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Lucien has Jester by the throat, and her scream echoes off the cavern walls as blood drips down her cheeks and -cupcakes and laughter and strong arms and 'Essek what's your favorite food?' and 'do you want to get in the hot tub?' and and and-
There is a shard of onyx in his hand. The sting of it grounds him as he drags it across his palm, using his blood to carve a sigil in the air.
"Get away from her."
He is lucky; no one is in range, and his casting is precise. The spell catches the edges of Lucien's coat and drags him back, his grip on Jester releasing as he is flung into darkness. She crumples to the ground, panting.
Essek does not move closer; it would do no good to get caught in the same situation, and Fjord is already rushing towards Jester as she stands on shaky legs. With a wave of his staff, Caduceus heals the worst of Jester's wounds, and the crisis is averted.
Caleb has moved closer to him, and Essek startles when his hand lands on Essek's shoulder.
"Thank you. You did good, ja?"
Essek blinks, trying to calm his racing heart. "Well. I can't let any of my friends get hurt, can I?"
Caleb smiles at him, and the moment passes as Lucien wrenches himself out of the darkness, snarling like a wild beast and eyes trained on Essek. "Well you've become quite a pain in the arse, haven't you?"
Caleb splits off from him with one last squeeze to his shoulder. "He is a very accomplished wizard," he says, making a few gestures in the air before pointing a finger at Lucien, the magic sickly green instead of amber. Lucien watches it come. The magic only gets a foot in front of Caleb before withering under Lucien's gaze.
The anti-magic cone, Essek thinks, and starts to drift to the opposite side of the room from Caleb as Beau and Yasha converge on Lucien. He weathers their attacks with growing impatience, eyes still locked on Essek.
He's coming for me, he has time to think before, in a blur, Lucien skirts through the women's attacks and stalks towards Essek. A wave of something washes over Essek, and he stumbles as his feet abruptly hit the ground. Something silver flashes in the corner of his eye, and he looks up just in time to catch Lucien's grin.
"You know, I think I've had enough of wizards fucking with my plans," he says, and Essek tries to scramble back, he really does, but one of Lucien's scimitars cuts across his chest, and the pain is so intense that he nearly loses his footing. Beau is racing towards them, Yasha hot on her heels, but for once they're too slow. A bolt digs into Lucien's shoulder, icing over his cloak, but it's not enough to stop Lucien from grabbing Essek by the throat and lifting him off his feet, and there was a sort of irony in that, only Essek's magic is gone, and all he can do is claw at the hand around his neck.
"Well, little wizard. Let's see if you bleed the same as the rest of us."
Over Lucien's shoulder Caleb meets Essek's eye, and the fear he sees there strikes him to his core. There's something in Caleb's hand, clutched in his fingers so tightly his fist was shaking, but Essek had neither the strength nor presence of mind to try and make it out.
He sees Caleb mouth his name, but the world burst into white hot pain before he could respond, and a scream tore out of him. His legs kick wildly as he thrashes in Lucien's grip, blood pouring from his unseeing eyes. He claws at Lucien's wrist desperately, leaving scratches on his skin, but his hold never faltered. Distantly, he can hear Jester scream his name, but it hardly matters; he feels his strength leave him, his thrashing becoming sluggish. He throws an arm out wildly in an attempt to get Lucien off, but it's useless. His arm falls, dangling uselessly at his side. The pain begins to recede only to be replaced by something hazy and numb and dark.
He feels his body hit the ground. His skull cracks against the stone with a sickening thud, but the pain never comes. The darkness is calling to him, and he is helpless to refuse. A hand grabs his shoulder and shakes, and there is a low gravelly voice saying his name, but by then he is too far gone.
---
Essek does not know for how long he floats aimlessly in the dark before he sees a pinprick of light ahead of him, but it feels both like an eternity and no time at all has passed. The light gets brighter, tinged faintly blue, and with it, a voice:
"C'mon Essek, you need to get up! Essek?! Please don't be dead, Essek!"
And, well. He's never been able to deny Jester Lavorre.
Essek blinks his eyes open. Jester is leaning above him, tears and blood cutting paths down her cheeks, and he feels a pang of guilt at having made her cry.
As soon as he opens his eyes, she grins, and her smile is as bright as the sun but without the pain. "Essek! Oh my gods, we thought you were dead! Don't go near Lucien again, okay? Squishy wizards stay in the back."
With that, she stands and runs back into the fray with a flick of her skirt, tail smacking him lightly on the cheek as she goes.
Essek stares after her, thoughts still jumbled together in a useless tangle. Lucien still stands, though Cree has fallen in a bloody heap at the other end of the cavern. Beau, Yasha, and Fjord have surrounded Lucien on all sides. Caduceus stands off to the left, staff glowing, though his face is tight and he is keeping his distance. Jester has taken up a position about 30 feet away from him, clasping her holy symbol in her hand. Veth is, of course, nowhere to be seen, though Lucien has added quite a few bolts to the collection across his torso. And Caleb…
Well. Caleb was right next to him.
"This fight is not over, my friend. Can you stand?"
