Chapter Text
“I had a dream last night.”
“You so often do,” the elf murmurs into the hair of the tiefling, who frowns.
“I had a dream that we got everything we ever wanted...”
“Ooh, do tell.”
“…a safe home. A table full of food. A room flooded with the sun…” the tiefling trails off. “But you left… you went somewhere — I don’t know where. And I couldn’t taste the food. I couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun. And I kept looking over my shoulder because something was off. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t see it…
“…but then I saw it, watching.”
“‘It?’”
“A mind flayer… oh for fuck’s sake, don’t laugh at me!” the tiefling grumbles as he pushes his lover’s face away from where he snickers against his horns.
“I’m not laughing at you, darling, it’s just… gods, not the mind flayer we know and hate, right?”
“No,” the tiefling frowns. “A stranger, but… familiar. It walked… floated… up to me, and it rested its hand against my cheek.
“I didn’t feel scared, but I still couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. But it spoke to me.”
The elf humors him. “…and what did it say?”
In their own little corner of the Elfsong, nestled against Astarion’s chest, Church pauses for a minute. He thinks to himself, desperately trying to recall the intangible threads of his fretful dream.
“It said… ‘you are here.
“‘I called you home.’”