Shiar watched her scream in pain as she was thrown into a tree, her flight half visible in the dark and silent forest. A massive shadow moved inhumanly fast as it followed her, its claws wrapping around her neck, squeezing until she let out a squeak of surprised pain.
She choked sickly at the crushing force as it lifted her into the air by that grip, her feet dangling uselessly over the broken snow beneath her. Her body was crushed back against the trunk of the tree, the sound of leather and fabric cutting through the air as the rough bark bit at her body. What little breath she could get out, billowed around her face in steam.
The other clawed hand dug into her shoulder, causing one of her swords to drop to the ground, followed by the pattering of red blood on the snow. Shiar could see her stubborn expression fighting back an exclamation of pain, though he recognized the agony crossing her features. He stood in the centre of the clearing, trying to move, trying to follow the two forms as he watched her choking for breath. Shiar was frozen in place, unseen by the two combatants.
"We will not kill you now but it gives us pleasure to cause you pain." The voice of the shadow seemed to hold a crowd of the creatures speaking. It was gravelly and terrifying but at the same time beautiful and alluring.
"Go screw yourself!" She spat out, though her bravado turned into a cry of pain as she was slammed quickly back into the tree like a child's toy.
Something changed. There was a barely describable movement in the shadow, before it leaned closer and breathed in her scent. Shiar watched in horror as it crooned with pleasure.
"We seek annihilation of the human world, but you... you... are here to help us. We've been calling you for years. You will help." The voice of many voices was a purr.
Shiar sat bolt upright in the dark his skin clammy from his feverish sweating. His mind was foggy and consumed with the nightmare that that his heart racing and stomach roiling. With a small groan, he stumbled out of bed, finding his legs give way beneath him and sending him spilling to the floor. With a groan, he crawled to his bathroom and found himself getting sick, despite his best efforts to fight the nausea that seemed to come from the dream that had awoken him.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Shiar questioned what was going on. Foggy as his mind was, he felt his brain shaking off rust and trying to understand what was going on. He knew vaguely that he was in his rooms in Sellexu but something about that seemed confusing and wrong. Shiar felt deep in his bones that he should be somewhere else, though he struggled to make that feeling turn into a sensible fact. All he knew is that he needed to be in that clearing, in whatever fight that was.
Shiar seized onto the certainty that he had to leave, he had to find those woods, that night.
But he couldn't settle his stomach enough to stand, let alone begin to take action, and heaved it empty before finally collapsing to the cool floor.
The next dreams that found him were blissfully blank of images until he felt hands grabbing him and jolted awake again. Shiar tensed and attempted to struggle, though whatever strength he used to have no longer existed and he was as helpless as a child. He growled and struggled to find the strength to resist until sleep cleared long enough for him to see that it was Caelur and Lady Wyn carrying him back to bed.
They had solemn, worried expressions on their faces as they laid him down and cared for him with the diligence of parents over an ill child.
"Damn it, we've got to go." Shiar muttered, finding himself unable to sit up, melting down into the mattress as Wyn coaxed him to drink some water.
Sleep pulled at him once more though he did his best to fight it.
He was exhausted and struggled to hold on to the urgency of the fight, the smell of blood and the sound of that evil shadow. Shiar knew it was a dream, but couldn't shake the feeling that it was real. If only he could wake up enough to convince his friends of what was going on.
"Go where, brother?" Caelur's voice was soothing, though there was worry in the man's eyes. "We're home, you're safe."
"Not me. Her." Shiar growled.
Caelur's expression became guarded, almost hostile. And when Shiar closed his eyes in frustration, he lost the battle against sleep.
Wyn's voice was a gentle murmur. "Everyone is ok, your sister is just sleeping right now. You're in the palace, with us."
Fight as he might to stay awake, Shiar fell back into peaceful dreams where he soon forgot about the forest, and the monsters, and the fighting.
***
Wyn sat down heavily into a chair beside the bed, carefully dipping a cloth into fresh water and leaning over to clean Shiar's face of the sweat and warmth. Exhaustion and despair warred in her as she watched his features relax as his sleep deepened. "Thank you. He's still a relatively heavy man, even with all the weight he's lost."
"You don't think he was still talking about the Cavatine woman, do you? I thought Lyana said he had moved past that." Caelur voiced her own concerns, before offering her a gentle smile. "You're helping us with him, you need not thank me."
"No. He doesn't seem to remember that woman. But he keeps rambling about someone else. I haven't seen him that lucid in all this time." Wyn smiled then, laying her hand on Shiar's forehead and bolstering her resolve with what she found there. "His fever is gone, I think he's beating it."
"Lyana said he was getting better. This is the clearest sign though. She'll be thrilled when she wakes up." Caelur smiled as he watched his friend, and Wyn almost swore she saw tears of relief welling in his eyes.
They sat watching Shiar fall into dreams that appeared to relax him, each in their own thoughts until Wyn put the cloth on the basin beside the bed and turned to look at Caelur, who was sitting on the bed facing her.
"I've been trying to find a time to talk to you," Wyn forced her voice to sound unaffected, casual. "I'm not making any immediate plans, I'm going to wait till he's well... but I will go to Alliance in the spring.. I was hoping to be there a month or two early before the key parties arrive."
Caelur didn't respond for a long moment, just watched her with an unreadable expression on his face. "I suppose you have people you wish to see."
Wyn nodded slowly, despite the illogical stab of pain that his indifference caused. "Well, just my job really. Queen Rael won't be there until later, as with your Court. And I'm hoping Nerini will be back by then as well. Though it might be a childish hope that everything will be as it was last year."
"Your job? You have a job here." Caelur said dismissively, as if what she said was of little consequence. "You could stay here until I leave, travel along with my Court."
"I have been granted a seat at your Court and Aupana has asked me to work as a de facto ambassador between your court and ours, but... really, I'm hoping to have an actual job in Alliance." Wyn intoned, though her tone was laced with a slight bit of stubbornness, doing her best to hide her hurt at how easily he seemed to dismiss her plans and her usefulness as something other than a Courtier.
Wyn felt the indignation that she often saw in Nerini, wanting to blurt out she was more than a pretty bird to flutter around waiting for attention. She could almost picture the barbed comment that would have come out of Nerini's mouth if she were here.
Caelur's expression didn't change. He watched her for a long moment before nodding curtly. "Well, keep me appraised of your plans. Your welcome here in Sellexu remains as long as you wish to take advantage of it."
And with those words he offered her slight bow before turning and walking from the room, closing the door firmly behind him with a nearly silent click that echoed in her foolish, stupid heart.
Wyn winced at the sound, looking to Shiar and sighing softly. "I don't understand you Sellexun men, you know that? I don't know how I could possibly have offended him."
But, of course Shiar didn't respond, sleeping deeply as he was.
Wyn was thankful that he didn't, finding herself fighting back a wave of heartache she knew she had no right to. Caelur had made himself quite clear, as soon as Shiar was on the mend, she would be foolish to linger.