Essek blinks up at him for a moment, struck dumb at the realization that Caleb had, at some point, run to his side, before he shakes his head to clear his thoughts. He would deal with that if they lived through this.
"Yes, I can stand. Thank you."
Caleb nods as Essek gets to his feet. "We still need you, Essek. After, we will heal you up more."
"I'd appreciate it," Essek says, smiling at Caleb before turning back to where the rest of the Nein face off against Lucien. "For now, though, let's focus on the task at hand."
Caleb's eyes sparkle with amusement, and it's one of the most beautiful things Essek has ever seen. "Stay on task."
"Indeed."
Lucien is saying something witty, but his voice shakes, and his injuries are beginning to add up. It won't be long now.
Essek takes a breath, pulls out his components, and rejoins the fray.
---
When the dust settles, the Mighty Nein are victorious.
Essek straightens his mantle. His hair is beyond saving, and he's too spent to fix it with magic, so he leaves it as is. The Mighty Nein look as bad- if not worse- than he does, so it's not as if it would be a huge loss. Perhaps they could consider it an act of humility. He digs a hand into his component pouch. With Ikithon potentially on their tail, it couldn't hurt to take stock of what he had left. A shard of onyx, four pearls, a black marble-
Something slams into him, and he stumbles back as he fights to keep his balance. On instinct, he moves to pry the weight off of him, but he stops short at the head of blue hair and curly horns that nestles against his chest.
Jester. Of course.
Her arms tighten around him, and he lifts his hands to pat her back awkwardly. "It's… it's alright, Jester. We made it. We're okay."
"Essek," she says, and Light, is she crying? "You saved me and then you almost died. Why would you do that?!"
"I don't think I had much choice in the matter."
She pulls away and glares at him, but he can tell there's no heat behind it. "You made him really angry, Essek."
"Indeed, but I imagine that was the point, yes?"
Jester pouts at him, and his lips twitch up into a smile. "I'm alright Jester. I'm glad you are as well."
She sniffles once, and then pulls him in for another hug. He's still… new to this, this close, physical comfort and affection, but he likes to imagine that he's just a little bit less stiff as he leans into her arms and pats her back again.
Jester pulls away first, smiling tightly. "Thanks for saving me Essek. And for not dying."
"Of course. There's still a lot of things I wish to do, and I have no intention of dying before I can do them."
Her eyebrows wiggle suggestively. "Like Caleb? Do you want to do Caleb, Essek?! Oh my gosh, did you see how handsome he was when he was fighting Lucien?!" She winks at him, and he feels a blush creep up his neck.
"Thank you, yes, Jester, he was very talented," he manages to cough out, but it's strained, and he knows she notices, of course she would, she's Jester.
"Oh my gosh, you totally like him!" She squeals, and Essek's ears are on fire as he fights not to glance towards Caleb and make sure he isn't listening.
"I'm… going to go over here now," he says stiffly, and walks away from her at a brisk pace to where the rest of the group has gathered, studiously avoiding Caleb's curious glance.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes, everything's fine," he responds a little too quickly, but the others don't seem to notice, and Essek is content to leave it there.
Caleb looks over the group. "I still have enough left to make the dome, if we want to rest here."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Beau says, her head on Yasha's shoulder, "we should get a rest in while we can, in case anything fucks with us on our way out of here."
"Or Ikithon shows up," Veth adds, and the mood sours slightly. Essek shivers in his cloak. No, it would not do for Ikithon to appear now, with the group spent like this.
"I'll put up the dome," says Caleb, and sits on the cold stone to begin his incantations.
The next ten minutes are full of tense silence as the Mighty Nein wait for Caleb to finish his ritual. Essek keeps his head on a swivel, sticking close to Caleb in case he needs to shake him out of his casting.
With a brief flash of amber light, the dome appears, and the group clambers inside, half of them falling asleep instantly. Fjord stays up, as does Beau, while the rest of the group settles down into a cluster of limbs that has Essek feeling both claustrophobic and warmed in equal measure. How lucky he is, to have earned this. That the Nein can let down their guard around him and trust that he won't plunge a dagger into their backs.
"Essek."
He looks down. Caleb's head rests a few inches from where Essek sits, legs crossed, preparing to trance. They blink at each other.
"Yes?"
He sees Caleb struggle to say something, sees the flashes of thoughts behind his eyes, but in the end he says nothing at all, instead resting his hand on Essek's ankle and giving it a light tug.
Essek stares at him, eyes widening as Caleb let's his eyes fall closed. A long moment passes between them in which Essek can only hear the blood pumping in his veins, but then there is another tug on his ankle, and Caleb's brow furrows just slightly, and suddenly Essek is scooching forward. Caleb's brow relaxes, and he lifts his head to rest it in Essek's lap, his hand finding Essek's and giving it a gentle squeeze before his breathing begins to even out.
It takes another thirty seconds before Essek remembers to breathe again, and another two minutes after that before he shakily raises his free hand and cards it through Caleb's hair. The man does not stir except to lean in to the touch, and Essek finds himself smiling despite the threat of danger to come.
With one hand tangled in Caleb's hair, Essek closes his eyes, and lets himself fall into his trance.