Chapter Text
After writing to Kima and Grog, Gilmore started to feel nervous. The battle was tomorrow--in eight hours or less. To distract, he decided to cook dinner.
When Jarett came home, Gilmore was happy for the distraction. He tried his best not to worry about the children, but it troubled him that Vax had not made contact, nor replied to the notes Gilmore had sent. Finally, he gave up, and let Jarett take him to bed.
Gilmore wasn’t in the mood to do anything but sleep. Fortunately, Jarett understood. “Focus on your rest, Gilt D’amour,” Jarett told him, pulling Gilmore close as they lay together. “They will be fine. God watches over fools.”
“Some gods, at least,” Gilmore murmured against Jarett’s chest.
“Then let the other gods do the watching for tonight,” Jarett advised. “You need your rest.”
Gilmore smiled secretly. “I’m no god, J’arett.”
“That is a matter of opinion,” Jarett said.
“Stop.” Gilmore said, teasingly.
“Kiss me, and I will stop.”
“Oh, very well,” Gilmore pretended to give in only with great reluctance. “But only because you’re making me.”
Jarett chuckled, fingers gently holding Gilmore’s chin as he kissed him good and long. “The things you awaken in me, my lord.”
“Behave yourself, J’arett,” Gilmore said, flirty. “You said I should rest, and I intend to. Besides, I’m quite familiar with the thing to which you refer.”
“I think perhaps you are not yet to the point of being familiar …”
“Well, we’ve certainly met,” Gilmore said.
“True.” Jarett went on kissing him, but for both their sakes, Gilmore fell fast asleep anyway, before more could happen.
*
Gilmore was awakened in the middle of the night by Kima triggering the enchantment on the arcane parchment he’d given Vax. She was standing in the foyer of Scanlan’s mansion, along with Keyleth, Grog, and Pike. “Hey, goldie. It’s starting. Tell Allie I love her. Things could get hairy today.”
Wrapped in Jarett’s arms, Gilmore was loath to roll over and fumble out pen and arcane parchment. He did it as carefully as he could, not wanting to wake Jarett.
She knows. Be careful, and keep warm. And please heal my Vax when he needs it. I know he can be impudent, but I’d prefer he come back alive.
“No promises,” Kima said, before tucking the parchment away. But Gilmore knew she was joking. Her gruff exterior was only skin-deep.
When Gilmore shifted his Sight to Vax, he found him just outside the mansion, stealthed behind a rock. Not exactly a good hiding place from a winged enemy. It was likely he’d volunteered to be Scanlan’s backup. Gilmore and Vax watched as the bard struggled with a spell scroll--no doubt the one Allura had mentioned two days ago. A Gate spell. Gilmore could tell by the blue arcane light bathing the snow around Vax that Scanlan had managed to cast it. But Gilmore had little time to be impressed, because suddenly a huge fiend was pulled through the Gate. Had Scanlan meant to do that? And, if so, why?
It must have been on purpose, because the bard immediately dropped the spell, trapping the fiend--a goristro, of all things--on the prime material plane. Scanlan seemed to think he was just going to leave at that point, but surely they knew fiends better by now?
Gilmore watched Vax’ildan’s body tense, and heard him whimper, “Ohhhhh Scanlan!” covering his mouth with both hands, as they both watched the goristro turn on the gnome. That was fine. Just so long as his Vax didn’t go rushing out to try to save Scanlan. “Just bamf to the door and go in!” Vax whispered, his voice cracking with anxiety.
But that didn’t seem necessary. The bard looked up, calmly, and cast Dominate Monster on the ancient fiend. Terrifying. Gilmore’d had no idea Scanlan was that powerful now. It would do well to be careful around him from now on--even more careful than he’d intended to be after the gnome’s threat of blackmail two weeks ago. What did this mean? Had he really discovered Gilmore’s true nature, or had he been bluffing? Gilmore wondered now.
There was little time to ponder, as Vorugal came swooping down and engaged with the fiend. Scanlan, meanwhile, had leisurely disappeared back into the mansion, leaving Vax’ildan all alone within view of at least one of two very deadly enemies. It did not endear the gnome to Gilmore at all. But what was Vax doing? Why wasn’t he going back inside? Naturally, as soon as Vorugal landed, the white dragon used his breath weapon, missing Vax by mere yards, and causing Gilmore’s heart to beat erratically.
