Let's Better Today

His head felt... cloudy. Light.

Actually, his entire body felt that way.

Immediately sitting upright and opening his eyes was not his best idea, however.

He could feel the tenderness of a freshly healed wound, the phantom pain that tended to linger after a wound was healed with magic.

The battle. The cursed Nor'enth. Alariel!

His last memory was of her leaning over him, hair falling from the braid to frame her concerned face. He had said something to her, but he wasn't- No. How many times had he told the same advice to recovering criminals? The most harmful lies are the ones you tell yourself.

Xenk could remember his blather, the weakness he had shown at being close to her again. Of course, he had just been stabbed in the back by an assassin, but that was no excuse. Had she noticed?

Looking around at the tent he was in, he was surprised to see the chair by his bedside was occupied by the object of his thoughts. At first, he had felt his heart jump at her open eyes, until her lack of movement or focus on him made her state of trance apparent. He hadn't traveled with many full-blooded elves since they had traveled together. Xenk had for a moment forgotten the trance of the elves, their ability to go for much longer without a full sleep as mortals did.

He had been lost in his memories, seeing her sitting there. Xenk had reached a hand towards hers, which lingered on the edge of the cot he had been placed on when there was a quiet *ahem*. Not quite sure why he felt embarrassed being caught in the situation, his hand jerked away from it's intended destination and he had trouble looking the bard in the eyes.

"If you were wondering why it's me and not say, Simon, its because we drew lots and I got the short stick."

"I would expect you to want to bask in my discomfort."

Edgin uncrossed his arms and moved to help Xenk by passing him his overcoat. "Yeah, but when Little Miss Sunshine over there stormed in earlier, she scared Holga."

"I find it doubtful that it was true fear."

"Yeah well," Edgin turned his back as Xenk finished getting his clothes together "Let's just say Holga thought her small-clothes were in a twist."

Xenk turned sharply, "Holga could see her undergarments?"

"No! No, she could just tell how upset she was. If you had been awake for the tongue-lashing you were given - and no she didn't actually hit you with her tongue - you wouldn't have been staring at her like that when I walked in." Edgin moved to his side, "What's up with that, by the way. You certainly weren't looking at her like you were the one to end the relationship."

Xenk turned back to the sleeping elleth. He could not hide the tenderness in his eyes, nor the deep sadness. Even if his oath forbade it, Xenk was a bad liar. "Weakness. She was always my weakness."

"Oh," Edgin paused with him "You didn't like feeling weak so you ditched her. At least I now know what makes Mr.Perfect-"

"That is not why I had to leave Alariel."

Edgin was egging him on, "Well if you say it like that-"

"You also know my surname is Yendar."

"Maybe you should explain it a bit more, to make sure no one gets the wrong idea." Edgin sat in another empty seat by a thankfully empty cot.

"I once gave you advice. To drag your lady... Your lady-love back to her old life is to deprive her of her new one. Alariel and I had started our journey together under the guise of traditional party members. There were others with us, but they came and went, our missions were so aligned that it made sense to stick together. Until it wasn't."

Xenk could feel the memories threatening to drown him. "But somewhere in-between that you two fell in love." Edgin looked confused.

"That's what I said."

Edgin was confused.

"So you loved her because she had the same goals as you?"

"No."

"Okay, maybe start at the beginning."

So Xenk began the tale of his engagement with Alariel.

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Checking on a few people along the way, Alariel made her way toward the combat itself. She could see the bald heads and dark clothes, a few with swords or spears, and others with cantrips dancing at their fingertips.

It seemed like the Heros of Neverwinter had managed to corral the Thay assassins into one area, and were attempting to lead them out of the city. Already, a few were in rough shape. There was a nasty scrap over Simon's brow and Holga had taken a few firebolts judging by her burnt armor.

Alariel snuck behind the main combatants, ignoring them and hoping the assassins wouldn't think much of her. Reaching Simon, he gave her a double look, not remembering who she was for a moment.

"What are you-"

"I came to help. These people don't deserve to have their lives uprooted."

She took out her everlasting quill and drew a sigil on his back. Immediately after she activated it, his forehead knit back together.

"There we go, good as new."

"HEADS UP!"

Turning, Alariel noticed that all of the assassins' eyes were on her. They had sensed the divine magic, and one had even tried to throw a dagger at her. Holga had been able to deflect it, but Alariel's heart was still in her throat. It had been so long since she had seen combat.

