Post by Jaezred Vandree on Apr 22, 2024 11:14:45 GMT
(After the events of The Loneliness of the Lone Research Assistant.)
The surveyor Jyndeth Brightpass lives in a modest but respectable apartment in the Shales, the first basement level of Nicnevin’s Mountain Palace, a short walk from a tunnel that leads up into the cavernous garden that adorns the palace entrance. When Jaezred and Celia enter, the mountain dwarf woman is sitting at a table, rubbing her temples as Pixis and Ulrich seem to be having a debate about how to extract more information out of her as if she isn’t even there. The current running arguments being breaking her psyche down into smaller pieces that they can decode directly without having to deal with messy personalities (Ulrich) and outright killing her, resurrecting her as a zombie thrall, and commanding it to stop being obstinate and tell them what they want to know (Pixis).
The discussion is put to an end when Jaezred points a stern finger at them. “You two. Out, now.”
Pixis and Ulrich stop suddenly in their tracks like naughty children getting caught by a parent. Celia lets out a defeated sigh, scolds the pair (although very meekly), and ushers them into an adjacent room.
Jyndeth looks up gaunt-faced at her newest guest. Her eyes are darkened with exhaustion, and she is far thinner than any member of the stout folk ought to be. “Oh, thank you. It was getting a little much…” she says. “Huh. It’s funny to think having someone around could feel a little much now.”
Celia sits down opposite Jyndeth, a sympathetic look on her face. “Well, from all accounts, you were on your own a long time, Miss Brightpass. I do think it’s a good sign if you start to feel these things again.” She turns to Jaezred. “From what I can gather, time moves slower in the Something Lonely’s domain. Eric mentioned the adventurers who found Miss Brightpass were gone for only a few minutes, but their account had them there for several hours. Miss Brightpass, however, was missing from the Court for a number of months…”
“Lady Zola said a similar thing about her time in the Buried’s and the Vast’s domains. I’m not surprised.” Jaezred turns to Jyndeth. “Apologies, where are my manners? I am Lord Jaezred Vandree, servant to the Queen.”
As he speaks, his unseen servant sets down a covered cake stand on the table. He takes off the lid with a slight flourish to reveal what he has taken to calling “The Abomination” — Zola’s favourite cake growing up, a creation of her doting mother Lillian: a banana and blueberry cake with too much cream on top, garnished with an ungodly amount of sprinkles and glitter.
“Oh please, there’s really no need to be so formal. I know who—” Jyndeth stops mid-sentence to stare at the cake, stunned for a moment. “Uh… I mean, I’ve heard a lot about you, Lord Vandree.” She lets out a long sigh, not from exasperation, but from what appears to be a deep tiredness. “Apologies, I’ve not been feeling myself since… Since…” Her voice trails off into silence.
Celia leans across the table and gives her hand a little squeeze. “It’s okay, Jyndeth. Lord Jaezred is aware of your situation.”
There is a crash from the other room as something has clearly broken, followed by a distinctly guilty silence.
“Whatever that was, you’re paying for it!” Jaezred shouts to the other room. “Once again, apologies. Now…” He cuts a slice of The Abomination and places it on a plate for Jyndeth. There is so much cream on top of the slice that it slowly falls off like a glacier erosion, if the glacier was very sparkly and dotted with a rainbow of colours. “Miss Brightpass, Celia has informed me that you find it difficult to talk about your encounter with the Lonely, is that right?”
Jyndeth eyes the cake warily, clearly battling a level of confusion she is trying to come to terms with, but smiles a weak smile. “Thank you. And, uh…yeah. I mean, yes, it’s difficult to talk about. Celia and those other two have been asking lots of questions, but I’m afraid it all feels like a blur.” She picks up a fork to take a bite of the cake but hesitates, unsure of how to approach it, before finally landing on digging out some of the actual cake from under the mass of cream. There is the briefest of pauses after she eats it, followed by politely re-placing the fork on the plate.
“Not to your liking?”
