Rolan x Tavaria: The Magic of Nature
Lia and Cal had been firm, as had Tavaria's companions. She still held her training as a bard, but she was a druid and a rogue before all else. Given the ways she had worked plants and animals into her part of her parents' show even as a kid, the druid part hadn't surprised him.
How to woo her? How to draw out the passion of someone in touch with nature, and prone to a little tactical deception?
Ultimately, with Lia smirking in delight and a dream for later, it had been Gale who had suggested how to take Tavaria's mind off the crises at hand and put it squarely onto Rolan for one night.
Flora and fauna to please the senses and that of her that was one with nature. A small piece of cunning treachery to appeal to her inner scoundrel. And above all else, clear sky and fresh air in a land covered in oppressive darkness and choking shadow. One night, free of the shadow curse. A promise, of nights to come. Of the stars above; green trees and grasslands at the height of their late-spring fullness.
Lae'zel and Cal had planned the ruse. Lae'zel would interrupt Tavaria in camp just before she readied for sleep and ask her to join her. When they reach the clearing Rolan had prepared, Cal would meet Lae'zel and lead her away back to camp.
The plan had worked flawlessly, and soon, a confused Tavaria found herself walking on green grass untained by shadows - and atop a blanket with Rolan.
Rolan, taught to cast a very powerful illusion spell to woo the girl - now woman - he's loved since he was but a kid himself. Since that evening in Elturel when they were teenagers.
"Im glad you came." Rolan's cheeks flushed, as though he had deeply feared she wouldn't, that this would all be for nothing - that it still might be.
"Anything for you, Rolan. You know that."
His apprenticeship and her fight against the Absolute would certainly part them once more, but Rolan suspected all roads would lead to Baldur's Gate. "I know our time together is short. I wanted to do this, for you. For...us."
"It's beautiful. You made all of this, for me? I was already impressed by how far you made it against the shadows, but this is powerful illusion magic, Rolan."
"It's worth how I'll feel in the morning for how I feel tonight, Tavaria."
"I thought you'd said you hated me? Despised the person I've become?"
"I admit, the you that walked into the grove was a departure from memory. That said, you've saved my own life as well as that of the only family I have left thrice over. You're already healing this land from shadow - both the curse, and, I suspect within yourself. You've even begun to lift the darkness within myself.
On my worst night you saved me from the Shadows . The very keast I can do is return the favor, if just for one night."
"Rolan, I-"
"Tavaria, I love you. I haven't stopped loving you since we were teenagers, on that front porch in Elturel. How even then you were the first, other than Cal and Lia and their mother, to care for me, care about me. My biggest fear, back in the grove...was simply that you'd stopped. That you'd grown incapable of feeling the same."
Tavaria took a long pause, reflecting on her feelings - trying to push through all the darkness held just at bay on the fringes within her mind. As she gazed at the sky above for the first time in weeks, it occurred to Tavaria: Rolan had once again held back the darkness, figuratively and literally. Just as how Gale invoking him at camp had brought her out of the worst of...
Without another thought, on the first instinct she had wholly trusted since she had awoken on that Illithid ship, she turned to kiss Rolan. The man who had somehow kept a part of her soul anchored in the midst of deadly storms.
Above all else, Tavaria was a druid. One with nature. And she knew what nature was telling her right this moment. She could feel it building up inside her. Could smell the slight change in Rolan's scent. She needed him, and she suspected he needed her as well.
The pair rose, and Rolan told Tavaria to simply "fall back".
Her heart held tight in trust, she followed the instruction. As her back drew closer to the earth below, suddenly, it found itself hitting the softest mattress that her fractured mind could ever recall feeling.
Rolan stood beaming with pride a short distance away. Just seeing her truly relaxed and comfortable for the first time since the Grove had been reward enough....
Until it wasn't. Until just a moment later when Rolan looked down upon the love of his life once more to see her waving him forward, bidding him to approach and worship at her altar.
In bed. With Tavaria. Together.
"Are you sure, about this? We can just enjoy the stars?" Rolan was eager, that much was visible beneath his robe - still, fear had gotten the better of him.
"Rolan, I have never been more sure of anything, of anyone, in my life. Come, Rolan. Be greedy."
Climbing onto the bed; climbing on top of her, Rolan knew. As long as Tavaria was with him, he could face anything. Lorroakan, the Absolute, whatever horrors the city had in store for him.
And as Tavaria drew Rolan in closely, for the first time that she could remember, the Dark Urge drew silent. Here, now, in this place, she was finally free. For one night, Tavaria was herself again.
As the love of the evening gave way to the passions of the night, the only urges facing the couple here, now, would be the urges of nature itself; the purest magic being between two people simply in love.
