[The silence is so heavy, even the patter of snowflakes gently kissing the earth sounds like drums; Sakura's turn like the wind that whispers to Zaveid. And with it, Rin feels a spark at the base of her spine, reacting to the surge of magical energy lancing through Sakura's hand before her eyes register the danger.
She wasn't expecting this, but Kirei trained her well. Sakura's hand firmly gasps the shoulder of Rin's coat, but Rin uses that grip and the momentum of Sakura's lunge against her sister. Twisting to dodge the spear sideways, with grit teeth Rin then grasps for Sakura's arm at the elbow and pulls, throwing her with no gentleness to the ground.
Not a moment after she lands, Sakura will find a weight on her stomach and the kiss of steel at her throat: an Azoth dagger. It glints in the light that speckles through the tree branches, and casts silver in Rin's blue eyes.
The threat is very real. Sakura can try something like that a second time, but not fast enough to stop Rin from slitting her throat like an animal in the street.]
[What was left of her mana evaporates into colorless smoke the moment her back hits the ground and air is slammed from her lungs. A complete and abject failure, as she knew it would be from the start. If her worm crest could scream, she'd hear the howling in her ears; instead they slither in protest but don't press their host to fight.
Just as Sakura feels the blade against her neck, the worms have called the outcome of battle. What's left is a husk with one final purpose.
... My, but the sky behind Nee-san's shoulder is the palest winter blue she's ever seen. Sakura feels pain mounting in her chest, daydreams of bodies being eaten away by maggots, but this is the last view of beauty she will see, and staring at a future she couldn't reach is better than acknowledging the contempt in Rin's eyes.
She's a coward to the end, but for all she deserves, Sakura can't bear to know that she was right - that her sister would look at her like this.]
[When Sakura stills beneath her, gaze empty and without a spark of fight in it turned at the sky, Rin thinks she's gotten her point across. The blade at her throat lowers a fraction of an inch, and Rin means to pull back.
Then the body beneath hers spasms. A sharp burst at first, its intensity becomes a wave and Rin locks her knees to keep from being thrown from where she sits, straddling Sakura's stomach. The blade at her throat is pulled back completely, lest she slit her throat accidentally.
Sakura writhes. She screams, and Rin looks down at her sister with unrestrained horror.]
Crimson droplets spray across the snow in an arc, and more thickly against Sakura's jaw. But it's not her delicate neck that has been cut, the apple still bobbing there tirelessly, scream unsilenced.]
Sakura. [She struggles to be heard over those pained cries. It wavers, but louder the second time, her commanding tone brokers no argument as wet fingers prodding at Sakura's mouth.] Sakura, bite down.
[Infused with rich mana, blood oozes down Rin's fingers, spilt like a river from the deep slice in her palm.]
[She's imagined her own death countless times - drawn-out and slow at the edge of a blade; over-the-counter drugs that would bring eternal unconsciousness; a gun placed at her temple; and yes, even the grotesque end others of the Matou line have faced. She made herself believe the method wouldn't matter so long as she could find a release only ghosts have known.
She was wrong.
It hurts. It hurts, and the screams beat in time with the claw marks on her arms, her futile attempts to rip the skin clean off so the worms will stop chewing through her muscles. She can't think through the pain or breathe fast enough to beg Rin for mercy, please, if she ever loved her, she'll do her this one favor--
Nee-san she's scared
-- And then the flip switches; that's how quickly the worms in her body sense a proper offering a mana. Rather than recede, the pain simply stops climbing, but it's enough to quell the hysteria, to sense the tang of blood in her mouth. Another scream still lodged in her throat, Sakura swallows automatically.
One swallow, two. With the concentration of mana in her sister's blood, her crest immediately settles. After the third, Sakura's trembling hand tries to push at Rin's arm, only to find there's no strength behind the request. So instead she pulls her mouth away, head angled to the side. Every breath in her chest rattles like it's her last.
But she keeps breathing, until the shaking relaxes into a compulsive shiver that's left after an upshot of adrenaline.]
[Sakura goes so still, bangs falling around her turned face, to Rin she looks like a broken doll. If you changed their hair colors, she'd look a bit like mother.
The nights Aoi would stop screaming were as sweet as they were scary, too.
The wound in her hand throbs as Rin carefully climbs off of Sakura, sharp and still oozing. She needn't have cut it that deeply, but she hadn't thinking properly then. The Azoth dagger is dropped to the snow to free up her uninjured hand, which snakes to the side of Sakura's neck to track her pulse. Against her fingertips, Sakura's skin feels clammy with shock she thinks, but her heart races like a rabbit's. The sudden stress would have done her no favors, let alone the damage from the worms.
The worms...
Sakura had been dying. Her agonized wails had shocked her like a dunk in an icy river, and so she had acted knowing it had to be something to do with them, but not fully comprehending what. Counting Sakura's precious gasps of air now that the danger has passed, it slowly begins to settle in for her just what the worms had done. What they'd been trying to do. They'd—
Nausea claims her swiftly, taking her stomach and spinning it in somersaults. Paces away from injured girl, Rin wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and prays to Kirei's stupid god that Sakura was too out of it to hear her getting sick just now.