“I’m sorry, it’s just too sweet for my taste. I’m sure it’s…lovely, though.”
He picks up a fork of his own and puts a bit of the cake in his mouth. “Mm. Just as I thought. The second worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”
The confusion on Jyndeth’s face only intensifies.
“Oh, sorry. I should probably explain. This thing”—he gestures at The Abomination with his fork—“was the Lonely’s entire diet for at least the last century-and-a-half.”
“Oh… Um, right… However did you find that out?”
“It used to live here in the Witching Court, in a house to the west, with a family. It was a pet of sorts.”
Jyndeth looks stunned and glances at Celia for confirmation. “That…thing was a pet?!”
“Quite. I know the girl and the hags who kept it. It lived under the stairs and ate the worst cake ever made.”
“I-I’m sorry, Lord Vandree, but…how? H-How can it have been under the stairs? I never even saw an ‘it’. It was just endless corridors and empty rooms for…” She trails off again
Jaezred doesn’t answer immediately, giving her space as she tries to fathom the width of eternity. “I don’t know, Miss Brightpass. What we do know is that it was tamed once, which means that it can be tamed again.”
“Tamed? I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand. There was no…thing I ever saw to tame.” She looks a little desperate as she attempts to explain. “You— You must think me delusional, but I promise, I really was somewhere else.”
“No, I understand you. Of course you saw no other being in its domain — it is the very essence of isolation.”
“But… But then you must know that there wasn’t a creature or person I saw that could be…tamed? How could…”
Jyndeth gives up, seemingly already worn out. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I can follow this at the moment. I know stone and structure, Lord Vandree. This is a magical place, and I’ve come to accept and even embrace the strange… But I’ve never felt anything like that before, and I really hope to never see it again.” She picks up the fork to eat some more cake, a gesture that would normally cement home her statement, though it is ruined by a momentary pause as she looks at the cake again and sets the fork down on the plate sheepishly.
“It’s alright to be confused,” Jaezred says reassuringly. “The Something Lonely is a most paradoxical being. It is there and not there, it is everywhere and nowhere. It isolates itself yet it aches for company. Its entire existence is a painful contradiction. You said you’ve not been feeling yourself, Miss Brightpass. Care to elaborate on that?”
She lets out another heavy sigh, the tiredness she’s been bearing deepening the lines on her face. “I-I have not been sleeping. I…I hate to be alone now, and I’ve been having these…um, panic episodes when I am and I-I-I keep thinking there’s someone watching me and…” She takes a shuddering breath. “I just don’t really feel myself anymore. I…used to enjoy my own company. Being around lots of people was always very draining for me, but now…the idea of being alone is terrifying, but I’m still finding it draining being in company. Uh, no offence, I greatly appreciate you being here and Miss Celia’s help, but…I feel stuck. I find being with people draining, but I’m also terrified of being on my own again. I feel like it’s watching me and just waiting to take me again. What if it does? What if it does come back and no one finds me again? How coul—”
The agitation in her voice increases with each spoken word until she breaks off suddenly.
Celia takes her hand again. “It’s okay, Jyndeth. Remember what we talked about — slow deep breaths, feel my hand… It’s okay, you’re not lost. You are home…”
Jyndeth nods sharply as she breathes in deeply and begins settling herself again, slumping into her chair a little more.
“A painful contradiction,” Jaezred murmurs.
The dwarven woman nods, tears welling in her eyes. “I just want to feel normal again.”
Celia gives her hand another squeeze and turns to Jaezred. “This is where we’ve been able to get in talking. I, um… I don’t believe Jyndeth is an avatar of the Something Lonely. Your friend Rae had a, well, a kind of block around them, making it difficult to read — similar to the thing we’ve had in just trying to locate the Somethings. But Jyndeth doesn’t appear to have any such feeling around her now, though it’s clearly left its mark on her.” She turns back to Jyndeth. “But we’ve been talking and I’m pretty sure things will settle out again. It was a long time you were there, you just need more time to adjust.”
