Chapter Text
The party wandered through the graveyard when they heard a child’s voice ring out in the oppressive silence. As they approached, they saw a tiefling girl with lavender skin and blond hair in braids and a ponytail, who called out, “Hey—I know you! You’re—”
Just then, two shadow wraiths appeared near her and her eyes glowed green. “Twist ‘em up!” she shouted and with a sweep of her arms magical vines erupted from the ground and incapacitated the two wraiths.
Wyll stared. “Is that … the kid that Kagha went after? Seems she’s learned a new trick.”
“Pity she couldn’t do that in the grove,” Lena muttered. “I could’ve used the distraction to snack on that snake.”
The child heaved an exhausted sigh, then looked at Lena owlishly. “You were really going to eat it?”
Lena let her fangs drop and grinned at her. “And I would’ve relished every single bite, small horned child.” The child stared at her in awe.
“Her name’s Arabella,” Shadowheart whispered.
Lena blinked at her. “And? So?”
Shadowheart let out a sigh then approached Arabella, kneeling so they were eye-to-eye. “Arabella, what are you doing out here? Why aren’t you with your parents?”
Arabella’s eyes went shiny. “That’s who I’m looking for. Mum and pops. When Zevlor, when he—”
“Succumbed to the call of the Absolute?” Minthara finished. She shook her head. “We’ve heard of the unnecessary cruelty of the cultists. It is just as well you escaped.” Edie and Lena both raised their eyebrows at Minthara’s wording and Lena mouthed the word 'unnecessary?' Edie shrugged, mildly horrified.
Arabella nodded. “We ran when mum yelled ‘run!’ I could hear ‘em running behind me. ‘Til I couldn’t,” she said, her voice breaking. “Still can’t find ‘em—” then her expression brightened, “but I bet you can! You’ll help me, I just know it!”
“Of course we’ll look for them,” Shadowheart said, soothingly. She held out her arms and Arabella fell into her embrace. “We’ll find them,” Shadowheart eyed Lae’zel over her shoulder, “Won’t we, froglet?”
Lae’zel huffed a ‘Chk’ and blushed as the others giggled, then said as an aside, “I thought we agreed that you would not call me that in front of the others.”
Shadowheart gave her a smug smile. “Just making sure you were paying attention.”
Lae’zel rolled her eyes. “T’skva, I fear that the shifters have had undue influence on you.”
“Undue, or not enough, froglet?” Lena asked, wagging her eyebrows.
"I don't get it,” Karlach whispered to Wyll. "It's a cute pet name. What's Lae'zel got against it?”
"Maybe because it's cute she doesn't want the rest of us to know that she likes it," Wyll whispered back.
"Why not just admit to liking what you like? Like those smutty books you read like they're instruction manuals?”
Wyll coughed suddenly and looked up to see Karlach's shit-eating grin.
Lena shook her head gravely. "I swear, everyone here is coming down with something and it's crossed species. We might have to worry about a full-blown epidemic on top of everything else."
Edie gave Lena's shoulder a slap to shut her up and sniffed the air. “I smell death and decay.”
"We're in the Shadow Curse," Karlach remarked. "What else is new?"
"Recent death and decay," Edie corrected. "Relatively newly-dead. Not something straight from an abandoned mausoleum."
Arabella grew pale. “Is there anyone else? Someone alive?”
Edie narrowed her eyes as she concentrated, letting her mouth fall open and breathed through her mouth and pointing her head in different directions. “There’s a chance that there’s someone living, but the smell of recent decay is pretty overwhelming.” She pointed to the building next to them. “I’m going to bet we’ll find our answers in there.”
“‘The House of Healing,’” Astarion read from a sign near the door. “That seems promising,” he said sarcastically.
“Aw, fuck,” Lena complained. “I guess we’ll have to put off our helmet experiment until later.” Wyll coughed. Lena looked at him quizzically. “What, are you coming down with something?”
Wyll’s shoulders sagged. “No, I think that you should watch your language around children.”
“Why? I think the word and my inflection perfectly convey the sort of horseshit we’re dealing with right now,” Lena replied. She heard a muffled cry from inside her carry-all and opened it to see her phase spiderling hissing at Ketheric’s head and Ketheric with fang marks on his nose, emphatically whispering a litany of awful things he’d do to them once he has his body back. “Jeebus, Bitey! Don’t bite the undead head! You might get sick!”
“What about me?” Ketheric whispered. “That thing bit me and now I’m poisoned!”
“You’re undead: I don’t see how you can be poisoned; poisoning is a disruption of living cellular processes and you're held together with unholy magic and chewing gum. And even if you could be poisoned, you’d be back to whatever the fuck is your baseline in no time.” She gently gathered Bitey up and settled them onto her shoulder. “No more! We don't know how long he's been dead or where he's been! And we have fresh body parts!” She wagged her finger at the spiderling. Bitey lived up to their moniker and bit her. “Ow!” She sucked her fingertip. “Bad spider! Bad spider!”
