When Taako tells Angus to wear something light and comfortable one day in the late spring, Angus expects something wildly different. Angus suspects Taako’s going to train him about a special magic or take him on an exciting adventure. What he doesn’t expect is Taako tugging him off to an utterly massive lake in the middle of Faerun with nothing but a boat, a compact box, and a couple of fishing poles.

Angus blinks when Taako steps up to the boat tied to a small dock. “Sir?” he asks, because he just has to. This kind of scenario is so strange, so different, that he can’t even tell if this is out of character for the wizard.

Taako, on his part, is already sitting in the boat, threading bait onto the hooks tied to the end of the fishing line attached to each pole. “Yeah, boychik?” he asks, glancing back at the boy. Taako looks nothing like your standard fisherman in his high wasted shorts that hug his ass and the almost shear blouse he’s wearing—Angus can see some sort of undergarment through the material, but he decides not to comment. His floppy wizard hat is absent and his long hair is tied up in bun and held in place by what Angus would swear is a magic wand. He’s wearing light shoes that look like they were made to take water and it’s honestly the most sensible part of the outfit, if the boy detective is allowed a say.

“…You fish?” are the only words that can come out of Angus’s mouth with any sort of coherency and the boy nearly slaps his own forehead in embarrassment.

“Sure! Cha’boy loves to get out on the water and cast himself a line. It’s chill as fuck, my dude.” Taako wraps up his prep work and waves Angus over to the boy. “C’mon, get in. I need your help to untie this bad boy.”

“Where do you need me, sir?” Angus is hesitant to approach the boat, but since Taako has no problems with it, it should probably be okay. Taako’s not the sort to put himself in any unnecessary danger.

“You take the front. I’ll get the back,” Taako says, holding out a hand to Angus when the boy gets closer. “Watch your step.”

Angus takes the proffered hand and steps into the boat. It doesn’t move the way he expects it to and doesn’t slip out from under him, tied firmly to the dock, but it still wobbles enough for him to stumble. He lets out a little gasp and hurriedly grasps Taako with his other hand.

“You’re good, Agnes, you’re good. I gotcha.” Taako helps Angus to the only passenger seat in the tiny boat. He takes his own seat behind the wheel—the “driver’s seat”—and grins at the boy. “So, as I’m sure you’ve deduced,” he begins, wiggling his fingers at Angus, smiling when the kid laughs, “I brought you here so we can cast some lines. And!” Taako waves a hand over the tech attached to the back of the boat and it jolts a little. Angus hadn’t even noticed it. “This isn’t technically a boat built for speed, buuuut, I just so happen to be fuckin’ baller at this magic shit, so that’s not really a problem for me.”

Angus tilts his head. “So what are you saying?”

Taako’s grin is the cat that caught the canary. He stands again and gestures for Angus to move to the front of the boat. “I’m sure your genius little boy brain and figure it out.” He moves to the rope tied to the cleat on the back of the boat. “I need you to stretch your arm out to the dock there, boychik, but be careful not to fall in. Can you reach it?”

Angus leans as far out of the boat as he feels comfortable with, but he can’t get close enough for his fingers to even graze the edge. “Sorry, sir!”

“No worries, homie. I’ll just hop out for a sec,” Taako says, practically leaping from the boat onto semi-solid land. It’s so flawless and graceful Angus is momentarily stunned. Has Taako always been able to do that? Taako moves to the front of the boat and wraps his hands around the rope keeping the front of the boat attached to the dock. “I’m gonna pull the nose around and I want you to just hold onto the dock for now, ‘kay?”

“Okay, sir!” Angus chirps, finally able to grab the wood. “Can I hold onto this ring here?” he asks, pointing to where the rope is looped through a metal ring bolted to the dock.

“Yeah, perfect! I’m gonna loosen the rope from the cleat here and once I untie the back, I’m gonna need you to shove away from the dock as hard as you can, got it?” Taako loosens the knot on the rope and pulls it out of the ring, tossing it back on the boat.

“Got it!” Angus flashes him a bright and cheery grin and Taako can’t help the small smile that slips onto his own face.

Taako carefully steps back onto the boat and unties the knot on the back cleat, pulling the rope free quickly so it won’t fall into the water. “Okay, Angles, push!”

As Angus shoves as hard as his little arms can, Taako stretches a hand out to the tech and mutters a few words, casting a modified Animate Objects on the mystery tech. The boat starts to move and Taako holds onto the wheel, spinning it to the right to get the boat moving out into open water. The boat’s moving slow enough for Angus to stumble back to his seat, which he does with a wary smile.

Taako laughs at him, and grins, directing the boat further and further across the surface of the lake. “Okay, so, yeah, I’m using magic to make this thing go, because let’s face it, home boy, we aren’t exactly proficient in the strength department, ya feel?” Angus just nods and Taako laughs again. “You’re lookin’ a little green there, pumpkin. Don’t sweat it, you’re not gonna fall out or anything.

“That said, uh, this boat’s p small and not exactly built for speed, so uh,” Taako grins and stifles some giggles. “Hold on tight, Ango!” Taako barely gives Angus a chance to process the words before he’s pushing his hand towards his makeshift motor and the boat goes ripping across the water, cutting cleanly through the lake’s glassy smooth surface.

