Chapter Text
If you're reading this on an app or on Youtube or anywhere other than AO3 or FFN, it is against this author's will and I wish you not a good reading experience. May these thieves step on a lego. Amen.
“I cannot believe you!” Aramiya threw a fire bolt at Gale barely missing his head. She was heavily pregnant and crying as she hurled bolt after bolt at him.
“I never intended to hurt you, my love, it just happened!”
“Don't, don't ever call me that again!” she grit between clenched teeth. Contractions were coming in and out and the angrier she got her tail flicked and the faster the contractions got. “Go back to that mystical goddess that I was the other woman for. I never, ever want to see your face again, Gale.” Using the magic he taught her she created a portal and walked through. Where she was going she wasn't quite sure. But anywhere was better than Gale’s Tower in WaterDeep.
She found herself in a field surrounded by trees and blossoming flowers when another contraction ripped through her lower half. She let out another wail and the portal she created fizzled before Gale could follow her. The child in her brought her to her knees. As she recovered and embraced the earth under her hands, she took a breath and felt the Oak Father's embrace. Silvanus surrounded her and supported her welcoming her back as a child of the earth.
Aramiya cried, bowed her horned head to the earth as far as her belly would allow, and let her tears fall to the grass. Grief washed over her as her daughter stirred slowing her emergency exit to allow her mother a reprieve.
It didn't last long though, as she felt her daughter shift lower and felt another presence in the woods with her. In the condition she was in she couldn't fight or wild shape to run away.
I'm a sitting duck like this.
The presence however felt faintly familiar and thankfully non-threatening. Tempting fate, she called out. “Who's there?”
“Aramiya?” A child's voice called out to her.
Her vision swam as she turned towards the voice. Silvanus be praised.
“Th-Thaniel-” her voice hitched and she cried out again in pain.
The small boy rushed over to her and put his warm hand on her shoulder. Aramiya felt his magic course through her to see what was wrong. It settled her a little to feel his calming magic but the pain was still very great. Her long nails dug into the earth as she tried to calm her breathing using druid techniques for meditation. She heard another small pattering of feet, Oliver.
She heard the boys converse in a language ancient as the earth itself but heard a distinct name.
Halsin.
Tears renewed and her heart ached for another reason altogether. But her daughter shifted down even more painfully than when she had been fighting with Gale. Aramiya propped herself on her bare toes instead of her knees and looked like an Owlbear about to leap.
Oliver must have been quicker or Halsin was closer by than she thought because in moments she heard thundering footsteps coming at such a speed she didn't remember possible for the large former Archdruid.
He panted as he made his way over and within moments his strong arms were on her shoulders. “Can you rise up a bit to walk?” In spite of his panting, his voice was calm and sure.
She removed one hand from the dirt and placed it in his. As she attempted to move up another tear coursed through her.
“Silvanus,” she gritted out in prayer and gripped Halsin’s hand like her life depended on it.
“Aramiya, I think your little one is going to be born here in this glade if we can't move you quickly.” Halsin came to her side and rubbed her back while holding her steady. “Where is Gale?”
“Fuck that monster!” She bit out. “Oak Father curse him and his Weave slut, ahhhha!” Another contraction hit as she said it and she dug her nails into poor Halsin's palm. Her tears were bitter and pained. This situation was even worse knowing it was Halsin bringing her daughter into the world with her. The man she should have chosen instead of that hioty twat she has called her husband for the better part of 15 years. “This little Camellia flower wasn't due for another month.”
Halsin watched her breathing and noticed her stomach dropped suddenly. With a pained laugh he said, “Well if she's anything like her mother she makes her own rules.”
A scream tore through the glade they were in as Aramiya bore down feeling her daughter's head start to move down. “Halsin,” her breathing labored, “you may have to catch her.” Her pale purple face pinched in pain as she felt the next contractions hit. “She's coming now.”
He put her hand back into the earth and while he constantly rubbed her lower back to help ease the pain she was going through. He shooed the young ancients away from her backside and carefully lifted her blue dress above her hips. As he examined her, he saw a darker patch of curls separating her own darkish red curls of her sex.
“Steady now, she's right there. One good push,” he placed one hand on her stomach and bright green healing magic pulsed into her to help ease the transition. His other prepared to catch the young newborn. The hand on Aramiya’s stomach followed her movements as she bore down the final time and brought her daughter into the world.
The newborn tiefling girl cried out, loud and strong. Once she cried, her mother collapsed to her knees and forearms. The two ancient boys rubbing her shoulders and telling her that she did well. Not that the boys had ever witnessed a birth but knew poor Aramiya needed reassurance.
Halsin removed his shirt and wrapped the little one in it. Carefully, as she was still attached to her mother. It had been a few years since he had helped bring a child into the Oak Father's realm but he knew he needed to tie off this connection and sever it shortly. He motioned to Thaniel who came over and avoided looking at Aramiya’s exposed backside.
“Thaniel, carefully hold her while I help Aramiya with the rest of the birth. Stay right where you are and look at the child to make sure she stays breathing.”
The boy nodded and observed the baby's cries and breathing. Halsin turned to tourniquet off the umbilical cord with a piece of Aramiya's dress that he carefully tore off the bottom.
“Halsin,” her voice weak and her pale lavender skin going even lighter.
“I am here, push once more, and then you can rest and I can get you back to the cabin.” This time he used what he could to help her along as pain-free as possible. Childbirth was painful even to those who could heal themselves while they did it. The placenta came out easily and he cut off the section of the cord after the tourniquet. He checked her for tearing or internal bleeding carefully before covering her bottom and carefully picking her up.
“Thaniel,” Halsin said quietly realizing Aramiya had started to fade in and out. The boy stood next to the towering druid and nodded, motioning the druid to kneel so he could carefully place the baby in her mother's arms.
Thaniel did something Halsin did not expect after cradling the baby in Aramiya's arms. He carefully touched her cheek and Halsin saw a small flash of green before Thaniel took his hand away. The ancient boy looked at his friend before whispering. “She needs strength to hold my new friend. And she needs you for the journey ahead.”
Chapter Text
Back in the village Halsin watched over Aramiya and Cameilla, who they nicknamed, Camma. He pondered relentlessly what Thaniel had said and what Aramiya had said when he had asked originally about Gale.
“Oak Father curse him and his weave slut.”
He could only picture what she meant when she said that. Halsin remembered how in the final days before the battle for Baldur's Gate Halsin has confessed his attraction for the young tiefling druid. He knew she was in a relationship with the Wizard but if they were to die he couldn’t go out without her knowing. He told her to ask his permission first before they rolled around in what grass Baldur's Gate had to offer.
He remembered the flush of dark purple on her cheeks when he asked and the flick of her tail at the interest of what it would feel like to be with him. Poor girl was barely capable of hiding her affections for the older druid. Had he not been so cautious he might have been by her side from before Moonrise had he accepted her flirting the night of the tiefling celebration.
The six month reunion after the fall of the Absolute he saw her and the feeling appeared all over again. Only now she felt shackled to Gale in more ways than just his “I want you all to myself” demeanor he had held that night at the Elf Song. She hugged Halsin several times never wanting to let go, but always feeling Tara and Gale’s watchful eye on her.
What had happened the last 15 years to the beautiful druid he had known?
Cameilla stirred in her bassinet and Halsin carefully stood over her. She had pale lavender skin like her mother, her little horns just peeking out behind a head of dark brown curls. Thankfully, she looked much like her mother as if she had made her all by herself.
Had Gale broken his monogamous nature to be with Mystra again? Halsin's brow furrowed and his teeth grit together. If he has become Mystra’s choosen and partner again why and how? And why when his beautiful wife was due any day with their daughter?
The druid was polyamorus by nature, wanting to enjoy all that the Oak Father created, but even he couldn't stoop as low as Gale of WaterDeep did if what he was thinking was true. How could any man turn away from her and the beautiful little one they had built together?
They had stayed in touch, a few letters over the years here and there, but nothing suggested that there was trouble in WaterDeep. Unless she didn't tell him everything, which was a possibility. He could ask her, but the wound was too fresh and she had already spiraled a bit. About a week after having Cameilla she returned to the glade she had landed in. He wasn't sure what she was looking for or what she was doing but he kept a close eye on her, just in case. She screamed at the top of her lungs and when he realized she meant to shift into her Owlbear form he stopped her. Shifting so soon after birth could spell disaster. Since then she has laid in bed taking care of Cameilla, but Aramiya looked barely alive.
Looking from daughter to mother he realized she was on automatic maternal instinct. Halsin sat next to her sleeping form and brushed her long locks out of her face.
“Why did you choose our glade, Aramiya?” His voice was a calm whisper. His fingers lingered on her soft skin and stroked her cheek wiping away any tears shed in her sleep.
He watched her eyes carefully open at his touch and she burrowed her face into his palm. “I didn't, somehow the portal I made brought me here. I wasn't even thinking.” She move his hand to just rest on her cheek as a haughty laugh escaped her dark lips. “I used the Weave to get here, maybe a blessing or a cruel joke from Mystra giving me back to you so broken.”
Halsin continued to let her hold his hand and he moved his thumb carefully tracing what he could of her face with it. She wasn't fully broken to him, even if she felt it.
“I told Gale the truth. I figured after 15 years together the man deserved to know two had my heart.” She sighed and pressed his fingers harder into her skin. “Figured he deserves that much since he and I had talked about him and Mystra adnauseam. I knew he still had feelings for her especially since he was still working with her and teaching others of the Weave. But when he told me he was seeing her for years, literal years Halsin, I snapped and I hope that damned Tower burned to the ground.”
Her grip on his hand tightened and she closed her eyes, new tears escaping. Halsin felt his blood boil but tried to keep calm for her by taking a deep breath, remembering Thaniel’s words to him in the glade.
“ ...she needs you in the journey ahead.”
“Aramiya, I-” for the first time in his long life he didn't know what to say.
Her voice was small when she spoke next. “Halsin, I've always regretted letting you go.” she felt him tense, his thumb stopping the gentle back and forth movement on her cheek. Carefully she sat up against the pillows and wall of the small cot to fully look Wood Elf in the eyes. His beautiful hazel eyes that turned the color of field grass on a bright summer's day or the bark of an oak tree in shade.
“I'm not sure if you still feel the same, it's been a decade and a half but I will never forget the kindness, strength, and love- whatever kind you granted me. And after the last few weeks…” she trailed off not sure what to do or say but Halsin stayed as rigid as a tree in winter.
She looked to her daughter Camellia, after she spoke the truth of her heart. Aramiya loved her daughter, she was to be a bright flower in that tower for her mother to love and raise her as close to how Silvanus intended as she could. Aramiya had flowers and plants before growing her daughter, but nothing beat the glades and fields of where her and Gale had first met. Where she could bathe in moonlight and feel the heart of the world and nature. She had sacrificed for love, which she thought was a small price to pay. One piece of herself to be filled up and loved by another.
Then she met a bear of a man who tilted the scales with his love of nature, someone who she denied because of another sacrifice she made early on to keep that original love blossoming. What she should have realized is it was ensaring her instead and after he had suffocated her spirit and convinced her further of love and devotion, he soured the last of her.
The bassinet was close enough for her to reach and pick up her sleeping daughter. It was about time she was fed. Something to keep her from asking Halsin to talk, to say anything at all. Aramiya exposed herself a little and latched Camellia quickly.
It was the child’s suckling noises that roused Halsin from his anger and rigidity. “Oak Father Preserve us.” he whispered. He brought his hand to the back of the child’s head before tilting up her mother’s head. “I never stopped caring for you. You have been in my heart since we rescued Thaniel from the shadowcurse.” he thumbed her chin thoughtfully tracing her tattoo. “I only ever wanted to see you happy.” Her chin and lips quivered beneath his hand, which he slowly brought up to her cheek to hold her head and touch her cheek once more.
Tears started to fall out of the corners of her eyes. “I tried so hard to be happy. I swear to Silvanus I tried,” she looked at her daughter who was nursing. “I thought bringing new life into the world, even if I couldn’t be in nature would be enough.” with her free hand she rested in on Halsin’s forearm. “Even lying to you in letters to convince myself I was.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have convinced Gale to let you visit, spoken the Oak Father’s words to him to let you help me rebuild the Western Heartlands. You should have had the option to do both, be with him if that is what you wished but to also be with nature. Our failure with each other aside, you deserved to have what you wanted, to be who you are.” He moved closer to her to put his forehead to hers. “I’ll be here for you, whatever you need.”
Cautiously she tilted her head to be nose to nose, then carefully she placed her lips on his. When he didn’t immediately go cold and back away she pressed a bit harder hoping that the love she felt for him showed.
It took Halsin the better part of a minute to realize that she had kissed him, light as if being kissed by a butterfly, then hard as if headbutted by a cat. He smiled a bit at her attempt and brought her jaw forward with his hand and returned it softly. After a second and a third kiss she pulled away. The child in her arms had finished up her meal and was getting fussy. He pulled away and let her right her clothing. He reached out his arms for Camellia in an offer to burp her.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 3
Notes:
Shorter chapter this week before we get to some hot stuff in chapter 4!
Chapter Text
Halsin made quick work of burping her, his large hand able to get even the most stubborn of burps out. When she had finally stopped he rubbed her back and gently rocked Camellia back and forth. Aramiya knew he had no offspring of his own, but Halsin picked up the role of father with skills of a man who had fathered hundreds of children. It was possible he could have helped raise many children, those in the Western Heartlands if he was the only healer in the budding village.
Carefully getting up Aramiya joined them near the fire and smiled at Halsin, running a loving hand over her daughter’s head. “If it was a cruel joke of Mystra to get me back to you, it was Oak Father’s blessing Thaniel found me in that grove. I can feel the bit of magic he gave me to restore my druid abilities. I also faintly heard him refer to Camma as his new friend.” She gave a faint laugh.
“I swear he knows us better than ourselves.”
When Camellia was finally asleep in his arms he carefully put her back in the bassinet and took Aramiya’s hands in his. Opening the back door to the cabin he led her outside to a small bench he had built himself. They sat for a few minutes in silence while he watched Aramiya sway her feet in the longer grasses. Nature seemed to calm her mind and her spirit, though he knew it would be a bit of time before she would be back to that woman he had fell for on the road to the Shadowcursed lands they now sat in. She, who when he first met her, had been covered in goblin and knoll viscera.
“Aramiya,” he took her hand closest to him.
“Please do not make me go back to him or to tell him I am here.” *
Halsin squeezed her hand hard. “I would never think of forcing you to do that. Especially not with wounds so fresh.”
“Thank you,” she returned the squeeze. Her gaze turned to dusk settling on the glade as she watched the fireflies blink in and out. “Halsin, I want to be able to do something in nature. To relearn what it is to be a druid. I didn’t think almost 20 years out of nature could cause me to forget, but it has. Circing that tower and dealing with the ins and outs of his lessons, it's like something turned off inside.”
Halsin knew that feeling, the only difference is he hid behind the walls of a Grove ascending to Archdruid after the Shadowcurse swallowed entire sections of nature. Their paths were alike in all the wrong ways. It wasn’t love that caused him despair, it was love that got him out of it. He hoped that for her sake love and Nature could get her out.
“Aramiya,” he started again, this time she didn’t cut him off. “Please stay here as long as you need, you are both welcome in my home.” Halsin contemplated his next words and chose them carefully. “About what we spoke about inside, you needn’t tell me more than that for now, but the feelings you hold for me still,” as he was about to say it an uncertain laugh came over him. “Well, I’ve still felt about you. Knowing you were happy in that tower granted me a little peace to not come to WaterDeep and bring you to the wilderness. And now, knowing the truth? I should have scooped you up that night half a year after Baldur’s Gate and taken you away and never let you go.
“Each hug you gave me felt like an unspoken song, only now do I know what you were trying to say.” He brought himself closer to her, their knees touching, hers in between his. “I’m not sure why the Oak Father brought you to me again, but I will be there for you through your own shadow as you were there for me in mine. Whatever comes after that,” he gestured grandly to the glade, “Silvanus guide us to wherever our hearts lie, whether that be together or as companions only.” Again Halsin gripped her chin and kissed her deeply, using the kiss to fill in the words he could not say.
She returned it earnestly, her body wanting the safety of his embrace and if she was honest a bit more. As she leaned forward an ache coursed through her reminding her she had just birthed a child in the glade they were sitting in only a few weeks before. Aramiya broke the kiss and attempted to rest her forehead on his, but he was at least a head taller than her on the bench, if not more. She settled for placing her hands on his chest and looking at him in the eyes.
Chapter 4
Notes:
Some slightly spicy stuff ahead! more spice ahead after this one!
Chapter Text
They spoke little more that night, but walked in a comfortable silence to the river, Camellia in a basket, to bathe and to enjoy the last cool night before the nights of the vernal season got warmer and they could no longer enjoy the hot springs to their full potential. She carefully removed her borrowed clothes, a large shirt of Halsin’s that served as a makeshift nightgown and sank into the warm water up to her chin.
Aramiya always turned or closed her eyes whenever Halsin got in beside her, but tonight she decided not to. She wanted to enjoy all of nature’s bounty, even if she technically couldn’t enjoy it the way she may have 15 years ago. She had seen him fight, seen him shirtless, and seen him caring and thoughtful. But to see him stark naked in the light of the full moon, well Silvanus be praised! The ursine form suited him well as he was built much like his preferred WildShape. Strong arms and torso, the muscle carved from daily use, and his legs like tree trunks. Halsin’s backside, a perfect taper down to his buttocks which was toned and tight like the rest of him. The part she enjoyed the most? His pelvis. His torso cut into a v at the start of his hips and settled perfectly in a bush of toffy-colored curls was the arm of a cherub child. Aramiya blushed at her brazen staring but it couldn’t be helped.
After she had gotten pregnant, Gale had refused to touch her or even be in the tower at all. The idea of the child was her idea after so many years of loneliness and academia. He indulged her to keep her satisfied. Now she could also see why Gale had refused her request to bed Halsin for one night. She may have never gone back to him! To regain her control over her staring she took a deep breath and sunk her head under the water. The warm water relaxed her entirely.
Halsin looked to where Aramiya had disappeared underwater. He knew she was allowing herself to stare and he let her. Even made his movements slow and deliberate, a trick he had picked up from Astarion one night after a bout of drinking. When he saw her splash under the water he knew she had gotten ahead of herself. As he settled into one of the nature-made rocky seats he watched her come up again for air and avoid his side of the spring pool for a bit.
It had been ages since he had taken a lover and it would be a bit longer before he could claim the one he currently wanted as she needed to recover. But that didn’t mean Halsin couldn’t let his own thoughts wander….
She was sat perched on his lap, one nipple in his mouth the other teased by his hands while she grinded on him, whining to have him thrust inside her wantonly. He gently bit the nipple in his mouth, a few dribbles of her milk on his tongue….
A light splash interrupted his thoughts, as did a pulse from under the water.
Halsin watched her prepare another small splash as she wasn’t sure she got his attention. “Sorry my heart, I was elsewhere for a moment.” A small smile formed on her lips and instead of a splash, she swam closer to him instead. He willed the arousal to be invisible if it could.
She stood, her engorged breasts standing perky in the moonlight, the ridges along her collarbone and ribs more prominent. Her knee touched his in the water as she was dangerously close to him.
Another pulse from under the water as he took in more of her beauty. Carrying her child had added some extra curves to her, the half-starved physique of the young druid he once knew replaced with that of a woman. Her tail under the water ran up his leg and caused him to shiver a bit. They looked at each other hungrily, but unsure of what to do.
What Aramiya wanted to do, and what Halsin wanted her to do, was for her to straddle him and for them to tease each other knowing that the joining of their bodies would still be at least a month away if not more. Even with advanced healing, it takes time to heal the wound that creating life brings. She bit at her lips as if unsure of what she wanted to do.
As she took a deep breath and committed to doing just what she had in mind, Camellia started to fuss. Aramiya tilted her head back to the moon and swore under her breath.
Fate controlled all things and this one was not meant to be. Aramiya swam over to where she had put Camellia’s travel bassinet and carefully rocked her back to sleep. When the child was finally snoring peacefully again she grabbed a washcloth and the goats milk soap Halsin had brought from the house and started to wash up. Maybe she could wash the thoughts away, for tonight at least.
As she was washing she heard the water rustle around her and eventually Halsin stood behind her. “May I?” he asked. She turned to look at him, he was even more gorgeous wet, and cocked an eyebrow at him. He gave a small chuckle and rephrased. “May I help wash you?”
Her heart jumped to her throat as he carefully took the cloth from her hand. Her nails barely grazed his skin.
He started with her back, gently cleaning the curve of her shoulders, trailing down the vertebrae of her back, just to the top of her tail. He dragged the cloth down one arm and then the other before starting at her neck and going across her collarbone. Before either had time to think Halsin was carefully washing each breast and down her stomach. He stopped just above her monds.
Aramiya grabbed his hand, her eyes clenched shut and every hair on her body standing straight up. Halsin’s other hand roamed her back and settled on her right hip. Cautiously she leaned back against him. Her shoulders touched his chest before her lower back found another arm standing at attention. She still held Halsin’s hand with the washcloth in hers and carefully moved it up back to her breasts settling just above the right side. They stood like this for a few moments before she turned in his arms to face him taking the cloth and soap back.
Without asking she started to suds up the cloth and run it along his chest and shoulders and down each arm. Cautiously she washed down his abs until just above his arousal where she hovered her hands for several moments. Before she got braver it was Halsin’s turn to stop her and bring their hands up to his chest before bringing his forehead carefully to hers.
They didn’t know how long they stood like that in the hot springs but before long the night chill in the air caused them both to take one last quick dip into the water before heading back to the cabin.
