and I took the lead as we approached the settlement. It was nestled into the stone walls of cliffs, seemingly made of mostly wood and bone. The guards halted us with weapons drawn. Their big bone masks were carved to resemble tentacles. I immediately had a bad feeling.
They said something about not being used to having visitors in Abyssal– finally, those stupid obscure language lessons I asked my father to let me take as a child were paying off. Slender seemed to be able to follow most of the conversation, which was good as his speaking skills were unmatched. I had been teaching him Abyssal for months in our free time, so it was nice to finally have a purpose for it.
“Why have you come here?” the first guard asked, lowering his spear ever so slightly. Juno definitely noticed it, and she grabbed my arm to give me a pointed look. One that said: let Slender do the talking.
“We come to this place searching for a squid to devote our lives to,” Slender said in rough Abyssal. It translated well enough. The seemingly human eyes behind the masks softened as they muttered amongst themselves.
“You seek the Keeper,” the one said, and we all exchanged a glance before vigorously nodding. I noticed at some point we had misplaced Shade. “We should introduce you to Thalasor.”
There was a splash in the river behind the nearest house followed by the furious hiss of a cat. Guess we knew what happened to Shade. Juno started to run forward. The wings on her cloak sprouted from her back. I quickly held my arm out to stop her before the guards could attack.
“She’s getting our friend out of the river– it sounds like he fell in,” I said in Abyssal and pointed to the stream. Shade had managed to grab hold of one of the rocks, so he climbed on top of it, wide-eyed and sopping wet.
They warily let her pass, still holding their spears tightly. Right before Juno could pick Shade up, a few green tentacles emerged out of the water around the rock he had trapped himself on. His damp fur started to rise, and his ears folded back. He swiped a few claws through the air and hissed at it, but it picked him up carefully and safely set him down on the bank on the other side of the river. The rest of us decided to use the bridge.
We made our way up through the market. All the merchants were staring at us inquisitively. Slender detoured to see if he could find any deals, but nothing they were selling seemed to catch his attention. It seemed to mostly be a collection of bone and brass jewelry– nothing we currently needed.
Shade was waiting for us atop a set of old stone stairs. He was standing next to a tall man who extended a tentacle from beneath his cloak to shake Shade’s paw. Shade recoiled and bared his fangs. The man laughed and tucked it away before offering a normal human hand out instead. Shade hesitantly shook it with the most forced smile I had ever seen on his face. The man introduced himself in common as Thalasor.
Thalasor let us know that the Keeper’s name was Thalasar. Not confusing at all right? I was just going to call the man Jake and the giant squid Thalasar. Jake didn’t like that.
Jake told us that if we had seen the mist while we were sailing, it must have been because Thalasar summoned us. It was a confirmation of a worry I think we all already had. Thalasar had promised Juno that it would be hunting her down to take the wing of Bahamut. Little did the squid realize, I didn’t think there was anything in the world Juno wouldn’t do to protect that cloak. It reminded her of Ravenspurn and Alexio.
We were told that we could have an audience with Thalasar, so long as we retrieved an artifact of his from a place upstream. I asked if Jake could give us more information about the mission, and his eyes warmly squinted behind the mask as though he was smiling.
“Oh, of course,” he said and grabbed a piece of paper to write the task down for us. He passed the piece of paper to Slender, and we all gathered around.
It read: Go to the place. Collect the thing.
We thanked him for his… brevity.
We were escorted to a room with two beds. I didn’t really see a problem with sleeping on the floor in the cramped quarters, but Juno asked me to open up the house. I laughed, almost having forgotten about it. We all piled in to have our own rooms, and Slender asked if we could assist him with Penelope’s morality training. He really shouldn’t have asked. No one in our group was the most moral besides maybe the paladins.
Penelope seemed to be bored in his room, and I didn’t really want to see what a bored baby lightning dragon was like. I sat in the sand across from him and began shaping my own kingdom for his kingdom to go to war with. Y’know. Like kingdoms do.
Juno and Slender yelled at me, but I made sure to clarify that my kingdom was an evil kingdom. I told Penelope that my kingdom needed to be destroyed because they were running horrific experiments on their subjects, but I think Juno had walked away before it got to that point. That was probably for the best. I can only imagine the look I would have received about that one.
Morning came, and Ashen Cabaret was off on a mission upstream. We didn’t really know what we were looking for as we followed the road through the forest. We came across a camp that, realistically, we probably should have just kept walking past. It seemed to have been raided by a pair of owlbears, and anyone who knows anything knows not to fuck with an owlbear. Good thing that we don’t know anything.
