71 Days B.N.D
Paimon felt herself be lifted off the ground. Though, Seir couldn't lift her too far. He was only a child, she thought as the grip around her neck grew tighter. Her breath faltered, and her vision swam back into the cave.
"Whooooooooaaaa," Seir said, leaning close to see the crystal. "That's so cool!"
"Isn't it?" Paimon exclaimed. "I'm gonna see if Dad knows anything about the rune. Maybe he's never seen it before!"
"That's so cool!" Seir repeated. "Maybe it's like, a super-healing rune that can heal people like Mom! Or maybe it, it turns you into a fish!"
"A fish?" Paimon asked, giggling. "A fish. Maybe! I'll just have to find out!"
"Oh, here," said Seir, holding his hand out. "Let me try."
Paimon blinked. "Why?" she asked.
Seir smiled. "Duh. You can't use runes, Paimon. I can find out what that thing is, c'mon." He made a grabbing motion and moved closer.
"No!" Paimon shouted, holding the crystal to her chest. "It's mine."
"Come on, Paimon, come on," Seir begged, "Please, come on."
"Back off," Paimon said, but Seir was already grabbing at her hands, trying to pry them open.
"Paimon," Seir said, pouting angrily. "Give it to me. You can't even do magic."
Paimon wrenched the crystal out of Seir's hands, bringing it high above his head. "I SAID BACK OFF!"
A clear wave erupted from the stone as she brought it down. Paimon felt the world blast away for a moment, before the cave fell silent. Everything was dark except for her small yellow lantern light. Seir was slumped against the far wall, a trail of blood dripping down the left side of his face. His staff lay beside him, its light extinguished.
"Get up." Paimon reached up and felt her neck. Her throat was sore. It hurt. It hurt a lot.
"I said to get up!" Berith screeched, wrenching her out of Seir's wooden hands. Paimon fell to the floor, gasping for air and holding her throat. Seir stopped and looked at Berith for a second, before slowly advancing towards Paimon, his hands grabbing greedily.
Blearily, Paimon saw Berith dash across the room to the sink, which still had the frying pan from their fish lunch. "Try this, you shit!" she roared, raising the pan above her head.
Paimon put her hand up. "Wait, Mom--"
Berith smashed the frying pan down onto Seir's head. Suddenly, Seir was slumped against the far wall of the cave. His fingers were twitching. He wasn't breathing.
"Mom!" Paimon cried, as the rune sphere exploded, throwing Berith across the kitchen. Her back collided with the kitchen counter, snapping her backwards as she tumbled over it. Seir's scattered pieces sank back into the floor, before gathering in the center of the kitchen and rising back up again. He turned to regard Berith with a look like concern, before focusing back on Paimon.
Slowly, Paimon got to her feet. "You're not Seir," she rasped. "Seir is dead." She ran towards the rune golem and grabbed its head, slamming it on the kitchen counter.
A flash of clear light enveloped her again. Seir's eyes were wide open. As Paimon walked closer, she thought -- she thought he looked at her.
The rune golem melded itself back together again, its head wound glowing even brighter. Paimon gritted her teeth, then screamed as she smashed its head again.
Clear light
The rune stared at her like a curious child's eye. Paimon crushed the golem's head again.
Sparks of light dying from Seir's staff
She was still screaming. It was the voice of her now, but maybe it was the voice of twelve years ago, too.
He was reaching for her
"He's dead!" she screamed. "He's dead!"
He was afraid to die
He needed his big sister
The golem's head shattered again, rattling Paimon's jaw with a shockwave. Faintly, she could see someone running into the kitchen. No, it was a lot of people. She saw her dad running to her mom, holding her in his arms. She saw him staring in disbelief at her rune, a curse that belonged to her and nobody else.
"He's dead," Paimon sobbed. "And he's been dead, I know that. I didn't care if you hated me, loved me, I just wanted a way to feel."
