Chapter Text
Caleb
Breathing heavily, Caleb nudged the still smoldering husk before him. A sizeable chunk crumbled away to ash as he panted and wiped a smear of blood away from his mouth. There wasn't a part of him that didn't ache, but his awareness of that only slowly started to trickle in past the adrenaline still coursing through his veins. Slowly, his left hand unclenched, and then his right. He took a step back, and then a second, his vision blurring for a moment.
“Where..?” the ruined chamber he stood in, with its toppled bookshelves and water-stained tomes, some also now singed from his final fireball, did not offer a reply. Indeed, his voice echoed hollowly in the still Aeorian air. Head pounding, he brought up his right hand, bloodied like the rest of him, to his forehead. Ah. He was bleeding there, too. He took another step backwards, and then much to his chagrin, found himself sitting down abruptly, as one leg just collapsed out from under him.
Think, Widogast, THINK! Before the interruption, he'd put his pack down. Their last potion of healing should still be in there. It was so hard to concentrate, with his head swimming like this; he needed to find the bag or he was probably not going to be conscious for very long. He could hardly cast his Tower, in this state, even for self preservation. He needed that potion.. but there was something else. A fretting at the back of his mind. The creature had come in through the open door. He'd barely avoided that first lunge.. but he'd noted some details before he'd had to fight for his life. THINK, damn you!
Ice cold fear dawned slowly, even through the pain and disorientation from the head wound. No amount of injury could distract him, now. The beast had been bloodied prior to its arrival, and, as far as he knew, there was only one other in this area of Aeor, and, perhaps, in Aeor at all. “Essek?” his voice echoed again in the chamber, this time not in confusion, but in stark terror, and not a little despair.
Caleb grunted, forcing himself up onto his feet. Or, at least, that was the plan. He managed to get up onto one knee, and then found himself face-first on the cold ground, again, inches away from a splatter of his own blood. He could taste fresh blood in his mouth. Wonderful. Didn't matter. He would crawl if he had to. “Essek!” Was that his voice? Truly? He could hardly hear it. Maybe that was just his hearing. Aeor seemed distant, somehow.
He managed to get his coat off. It was dragging on the ground, slowing his progress. Perhaps the bitter cold would wake him up? He clenched his jaw and kept moving. He had to find him. Blood dripped into Caleb's eyes again and he cursed, wiping it away with a rough hand. His vision dimmed for a moment, but then came back. He crawled again. There was a dull ache in his stomach, but he ignored that, too. Didn't matter. Only one thing did. Had to find him.
A spot of brown caught his attention, right by the door. His pack! Finally, something had gone right. He fumbled it open, his fingers closing on the cool glass vial he sough after. He did not use it. It was tucked immediately into a small space between his body and his book holster, on the left side. He started moving again, every moment in growing agony as the injuries from being tossed into book shelves and sliced into more than once by the beast made themselves known, and were summarily ignored. This particular wizard had more important concerns.
The corridor outside of the room was empty, but keen blue eyes detected the smear, all the same. More blood, some five yards away, to the left. Like something had been dragged. It was not, he noted in sick relief, a great deal of blood, but there was enough. As he approached with more speed than was perhaps prudent all things considered, he spotted something else. It would have been easy to dismiss the small round object as anything, really, had he not been a practitioner of the arcane arts, also. That was a pearl. A bloody one. Pain bit at him again, center of the chest, and dread grew heavier in the same spot. “Essek?” his voice was smaller, still.
He managed, somehow, to rise to his feet he realized dimly, a few moments after. He likely was leaving his own red smear on the wall as he pulled himself along the smooth stones, blood dripping into his eyes repeatedly. He could hardly see, could hardly think, but a single phrase was in a constant refrain in his head. “Have to find..”
He rounded the corner, now standing in the bloody drag marks. There! A crumpled cloak, blues and blacks and purples with new crimson wet stains. Caleb lurches away from the wall instinctively, his hands curling into claws of denial, a broken sound leaving his throat. That was unwise. He fell again. Hard. The wall had been supporting him, not his legs. Didn't matter. Dimly, he noted another body. So there had been two beasts. An ear-splitting screech emerged then from a side passage, followed swiftly by a crunching sound, and then a dull wet thud.
Caleb's head was spinning. He couldn't think. Was that..? His fingers close on the cloak. There was nothing but a cloak. Essek was not there, beneath it. “Essek?” he was whispering now, but there was relief. Deep relief. His vision darkened again, and he couldn't fight it. Had he heard his own name? Someone responded? There was nothing more than darkness after that, for a long time.