Shade tried to jump over the fast moving stream, but as soon as he was over it, something reached out and dragged him down. We all watched with wide eyes as he was pulled beneath the stream’s surface– entirely disappearing from sight. It wasn’t very wide, but it must have been incredibly deep. Olaf and I both ran forward as the owlbears shifted their attention to the commotion in the stream.
They lumbered over and tilted their heads at the water like they were waiting for their snack to come back up for air. We weren’t going to let them eat Shade, so we made relatively quick work of the two of them. That was for the best, as the real danger was lurking below us.
Now, after all the adventure we’ve gone on, I thought I had seen everything. Juno ran upstream, trying to find a spot where she could see Shade to fish him out. Instead, she saw a pile of bones and some tattered old mage clothes drifting down the stream. Normal enough, right?
The skull’s jaw unhinged like it was smiling, and his skeletal hand waved. Juno blinked a few times, finally waving back.
“I hope it isn’t these old bones that are rattling yours,” the skeleton chuckled. “My name is Henry, necromancer extraordinaire at your service.”
“I– I’m Juno.” Juno looked between the bones and the stream. “Our friend was just dragged underwater–”
As soon as she said it, the bones reformed into a body and submerged below the surface of the water. Something flashed– like someone has casted a lightning spell. It lit up the stream enough to illuminate a huge underwater cave. The low chattering that was hardly audible over the babbling water began to increase in volume.
Shade jumped out of the water and onto the bank. His fur was once again plastered to his skin. A tentacle shot out of the water, and Mole ran forward to intercept it before it could reach Shade again. They got ready to slash, but the tentacle grabbed them by the heel and yanked them under. Matanza made a low chirp before adjusting their cape and diving after them. Slender turned to Juno and made her invisible so she could also join the fight underwater.
I heard a voice as they breached the surface– something in abyssal. These creatures were sentient?
“Stop fighting them!” I yelled and ran to the edge of the bank. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. I saw humanoid fish-like bodies floating just beneath the surface. They had already taken casualties from the lightning magic. “This feels like a misunderstanding, and if they’re not buddy buddy with the squid people, we need more allies on this island.”
Thalasar was hunting us. There was no doubt about it. I didn’t really know if I wanted to make friends with his worshippers. Not until we knew what his game was.
Everyone held back, so I bent down into the water to look at what was happening. The fish creatures were sahuagin, but they had a much scarier tentacled beast circling them as they tried to defend their home in this underwater cave. The biggest looked at me, expression furious. I held up my hands and pulled my head away from the stream.
“We aren’t here to hurt you,” I called out in Abyssal. “Bring your dead up– we can help them.”
The biggest sahuagin lifted three bodies onto the riverbank for me and the paladins to revive. He looked at the dead owlbears and asked if they could have the free meal. We definitely weren’t going to stop them. Another sahuagin soldier came up onto the bank, letting my entire party see a very fancy looking magical sword. That was no good.
Shade and Slender’s eyes both twinkled when they looked at it. The sahuagin stepped back and its catfish-like whiskers twitched with its frown.
“That’s a nice sword you have there buddy,” Shade said, and he stroked his own whiskers. “Anyway you would part with it?” I translated for the fish man, and he scoffed.
“How about a competition? We race to the end of the stream,” he said in Abyssal. I told what he said to Shade, and Shade grinned. I asked if we had to swim, and he said that we could travel on land if we wanted. Poor thing was cocky. He shouldn’t have been.
The sahuagin dove into the water, and Shade took off running with his extreme cat speed. I looked at the endpoint and stepped through a dimensional door to meet Shade over there. The two of us high-fived, and the sahuagin emerged from the water well after we had arrived. He made a face and reached for his sword, but it wasn’t on his hip.
“Shit–” I hissed too quietly for him to hear. I knew what had happened immediately. Slender had made the best thief in Par’Adeus invisible.
The other sahuagins armed themselves again, tensions immediately rising once more. Slender and I tried to talk them down, but in the heat of the conversation a tentacle shot out of the stream again and swiped at something. I winced when it pulled the sword away and returned it to the sahuagin guard. Seems Juno wasn’t as hidden as she thought she was.
“There’s something here,” a voice whispered from the deep. All eyes turned to where Juno must have been. I clenched my fists and my breath became shallow. This wasn’t a fight I wanted to have.