Chapter 5
Notes:
Hiya Halsin Babes! Content warning today as there is a small amount of breastfeeding kink mixed with some healing. There is also some heartfelt fluff here too!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been a few days since the incident at the hot springs. Haslin did his best to reign himself in. He occupied himself sitting on the bench whittling, making a rocking chair for her, but also wide enough for him to sit and rock if he needed it. The repetitive movements of moving the knife along the wood and the sanded paper along the curves of the handles settled his mind. When whittling stopped being calming, or he nicked his fingers enough times to unsettle him, he would transform and run wild through the forests behind the village.
He had just finished the final touches on the chair when he came back to the warm cabin and he found Aramiya feeding Camellia. His shirt that she wore draped over one shoulder and removed from the other. Halsin enjoyed watching her, not always in a sensual way, but to see how different and caring she became as a mother. She never covered the child's head when she ate, instead she let her chest be free and Camellia nursed by pushing and pulling at the breast, all as nature intended. There were times that the child chafed her poor mother and Halsin had to made a salve of marshmallow, calendula, chamomile, and oil to help soothe them. He kept some of those herbs in hand in small pots by the window and Aramiya tended to them between periods of rest and feedings.
They had been living with him for around four months. It hadn't taken long before they had fallen into a comfortable rhythm even as they got used to the growth of the bairn. Halsin didn't require true sleep so he took most of the night shift of caring for Camellia except in instances where he couldn't, feeding being one of them. When Camellia fussed due to hunger he put her on the cot with her mother and gently awoke Aramiya enough for her to lift her shirt and allow the child to suckle. The rest of the time, when he wasn't sexually frustrated or tending to other things, he sat in meditation on their situation.
It was those moments he got alone with Camellia that made him angrier at Gale. How could he have forsaken a life with a beautiful woman and his child for a goddess who had spurned him more than once? The same goddess who, if Halsin remembered correctly, sent him on a damned suicide mission commanding him to blow himself up! Only time would tell if Camellia would look like her father, but he had a strong feeling that she wouldn't resemble Gale at all. If anything the child's eyes, when she stared at him, were more like his own. A small smile twitched in his lips. If we were to become her father he would cherish her. He would teach her which plants were medicine, which were food, how to be in nature naturally without embarrassment or fear. Teaching her to WildShape, to fish, to forage, to…
He sighed, this is the life he had been imagining when he first met Aramiya when she stirred his heart. That fateful day when she and the group rescued him out of the Goblin camp. The night at the tiefling party when she had consumed a bit too much wine and continued to sneak glances at him even after he insisted that she dance and have fun with Alfira and the others. The way she had cared for him when his pride was injured. He remembered her face when he confessed his affection to her. How it lit up like a jar of lightning bugs and how her tail swished around like a cat’s. The way her face fell when she told him that she returned his affection but another blocked her.
Regretful what if’s weren't something he could afford himself right now. There was a woman, a child, and an entire village relying on him. Though, if he was honest, the village had managed itself while he was preoccupied. They came for healing and questions but for the most part had given him space, and for that he was grateful. The original foundlings that helped him form this village were mostly grown and having bairns of their own now and had delegated tasks and managed to be self-sufficient. They had blacksmiths, midwives, school teachers, farmers, and all manner of trades now. So much so that traveling merchants made them a stop on their way to Baldur’s Gate and other cities.
Aramiya winced a bit and he returned from his introspection. Halsin handed her the salve from the mantle above the hearth and offered his arms for Camellia. She handed him the baby and winced at the chafed nipple. Gently squeezing her breast, which was still engorged, she hissed as blood colored milk dribbled down.
Halsin carefully cradled Camellia in one arm and crouched down to where Aramiya sat. “How badly does it hurt?” His voice was gentle.
“The worst it's been. I can try the other side, but that also still hasn't fully healed.”
He placed Camellia in her bassinet and returned to Aramiya. “May I?” He watched as a pink flush appeared over her chest and neck but she nodded.
“I'm going to put my hand on your breast and see what is causing the pain. I have a feeling it could be infected.” Halsin waited until she nodded and before his large hand enveloped the entire breast, warm green magic coating his hand. “The infection just started and the blockage causing it is almost out, but-” he chose his next words carefully. “It needs a bit of help..”
He removed his hand and waited for Aramiya to realize what he had said. Her green eyes went wide against her black scleras. “O-oh hells.”
“Indeed, I can help, if you are comfortable with that.”
Her right hand came up to cover her face. If the other night was any indication she had similar thoughts he had while they were in the springs and this bordered on medicinal and arousal for her. Haslin maintained a tamed face, reminding himself of the fact he was an Archdruid and this was one of the duties of being a healer.
She removed her hand from her face, which was twisted between embarrassment and pain, and steeled her eyes to his. “Please, I don't know how much more I can take.” Her words held double meanings, but he focused on the health of the woman in front of him. He checked on Camellia in her crib, taking a deep breath while standing over her before returning to Aramiya.
Halsin grabbed an empty cup from the small table next to them and took another breath before speaking. “I'm going to put my hand on the side of your breast this time before putting my mouth over you and sucking out the infection.” He narrated, for her or himself he wasn't sure. “It might be a bit painful as I will be pulling harder than Camellia can, but if it gets too painful let me know.”
He paused, kneeling in front of her. “After that I can check the other side as well to make sure nothing else is blocked.” That same flushed pink bloomed across her. “We need to make sure you both stay healthy.” He added.
“Alright,” Aramiya said, her voice tiny and raspy.
Aramiya was a bit of a mess at the thought of him suckling at her breast. It was more than just sheer embarrassment at that being the only treatment for a blocked duct. It was the urge for him to do it anyway, the images of him in the springs teasing her.
His hands did exactly as he had told her and he found the blockage. She watched as his licked his lips before moving forward. She swore he had to school is tongue back into his mouth to avoid licking at her nipple first before sucking it into his mouth.
The sensation of his mouth on her, even while in a decent amount of pain was enough for her to moan and slap her hand over her mouth. His right hand held her breast in place as he poured magic through to try and keep the pain to a minimum. What was left however was pleasure. Aramiya bit the inside of her lower lip to try and stifle the little moans and sighs.
Halsin sucked, hard. The taste of infection was there but the blockage was stubborn. His mouth left her nipple with a soft pop and he spit the contents of his mouth into the cup next to him. He then resumed the suckling trying to get the remaining blockage out which earned him another startled moan.
When he eventually managed to get it free, he felt her milk pour into his mouth warm and sweet. It had an almost almond like flavor. It took almost everything in him to stop and spit the rest out into the cup next to him. His hand lingered to confirm what he already knew, the blockage and infection was gone. Seemingly having a mind of it's own, his thumb grazed across her nipple healing the additional chaffing he was sure he had caused.
Halsin removed his right hand from her and lifted the other side of the shirt to reveal her right breast. Her nipple was similarly chafed and he noticed beads of milk streaming down. He cleared his throat before narrating putting his hand on her again. This time his thumb found her nipple with intention to heal the chaffing while examining this breast as well. With almost a touch of disappointment he didn't find a blockage but was tempted to say he had, if only to taste her again.
Had Haslin not been between her knees she would have buckled them together and squeezed. The feeling of release when the blockage came out. The warmth of his magic and his fingers on her skin. It almost became too much for her.
She didn't know if he knew just how starved she was for touch, his face schooled perfectly into that of a healer and Archdruid of many years, but if he didn’t after all this…. Aramiya gave a small whimper at the lack skin on skin when he finally pulled his hands away.
“Ha-,” was all she managed before he stood with the cup and made his way towards the back door of the cabin. She willed her body to speak. “Halsin.” The Bear Druid stopped in his tracks and turned carefully to look at her. It was then she saw the same need in his eyes. He was running from it, she realized, in an effort to keep her from getting hurt- physically at least.
“I’ll be back in a moment.” the next words out of his mouth where whispered. “ I would never abandon you.”
Aramiya wasn’t sure if she was meant to hear those last words, or if he intended to say them outloud, but her heart swelled at them none the less. She look the time to recenter herself and to right her shirt. The soft cotten fabric against her nipples was a delicious feeling after Halsin’s hands had been against them.
The skirt she wore she hitched up to her thighs. Focusing her mind she felt her own healing abilities tingle in her fingers as she reached down to examine herself. It was the only bit of her druidic abilities that had come back to her, courtesy of Thaniel and Halsin reteaching her. She felt like a novice druid again, but it helped her heal the more intimate parts of her. Halsin, ever the gentleman, always offered to assist and carefully monitored her to make sure she healed appropriately.
The arousal was a distraction as she focused on checking that she was, in all honestly, healed. Even the lightest touch of her own fingers against herself sent a wave of pleasure through her. The ache in the springs might have been truly the ache of arousal coming back to her. She continued to touch and ‘examine’ herself. Her own long fingers explored the outside of her sex, her clit swollen and ready. When she examined more inside she was surprised she didn’t climax with her own fingers she was wound so tight.
Her mind wandered to what his would feel like….
Taking a deep breath she squirmed on the chair, when she removed her fingers, but stopped before she got any more ideas. She cleaned her hand off on her skirt, pushed her thighs togher, and fixed the remaining fabric back over her knees to avoid being caught red handed when he came back.
Speak of a devil! There was rustling and she watched as he carefully kicked the backdoor open and came back rear-end first. Her braid slipped to one side as she titled her head to try and get a better look at what he was carrying in. As he set it down in front of the fireplace, closest to Camellia’s bassinet, she realized it was a rocking chair. Aramiya stood and walked over to the chair carefully running her fingers across the intricatly carved designs. In the center was a waxing moon, similar to the one the day she gave birth to Camellia. On one side was a large cave bear on all fours with a lake and a few ducks in the background. On the other was a large Owlbear with rosebushes in the corner.
“Halsin, it's beautiful.”
He smiled brightly and motioned her to sit. “Please take a seat, want to make sure it works as intended.”
She did as he asked and took a few small rocks back and forth, the motion soothing. She ran her hands along the soft carved handles. He had taken careful measures to make sure it was sanded well.It was a bit wide, but as she tucked her leg beneath her, she realized he made it with both of them in mind affirming for her that he wanted her to stay. A few stray tears escaped her which she wiped before she stood again.
Making her way around the chair she touched his forearm. On her tiptoes she could reach Halsin’s chin, but she brought her hand up to his face and carefully angled his chin down so she could place a light kiss on his lips. “Why are you so kind to me?” she whispered, before lowering her feet flat again, but leaving her hand on his cheek.
Halsin wrapped his hand around the back of her head rubbing circles into the hollow behind her ear. “You have always deserved kindness, even moreso now.”
“Why did I ever choose him when I had you?” She leaned into his touch and returned the caressing running her thumb over the apple of his cheek.
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing. But you are here with me now.” He gently pulled her head up, pulling her to her tippy toes, before kissing her. His lips were soft and the pressure of it gentle but firm. She angled her mouth so she could open it wider, letting him deepen the kiss if he wished. Deepen it he did. He licked at her lips, a silent ask to which she happily affirmed so their tongues could dance.
Her hand on his face fell to his chest as she used it to anchor herself on her toes. Halsin other hand comfortably smoothed over her backside, his hand cupping her cheek and thigh. Noticing she was struggling he put a tighter grip on her and lifted her bringing her up to hip height. At the sudden lift Aramiya instinctually wrapped her legs around Halsin’s waist, her legs resting on his love handles and moved her hands from his chest to his shoulders.
Pulling away she looked at him, their faces mostly equal height, and giggled.
“What is so funny, my heart?” he chastised her.
Aramiya’s tail flicked back and forth before curling up it up his thigh and ran a hand through his hair. “How easily this Cave bear picked up an Owlbear…tsk.” She left his laughter shake his body.
“Well, when the Owlbear is in her bornform, it is much easier to do.” Halsin walked forward a bit and moved them to the original chair she was sitting in and sat pulling her closer to him as he did so. He kissed her again, more passion behind it this time before he broke it off again. “When was the last time he cared for you?” his voice was barely a whisper.
She could tell he had been thinking about Gale and the situation she found herself in. She also knew he was now carrying bad blood for the Wizard of WaterDeep. Her finger traced the smile lines before answering. “Since shortly after I had seen you last.” Her face pulled into a frown. “I’ve realized it the more time I spent with you. We had barely made it together 18 months post Baldur’s before he engrossed himself in study and teaching again. He stopped returning to our tower nightly. Occasionally, he would stop by with flowers or books he thought I would like. On the rare occasion I got to tag long he ignored me.
“Tara, that damn parentified cat, didn’t bother to hide her snidness with me any longer and even she left me in that tower. A few of the flowers he brought me, the first few years I was able to amass quite a collection of plants from the cut flowers and my druid magic. After a while and not being able to leave to be in nature, the only thing I retained was a small bit of plant magic to help keep my plants alive.” she rubbed her nose against his, cherishing being this close to him. “About a year or so ago I asked if we could have a child. I had convinced myself that having a child could help our marriage after all it was one of the things he said he wanted with me. He agreed to have a child with me but once I confirmed I was pregnant, he all but vanished.”
She felt Halsin’s growl in his chest.
“He had sent a letter saying that Mystra and Elminster had called upon him for a counsel and he didn’t know when he would return. So I waited and wrote letters almost daily about the growth of our baby. I sent them along with Tara to him whenever she came around. Pregnancy does many things to you and being alone in that tower with my brain… Eventually I wrote him a letter that said we needed to talk and for him to come home.”
“I’m guessing that was the last letter before all of this?” It was her turn to laugh.
“Oh you would think. It took me months to finally get him back to that tower. Eventually I wrote one that essentially told him that I didn’t think he wanted our child and that I would have been better of with even Astarion than him.” she chuckled again. “That one I had delivered by a Weave Dove. I had a suspicion that Tara wasn't delivering them. Being surrounded by books isn’t a bad thing, learning how to use the material in those books however was another. That was the only letter that got to him because within minutes he was home.”
“The Tressym?”
“Probably at Mystra’s request.” Aramiya confirmed.
“What exactly happened? I didn’t want to pressure you into telling me before you were ready.”
Aramiya kissed him before continuing. “He came in demanding what I meant about Astarion, knowing the vampire could just show up as he wished, when I told him it was in an effort to get him home to be there for the birth of his child, he relaxed a bit. I asked why he hadn’t written me back as I had been writing daily, and he looked befuddled. I asked again and after a moment recognition hit him.
“He told me he had gotten two or three but hadn’t responded due to not having the time. I had him confirm which ones he had gotten and we talked about them. One of the only ones before the one that got him to return home, was the one where I had mentioned that two held my heart. I had written it after I had a dream of the final days of fighting the Absolute. It was about you. I sobbed for hours and because I didn’t feel I could write you, I wrote it to him.” Her forehead rested on his now.
“You confirmed you still had feelings for me to him?” Halsin’s voice sounded dry as he said it.
“I did.” she all but whispered.
“I’m guessing he then felt guilty and admitted about Mystra?”
Aramiya looked at the man below her and nodded. “Claimed someone had told him that I was cheating on him with Astarion the entire time. When I ask him why he didn’t confront me about it he claimed that he had gotten too busy with the school. Then he confessed everything. Including that he used an Insemination ritual.”
“What in the hells is that?” Halsin’s brows knitted together. He had never heard of such a thing before, it certainly went against everything that was natural.
“Almost what it sounds like. It works by giving the womb a mystical birth. How some Asamir are created, take Orin the Red.”
Halsin nodded and understood what she meant now. “But what does that mean for you?”
“Well, he said that the ritual did give me the result of being pregnant, but that the baby would be someone else’s.” She looked at Camellia now, listening to her coo as she played with her feet. “He claimed it could be the one I imagined having children with or the one that was destined to be the father of my children. Like most Wizards he glanced over the bits about the outcome.”
“Clearly you were furious, Camellia came at such a speed I didn’t think possible.”
“Beyond furious. Not only had I learned that the time I spent trapped in that tower meant nothing, I was betrayed by the only person who did see me, and the man who I thought loved me betrayed me in many ways. The first firebolt that flew at him was a mistake, but then he kept trying to justify his actions and calling me ‘my love’... I hurled bolt after bolt. I even caught that tratiorous treesym with one.” She moved a few stray hair pieces out of her face. “I didn’t want to hurt him, I just…”
“If that was all that he got he should consider himself lucky. Your portal, you said you used the Weave?” Halsin was now rubbing small circles in her back and tracing the small bumps above her tail which now she was lazily flicking between his legs.
“At least I think it was the Weave. My magic had been all over the place since getting pregnant. I wasn’t sure what I used to get here so I assumed. Whatever it was,” She paused looking him in the eyes. “I'm glad it brought me to you.”
“The Insemination ritual,” Haslin’s thoughts finally catching up. “You mentioned the one you imagined having children with or the one that was destined to be the father of your children?” Aramiya nodded and bit her lower lip. “Did you ever picture yourself having children with Gale?”
She closed her eyes as she said it to avoid the look he was going to give her. “....No.”
Halsin’s face was a genuine look of surprise. He looked over to the bassinet, could she? Aramiya kept biting her lip chewing the corners raw. “What do you believe?” he tucked a stray hair behind her pointed ear and moved his thumb to gently stop her from tearing a hole in her lip.
“I don’t know.” she opened her eyes and covered his hand with hers. “But there have been too many coincidences since. I’m not sure what I believe. I’m sure if Gale really wanted me back or really thought that the baby was his, he’d be beating down the door.”
Halsin nodded. He agreed with that and was unsure of why he hadn’t tried anything in the months that they had shared a home. In his meditations, that he had chalked up as dreams, he had seen little lavender teiflings who called him Papa, not Daddy Halsin as the other children had over the years. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“Aramiya,” He looked at the woman in his arms. She was looking at him intently waiting for him. Her sitting in his lap gave him other ideas, but he had one more question for her. “Do you want me to be her father?”
“I do. If you-” His lips crashing into hers as she said it. He desperately wanted it, regardless of how she came into existence. As soon as the information was comprehended he felt a knowing and his heart swelled at the thought.
Notes:
You might be getting chapter six sooner than expected ;)
Chapter 6
Notes:
This chapter is pure smut! Enjoy! Warning: shibari and Breastfeed kink ahead
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Aramiya hadn’t been expected to be kissed so fiercely after what they had talked about. But she returned it wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing herself as close to him as possible. After a few moments of hot and heavy lips, tongues, and teeth Halsin pulled away and huffed.
“We have too many clothes on,” he ran his hands up the back of the shirt she wore.
She giggled. “Well, mine are easily moved, yours on the other hand…” He stood strong arms lifting her again. He crossed the room quickly and put her on her back with a soft bounce on the cot. He leaned back and pulled his shirt from his torso. His chest tanned from working in the forests and slightly pink from the excitement. He tore at the laces of his trousers before he paused to consider how quickly he was going. Noticing the pause Aramiya tilted her head to the side, a wicked smile on her face. “Aww, why'd you stop?”
The sound that came out of Halsin’s throat was absolutely feral. To goad him further she sat up on her elbows a bit and removed her own shirt and hitched her skirt around her hips. He pushed his trousers to his knees and decided to sit back on his heels and admire her. He watched as she flushed with deep shades of pink in contrast with her light purple skin. He licked his lips like he had earlier and carefully positioned himself between her knees hovering over her before claiming her mouth again.
She ran her fingers through the hair on his chest. As they continued, eventually his mouth found her neck and she moaned as he found sensitive spots. He lifted his head away for a moment running a careful hand over her side before taking a nipple in his mouth, lolling his tongue around the sensitive bud, which was only made more sensitive from the breastfeeding she’d done the last few months. She moaned, rather loudly and twisted her fingers into his hair encouraging him further.
Halsin got the same almond flavor of her milk in his mouth and he moaned as well suckling a bit more of the sweet elixir into his mouth. He gave the other tit the same treatement, eliciting more moans and whimpers from her. The flavor was like ambrosia to him he wanted more of it and all of her at once. Remembering it wasn’t just his to enjoy he popped the nipple out of his mouth and licking her clean. Her hands remained twisted in his hair as she panted heavily beneath him.
“Are you sure?” was all he asked.
Aramiya was flushed all over, pretty as a purple rose. She brought him down for a kiss before speaking. “I’ve waited fifteen years, I’m not waiting another damn second.”
He let her hold his face kissing her wantonly while he shimmied down his trousers to the floor and fisted himself callously before running his fingers against her sex. With just a featherlight touch she arched her back pressing her breasts against him. He knew she would be mostly healed by now, but he wanted to be sure. He was also bigger than the wizard, that he was damned sure of. He called magic to his fingers as he carefully teased her clit before inserting them inside. The moan she made in his mouth made his cock twitch. He teased her while also analyizing her.
There was no tearing to discomfort as he swirled and stretched his fingers around. At finding not only was she responding beautifully to his touch, but that she was also healed encouraged him further. She broke their kissing with a single word. “Please.” Halsin continued his finger motions finding that spot just inside her and claimed her mouth once more as she moaned and convulsed beneath him. His other hand ran down her sides, behind her back pulling her up to him, touching every inch of skin he could touch. She bucked gloriously under him and after a few moments he could no longer contain himself. He pulled her skirt all the way down her hips and tossed it to the floor.
She watched as he palmed himself, the dripping appendage getting coated in his own arousal. She wanted all of it. When he noticed her staring, he ran his cock along her folds and carefully slid into her earning himself several purrs and moans. Before he was fully sheathed inside Aramiya was bucking her hips trying to swallow all of him. Halsin needed no further encouragement to start pounding into her.
“Halsin, p-please.” Aramiya begged.
With each wet slap of his hips against her bottom, she clawed his forearms holding onto him in an effort to keep him as deep as possible. He watched as her eyes flickered with magic and before he realized it she had vines entangling them, wrapping her legs tighter around him. The vines wound around her hips to his hands holding him in place. He had enough movement to keep his rhythm. A small grin played on his lips, two could play this game. His own vines wrapped up her torso tying each breast up to put pressure on them as if he was gripping them with his hands. Halsin then had a few stray vines creap up her neck and arms applying a small gentle pressure. That earned him a small whimper of approval and a few.
