Chapter Text
“Did you. . . draw this map yourself?” Hope asked.
Astarion crossed his arms, “yes.”
“It’s good,” Hope said less than convincingly.
Astarion snatched back the map he had originally laid out on the table in front of Halsin and Hope so they could chart their path to finding the ring. “When I ran away, I wanted to save whatever gold I had, I wasn’t going to buy a map! I don’t see either of you offering a map!”
“I said it was good!” Hope defended herself. “We need it.”
Astarion laid the map back out. It looked like it was hand drawn by a toddler and the words were almost illegible.
“So Beregost is. . .” Hope scanned the map, looking for a letter that resembled a B.
“Here,” Astarion pointed to a spot on the map.
“Hopefully, they have a map shop,” Halsin said.
Astarion bristled, “let’s just gear up.”
They made it to Beregost in good time.
“So, why are we here?” Astarion asked, looking around at the town, a moderate size but nothing compared to Baldur’s Gate. “It doesn’t seem like much.”
“The university here has a professor of vampirism.” Hope referred to her notes and read what Gale had written, “‘Professor Turen of Beregost University, the foremost expert on vampires.”
Astarion looked offended at that. “Foremost expert?! He’s probably not even a vampire! I bet he couldn’t tell you anything as accurately as I could.”
“You didn’t even know this sunwalking vampire existed.”
“To be fair I was stuck in a sociopath’s gothic palace being tortured and abused the whole time I’ve been a vampire, I didn’t get a chance to go out and learn a lot of things.”
“And now you have a chance to learn things from the ‘foremost expert.’”
Astarion rolled his eyes. “This is going to be torture; I can feel it in my bones.”
“You know what will be fun?” Hope asked.
“Stabbing myself with a stake?”
“Coming up with a cover story!” Hope said, ignoring Astarion’s comment. “Ideas?”
“It’s a college, let’s pretend to be students,” Halsin suggested.
“Hmm,” Hope mused over the idea. “Makes sense but he might question why we’re not in his class.”
“Okay, let’s say we are in a different college doing a report but we wanted to hear from the foremost expert.”
“Perfect! People love it when you flatter them!”
“You’re idiots,” Astarion told the pair, but they weren’t listening. They were already coming up with fake names and practicing their most posh college voices as they walked in, Astarion following behind them.
Hope was having so much fun but not looking where she was going and accidentally bumped into someone.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” Hope apologized.
“You should be careful,” the man she had bumped into said, not in a mean way, more like how an adult would talk to a child.
“Sorry, I was just so invested in a conversation I was having with my friend,” Hope gestured to Halsin. “We came here looking for Professor Turen.”
The man smiled. “Well, you are in luck. I am him.”
Hope smiled, “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“And you too. Please come with me, we’ll talk more in my office.”
The three followed him to his office, he had a few chairs in front of his desk and a couch behind them for more casual talks.
Astarion sat on the couch since it was the farthest he could get from the professor. Meanwhile, Hope and Halsin took the chairs.
“So, what can I help you all with?” Professor Turen asked once they were settled.
“Well, we heard you were the foremost expert on vampires!” Hope said with excitement.
The professor smiled either at her compliment or her enthusiasm, likely both, and nodded. “Yes, I do believe myself to be an expert.”
“How does one become an expert on vampires anyway?” Astarion asked. “Hmm? Have you ever met a vampire?”
“Oh no,” Turen shook his head. “I never have and you should hope you never do either! I need not meet one to know what they are capable of; I have researched their kind extensively!”
“Well, I’m glad we’re in the right place,” Halsin cut in. “My colleagues and I are in classes at another university, and we have a group assignment. We’re able to pick any lesser-known folklore and do a presentation. We’re looking for information on the sun walking vampire.”
“Oh! That’s a good one. I love teaching about her in my classes. Where should we begin?” Turen asked.
“Let’s just get to the ring,” Astarion said.
“Or,” Hope suggested, “we could start from the beginning?”
“I like your idea, miss, settle in!” Professor Turen said excitedly.
Astarion, alone on the couch, sank lower in it and let out a groan.
Undeterred Turen started his story:
“Lord Astarral The Sunwalker was an ancient vampire granted the gift of a ring allowing her to walk in the sun. No one knows where Astarral came from but her ring we do. Legend says she got it from a cleric of Lathander named Sanvi who used the magic of her god to infuse the ring with such a power as to bring a monster halted by Lathander’s dawn into the light. Sanvi presented the ring to Astarral as a declaration of her love. Lathander, outraged that his power had been used in such a way, appeared to the other clerics of Sanvi’s temple commanding that they slay the monster and her changed lover ultimately taking the ring back where it could be locked up safe and sound.