Fortunately, the other sahuagins seemed satisfied to have their sword returned to them. They said we weren’t worth the trouble and disappeared back into the stream. That should have been the end of our problems. Should have been.
Slender dropped the invisibility on Juno, and she glided down from the cliffs above us. She looked uncomfortable and a bit damp– almost like she was sweating. She inhaled deeply, and it sounded painful.
“What… What did that thing do to me?” She fell onto her knees and gasped. I was by her side in an instant. “Shit. I think–” She wiped some of the slime off of her skin and inspected it. “I think that thing cursed me. I need a strong healing spell, and more importantly–” Her voice was becoming more faint. “I think I need to be in water.”
We all looked at the stream full of sahuagins that currently were not very friendly towards us. Putting her in it would be as good as a death sentence.
“I– I have healing,” I said quickly and extended a glowing hand. Juno shook her head.
“I don’t think you have anything strong enough yet– we need expert level spellcasting. You’ve really only been doing magic for a year, right?”
I knew she was right, but it hurt to hear. I had come a long way in the last year, but what did that matter if I was still not able to help my friends when they needed it. Magic isn’t an easy skill to master, especially since mine was gifted to me by a god that had made my life into the hell it was.
“What about,” my tone was quickly becoming more unhinged, “a revive? Would that– I could–”
The skeleton, Henry, walked over and tilted his head. He moved me away from Juno as I pulled out my sword.
“That’s not going to do anything,” he said to me and then bent down next to where Juno collapsed onto the ground. “Hold very, very still. I have an idea, but maybe not one you’re going to like very much.”
He waved his staff and muttered a spell, and Juno vanished. My anger spiked into something violent for a moment. The mask of shadows began fuming.
“What did you–” I was interrupted by a noise. I looked down.
“Ribbit,” croaked the little frog in the mud.
Henry patted me on the back and stood up to seal the neary basket the owlbears had initially been taking fish from. He filled it with water from the stream, and carefully picked up the unnatural looking black and purple frog off the ground and set her in the water.
“I imagine that feels better,” he said and passed me the basket. “Here you are. One froggy friend.”
I clutched the basket against my chest. Frog-Juno swam over to the side and looked up at me with her little black eyes. I reached down with a single gloved finger, and she grabbed it with her little webbed hands. Tears began to well in the corner of my vision.
“Now, it won’t last very long– only about an hour, so really time is of the essence to fix her condition.” Henry paced and thought about it.
“Slender,” I said. It sounded a bit more like a whimper than I meant for it to. “How do we fix her?”
“I think I have an idea.” The bard looked up into the sky. “Keep her safe for a second. I’ll send a message to Anny. Maybe she can help us.”
Anny was quick to reply that there was a tree directly north of us that she was familiar with. I led the way towards it into a rolling field of tall grains that went above even Henry’s head. It felt like the skeleton was nearly twice the size of me.
A pile of boulders blocked the path forward, so I detoured into the grain field. Huge mistake. This island was full of terrible surprises.
A flash of blue came out of nowhere. Claws and teeth pierced right through my chainmail and down into my skin. I didn’t even have a chance to scream before I was on the ground unconscious. The basket landed next to me, and Juno began rapidly croaking to get the attention of the others.
“Jadeth?” Slender called. No answer came besides the ribbits.
“That definitely doesn’t seem promising,” Shade muttered. Matanza peeped in agreement and hundled closer to the huge skeleton mage.
Henry raised a bony hand and pulled my body back into the path. I was laying in a pool of blood, unresponsive. Matanza cautiously walked forward to stabilize me, not taking their eyes off the tall grass. I groaned and pulled myself away from the field, gripping the wounds on my stomach for a second. Then I realized something– I had dropped the basket. I shot back to my feet.
“Juno!” I shouted and tried to run back in. Matanza grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards, gesturing wildly at the gash in my armor. “No, I’m fine. She’s still out there– I can’t leave her with that thing!”
“Aren’t you like… a warlock?” Slender said pointedly. It was an extremely good point. “Why don’t you use some magic to get her?”
I stopped right at the edge of the grass and focused my magic into a hand. I shot it forward into the field and pulled the basket back out towards us. Juno was still safely inside. Frogs couldn’t really look exasperated per se, but she still managed to have a look on her face that looked completely done with me. I could almost hear her voice saying, “please be more careful.”
