Chapter Text
She had not thought to return to the Underdark so soon, perhaps not ever again. But then she had never imagined that one of the few people dear to her, who had allowed her entry into his heart despite everything she was—everything she’d done—would be stolen out from under her so soon after they’d only just managed to settle into a new life.
Halsin had been travelling back from town. It was only a short distance, less than half a day’s travel. He’d made it dozens of times before. He should have been fine, safe. They were supposed to be safe now…
What was she going to tell the children? They were still skittish after the events at the grove,a nd then the shadow-touched lands, and then finally Baldur’s Gate. Thaniel and Oliver could protect them while she was gone. She’d sent word to Jaheira, and she’d be arriving as soon as she could, but time was of the essence. Tav couldn’t let the trail go cold.
Occasionally, there were traits she’d picked up from her black and bloody past, and the ability to track and stalk her prey with brutal effectiveness was one of them. Tav knew immediately when she came across the bend in the road where it had happened. To anyone else, perhaps even to a veteran ranger, it might have appeared as though nothing was out of place, but Tav knew drow; she’d been watching out for their signs all her life. Even as the spawn of one of the Dead Three, her Lolth-worshipping kinfolk brooked no traitors to their queen. She gained more than a few scars slipping past their blades—given more than a few of her own in turn, taken plenty of lives just as her dark dead father had once demanded…
She’d thought that was all in the past. It was supposed to be in the past…
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on what was, nor what might be. She needed to focus, else the danger of losing Halsin would only grow more likely. Luckily enough for her, the trail was quite obvious. Unusual for well-trained drow infiltrators to leave such blatant evidence, but then there was a chance that Halsin was leaving a trail of his own, one he knew she would find. Because he knew she would come for him. Or at least he better have. There was no way she would leave him to the drow after everything they’d been through. After their lives together had only just begun.
As she followed the trail through the wood, dark visions painted her thoughts in red. The things she would do to the ones that took him. The ways she would make them suffer if they harmed even a hair upon his head. These disturbing yet dangerously familiar notions were almost as comforting as they were unsettling, like an old familiar friend that you knew well enough to keep at a certain distance. Tav had hoped she’d left her father’s legacy behind for good. She hadn’t felt his influence upon her since she’d silenced her bloodthirsty sister for good.
Much to her shame, that feeling coursing through her veins, setting her heart to racing, filling her with eager bloodlust—she welcomed it now. Welcomed it because of that comforting familiarity, that reliable, insatiable hunger that would drive her onwards until she reached her goal—her love.
Her journey through the forest was silent as the wind whispered through the leaves and over before the sun’s cold morning light even breached the horizon. Buried deep in the wood was a cave entrance. The area around it was ancient and overgrown. Apart from the subtle trail the drow and Halsin had left for her to follow, it was clear this place had been touched by nothing but nature for decades. But Tav would know an entrance to the Underdark anywhere. She’d been avoiding them for most of her life, after all.
She didn’t even hesitate before pushing past the overgrown foliage and into the cavernous dark. She was getting close, she could feel it, even though common sense was telling her it would be odd for a drow raiding party to dwell so close to the surface after successfully capturing their prey.
The reason they were so close at hand didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Halsin was within reach. She was already at least a day behind her quarry. She had to press on.
The path through the Underdark was strangely silent and uneventful, as though the area was being regularly cleared of pests. Tav wasn’t complaining. It meant that it took her merely a few hours to reach her destination.
Just a short distance from the surface, she came upon a manor house, something that would have served as an outpost long ago, but now it appeared to be something a little more. It wasn’t on any recent Underdark maps Tav had gotten her hands on. She and Halsin certainly wouldn’t have been so complacent about settling where they had if they had known there was an active drow settlement so close by. And being this far from Menzoberrranzan meant it was likely a faction made up of outcasts or rebels, or perhaps one of the fallen houses, one still clinging to the darkness that had already rejected them, chewed them up and attempted to spit them out. But creatures born of the dark were quite adept at finding new shadows to crawl under, she ought to know.
