2.4 Acclimatization (Patreon)

2.4 Acclimatization

Taylor

“-fraid- mus- -ncur- -Wyll’s exa- -Fey magic, -powe- Fey-”

Somewhere in my mind, I became aware that I was unconscious. In the same way you suddenly realize you’re dreaming. 

Voices drifted in and out of my awareness, like the sounds of a distant concert who’s singer you could barely hear, the lyrics lost on the wind through the screams of the crowds.

Half aware, half asleep, all dreamlike. It was strange… not unsettling but distinctly unfamiliar. I felt like I was floating through space, weightless in the void.

“How does - happen!? -eart of your san-uary

Even as the voices prodded me towards the edge of consciousness, colors and memories flashed behind my eyes. Memories that weren’t mine percolating through a sieve, falling into my grasp like droplets of water.

My name is Taylor Antaa of Gireha. 

“Fey crea-res- not - common - Feywild. -an track it - help Miss Barnes.” 

I look upon Winslow Zerth'ad'lun for the first time and know that this is where I can achieve nothing true strength. 

Gladly My Master shows me how a they dont care. They will never care single touch can break a body. And another can fortify it.

a swamp - so-one lives

My peers learn they can get away with anything. Everything. to bind the elements to their will, to shatter stone, move mountains, to manipulate the soul of others and their own.

I learn from them, and they from me.

Hag.

I receive bruises my robes from Sophia my Master. I become quieter, smaller. a soldier. I wish I could fight against the enemies of Gith. 

not a Fey - ake on light-.

I am a captain, the first time I meet the servants of Vlaakith in open combat. Fighting is useless. Pointless.

“It explains why the Druids did not deal with her themselves. A Hag in its lair is not someone to attack lightly.”

They do something they cant take back. name me Zerth I have power now. My power. when my Master dies. I take his place. Teach others where he once taught me. 

I am hailed as Enlightened before long. For my lessons are expansive. For I have walked all paths. Elements, Body, Spirit, Life and Death. These ways are known to me and I can teach them to all. 

I shouldn’t use it. But I want to. Shouldn’t hurt them but I will. One day I think I really will…

I rise to the highest peak. Anarch. I mould the realm of Limbo to my whims. My mind is a fortress. My will is iron. Limbo is my domain.

My memories fade. All I see are more of these memories that aren’t mine. That can’t be mine. Fifteen years swallowed up by a lifetime measured in centuries.

That is when the Ghaik attacked.

We fight.

We kill.

We die.

My soldiers. My students. My monastery.

The memories are a kaleidoscope. A burst of color through a prism, too fast to truly grasp, too chaotic to understand. 

But even as I’m bombarded by the storm, I hold on to my memories. Mine. Because they are Mine. Good or bad. 

Mom. Dad. Even Emma before Winslow, and Winslow itself. I am me.

I am not him. My name is Antaa of Gireha Taylor; this is my mind and he doesn’t get to muscle me out of it!

I feel pain.

My mind hurts. 

But still the memories come. Impossible to stop. But not impossible to resist. 

There’s something there, at the edge of sound, I listen and try to follow it, reaching more firmly for the waking world as opposed to the weightless abyss.

—

Madison

She’s sitting in the cave she’s taken to calling the infirmary now.

Taylor is laying on one of Nettie’s stone slabs. Unconscious.

So is Emma… also unconscious.

They hadn’t had a choice. The druids that is. They’d put her to sleep, and were keeping her asleep- if not for Nettie’s healing magic and Wyll’s quick thinking… she would be dead thrice over already.

Madison had never seen so much blood. 

In the adjoining room, Madison could hear the others as they talked… or… maybe it was more accurate to say they were arguing.

“I’m afraid I must concur with Wyll’s examination. This is Fey magic, a powerful Fey at that.”

“How does this even happen!? We’re in the heart of your sanctuary, surrounded by dozens of druids!” Durge sounded furious and the growling reverberations of his voice bounced off the walls like rumbling thunder.

The sound made her clench her eyes shut, almost bringing her hands up to cover her ears as the events of the last few days threatened to overwhelm her all over again. 

She should have been watching her, making sure she was okay. Madison had known something wasn’t right! She’d known.

