Archive of Our Own ^beta

If Danilo hadn’t known Elaith as long as he had, he would have said that the elf was as still as marble, expressionless and emotionless.

But Danilo had known Elaith for a long while, and the small, miniscule twitch of his lips told him that the elf was nearly in tears from the laughter.

Danilo smiled at him, silently daring him to laugh. It was funny, he had to admit it. Also very embarrassing, but the silliness was absolutely true. He raised his hand to scratch his neck, the shackles on it clinking loudly. Danilo wrinkled his nose dramatically, playing it up. Only Elaith’s eyes moved on his face, observing him carefully from behind the bars.

Danilo leaned back, still smiling. “When Arilyn said that she was going to get help, I did not expect to see you.” The fact that she had decided to get help had been enough of a surprise, but their mission here was in a delicate state. She wouldn’t have left him here unless she was truly tied down somewhere else.

“I did not even know you were in the city.”

Elaith gave a tiny shrug, a small grin finally breaking out. “I heard that a Waterdeep merchant had been jailed for stealing an emerald and I got curious enough to look into it.”

Yes, and Danilo was actually the idiot he portrayed to the world.

“You met with Arilyn.”

The small grin grew slightly. “Indeed.”

Danilo settled more comfortably against the stone wall, giving Elaith exactly the type of a smarmy grin the other man hated and nodded.

Before Elaith could say anything, the guard standing next to him sighed loudly and grunted, “Your time is running out,” and very unsubtly rubbed his index finger and thumb together. Elaith scowled slightly and dug out a gold coin, making Danilo blink in surprise. He knew for a fact that he and Arilyn had had only some silver and copper coins left. Elaith was using his own money for him?

Elaith flipped the coin to the guard, who fumbled a bit but managed to catch it. He glared at the elf and stomped out, slamming the door that led to the jail cells behind him.

The smile on Elaith’s face didn’t disappear, but his eyes hardened. “I do wonder what led you two to Athkatla.”

Danilo continued smiling, shrugging his right shoulder and making the shackles clink a lovely little tune. Elaith started to frown and Danilo laughed out loud, tilting his head meaningfully.

“There is no one close enough to hear you except for me.”

Danilo nodded. “We heard rumors of a threat towards Tethyr through the wood elves so Arilyn and I set to investigate.”

Elaith looked at him, pondering. “Why the emerald?”

“A lack of evidence of any wrongdoing was making us believe that the whole thing was a complete waste of time, until certain words lead us to inspect a story of a lord owning an emerald that could control any forest.” The memory made Danilo purse up his lips.

“A hoax, then?” Now the laughter was clear in Elaith’s voice.

“Yes. The emerald in question was made of glass, but I was caught in the act and now he is blaming us for switching it up.” The whole matter was annoying Danilo. He had been doing far more criminal activities as a Harper and when travelling with Arilyn, but now this mess made him get thrown into jail?

He was insulted, there was no other way to say it.

Looking at Elaith, he knew it as well. He was looking too much like cat who had caught a canary.

“No threat exists, then.”

“Not from here.” Arilyn’s moonblade had never been mistaken (excluding quite severe magical manipulation, but that would have spread everywhere in a way that would have made it absolutely blatant), so the threat was real. They just were wrong about which direction it was coming from.

And now he was stuck in this cell, waiting while Arilyn was the one doing all the hard work, with the other moonelf looking like he wanted to laugh at him for the rest of his considerable number of days.

Elaith rolled his eyes, gave a small sigh and brushed his cape off his shoulder, revealing a small but very familiar bag of holding which his jailers had confiscated among everything else he had had on him, except for the clothes he was still wearing.

He once again raised his eyebrow at Elaith. “There is nothing in it that would truly have value for you.” Danilo was being completely truthful, they had had to sell most of their possessions on their travels. Now the bag had only very few valuable items in it, and even those few were not things that Elaith would ever bother to nab.

Though Danilo was starting to hope that Elaith had picked up a certain travel ring.

Like he had been reading his thoughts, Elaith raised his hand to show the ring in question sitting on his middle finger.

“Arilyn is waiting for you outside the city gates. I will transport you there,” Elaith said, and pulled a pair of lockpicks from his pocket and gently tossed them at Danilo. Danilo made a face and carefully started to work on the locks of his shackles. He was terrible at lockpicking, but he had managed to learn the basics of it. It took far longer than it should have, considering the quality of the shackles, but finally they fell down on the ground. Danilo rubbed his wrists, pleased that the skin hadn’t broken.

Elaith was keeping a sharp eye on him, but managed to look pleased. He extended his hand past the iron bars and without hesitation Danilo walked towards him and grabbed Elaith’s wrist, and Elaith immediately twisted the ring.

In a blink, they were outside in the warm air and Danilo was hissing slightly. A tiny but sharp rock was pricking painfully at the bottom of his foot, nearly distracting him from the familiar view of Arilyn standing few feet away. In less than a heartbeat, Danilo could see the tension in her shoulders fade and the severe look on her face dissolve into a warm smile. Danilo let go of Elaith’s wrist, or Elaith let go of Danilo’s, he wasn’t quite certain, and rushed towards her.

Arilyn reached towards him and grabbed his hand, holding onto him tightly. Danilo beamed at her. “Unharmed, except for pride. It was quite boring, actually.”

Arilyn rolled her eyes, but kept on squeezing his hand. Together, they turned towards Elaith. “Thank you for your help,” Danilo said, Arilyn following only a beat after with the gratitude clear in her voice. “Will you be here for long?”

Elaith only shrugged and threw the ring and the bag of holding at Danilo, who managed to barely grab them. “I have already done what I need to and will continue back to Waterdeep.” He paused, considering. “Do not expect me to be able to save your skin once again here.”

Danilo grinned and winked. “I would never”.