Aramiya looked up at Halsin as the vines crept up her and smiled before biting her bottom lip. Her tail flicked back and forth between his legs when the smile grew a bit wicked again. She trailed the point of her tail from his midback over each cheek before whipping it around to use the flat end of it as a paddle. The slapping of it against his ass granted her a growl and harder thrusts which she gladly accepted.
The constant barrage of thrusts sent her over the edge and as she barrelled to her climax the vines around Halsin tightened as her backarched. She turned her head to try and stifle the sound of her climax but Halsin's left arm broke free of her vines. The violent popping of them snapping as he gripped her face to watch her cum. His touch added with a gentle squeeze of his vines around her neck and breasts made one climax into two as fairy lights swam behind her eyes.
Halsin felt and watched as she came. She squirted all over his pelvis, milk dribbled down each breast as another bout hit her. The bear within him growled and he rutted into her hard giving her no reprieve from his lust. She wasn't the only one who had been waiting 15 years for this. She squirmed and writhed beneath him. Moans and cries came out between panting breaths. Her vines around him sprouted thorns. Not enough to do damage, but enough to add a bit of pain to their pleasure. He brought his body on top of hers and pulled her hair into his fist claiming her lips.
He pressed her body against his, he craved her skin against his. The feel of her breasts against his chest, her ankles pressing into his back begging for each thrust. Even the little thorns on the vines as she unknowingly tightened them together causing him to race to his own high. The tightness of her around his cock and how she didn’t want to release it was driving him mad. She continued to moan and repeat his name over and over causing his movements to become erratic. His hand was still balled up at the back of her head and he pulled her up for a final messy kiss that was all tongue and teeth. He moaned as he found his own release spilling into her in jerked thrusts and shivers.
He shifted so his body weight wasn't fully on her when he collapsed on the cot they shared. Aramiya was flush, panting, and had her eyes half-lidded. As they were still intimately connected he felt each and every pulse of her heart as she came down from the high. The vines they created grew slack and fell around them. When she started to come down she bumped her nose against his before gently pressing a kiss to his lips.
Carefully he unwound their bodies and shifted the vines farther to the floor. She whimpered at the loss of his body against hers and he hummed in the back of his throat before running his hands up her sides and gently kissing where the vines had been on her chest and neck. She ran her fingers through his hair again and as he came up to her lips, she felt his arms wrap around her back and roll them over so she was on top.
An ‘oh’ escaped her and she realized the new position. Sitting up she looked down at him and that same wicked smile played in her lips a bit sleepily. “I like this view.” She ran her hands across his chest carefully dragging her nails through his chest hair.
She bobbed up and down as he laughed. “I can say the same about this one.” Halsin again ran his hands down her curves again settling on her hips.
She returned his laugh with a small giggle before stretching up her arms and rolling she shoulders back. Pensively she looked around the small cabin. The sunlight through the thin curtains she had sewed and had Halsin put up. The rocking chair he had made for her. The oversized bassinet he had made for Camellia with the Bear and Owlbear mobile.
Aramiya looked at the man below her and how his gaze was trained on her. She traced the scars on his chest. Closing her eyes she meditated for a small moment feeling him draw idle circles on her hips.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she saw in her mind's eye the glade behind the house. Children running around with the same lavender skin as hers playing and wildshaping into animals. Thaniel tugged at her hand and she looked down to him.
“You are where you were meant to be. Trust in Silvanus that your life with him will be long.” His forest eyes looked at her hellish ones. “I can sense your fear, Aramiya. You will not be gone from this world quite yet.”
“Thaniel, how am I able to see this? My meditations before were just my thoughts and my magic.”
The boy smiled and giggled before Oliver, the other half of him, joined on her other side, his horns and eyes like hers. Oliver took her hand and patted it. “Because you are now more than you were.” The boys said in unison before the image faded and all she could see was the blackness behind her eyelids.
Notes:
Tis been a moment since I've written any smut, let me know of any positions you'd like to see ;)
Chapter 7
Notes:
Let me know if the formatting gets weird. Did it from my phone today!
Some light fluff and a cameo from my favorite little rascal from the Emerald Grove.
Chapter Text
When Aramiya blinked her eyes open, she looked down at Halsin, who had closed his eyes for a moment like she did. Carefully she bent over and started kissing his chest, aware of where her horns were so as to not stab him in the chin on accident. His hands caressed her upper back lazily.
“Halsin,” she murdered between kisses. A hum was her reply. “Could you teach me how to love?”
The hand on her back stopped short and a large sigh lifted her before bringing her back down. “Look at me,” a small command.
Aramiya sat back up, hands still on his chest to anchor her while he moved them up the cot to put his back against the wall. One of his hands remained on her hip the other he brought to her face. “Love is not something that is taught,” his voice low and raspy after their activities. “However, it is something that needs to be given for you to give it back.” His thumb brushed the apple of her cheek. “You thought he loved you and so you gave it but it was never given back. The flower cannot grow without sunlight or water, eventually it withers.
“You sought love and even asked to make it for yourself when he could not give it. You know how to love, Aramiya, but you have forgotten how to be loved.” Tears started to gather and he wiped them away gently. “Even in your darkest of moments you showed yourself love by leaving. Showed your daughter a mother who cared for her.” He cracked a smile. “Even showed this old druid love just by being in his presence.”
“I-” she started and Halsin shook his head.
“Gale could not love you the way you needed. And I know a part of you broke when you realized that.” His hand on her cheek moved to her chin. “Let me love you the way you deserve to be loved. Let us leave the past behind, focus on the future we build together. You are now more-”
“More than I was?” She finished for him. His eyes widened at the finished statement. Sheepishly she smiled. “Thaniel and Oliver.”
“Just now?”
She nodded. “I meditated for just a moment after we…” she sighed happily. “And I was in the glade behind the house watching a bunch of little tiefling that had my coloring wild shaping and playing when Thaniel tugged my hand. He told me to trust in Silvanus.” She paused for a moment, contemplating if she should share the difference in Oliver “It's interesting, Oliver's horns are much like mine since the lifting of the Shadowcurse.”
That earned her a raised eyebrow. “Oliver has been a little different since you've been around.”
Aramiya pursed her lips at that. However she had no response as she hadn't really left the small cabin as she had a small bundle to care for. However now that Camellia was a bit older than a newborn, it might benefit her to learn her new home.
“Since you've denied my request about love,” her tone playful before kissing him. “Could you show me my new home? I want to get to know the villagers and sit in nature during the summer. Maybe relearn some things that I had lost.”
“That my heart, can be arranged.” he brought her closer to him and kissed her breathless. “However, there are a few other things we could attend to.” Underneath her she felt him come to life again.
“Master Halsin!” Chiding him with his official title, but she ground herself against him earning a growl from him. Kissing him, she kept up her pace grinding and moaned at his hands gripping her tightly. She almost came again at the friction between them. She wanted more of him, his hands on her everywhere, his mouth…
However before they could go any further Camellia’s cries echoed in the small room. Aramiya put her forehead to his. “Go to her, our little love needs her mama.” He carefully helped her up and smoothed a palm over her backside as she walked the few feet to the bassinet.
“Hello my little flower, is someone hungry?” Aramiya’s voice gentle and sweet as she picked up her daughter and brought her over to her new rocking chair, which Halsin had put a blanket across so he could bundle her up a bit while she fed Camellia. “Your Papa made us this chair that rocks so it'll be easier for you to sleep.” The suckling sounds of a content child filled the room with the metronome of her and the chair rocking back and forth.
“Papa,” a realization hit Halsin. Aramiya tilted her head at him, her white tipped horns angling at him. A flash of the mediation snapped back to him. A child around the same age as Thaniel looked had made that same movement. Her dark curls around her face. Bright hazel eyes like his. Halsin looked again at Aramiya. “My visions, that's what the children called me in them.”
Her voice was teasing, “And just how many of them were there?”
A laugh escaped him. “At least four to five, but I could have missed count.”
His answer was a smile and she held up five fingers. “That's how many were in mine as well” She wrapped the blanket around her waist. “Tomorrow, can we meditate together during her nap? I have a feeling Thaniel may provide us with more questions in the form of answers.”
“He does have that way about him. But of course, my love, we can.” She visibly winced he noticed and he brought over the salve and put it on the side table. “Did I make it worse?”
“No, its not that. But if I could have one request?” she looked at him, her eyes pained. “Could you not call me ‘my love’? It's the only thing Gale called me, so much so that I have a feeling he forgot my name. My heart or anything else you come up with is fine. I hate to put a restriction on you, but he happened to ruin that phrase.”
Halsin knelt by her and held the hand she had reached out to him. “As you wish, my heart.”
Once Camellia was fed, they dressed. Sadly, the mood had passed but Halsin was sure it would strike them again. Instead, he helped Aramiya wear Camellia around her so that they could take a walk around the village. Most hadn’t met her yet and the few who had, mostly had heard about her through the screaming in the glade or when they came to Halsin’s for healing. Some of the older tieflings recognized her from her time in the Emerald Grove and nodded their heads to her and Halsin as they passed.
It was odd to be in such a place after being alone for so long. Aramiya had one arm wrapped around her daughter rubbing her back, the other around Halsin’s arm. She walked around barefoot feeling the ground below her while also feeling earth hum around her. The paths were still dirt, even after fifteen years of settlement. Halsin informed her as they walked that he had asked the towns folk to live as close to nature as they could. Homes were build usually no more than 2-3 rooms each or single room cabins like Halsin’s. The town square had carts of traveling merchants and a few of the staple shops had made small storefronts with homes in the back for the shop keepers.
It was more like the outpost towns they had visited on their travels through Faerun. As they passed a clothing merchant Halsin stopped their walk. “Pick out some clothes, Aramiya. For you and the babe.” She looked up at him, her mouth slightly agape. Gale had purchased her clothes, so many in fact she had so many outfits and nowhere to have worn them. In the four months she had lived with Halsin the only articles of clothing she wore was one of his shirts and a skirt she had fashioned out of the dress she wore when she arrived. She was used to having so few articles, having spent so long in only a handful of outfits she was comfortable wearing what she had.
Halsin closed her mouth and whispered in her ear, “You know I prefer to see you as Nature intended, but I want you to feel comfortable and to be able to walk around freely.”
She flushed a bit at his whispered words, but moved forward toward the vendor who smiled brightly at the pair and motioned for her to come and see the fabric selections. “I see you have a little one, congratulations! How old are they?”
“She’s just about four months and growing like a summer weed! She will be bigger than this before long.” Aramiya rubbed her daughters back through the cloth of the wrap.
The merchant smiled brightly. “Well then we should get you something that will fit her now and, from the looks of it you may be handy with a needle, maybe some fabric to add items as she grows if I or another merchant don’t swing by before she outgrows it.” The merchant dug around her cart and pulled a bolt of fabric out along with a small shirt and pant set. Aramiya held the shirt and pants up contemplating it. They were still a bit big, but she would be running out of her mothers arms sooner than Aramiya would want. “I also have a diapering material, if you need that as well.”
Aramiya looked at Halsin, they were currently borrowing some diapering supplies from a fellow villager. Halsin spoke up. “That would be good, we’ve been borrowing from a neighbor and at the rate this village grows we may have more babes in diapers yet.” She put a hand on his forearm in silent thanks before turning her eyes to the vendor again.
“For you, my lovely lady! I would recommend this,” The merchant pulled out a red cotton shift dress with a few buttons down the front. “And this!” The merchant pulled out another shirt and pant set in an emerald green and dark brown leather. “A lady must always match her lord.” When the merchant said that she winked at Halsin. Aramiya giggled. “For the great Archdruid Halsin and one of the saviors of Baldur’s gate. 50 silver pieces for the lot.”
It was at that comment that Aramiya took a closer look at the merchant. A Dark red tiefling with fancy eye patch. “Mol?” Aramiya gasped when the realization hit her.
“Was wonderin’ when you would recognize me!” Mol gave her signature grin.
“It was hard to see you under that top hat! You have grown so much from the little thief I met in the Emerald Grove.” Aramiya walked around the cart to give the younger tiefling a hug. “I’m guessing you still have a motley crew around?”
The tiefling kicked around some dirt like she had done when she was smaller. “Yeah, but now we have a legit thing going! Most of the gang helped peddle the papers around Baldur’s gate and managed to get decent merchant gigs. Doni sells potions and apothecary ingredients now. We take care of our own too, especially the little ones.” Mol touched the top of Camellia’s head. “We travel from town to town incase…”
Aramiya nodded. She knew that pain, she had experienced it herself. “I know.” Turning to Halsin she gave him a knowing look. “Did you know Mol was here?”
He gave a deep laugh. “I found out this morning when I did a morning round to check in on Elder Lestat. When we decided to go for a walk, figured it was best to let you figure it out.”
“Halsin had already bought most of the items, aside from the shirt and leathers. Those I threw in once I knew it was you. Always saved my ass when I got into too much trouble with that devil and in the grove a few times.”
Aramiya elbowed her in the ribs. “Well, like you said: we take care of our own especially the littles.” She pulled the younger into another hug. “I’m glad to see you doing so well!”
“Ah, quit it! You’re gonna make me seem like a softy.”
“Never! Mol, the Scoundrel, always.” The three laughed and talked for a few minutes more before Mol handed Halsin the items and they continued on their walk
Chapter Text
Aramiya stretched out on the pelt they had put near the side of the hot spring after they had eaten dinner and was staring up at the night sky. She had missed the stars, the way they twinkled and blinked against the backdrop of blacks, blues, and purples of the night sky. The moon was a waning crescent on its way to start a new cycle. Looking to her right side she saw Halsin laying beside her, with Camellia above his head bringing her up and down causing the baby to giggle endlessly and giving him open mouth kisses when he brought her to his face.
She truly had grown so much in just a span of a few months. Camellia’s horns where just starting to peek through the top of the rough base, her lavender skin a few shades lighter than her own. Unlike Aramiya, Camellia's skin was free of the additional ribbing flesh pieces and her tail came to a softer spade. It was her daughter’s eyes that had caught her the most off guard. She had white scleras with hazel eyes.
Taking a deep breath she tried to remember what Gale had told her before she started hurling firebolts at him.
“I used an Insemination ritual. Elminster suggested it since I thought you were copulating with the vampire ascendent. The ritual is used to make most children of Gods when the god is the male party, its a simple incantation really.” Gale sat across from her at the table looking proud of his abilities to recall.
“So that is what you were chanting before? Gale, who’s child am I carrying if you are positive it is not your’s. No one else has been in this bloody tower with me besides you, Tara, Elminster, and fucking Mystra apparently.” Aramiya could feel her blood boil.
“Well, that’s just it, I am not sure. The enchantment is usually put on the male in the act of copulation, Elminster handled that part. Mystra suggested that…”
It took everything in her not to roll her eyes at him.
“It could be whoever you thought about having children with. There is also something in the text that mentioned who you were destined to have children with in light there wasn’t a God involved. Not really sure the rest, Elminster didn’t translate it that far.”
Aramiya cracked her neck, the memory of those final moments with Gale made her skin crawl. Looking back over to Halsin she knew there was a way to fully know and be sure. That however required a visit to the Chosen of Mystra… Well one of the two Chosen of Mystra and she knew at least Elminster could be bribed with cheeses and good food.
Why do wizards never read to the fine print? They are as bad a Warlocks.
Rolling to her side she kissed Halsin’s bicep and looked up at her daughter who giggled as Aramiya made a funny face at her. Being sure could be a problem for another day. Right now being in nature with Halsin and Camellia was all she could have ever wanted.
“The moon is getting high, we should head back to the cabin soon.” Halsin’s low voice stirred her from her reverie. He was sitting up now and had Camellia on her back rubbing small circles into her tummy as she rubbed her eyes sleepily.
Aramiya came up behind him and put her head on his shoulder, her arms lazily moving up and down his arms and her long fingernails grazing his skin. “Or,” she spoke softly into his ear, hot breath on the most sensitive parts. “We could take a hot bath before returning for the night.”
Halsin continued to rub circles into Camellia’s belly. “Oh,” he said with a smile.
She planted kisses along his neck and ear before stepping back and removing her clothes for the second time that day. She left them on the pelt next to him and slowly walked around to the edge of the water. The walk was slow and deliberately done so that he could see all of her. Her tail flicked back and forth as she got in the water, the steam slowly moving as the night breeze rolled by.
As she was waist deep she turned around to him and crooked a finger at him, beckoning him to join her. A tell-tale flicker of gold crossed his eyes as she dipped just below the surface to her collar bone and stood back up. Her nipples responded to the night air immediatly after being in the heat of the spring and then out again.
“Come here to me,” she spoke out to him as she backed farther into the spring.
Halsin did not need to be told twice. He quickly striped off his clothes and got in the water pulling her to him with a splash. “I may not be able to contain myself.”
“Promise?” she hummed back to him.
He pulled her into a breathless kiss, this one hungrier than the one from that morning. He pushed her against the edge of the spring and lifted her so she was out of the water, her back against the pelt and grass. Before she realized it he had hooked her knees over his shoulders and kissed the inside of her thigh all the way to her center.
The night air kissing her skin gave her gooseflesh but the moment his mouth was against her vulva she fisted his chesnut hair in her hands and tossed her head back.
His tongue circled her clit a few times before sucking down on the flower causing a string of curses and moans to come out of her. As he continued she looked up at him as he feasted. Both of his hands were on her. One hand parted her while the other was teasing the multiple entrances at his fingertips. Given it was late and her daughter was mere feet from her, she bit her lip to avoid crying out as he continued. He moaned against her folds as he slipped two fingers into her and one a little lower.
“If you keep doing that I'm going to cum and I'm not sure I can be quiet.” Aramiya panted between strokes and licks. She watched as his lower back started to pulse forward in the water seeking his own friction. “Fucking hells, Halsin.” Small whimpers escaped her as he continued.
She came hard against his hand as he pulled his mouth away to enjoy the sight of her beneath him. Fistful of grass in one hand the other clamped hard over her mouth to stifle her cries. Her hips moved on their own seeking out more friction from his fingers and palm against her hood.
“That's it, come for me.”
As he said it she came again and looked up at him with wildness in her eyes. He licked his lips as he pulled his fingers from her and put the two that were inside her into his mouth. She watched as he cleaned them and dropped her legs into the water pushing herself up before joining him in the water. Aramiya ran her fingers down his pecks and abs before gripping him at the base and stroking him. Halsin thrusted into her hand at the moment her hand touched him.
While she pumped him she gently pushed him to a rock. When his backside hit it, she gave a firm squeeze and let him go. He quirked an eyebrow before sitting on the rock. The water level was a little lower where she pushed him to so when he sat it came up to the middle of his thighs when sitting.
Halsin watched as her eyes were trained on his cock and she licked her lips before bending over him. The juxtaposition of the cooler night air to the warmth of her mouth made him bite back a moan. As her tongue rolled around the head he gripped her by the horns. He half-moaned and laughed as her horns made perfect little handles to push her mouth to swallow more of him. He was cautious to not make her choke and when he met resistance to his pushes he kept the pressure where it was.
Aramiya knew he was large and uncut, but until she took him in her mouth she wasn't sure how much larger he was than Gale. The way he grabbed her horns biting back a moan made her continue tasting him. He smelled like spring woods and musk, the taste of sweet salt in her tongue. It drove her crazy.
She hummed around him and the unexpected vibration caused him to thrust into her mouth and a loud moan escaped him. When she did it again, he pushed and pulled her by her horns to gain more friction. Slipping one hand from him to herself she rubbed her fingers on her clit earning him more moans and vibrations against the back of her throat.
If she kept doing that he was going to cum down the back of her throat and he wanted more than just that. He pulled her mouth off of him by her horns. Halsin moved one hand to her throat, the other to her hip,and kissed her. “On my lap, now.”
Aramiya didn't need to be told twice as she helped herself straddle him and gloriously sheath him to the hilt. He gripped her hips to hold her steady before letting her grind against him, rattling him around. Her clit rubbing against his pubic bone edging her closer and closer. Before she could see stars behind her eyelids, he gripped her hips with both hands and set the thrusting pace slow and deliberate, wanting to feel all of her. She put her hands in his hair with her forehead against his relishing in their closeness. He left one hand on her hip to continue controlling the pace and let the other hand trail up and down her back, causing her to shiver and whimper.
This is what making love was like. Gentle, slow, full of want, but letting their bodies explore each other slowly. The climax grew, wanting them to go faster, but even the rain came slowly every now and then.
She felt his braids in his hair, the strength of his jaw as she trailed her fingers along it when kissing him. Aramiya looked Halsin in the eyes as they continued. His lashes fluttered open at the lack of her lips on his and his hazel eyes looked at her with love and want. As good as her body felt, her heart finally had caught up. This is what it felt like to be loved. To know, body and soul, someone cared.
“I love you, Halsin.” She whispered as she watched his reaction. His eyes flashed gold again. He claimed her lips again and picked up his pace.
Aramiya continued to kissed him as she found her climax again that night, tears streaming down her face. She felt Halsin convulse and shutter inside of her as his own release shuttered through him.
“You are mine, Aramiya. And I am yours."
Notes:
I hope you guys are enjoying this! FYI I will be on vacation 5/4/24 through 5/10/24 and don't know if I'll be able to post the next chapter next weekend before I leave.
I will be offline for that entire week enjoying some sea and sun!
Chapter 9
Notes:
Starts with smut and then comes some plot from the left hand turn that Aramiya tossed my way 🤣
Wasn't sure I was going to get this chapter out before I left, but a 4hr car ride provides plenty of time!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Halsin woke up after spending the night with Aramiya in his arms. She laid flush against his side, one leg propped up against his thigh and one hand on his chest. He drew lazy circles on her back enjoying the feel of her next to him. Her hair was longer now than it was when they met and she kept it in a loose braid instead of the tight braids and buns she used to keep them in for battle. He smiled, fondly remembering the way she used to braid her hair by the campfire with Shadowheart, laughing and sharing a bottle of wine between them.