Why didn’t she just… just check on her!?

“The magic of Fey creatures blends in seamlessly with that of nature, we wouldn’t have detected it if it were trying to hide-” She heard Nettie explain.

“Calm down my friend.” She heard Wyll call “Fey creatures are not so common outside of the Feywild. If we can track her we can help Miss Barnes.” 

“And in that regard, I might have some information to help.” Nettie said again. “To the south, there’s a swamp, deep in its heart someone lives. She wears the guise of an old woman but Master Halsin long suspected otherwise. If I were to put stock on anyone being the culprit, it would be her.”

Though it was a little far, Madison was fairly sure it was Shadowheart that spoke up next. “Do you know what kind of creature it is? I’d rather not go in against a potential Fey blind. It’s a surefire way to die quickly.”

Madison tried to think back to some of the old stories she’d read online. Oh sure she heard about how Fey were horrible creatures when you looked at “the original stories” or whatever but she’d never actually read those stories. The surface level gist of things was that they were capricious, whimsical, and tricksters one and all. 

How true that was she couldn’t say. But no one sounded happy right now.

“We’ve never confirmed, but all signs point to… well, a Hag.”

There was a hiss, like someone was in genuine pain.

“A Hag? Are you certain?” She could almost picture the self assurance falling off of Gale’s features given his tone. “Ooof. That is not a Fey creature to take on lightly by any measure.”

“Anyone wanna fuckin share with the rest of the class?” That was definitely Sophia. 

“Hags are monstrous Fey. They charm, hex, and trick mortals. Many who make deals with them find themselves on the receiving end of that cruelty as Emma herself no doubt succumbed” Durge sighed. “It explains why the Druids did not deal with her themselves. A Hag in its lair is not someone to attack if you don’t have a pressing need.”

“She made Emma want to off herself!?”

“Depending on the terms of the Hag’s offer, or what Miss Barnes accepted as a deal, yes. By Wyll’s account she’s stronger than an Ogre. Hmmm, I can imagine a deal such as wishing to have the strength to defend herself but as payment for that strength the Hag took her will to live entirely, it would be the perfect irony in the mind of a creature like that, no doubt.”

Madison turned her gaze towards Emma, the paleness of her skin looking almost sickly in its contrast against the bright red of her hair

She listened with half an ear towards the conversation still going on behind her, watching her two classmates, one her friend and the other that she’d tormented for the better part of her highschool life and wished, desperately that either one would wake up.

She started humming, a tune she’d learned just the other day from Alfira. Something soft and soothing, that when Alfira sang it seemed to set the worst of her anxieties and fears aside, hoping it could do the same now and maybe help either of the two on their stone slabs. 

Suddenly however, there was a sharp sting something biting at the back of her hand, she hissed, wincing, looking down only to see a rather large fire ant as the culprit.

She smacked it away, and saw another on her sleeve, moving to wipe herself down before she noticed-

The fire… ants, more than one now that she cared to look, weren’t moving.

They were standing in a single file up the length of her arm. 

Madison paused at the strange sight, before something in her mind clicked, and her head snapped towards Taylor, running quickly towards her.

Madison looked her over girl’s eyes were still closed. “T-taylor?” Madison whispered, leaning close enough to whisper.

No response.

“Umm… Uh-” Madison racked her brain for a moment. “T-tay! If these are your ants, make them walk in a figure eight or something!”

She looked at the ants on her sleeve, the little red pinpricks standing perfectly still.

And then, all together, she saw them move in a perfect, synchronous loop-de-loop of a figure eight.

Madison gasped, the relief was like a bucket of ice water down her whole chest. “GUYS!” She shouted “Taylor’s waking up!”

The conversation abruptly cut off and a small stampede of footsteps began to make their way over.

Nettie and Shadowheart were the first to march through the stone doorway, Durge, Wyll and Gale right behind them, with Sophia and Lae’zel taking up the rear, lingering by the portal. Lae’zel crossed her arms and seemed to almost be glaring.

Nettie and Shadowheart began to examine her, hands glowing. 

“What happened?” Nettie demanded. 