“Although the clerics were successful in executing Sanvi, they were not prepared for Astarral. When Astarral found Sanvi’s body she let out a scream of heartbreak so loud the clerics could hear it in their temple. Astarral knew it was them who slew her lover. She called on every ghoul and werewolf, she raised all the dead from the graveyard, and descended on the temple in a fit of mighty rage!”
“Yeah, yeah, we know all that,” Astarion said, having already read this in Gale’s notes. “Skip to the end.”
“Well, this is where the legend changes, some say when the temple collapsed killing all the clerics, Astarral was inside and died with them. Others say she absconded, still with the ring, never to be seen again.”
“What do you think happened?” Hope asked.
“Oh, I’m not sure,” Professor Turen shrugged. “I always like to ask my students which ending they think is the best and why. I’ve heard so many arguments for both over the years it’s hard to choose one.”
“No, what do you think really happened?” Hope asked.
“In real life, you mean?” Turen asked.
Hope nodded.
Professor Turen paused and took a closer look at Hope, Halsin, and Astarion, “who are you and what college did you say you were from?”
“Azaria Hyden from the University of Waterdeep,” Hope said the first name and college that popped into her mind.
“Well, Miss Hyden, it’s just a tale. There is no concrete proof to confirm that Lord Astarral or Sanvi ever existed all those years ago.”
“Some people believe they did,” Halsin said.
“People believe a lot of things, that’s why some of us become professors who teach and others become bards who tell tales.”
They were walking down the hallway after Halsin quickly thanked the professor for his time and rushed Hope out of the office.
“Well, that was a fantastic waste of time,” Astarion complained.
“Well, we are in a college, let’s try checking the library,” Halsin suggested.
Astarion smirked at Hope who was walking in between the two men, “what do you think, Hope? We know you can spin a tale but can bards read?”
“Oh ha ha ha, so funny,” Hope responded in a mocking voice, leveling a glare at Astarion. “That guy had no fucking right.”
“My heart, it’s alright. He doesn’t know how brilliant you are, but he knows his stuff about vampires,” Halsin told her, kissing the top of Hope’s head.
“I wouldn’t say he ‘knows his stuff about vampires’” Astarion said, doing his impression of Halsin, “he knows one tale.”
Halsin tossed an eye roll and a chuckle Astarion’s way before asking “Do you have any suggestions? All you’ve done this whole time is criticize and complain.”
“Actually, I do,” Astarion said, stopping in his tracks. The other two stopped and turned to face him. Astarion pointed to the building they had stopped next to, “the university library.”
“Books were Halsin’s suggestion,” Hope said.
“And where do you find books? The library. You’re both welcome,” Astarion headed up the library steps.
“You’re positive your dead set on helping this man?” Halsin asked when Astarion was out of earshot. He was very clearly teasing, they wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t.
Hope cracked a smile, “if we don’t, no one will.”
“Then I guess we have no choice.”
Inside the library was like another world. Hope had never been in a library so large. She was itching to check out the music section but there was a reason they were there. She followed Astarion to the folklore section.
“This place is huge,” Hope said as they perused the titles.
“I’ve seen better,” Astarion said.
“Oh yeah? Where?”
Astarion stopped what he was doing. “I- I’m not sure.”
“I’m confused.”
“I remember stone steps with lions out front. Inside large spaces with desks and comfortable chairs, multiple floors filled top to bottom with shelves and shelves of books and journals, gently lit rooms that were so quiet you could hear a pin drop with everyone reading, floors dedicated to manuscripts and historical documents but. . . I don’t know where these memories are coming from.”
“You can’t remember before you were turned into a spawn?” Hope asked, “is that common?”
Astarion shrugged, “perhaps. It has been 200 years after all. None of us were permitted to talk about our past so other than Leon having a daughter or Dalyria being a doctor, I have no idea if the others remember their past.” A pause as Astarion considered something. “I’m not sure if I want to remember my past,” he mumbled before resuming looking through titles. “Let’s just focus on the ring.”
Halsin found one book on Astarral and Astarion found two handing one to Hope before they went over to the desks and started to read through the books.
The book Hope was looking through had a lot of details on the tale but nothing on where the vampire supposedly went after her lover was executed, if she left at all.
“Have you guys found anything?” Hope asked after a while.
“Apparently the tale takes place in Syracuse,” Astarion replied.
“That’s not a real place.”
“I know,” Astarion flipped the book closed. “I have nothing, maybe this ring is just a fairy tale.”
“I might have something,” Halsin interjected. “According to this book, the first known telling of this tale was in Calimshan city of Keltar.”
“I suppose that makes sense, it is one of the oldest cities in Faerûn,” Astarion commented.
“Maybe there will be more books there about it!” Hope offered before adding, “maybe we’ll find someone who is even more of an expert.”