With a shaky breath she covers the signs of her distress and her spilled blood with more snow before crawling back to Sakura. Gently she pats one cheek.]
Sakura? [She's not sure if she expects a response.] We can't stay out here like this. Even if it's night, someone could see us.
[She works her arm around Sakura's back, easing her into a sitting position with a hushed warning.] I'm going to move you now.
[Rin moves her, and Sakura's head rolls like a pound of dead weight attached at the neck. The side of her face hits her sister's shoulder and strangely, that is what rouses her, eyes fluttering to reveal a deadened stare aced with pain.]
Mm.
[The softest noise of agreement, scratched thin and ragged from her screaming. She's still shaking, but Rin will find the Matou girl aware enough to follow the simple orders that coax her to her feet.
It's for the best that she's barely holding onto consciousness. The shame and embarrassment would be too much to handle otherwise. Her bones and joints crack like dry timber when she stands, every movement resulting in a wheeze, and it's clear it will be Rin's responsibility to keep her from falling and folding into a broken pile.]
I... didn't feed.... Happy...
[The words circle, beat at her like a dove's wing, and-- it's strange, how she hadn't cried when the worms were trying to eat her organs. Now the tears gather and she makes no move to wipe the few that crawl down her face]
[Luckily, Rin's strength is up to the task. Sakura is heavy against her, more dead weight than reliable support, and Rin doesn't ask more of her than she's able to give. Without prompting, she slings one of the Matou girl's arms over her shoulder and holds it there, then wraps her free arm firmly around the girl's middle.
She can't feel the wetness that seeps into her shoulder, Sakura's tears spilled against a heavy winter coat. But her sister's breath is hot against her neck; hears each wheeze amplified like nails on a chalkboard, and each rasp with the scrape of sandpaper. She almost doesn't hear Sakura's bemoaning for it, a whisper akin to a fever dream.
Something so ridiculous can't be anything but with the way she's talking. Of all the things to be focused on right now, it's Happy at the front of her mind? Rin scoffs, and begins pulling her along.]
Don't mind that. [Blandly. Rin is almost impressed with herself, for how calm she sounds. She doesn't feel calm.] I'll see to her later.
[With five heavy steps forward, she happens to look down and spot a shining ruby at her feet. Then another. Rin turns her head to look over her shoulder finding more still, small and sprinkled like paint drops over the white powder. The wound in her hand oozes blood only faster, wrung from how tightly she grips Sakura's wrist.
Finally, she sees the tears straining her coat too. She chooses not to comment on them.]
If we go in looking like this, people will ask unnecessary questions.
[Rin doesn't think Sakura is really understanding her by this point, but she talks for the sake of talking. With a shrug to adjust her weight better, careful not to jostle that heavy head, she shifts their course away from the elevator.]
Luckily, we have this treehouse. I don't want to leave a trail, so we'll use it for now. It should suit our purposes just fine.
[At least until she comes up with a better plan. It disturbs Rin how blank her mind is right now. Usually so sharp, her capacity to plot things out is failing her suddenly, leaving her clinging to the first good idea that comes to mind like a life preserver. How to swim to shore... that part can come later.
Getting across the bridge is tricky with the way it wobbles, but not undoable. Soon they're faced with the door, and Rin lets her grip slide from Sakura's waist momentarily to twist the handle.]
[Sakura's lament has drained her of a voice again; for Rin's troubles, the only answers she'll get are the silences hidden between the falling snowflakes, and the girl's head droops back into a hanged position.
It's no different by the time they've reached the treehouse's entrance, and Rin briefly releases Sakura to do battle with the handle. Purple hair, nearly colored black by the lack of sunlight, sticks in damp clumps against the girl's sweating forehead and cheeks, one strand somehow caught on her eyelashes. The itch is met with distant, muted surprise, that there exists sensation outside the throb of her body.
The curse of every mage who comes into their crests; really, it's a blessedly normal response given everything that's happened. Even if she had the mind to speak, the sharp pitch in her core temperature wouldn't be worth addressing. The worms have damaged their breeding grounds; sentient enough to recognize that healing must be done, they don't interfere with the immune system's response. Sakura feels sweat trickle down the side of her face much like shed tears, the beginnings of a fever, and simply notes the tickle through the pain.
Eventually, they move again. Rin's arm repositions itself around her waist. If Sakura could sew any type of thought together, she'd wonder how she's managed to stay standing for so long. Might have been proud of her tenacity, at one point.
But the self-congratulation, even hypothetical, is a mistake, an excuse for her legs to buckle and abruptly hand more of her weight over to Rin. Gravity takes her by the wrists and she pitches forward like a corpse.]
[She's getting worse quickly, though that's to be expected. Rin might not be familiar with the feeling of worms harvesting her organs and flesh (or wasn't until today, hahaha), but she's suffered through enough flare-ups from her own Magic Crest to know how debilitating they can be. Though the last time she was as bad as this... She thinks it was when she was a young girl, still adjusting to the transplants.