Now that her goal was in sight, Tav slowed her approach. Taking in her surroundings, eyeing the guards patrolling the manor, the banners flying from its walls with a sigil she vaguely recognised in an abstract shape similar to that of a flaming lyre. She couldn’t name it, though it did further confirm her theory that the manor’s residents were the dregs of some bygone noble house. Who else would bother to fly a banner this far from the Underdark’s one and only metropolis?
Their guard rotation left something to be desired. It was simple for one as practised in ending lives as she was to take one out in the inky black shadows, don their armour, and discard the body down a deep crevice where nothing would find it but cave creatures. Without missing a step, she took up the guard’s place and waited to be relieved.
Waiting wasn’t easy, not when she was so close, but she couldn’t afford to get sloppy now. It could be hours, but she had to remain patient. Once she’d breached those walls, she would just have to find Halsin and secure them both a route out of this miserable crypt of a place.
Tav’s plan, such as it was, went well enough. Some excruciatingly long hours after donning the drow guard’s armour, another appeared to relieve her of her watch, and she was able to enter the barracks. Once inside, she took to the shadows. She wasn’t normally one for sneaking, but she’d had enough practice at it after spending so much time trailing Astarion about, and now that she wore the sleek and supple drow leathers in place of her customary heavy plate, that task was much easier than it normally was for her.
She did feel somewhat naked without her usual armour, however. A paladin without their mail might as well be, but she’d survived much worse with far less.
The manor was well maintained but clearly not what it once had been in its glory days. As Tav crept about, shifting from shadow to shadow, slinking along rafters and ledges, she took mental note of the staff and the guards—nowhere near what a house of this size would require to properly maintain and protect. It took her some time before she came upon the lady of the house and her consort. And just her luck, they appeared to be talking about their prisoner.
“That was far too easy. When they told us he’d taken up with some hero, I expected this endeavour to be more challenging. I expected some kind of resistance,” the consort sighed almost ruefully. “After so long, it was all almost too easy.” He pouted.
“Hero’s become complacent when the evil has been vanquished,” the matron replied. “They expect things around them to become just as stagnant as they are. My mother failed at many things, but she taught me that at least.”
“It was some luck that he delved into the Underdark recently. We might never have heard of him again if not for that little excursion of his.” Her consort circled around to his lady, slipping behind her and sliding his arms around her waist.
“He always was something of an enigma—patient despite how much he wished for freedom. Foolhardy despite his experience. Regardless of how easy it was to capture him, we shouldn’t let our guard down. That hero of his is likely to come looking,” the matron replied distractedly. She seemed less satisfied with their victory than her consort.
“The guards have already been warned a dozen times over, the beasts have just arrived, and the spores are already starting to have an effect. He’ll be back to his old self in no time, if he isn’t already.”
The matron let out a long exhale, trying to shake off her doubt or uncertainty before turning to her consort and grinning. “Let’s go see for ourselves, shall we? We’ve waited long enough for this reunion.”
Tav’s heart stuttered. She could follow them right to him, but she needed to be careful. No mistakes now, else she might lose him forever. The children were waiting for them. She couldn’t afford to lose control now, even if her veins were pulsing with bloodlust. Visions of the drow matron and her spoiled, simpering consort lying in the ruin of their innards flashed before her eyes, and a shiver of pleasure ran down her spine. What a delicious victory it would be to carve them up and dance in their demise with her beloved.
No! No, no, no, no, not again. Not now. That part of her was—not dead, but it was buried. It should be buried. She didn’t need it to defeat an elder brain, and she didn’t need it now. She was more than her father’s creature, and Halsin was one of the reasons she had been able to realise that. Though he loved even her darkness, her corruption, coming to him now as a monster would serve no one but her father who deserved nothing else from her.
With a deep, steadying breath, she crept after her prey, careful not to let her momentary lapse in concentration alert them to her presence. Their path through the old manor took them downwards, deeper into its bowels, through a rather large and impressively stocked cellar, to the lowest levels of the manor, passing several guards posted along the way. Tav didn’t miss the mark of the Zhentarim etched or plastered to many of the crates stocked below. So this was how this fallen house had managed to stay living in relative luxury so far from Menzoberranzan.
The doors to the dungeons or holding cells where they were keeping Halsin were heavy oak and locked several times over, both physically and magically. These drow were certainly determined to keep him this time around.