Awareness returned slowly. A soft touch; fingers gently tangled in his hair. “Please wake up,” that voice, again. He knew it so well, but never like this. So afraid. He didn't like the pain in it, and forced himself to open his eyes. He was propped up against something warm. He couldn't see much beyond a handful of floating magical lights, and the pain in his body was...less. “Please, Caleb...I need-” the voice stops abruptly, and the body behind his own shifts. A face appeared, upside down, in his eye-line. “Ah. There you are.” There were bloody scratches on his purple skin. And he was without his cloak, but it was Essek, seemingly in one piece. There was only relief, now, in that voice. It's hard to concentrate, still, for Caleb, but he knew that much. He also noticed that the cloak was with them.. but it was draped over himself, rather than around its owner.
“I was worried,” Essek continued, perhaps not realizing he still combed his long elegant fingers throug Caleb's hair in that same gentle way that woke him up, “I barely heard you.. you called for me, and I then saw you, unconscious and bleeding, and freezing to death. Respectfully, I ask you NOT to do that, again. It was..” he shook his head, frowning, like he struggled for the right words. “Precisely why did you not take the healing potion? It was on your person, Caleb. I found it, in moments. It was right there.” the face now glared down at Caleb, relief turned to temper. Those beautiful eyes of his positively glowed with it, and Caleb just smiled tiredly. This did not help Essek's mood. “This is not funny. Why are you smiling?” the outrage was clear in every word.
“You..” the gravel in Caleb's voice, “brought it.. you.” his vision swam, again.
“It was for myself?” Essek seemed unable to quite understand that statement. The confusion was obvious on his face. “You were the one dying, you foolish man Essek scolded, a million tiny expressions flickering across his expression, which was force once something less than stoic.
“Saw blood,” Caleb pointed out helpfully, smiling up at him. “Yours.” it was hard to talk. He did sound stupid, didn't he? “Had to save you.” he let his eyes close again, turning his head a little into the strokes that Essek had not stopped.
“I can take care of myself, I will have you know.” Essek tucked Caleb's body against him with his other arm, more securely. “..and I do the rescuing, do I not? I seem to recall pulling you out of many dangers, Caleb.”
Caleb just smiled wider and settled in against Essek, one of his hands coming up to rest on Essek's forearm which stilled, immediately, beneath it. “You're okay. That mattered more,”
Essek muttered under his breath in his native tongue, likely something rude. “You were on death's door, and the mere potential that I was in danger had you stumbling and crawling this entire way, with you bleeding out, and without your coat,” that, specifically, seemed to bother Essek a great deal, “just to find me? You could have-” he interrupted himself, “no, you couldn't have contacted me by other means, could you?” he shook his head, “But still-”
When the other man did not continue, and just stared at Caleb, the silence between them stretched for a good thirty seconds. “What happened?” Caleb asked finally.
Essek collected himself, “I told you I was going back to that laboratory we found yesterday,” he said slowly. “We hadn't yet finished mapping it out. Upon my return I encountered two-” he sighed, “evidently three creatures. The first caught me by surprise, but I killed one of the two back where I found you. The second was more difficult, and took me some time. There was a third that I did not see..” he leaned back, out of Caleb's sight, “...and it went right for you.”
“Not your fault,” Caleb sighed, struggling to sit up a little so he could see Essek again. The grip on him tightened in response, and he made absolutely no progress in his injured state. It did succeed in drawing Essek's face back into view. That was quite satisfying, so Caleb relaxed back into Essek's warm body, content for the moment.
“Stay still! That healing potion did the barest amount. You need to rest, Caleb.” his brow furrowed again, “You're smiling, again. Why are you smiling, Caleb? You're wounded, we are alone in Aeor, with no clerics or potions of healing.. and yet you smile.. you've hurt your head, didn't you?” he cursed again in UnderCommon. “I have no skills in this area. Perhaps I can cast Sending to Jester..?” he muttered under his breath, “but she can't actually get here, and I will not leave you. I can't.” he closed his eyes. “You scared me. You were so still.. for a moment I thought I'd lo-” he shook his head. “but you're going to be fine. You just need rest.”
“You take good care of me,” Caleb offered, and closed his blue eyes, again. “Gods, I'm tired.”
“I'll keep watch; just sleep. No more harm will come to you.” it seemed to Caleb almost a vow, but awareness drifted away from him, again, and did not return for some time.
*****
The Next Morning, Essek
“Caleb, I really don't think-”
“I'm fine!” Caleb huffed and adjusted his coat, checking that his book holsters were in order. They were.. just a bit red.
“You look like you're going to fall over,” Essek protested, hands raised as if prepared to catch him.
“We've got work to do. I'm not taking a day off when at any moment more of those creatures could wander by, and I'm still on the ground.”
“Then..” Essek glared at him, “cast your Tower. Rest there. I'll never hear the end of it if I have to tell the Mighty Nein that I let you get attacked twice in two days.”
