Like Starlight and Wine (A Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion x Tav Fanfic)

29. The Price Of The Pact

I watch silently over the dancing flames of the campfire as our newest member pitches her crude tent in her own little corner of camp. The odd tiefling woman, spouting flames as red as her skin, is like no one I've ever met. There's something about her that seems different than the rest of us. Despite the day she's had... despite everything she's been through... despite the grim prospects of the iliithid parasite burrowed deep in her brain, Karlach is bouncing around with energy, her lips split into a joyful grin. She's humming a little tune to herself while she works, lost in her own world, completely oblivious to my watchful eyes.

Sure, she has her problems just like the rest of us. But somehow, she makes it all seem so simple. And she makes it look easy to find a reason to smile in the face of it all... as if it's the easiest thing to do.

I hug my legs to my chest, resting my chin on my knees as my eyes slide down to the flickering firelight. Could it be possible... I wonder... could I ever be that happy?  Well and truly happy? I'm not sure I have ever felt "happy" before. And the only time in my past that I've ever had a feeling comparable to "happy" was when I bathed the world in blood and gore. And if that's what it'll take to have a smile like Karlach's, I'm not sure I want happiness after all.

With time, the day's events begin to fill my tired bones with exhaustion and I look to my bedroll. I'm sure no one will notice if I turn in early for the evening. But before I can slip into the covers, another feeling washes over me... something that twists my stomach into knots of aching dread. It's a familiar feeling. Waves of dark energy are  collecting and pooling into a singular point, much the same way it had when Rafael materialized before us on the road. Oh Hells, is he back? 

I scramble to my feet, swiveling my head around, my eyes fixed on a spot on the ground where the dark energy is coalescing. The rest of my companions can sense it too. We approach carefully, our hands ready to draw our weapons or cast magic.

Wyll's eyes widen, his breath catching. "Hell's fire. She's coming."

A ring of fire suddenly irrupts from the ground before us, and in the center of it a portal like a pool of black liquid, smooth and unnatural. The liquid ripples, the surface breaks and up rises a form... a woman wrapped in devil's wings. As she ascends making her grand entrance, her wings fly open to reveal herself, a beautiful devil woman... dangerously beautiful, and an air about here that sets everyone on edge. 

The portal beneath her feet disappears in a flash and all that's left is the devil woman. A low cut gown hugs the vivacious curves of her body, exposing the majority of her blue skin. An ornate, golden headdress adorns her silky, fire-red hair. And two sets of horns just straight up from her head and into the sky.  

"Wyll," she says, her voice silky, sultry and dangerous. "You've been naughty. And you know what happens when you're naughty."

Karlach clenches her fists. "Gods damn it," she says through gritted teeth. "Anyone by her."

"Just who in the Nine Hells are you?" I demand, feeling the urge to step between this devil and my companions.

The devil woman frowns. "Wyll, you absolute stinker! You kept me a secret? Well, time to let the hellcat out of the bag. Call me Mizora. I'm Wyll's patron, the fount of his power. My pet's been unruly - " she reaches out as she speaks and grabs Wyll by the neck with an unseen power. "- and his leash needs a yank." With a quick gesture of her arm, Wyll is wrenched closer to her by this invisible tether, his face twisting with discomfort as he reaches for his throat. 

"We had a deal, Wyll," Mizora says with with poison in her voice. "But Karlach's still breathing."

Karlach's voice snarls next to me. "I've taken more pleasant shits than you, Mizora, and at least those can be buried after."