WHAT: Nat dreams of a reunion. WHERE: The Baldwin home, specifically in Nat's bedroom. WHEN: Morning of April 9. WARNINGS: Spoilers through C2E57. So much dialogue, given the source is largely all dialogue. Brief mention of torture. Mentions of loss of spouse. STATUS:Complete!
"Veth?" Jester's voice was gentle. Though it never seemed to quite lose her signature joviality, it seemed that even she understood just how turbulent a situation this was for Nott. "Come on in here, then."
Nott walked into the room, her heart squeezing as her large goblin eyes took in the conditions that the Kryn had kept Yeza in before landing on her husband himself. She swallowed, glancing once toward Jester as she started to back up, then focused on the halfling before her. "Hi sweetie. It's me, huns buns."
Yeza seemed to be looking at her in disbelief, rubbing his eyes and squinting through the darkness. "I thought the packages were a joke somebody was playing on me."
Again, a clench in Nott's chest. "No."
"Was that really you?"
"It was me. I was trying to make sure you were taken care of." She smiled, just a little. "I know you're a terrible, terrible cook and…"
Despite their location and the circumstances they had found themselves in, Yeza smiled himself. The clench around Nott's heart released into a warmth. "Unless it's compounds, yeah. Where -- where have you been?"
The smile was gone from Nott's face as she considered how she could even explain where she had been. What would be a worthy answer to the time she'd been away from him and Luc? The truth, she knew. It was the only answer she could give. "A lot has happened. When we separated that night, I -- I was taken and terrible things were done to me and I was changed a bit."
"That's okay." Yeza stepped forward toward Nott and she immediately stepped back.
"No, don't -- don't touch me. Not yet, anyway. I'm sorry, it's just -- what you're seeing is not how I really look. It's an illusion." She released a short breath, imagining herself in that moment as looking like who she was supposed to be, Veth Brenatto and not the goblin she had been all these years. "I look much different and I'm afraid you won't like it. And that's okay. Because it's not me, it's what they turned me into."
"You think that matters?"
"Yes, I do," Nott replied without hesitation. "It matters to me."
Yeza looked at her, then asked, "It's still you, right?"
"It is." That much Nott was sure of -- at least, she thought she was.
"And you're alive?"
"I am." Maybe she hadn't been at one time, but she was now.
Yeza shook his head, that smile coming back to his face that Nott had fallen in love with. "That's the best news I've heard in a long time."
It took a moment for Nott to find the bravery that she was so certain she lacked, especially after Fjord and Jester had been so adamant about keeping her from getting drunk before this reunion. But eventually, after a bit of conversation and assurance that their son was okay with Edith and some gentle coaxing of Yeza's fingers exploring beneath the illusion of Veth to the Nott that was hidden beneath, she dropped the spell.
Nott watched, perhaps a bit too closely and a bit too hopefully as Yeza took in her goblin features. Long ears where they had once been pointed, but much shorter ones. Large eyes that had once been smaller and brown. The teeth, so many teeth that were more pointed and shocking than they had once been. And, of course, her now green hue that was so unmistakable goblin when the features were brought together.
Yeza just stared and it didn't take long for it to be too much for Nott. She began to turn toward the entrance of the cell, stopping when a gentle touch landed on her shoulder. Turning once more, she looked to Yeza.
"It's still you, though. Right?"
She nodded, just once, and her voice was quiet when she replied with a simple, "Yeah."
"And that's all that matters."
The words echoed in Nott's mind, impossible and improbable and yet -- so very Yeza. There would still be complications. It would take some getting used to, as they went on to discuss, but they were together again. Perhaps not all of the time, not yet. Nott wouldn't be ready for that until she and Caleb figured out some way to make her right again -- and even then, it would need to be a conversation given just how different her life was now compared to what it had once been in Felderwin.
She could see a light, though. Especially when Yeza moved forward, wrapping his arms around her. Nott hadn't known if she'd get to feel that again.
