78 Days B.N.D
Eli stared at the little girl--at Lettie--in silent horror. The overwhelming sense of failure reached up with claws and fangs to drag him down again. It reminded him of why he was discharged from the army, of why they sent him home... He swallowed and closed his eyes, letting his head hang. It hadn't been his fault! The man--who he later came to learn was one of the crown prince's son's--had been too far gone for him to treat, and he'd been alone in the tent. He'd tried to call for a more experience, more powerful healer--one who didn't have this cursed healing--but it had taken too long and he'd lost his patient in the time it took for the messengers to find the other healers...
"I can't heal her," he muttered, opening his eyes and turning his focus on Lettie. He'd moved closer and was kneeling beside her, trying to reach inside her with his magic but.... No, he couldn't. "I'm sorry... I-I... can't. If I try, it's more likely to kill us both and I'd like to not die..." He trailed off and met Lettie's eyes.. "I'm sorry, Lettie..."
"C'mon...can't you do...anything," Paimon muttered, still leaning around Bel to see. "I dunno, use the River or something?"
Eli shook his head. "I-I can't, Paimon... That's not how my magic works, it's not how magic works at all--"
"I don't care! Just...we have to save her!"
He cursed softly and climbed to his feet, stalking off a few steps, keeping his back to the group. They'd had a few days between him healing Bel, but still. It wasn't enough. He still felt tired as all hell. He'd never been that strong a healer and this prophecy bullshit wasn't helping. At all. Eli exhaled heavily, startling a little at the hand that suddenly landed on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault," Tyri said with a sad, reassuring smile.
Elidyr sighed and glanced towards Tyri and her smoky eyes. "I know," he said softly, catching sight of Railyn, Paimon and Bel still crowded around Lettie and the kitten. "But it doesn't stop me from feeling guilty, or like I'm failing people...and I... I just... I can't anymore... I'm too weak, both from healing Bel and then that girl in Syna before then."
"I understand," Tyri murmured, squeezing his shoulder a little. "It can be hard....the expectations that people have about magic users."
"Yeah." He turned to watch the others and a violently coughing Lettie. "There's no way I'll help. She's too far gone. It's too late for her...but I can maybe hold it off for long enough for her to tell us what happened here?" He sent Tyri a wry smile even though she probably wouldn't see it. "Just don't be surprised if I pass out again afterwards."
Tyri chuckled. "Fair point. Okay, Elidyr, let's do that, then."
"We still have some cure, too. I think?" Eli frowned and patted his bag before nodding. "It'll help when I do this."
He nodded to himself and then returned to the group, kneeling beside Bel and the little girl. Bel still seemed a little...lost. Like he'd just gone blank with shock or zoned out. Eli swallowed and reached out to cup the back of Lettie's head, ignoring the looks from Paimon and Railyn.
"Right, so... There is something I could maybe do? But it won't actually cure her." He sent Paimon a look, then cast the same look at Railyn. He barely registered Tyri returning to kneel on his other side. "But it may give her enough of a boost to answer a few questions. Namely the one about who did this."
Bel twitched a little, but it was Paimon who spoke, perking up a little. "Wait, what? Really?"
"Yeah, really," Eli said, sending her another look. "Now let me concentrate and don't be concerned if I pass out. You know, like last time."
"Maybe that was just a last time thing?"
"Shush," Eli hissed, sending Paimon another Look. "Let me concentrate."
With that, he placed a hand on Lettie's chest, bowed his head and closed his eyes. Almost immediately, he could feel the bluecough crawling all throughout Lettie's tiny body, invading not just her lungs, but also her heart, her liver, her kidneys and even her brain. That wasn't good. They'd have less time than they'd like. He had to hurry. So Eli reached out with his magic and tried to peel back a few layers of the illness wracking Lettie's body, clearing her lungs and her mind long enough for them to ask a few questions. It'd only be for a minute or two, but it was better than nothing.
Slowly, Eli pulled back, maintaining his hold on the illness while also being a little more aware of things outside his magic. It'd hurt her a little, but not as much as the bluecough was. He cleared his throat and opened his eyes, surprised to find he was...glowing...blue? Just a little. Eli swallowed. That was...weird. He was going to blame it on the prophecy bullshit later...
"Quickly," he said, voice hoarse. "I can't hold this long....so ask her... You have...maybe a minute..."
Lettie's coughing had died down and she didn't seem to be choking on blood anymore--enough so that she was peering up at them with wide eyes. Especially him. "Mr. Blue? Mr. Horns?"
Bel's frozen expression cracked into an earnest smile, and he scooted closer to Lettie, holding out his hand. Lettie reached up and took it, grabbing three fingers loosely.
"Yes. It's me, Lettie," he said quietly.
Lettie looked confused, and her lips were still blue-and-red, but at least she was somewhat not-dying at the moment. Eli groaned softly, sagging a little. But he held on, because this was important. For Bel. And Lettie. And Paimon.
"Oh...what's going on, Mr. Horns?"
"Your village was attacked, Lettie," Bel said softly. "You got sick. Do you remember anything about the people who came?"