We climbed over the boulders, now specifically avoiding the fields full of dangerous lizards. There was a lone tree on the other side of another stream. Henry crossed over without issue, but I looked at the water suspiciously. I told everyone to take a few steps back from me so I could thunder step across it. Slender crossed with a dimensional door. Matanza was a strong enough swimmer that they just swam right through it. Shade did some acrobatic maneuvers to vault across.
Slender read off the name on the old acacia tree as Anthelia Gravestepper. Its gnarled and twisted branches reached out in all directions, as if they were grasping for something just out of reach. The bark was cracked and weathered like it was ancient and long dead. There were only tiny dried leaves still clinging to the branches. There was an old symbol carved into the bark below the name. Slender put a hand on it.
The sigil began to glow, so we all took a step back. Anny stepped through the rift that appeared, and she immediately looked at me and Juno.
“Aww. Look at this cute little froggy. Do you wanna come back home with me? I know this awesome marsh for you,” she said with a grin as she reached out and booped the frog gently. Juno made a ribbit. “What’d you guys need help with?”
“Fix her!” I begged and extended the basket out towards her, but Anny tilted her head.
“Fix… Your frog? She looks pretty healthy to me.”
“It’s not a frog– it’s Juno.” I wrapped my tail protectively around the basket. Juno again croaked.
“Anny,” Slender sighed and moved me aside, “what Jadeth means is, Juno was cursed by a squid creature. This mage, Henry, turned her into a frog to help manage it, but she has to stay in the water. We need a way to fix it, but none of us are strong enough mages.”
Anny extended her arms out towards me, but I hesitated.
“I can fix her curse, but I can sense that you all have an artifact that would be incredibly helpful for someone in my family. My great, great, great, great…” You get the idea. She carried on like that for nearly a minute. “…Great niece could use the magic jar of pickles you recovered. Would you be willing to bring those to her house for me?”
“The pickles… They’re actually magic?” I muttered and looked at the others. Slender shrugged.
“We’ve seen stranger things,” he acknowledged. He was definitely right.
“Anything, as long as you can help her,” I agreed and passed the frog over. Anny took it carefully and waved a hand over the basket. A yellow light made Frog-Juno glow, and she shifted back into her normal, non-slimy self. I nearly tackled her with a hug. “You are such a little shit,” I whispered into her ear. She squeezed tighter.
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t love that about me, Godslayer,” Juno replied in a similar hush.
“Someday, it’s going to get someone killed.” I pushed forward to headbutt her with the base of my horns.
“You evidently don’t need my help in that regard, now do you?” she chuckled and pulled away.
Slender asked Anny if she knew anything about the morkoth, and a mechanical whisper prodded her for the answer as well. I was almost positive I saw two bluish-green lenses staring at us from somewhere in the field, but it was like they remained only in my peripheral vision. Anny told us about having a deal with Thalasar, letting us know that he was the oldest and wisest morkoth. That didn’t make me feel very good.
We all thanked Anny and she vanished back through the rift in the tree. Being alone again, I suggested that Slender send a message to the morkoth. He asked what I’d like to say, and I told him to call it a bitch.
A second passed before a boulder appeared out of nowhere to send Slender flying into the field. We heard a frantic shout followed by silence as another flash of blue tore through it. We all stayed deathly quiet. He had his stupid immortality ring on, didn’t he?
The answer limped out of the field.
I took a step back, eyes beginning to glow purely out of the fear of what I was seeing. Slender stood in front of us, smiling like nothing was wrong.
“That could have been bad, huh?” he laughed.
Henry’s jawbone fell off and Juno gagged next to me.
“Slender–” Juno managed.
He looked down and his eyes grew huge.
“Huh,” he said relatively calmly. “Well, to be honest, I feel fine. Great, actually.”
His guts were hanging out of his body. There was a clear cut right through his abdomen, and his guts had begun to spill from it. I readied some healing light, but it didn’t seem to do anything, much like he was already deceased.
“I don’t like this,” I said. Slender held out his hand to show us the onyx ring. It looked like it had dug into the flesh of his finger. “Oh, I really don’t like this.”
“Frankly, I don’t see the issue.” Slender grabbed the falling intestines and shoved them back into his stomach cavity. The squelching sound they made caused us all to recoil. I was glad the gas mask was filtering whatever smells everyone else was no doubt experiencing.
“Ugh, take that ring off and let me revive you,” I grumbled. “It can’t be safe to walk around like that.”
Slender pulled his hand away when I reached out for it.
“You’re going to kill me?”
“For only a second– the bracelet has a revivify stored on it already.” I stuck out my own hand to show him the beads around my wrist that swirled with energy.