The wind feels good on their faces, if a little cold, and Angus closes his eyes and lets himself enjoy it. They aren’t moving that fast, especially compared to how fast the Bureau’s canons can go, but Taako thinks that if they go any faster, they might have a hard time staying in the boat.

They ride around the lake for almost ten minutes before finally slowing to a halt in the middle of the water, completely surrounded by a shimmering, smooth surface. It’s a nice day for this, Angus thinks. Warm and decently sunny, but with enough cloud coverage to keep them cool.

Taako ends his Animate Objects spell and gives them a minute to settle into their new position on the lake. Angus glances over to see Taako’s face tilted towards the sky, eyes closed and face more relaxed than Angus can ever remember seeing him before. A particularly hard wind rocks the boat ever so slightly and he feels something hit his shoe.

The Umbra Staff is at his feet and Angus, for just is second, is confused. Was it here before? Angus can’t remember seeing it before, but was it because it wasn’t here before or was it just because he didn’t notice? And if he didn’t notice, why didn’t he?

Before Angus can open his mouth to say anything, Taako comes back to himself and glances down. “Oh! There you are!” he says, reaching down to pick the staff up. He unlatches the ribbon holding the umbrella closed and spreads it open, using it as a sun shield. Angus can’t help but stare at how tight Taako’s grip on the handle is. Is it always that tight?

Taako rises to his feet and steps to the back of the boat, digging the poles out from where he’d stowed them along the outside wall. “C’mere and take a pole. Lemme show you how to cast.”

Angus smiles and pushes the thoughts of the umbrella out of his mind. (Are any of these things connected to that time it blasted those letters on the wall? Just what was that about, anyway?) “Okay, sir!”

Taako spends the next several minutes demonstrating the best ways to cast a line out into the open water and how hook and reel the line in when it feels like there’s a fish eating at the bait. The Umbra Staff ends up being more of a nuisance than not, so Taako collapses it and lays it across his lap, one hand almost always touching it at any point in time.

Angus finally gets a handle on casting after about a dozen tries. Taako flashes him a grin that would prove hard to defend as anything but proud, and it fills the boy detective with warmth all the way down to his toes. Taako tosses out his own line and sits back, popping the staff open again and resting it over his shoulder, looking utterly content in a way Angus has never seen before.

After about twenty minutes of peaceful silence, Angus starts feelings sleepy. He tried to go to bed early last night so he could be awake today but he was too excited and ended up only getting a few hours in, something he’s paying for now. He yawns hugely, covering his mouth with one hand, the only still wrapped around the handle of his pole. He glances over at Taako, whose eyes are closed as he leans against the staff, and can’t help but ask, “Do you do this often?”

“Hmmm?” Taako hums, opening his eyes and looking over at Angus. He has complete heterochromia (his left eye is a mercurial silver and the other is bright green), Angus notes, and he’s almost embarrassed he’s never noticed until now, but then he remembers that Taako doesn’t often give him so much of his full attention. “Oh,” the elf says, seemingly just registering the question. “I used to do it more often, but I haven’t since joining the Bureau. It’s a useful skill.” Taako appears to be finished with speaking, but Angus feels like there’s more to the story.

“What kind of uses, sir?” Angus asks, tilting his head.

Taako gives him a suspicious glance before he smirks and quirks an eyebrow. “You’re the boy genius. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

“But I want you to tell me, sir!” Angus has to play this right and work into Taako’s pride or else he’ll never open up. Luckily it seems to work.

“That’s because I’m the expert, natch.” Taako shakes his pole a little and jerks it once or twice before settling back down. “So like. First of all, people eat fish, duh. If you got a pole, or something likeit, and you’re camped out beside a river or a lake, then that’s free food.” Taako smiles like he just revealed a huge secret. “Sure you also gotta know how to descale ‘em and cook ‘em but that’s no prob. Fish are good for ya.”

“Have you had to do that a lot?” Angus has no idea if he’s pushing his luck with the question, but he’s knee deep in investigation mode and he’s going to take this path as far as Taako will let him.

“All the time, ‘specially growing up.” Taako pauses and tucks a loose hair behind one of his long ears. It twitches just enough to make the chain on the cuff earring jingle. He goes quiet long enough to make Angus think that he’s done—for real this time—but he continues, much to Angus’s surprise.

“I grow up on the road, hopping from caravan to caravan when I could. Camped out when I couldn’t.” Taako shrugs and gives the Umbra Staff a lazy spin. “Was hard, tryin’a get by with nothin’, but we couldn’t go to a home because they were try to separate us—” Taako freezes and his grip on the umbrella goes white knuckled.

Angus watches this happen in rapt fascination. From one second to the next, goes from loose and content to rigid and anxious. Taako’s eyes are blown wide and unfocused, his shoulders are stiff, his breathing is shallow, and he’s clenching the pole and staff so hard Angus is sure they’ll both break. To Angus’s untrained eye, Taako seems to be in the midst of a full-blown anxiety attack, and it’s scary to the eleven-year-old.

“S-sir?” Angus squeaks out, jumping to his feet, hands hovering over his mentor, unsure whether he should touch him or not.

Taako’s pole clatters to the bottom of the boat as his hand flies up to his ear, finely manicured nails digging into the soft flesh. Angus reaches up to move the hand away—he’s very much not an expert on elven anatomy, being a little human boy, but he knows enough to know that elf ears are incredibly sensitive, and that clawing at them must be excruciating—but before he can, Taako lets go and gasps in a deep breath that quickly turns into coughing and gagging.