“I see what you mean,” he replies to Celia. “Nonetheless, Miss Brightpass’s experiences may yet yield something useful to us and to Rae. But she can’t give us anything if she’s exhausted and scared all the time.”
He addresses Jyndeth again: “So, you find being around people draining. Have you ever tried pets? No, wait, I’ll do you one better.”
From his shadow on the floor, a black blob rises and forms the shape of a red-eyed panther. “This is He’lylbreia,” Jaezred says with a smile. “A guardian spirit of the mountain. They can keep you safe if it comes for you again, and they have a direct line to me in case anything happens.”
She pulls back initially at the appearance of a panther, and then looks from He’lybreia to Jaezred. “Is— Is it…safe?”
He'lybreia pads towards her, turning to face the same direction as she is sitting, before — maybe more forcefully than intended — pushing and rubbing their large feline head into her arm, almost knocking her out of the chair. They manage to shove her arm out the way and rest their head on her lap, letting out something like a purr, though it’s loud enough to almost be a growl.
Nonetheless, Jyndeth seems very intrigued and begins to gently pat He’lylbreia’s head. “Um… This is extremely generous, Lord Jaezred, but I…I don’t really know where to begin. Should they not be with you? What do I feed them? Oh gods, what do I feed them?”
“Vegetables, nuts, scones. Oh, and they particularly like dried mushroom crisps. I’ll have food sent to your room, not to worry.” Jaezred reaches forward to stroke the shadow panther’s sleek body. “I’ll leave them with you for a day or two. How does that sound?”
Jyndeth’s confusion increases once again. “Nuts… O-Okay. That sounds like it could work. Th-Thank you, Lord Jaezred. If things are better, I… Well, I can look at getting some kind of companion. Maybe not a panther though, no offence,” she adds to He’lylbreia.
Meanwhile, He’lylbreia has taken to scoffing down The Abomination on the table, licking the excessive cream off their nose. Jaezred’s smile grows wider. The cake is a glittery insult to the culinary art of baking, but he’d be damned if that isn’t one of the most adorable things he’s ever seen.
“Yes. Let’s see how you feel about it first,” he says.
Before they leave and let Jyndeth retire for the night, he marches Ulrich and Pixis back into the kitchen to apologise to the poor woman, promising her that, as punishment, they’re going to do the dishes tonight.
Two days pass quietly, without — thankfully — any alarming reports from He’lylbreia. Jaezred and Celia go to knock on Jyndeth’s door once again, and this time there is a shout from within declaring, “I’m coming!” followed by some muffled talking before the door finally opens.
Jyndeth looks tired still, but much better than when they last saw her. “Lord Jaezred, Celia, come in!”
The apartment is a little tidier than before; not that it was a mess, but some cleaning has definitely been done. He’lylbreia is sitting in the middle of the room looking quite happy, holding a comically small toy mouse in their jaws. Jaezred grins at He’lylbreia and immediately goes to fuss over them, rubbing the sides of their face playfully and cooing. He has missed them dearly in these past two days.
“Feeling better, are we?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder at Jyndeth.
“Umm… A little. It was still difficult being on my own, but they were very helpful and calmed me down a few times when I was worried. I-I think a pet might be a good idea to try.”
“That’s good to hear. Has it cleared up your memory somewhat?”
She looks a little guilty. “I’m afraid not… Sorry. Not particularly anything useful, at any rate.”
“But you have remembered something new?”
“Just… Just a little. How it started and some time there, but nothing concrete. It’s all such a blur.”
“You never know, we might find it useful. Please.”
The unseen servant sets down another covered cake stand on the table. Jyndeth eyes it warily, but breathes a quiet sigh of relief when the lid is lifted and it’s a traditional, delicious-looking butterscotch cake this time.