She jabbed her hand into the golem's head as it formed, watching it struggle to close around her fist. "But you two just went on like nothing ever happened. But -- didn't Seir's life mean something? Didn't it mean anything that I killed him?"
Berith coughed, sitting up. "So you want us to blame you, is that it?"
"I don't know," Paimon said, shaking her head. "But if I'm going to be your daughter whether or not I'm responsible, then what--" She brought her head down on the counter, wailing, "What's it supposed to mean that I'm the one who killed him?"
"I -- Paimy," Azazel began hesitantly, "this grief nearly broke us. What could you have done with it?"
"You don't decide what I feel," Paimon shot back. There was an outrage in her words that she knew was audacious, unearned for a murderer, but she kept going. "You don't get to forgive me in my place. I've carried this around with me for twelve years, and I, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I can't control it."
"I know it's selfish of me not to move on when you want me to. I'm the one who hurt you," Paimon admitted. "But I never got to mourn Seir. And there's no way to tell him -- there's no way to tell him."
Paimon hung her head as tears dribbled down. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry," cried Paimon in the cave, as Seir's eyes stared into nothingness. "Please get up. I'm sorry."
"Here." Paimon looked up to see a blurry scrap of white in front of her. When she wiped her eyes, she saw Berith holding out a piece of gauze.
"We all tried to grieve in different ways," Berith said. "Azazel crafted staves. You tried to become a doctor. And me -- I was already a doctor. And my son died of a head wound in a cave."
Paimon removed her hand from the golem's head and took the gauze. The rune golem -- maybe a little bit of Seir -- looked at the scrap of fabric as she held it in her hand.
"So I thought about what I could have done," Berith continued. "And I started tearing off gauze. It wouldn't do anything, but it was for him. So I just did it. You can try it too." Her breath hitched as she finished talking, and she pressed the back of her hand to her lips. "Go on," she said.
Seir's golem was staring right up at Paimon, his wound glowing bright. Paimon held its cheek and brushed her thumb below its runic eye. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she smoothed the gauze over the wound.
The eye stared right back at her, and, for a second, she thought it understood. Then it closed, and the golem's body began to shrink. Its head and limbs collapsed slowly back into its torso as it sank towards the floor, until it was just a small wooden ball wrapped in a scrap of gauze. Paimon bent down and picked it up, turning it over in her hands. It was humming slightly, a calm, clear light that filled her body.
In an instant, her father's arms were around her. Her mother, too, was pressed into the hug. Azazel's goggles were filling with tears. "I'm sorry, Paimy," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I had no idea you felt like that, I, I should have listened."
"You've grown," Berith added, holding her close. "Despite your guilt, you've grown and I'm proud of you."
Paimon wrapped her arms around her parents and sunk to her knees. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I'm sorry."
Azazel laughed, sobbing. "We forgive you, Paimy. We love you, we forgive you."
Berith stayed silent, only hugging Paimon tighter. Paimon wondered if that was all that she needed in the end. She hoped it was.
Eventually, she stood up and wiped her eyes. "You know," she said, laughing through her tears, "I appreciate you all letting me have my moment like this. Really, it means a lot."
Railyn, Bel and Tyri were sitting in the doorway. Railyn in particular looked away, scratching his head. "Don't mention it."
Bel nodded along, but there was a hint of a smile on his tired face. And Tyri was looking straight at Paimon in a way that made her wonder if her life force had changed just now.
"Well, I love being forgiven," Paimon declared. "Really, it's, thank you. Thank you."
She broke off for a second before beaming bright again. "But we've still got to figure out a way out of here, don't we?"
"If that's your prophecy," Berith grumbled.
Paimon smiled at her. "It is."
"About that." Azazel popped his goggles off of his eyes and let the tears drain out. "I had an idea when I was out shopping, and decided to get a few more things. Put together, they may get you where you need to go; I'll show you. Tyri, Railyn, come to my workroom."
"Azazel."
"Know what, I'll bring them to you."
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