“No way. I feel fine.” Slender clenched his fists. Juno, Shade, and Matanza gave me a look. “Besides.” He tugged on the ring. It didn’t budge. “It’s not coming off.”
“I’ll cut it off.” I pulled out a dagger.
“I’d prefer not to lose a finger.”
Everyone tugged me away from him, so I finally sighed. We promised we’d take shifts watching him overnight in the house in case anything bad happened. Morning came, and he looked good as new. I still didn’t know if I trusted the ring, but I let it go. I had more important things to do than spend my day trying to remove Slender’s finger.
Specifically… There was someone I needed to talk to.
I threw my bloody clothes and armor onto my bed and opened the wardrobe full of fancy clothes I knew couldn’t leave the mansion. Sometimes I would put them on when I was alone, just to feel like the royalty I used to be. I tugged the scarf from my neck, and began to take my mask off before ultimately deciding I was more comfortable with it on.
I slipped on the nicest looking outfit in the closet– a navy blue coat with silver fasteners and trim and a noble’s cloak with equally elegant decorations. It looked like the regalia of a Caldran emperor. It looked far too fancy for someone like me. I stood in front of the mirror for what felt like an hour before I finally decided I looked alright. My hair was still running wild like a black lion mane, but it would take a full day to tame it at this point.
I gathered up all the supplies I bought from Port Battleborn and carried them over to Juno’s room. I used my tail to knock quietly on the plain wooden door, carefully adjusting the supplies in my arms so I wouldn’t drop them everywhere. Juno opened the door, and was surprised to see me.
“Jadeth– do you need a hand? What is all this?” Juno gestured not only to the junk I was carrying, but also to what I was wearing. A potion bottle tumbled from the top of the pile, but Juno lunged and caught it before it could smash onto the floor.
“Sorry! I got this stuff for you the other day. Bear traps, handcuffs–” Juno raised an eyebrow, but I continued. “A few types of potions for you to throw. I just thought– you’re so fast and good with your hands that you would probably get some good use out of… Wait,” my skin became warm. “Wait. I didn’t just say that. Fuck. I should go, shouldn’t I?” I didn’t wait for an answer before I set the stuff next to her door and began to bolt towards my room again. Juno caught me by the decorative cloak.
“Did you need something, Jadeth?” Her voice was different… gentle. My ears felt warm, and I didn’t doubt they were pink. I tucked my hair forward to hide them.
“Uh… Can I tell you a story?” I sounded so lame. “Talking with Derrick the other day really got me thinking about life and death.”
“I’m listening,” Juno encouraged.
“Okay. Um. So… It was two or three years ago, and I was in Ravenspurn. I wasn’t really sure why I was there– arguably it was the worst place for me to go. The lord of the city wanted my head. Still, something brought me there, so I tried and I tried to find what it was. I couldn’t accept that I had gone there for no reason, and that I was risking my life for nothing. I was sure The God Star was trying to tell me something, but he never gave me a sign.” Juno stayed quiet, so I continued.
“Then a terrible storm came in the night, maybe a week after Yuletide. I’ve always been a bit scared of lightning, and I couldn’t sleep through the roar of the winds. So I went on a walk. I stood at the edge of the cliffs overlooking the frigid waves as they crashed into the rocks below me. I screamed, begging The Aeon for guidance that wouldn’t come. So I backed up to get a running start, and then I jumped.
“I tried to drown myself in the Thalassian sea. I didn’t see any chance of being happy again, and I had nothing left to lose.
“The waves kept dragging me down, and each time they did, I had a little less fight left in me. Then, as I emerged and took what I thought was my final breath, a beacon of light scanned over the horizon. I felt like a moth being pulled towards a flame. I turned away from it at first, scared of what it meant to keep living. I was so tired of being alone, but I swam to shore, and I kept going.”
“Jadeth… I– I’m so sorry that you ever felt that way.” She rubbed my shoulder, but I shook my head.
“It’s okay. See, I was talking to Derrick, and he helped me realize that I’m not alone anymore. When I met you, I thought you were just another criminal. Then we saw our pasts together through that vision Argos showed us, and I realized after that night that I was feeling things that I couldn’t place. I kept reliving that memory of what I did to my family for weeks and weeks. It felt like a tidal wave ready to swallow me. I felt dangerous– like no one could ever be near me again without getting hurt. I was trying so hard to keep you at arm’s length.
