abraxaslogs | [closed] they told me all of my cages were mental

Kell doesn't look up, his gaze fixed on Rhy, but he heard the question.

"We had a disagreement, I left, and when I came back, this is what I saw." He still can't bring himself to say that he gave Rhy the vision of his own death merely by touching him, and that's the most probable cause of his state now.

"I can't wake him up since then. He's not in our domain in the Horizon, I checked." That did not go down anywhere close to nice, either. The memory of how distorted their domain looked makes him shiver.

He didn't dare to touch Rhy after that. What if he makes matters worse?

Making up his mind, Wilhelm stops fidgeting with the door handle and steps fully into the room. The door shuts with a click behind him.

Though he shuffles closer to the bed, he maintains a buffer of a few feet. This is out of respect for Kell, on whose pain he feels that he's intruding, and out of fear to see Rhy resembling death so closely. His breath trembles, thoughts spinning to his own brother, who lies just as still worlds away and six feet in the earth.

"Isn't there, like...some spell or potion that could wake him up?"

He chews on a thumbnail, grasping for a plan, as if Kell hasn't already turned every possibility inside out.

"This castle is full of fucking mages, there has to be some way to help him."

"It is."

Kell shrugs. Yeah, there are many mages here. Quite a few capable healers. Neither was able to help, or even tell what is wrong.

"I've been to healers. I even dragged one guy here." He laughs. That was grand. "He said there's nothing technically wrong with Rhy. He said, he looks like every single one that goes to the Horizon. That I just have to wait until he finishes whatever business he has there and wakes up on his own. The problem is, it's bullshit. Rhy is not there. Unless, he went somewhere I cannot find him. I usually can."

There's a hint of desperation trailing off those last words. They can simply be untrue. They can simply be his wishful thinking. There can be something here preventing him from always being able to find his brother. Especially, when he's only half gone.

"If you have ideas, I'm listening."

That's the problem, Wilhelm doesn't have any ideas. His brow pinches as worry and frustration tangle together.

"I don't know," he admits with a sigh. His eyes turn aside, arms folding over his chest. "All this magic stuff isn't exactly my strong suit."

As Kell should recall from the disastrous evening in Nocwich. In the silence that trickles in, he watches Rhy...lie there, and then he can't watch him anymore. He picks a wall to pin his gaze to and traces the stonework.

"Hey, the healers here...they don't actually know much about the Horizon, right? Only the Summoned are supposed to be able to get there. So, I mean, they wouldn't have any reason to look into it further. Maybe there's something that they missed."

He's grasping at straws, and he knows it.

Kell wasn't really listening. He can't focus all that much on what anyone is saying unless they say it really loud. Something in Wilhelm's words draws his attention anyway.
Suddenly, he straightens up and turns around to look at Wilhelm as if it's the first time he realized there's another person in the room.

"You're right. They must have. What do they really know about us!" There's fire in his words, in stark contrast to the dead resignation from just a moment ago. A bit too intense, too feverish. "There were books they had us look through before..."

As soon as the fire has started, it's gone again.

"Nobody is going to let us into the library at this hour."

He doesn't anticipate the sudden shift in Kell's demeanor, quiet solemnity unfolding to release an inner fire — but it doesn't surprise him either. Helplessness and rage are so intimately intertwined. Now Wilhelm watches him with sympathetic eyes.

He may not know Kell very well, but he knows what it's like to love a brother so deeply. He can imagine all the what ifs spinning through the other's head. What if he could have done things differently? What if the last words he ever got to say to Rhy were thrown in anger?

"It's an emergency," Wilhelm presses.

Though, he's not sure that excuse will fly with anyone else.

It's what makes it through. Kell rises from his place, determined, if a little bit too feverishly. They can't expect to sit down and do nothing.

"Yes," he agrees. "It is."

At this point, Kell has been through so many ups and downs, with hope and despair fighting for dominance over his increasingly more frantic mind. He has no self-control left.

"Let's go. I think I know where they keep those books."

No argument from Wilhelm, who doesn't realize that the wave of confidence cresting inside him is more than the simple hope that something might be done — it's amplified by Adlewyrd's sway. He doesn't realize that his words are nudging Kell toward tempting recklessness.

All he knows is that he can't spend another minute in this room that feels like a hospital waiting room. Like the moment before bad news breaks. So he's already halfway to the door before he takes one last look over his shoulder at Rhy's still face.

Catching up to Kell, he rubs his shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze.

"Hey, we'll figure this out, okay?"

Are you sure?

