Chapter Text
It began as a relationship of convenience.
Aloth was regretting his journey to Dyrwood. His contact with The Leaden Key had vanished, leaving him stranded and alone for months in a land that did not look on foreigners with much kindness. Between the pervasive exhaustion of constant travel and the rain that soaked him to his bones, his control was not at its best that night in Gilded Vale. And that was before the drunks began harassing him.
He tried, as always, to avoid the confrontation that Dyrwoodans seemed so fond of, but they were persistent and loud and clearly out to pick a fight. By the time the group closed in on Aloth outside the local inn, there was no patience or fortitude left within him to deal with these lavvy-heided wankstains-
Iselmyr only surfaced for a moment, but it was enough, and Aloth suddenly found himself the focus of three quite incensed, quite intoxicated Dyrwoodans. He was becoming quite nervous for his own safety when a sudden, cheerful voice cut through the evening air.
”Looks like you could use a little help here!”
The Watcher’s timing was truly impeccable. She had a knack for that sort of thing, as Aloth would later learn.
He didn’t know her as a Watcher at first, of course; even she didn’t know of her abilities at the time. He only knew that she seemed helpful, and that when push came to shove she could fight off three angry Dyrwoodans without breaking a sweat. Afterwards, she simply introduced herself as Desta, a traveler whose caravan had been attacked and who apparently made a habit of rescuing strangers.
“You’ve heard of the Wayfarers?” she asked loudly as she neatly sidestepped the unconscious bodies on the ground. Her smile was bright and her tone friendly, completely unfazed by the casual brawl or the heavy rain that still refused to let up. “Guides, protectors, helpers to travelers in need? There’s a whole speech I could give, but I think you get the idea.”
“Indeed. The demonstration was impressive,” Aloth said, trying to convey his gratitude despite the chattering of his teeth.
Desta grinned, either pleased by the compliment or simply amused by the shivering in his voice. Aloth suspected- or perhaps hoped- that it was the former. This woman was a newcomer to town just as Aloth was, of that he was certain; her accent and travel-worn clothes indicated a long journey.
More obviously, she was a godlike, and judging by the looks she garnered from passing townsfolk, she might have been the first one Gilded Vale had ever seen. Aloth himself had met a handful of godlike in his travels before, but none quite like her. At first glance, Desta was as much plant as she was kith. Her skin was a dark, mossy green, covered in vines and trails of fungus that twisted down her neck and arms. This, combined with the long horns atop her head and the strange luminescent yellow of her eyes, gave her an eerie bearing that was not completely offset by her forthright friendliness.
“I take it you’re not a local,” she observed, her glowing eyes sweeping over Aloth. “Are you a settler?”
Aloth scrambled for an explanation as to why an Aedyran wizard was wandering through a place like Gilded Vale, all the while doing his best to hold back additional comments from Iselmyr. Luckily, Desta seemed too distracted to be suspicious. Her concerned gaze drifted back, over and over, to the center of town, where the hanging tree loomed in the shadows. The macabre display was partially obscured by the darkness of the rainstorm, but every now and then a flash of lightning would illuminate the grisly scene. Aloth shivered again, and this time it wasn't due to the cold.
“Well, good luck in your travels,” Desta finally said, moving towards the promised shelter of the nearby inn, and Aloth jolted back to attention as he realized he was about to lose track of the first person who’d held a civil conversation with him in weeks.
“Wait!” he called, before he could second-guess himself.
Aloth was, at his core, a cautious person. He didn’t know how much he could trust this woman, and he didn’t often offer to involve himself with strangers. Still, it was a reasonable assumption that traveling with an armed do-gooder would be safer than staying in this village alone. He also knew for a fact that if he spent much longer on his own with only Iselmyr to converse with, he would be severely risking what remained of his sanity.
And so, not knowing what he was getting himself into, Aloth asked Desta if they could travel together.
At first it was a temporary arrangement.
Desta knew from the beginning that Aloth was weird. Not that she was judging- even without the strange visions and voices in her head, she was plenty weird herself. Her horns and vines alone were enough to earn her stares wherever she went, and she’d always had a habit of ending up in messy, troublesome situations.
