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“Oh! It must be close to Winter’s Crest!” Laudna sing-songed as they walked into town. The increasingly cold evenings had clued her in, but it seemed that they had also stumbled across a town that was beautifully decorated.
“Is it?”
“Have you ever celebrated?”
Imogen shook her head. “I’ve only heard about it in passing.”
Laudna’s heart broke for her. Winter’s Crest was the best holiday, after all. “That won’t do. We’ll have to have a little celebration ourselves!”
“Well alright! What do we need?”
Laudna bounced on her toes as she dove into an explanation of the holiday. It didn’t take long for Imogen to perk up and join in. They shared memories of family, warmth, and nostalgia as they explored the town.
They window-shopped as they walked through the bustling streets. After weeks on the road, they had hardly any coin to their pockets, but it was perfectly nice to just see all the decorations, smell the wonderful food, and hear the families gathering for dinner; their laughter and revelry spilling out into the cobblestone alleyways.
“I’m not sure when the actual day is, but tonight seems like the perfect night, what do you think?”
“Sure!”
Laudna used their hooked elbows to guide them past the edge of town and into the beautiful old forest that surrounded it. They wandered into the evening until they could just barely see with the little remaining light. Imogen mumbled a quick warning before tossing up a few motes of dancing light to illuminate their little clearing of choice.
“This is perfect! I can think of several uses for a little witchcraft. We can test you on your new spells while we set up.” Laudna declared as she rolled out their bedrolls next to each other.
Imogen had been learning to hone her magic little by little as they travelled together and she was eager to learn. Laudna noticed the first day they met, that those lavender eyes contained a roiling storm of intelligence and determination, but she had denied her gifts (and been denied because of her gifts) for so long that she was quick to suppress her spark. Laudna was doing everything she could to reassure her, and maybe soothe a little of her trauma. She loved every second. Watching her grow into herself a little more each day was the honor of a lifetime.
To maintain the facade that she was a mentor, she liked to pose little challenges when she could, to make it more of a game, and to give Imogen a safe outlet to experiment and strengthen her connection to her arcana.
Their little camp spot was blanketed with pine needles and tucked into the waste-high roots of a large tree. Perfectly cozy for a special evening, and distant enough from town for anyone to notice them if they squeezed in a little magic.
“Lightning is part of Winter’s Crest?”
“Not quite, let’s start with a little fire.”
They worked together to collect brush and sticks to build a meager pile.
Laudna stepped back to give Imogen room but gestured excitedly. “Alright, if you wouldn’t mind giving us a little spark.”
Imogen took a deep breath and held her palms out over the twigs. “Is this right?”
“Whatever feels natural, trust your intuition and relax into it.”
Imogen’s brow furrowed for a moment before static began dancing between her fingers. “Something’s happening.”
“Yes! Keep going.”
She took another breath and a bolt of purple-white electricity shot straight into the earth.
“That’s excellent!” Laudna cheered, grabbing some of the kindling that had been thrown by the blast and placing them gently on the smoking ember in the center. After a few minutes she was able to coax it into a proper campfire. She turned to find Imogen doing one of her breathing exercises she used when she was in crowds. “I can take over if this is too much, dear.”
“N-no-no! I can do it, I’m sorry, I just haven’t used my lightning in a while.”
Laudna found her water skin and held it out to her, rubbing light circles into her lower back as she drank. “You did beautifully, the rest will be much less dramatic.”
Imogen nodded and offered a small smile. “Alright, whatch’a got?”
“Well, the season is all about new beginnings, so it’s a good time to tidy up.” Laudna explained as they warmed their hand over the fire. “You remember the cleaning one I showed you?”
“Presta-digi-tuition?”
“That’s the one! Give it a go.” Laudna gestured to her and waited patiently while she closed her eyes and focused.
“New beginnings, huh?” Imogen took a few breaths before opening her eyes again and looking down at herself, coaxing off the dust and grime with a slow twirl of her fingers.
“Yes! That’s it!” Laudna whispered excitedly.
