Molly had to admit, he was impressed. When they had been hired for this job, he would have never expected Caleb to be the one leading the team. Yet, here they were.
The job had been relatively straightforward. One of the nobility in town, Lord Semnan, had recently had his home broken into, and an old family heirloom stolen- a sword imbued with slight magical properties that had been in the family for centuries. Something in the way he spoke felt… off, like he wasn't telling them something. But he was offering a substantial sum for the safe return of his weapon, and without any substantial signs of it being a bad decision, the Mighty Nein had decided to take on the job.
Once they had determined who the culprit was, they managed to track the man down to a seedy pub at the edge of the worse side of town. When the Nein confronted the man, they were surprised to find that the man was Zemnian- perhaps the first other Zemnian they had encountered since forming their group. While the Nein were no match for the man with his multiple henchmen standing in wait nearby, not to mention the distinct lack of Crownsguard in the area, they did manage to come up with an arrangement. The man offered the sword as a bet, if one of the group could win an obscure dice game against him. While Molly and the others racked their brains to try to remember if they had ever heard of it, Caleb surprised them all by stepping forward and accepting the challenge.
…and he won. Somehow. Molly wasn't quite able to follow along with what was happening, but the gleam in Caleb's eyes when he showed the man the results of his final roll said it all. The man seemed shocked for a moment, staring at the result, and suddenly let out a booming laugh that almost rattled the glasses on the table.
"Sehr gut! Well done, my friend!" He said. He caught the eye of one of his underlings, making a gesture at them that had the dwarf skittering away, reappearing a moment later with two mugs of ale, which he handed to each of the two men. "You've beaten me fair and square, so as per our agreement, the sword is yours. But first- to a good game!"
They clinked their glasses together and Caleb took a swallow while the man chugged down nearly half of his own. Caleb then settled the mug down onto the table, giving the man a small, awkward smile. "Well, this has been fun. Thank you for the ale, but my friends and I really must be going. Appointments to keep and all that."
The other Zemnian gave him a shark toothed grin. "Of course, of course." He passed the sword over the table, which Jester intercepted and stuck into her bag. "Well, if you'd ever like a rematch, you know where to find me! I have not had such a worthy challenger in quite some time."
"Yes, I'll keep that in mind," Caleb said, though Molly could tell that Caleb had no interest in doing so.
With that, the Mighty Nein left the pub and started to make their way in the direction of Lord Semnan's estate. It was quite a long trek, being on the opposite side of town, and ended up being slow going as the group got distracted by different things. After half an hour, they had only managed to make it out of the slums, having stopped at both a curiosity shop and a bakery (the latter at Jester's insistence, though it was a good choice- they were all very hungry after their busy morning.)
Molly was licking the jam off his fingers as they left the bakery when about twenty paces out the door, Caleb tripped right in front of him. Molly's reflexes kicked in a moment too late, and in reaching out to catch Caleb, he instead crashed to the ground alongside the red headed man. Molly looked around for the source of the incident as he pushed himself up from the ground, but saw nothing but smooth, packed earth. He frowned at his companion as he brushed off some dirt off of his coat. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, sorry. I just tripped over myself, and- schiße." Caleb, who had been attempting to get to his feet, immediately tumbled back to the ground when attempting to put weight on his right ankle. The curse managed to snag the attention of the others. Jester, who had been at the tail end of the group stuffing pastries into her bag, immediately rushed over, the others trailing behind. "Caleb! Are you alright?!"
Caleb gave her a thin lipped smile. "Es geht mir gut- I'm fine. I think I twisted my ankle though."
"Oh, let me heal that for you!" Jester held her hands over his ankle, and after a moment of nothing happening her face fell. "Wait. I'm sorry. I used up all of my magic earlier when we had the confrontation with those owlbears."
"Used up all my health potions in that encounter too, I'm afraid," Fjord said, rummaging through his things. The others all had similar results as well.
"Well, that's all right," Molly said cheerily. " I'll just help you back to the inn and fix you up while the others go on ahead."
Caleb shifted uncomfortably. "Mollymauk, really, I'm fine. I just need to-"
"You can hardly make it back to the inn yourself, and I learned to deal with plenty of injuries and ailments during my time at the circus. This'll be a piece of cake! Besides, something felt off about Semnan when he was describing the situation. I think the more of us that goes to meet him, the better."
Caleb met Molly's eyes for a brief moment before looking away, sighing in resignation. Nott stepped forward and put her hand on Caleb's shoulder, concerned. "Would you like me to come with too, Caleb?"
Caleb smiled at his friend. "No, you should go with the others. They need you more, I think. I'll be fine." He leaned in closer. "If something goes wrong, I don't think they can do it without you," he told her in a slight whisper.
