Blood & Wine - A Spawn Astarion Fan Fiction

Astarion

I decide to take Nymeria on the scenic route to the Blade and Stars, I want us to linger together a bit longer before I allow the full weight of my situation settle back on my shoulders.

It's strange to see the city in the sunlight after so many years. I had forgotten what it really looked like, the world is different when it's bathed in shades of grey. The darkness settles deep inside of you after a while and you begin to question what is real.

There's so much more hope in the stark contrast of the light, chasing away the shadows where I usually lurked doing Cazador's bidding. I want to stay here forever, part of my heart wishes it were possible, but I know it's not as long as my master lives. I'm foolish to cling to that whisper of hope. With everything that I have done in my past, I cannot see this ending with my freedom. Not that I will fight for anything less.

But she helps me forget. She gives me something that I have longed for but forgotten was even possible Something more than hope. I can see it in her eyes as we're walking down the street together, completely oblivious to the world around her only able to take in bits and pieces.

I notice how they stare at us, not out of malice, but curiosity. There's a light within her that shines so bright, perhaps that's why I was drawn to her in the first place. It's like the sun, warm and inviting, but also something that could destroy me from the inside out.

That's exactly what she was doing, chasing away all the darkest pieces inside of me. Stripping them so something new can grow. I regret that my new life must take root on the very grounds that caused me so much pain and misery, but maybe that's how it was always meant to play out.

I know she feels it too as she turns and looks up at me, her face alight with wonder. Something in me is bound to her and has been since that first moment. She is the sun to bring the light in my life and I am the moon, soothing the darkness within her.

"What is it?" Nymeria asks, pulling at my arm as we walk together.

I clear my throat, "I'm enjoying the sun and the company."

"Does the city look different?" She asks.

I know she doesn't mean since I have been gone, the way that she can almost read my thoughts is uncanny, but to her I am a book spread wide longing to be read. To be cherished and remembered.

"It does." I nod, "It's strange because I have been living in the shadows for so long, I had forgotten how many colors existed in the world and how beautiful they can be." I reach down and run my hand over her new leathers, "Like this one, it's the depth of the night's sky under a full moon."

She puts her hand over mine and squeezes.

Nymeria smiles to herself and looks off, "What do you think of cats?"

I follow her gaze to a long haired tabby peacefully sleeping on top of a shop's awning.

"I like them." I say, "They make you work for whatever friendship they offer."

"Kind of like you." She laughs to herself.

"I had a cat." I paused, "When I was alive, I mean. I had a beautiful home here in the city when I was Magistrate and it was filled with beautiful things. I remember so little of it, but mostly I remember my cat. She liked to bathe in the sun as much as she could and lay on my lap as I read at night. She was small and looked a lot like that one," I nod to the tabby, "but with shorter fur."

"What was her name?" Nymeria looks back at me.

I swallow, "I don't remember. It's been so long."

She squeezes my hand again, pulling me from my mind. "I think I'd like to have a feline companion, when all of this is over."