So it didn’t really bother her that Aloth was clearly out of place in the rural village, with his fine Aedyran features and polished accent, and his formal magical training, and his mannerisms which spoke of far too much time spent around nobility. She was curious about the odd mood swings and the second accent he refused to acknowledge, but she didn’t have the energy to pursue those topics at the moment. For now, Desta was just happy to find someone who wasn’t out to kill her and hang her corpse from a tree. After the disastrous end to her job with the caravan and the hostile greeting she’d received from the villagers, that was enough.
Even with their combined funds, Desta and Aloth barely had enough money to secure a single room at the inn. It was cramped, but there was a bed and a small stove for warmth, and that was enough for Desta to nearly collapse in relief. She stayed sprawled on the bed as she relayed her story to Aloth, hoping that her exhausted brain did not muddle the events too terribly.
“A bîaŵac?” he repeated in shock after she told him of the caravan's fate. His brows knitted together in concern. “I’ve heard tales of such things. It’s not common to survive an encounter with one.”
“And that wasn’t even the strangest thing that happened,” Desta said. “I don’t even know what happened, to be honest. There was a ritual, and people in robes, and-” a large yawn cut off her words, and she gave Aloth an apologetic glance. “Sorry. It’s been a long couple of days, and I haven’t had much chance to rest.”
“Of course,” Aloth said quickly. “We should get some sleep. There will be time to talk tomorrow.”
Aloth insisted she take the bed for the night- “You came to my rescue, after all,”- and by then Desta couldn’t muster up more than a mild protest. She’d slept in much worse conditions, but she’d never been this exhausted before. So she relented, and as Aloth situated himself in the armchair next to the stove, she sank into the bed and waited for sleep to come.
But sleep refused. Desta was warm and safe and on a real bed for the first time in weeks, but none of that was the problem- no, the problem was the dreams. The whispers, quiet but relentless, that prickled relentlessly at her thoughts and kept her just on the edge of true rest.
Desta fought against the whispers for much of the night. A new wave of guilt hit her every time she glanced at Aloth asleep in the chair, a spare quilt tucked around his angular form. His head was tucked at an odd angle against the chair, and his long, dark hair had fallen loose to cover his sleeping face. Desta wished she'd made him take the bed- she clearly wasn’t going to get much use out of it. Next time, she would be more insistent.
If there was a next time. It wasn’t clear how long Aloth was planning on sticking around. But he didn’t seem to have anywhere else to go, and Desta found herself oddly glad. If she was going to spend the night tossing and turning, at least she would some have decent company in the morning.
Desta half-expected Aloth to disappear after their first day traveling together, but he had a way of surprising her.
Even after they reached Defiance Bay, Aloth stayed by her side. Others had joined her quest as well, and she regarded them all as good friends (with the exception of Durance, whom she couldn’t convince to leave.) But there was something different about Aloth, something she couldn’t put her finger on.
After yet another particularly fitful night of sleep, he approached her with a cup of tea and some hesitant questions about her abilities. They talked until the sun finally crept above the horizon, until he finally asked, “It’s hard, isn’t it? Not being given a choice on what life you remember?”
Desta laughed, softly and without humor. “Yeah. It is.”
“If you had been given the choice… would you have chosen this?”
Desta considered the question. At the moment, her immediate response was no. She missed sleeping through the night and living without headaches. But on the other hand, she’d helped so many people already with these powers. Being a Watcher meant she could do things she never could have otherwise, and so far the world seemed better for it.
“I don’t know,” she said honestly, and the words were sour in her mouth. Before all this Watcher business, she’d known exactly who she was. She was a paladin, a Kind Wayfarer, somebody with a clear purpose to follow.
(You are an Inquisitor, she remembered, and she didn’t know if the voice in her head was her own. You have a purpose.)
Desta felt as if her once solid foundation was beginning to crack.
Aloth watched her expression and nodded. “I know how it feels to be lost,” he remarked. “At least I know I’m not alone in uncertainty.”
Somehow, that actually made Desta feel a little bit better.
What began as a simple partnership shifted, a little at a time.
Aloth meant to keep some distance between himself and the Watcher. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t trust her; he just didn’t think it was a good idea to tell this unpredictable, passionate woman who carried a massive two-handed mace that he was a member of the organization that was trying to kill her.