Nott still looked unconvinced, but she hesitantly nodded and rejoined the others. "We'll bring you back some loot!" Beau told the pair.
"Well, come on, let's get to it," Fjord said, waving the group forward.
"See you guys later!" Jester called out merrily.
Molly watched them leave for a moment before turning to Caleb. "Well, let's get you up then." He shuffled closer until the two were side by side. "Put your arm around my shoulder- there we go." As Caleb grabbed Molly's shoulder, Molly put his arm around Caleb's waist, and slowly the pair rose to their feet. Molly smirked a bit when he noticed the slight tinge of pink to Caleb's cheek in response to his hold, but didn't say anything about it. "Are you ready?" He asked instead.
"Ja."
Together they slowly hobbled their way back to the Inn. Molly immediately led Caleb upstairs and to his own room, sitting him down on the bed before rummaging around for bandages and the other necessary supplies needed for mending his ankle. He worked quietly, glancing at Caleb every once and a while to gauge how he was doing. The man remained looking out the window the entire time, and besides for a few winces of pain, he didn't say anything. Molly was concerned about the sheen of sweat that had begun to appear on Caleb's brow, as well as the flushed cheeks that no longer seemed to sustained by Molly's antics. When he nonchalantly brushed his hand on the patch of bare skin above the bandages as he set to mending Caleb's ankle, he was slightly concerned with the warmth he felt. "Feeling alright, Caleb?"
"Ja. Exhausted from the walk, I think. It's a bit warm in here."
Molly frowned as he stood up as he finished his ministrations. "I'll get you a glass of water, then. Be back in a tick." He quickly crossed over to the window and opened it a crack to let the breeze in before heading towards the door. "Danke," Caleb said to his retreating back.
Minutes later, Molly was back on his way up the stairs, glass of water in hand. He pushed open the door of his room to find that Caleb had made himself a bit more comfortable, sprawled out with his head at the end closest to the window. Though Molly had only been gone for a few minutes, Caleb looked considerably worse, the flush in his skin deepening and the sweat starting to soak through his clothes. Caleb seemed to have been sick over the side of the bed while he was gone, and, his eyes had a bit of a glaze. He barely recognized as Molly stepped through the door. "Caleb?" Molly asked, alarm.
"I'm burning," Caleb rasped. "Why am I burning?"
Molly immediately rushed over, placing a hand on Caleb's forehead and winced. Molly ran hot himself, and he knew it must be serious if he felt such a heat emanating from the wizard. Caleb involuntarily winced at the touch, and Molly withdrew his hand. He paused when Caleb moaned slightly, and Molly smelled an unmistakable scent on Caleb's breath. He let out a string of curses in Infernal, only stopping when he saw Caleb flinch yet again at his words. "You've been poisoned, Caleb. That son of a bitch poisoned you. I knew he was too happy of a loser."
Caleb's glazed eyes met his for a moment, before sliding up towards the ceiling. "It's so hot. Gods, help me. I don't want to burn again!"
Molly immediately rushed over and threw open the window the rest of the way, then hurried back and sat Caleb up and immediately started stripping off his ragged coat. Caleb twisted around, trying to fight him off, but Molly grabbed one shoulder and held him firmly in place. "Caleb, darling, stop fighting me. We need to get you cooled down." He eventually managed to get the wizard down to his underclothes, respecting Caleb's sense of modesty too much to go any further. They were soaked through with sweat.
Molly moved over to the water basin on a table at the other end of the room, gathering any bit of cloth along the way that he could find (his handkerchief, some spare bandages, a cloth with a few crumbs that must have once wrapped a baked good) and dipped them all in the water. He moved back and started laying the water soaked cloths anywhere he could find bare skin in an attempt to cool Caleb down. Caleb, in his daze, immediately tried to throw them off, but Molly moved to restrain him once again, holding him down by the shoulders. "Caleb, please, you need to stop, this will help you," he pleaded, but Caleb's struggling was surprisingly strong despite his state. Molly looked around, but there was nothing he could use to keep Caleb still. He couldn't hold onto him forever- he needed to work. With a resolved sigh, he stared into Caleb's eyes. "I'm sorry, dear, but you need to stay still. Stop struggling and leave the cloths alone," he hissed in Devil's Tongue.
Immediately, the tension beneath his hands disappeared as Caleb stopped struggling, though a persistent shivering still prevailed and he absolutely shone with sweat. Molly quickly brought the previously discarded water glass over, lifting Caleb's head slightly and bringing the glass to his lips. Caleb was barely coherent, but he opened his mouth anyway. Molly gently tipped some of the water in, though as soon as it hit the back of his throat Caleb gagged, spewing the water down onto his already soaked through shirt. Molly swore again at the response. "Damn. I was hoping we hadn't gotten to that part yet."
