𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

XXXIV

'Take me?'

Lumine seemed to take a cruel pleasure in seeing your form tremble, you couldn't help but feel scared, terrified even. Nobody knew this was happening to you, you were unable to call anybody, your ribs were aggravated, causing you pain, and you knew you'd stand no chance against Lumine, even in top shape, if it came down to a fight. You truly were helpless and that frightened you.

"I don't even know why you're questioning the notion." Lumine scoffs and stands, seemingly done with the conversation and ready to depart now that her point was clearly made.

What a kind kidnapper, announcing her plans.

In a moment of desperation you flail, trying to get her attention. She turns back to you, a bored look on her face.

"What?"

'Can I leave behind a note?' You write quickly, your hand basically chicken scrawl at this point.

"And why would I even think of letting you leave a note behind?" Lumine drawls blandly.

'You can read it. It's just something I've been thinking about for a little while and wanted to tell Aether.'

Lumine's face twisted once more. Her jaw clenched and you could practically see a ripple in the skin of her cheek as she ground her teeth. "Write it quickly."

Wasting no time, you wrote the note down and ripped it from the notepad. You handed the letter over to Lumine. Her face scrunched in confusion as she read it, but she folded it and placed it on the nightstand next to your hospital bed.

She nodded to the pyro lector holding you down. "Let's go." Stretching her hand to the hospital wall a small blue portal forms, just like the one she exited in the first Dainsleif quest.

The pyro lector unceremoniously picked you up. You instinctively held the notepad to your chest as the one hand still pressed against your mouth, the other arm going around your waist in an awkward hold.

And soon enough you were carried into the blue light.

-

With Dvalin now safe, Venti had no need to sneak around the city or fight any battles. With several songs sung in the town square during the early morning and the tavern now closed after a long night, Venti decided to visit his old friend.

Spread along the branches of Vanessa's tree, Venti let his head fall back and eyes closed as he listened intently to a single strand of wind.

Typically, all the sounds of the world meshed together, conversations from every country merging in a cacophony of irritating noises that Venti had learned to block out. Occasionally he would listen in and that was when he first caught your conversations.

Venti hadn't meant to tap into one of your and Ariel's conversations about exploring your new life in this 'new world' of yours, but he did, and it led to him eventually becoming a friend of yours.

After many years he found someone, other than his dusty old god friends, to place his trust in and he didn't regret it.

A sense of comfort and happiness flowed through his body as he thought of your determination, your compassion for his dragon friend, and your bright smile as you gave him that journal of stories and poems.

He read that journal over and over, enraptured with what you chose to fill it in, delicately thumbing the dried cecilia petals as he imagined you telling him these stories yourself.

His lips pulled into a slight frown as he thought of your absence, your absence of many months now. He had heard of your unfortunate injury. It had distressed him greatly, he'll admit, but hearing that one strand of wind, the one that held the sound of your breath calmed him.

He spent the first few days after getting word of your near death sitting under Vanessa's shade, his head bowed as he focused all his attention on hearing the faint wheezing of your breath. As the days went by and you got better, he relaxed, going back to the tavern, and strumming his lyre to the tune of beautiful ballads.

And now, as he listened to the sound of your breathing once more, he leaned back into Vanessa's lovely branches. He listened to the softness of your breath, he listened as it sped, as it shook. He wasn't surprised, nightmares were common after near death experiences.

He was, however, surprised when your breathing stopped.

-

Aether woke up the next morning feeling worse than he had leaving the hospital the night before. Despite sleeping in a nice, comfortable bed, Paimon curled into his side, he couldn't help the feeling of wrongness that settled deep into his bones.

He sat up, careful not to jostle his emergency food too much as he looked around the room, brushing his messy hair from falling in his eyes. He noticed the sheets of your bed - the bed Ariel had been using for as long as you had been in the hospital - being made neatly, meaning Ariel was up and about.

"Ariel?" Aether called groggily and absentmindedly held out his hand. "Good morning."

Aether felt Ariel's thin fingers curl against his palm. 'G-O-O-D M-O-R-N-I-N-G.'

Aether hummed. "Can we go to the hospital today? I want to see Polaris again."

Ariel's fingers hesitated. 'Y-O-U K-N-O-W T-H-E-Y W-A-N-T-E-D U-S T-O R-E-S-T.'

Aether scoffed and squeezed Ariel's fingers. "Don't act like you don't want to rush right back to them too."

Aether felt a gentle slap against the back of his hand and chuckled, opening his palm flat once more.

Ariel's fingers were swift and quick. 'Y-O-U S-H-O-U-L-D E-A-T B-R-E-A-K-F-A-S-T.'

"Look at you acting like a mother hen." Aether teased and he felt another slap to his hand.

But it didn't take long for Aether to give in, shaking Paimon awake so he could get ready and the three of them could all head out to breakfast.

Breakfast was light and easy, a restrained jerkiness in Aether's movements as he was eager to go back to the hospital. Despite there being no reason, that wrongness from the morning had never left Aether and in fact it only grew as the morning went by.

By the time he made it to the hospital, holding Ariel's hand and Paimon floating by his shoulder, the feeling was like a rock to his stomach.

Somehow it only worsened as he saw the rushing, panicked doctors.

A/n - Sorry this took so long, not only was I constantly re-writing this chapter to get it to a point where I was at least semi-satisfied with how it turned out, I also fell into a trap.

A trap called Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

I've been reading and watching for the past week or so... and will continue once this chapter is published.

But have a great day everyone!