Sending a silent prayer to her Dark Lady to keep her passage swift and silent, Tav darted through the door before it slowly swung closed once more. There was a click and a barely audible magical crackle once it sealed itself shut. She could sense not insignificant power in whatever ward had been placed upon it, but was fairly certain she could handle its removal on their way out. If they intended to exit via the door.
This manor was old, and Tav had a particular knack for finding loose stones and cracks that just happened to be just the right size for one to squeeze through… barely. There was always another way, even if she had to smash her way through some brick and mortar in order to “find” it.
The drow chattered amongst themselves as they went. As if they were running nothing but an ordinary errand down to the cellar for a bottle of wine. It served Tav well enough. The soft echo of their voices along the cavernous stone walls covered any sound she might incidentally make as she followed.
The space was larger than she had been expecting, but then perhaps the cells had once been utilised for holding larger creatures than men and elves. The walls were part masonry, part raw stone, making use of a natural cave network beneath the manor. Tav’s hopes of coming upon a convenient, hidden exit grew as she followed the couple to the last cell along their path.
The area around the cell was more humid than it was closer to the cellar, and aside from the light of the lanterns hanging every few feet along the walls, there was another faint glow in greens, blues, purples, and orange coming from the cell. There was a scent in the air, something damp and earthy, and just a little sweet. It was almost suffocating combined with the humidity down there, and she found herself working hard to keep her breathing under control and silent.
The drow stood before the last cell, arm in arm, looking fondly through the bars at their prize. Tav crept along behind them, perched upon a ledge that hung a few feet over each cell door. High enough to be just out of reach of the light cast by the lanterns. When she finally got a look at the contents of the cell her eyes went wide.
Halsin was there, on hands and knees, bracing himself on the stone floor. They’d already stripped him of the clothes he’d left in, replacing them with nothing but a metal collar around his neck and a few straps of leather wrapped around his arms as legs for what Tav assumed was decoration. The getup certainly matched the typical drow aesthetic for their pleasure slaves.
His skin was slick with sweat, his teeth and fists clenched and his co*ck viciously hard. She shouldn’t have been dwelling on it, but Tav almost couldn’t tear her eyes away. Halsin was beautiful, and despite the little sliver of guilt and shame that sliced through her, she couldn’t deny that even in captivity, he was a sight to behold. Her mouth watered.
A second later, she was shaking her head. Trying to shake off the distraction of her lover’s enticing form while remaining conscious of how much sudden movement she was making. The drow seemed rather distracted by Halsin themselves, fortunately, and didn’t seem to notice.
Turning her focus back on the scene before her, Tav eyed the cell's other occupants, if they could be called that. All around him, growing up from between the stones and along several crevices, was a multitude of glowing cave mushrooms. Some of them Tav thought she recognised. Most, she did not. Of the ones she thought she might know, she recalled they had some kind of mind-altering properties, but only if ingested. The rest, she assumed, had a similar effect, judging by the state Halsin was in. Even from where she looked on, she could see the little colourful spores drifting lazily through the heady cave air.
“Oh, I shall never get tired of seeing him like this,” the matron sighed with satisfaction. All the stiffness and uncertainty she’d exhibited earlier suddenly no more as she looked upon her prisoner.
Halsin simply snarled in reply, and it was evident the beast was not far beneath the surface now. Normally, he had a much better leash upon his inner animal, but it seemed whatever they were doing to him was wearing down his control.
“Now, now. Naughty pets remain in the cells, don’t they? You remember the rules, don’t you, sweet boy? And you’ve been very, very naughty indeed,” the matron tutted even as her grin widened. “Did you really think I’d let my favourite pet run free of his leash forever? You’ve had your fun above, and now you’re back home where you belong, sweet boy.”
Listening to the matron refer to Halsin as a boy was almost comical enough for a laugh to sputter out from Tav’s lips, but she managed to get a grip, just barely. The fact that she could sense she was holding herself together by a thread should have been more concerning, but with the heat, and the spores, and Halsin in all his beautiful, naked glory, it was becoming harder and harder to keep her mind on task.