“Well,” she begins as the three of them sit down at the table once more, “I went into Dr. Killian’s shop…or…lab, whatever that place is. He was supposed to be doing excavation work and most tunnelwork comes through one of us engineers to make sure we don’t accidentally end up somewhere we shouldn’t be or undermine something above. He was adamant I wasn’t needed, but the young man with him explained a little of what they were up to, and when I went to look, I agreed that they likely weren't going to cause a cave-in. Not sure what kind of carnage they will cause in there, but a cave-in should be the least of the worries there…”
She has a bite of the cake and clearly enjoys this one much more, taking a second before seemingly instinctively breaking a bit off for He’lylbreia. “I checked out the site where he wants to put the cocktail bar and went down to the village on the table. Everything seemed okay. Not sure about the fire risk of paper houses, but they seemed to have most things worked out with wax and cold fires. Then…I remember feeling a bit crowded and wanting a breather from everything, so I— I don’t really know… I think back now and feel like I was following something, like a pull, but at the time I just felt like getting away. There was a crack in the wall at the back of the table and, for some reason, I climbed in. Then it was just…white everywhere. I was in a room where everything was white and the corridors just seemed to go on forever. I remember it feeling like days, weeks, walking around and never getting anywhere. I got hungry and thirsty but then just…stayed that way. It felt like forever until they found me…”
“It lured you,” Jaezred says, rubbing his chin, “with the need for isolation. Well, tell me again how the adventurers got you out.”
“I…don’t really know. They arrived… I thought it was a hallucination at first. When I was following them, it still all felt like a dream. Then suddenly, there was a door and we all walked out…”
Celia speaks up. “I might be able to offer a little insight on this. When I first started trying to look into Miss Brightpass’s memories, it seemed there was something being discussed about gathering people together and feeling better when they met up with each other, almost like a strength-in-numbers response. I did send Ulrich to look into where you disappeared, though. He never mentioned seeing a crack in the wall anywhere…”
Jaezred nods. “Right. It’s not much, but it’s something. Miss Celia, could you kindly check if the Lonely’s mark is still on Miss Brightpass?”
“Ah, I’ve, um… I’ve actually been keeping an eye on that already. Sorry, I’ve not been spying, just looking enough to see if you were okay. I can still feel something like a trace, but it is drifting away. More like a residue than a presence, I think.”
“Drifting away, you say? Very good news indeed!” the drow lord says, patting his knee in a satisfied manner. “Aren’t you glad that we didn’t have to kill and reanimate you in order to cure you?”
Jyndeth’s face goes pale. “What?”
“Forget you heard that. Now, where does one get a pet around here?”
It’s quickly decided that what Jyndeth needs is a kind of support animal, one that can sense when she is upset and calm her down. It also needs to be acclimated to the emotion-heightening energy of the Feywild, for its own sake.
They explore some options (asking the Huntsman to catch something in the wild, the dodgy black market in the Basalt Layer, a guy selling feral cats in Killian’s miniature village) before Jaezred mentions hearing about a blink dog living in New Hillborrow’s animal sanctuary. A blink dog raised by druids in the Material Plane will likely be less whimsical than its Feywild-bred brethren and thus more suitable as a support dog.
A few hours later, Jaezred returns to Jyndeth’s apartment with a big, powerfully-built dog with a light brown coat, black snout, and pointed ears padding by his side. The moment it is half in the doorway, it blinks around the kitchen, sniffing at various furniture items and He’lylbreia, before appearing in front of Jyndeth, sniffing at her curiously. Even standing on all fours, it is as tall as the dwarven woman. She is cautious at first, but soon enough she’s fussing it with both hands, and the dog whines approvingly, wagging its tail.
“What will you name it?” asks Jaezred.
“Gelo,” Jyndeth replies after a moment of thought, grinning from ear to ear. Gelo nuzzles into her, almost knocking her down due to its sheer size, and she laughs in pure delight.
The surveyor does not seem so lost nor so lonely anymore. Jaezred smiles at Celia with satisfaction as He’lylbreia brushes against his legs. Although Jyndeth was merely the Lonely’s plaything and not its avatar, it is possible to cure those who have been touched by the Somethings Dangerous after all. A small step, but a step nonetheless.
