༄ؘ 𝑨𝑹𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑬, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦

༄ؘ ✧ 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑰𝑿

Marin leaned back against a tree root and flicked the hair out of her face with an aching arm. It hurt to move everything. Maybe she was just being weak, but she felt weak. Neither of her brothers had to know that, though. Not yet, at least. "Maybe she has good reason," she acted like she didn't know anything, though Rayla and her had spoken the day before already. "That's the thing about trust, Callum. It's not just earned through words, but actions, too. She's trustworthy, I'm telling you."

༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

𝑺𝑰𝑻𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑳𝑳 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑵𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵'𝑺 𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑼𝑰𝑻 𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑵 𝑰𝑻 𝑪𝑨𝑴𝑬 𝑻𝑶 𝑩𝑬𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑰𝑪𝑲. 𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑹𝒀𝑶𝑵𝑬 would always tell her to stay in bed and not to get up or do anything. Well, her current situation was much like those times, because neither of her brothers would let her do anything without their help. It was annoying. Even when she would read for hours at a time, she could do it while walking around, or she couldn't sit in any one way for too long before she got uncomfortable and had to move again.

Marin was tired of this exhaustion already. She'd tried stretching in place just to move, got nothing but a deeper ache in her bones. Tried to get up when her brothers weren't looking, had just stumbled and fell back onto the ground. If this was what it was going to be like any time she used her abilities, she didn't want to ever do it again to that extent. She didn't even know how she did it anyway, so that wasn't a problem.

She was pretty sure her brothers were talking about something but whenever she tried to tune in and listen, her focus would simply disappear and she would just zone out. A symptom of the exhaustion, no doubt. Normally she had no problem focusing, but every inch of her body was tired and practically begging her to get some actual rest in her bed with a blanket back home, which Marin knew couldn't happen since they had more important matters than her missing her bed.

After she and Ezran had woken Callum up and noticed that Rayla was gone, Marin had almost collapsed onto her back because of the way she disregarded her tiredness. Her body was suffering from overworking herself, and she was definitely feeling it. Any hope she had of the fatigue just being an overnight thing had disappeared then, since it was the next morning and she had to be worse than she originally had been. Callum had told her she had a fever after he'd felt her forehead, which had hair sticking to it from sweat that definitely wasn't from the heat, since it was about the average temperature for the beginning of springtime━warm but not too much so. Marin guessed that was probably bad, then, that she was sweating.

Callum brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes, cringing and wiping his hand on his tunic afterward, but quickly put his hand on Marin's cheek when her head lolled to the side tiredly so her neck wouldn't be in an awkward position that would make that ache as well. He could tell she was in pain, no matter how much she denied it. It was pretty obvious. "She's getting worse. We need to get help, and Rayla's not here."

"Is she going to be okay, Callum?"

Her brother paused, rubbing his thumb on his sister's cheek while he held her head up for her. Her eyes were closed, which though he would never admit it out loud, made him panic despite the fact that she was breathing just fine and was okay for the moment. "I hope so."

༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

❝—𝑷𝑨𝑻𝑯 𝑰𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑶 𝑬𝑨𝑺𝒀,❞ 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵 𝑨𝑾𝑶𝑲𝑬 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑨 𝑺𝑴𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑾𝑯𝑰𝑴𝑷𝑬𝑹, 𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑫 𝑭𝑬𝑬𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑲𝑬 𝑰𝑻 had an anvil dropped on it. Rayla's voice sounded way too loud in her ears, like an echo of four of her instead of just one.