Sanctuary
Sometimes youâre a DM and you think, âHm! Iâm having a lot of emotions about a conversation between two NPCs that none of my player characters would be around for! Perhaps I shall write a short drabble!â and then then next thing you know youâre well over 4k words deep into your OCs Talking About Their Feelings. Well: here are those words.
NPC downtime between Demonology Prevention League agents Creed and Thodri, set during the street festival in Veritas the day after the Friendship Campaign party banished the demons from the city.
The streets of Veritas were filled with the sounds of reveling. Bonfires crackled and the foods roasting on them sizzled and dripped. Stallkeepers hawked and haggled and called out to each other. Music drifted through the square, accompanied by the stomping and shouting of the dancers. Every few moments, someone decided to raise a tankard in a cheer, which would echo through the crowd before getting lost in the tumult. Everything was loud and bright and everyone was celebrating.
Thodri didnât trust it for a minute.
She scanned the crowds around her as she and Creed made their way to the watch-house the DPL had commandeered as a temporary headquarters, looking forâshe didnât know. A familiar face that shouldnât be there? A demon that had somehow escaped the Banishment? Some magical trap left untriggered in the previous dayâs battleâor a freshly placed one?
Creed, strolling along beside her, didnât seem to have any such worries.
âYou wouldnât believe the kind of decorations they have upstairs! Yâknow, a lot of houses like that, they  put the most impressive stuff out where they can show it off to everyone who comes in, but that place just gets more opulent the farther you go!â
Thodri grunted, pretending that sheâd been listening to her companionâs non-stop chatter about the Zisisvoynisâ decĂłr. She supposed it was easier to appreciate its opulence when your first visit there wasnât for a party where your tentative allies had decided to attempt to trap a bunch of murderous cultists. With a dragon. It was probably also easier if you were Creed, who had much more of a taste for extravagance than she ever would.
âItâs nothing like the main hoard, of course, and the location of that is one of those if-I-tell-you-then-Iâd-have-to-kill-you secretsââ
Thodri flinched. Focus. She needed to focus. The square was too large to keep all of it in her sights and they were drawing near the middle now, the crowd pressing close on all sides. She didnât like the feeling of so many strangers at her back.
ââBut I did get a few stories about some of the artifacts. Not just goldâapparently OktojnotviĹĄ has an ongoing feud with some other dragons over these historical Draconic texts that they each have one section of. Theyâre all trying to get the complete collection, but since theyâre written on twenty-foot-high slabs of stone that were cut from an ancient cave wall thereâs been a wee bit of trouble with that.â
The bonfire burning behind the skeletal remnants of the elephant-demon cast flickering shadows over the bones that looked just enough like movement when caught from the corner of her eye that Thodri kept snapping her head around to look. No. The bones were still. Dead. Parts of them were still tethered to the ground by long pieces of jagged wire.
âHey.â
Creed lowered his arms, which heâd been waving as he spoke in his customary sweeping gestures. Thodri always joked that he could never visit her home caverns under the mountains because with the way he walked heâd end up bruising his handsâand his headâblack and blue in the dwarf-sized tunnels.
âYou doing all right, Footnotes?â
âIâm fine,â Thodri retorted, continuing to wind her way through the square so that despite his long legs, Creed had to half-skip a few steps to catch up to her.
âWell, something must be wrong because I was just telling you about some extremely old and interesting writings and you didnât even bat an eye.â
âThereâs a lot to do.â More shouts rang out from behind them, and Thodri whirled just in time to see a burly woman with a barrel of ale on her shoulder raise up her hand in a cheer. All right. No threat. She turned back to Creed.
â. . . And now youâre sounding like Aurelia.â
âI am notââ Thodri snapped, before catching herself and letting out a long, tense sigh. âIâm . . . worried. Thatâs all.â
âAbout?â
Thodri threw up her hands. âI donât know! Everything? Somebody has to be since youâre acting like you donât have a care in the world!â
She glared out into the crowd again. She couldnât lose focus. Couldnât miss anything. She could hear Creedâs footsteps beside her as the two of them walked in silence for a moment, making it out to where the crowd was thinner. She felt nervous about leaving the square unwatched, but they had to get on to where Aurelia was waiting and see what information they could get out of yesterdayâs captives. If there was some other plot yet to be sprung . . .
