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The Palace of Szarr burned, and it was beautiful. Astarion had to hand it to himself - arson was a lot more fun when he wasn’t the one being burned.
Astarion sat on the top of Baldur’s Gate central wall and watched the bright flames. It was no sunshine, but it certainly brightened his mood.
He spotted the fire brigade run to the burning building with buckets of water. Spellcasters capable of creating water were running ahead of them. Even with the stairs and narrow walkways making things difficult, they would get the fire out eventually. Oh well. At least the tacky interior design would be gone.
Astarion was surprised, however, when Wyll approached him on the wall.
“Thought I might find you here,” Wyll said as he sat down.
“Duke Ravengard,” Astarion exclaimed, “to what do I owe the honor of your presence?”
“I’ve actually been looking for you for months.”
“Really?” Astarion put on an affectation of shock, mostly to cover up the fact that he was, in fact, shocked. He liked Wyll plenty, but they weren’t the closest of their former teammates. “Whyever is a duke of Baldur’s Gate looking for a no-name adventurer like me?”
“I have a present for you.”
“Oooh. What is it?”
“Do you know what the strangest part of being Duke is, Astarion?”
“No, no small talk. You were giving me a present.”
“Sh,” Wyll hushed him. “I’m building tension.”
“No one wants the story, just the present!”
“You’ll have to wait.”
“Ugh!” Astarion complained. “You’re trying to kill me, I know it.”
“So, the strangest part of being Duke - “
“Uuuggghhh!” Astarion complained louder.
“ - has been learning,” Wyll shouted even louder until Astarion shut up, “what people I’ve known since childhood actually do in this city.”
“Really? Job descriptions. That’s been the strangest thing?”
“I met so many people at parties and family dinners as a youth. They were introduced to me as ‘facilitators’ or ‘managers’, which are apparently euphemisms for dubiously legal middle men.”
“You were a very naive child,” Astarion commented. “Government work is going to walk all over you.”
“It really is,” Wyll agreed. “But two people of note were Lady Shana, who was introduced to me as a librarian, though even as a teenager, I could tell there was a joke there. And her wife, Lady Hexxat, was just sort of… there. Looming. Truth be told, I found her rather intimidating.”
“You had a huge crush on her, didn’t you?”
“I might have, yes.”
“What’s the point, Wyll?”
“The point, you impatient vampire, is that I have spoken to them both a great deal recently. They have been very influential in the running of this city for the past hundred years. Shana, it turns out, is the Bhaalspawn that saved the Sword Coast from Sarevok a hundred years ago, along with Hexxat, Jaheira, and Minsc. And Hexxat is a vampire.”
That finally interested Astarion. “Really? I mean,” he tried to correct to something a little less invested than he was. It didn’t work. “Really?”
Wyll nodded. “From a rather powerful bloodline, apparently. Your present is from her.” Wyll pulled a vial from his vest pocket. It was small, and the red liquid in it was definitely blood.
“Is that?”
“Lady Hexxat’s blood, yes. The blood of a full vampire, freely given, will turn you from a spawn to a true vampire. She says, ‘Thank you for saving the city. Again. So that I didn’t have to. Again.’ End message.”
Astarion took the vial from Wyll. “Really? That easy? Just save the city, be the brave hero, and people will just hand you what you’ve wanted for 200 years?”
“Well, it’s no Vampire Ascendent, but, yes.” Wyll nudged Astarion’s shoulder with his own. But then he reached to take the vial back. “Unless you’ve changed your mind, that is.”
Astarion leaned as far away from Wyll’s reaching hands as he could. “No! Back! It’s mine!” Then he pulled the stopper and downed the blood in one go. He felt the effects immediately. “Ah, hells, my veins are tingling.” Astarion fell onto his side and let the blood overtake him.
“In a good way?” Wyll asked.
Astarion looked up at the burning ruins of his former master’s palace and felt the blood burning in his veins. “Yes,” he said, “a very good way.”