The drow didn’t seem to be affected. That was interesting… It was important. She knew that was important. They must have some kind of antidote or counteragent for the spores. Good to know, but not exactly helpful right this moment. She could sneak back out with them and return with the antidote, but what if she didn’t get another chance to return to the cells? Was it worth the risk? Halsin had been down here for at least a couple of days, and he was only just now starting to fray at the seams. She could hold out long enough for the drow to f*ck off. Long enough to free him.
“We’ve such plans to welcome you home, dearest pet,” the matron continued, droning at Halsin in that haughty tone all drow nobility carried like second nature. A tone that said they were owed your undivided attention. “But it seems you require just a little more time with our special little grove. I do hope you’ve found yourself at home. We thought you might be a little homesick for your forests and groves and whatnot, so we did our best to accommodate an archdruid such as yourself, pet.”
The matron’s mockery turned sour in Tav’s stomach. This Menzobarranzan reject shouldn’t even be looking at Halsin, let alone speaking to him. Bloodlust managed to cut through the haze in the holding cells for a split second. Tav’s hand went to the knife at her hip. She should just take them out now, but there was no guarantee either of them would go down easily. Halsin had been kept by them for three years in his youth. He was younger and more inexperienced then, but Tav doubted he was much less formidable than the archdruid she knew him to be now.
No drow matron should be underestimated, however. Even one whose house had been reduced to nothing but a distant outpost practically six feet below the surface. Tav might gain the upper hand, but if luck wasn’t on her side… Even if her blade struck true, a skilled matron could still unleash enough magic to ensure no one left these cells alive, and this one had survived the fall of her house. No, best to wait until they left, secure an exit, and then get Halsin out of there as stealthily as possible. As much as she would love to leave them broken and bloodless, lying on the floor of their own holding cells, the important thing was getting Halsin home in one piece.
So her blade remained in its sheath, and the drow remained alive long enough to wrap up their taunting and saunter back out of the holding cells, returning to the manor’s upper floors.
Tav worked fast. Or as fast as she could manage while bogged down in the disorienting murk of the caves. She could feel sweat beading on her brow, dripping down from her temples as she made her way down from her perch and went to stand before the bars of Halsin’s cell.
He noticed her immediately, a vicious growl tearing from his throat to greet her as she approached him. Halsin moved for the first time since she’d set eyes on him, crawling to the bars on his knees, his body still tense as though whatever he was holding back was still gnawing at his flesh from the inside out.
“My… Heart,” he managed to bark out, the sound guttural and harsh as he reached for her.
“Hush, I’m here,” she replied, taking his outstretched hand and holding it against her chest. “But we need to be quick and silent, my love.”
Another deep, low growl rumbled out from his chest and Halsin bowed his head as he somehow went even stiffer than before. Tav tried to set aside Halsin’s distress for the moment. She needed to get the cell open, and plenty of those bars looked loose enough for her to manhandle into a serviceable exit.
Sweat was now pouring down her brow as Tav brute strengthened the bars of Halsin’s cell apart, but now there was just barely enough space for Halsin to slip through. She reached for him, beckoning for him to take her hand again so they could finally be free of this place and these drow that refused to let him be.
But once he took her hand, he gave her a swift yank, and suddenly, Tav was on the wrong side of the bars. Somehow, even though it was only a few feet closer to the mushrooms and their cursed spores, the air was even thicker and headier. It felt like there was a film on her skin, in her lungs, permeating her mind and strangling her voice.
“My heart,” he repeated breathlessly as he pawed at her armour with claw-tipped fingers, tearing at the lacing, and it was like the sweetest music to her ears. When she’d discovered Halsin had been taken, it had felt like a vice had closed around her heart. But now that she was back in his arms, all that fear and tension simply melted away, expelled and smothered by his loving embrace.
She let him claw through her borrowed leathers. His lips and hands snatching at every bit of skin exposed by his fervour, and all she could do was wriggle half-heartedly in his arms. The dregs of her sanity were screaming for her to snap out of it. They didn’t have time for this. They needed to leave. But every sweep of his skin against hers felt like pure bliss. Every kiss tasted sweeter than honey. She could drink those kisses from his hungry lips forever if the gods would allow it. Part of her prayed they would.