âAre you . . . mad at me?â Creed asked. She could tell he had his head cocked in confusion but she didnât look up to meet his eyes.
âNo! Maybe! I donât know!â
âWell, thatâs quite the spectrum, certainly. I appreciate you didnât go straight to âyes,â butââ
âI thought you were dead!â she blurted out.
Creed stopped in his tracks and blinked at her. He looked almost as surprised at her outburst as she was. She stared back at him, wide-eyed, with her hand clapped over her mouth.
âWhat . . . last night? I didnâtââ
âNo!â The blood was rushing in Thodriâs ears and she she could feel the terror sheâd been trying to push down all day building within her. Sheâd lowered her hand to let out the interjection and now without that barrier in place more words were trying to flood out in a torrent she couldnât control. âYou were missing and I thought you were dead and it was my fault and I couldnât even remember what had happened, and Aurelia kept trying to be so nice to me that I thought I would scream, and the rest of them just stopped talking about you after RĂĄalu used the past tense once and I had to run out of the room during an interrogation andââ
âHey.â She felt Creedâs hands settle gently on her shoulders. âHey, itâs all right. You got me back, didnât you?â
âI-I know,â Thodri stammered. âWe got you back and I thought maybe I could be less afraid, but I got complacent and let my guard down and that thing that was pretending to be Kasia got me and then I wasnâtââ
She shivered for a moment as she remembered the sensation of mindlessness, of her eyes and ears being as sharp as ever but not being able to make sense of anything she saw and heard, of being stripped of her words and her thoughts and her understanding in a way that made her blanch with fear to recall, but that at the time she hadnât even been able to comprehend enough to be horrified. That might have been the worst part. That she hadnât knownâhadnât been able to knowâwhat had happened to her. That once the others had left her curled up with Creed in their pocket dimension sheâd felt . . . safe. Sheâd felt happy.
Creedâs fingernails dug into the back of her shoulders. A few streets over, the musicians finished a song and a distant cheer went up. Thodriâs voice was getting higher and louder and people were probably staring but she couldnât make herself stop.
ââI wasnât there and I couldnât help you and Palava had to call on so much power from his god to get me back and I couldnât even get any omensââ
She was aware that Creed was speaking, but it felt almost the way speech had when her mind was shattered. The sounds were there but there was no sense to them. She let him push her, gently, back out of the way of the crowd until there was stone at her back and the sounds of the celebration were muffled.
ââand then the creature showed up and I thoughtâI thought, this is it, this is the thing thatâs going to kill us, and it almost felt better because at least I wasnât wondering anymore, but then Kriv defeated it and we didnât die and itâitâs over, itâs gone, all the demons are gone and everyoneâs celebrating but I donât . . . I donât know how to stop being afraid!â
She looked at Creed, helplessly, through burning eyes. He loomed over her, his head cocked to one side and the crystal growths on his left horn glinting in the light.
âIt feels like every time I relax something worse happens. And then last night I was trying so hard to feel like we were all safe; I was trying to relax and enjoy myself and be happy, and then you took one look at the most dangerous thing in the room and decided to throw yourself at it and it . . .â she trailed off, the river of words drying up as she wondered how she could convey the sudden, absurd spike of fear that had gripped her, that still thrummed under her skin even though Creed was fine, she was fine, everything was . . .
âIt . . . made me afraid again,â she finished lamely.
As the silence stretched out between them, Thodri let her head drop and took in a deep, shuddering breath. âIâm . . . sorry. I know itâs ridiculous and I know you were probably going to be fine and I need to learn how to pull myself together, and I certainly didnât mean to go quite so . . . babbly. About everything.â
âHey.â Creed crouched down so their faces were almost level, still holding her by the shoulders. Sheâd been expecting him to look  . . . frustrated, at least, the sort of expression he wore when Aurelia was being particularly obtuse, and she was ready to flinch away from it, but she could see nothing but concern in his lavender eyes.