“Taako, sir, are you alright?” Angus knows he’s being pretty useless right now, but he just wants to help. What had even set Taako off? Something about being separated from someone? Another orphan, perhaps? (And the thought of Taako being an orphaned kid living off the streets is so contradictory to the Taako he knows now that Angus almost wants to dismiss it as an elaborate goof—but why would he joke about something like this? And if it was a joke, even Taako would have stopped it before it got to the point of an actual, literal anxiety attack. It had to be real, which just made it feel even more unreal.)

It takes a minute, but Taako finally manages to somewhat control his breathing. He wraps his free hand around the long handle of the staff and leans into it eyes closed and chest heaving. “Sorry about that, boychik,” he says, voice soft and faint. “No idea what happened there, but, hey, shit happens.”

“You don’t have to apologize, sir,” Angus tells him moving to sit beside Taako. “That didn’t look like a goof.”

“Almost wish it was. ‘S not very fun if it’s real,” Taako says, and Angus feels like there’s a deeper meaning that escapes him.

“Who were you afraid to be separated from?” Angus’s voice is so quiet, Taako might not have been able to hear it if not for his elven hearing. One of his ears twitches in the boy’s direction and Angus’s eyes flit over to it at the movement.

“I dunno,” Taako says, taking a deep breath, “but It feels like I’m forgetting something.”

“Do you wanna go back to the base?”

Taako takes and deep breath, holds it, and lets it out slowly. “Not yet. Let’s just… relax. For a bit.”

“Okay.”

Angus falls asleep ten minutes later. If he ends up slumped against Taako, and Taako wraps an arm around the boy’s shoulders? Well.

Tonight is going to absolutely perfect. Taako has spent the day toiling away in the kitchen—with the occasional help from Lup—to make the family dinner absolutely perfect. Everyone’s favorite dishes are present and even the latest of guests are set to arrive several hours before it’s time to chow down.

Lup and Barry and Kravitz have been in and out of their office in the Astral Plane the last couple days to finish any last night work that would even slightly disrupt their family holiday. There shouldn’t be any bounties coming their way for the next few days at this rate, Istus and the Raven Queen forbid.

Candlenights is going to be beyond perfect this year.

Lup is the first one home and after checking in with Taako in the kitchen, rushes off to her room to gussy up for the evening. Once she’s done, Taako will get ready, and by that point, the boys should be done wrapping up their paperwork and be back in time to help greet the first guests.

Taako is halfway out of the kitchen when a dimensional rift opens up beside Lup and Barry steps through, looking a little exhausted. “Just in time, Barold,” he says, smiling when Lup turns to give him a kiss. “Keep my sister company while I get ready, huh?”

Barry blushes and wraps an arm around Lup’s waist. “Heh. Not a proble—” Before he can finish, Lup disappears from his grasp, and the two of them are left staring at where she was in complete shock.

“What the fuck?” Taako rushes back into the room and waves an arm where Lup was standing just a second ago.

“L-Lup? What happened?” Barry’s eyes are blown wide behind his glasses and he’s frozen in place, shoulders stiff and arm slowly drifting back to this side.

“Barold!” Taako thumps him in the chest and Barry sucks in a deep breath, coming back to himself. “Come with me. I have a silver mirror in my room.”

“R-right. Right. We—we’ll find her. It’s okay, it’s fine.” Barry’s rambling seems to be more for his own comfort than anything, so Taako snatches up his wrist and drags him down to hall and into his disaster of a room. He shoves Barry to down to take a seat on the bed and digs around on top of the dresser for the silver hand mirror he knows he has.

Taako sets the mirror on the bed beside Barry and takes Barry’s face in his hands. “Hey,” he says, ducking his head to took him in the eyes, voice low. “We’ll find her. She didn’t leave.” The this time is implied. “She wouldn’t do that.” Not again.

Barry sighs and closes his eyes. Taako leans in and plants a kiss on his forehead. “What’s the plan, Taako?”

“I’m gonna cast Scrying. See if I can find her,” Taako says, stepping away and scooping the mirror back up. He clears a spot on the floor and sits down, cross legged, and focuses on the mirror. “I need you to go find her brush and bring me a piece of her hair. That’s the easiest way to do it.”

Barry nods and leaves the room. Taako closes his eyes and focuses directly on Lup, thinks about her laugh, her smile, the way she looks, the way she talks, and wills his magic to focus on hers. His ear flicks when Barry comes back, Lup’s brush in his hands. Taako takes it silently and concentrates the spell through it with one hand and the mirror with the other.

It takes a minute for the spell to find her, but it finally catches and he can see her in his mind’s eye quite clearly. There’s no way Lup knew he was going to look for her, but he can feel her voluntarily failing her save regardless. A second later, the room around him fades and he feels as if he’s with Lup, wherever she is.

Taako looks around, seeing and hearing through the scrying spell’s invisible sensor, and says, “Barry, if you can hear me, I found her. I’m gonna tell you what this place looks like.”

