Safety in Flames[A Plague Tale:Innocence Oneshot]

Him and Her

The Cathedral was burning, smoldering both Amicia and Rodric with killer smoke that was worse than the soldiers that were chasing them. The young noble held the Sanguinis Itinera close to her mouth as some sort of protector, coughing into it, just barely able to open her teary eyes. Yet, they had to run and get out of the fire before it consumed them and turned them into a pile of ash. What was once a gorgeous university was now in flames, and it was their fault.

"Hurry, Rodric! We have to run faster!" Amicia dodged some roaring flames, now covering her eyes. She struggled to breathe.

"I'm trying, Amicia!" Rodric coughed into his glove and used it to protect his face from the destruction around them. He was far ahead of the other, pretty much leading the way through the catastrophe. He dodged a shelf as it collapsed, sending boards down where he could have been. He would have been dead if he had been a second fast, putting him in a situation where he did not know whether to go faster or slower. His heart was racing for its life.

Rodric had to stop for a moment, to look behind him for the slower Amicia. He raked his finger through his dark and sweaty hair. Amicia was catching up with him, but it did not make him feel any better.

The floor above them creaked a couple of times, catching his attention. He peered up with wide eyes and immediately knew doom was to come. The ceiling crashed in: beams fell, forcing Amicia to jump back in the knick of time. Rodric was far ahead and spun around, his eyes going wide. "Amicia!" he called out with his hands cupping his mouth. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am! But Rodric... I'm stuck back here!" the girl panicked and squeezed the book closer to her chest protectively.

When Amicia had left with Mélie, she did not expect that it would lead her to burn down a whole building, let alone imagining herself dying in that same building. She knew what fire did to someone. It consumed their flesh and either smothered them alive or painfully burned them until the agonizing end. This was not how she wanted to die, and not how she wanted her little brother to die as well: the book and her brother's life rested in her hands, and she was determined to keep it that way.

The determined noble blinked away tears, looking beyond the beams to see Rodric waiting for her on the other side, waving his hand to keep the smoke from billowing in his face.

It was not just the fire after them, but the guards who had been chasing them were starting to catch up.

"Get them!"

"They're right there!"

Nearly with her mouth open, Amicia swung around. She knew for sure that the soldiers were not that far behind from them. The beam had slowed them down, and surely she would die now... but the book did not.

Amicia turned back to the beam and approached it, feeling the consuming fire nearly burned her eyebrows off. "Rodric, can you hear me?"

"Don't worry, Amica. I will get you over here," the male said as he moved around the beams and pieces of fallen ceiling, looking for a passage he could make for his friend.

"Wait, Rodric, please," she beckoned for him with her fingers poking through the beams, ignoring the pain that burned her arm.

"What are you doing, Amicia?"

"I need you to take the book back to my little brother. He needs it more than he needs me."

"What are you talking about? Don't talk like that, I'm going to get you out of there."

"There's no time. The guards are almost here." She looked down at her book and wrapped it up with as much leather as she could from her limited clothing. Before Rodric could protest her more, she shoved it through the biggest opening. The book fell through with a little force. Rodric scrambling to grab it before it hit the ground. He looked to Amicia, saddened, just knowing he could get her out if she would just let him.