Imogen let her magic pull the gunk away before funneling it into the fire. With a brief purple lick of flames it disappeared entirely. She looked like she couldn’t believe it had worked. Laudna was giddy.
“Beautiful, now do me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Of course!”
Imogen cleared her throat nervously before reaching her hand in Laudna’s direction. “Let me know if it feels wrong or something.”
Laudna nodded with a bright smile, and watched as Imogen took several minutes to carefully whisk away the grime. Her face was pinched in concentration and sweat shone on her brow in the dancing firelight. Laudna had never seen her so intent. With another little flicker of purple, Imogen’s shoulders sagged in relief as she dropped the spell.
“Perfect! Thank you, dear, now we-“
Imogen cut her off by pulling her into a hug.
“Oh!”
“Sorry I-it’s just-“ Imogen pushed back to hold her at arms length, “For the first time in my life, I set my magic towards somebody without it being in a panic, and without it hurting them or me.”
Laudna clutched at her with equal parts sadness and wonder. How could anyone have ever punished her for being so brilliant.
“I-thank you, for showing me that magic can do more than cause suffering.” Imogen continued. “That it can be a gift and not a curse.”
Laudna nearly burst into tears. “New beginnings.” She whispered.
Imogen’s eyes glistened but she breathed a deep sigh. “New beginnings.” She gave her another quick hug, but not before pressing an even quicker kiss to Laudna’s cheek. “Thank you.” She whispered.
Most nights they had spent together had been on forest floors, riddled with roots and rocks. On the rare occasion they found an old shed or abandoned homestead, they would bask in the simple joy of having a roof. Tonight, though, they had planned well in advance. They had found a little town and hovered on the periphery for a week or so. They saved what little coin they could, and made some extra from selling forage to the local grocer. Imogen had taken it all and gone and got them a room at the lone tavern in town.
She toed the door shut behind her with a bright smile and a pint of beer in each hand. Her cheeks were warm from the free shot of liquor the tavern keep had offered her, with a cheerful, “Zim-zim-za!”
“Fancy meeting you here.” She drawled. Laudna sat primly on the small bed, chill breeze flowing in from the window that sat ajar behind her.
“Imogen! This is so luxurious!” She was giddy over every little detail, down to the way the floor was worn from use.
“Glad you like it.” Imogen handed off a drink before dropping to sit next to her. “No trouble getting up here?”
“Nothing aside from startling a few birds.”
“Good.” Imogen chuckled into her beer before setting it aside and turning to face her friend. “Alright, what’s first?”
Laudna jumped into action. “First, we light three candles and toast bread over the fire.” Excitement left her a little clumsy, but Imogen was there to catch anything she dropped and light the hearth for them.
They had purchased a loaf of pumpernickel that morning, and traded mushrooms for a small jar of butter.
“Oh, Imogen, this is perfect!” Laudna whispered as she carefully toasted her piece. Soon the smell of warm bread filled the room, and they sat back to sip their beer. Evening pressed into the night as they talked about everything and nothing. Eventually they shifted into their usual evening routine, with a quiet giddiness to be in a real room and with a real bathroom. Imogen had taken the opportunity to have a bath and change into a soft night dress, and Laudna couldn’t resist following suit. She didn’t own any actual sleepwear, but she settled for her softest tunic that fell just below her hips.
It had been very, very long since she had gone to sleep without being dressed to run. What a luxury to have paid for a space and have every right to be there, and how lovely it was to feel safe and clean at the same time.
“I could certainly get used to this.” She admitted.
“We keep this up, it’ll only be a few years before we’re celebrating like royalty.” Imogen mused as they got comfortable facing eachother.
Laudna felt a flutter at the idea of staying alongside Imogen for so long. “I feel quite rich already.”
She hadn’t considered how bare she would feel lying in the dark next to Imogen in a real bed. How strange it was to swap dirt for feathers and worn leather for fluffy pillows and bare feet. Even the floral smell of the soap they had both used made her breath catch.
“What should we aim for next year? What would a perfect holiday be like for you?”
“I can only hope to recreate my childhood memories at this point.”