Caleb rolled his eyes, “You mean we were attacked. Did you not deal with two beasts, yourself? You didn't let anything happen. It just did. You do not control Aeor, ja? So stop taking responsibility for everything that may or may not occur. We both knew this place was dangerous; in fact, I recall joining you here by my own choice.” he threw Essek a stern look, “and don't you dare tell the Mighty Nein any such thing. They'll feel obliged to come all the way out here, and then we won't get any work done. Besides, without us, they'd have to come on foot. It's out of the question.”
“So then... the Tower.” Essek's eyes narrowed dangerously. “I will not have you risk yourself out of sheer stubborn will. You will rest for one more day, and then we shall see.”
Caleb glared right back, stepping closer, until their faces were inches apart. “Why are you being so obstinate about this? These were not worse injuries than Lucien dealt me.” he pointed out. “I was unconscious, yesterday, not dead.”
Essek actually recoiled a bit at the stark reminder. “You had two clerics ready to revive you moments later, then. I, myself, have no such skills in that area. If you fell here, you'd simply be gone, and I'd have no way of restoring you.” his voice was very small, and he did not meet Caleb's eyes. “You'd just.. be gone.”
There was a slight crack on the last word, catching Caleb by surprise.
“Hey..” Caleb closed the distance Essek had made, his voice gentling, ”hey.. look at me?” the elf did no such thing. “Essek.. “ he reached out carefully, right hand to left cheek, “look at me.”
Reluctantly, Essek did look back at him, but his body was rigid, as if preparing for some sort of attack. Or rejection.
“I'll cast the Tower. I do not enjoy upsetting you. If this is what you need from me, you shall have it.”
Essek could not quite hide his relief from Caleb. To anyone else, there was barely a change in expression, but Caleb spent far too much time than was perhaps reasonable, staring at the Drow, so he could read him better than most, and Essek well knew it.
“Good.” Essek said crisply, adjusting his perfectly-in-place mantle just to have something to do with his hands. “Cast it while I gather your things.” He had personally escorted the other wizard to where he'd been attacked to grab his pack. The utter destruction of the room, with the blood sprays, the cracked and toppled book shelves.. it had been a brutal, surprise attack, and only Caleb's arcane skills and a great dose of luck in such close quarters, allowed him to be still standing. Even worse, however, was that the man crawled away from there, alone and nearly dead, just in case Essek needed him. Nobody had ever done such a thing. Not for him. In truth, he had never attempted such a thing, either. He was a selfish creature, he knew. He wouldn't have done it.. or at least, the old him wouldn't have. He was someone else, now. He knew his answer to that question had changed, at least, for one person. That was quite terrifying, frankly. He simply didn't know what to do about the knowledge. It made him quite anxious.
Ten minutes later, he watched as the spell finished, and the arcane door glowed at the two of them in warm welcome. He made certain that Caleb entered first, just in case.
“Up!” They both said it at the same time, and as they started to float up from the landing, Caleb threw Essek a grin. “It's still fun to say,” he said, “even after all this time.”
“It is,” Essek agreed, although it was half-hearted, his thoughts wandering away from the moment.
“Something else is on your mind; just say it.” Caleb suggested, not opening the aperture above them, so the two of them just hovered in the air, surrounded by stained glass. He noted with some amusement that the Transmutation window framed Caleb, which meant that the Dunamancy window would be precisely behind himself from the other wizard's angle.
“I do not think that I will,” replied the elf, tense again.
“Alright,” Caleb replied, willing to let it go, and quite unwilling to push Essek. There was obviously a lot going on in that brilliant mind.
“Whydidyoudoit?” Essek actually covered his mouth with one hand, obviously shocked that the question, at full speed, had escaped his lips without his permission. “Never mind. Don't answer,” he added immediately, turning away to examine the stained glass behind him, his fingers tracing the Transmutation school window, as they had more than once before.
Caleb crossed his arms and tilted his head a little, watching the elf. “Why did I do what?” but he knew. Of course he knew. What he simply did not know was the reason for the question, and the emotions behind it.
“You know...” Essek didn't turn back around but he gestured vaguely, “trying to find me when you were dying. You should have just taken the potion, Caleb. Where was your sense of self preservation?”
His hand stilled, right over the symbol for the arcane school. “Why did you do it?”
“Isn't it obvious?” Caleb's smile was slow. “I already told you.”
Essek frowned, going back over what Caleb had said at the time. “No you didn't. You were half-delirious, besides. You said lots of things, but not any of them an answer to that.”
“But Essek, I did. I remember it perfectly. You asked me then, why I hadn't taken the potion. I could have. In fact, I planned on it, until I remembered the blood on that beast just before it pounced and bore me to the ground. And then, with the bloody pearl in the hall. You'd been hurt, too.. and you mattered more.”