Co-written with Anthony
The surveyor Jyndeth Brightpass lives in a modest but respectable apartment in the Shales, the first basement level of Nicnevin’s Mountain Palace, a short walk from a tunnel that leads up into the cavernous garden that adorns the palace entrance. When Jaezred and Celia enter, the mountain dwarf woman is sitting at a table, rubbing her temples as Pixis and Ulrich seem to be having a debate about how to extract more information out of her as if she isn’t even there. The current running arguments being breaking her psyche down into smaller pieces that they can decode directly without having to deal with messy personalities (Ulrich) and outright killing her, resurrecting her as a zombie thrall, and commanding it to stop being obstinate and tell them what they want to know (Pixis).
The discussion is put to an end when Jaezred points a stern finger at them. “You two. Out, now.”
Pixis and Ulrich stop suddenly in their tracks like naughty children getting caught by a parent. Celia lets out a defeated sigh, scolds the pair (although very meekly), and ushers them into an adjacent room.
Jyndeth looks up gaunt-faced at her newest guest. Her eyes are darkened with exhaustion, and she is far thinner than any member of the stout folk ought to be. “Oh, thank you. It was getting a little much…” she says. “Huh. It’s funny to think having someone around could feel a little much now.”
Celia sits down opposite Jyndeth, a sympathetic look on her face. “Well, from all accounts, you were on your own a long time, Miss Brightpass. I do think it’s a good sign if you start to feel these things again.” She turns to Jaezred. “From what I can gather, time moves slower in the Something Lonely’s domain. Eric mentioned the adventurers who found Miss Brightpass were gone for only a few minutes, but their account had them there for several hours. Miss Brightpass, however, was missing from the Court for a number of months…”
“Lady Zola said a similar thing about her time in the Buried’s and the Vast’s domains. I’m not surprised.” Jaezred turns to Jyndeth. “Apologies, where are my manners? I am Lord Jaezred Vandree, servant to the Queen.”
As he speaks, his unseen servant sets down a covered cake stand on the table. He takes off the lid with a slight flourish to reveal what he has taken to calling “The Abomination” — Zola’s favourite cake growing up, a creation of her doting mother Lillian: a banana and blueberry cake with too much cream on top, garnished with an ungodly amount of sprinkles and glitter.
“Oh please, there’s really no need to be so formal. I know who—” Jyndeth stops mid-sentence to stare at the cake, stunned for a moment. “Uh… I mean, I’ve heard a lot about you, Lord Vandree.” She lets out a long sigh, not from exasperation, but from what appears to be a deep tiredness. “Apologies, I’ve not been feeling myself since… Since…” Her voice trails off into silence.
Celia leans across the table and gives her hand a little squeeze. “It’s okay, Jyndeth. Lord Jaezred is aware of your situation.”
There is a crash from the other room as something has clearly broken, followed by a distinctly guilty silence.
“Whatever that was, you’re paying for it!” Jaezred shouts to the other room. “Once again, apologies. Now…” He cuts a slice of The Abomination and places it on a plate for Jyndeth. There is so much cream on top of the slice that it slowly falls off like a glacier erosion, if the glacier was very sparkly and dotted with a rainbow of colours. “Miss Brightpass, Celia has informed me that you find it difficult to talk about your encounter with the Lonely, is that right?”
Jyndeth eyes the cake warily, clearly battling a level of confusion she is trying to come to terms with, but smiles a weak smile. “Thank you. And, uh…yeah. I mean, yes, it’s difficult to talk about. Celia and those other two have been asking lots of questions, but I’m afraid it all feels like a blur.” She picks up a fork to take a bite of the cake but hesitates, unsure of how to approach it, before finally landing on digging out some of the actual cake from under the mass of cream. There is the briefest of pauses after she eats it, followed by politely re-placing the fork on the plate.
“Not to your liking?”
“I’m sorry, it’s just too sweet for my taste. I’m sure it’s…lovely, though.”
