#hftsb

Sky clenched her hands into shaking fists, then released them. Then she held her own hand, wringing it like a wet cloth. “Everything’s wrong,” she eventually whispered, “This…I…” She turned slightly, but didn’t dare face him all the way. Her eyes darted at him, but meeting his patient grey eyes threatened to plunge her into an even deeper pool of guilt. So she glanced away. Shakily she started over, “We’ve been…seeing each other for a while now. You even followed me here from the last tavern I helped set up. But…”

Tristan took a small step towards her, and after a moment of heavy silence prompted, “…But?”

Sky released her hands with a sharp sigh. “We can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep doing this.”

“This?” Tristan gestured between the two of them with a frown. “Why not? Did something happen?”

“N-No! I—” Sky met his eyes briefly, then tore away again. He didn’t deserve this. She threw her hands over her head and clutched it with a groan, “It’s just…I’m scared, Tristan. Because I—I just know I’m going to hurt you.” Her voice shrank. “Just like I hurt everyone else. S-so it would be better if you left. For your own sake. I—”

She started to open the door, but Tristan summoned a spectral Mage Hand with a whistle to gently push it back closed. His faint purple magic shimmered with an ethereal chime. Sky watched it twinkle through tears she desperately held back, not daring to look Tristan’s way as he walked over.

“I’m not gonna leave, Sky. What makes you think I will? Or should?”

“Do you remember me talking about Satoru?”

“Your cleric friend from Lyrrha?”

Sky nodded. “When I told him about…about what was at stake in Eidolus…he left. He ran.”

“Didn’t you say he came back eventually?”

“Yeah, eventually, but…he still ran first. I hurt him, by telling him the truth, and he ran.”

“Did your friends run? Your brothers?”

Sky clutched the doorknob tighter, a grieving glaze of frost blooming from her palm across the metal. “No, but they—”

Tristan took another step. “Have you ever hurt any of them? Even with just your lightning?”

“Yeah, but they—”

“Sky.” He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The only marks on his hand were the calluses from plucking lute strings, but there was still a determined firmness in it as he gently directed her to turn towards him. “I’m not gonna leave you,” he repeated. “I’m not scared about you hurting me. You probably will; you’re more powerful than I could ever dream of being. And I’ll probably hurt you at points; I’m not perfect. No one is. But we’re both trying, and as long as we’re trying together, that’s what counts.”

Sky kept her gaze down, watching frost grow and melt beneath her feet as her heart and mind argued furiously: her mind racing for reasons and excuses to let him go and her heart shutting down every single one. 

Tristan remained silent for a moment, then huffed a small laugh. “Did I ever tell you why I traveled around so much, before meeting you?” he asked.

Sky blinked, and glanced up enough to look at his arm. No scars ever marred his fair skin, unlike the innumerable ones that marked hers. She frowned and shook her head.

Tristan tilted his head and mused, “To be honest, I don’t think I realized this until recently. But…I think I was looking for something. I was looking for a muse…and a home.” His voice grew low and soft, barely above a whisper. “And I finally found it.”

“This inn?” Sky frowned.

Gently Tristan lifted Sky’s chin with a finger until their eyes finally met. A soft, longing smile touched his eyes. “You. So please don’t make me lose it.”

Sky’s heart dropped as much as it soared. Fear and hope fought into hot tears…until eventually she let the fear go. She let it melt into the thawing frost at her feet.

Tristan’s eyes danced between Sky’s eyes and her lips, silently asking permission.

And with a tip of her head upwards until her lips met his, she gave it.

———

For this week’s prompt courtesy of @flashfictionfridayofficial!

Bag. I actually made this bag irl when I cosplayed her last year; made for good reference

Staff/sorcerer spell focus. Also made this irl using curtain rods

Wind chime/cleric spell focus. She got given this by an elf child the party rescued from a collapsing dwarf arena. Also made this irl using worbla, resin, and a steel straw my dad cut up for me

Ocarina. Was originally a pan flute given to Sky by the same child that gave her the wind chime, since the deity she became a cleric to is the setting’s goddess of wind and music, but my DM let me retcon it into an ocarina since I’m trying to learn the ocarina irl

10 gold’s worth of gems (about 20 or so). She’s had these since basically the first dungeon but have never found a chance to sell them

A luminous stone. Obtained recently from the last dungeon the party went through; doesn’t really have a use/much monetary value but she probably uses it as a night light

3 health potions. She has also had these since the beginning of the campaign but has never used them

Bedroll. Probably keeps it in the party Bag of Holding

Messkit. Uses chopsticks instead of a fork

Tinderbox.

Yuan-Ti sash. She got this from a yuan-ti Druid the party hunted down once

The Party Contract. Avel had everyone in the party sign it at the end of the first dungeon in an agreement to stop the end of the world; he gave everyone a magically synced copy and updates it periodically with new terms and rules and such

Scroll of pedigree.

Fancy clothes. These are actually Sky’s original clothes, of clear Lyrrhan (her home country) design

Bloodwell Vial. My DM had a whole thing about detailing what each race’s blood was like—Sky’s “blood”, as an air genasi, is literally mist. So the vial just has a swirl of her mist in it

Ring of Mind Shielding. Most of the party has one now since we kept getting scryed on

Ioun Stone—Fortitude. She bartered this from a lizardfolk merchant that was a very strange merchant obsessed with gems. The lizardfolk city was a strange city; basically fantasy Las Vegas plus dinosaurs

Signet ring. Has actually seen more use lately

2 books. She got these from Theome, the Tabaxi that turned out to be our first major antagonist, but hasn’t ever gotten rid of them; probably keeps them in her room of the castle the party has now

Journal.

Page from journal with Cure Wounds Glyph of Warding. Avel can cast a version of Glyph of Warding that lets him store a spell in it that gets activated when the Glyph is broken, and periodically makes everyone a Glyph with a spell of our choosing for emergencies