Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Forever Beyond: A BG Fic

Morning came, and with it the revelation of many things that had gone on under cover of night. In Waterdeep there had been six burglaries, one murder, seventeen acts of vandalism, a wagon had somehow managed to become precariously perched atop a bell tower, and in a corner of the circus a pretty but worse for wear looking elf was found snoozing in some hay.

Like she could feel eyes on her she slowly lifted her head. The sun was far too bright, like pins in her eyes, but through much blinking and squinting she made out a blue tiefling boy looking down on her, thick hair on his head writhing like it had a life of its own.

“You’re a mess,” he told her.

Aerie hadn’t seen herself yet, but considering the pounding in her head she doubted she was in any position to make a convincing argument to the contrary.

She sat up, wincing from aches all over her body. The boy scurried away, through what seemed to be quite a crowd who had gathered just to watch her wake up. Several human and elven circus performers stood around in a semi-circle with their arms crossed, a djinni floating behind them, red eyes flaring at her. There was also a kobold, a mummy, a fuzzy bugbear, and the grind of an earth elemental. None of them appeared very happy with her.

“Well,” a tall black and purple elf with a dark feather collar and face caked in make-up frowned, “I am Lucretious, the ring master here. And you, dearie, have been quite the little rapscallion.”

“I have?” Aerie struggled to recall anything from the night before.

“Lets see… first, you left poor Klaus frozen out there for hours, still as a statue. For a moment I dared hope I’d actually found a talent he’d been hiding from me, but alas… then, I had to contact the watch to track down Benji. Finally found him chasing a butterfly around a school. And then poor Akabi-”

“SHE TURNED ME INTO A HUMAN!” The djinni roared, steam rolling from his eyes.

“It was only for five minutes,” Lucretious pointed out, but Akabi bawled:

“For five, agonizing minutes, I was as lowly and wretched a creature as all of you!”

“There, there,” Lucretious patted him softly, “let it all out, big man.”

Akabi wailed, “I knew what it was to feel hunger, need air to live, have bowels… h-how… how can you all exist like that!?!”

“Now, do you see the anguish your little rampage has caused?”

“I’m sorry,” Aerie sadly shook her head, “but I don’t remember anything.”

“Really? You don’t remember challenging Bryn to a boxing match?”

That explained the bruises. Bryn was a six and a half foot tall Barbarian whose perpetual scowl was half concealed by tattoos over her taut face and body. Probably about a third of her was as strong as five Aeries, but still she had to ask, “did I win?”

“Oh,” with a drawn out sigh Lucretious knelt, gently placing a hand on the smaller elf’s shoulder, “you won our hearts, dear. Now, let’s get you presentable. Then we can talk about how you’re going to pay for all the damage you’ve done. The rest of you get back to work.”

A perk of being a magic user was that it really didn’t take Aerie long to get ready. A few waves of her hands and she was clean and her hair no longer resembled a thatched roof, while also healing her bruises and a cracked rib. She then followed Lucretious through quite a bit of bustle; it looked like the circus was packing, getting ready to move on. As should she have been. It was a drunken, foolish mistake coming here; she knew it wouldn’t bring her any joy.

“So,” the ringmaster hooked a finger over her chin, “just who are you?” Aerie was about to answer, but was quickly shushed. “Don’t tell me! I want to guess. Hmmm,” the finger started rubbing as she carefully scrutinized her.

While she waited Aerie’s arm disappeared into her pouch. Strangely it didn’t seem like anything was missing, but nothing was in the right place.

Finally Lucretious spoke, “you’d be very fair for a wood elf, and short for a high elf. And you’re obviously not a drow or sea elf,” she pondered, leaning over almost nose to nose with Aerie. “Ah, but those gorgeous big blues of yours I’d wager could pick out a field mouse from miles away,” she snapped her fingers, “you’re avariel.”

“Impressive,” Aerie conceded.

“It’s a gift, darling. And since there is only one wingless avariel who could cause me this much trouble, you must be Aerie of Faenya-Dail,” she stood straight, hand on her hip and chin held high. “Go on; you can say it. I’m wasted here. I should have been a detective.”

“Maybe,” Aerie again conceded, “although I would have been more impressed if you hadn’t gone through all my things first.”

“Oh, you’re lucky I was there to stop Popper robbing you blind. He would have, too - those are truly gorgeous eyes. But wouldn’t want any more grievances on your first day.”

“Um… my first day?”

“Did I not mention? You owe me - all of us - damages. I intend to put you to work, since you do have some experience.”

Not a chance she was hanging around here, Aerie thought, and the experience she had was a century ago. “You were still only mostly right.”

“Oh?”

