shadowtav kiss prompt number 4? "where it hurts" 👀
Thank you so much for the ask, anon! Hope you enjoy what I cooked up for ya :)
Shar was a cruel goddess.
It wasn’t exactly a secret, to everyone but Shadowheart at least. She had been blinded and brainwashed, crushed by her desperate devotion to a being that only wanted her as a puppet. The illusion had finally been lifted throughout their quest to save Baldur’s Gate, but she paid dearly for it with one last bitter lash from the Lady of Loss.
Saving her parents had been the final tipping point. Shadowheart couldn’t have imagined Shar could do anything worse to her than she already had after sparing Aylin, but she had been terribly wrong. Shar had struck her down with that torturous wound, setting her nerves alight and twisting every tendon and muscle with unimaginable pain. She watched as the wound spread across her hand like a creeping shadow, consuming the limb while twisted purple veins bloomed from her original burden like thorned vines. When the torture was over, her hand was left disfigured and aching as a permanent, crippling reminder of her disobediance.
Shar continued to use it as a conduit for pain, inflicting it upon Shadowheart whenever she felt particularly petty. Shadowheart tried her best to settle into her new life alongside Vel and her parents, even building a homestead out of an old cottage outside of the city. It was everything she had truly wanted in life, and felt she deserved.
Yet, as hard as she tried, the damage done proved to be too much to bear. She decided to truly be free, she would literally cut herself from Shar’s cruel grasp, choosing to remove the offending hand entirely. The Lady of Loss would not have her say any longer, even if it meant having one less hand to love her animals with.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a complete fix. New sensations plagued her even in the absence of dark, cruel magic. Sometimes there was an itch she couldn’t scratch, or tingling across fingers that were no longer there. There would be other times where pain would overtake her, all her muscles tensing as if the wound was still there, with no way to massage and alleviate the ache.
Shadowheart was working in the garden when the pain struck, a sharp cramp blooming where her palm would have been. She clenched her teeth as the pain came in waves, rubbing uselessly at her forearm and praying it would work this time. It was almost like Shar was still there, laughing in her ears as she hunched over her lap and waited for it to pass.
Vel’s voice was as gentle as their touch as they grabbed her shoulders. The tiefling immediately caught on to her discomfort, moving to kneel in the grass in front of her before taking her arm in their hands. Their hands glowed with healing magic, the cool feeling flowing through her veins as she leaned into them. The magic did little to help, but the gesture itself was enough to ease some tension.
The pain began to ebb, enough for her to breathe but not to forget. She finally relaxed a bit, slumping into Vel’s waiting arms. She felt them pressing kisses against her silver hair as they drew soothing patterns between her shoulder blades with their fingertips.
“Are you having phantom pain again?”
“Yes,” she mumbled into their shoulder, just wishing it would go away.
They held her in silence for a few minutes before giving a sympathetic squeeze and pulling away. They reached up to brush an errant strand of her bangs out of her face, searching her face with concerned eyes.
“I want to try something,” they began. “I read about it in an old healer's tome some time ago. It might help you.”
Shadowheart’s face scrunched up in thought as she eyed them. They watched her expectantly, clearly wanting her to say yes.
“I suppose there is no harm,” she sighed. Vel smiled warmly.
“Okay, hold your hands out then,” they paused. “Or, well, hand.”
She raised an eyebrow at the poor joke but did as they asked regardless, holding her arms up with her one palm facing up. Vel closed their eyes in concentration, taking a deep breath as their hands began to glow again. She watched with curiosity as the air beside her residual limb began to change. A glowing shape materialized further, morphing into something she easily recognized—Vel had cast a mage hand spell.
Vel’s hand twitched slightly, and the spell reacted obediently to their commands. She felt the cool brush of magic on her skin as the hand settled into place right at the end of what was left of her arm, settling until it was a perfect mirror of her existing hand. She blinked in surprise, it had been quite some time since she had seen herself like this, even if it wasn’t real.
“How is this meant to help?” She asked skeptically.
“Do you trust me or not?” They raised an eyebrow at her. She furrowed hers in response.
“Then just let me do this.”