At least not until he figured out what was going on. He didn’t like the idea of the Leaden Key attempting to assassinate Desta, and he was certain there must be something more going on. Despite the trouble that followed at her heels, Desta was a good person. Every fight she threw herself into, every new obstacle she tackled, was for the sake of someone who had turned to her for help. If The Leaden Key were truly the ones after her, there had to have been some severe misunderstanding, something that could be explained. Aloth would bide his time until he was back in contact with his superiors, and once he had sorted this out… then he might tell her. Once this was fixed, she might understand. Until then, she didn’t have to know anything about Aloth that she didn’t already know.
But Desta had a tendency of getting involved in other people’s problems, and Aloth’s carefully-laid plans had a tendency of falling apart.
They were investigating the Leaden Key hideout in Defiance Bay, so close to the answers Aloth was seeking, when Iselmyr came bursting out to complicate things. As usual. And like she always did, Desta helped. She listened and understood and never once betrayed a hint of the fear Aloth had learned to expect back in Aedyr.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise,” she declared to him as they entered the sanitarium, on the search for an Awakening expert.
“I’m here. You’re safe,” she murmured as they sat with the animancer, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze.
“I think you’re going to be okay,” she said thoughtfully after, as if she didn’t consider Iselmyr’s rantings distressing. “I think she’s trying to help, in her own way.”
“Whatever her intentions, ‘her way’ only ever causes more problems than it solves,” Aloth grumbled.
“I donnae know why I bother! The lad needs some spine, but he won’ admit to it.”
Aloth wrestled back control of his voice. The session, although informative, had stirred Iselmyr up terribly. He shot Desta a look saying See what I mean?
Desta sighed. “I admit, she’s rather reckless. And violence should be kept as a last resort. But sometimes it is necessary. Especially,” she paused, and Aloth had the impression she was choosing her words carefully. “Especially if you’re stopping someone from hurting someone else. Whatever her faults, I’m glad Iselmyr was around to protect you.”
Aloth softened at her words. It was possible, however slightly, that she had a point. A small one. Iselmyr was still a thorn in his side, and he doubted that would ever change...but knowing what had brought her forth made the thorn sting a little less.
“Thank you, by the way,” he said to Desta. He rubbed his thumb across his palm, remembering the steady weight of her hand in his. “For everything.”
Once Desta met Iselmyr, it all made sense. Of course Aloth understood her better than the others- he was the one who could relate to feeling of someone else’s voice in his head. It also explained why he was so anxiously secretive. It couldn’t be easy, hiding something like that from everyone you met. The revelation only made Desta all the more grateful that he was still here.
“Now that you have your answers, what are your plans?” she asked a few days after the session at the sanitarium.
Aloth looked startled by the question. “My answers?”
“Well, you don’t how to control her, but you found out why Iselmyr is here. What now?”
“Oh.” Aloth still didn’t seem to completely understand the question. “I’m traveling with you until we find Thaos. What else?”
“Really?”
He studied her for a moment, eyes full of concern. “Did you think I would leave so quickly?”
Desta shrugged, suddenly embarrassed by her assumption. She fumbled for the words to explain. “It's not that I want you to! That’s just the job, you know? I meet people, we travel together, and then they get where they’re going and I… just keep moving. I figured out might have something...I don't know, something else that's more important now.”
“But the job’s not done yet,” Aloth said, and Desta gave him a questioning look. He elaborated, “You still need help. Of course I’m not leaving. Not when the Leaden Key is still trying to kill you.”
“Oh.” The pleasant surprise brought a smile to her face. “Thank you. It’s good to have… friends.”
Aloth smiled fondly. “I agree.”
This- having somebody looking out for her, not just the other way around- was new. It wasn’t necessary, Desta told herself. She was more than capable of handling whatever came her way. But it was a blessing to know that she could stop and take a breath and trust someone else, just for a little while.
Friends.
The word left Aloth with a gnawing guilt that refused to subside. Of course they were friends, no matter how Aloth had initially intended to keep his distance. Desta had helped him, had trusted him, and she deserved honesty in return.
He would tell her about the Leaden Key. He just worried that once he did, her view of him would never be the same.