Even that must be an underestimate.
If Matou Zouken were here now, she could murder him. She wants him to be the face she sees when they reach the top of those stairs, and the sadistic freak is probably the one who would make a staircase like this so narrow, making it hard to move up. For such an adult looking house, everything is too small, like it was made for—
Her complaints (and some of them she may have been voicing out loud) stop dead when Sakura's rasping wheezes are interrupted with a sound more akin to a sigh, her head lolling from Rin's shoulder and knees cracking against the steps when her feet slip.
The narrowed space they're in becomes a blessing instead of a curse, allowing Rin to brace herself against the walls but still use both hands to catch Sakura before her upper body follows suit.]
...S-Sakura?
[Her voice sounds to weak to be her own.
None too gently, she turns her sister just enough so she can properly see her face. There's no response, save for a thin sliver of white from Sakura's eyes as they roll back and slide shut. But her breathing is still audible (troubled, but audible), and the pulse under Rin's fingertips still even.
Rin breathes a shaky sigh of relief. It's okay. It's... Well, if not okay, then manageable. She just fell unconscious.]
That's fine. ...Yeah. [She continues to narrate to herself, repositioning Sakura's body so that she can pull her over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Not like anything has changed from before, huh?] If anything, it makes it easier on me.
The stairway isn't cramped like this. And more importantly, it's for sure you won't remember a thing...
[...
Yeah. It wouldn't change anything for Sakura to be awake for this. Hopefully she'll forget the rest too.]
[They reach the second floor in silence. The bed on the side of the room is child-sized, but Sakura is small. It won't be cramped for her.
With great care she slides the younger girl from her shoulders, laying her atop the blankets, standing beside the bed unsurely for a moment. The moonlight streaming through the window doesn't seem like enough to go so Rin finds her body stiffly leaning over Sakura's to reach the string of a lamp tucked into corner, faintly surprised to find the light work when she pulls back its chain.
She leans away again.
Now... Now she should clean Sakura up. No, she should treat her first, or maybe find someone to help?
Rin swallows, and it hurts. Her mouth feels as dry as a desert. The faces that come to mind of who she could rely on don't leave her assured, but unbalanced instead. There's not a single one she can picture herself willingly going to. Even Kirei she would take above them now; someone who knows her exact nature and all of her secrets.
She hates herself a little for trusting the fake priest more than anyone in the castle.
But mostly she can't stop staring at her hands, a sound like a sob trapped in her throat. What's wrong with her? When did they start shaking?]
[ Look, the downside to having a vessel is he knows some things through the pact. Rin's in some kind of distress - it's a little unfamiliar twinge... somewhere, inside his head, but it doesn't come with the tug of adrenaline or things that say he probably should hop over to try to help physically.
She's a strong girl, he will just... let her know about that part of the pact working bright and clear later! Right. Time to let her ... do her thing!
... She's not feeling any better. .... Okay, Zaveid really shouldn't meddle, right? There's that thing where you tell them too much, but there's also letting people stew.
And stewing is ... the exact opposite of what he needs in a vessel. Lailah would be so much better for this, her experience in having Shepherds and-
... Well.
The first hint that Zaveid is about is that the breeze stirs in some very odd patterns. Sure, the wind's always about, but there's a hint of mana to it. A hint that becomes solidified as Zaveid forms out of the air before the door, blinking at a blood trail. Yep, he had scented that right. ]
... Hey, Rin, y'need some bandages in there?
[ .... Well, that's one way to let her know he's there, right? ]
[Rin doesn't jump at the sound of his voice. She freezes.]
...I'm fine.
[The response comes robotically, level and in control and her back to him.
She's not fine. Even if her distress wasn't palpable to him, the trembling in her legs and shoulders gives her away.
Still she tries. It's not whatever wound she has that must concern him, she knows; it seems too coincidental for Zaveid of all people to be here. She doesn't know what brought him, but it feels important to convince him it's not necessary.]
[ He doesn't even really need to know her to know that's full of shit. The wind doesn't need him trying to see through it for him to know that she's not.
The thump of him against the wall is sort of just... yeah, he's not actually gunna go anywhere, Rin. Maybe he's just staying right here for now, but... ]
So y'got the bandages covered, gotcha.
[ Light, cheerful, and full of knowing that what she just said is full of bullshit. ]
Maybe y'should know, with the whole pact thing and bein' my vessel, I kinda get a feel on if things are flippin' your day upside down. Or at least, when it's nice and settled in.
[ ... Zaveid really knows you're full of it right now Rin. He gets it - he really does, sometimes you just don't need other people to try to help, or maybe other people are gunna make it a fucking mess when they - eventually, inevitably - leave, buuut...
It is kinda, sorta, a little late to be shoving him a way. ]
[Her shoulders sag, heavy but trying not to show it. She doesn't know why she puts that effort into it; if his words are to be trusted right now he can read her emotions like a book. Right now, maybe he knows the nature of her distress better than she herself does, and maybe she hides it for her own sake, not knowing how to confront that yet.