Taako can’t hear if Barry makes any sort of reply, but he feels a warm hand settle on his shoulder so he figures that the words came through. (Taako’s only ever used this spell once and he was alone when he used it, holed up in his room and getting drunk by turning water into wine like fantasy Jesus while he tried to find the man that wanted to kill him so bad he almost succeeded. He has no idea what it looks like from the outside or even if anything he said would come through. He’s glad that it does; trying to remember what this place looks like would be hell.)

The cave is dark and musty and full of weird, vaguely creepy artefacts that Taako doesn’t feel like describing. Bones and skulls of all sorts litter the floors and from Taako’s position, he can see Lup standing in the middle of a summoning circle, red cloak draped over her little black dress, arms crossed and looking extremely put out.

“Really, fellas? On Candlenights? Don’t you have anything better to do?” She sounds annoyed and not worried at all and Taako can’t help but feel relieved. “Didn’t we have to come break your shit up literally a week ago?”

That might be useful. Taako doesn’t know if Lup is being helpful on purpose, but he relates the info to Barry regardless. The hand leaves his shoulder and Taako tries to moves to catch it and only ends up moving his field of vision. Attempting to pull out of the spell only leaves him with a headache and ringing ears. “Barry? Where’d you go?”

The necromancers surrounding Lup say nothing, and she just looks progressively more annoyed. “So what now? You bring me all the way here and… nothing? No reaction?”

The necromancers start murmuring amongst themselves in Abyssal and Taako tunes them out, still trying to abort the Scrying spell before its ten minutes are up. The problem is that he doesn’t know how. His first attempt hadn’t been a success.

“Barry! Get back here!” Taako calls out, trying to move again. His vision merely shifts and he huffs out a breath, trying to stay calm. Nothing good comes from panic and his usual grounding methods are useless if he can’t move his physical body. “I’m about to freak the fuck out, Barry! Where’d you go?”

Nothing. Taako closes his mind to the vision of the inside of the cave and counts his heartbeats as he waits for the spell to end.

He hears the sound of fabric tearing and he opens his mind’s eye to see Barry step out of the rift, his Reaper glamor making him look like his lich form. “Asshole!” Taako screams, vision swinging as he makes to throw his arms out.

“Hey, babe!” Lup says, a huge smile lighting up her face. Taako wants to do a hit on Barry’s stupid face. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

Barry looks around, pulls something from his robe, and taps two fingers to the sides of his glasses. He sweeps the room again and locks eyes with what Taako can only assume is the Scrying spell’s sensor. “Huh. Neat.”

Taako huffs as Lup tilts her head. “What is it?” The necromancers are chanting now, something Taako is oblivious to the meaning of, but given the circumstances, it can’t be anything good.

“Taako found you with a spell. He can see us right now actually. Hears us too.” Barry gestures in the direction the sensor. Taako just wishes the spell would end already.

“Shit yeah!” Lup turns and smiles blindly in his direction. “Hey, Koko! These necro-fucks are real close to home! You know that cave that you, me, and Bare-bare checked out a few months ago? I think this is it!” Taako smiles even though she can’t see him. Lup is the best.

Barry sighs. “This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. We got this covered.”

“Aww, but it’s Candlenights!” Lup says at the same time that Taako yells out, “Suck it, Barry!” to his empty room.

“You two are chaos inca—” Whatever Barry was going to say is cut off the spell ending, throwing Taako back into his own senses and his quiet room.

“Lulu you’re the best sister ever,” Taako says to himself as he scrambles to his feet. He runs into the kitchen first thing and turns off all the heat he can and moves the dishes to safer, less fire-hazardous spots. (That could have been a disaster.) The next thing he does is jot down a note for Kravitz— “We had a situation but we’re handling it!” —and then he rushes back to his room for his cloak and component bag and the Krebstar.

It’s time to fuck up some necromancers.

 It takes Taako about ten minutes on Garyl to find the exact cave Lup and Barry are in. Taako doesn’t bother dispelling the phantom steed and as long as he stays out of the way, he should be fine. “Go in there and kick some ass, my man,” the binicorn drawls, voice low and smooth.

Taako shoots him finger guns and takes off into the cave, trying his best to be quick but quiet. The cave is suspiciously silent and Taako can’t imagine it means anything good for his family. Ahead of him, the cave opens up into an antechamber that’s lit with an assortment of candles an few enchanted lanterns.

There’s about a dozen hooded figures of varying shapes and sizes standing in a semicircle around where Taako can recognize as the last place he saw Lup. She and Barry are pressed back to back, hands clenched together, surrounded by what appears to be spectral cuffs. Lup’s mouth is moving but there’s no sound and Taako, if he’s being completely honest with himself, doesn’t care enough about the why to figure it out.

Conclusion? Lup and Barry are pretty soundly—or not, heh—trapped. No big deal.

The smart thing to do is try to pick these dudes off one by one and find a way to free Barry and Lup from the trap. The smart thing to do is to try and rescue his family and have them help him kick some ass.

What Taako ends up doing is firing off the most potent Sunbeam he can, taking special care to avoid catching Lup and Barry in its line of fire. Over half the necromancers fail their save and scream as the spell blinds them temporarily. The rest fall away from the line as quickly as they can. Not a single one of them is left unharmed.

“Just who the fuck do you think you are?” Taako steps out from his hiding spot, Krebstar raised, face drawn into a snarl. The necromancers left with their vision—about four of them, Taako guesses—look at him in what can only be stunned silence. “Really, fellas?” Taako asks, copying Lup’s line because it was just that good. “On Candlenights?”

