You (Epilogue)

Birdy:
Vedi calmly pressed against her bracelet, raising the floating stone of the staircase and setting her teacup on the stair closest to her. As she stepped forward, she gently wrapped an arm under Willow's shoulder and guided them down to the stair as well.

"Please lean back, if you're comfortable doing so. I would like to open your robe to investigate the wound. Can you nod if you consent?" Her usual playful demeanor faded, but she mantained her pleasant smile below the keen glimmer in her eyes. She's trained for this.

Gigi:
Willow wasn't wearing their robes, luckily, only the bodysuit they usually wore underneath. Still, it had to be peeled away to truly see the wound, a grievous one inflicted by a steady hand, trained and familiar with the very dagger whose hilt jutted out of them at such an unnerving angle.

They couldn't speak; each time they tried, if one looked, they could practically see the words getting stuck in their throat. They just twitched, shuffled and gasped, trying to keep themselves together, issuing the smallest nod to Vedi

Birdy:
That seemed enough for her. "Please remain still. I will attempt to minimize the pain. You are no longer in danger with me." As she lowered her hands to the wound and the blade, she turned her smile toward Willow. "This will all be over in a minute." As she spoke, her hand glowed softly white, shimmering off Willow's dark blood and robes. Sending the shadows scattering.

Her eyes sank in, her smile fell away. Smoke and ink spilled from her mouth as the shadows on her face deepend and tore away. The blade sunk deeper -

And Vedi, concerned with the look Willow gave her, could not be heard from the searing silence that took up Willow's hearing for that moment.

Gigi:
Willow stared, wide eyed. Their gaze was always strong, possessed of a glint that belied an analytical mind, but for that brief moment it looked dull, empty and glazed over. Their hand tightened around Vedi's arm, but they found no other reaction than to just hold on to the closest thing of comfort as tightly as they could. What combat could they do with a hooked dagger caught in their gut?

When things returned to normal, it was almost like someone coming up for air after almost drowning. They briefly panicked, jolting a bit only to clench their teeth, their fear reigned in by that spike of pain they felt from moving just a little too much.

Birdy:
Vedrfolnir froze briefly, looking nothing but shocked. Do they not want it removed? It must be, for their health, and she set her jaw and removed the blade the rest of the way, using what little strength her frame afforded versus the weakened Willow's grip. Even if she did not understand the situation, she could not allow Willow to harm themselves further. Her hand glowed again with that light and she slowly discharged it from her palm, letting it knit the wound shut and clean what blood she could with a dry blue mist.

"You will be alright. Please set the dagger aside." Her brow knit as she concentrated on the magic, pressing herself to exude more power to pacify Willow's terror - and their grip. The bleed had stopped, at least, but that throbbing pain could only fade so quickly.

Gigi:
They took the dagger in hand, their just-slightly-too-dark blood dripping from the curved blade. It looked so sinister, in this light, though they'd always thought of it as a tool of justice. Their fingers twitched around the hilt, and now it was Vedi's turn to see something.

That same pair of spectral hands, almost more like the talons of some sort of vulture, overlayed with Willow's white-knuckled grip. For a moment, it guided the blade just a bit closer, but Willow, in a spark of rage and sudden, blinding clarity, hurled the dagger across the room as hard as they possibly could, clattering into the dark.

They just stayed, tense, shaking, as the pain radiated through their limbs and started to escape them... even as they felt its bile, crawling up their throat, enraged that it had been suppressed again. They still couldn't speak, only hold themselves together, and hold it down.

Birdy:
/What do I do about that?/  It was all she could bear to think as she locked up again, watched as... Willow? Threatened indeed to harm themselves worse. She detected magical interference, a powerul conjuration that centered around elemental darkness, and - what was that supposed to mean to her? For all her raw data, Vedrfolnir just didn't get what she was seeing.

Following the clatter of steel across the stone floor, the construct girl sank back, shock-still with fear. Rough, scaled hands planted on her shoulder and on Willow's wrist, separating the two and pulling the Knight up to face the blind dragon, Sokoya's double.

"Breathe. It is past. It will know that if it arises here I will strike it down." Her blank gaze was turned aside from Willow, speaking out into the darkness of the room itself. With her, she brought the deep red flame that coursed down her tail. Its light cast much softer shadows on the room. "Whatever terrorizes you in the night. I have taken watch."

Gigi:
"Th—this was my hand. At first," Willow spoke, staring forward. They hardly regarded Ravelthal, at least at first, though their golden gaze slowly locked with theirs. They realized, with that, that they'd spoken far too much already. They, finally beginning to take control back from the fear wracking them, reached out and tried to take the hand on their wrist, squeezing it.

"I... appreciate this," they said. With each moment that ticked by, the chill that so thoroughly froze Willow began to subside, though never completely. Both hands came to clutch Rav's, Willow's breathing starting to steady out. "I do not know what... came over me," they continued. It was a clear lie, but Willow hoped that the sympathy in play would leave it unchallenged.

Birdy:
Feeling the soft shiver that coursed through Willow, Rav turned away. There was little to be said, she found, to someone who did not wish to talk. She could still feel the chill in the tower, from Willow and the height. Autumn came faster, this far north of the beach, and they made the trip back in stressful seconds together. She could pretend it was only the stress, if the knight wished.

To the chill, she turned her shoulders and her blind, steel gaze. To Willow she turned her back and her softly flaming tail, wrapping them in the heat and light of it. Little to be said, but, "I have taken watch tonight. See that you find out tomorrow."

Gigi:
"... Thank you..." they muttered, settling back into their bed as soundly as they could. A twitching pain occasionally shot still from their stomach, mere phantom pains, a result of such great trauma being handled so quickly.

With Ravelthal's watch, Willow slept as soundly as they could.

That dream came again, of course it did. Rare was the night that it didn't. That shadow always liked to remind Willow of what waited under their skin, of what clung to their soul and blighted it so. But tonight, for just this night, Willow stood unfrozen, calm, across from it, a warm, protective flame barring the encroaching shadows from them, its countenance and guardianship billowing over their soul and warding away the chill the darkness brought.

There, they would kneel, and meditate, sound in mind through the night. They would surely have a tumultuous few days, as the shadows settled back into their subdued state, but the absolute worst of them had now passed, held at bay by the kinship of a companion that Willow did not even know they had made in their trials alongside Sokoya.

The darkness had grown arrogant, impatient, stirred and awakened by all the trauma Willow had faced, but in enough time it would recede and Willow could sleep soundly again.