Grabbing her holy symbol once again, she began drawing lines of gold in the air. As quickly as she started the lines floated and aligned together in a casting of Spiritual Weapon, a spectral staff adorned with golden flowers.

Xenk kept his focus on the leader of this group, Nor'enth as she was called. Much faster than Dralas, but had less strength behind the attack. Though if any of his current companions went against her they would be paralyzed immediately by her poisoned daggers. Keeping track of the battle in his peripherals, he could see the shimmer of radiance of what could only be Alariel's magic.

Now, when the other assassins were going down, they stayed dead. By guiding bolts, hits from the spiritual weapon, or another spell from the knowledge domain cleric, the undead were driven off.

Only a few remained when something went wrong. Nor'enth noticed the depletion of her forces and the holy power that was at play now. Disengaging from Xenk, she instead threw her poisoned blades toward Alariel.

"You'll never get her, fiend!"

Taking advantage of his enemy's attempt to drawback, he was able to fatally wound his opponent before taking a moment to turn and check on Alariel. She was looking directly at him, the daggers having made only one small cut in her shoulder instead of landing in the center of her chest as he had feared. As her eyes widened looking past him, he realized his error. Xenk could feel the small blade sink into his back before his vision began to blur.

The rest of the Neverwinter party furiously defeated the lingering assassins, as Alariel rushed over to the fallen paladin.

"You idiot! What were you thinking? Never take your eyes off your opponent." She pulled Xenk's head onto her lap so she could begin casting a more powerful Cure Wounds. "You were the one who taught me that."

"You still tell my stories." Her hurried hands stilled for a moment. "You were telling-" A rough, wet cough interrupted the normally eloquent man.

"Just be quiet! The blade could have lodged in your lung, you could drown in your own blood if you're not careful." He had no right to smile at her like that when he was in the process of bleeding out. Now to think of it, he was probably delirious from his injury. Alariel could feel his eyes watching her as she continued her work.

"You've gotten better, at fighting that is-"

"What did I just tell you, be quiet!" She had to hold herself back from hitting his chest. She let them linger in the silence for another moment.

"I had to get better at defending myself, since my knight in shining armor rode off without me."

His searching eyes now wouldn't look at her.

"Your stable at least now, should be able to heal yourself in a moment. I need to make sure those undead stay dead." She moved his head gingerly from her lap, embarrassed at how emotional she had gotten when he was injured.

Alariel used her spiritual weapon to destroy the undead for good with radiant damage. When it was all officially over, Nor'enth was nowhere to be found, most likely having escaped after downing Xenk.

Alariel stood with Edgin after the clean-up was completed. Well, at least they had repaired what they could and Doric had put out the fires, and they had gotten rid of the remains of the dead assassins.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us? We could really use someone with your talents in our team." Edgin had been kind enough to hold off his questions until now, but Alariel could see the questions in the ex-Harper's eyes.

"I appreciate your support, but my combat magic really is rather basic against the full potential ability of say, a war cleric against the undead. My specialty lies in books, literature and stories."

"Don't sell yourself short! Any sort of divine power is quite the gift. Especially against all this magic evil wizard bullcrap. Besides, we have plenty of stories to fill your books with."

"You have plenty of divine power with the paladin. Where is he? He should be up already, I have never known an injury to keep him down for long." Alariel had been trying to keep an eye out for the paladin, hoping to avoid any awkward confrontations.

Edgin looked confused at her, "Xenk is asleep. What do you mean heal himself? I think Doric was able to help him get rid of the poison in his body, but we had him rest. Holga stayed with him-"

Alariel stopped listening to the bard after hearing that he wasn't even able to remove the poison himself. She had left him conscious. He should have used his divine healing. He should have been able to remove his own poison. He should have smited the leader of the Thay Assassins, used his aura to heal Holga during the thick of the fight. There was so much more the paladin could have done! More than keep the leader occupied while the others sundered the grunts.

Reaching the tent where Xenk was laying, Holga was also beginning to dose when she stormed inside. She looked at Alariel, then at the sleeping form of Xenk, and back. Slowly standing upright, she patted the cleric's back as she left. "Thanks for the save earlier. I'll make sure you get your privacy."

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"If it makes you feel any better, both Edgin AND Doric chewed him out."

Alariel looked up to see the muscle-bound woman, Holga, standing at the entrance to her tent. It had been an hour or so since she had met the barbarian.