“Run along, little wizard,” the nearest necromancer hisses at him, their voice low and grating. “You’re not who we want.”

Taako scoffs and hardens his glare. Little wizard? Sure, he must be a sight to behold with this hair in a messy bun, an apron thrown over and oversized sweaters with the sleeves rolled up, sweatpants and boots that are a size too big—not to mention his cloak of the manta ray and belt with his spell component pouch—but just because he looks like hot garbage right now doesn’t mean he’s not capable.

He’ll show these fuckers what for. They deserve it for underestimating him.

Taako gives a nasty smirk to the necromancer that spoke and aims the tip of the Krebstar at them. “Watch this,” he says, the casts Disintegrate.

The necromancer shrieks, briefly, and falls apart before the remaining hooded figures can make a move to stop him. Taako adjusts his grip. “Anyone else?”

A couple of the blinded necromancers fall over their comrades trying to move closer to him and one of the relatively unharmed figures raises an arm towards him. Taako quickly steps back into his hiding spot and casts Mislead, sending his double to go running deeper into the cave. He keeps his senses with the double until he’s sure of the path it can take then switches back to himself and sneaks, completely invisible over to Barry and Lup.

Barry’s eyes turn to him immediately and he barely stops himself from making an audible reaction. Stupid Barold and his stupid True Seeing.

Actually, this might be useful.

Thank you Istus, Taako thinks, raising his hands and signing out, ‘Trap?’

Barry blinks once or twice before grinning. The crew had all learned this sign language of sorts back in Cycle 27 when they came across a plane that left most the nonhuman members of their crew deafened—the cause being something that emitted a planetwide audio tone that only certain races and species were capable of hearing. It obliterated the auditory nerves of anything that could hear it, but the natives of the plane had already begun adapting, mostly by adopting more visual indicators for those affected by the strong noise.

‘Glyph,’ Barry signs out, doing his best to keep his movements small and subtle. Lup shifts against him and squints in Taako’s direction, so Barry shows her the name symbol they came up with for Taako. (Granted, it’s not the one Taako came up with, but the others convinced him that the gesture he wanted was a little too complex and obscure. He reluctantly agreed.)

‘Trap,’ Lup signs, confirming as well, looking off to the side. ‘Rock?’ She ends her second sign with a shrug, trying not to be too obvious about looking for the source of their magic cage.

Taako holds up a single finger, the universal ‘wait a moment,’ and switches his sense back to his double. Said double is deeper into the cave than Taako’s ever been and is physically wrecking every weird artefact it can while still keeping them mostly intact so the Reaper Squad can confiscate them. The double seems to be doing fine, making a mess of things while avoiding the occasional spell being flung his way.

Taako comes back to his actual self to see Lup pointing to a huge boulder close to the cavern wall.

‘Fake?’ she guesses, nudging Barry. He glances back at it and nods.

‘Check,’ Taako signs, sneaking over to the rock. He needs to be quick. The blindness seems to be wearing off of victims of his Sunbeam.

The rock is indeed somewhat fake. The front is illusory, a cover to hide a small, open spellbook covered in glowing arcane runes sitting on a much smaller rock. Taako grabs the book and snaps it closed. He doesn’t particularly care which type of trapping spell this is, but removing the book from the area should be enough to end the spell.

He tosses the book towards the cave entrance and watches as Lup and Barry grin and step away from the center of the summoning circle on the floor.

Taking advantage of his invisibility, Taako nudges past Barry and Lup. “Take a sip, babes,” he says, winking at Barry, and he casts Cone of Cold. Taako fades back into visibility as a vicious, icy wind whips up at his fingertips and blasts through the cave. The closest necromancers, still recovering from their blindness, fail to save—again—and several are frozen solid as their hit points drop to zero.

Lup is cheering, whooping and laughing as her brother annihilates the den of necromancers. Not all of them die from the attack, but enough of them do—Barry moves to collect the souls of the deceased as Lup heads further into the cave to get any stragglers.

Spell over and job done, he casually pretends to dust his hands off and waits for Lup and Barry to finish their reaping.

“Koko! That was fantastic!” Lup calls out as she runs up to him and grabs him in a big hug, lifting him up and spinning him around.

He laughs and hugs her back, striking a showy pose when she sets him back down. “Thank you, thank you, I know I’m amazing.”

“That was really impressive, Taako. Nice work,” Barry says, looking like himself again.

Taako turns to him and gives him a sharp smile. “You’re on thin ice, pal.” His eyes narrow and his grip on the Krebstar shifts. “You know why.”

Barry visibly gulps and Lup laughs. “Sorry I just. Left. Like that. I won’t do it again, promise.”

Rolling his eyes, Taako turns and starts to exit the cave. “Yeah, sure, whatever. I’m going home. This isn’t my job and I have to finish getting ready.” He looks back at them and points at them. “You better be home before seven or I’ll come back here and drag you back personally.”

Lup gives him a mock salute. “You got it boss! Come on Bare-bare. I’m sure there’s some gross junk in here that you’d just love to get your hands on.”

Barry waves at him as he shuffles off, following Lup to the cavern room that Taako’s double trashed.

Garyl is still waiting outside when Taako finally leaves the cave. “We done here?” the phantom steed asks as Taako climbs up.