“What all do you remember?”
“Well, we always sung songs and danced like lords and ladies. My mother would make us a grand dinner, and then we decorated a log with candles and notes with secret hopes for the coming year, and then we would burn it through the night and share gifts the next morning.”
“Well shit, that sounds worlds above what we just did. I’m sure we could at least do a few of those, tonight even!”
Laudna was taken aback at the offer but she reached to stop Imogen from hopping out of bed. “Oh it’s alright, really, it’s already so late and we just got settled in.”
“There’s gotta be something we can do. What other traditions are there? Are there any you didn’t get to do growing-up that you wanted to?”
“Oh no, not really, just the adult ones like drinking and kissing under the thistletoe.” She smiled softly, “Last year I got my first kiss, and this year we had drink, so I’m quite content.”
Imogen’s jaw dropped open as she processed her words. “First kiss? You mean me kissin’ your cheek?”
Laudna smiled meekly. “No one outside my family ever wanted to be all that close to me.”
“Laudna! You didn’t tell me that! I can’t believe I stole your first kiss.”
“Oh it was hardly stolen, or a kiss, anyways, I’d have given it to you if you’d asked.”
Imogen still looked sheepish. “You ain’t disappointed?”
A warm blush slowly seeped into Laudna’s cheeks as she held Imogen’s eye. “Of course not, I think of it quite fondly.”
Imogen watched her with wide eyes for a moment before she seemed to decide something. “Well then, we could make it a tradition? Til’ we have more gold to spend on each other at least.”
Laudna nodded slightly, in shock but she had never been one to question good fortune. “Sure!”
“A-lright.” Imogen whispered.
Laudna fidgeted and accidentally brushed her knee along Imogen’s thigh. The crisp sheets hadn’t caught on to their body heat yet, but there was a heat where they touched that hadn’t been there before. Imogen shivered.
“Sorry, dear I know I’m quite cold.”
“No it’s alright, t’s not you.” Imogen let her focus drift to the window, using her telekinesis to swing the frame shut. Her voice had slipped into the soft gravelly tones she saved for sleepy confessions and early mornings. Laudna was terribly endeared to her.
“Imogen?”
“Hm?”
“You know you don’t have to try so hard to make the holiday special, it’s quite special just having you by my side.”
“I’ll always be by your side, Laudna, long as you’ll have me. Plus, I want the excuse to spoil you, seeing as you don’t remember your birthday.”
Laudna huffed but matched Imogen’s soft smile. Lavender eyes sparked with mischief as she leaned close. “You ready?”
Laudna nodded minutely and held her breath as Imogen pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Before she could lose her nerve, Laudna followed her as she pulled away, and returned the favor, letting her lips grace Imogen’s cheek for a quick kiss.
They each returned to their pillows with shy chuckles. Laudna felt like a teenager again. Like she was getting the second chance at girlhood that she never thought she would.
Imogen seemed much less at ease, though, her eyes darted all over Laudna’s face. It made her stomach turn.
“Was that too much?”
“No-I, um, well I was thinking just now…” Imogen closed her eyes for a moment before continuing, “Since I was your first kiss, sorta, you deserve better from me.”
“Better? Nonsense, darling, it was magical.”
“It was sweet, but you deserve to be properly kissed Laudna.” Imogen began to falter in her confidence, stumbling over her words. “Ya’know, not just a peck on the cheek, and who better than your best friend?”
Laudna finally caught on to her meaning. “O-oh!”
“Only if you’d even want to, that is.”
Her heart had to be beating at normal lively rate, maybe even elevated. “I dreamed of it as a girl, but it’s been so long now…”
“Forget it, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“
Laudna caught Imogen’s fidgety hands and held them in the empty space between their hearts. Best friends. Imogen had called her her best friend.
“-mogen?”
Imogen swallowed thickly before meeting her eyes. “Huh?”
Even if it was her first and only kiss ever, she couldn’t imagine letting anyone else this far into her heart. Who better? Truly. “You can.”
“You’re sure?”
“Entirely.”