Arabella looked Lena, then at Shadowheart. “Does that spider understand her? Or is she just crazy?”
Shadowheart gave Arabella a grave look. “I’m certain she’s crazy, but I honestly can’t tell if the spiderling understands her speech.”
They watched at the spiderling waggled their forelegs at Gale for ‘uppies’ before hopping onto him when he didn’t pick them up right away. Lena glared at the spiderling. “Oh, so now you’re going to daddy because you’re not getting your way with me?” The spiderling chittered at her, then waved a single foreleg at her as though giving her the finger. Lena gasped. “Rude!”
Gale pinched the bridge of his nose to try to keep from laughing. “Perhaps we should focus on Arabella’s parents?” he suggested.
Lena threw up her hands. “Fine! Just so you know, I’m really annoyed right now!” She stomped to the door.
“Should I be worried?” Gale asked Edie.
“For yourself? Nah,” she replied.
Just as Lena reached the door, she paused and reopened her carry-all to shove her face up to the opening. Then she screamed. No words. Just a long, frustrated, irritated scream, muffled by the bag. Then she yanked it closed and threw open the door. “THERE BETTER BE TWO LIVING TIEFLINGS IN HERE OR I’M GOING ON A RAMPAGE!” she bellowed.
Edie could hear a soft, whispery feminine voice that reminded her of ASMR videos say, “Don’t call the doctor yet! I’ve got potions, sutures—I know I can do this …”
“OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE, THEY’RE ALREADY DEAD!” Lena shouted.
“Oh, you’re a patient,” said the voice politely. “This is the children’s ward—” The voice was suddenly cut off, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. Then something roughly the size and shape of a human woman wearing what looked like a tuxedo shirt as a helmet and a filthy dress and apron got tossed through a stained glass window—clearly missing an arm and leaking ichor—and landed on the ground below. As the zombie-thing tried to get up, Lena climbed through the broken window onto the sill with a severed arm in one hand, and jumped down on top of its abdomen, forcing fluids and rotting tissue to spray out of their mouth and the arteries of its shoulder.
Shadowheart immediately covered Arabella’s eyes with her hand and tried to shield her view with her body, but Arabella managed to wiggle enough to watch as the crazy human started whacking the zombie-thing with its own arm.
“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?” Lena yelled, punctuating her words with a smack of the arm. She continued to slap the corpse with its own arm until the hand and forearm simply fell apart and all she had left was the bloody fragment of a humerus. She tossed it away when the zombie thing seemed to come-to and hissed and clawed at her, but she shoved its head back down into the dirt and reached into her carry-all to pull out Ketheric’s very startled head. Then, holding him by his shoulder-length hair with both hands, she used his head like a flail to slam the zombie-thing over and over in the face until it was pulp. Then she finally stepped off of it with Ketheric’s head still in one hand, though now it was heavily dented and dazed.
Astarion and Minthara were doubled-over laughing. Karlach looked impressed, while Lae’zel nodded approvingly. Wyll, as usual, looked oddly green, while Shadowheart glared at Lena, while an awed Arabella’s mouth hung open. Gale looked a little more flushed than usual. Edie watched dispassionately as though waiting for a train or a bus.
After Lena took some time to catch her breath, Wyll asked, “What about Arabella’s parents?”
“There are two adult tieflings on the beds back there.” Lena pointed behind her with her thumb. She gave Arabella an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but they’re both dead.”
“Are you sure they’re my mum and pops?” Arabella asked.
Lena shook her head. “No, I don't know who they are. Seeing as I don’t know what your funerary practices are here, I’m not sure you want to see two strangers like this any more than you'd want to see them if they're your parents: neither body is in particularly good shape."
Arabella broke free from Shadowheart and rushed through the door with her and Wyll following closely behind. “No, no, no!” Arabella wailed.
Shadowheart hugged the girl tightly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she said, repeating it like a litany. Everyone else froze outside, listening to the girl sob, unsure of what to do.
After several seconds Edie looked over to Astarion. “Hey, got that spell to speak to the dead?”
“Yes, why?”
They heard her shout, ““This can’t be happening!” followed by a burst of green light and the sounds of Shadowheart and Wyll getting tossed across the room.
"Wyll!" Karlach shouted, rushing into the building. Lae'zel followed her close behind.
Edie sighed. “It looks like we have a magic user with a lot of power who’s in a lot of pain, and she might decide to share that pain with the rest of us unless she gets closure.”
Astarion blinked at her. “Sorry? What?” Arabella’s pained wailing grew louder followed by another burst of green light. Astarion wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure I want to be in there.”
Edie pushed him from behind toward the building. “Just go!”
“Did you at least wipe your hands? As I recall you never washed up after killing that drow ...”
Edie growled then shoved him through the doorway to see Arabella kneeling on the floor in a fetal position at the foot of the beds that held the bodies of her parents. She was surrounded by a nimbus of green magic oozing with black shadows like a lava lamp. Behind her Lae'zel and Shadowheart watched the girl warily—neither looked worse for wear. Karlach held Wyll protectively while he rubbed a sore spot on his head.