“Her bugs! Look!” Madison showed, craning her arm up as far as she could so Durge could see it, the ants still very much marching in their figure eight pattern. “She hasn’t moved, but she’s very clearly controlling the bugs now!”

Durge eyed the insects for a moment. “Hebert if you can hear me, make the bugs stop!”

And after a second, the bugs stopped dead in their tracks.

“I’d say that confirms it.” Gale hovered over Shadowheart’s shoulder. “She’s reached some level of consciousness.

“Strange, why hasn’t she woken up?” Shadowheart frowned. “You’d think her precise insect control would require full consciousness and concentration.”

“A lingering side effect of the psionic attack?” Gale theorized. “Perhaps a lesser restoration spell might cure her of such?”

“But I’m not detecting anything like that.” Shadowheart contested, shaking her head.

Nettie frowned then, hummed. “Let me try something.”

Her hands moved, pressing to Taylor’s temples and the back of her head.

And then, Taylor’s eyes snapped open.

“Ahh, there ya are.” Nettie smiled gently down at her.

“What was the issue?” Shadowheart asked. 

“Psionics? Lingering motor control damage? Perhaps a full severing of the brain’s connection to the non-autonomic motor controls?”

Nettie just shook her head smiling before she chirped- “Sleep paralysis.”

…

Madison couldn’t help but think Gale and Shadowheart seemed a bit disappointed…

Taylor groaned, squinting her eyes shut against the bright magelight that illuminated the cavern. Her hands rose as if to block out the bright light as she squirmed on the bed before gingerly prying those eyes open after a second and beginning to look around.

Before Madison could stop her, Taylor turned her head to her left-

And found Emma laying next to her.

Even from here, Madison could see how the brunette’s eyes fixated on the red stained bandage around Emma’s throat.

For all that it was a croaking whisper, Taylor’s voice might as well have been a gunshot.

“What the fuck!?”

—

Taylor

The rocks by the beach were still red with her blood.

The waves hissed and sizzled as they lapped along the shoreline not far below me. The others, Wyll, Gale, Nettie and Shadowheart in particular told me I needed to rest. That they still hadn’t ruled out the possibility of lingering damage from the attack.

Durge had been the one to bring me up to speed.

Emma had been cursed somehow. Something that made her strong. Strong enough to rip a solid stone stalagmite out from the cliff face and try to stab herself in the throat with it.

The only reason she was even alive was because Wyll had seen it as he’d woken up with the morning sun and had intervened. Stopped her, and another Druid, a man named Rath had rushed over to use his own healing magic before they’d rushed her to Nettie. 

She’d nearly died.

My insides churned at the thought, and it was… terrifying…

I should be horrified, I should feel… even if it was Emma I shouldn’t feel what I was feeling-

I thought I was a good person. But good people shouldn’t feel like borderline laughing…

Now the team was debating on what to do, how to act. Wyll and Gale were saying that they had to go after “The Hag” to lift the curse, Lae’zel was arguing… quite the opposite.

“We are delaying the search for a creche, and a cure; all for a foolish deadweight. Leave her to her fate.”

Astarion hadn’t said anything, but I could tell he agreed with Lae’zel, Shadowheart disagreed, but probably only because it was Lae’zel saying it

Madison had looked terrified then, but hadn’t spoken up.

Sophia had snarled, gnashing her teeth and threatening the Gith who seemed more than ready to fight Sophia before Wyll and Gale got between both of them.

Me… I walked away.

I needed air. I needed to think.

I needed five fucking minutes to get away from it all.

The moon was bright in the night sky by the time I stepped out of that cave, and I could see meteors trailing behind the pale orb in the night, stars twinkling far beyond that. 

So many. 

I’d never seen so many stars. I suppose I could count one benefit from this place. Less light pollution. 

I felt Durge approaching long before he ever made it to me.

And when he got here he just… stood… waiting.

I let him wait… frankly I still didn’t feel like talking to anyone. 

But after… I don't know how long. Five? Ten minutes? I took a deep breath and let it out through my nose.

“What’s gonna happen?” I asked. 

He didn’t speak, I felt him shift, his tail brushing against the ground. 

“You don’t wish to weigh in on the decision?” He asked.

I did. And yet. I didn’t. I didn’t trust myself right now to even have an opinion. 