“Then in Port Battleborn when I touched the Tear of Alandreas, I had my chance to get dragged under. I could have just stopped fighting and finally let those waves wash over me. I thought you’d be safer– happier without me, but then, you yelled my name. I heard you in the afterlife. It was like the beam from that lighthouse beckoning me back to shore. I have never felt that way before about a person, and it scared me. Honestly, it still scares me.
“I’ve always been reckless, but with you it’s different. I’m not just reckless to feel that burst of adrenaline. I already feel my heart racing when I’m with you. I’m reckless because for the first time in years, I have something that I’m scared to lose, and I’ll do anything to protect it. You’re my beacon, Juniper, and I want to be more than friends.”
Juno cupped my face in her palm, and I realized I had a tear running down my cheek. My heart was slamming against my ribcage like it was ready to burst out at any second. I wanted to yell “just kidding!” and sprint back to my room. I wanted to trap myself in my ice tomb. I wanted to go feed myself to the creatures in the field outside.
“I didn’t think you really cared about anything,” Juno said with a slight smirk, and moved her fingers up to my goggles. I winced ever-so-slightly when she grabbed them, so she paused and pulled away instead of revealing my no doubt terrified eyes. “I’d like to be more than friends too, Jadeth.”
My tail began swishing like a happy dog. I had to physically grab it to keep from embarrassing myself any further. She laughed, and it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
“Can… Can I borrow your amulet of thoughts for a moment?” I asked suddenly. “I need to go do something else really quickly. I’ll get it back to you before breakfast, I promise.” Juno unfastened it and handed it over with a quizzical look, but she didn’t pry.
I almost took off running towards Slenders room on the other side of the house, and I knocked on his door loudly. He groaned.
“Five more minutes,” he grumbled. I knocked again more urgently. “This had better be an emergency.” The door swung open and he looked down at me. He didn’t even have his mask, ring, or crown on yet, and the dark circles under his eyes really contrasted with his white changeling skin. “Gods, you’re dressed way too nice for this to be a social visit. Did you come to kill me?”
“Your advice worked– sort of. I didn’t really take your advice, actually. I– I did something I probably shouldn’t have.”
He looked unimpressed and began to close the door in my face. I caught it.
“Jadeth, it’s too early for me to help you hide a body. Go ask Olaf or Shade for help.”
“That isn’t what I came here for.” I held out the amulet of thoughts. He finally looked at least a little interested. “I did a bad thing. I need to do a good one to balance it out.”
He let me into his room full of gold and marble statues and exotic animal pelts among other treasures. I handed over the amulet and pulled my silver mirror out of my bag and sat next to it on the floor. Slender put the amulet on.
“What are you trying to do, exactly?” he asked. His voice was still suspicious.
“Send Deanlynn a message to see if she’d let you scry on her to see your kids. Then, I can use the spell, and you can read my thoughts to see what I see.”
“You…” Slender trailed off and sat on the floor across from me. “That’s actually a nice thing. I didn’t know you could do nice things. I guess you got us Yuletide gifts all those months ago, but I thought you may have been charmed.” He paused when he saw my brows furrow. “Oh– sorry. No one really does nice stuff for me, and well, you’re… I’ll stop talking. Thank you, Jadeth.”
I waited for Slender to give me the all clear, then focused all of my magical energy into the mirror. I saw the surface ripple, and I closed my eyes to become enveloped in the vision. I felt the amulet push into my thoughts, and I let it in.
We saw a beautiful woman in a little cottage house. She was walking around, preparing breakfast for three little kids running around the home. They ran to the table and took their seats, pretending to offer a chair out towards us. I heard Slender faintly say hello to them, even if they couldn’t hear us. It made my heart ache, just a little.
Deanlynn came into the room and pointed to a spot that we weren’t quite in. The three kids waved towards it, so I stepped into the spot so Slender would properly see the vision. Two of the kids looked human, but one had white skin, hair, and eyes, just like Slender. One of his children was a changeling, just like him.
We watched them talk, eat, and laugh. It was all the things a good family should have been, and for a moment I was envious of the life Slender had waiting for him. Eventually, it became too difficult to keep the spell up, and the image flickered away. I blinked my eyes open, seeing Slender with tears running down his face. He was smiling.
“Thank you.” He whispered again and handed me back the amulet to return to Juno. I tied it around the handle of her door, then went to collapse in my bed until someone called me for breakfast. My knees felt weak, but I had never been so happy in my life. Now, I just had to make sure I didn’t find a way to ruin it.