"I stand by what I said. I cannot travel with you, not with him. Besides, with him here you really don't need me."

"I didn't come here to ask you to help us again." Alariel looked up at her in confusion. Holga sat down beside her on the cot. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I know how shitty it can be running into your ex."

"Oh." She didn't know what to say. Maybe it was because she was used to doing all of the looking after. Alariel hadn't had someone to look after her in quite some time.

"So should we be calling you Alariel or Lyra?" Holga offered her one of the rolled calligrapher's tool sets that had been set out to be placed into her bag of holding.

"Either is fine. One of the younger children had some difficulty pronouncing my name, and it sort of stuck with the people of the community. It was sweet." Her hands stilled in packing as she smoothed the leather cover of a journal.

"You don't have to leave since we showed up. Don't wanna chase you out of your home." Holga looked closer at the young woman. She appeared to be younger than her, but it was always hard to tell with elves. If this one knew Xenk, she was at least 100 years older than her.

"No, this just gives me a reason to finally move on. Like I had said, I lingered here too long anyway." She took a stack of her journals in hand and continued her packing.

"If you don't mind me asking, where will you go?"

"I've been heading to the Sword Coast for a while now. I haven't been in a city in some time, so perhaps I will make my next stop in Waterdeep before heading up to Neverwinter. I know I could spend the next century in either place and never hear the same story twice."

"It's funny you mention that..."

And that was how Alariel learned that the odd band of adventurers who were looking for her help were actually the heroes of Neverwinter. By the time Holga had finished telling her version of the story, Alariel had to set out her Orb of Light and had practically filled a scroll with the details.

"This still doesn't make sense..." Lyra's brow was furrowed. "You are still being chased by these assassins?"

"We lost them most recently around the Goldfields. I chopped one up real good and threw the parts in the river." Lyra was both disgusted and impressed at the barbarian's work.

"But why isn't Xenk just smiting them?"

"Doing what?"

"Smiting. You know, holy radiance on the blade... thundering force... banishing fiends?" Holga still gave her a blank stare.

"I mean, his sword-dagger glowed when he was fighting that assassin in the Underdark?" Alariel gave a small shake of her head. Why wasn't Xenk using his paladin abilities? A soft glow to his blade could be compelled duel, but she had seen firsthand the brilliance of his devotion. Why wouldn't he have killed them the first time? Destroying the undead was part of his mission.

"Anyway-" Alariel knew she couldn't get invested in this new mystery, no matter how much she wanted to, "I think I've kept you up late enough as is. Humans need more sleep than elves do, yes? Thank you again for letting me record your story."

"No problem. I was curious after seeing how many books you had in your tent. What the fuck is up with that?"

Lyra shook her head, and laughed at the crude language of her new friend. "No wonder you all are so confident in my abilities to defeat Thay assassins. I'm no war cleric, I am a follower of Deneir."

"The Scribe of Oghma?"

"The God of Glyphs and Images?"

Holga's eyes lit up with recognition. "The candle with the eyeball!"

Lyra deflated and looked at Holga confused and a bit concerned. "How in Oghma's name did you know that, but not his domains?"

"My ex-husband used to frequent this bookstore, and it had a little shrine in the window. I asked one day who it was for."

Not long after their discussion, Holga left to meet with the other members of her makeshift family. They had found a section of the shanty town where they were allowed to pitch a tent. While Simon, Kira, and Doric were trying to get the tent out of the opening in Simon's bag of holding, Edgin still was pacing back and forth in front of Xenk, who looked to be meditating on a bare patch of ground.

"A note!? You left her alone with a note-"

Xenk seemed to be ignoring him at this point, but Edgin had said the same speech about 9 times.

"-You were engaged! How does this not come up in conversation, I mean really you think you know a guy.-"

Holga walked up to the tent-pitching group. "Hey bug, think your old man will run out of steam any time soon?"

"I don't think so." Kira looked between the paladin and her father, "Not only did he royally embarrass himself, but with love you know he's always had this sense of self-righteous honor."

"Well I for one," Simon interrupted, "would love it if he would stop. Maybe then I could finally concentrate on getting these poles to stay up."

Doric rolled their eyes, "Sure like that's the issue."

Suddenly, Xenk turned toward the outside of the village. Standing, he drew in a deep breath. Glancing around, he drew his sword,