They couldn't just hold one another forever, no matter how much Nott might have wanted to. They were still in a cell, in the middle of a prison. She didn't even know for sure if Yeza would be allowed to leave with them; somehow she doubted that the drow that had been assigned to bring them there had been looking for a reunion, when it came to what he deemed an acceptable reason to let their prisoner leave.
In fact, after introductions were made and Caleb made the suggestion that they leave and Yeza wait to tell his story to them until later on, the Shadowhand came forward. "Or we can discuss it now as the means of your release."
Caleb spoke up, which was good as Nott wasn't sure she'd have had anything to say that wouldn't just land them all in a cell instead. "What do we need to cover here, sir?"
The Shadowhand looked to Yeza. "This DeRogna. What did they hire you for? What did you do and what do you know of what you've created?"
Yeza explained everything, from how he had been contacted by this member of the Cerberus Assembly to do work for them. How they had worked out of the basement of the apothecary and he had been forced to remain silent about what they were doing, out of threat of Luc being taken from him by DeRogna herself. He explained how they'd just had a breakthrough of some sort when two days later the attack on Felderwin had come and the apothecary had been destroyed. The Kryn had asked him questions, but when he refused to answer, they had simply captured him, taken him through the very tunnels that Nott and her friends had traversed to get to Xhorhas, and then brought him to this cell where they had starved him in an attempt for getting information.
"But I didn't say anything," Yeza insisted, a bit of desperation in his voice. "I didn't say anything because I knew you were coming and I didn't want anything to happen to Luc and I didn't tell them anything. That's it."
"Very well." Nott turned, looking to the drow once more. She had almost forgotten he was there, having been so entranced in her husband's retelling of the ordeal he had gone through. "It seems that not all forms of interrogation are effective, but alternate means can be. The prisoner is free to go. He is in your charge now."
"Really?" Relief seemed to override any other emotion that Nott had.
"Of course," the Shadowhand said. "We have what we need. Thank you." He looked back to the other drow, the jailer that had opened the cell in the first place. "Close up the cell. We no longer have reason to use it." Then, he turned to address the others. "Come, I will bring you back to the surface." He looked down to Yeza, a smile that Nott couldn't quite read on his face. "You come along as well, my friend."
It was much easier to read Yeza, who shrunk away under the gaze. "Okay."
The drow began to walk, leading them back through the prison. Before they could follow, Nott reached out and took Yeza by the hand. The squeeze of her fingers was weak, but it was there and that was all she needed in that moment.
Natalie woke slowly, the warm sun of the morning on her face. She hadn't quite closed her curtains the night prior, but she knew that she wouldn't have needed that particular wake up call to rouse her. There wasn't even a hint of sleep lingering, the new memory that she had just been given of Nott's life more than enough to wake her fully.
Rolling onto her back, Natalie lifted her left hand and stared at her palm. It almost still felt warm, as though she had actually just been holding Yeza Brenatto's in it. Her eyes moved, just enough to linger on her ring finger, which was sporting the ring and wedding band that she had slipped onto her finger before bed the night prior in a fit of longing and loneliness. There was no doubting why she had dreamed that particular dream, but it felt particularly cruel that she was glimpsing a reunion that she would never get to have herself.
Natalie's hand dropped, landing on her stomach as she turned her head and stared at the empty space that was the other half of her bed. Though she had long since replaced the bed that she had once shared with her late husband, she still slept on the same side as she had when Sean had shared it with her. The blankets were only minorly rumpled from her movements in the night, but otherwise looked much as they had when she'd last made the bed.
Given all that Nott had lived through, Natalie was glad that she had gotten that reunion. She had felt Nott's relief that her husband was safe once more and the real affection that she felt for the halfling man. It was just hard sometimes, even after ten years -- not that any span of time would truly make anything better.
Natalie's right hand lifted, slipping the rings off of her finger. She looked at the small diamond, all that a couple of 19-year-olds could afford at the time, but more than enough both then and now. No, she would not get to have the same reunion that Nott had gotten with Yeza. But, she could be happy that the little goblin girl had. She could be happy that she had been given some hope to drive herself forward, even if she knew that she would have to make decisions and that future was uncertain. She could be happy that at least one of them had been given that opportunity.