If he knows, that should make him want to be here even less she thinks, but she doesn't say it. He doesn't spell out, but she gets the message loud and clear all the same, from the reminder she's the one that signed up for this partnership, to the posture he holds himself in she catches from the corner of her eye. He won't listen to her and go no matter what she says, so Rin immediately gives up trying.
It doesn't mean she's happy about it. She feels cornered and frustrated, and wishes she could just go outside away from Zaveid and Sakura both for a minute. Just a minute to collect herself. Her eyes sting and Rin goes to wipe at them, stopping when remembering her left is still slick with blood.
She might not have bandages, like Zaveid joked, but it's not a concern to her. Her Magic Crest will heal it; already the cut is smaller than it was. She shakes her hand out like she's angry with it and steps for Sakura's bed without saying a word.]
[ It's complicated- he knows there's distress, a tiny bit of it physical, but the rest is the wind. It carries so many things that humans only notice subconsciously, but the wind tells him outright. And ages of being alive, body language and... yeah, Rin is pretending to be okay and he is kinda invested in making sure she is actually okay.
So Zaveid steps up a moment or two after she turned back to the bed. It's not like he immediately followed but he does stop in a calculated supportive flanking position.
And really relaxed posture.
Here's a napkin from the mess hall, Rin. ]
If y'wanna take a sec to get your head on, or straight or whatever, I can shout if she moves.
[ Any indication that he met this girl, knows her as Sakura? Not really. ]
[Maybe that would ring true, if earlier this month he hadn't doodled for her a picture of a girl with a familiar ribbon in her hair. Just what's their relationship, she wonders?
Rin eyes the napkin, but shakes her head adamantly. There's a gaping, longing sob in her chest, wanting nothing more than to take that offer. But if she does, she doesn't think it will go the way she planned. Her heart might break, and she'd never come back here; or worse it could harden and she'd return with her dagger.]
I can't.
[Insistent. Don't offer her those things. Shaking fingers reach out to stroke the sweaty bangs from Sakura's face; touch the back of them gently to her forehead to feel the heat.]
She's hurt badly, and has to have help right away. I need to clean her up, and do something for this fever.
[And for the damage inside left by the worms, is what she meant to say, but doesn't dare. It's Sakura's secret, not hers.]
I can haul snow up for cooling her off, or just use air that's right off it. Don't think you want me to get a fire going up here, so it's snow melt or running for a pot of water for washing her off. Or, I can turn her body and clothing to wind for a second and anything like dirt will fall to the bed.
[ immediate, like there's not much thought to offering help. The napkin is offered again - you want to clean her up, here's something that's not a sleeve or blanket. ]
And I can heal with magic, too. It's not very good, I'm a terrible healer, but it can speed things along.
[...One of those points is not like the others. For what it's worth, it manages to stir an emotion out of her through the shock that's neither anger or grief? Even if what it is instead is hard to figure out; the look on the face she turns to him is just weird, like she's just sniffed out a particularly smelly sock.
Turn her clothes and body to— Okay, Rin actually finds it fascinating he can do that. BUT:]
If you think I'm going to let you get that close and personal with Sakura, Mr. The-Wind-Tells-Me-Things, you've got another thing coming.
[She absolutely would have for the record, and were this any other time and place, delighted in his sulking. It's a rare sight with him worthy of a victory lap, or at least a good chortle, but the sound that bubbles from her mouth is more akin to a weak hiccup.
...Yet still. It's watery and falls almost as soon as it twitches into place, but that was a smile.
Wiping at her nose with her sleeve, Rin reaches quietly for the napkin he'd offered before. He's right; it will work for cleaning up Sakura at least, though it would be better if it were wetted. She'd hoped there'd be a bathroom up here a basin, but no such luck. Melted snow it is, as he suggested, though some things are on their side.]
There's a fireplace downstairs, actually. And a stove and kettle of all things. [She'd seen them when she was here with Sans the other day. This house is so strange.] Those can be used to quickly melt the snow and wave the chill out.
[Because that can't be good for her. A cool cloth to lay on her forehead, however, would be worthwhile. Rin wonders if she could find anything like that in the place she saw the kettle. Medicine would be smart as well, but specially made for a mage's sensitivities. She can't just stroll into the infirmary and find some; it would have to be specially made. That's something for when she has wits better collected, Rin decides.
But she is feeling more steady than she was moments ago. Since Zaveid arrived, she's been able to think more clearly...
Sakura's ragged gasps continue to break the silence, but this time it sparks an idea.]
Zaveid, is there anything you can do to ease her breathing?
I can clear her lungs out then see if she needs me to keep her breathing slow and steady after that. [ He doesn't really have a better way to say that. But gasping can be because she isn't exhaling properly, and he can give her a clean start on that.
But it probably will sound as scary as it sounded, so- ]
D'ya wanna get the stove going, and I can get snow after I fix her breathing?
[Rin nods and turns to go, but hesitates at the lip of the stairs before descending. Her hand lightly braced on the rail, a nagging thought making her look back at the pair.]
Zaveid? Don't do anything more intrusive than is necessary.
[This isn't like before. There's concern written on her face, in the place of untoward suspicions.]