Karlach would sit close by, not too close, and watch as they would do this. Aramiya would always reassure Karlach that once they got her engine cooled down she would be able to join them. And she did, after Damon fixed her engine and a few nights of them braiding all her hair the first night. When they realized it wasn’t always going to be a possibility, Aramiya had the idea to toss a bucket of cold water on her to be able to at least put some braids in the poor barbarian’s hair together before she heated back up. He remembered how happy it had made the barbarian to still be included as the days got shorter and shorter to the end of the Absolute. Halsin chuckled at the memory. She always had a unique solution for everything.
Halsin remembered the fight for Thaniel, how Aramiya had come by daily to check on them both to see how he was fairing. Halsin had insisted on going with her to find Oliver but she shook her head at him. As much as she would have needed him by her side, Aramiya had reminded him that Thaniel needed him more in those moments than she did. When she returned with Oliver she sat with the boys to get to know them better and to help them settle arguments when they couldn’t decide on things. Taught them the art of leaving some decisions up to fate and other smaller ones on a game of rock, parchment, or shears. He wondered how their own children would settle arguments. If their visions were to be believed they would eventually be outnumbered and, he thought with a sigh, in need of a bigger house.
He caressed her cheek to rouse her before the baby awoke. She buried her face deeper into his chest and a sleepy moan escaped her lips. Trying a different approach Halsin moved the hand that was on her back further down to her ass. He gave it a few gentle squeezes before tracing up her thigh and back down again finding the center between. Carefully he ran his fingers across her folds earning him a gentle bucking against his leg.
She exposed more of herself to his hand and moved her own that was on his chest down to his pelvis running her fingers along the bones just above. As he continued to rub against her clit and down between her folds teasing her, a moan escaped her lips. Aramiya lifted her head from his chest and looked at him before her hand surrounded his length and gave him a few sleepy strokes. At her touch Halsin bucked a bit forward. “Good, aha, morning.”
They continued to tease each other for a bit before Halsin grabbed her chin and claimed her lips in sloppy kisses. Aramiya pivoted the leg under her to a kneeling position and carefully moved to straddle him, her hand never leaving his cock. When she sat up, she took both hands to him and pumped him. He looked down to her hands and watched her stroke him. He placed both of his palms on her thighs and tossed his head back.
Aramiya removed one of her hands from him and rubbed her clit. As she did her hips moved on their own farther up his hips rubbing her vulva against him from clit to entrance. Halsin groaned as she repeated her movements slowly back and forth until he took hold of her hips. The look he gave her was both a warning and one of pleasure. She moved her hands to his chest and spread long fingers across his chest finding his nipples in his chest hair and rubbed her thumbs across them in a similar movement to her hips rocking.
His head tossed back again as a deep moan tore through his throat. Seeing him so unwound made her wetter. When she brought her hips up again she moved a bit farther so his dick could pop up from under her. Carefully she positioned him with her tail and backed up. The feeling of his cock inside her nearly sent her over the edge. As she sat back fully enveloping him into her she shuddered.
At feeling her surrounding him, his head snapped up and his mouth opened. It took almost everything in him to stay still as she pushed him further inside. Never lifting her hips she made the same back and forth rocking movements of her hips.
He was in to the hilt and as Aramiya rattled him around inside. The more she moved she felt her walls clamp around him preparing for climax. She pulled one of his hands up from her thigh to her tit and gripped some of his fingers in a silent request for him to fondle her. His entire hand fit around her and he gripped and massaged earning him more moans and a ride out of her first climax.
Haslin could no longer take it and he started thrusting up making her bounce against his hips. Each thrust earned him a breathy high pitched moan. As she came again he gripped her hips with both hands and pulled her off. He motioned for her to get up and he got on his knees. He kissed her hard.
“Turn around.” A raspy command from him.
As she did so she also got down on all fours, her tail lifted and to the left of them while sticking her ass in the air and spreading her legs wide for him. She looked back at him as he placed a firm slap on her backside which made her yelp. He rubbed the slap into the tissue before bringing his mouth to the cheek. Aramiya moaned when he placed random kisses on her ass before he licked at her. Halsin trailed his tongue from clit to asshole spreading her wide to taste all of her.
She grabbed the sheets under them and lifted herself higher on her tippy toes to give him more access to eat her. She could feel herself shaking with each tongue stroke and finger tease. “Halsin,” she whined. He gave her a few more solid licks before sitting back and then bringing her hips to his in a snap. She cussed and begged and pushed back against him as he thrust harder and harder into her.
Her tail wrapped around his waist, the end of it hitting his hip, and in a surprise he grabbed her by the horns and pulled her head back, arching her against the onslaught of his hips. He used her horns as an anchor as he fucked her into oblivion. Climaxes rebounding through her before he starts climbing to his own violent release.
Before he came, he pulled her up by her horns and wrapped one arm around her waist to put her back flush against him. He wanted to feel her skin against him. “Aramiya,” he moaned her name as he came his breath against her ear and she shivered wildly against him.
They stayed in this position panting and breathless for a few moments.
Aramiya turned her head and moved his head towards her and kissed him as he pulled out of her. “Good morning to you too.” She giggled.
After they had calmed down, ate breakfast as a family, and dressed for the day the little family made their way to the glade behind the cabin. Camellia was asleep against Aramiya's chest, wrapped up so she could move about hands free.
Halsin lead the way to an even more secluded part of the glade where there sat a large boulder. He helped her climb it and set out a pelt for them to sit on. Sitting across from one another he rubbed the inside of her barefoot. “Now do you want to meditate together first or start with simple actions like working with thorns and entanglements?”
“Combat tactics? Seems a bit of an advanced start. But let's meditate first, I want to get my feet under me first.” She gave a soft sound of approval when he found a sensitive spot. “Though the foot rub is nice too.”
“Now I will be right here with you,” his large hand holding hers. “Should you need anything at all.”
Aramiya took several deep breaths, settling her heart before training her eyes on the birch trees behind Halsin. She continued breathing and staring until she felt her whole body relax and her mind slip from her body. Druidic meditation, before all this, for her was slipping into nature and feeling the magic around you. Now Aramiya could see her body and the forest around her. She looked toward the birch trees again and slowly made her way to them when a voice called to her.
“Child of the Moon, Child of the Oak Father.” A large Owlbear came out beyond the birch settling her golden eyes on her. “It has been a long time since you have been present young one and now with a cub of your own. She is growing strong.” The Owlbear came toward her and gave her a once over.
Aramiya felt a small amount of shame, she had never been privy to this part of wildshaping. As a druid who was unceremoniously plucked from her grove and then never returned she had missed out on years of training. Something she was sure Halsin had trained at least a century in.
The Owlbear chuckled. “Your mate has had much time to learn about his Cave Bear companion it's true. But you knew me in a way too. The parasite blocked the interactions we could have had during your fighting. You fought so well in your shape, I thought that we would have many more battles after the worm died.” The creature sighed shaking her wings. “The damn wizard promised love and opportunity. Even I could not have denied you that.”
“If only he had truly loved me.” Aramiya said with a huff.
“Ah little one he did, for a time. The damn Tressym was a jealous little kitten. There were so many times I wish you had transformed in front of her so that she could see your true power.” She titled her head at her tiefling companion. “But you did not come here to talk about spilled honey. You have questions.”
“I do. Thaniel and Oliver; they are sneaky little ancients and they have been causing more questions than answers lately.” Aramiya chuckled at the thought of the boys. “But I've been thinking about how much has changed since coming here and well… what Gale did. I don't want to see him or even think of Mystra again, but I can't help thinking about that damn ritual.”
The Owlbear nodded and looked pensive for a moment. “Thaniel and Oliver gave you a gift. Small in comparison, but that helped open this channel between us. Silvanus works in mysterious ways with the two of them.” The feathers stood up on her back. “Gale and Mystra make me want to pluck their eyes out, but the ritual is a curious one. The fact the Wizard didn't think to read the spell all the way through on his own and trusted Elminster makes me curious. Mystra…” She snapped her beak. “Mystra may have known the true purpose of the ritual.”
Aramiya looked at her companion quizzically. “I'm guessing you are thinking Silvanus and her worked that out together?”
“I'm not certain.”
The druid leaned against the rock her corporeal form was sitting on and looked behind her guide. In the trees she heard giggling. “Thaniel and Oliver,” She voice sing-songed out. “Can you come here please?”
“Aw, you spotted us!” Oliver jabbed out in a small voice. “I guess we will…”
The Owlbear tilted her head and made a small chirp of ‘what's this now?’. Aramiya gestured her head in the direction of the boys, to which the Guide turned her head looking them over quizzically.
When they reached the duo Oliver stuck his tongue out at the Owlbear and ran to hide next to Aramiya, who chuckled. “Oliver, that's not how we treat friends.” The boy huffed at her as she kneeled down to his level. Before speaking again she gave the boy a once over. His horns were the same charcoal color as hers at the base and were whitening at the tips. His eyes were mismatched, one resembling Thaniel's, the other like hers although the eye color was a deep hazel brown.
“Oliver, you've had some changes since I last saw you when the shadow curse was lifted. Do you or Thaniel have any idea how that happened?” She watched the boy squirm for a moment before looking at their bare feet.
“Well,” he looked up at her again, uncertain if he could tell her.
“You don't have to tell me everything, as I know certain things the Oak Father will reveal in due time, but if you could tell me or Halsin something it would be appreciated.” Taking the small boy's hands in hers she patted it like a mother would a child.
At the small gesture Oliver decided to jump at her and hug her, which being in spirit was an odd feeling, but she could feel the boy's meaning behind it. Then, in the barest whisper she heard Oliver say: “I've always wanted a mommy.”
Aramiya blinked a few times not sure she had heard what he had said, she rubbed his back while she sat shocked. Carefully prying him off her she looked him in the eyes. His little devilish grin appeared and he giggled before disappearing leaving her, Thaniel, and the Owlbear alone.
Thaniel, knowing questions were about to be asked attempted to run, but the Owlbear clucked her beak at him. “Stay,” was her command to him. Thaniel pouted and sat cross legged on the grass between the two. “What did Oliver mean by that little one?”
“Well…” the other half of the duo struggled to find his words.
“Thaniel,” Aramiya interjected. “Did you two make an agreement after the Shadow Curse lifted to find parents?” The memory of the Shadow creatures Oliver had created during the 100 years of curse came back to her. Fighting them was no easy feat. She remembered the disappointment in the young ancients' eyes at the loss of them. “I remember he wanted playmates and he had created Shadow Parents that helped protect him from strangers.”
Owlbear looked at her surprised at the revelation. “Why would land spirits want parents?” she said outloud.
Thaniel started to get increasingly uncomfortable at the talk of parents and the Shadowcurse. “Thaniel,” Aramiya looked at him gently. “Is it because of what happened during the curse? You don’t have to say everything now, but a small amount would help.”
“Yes,” was the small reply Thaniel gave her.
“Where is Halsin right now?” Aramiya knew their visions could be separate, but had a feeling something more was afoot than either of them were aware of.
Thaniel pointed to the otherside of the birch trees. Her smile warmed and she looked at the Owlbear. “I think it’s time the four of us connect. Thaniel, thank you. We will have more questions but you can go scold your brother for now.”
The boy disappeared without a trace the second Aramiya giggled and stood.
“I can hear what you are thinking, young one.”
Aramiya giggled at the Owlbear. “And what is that?”
“Oliver planned this long before you left with the Wizard of Waterdeep.”
“I believe he did.
Notes:
As always thanks for reading! Plot be ahead.
Chapter 10
Summary:
Meditations, Memories, and revelations
Notes:
Sorry this is a bit late! Coming back from vacation I got sea sick (on land, ironically) and rested as much as I could before returning to my corporate job.
As always thanks for reading! Your comments, kudos, and bookmarks keep me going!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Aramiya and the Owlbear walked through the birch trees in a comfortable silence before Aramiya realized she never asked the other creature her name. “I can hear that brain of yours ticking again.” the Owlbear chuffed a laugh. “My name is Enid.”
“Thank you, Enid.”
“Without that worm in your head it's easier to hear your thoughts and they are so loud when in this spirit form its almost deafening.”
Aramiya stopped short of the tree line and put a hand on her friend. “Is it easier in wildshape?” Enid’s stare was kind as she nodded. The tension in Aramiya’s shoulders lessened as they made it to another clearing which was almost identical to the last one.
She saw Halsin sitting cross legged on the grass with the cavebear across from him, both with puzzled looks on their faces. From behind her Aramiya felt Enid push her forward to breach the focus of the males.
“Aramiya?” Halsin’s brows furrowed as he turned to her before he stood up and strided over to her.
She took his hands in her’s before taking a large breath and feeling Enid nudge her somemore from behind. “Thaniel and Oliver let me in on a bit of a large secret they’ve been hiding.” she spoke carefuly as she looked up in his hazel eyes.
Halsin continued to look puzzled while his own companion pushed him forward. “Cillian, what on earth?”
“I’m guessing the Oak Father came to you, while the boys came to me.” she giggled as they were pushed ever closer together. “What did you find out?” Aramiya wrapped her arms around Halsin and giggled. “Enid, I can’t get any closer to him or I’ll be in him.”
“He did.” Halsin wrapped his arms around her and watched as the Owlbear and Cavebear walked away, joined up next to one another communicating in a language neither Halsin or Aramiya spoke. “Told me that a deal was struck after the end of the Shadowcurse with Mystra.”
“I think I know who helped strike up that deal.”
Halsin’s eyes went wide. “The boys?”
Aramiya placed one hand on his heart. “The boys want parents. Mostly Oliver though, if Thaniel’s actions are to be believed.”
“But why?” he place his hand over the one she had over his heart. “Why would they want parents?”
“Enid asked the same thing. But I think I know why.” Aramiya kissed his knuckles. “While he was separated from Thaniel, Oliver watched as kids were protected by their parents from the curse but also from strangers. When I convinced Oliver to come back with us to Thaniel, he didn’t originally agree. He first wanted us to play hide and seek.” Aramiya giggled at the memory. “Not quite fair play with a spirit. He was trying to hide from the group to protect himself. When we found him he was upset but I convinced him to play another round. The second round we played he had creatures he called ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ as well as a dog that helped protect him. I have a feeling it was in an effort to keep part of himself safe-- given that his powers had changed drastically during the Sharran curse. When he returned to camp with us he looked to the two of us to protect them.”
“The night of the thunderstorm.” Halsin’s eyes glazed with the memory.
Thaniel and Oliver were in Halsin's tent when a loud boom of thunder erupted above them. Oliver huddled into Halsin's arms burying his face in the man's chest. Aramiya looked cautiously outside the tent flap at the sky, which had lightened considerable since the curse started to lift. She had been sitting playing with the boys and crafting health potions with Halsin when the rain had started.
Thaniel came up to her and with his head against her arm looked outside the tent with her when a crack of lightning hit a tree on the other side of the river. Instinctively, Aramiya wrapped her arm around Thaniel. “Boys another boom will come in one 1000, two 1000, three 1000…” as she spoke the last word another boom signaled above them. “When you count between the booms and the lightning you can tell how far away the storm is.”
Thaniel looked up at her while wrapped in her arms. “So the storm is about three miles away?”
She poked his nose and smiled. “There abouts. That tree it struck is about 2 miles from us.”
Halsin could hear Oliver mumbling his counting skipping some numbers here and there. He rubbed the boy's back while he counted. Another thunder clap more distant than the last.
“That one was almost six miles away!” Thaniel climbed in her lap to watch the rain outside of the tent.
“Very good, Thaniel!” She rested her head in his shoulder. “As scary as thunderstorms can be, they are the prettiest to watch from a safe distance. Look over there,” she pointed a ways in the distance. “See how the lightning changes the color of the clouds from far away?”
At hearing something was pretty, Oliver peeked his head out from Halsin's embrace. “C-could I see it from here?”
“Almost Oliver,” Halsin's voice calm and quiet. “If we move closer to the tent opening we can all see it together. The worse of it has passed us.”
Oliver's little head nodded and Halsin scooted them along the floor of the tent to the opening and propped up the other flap. The boy turned around in his lap to see the outside. The rain coming down in buckets.
“Woah…”
Aramiya giggled. “Not so scary when it's not directly overhead huh?” Her grip around Thaniel's middle tightened. “One day when I don't have this wriggler in my skull, we will have to play in a summer rain like this. It's so much fun to jump in puddles and enjoy the rain.”
“Soon?” Oliver's little voice popped up.
“As soon as the Oak Father will allow.” she replied.
“Halsin, you'll join us right?” Oliver tugged on his hand.
“A summer rain puddle jump sounds like just what Silvanus would want for us all after this.”
Aramiya tapped gently on his chest, bringing him back to the present and out of their mutual meditations. They sat across from one another again Camellia starting to fuss against her.
“We never got that summer rain puddle jump did we?” Halsin asked.
“No,” she hummed while rubbing Camellia's back. “We went right to Baldur's Gate after that and Lae’zel got captured by Bhaal worshipers. Everything went by so quickly.”
He traced her chin and throat tattoo with his eyes thinking of his meditation with Cillian.
“Mystra and Silvanus came to an agreement that you two would join again.”
“Cillian, but how and why?” Halsin could feel gooseflesh rise on his arms. “I've never heard of such a thing happening before.”
“All I was able to gather is that it was a third party that made the initial request. The Oak Father will reveal in time or the third party will make themselves known.” Cillian ruffled his fur. “Your Owlbear comes now
Notes:
Yes I picked Celtic names for the spirits of the WildShape, seemed only fitting!
Beyond this point plot thickens, so chapters may be slower to come out so I can make sure everything makes sense.
Your comments make my day and I love reading them!
Chapter Text
“Halsin,” Aramiya spoke his name gently after removing Camellia from her breast. Cautiously she reached one finger up and poked his nose. “Halsin?” Her voice sing song.
He shook his russet hair, waking himself from the reverie. “Sorry, my heart I got distracted. I was thinking about something Cillian said before our meditations merged.”
She hummed when he called her ‘my heart’. “And what was that, dearest?”
“Silvanus arranged this or at least a part of it with Mystra at the boy's requests.” He worriedly bit his bottom lip.
“We have to go see them, then?” she unknowingly mimicked his action of chewing her bottom lip.
Halsin nodded, his face apologetic.
“Enid mentioned something similar.” Aramiya abruptly giggled. “Enid also wanted to tear their eyes out for what they did to me.”
A booming laugh escaped Halsin. “Cillian had a similar reaction! Wanted you to WildShape and rip the little wizardling to shreds and was surprised Enid didn't encourage you.”
“About that,” she stretched her arms up and her legs out along the cool stone. “Enid said that the worm blocked her communication with me during the fighting we did against the Absolute. She also was surprised when I didn't WildShape again after… but that she didn't blame me for our lost years.” A tear escaped out of the corner of her eye. “Enid wanted me to find love. Probably why she kept nudging me into you.”
Halsin carefully stood and helped Aramiya off the rock. He heard her stomach grumble before she stood. “Cillian, I guess, had the same idea. But let's get some food, a meditation like that takes more than just mental capabilities.”
They walked hand in hand before Aramiya stopped them. “Halsin, that's the first time I've ever meditated like that.”
He turned to look at her, brows furrowed. “Your Grove?” To which she shook her head.
“I had just learned how WildShape worked when the nautiloid picked me up.” She looked at her feet and rubbed the grass between her toes. “I was just shy of a novice when we started. I knew healing and combative spells but the WildShape I was on my own for. The first time I shaped into Enid was shortly after I met the Owlbear cub’s mother.”
He gripped her hand tightly. “Then it is a good thing you are sleeping with an Archdruid.” With a wink, he turned around to walk them back home. Aramiya's giggle echoed through the forest.
Back at the cabin Halsin set out a pelt on the ground outside and put Camellia down on her belly. She fussed for a few moments before wiggling her arms and legs in and out like she was swimming. Aramiya brought out a tray of mushroom soup and some bread for her and Halsin.
“She will be crawling before we know it,” he said as she handed him a bowl of soup.
“I’m not sure if I’m ready for her to be mobile yet, she’s already a crafty one.” She chuckled before blowing on the soup on her spoon. “She’s gotten so big so quickly.” She watched Camellia bring her hands and arms under herself, tiny little fingers gripping the dark wolf fur below her, as she rocked back and forth trying to get a knee under her. “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for her to be bigger than this.”
“Hiya Momma,” Oliver’s little voice said as he popped onto the pelt next to Camellia and wiggled his fingers at her. “Hi, Camma!”
The baby coo-d and continued her back-and-forth pull on the pelt.
“Momma, now am I?” Aramiya teased while taking a bite of her piece of bread.
“I-,” he started but looked down ashamed.
“I’m teasing you, Oliver. I don’t mind,” she said as she kneeled and scooted closer to him and lifted his face to hers. “Truly, I don't mind. Someone has to make sure you and Thaniel behave.” She said as she kissed the top of his nose.
Oliver's cheeks flushed before he wrapped his arms around Aramiya’s neck. She rubbed his back and let him let go when he was ready. When it didn't look like it was going to be a quick hug, Aramiya brought the boy to her lap and sat fully back on the pelt holding him close.
She knew from experience that boys around Oliver's age, never mind his actual age, seldom wanted to be held by their mothers like this, but in her heart, she knew there was more to this hug.
“Olli-bear,” she tried out a new nickname, to which Halsin raised an eyebrow. She smacked him on his knee and stuck her tongue out. “What is it?”
“Are-you-mad-at-me?” Oliver whispered into her neck.
“Oh baby,” she rubbed his back some more before pulling him off her just a little so she could see his face. “Oliver, I am not mad at you. Confused? Yes. Mad, never.”
