In Caduceus' defence, nobody had actually described Mollymauk to him. He knew about the man's two glittering glass swords, his long billowing coat marking a now empty gravesite, the cards that he used to tell the future in a weirdly accurate way that still left Jester reeling.
He knew that they still expected him to return somehow, eyes scanning the sea of faces every time they passed through a town or entered a tavern, shoulders slumping minutely whenever they did not see him looking back at them.
However not a single one of them informed Caduceus that he was specifically a heavily tattooed purple tiefling.
"Uh-Are you aware you're dead?"
The tiefling tilted his head back to stare up at Caduceus, the firbolg casting a shadow over him as he waited patiently in the market, basket resting on hips.
"I figured as much," the tiefling replied, shifting over slightly and patting the warm stonework next to him, "I've been dead twice that I know of, that sorta thing has got to leave a mark."
Caduceus blinked.
"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction," the cleric laughed, settling his basket on the floor and joining the tiefling on the wall.
"Do you have a lot of experience with dead people not being dead?"
The tiefling asked, tossing another sweet to land exactly in his mouth. The sweet scent of lemon followed the loud crack, the tiefling wincing and pushing a hand against the side of his mouth.
Caduceus waited, head inclined to the side as he watched the tiefling press a fingertip to the spot where he had bitten his cheek and withdraw it, red blood blending with purple skin.
"Well?" The tiefling prompted, mouth twisting.
Caduceus blinked slowly, mind rolling through the last few moments of his life.
"I have some," he admitted, "They usually return to being dead quite quickly. None are quite as, well, alive as you."
The tiefling cocked his head, jewellery gently tapping against his horns and grinned. The mere sight of sharp teeth pressed against lilac flesh, danger wrapped up in something soft sent a thrill down Caduceus' spine.
"I'll be honest, that's quite a compliment," the tiefling almost purred, tail twitching behind him like a pampered cat, "You sure know how to woo a man."
Caduceus felt his face flush, ears burning as he shifted his gaze back to the marketplace. It was a good one, signs of a previously fragile set up shifting into permanence, wood shops replacing teetering stalls. People buzzed to and fro, some hurried and some calm. There was no shouting, no panicked screams. The sun beat down overhead. It was a good day.
"You okay?" The tiefling asked, eyes scanning the market place like Caduceus had just done. However the man looked worried, out of place, an intruder in the hive waiting to be found out.
"I am I think," Caduceus answered, pulling his basket a bit closer to him, settling it once more between his feet.
"I used to take care of a graveyard," he said, idly tapping his fingers against the cold stone, feeling the push of mushrooms begin to nudge against the pads.
"It was just me there after a while and I was at peace, just me and my garden and the dead who would stay dead."
Caduceus could see it so clearly, light becoming muggy and shadowed as it filtered through the heavy leaves, fog swirling over everything giving it an almost surreal air, his mushrooms clustered together eager to see him.
"And then my forest started to die. I couldn't hear Her voice anymore so I left with some people who stumbled across me to try and find Her."
"I have a similar story," The tiefling offered, patting Caduceus' hand once in a gesture of comfort and solidarity.
"Does it explain how you are dead but not?"
"A bit? I'm not quite sure of how I managed it myself."
The tiefling shifted on the bench, turning more fully towards Caduceus, tail curling in eye catching pattern, first over one shoulder and then over the other.
"I was another person before I was me. He was the one who found this trick. I awoke in my own grave and made my own way from there. I wound up in a circus before I decided to go travelling with a group. I died again and I don't know what happened to them. So I've just been roaming around, trying to do some good."
Caduceus nodded, mind ticking this over. The tiefling appeared to be honest and while some of his tattoos were magical, power oozing from them, others were not. The firbolg resolutely ignored the stray thought that he would like to inspect them closer for non-magical studying reasons as well.
"You seem to be different," Caduceus said slowly, ignoring the prickling on his skin that warned of the undead nearby, "Less undead than what I normally see, but less alive than a living person."
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" the tiefling asked, voice brightening with barely concealed hope, "I can't remember how it works or how it happened. I can't remember anything from before this life. I'm grateful I'm not fully dead but I don't know if it's permanent or not."
"I couldn't say now," the cleric answered, shaking his head, "I would have to run some magical tests, get some others to help. There's a wizard I travel with, he is good with magical things like this."
The tiefling nodded, turning his face up to the sky, a flower unfurling under the sun.
"I guess it was too much to hope for. An instant solution was never in the cards for me," the tiefling answered, letting out a low chuckle at some unknown joke.
"Are you hungry?"
The tiefling blinked in surprise at the sudden shift in conversation.
"A bit," he admitted, casting a longing glance at a nearby food stall and Caduceus didn't need to think hard to see that the tiefling was lying.
"My friends took my money when I died," he said, shrugging with a self deprecating grin. "Can't say I blame them, but it does make living after death a bit more difficult."
"Wait here."
