We found some torches and lit them on our way through this place of nightmares. Literall shadows constantly attacking us allong the way.
"You know, I'd kill for some sunlight about now." Astarion sighed.
"Give a vampire one day in the sun and suddenly he becomes greedy." Shadowheart judged.
"You'd be greedy too if you only saw shades of Grey for two centuries." I snapped back at her. "Elves only see in Grey wash when using dark vision."
"That....why that's exactly right." Astarion was impressed.
The ground in front of us created a bright swirling circle. As a devil appeared in the circle, bowing at us as he introduced himself. "Hello traveller's! My name is Raphael." He looked around, "my my, this place is quite....drab. Let's change that." He smiled and snapped his fingers. We were suddenly in a mansion, a large fire roared behind him in a brick fireplace. The table behind us stacked with a feast that would feed an entire town. "There we go! Please, take a seat, enjoy a warm meal."
Astarion went to grab something from the table but i motioned for him not to. "Hold on, what's going on? Why have you brought us here?" I glared at him.
"Because, I can help you with your parasites." He smiled charmingly.
"And what's your price?" Lay'zel stepped beside me. Images flooded my mind from the past making me stumble back.
"Devil's always have a price." I said sofly."
"One I'm sure you know very well my dear." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Anyway," he waved it off, "I just figured I would tell you lot that if you ever wanted to strike up a deal with me, we could work something out. You give me a little something, and I'll give you your freedom." He mocked looking at me.
"We don't want your deal."
He tisked as he approached, "I think you mean they don't want it. You my dear", he grabbed my hand turning it over as he waved his hand. Pain stung my arm as a small mark appears on my inner wrist, a small rune. "You don't have anything that I want that's not already mine."
"What's he talking about (F/N)?" Shadowheart looked at me.
"Oh don't blame her, she didn't remember till just now after all. But your sweet little leader here, already made a deal with me before, a few moons ago."
I snatched my hand away from him, "Enough Raphael, take us back." He looked surprised at me. "Now." I demanded through gritted teeth.
"My my. And to think you're the same little--" I brewed up a magical storm in my hand cutting him off, "alright!" He snapped his fingers, sending us back to the Underdark. "The rest of you, think about my deal. You'll see me soon enough."
In a puff of smoke he dissapeared. Leaving behind the awkward silence as the party stood staring at me as I stared at the rune. Astarion gently grabbed my hand and looked at it. He covered it with his free hand as he smiled at me, "you don't have to say anything you don't want to darling."
"But--" Shadowheart began to protest before Astarion gave her a look cutting her off.
"We already know a lot about (F/N)'s life before we joined her. Now, I know for a fact we know more about her than she does us."
"He does have a point." Gale rubbed his neck awkwardly. "I've told you guys about Mystra but I do have more skeletons in my closet. I don't know much about you lot though."
"I don't have to tell you anything." Shadowheart crossed her arms on her chest in defiance.
"And I'm not asking you to." I chimed in making them all look at me again. "Plus, I've been keeping a secret from all of you this entire time. Something about my tadpole." I gently pulled my hand away from Astarion. "But I care about you guys and I don't want to hide anything from yall. Just...please try not to be angry."
"Are you sure?" Astarion asked.
I nodded, "better for me to tell you than for Raphael to twist it and drive us apart." We continued on our trail as I told them everything. "So as an Enchantress I age like a siren. I was sold to the captain guard a few days after he was promoted."
"Why, that was nearly 60 years ago!" Gale looked at me shocked.
"Yep. I was with him as he started his family. Watched his son grow up as my body had barely aged, as if only 10 years had gone by. I suffered at their hands for 57 years. I'm actually 63." Their jaws were nearly on the floor.
"You never told me you were so old!" Astarion sassed.
"Hey! You're still 4 times older than me!" I pointed at him making him wave me off. "Anyway, I reached a point where I couldn't take the torture, the experiments anymore. I tried everything under the sun to end it all. But I didn't know about what I was. Or that it only takes bleeding me dry, or a certain kind of poison to kill me. Every time I tried to tear my veins open the soldiers would heal me before blood could even touch the floor."
"They couldn't lose their most valued puppet." Astarion sighed, knowing too well what that was like.
"What does that have to do with Raphael or the tadpoles?" Lay'zel rushed me.
"They got tired of me trying to kill myself so they locked me up in a literal cage. I could barely move it was so small." I hugged myself absent mindedly, rubbing my arm with my thumb. "I heard them talking of summoning a devil, one to turn me fully into their mindless slave. But something went wrong with the deal. There was nothing Raphael could do to make me how they wanted. And there was no price they could pay to make him try. But when he looked at me I pleaded with him to make a deal. He was hungry for my soul, he said he'd give me whatever I wanted."
"So what did you get?" Shadowheart asked.
"Freedom." I sighed as I looked up at the moon. "When I next opened my eyes I was on the ship. Getting a tadpole shoved into my eye. Then I woke up on the beach with a new body, and no memories. That's when I met you lot. But I have to ask, when we first met, and our minds connected, what did you guys see from me?"
"I saw you fighting for your life aboard the ship." Gale admitted.
"You took out 3 of those damned creatures on your own." Lay'zel sounded impressed.
"I also saw you running around the ship." Astarion admitted.
"That's it?" I asked, honestly more shocked than I should have been. The party looking confused as they all stopped walking and just stared at me. Demanding answers with their eyes. "I saw...all of you. All that makes up you guys. All your secrets."
"Excuse me?!"
"You have no right!"
"I don't belive that!"
They all shouted angry making me recoil. "I'm sorry! I didn't ask for it to happen!"
