Veins of Smoke and Shadow ✔️ || ONC 2023

6. | Iron and Silver |

Faine saw it, how much those memories haunted him too. Beneath the shadows, beneath the darkness, Karras was scarred just as she was. Even if they weren't physical.

Her finger twitched, grazing the back of his hand. She didn't pass through him this time, a smooth solid force meeting her skin.

Karras sighed and slouched deeper. "The explosion killed my Captor on impact, leaving my door wide open. I had time to flee the wreckage but I wasn't leaving without you..."

As if she could feel those amber eyes boring into her, heat flooded Faine's body and rushed over her cheeks. He wasn't speaking to Saesin anymore, not directly.

"You're door was melting closed, it was almost impossible to get in and when I saw those collapsed beams crushing you, I..." he cleared his throat, shaking his head. "I shifted to get to you, using everything I had to free you from those broken beams and try to heal your body but the burns were so bad..."

Saesin's eyes narrowed when certain details were mentioned, committing the story to memory so she might understand.

"I remember..." Faine whispered. "I remember you breaking down the door to save me... I could hear you yelling unt–until the roof collapsed."

He nodded.

Karras clasped his hands together and dangled them off his legs. "Somehow, when the roof collapsed on me, I got stuck like this."

"You said the Compound was built to imprison Shifters?" Saesin asked, lifting a brow.

Karras nodded again.

She mumbled something incoherent before standing and coming to kneel before him.

Faine watched in awe as Saesin's eyes flashed a brilliant silver and she sighed. "The building was constructed using Iron and Silver, yes?"

"He told me that," Faine answered. "When I was trying to break out of my cell, he told me everything was built with Iron and Silver... What does that mean?"

"Shifter's are Therianthropes," Saesin said, still critically examining Karras' body. "Unlike Lycan's, they are the last known descendants of the Fae which make them weak to both Iron and Silver."

"Okay, but what does that actually mean?"

The witch grunted, picking away at his aura and scowling. "It means that if there are fragments of either stuck in his body, then it would explain why he is stuck in an astral form."

"Is there anything we can do?" Faine blurted out before Karras could respond.

"Without your memories, you'd just be in the way," Saesin muttered. She pulled away from Karras and rubbed her eyes. "Another thing I will try to remedy in the mean time."

"Multitasking, are we?" Karras taunted.

Her deadpanned stare was enough to wipe the tension out from the room. Saesin stood up and strolled over to her cabinets, rustling through drawers and pulling out various tools and instruments.

The sharpest ones – a pair of tongs and some carving knives – sent chills trickling down Faine's back. Much to her relief, Saesin never approached her with them. She plucked leaves out of a jar with the tongs and scraped a gelatinous substance out of a jar with a small spoon..

Still muttering to herself just as when they'd found her.

Faine looked back at Karras and leaned close to his ear. "Should we even bother asking what she's doing?"

He chuckled and shrugged.

"I used to ask you the same thing," he replied.

When Faine's brows furrowed in confusion, it seemed to dishearten him briefly until Saesin whisked her way between them, swishing something around in her hand.