Into the Feywild (@carebarian)

[tiveragh]

Tieve's persuasion skills have come through in the clutch more than once on their wild journey, but she will never be more grateful for their success than the moment Karlach agrees to follow her. Not to Avernus--while Tieve herself might think the price of living in the Hells is worth it for the chance to explore and find a way out later, she can't blame Karlach for refusing. She can see the marks of loneliness in her more clearly than anyone. They've both done decade-long sentences in uncertain solitude. Tieve was just luckier in that hers was not in a war zone.

As soon as the yes leaves Karlach's lips, as soon as they've called out a last frantic farewell-for-now to their friends, Tieve pulls open the door. They're on the docks, and that's close enough to a crossroads. They leave the world without taking a step.

And instead of the rising pink dawn, they're surrounded by curtains of velvet purple twilight. It's usually twilight here. Sometimes the sun rises, or the moon, but the fey prefer not to have the eyes of other gods upon them. Now, the sky above is a pristine, unbroken shade of violet, soft on the eyes but almost unsettling in its perfection. The ground is sand under their feet, white as milk, and there's clear water to the west. To the east, trees rise up, impossibly tall, every imaginable shade of green in the gloaming.

Tieve's hands come up to grip Karlach's forearms almost at once, heedless of the risk. She thinks, she hopes, the fires are already dying down. "How do you feel? Breathe slow, breathe deep. I'm here."

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[carebarian]

Karlach has to admit that this is a creative solution to her problem — but then she also has to admit to herself that she's not certain at all that it will work. That moment on the docks felt like such a sure thing; she could feel her infernal iron casings shredding themselves as she overheated, knew there was no turning back from damage that profound. Her flames tended to cannibalize, a blaze devouring anything in reach and roaring ever hotter, and she'd lost complete control, gone far beyond the capabilities of some deep breaths and icy scrolls. She'd been desperate when she took Tieve's offer, and hopeless when that door opened.

But here, it's different. Her flames don't even burn in the normal sense; they're still raging, still whipping high up towards that eerie violet sky, but it's not the same heat, not even the same pain where the engine sits inside of her. It occurs to her that the folk of this realm probably don't want wayward souls crashing in here with all sorts of destructive powers, so maybe that's it. She's just been magically neutered, essentially, and good.

She still flinches when Tieve reaches for her, worried that they'll burn her. Turns out there's no real reason to fear; her flames might as well be ghostlights for all the trouble they cause when her fingers press into Karlach's arm. She closes her eyes, and at Tieve's behest, she takes in a slow, deep breath.

"How do they look?" It's maybe not the slowest breath, and Karlach's already cracking open one eye mid-exhale, but she's sort of excited. Okay, VERY excited. "It feels different. Good-different."