He clutched his chest as he watched the two do battle. As soon as Vorugal took to the air to get out of the fiend’s reach, Gilmore began to pray quietly that he would ignore or somehow not see Vax hiding there in plain view. Another bout of fist-to-tooth combat, and Vorugal disappeared into the blizzard, unable to do significant damage to the goristro. The two foes seemed to be well-matched so far. Now if Vax would just go back inside the mansion with the others…
Gilmore’s worst fears were realized when he saw Vax’ildan withdraw his new plaything and throw it at Vorugal as the dragon hovered in mid-air, allowing the shadow magic to teleport him deep within Vorugal’s strike range. Vax seemed to think he could Teleport back just as quickly a moment later, yanking the dagger out of the dragon’s chest and throwing it to the ground, where it bounced and lay like a useless object. Vax’ildan summoned his raven’s wings, and that was when Vorugal struck.
Even the rogue’s uncanny agility couldn’t save him completely from those icicle teeth as long as a man’s leg. The dragon bit into Vax’s torso as if he were a pesky fly, just missing his wings, and Gilmore cried out, fearing the rogue’s luck had finally ended. Somehow, Vax managed to fly away, diving back down toward his previous hiding place.
“My lord! My lord, what’s wrong?” Jarett shook Gilmore out of his trance before he could see if Vax had made it to safety. Gilmore must have awakened Jarett by accident.
He put his arm around Jarett, close to tears. “They’re fighting the dragon,” Gilmore whispered. “Would you go and get the Arcanist? I need to watch.”
“Of course, Gilt D’amour. But this is no way for you to spend the next few hours. Let me help you get dressed, at least, and take you downstairs.”
“Yes, that’s…” Gilmore was distracted, tempted as he was to re-enter trance right away. “That’s likely a good idea, J’arett.” He tried to focus on his breath as Jarett took care of him, but Gilmore lost his test of will and cast Scry again, his consciousness returning to Wildemount as Jarett picked out a robe for him.
Like a madman, Vax had followed Whisper again and stabbed Vorugal in the tail. Didn’t he understand that dragons were supple creatures? Gilmore covered his physical eyes as Vorugal’s tail lashed, bludgeoning Vax again and again. Even a Flamestrike against the dragon couldn’t stop him. Vorugal’s tail struck Vax a third time, nearly knocking him unconscious. Though it seemed counter to his interests, Gilmore was seriously considering, if Vax survived... perhaps a lesson in draconic strengths and weaknesses was in order. Only a fool went for a dragon’s tail.
From Vax’ildan’s vantage point, Gilmore watched Raishan emerge from thin air and poison her chromatic ally with her breath weapon before disappearing again. That was brave of her, but the battle must be going poorly for Raishan to have to reveal herself like that.
In Whitestone, Gilmore could almost hear Jarett murmuring soothing words to him as he dressed Gilmore, but he couldn’t focus on that. Vorugal was attacking Vox Machina with his ice breath again; Gilmore couldn’t see whom--at least it wasn’t Vax. He thought he could hear Scanlan’s voice in the distance, singing a Healing Word. Was someone close to death? Gilmore hoped there was a good reason why Vax let go and tried to fly toward his friends, bringing him into Vorugal’s bite range yet again.
Gilmore shouted as Vorugal caught Vax’ildan in his jaws, this time with a sickening crunch of bone, and he watched Vax go limp in the dragon’s maw. Gilmore wept as Vorugal spit Vax’ildan’s body onto the ground, where he lay, a bloody, broken mess on the pristine snow beside Pike. There wasn’t even hope of the cleric healing him, because a moment later, the white tail came down on Pike, crushing the life out of her, as well.
Though she was only feet away from her dying loved ones, Keyleth attacked Vorugal and swept away in air elemental form. “No!” Gilmore could feel Jarett’s arms around him, but his consciousness remained with his fallen Vax’ildan, hoping against hope that one of them had the wherewithal to heal.
He cried out again when, seconds later, Vorugal’s ice breath froze both Vax and Pike’s prone bodies into the snow. Gilmore clung to Jarett, feeling him there, but not seeing him, as tears rolled down his cheeks.
Sick to his stomach, Gilmore was about to let go of the vision and come back to Whitestone, when he heard feet crunching through the snow. Grog leapt into his field of vision and poured a potion, first into Pike, and then another down Vax’ildan’s throat. Gilmore laid his head against Jarett’s shoulder as he watched Vax begin to breathe again, though he was shivering with hypothermia from Vorugal’s breath. “The two of you, inside the mansion. Now,” Grog ordered. Bless him. Thank gods for Grog.