“I was a child when I was taken from Faenya-Dail to a place like this. I haven’t been of there in a long time,” Aerie frowned. She had tried to settle down in a gnomish village for a time, but in the end she just grew restless and was out on the road again in search of… she didn’t know what. People to help, evil to vanquish, new and ancient secrets to uncover; that had all been a part of it, at least. “So, now I am just Aerie of Anywhere. Or Nowhere. I’d be happy to be pay you for any ‘damages’, then I’ll be on my way.”

Lucretious sighed, “there’s just one sight worse than a sad girl and that’s a sad girl on her own. I don’t need your coin or your gems, dear, but maybe,” it was a long ‘hmmmm’, until with a sharp inhale her eyes lit up. “An avariel who had her whole life stripped from her, then rising like a phoenix to become the bane of slavers across this world and beyond. Now that is a great story.”

Aerie preemptively stated, “no.”

“We make it into a show! You can have your own song and dance number and be on posters! It would be better if you had red hair. Be all fiery-like.”

“You know,” Aerie glared, “a yellow flame is actually hotter than a red flame.”

“Well that may be factually true, but you’re not going to change centuries worth of assumptions and stereotypes overnight. Still, we can try. What do you say?”

“I say I don’t sing, I don’t dance, and I have zero interest in being your poster girl.”

Without a beat Lucretious adjusted her pitch. “A puppet show then. For the children. You’re not the kind of person who’d let children down, are you?”

She… she wasn’t - Aerie winced, a faint crying deep within her skull - not if there was any way she could possibly help it. “That’s a rotten tactic,” she frowned, “bringing kids into it.”

“Look over there, dear,” Lucretious shrugged. ‘Over there’ was a dark tent, animated skeletons milling around it. “Think I care about rot?”

She should, Aerie thought. Necromancy really wasn’t hygienic; walking corpses might not get sick, but they could still spread all sorts to others. But she knew well circuses weren’t exactly places renowned for cleanliness anyway, and so long as there was a healer around they shouldn’t cause too much trouble.

“Oh, I know you had such an awful time in that other circus, dearie,” Lucretious went on, “but just give me a chance to prove to you that the abuses of the past have been remedied. There are some here, like Akabi, working off a debt, but there are no slaves. And everyone gets time off for themselves and two tendays of paid holiday every year. Provided they put in a request with the head of resources at least three months in advance. That’s him over there,” she pointed to one of the skeletons. “Or, wait… was it that one? Should maybe think about some sort of hat or badge system.”

Aerie could have just left. There was nothing here that could stop her. Except her own curiosity. She was curious about Lucretious, and about what she might look like as a puppet whatever color its hair was. And honestly it wasn’t like she had a really full schedule. “Fine,” she relented, “I’ll hang around. For a little while.”

“Excellent,” Lucretious beamed, then handed her a bucket and broom. “While I work out some details, you can start by cleaning up the mess you made around Zara’s.”

Some things were coming back to her now; Zara was the mummy, and Aerie had gotten a bit enthusiastic with her face paints, splashing anti-Windbreaker graffiti all over the park walls, ground, and several passers by. “Fine.”

Aerie could have used magic to clear away the mess, but she was still getting unpleasant stares from some of the circus folk so decided to prove to them that she was not a stranger to some manual labor. In her old circus no-one stayed for free, so once she’d been freed from her cage she’d soon been put to work on chores just like this. And it was like riding a Griffon; you never forgot how. There was more graffiti than she remembered, and it took her until afternoon, by which time she found the scrubbing actually quite meditative.

As she was finishing she felt eyes on her again. The same blue tiefling boy as before, watching and studying her like he was waiting for something to happen.
“Hello,” Aerie smiled warmly, “can I help you?”

“So, you’re a winged elf?” He asked, seeming very disappointed.

“I am,” Aerie sighed a little wearily. The next logical question was quite obvious.

“So, where are your wings?”

“I got sick, a long time ago, and I lost them.”

“But the others say you’re also a powerful witch, so why don’t you just grow them back?”

That was a far less straightforward question to answer. Over the last century she had discovered scrolls, encountered magical artifacts and beings, many of which would have had the power to do just that. Akabi might, but even if he wasn’t already upset at her, he’d likely turn her into a dove or something which would just create a whole new set of problems. Maybe some would think themselves wise or clever enough to word things in such a way there were no loopholes, but the truly wise just never wished. She never had, and if it was offered she’d always, for various reasons, turned it down.

“Come away, boy,” a man, presumably the father, jogged up and took the boy by the arm. “You’re being rude and bothering her.”

“No, i-it’s okay,” Aerie assured them, “I’m never offended by curiosity. I suppose at some point - not really sure when - I just started accepting that what I’d lost was also a part of me now; a grounded avariel, a wingless wonder, a cripple in the eyes of my people, but I’ve flown farther than any of them,” she smiled, although not sure that all made any sense to a child. “Besides,” she held out the broom turning it sideways, “as a witch,” her hand came away so it was levitating on its own, then she hopped on riding side-saddle in a wide circle around them, “I don’t need wings.”