"You have got to be kidding me." Vex'ahlia blinked, dumbfounded by the sight in front of her.
The Journey's End was a sizable tavern, and one well known and traveled by Vox Machina during their time in Whitestone. However, none had ever seen it quite like this. It was largely empty save for a large, circular table in the center of the room that was full of bowls of nuts and flagons undoubtedly full of ale. On the other side of the room was Cassandra de Rolo and J.B. Trickfoot standing beneath a long banner that read "Welcome Back, Heroes!" hastily scrawled in paint.
Cassandra blew a party horn prompting J.B. to clap enthusiastically. The clapping lasted a few seconds too long as the rest of the party simply stood baffled in the doorway until it petered out.
Vex took a step forward, half-elven eyes taking in the subtler details.
The woman found herself being extra careful lately, and it was due not only to her first brush with death, but now that she was married and recently without a brother, she wanted to stay safe for the few still alive who loved her.
Her carefulness sometimes bordered on paranoia, but she never considered it a negative trait. It was hereditary, something stronger in Vax'ildan that she would always remember about him. Lately, remembering him was difficult. Gut-wrenchingly difficult. It was one of the reasons she wanted to get away from Whitestone for a while.
It was remembering him that made seeing the Bunions & Flagons logo on that damned screen so absolutely infuriating. Dice trays and pieces of paper were spaced neatly and evenly apart all across the edges of the table, and a large cloth hid something in the center.
"Grog-" Vex'ahlia started, her voice trembling before she was cut off by a firm hand around her wrist.
She looked expecting to see Percival holding her back, but was surprised (especially considering the strength) to see Scanlan holding her.
"You've really outdone yourself this time, buddy!" Scanlan smiled, pulling the two of them closer, which encouraged the rest of them to enter and gaze around the room replete with multicolored streamers and ribbons of all shapes and sizes.
Vex'ahlia wasn't sure whether to be astounded or appalled at the amount of work that was put into this. It was like looking at a macaroni portrait just for you, except that every bit of glitter and glue in the house had been dumped on the page and presented with a 'tada!'
"Indeed I have, Ser Shorthalt." Grog was smiling, even blushing at the response. His voice was bouncy and jovial and his positivity infectious. Despite her flash of anger, Vex'ahlia began to relax, and, surrounded by her closest friends with no threat of imminent death, she even found herself smiling.
"Alright, everyone, take your seats for I have prepared for you another rip-roarin' adventure in the realm of Xanderia! Please hold your praise until- actually don't hold your praise. Lay it on."
Cassandra and J.B. shared a glance and rolled their eyes before they both gathered at the table with the rest of them. "My apologies about the honeymoon, dear brother." Cass said as she tied off a balloon and let it bounce against the ceiling, stone-faced.
"Yeah." Came a slightly eerie voice from Cassandra's left. The youngest of the Trickfoots and Pike's cousin, J.B., pulled herself up to sit on a bar stool. "I've learned when Grog asks for your help he isn't taking 'no' for an answer." She said, pushing her reading glasses further up her nose, an oversized book in her other hand.
The party, brought together again in good spirits and having not seen each other for weeks quickly began falling into their old ways both literally and figuratively. There was much conversation and questions about Scanlan and Pike, how the two of them have been enjoying the dating life and each other and comments of how J.B. and Cassandra helped set this all up- but wouldn't be playing. Percival remarked how fascinating it was to see Scanlan and Pike, two creatures with a collective life more than twice his and Vex'ahlia's, faun and bicker like schoolchildren. But love can make fools of even the most hardened champions, it seemed. Really love had its work cut out for it if making Scanlan a fool was its goal.
Vex'ahlia however, did not participate much in conversation. It wasn't because she didn't want to catch up with everyone, she had been meaning to do just that, but she preferred listening, smiling and nodding, and letting everyone carry on with their happy, peaceful lives.
While she remained miserable.
An icy pit began in the woman's stomach, a feeling not unlike the one she felt after learning of her mother's fate after a sudden dragon attack.
Vex'ahlia had two dragons now, and the worst part? They weren't foes that she could defeat with a bow and some arrows. One was long dead and the other a god.
The fucking Raven Queen.
A string of memories and feelings, like a bore always left dangling near the surface, threatened to puncture her fragile facade of the Lady of Whitestone, baroness, dauntless and unruffled.
"Dear one."
"Huh?" She replied, blinking to see Percival's face.
"We're starting soon." Percival whispered to her, hands clasping hers. Those haunted, blue eyes locked onto her, gazing into her soul. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're cold."
"I'm fine. As fine as a sister can be after losing her twin brother."
The laughter and conversation died.
Shit. Vex'hlia thought to herself. Come on, darling, you can do this. For five minutes you can do this. She pulled her hands back to her lap and tried to calm her breathing the same way her father's archery teacher told her. Her knuckles were bone-white despite her best efforts.
She could see Keyleth looking at her. In silence, Keyleth sat across the table, but in her eyes she could see that there was no one closer to her in moments like this than the Ashari druidess who she once might have called sister. Her eyes told her that Keyleth understood how she felt, yet never could, not fully, at least. If only there was more time. She just needed more time.
"Anyways." Grog coughed. "You can now-" His voice wavered, every syllable uttered in an odd tone. Was Grog getting emotional? "Ahem. You can now look at your character sheets! Gaze upon them. See how I have leveled all of you up to level…"
He squinted down at the sheet.
"Ten!"
Scanland laughed. "'Jimbo's Ensorcelled Fingers?' What the hell does this do?" He held a drink in one hand while the other held crimson cards with gold trim. "Arcane Spells" the cards said.
"I also took the liberty of picking your spells and advances." Grog added, finger pointed in the air.
"Aw man!" Keyleth groaned, distracted at least momentarily by the game, her previous expression smoothed away.
"I wanted to split-class into warblade so I could get 'fire of wrath' at level one."
Everyone but Pike stared at her for a moment.
"I may have played a few times with the kids in Zephrah." Keyleth added to a chorus of chuckles. "I mean I was teaching them how to play."
"Nice save." Scanlan added.
The ranger envied Keyleth sometimes for how fanciful and devil-may-care she was. Immediately the image of a transforming goldfish came to mind. Perhaps she found a measure of escape in these childish games. The gods knew that both of them could use some of that.
Meanwhile, Pike Trickfoot's pensive gaze was fixed on the paper in front of her. She was barely able to see over the table as, unlike Scanlan, she did not want to use an 'extender' (as smallfolk called it) to allow her to sit taller.
"Grog, Cassandra, J.B." The gnome cleric chimed in, clearing her throat. "I think this all looks wonderful."
Despite her size, it was impossible to miss Pike even in a crowded room. It seemed that, whatever gnomes lacked in size, they made up for with character. Pike's personality made her as easy to notice as Grog, for Melora's sake.
Much to Vex'ahlia's apprehension, it was apparent from the tone of her voice that Pike wished to continue with the game. An uneducated eye might see an adult attempting to humor a child, but anyone understanding of Pike's nature, her genuineness and kindness, saw her true feelings.
Vex'ahlia, for the time being, would keep her feelings hidden, tucked away next to the remembered image of Emon's destruction and the sound of her mother's voice. Keep it together, Vex.
"Agreed! Definitely outdone yourselves." Scanlan said as he pulled a too-large tankard towards him on the wooden game table. "Can we get some more of these?"
The sounds of friends drinking, eating, chatting, and laughing staunched the flow of grim thoughts that crept from the cold depths of her heart. For now, she sat at the table, met her husband's gaze, and nodded.
"So, are we playing or not?"