Why did she even want to leave? Her beloved was right here and starving for her. Wasn’t he the whole reason she came? Wasn’t he all she needed?
Somewhere between the first snap of leather and her last coherent thought, Tav had found herself as naked as her lover on the cell floor, grinding her hips into his, desperately seeking relief from his engorged and throbbing member. Her eyes darted up to Halsin’s face, ready to plead for him to plunge inside her where he belonged, and there she caught the golden glow of the beast within. Fangs had joined the claws that had sprouted from his fingertips, marking his partial transformation, and a low rumble somewhere between a growl and a purr reverberated from his chest.
The sound was practically a tease; he wanted what she did, but he was still holding back for some ridiculous reason. A pathetic whine slipped past her lips, and finally, Tav watched as Halsin broke at last. He dove in for another rough and ravenous kiss, crushing his lips to hers so possessively she almost felt like he’d branded himself against her mouth.
“Love… My h-heart,” he grunted out almost apologetically. “Mmph—mine… MINE!”
And then his hips were crashing into hers, his co*ck driving past and through her folds so fast the air was practically knocked out of her lungs. A shudder rippled throughout her entire body as shockwaves of pleasure followed each and every thrust of Halsin’s co*ck into her eager puss*.
He was relentless and yet gentle, feral and yet loving. He was everything Halsin always was but completely uninhibited and Tav only craved him all the more. She was his. Just as he was hers, and this was exactly how things should be.
Another deep growl ripped through the muggy air as Halsin’s hold on her tightened, the rhythm of his hips slowed, and she felt something large and hard at the base of his co*ck press against her entrance. Her puss* strained to grant him further entrance. She was already wetter than she’d ever been in her life, but it didn’t feel like it would be enough. He was so big.
Halsin went slowly, however, soothing her with soft kisses and incoherent whispers of encouragement as he pressed further until, suddenly, his knot popped inside. Tav groaned, the air once again being forced from her lungs as she strained to adjust to this new sense of fullness. Halsin was still moving, his hips still rocking into her almost absentmindedly, like he couldn’t help himself—driven by lust and instinct. Every minute movement sent more waves of ecstasy careening through her needy body. Her hands moved mindlessly over every bit of him she could grasp, like she was trying to hold all of him at once, feel all of him at once. A few more pumps of his hips, and she was unravelling. Whatever was left of her splintering apart in his arms as she came violently.
Barely a second later, she could feel Halsin’s release as well. His grip on her tightened as he roared, his seed spilling into her hot and deep.
“More,” she groaned when the shivers began to abate at last. The first word out of her mouth since she’d been yanked into that cursed cell with him.
Halsin only laughed in reply. That warm, comforting, familiar chuckle that always somehow simultaneously calmed her and sent flickers of arousal through her. Clarity followed it this time, and as they lay there on the stone floor of their enemy’s prison, the realisation that she had failed began to sink in.
“I’ve trapped us,” Tav whispered into the crook of Halsin’s neck, nuzzling in close as if she could hide there.
“For now,” he whispered back, followed by a long, slow kiss against her pulse. “You couldn’t have known what awaited you here. We’ll find another way.”
Tav tensed. Her hands snaking up to tangle in his hair, clenching around fistfuls. She was not going to wait three years for their next chance. Not this time. But Halsin hushed her, his strong broad hands soothing along her spine, his hips still rocking slowly into her so that his knot ground up against that soft, sensitive spot inside her that would soon drive her into blissful madness once more. “Patience, love. We’ll have our chance.”
She didn’t know how he could possibly be so confident. But then she also didn’t know why they were talking when they could be f*cking. Why were they talking? What were they even talking about?
With her hands still laced through his hair, Tav guided Halsin’s face back to hers, pairing his lips against her own where they belonged. Yes, this was more like it. This was how they should be. This was all they needed.
“Oh! Well, isn’t this precious, my dear? Pet seems to have found a mate.”
“And she’s come all this way to remain at his side. It’s rather sweet.”
“This should make things quite a bit more interesting.”
“Oh, most certainly. Perhaps we should adjust our plans. We have twice the entertainment now, after all.”
“I’ll make the arrangements.”