She's weak. The membranes of her organs might have been damaged, so... Treat her gently, is what I'm saying.
[That's the most she's comfortable revealing about Sakura's condition to him, even if it begs the question of how something so extensive could happen in the first place. But it's important, so as to not make her worse; not just in light of the damage she mentioned, but knowing what inside her caused it.
If there is something to be cleared out in there, it's likely a mucus the worms would secrete to rapidly decompose Sakura's flesh for easier consumption, and what they chewed but didn't finish eating. It's a unique kind of damage, and the worms are still in there.
But Zaveid is the wind, is magic. If it's anything like hers, Sakura's body should respond more naturally to one of the Five Great Elements of their world and the energy infused in it than she would a modern medical treatment. The medicine used in such procedures too often get treated by their bodies as a poison, thanks in part to the sensitivities of a Magic Crest.
For the few moments they had switched bodies, Rin had been able to tell the worms in Sakura would be even more sensitive to such things. So with all of her options on the table, Zaveid's help stands out to her as the clear best and least likely to cause Sakura further discomfort. As long as he's careful, she doesn't think it should rile them up further.
Discovery remains less of a certain thing if they react to even that gentle invasion of the wind, but Rin can think of nothing else to minimize the chances.]
[ ... He needs to read up on some medical books? Organs have skin?
So yeah, it takes a second for him to sort of get that - organs are delicate, be extra careful. ]
... And you two have a handle on it, somehow, huh. [ ... Because apparently that's not the worst thing going on with Sakura today?? ]
But yeah, yeah, gentle breezes, I got it.
[ He was actually thinking there was something up with her not being able to exhale properly, rather than anything in there, but he steps up to settle near her head level, and perhaps ominously, put his hand a half inch or so over her mouth and nose.
And honestly, nothing really visibly happens. He's just carefully push in good, clean air until clean air starts coming back out or... something else does. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Can I join you, I brought gasoline
She wasn't expecting this, but Kirei trained her well. Sakura's hand firmly gasps the shoulder of Rin's coat, but Rin uses that grip and the momentum of Sakura's lunge against her sister. Twisting to dodge the spear sideways, with grit teeth Rin then grasps for Sakura's arm at the elbow and pulls, throwing her with no gentleness to the ground.
Not a moment after she lands, Sakura will find a weight on her stomach and the kiss of steel at her throat: an Azoth dagger. It glints in the light that speckles through the tree branches, and casts silver in Rin's blue eyes.
The threat is very real. Sakura can try something like that a second time, but not fast enough to stop Rin from slitting her throat like an animal in the street.]
1/2
Just as Sakura feels the blade against her neck, the worms have called the outcome of battle. What's left is a husk with one final purpose.
... My, but the sky behind Nee-san's shoulder is the palest winter blue she's ever seen. Sakura feels pain mounting in her chest, daydreams of bodies being eaten away by maggots, but this is the last view of beauty she will see, and staring at a future she couldn't reach is better than acknowledging the contempt in Rin's eyes.
She's a coward to the end, but for all she deserves, Sakura can't bear to know that she was right - that her sister would look at her like this.]
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1/2
Then the body beneath hers spasms. A sharp burst at first, its intensity becomes a wave and Rin locks her knees to keep from being thrown from where she sits, straddling Sakura's stomach. The blade at her throat is pulled back completely, lest she slit her throat accidentally.
Sakura writhes. She screams, and Rin looks down at her sister with unrestrained horror.]
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Crimson droplets spray across the snow in an arc, and more thickly against Sakura's jaw. But it's not her delicate neck that has been cut, the apple still bobbing there tirelessly, scream unsilenced.]
Sakura. [She struggles to be heard over those pained cries. It wavers, but louder the second time, her commanding tone brokers no argument as wet fingers prodding at Sakura's mouth.] Sakura, bite down.
[Infused with rich mana, blood oozes down Rin's fingers, spilt like a river from the deep slice in her palm.]
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She was wrong.
It hurts. It hurts, and the screams beat in time with the claw marks on her arms, her futile attempts to rip the skin clean off so the worms will stop chewing through her muscles. She can't think through the pain or breathe fast enough to beg Rin for mercy, please, if she ever loved her, she'll do her this one favor--
Nee-san she's scared
-- And then the flip switches; that's how quickly the worms in her body sense a proper offering a mana. Rather than recede, the pain simply stops climbing, but it's enough to quell the hysteria, to sense the tang of blood in her mouth. Another scream still lodged in her throat, Sakura swallows automatically.
One swallow, two. With the concentration of mana in her sister's blood, her crest immediately settles. After the third, Sakura's trembling hand tries to push at Rin's arm, only to find there's no strength behind the request. So instead she pulls her mouth away, head angled to the side. Every breath in her chest rattles like it's her last.
But she keeps breathing, until the shaking relaxes into a compulsive shiver that's left after an upshot of adrenaline.]
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The nights Aoi would stop screaming were as sweet as they were scary, too.