"Maybe we should set up camp. All this new information is making my head spin." Shadowheart put her hand on her head. We found a small clearing where they made it clear they wanted distance from me. So I set up my small bed roll away from them, under the moonlight. Alone again. I got out a journal where I drew in it. I sat against a tree, knees to my chest as I drew myself in that cage.
Astarion sat down in front of me, a few feet separated us as he didn't say anything for a moment. "What's going on in that clouded head of yours treasure? I've never seen you so down."
"Maybe I was better off locked up." I hugged my knees closer to me. "I don't feel like anyone's treasure right now." I looked at the rest of our party around a small fire, their backs to me. "Why aren't you with them? Aren't you mad at me?"
He laughed loudly as some curls fell lose onto his face. "Heavens no! I can never be mad at anyone for escaping a life like we had. Although I do have some questions." I nodded for him to ask away. "When you said you knew our secrets...."
"I do mean everything. From the moment our eyes first met. I saw it all. Past, present, hell, even your future." I looked him in the eyes to show I was telling the truth. "I knew about you being a spawn. About Cazador. I know the answers you so desperately seek."
"Why didn't you bloody say something then!" He shouted angrily making me flinch by instinct.
"How do I say something like that and have you believe me?" I pleaded with him. "I wanted you to open up to me on your own. I wanted to gain your trust on your own pace. Without it I can't give you what you want, what you deserve."
"And what exactly do I deserve?" He sassed me.
"True freedom." He looked around before he sighed.
"That is true." I turned the pages in my journal making a quick sketch, "what are you doing?"
I tore it out and gave the page to him. "I'm assuming one of your questions is about this."
"What is it?" He looked the page up and down, before his eyes widended slightly, "is...is that..."
"What's on your back." I said softly.
"That's not a damned poem at all! What in the hells is that?!" He was growing angry.
"It's a ritualistic symbol. The words are infernal."
"What does it mean?" He just looked back between me and the drawing.
"It ties you to a ritual that Cazador plans to hold when he gets you back. When a vampire has over a thousand sacrifices with this carved into them, they can hold an asention ritual."
"Asention?! So that bastard thinks he can put us through years of torture, and then just cast us away so he can have the pleasantries of a human, and a vampire?!"
"Not just cast you away Astarion." I huffed, "if he isn't stopped, the moment he finishes that spell, you'll die." My voice cracked when. I said the last word.
Our tadpoles wriggled in unison connecting us as the voice spoke to both of us, can't die. Won't die! Change your fate. Both of you!
They faded away. "Change your fate..." Astarion thought about it as he continued to look at the drawing. "Well, now I know. Do you know exactly how we can stop him?"
I shook my head, "I'm sorry, I only got the generic picture for the future. Entering a battle with him, and what the ritual meant."
"You may not think it but you truly are a treasure. You've given me more in a few months, than anyone's given me in centuries."
---------
"How can he be so calm about this?" Shadowheart nodded towards Astarion. The three of them watched as Astarion and (F/N) talked. Her face flushed red as he tilted his head to one side, his laughter echoed through the air.
"They sure know how to bring out the best in eachother." Gale semi smiled, "they're trama bonded."
"That can cause a bond?" Lay'zel sounded surprised.
"Of course. If you think about it, we're trama bonded." Gale stared at (F/N), thinking about their adventure so far together, "maybe we're being too quick to judge her ya know."
"She made a deal with a devil!" Shadowheart spat angrily.
"She was in a literal cage. Anyone would have made a deal to get out of that. Plus, she's shown no signs of betraying us. She's kept all of our secrets even though she's known this whole time."
Lay'zel and Shadowheart shifted in their seats, "I suppose you're right about that. She's never even hinted to me that she knows. And I guess the idea of being trapped in a cage without the release of death for half a century does sound pretty awful."
-------
His laughter was infectious, it made me smile as he ran his fingers through his hair moving it out of his face.
"So does that mean that even though you knew I was a vampire spawn, who was destined to die in a ritual, you still trusted me and fell for me?"
"Of course I did. Because that's not what makes you who you are Astarion. Even though you don't think it, you are my treasure."
"That was so cheesy I could die again!" He pretended to gag making me laugh.
The rest of the party walked over to us, "although we don't trust Raphael enough to make a deal, we still trust you. We're sorry for being a bit harsh."
"Well it's about bloody time you lot came around. The poor girl was about to cry." Astarion glared at them.
"Who knew the most trusting one would be the spawn." Shadowheart sighed.
"It's wise not to jump at making a deal with Raph. We have Halsin's lead at Moonrise Towers that we can follow first."
"And what if that doesn't help? What will you do if it comes down to a deal. You heard Raphael, he won't make another deal with you to rid you of your tadpole." Gale's face full of worry.
"I'll find a way on my own. There's always an answer out there." I shrugged.
"I am curious, how does it feel? To live without a soul?" Gale asked sitting next to me.
"There's always a slight pain inside. Like a black hole is in my chest." I put my hand on my chest where the feeling comes from.
"Does it affect your magic as an Enchantress?"
I shrugged, "I'm guessing so but I don't really know. I was strong enought to kill a grown man as a child, but then was never able to use my magic for over 50 years. And now the tadpoles enhance it so...I'm not sure."
"God's, I can't imagine you with even more power. You'd be a killing machine." Astarion looked at me approvingly.
"I already am one." I joked. I looked up at the full moon in the sky, "we should all rest. I've got a feeling tomorrow's going to be a full day."
They all nodded as we went to sleep in our separate rolls. I wanted to be alone tonight, I needed to process the fact that I don't have a soul. I couldn't miss it before when I didn't remember.