3 imps currently surrounded him, he was trapped. Caleb wished to be back in the inn, re-reading his book for the first time again, Jester pestering him...
He pulled out his diamond, casting his ice spell and flailing about, failing entirely in hitting anything. His eyes flung around wildly, assessing and processing, and landed on Nott, sprinting toward him. She leapt forward, slicing at an imp, causing them to scatter. The sound of impacts and steel surrounded him, as he felt the stinger from one remaining imp sink into his side.
Blackness took him.
He woke up again in a blind panic. It had felt like hours since he was knocked out, if the aching of his body was any indication. He looked around, seeing nobody, and he did not recognise anything. It was a small forest clearing, like the island, but instead of a ramshackle ruin of a hut, and being dark as anything, it was light, and there was a single bench under a tree. Small white flowers dotted the clearing in clusters, sending a sweet floral scent to his nose. He stood slowly, cricking his back, and called out.
"Hello? Hello!?" His voice echoed into the trees. Frowning, he walked forward, inspecting the bench. It was worn and old, but seemed to be well tended, as if someone was actively looking after it, despite the very abandoned surroundings. He leaned closer, inspecting a small plaque on the back.
"Hello Caleb."
Startled, he swung around, aiming to shoot fire from his hands, but his connection to the Weave seemed weak, non-existent. That gave him the time to see the body from which the smooth voice had appeared.
A man stood in front of him, pale, gaunt. He had long black hair, woven into a few beaded braids, and pulled into a tail behind his head, revealing slight pointed ears. Elf? Half-elf? He was clad in dark leathers, runed and fringed in what appeared to be feathers. A lot of the detail after that went mostly unnoticed as he beheld a large pair of dark wings that were protruding from the mans shoulders. "Wings...?" He shook slightly, fear beginning to take him. Mentally, he chastised himself. He needed answers, fear could wait. He took deep breaths, counting to 10 like he had taught Nott, and steeled himself. "How do you know my name? Who are you? Where are we?" The man just smiled gently, and stepped beside Caleb. He sat on the bench, and patted the seat next to him. Caleb stood defiantly.
"I understand how you feel. Most come through here disconcerted and lost. I try to cater each person's passing differently, but as we share an incarnation, you are subject to slightly different rules, my friend." Caleb just stared incredulously. "I suppose a name is in order. I am Vax'ildan, Champion of the Raven Queen, I have a lot of titles these days, more so than I have just announced, but they are irrelevant really." Caleb heard a distant yelp, and could swear that belonged to Nott. His head whipped around, trying to source the sound.
"Relax. You are In Between. This is a small space separating the living and the dead. We merely have to decide if you live, or die. But that is mostly your choice. My Queen has already said so."
"Your Queen? The Raven Queen?"
"Yes, she is the Patron of Ravens, the Goddess who helps people pass over. I am her Champion, to help her ferry souls across the gate." Vax'ildan must have seen the panic on his face. "Do not worry, you can go back. All you have to do is ask."
A squeal of fright. Jester? 'Shitshitshitshitshit' Yes, definitely Jester. She sounds close. Closer than Nott did before.
"Ah, she is protecting you. You look out for each other. Good. Jester is your twin-soul, your other half, and she will always be there for you. It is a jovial relationship you currently have with each other, but you will call her sister one day, I hope." Caleb looked around, he just needed to find where the sound was coming from. He felt a warm feeling wash over him then, felt Nott's presence over him. It felt like she was everywhere on him. His hands raised up to his chest, clutching at nothing.
"Yes. The little goblin, Nott is it? You can feel her because you're still there, in some aspects. You are not dead yet. I will say I found it ironic that Scanlan would move to become the thing he despised most in his gnomish lifetime. But I find he will learn quickly that when he saw evil in their faces, he did not see the conditions in which they live. It's good he found you though. Family runs deep in our souls, Caleb, and he or she will always be beside you. Both of them. You are bound by Fate, after all."
A lot of theories that Caleb had read were becoming clear in his mind as actual fact, rather than fairy tail. He looked around the clearing again, it was beginning to go fuzzy, but he could swear there were threads hanging from the trees, criss-crossing between branches and boughs. He heard an echoing cry of victory, deep and thrumming in Fjord's tone of voice.
"Ah, he is with you too. That man will be your strength, always solid and never wavering. I imagine it's probably the only thing he knows, really. Fierce loyalty, a heart so big to love with, and a unquenchable need to protect those he has decided are his charges. He is a good man, through and through, and it seems he sorted himself out this time around, which is good." Fjord yelled again, this time in pain. Something was wrong, he needed to get back. They were not finished fighting.
"Help me Traveller!" Jester's voice was panicked, and she sounded so close, but still so far away... His vision doubled, and he stumbled back, knocking his knees out and sitting heavily on the bench.
"Dizzy?" Caleb nodded, unable to shake it. The details of this forest were beginning to blur, and he was beginning to feel queasy. He could hear Beau's cry and the whack of wood on bone.
"Beauregard, the monk, she was my girlfriend, in my lifetime. Though she is so much different, she is the same, really. The woman I knew, she was hindered and weighed by politics and leadership, being forced into that role early in her life. And Mollymauk, the man has finally shed all of that weight of duty and respect and nobility." The word sounded like dirt in this man's mouth. "Though I see his is still haunted by his inner demons, I hope they do not take over him like they did before." Caleb's dizziness would not let up, and it made it hard to listen properly, but he tried. Clearly this man was someone important, he would not be bothering Caleb otherwise.
"The other woman, she is not with you?' Caleb was confused. Other woman? 'Yasha."
"Oh yes, she fled the first day we saw her, right after the attack on the circus." A knowing smile crept across his face now, pulling the pale skin taught against his cheekbones.
"Yasha, she is going to be like that. She will join you, on occasion, as she is wont to do. Pickle was always touched by the gods, and again in this lifetime it seems, but she will be your closest ally always. The Gods will bring her to you when you need her most." Caleb felt a warm hand on his chest, though no hand was touching him. He could hear his world getting closer, the ping of a crossbow bolt on metal, an exasperated yelp from Jester, and a small quivering voice that made Caleb's heart break in his chest. "I'm blinded by tears!"
Vax'ildan looked up then, seemingly hearing something that Caleb could not see nor hear, and he looked down again, smiling warmly. "You are ready to go back, someone is desperate to wake you up." Caleb stood, extending his hand to the elf.
"I do not know what really happened here, and how it all connects, but I will find out." Vax shook his head.
"You will do no such thing, without memory of this ever taking place. Time is a funny thing here, and I will see you again soon enough."
Feathers, then darkness.
First thing Caleb notices is the cool temperature around him, turned icy by water-soaked island soil. Second is the taste of iron in his mouth, surely blood from being wounded. Third is the visage of a mouth full of teeth pulling away from his face. "Nyugh!" In a blind panic, he casts a light spell of small orbs to blind the person near him, but with no energy to scrabble back, merely blinks and lays there.
Ofcourse it's Nott, who is now panicking and swatting at the lights. He dispells it quickly, 'What the hell happened?" Nott rubs at her eyes, and Caleb slowly sits, watching two Jester's dance in a circle. A quick scan of the area tells him that the imps and devil-toad are defeated, and the excitement of what to do next slowlydisappates as they lick their wounds and work out what to do next. Caleb sees a raven in the distance, and while it tugs at something deep in hissubconsious, he turns to inspect Nott for wounds instead.
Somewhere, Vax'ildan sits and watches his new fate unfold.