Hiraeth: Awakening

41

"This is going to kill me." There are three vials in Lir's hands. He stares at all of them with doubt in his heart.

Beck whistles. "Maybe."

They laugh. "We'll see."

Lir's eyebrow twitches. We'll see? He doesn't want to see. Not at all actually. He'd rather have a certitude of what will happen, rather than be the result of some botched experiment because he couldn't be patient.

He takes a deep breath. He sighs. Then, finally, Lir pushes the potions back toward Beck. "Sorry," he says. "I don't think it's a good idea after all."

One of them crosses their arms and scoffs. "Well, you're no fun."

"Not fun at all," the other agrees.

But Lir doesn't care. "I don't care," he tells them. And then, "Can you give me something else instead?"

They tilt their head. "Like?"

"Something you've tested before?" Lir watches as their faces wilt into expressions of vague disappointment.

Beck-Two groans.

They both snatch all three potions back in silence, shove them back onto the shelf, and take another one out. It's covered in dust. Beck blow on it, and share a loud cough. "Here," they say, with an outstretched arm, as they show it to Lir in hopes of getting him to keep it for good this time. "Take the damned thing before I change my mind."

Lir hesitates. His arms tense by his sides. "What does it do?" he asks them, because he would rather not have the surprise of finding out, upon drinking it.

"It won't turn you back, but..." They smirk. "You won't have to eat Tobias's heart anymore. I swear."

The room grows silent. Bubbles pop behind them in the cauldron that is beginning to reek of dead rabbit. The pungent smell gives Lir the urge to cover his nose. He resists, for he concludes it wouldn't be polite. "Then what?" he asks, without even questioning why it is exactly that they know this—he is sure they know a lot more, for some reason. "Is it going to turn me completely into a Halloran?"

There has to be a catch. It was made very clear, by what he saw thanks for Dorian's gift, that he could not get away with both living and keeping Tobias alive.

"You'll see," a giggle.

"You'll see," an echo.

Beck tries to shove the vial—the murky grey liquid—into his hands again. "We cannot tell you more. It would be a betrayal."

"A betrayal?" Lir furrows his brows. "To whom? "

"Yes," they both nod at the vial. "To the potion." More laughter. "It would not like that."

"It would not like that at all!"

Lir does not know who's talking anymore. It is unclear, it is muddled, and it certainly isn't doing anything to reassure him. There are footsteps on the veranda outside. With every second that passes, the sturdy, tapping of boots nears. He does not have time to think, nor consider his acts. He thanks the twins—or, more precisely, the person split in two who has grown into the entity that is Beck.

They do not seem to care though. "Thank us by putting it to good use," they say, and as the door behind them slides open, the modest vial falls, snug, into Lir's coat pocket.

Yet, it is not the face of Archie nor Tobias that he is met with, but his apprentice, who had so kindly shown him where the bathroom was minutes ago. "Oline," Lir says, as if he'd not just been trading secrets and knick-knacks with the human embodiment of the devil.

"L-Lir..." She dares not look him in the eye. "I... I heard voices. Who were you talking to?"

"Huh?" Lir narrows his eyes. He motions to the twins standing behind him. "Beck," he tells her. "You know, Archie's other apprentices who—" He turns around. There is no one. Everything is gone. Every wall is just part of a cobweb that circles the room like a giant garland. Even the scent of rot, the potions, and the liquid boiling in the cauldron are gone.

It is like no one has used the room in decades, and Lir cannot fathom how this could be remotely possible considering the conversation he had, that was—in his opinion, at least—very much real.

"I..." Oline bites her lip. She hides her arm behind her back and squeezes her elbow. Lir can tell he's made her uncomfortable, and he wants to apologize, though he would not know exactly what for. "Perhaps we should go back." Again, her gaze refuses to meet his. This does not seem due to her usual shyness, but out of shame. "Master Archie has called for you."

Has he? "He has?" But why?

"Y-yes. I..." Oline's eyes dart to the floor; her shoes. Her voice is the smallest he has ever heard it being. As her attention moves to the wallpaper that has started to peel, she clears her throat. "U-um, you should probably—"

"Oline! Did he eat your heart instead?" A loud, burly laugh resonates throughout the courtyard and into the room. "Heavens," Archie huffs from afar, his tone is that of desperation. "Where has that girl run off to? You were much more obedient when you were working under me Tobias, it's almost as if I miss you!"

Tobias hisses in the distance. "What a strange way to compliment a man," he mumbles. Lir has no trouble imagining him crossing his arms, pouting, as he would look away from his teacher and up, at the moon's full glow.

The first sign of them he catches is the curled front piece of Archie's leather shoe. "Ah!" The old sage exclaims as he points to them both. "There they are, finally!"

Tobias, for some reason, does not greet him, and this makes Lir's heart sink a little. "Hi?" Lir decides to say, in hopes that he will answer, and stop looking as disappointed as he currently does.

Was the food they ate that bad? Is he tired from their journey, or of Archie's antics?

"Lir..." Tobias's Adam's apple bobs up, then down, as his mentor swallows hard. "I need to talk to you," he says.

A dread Lir knows all too well fills the inside of his heart.

"Oline overheard you. You were talking about..." He purses his lips together, narrows his eyes, and looks away. "Well," Tobias brings a hand over the fabric covering his heart. He bunches it up, into his fist. "You know." His mentor forces a smile as he stares at Lir again. And Lir's world falls to pieces, because the only man he didn't want finding out about this, now knows his secret.