“Oliver, why do you think we’d be mad at you?” Halsin piped up.
They could see the tears forming in his eyes. Aramiya moved a hand to his cheek to keep his face from hiding again. “Thaniel told me a little, can you tell me a bit more?”
When he spoke his words barely left his mouth to make a sound. “I was so sad when you left the Heartlands and so angry to be alone even with Thaniel.” He wiped a tear away with the back of his hand and hiccuped.
Halsin brought Camellia to his lap and one of his hands to Oliver's back rubbing in soothing circles.
“I was so mad that Thaniel was having a hard time lifting the remains of the Shadowcurse. The Oak Father arrived and sat with me. He asked me why I was mad and I exploded!” Oliver looked at Aramiya then and hiccuped. “I told him I missed you and that I was sure I was going to be scared without you.” His brows pulled together with his memories. “He told me he knew Halsin would come back if you all survived fighting the worm thingy, but he couldn't be certain about you.
“When I asked him why, he said he didn't know which was a load of bull-paddy!” Oliver crossed his arms and looked at them. “He said something about a wizard and love… and I stopped listening.”
Aramiya giggled at his display of full childness. “So, how'd you convince him to talk to Mystra?”
“I told him I wasn't gonna help Thaniel until I knew I could have a Mommy!” His little chin jutted out.
“I see since you knew you had a Papa coming.” Her horns pointed to Halsin.
“Right! I told him I wanted you- no one else!”
Halsin's laugh boomed. “What did he say to that, Oliver?”
Oliver looked at Halsin with a toothy grin. “Oak Father said he’d have to think about it, but I told him he either made the promise or I'd run away where Thaniel couldn't find me again.”
“No wonder Mystra agreed, that's a hard bargain. I think I got off easy with two games of hide-and-seek!”
Oliver giggled.
“Well, you have me now and I'm sorry I was late.” Aramiya hugged the boy tightly.
In the weeks after the initial conversations with their spirit halves and their talk with Oliver, their days consisted of training, planting summer crops, and running through the forest in shifts.
You are getting better at this, young one. Enid’s voice was in her head as she ran and pounced on mice.
Catching a whiff of something rotten, Aramiya turned her Owlbear head towards it. She knew this smell in this form as she had smelled it fairly often during the many battles she had fought in it.
Decaying flesh? Enid was as puzzled as she was.
Aramiya stayed low and walked as quietly as an Owlbear could towards the smell. As she came upon it she saw a dead Tiefling. Watching her surroundings carefully she caught another familiar smell. Feline and lavender perfume. Aramiya’s feathers stood up on her back. Stalking the clearing she picked up the scent stronger before spotting the Treesym.
Instinctually, Aramiya pounced on the little monstrosity and pinned her wings down while screeching. Tara attempted to claw her way out but Aramiya put more pressure on her wings, her talons digging into the soil beneath her.
What are you doing here? Aramiya growled into Tara’s mind.
The monstrosity hissed at her before answering. I could say the same about you, little devil.
Aramiya screeched once more before viciously clacking her beak over the pinned creature. I will not ask again, why are you here and what have you done to that Tiefling?
I think the Tiefling was dead before Tara got here, I do not smell the death on her. Enid’s calm voice broke the rage in her.
I came to check in on you and the babe. Tara finally grit out.
Why? Another screech.
For Mystra. Now let me go.
A twinkle lit up in Aramiya’s eyes. Enid laughed in her head. Now why would we spoil our fun?
Aramiya lifted her paws off of Tara’s wings only to bat the Tressym into a nearby tree. Before Tara could get up Aramiya picked her up with her beak and ran as fast as she could back to the cabin. The Tressym tried ineffectively to swat at her captor only to be shaken every time she swatted her claws.
Back at the cabin, Halsin was outside with Camellia, who was crawling in the grass not too far from him. At the thunderous approach, Halsin picked up the baby and gave Aramiya’s Owlbear form a once-over. When he noticed Tara in her beak he raised an eyebrow. “My heart, I believe you can put her down now.”
He watched as Aramiya spat out the feline and changed back into her bornform. “Before we get to why this monstrosity is here, there is a dead villager not too far from here where I found her.” Aramiya kicked the now unconscious Tressym.
“What?” Halsin struggled against the young child, who wiggled around in his arms trying to get to her mother.
Aramiya gathered Camellia in her arms and pointed in the direction she had just come from. “Take a few of the villagers with you and see if there is anything else. I suspected Tara originally but Enid and I couldn’t smell death on her. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but your eyes know this forest better than mine.” she put a hand on Halsin’s chest. “Please be careful.”
He brushed her hair out of her face and nodded quickly dashing into the village.
Aramiya picked up Tara by her tail and brought her into the cabin, tying her down with vines.
Halsin had gathered a few men from the village taking note of who could be missing. He knew they had sent a small party out hunting but he wasn’t sure who was in that party. The men followed close behind Halsin, who transformed into a bear, to pick up the scent that Aramiya had mentioned. When he found it, he noticed something else-- a sweetness.
The men started to branch out into the wooded area around a small clearing when Halsin roared, stopping them in their tracks. He shook his large head signaling them to not go any further. When he was sure they had understood he meant for them to stay back, he stalked forward following the same path Aramiya’s paws left. He found her and the Treesym’s scuffle before landing on a second set of tracks. Humanoid footprints.
Halsin looked into the clearing again, noticing that the Tiefling killed looked similar to Aramiya in skin tone alone. Coming up to the body he smelled something akin to sweet wine and parchment. Necromancy spells have a strong sweet stench. He nudged the Tiefling with his nose to see if there were any other marks on her. Other than the palm print from the spell, there was nothing else.
His ears picked up on footsteps coming toward them. Halsin roared to keep the villagers behind him. Out of the trees, Gale of Waterdeep appeared. His skin was pale and his eyes glazed over. Again Halsin roared, the hairs along his spine pricking up his fur to make him look larger.
Gale didn’t stop coming towards him.
Halsin lunged at him knocking the man prone causing the wind to escape out of him. He watched as Gale’e eyes flooded open and he looked around confused and holding his chest. Halsin huffed a large breath almost in relief seeing the man come to his senses. Before Gale could get up, Halsin put a large paw on his shoulder and stood over him.
“H-halsin?” the man winced out as the bear put more pressure on his shoulder. “Why in the bloody blazes am I here?” He winced again. “And for the love of-- will you stop that?”
Halsin huffed again, blowing warm air into the wizard's face. His bear features pulled a face in a question.
“If I knew how I got here Halsin, I would certainly tell you.”
He bared his teeth.
“Last I knew I was in my classroom.”
A low growl was the only reply he got from the bear before he removed his paw and walked away from the wizard. Halsin transformed before turning to his villagers. “It’s Samantha. I have a feeling whoever lured her out here might be looking for Aramiya. Please be vigilant and keep to a curfew for a few weeks until I can get to the bottom of this.” The men nodded before a few of them went to collect Samantha’s body. Halsin found two sticks nearby and wound them with vines to make a gurney.
Turning back towards the wizard Halsin grabbed him by his collar and slammed him against a nearby tree. “If you are lying to me wizard you will see a druid’s fury.” Gale held his hands in surrender before the large druid let him fall to the ground.
“I’ll follow you, I guess.”
Notes:
A/N: Cheeky Author's note with an update: A Discussion between Halsin and the Author.
Picture it: Anime in the early 2010s with the silly cute outros with chibi characters in a Jill Bearup style.
--
Halsin was staring off into the distance washing his clothes in the river, when a pale woman smoking an herbal cigarette paced around wearing a loose pair of slacks and a looser collared button-up top.
"What am I going to do with you Aramiya? Your storyline took the hardest left turn I couldn't have seen coming!" she took a large drag of the cigarette and exhaled the smoke through her nose like a dragon. "It was just supposed to be a cute little 2-3 chapter smut fest with Halsin ramming your brains out, not this entire thing with a battle! I've never written an action sequence that didn't involve a cock going in a hole somewhere." As she was about to wail when out of the corner of her eye she saw Halsin completely bewildered wringing out his shirt.
"Can I help you?" Halsin's voice was low, to not scare her.
"Oh, Halsin," the woman blushes and bites a fingernail. "You could actually!"
He stares at her expectantly waiting for her follow-up. When he notices that she is completely attentive to his chest and trying to peer below the surface of the water below his belly button he sighs and submerges himself up to his neck.
"Spoilsport," she whispers. Taking another puff she settles her gaze on him again. "I need help telling these lovely people that since my RPG character Aramiya decided to change the outcome of this fic I now," she points the cigarette at him. "... have to delay my weekly updates to be more of a bi-monthly update."
"And how do you propose I help you to do that?" Halsin's gaze confused.
"If you could stand up darling so I can see from navel to collar bone and I can attempt to describe it in glorious detail for them?" her voice a mock of Astarion's cheeky banter.
"No."
"Damn," With a puff of smoke she vanished, and Halsin stood to finish washing his pants.
--
Sorry, I have been MIA since my birthday! Moving forward until I get out of the swamp that is the climax of this fic updates will be coming every 2 weeks.
Chapter 12
Summary:
When everything goes not, according to plan.
Notes:
Some Gale bashing. Plot that drove me nuts for weeks, ahead.
Chapter Text
Back at the cabin both Gale and Tara were wound up with vines. Aramiya sat in her rocking chair feeding Camellia and eyeing daggers into the male wizard's face. If she could have, she would have added extra large thorns to his bindings. Halsin paced at the fireplace, the usually calm Archdruid in a full rage. “Tara, you have a lot of answers to give.”
The Tressym bristled up and looked away from the wood elf. Aramiya’s vines around her tightened until the feline hissed. “If you don’t talk Tara, I will be a great deal rougher with you than I was in the forest. Why did Mystra send you to check in on me and why was Gale charmed to kill me?”
“Charmed to kill you….” Gale looked confused and puzzled. He felt the fingers on his right hand and could feel a grit to them that wasn’t normally there. “A necromancy spell.” He looked to be doing some calculating in his head. “Tara, speak now please.”
“Mystra sent me to check in on you as part of the bargain. The other tiefling was an unforeseen incident. When I arrived Gale was with her in the clearing and had held her by the arm. He walked away before I saw more because I was attacked by an Owlbear!” Tara hissed in Aramiya’s direction.
“If Mystra sent you here to check on me… Gale what is the last thing you remember?”
The Wizard blinked and turned a bright crimson at noticing Aramiya was basically topless while feeding her daugher. Turning his gaze to the ceiling he stuttered. “I-I” he took a deep breath in. “I was in my classroom showing students touch spells. The one I was casting happened to have been the Inflict Wounds spell. Then I was being shoved to the ground by a bear with a paw on my shoulder.”
“I know I couldn’t have pissed anyone off that badly that they would charm Gale to kill me.” Aramiya looked at Tara again. “There is something you are not telling us.”
The feline sighed. “Well, Mystra wasn’t sure if divinely intervening into the birth of your child would infuriate anyone.” Tara looked down to the floor. “Talos started sending his followers to the tower.”
Halsin’s voice caught in his throat. “Talossans? I haven’t seen any in centuries.”
Camellia started to fuss, so Aramiya covered herself again and began rocking her daughter to sleep. She looked at Halsin who she hadn’t seen look that worried since the Shadowcurse. “And here I thought convincing Elminster to arrange a meeting with Mystra was going to be the hardest thing I had to do since giving birth.” Sighing, she looked at Gale. “We could use each others help, it seems. Though, I am still incredibly upset at you, Gale DeKarios.”
Gale looked to her peeking between eyelashes before realizing she was again clothed. “I understand.” Gale's words seemed genuine but she didn’t think she would ever trust him again.
Halsin placed a hand on Aramiya’s cheek and ran his thumb along the apple of it while looking directly at Gale. “If you so much as put a hand on either of them, I will tear you both to shreds.”
Aramiya didn't need to look into Halsin’s eyes to know they flashed gold with the threat. She leaned into his touch to solidify the new relationship to Gale. She watched as Gale looked away, whether disheartened or ashamed she did not know.
Leaving the Treesym and the former lover tied up inside, Aramiya and Halsin went out the back to discuss a game plan. They sat on the bench, Camellia in the wrap around Aramiya who let out a large breath. “My heart, are you alright?”
“Not really, but I’m glad this all happened once I was able to get some training back under my belt.” She reached for Halsin’s hands running her fingers along his. “Now, what in Silvanus’s realm is a Talossan?”
Halsin stilled one of her hands with his as he rubbed small circles into it while thinking. “He is called the Destroyer and is an oppressor of the Oak Father’s natural neutral order. They seek out destruction and are no strangers to chaotic displays of it, but something has stirred them.”
“Why would the boys agreement with Silvanus and Mystra stir their ire?” She was tracing the lines in his palm now with the tips of her nail. “Unless Talos doesn’t like the agreement between the two deities?”
“How Talos found out is the other question.”
Aramiya giggled and looked at Halsin. “Well, I knew life with you wouldn’t be boring but I didn’t expect to be fighting alongside you quite so soon.”
Halsin rubbed more worrying circles into her other hand. His voice a whisper on the wind. “I am afraid of losing you both.”
Scooting closer to him on the bench she kissed him like she had before just a few months ago. The now nine-month old’s head was in the way a bit, but she managed. He returned it and she could feel the fear and worry in it. Although she was also worried, she trusted in Silvanus to keep them safe. “I love you, Halsin.”
“I love you, Aramiya.” Halsin's large hand settled on top of Camellia's head who cooed at the weight of his hand. “I love her too, and the last thing I want to do is put either of you in danger.”
Aramiya looked at him, the lines of worry evident on his face making her love appear older than his 365 years. Gently, she raised his head so he could look in her eyes. “If anything, I should be sorry for putting you in the danger. If I had chosen you when my heart wanted to, I am not sure we would be in this mess.” She traced the scar on his chin. “I trust in Silvanus to keep us safe. I trust in our love, Halsin. You've always kept me safe and I do not doubt that now.”
His smile was worried but he knew the truth in her words. “Let us gain the upper hand then.” He took her hand that held his chin and kissed the fingers before he stood bringing her with him. “Together?”
“From now, until ever after,” she paused before adding. “My heart.”
Inside, Aramiya snapped her fingers and the vines entangling both Gale and Tara released. “Now,” her voice deeper now than with Halsin or Camellia. “You will take us to Mystra and only Mystra.” She moved aggressively toward Gale, who stumbled back in his seat. “Try any funny business and I will castrate you, Dekarios.”
“Oh of course my-”
A thunderous slap echoed through the small cabin. “ Do not call me that !” Aramiya's voice a growl.
Gale held his cheek in surprise and genuine fear. The man all but wet himself as Halsin stepped up to tower over him too.
“You will address her by her name only.” He said pointedly to the wizard. “And you,” his eyes cast down to the Tressym. “Will be on your best behavior.”
“Yes, yes you brutish bear.” Tara chuffed but she looked at Gale disappointed. “Did you forget her name, you oaf?” When Gale didn't even move to answer, Tara bristled. “You did, didn't you! Her name is Aramiya. Even I respected her enough to know her name.”
That broke Aramiya out of some of her anger as she took a step back into Halsin's embrace. “Thank you, Tara.” Her voice small as if all the fire she had earlier at Gale disappeared at the fact, which she had suspected, came true in front of her eyes. She blinked and rounded on the Wizard again her tone low and even. “What're you waiting for?”
“For you all to stop bloody ganging up on me!” Gale's voice pitched uncomfortably before he cleared his throat. “I understand you are mad but I-”
Halsin moved in front of Aramiya blocking the wizard from her view. His eyes glowed golden as he bore them into the smaller man. His arms crossed over his chest daring the wizard to finish the sentence.
“What I meant to say,” Gale looked cautiously up at Halsin. “I will have to make a portal which could take some time.” When Halsin didn't move, Gale's bit of save-face bravado faltered. “I don't even know where we are? How am I supposed to make a portal?!”
Aramiya and Tara shared a knowing glance. “You don't need to know where you are, just where you are going.” Aramiya spoke up and put a hand on Halsin's bicep. “And to get us back here you would only need to get us to Moonrise Towers. You do remember where that is, I hope?”
Halsin looked at her, she knew his look was questioning but when she raised her eyebrows back he nodded in understanding. She didn't want Gale to be able to return if he couldn't. He noticed the look didn't go unnoticed by Tara.
The tension in the small one-room cabin was palpable when a small giggle came from Camellia catching all the adults off guard. Aramiya looked at her daughter who was wiggling her fingers, cooing, and giggling up at a corner of the room where vines had started to grow and flower little pink and white buds.
“Halsin,” her voice was tight.
At the call of his name, he turned to look at his lover and daughter before the vines caught his eyes. “Oak Father…” he looked back at the young one still wrapped close to her mother. “How is that?” He carefully took Camellia in his arms and raised her up to the the flowers which grew to reach her hand.
Tara noticed it before the rest of them. “She's making them grow to distract you.”
Aramiya looked at Tara confused when the thought crossed her mind. “She didn't like the fighting.”
“ She wasn't the only one…” Oliver's small voice echoed in her head.
Aramiya focused on the small voice that connected with her. “ I'm so sorry, Oliver. He riles me up. I'll try to reign it in for your sake and Camellia's.”
“Gale, before we lose the upper hand. Please?” Aramiya spoke turning her head to the wizard, who looked up at the corner of the room in awe.
“That is one of the things I miss about you, you know. The plants and flowers.” He looked at her with his deep brown eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Halsin looked to Aramiya while Camellia was playing with the flowers she was named after. The look of confusion and conflict was evident on her face. He could tell she wanted to yell and scream and cry, but she let it out in a deep sigh.
“You are not forgiven,” she took another deep breath. “However, I am grateful you apologized. Now, let me get to meet Mystra before anyone else tries to kill me, yeah?”
It took about an hour for Gale to get the portal to Mystra's realm just right. Something Tara chided him for and constantly gave her disappointment at the length of time it took for him to make it. Halsin and Aramiya sat on the bench while he did so, Camellia feeding again.
Halsin whispered so only she could hear. “Did you also hear..?”
“Yes,” Was the reply she gave back to him. “I also told him I would reign it in. Gale brings out the tiefling anger in me.”
“Which, he deserves.”
Aramiya elbowed him in the ribs playfully before resting her head on his shoulder. Next to Halsin sat a small bag of diapering supplies and snacks. Given at how slow Gale was at building portals, it would be well after midnight that they returned home. If, they returned home. She tried not to think about it too much those what-ifs didn’t serve her when she was fighting the Absolute, when she was waiting on Gale, and they wouldn’t serve her now. She needed to be strong for Halsin, for Camellia, but especially for Thaniel and Oliver, who were part of the reason they were in this mess.
Yet she couldn’t blame them. Thousands of years with no one to care for them the way adults do children and then to gain them only to be separated from one for almost 20 years. She understood why they made an agreement. The how was still fuzzy.
“There, all set! Should get us right into Mystra’s living room. Well, sort of.” Gale announced sheepishly.
“Sort of? I remember you being a bit better than this, Gale.” Halsin remarked from where he sat, now starting to stand helping Aramiya up and setting Camellia in the wrap. “Though if Aramiya told me correctly she had to pull you from a portal much like this one when you first met.”
“Yes well, I had a mindflayer tadpole in my skull scrambling what I had left of my brain.” Gale now motioned to the current portal which, to Aramiya’s surprise seemed fairly sound. “Not to mention Netherese Magic corrupting my own.” He added.
Halsin held her hand and motioned for Gale to test his portal first, he was not a foolish man. If it was going to implode, it best be on its own creator. When Gale safely stepped through and reached out his hand, Halsin took it and pulled Aramiya through it. Tara sauntered through without a single feather out of place.
Mystra’s realm was much like Aramiya had seen when Gale had first given her a demonstration of the Weave. Lush purples and dark blues, mixed with night sky and stars. It also reminded Aramiya of their first and only truly passionate night together after Mystra had ordered him to kill himself in order to kill the Netherbrain.
“Ah, Aramiya,” an ethereal voice sounded behind her before a visage of a woman stood before her. “It is nice to finally see you from more than just a distance.”
“Mystra,” she bowed her head. As much as she had cursed the goddess’s name over the last several years and even moreso the past 18 months, she was still in the presence of someone who could in theory kill her with a simple flick of the finger.
“Oh, there is no need for such formalities. At this point, I also owe you an apology.” Cold otherworldly fingers raised her chin. “I should have had Gale tell you from the start, but he was enamored by your beauty and kindness. The fact that he forgot the name of the woman he stole away,” Her gaze a bit like Aramiya’s own recently when it came to the wizard. “Is a transgression I am not planning on taking lightly. Especially, after you helped save him from the original punishment of the Netherese Weave.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the boys came to you?” Aramiya asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Oh child, I truly did want to see you get what you wanted from Gale.” Mystra floated a bit away from Aramiya to look out into the beyond around them. “But someone was a bit jealous.”
It was then that she noticed Tara was cowering by Gale’s feet. “I have a feeling that was a surprise for no one. But Mystra, you could have told me sooner.” Aramiya moved forward, Halsin gripping her hand. “It would have saved so much heartache for both Gale and Halsin. And myself.”
The scent of pine and Earth mixed with the cool incense of myrrh filled the room. “Little One, I don’t think you would have understood as much as you do now.'' The voice that accompanied the scent was a low baritone that Aramiya shivered at and almost lost her knees from under her.
“Oak Father,” Halsin moved forward to hold Aramiya steady but he himself was also a bit shaken.
Her gaze was trained to the floor, or rather what would have been the floor as it wasn't just endless sky beneath them. When she brought it back up she saw a very familiar face staring back at her. The armor he wore looked like it was crafted of Oak leaves with a wooden mallet at his back. A helm of oak branches rested on his hip cradled by his left hand. The voice was older than his appearance, but she recognized him either way.
