Savour Its Sweet, Bloody Taste • Chapter V

With the plan set in motion, Valerius has found his time being divided between his regular duties and visits to the sweltering laboratories set up in the depths of the old ziggurat; Elyanka’s people have taken to the work with zeal and curiosity, but they are still Elyanka’s people – and so he placed a trusted friend and a loyal subject as the overseers of the project.

By now, he has seen enough of the process: it required his participation in order for it to work. And that process is bloody, brutal and yet brilliant – a marriage of science and magic, crafting and shaping a copy of him out of little more than a few locks of hair, droplets of blood and seed, and a small flaying of the flesh. The flaying, done by the Shackleborn tiefling Nela – who came to the city in search of a patron –  still aches. It had been agonising as she’d expertly taken just two small cuts of skin from him, droplets of blood pooling at his eyes as he’d bitten down on a block of wood to stop his screams; the wood had snapped far too quickly and he had to spit splinters from his mouth.

“The pain will be a lasting memory, a taste of His Enlightenment, your Grace,” she had told him, her barbed tail curling her flayer’s knife, the smell of blood clogging the air of the laboratory.  The knife’s burning sting could not even be soothed by the cold touch of his necromantic healing – a lasting reminder of what he has to do in order to no longer have Mendev snapping at his heels.

Gotta go to London today

Oh to be the guy who got to turn away Boris Johnson at a polling station because he forgot to bring the ID that he introduced while he was PM.

Half-sibling playdate when (Ismene torments Byron with maybe prophecies)

Sleep does not come easily, and when he does sleep it is often not well. Byron's sleep is often plagued by Bhaalspawn dreams or by his patron trying to pry into his psyche, leading to restlessness during the nights and looking constantly tired come morning. For him at least, the only way to have a peaceful sleep is to take a draught that will knock him out for the night and he becomes quite reliant on it.

He finds it difficult to make friends, or rather - he just doesn't care to. Imoen he mostly treated as a nuisance despite her best attempts. I imagine she slowly wears him down until he tolerates her, but in Candlekeep overall there was no one that he was interested in being friends with. I imagine things would probably change on the road a bit, but even with his party, "friendship" isn't as likely (Dorn, Viconia, Imoen, Kagain and Edwin) as much as "merely tolerating each other" (at least in BG1 lol)

Byron can somewhat cook but he always over or underseasons food to a criminal degree. He's doing his best but after a while, he is banned from seasoning anything and someone else takes over until he knows better.

aww thank you.

First of all, hilarious question. Secondly....maybe. A little bit. Not intentionally, but Cassia is cold to the touch and while he does not mind the chill, it can get to him at times. Besides, I imagine the equivalent of socks in this case are more akin to stockings, so it wouldn't be the worst thing to keep on during sex given his status as Rogue Trader.

So many. Both he and Cassia enjoy their privacy and prefer to keep things chaste when not behind closed doors, so I guess the answer is anywhere public?

Nope. It made him a bit of an odd one out when he was with the Navis Imperialis, but he simply wasn't interested in any form of casual sex.

Nothing fancy - "stop" works sufficiently when Cassia can read his aura well and he is learning to read hers. It's only there because it does help to have a verbal command.

Quite frankly, he doesn't mind as long as it makes Cassia happy. Something more relaxed, like a soft robe rather than her usual Navigator's regalia. Comfort over anything else. He does prefer it when she doesn't wear the headpiece that covers her Navigator's Eye but he also understands that's not always viable given how potent a single blast from that can be (especially since getting blasted by it in Comorroagh was how his own psyker abilities finally manifested.)