“Yeah m’man. Take me home.”

 Somehow Taako makes it home before any of the guests arrive, which is just as well because he still has a lot to do. He makes to resume cooking and or reheat the food and rushes back to his room to change as quickly as he can. He comes back to the kitchen to see Lup standing at the stove.

“Go finish getting ready, bro.” She smiles at him. “I got this. Barry when back to the Astral Plane to drop some stuff off and drag your boy toy back home.”

Taako darts forward to peck her cheek with a kiss before running back to his. “Thanks, you’re the best!”

“No problem! And chill out! Tonight’s gonna be perfect!” Lup laughs after him and he smiles.

Their auntie gets sick. She’s an older elf lady, well into her seven hundreds, and she’s not as spritely as she used to be. She’s been slowing down for years but the twins have ignored it, hoping and praying that she would get better.

She doesn’t.

When the twins are twelve, she dies. It’s peaceful, in her sleep, and Taako and Lup wake up that morning like nothing has happened. Auntie is usually the first one up and about—the twins, although they have finally managed to master meditating, prefer sleep as a deeper, more restful alternative to trancing—so Lup and Taako seize this rare opportunity to make breakfast for the three of them.

They fry eggs and bacon, mix and knead fresh dough for biscuits, whip up some creamy gravy to pour on top. It doesn’t take them that long, really—their Auntie taught them well—and soon they have a delicious meal made just for the three of them.

They load up a tray, for breakfast in bed, and carry the food carefully upstairs.

“This would be so much easier with magic,” Lup whines, staring down at the glasses in her hands, focusing intently on not spilling a single drop.

“We’re not old enough,” Taako reminds her, brushing past her carefully.

Lup glares at him. He’s always been the more graceful of the two. “So? Who cares? I bet we could start to join those magic classes and they’d never know.”

“If they’d even let us in,” Taako mutters, waiting for her to join him on the top step.

“What do you mean?”

“I overheard some of the instructors. They don’t know if they want us to learn magic.”

“That’s bullcrap!” Lup snaps, the glasses sloshing dangerously. “We’re just as capable of learning magic as the rest of them! Just because we’re a little different—!” She cuts herself off with a loud groan.

Taako shrugs and keeps his eyes down. “I hope they let us in. I really wanna learn magic.”

Lup kicks her foot at him, her hands occupied, and he glances up. She makes a face, crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out, and he laughs and she keeps the face until he kicks her back. “Don’t worry, lil Koko bro. We’ll learn magic one day, with or without that stupid elf practice!”

Taako gives her a crooked smile and leads the way to Auntie’s bedroom. It’s bright and sunny, her walls painted a cheerful yellow, her bedspread a tasteful pale pink floral, the curtains a soothing grassy green. The twins have never seen their aunt meditate before so they’re not sure if she lays down or sits up for her nightly trancing. (Both twins prefer laying down. It’s far more comfortable.)

Finding her buried under the covers isn’t very surprising—the twins do the same thing while curled up together. She’s wearing a pale blue nightgown, the one with long sleeves and lacy ruffles at the wrists that she sometimes wears while cooking. Taako and Lup set the tray and drinks on the dresser and exchange smirks, communicating with each other wordlessly. With an unspoken countdown, they jump on the bed together, four small hands reaching for Auntie with unrestrained glee.

“Wake up, Auntie!” they say together, poking and prodding and searching for the edges of the blanket.

They pull the heavy blankets back as Lup says, “We made breakfast!”

Auntie doesn’t stir.

Taako frowns and clutches at Lup’s sleeve with one hand. “Auntie?” he asks, reaching a slow hand out to her still, still face. So, so very still. (She looked peaceful, Taako thinks later, once he allows himself to admit that he knew she was gone from that moment.)

Lup shoves her hand under his right before he makes contact. Taako pulls back, almost confused, and glances at his sister. Her brow is furrowed and her eyes are trained on Auntie. “Koko,” she says, her voice small, “I don’t think Auntie is asleep.”

“Of course she’s not,” he says, but only because it feels automatic. He swallows and stares down at where Lup’s moving her hand to hover in front of Auntie’s face, under her nose. “Auntie… Auntie doesn’t sleep. Elves aren’t ‘spposed to sleep, ‘member?” He thinks he says. He tries to focus on anything else but the tremble of Lup’s hands.

“She’s real cold, Koko.” Auntie runs hot, just like Lup. Auntie doesn’t get cold, not like Taako. Taako almost wants to reach out to try to touch her again, but his second hand joins his first on Lup’s sleeve. He’s always been one for grabbing, clutching, holding on as if his life depends on it. It never has, not really.

(That’s about to change. Eventually, holding on will be the only thing that keeps them together.)

“Auntie’s real old, Lup,” Taako says, whispers into her neck as he pulls himself against her, screwing his eyes shut tight and forcing his breathing to stay even. Lup is shaking. Taako forces himself to stay calm. One of them needs to be.

Lup’s emotions run too fast, too hot, too strong—she’s always been worse at putting on a disaffected face because everything is a big deal with feelings as big as hers. Taako’s emotions, on the other hand, simmer and stir inside him, seeping into his very being. His emotions settle deeply and firmly and leave him much more slowly than they come to him, if they ever truly do.