He reached out his right hand to her, which she took and a memory floated back to her.
She was a young tiefling, around the tender age of five, when a man reached his hand out just like this. Before taking it she had tilted her head to the side, her little horns no more than little pointy stumps. “Come now little one, you do not wish to be lost now, do you?”
Aramiya had looked around the woods she found herself in to be much different than the one she thought she was in. “I must really be lost, my momma was here with me but I haven’t been able to find her.” She hiccuped. Looking to the sky above the stranger, she realized she had been out here for a while. “The sun was really high when momma brought me out here to play…”
The young man kneeled next to her and patted her head. “You are safe in nature, Little One. Come,” he motioned for her to get on his back. “Let us see if we can find your mother.”
Aramiya remembered she and the man had searched for hours before stumbling upon a grove, the full moon high in the sky. Her mother was nowhere to be found. “Those rose vines are beautiful aren’t they, mister?”
“They sure are. Would you like to go inside?” his voice calming to the young child.
A tiny yawn was his reply.
“It was you…” Aramiya felt tears streaming down her face. “You brought me to the Rose Grove.” she backed into Halsin’s chest.
“How could I deny my own child a safe haven?” Silvanius’s tone was calm and casual.
Aramiya’s breathing came in bursts. She continued to open and close her mouth like a fish before a small “What?” escaped her lips.
A baritone laugh was her reply. “You are more than just my child in Nature.”
It took Halsin a minute to catch up. He knew Aramiya was orphaned around the age of five by her mother and she had found the Rose Grove who had taken her in. He knew it was because she was a tiefling, as most children hellborn were discarded after someone in their bloodline had dalliances with the demons of Avernus. “Oak Father, forgive me but are you saying Aramiya is your daughter by blood?”
A table appeared to the side of Silvanus and he placed his helm upon it. Mystra conjured several seats, one of which scooped Aramiya from Halsin's arms so she did not fall. The goddess of the Weave tucked her fingers under her chin. “Oh do not keep them in suspense, Silv. You'll make the poor girl pass out!”
“You knew?!” Aramiya turned to the Goddess of the Weave. Said goddess chuckled behind her hands.
“From the moment you and Gale touched the Weave together.”
Camellia fussed against her bindings. Aramiya brought her daughter out of the wrap and placed her on her knee, her hands tapping the table happily now that she was free. “Oh, she's such a cutie!” The goddess gushed over the child. “Only thing I did right by you, even if it was the wrong way. You are such a pretty flower!”
Camellia giggled and cooed as Mystra distracted the child with magic unicorns racing around the table.
“Mystra is right, we did do this the wrong way and for that I must apologize to the four of you.” Silvanus looked Aramiya, Halsin, Camellia, and even Gale over. “Gale, Mystra should have told you the truth about the relationship. She knew it would have ended in heartache and when she tasked you with ending the Netherbrain with the Netherese orb you had inside you she was hoping it was enough to separate the two of you. However, I should have known a daughter of mine would've had an open heart and a resolve to try and save you.
“Your group finding Halsin was no coincidence. I needed strong warriors to help end the Shadowcurse Shar had brought up on the Western Heartlands around Moonrise. I had communicated with Halsin for years aiding him to be able to find Thaniel. Aramiya,” Silvanus looked at his daughter. “When you were taken from your Grove and infected I did what I could to guide you. Your connection to me was muted from the tadpole. I-”
He reached his arm across the table for her hand. When she took it he spoke again. “I am making excuses for being absent. In that regard, I am no different than the mother that abandoned you in the woods. Making the arrangements I did with Mystra and the young ancients without consulting what you or even Halsin wanted was foolish.”
“If I may interject here, why didn't either of you tell anyone about this?” Gale looked to Mystra. “If you knew about the arrangement, why did you let me keep her trapped in a tower for nearly twenty years to the point I forgot who she was?”
“Gale, there is more than just that.” Mystra ran her hands through Gale's hair before closing his eyes, sending him into an enchanted sleep.
“You've known about Talos then, Mystra?” Halsin finally spoke up.
“Tara noticed that Gale wasn't always on a mission or assignment from me. One of his students who later became a teacher at the Dekarios school is a member of the Lords of the Tempest, a faction of Talossan cultists who seek to undermine not only my power of the Weave but also the Natural order of Silvanus.” Mystra’s countenance showed a spark of worry. “I am afraid they may use Gale against me and if what I saw through Tara's eyes are true, they are after you and Camellia as well.”
“Silvanus,” Halsin spoke up once more looking to his god and father of his lover. “What can I do to protect my child, my heart, and my village? The Western Heartlands are thriving under my watch with the help of Thaniel and Oliver. I know Aramiya and I…” he brushed some hair back from her face behind her ear. “I want to protect them from falling into the Destroyer’s hands.”
“Part of the reason you are here is to confirm Camellia's paternity. I can confirm that she is in fact yours, Halsin.” Silvanus spoke to the Bear Druid directly. “She wasn't conceived in the traditional sense that the rest of your children may be, but she is yours.”
“Mystra, you didn't put Gale into a slumber just to confirm what Halsin and I already feared was happening.” Aramiya looked to the goddess once more. “The ritual that was used to bring Camellia into the world. I'm guessing it wasn't just Elminster that translated it.”
Both gods sighed and Mystra shook her head. “It was the Talossan heretic that did, and he shape-shifted to look like Elminster to Gale. I sent the actual Elminster to do the reciting for the ritual, but the damage the person had done was already in place and had been for years.”
Aramiya eyed the table. “It wasn't Tara that wasn't delivering my letters, was it?”
Mystra shook her head, confirming it. “It was Theo disguised as Gale receiving them.”
“Aramiya,” Tara spoke up. “As much as I thought you were a distraction to Gale's studies, I didn't think of you as poorly as you may think.”
“Mystra, then why did you…?” Aramiya's thoughts trailed off.
“You were not the only one who fell for the charm that is Gale Dekarios. He told me you knew and had discussed it. Given how much you cursed my name in recent months, I assume he told you after you tricked him into coming home before you gave birth.” Mystra held her head in her hands. “As I have said I have much to atone for with you, which is why I intend to help keep you safe.”
Chapter 13
Summary:
Aramiya starts to ask questions and the Talossan appears!
Notes:
I ended up knee deep in some Faerun/Forgotten Realms lore, which is why it's taking me so long between chapters 😂
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The gods and the druids looked back and forth at each other not knowing what to say after so much had been laid bare before them. Aramiya gaining the knowledge that not only was she a demigod but that her daughter was divinely created with the man she loved beside her.
Turning to her father she gave him a look. “If I am a demigod like Aylin, how the hells am I also a tiefling?”
Silvanus took his hand back and scratched the back of his head. “Well,” he sighed. “That's the part I don't know. Your mother was an elf when I met her. Not druid or anything, just a simple traveler. Your possession over fire tells me that she may have made a deal with Zariel but…”
He looked over Aramiya's face unsure before Halsin spoke up. “Does that bother you, my heart?”
Silvanus noticed the gentle nature of the Wood-elf druid tending to his daughter and smiled. He felt Mystra hit his arm. “He called her ‘my heart’, how precious!” She whispered at him.
“It doesn't bother me, it just confuses an already confusing instance. I've learned in the last hour or so that I am a demigod, my former lover is being manipulated by Talossan Wizards, I've always meant to be by your side, and I've become the adoptive parent to two little nature spirits.” Aramiya laughed. “That's a lot for anyone to take in.”
She handed Camellia to Halsin to hold while she stood to pace. Being around this much of the Weave made her anxious. Her bare feet made gentle patting sounds as if she was on a stone floor as she paced the length of the table. “Do we know how much this Theo, the Talossan Wizard, actually knows?”
Mystra shook her head no.
Aramiya sighed again. “Is there a way to probe Gale to see how much he might have revealed to him?”
As she said that Gale started to stir from the charmed sleep Mystra had put him under and a dark aura arose around behind him. A portal crackled to life behind Gale and out stepped a tiefling wizard with curved horns behind his head.
Halsin rapidly stood and grabbed Aramiya while cradling Camellia to his chest and his back to the Wizard, shielding them.
“Go to him.”
Aramiya heard the boys tandem speak through the ether. She focused on them and it felt as if time froze.
Enid screeched at her side and bristled at the aura. Looking beyond Halsin, Aramiya could see the dark tendrils that crawled up Gale's skin signaling a charm was breached. Tara was beside her and hissed loudly.
“Go to him mom, stop the destruction!” Thaniel's voice in her head.
Aramiya heard a creaking in her mind as she saw the realm start to crack around them. She looked once more at Halsin, who was frozen in time.
“Take care of Papa and Camma for a bit?”
Oliver appeared before her. “Together, Momma!”
She took his hand and then rushed forward to the Talossan Wizard. Oliver's magic bolstering her own as they turned from corporal beings to spirit grabbing the wizard and pushing the three of them through the portal and out of Mystra's realm.
Halsin had grabbed Aramiya as the portal behind Gale started to open. Camellia started to cry and scream and within a second he realized he was no longer holding Aramiya’s arm but holding air. Next to him Tara was bristled up and hissing. Halsin's heart sank. Had he not grabbed her in time? Calming himself, as his daughter was in his arms, he took deep breaths. The scent of lavender caught his attention.
Thaniel tugged at Halsin's shirt pulling his attention down. “Papa?”
Halsin could barely hold himself together, tears streamed down the corners of his eyes as his heart disappeared with the lavender tiefling woman. “Thaniel,” he tried to keep the edge from his voice. “Where is Aramiya?”
“The Talossan was going to plunge Mystra's realm into chaos. Momma and Oliver took him away to save us.” Thaniel heard Halsin's teeth clench. The small boy reached as high as he could to touch the druid who was his friend, his father, and his protector. “Momma will be safe as long as Oliver is with her. Enid is with her too.”
“Can you take Camma for a moment, Thaniel?” Halsin's voice strained to remain calm. He felt the small boy take the child and he rounded on Mystra and Silvanus, golden flashes barely keeping him in his bornform.
“Halsin!” Silvanus’s voice echoed his own rage. He knew the druid well enough to know that his beast was thinking that Mystra had something to do with what had happened. Turning to the Goddess of the Weave, Silvanus gave her a look that demanded answers.
She held up her hands in surrender. “I swear I didn't know!” They watched as she bowed her head to the floor. “Ao strike me down, I did not know.”
“How'd that snake even get here!” Tara hissed out.
Gale sat stunned. He knew where he was and how he had gotten there, but something behind his eyes told Mystra that something snapped inside his head. “Gale, do you know how Theo found us here?”
“Who?” Was Gale's reply. His normally sharp brown eyes looked dull to Mystra, his expression was a bit child like.
“I think he was Enslaved…” Mystra whispered out.
The four of them looked at each other before Halsin dropped to his hands and knees. Silvanus half expected him to turn into a bear and start tearing the room apart. He was shaken when the druid shuttered, but no sound escaped him, no cries or rage or heartbreak.
When Thaniel looked at Silvanus he could see the emotion Halsin was feeling on the boy's face. Carefully, he came to the side of the druid, kneeled, and put his hand on Halsin's shoulder. It had happened in seconds that she was torn away from all of them.
“How can we find her?” Halsin asked.
Aramiya and Oliver held the Talossan Wizard between them as they soared through the ether. The two focused as hard as they could to get somewhere safe and figure out what this person wanted. When they landed in a thicket of thorns, Aramiya cast barkskin on herself and Oliver to keep them from getting too badly hurt.
Somehow the wizard got separated from them. Transforming into mice to escape the thicket, they found their way to a similar landscape. The grass was black and dying, trees were twisted and contorted into unseemly shapes. Around them there was a thick and overwhelmingly cold mist. They had been here before. Transforming back, Aramiya held Oliver close to her. Crouching down next to him they shared a glance.
They were in the Shadowfell, realm of Shar, or something like it. Aramiya put a finger to her lips signaling the need to be quiet, which Oliver mimicked showing he understood. This time there were no Shades or Wraiths to try and steal them away. Cautiously, they made their way around the large thicket of thorns looking for Theo. She has barely had time to glance at him before racing at him and plummeting them into the ether.
She knew if they were in Shar’s realm that there wouldn't be an easy way out. She had made herself an enemy of the goddess by releasing the Nightsong, helping convert a cleric of Shadows to Selune, but also by releasing Thaniel and the Shadowcurse that had been on the Heartlands for just over one hundred years. Now Shar had her and a slice of Thaniel. If Talos was teaming up with Shar she was in deep shit.
Aramiya checked the thicket over as they circled around it. But saw no horns nor tail of the other tiefling. Before they made a second rotation she was grabbed from behind a knife to her throat. She froze but relaxed into the grab to show she wasn’t afraid, she had been expecting it. Oliver radiated thorns around him angry someone had threatened her.
“Theo, I presume?” Her voice was quiet but spoken evenly.
“I see they finally caught onto me. Took them long enough.” his voice was gruff and pitched a bit high, almost whiny.
“Can we speak like adults or are you still a youngling?” Aramiya chastised him. The knife was removed and he passed her on her leftside to move in front of her. She carefully moved Oliver behind her. “Now, we can speak like civilzed people. What is it you want with me?”
“Well, well the daughter of Silvanus learns of her paternity and doesn’t know why someone like Talos would want her? Tsk,” Theo shook his head head his curved horns shaped around his ears. “But I’ve heard trapping demigods tends to have some rather interesting effects.”
“I’ve seen some of those effects myself. But I’m not sure I would have the desired ones you or anyone would be looking for.” Aramiya tilted her head. She wasn’t sure if this tactic was going to work, but she had to try something to get the information out of him.
“Unless, the desired effect is to be the concubine of the Destroyer.” Theo’s smile widened to a wicked grin.
“Concubine?” Aramiya couldn’t keep the disgust from her voice. She felt Oliver's grip on her leather pants tighten. They needed to figure out a way out of here. “And why would a God of Destruction want a concubine, and a half god at that?”
“Half god or not you are still powerful. Child by god ritual, I’m pretty sure that bumbling oaf Gale recited it the way I told him to so your little daughter is the first child of Talos.” His hand on his hip gave away that he was certain that the outcome went that way.
“Ah, so that’s it. You talked Gale into taking my request for a child and manipulated him into using the insemination ritual making him think I would have Astarion’s child but you altered the spell to have it be Talos’s child.” She smiled. “Seems like a smart idea. But how do you know my daughter is Talos’s child?”
That phrase gave him pause. She watched as all the screws in his head ground to a halt. There was a possibility of doubt that he hadn’t accounted for. “That show in the cabin…”
Aramiya raised an eyebrow. She noticed his gaze was farther away and she slowly started to back away. Oliver got the hint and started to move with her.
“Not so fast, Oak Daughter.” So he had noticed. “Gale should have read it as I told him to, unless Mystra did something to alter the course of it. I’ll admit killing that other tiefling wasn’t part of the plan, but not knowing what you looked like other than ‘beautiful purple skin and a tall slender body’. Well it is cause for a few mistakes.”
“Ah, so that is why you didn’t know my name. Gale never mentioned it, or what I looked like. And from reading my letters you only had a general idea of who I was.” Aramiya tilted her head and laughed. “You have no idea what you are dealing with, do you?”
Theo’s face contorted again into a miserable facade. Behind him lightening flashed and thunder roared. “And neither do you.”
Notes:
I appreciate all of you who consistently join me in this fanatical story! I promise once the plot stops they'll be a few more romance scenes between our favorite druids ❤️
Chapter 14
Summary:
Halsin turned to the gods in the room. “I’m guessing interfering too much will draw Ao’s anger, but any help you can offer me would be a blessing.”
Mystra opened a small portal and in walked Karlach, Astarion, and Shadowheart. “They are a ragtag bunch, but I’m sure they would be happy to assist given the turn of events.”
Notes:
Sorry for the delay folks, my brain has been focused on my corporate job (which is draining the life from my eyes), and like many fic authors, my brain has wandered a bit to other story ideas LMAO. Goal is to finish this piece first and then let those other rosebushes grow!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Halsin’s teeth ached with the amount of strain he was putting on them. All he wanted was to live a peaceful life in the village, in nature, with Aramiya, Camellia, and any future bairn. Now not only did he have to find her, but he also had to get her out of wherever she was. He looked to Silvanus, who was meditating trying to find out where she and Oliver were. Mystra was flicking in and out of a corporeal form while pacing around worried. Gale sat dumbfounded at the table.
It was interesting to see gods have such human emotions. They were genuinely as worried as he was. He was sure Talos had a reason for wanting her, alive or dead. As he held Camellia he wondered…
“Mystra, who’s idea was it to use the insemination spell?” Halsin finally spoke.
He watched as the goddess’s brows furrowed together. “Gale’s originally. Why?”
Halsin swore he heard an audible click inside his head as the information came into place. “Talos thinks Camellia is his .” He looked to Thaniel who looked at his feet, the large toes touching. “Thaniel, did you realize this?”
“Oliver and I figured it out together when Tara mentioned Talos and Momma had mentioned the ceremony.” He looked to Halsin, his forest eyes clouded. “When we realized that Gale wasn’t acting like Gale we tried to warn you, but you had already left for here.”
Mystra put her hand, now incorporeal again, on Thaniel’s shoulder. “Theo must have suggested it and told Gale an incorrect incantation, which he didn’t do because I asked Elminster to do it instead. I told Gale it would be too hard to control while engaged in the activity.” a smile crept across Mystra’s face. “He doesn’t know the child isn’t Talos’s, he assumed everything went according to plan because she got pregnant.”
“Do we know where he could have taken her, or where they could have ended up?” a renewed hope crossed Halsin’s heart. Let something be easy for them.
“She is in a version of the Shadowfell.” Silvanus’s voice came from where he was seated.
“The one in Oliver’s memory.” Thaniel added.
“Thaniel,” the boy looked at Halsin and nodded. “Will you take your sister from me and stay with Silvanus and Mystra? Until I or your mother return?”
“She told me to take care of you…” the child’s voice was small.
“I had a feeling she did, but if I have any chance of saving her I need to take it like I did for you.” Halsin thought back to the moment she helped him break down his cage in the goblin camp. “Like she did for me.”
Halsin turned to the gods in the room. “I’m guessing interfering too much will draw Ao’s anger, but any help you can offer me would be a blessing.”
Mystra opened a small portal and in walked Karlach, Astarion, and Shadowheart. “They are a ragtag bunch, but I’m sure they would be happy to assist given the turn of events.”
“Who are you calling ragtag? I’ll have you know that I only wear the finest now that I can enjoy it again.” Astarion’s aloof voice rang through the room. “I’m guessing our former fearless leader got herself in a bit of a bind, not unlike last time?”
Shadowheart, her hair still that light moonlight, came over to Halsin and gave a weary smile. “Mystra had reached out to us asking if we could help protect you from something Gale unleashed. I never could have imagined it would take her from you.”
“Let’s fucking go get my best friend back and make that fucker Talos pay.” Karlach was bouncing on her toes eager to smash anything that got in her way. On seeing young Thaniel, her heart dropped a bit, regretting her choice of words. “Well, its not like you hadn’t heard me curse before little guy.”
Thaniel giggled and reached out to Halsin for Camellia. “Go, find Momma. We will be safe here with Silvanus and Mystra. Ao will not let someone who tilts the scales of balance in.”
Shadowheart looked at the babe and the young spirit and placed a hand on both their heads whispering a blessing of Selune over them. She placed a gentle hand on Halsin’s forearm before she moved back to the portal Mystra had created.
“Remember, to make a portal you only need to know where you are going.” Thaniel shouted out to Halsin, who smiled weakly before walking into the portal with the rest.
The group arrived into the makeshift Shadowfell of Oliver’s memory. The landscape looked much the same but the bitter darkness and cold wasn’t as prominent as it was in the actual Shadowfell. “This brings some unwanted memories back.” Shadowheart whispered.
“I hated being in this place originally, it was so cold and I could hear my parents voices calling to me.” Karlach noted.
“So, you big old bear. Care to tell us what in the blazes happened?” Astarion, as usual had no pretext.
“Aramiya and I had a child, that part is a longer story. She is also the daughter of Silvanus and apparently wanted by Talos.” Halsin gave as cliffnotes a version as he could.
“I’m guessing that the longer story part is part of why Talos wants her. I’m guessing he thinks the child is his?” Astarion paused walking next to Karlach. “Who the hells is Talos?”
“You Balurian’s really don’t have many gods do you?” Shadowheart shoulder checked him as she passed. “He is the god of Destruction, sometimes also known as the Stormbringiner.”
“So if Aramiya is a child of Silvanus…” Karlach was still piecing some of it together. “Does that mean she is an aasimar like Aylin?”
“Of sorts,” Halsin continued walking trying to pick up a scent of her or Oliver. “Silvanus was trying to explain some of that when shit went south.” He heard a soft damn comeout of the tiefling’s mouth.
“Where does Gale fit into all this?” Astarion had finally caught up. “Mystra mentioned something about Gale, but never said what it was about. I figured Aramiya stayed with him the last 20 years or so.” the vampire ascendent sighed. “Though she did always make eyes at you so I can’t say I am surprised he left him.”
A soft growl came from Halsin. “Please, just let me think.” The usually calm druid was struggling to keep his composure. He was grateful for the help, he knew they were capable fighters, but he had forgotten about all the noise they made.
Karlach matched his stride. “Halsin, why don’t we get our bearings and you can meditate for a minute like you used to do to connect with Thaniel, eh?” she gave him her lopsided grin. “I’ll try to keep myself and the peanut gallery quiet.”
“I’m surprised you remembered that Karlach. You had so much happening at the time I wouldn’t have expected that.”
That lopsided smile of hers crept across her face more. “Well, when you think you are going to die and only have a handful of people you trust, you learn to take in even the smallest detail.” She gave him a hard slap to the back and pulled the other two behind them into a huddle.