Then one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile which Thodri found herself instinctively but tentatively mirroring, and he said, âAll right, more than a few points of contention with all that. First things first, I donât think itâs fair to say I âthrew myselfâ at him, and Iâll have you know I took several looks before I made any decisions.â
Thodri let out a bark of surprised laughter, which she suspected from the way he beamed at her had been Creedâs plan in the first place. He straightened up and pointed towards one of the little green parks behind them.
âShall we sit down?â
Thodri bit her lip. âI donât want to keep Aurelia waiting too long . . .â
âWell that does it!â Creed clapped her on the back. âI definitely want to keep Aurelia waiting. She needs the rest. Come on!â
Thodri let Creed lead her around the groups of pedestrians heading to and from the festival and out onto the grass. He found a stone benchâan old one, Thodri noted, but of decent workmanshipâand sprawled across one end of it, gesturing for Thodri to join him.
âIâm sorry,â he said. âI didnât realize you were having . . . such a hard time.â
Thodri laughed again, a brittle edge to it.
âI donât think I did either, honestly. I didnât realize a lot of it until . . . now, really. I thought I was just being stupid and I could joke about it and Iâd calm down. IâI even thought it was working; I had a nice time with Kriv and his goat, but then I tried to go to sleep and I couldnât stop . . . thinking about all of it. Of being afraid that it was only a matter of time until something worse happened. Thatâthat if I let myself get complacent it would all fall apart.â
âListen.â Creed stretched an arm along the back of the bench in a clear invitation, but he didnât touch her. With a sigh, Thodri leaned into him and pulled his arm down around her shoulders. âOf course youâre afraid. It makes sense to be afraid. This city was overrun with demons until just a little before this time yesterday. Thatâs a lot for anyone to handle, and for weeks of it you didnât even have me around to help you with my worldly experience and sparkling wit!â
âI . . . I know,â said Thodri. âAgain, Iâm sorryââ
âThodri.â Creed loosened the grip of his arm just enough that he could look directly into Thodriâs face. âYouâve got nothing to be sorry for, love.â
âBut I couldââ
âWe walked into a trap, Thodri. Both of us. I think it was . . .â Creedâs fingers wandered to his symbol of Tymora and began to spin it absently back and forth. â. . . Lucky that I was the one they caught.â
In response to Thodriâs disbelieving snort he continued, âOne of us was useful to them. Fuel for the mine. They had reasons to want to keep me alive. Horrifying reasons, Iâll grant you! But reasons nonetheless. If youâd been the one who was trapped . . .â
They sat in silence for a brief moment, and then Creed let go of his holy symbol and smacked the heel of his hand into his forehead.
âReal encouraging talk, this is! Here I was going to try to calm you down and instead I start blabbing about even more things that could have killed you!â
âNo, it . . . itâs okay.â Thodri nestled further into his shoulder. âIt does make me feel better, actually, in a strange way. I thought Tymora had abandoned you, but maybe she was looking out for both of us after all.â
âAye.â Creed wrapped his arm tighter around her. âOr maybe she did whiff it and it worked out regardless; that happens too.â
Thodri chuckled. âI donât know that Iâll ever get used to your irreverance.â
âOh, she loves it! Your sort of devotion would be terribly boring to a luck goddess. Canât show off her powers unless her followers are the sort of people to take big risks.â
Thodri looked up, tracing the dappled outlines of the leaves on the branches above them. Sheâd been away from the mountains for years, but the trees and the open sky still felt strange to her. They were never as comforting as the darkness of her home had been. She closed her eyes.
âIs that what last night was about, then? Big and completely unnecessary risks?â
She felt Creed shrug. âI suppose. Although I will say that most of the appeal there was being free to take a big risk that wasnât likely to get me killed if I got it wrong.â
Thodri could feel her heart beginning to pound again, the drumbeat of not-safe-not-safe-not-safe that had haunted her since the night she and Creed had walked into a trap and she alone had come out of it. She let it beat, forcing herself not to hitch her breath to it. It was dark and safe behind her eyelids, and Creedâs arm was warm around her.