“Let’s go back to our room, Koko,” Lup murmurs, voice low, as she grabs one of his hands and tugs him gently off the bed. He follows her, his eyes never leaving Auntie.

They forget about breakfast.

Ever since Taako was little, he had an imaginary friend. She was an elf like him and trans like him and looked just like him with the mismatched eyes and blonde hair except it was like a mirror. She knew everything he was going through because she was going through it too.

He’s too old for that now, but sometimes, in his weakest moments, he likes to pretend she’s still with him.

Her name was Lup and he liked to pretend he was a twin.

 Something about the Umbra Staff makes him think of his childhood imaginary friend. She would use something this ridiculous, he thinks one night when trancing is impossible. He wraps his arms around the staff and closes his eyes.

This is weird, he thinks. She isn’t real. The staff is warm and he likes to think that imaginary Lup would like fire. Useful fire for those cold and sleepless nights on the road. Useful fire for keeping raiders off his back it the scariest, darkest nights. Useful fire to cook something just right even without a professional kitchen.

Lup would play with fire and Taako would change the world to match.

 Taako doesn’t remember the last time he had a room to himself. A normal kind of remembering this time, instead of the weirdly huge gaps in his mind that made him sick and sad and lonely. The first thing he does is throw himself on the bed that’s big enough for at least three of him and roll around on top of the comforter until he can get over the fact that it’s perfect.

The next thing he does is scatter his belongings all over the room, followed by an incredibly brief bout of panic wherein he picks it all back up and leaves it in a heap beside the bed instead. The bathroom is next on his inspection tour. It’s a simple affair but fairly elegant. Taako is impressed and a little awed. (He learns over the next several days that the bathroom is his and his alone and he has a hard time not rubbing it into Magnus and Merle’s faces.)

When he finally collapses on the clean bedspread, still coming down from the high of having such nice new digs, he allows himself to think about Goldcliff, about Sloane and Hurley, about the truly massive fireball he’d managed that ended that fight.

His breath hitches and he shoves his fists against his eyes.

This isn’t what he wants to think about. He doesn’t want to think about the looks Hurley and Sloane gave each other all the way to the end, he doesn’t want to think about the hug that Hurley gave him, doesn’t want to think about how he melted so completely in her hold that he didn’t even notice that she was giving him her harness, doesn’t want to think about the way the silverpoint crept through their veins and turned their blood to ash right in front of him.

The thought sends a cold jolt down his spine and the irrational thought that he needs to find the Umbra Staff now.

He finds it hooked around the footboard and he snatches it quickly, pulling it closer before scrambling his way under the covers, still fully dressed. He wraps himself around the staff and presses his forehead against it. It’s warm, almost hot, and suddenly Taako’s reminded of how filthy he is, covered in a layer of sweat and grim from the battlewagon race and the battle with Sloane afterward.

(After the three of them finished their customary post-mission trip to the Fantasy Costco, they’d been stopped by Avi and escorted down to their new rooms, a private suite with its own elevator and a common room featuring a portal to hell—aka a giant floor window—overlooking the planet below. There’s a bedroom for each of them, already assigned, and a bathroom at one end of the hallway, opposite and excluding Taako’s en-suite. There’s a fairly large kitchen attached to the common room, separated only by an island bar with three stools. All in all, it’s pretty tight, but they hadn’t had the chance to clean up before being left to their new digs.)

Taako can’t bring himself to care that he’s getting the new sheets dirty. He’s already a disaster, what’s it matter what he gets up to in the comforts of his own room (and isn’t that just wild? His own room. Wow.).

“You did good today,” he says out loud, keeping his voice down just in case there’s someone standing outside his room. “You cast some bombass spells and saved a shitton of people today.” He sighs and moves the umbrella back to smack himself in the forehead with it. “But gods, Taako, you’re still a fucking idiot.”

The Umbra Staff quivers and Taako squeezes it tighter. For a moment, he imagines it’s a neck in his hands and he stares at his white knuckled grip. He takes a shaky breath and closes his eyes.

“You’re not real, Lup. You’re just something I made up because I can’t stand to be alone.” His eyes sting behind his lids and he struggles to keep his breathing steady. “But gods I wish you were.”

Taako lays long enough to almost fall asleep. He moves to curl into a ball and his ribs ache his clothes pull weird and he sighs, reluctant to leave his warm cocoon. He forces himself to get up and peel off the dusty, sweat soaked shirt and jacket and binder and he kicks his shoes and pants to the side with a growl. Luckily, whoever it was that set their rooms up managed to stock the dresser with his clothes.

Donning an oversized sweater and a pair of shorts, Taako crawls back into bed and tries not to think about Sloane and Hurley’s dying faces.

Taako’s never loved someone that much.

 L-U-P.

Taako tries so hard to pretend the letters on the wall mean nothing to him, tries so hard to pretend that L-U-P is a string of letters he’s never seen before, never uttered like a prayer in a moment of weakness, never crossed his mind or passed his lips or stuck with him as his only companion against horror and heartbreak and crushing loneliness.

No. The word means nothing to Taako. It’s not a name. It’s just a word.

There’s no mystery here, he wants to say. He wants to shake the boy detective, wants to turn him away from the letters, from the thought, the idea of Lup as an entity. She’s mine, he wants to say. You can’t have her. The words not again linger in his mind for far longer than they should.