He picks up a fork of his own and puts a bit of the cake in his mouth. “Mm. Just as I thought. The second worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”
The confusion on Jyndeth’s face only intensifies.
“Oh, sorry. I should probably explain. This thing”—he gestures at The Abomination with his fork—“was the Lonely’s entire diet for at least the last century-and-a-half.”
“Oh… Um, right… However did you find that out?”
“It used to live here in the Witching Court, in a house to the west, with a family. It was a pet of sorts.”
Jyndeth looks stunned and glances at Celia for confirmation. “That…thing was a pet?!”
“Quite. I know the girl and the hags who kept it. It lived under the stairs and ate the worst cake ever made.”
“I-I’m sorry, Lord Vandree, but…how? H-How can it have been under the stairs? I never even saw an ‘it’. It was just endless corridors and empty rooms for…” She trails off again
Jaezred doesn’t answer immediately, giving her space as she tries to fathom the width of eternity. “I don’t know, Miss Brightpass. What we do know is that it was tamed once, which means that it can be tamed again.”
“Tamed? I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand. There was no…thing I ever saw to tame.” She looks a little desperate as she attempts to explain. “You— You must think me delusional, but I promise, I really was somewhere else.”
“No, I understand you. Of course you saw no other being in its domain — it is the very essence of isolation.”
“But… But then you must know that there wasn’t a creature or person I saw that could be…tamed? How could…”
Jyndeth gives up, seemingly already worn out. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I can follow this at the moment. I know stone and structure, Lord Vandree. This is a magical place, and I’ve come to accept and even embrace the strange… But I’ve never felt anything like that before, and I really hope to never see it again.” She picks up the fork to eat some more cake, a gesture that would normally cement home her statement, though it is ruined by a momentary pause as she looks at the cake again and sets the fork down on the plate sheepishly.
“It’s alright to be confused,” Jaezred says reassuringly. “The Something Lonely is a most paradoxical being. It is there and not there, it is everywhere and nowhere. It isolates itself yet it aches for company. Its entire existence is a painful contradiction. You said you’ve not been feeling yourself, Miss Brightpass. Care to elaborate on that?”
She lets out another heavy sigh, the tiredness she’s been bearing deepening the lines on her face. “I-I have not been sleeping. I…I hate to be alone now, and I’ve been having these…um, panic episodes when I am and I-I-I keep thinking there’s someone watching me and…” She takes a shuddering breath. “I just don’t really feel myself anymore. I…used to enjoy my own company. Being around lots of people was always very draining for me, but now…the idea of being alone is terrifying, but I’m still finding it draining being in company. Uh, no offence, I greatly appreciate you being here and Miss Celia’s help, but…I feel stuck. I find being with people draining, but I’m also terrified of being on my own again. I feel like it’s watching me and just waiting to take me again. What if it does? What if it does come back and no one finds me again? How coul—”
The agitation in her voice increases with each spoken word until she breaks off suddenly.
Celia takes her hand again. “It’s okay, Jyndeth. Remember what we talked about — slow deep breaths, feel my hand… It’s okay, you’re not lost. You are home…”
Jyndeth nods sharply as she breathes in deeply and begins settling herself again, slumping into her chair a little more.
“A painful contradiction,” Jaezred murmurs.
The dwarven woman nods, tears welling in her eyes. “I just want to feel normal again.”
Celia gives her hand another squeeze and turns to Jaezred. “This is where we’ve been able to get in talking. I, um… I don’t believe Jyndeth is an avatar of the Something Lonely. Your friend Rae had a, well, a kind of block around them, making it difficult to read — similar to the thing we’ve had in just trying to locate the Somethings. But Jyndeth doesn’t appear to have any such feeling around her now, though it’s clearly left its mark on her.” She turns back to Jyndeth. “But we’ve been talking and I’m pretty sure things will settle out again. It was a long time you were there, you just need more time to adjust.”