Halsin leaned against a dying tree and focused on the little boy whose memory he was in.
“ Papa? What’re you doing here?” Oliver’s voice echoed in his head panicked.
“ I am going to get you both out of here, where are you?” Halsin sighed in relief at being able to find him so quickly.
“ We are by a thicket of thorns, a large one, and there is a thunderstorm coming our way.” Oliver paused. “ The Theo guy said Talos wants her for a cocu-bud? I don’t know the word he said but he thinks Camma is Talos’s.”
“Oliver, do you think you could grow some lavender as a trail if he makes you leave where you are?”
“I think so, I’d have to be careful though. He’s not as dumb as he looks.”
Halsin could hear the anger in the boy’s thoughts. “I have some old friends with us, stay with your momma as long as you can.” A small smile played on Halsin’s lips. “ Papa’s coming.”
“Did Mystra say anything else? And why did Gale look dumber than he normally does sitting in that chair?” Astarion’s voice carried even in a whisper.
“I don’t know, but he looked almost catatonic. Whatever that Talossan did, did a number on him.” Shadowheart replied.
Returning to the group Halsin settled a large hand on Karlach’s shoulder. “Oliver is here and I have a vague idea of where they are. He said a large thicket of thorns and a thunderstorm is headed their way.”
“Like that storm over there?” Astarion pointed to the west where a storm was blowing southbound.
“Let’s go kick some ass!” Karlach swirled her great axe in her hands.
Aramiya motioned for Oliver to continue to stay behind her about an arms length away, just enough where he held her fingers with his hand. Out of the corner of his eye Oliver spotted Karlach’s horn and grew a lavender bush quickly to alert the group to stop before coming any closer. Oliver listened for the sound of footsteps over the rain but it got too hard to hear over the thunder.
Catching the smell of lavender settled her. It was a distinct smell that Oliver and Thaniel used. Either Halsin made it with Thaniel or Oliver knew something she didn't. Either way it helped square Aramiya's shoulders and look at the traitorous student. “Then enlighten me, Theo. What kind of elemental magic does the Storm Bringer offer his wizards?”
Theo raised his arms to the sky and stretched his fingers wide. A loud crack of thunder as the rain opened up around them soaking them in minutes. Aramiya saw the clouds flash with controlled lightning. It flashed and flickered menacingly but nothing hit the ground.
So that's where you are Talos. She kept her gaze forward on Theo watching his mouth and hands for spell components.
“He grants us the full force of any element we wish.” Theo’s bravado brightened the sky as he said it.
“What did he offer you, in exchange for me?”
His smile twisted and opened wide until all his teeth were showing. “He offered absolute power as his Chosen.”
“I see.” She laughed. “I was with a Chosen of a god for a long time. The benefits suck and he will toss you aside the moment he finds a new shiny toy to play with and manipulate. I’ve watched Mystra do it to Gale for years, and he at least got to fuck her.” Aramiya goaded him.
She saw a flash of lightning strike the thicket next to them; grabbing Oliver she ran towards the lavender. She had run out of time to stall. Aramiya heard Theo start to say the word “Perurē”, but before the word could leave his mouth she had already Entangled him and the vines reached his mouth. She knew they wouldn't hold him, but she needed to stop the lightning before it reached them.
Her plan was to blind him with anger and run as far as she could through this Shadow. When she rounded the corner she slammed face-first into Halsin's chest.
He wrapped his arms around her tightly but felt her body stiffen. “How'd you know?” his voice calm.
She visibly relaxed once she realized who held her. “The plan was to just run. Now please tell me it's more than just us?” Aramiya looked over her shoulder panicked, waiting for Theo or his attack to appear.
“Long time to see, soldier!” Karlach's goofy grin and carefree demeanor always lightened the mood.
“Karlach!” Aramiya was relieved to see her friend.
“Hello, Darling.” Astarion came up on the other side of Halsin before another silver head joined him.
“Astarion, Shadowheart!” Her eyes teared up but she blinked them away. “Now before we get our asses kicked by a god of destruction, thank you!” Aramiya laughed nervously. “My heart, I don't know how the hells you got here but I am glad. Camma?”
“With your father and Thaniel.” Halsin watched her shoulders visibly relax. Carefully she put Oliver down, who hugged Halsin’s legs tightly. “Thank you for your instructions, Oliver, they really helped. Now I know you are afraid of thunderstorms but this is your memory of the Shadow Curse lands.”
Kneeling, Aramiya spoke to the young boy. “Oliver, can you play hide and seek with us for a while? Papa will whistle when it's safe to come out.” She hugged the boy hard once she got him to nod. “Remember, don't come out until you hear the whistle.” She and the others watched as he disappeared quickly into a different thicket of thorns.
“Let's get this over with already.” The vampire's dry voice caused a chuckle among them.
Before they could round the corner again another crack of lightning hit another group of dead shrubs nearby. Aramiya turned her focus to the cloud above the original thicket, which was now a ball of flames. She spoke with her back to them.
“Karlach, he's easy to goad into anger so if you're gonna trash talk him, be prepared for lightning. Astarion, I would recommend keeping to the shadows and do what you do best.” She smiled over her shoulder. “Shadowheart-”
“I know, heal from the side when I can and stay range.” The cleric smiled back.
“A Sanctuary spell here or there won't go amiss.” Aramiya winked at the Cleric. “Halsin,”
He nodded and came to stand behind her, a hand on the small of her back.
“I'm going to try and get Talos out of that cloud. Can you handle Theo?” She watched as her lover knitted his eyebrows and gave her a stern look.
“We are not separating again. I am not losing you again.” Halsin's voice was hardened but gentle. His fingers gripped her hip possessively. “We do this together.”
Aramiya nodded and she knew couldn't argue with him at the moment. She turned to her crew, who she missed terribly over the last 15 years. “Be safe.” Her voice was deeper than the last time she said that to them at the precipice of the Netherbrain fight.
“Wouldn't dream of it, darling. Spoils the fun.” Astarion’s fangs glinted in a flash of lightning.
Aramiya watched as the silver-haired companions found reasonably hidden spots, Karlach remained at her side with Halsin.
The red tiefling put a hand on Aramiya's shoulder while keeping her gaze forward towards the cloud. “Halsin,” Karlach's normally chipper voice gravelly when addressing the Wood-elf. “Talos is an enemy to us all, but if I know our Lavender Love here,” a gentle squeeze to Aramiya's shoulder. “She needs to protect her cub and her lover with the strength she has. Don't stop her, help her.”
Halsin growled at the thought and gripped Aramiya’s hip tighter. But Karlach settled him with a look of her own. “I know that feeling there, Papa Bear, but don’t make her fight with a hand tied behind her back. Let her make the decisions in battle like she always has.” The grip she had on Aramiya’s shoulder tightened again. “She hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”
Aramiya placed her hand over Karlach’s and squeezed her fingers. Nodding to Karlach as she speaks, “Halsin, if the recent events have taught me nothing else it is that we will always find each other.” Aramiaya takes his hands in hers. “I know.”
Halsin rubs worried circles into the tops of her hands before moving one of them to her face. They stand like that for a few moments before the gravity of Theo’s blasts start to encroach on them. “Be careful, Aramiya.” His hand brushes large droplets of rain from her cheek.
“Always.” She reaches up on tiptoes and kisses him before he lets her hand go and she marches into battle with Karlach at her heels.
Notes:
The battle we didn't know we needed is in the next chapter! this one might take a bit longer than expected because... well its my first battle sequence. So please be kind, rewind, tip your waitress, and tell me your theories!
Chapter 15
Summary:
A conversation and what happens now?
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Aramiya hurled a wall of fire around Theo to slow him down, but the rain weakened the flames to mere flickers. Her spells weren’t as strong as they once were, but if the rain from Talos’s cloud was able to put out magical fire completely, she needed a different tactic. Astarion sent crossbow bolts around Theo and Aramiya realized it was on purpose. Taking a step back from Karlach she called down a chain of lightning hitting the closest bolt around Theo and making it jump in a cage around him.
Astarion’s last bolt hit its mark in Theo’s shoulder and the charge bounced to it next, sending a shock to the Talossan wizard and making him drop his concentration on his own lightning spell. Halsin roared into his Cavebear form and ran at Theo with a fury Aramiya hadn’t seen since the fight with Myrkel’s chosen. Spotting her chance she ran and signaled Karlach to give her a boost. Transforming into an Owlbear midjump into the giant cloud was an impulsive decision, but she prayed it would work in her favor. She knew the four of them could take care of Theo, her focus was now on finding out why Talos wanted her.
The cloud was thicker than she expected and when she landed it was on a solid floor. Turning she heard slow clapping. Shrieking, her feathers bristling and standing on edge she turned towards Talos. “Well done, my love. You’ve found me at last.”
Why does everyone insist on calling me that?
She clicked her beak at him.
“Your little lover Gale was the easiest to manipulate, you know.” Talos comes into the light closest to her and for the first time she sees him. He is about the same stature as Halsin, his face is scarred and one of his eyes is covered with an eye patch that crackles and spits with lightning. The beard that covers most of his face is a salt and pepper mix of gray and black. On each wrist a leather arm guard with symbols carved into them, the magic symbols for lightning and thunder. “And poor Mystra fell right into my trap too. With you and her fooled it was so easy to get you here.”
Talos clapped his hands once and lightning chains found their way around each of Aramiya’s limbs causing her to screech in her owlbear form until it became too much and she returned to her bornform. She panted and huffed, but even when the shocking charges returned she didn’t make a sound.
Coming closer Talos reached her and picked her up by her hair. “I thought you were much stronger than this Daughter of Silvanus.”
Aramiya avoided his gaze until the last moment. “Oh I am Talos, I am just curious as to why you want me.”
“I want a bride and if I can’t trick a goddess into marrying me, an aasimar of a powerful god will work just as well.” Lifting Aramiya up to his full height by her hair caused the chains around her limbs to fall off. “And you are such a curious thing. I wonder what our daughter looks like.”
Mere inches from Talos’s face, Aramiya bursts out laughing. “Our daughter? Do you mean my daughter?” Watching Talos’s face contort into confusion and rage made her laugh even harder. “My daughter,” she punctuated for the God of Storms. “Is not yours. Gale said the incantations wrong during the act. She is as mortal as I am.”
Talos gripped the back of her head tighter causing white stars behind her eyes. “Lying bitch!” He tossed her to the ground like a ragdoll but she continued to laugh.
“Does the Mighty Talos not like being lied to?” Aramiya stood, her mouth in the form of a pout. “Tsk, well Theo could only translate so much of that spell and Gale, as you so astutely pointed out, isn’t that smart. Did you and Theo really think he could do it on his own?” The storm that was held behind the eyepatch was barely contained as she goaded him further. “Sorry to disappoint the Lord of Storms, but she is not yours and I will never be your concubine.”
“You jumped into this cloud of your own will, do you think I'd so easily let you out?” Talos’s own laughter reverberated off the walls.
Aramiya stood and wiped the blood that had pooled in the corner of her mouth. “Of course not.” Her legs were weakened under her but she stood to her full height. “But why would a god want a tainted aasimar when he could convince a goddess like Shar?” She watched as his eyebrow twitched. “Did she and Mystra turn you down?”
Talos eyed her warily but his eyebrow continued to twitch. Aramiya moved toward him as the bonds he put on her earlier disappeared when he lifted her. The electricity in the air raised the hair on the back of her neck but she moved slowly closer to him.
“How did you end up a tiefling, Oak Daughter?”
The question caught her off guard and she stopped in her tracks. “Well, I was in the middle of finding that out when Theo interrupted the little family reunion.” She put her hands on her hips. “He seems like a needy little fucker and impatient as all hells. But Silvanus seems to think my mortal mother had a deal with Zariel at some point hence the horns.
“I have a question for you, Stormbringer. Why choose the daughter of a god of creation when you want to see everything destroyed?” Aramiya leveled her gaze at him. “What is your desire to destroy the realms and what is in it for you once there is no one to worship you?”
That same storm behind his eye flickered and spit out lightning but Talos stayed silent. It was a similar question she remembered posing the Avatar of Myrkul, Kethric Thorm. He had evoked Shar to get his wife back and to turn his back on Selune. Then when his daughter died he turned to Myrkul to bring her back. His reason was for love and grief. The Avatar of Bane was just power hungry. The Chosen of Bhaal was a psychopath. The Chosen of Shar forget their true reasonings instead defaulting to her lies. Aramiya begins to pace closer to him while he is distracted.
“Not so fast, Oak Daughter.” His gaze never leaving the floor. “I could ask you the same of why you helped the Vampire Ascendent.”
“Astarion,” she clarified, “was and is a good friend. The choice was his to make in regards to those souls, not mine. The man deserved happiness again, deserved the sun again.” She looks over Talos’s body language. “Is that all you are seeking too?”
The gaze he turned to her was conflicted. “No.”
A lie, but for whose benefit?
“Then you are just seeking revenge on my father, disturbing the balance of Nature. Do you think by taking me from him he would go against Ao? That Mystra would because you irrevocably damaged her Chosen?” Aramiya looked at him, his tics and tells coming through how Kethric’s did, how Bhaal’s did. “You do, don’t you? So you can take their realms. I’m sorry to say that my life is not worth much to them.”
Talos crossed his arms over his chest. “You truly think that, Oak Daughter?”
“I’ve fought many gods, Talos. The Dead Three, Shar, even Mystra herself at times. Even if my life meant something in godhood, I doubt Ao would have let me live, disturbing the balance the way I had.” Aramiya met his eyes with her gaze. “Even with the small blessing I was given, I am of no consequence to the gods.”
Notes:
Little shorter this time as I am struggling with battle scenes. Next chapter might come after labor day week.
Thank you to all of you who continue to read this! Hopefully the AO3 writers curse wears off soon 💚🍁
Chapter 16: Chapter 16
Summary:
Gale enters the fray.
Notes:
Writer's curse hit me very hard on this and I am so sorry. My goal is to finish this before its 1year anniversary. We shall see lol
Chapter Text
Mystra ran a hand through Gale’s hair “Come back for us, won’t you?” Tara was seated on his lap kneading with full claws against his thighs to see if he would awaken.
“I don’t think there is any use, my lady.” Tara said, her feline eyes looking at the Goddess of Magic.
“He’s in there, I can feel him. He’s lost, more than when he had the Netherese Orb in his chest.” Mystra stood and paced the length of the room. “There must be some way…”
Silvanus watched the Goddess pace back and forth. “Thaniel,” he looked at the young spirit. “May I see my granddaughter for a moment?”
Thaniel handed over Camilla to Silvanus and watched as the Father of Nature pulsed bright green magic into his granddaughter. Camilla cooed and giggled, grabbing his finger. Silvanus studied his granddaughter for a moment. She was half his daughter and half her father but there was something more. He hummed while he analyzed her. Silvanus looked between the broken wizard and his granddaughter. Bringing Camilla to Gale, he carefully placed the babe in Gale’s arms relatively close to the wizard’s face.
Camilla grabbed a fistful of Gale’s hair pulling the wizard’s neck down in a jerking motion so she was within reach of his face.
Tara bristled and shook her wings. “Silvanus, what in the world?”
As Camilla touched Gale’s left cheek, a bright blue aura surrounded her hand and was absorbed into his skin. When he didn’t rouse right away Camilla began to fuss and cry, wiggling around in Gale’s lap. The wizard’s arms were securely around her not letting her go. The little one eventually seated herself around and was able to put both hands on his cheeks and pulsed more of that blue aura into him.
Mystra came around the side to Silvanus and curiously watched. “What is..? Oh!”
Gale’s brown eyes finally focused, the haze of the nullification now gone, and then they turned panicked. Before he could move much more, Camilla pulled on his hair and giggled. “Who are you?” He looked around at the Elysium room. “Where am I?”
“Gale?” Mystra came to his side kneeling next to the chair he was seated in.
“Mystra, what? What in Elminster’s eyebrows is happening?”
“Calm yourself, Gale of Waterdeep, you are safe- for now.” Silvanus spoke before attempting to take his granddaughter back.
Camilla refused by wailing and nestling into Gale’s robes.
“Who’s child is this? And why does she like me?” Gale paused and took a closer look at Camilla. Her light purple skin, her reddish brown hair, and her hazel green eyes. “She looks like Aramiya…”
“Where the hells did she go?” Astarion came up on the side of Karlach in mist form.
“Dunno, mate but wherever she is it's in that cloud.” Karlach's engine burned off the rain as she got fired up and regripped her axe. “We need to get her out of there and handle him at the same time.”
“You need Halsin here to keep Theo occupied. I'll see if I can snatch Aramiya from it.” Astarion turned back into a fine red mist and approached the cloud. Flying up and around to the cloud he tried to get close enough to morph through. The second his mistform hit the cloud a shock ravaged through Astarion's body knocking the Ascendant from his form sending him plummeting to the earth. Just before he was to land ungraciously in a tree Astarion switched to his bat form and flew back over to Karlach.
“I don't think there is any way through that cloud.”
“Shit.” Karlach watched as the battle between the Cavebear and the Talossan wizard played out. “We might have to have him do it, Druid magic might be strong enough.”
“I may have something that could help get him away from the idiot wizard. It’ll take me a moment or two though.”
“As much as I hated your decision Astarion, you could always get us out of a rough patch.” Karlach smiled at him before rejoining Halsin.
Irritated, Astarion flapped his arms up and down in a tantrum. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The girl in your arms is Camilla, Aramiya’s daughter.” Mystra placed her hand on Gale’s knee before taking a seat next to him.
“I don’t like the way you said that.” A coo caught Gale’s attention and he looked at the babe in his arms. “Is she mine?” He watched as the gods looked at each other sharing a knowing look.
Silvanus gave him a gentle smile. “Almost, your magic helped create her.”
“How do you mean almost?” Gale propped the girl on his lap facing him while she played with the tassels on his robe. The girl looked so much like his wife.
Tara hopped on the table and squared her shoulders and wings before settling in front of him. “What is the last thing you remember, Mr Dekarios?”
Gale looked at the Tressym confused. “Surely, this is a misunderstanding. There’s no way I could have…?” His eyes went wide with a small realization of his memory having pieces altered as he attempted to recall any. “How long, Tara?”
“Ten years.”
“TEN YEARS?!” Camilla started to cry at his sudden outburst and he began to bounce her on his knee to settle her. “You mean to tell me, that…” Gale’s eyes moved around in their sockets while he tried to remember and piece things together. “So for the last ten years my memories have been altered or erased? That I’ve been controlled?” He rubbed Camilla’s back, as if being a father was second nature. “I remember thinking she and Astarion… But it was just a nightmare. I remember her asking me for a child. I bought her clothes and flowers. I remember she got cold and distant so I had started focusing on the students more…
“The memories feel like they are far away.” Gale stood and handed Camilla back to Silvanus. “Where is she? I have to talk to her, I have to see her!”
Mystra held Gale down now by his shoulders. “My dear, it won’t do you any good to go in blind.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Mystra and Silvanus shared as much as they knew. Mystra filling in the parts about how Gale’s relationship with Aramiya soured, how she couldn’t believe she had been deceived and didn’t notice. Running his hands down his face and sighing, Gale wondered how an archmage like himself, like Elminster, hadn't realized it. What kind of magic was it that could cause this? As much as Gale wanted to explore those possibilities he only wanted to do one thing.
Standing Gale started to open a portal, purple weave creating a crackling circle that spread out as large as it needed to fit his form. “If nothing else, I need to find her. I have to make this right somehow.”
“Wait!” Thaniel called out, finally speaking up. “You won’t be able to get where you need to be. You don’t know where she is!”
“Tell me then.” Gale looked at the young spirit, worry in his eyes. Thaniel held his hand out for Gale to take. Nodding, he took Thaniel’s hand and was force-shared what Gale assumed was a memory of the Shadowcursed Lands. He watched as Aramiya kissed Halsin and then turned to speak to his small form. Then his vision changed to a view from inside a thicket of thorns watching Aramiya’s Owlbear form jump into a cloud that seemed to swallow her whole before crackling with lightning. As Thaniel pulled him back out of the vision Gale knew part of why he showed him it. “Thank you, Thaniel.”
He tried to hide the hurt in his voice at seeing Aramiya kiss Halsin. As he was about to step through the portal Silvanus put a hand on his shoulder. “She does still love you, but I don’t even think that love will fix what Theo broke.” Gale looked at Silvanus, who’s form began to shift to that of an old man. “It wasn’t your fault, Gale.” And with that, Gale walked through the portal and into the portal to the Shadow.
Chapter 17: Chapter 17
Summary:
The Oakdaughter emerges.
Notes:
Happy 1-year anniversary to this fic (I know I'm 2 months late LOL)
I want to apologize for the delay in this. Here is chapter 17!
Trigger warning: Graphic depiction of violence. Like Orin level- ya'll've been warned.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It took Gale a moment to orient himself. The area around him didn’t look like the Shadowcursed memory Thaniel had shown him. Instead he appeared to be in a fluffy cloud. There were bends in the structure which he followed. As he rounded a corner, he heard Aramiya’s and another voice. Walking with purpose, he made it into what appeared to be a throne room within the cloud. “Even with the small blessing I was given, I am of no consequence to the gods.” Gale knew that tone in her voice.
She was doubting herself again, the way she always did when she felt like she wasn’t enough. He made her feel like that once, maybe more given all that had happened. Aramiya had trusted him with her very life, had become his wife, and her small insistence that she wanted to get away scared him. With that fear he lashed out and said things he never meant. He thought most of it was just a normal couple fighting and that it would pass. Gale didn’t understand what it was over or why now, it was so long ago. He watched as Aramiya and who he assumed was Talos circled one another.