The wound in her hand throbs as Rin carefully climbs off of Sakura, sharp and still oozing. She needn't have cut it that deeply, but she hadn't thinking properly then. The Azoth dagger is dropped to the snow to free up her uninjured hand, which snakes to the side of Sakura's neck to track her pulse. Against her fingertips, Sakura's skin feels clammy with shock she thinks, but her heart races like a rabbit's. The sudden stress would have done her no favors, let alone the damage from the worms.
The worms...
Sakura had been dying. Her agonized wails had shocked her like a dunk in an icy river, and so she had acted knowing it had to be something to do with them, but not fully comprehending what. Counting Sakura's precious gasps of air now that the danger has passed, it slowly begins to settle in for her just what the worms had done. What they'd been trying to do. They'd—
Nausea claims her swiftly, taking her stomach and spinning it in somersaults. Paces away from injured girl, Rin wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and prays to Kirei's stupid god that Sakura was too out of it to hear her getting sick just now.
With a shaky breath she covers the signs of her distress and her spilled blood with more snow before crawling back to Sakura. Gently she pats one cheek.]
Sakura? [She's not sure if she expects a response.] We can't stay out here like this. Even if it's night, someone could see us.
[She works her arm around Sakura's back, easing her into a sitting position with a hushed warning.] I'm going to move you now.
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Mm.
[The softest noise of agreement, scratched thin and ragged from her screaming. She's still shaking, but Rin will find the Matou girl aware enough to follow the simple orders that coax her to her feet.
It's for the best that she's barely holding onto consciousness. The shame and embarrassment would be too much to handle otherwise. Her bones and joints crack like dry timber when she stands, every movement resulting in a wheeze, and it's clear it will be Rin's responsibility to keep her from falling and folding into a broken pile.]
I... didn't feed.... Happy...
[The words circle, beat at her like a dove's wing, and-- it's strange, how she hadn't cried when the worms were trying to eat her organs. Now the tears gather and she makes no move to wipe the few that crawl down her face]
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She can't feel the wetness that seeps into her shoulder, Sakura's tears spilled against a heavy winter coat. But her sister's breath is hot against her neck; hears each wheeze amplified like nails on a chalkboard, and each rasp with the scrape of sandpaper. She almost doesn't hear Sakura's bemoaning for it, a whisper akin to a fever dream.
Something so ridiculous can't be anything but with the way she's talking. Of all the things to be focused on right now, it's Happy at the front of her mind? Rin scoffs, and begins pulling her along.]
Don't mind that. [Blandly. Rin is almost impressed with herself, for how calm she sounds. She doesn't feel calm.] I'll see to her later.
[With five heavy steps forward, she happens to look down and spot a shining ruby at her feet. Then another. Rin turns her head to look over her shoulder finding more still, small and sprinkled like paint drops over the white powder. The wound in her hand oozes blood only faster, wrung from how tightly she grips Sakura's wrist.
Finally, she sees the tears straining her coat too. She chooses not to comment on them.]
If we go in looking like this, people will ask unnecessary questions.
[Rin doesn't think Sakura is really understanding her by this point, but she talks for the sake of talking. With a shrug to adjust her weight better, careful not to jostle that heavy head, she shifts their course away from the elevator.]
Luckily, we have this treehouse. I don't want to leave a trail, so we'll use it for now. It should suit our purposes just fine.
[At least until she comes up with a better plan. It disturbs Rin how blank her mind is right now. Usually so sharp, her capacity to plot things out is failing her suddenly, leaving her clinging to the first good idea that comes to mind like a life preserver. How to swim to shore... that part can come later.
Getting across the bridge is tricky with the way it wobbles, but not undoable. Soon they're faced with the door, and Rin lets her grip slide from Sakura's waist momentarily to twist the handle.]
You're still with me? We're here.
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It's no different by the time they've reached the treehouse's entrance, and Rin briefly releases Sakura to do battle with the handle. Purple hair, nearly colored black by the lack of sunlight, sticks in damp clumps against the girl's sweating forehead and cheeks, one strand somehow caught on her eyelashes. The itch is met with distant, muted surprise, that there exists sensation outside the throb of her body.
The curse of every mage who comes into their crests; really, it's a blessedly normal response given everything that's happened. Even if she had the mind to speak, the sharp pitch in her core temperature wouldn't be worth addressing. The worms have damaged their breeding grounds; sentient enough to recognize that healing must be done, they don't interfere with the immune system's response. Sakura feels sweat trickle down the side of her face much like shed tears, the beginnings of a fever, and simply notes the tickle through the pain.
Eventually, they move again. Rin's arm repositions itself around her waist. If Sakura could sew any type of thought together, she'd wonder how she's managed to stay standing for so long. Might have been proud of her tenacity, at one point.
But the self-congratulation, even hypothetical, is a mistake, an excuse for her legs to buckle and abruptly hand more of her weight over to Rin. Gravity takes her by the wrists and she pitches forward like a corpse.]
1/2
Even that must be an underestimate.
