How to Train Your Alchemist.
Just a quick little story about how my OC handled the Oblodra situation in Moonrise Towers. I needed a break from my overly detailed 8K and rising smut chapter. Anyway. Enjoy!
Warning: Violence. Bullying and Strong language. 18+
Araj stammered backwards into the table. Sending both her and various bottles clattering to the ground.
Aloria had a hand around her armor strap and was yanking her forward before the alchemist could process she was no longer standing.
“Understand this you nepotistic, brain washed Underdark slag. These PEOPLE follow me because I have earned their trust and respect. Not because I was born with some bullshit name that demands it.”
“What is that supposed to mean to me you male sympathizing sun slut!?” She spat.
Aloria pushed into her space close enough she could smell the feted undertone Astarion had complained about.
“It means my clit is bigger than yours."
Araj shifted uncomfortably under Aloria's intense gaze.
"You so much a breath disrespectfully around any of those I protect, I will make it my new true soul purpose to give you more blood than you could ever hope to have. And you needn’t worry about the source...”
Aloria smeared a drip of blood that trailed down from a cut on Araj’s eyebrow across her lips and sneered as she recoiled from the taste of it.
“Because it will all be yours.”
Araj wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as Aloria released her and stepped back.
The look she gave Astarion dripped with distain.
“Apologize? To a slave? I’d rather die…”
Aloria had her bow loaded and fired before the Drow could finish the sentence. The arrow made a dull thump sound as it sunk into the rotten table close enough to her face to cut her hair.
"Sorry, hands a little sore."
The second arrow was already pulled and aimed slightly in.
“WAIT! DOMINA!” Araj shouted as she covered her face with her arm.
Aloria lowered the bow and waited.
“I’m sorry I was disrespectful to you, spaw...Astarion. I did not know you were an…equal.”
Astarion fidgeted. Unsure wither to be flippant or just accept to defuse the situation.
“Forgiven. But let this be a lesson that topside true souls do not bow to Drow traditions.”
Aloria grabbed Araj by her armor again and forced her to her feet. She took a moment to right her skewed breast plate then walked away. Leaving the Drow completely shaken and confused.
Aloria hadn’t planned on confronting the alchemist but the way she had spoken to Astarion had angered her to the point of blindness. She hated confrontation. But she hated people who felt entitled to just take what they wanted from others more.
She knew she did the right thing by defending her friends. But she was pissed that she even had to.
Standing up to others in such a direct way also left her with a surplus of adrenaline in her veins. The memory of setting justifiable boundaries only to be punished added to her anxiety and drove her need to be as far away from the stench of that tower as soon as possible.
She was on the verge of a panic attack and she didn't want her companions to see it.
"Some "hero" you are." She mentally chastised herself. "Running away from your own feelings. What a charlatan."
She was already back in the main hall when Astarion caught up to her.
“Well. That was certainly a show. Did you see her face? She really thought you were going to kill her."
She flexed the hand she had used to punch Araj. Using the pain to distract her from her wild emotions.
Astarion didn’t have to ask if she was okay. He could smell that she wasn’t. The bittersweet scent of anger and fear rolled off her in waves.
Thinking better of continuing to use wit to defuse the situation like he always did, he dropped back and let her go.
“Damn.” Karlach said, standing next to Astarion to watch Aloria ascend the stairs to leave. “I wish I had someone to lose their shit over me like that.”
“Odd that you assume that she wouldn’t have done the same if it was you.” Shadowheart said as she walked past them to keep Aloria in her sight.
“Yeah. I guess you are right. But that felt "personal" personal.”
Guilt rose in Astarion's throat like bile. That was the third time she had stood up for him. The third time she had proven she saw him as a person and not a thing to be used.
He couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t important to him anymore. Couldn't pretend that she only kept him around for his looks and sexual abilities. She didn't. And she deserved better.
Karlach bumped Astarion's arm with her elbow.
"Lucky fucker. Nothing to say about what just happened? Our leader just busted someone's chops for you."
Astarion said the only thing he could think of as Aloria and Shadowheart disappeared over the landing.