“You expect me to walk past that?” Astarion whisper-shouted as he pointed at the ominous magic that enveloped Arabella.
Wordlessly, Edie shoved him past Arabella—who didn't notice of them—until they were between the mangled corpses. “Now would be a good time,” Edie whispered.
Astarion sighed then cast it on the less-battered male body. It floated off the bed and regarded them lifelessly.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GET AWAY!” Arabella screamed. She stood and looked like she was ready to blast them when Astarion asked, “Who are you?” to the floating corpse.
“Locke …” the corpse rasped, barely speaking above a whisper. “Husband to Komira … father to Arabella.”
The remaining members of their party started to cautiously drift in.
Arabella’s eyes grew wide. The green nimbus and oozing shadows that surrounded her fizzled out and her sobs became hiccups. “Pops?” The corpse turned its head toward her.
Edie knelt down next to her. “Keep in mind that this spell only allows us to ask five questions,” she said. “And for all I know, you just asked one. Think carefully about what you want to know.”
Arabella wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands and thought for several seconds. “How … how did you end up here?”
“Ran … shelter … from shadows.”
She swallowed. “And then what happened?” she whispered.
“Surgeons … sisters …”
Lena hissed and Gale gently shushed her.
Shadowheart now also knelt beside Arabella. “This is your final question to your father,” she reminded her gently.
Tears started falling down Arabella’s cheeks. “I don’t want to say goodbye,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
Astarion opened his mouth the say something but Edie held up a finger to shush him without breaking eye contact with Arabella. “I know, but Astarion can’t keep the spell going forever. I don’t think it’s fair to your father to keep him here when he should be at peace. It really sounds hard on him to stay.”
Arabella tucked her chin against her chest, trying suppress her sobs as Shadowheart kept a comforting hand on her shoulder. After several several seconds, Arabella looked up at her father. “What should I do?” she asked in a small voice.
“Stay … alive … be … happy.” The glow faded from the corpse drifted back down onto the bed. Astarion rolled his wrist as though dissipating any errant magic.
Lena looked vaguely dissatisfied. "At least he didn't say 'Live, Laugh, Love,'" she muttered to herself. Nearly everyone within earshot gave her a hard look. Astarion covered a laugh with cough and Minthara snorted.
“Can I talk to my mum?” Arabella asked.
Astarion regarded her, then regarded Edie's and Shadowheart’s hard looks before he gave Arabella a plasticky smile. “Of course!" he said with false cheer. "I’ll certainly try!” He cast again over the female corpse, asking her name, but nothing happened.
“Why isn’t my mum speaking?” Arabella demanded.
Astarion blinked, the fake smile faded. “I … I think she’s already gone,” he said quietly.
Arabella’s face crumpled and she started to sob, though this time no magic surrounded her. “Why did this have to happen?” she wailed.
“I don’t know,” Edie admitted, “But would it be okay if one of us took you back to camp while we keep this from happening to anyone else?”
Arabella shook her head. “No, I want to help,” she said
“I’m not sure that’s wise,” Wyll suggested.
“I don’t care!” she cried. “Pops said a surgeon and the sisters in this place that killed 'em, and I wanna be there when they die!”
“Yes,” Shadowheart said soothingly, “But he also said for you to stay alive—”
Right then, Lena pulled out Ketheric’s head by his hair.
“No more,” the head whimpered.
“Shush!” Lena barked at Ketheric, “This is all your fault!” Then she shoved a wadded-up rag into his mouth before addressing everyone else. “I think that between nine adults we can keep a child safe.” She walked over to Arabella and handed her a quarterstaff she pulled from her carry-all with her free hand. “In case your magic fails because you’re tired,” she said. Arabella looked a little disappointed at the blunt weapon. “I know, kiddo,” Lena continued, “I love me some shiny metal cutting objects. But if you want to accompany us, you need to follow two hard rules: One, stay close to Shadowheart so if you get hurt she has a better chance of seeing and healing you. And two, try not to hit one of us. If you're not sure you can do one or the other, then one of us’ll take you to camp, okay?”
Arabella nodded. “Are you gonna to hit the people who killed my mum and pops with that head?” She looked at Ketheric, who's eyes went wide with panic.
Lena grinned. “Definitely. I’m using it to smash the rest of those ‘Silent Hill nurse’ knockoffs! I was ready to go back to camp and do science with it, but suddenly I have a lot more rage to burn off.”
"Try not to lose too much bone mass if it becomes a gooey mess," Edie said. "It'll throw our results off if there're weak spots we can't compensate for."
Lena held her thumb up in acknowledgement. "So, in or out, kiddo?”
Arabella blinked then gave Lena a little smile. “I don’t know what a silent hill nurse knockoff is, but I think that I wanna at least see them all die. And maybe help.” The head gave a muffled whimper. Arabella snapped “Shush” before she gave it a smack to the forehead with the end of her quarterstaff.
Minthara cackled. “Oh, this will be such fun!”