Satisfied that Caleb wasn't going anywhere, Molly pulled his bag out from under his bed, rummaging around before pulling out a few different jars of different herbs and other substances. Molly carefully laid them out on a side table and started preparing things, talking to Caleb as he went, though it was a toss up as to whether the man could understand him at this point. "I've seen this a couple of times before. We had one memorable occasion while I was with the circus where a local barkeep wasn't so happy to have "rabble" in her city. Poisoned two of the company. Tried it on me too, though it turns out tieflings are immune." He crushed two herbs together, then mixed them with the rest of the substance he had made so far. "It's not pretty. Meant to slowly burn a man to death from the inside out; put fire in his veins, so to speak." Finished, he brought the resulting paste over to Caleb, sitting on the bed next to him.
"I made sure I knew how to counter it after that. I have all sorts of tricks in my bag like that." He rummaged around in said bag yet again, pulling out some more bandages, then took out one of his scimitars. "I'm sorry, Caleb. I hoped you could take it in potion form, but one of the nastier side effects of this poison as it progresses is that it makes you incapable of ingesting anything. So you can't try to extinguish it from the inside, I suppose," He told him. "This will only take a moment."
It was a testament to how far gone Caleb was that he didn't even flinch when Molly made the small cuts on his forearms. Putting his blade away, he then carefully applied the paste he had made over the bleeding wounds, before wrapping them carefully in bandages. "There," he said, pushing the sweaty curls off of Caleb's forehead. That should take effect soon."
Sure enough, after about ten minutes Molly felt a temperature shift under his fingers as Caleb slowly started to drift down from dangerous levels of heat. His shivering became more pronounced, though his awareness seemed to come back to him, as he turned his gaze to Molly and his voice wavered as he spoke. "It's… It's cold. Why is it so cold n-n-now?" His teeth chattered at the end of his sentence.
"That's the result of the salve," Molly explained, carding his hand through Caleb's hair.
"I-it hurts, Mollymauk."
"Oh, darling," Molly crooned. He shifted so that he was further on the bed, then pulled Caleb into his lap. The wizard leaned into the heat of his embrace as Molly ran his fingers through Caleb's hair. "That means it's working. It's alright. It'll be over soon."
Molly wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, Caleb leaning against Molly as he whispered soothing words at him, stroking his hair. Molly watched the sun slowly descend in the sky until eventually, Caleb's shivers started to die down until they finally stopped altogether. Exhausted, he fell asleep against Molly's chest.
Not too long after that, Molly's attention was torn away from Caleb at the sudden knock on his door. "Come in," Molly called softly, though he probably could've shouted and Caleb wouldn't have stirred. It was Fjord who poked his head in. "I just wanted to- what happened?"
"That Zemnian bastard poisoned Caleb's drink," Molly practically growled.
"Is he alright?"
"He's going to be."
Fjord stepped further into the room. "We were right to have a funny feeling about that Semnan fella as well. His sword wasn't stolen- he gave it to that crime lord and then claimed it was stolen in hopes that some adventurers would finish him off. Seems that he had quite the underground empire of his own, and wanted to take out the competition. He was mighty pissed to find out that we'd let the man live- though from the way he sent off some of his servants, I don't expect it'll stay that way for much longer."
"Frankly, if they don't finish the job, I'm inclined to do it myself."
"Speaking of finishing the job, we took care of things on Semnan's end as well," Fjord continued. "Turns out his daughter had no idea about any of his less… reputable inclinations. She was coming to speak to him when she heard him reveal his true nature to us, and managed to get some Crownsguard inside to overhear as well, and arrest him. Strong girl. Seems that the estate will be in good hands. She gave us a much larger sum than we were expecting- Jester can give you your shares tomorrow. The rest of them are downstairs celebrating, but I thought I'd come up to let you know what happened.
"Thank you, my friend." Molly told him sincerely.
"Do you need help getting him back to his room?" Fjord asked, gesturing to Caleb's prone form leaning against Molly.
"That would probably be best, wouldn't it? Wouldn't want to worry the others. Mind the ankle, though," Molly said looking down towards the bandaged area. Caleb didn't stir as Fjord carefully picked him up and brought him to his room, Molly trailing behind with Caleb's outer clothing in his arms. He placed them on the nightstand as Fjord settled Caleb on the bed. Together, they managed to get Caleb tucked in. Molly took one last moment to brush the hair off Caleb's forehead again. He was grateful that the wizard's expression was finally a peaceful one.
"Thought we only had to worry about him being squishy on the battlefield," Fjord said as they watched Caleb's chest move up and down.
"Me too," Molly replied.
They didn't worry the others with it, in the end. That was Caleb's choice, if he wanted them to know. For the next two weeks, though, there wasn't a single food or drink that passed through Caleb's lips that wasn't subtly checked by Fjord or Molly first.