“Oh boy, another vampire expert?!” Astarion said with faux enthusiasm.
“Or a magical artifact expert,” Hope shrugged.
The next morning, Hope asked to see Astarion’s map. The map Astarion pulled out was not his self-made map, this one had a scale and legible writing.
“Where did you get this?” Hope asked.
Astarion answered Hope’s question with a question, “does it matter?”
“Yes! Did you steal it?”
“I think it’ll be better for you if I don’t answer that.”
Before Hope could reply to that Astarion started talking about how they should travel, “Kelter pretty far. We won’t make it today but we should be able to make it tomorrow. We’ll continue down the path we are on: The Coast Way and see how far we can make it.”
Hope studied the map and noted a few towns that were pretty evenly between where they were and Kelter. She made a mental note of the names so she could look out for them as a marker of where they were. “Alright. Sounds good” Hope said, folding the map back up “Let’s get moving. Don’t want to burn too much daylight.”
The three made it as far as they could before hunger started to set in. They stopped in the port city of Murann for a late lunch.
The three sat in a restaurant and Astarion pretended to have bits from Hope and Halsin’s plates as the three talked about plans for the rest of the day once they made their way out of town again.
“And Astarion?” Hope said quietly.
“Hm?”
“Don’t worry, you can have lunch too once we get out of here,” she promised.
“I should have known you wouldn’t forget about me,” Astarion replied.
“Of course I wouldn’t, we just need to make sure no one sees.”
They were reaching the gates to leave the city when a young girl ran up to them in tears and asked, “are you adventurers?”
Hope answered immediately, “yes, we are, sweetheart. What’s wrong? What happened?”
“We are?” Astarion asked.
“I lost Fluffy,” the little girl wailed.
“So, a kid lost her pet?” Astarion asked.
“It won’t hurt to try and help her find it,” Halsin shrugged.
“Where did you last see your pet?” Hope asked.
The girl pointed to the forest just outside the gates.
“Alright. We’ll help you find your pet before we head out. You’re lucky you caught us! We were just about to keep adventuring,” Hope told the girl.
“Thank you,” the girl wiped her eyes and sniffed. “Fluffy means more to me than anything.”
“We better make sure we find little Fluffy before it gets dark. What color is Fluffy?” Hope asked, offering her hand out to the girl as they started walking.
“Black,” she replied. “She’s a black kitty.”
Hope asked a bunch of questions to the little girl as the four walked, looking for and calling out for the cat. Well, three of them were, Astarion was just kind of walking behind them, annoyed that they were getting side tracked and that his lunch was now delayed.
The first time Astarion spoke was when the sun went down.
“We should just leave,” Astarion said quickly, “the cat is probably dead anyway.”
Hope turned around to throw a glare at Astarion when she realized his eyes were darting around the forest. He was scared, not that he would say that. Hope supposed it made sense; she wasn’t fond of the idea of wandering a strange forest in the dark either and the last thing Astarion needed was to run into a bear while hungry. The last time that happened it only ended well because the bear was a druid.
Halsin and the kid seemed like they were more in their element. She hung back and stayed by Astarion’s side. “We’ll stay out for a little longer before heading back.”
“. . . Fine,” Astarion agreed reluctantly, “but just a little bit!”
“Thank you.”
A few steps later, Hope was starting to regret what she said. From behind Astarion, they heard an animal growl. Astarion froze while Hope turned slowly to find a giant panther behind them, growling and muscles tensed like it was ready to pounce.
Hope didn’t know what to do so she froze. She was scared that if she tried to reach for her violin the panther would attack. Even if she did have her violin in front of her, she wouldn’t be able to finish a spell before the big cat leaped on her.
Luckily, Hope didn’t have to come up with a way to save herself and her friends.
“FLUFFY!!!” The little girl ran past Hope to the panther, who, upon seeing the little girl, immediately started rubbing her head all over her. It was happy to see her.
“I thought you said Fluffy was your cat?” Hope asked, suddenly exhausted from the loss of fear and adrenaline.
“She is. Panthers are cats,” the girl said matter of factly.
“I guess,” Hope replied.
“Oh, Fluffy, I missed you so much!” The girl said, fully ignoring the three adventures and just petting the panther.
Hope had never heard a panther purr before that night.
“I’m sorry, I think I’m just really confused. Why do you have a pet panther?” Hope pressed.
“She’s my buddy! All rangers need a buddy,” the girl explained as if it was obvious.
“Companion,” Halsin corrected.
“I like ‘buddy’ better, and so does Fluffy. Anyway, thank you for your help! Fluffy and I can lead you back to town, I don’t think those 2 are going to make it out here much longer,” the girl mentioned, pointing to Hope and Astarion.