“I most certainly do not matter more.” Essek responded indignantly, still staring at his own reflection. “Don't you remember what I've done? I'm a war criminal on the run from the Dynasty and the Empire. You're crazy, Caleb. Precisely how does that make me more valuable that you should drag yourself across Aeor, at death's door, on the chance I might be injured?” he turned then, and flinched in surprise. Caleb was right there. Inches away.
“Do you suppose that matters more to me than your aid in saving the entire world against Cognoza? Or helping me take down Trent Ikithon? Truly? Or how you've dragged me to safety time and again?”
“You do have a habit of never taking cover, Caleb,“ Essek sighed. “Someone has to look out for you, if you won't.”
“Ja,” Caleb agreed with a widening smile, “and it always seems to be you, doesn't it? No matter how frightened you might be, you still reach for me, don't you? How could I do anything else but the same? And Essek? I was terrified.”
“Y-you were? The man that stared down an archmage, and then silenced him forever with that collar was terrified? For myself? But Caleb-” he shook his head, “ I-that doesn't make sense.”
“You don't have to understand it,” Caleb replied, leaning in just a fraction. Essek felt the stained glass press into his back. He'd backed up without intending to, and now there was nowhere else to go. Caleb placed one hand on the window, too, right next to where Essek had, but moments prior. “It simply is.” Caleb laughed a little. “You know.. it's funny.”
“What is?” Essek didn't dare move. His voice was just a breath of sound.
“Back in the T-Dock, you said you wouldn't have changed a thing, because everything that had happened, all the choices made, had let you eventually to the Mighty Nein. All my choices, and everything else I had less control over.. all of them led me to you, eventually, didn't they?”
“..no regrets?”
“Nein.”
Essek closed his eyes tightly, his fists clenched and hidden beneath his cloak, both pressed backwards against the glass. “I-I don't.. what are we doing, Caleb?” he couldn't look.
“Dancing,” the devilment in Caleb's voice made Essek open his eyes, just in time for Caleb to pull him forwards into a dizzying aerial spin. He ended up clutching at Caleb out of sheer surprise, letting out a startled and quite undignified yelp.
“Caleb!”
“Mmhmm?” Caleb replied, spinning them again, into a zero gravity waltz of sorts. He obviously enjoyed how the Drow was clinging to him, completely out of his element, based on the devilish twinkle in his eyes.
“What are we- are you? What..??”
Essek was flustered and stumbling over his words.. in fact, he was barely able to say any at all.
“Has no one ever danced with you, Essek?”
“I- well, not like this, but-”
“I enjoy that I'm your first partner, then,” Caleb replied with distinct satisfaction.
“We shouldn't be- you're still hurt,” Essek managed to protest, trying to gather his scattered wits.
“Dancing with you doesn't hurt a bit.”
“Caleb,” Essek tried to pull back, but only half-heartedly. Caleb tightened his hold behind his back, keeping their bodies together. He found it difficult to think clearly. Or talk coherently.
“Shhh,” Caleb replied, spinning them, again. “Just relax and enjoy the music.”
“There isn't any music, Caleb,” Essek pointed out, rather helplessly. It was the spinning making him dizzy, he told himself this quite firmly.
In response, Caleb started to hum. It wasn't a waltz, though, but rather, something his mother had sang to him, long ago, when he was frightened of the dark. He brought one of his hands up to hold Essek's where it was, clutching at the strap to the holster containing his spell book.
“Fine, there's music.. but Caleb-”
“Just dance with me, Essek. Right now, that's all there is. It's just a dance.”
“..this doesn't feel like 'just' anything, Caleb,” Essek managed to say, his eyes closed, again. Caleb was too close. Everything.. it was too everything. He didn't dare look.
“Perhaps not,” Caleb agreed gently. Essek could hear the smile in his voice. “but I think we've been dancing for quite awhile, now, don't you? This isn't the first dance between us, Essek. We both know that.”
Maybe all the air evacuated the entirety of Aeor at that exact moment. The Tower, too. Essek found himself curiously unable to breathe. His fingers closed around the leather strap convulsively, trapped beneath that warm hand. “W-what do you propose?” he hated the stutter. Only Caleb ever managed to cause it.
Caleb leaned in slowly, pressing their foreheads together so that their eyes had only one place to look. “I've got some ideas,” he said slowly, “but I'll only share them if you want to hear them.” at this, Essek could see the confidence was at least partially a front. Caleb was actually quite nervous.. That actually made him feel more in control.
“Tell me.” he said, his voice steadier. “What's the first id-” was all he managed to get out before he was kissed, and quite thoroughly.
Caleb pulled back, his face flushed, and breath coming quicker. Essek was in a similar state. He licked his lips nervously, “Ah- Caleb.. um.. t-that was a good idea. Perhaps we should.. try it again?” he barely finished the question before, indeed, that's exactly what happened.
“I believe I like dancing with you,” Essek said, after a long while.