“Open it.”
No. Two points of victory.
“You are a soldier of Avernus,” Lae’zel said at last. “Not a smith. Not a quartermaster.”
They had lost the ghaik ’s ship, its twisted metal corridors, its brine-soaked horrors. But they had also lost gear. Lae’zel’s backup longsword had shattered against a hook horror’s carapace two nights ago. Since then, she had fought with only her greatsword—a magnificent, cruel thing—but Karlach noticed the imbalance. The way Lae’zel adjusted her stance for a strike that never came. baldur 39-s gate 3
Later, when the others slept, Lae’zel stood watch alone. Her fingers brushed the crimson cord on the hilt. She did not remove it.
For a long moment, Lae’zel said nothing. Then, almost too quiet: “It is… inefficient. To fight with a single point of failure. A second blade is not sentiment. It is tactics.”
“I know.” Karlach reached behind her pack and pulled out a bundle wrapped in stained cloth. She tossed it onto the dirt between them. It landed with a heavy, iron clink. “Open it
“Tch. You fight like a ghustil ’s apprentice, Karlach. But you give gifts like a kith’rak .” She resettled her greatsword across her back. “When we reach the creche, I will tell the inquisitor that you are… acceptable.”
“High praise,” Karlach laughed. The sound broke the shadow-cursed air like a bell.
“You’re missing something,” Karlach said. “Not a smith
Lae’zel didn’t move. “What is this?”
“Pulled it out of a drider’s hoard while you were busy decapitating said drider.” Karlach shrugged, but her tail curled with embarrassment. “Fixed the edge. Re-wrapped the grip. The cord is just—well. I figured if you’re going to be killing mind flayers beside me, you might as well have something that doesn’t look like it was fished out of a latrine.”
“Yeah, well.” Karlach’s engine rumbled louder. “I’m also a tiefling who’s had exactly one real friend in the last ten years, and I’m not letting her go into a fight short-handed. Even if she is stubborn as a rusted bolt.”
Karlach sat down across from her, close enough that the heat from her chest made the frost on Lae’zel’s pauldron hiss.
“You… scavenged this,” Lae’zel said slowly.