I didn't notice before that the little altar where Jaheira's timeless body spell is sitting has a big carving of a deer behind it. That's a nice touch.
Interestingly, I don't think Rakha really has a sense of what this is about. Her understanding of magic is very instinctual and comes from witnessing spells in practice and the way different things interact with the Weave. This sort of notation would not mean much to her - which is good, because it means it makes sense for her to ask Jaheira about it, curious as ever.
And hey! It's time for a completely unrelated dialogue that I forgot Rakha hadn't had yet!
"The cub speaks."
"Cub?"
Jaheira blinks, and then laughs ruefully. "Huh," she says, with an air that indicates she did not entirely expect the word to have come out until it already had. "Not so much a term of age or affection," she goes on, "as simple old habit. You object?"
(A/N: This is kinda fun. :P Hector had not yet met Jaheira's kids when he had this conversation with her. Rakha has a somewhat different perspective."
Rakha thinks this over. She has heard Karlach use nicknames for people, including herself, so this isn't particularly puzzling - but she is surprised, nevertheless. Partly because she simply wasn't expecting it - and partly because she has already heard Jaheira use the term... to the children upstairs.
Not a term of age or affection... This is, Rakha realizes with abrupt clarity, a lie. And the reality of that fact leaves her off-balance.
I do not deserve these things. These bits of trust, these kind gestures.
Then again... Minsc is like her. And Jaheira values him this way - and more.
"I've been called worse things," she says gruffly after a long pause.
Jaheira's eyes narrow with a flash of humor. "And will be agaqin - but now I shall mutter them under my breath out of respect."
-----
"I found a strange scroll in your sanctuary," Rakha tells her after a while, feeling a sudden pressing need to change the subject. Magic is easier for her to talk about than... whatever that was. "Something about a timeless body."
Jaheira sighs dramatically. "The threat of spanking never kept the children from poking through my things," she says dryly. "Why should it deter you?" A pause; she looks past Rakha at the scroll on the table. "It is a ritual. Or it describes one at least. Practiced by druids of certain esoteric circles. If they be learned and powerful enough, the practitioner of this ritual might slow their aging. Extend their life well beyond its natural reach."
A frown tugs her mouth down at the corners. "In greener days I might have been strong enough to do it. I might be yet, with the right preparations..."
(A/N: I stand by my existing and developing headcanons about this in my particular Jaheira timeline. She initially started looking into this ritual with the intention of extending Rasaad's lifespan - and incorporated both existing druidic tradition and Rasaad's own Timeless Body feature as a monk into it. She was successful enough to give him more years - but not by any stretch enough for him to live to match her, or to see Rion grow up. And now he's dead, and the ritual's only remaining use, should she manage to complete it, is for her to continue to fight and work and struggle indefinitely, forever. This is a sorer subject, in this scenario, than she makes it out to be in game.)
Rakha, of course, is immediately fascinated by this description. She doesn't really care about the practical elements of extended lifespan or living forever - she just wants to hear about the magic. "So you plan to do it?"
Jaheira looks away. "I make no plans," she mutters. "Only contingencies." She flinches, seeing some censure in Rakha's face that is not actually there. "Do not look at me like that," she adds sharply. "I have been content to see the span of my natural years, a privilege far too few in this world can claim. I do not speak of clinging to life for its own sake. I just... look back on that life's work, and I wonder... is it done?"
She paces a few steps back and forth in front of Rakha. "The Dead Three plague the world still. The city still falls prey to small minds like Gortash, or lost souls like Orin. It is every Harper's hope to be a light that drives out darkness..." She trails off. Her eyes flick to one of the storage cases at the far end of the room. "But I've lived long enough to see so many of those lights burn out, while the shadows cling stubbornly on."
One of her fists clenches at her side. "Knowing that - isn't it our duty to burn on if we can? To fight for as long as we are able?"
Rakha blinks, unsure how to respond to this - but Minsc, without hesitation, steps into the silence.
"Minsc does not understand the question. You will live forever, Jaheira," he says earnestly.
(A/N: Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. 😭 )
Jaheira barks a sardonic laugh. "Of course I will, berserker," she says dryly. "And you will sprout soft and golden locks from that shining skull."
Rakha hesitates. This whole conversation feels a little beyond her, all but the mechanics of the magic in question. But she takes a stab at it. "It's only natural to want more life," she says slowly. Certainly those she have killed have always struggled desperately to live... she remembers flashes of thousands of murders and the battling of her victims... they play in her dreams every night.
Jaheira looks at her sideways, then nods. "Of course," she says thoughtfully. "It is our way. Just as it is death's way to meet us along the path, gently oblivious to whatever it is we *want.*"
She sighs, turning to look at the scroll again. "I spent most of my life fighting those who tried to escape their end," she goes on, more to herself than to Rakha. "Ketheric, Irenicus, Sarevok... that is not company I would like to keep. In truth, I had put this ritual from my mind, until Last Light."
Her jaw works at the sudden unpleasant memories. "Trapped in that darkness, I turned to my research again. What if I was a little stronger? As fast as I once had been?" Her gaze flicks to Rakha. "Then you came, and made the question moot. But I kept this. Just in case, I told myself. A final resort. Perhaps you were not the savior you seemed. I had learned better than to think of life as some simple tale, after all. There is no guarantee of happy endings, or true heroes."
She huffs a heavy breath out. "I believe that still. But when I look on all we have achieved since, I wonder... perhaps it is not heroes we need. Only people who are willing to try. I do not know what manner of story that makes, but I do know that without an ending it would be no story at all."
She walks to the makeshift altar, places a hand on the opened scroll, then slowly and methodically rolls it back up. "So I will accept mine, when and however it comes. As for this city's story, well..."
She glances over her shoulder at Rakha with a faint smile. "Well, that is entirely your problem now, cub."
Trust again. Trust. It always comes back to trust, to that which Jaheira and Wyll and Minsc and Lae'zel and all the others offer her in spite of how little she deserves it. But this is a new level altogether.
If I die, I die, Jaheira is saying, because you will carry on.
Rakha swallows. She does not know if she can believe that - and yet it is so clear that Jaheira does, even after watching her thrash against the bloodlust in her brain, sprawled in her bunk night after night after night. "I'm... honored you think of me that way," she says hoarsely. The words feel slightly stuck in her throat.
Jaheira snorts. "Hah. Do not thank me for slinging a weight around your neck. I might start to feel bad." She shrugs, watching Rakha's expression intently. "I do mean what I say. But I am also a Harper; in every honeyed word there is a hook."
A pause, and then she smirks. "But I do not plan on going anywhere just yet. And besides... you still have a tadpole in your skull. You are almost certainly going to die first."
Somehow that's the first thing she's said that Rakha can wholeheartedly agree with.
anyway. If everyone could stop reblogging the concept art of ur rook and lucanis mackin' on each other in a lovely little pool that would be great. I can only handle so much disappointment rn.
Last post is just so real. I have such a strong sense of determination when I want to achieve something, and I take a lot of pride in my work. I 🩷 working hard and being a show off. I can get SO SPECIFIC too