âI think . . . after everything being so dangerous for so long, itâs hard to feel like anything might not be a matter of deadly peril.â She contemplated for a moment. âAlso you didnât see him at the last party, where he was . . . very distinctly terrifying.â
Creedâs chin bumped against the top of her head as he nodded. âNo, thatâs fair, thatâs fair. If it makes you feel any better, the first thing he did once we got to his chambers was sit me down to talk about boundaries and expectations for like half an hour, so . . .â
Thodri snorted. âThat does make me feel better, yes! Heâs . . . certainly full of surprises.â
âThe first half of it was about how I shouldnât expect anything long-term to come of it since his heart and soul are still undyingly bound to his wife, whose virtues he extolled at some length.â
Thodri drew her feet up on the bench and leaned back, watching the sunlight tint her vision red.
âSee, that part doesnât surprise me at all.â
âHis body, on the other handââ
Creed squawked as Thodri smacked a hand at his free arm.
âNope,â she said firmly. âIf you want to share any more details, you can go talk to Amaranth.â
âFair enough.â Creed leaned his head over to rest it on top of Thodriâs, carefully maneuvering his horn so it wouldnât catch in her hair. Tymoraâs symbol bumped against her shoulder. A breeze sprang up, rustling the leaves of the tree above them.
â. . . So,â said Creed after a moment. âAurelia was nice to you?â
Thodri groaned. âI hated it! Sheâs supposed to be all gruff and angry and disapproving but she kept trying to be . . . gentle with me.â
Aurelia had been the first member of the DPL to arrive after Thodri dragged herself up out of the tunnels, showing up out of breath and already starting to yell. âWhereâs the idiot?â she had snapped when she first saw Thodri. And Thodri had been expecting something like that, so she only trembled a little as she explained about the tip and the tunnel and the trap and how Creed had pushed her back to safety when the walls came tumbling in. And sheâd been expecting Aurelia to demand to see the collapse, so she led the way back down with her conjured light hardly flickering and waited while the woman shouted and kicked at the falling rocks. But then sheâd expected Aurelia to shout at her too, to demand what theyâd been thinking and why theyâd been so stupid and why Thodri hadnât made Creed follow the protocol and tell the rest of them where they were going, why Thodri hadnât found some way to stop itâand so when, instead, Aurelia had turned away from the collapsed tunnel with a curse and seen Thodri standing there and simply muttered, âDamn it. Iâm sorry, kid,â when Aurelia had moved in to try, inexpertly, to hug her . . . Thodri had completely fallen apart.
âSounds awful,â said Creed.
âYeah. The yelling is better.â
And the yelling had come, just not at her. Thodri found that Aureliaâs view of her had shifted from an errant recruit that she needed to keep away from bad influences (meaning Creed), to some kind of broken child too fragile to discipline and too foolish to listen to. With everyone else Aurelia had gotten harsher, but she would shoo Thodri out of the room before tearing into her coworkers and make her stand back when they went to investigate demonic incidents.
âIf sheâs not going to listen to me,â Thodri continued, âIâd rather she be angry than just . . . patronizing.â
âWell,â said Creed, âStick with me and I doubt thatâll be your problem for long! Sheâs had no trouble being angry with yours truly, even after I mysteriously returned from the presumed-dead.â
âShe cried about you,â said Thodri, remembering what else sheâd seen when sheâd brought Aurelia into the tunnel. âJust a little, but . . .â
She opened her eyes just in time to catch the delighted, devilish grin spreading across Creedâs face. âOh, Footnotes,â he said. âYour knowledge, as always, is a treasure.â
âDonât be too hard on her for it,â Thodri said. âOr at least wait until she really deserves it.â
âNoted.â Creed looked up at the sky. âHowever the rest of them treated you, it looks to me like you handled yourself pretty well while I was gone.â
âOh, I . . . donât know about that.â Thodri laughed nervously and let out a hissing breath between her teeth. âI went behind everyoneâs backs and contacted a group of people I hardly knew who were wanted for fraternizing with demons and blowing up a building because I had a hunch, and then I met up with them alone at night without telling anyone where Iâd gone. I shared classified DPL data; I used my badge for extremely unauthorized investigation; I ignored my actual assignments to go running on a wild goose chase after you . . .â
Creed wrapped his tail tight around her waist. âAnd you found me. And your gambles paid off, so either youâre smarter than you give yourself credit for or Tymora was keeping an eye out for you until I could get back and do it myself. Or maybe both! Anyway, Iâm hardly going to scold you for going behind Aureliaâs back. Iâm impressed that you managed to take so many of my lessons to heart!â
âYou are the worst influence,â said Thodri, and then laughed and pushed him away when he brought up the tufted end of his tail to tickle her nose.