Imogen pressed up onto an elbow and leaned over her. It felt like they had slipped into a dream. They were so far from what reality ought to be.
“Alright, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna kiss you.”
Laudna nodded, her breath stuttering right before their lips met in the softest of kisses. They both held remarkably still until Imogen pulled away slowly. The loss triggered Laudna to snap into motion, frail hands clutching Imogen’s neck and shoulder, neither pushing her away, nor pulling her closer.
Imogen let out a nervous chuckle. “Was that okay?”
Laudna’s eyes fell to her mouth as she whispered. Several moments passed. Wordlessly, she tugged Imogen’s face back to hers. Imogen needed very little coaxing. They kissed more soundly than before, each of them sighing and fighting off smiles all the while. Just before Laudna could convince herself to move her lips, Imogen pulled away.
“Happy Winter’s Crest, Laudna.” She murmured.
Lavender hair had fallen like a veil over them. Laudna looked up at her with awe before her voice finally cracked back into life. “B-better-you were right, that was better.”
Imogen sat back, breaking the tension with a cheeky smile. “I’m glad.”
They spoke for a while more, drifting in and out of topics. Adrenaline kept them awake long into the darkest night of the year, but the resulting crash was impossible to fight. They fell asleep next to each other, same as every other night, but distinctly warmer than was typical of that time of year.
The next morning they stepped out onto the road leading out of town, and slipped right back into their easy companionship. The kiss went unspoken for a little over a year.
Imogen thought she liked the quiet until she met the snow. There was an entirely new kind of silence afforded by the frigid lands of Wildemount. It made her want to scream, or stomp around; anything to make that oppressive silence stop.
She thought she liked being alone until she met Laudna. Until Laudna died for her, and then the damn solstice stole her away just as they had reunited.
Imogen whimpered as she cowered in the back of the cave. It was freezing cold and her constant shivering made it all the more easy to feel sorry for herself. She didn’t know if her friends had survived the solstice, or if they had teleported into a volcano or something equally awful.
It was the winter Solstice, Winter’s Crest, and Laudna was gone. They had been planning all year for this one. They finally had some money, and some friends to celebrate with. They’d even gotten used to being in cities and such, they could do all the cheesy things they’d daydreamed about. Imogen had been so excited to taste the traditional foods and see the decorations again. More so, she’d been wanting to do it all with Laudna, and to see that childlike wonder she’d get.
When she was real honest with herself, though, she was mostly aching for another kiss. That night had lit a fire in her that had only grown more out of control as time went on, and she’d fight Predathos itself if it meant her and Laudna could have just one more night like that.
She had it all planned out. She was gonna get the Hells to throw a party, and then she’d pull Laudna aside and ask her if she could kiss her again. But, romantically this time.
Damned solstice. Damned moon. Damned gods and their drama.
“Imogen? You wanna join the cuddle?” Fearne called from somewhere nearby.
Imogen cleared her throat and took a steadying breath. “In a bit.” She called back. She had some magic left in her, she wanted to use it all to try and get proof that they were okay.
Fearne found her after a while, shivering with blood dripping from her nose and drifting in and out of consciousness. She only tutted sympathetically and scooped up the exhausted sorceress to bring her closer to their makeshift camp.
They had been trading cheek kisses all evening as they mingled with their friends and loved ones. They ate amazing food and danced by the hearth as Yasha, Dorian and Braius played a lively tune.
It had been several months since the end of the world as they knew it, but they had all managed to find some normalcy. They had been showered in gifts and boons from Exandria’s elite. Some took to the high life more than others. (Chetney could hardly walk with the bulk of all his platinum jewelry) But her and Imogen had gone cottage-hunting as soon as they got their affairs in order.
Cheers to an early retirement.
They had found the perfect cottage in the woods by a babbling stream, with room for horses, chickens and maybe a kid or two someday. The rest of their reward had been spent on a vacation home in honor of Bells Hells. They had all split off to further adventures of their own, but it was somewhere they could always meet up or come and go as they pleased.