 Madame Director calls Taako to her office the day after L-U-P. Taako tries really hard to ignore how worried he is that something’s going to go terribly wrong and forces himself to act as casual and put-off as he possibly can. He wants to pretend that this is just an annoying formality. He can’t. He doesn’t want Madame Director, please, dear gods, anyone but Lucretia.

She has her stern “I know you did something so don’t lie to me” face on and Taako feels his skin crawl with irritation. He hates her holier-than-thou attitude sometimes. Just because she has a magic jellyfish that can unmake entire lives doesn’t make her better than the rest of them.

“Taako,” she says, and sometimes he hates the way she says his name, too. He hates the way the syllables sound familiar coming from her mouth, the gentle way her lips wrap around it, like a suffocating hug from a bear that wants to eat him.

“Director,” he says back, just to be petulant. He knows why he’s here and he refuses to break. He’s allowed his secrets, his privacy. Sure this is the best gig he’s ever had, but by the gods does he feel trapped here more than some of the time.

“Care to explain what happened yesterday?” She quirks a brow at him and he gives her a deadpan stare, unimpressed.

“Oops,” he says with a careless shrug, entirely unapologetic.

“This wasn’t on purpose, was it? It wasn’t an act of petty vandalism?” She’s the picture of calm and grace and as much as Taako wants to keep poking this lion, the longer he sits under her stare, the more anxious he gets.

“Listen, I dunno what the whole deal with this ‘luhp’ thing is, but I have other things I’d rather be doing,” he says, forcing himself to mispronounce Lup’s name. The further away from her he can paint himself, the better the situation will turn out. Experience has taught him this time and time again.

Lucretia looks exhausted and for a moment he feels concerned. Smug satisfaction quickly takes its place and he moves as if to stand when she remains silently for a solid minute.

“Look, are we done here? Can I go?” Taako gestures to the door with the Umbra Staff.

The Director’s eyes lock onto the staff and Taako can see her shoulders tense. He moves the umbrella his other hand and crosses his arms in front of it. “Just tell me why.”

Taako purses his lips and considers his answer. He turns and strides for the door, uncrossing his arms to grab the handle. “Look, Director,” he begins, fighting back the urge to call her Creesh for reasons he’s not entirely sure of. “Whatever happened yesterday? That wasn’t me.” He twists the knob, pulls the door open, takes a step out. “And Lup is just something I made up as a kid. Don’t worry about it.”

He closes the door and leaves. He doesn’t look back.

 For only a second, Taako thinks he see Lup with him, there in that white space. When he turns to look, all he can see is the red dirt of Refuge and he doesn’t think about her again until he dies. I hope she’s not dying, too, he thinks, and then, but dying’s never stopped her before.

Every subsequent death, he finds himself searching for a glimpse of her. One time it’s a flash of blonde hair. Another time it’s the tips of pointed ears. Yet another is a ghost of a smirk.

The color red follows her and when he looks, it’s dirt and he’s in Refuge again.

Lup would have liked Roswell, probably, and definitely Ren. He hopes they can meet one day. He forgets he ever had the thought.

 The Umbra Staff tries to kill Kravitz and that’s just fucking rude. Why does it have to act up like this? Why can’t it just be like any other cool staff? (Taako thinks that if he could ever make a staff it would have a blade on the end. Not because he would use it like a sword, but it would look super intimidating and maybe an enemy will think it’s a melee weapon and assume he’s weak when he’s anything but.)

The whole thing about something undead makes Taako’s skin crawl. He doesn’t like the feeling of not being able to trust the Umbra Staff. He’s come to rely on its steady presence to ground him during his lowest points and he doesn’t want anything to come between that. Fuck the rest of the base if it means sacrificing personal comfort.

Why would a dark spirit risk being discovered to save Taako’s life so many times? If there is a lich—and gods, maybe there is and he just never knew because they used to own the staff before him—then the only thing he can do is hope it won’t escape and try to murder him. But, again, why save his life and help him get stronger? Why not just kill him immediately?

Kravitz may be hot, and he may be right about an undead spirit, but he’s wrong about it being a danger to him.

(Lup would never hurt him.)

 The fireball that Angus shoots out is huge, bigger than the little boy is capable of casting or even handling. When he speaks up, babbling excuses about how he couldn’t possibly have cast that spell, something clicks in Taako.

“I know, I know,” he says, and he hopes he doesn’t sound like a weirdo because honestly? He wasn’t listening.

He’s too busy thinking about how to free Lup from the Umbra Staff.

Why didn’t he think of this before? It’s a miracle it never happened on accident even, but here, and now, Taako realizes that he has to break her prison to set her free.

From the moment he drank the baby’s ichor to the second he snaps the Umbra Staff over his knee, he had managed to convince himself that Lup was still a candy-coated dream. She seemed too good to be true, too good to be real, she had to be fake, she could only exist in the imagination of Taako’s intense, lonely need to never be alone. There was no way she was real and somehow he’d managed to convince the others that she was.

But now she is. She’s real and wonderful and phantasmal and resplendent and—

Taako feels like he can breathe for the first time in over a decade.

Thank the gods, he thinks, eyes burning and tears rolling down his face faster than he can think to stop them. She’s real. Thank the gods.

And then she puts him on blast but he’s laughing and he’s happy.