âAnd proud of it!â He turned towards her and his smile softened into something less playful. âAnd Iâm proud of you.â
Thodri didnât know what to say. She wished she was as quick with her jokes as he was and could come up with something to deflect the uncharacteristic earnestness in his face.
âIâm sorry you had to deal with so much of this on your own,â Creed continued. âWhen you joined I promised Iâd look after you, and I havenât exactly done the best job of it.â
âCreed.â Thodri took one of his hands in hers. âSometimes you really are an idiot. You were captured by devil worshipers who put you to work in a hell mine. As far as excuses for not being around to look after me go, I think thatâs a pretty solid one.â
Creed quirked his head to the side in a half-shrug. âAye. But then you and your friends broke us out, and on my very first day back I . . . nearly lost you. Doesnât make me feel particularly confident in my abilities.â
His grip on her hand was almost uncomfortably tight, and it reminded Thodri of the way heâd held her when she was under the Feeblemind, that same stubborn refusal to let go.
âAnd then Palava got me back,â she said.
Creed sighed. âHe did. Yâknow, I think I need to have a bit of a chat with Tymora about gaining mastery of that particular ritual. Itâs not a great look having her shown up by some elf god.â
âItâs not a competition, Creed.â
âEh, to some of âem it is. And he wonât always be around, but I . . . well. Iâll do my best to be.â
Thodri let go of Creedâs hand and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him into a tight hug.
âIâll do my best too. I . . . know youâll watch my back.â
He nodded and squeezed her. âAnd youâll watch mine.â
After a moment he added, âAnd, much as I like to think we can handle things on our own, itâs nice to know some other people was can call in if things get rough who are better at dealing with all of this than, yâknow, Aurelia.â
Thodri nodded vigorously. âItâs very good. Yes. Although, speaking of Aurelia . . .â
âNooooo,â wailed Creed quietly, and Thodri laughed.
âWe really ought to get back to her, and to our jobs. Come on! Youâve exerted your bad influence and made us both terribly late, so now itâs my turn to be the good influence and ensure we turn up for work at all.â
Creed flopped back dramatically over the bench, an arm draped over his forehead. âHow could you?â he cried, although he didnât protest further as Thodri pulled him to his feet and began to set off towards the new address. Behind them, the musicians in the square began another song.
âHey Creed?â
âWhat is it, Footnotes?â
Thodri opened and shut her mouth once or twice, trying to pin down what it was she wanted to ask.
âDo you really think things are safe now?â
Creed took a step towards her and caught her up in a sideways hug, squeezing her tight before the difference in their strides meant he had to either let go or be pulled to the ground.
âListen,â he said. âYou signed up for a job thatâs mostly boring interviews and paperwork with occasional terrifying interludes of charging ill-prepared into deadly situations. Safe isnât exactly in the job description.â
âComforting.â
âBut, as I was going to say if youâd let me finish, despite all that . . . yes. I think the demons are really gone. I think weâve got a lot of cleaning up to do, and I think weâll have to keep our eyes open for some of those non-demonic entities who are probably not very happy with us right now. But compared to yesterday, Thodri? Compared to every other day weâve spent in this city? I think itâs fair to say that itâs much, much safer. And I think itâs okay to be happy about that, at least until the next deadly situation comes up.â
âAnd embrace the boring paperwork instead?â
âThodri, no . . .â
âYou know how much I love boring paperwork!â
Creed shook his head. âI absolutely do not and never will understand you.â
âWell, Dumathoin will be very happy about that. Heâs an enigma and as his cleric I have a duty to share in this aspect.â
âAn enigma who likes paperwork!â
Thodri laughed as they rounded the next corner and Seekerâs Square, with its dancing and bonfires and celebrations, faded from view behind them. She spared herself one last glance backwards and, for the first time that day, allowed herself to truly enjoy the sight.
Then she turned and hurried after Creed. The city had been saved, and they had work to do.