Vel’s hands moved to hover just above hers, hesitating briefly before letting them make contact. Their touch started with her forearms, dragging mirrored paths across her skin. She fought the urge to squirm at the tickling sensation as they continued downward towards her wrists. Eventually, they reached where the mage hand was mimicking her missing limb, and the sensation disappeared on that side.
“Focus your mind,” Vel murmured, their touch dancing between where she could feel and where she couldn’t. “Concentrate on making the hand an extension of you, and feeling my touch on both sides.”
“But it isn’t mine,” she huffed. “I can’t feel what isn’t there.”
Vel playfully rolled their eyes. “Shh. Just focus.”
She sighed in exasperation but listened anyway, doing her best to pay attention. Vel’s attention shifted to the underside of her “hands”, continuing to brush their fingers along the lengths of her arms.
“Make a fist, with both hands.”
“C’mon, love,” Vel prodded gently. “Make a fist with both hands, really try.”
Shadowheart took a deep breath, looking down at her mismatched limbs. She tried to remember what it felt like, trying to imagine herself curling both hands into fists. The fingers on her real hand twitched nervously, and she held her breath as she let them curl toward her palm. To her surprise, the mage hand curled in perfect sync with her real hand, almost as if she had done it herself.
“Again,” Vel urged, trying to hold back a smile.
They continued touching the backs of her hands as she rhythmically opened and closed them, the mage hand obeying her every time. She began to feel something, like a strange tingle, or maybe an itch. As Vel swirled a circular pattern on the back of the glowing hand, she swore she felt it, as if they had touched her actual hand.
“Wait,” she gasped, her heart hammering in her chest with excitement. “I think I felt that.”
“Good, keep focusing,” Vel smiled for real this time, and she could hear the pride in their tone.
The feeling of their touch grew stronger and stronger, until it was an almost perfect mirror of her real hand. Her brain had recognized the hand as her own, and it was like she could really feel again. She couldn’t help the elation that swelled in her chest and burst out as a breathy laugh.
“It worked, it really worked.”
Vel hummed. “Patience. I’m not done yet.”
They grabbed her hands gently, their thumbs finding the centers of her palms. They began to massage them with small, firm circles, digging into all the right places. Relief washed over her as they rubbed at all the spots she had wished she could reach during all those moments of pain. She practically moaned as they gently stretched her fingers in a way she didn’t even know she needed.
“Feeling better, I take it?” They teased, continuing their care. “Keep letting your muscles relax, I’ve got you.”
Shadowheart gladly obliged, simply enjoying her lover’s gentle touch. After some time, the pain was gone entirely, with no more lingering ache of muscles and tendons begging for a break she couldn’t give them. Her arm had finally relaxed.
“Gone,” she answered with a smile. An idea suddenly crossed her mind as she finally looked up to meet their eyes. “But, there is one more thing.”
Vel furrowed their brows. “Yes?”
“I want to hold your face, with both hands. Please.”
They looked surprised before a radiant smile lit up their whole expression. They didn’t reply verbally, instead slowly guiding her hands toward their face. Her breath caught in her chest as her fingers first made contact with their jaw, sliding over their skin until her palms were cupping their jaw. Their fingers tangled with hers as they leaned into her touch, pressing her hands against their warm, red skin.
“It’s been too long since I have been able to do this,” she whispered as tears welled up in her eyes.
Vel nuzzled further into her touch, turning their head until their lips brushed against her spectral hand. They pressed a firm kiss against her palm, feeling the pressure of their lips. It was a healing feeling, and she felt truly free for the first time in a while—no pain, no regrets, only love.
They pressed lingering kisses to each digit even as the spell began to fade out. She could feel the sensation waning as the spell disappeared, leaving her back to reality. A single tear spilled over as Vel cradled her residual limb.
“I’m sorry, I wish I could keep the spell up forever,” they murmured, reaching up to wipe away the tear with a thumb. “Are you okay?”
Vel grunted as she abruptly crashed into them, throwing her arms around their neck in an embrace. They pulled her closer as her tears soaked into their shirt, not from sadness or loss, but from overwhelming happiness.
“More than okay,” she replied.
Shar could have her hand—she had everything she could ever need right here.
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