Blood & Wine - A Spawn Astarion Fan Fiction

Nymeria

I wake to hushed voices and cold steel biting into my cheek. My eyes are still heavy from a deep sleep, the world feels like it's shifting under me with every breath. Everything is too bright as I open my eyes, stark shadows paint the world just as my nightmares shifting from one extreme to the other.

Slowly my eyes focus and I take in my surroundings. Barred up in a metal cage in the back of a moving wagon, the bright white linen covering soaking the wagon bed in rich shadows. When I shift I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and my limbs feel heavier than usual.

I remember the wolf's cry at first, leaving Astarion's tent to find the source. Then the gruesome imagery of the arrow protruding just near my collarbone and the poison taking me. I reach for my injury, my hands weighed down by the thick metal shackles around my wrists carved with runes running across.

Curious, I call out to my magic. My body is void of the familiar thrumming just under my skin and even the wolf inside me has been silenced.

"Those are made special." A female voice calls out from the front of the wagon, "Blessed by a cleric back in Baldur's Gate to block all magics. "

I shift my body, pressing against the metal bars to look. There's two human females sitting up front, I recognize the first immediately from her silhouette. Dark brown hair, cropped at the side while the rest is pulled up in a leather binding that braids through the rest of her locks. One doesn't quickly forget the person that poisons you. The other, though, she looks similar, possibly related to the first with a lighter shade of brown hair separated into chunky braids that fall over her shoulders. She looks at me with her brows drawn in concern.

"Are you sure you tended to her wound well enough? The bandage looks quite bloodied, Ildra." The second female says turning to the first.

"Shh." Ildra responds, lifting her chin defiantly, "She will survive the journey."

I swallow, my mouth feeling dry, "No one has told me my crimes. If you intend to keep me prisoner."

The second woman stares at Ildra pointedly, "You said."

"Shut up, Stanzi." Ildra snaps, "She was there when the vampire spawn killed Gandrel."

"You told me she was the one that turned the blade on him." Stanzi's voice is pleading, "She is an innocent."

"She allowed it to happen." Ildra says, adding an extra bit of venom to her words. "She stood there while the vampire took our brother's life. How innocent can she be?"

"Where are you taking me?" I choke out, holding my arm close to my side trying to ease the pain.

"You're going to our camp just outside Baldur's Gate." Ildra says with a sneer. "There we will wait for your vampire spawn lover to find you and he will be brought to justice for all of his crimes."

"How can you," I grimace, "How can you be so sure he will come for me?"

The moment the question leaves my lips it's cold caress settles over me. How can I be sure anyone is coming for me? What have I done to inspire such loyalty? Part of me hopes to see Astarion's face again, but not at the expense of his life. Being so close to Baldur's Gate and with Cazador's influence spells nothing but misery and a nightmare he has been fighting fang and nail to wake from. My heart clings to the selfish desire as it turns sour in my chest.

"He loves you." Ildra says solemnly and dripping with disgust.

When I close my eyes I can see it, the moment he wakes without me there sleeping. The panic he feels when he realizes I have disappeared, not from our shared bond as the magical bindings at my wrists has rendered my tadpole silent, but from my own heart. Through all the feelings of hope over the last few weeks. Hopes for a brush of his lips against mine, his gentle touch or a private smile. Hope from the moment he admitted his feelings. This was the first time I hoped he was a liar. That his sense of self preservation would prevail over the growing spark of heroism I saw within him. Hope that he would remain safe.