Prompt fill for @astreamofstars from this ask meme: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL SENTENCE STARTERS. Jaheira & Karlach: "We were just talking about you."
-----
"Come here, Mattis," Jaheira calls across Last Light's dimly-lit tavern hall.
The tiefling boy jumps at the sound of his name, and then his shoulders square and he juts his jaw out defiantly, staring back at her. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it!" he says promptly.
Jaheira's lips twitch. "You are not in trouble. Come here; I wish to speak with you."
She studies the boy as he approaches her. Mattis is one of the oldest of the ragtag little group of orphan children that arrived at Last Light with the tiefling refugees. He's also one of the most brash, having set up a little shop of sorts at the front of the inn and spent the last few weeks bawling city-huckster patter at every Harper who wanders by.
But Jaheira is no stranger to lonely children. She can see the hollowness behind his cocky grin, the uncertainty that he thinks he is not showing.
He reminds her of Fig, in the days just after Minsc first brought her to the house - brash and loud and terribly scared. But that is not a memory that bears thinking about, when she will very likely never see her children again.
"It is all right, cub," she says quietly as he comes to a halt in front of her desk. "You need not look so poised to run."
He gives her a wary squint, scuffing one ratty boot against the inn floor. "What d'you want?"
"These newcomers," she says. "Carlisle and his companions. You know them, yes?"
He grunts. "Yeah. Saw 'em at the Grove. Stuff Mol said's all true - they helped us out. Fought goblins and that." He relaxes a little, lounges back on his heels with a smirk. "Nice enough. Carlisle's a big bloody nerd."
"Mm. Yes. I believe you are right about that." Jaheira smiles crookedly.
Her instinct is to like Carlisle, but he is a bit of a puzzle. He and his companions carry illithid tadpoles, the same as those carried by the Absolutist True Souls. By all rights she should have simply ended him at the gate and let the gods sort it out.
But he drank her truth serum willingly. He carries subtle marks of Selune on his robes and answered her questions with a placid steadiness that reminded her more than a little of Rasaad. Mol, the scruffy little leader of the tiefling refugee children, even vouched for him.
All of this serves to make matters... complicated.
Malar's mark, she thinks sardonically. What I wouldn't give for an uncomplicated matter - just the once. Perhaps it would be easier if the worm had simply done its work entire and chewed his mind to pieces. At least then it would have left me with no questions.
She raises an eyebrow at Mattis. "But you spoke to them just now, to his friend with the broken horn?"
"Oh, yeah." Mattis brightens up, the grin on his face turning abruptly more genuine. "That's Karlach!"
Yes, she remembers Carlisle mentioning this name. In spite of her bulk and muscle, the hulking tiefling woman had seemed remarkably nervous to speak to Jaheira. Yet another who has heard too many tales mangled by tavern bards, no doubt. "And what do you know of her?"
"She was in the hells with us." Mattis leans into the story with relish, crossing his arms over his chest. "She fought for Zariel, killing demons and all. She was so cool! This one time, we saw her square off with a barlgura--"
Jaheira blinks. "She is a member of the archdevil's forces?"
"Yeah-- well, was. She got away, like we did." Mattis shrugs. "Guess she's fighting for Carlisle now." He snickers. "Guess he's probably a better boss. You see the way he was looking at her?"
"Mm."
"We all wanted t' be like her. Wouldn't have t' be selling all this junk, then." Mattis jerks his head to indicate the shelf full of knickknacks behind him. "Nobody'd ever mess with us. Bam, pow--" He mimes punching the air in front of him. "Right?"
"No doubt," Jaheira says.
Mattis opens his mouth to continue - then gives a startled yelp as a hand claps down on his shoulder.
Karlach is standing just behind him, her eyebrows knitted questioningly. "Not bothering the High Harper, are you, Matty?" she says lightly.
"No!" He wrenches his shoulder out of her grip with an indignant scowl. "She wanted to talk to me!"
"I did," Jaheira puts in. Karlach is so tall that she too has to tilt her head back a little to meet the tiefling's eyes. "We were just speaking of you, actually."
Karlach's eyes widen visibly, and she gives a quick double-take around her, as if to check whether Jaheira is speaking to someone else. "Me, ma'am?"
"Yes. The boy was just telling me that you have had your own escape from the hells not so long ago." Jaheira folds her arms, meeting Karlach's gaze steadily. "That is no mean feat."
"Oh-- no. I mean, yes, ma'am, I did, but uh--" Karlach has gone abruptly several shades darker. "It was nothing. I mean, compared to everything you've--"
"Karlach." Jaheira's smile fades and she looks at the younger woman more soberly. "I have been to the hells. I do not say this idly. I know that it is a dark, brutal place - and I know that not many escape its clutches."
Karlach hesitates, then seems to deflate a little. "Thank you, ma'am," she says softly, staring down at the crumpled map on the table between them. "It, uh... well, yeah, it sucked shit, ma'am. No other way of saying it."
Jaheira barks a sudden, soft laugh. "Well said indeed." She shakes her head, looking Karlach up and down. "It is a hard thing for you, I think - to have escaped the clutches of one such as Zariel only to be infected with an illithid parasite."
Karlach grins ruefully. "Yeah, that's me, ma'am. Can't catch a break. But... well, if it means being able to see the stars again, and roll around in the grass and flowers and breathe the fresh air, then I'd take a hundred tadpoles. That makes it all worth it."
She pauses, looks over her shoulder. "Well... it did until we got here, anyway."
Jaheira follows her gaze towards the entrance of the inn, and the darkness of the twisted landscape beyond it. "These lands have little to recommend them over Avernus, it is true," she agrees. "Reithwin was once a land of rolling hills as bright as any in Faerun. But those days are past, and I do not know if they will ever return."
She considers a moment, then lifts her hand towards Karlach. Green-gold light swirls over her palm, slowly resolving itself into a large flower with thick, tiered petals mottled in white and deep crimson. "Here. Flowers such as this grew here in the days before the war," she tells Karlach gravely, holding the flower out towards her. "A taste only of what once was, but better than nothing."
"Whoa." Karlach reaches out, her long fingers surprisingly delicate as they take the flower from Jaheira. She stares down at it with the air of a lost traveler sighting water in the desert, and for a moment, Jaheira thinks she might be about to burst into tears. "Thank you, ma'am."
Jaheira snorts. "Mm. Do not thank me yet. The task I have for you and your companions is not one I would wish on anyone," she says. "I am not sure that a flower and kind words will be nearly enough payment for all you have gone through, in the end. But... for what it is worth..." She smiles crookedly. "You are welcome."
-----
Tag List: @eluvisen @krawwan @marigoldbaker @thedarkstrategist @writer86
@scribblingface @yeehawitsjakee @wrenthedruid @redfoxwithaccount
(Want to join one of my tag lists? Click here!)
