Story: Meanwhile... A Guide in the Storm

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Mission 14	
 Meanwhile... Shrieking from your Responsibilities 
Mission 14 - Ending	
The flowers smell nice.
Tara gently nudged the lavender Gwen had placed in the room that morning with the tip of her tail, shifting the blooms into the beams of sunlight peeking between the drawn curtains. She then looks towards the four-poster canopy bed where her husband lays, tucked underneath several blankets.
Alaric needs the rest (and not just from the who’s-watching-him-now fiasco from yesterday). Even in sleep, his breath is labored, hitching between each press of the lungs, and his eyes move underneath closed lids, tiny twitches contorting his features in brief flashes of movement. She can only imagine the dreams he must be having, whatever horrors he had seen still haunting him… and though she didn’t need Gwen to tell her he needed whatever comfort he could get, she didn’t mind the reminder. She needs to be strong, for her kingdom, for her family - and if that means withholding her desire to speak to her husband so that he can recover, then so be it.
Moving away from the flowers, Tara sits in her usual spot: coiled up next to the bed, placing her chin down next to Alaric’s pillow. She can feel his harried breath in the air above them, and she sighs, closing her eyes and drifting into a nap-
Which is brought to an abrupt halt as Alaric awakens with a panicked cry.
: (sitting upright, hood flaring) A-Alaric!
: What’sss wrong? A-Are you alright?
: I-I- Tara? You’re h-here? Are you-?
: Yesss, darling, I’m here. (She taps the edge of her hood against his forehead - and recoils immediately.) O-Oh, you’re burning up, I’ll take thosse blanketsss off you - (hurriedly pulls two of the blankets off the bed with her teeth, letting them pile onto the ground) - and I’ll open the curtainsss, one moment…
Tara slithers to the window, bunching the bottom of the curtains with her tail and pulling them to the side (not noticing the pained look in Alaric’s face at her departure). Light floods the room, and Alaric blinks hard, shaking his head as he struggles to sit up. Tara, hearing his groan, moves back to his bedside, staring at him with concern.
: Isss that better?
: (blinking as his vision adjusts) I-I don’t know.
: Don’t know? Perhapsss I sshould go get Gwen-
: (extends a vine to touch her cheek) No! Please… s-stay.
Tara nods breathlessly, and Alaric strokes her cheek with the vine before withdrawing it. The two of them settle into a brief silence as Alaric looks around the room as if he is a stranger to it. Tara watches him, noticing that his breathing is still heavy, and his gaze remains unfocused, flitting from one place to another like a bird attempting to find a good place to perch. Finally, the bird decides to land on her, and Alaric breaks the silence with a slight cough.
: So, y-you’re okay? Really, truly?
: Yesss, Alaric, I am really, truly okay. Why would I not be?
: Because of the fire! I have seen it, Tara - the smoke, the b-blood-
: Gods...!
: Alaric? You’re frightening me…
: You SHOULD be scared!
: …!
: …
: (leaning towards him, trying to meet his gaze) … Alaric?
: I-I’m sorry, Tara, I’m not… I’m not myself, I can’t-
: Ssshhh, eassy, my love. We sshall take thisss one sstep at a time - sso to sspeak. But firsst, sscooch over.
Without waiting for a reply, Tara pulls herself onto the bed and lays beside Alaric, nudging him by leaning into him, getting him to look at her.
: Come on, what isss bothering you sso much?
: … What if I don’t want to tell you? Or can’t tell you?
: Do I have to remind you of what happened the lasst time you hid information from me? I sshall give you a hint: it involved a war on an island, ssome dissplacced heirsss, and a titan from the ssea.
: Remember, I am your wife, and we are in thisss together, till death do usss part.
: It’s that “death” part that has me so worried, especially now after…
Tara frowns as he coils further into himself; she can feel him trembling against her, a feverish heat radiating from his body. She doesn’t understand what’s wrong with him, why these visions plague him so - but then again, she doesn’t even know what exactly he had seen. Perhaps, if she gets him to open up, to tell her his dreams, maybe it would help bring the old him back.
She has to try.
: (threading her tail around his) Pleasse, Alaric, talk to me. Tell me what you ssaw-
: What good would that do?
: It will help you, do you ssome good to tell me of the nightmaresss-
: (murmuring) You don’t believe me.
: Hmm?
: Y-You… You don’t understand, you CAN’T!
: You’re right, Alaric, I can’t undersstand - if you don’t tell me!
: LIES! Y-You’re not h-her, you can’t be - this isn’t - !
He attempts to leave - and she pulls him closer, ensnaring his upper body in her coils. Wrapping around him tightly, she covers his head, trying to keep him still - unable to block out his cries.
: NO! Nononono, you’re NOT REAL! I have to stop this, I have to save them - I can’t let them die, not again, n-not - my fault, all my f-fault -
His cries dissolve into wordless sobbing, and she holds fast, resisting his attempts to escape… unable to resist her own tears.
: Oh, Alaric, pleasse, forgive me. I’m sso ssorry, for everything. You’re right, I don’t undersstand… but I want to, I need to! I’ve never experiencced what you’ve been through, and I’m trying to undersstand, but I…
Alaric’s thrashing diminishes somewhat - and Tara’s hope is renewed as she continues, rocking him gently side to side.
: You want to protect me, I ssee that - but Alaric, I love you. Nothing will change that, nothing could ever make me love you lessss. And if what you ssaw - what you felt - if it affecctsss you sso, well, I want to do everything I can to help you.
