Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 18)

Ky hesitated outside his office for a long, long moment, trying to find the courage to just open his door. To commit the cardinal sin. Her anxiety was through the roof.

She needed to just go in.

Before Septimus or Michael or anyone else happened upon her making a fool of herself.

But she was so anxious.

There was nothing in his dreams as this happened; he felt suffocated by the darkness and the heaviness in his chest and head. He was sure he had a nosebleed but he couldn't wake himself to check. There was a roaring in his ears, too, almost a voice but not quite, not yet....or many voices at once, and thoughts racing through his mind. He jerked in his sleep, huffing, trying to breathe.

( :eyes: )

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This wasn't wrong if she was obeying. She was explicitly told to do this. He couldn't be cross with her for following his instructions to the T, right? ... Right? She swallowed hard. This was fine. Everything was fine.

She put her hand on the doorknob but didn't twist yet.

The voices were clearer now, many, many voices in dozens of languages, some of which he knew, others he didn't. Two rose above them all in Nortung, harsh and imperious. He was beyond comprehension as the pain in his head overwhelmed him, but whatever they were saying was repeated over and over and over again. He still couldn't breathe, couldn't move. He was dimly aware that his body was trembling; he supposed this was a seizure, but why?

Open the door.

Open. the. door.

It wasn't a hard order.

She braced herself and twisted the doorknob, then decided to make her entrance as loud as possible and rattled the handle and coughed loudly as she cracked the door.

Gaius didn't stir.
He was stiff in his chair, jerking and trembling with his eyes shut tightly and his jaw clenched so tightly that there were veins standing out in his neck. His face was reddish-blue. His good hand was in a fist and blood was dripping from his palm where the nails were cutting into the skin.

You. You. You. You. You.
All in Nortung, he heard the word repeated, and he fought to free himself of the terrible voices, the rush of information and thoughts and ideas that filled his head to bursting.

Ky gaped slightly. "G-Gaius?" What the fuck was happening?

His head jerked back and his back went rigid; his maimed hand was claw-like, frozen in a grasping position.

"You will know what we know and we know what truth is," the voices chanted. "You will know what we know and we know what truth is."
Gaius drew in a shuddering breath, just one, gasping as at last, he was sure, his head imploded. It felt like it did; he could feel each bit of skull and brain tissue and flesh, and yet still he was thinking.
So much. He couldn't stop his mind from racing; countless thoughts were flying by at lightning speed and he couldn't grasp a single one, not yet.

Ky scuttled backward, afraid, staring. "Gaius?" Her voice trembled. What should she do? Was he... having a medical emergency? Did he need Sera? Sara? Did he need woken up? She couldn't help but remember the way Tadaaki had accidentally given her a black eye that time she woke him up from a night scare. That had hurt, though she denied it vehemently. Would Gaius do the same? Worse?

And then, suddenly and just for a moment, it stopped. For a split second there was clarity, and light, and he knew everything there was to know. He knew who he was, who was speaking to him, what was going to happen and what had happened before. He knew the names of the stones and the trees, why the river flowed the way it did, where language came from.
And then he woke.

Gaius heaved out of his chair, gasping and coughing as air returned to his lungs and the blood fled from his face. His throat was raw and his head still throbbed, but the information, everything was still swirling around. He couldn't comprehend, but he could move. And move he did. He sank onto his knees, taking great gulps of air as he tried to organize his addled mind.

Ky lingered in the doorway, staring in fear. "A-are you o-- do you need-- want-- should--Sera?"

"S--hff--" Forming words was useless. He bent double and screamed instead, clutching at his head. "Gods!" Make it stop, make it stop...

Ky flinched backward a step, glancing over her shoulder as she tried to figure out what to do. She wasn't good at things like this.

Should she run to get someone? But who? And would he be safe on his own while she left him here?

What was happening to him?

She glanced around the room to be sure no one had attacked him.

Her chest was painfully tight from fear and anxiety, making it hard to breathe. Every instinct in her wanted to run away. And yet something deep within her wouldn't allow that.

"Fuck," she muttered under her breath, barely audible, and forced herself to stride forward and towards him, quickly but cautiously as she watched him.

He rocked back and forth, tears pricking at his eyes and then streaming down his face. He was beginning to get his mind in order, slowly. Picking up words, fragments of memory that belonged to him and not others. But it hurt. Indescribably.

She was thoroughly alarmed but forced herself to stay calm. To go into crisis mode, which was exactly the opposite of most peoples' crisis mode. Her panic made her calm and capable of handling anything... she hoped.

She crouched down next to him and braced herself, then put a hand on his shoulder, half-expecting to get hit out of reflex.