“I see what you mean,” he replies to Celia. “Nonetheless, Miss Brightpass’s experiences may yet yield something useful to us and to Rae. But she can’t give us anything if she’s exhausted and scared all the time.”
He addresses Jyndeth again: “So, you find being around people draining. Have you ever tried pets? No, wait, I’ll do you one better.”
From his shadow on the floor, a black blob rises and forms the shape of a red-eyed panther. “This is He’lylbreia,” Jaezred says with a smile. “A guardian spirit of the mountain. They can keep you safe if it comes for you again, and they have a direct line to me in case anything happens.”
She pulls back initially at the appearance of a panther, and then looks from He’lybreia to Jaezred. “Is— Is it…safe?”
He'lybreia pads towards her, turning to face the same direction as she is sitting, before — maybe more forcefully than intended — pushing and rubbing their large feline head into her arm, almost knocking her out of the chair. They manage to shove her arm out the way and rest their head on her lap, letting out something like a purr, though it’s loud enough to almost be a growl.
Nonetheless, Jyndeth seems very intrigued and begins to gently pat He’lylbreia’s head. “Um… This is extremely generous, Lord Jaezred, but I…I don’t really know where to begin. Should they not be with you? What do I feed them? Oh gods, what do I feed them?”
“Vegetables, nuts, scones. Oh, and they particularly like dried mushroom crisps. I’ll have food sent to your room, not to worry.” Jaezred reaches forward to stroke the shadow panther’s sleek body. “I’ll leave them with you for a day or two. How does that sound?”
Jyndeth’s confusion increases once again. “Nuts… O-Okay. That sounds like it could work. Th-Thank you, Lord Jaezred. If things are better, I… Well, I can look at getting some kind of companion. Maybe not a panther though, no offence,” she adds to He’lylbreia.
Meanwhile, He’lylbreia has taken to scoffing down The Abomination on the table, licking the excessive cream off their nose. Jaezred’s smile grows wider. The cake is a glittery insult to the culinary art of baking, but he’d be damned if that isn’t one of the most adorable things he’s ever seen.
“Yes. Let’s see how you feel about it first,” he says.
Before they leave and let Jyndeth retire for the night, he marches Ulrich and Pixis back into the kitchen to apologise to the poor woman, promising her that, as punishment, they’re going to do the dishes tonight.
Two days pass quietly, without — thankfully — any alarming reports from He’lylbreia. Jaezred and Celia go to knock on Jyndeth’s door once again, and this time there is a shout from within declaring, “I’m coming!” followed by some muffled talking before the door finally opens.
Jyndeth looks tired still, but much better than when they last saw her. “Lord Jaezred, Celia, come in!”
The apartment is a little tidier than before; not that it was a mess, but some cleaning has definitely been done. He’lylbreia is sitting in the middle of the room looking quite happy, holding a comically small toy mouse in their jaws. Jaezred grins at He’lylbreia and immediately goes to fuss over them, rubbing the sides of their face playfully and cooing. He has missed them dearly in these past two days.
“Feeling better, are we?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder at Jyndeth.
“Umm… A little. It was still difficult being on my own, but they were very helpful and calmed me down a few times when I was worried. I-I think a pet might be a good idea to try.”
“That’s good to hear. Has it cleared up your memory somewhat?”
She looks a little guilty. “I’m afraid not… Sorry. Not particularly anything useful, at any rate.”
“But you have remembered something new?”
“Just… Just a little. How it started and some time there, but nothing concrete. It’s all such a blur.”
“You never know, we might find it useful. Please.”
The unseen servant sets down another covered cake stand on the table. Jyndeth eyes it warily, but breathes a quiet sigh of relief when the lid is lifted and it’s a traditional, delicious-looking butterscotch cake this time.