She loosens her coils just enough for Alaric to move his head to look up at her, and they meet each other’s gaze.
: And love, I can’t do that if you don’t tell me everything.
 ...
: … Where do I begin?
: I find that the beginning isss a good placce to sstart.
Tara releases Alaric from her coils, sitting back against the bed, watching her husband carefully. He’s still trembling - but less violently so - and he’s taking deep breaths, as if preparing himself for a long dive underwater. Finally, he turns towards her with a stiffened face, the effort of keeping calm taking all of his strength.
: W-Well, I was with Gawain, and we were talking about, erm, the past, which I think is the future-
He stops, eyes wavering-
: That is to say, things had happened, Dracul had boarded himself away, the rogues were all gone, the guild in shambles, something had happened between myself and Gaius-
: It’s all so j-jumbled-
: (touching his tail) Ssteady, Alaric, it’sss okay, jusst tell me what you remember.
: That’s the thing: I do remember, everything’s just… mixed up.
: Then let’sss un-mixxx it, hmm? What happened nexxt?
: Okay, okay… um, Gawain cheered me up, but then… Koji appeared, he had a horrible message, an unknown force at the borders, I left to find you and Nicholas, and then…
His breathing stutters - his pupils dilate - and Alaric continues to speak, even as tears dribble down his cheeks.
: I can still smell it. T-The stink, it’s there, I can’t forget - and the b-bodies, everyone, I couldn’t protect th- couldn’t protect you, you were there, are you-!?
: I’m here, Alaric - (She presses her forehead against his.) - I’m here, I’m okay.
: P-Promise?
: Promisse.
The two snakes stay forehead-to-forehead for a moment as Alaric struggles to regain control; he finally calms himself down just enough, and he pulls away from her with a reluctant sigh.
: I-I could hardly breathe, couldn’t see - and then something big appeared. A bird with plumage coated in a heavy purple fog. It attempted to kill me, I felt its flames - but a green fairy stopped it.
: A green fairy?
: Yes, It… It spoke to me. Time had stopped, somehow, and it spoke, grabbed my head, and-
: I saw all sorts of things, terrible, terrible things, but the order, it’s all wrong, things involving bells, and spirits, and gods, and death, and Bál-
: Bál-! Is he alright, is he here, is he-?!
: He’sss coming, we ssent Gawain and Ceccil to bring him back.
: Good, g-good, Gawain, Cecil, they’re fine too, they’re safe…
She swallows back a relieved sigh: seems like she made the right decision in not telling him about Nicholas’ vanishing act… but something else was bothering her, and she couldn’t help herself from asking about it.
: … Alaric? That fairy you ssaw, what did it look like?
: Um, it had a rather unique head shape - vegetable-like. Why?
: Nothing, it’sss jusst… Ssoundsss an awful lot like an Ulssterian legend, old Aetherian too. A fairy that could venture through the past and future, if I’m remembering my bedtime sstoriesss correctly.
: A-And if it is that legend - what should we do? Is it benevolent? Should we heed its warning?
She looks at him. Alaric is hanging onto her words, reaching for them like a lifeline dragging him back to shore - and while her instinct is to tell him to not worry, to dismiss what he’d seen… that wouldn’t help him, not in the least.
He is still her Alaric: but he’s lost in the storm of his mind, and it’s up to her to be his guide back home.
: We sshould ccertainly look into it. The thingsss it sshowed you - maybe there are cluesss to their meaning in ancient textsss. I can reach out to my father, have him assk the counccil to look in their recordsss-
: Nonono, we can’t have him do that, could be dangerous - in fact, I don’t want you helping me-
: Exccusse me?
: Er-
: I am your wife, Alaric, and I will alwaysss be at your sside in all thingsss, including thisss. I will not allow you to facce thisss on your own-
: But what if I can’t protect you?! (He reaches out a vine to her again, resting it against her cheek.) You’re here, now, but what if what I saw - what if I can’t stop it - what if it’s too late - what if-?
: That’sss the thing, love. (She reaches up her tail tip and pulls his vine into her grasp.) You focusss too much on what could be, rather than what isss.
: What?
: I’m real, Alaric - I am here, in the now, in the pressent - and sso are you! What you ssaw wasss horrible- and we are trying to change that. But you have to let me help you! You cannot let what could happen resst on your sshouldersss, at leasst, not on your sshouldersss alone.
: I know why you do it, though. You care immenssely for the ssafety of your people; you want them to be happy, healthy, and you would protect them from dissasster, no matter the cosst to yoursself.
: But I care about you - and if we work together, we’ll make ssure that what you ssaw will never happen, and you… you’ll come back to me.
Alaric stares at her for a moment, then, slowly, as if testing to see if she’d respond, he wraps his upper body around hers, enveloping her in his natural, earthy scent. Tara desperately returns the embrace, tucking her face into his collar: maybe he wasn’t the only one who needed emotional support...
: Thank you, Tara, your help, it… It means a lot.
: O-Of coursse…I’ll head to the library to ssee if there are any sscrollsss that can give us sssome cluesss about all of thisss. Perhapsss I can get Matteo to asssist-
: P-please stay! Don’t go-
 I just- Please stay with me? I don’t want you to… to leave. Not yet.
: … Me neither.
The flowers smell nice.
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Mission 14	
 Meanwhile... Shrieking from your Responsibilities 
Mission 14 - Ending	
Category:Meanwhiles
Category:Arc 2
Category:Aether