“Why do you think Silvanus left you with that grove? Hid you away in one that was more hermit than the others. He knows your power Oak Daughter, it is why that small nature spirit clings to you. Why you were able to defeat so many gods.” Talos taunted her. “Did you really think your life so little? Even your weakened Archmage knew how important you were. Why he locked you away- or tried to.” The hair on the back of Gale’s neck bristled at that. He hadn’t meant to keep her hostage in that tower. She had encouraged him to live again, to be the teacher someone needed at the expense of herself.
Taking a deep breath, Gale ran a hand over his mouth and beard before walking into the room in view of Aramiya. As soon as her green eyes met his brown ones they widened in surprise, but her face kept its composure. A smile that was both flirtatious and creepy spread across Talos’s face. “I would never keep you locked away. We’d rule over everything together-- in time.”
“He didn’t try to keep me locked away, I chose to stay. I could have left at any time, but I loved my husband. Even the version Theo ended up making him.” She kept her gaze toward Gale, ignoring Talos’s disgusting attempt at flirting. “I stayed by his side because of that love. Even as he had returned to Mystra as her lover. It didn’t matter what I did, nothing I did could bring him back to me after that. Not even the prospect of a child. Theo’s mind games kept him locked from me. Jealousy was the only motivator that returned him to me.” Aramiya let out a hollow chuckle. “Envy for a friend he knew had never looked at me that way even in his weakest moments. So yes, Talos, I think of myself that little.”
Gale felt his chest tighten with each word she spoke and he took that anger and guilt and poured it into the spell he was starting to cast. It took all but a matter of moments for him to form and trap Talos in a web at his feet causing the lumbering god to stumble. Once the god was trapped, even though Gale knew it was temporary, he made his way over to Aramiya.
“I know now is not the time for a heart-to-heart, but I am sorry for the pain I put you through.” Looking her in the eyes, his nose almost touching hers, Gale placed his hand on her cheek before he let it drop. “We need to get you out of here.”
“Gale…” Aramiya's voice struggled to leave her as the columns of her throat tightened around his name. “I’m not sure there is much we can do.”
“It appears the Archmage has joined the party.” Talo taunted, ripping the magical webbing from him in broad strokes of his arms. As Talo clapped his hands together flames erupted causing the cloud to crackle and turn dark. “Even her ArchDruid couldn’t save her. You think you can, puny human?”
Uncharacteristically, Gale chuckled darkly, his brown eyes gathering a ring of magic around them. “You and that student have no idea of my true power. If you did, you wouldn't have attempted to suppress it-- You would have used it.” Gale raised his arms up to shoulder height on either side as lightning wove up his arms to his fingertips before he brought his arms in front of himself and a large ball of lightning and thunder gathered at his hands. The ball hit the side of the cloud to the right of Talos.
Laughter echoed through the cloud, “You couldn't even aim all that power correctly! Pathetic.”
A dark smile graced Gale’s features. “I wasn’t aiming for you.”
As soon as the words were spoken, a very large Cavebear jumped into the cloud and roared skidding to a stop in front of Aramiya and Gale, its face positioned to Talos. Halsin squared his shoulders and growled low and loud before rushing the god in front of him. The hole in the cloud was starting to close, but not before Karlach, Shadowheart, and Astarion followed hot on Halsin’s paws.
Talos swung down a lightning bolt hitting Halsin square in the chest crumbling him to the ground as his bear form dissipated. Aramiya watched as everyone started fighting. Astarion calling on demons and beings from another realm, Shadowheart calling upon Selune, Karlach’s engine firing up as she pushed through anger to attack Talos and Gale as he tried to protect Halsin. Talos fought them off almost like it was child’s play.
When Halsin's form didn't move, not a single twitch of muscle or breath to move his chest, Aramiya felt like her entire being was submerged in ice water. Numb and painful all at once. Tearing from her lips was a primal scream that echoed through the entire cloud and through the entire false thicket of Shadows outside.
Her horns, normally straight, twisted and lengthened curving at the tips. The normally smooth tail she had formed thorns along its length and swished like an angry cat. Magic pulsated around her form in fire like swirls. Another scream forced from her throat. He still wasn’t getting up.
Shifting her gaze to Talos, his smirk was wide. He was satisfied that he had broken her. Smug in watching the tears fall from her. Her heart burned.
Thorny vines erupted from all around Talos, whipping around him and wrapping each of his limbs in them. The vines moved quickly and cracked like whips. Every thorn pierced his flesh, causing his icor to bleed out. They wrapped tighter as Aramiya moved forward towards him, stepping between him and Halsin.
“Shadowheart,” her voice was gravel after screaming. The cleric didn't need to be asked as she sprinted behind Aramiya to the side of the ArchDruid and began praying healing words over him.
Each step Aramiya took, a piece of Oakleaf and thorn armor appeared adorning her body. “Now Talos,” her eyes narrowed as the thorns pulled the god down to his knees, “I was going to give you a choice. To stop seeking out goddesses to steal their domains or die here.” Talos started to laugh before Aramiya grabbed his face with a single hand catching his lower jaw. “No, no,” she scolded as if he was a naughty child. “That choice is now gone.” Her normal black sclera and green eyes were now ringed with fire red. Her druidic tattoos now a deep purple almost black. Aramiya’s normally long nails now talons biting into Talos’s flesh causing icor to drip from her fingers.
Enid’s voice mingled with Aramiya’s own, causing dual toned intonation. “You will die suffering as you have made many others.”
The grip on Talos’s jaw tightened until a sickening crack was heard. Pulling it down Aramiya removed his jaw from the rest of his skull, the flesh ripping in clothlike strips. Casually she tossed it to the side and then danced her talons over to the eyepatch removing it with ease before fingering the eye socket pulling out threads of magic which dissipated into the air with each pull.
As the magic disintegrated leaving his body the group, aside from Shadowheart and Halsin, watched in slight horror as Aramiya continued mutilating the body of the dying god. Gale looked at the others. Karlach watched with slack-jaw horror while Astarion stood almost admiring what Aramiya was doing. Gale knew his wife. Knew that she would regret the decisions she was making right now and Gale attempted to approach to stop her but a force pushed him back on his rear. Blinking Gale realized there was a magical field around the duo. The newly found powers of Aramiya’s pulsing chaotic energy into the tiny cloud. Gale examined the cloud around them and noticed it began to disappear.
“Fangs,” Karlach called out, noticing the same thing Gale did.
Astarion looked up just as the cloud fully fell from around them. “Well, that's good?” the vampire ascendant questioning if this was going to be them plummeting out of the sky. Much to everyone’s surprise, they were safely on the ground where they had started the fight. Theo’s dead body was hanging off a thicket of thorns. “Right where we left him.”
“ Astarion ,” Gale's tone chastising. “Focus.” He pointed to his wife, who was now peeling flesh off of Talos piece by piece.
“I can’t keep this up for much longer.” Shadowheart’s voice weakened from trying to keep Halsin stable. Gale evaluated the clerics condition. She would be out of stamina soon.
“ Aramiya! ” Gale’s voice boomed as he banged on the force field with Weave, attempting to break it. “Aramiya you must stop!” He paused for a moment, looking back at the Archdruid they had befriended all those years ago. “He needs you!”
Notes:
For those curious, between the last update and now have been literal hell. Early march I lost my boy cat who I am still fully convinced was my soulmate. I've been a bit hollow since his passing. I then got the flu, had very shitty projects at work, sick again (immune system of a victorian child I do), and then it was my birthday all in the blink of an eye.
Please, if you feel moved to, drop me a comment. They really brighten my day and provide the necessary nutrient dopamine that I am in desperate need of.Gateful for those of you that are still here. Trinket thanks for being here since day 1! <3
Chapter 18: Chapter 18
Summary:
"Holding open the Portal he watched as Karlach handed Shadowheart over to Astarion and went to pick up Halsin from Aramiya's lap. Oliver helped Aramiya stand and they watched Halsin go through the portal with Karlach. Gale watched everyone go through first before standing in front of the portal himself. Jealousy and anxiety twisted in Gale.
What happens now? Is she still my wife or…? He flicked a tear away and stepped through. They could figure all that out later."
Notes:
We are coming down to the wire folks!
Chapter Text
With her hands around Talos’s neck Aramiya turned to Gale. To him she looked almost unrecognizable, the power coursing through her causing more than just a slight shift in her. Those green eyes he knew so well twisted with the fire of Avernus, the thorns around her body blending her in with nature itself. Her eyes flicked to Halsin’s on the floor. Gale could only watch as she tossed Talos’s lifeless body to the side and ran to Halsin. Everything in his body burned with guilt or jealousy; he couldn't pinpoint which.
Aramiya kneeled by his side, her head making rapid movements of evaluation. Gale watched as her hands reached out fingers extended before pulling them back in close to her chest. The chaotic power around her started to swirl uncontrollably. Gale could feel the uncertainty in her movements, but he didn't have words to console his wife.
“I can’t, I don't know where to begin…” her voice shook. “He's so hurt I…”
“Miya, I have him stable, but I cannot maintain this level of stabilization. He needs you.” Shadowheart’s voice was weakening.
“But-”
“No buts, he needs you and this power you have right now. How many times have you healed him before? How many injuries have you healed that were caused by lightning?” Astarion came to her side, forcing her to face him. “You’ve saved me from worse injuries. You can.” Astarion's face softened. “You can, Aramiya.”
Aramiya nodded and turned facing Halsin’s body, took a deep breath, and focused. The energy around them shifted and swirled. Placing one hand on Halsin's chest, Aramiya started to chant. “Revocmaus te ab ostio Mortis. Omnia vulera mortalia sanabo. Redi ad me.” Rose petals materialized out of thin air and began to swirl around them whipping faster and faster as the chant continued. Her eyes started to glow, flashing between pink and green as the spell continued. Halsin’s body rose slightly from the muddy earth, his hands falling limply on either side.
From a thicket, out came Oliver poking his head out just enough to see what was happening. “Momma!” He yelled running as fast as he could over to her, before Gale caught him. “Papa! No, lemme go!” Oliver’s little body wiggled and thrashed in Gale’s grip until Gale was kneeling and Oliver wrapped his little arms around him.
They all watched as the magic poured into Halsin’s body. How the wounds healed but even after several moments his chest did not move.
The chaos exterior that Aramiya had unlocked to defeat Talos slowly receded back into her as Halsin’s body lowered back into her lap. She held him close, forehead to forehead, her tears hitting his face. “Come back to me,” Her body shook with the force of her grief. “My heart, please. Please don’t leave me.”
Gale picked up Oliver and brought him over to Aramiya and set him down. The second the boy’s feet hit the ground he was wrapping his arms around both Aramiya and Halsin. He tried to pour his own magic into Halsin before Aramiya pulled him close to her. Karlach picked up Shadowheart, who could barely stand, and moved closer to where Gale was now standing. Astarion continued to kneel beside Aramiya and rub her back, his own eyes hazy.
They all knew he could offer a solution. But they all knew that wouldn’t be what Halsin wanted.
“Father, remember what Thaniel promised me.” Aramiya wiped some of the mud and blood from Halsin’s face. “Please don’t let him be taken from me.” She whispered those last words, unknown if anyone could hear her.
“Miya,” Astarion’s gentle voice pulled at her, but she remained unmoved. “Darling, you need to look up.” Astarion looked into her eyes when she finally raised her head, but it was like all the life in them had been siphoned out. Tears pooled and spilled freely staining down her face. He knew that look. Turning to Gale, Astarion addressed him. “Do you know how to get back to wherever Mystra is with Camellia ?”
Gale looked at Astarion, the Ascendent’s jaw was set in a stern line. “I-” he started before Astarion stood and was to him in the blink of an eye.
“Yes or no?”
“I can try.” Gale looked slightly up at Astarion before looking behind him to Aramiya and Oliver sobbing. For her…
Stepping away from the group, Gale started to focus and connect to Mystra to portal to her space in Elysium. Weave crackled and spit as Gale opened the portal slowly. He watched as Astarion took initiative and stepped through before coming back through with a smile on his face. Relief washed over Gale. He had done it.
Holding open the Portal he watched as Karlach handed Shadowheart over to Astarion and went to pick up Halsin from Aramiya's lap. Oliver helped Aramiya stand and they watched Halsin go through the portal with Karlach. Gale watched everyone go through first before standing in front of the portal himself. Jealousy and anxiety twisted in Gale.
What happens now? Is she still my wife or…? He flicked a tear away and stepped through. They could figure all that out later.
He came in to Silvanus, now in an old man form, pushing healing into Halsin attempting to get him up. Thaniel held Camellia close, who was wailing. Oliver held onto Aramiya who had a thousand yard stare. Mystra appeared next to him, her hand on his bicep but he kept his attention to his wife.
It hit Gale then. Stepping out of Mystra’s grip he walked with purpose to Thaniel. “May I?” He held his arms out for Camellia . The forest spirit eyed him, but released her to his arms.
Camellia still fussed and thrashed in Gale’s arms but when she noticed they were moving she stopped fighting so hard. Kneeling opposite Silvanus, holding the baby he waited for Silvanus to notice them. When the god finally did, he stopped and took a step back. Gale looked to the young tiefling in his arms and saw his wife but her eyes were Halsin's.
“Save your Papa, like you did me.” Gale whispered to her and placed her on the druid’s still unmoving chest.
Camellia sat up on his chest and looked over her dad with confusion. She smacked his chest, pulled his hair, even held his nose. When none of that got a reaction she started to cry, placing her head on his chest snuggling into him.
Gale moved over to where Aramiya was sitting and carefully took her by the hand and led her to Halsin. He placed her hands on her daughter's back. Kneeling behind her, Gale wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands on top of hers. His head was to the left of hers and he spoke softly.
“Remember the first time we channeled Weave together? Focus on my magic and Camellia’s. Use it to help bring him back.” She trembled against his chest and shook her head. “You can, Aramiya. You travelled the Weave nine months pregnant, managed to burn down a majority of the Tower before you left.” Gale chuckled and pulsed his own magic through her hands. “Hells you took down took down Talos the destroyer just now. You can.” He pressed his cheek against hers. “You've always been able to do amazing things.”
Gale felt hand after hand press against his back. Felt the magic pouring in from Silvanus, Mystra, Astarion, and what Shadowheart could spare. Thaniel and Oliver kneeled opposite on Halsin's otherside and put their hands on top of Gale’s. It took a few moments of tense breath holding, but Aramiya and Camellia channeled enough healing magic through themselves to get Halsin's heart beating.
When the Druid came to he took a gasping breath and went to sit up Aramiya pushed his shoulder down. His hazel eyes caught hers and he relaxed slightly. Noticing the weight on his chest, Halsin looked down to see Camellia smiling back up at him. A weak smile pulled at his lips as he tried to move one of his hands to her back. Aramiya caught it as it fell and placed it on their daughter's back.
Aramiya sat at Halsin's bedside watching his breathing as he slept. Gale insisted on following her back to the cabin to “help”. Occasionally, she'd see how he would interact with Camellia and feel a pang in her chest. Gale walked around with her on his shoulders or he would carry her on his hip and bring her to the window planter and magically make some flowers sparkle. He’d read books he had Tara get from the tower to her. They were always about princesses and knights in shining armor. Or the occasional story she swore he made up and just moved pages around to make it look like he was reading from a book.
Enid.. She reached out to her owlbear. What the fuck do I do?
She heard a chuckle back. My dear girl I cannot choose for you.
UGHHHH! Aramiya placed her head on Halsin’s chest and listened to his heartbeat. The sheer relief of hearing that important muscle pulse under his skin, knowing it was his and knowing he was still alive calmed Aramiya considerably. She studied his sleeping face. When they had brought him home his face still showed pain. He tried to hide it, but it was there much like when he thought he was responsible for the Shadow Curse. If he blames himself for her barreling headfirst into a battle she knew she couldn’t win, well she would have to set that straight once he was ready. Today though, his face looked peaceful. It was almost as if Halsin knew he was home. Aramiya threaded her fingers in his that laid against his chest.
Then she turned her head to look at Gale who was rocking Camellia to sleep. Guilt, anger, and sadness caused a lump in her chest. She knows. Deep down she knows exactly what that means. Kissing Halsin's pec she stood and walked over to Gale where Camellia was asleep in his arms.
“Let me put her in her crib. I think you and I need to talk.” Aramiya said, Gale stood and handed the sleeping girl to her. “Meet me out back. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Gale’s brown eyes looked her over, the uncertainty written on his face but stepped out from between Aramiya and the rocking chair and made his way to the back of the cabin and out the back door.
Aramiya looked to the top of the cabin and then down to her daughter as she put her down in the duck feather-down bed. Lips trembled and the ache in her chest grew. Why is this harder than leaving him when I was in labor?
Enid’s voice was gentle. Because then you thought he had meant what he did. But your own truth is coming through too and growth always hurts in some way.
Standing at the door, Aramiya looked back one more time at Halsin. There was no ache, no guilt, or sadness- just safety and love. Unconditional love. She walked through the door, the night breeze of early autumn hitting her skin. Fireflies blinked in the distance as she looked over the forest of her home. Aramiya looked to the bench and saw Gale looking at the same wondrous forest. Sitting down next to him caught his attention and she caught him looking at her from the corner of her eye. “I used to come out here a lot after Camellia was first born. I was so numb but also angry at the world.” Aramiya swayed her feet over the tops of the grass. “I sat out here in the snow wondering what I was supposed to do with my life. Staring up at the sky angry but also missing you. Gale,” she looked at him then, the bottom of her vision started to blur. “Gale, I loved you. I didn’t just hop right into Halsin’s bed after Camellia was born. It took months of numbness and his gentle care to bring me back from what honestly felt like death.”
“I’m sorry, Aramiya.” Gale whispered. His eyes trailed along, following a firefly until he could no longer find it and finally settled on her face. She was more beautiful than he remembered. No longer the angular and angry young woman. She was softer somehow, here in the woods; as if nature itself brought her life. He chuckled sadly and rang his fingers over the bench he was certain Halsin had carved. “I am at a loss for words, which as you know doesn’t happen very often.” He looked at her again, a small sad smile on her lips. “This is the end of us, isn’t it?”
“Sadly, Mr Dekarios, it is.” Aramiya reached her hand to his and placed her fingers over his. “Are you okay with that?” Her voice was soft.
A soft chuckle came from Gale. “Not sure just yet, but I’m beginning to think you don’t hate me as much as you said you did.”
Aramiya laughed before she looked at the forest again. “Knowing the truth now? You’re right, I don’t.” She turned to him before squeezing his hand and standing. “But it doesn’t magically put back the broken pieces. Even Mystra couldn’t fix that.” Tucking a piece of hair behind his ear she lifted his face to hers before placing a soft chaste kiss to his lips. “I will always love you, just not the way I used to.” She pulled away and headed back inside. When the door behind her was finally closed, the tears fell.
Pages Navigation
avantegarda on Chapter 1 Thu 21 Aug 2025 03:32PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 1 Thu 21 Aug 2025 04:20PM UTC
Comment Actions
PocketVVitch on Chapter 4 Thu 11 Apr 2024 05:13PM UTC
Last Edited Thu 11 Apr 2024 05:13PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 4 Thu 11 Apr 2024 07:00PM UTC
Comment Actions
avantegarda on Chapter 4 Fri 29 Aug 2025 03:31PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 4 Fri 29 Aug 2025 03:58PM UTC
Comment Actions
avantegarda on Chapter 4 Sat 30 Aug 2025 07:18PM UTC
Comment Actions
Trinket97 on Chapter 5 Sun 14 Apr 2024 01:04AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 5 Sun 14 Apr 2024 06:40PM UTC
Comment Actions
dekariosweaved on Chapter 5 Sun 14 Apr 2024 10:19PM UTC
Last Edited Sun 14 Apr 2024 10:19PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 5 Sun 14 Apr 2024 10:33PM UTC
Comment Actions
PocketVVitch on Chapter 6 Mon 15 Apr 2024 12:44AM UTC
Comment Actions
Trinket97 on Chapter 6 Mon 15 Apr 2024 02:45AM UTC
Comment Actions
BarbSorceress on Chapter 6 Sat 27 Jul 2024 08:55PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 6 Mon 29 Jul 2024 07:51PM UTC
Comment Actions
avantegarda on Chapter 6 Sat 30 Aug 2025 11:39PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 6 Mon 01 Sep 2025 01:05AM UTC
Comment Actions
Trinket97 on Chapter 7 Mon 22 Apr 2024 01:35AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 7 Mon 22 Apr 2024 02:28AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 7 Tue 23 Apr 2024 03:58PM UTC
Comment Actions
Melphina on Chapter 7 Mon 22 Apr 2024 04:33AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 7 Tue 23 Apr 2024 03:57PM UTC
Comment Actions
zoesterstrudel on Chapter 7 Mon 22 Apr 2024 05:20AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 7 Tue 23 Apr 2024 03:57PM UTC
Comment Actions
avantegarda on Chapter 7 Sun 31 Aug 2025 11:31PM UTC
Comment Actions
TheHogwartsJedi on Chapter 8 Mon 29 Apr 2024 06:48PM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 8 Mon 29 Apr 2024 06:55PM UTC
Comment Actions
10yuanchan on Chapter 8 Fri 03 May 2024 05:27AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 8 Fri 03 May 2024 12:08PM UTC
Comment Actions
85Blackcar on Chapter 10 Thu 16 May 2024 06:34AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 10 Sat 01 Jun 2024 07:11PM UTC
Comment Actions
msmarvel90 on Chapter 10 Wed 28 May 2025 02:05AM UTC
Comment Actions
jasmineriddlexangel on Chapter 10 Wed 28 May 2025 02:58AM UTC
Comment Actions
Trinket97 on Chapter 11 Sun 02 Jun 2024 12:43AM UTC
Comment Actions
85Blackcar on Chapter 11 Sun 02 Jun 2024 03:47AM UTC
Comment Actions
avantegarda on Chapter 11 Sun 07 Sep 2025 03:14AM UTC
Comment Actions
Pages Navigation