It feels wrong to leave Rhy like that. No matter what words of comfort were offered by the healer that did come to see him, Kell is not convinced. This is not normal. He has to do something about. And for that, he has to leave. There's nothing in this room that would help. He can only hope he'll find something outside.

The touch startles him. It will be long before he'll get used to gestures like that, if ever. At this moment, it is a surprise - not entirely a pleasant one - and dangerously feels like pity, not reassurance. So he bristles.

"Nobody is going to figure it out for us, that's for sure."

He waits for Wilhelm on the other side of the door. Making sure it's firmly close, so nobody would disturb his brother in his unnatural sleep. The corridor is dark and quiet, but Kell tries to ignore the sense of unease it causes him. It's nothing. It's just late.

Reading Kell's aggravation, he retracts his hand at once. An unspoken apology flits across his expression.

Way to go, dumbass, a whispering voice chides. Just because you want to be held like a baby when things start getting tough doesn't mean everyone else does.

As they move through the corridors, Wilhelm drifts into silence — both because they're sneaking around and because there's nothing he could say anyway. Small talk feels disrespectful, platitudes inadequate. But then, an idea strikes him.

"Hey, what about...what about that study they let us use back when everyone was having weird nightmares? Those entities had some kind of connection to the Horizon, right?"

Edited (oops wrong word) 2022-12-05 01:43 (UTC)

Kell is too focused on the tiny scrap of hope that they might find a way to end Rhy's unnatural sleep, to notice anything that's not said to him directly, and probably twice.

He still winces at every step as it echoes through the empty corridors. Too loud for his ears. Dead silence that hangs in the halls only exaggerating the effect. They reach the library door undisturbed only to find them closed.
He should have expected it. Why would anyone look for books in the middle of the night? Why indeed... Still, Kell can't hold back the frustration. He checks the door again. It's shut all the same no matter how many times he does it.

"I have a better idea," he declares once he finally gives up. He can't leave Wilhelm here. So it mean they need to go both.

"Give me your hand."

His suggestion goes ignored, and though Wilhelm understands something of the storm pelting Kell's thoughts right now, he feels rebuked nevertheless. So, he slips back into silence. When they arrive at the library, he hangs back as Kell negotiates with the imposing doors. Until, finally, he's addressed.

"What? Why?"

Though, even as he asks, he offers his hand to Kell. Puzzlement pinches his face.

If he was thinking clearly, Kell would have realized that Wilhelm's suggestion is actually more reasonable than his own vague plan to search the library. The probability that any of the books they used to suppress the nightmare causing entities are still in the study might be low. It's still an easier place to search that whole damned library. Kell might know its layout well at this point. Six month of study usually helps with knowing your way around. But now there's no one there to ask, and he doesn't even know what they are looking for.

It doesn't stop him from producing a small blade, usually hidden deep in his pockets, to make a small cut, draw a symbol on the door with his blood. Any other time, he'd use a less conspicuous place. The blood might burn out from the surface when used, but it might still leave a trace. Some people might ask questions.

"We're going in."

Kell takes Wilhelm's hand, covers the symbol on the door with the other bloodied one. He left a similar one under a table. Just out of curiosity to see how long will it take before someone notices, or erases it. Any other time, he'd think it too dangerous. Fully expecting the door won't hold.

"As Tascen"

The world went into a nauseating blur of darkness and barely visible features, swirling, bending into itself like the water surface moments before it's breached by the falling stone. Then it bounced back, more rubber than water, repelling any attempt at entry. The barrier he should have expected in this place at this hour, reacting as intended against the breach.

Kell stumbles back, fighting to keep his balance, dragging Wilhelm with him as he falls rather ungraciously to the floor. There will be more than his ego bruised after that.

"Sanct! Can nothing work in this fucking place!"

They can only hope, it's too late for anyone to be awake to hear all this commotion. Otherwise, they'll have some explaining to do.

Kell might have warned him what was going to happen when he took his hand. All Wilhelm can do is watch, wincing and sucking in his breath as Kell slices his hand open. He marks the door with his blood. Closes his hand around Wilhelm's — in shock, he hasn't thought to retract his. An incantation, as immutable as granite. Then—

The world spins around them, or maybe they're spinning, blending into the darkness around them, blurring into nothing. A dense pressure on his chest holds his scream in.

When everything slams still, Wilhelm spills onto the floor. He would have ended up there by merit of his own momentum, but Kell doubly ensures his downfall. Dazed, he heaves onto hands and knees to wretch. Thankfully, what comes out is little more than spit.

"What the fuck?" he demands, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"A ward," Kell replies, staring at the door. "I got repelled by a stupid ward."