Halsin put an arm around Hope and his other around Astarion, “they are from cities, they aren’t used to the woods they way we are.”
“They look like city folk. Let’s get them back where they belong.”
The three followed the girl and Fluffy the Panther back to town and Halsin brought them to the nearest inn, getting them a room for them for the night.
Inside the inn, Hope just immediately crawled into bed, very worn out after that.
Meanwhile, Halsin went over to Astarion.
“I know Hope was offering to feed you earlier, but after this evening I don’t think she’s in any shape to do so,” Halsin told him.
“Yeah, I figured that. It’s fine,” Astarion responded, brushing Halsin off.
“It’s not. You’re hungry, that’s clear. I wasn’t suggesting you not eat, I was offering myself,” Halsin stated, offering his arm to Astarion.
Astarion looked at Halsin’s arm and then back up at Halsin. He wasn’t completely sure where he stood with the druid. If Halsin was okay with Astarion traveling with them or if he was only putting up with him because of Hope? He certainly didn’t expect this.
“Are you sure?” Astarion asked, resisting the urge to just bite.
“I’m sure. We all deserve to eat, and Hope trusts you. You’ve never taken it too far before, I have no reason to believe you’ll do so now,” Halsin assured him.
“Thank you,” Astarion said before biting Halsin. He tasted different from Hope but was no less delicious. When Halsin told him that was enough he let him go licking his lips.
The two were quiet for a moment before Halsin spoke up again. “If Hope’s ever unable to again and we can’t find you an animal, I can trust you to drink from me again. We don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Astarion was a bit surprised by the word “we” in that sentence, but he didn’t let Halsin know that. It was better to just let that word go undetected.
“We should probably get some rest now,” Halsin turned to go to bed.
The next morning, Hope woke up and went to apologize to Astarion expecting him to be hungry before he explained that Halsin let him feed.
Hope smiled, “that’s great of Halsin! I just pulled off my armor and immediately fell asleep, I would have felt horrible if you starved!”
“It’s fine, darling, honestly. I’ve been so well fed because of you that if I had to wait until this morning it wouldn’t have been so bad. I’ve gone longer without eating on much less blood,” Astarion assured her.
“Yeah, but that’s not right. We’re a team, none of us should be hungry.”
“Then maybe we should help less ranger kids with lost panthers,” Astarion teased.
“Someone should teach that kid that a “cat” and a “panther” are different. I was scared if I contradicted her, the panther would lunge.”
“I know. Either way, it’s not a big deal. If I got too hungry, I could have just gone out and caught the first thing I came across. You don’t need to worry, now or in the future. Though, it is nice to have people I seem to be able to consistently count on for once.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
When the three arrived at Kelter it was still daylight. They decided to find a bookstore or library, something that might have something more on the sunwalker or her ring. They happened upon a bookstore that reminded the trio very much of Sorcerer Sundries, this place had to have something.
They walked around, checking out the different books and seeing if there was anything new on the subject, but it seemed like everything was about the same as the library, so they decided to ask the shopkeeper.
“Excuse me, we were wondering if you had any books on the sun walking vampire?” Hope asked.
“The sunwalking vampire Astarral?” The shopkeeper asked excitedly.
“Do you know another sunwalking vampire?” Astarion asked.
The shopkeeper laughed and then said quietly, “we have Astarral’s actual journals!”
“So, she was real? Not just a legend?” Astarion asked. Since the professor he was starting to lose hope about this ring existing but if Astarral was real then her ring was too! The sunlight was within reach!
“Very real! A lot of people don’t believe the legends, but we know the truth,” the shopkeeper assured him.
“Can we see the journals?”
“Oh, absolutely not. They’re very delicate and are only ever shown to historians for logging purposes.”
“We’re historians,” Hope said.
“Lovely,” the shopkeeper replied, “let me see your credentials.”
“No.”
“Then I’m simply afraid you will not be seeing those journals.”
“How much gold will it take for us to see those journals?” Astarion asked.
“More than you could ever hope to have, and even then, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near them. Now, I’m going to need you three to leave the store before I call the police.”
Hope, Halsin, and Astarion left.
“That guy sucks,” Hope said.
“He does. That’s why you and Halsin are going to stay right here. I’ll be right back,” Astarion said before the rogue disappeared into the shop.
Hope and Halsin stayed where they were for a moment, looking quietly at the shop. Finally, Hope broke the silence by asking, “you don’t think he’s doing what we think he’s doing, do you?”
“Stealing? Definitely.”
A few moments later they saw some cops hurriedly enter the shop, and shortly after they walked out of the shop with an apprehended Astarion. “Unhand me!” He shouted at them, struggling the whole way.
Hope went to go to Astarion, but Astarion caught both her and Halsin’s eyes and shook his head.
This was not good.