If Matou Zouken were here now, she could murder him. She wants him to be the face she sees when they reach the top of those stairs, and the sadistic freak is probably the one who would make a staircase like this so narrow, making it hard to move up. For such an adult looking house, everything is too small, like it was made for—
Her complaints (and some of them she may have been voicing out loud) stop dead when Sakura's rasping wheezes are interrupted with a sound more akin to a sigh, her head lolling from Rin's shoulder and knees cracking against the steps when her feet slip.
The narrowed space they're in becomes a blessing instead of a curse, allowing Rin to brace herself against the walls but still use both hands to catch Sakura before her upper body follows suit.]
...S-Sakura?
[Her voice sounds to weak to be her own.
None too gently, she turns her sister just enough so she can properly see her face. There's no response, save for a thin sliver of white from Sakura's eyes as they roll back and slide shut. But her breathing is still audible (troubled, but audible), and the pulse under Rin's fingertips still even.
Rin breathes a shaky sigh of relief. It's okay. It's... Well, if not okay, then manageable. She just fell unconscious.]
That's fine. ...Yeah. [She continues to narrate to herself, repositioning Sakura's body so that she can pull her over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Not like anything has changed from before, huh?] If anything, it makes it easier on me.
The stairway isn't cramped like this. And more importantly, it's for sure you won't remember a thing...
[...
Yeah. It wouldn't change anything for Sakura to be awake for this. Hopefully she'll forget the rest too.]
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With great care she slides the younger girl from her shoulders, laying her atop the blankets, standing beside the bed unsurely for a moment. The moonlight streaming through the window doesn't seem like enough to go so Rin finds her body stiffly leaning over Sakura's to reach the string of a lamp tucked into corner, faintly surprised to find the light work when she pulls back its chain.
She leans away again.
Now... Now she should clean Sakura up. No, she should treat her first, or maybe find someone to help?
Rin swallows, and it hurts. Her mouth feels as dry as a desert. The faces that come to mind of who she could rely on don't leave her assured, but unbalanced instead. There's not a single one she can picture herself willingly going to. Even Kirei she would take above them now; someone who knows her exact nature and all of her secrets.
She hates herself a little for trusting the fake priest more than anyone in the castle.
But mostly she can't stop staring at her hands, a sound like a sob trapped in her throat. What's wrong with her? When did they start shaking?]
surprise seraph
She's a strong girl, he will just... let her know about that part of the pact working bright and clear later! Right. Time to let her ... do her thing!
... She's not feeling any better. .... Okay, Zaveid really shouldn't meddle, right? There's that thing where you tell them too much, but there's also letting people stew.
And stewing is ... the exact opposite of what he needs in a vessel. Lailah would be so much better for this, her experience in having Shepherds and-
... Well.
The first hint that Zaveid is about is that the breeze stirs in some very odd patterns. Sure, the wind's always about, but there's a hint of mana to it. A hint that becomes solidified as Zaveid forms out of the air before the door, blinking at a blood trail. Yep, he had scented that right. ]
... Hey, Rin, y'need some bandages in there?
[ .... Well, that's one way to let her know he's there, right? ]
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...I'm fine.
[The response comes robotically, level and in control and her back to him.
She's not fine. Even if her distress wasn't palpable to him, the trembling in her legs and shoulders gives her away.
Still she tries. It's not whatever wound she has that must concern him, she knows; it seems too coincidental for Zaveid of all people to be here. She doesn't know what brought him, but it feels important to convince him it's not necessary.]
You can go. I don't need you here.
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The thump of him against the wall is sort of just... yeah, he's not actually gunna go anywhere, Rin. Maybe he's just staying right here for now, but... ]
So y'got the bandages covered, gotcha.
[ Light, cheerful, and full of knowing that what she just said is full of bullshit. ]
Maybe y'should know, with the whole pact thing and bein' my vessel, I kinda get a feel on if things are flippin' your day upside down. Or at least, when it's nice and settled in.
[ ... Zaveid really knows you're full of it right now Rin. He gets it - he really does, sometimes you just don't need other people to try to help, or maybe other people are gunna make it a fucking mess when they - eventually, inevitably - leave, buuut...
It is kinda, sorta, a little late to be shoving him a way. ]
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If he knows, that should make him want to be here even less she thinks, but she doesn't say it. He doesn't spell out, but she gets the message loud and clear all the same, from the reminder she's the one that signed up for this partnership, to the posture he holds himself in she catches from the corner of her eye. He won't listen to her and go no matter what she says, so Rin immediately gives up trying.
It doesn't mean she's happy about it. She feels cornered and frustrated, and wishes she could just go outside away from Zaveid and Sakura both for a minute. Just a minute to collect herself. Her eyes sting and Rin goes to wipe at them, stopping when remembering her left is still slick with blood.
She might not have bandages, like Zaveid joked, but it's not a concern to her. Her Magic Crest will heal it; already the cut is smaller than it was. She shakes her hand out like she's angry with it and steps for Sakura's bed without saying a word.]
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So Zaveid steps up a moment or two after she turned back to the bed. It's not like he immediately followed but he does stop in a calculated supportive flanking position.
And really relaxed posture.
Here's a napkin from the mess hall, Rin. ]
If y'wanna take a sec to get your head on, or straight or whatever, I can shout if she moves.
