Darkness had fallen rather quickly on the island of Evermeet and, with it, the silence that accompanied the peaceful sleeps of its inhabitants and visitors from the rest of the Forgotten Realms. In the camp that the adventurers had set up at the foot of the Eagle Hills, silence reigned supreme, with most of the group resting peacefully under the stars.
Among the forms wrapped in their respective cloaks, stretched out and asleep around the gradually dying campfire, a larger space denoted the absence of one of the adventurers, who was nowhere to be seen. Also seeming to have vanished into thin air was the huge White Wolf who had started accompanying the group after being freed from the cages in the dungeons of Castle Tresendar and who generally never strayed too far from their scout, his actual saviour.
Shael Silentlight, High Elf of the Moon and rogue, stood at the far edge of the bivouac, wrapped in the cloak of one of the Red Cloaks they had encountered at Cragmaw what seemed aeons before. After leaving the Mines of Phandelver, where they had helped Gundren Rockseeker avenge the death of one of his brothers at the hands of the Black Spider, the Elf had not seen the dwarf, who had remained in Phandalin to attend to and manage some important family business, not least to fulfil his fallen brother's last wishes.
A short sword hung from her left side; a quiver full of feathered arrows hung from her right side, balancing the weapon on her left; in her hands, a chiselled longbow, strung and ready for use. The bow, arrows and quiver had been made especially for her by her craftsman brother, who had specialised in making magical weapons of refined quality and notorious elven merit. The ones he had given to his sister had been custom-made for her: no other living being would have been able to use them but her, as all equipment required a psychic and physiological attunement that only she was able to achieve.
Although she could not see him, she sensed the White Wolf's reassuring presence not far from her: Ice was giving her her space, but he was at her side in case the scout needed him, if only if some threat presented itself in the darkness, without the Elf being able to warn her. The thief's slender pointed ears picked up a slight movement of the foliage behind her; imperceptibly turning her head, she could better perceive the approach of Dandreal, the second Aasimar of the group, a cleric by profession, whom they had snatched from a band of Elves in the service of the elf's evil cousin.
«It's late,» Shael observed, keeping her voice low to prevent the others from waking up to the sound of their conversation, adding «Shouldn't you be asleep?» The Aasimar leaned against her back, sinking her face into the red cloak the other woman wore to protect herself from the polar temperatures of the night, which characterised the region in particular at that time of year.
«I couldn't fall asleep, honestly,» the cleric admitted after a while, «and I had... I need you with me, right now.» They stayed like that for a while, as the Elf brooded over the Aasimar's words. She took a deep breath, then: «How do you need me, Dandreal? You do not need someone like me, you need someone who is good-natured and, above all, not a murderer.»
Against her back, Dandreal stiffened for a fraction of a second, before relaxing again and pulling away, hands clasped on the fabric of the cloak at the Elf's elbows. For her part, the scout regretted pulling away from the cleric, but at the same time was aware that she had deliberately hurt her, to get her away from herself and the monster she was convinced she was becoming. All the more so after what had happened that day in the camp of the Elf followers of her mad cousin.
«Shael,» the cleric finally forced her to turn towards her, to look into her eyes: «You are not a murderer. You are not today and you will not be in the future.» She shook her forcefully, her voice taking on tones of urgency, though she still took care to keep her tone low: «You stopped today. Before you could commit cold-blooded murder. And I am convinced that you would never have been able to, regardless of the fact that someone stopped you today and forced you to reason. Besides... you know very well how much I like you.»
The Elf clenched her jaw: «No, you don't understand. A few more moments and I would have had no qualms about killing that damn Elf, Dandreal. Anyone who dared come between you and me again would have risked death, especially after what they did to you and what they threatened. If I had not been stopped, I would have killed him without much trouble. Don't do this to yourself, don't tie yourself to someone like me... you'll come out more broken than before or ever.» She took a deep breath, her hands clenched so tightly on the bow that her knuckles were completely white, before continuing, «You are not safe, with me and near me... you never will be.»
In response, the Aasimar covered the very short distance between herself and the Elf, clutching at her. She forced the scout to take her bow out of the way with one hand and, with her other arm, she instinctively cinched her waist so that neither of them would lose their balance. Both of the cleric's arms clung to the thief's neck, forcing her to barely lower her head towards her and look into her hard eyes: «Anyone who had been in your place, Shael, would have been faced with the same dilemma. I was there too, even though I wasn't exactly in good shape. I saw you tittering well before they stopped you and Ice put that bastard out of business, removing you from the impasse of having to soil your hands with his filthy blood.»
She brushed the Elf's nose with her own, before pulling away slightly and adding: «If I had been in your place, do you think I would have spared him? There would have been no gods to spare him, I would have taken great satisfaction in spilling his blood, especially knowing what they might have done to you. You are better than you think,» she added, «and everyone knows it. Even Ice, in his own way. Otherwise none of them would have intervened.»
«You know, Ice is a very intelligent creature,» the Elf observed, huffing, defensively.
«I never said otherwise,» Dandreal replied, with a slight smile, before giving her a light kiss on the lips.«That is precisely why he will always be there for you. He takes care of you, because you take care of him, and you always will. As he will.»
Shael barely nodded, albeit bitterly, as the Aasimar broke away again to look more closely at her face and gently caress her cheek in an attempt to calm her down. The abuse her captors had inflicted on her was still very vivid in her mind and she could only imagine how Shael had felt once she had broken into the camp and seen the conditions Aasimar was in.
«Come to sleep. Please,» she begged her, «I need to hold you and, above all, I need to feel safe in your arms.» Shael took another deep breath, very touched by the Aasimar's words, despite the doubts that still gripped her. Eventually she relented and, hand in hand, the two walked back towards the camp, with Ice following silently behind them, crouching a short distance away from where the two lay down to rest. And for the first time, after weeks of tension, of fear, of humiliation, when the Elf's arms finally tightened, protectively, around her, Dandreal finally felt serene and safe, safe in the knowledge that nothing could ever touch her again.