Durge made a sound at my silence. “We’re going after the Hag; All of us”

The words surprised me.

“Why?”

The question slipped out- and I shouldn’t be asking. I shouldn’t sound like… Like I didn’t want it to happen. 

Even if it was Emma… wishing her dead, seeing her like that, it should be wrong.

But the words didn’t stop. “Lae’zel was right. She is deadweight. And everything you’ve been pulling for has been finding a cure ASAP so… why? Why the detour?”

A much longer… longer silence. 

“Do you want her dead?” He finally asked directly.

I don’t know. I didn’t say… couldn’t. The words felt like they were lodged in my throat.

“I shouldn’t.” Is what I said instead.

Durge snorted, something that sounded almost amused.

“I would have killed her thrice over if I was in your shoes.” He drawled, footsteps marching closer.

He stepped up beside me before taking a seat, his towering frame must’ve looked comically large next to me. 

“The fact that you haven’t- killed her that is -told me you don't want her dead.” He shrugged. “So the decision was simple.”

“Even with Lae’zel and Astarion wanting otherwise?” I asked.

“Lae’zel is as much a stranger to Faerun as you are. She does not know the first thing about the Sword Coast, and is more likely to stumble into a Dracolich lair than find her Creche, or Baldur’s gate if she leaves.” He answered easily. “Astarion knows his chances are better in a group than alone as well. The same cannot be said for Gale, Wyll, or even Shadowheart. They would not follow that choice, not willingly. Lesson one, never give an order you know will not be followed. The decision from there was… academic.”

He sounded almost bored.

“My opinion is like Lae’zel’s and Astarion's then I guess.” I noted. “By that criteria at least. Pretty to hear but not one that matters. I have as little choice as them.”

I felt his red eyes on me. “You’re a sharp one.” He complimented. “But no. It does matter.”

“Right.”

“It matters-” He insisted. “-because, to put it simply, you’re pragmatic in a way the others are not.”

I raised an eyebrow looking at him.

Durge shrugged. “Gale has his head in the clouds. Wyll, will always be ‘The Blade of Frontiers’ first. Shadowheart is devoted to whatever God she lets dictate her actions, much like Lae’zel with Vlaakith, and Astarion is a man out of his depth attempting to look as though he has everything under control. You don't have their baggage, You want what I want.” He gave a strange little nod. “Survival.”

“And if I said let Emma die?” I asked, my stomach lurching with nausea at just letting the words slip free.

“You won't." He smiled, that needle toothed smirk, red eyes glowing like bloodied droplets. “Labeling her as expendable because of inconvenience… well… that would label all of us as expendable when inconvenient. Even you. As someone who was unconscious for nearly three days and is out of place and out of her depth, you’re not so arrogant as to think yourself above being injured, as simply beyond risk. No.” He shook his head. “You’ll protect her, because protecting her is protecting yourself. Protecting Madison is protecting yourself. As is protecting me, Astarion and everyone else. We survive together or all die apart.”

“That’s not my experience.” I muttered.

“This isn’t Winslow.” He answered. “And I’m not Blackwell”

He shifted where he sat, sitting crosslegged and facing me fully. “So, I will ask you formally. And you will decide what we will do. Do we go after the Hag… or leave little miss Barnes to die.”

I stared at him, and that smug smirk on his face made my blood boil.

“You’re a real bastard, ya know that?”

Durge chuckled, something low and smug and I wanted to punch him just then.

Durge’s head tilted, but his smug smile vanished, and those red eyes trailed down…

I followed his gaze… down towards my clenched fist-

My fist… wreathed in blue fire.

My eyes widened, hand snapping open in reflex to bat the flames away, patting it down with my other hand before I realized… I wasn’t burnt.

“Well now.” Durge drawled. “Isn’t that interesting.”

(X)(X)(X)

And we're off to deal with a kindly old woman living in a swamp.

What could possibly go wrong?

Everything!

Remember we have a discord to discuss all the fun stuff happening in these early access chapters if you want right here https://discord.gg/CAawuewfV

And I expect that there will be more than a few things duscussed on the way to Ethel's lair with maybe a few experiments along the way but what do you guys think is gonna happen?