[ Any indication that he met this girl, knows her as Sakura? Not really. ]
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Rin eyes the napkin, but shakes her head adamantly. There's a gaping, longing sob in her chest, wanting nothing more than to take that offer. But if she does, she doesn't think it will go the way she planned. Her heart might break, and she'd never come back here; or worse it could harden and she'd return with her dagger.]
I can't.
[Insistent. Don't offer her those things. Shaking fingers reach out to stroke the sweaty bangs from Sakura's face; touch the back of them gently to her forehead to feel the heat.]
She's hurt badly, and has to have help right away. I need to clean her up, and do something for this fever.
[And for the damage inside left by the worms, is what she meant to say, but doesn't dare. It's Sakura's secret, not hers.]
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I can haul snow up for cooling her off, or just use air that's right off it. Don't think you want me to get a fire going up here, so it's snow melt or running for a pot of water for washing her off. Or, I can turn her body and clothing to wind for a second and anything like dirt will fall to the bed.
[ immediate, like there's not much thought to offering help. The napkin is offered again - you want to clean her up, here's something that's not a sleeve or blanket. ]
And I can heal with magic, too. It's not very good, I'm a terrible healer, but it can speed things along.
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Turn her clothes and body to— Okay, Rin actually finds it fascinating he can do that. BUT:]
If you think I'm going to let you get that close and personal with Sakura, Mr. The-Wind-Tells-Me-Things, you've got another thing coming.
[#protect-zaveids-honor-2k17 started trending.]
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[ ... He wasn't even thinking of that. ]
... You'd have said the same even if I had said "turn her to wind for a second" too, I bet....
[ .... Zaveid should change how he dresses. But, on the other hand, on older women, he is interested!! so... maybe he shouldn't. ]
... so there's just no good way to mention that. Okay, forget I said anything.
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...Yet still. It's watery and falls almost as soon as it twitches into place, but that was a smile.
Wiping at her nose with her sleeve, Rin reaches quietly for the napkin he'd offered before. He's right; it will work for cleaning up Sakura at least, though it would be better if it were wetted. She'd hoped there'd be a bathroom up here a basin, but no such luck. Melted snow it is, as he suggested, though some things are on their side.]
There's a fireplace downstairs, actually. And a stove and kettle of all things. [She'd seen them when she was here with Sans the other day. This house is so strange.] Those can be used to quickly melt the snow and wave the chill out.
[Because that can't be good for her. A cool cloth to lay on her forehead, however, would be worthwhile. Rin wonders if she could find anything like that in the place she saw the kettle. Medicine would be smart as well, but specially made for a mage's sensitivities. She can't just stroll into the infirmary and find some; it would have to be specially made. That's something for when she has wits better collected, Rin decides.
But she is feeling more steady than she was moments ago. Since Zaveid arrived, she's been able to think more clearly...
Sakura's ragged gasps continue to break the silence, but this time it sparks an idea.]
Zaveid, is there anything you can do to ease her breathing?
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But it probably will sound as scary as it sounded, so- ]
D'ya wanna get the stove going, and I can get snow after I fix her breathing?
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Zaveid? Don't do anything more intrusive than is necessary.
[This isn't like before. There's concern written on her face, in the place of untoward suspicions.]
She's weak. The membranes of her organs might have been damaged, so... Treat her gently, is what I'm saying.
[That's the most she's comfortable revealing about Sakura's condition to him, even if it begs the question of how something so extensive could happen in the first place. But it's important, so as to not make her worse; not just in light of the damage she mentioned, but knowing what inside her caused it.
If there is something to be cleared out in there, it's likely a mucus the worms would secrete to rapidly decompose Sakura's flesh for easier consumption, and what they chewed but didn't finish eating. It's a unique kind of damage, and the worms are still in there.
But Zaveid is the wind, is magic. If it's anything like hers, Sakura's body should respond more naturally to one of the Five Great Elements of their world and the energy infused in it than she would a modern medical treatment. The medicine used in such procedures too often get treated by their bodies as a poison, thanks in part to the sensitivities of a Magic Crest.
For the few moments they had switched bodies, Rin had been able to tell the worms in Sakura would be even more sensitive to such things. So with all of her options on the table, Zaveid's help stands out to her as the clear best and least likely to cause Sakura further discomfort. As long as he's careful, she doesn't think it should rile them up further.
Discovery remains less of a certain thing if they react to even that gentle invasion of the wind, but Rin can think of nothing else to minimize the chances.]
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So yeah, it takes a second for him to sort of get that - organs are delicate, be extra careful. ]
... And you two have a handle on it, somehow, huh. [ ... Because apparently that's not the worst thing going on with Sakura today?? ]
But yeah, yeah, gentle breezes, I got it.
[ He was actually thinking there was something up with her not being able to exhale properly, rather than anything in there, but he steps up to settle near her head level, and perhaps ominously, put his hand a half inch or so over her mouth and nose.
And honestly, nothing really visibly happens. He's just carefully push in good, clean air until clean air starts coming back out or... something else does. ]
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