They had all come together for the solstice, alongside all of the friends they made along the way, to celebrate surviving the day the world first went to shit and every day thereafter.
Laudna had worried Imogen hadn’t remembered their little fledgling traditions or had cherished those early memories as much as she did, but she needn’t have. Imogen had been the first to suggest a big party, and she made sure everyone brought some kind of food or drink. The Hells came in their evening best, carrying armfuls of presents and enough booze for an army.
Afternoon turned to evening with cheerful conversation and near absolute chaos among guests sharing stories and challenging each other to friendly competition.
Launda had been chatting animatedly with Deanna about fiber arts, when arms snaked around her waste and warm breath tickled her shoulder. “Hey baby.”
“Oh, I know that look.” Deanna smirked with a little ‘rawr’ hand motion, “Go on, we can talk more later, I have a minotaur to seduce anyway.”
Laudna laughed but hummed happily, leaning back into Imogen and pressing a cheek to her forehead. “Hello darling, enjoying the party?”
“O’ course.” Imogen drawled with a sly smile before leaning in again like she had a secret, “Can I show you something?”
“Please do.”
She tugged her into the arched doorway that opened into the lounge area but stopped them before they entered. She looked down at Imogen, only to see her looking up at something above their heads. She gasped in understanding before she even saw the green cluster of leaves and berries tied to the top of the archway.
“Happy Winter’s Crest, baby cakes.” Imogen beamed.
Laudna kissed her and dipped her back dramatically before righting them and giving her a little twirl. Imogen pressed a kiss to her girlfriend’s cheek in between giggles, but Laudna caught her jaw and pulled her back in to a deeper kiss as the stumbled upright, much to everyone else’s amusement. Pate whooped and hollered from the rafters where he had been playing chase with Mister.
“Get a room!” Braius whined.
“No stay here!” Fearne called.
They ignored their friends, drunk on happiness and mulled wine.
It was impossible for them to separate after that, they stayed linked by fingers or sidelong embrace as they laughed and talked with their friends. After a while they followed a commotion outside only to find that Fearne had snuck off to start a bonfire in a rather unorthodox way.
“This is why we got the fire-proofing.” Orym chuckled.
The fawn didn’t have it in her to be sheepish, instead she giggled and beckoned everyone to gather round.
They all pulled chairs around the impromptu fire pit, and brought all the party necessities outside. Imogen curled up sideways in Laudna’s lap so that they could share a blanket and she could roast marshmallows for them both. Her accent always got more handsome with drink, and it made her all the more charming. Laudna basked in it, slipping her arms deeper into their bundle and further around her girl.
“How’s this Winter’s Crest shapin’ up?” Imogen whispered after a sleepy kiss.
“This is everything I’ve ever wanted,” Laudna felt unexpected tears pooling in her eyes, “and everything I never dared hope for.”
“Aw, darlin.” Imogen tucked into her neck, moved beyond words, and Laudna pulled her in tighter. They stayed entangled for a long moment, fingers curling into hair and clothes; just enjoying each other.
“I love you.”
Imogen pulled back just enough to find her lips in the dark, and slipped a hand to the back of her neck to hold her there. “I love you so much.” She murmured against her lips.
Without them noticing, the longest night of the year had taken root. Conversation hummed around them as their friends continued to celebrate the turning of the seasons. The evening brought with it an icy edge as the breeze carried smoke and ash up into the moonlit sky. They staved off the cold with the ease of stolen kisses and wandering hands.
Laudna had never felt warmer, but it made her greedy. She let her hands seek out burning skin, her fingers slipping beneath Imogen’s hemline to slide up her thigh. Imogen broke away with a yelp as she caught Laudna’s hands and lifted them from her skirts, fingers intertwining. “Not here, baby.”
Laudna blushed. “Sorry-“
She pressed a sneaky kiss under her ear before turning to shout out to their circle of friends.
“Who wants more wine?”
A chorus of cheers rang out.
“We’ll get it!” She called as she pulled Laudna up after her and towards the cellar.
They found the wine after a few minutes, and brought it back up after twenty more.