“Well,” she begins as the three of them sit down at the table once more, “I went into Dr. Killian’s shop…or…lab, whatever that place is. He was supposed to be doing excavation work and most tunnelwork comes through one of us engineers to make sure we don’t accidentally end up somewhere we shouldn’t be or undermine something above. He was adamant I wasn’t needed, but the young man with him explained a little of what they were up to, and when I went to look, I agreed that they likely weren't going to cause a cave-in. Not sure what kind of carnage they will cause in there, but a cave-in should be the least of the worries there…”
She has a bite of the cake and clearly enjoys this one much more, taking a second before seemingly instinctively breaking a bit off for He’lylbreia. “I checked out the site where he wants to put the cocktail bar and went down to the village on the table. Everything seemed okay. Not sure about the fire risk of paper houses, but they seemed to have most things worked out with wax and cold fires. Then…I remember feeling a bit crowded and wanting a breather from everything, so I— I don’t really know… I think back now and feel like I was following something, like a pull, but at the time I just felt like getting away. There was a crack in the wall at the back of the table and, for some reason, I climbed in. Then it was just…white everywhere. I was in a room where everything was white and the corridors just seemed to go on forever. I remember it feeling like days, weeks, walking around and never getting anywhere. I got hungry and thirsty but then just…stayed that way. It felt like forever until they found me…”
“It lured you,” Jaezred says, rubbing his chin, “with the need for isolation. Well, tell me again how the adventurers got you out.”
“I…don’t really know. They arrived… I thought it was a hallucination at first. When I was following them, it still all felt like a dream. Then suddenly, there was a door and we all walked out…”
Celia speaks up. “I might be able to offer a little insight on this. When I first started trying to look into Miss Brightpass’s memories, it seemed there was something being discussed about gathering people together and feeling better when they met up with each other, almost like a strength-in-numbers response. I did send Ulrich to look into where you disappeared, though. He never mentioned seeing a crack in the wall anywhere…”
Jaezred nods. “Right. It’s not much, but it’s something. Miss Celia, could you kindly check if the Lonely’s mark is still on Miss Brightpass?”
“Ah, I’ve, um… I’ve actually been keeping an eye on that already. Sorry, I’ve not been spying, just looking enough to see if you were okay. I can still feel something like a trace, but it is drifting away. More like a residue than a presence, I think.”
“Drifting away, you say? Very good news indeed!” the drow lord says, patting his knee in a satisfied manner. “Aren’t you glad that we didn’t have to kill and reanimate you in order to cure you?”
Jyndeth’s face goes pale. “What?”
“Forget you heard that. Now, where does one get a pet around here?”
It’s quickly decided that what Jyndeth needs is a kind of support animal, one that can sense when she is upset and calm her down. It also needs to be acclimated to the emotion-heightening energy of the Feywild, for its own sake.
They explore some options (asking the Huntsman to catch something in the wild, the dodgy black market in the Basalt Layer, a guy selling feral cats in Killian’s miniature village) before Jaezred mentions hearing about a blink dog living in New Hillborrow’s animal sanctuary. A blink dog raised by druids in the Material Plane will likely be less whimsical than its Feywild-bred brethren and thus more suitable as a support dog.
A few hours later, Jaezred returns to Jyndeth’s apartment with a big, powerfully-built dog with a light brown coat, black snout, and pointed ears padding by his side. The moment it is half in the doorway, it blinks around the kitchen, sniffing at various furniture items and He’lylbreia, before appearing in front of Jyndeth, sniffing at her curiously. Even standing on all fours, it is as tall as the dwarven woman. She is cautious at first, but soon enough she’s fussing it with both hands, and the dog whines approvingly, wagging its tail.
“What will you name it?” asks Jaezred.
“Gelo,” Jyndeth replies after a moment of thought, grinning from ear to ear. Gelo nuzzles into her, almost knocking her down due to its sheer size, and she laughs in pure delight.
The surveyor does not seem so lost nor so lonely anymore. Jaezred smiles at Celia with satisfaction as He’lylbreia brushes against his legs. Although Jyndeth was merely the Lonely’s plaything and not its avatar, it is possible to cure those who have been touched by the Somethings Dangerous after all. A small step, but a step nonetheless.
Co-written with Anthony