Vex’ahlia followed a moment later, casting Cure Wounds on her brother, and also telling him to get inside. The danger must have passed, because the only sense of urgency now seemed to be to get their fallen comrades well. Gilmore watched Vax roll shakily to his knees and pull Pike over one shoulder to carry her with him as he crawled inside the mansion. And once Vax was inside, Gilmore let go with a splitting headache.
“They are alive?” Jarett asked, brushing Gilmore’s tears away with his thumb.
“I think so.” Gilmore shut his eyes, trying to breathe. “But it was far too close. Far too close.”
Jarett held him and kissed Gilmore’s face over and over. “You should rest. It’s still the middle of the night.”
Gilmore opened his eyes, frowning. “I should tell Allura--”
“I will tell her,” Jarett said firmly. “Back in bed with you.”
He stood up, and Gilmore looked up at him. “Will you be back?”
“I will be back as soon as I can,” Jarett promised. Gilmore grabbed his hand before he could leave, pulling Jarett back for one desperate, anxiety-ridden goodbye kiss. Jarett paused, looking into Gilmore’s eyes. “This is not making me want to leave.”
Gilmore huffed a soft laugh. “Go. Go, and come back to me. Please.”
“Always,” Jarett said, kissing Gilmore’s throat one last time before rushing out the door.
His head felt heavier than usual. Gilmore reached up to find Lockheed had nested in his hair, and was purring its little heart out. “Thank you, friend,” he told it in Draconic.
Gilmore washed his face, pulled on a sleeping gown, and climbed back into bed to await Jarett’s return. It couldn’t have been half an hour when Gilmore opened his eyes to find Raishan standing there in the dark. “It’s done,” she said. “Thordak’s lapdog is no more.”
Gilmore sat up, looking her over for any injuries. “You seem well.”
“They did very well,” she said. “Given the stupidity of their plan.”
“Well, where are they?” If she did not know he’d been watching, Gilmore was not going to show his hand.
“Resting and celebrating, no doubt.”
“What of Vorugal’s remains?”
Her smile was sharp as a razor. “Butchered for meat like a fatted calf.” Gilmore gaped in horror. “The Ravenites had a hard time feeding themselves in the snow.”
Oh thank gods, then it wasn’t his people who’d done it.
“Perhaps your pet ants will bring you back a claw or some hide as a souvenir.”
Gilmore shuddered, feeling sick. “What of the heartstone?”
“All of his organs went for meat,” she said. “Some lucky Dragonborn is no doubt preparing a very edifying heart stew for their evening meal.”
Gilmore brushed his hands across his face, trying to hold back the nausea.
“Don’t weep for him,” Raishan said. “He was a beast, barely worth more than the ones he hunted, and hardly more intelligent.”
“No,” Gilmore said. Not after Tiberius, and--nearly--Vax. “I’ll shed no tears for Vorugal.” He looked up at her. “What now?”
“Now, they will no doubt come for me. So let us plan for that inevitability.”
Oh gods. He really had agreed to this. “What did you have in mind?”
It bothered Gilmore that Raishan had given no details of the battle. Even though he’d seen most of it, Gilmore needed to hear that they were all safe. And he wondered: had they even told Kima about Raishan? That would make a difference, once they returned.
They made a tentative plan, and Raishan left to rest. Jarett returned almost as soon as she’d disappeared. “What did Allura say?” Gilmore asked Jarett in Marquesian.
“The Arcanist will be by in a few hours. But, for now, rest.”
Gilmore sighed. “I don’t know if I can, after that.”
“You can,” Jarett told him firmly, holding Gilmore’s eye contact as he stripped back down to nothing.
Gilmore smiled. “Are you trying to distract me, J’arett?”
“Normally, yes,” Jarett said, coming back to the bed. “But for now, sleep.” He kissed Gilmore’s forehead.
“Hold me?” Gilmore asked. Jarett slid beneath the sheets next to him, wrapping Gilmore in a tight embrace.
“I promise,” he said, pressing his lips to Gilmore’s temple. “I will never die for you. For you, I will live.” And somehow, that was exactly what Gilmore needed to hear.
“Be careful, J’arett. You’re going to make me love you.”
“I wouldn’t presume, my lord.” Jarett rubbed Gilmore’s back until he fell asleep.