Caduceus stood, feeling his bones creak and crack as he did so and made his way towards the stall. The scent of cooking meat became more intense, spices mingling with the sweetness of the honey, setting mouths watering at the other end of the market place.
"What can i get you hunny?" the stall owner asked, her voice high and chirping. She was a short dwarven woman, her beard carefully plaited and tucked behind a bright yellow cotton bandana that matched the one wrapped around her head, and bright red cheeks.
"Can I have three meat skewers please?" Caduceus asked, giving her a bright smile.
"Of course you can! Fifteen sliver pieces please!"
The money clinked as it changed hands and Caduceus noticed the tiefling perk up at the sight of it. The other was trying to not be noticed as he intently watched Caduceus, but failed.
"Here you go!" The dwarven woman piped up after a few minutes, passing three skewers to the firbolg before beckoning the next hungry customer forward.
"Thank you," Caduceus said, smiling softly down at her and she twisted around to grin up at him, offering him a wink before her attention was taken back up by her steadily growing line of customers. The firbolg lifted the skewers into the air as he moved back to the tiefling, still sitting eagerly on the wall where Caduceus left him. Juice ran down the firbolg's wrist, leaving a trail of stickiness in it's wake.
"Here you go. It looks like you could do with a good meal. I'd cook you something, but this will do just as well," he apologised, passing two of the skewers to the tiefling whose eyes grew almost as wide as plates, gaze flickering between the offered food and Caduceus' face.
"I- I-" the tiefling tried, taking hold of the food, unable to find the correct words, jewellery which decorated his horns shining brightly in the fully risen sun.
"Thank you," he finally settled on, flashing a grin that was all teeth at Caduceus before wolfing down half the skewer in a few seconds, cheeks bulging as he groaned in pleasure, juice running down his chin.
Caduceus felt his face heat up, cheeks turning as pink as his hair before he bit into his own skewer. The food was good, warm and filling. He focused on the spices, mentally running through them. He knew the others would appreciate this taste, he could only hope it worked as well with seagull or whatever monster they found as it did with beef. However hard he tried however, he was acutely aware of the tiefling sitting next to him. He was a constant source of warmth, a beacon at Caduceus' side that he was inexplicably drawn towards, hopeless moth to a flame. His tail traced a path up Caduceus' arm, tickling in the tiefling's happiness as the other ate, licking the juices from his fingers with a wide grin on his face.
"Does- ah- does your tail normally do that?" Caduceus asked, curiosity driving him over the edge. He couldn't recall seeing Jester's tail move like that, the shorter blue tiefling's tail normally acting much more like he would expect an animals too, a simple extension of her to express emotion. This was like an entirely new limb and the firbolg's mind temporarily dipped into more heated uses for the tiefling's tail before he pulled his mind away once more. Jester may be very sweet, a bright light in the darkest of places and thoughts, but she was a terrible influence.
The tiefling blinked up at him in confusion, brow furrowing as he opened his mouth to ask before he saw his tail coiled around Caduceus' arm like a creeper vine coiled around a tree.
"I am so sorry, it- I-"
The tiefling gave up and shrugged, biting into the last half of his final skewer as he worked to detangle his tail, mumbling muffled apologies as his fingers ran involuntarily across Caduceus arm.
"Fine first impression I'm making aren't I?" he chuckled, wrapping his tail around his hand, thumb running across the spaded tip, "You check that I'm okay, buy me food and I attach myself to you. Literally."
"It's okay," Caduceus said, impulsively reaching across to squeeze the tiefling's hand offering wordless comfort, "My friends sort of broke into my home and I offered them tea."
The tiefling chuckled at that, the noise morphing into full blown body trembling laughs as he tossed his head back, jewellery rattling together and shining brightly in the sun.
In that moment, sitting in the sunshine, warm and comfortable and with good company that twisted his emotions in a way Caduceus hadn't considered before, that everything was as perfect as it had every been. Caduceus felt Her hand in this, Her approval of his actions, warmth like a smile from a delighted doting mother.
"Molly?"
The tiefling's head snapped around, breaking the spell to stare dumfounded at Jester, the smaller tiefling motionless in the centre of the market before she screamed, dropping her packages and flinging herself at the man.
"Caduceus you found Molly," she bawled, wrapping herself as tightly as possible around the tiefling, as if he would disappear from within her grasp like smoke.
"So you're Mollymauk. Pleasure to meet you, the name's Caduceus," Caduceus said, stretching out a hand to shake the tiefling's.
"Likewise," Mollymauk replied, voice strangled from the chokehold Jester was currently enacting, his hand warm in Caduceus.
As the rest of the group came running, the tiefling vanishing underneath a crush of bodies and delighted shouts of his name, Caduceus rescued the bags in danger of being squished and watched his friends, basking in their happiness. The Wildmother was good, this was all meant to be and Caduceus smiled, seeing his path twist and solidify in front of him, the certainty of her hand guiding him discarding the bone deep terror which had been plaguing him for the past few months.
He couldn't wait to see where this journey would take him next.