Lettie's weak fingers pulled Bel's hand down, so it was resting in her lap. Her lips began to quiver. "They were angry..." she said, her voice weak from something besides the bluecough. Her throat was tightening. "Angry we were sick."
Eli swore softly and shifted to lean against Tyri, needing support. He was quickly getting tired and his hold on Lettie's bluecough was starting to slip, but he was determined to hold her like this for as long as possible. "Angry you were sick? Bluecough?"
"Yeah," Lettie said with tears in her eyes. "They took the cure."
"They took it?" Paimon asked, sounding angry herself. "All of it?"
Lettie closed her eyes, sending tears down her blue-tinted cheeks. "Daddy told them. Told them I needed it. They didn't listen." She started to sniff with the beginnings of a sob.
Eli sucked in a sharp breath. She'd caught it from him... She had to have. He hadn't seen signs of it before he and Paimon had arrived in the village. By the Mother, he should have known! Guilt settled like a thorny ball of vines deep in his gut, twisting and shredding his insides. How could he have... He should have been more careful!
Bel's voice cut in - pained.
"We're so sorry, Lettie."
Lettie took in a shuddered gasp. "They were wearing brown," she sniffled. "Not like Synua." A sob rose up in her throat, making her voice tremble. "They lied. The lied. They took my daddy."
And there, her voice broke, and she dissolved into tears. Paimon still had her in her lap, and pulled Lettie close, wrapping the blanket around her in a hug.
Eli swore softly and felt his grasp on the bluecough slipping. He scrambled to yank it back but it slipped out from beneath his hold and at the same time, his magic failed him, making him gasp. He leaned more heavily into Tyri and groaned softly, yanking his hand back from Lettie like he'd been burnt.
"Shit! I'm sorry!" He tried to peer up at Bel, but there were suddenly two of him. Two big blue tieflings with identical looks of shock on their faces. "I'm sorry, I... I couldn't hold it any longer!"
Lettie's sobs turned into violent coughs and she started shivering in Paimon's arms. Eli glanced towards them and saw two of them, too.
Tyri put a hand firmly on Eli's shoulder as she held him up.
"You did what you could," she whispered to him.
"I know," he whispered back, sadly. "And it still wasn't good enough."
It was never good enough, but he couldn't tell them that. Couldn't say it out loud. So he kept it locked up inside instead and turned his face into Tyri's shoulder, trying to smother his soft sob of distress before the tiredness in his bones dragged him under again.
77 Days B.N.D
Eli woke with a pounding headache and rolled over to peer at Tyri and Railyn from across their small campfire. Wait, when had that happened? He frowned and pushed up onto a elbow, squinting at them in the early morning light. "Wha... When did you...?"
"We made camp," Railyn muttered, not looking up from the dragon snoozing in his lap, idly petting the pretty scaled little beast with a fond twitch to his mouth.
"While you were passed out," Tyri added with a wry smile.
"Oh..." He shifted to sit up with a grunt, rubbing his aching head. "Where's Bel and Paimon? And Lettie?" Eli squinted at them again. "And....the cats?"
Tyri pointed at the ground beside him. "Lady's right there. As for Bel and Paimon..." She shrugged and gripped her staff hard. "We've been trying to save the village. And Bel said you'd be best left to sleep it off, so we made camp."
"Oh... I see..." He cleared his throat and turned to find Lady curled up beside him, fast asleep. Eli decided to leave them there and turned back to Tyri and Railyn. "You didn't tell me where Lettie was, though..."
"He left." That was Paimon. He twisted around to look behind him and sure enough, that was Paimon. "And he took Lettie and Tabby with him."
Eli was a little stunnned, and also a lot guilty. "He...what?"
"He left," Paimon repeated, a little more firmly. "Also, apparently this was the mafia? The Idora-whatits or whatever. Bel said that this scrap of cloth Ivern--that's the dragon, by the way--found was from them... Said he recognised it and then he just...up and left. Like, how rude."
His head span a little as he tried to process everything... Idoras? Here? Oh, boy. Maybe he should come clean? Eli cleared his throat and shook his head. Then again, maybe not... He reached out absently to pet a sleeping Lady and frowned, trying to think past the guilt curdling his stomach and the shame eating away at the space between his lungs where his heart was trying to beat out a rhythm double-time. Shit.
"The Idoras," he said and lowered his gaze to Lady, still absently petting her. "What else did you guys discover while I was passed out?"
"The bird prints I found... They're not from our birds and I don't think they're Synua, either?" Railyn shrugged. "Maybe this mafia have their own mounts?"
Eli's lips twisted into a thin grimace. "Yeah, maybe."
"And we weren't able to salvage much of the village," Tyri said, gesturing vaguely. Eli caught the movement in the corner of his eye and glanced up. "As you can probably see."
She was right. Serion was pretty much...destroyed. Most of the houses had collapsed in on themselves and any that hadn't were still smouldering, but at least the bulk of the ranging fire had died out and it hadn't started any forest fires. Not yet, anyway. Eli nodded and then twisted to peer up at Paimon, who was still standing over him.
"You said something when you were passed out."
Uh oh. What had he said? Eli grimaced. "I did?"
"Yeah." Paimon grimaced right back. "What's an Adonis?"
Oh, shit.
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