It could have been a whole host of reasons. His mark could have been disturbed. It is more difficult to create doors within worlds than between. It could have been that he was trying to take Wilhelm with him. He knew it will be difficult. He should have remembered his first try at the Lunar Pond. Lunar Pond. Does this world really hates this kid so much? Kell's only blunders somehow always involve Wilhelm. Really, someone needs to watch over him. But even he is not cruel enough to say something like that out loud.

"Clearly, they don't want us inside. You said something about the study, maybe we should try there..."

Then he looks at Wilhelm, all pale and wide-eyed, and it makes him stop mid-sentence. Sanct! He screwed up again. Maybe, he's the one that needs supervision.

"Or I should go myself. You need to rest. You don't look so well."

"I'm fine," Wilhelm snaps.

Though, his unsteady voice doesn't lend much credibility to his claim. That and the fact that he's still crumpled up on the floor. Pulling himself up to his feet, he pushes his hair back from his face with more aggression than necessary.

"Let's go. I can...I can be the lookout or something."

Let him be anything but useless. He's tired of not being able to do a damn thing. It could be that Kell, because he'd borne witness to Wilhelm's fuck up at the Lunar Pond, exacerbates his frustration with his own limitations. That night, he'd thought he could finally do something right, he could finally be more than dead weight — and then it had all gone up in flames. He wants to prove to Kell, and to himself, that this monumental failure is not all he amounts to.

"Very well," Kell declares with more confidence than he has in reality. He clears his throat, lest the guilt will leak through in the tone of his voice. "I could use help anyway."

All this is his fault. He brought them here with no plan, on sheer drive to do something, anything, other than sitting in the room with Rhy so deep asleep it almost looks like death. Shame and guilt burn like acid in his stomach. He's so used to the feeling that he forgot what it's like to experience crossing the barriers for the first time. Frightening. Disorienting. It's too late for a warning now.

"Do you remember which part of the castle this study was in?"

Because he doesn't. The only thing he remembers is that it was underground. There's a certain chill and staleness to the air that never actually leaves a room that's dug deep into the earth. No matter how thick its walls are. It was a detail odd enough to stick in his memory. The directions there? Not so much.

Wilhelm stares down the dim corridor first in one direction, then the other, as if this might help him reconstruct the path to the study in question. Back then, he hadn't paid much attention to where he was being led. He'd been preoccupied with looking over his shoulder for the shadowy nightmare entity that borrowed his brother's deathly pale face.

"I'm not sure," he finally admits.

Desperation seizes his expression; it's the look of someone who knows he's hit a dead end but doesn't want to turn back. Pacing and chewing on the edge of his thumbnail, he tries to dredge up anything useful from the muck of his memory.

"There was a staircase that came up by the dining hall."

Which he recalls because he'd made quite a few trips there, fetching coffee for the more magically inclined members of the group.

"Staircase, yes, I remember that!"

No, he doesn't. It's a blatant lie, but also something he can latch on. Enough of a clue to hold on to, to not let the despair sink in, to let him go looking for something tangible. It was underground, so it had to have a staircase.

"Let's start with dining hall."

They do. Kell leads them straight to it. At least that's his plan. Just as he's about to turn the corner, he hears what he was afraid to hear from the very beginning of their ill-advised excursion. Footsteps and voices. Unfamiliar voices. Kell stops and holds his hand up for Wilhelm to stop to.

"Some idiot tried to sneak into the library again." The guard's voice rings loud and clear.

All colour drains from Kell's face when he realizes what that woman is talking about. Sanct! How could he's been this reckless?!

"You'd think they'd be smarter." Another voice, a man, joins in. "Being students and all. Next thing you know, they invent a stupid dare like that."

That alone is enough to bring back some long-lost common-sense to him. With the Queen being already this dungeon happy he really shouldn't be wandering the castle halls at strange hours. Nothing screams suspicious activity more than this. And he's dragging Wilhelm with him! What was he thinking?!

"Come," he whispers to Wilhelm, hoping he's not already run out of luck. It's true miracle they weren't caught at the library. "We need to go back."

Wilhelm nods wordlessly as fear tightens his chest and arrests his breath. Those bodiless whispering voices speculate on what would happen to him if the guards ever snatched him up. What secrets they would pry out of him, what punishments would fall on his head.

Thus ends their haphazard attempt at playing heroes.

Back at the door to his room, Wilhelm lingers to watch Kell continue down the hall. He doesn't try to comfort him with words or touch this time, but he can't help but worry about him. What must he feel, returning alone to the room where his brother lies so silent and still?

[closed] they told me all of my cages were mental

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sorry for the wait :(

no worries!

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how about a failed attempt at teleportation?

heck yes

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wrap on your next one?

the end